Chapter 10
Family HistoryAuthor's Note: Sorry about the delay in posting. This chappy should've been up last Friday (that's why my notes at the end may seem a bit outdated), but I wasn't able to access the site all day! Kept getting error messages from the server! Oh well! Here's the chappy, I'll be working on the next one as soon as possible.
He stood still as she had walked by him and he made no attempts to go after her. Her last words had been, "I'm sorry", and came they had come in a whisper. There was nothing else he could've said to change her mind and she made sure not to give him a chance in trying to do so. She had purposely averted her eyes from sight. Her voice was tainted with pain as she spoke to him, but she tried to conceal it with anger. Every word that passed through her lips weighed on him, and he silently let it all soak in.
He had looked away from her, because at first he was in utter shock. How could she not want to be with him? He couldn't understand it at first and had pushed down his own feelings of disappointment. But as he replayed her words in his mind, he understood why she rejected him.
She wanted to push him away from her life and from herself. Kaoru wanted to push everyone away from the painful secrets of her life, but he knew she desperately needed someone. He knew that the moment she had clung to him in his car on Saturday and let herself cry so openly.
Never had tears affected him the way her tears did. At least not anyone else's except his mothers. Her pain was unbearable to him, and he'd felt helpless in her last moments before she surrendered to the disease. Kenshin couldn't bear to see his mother in pain, and now this girl…her pain made his heart ache.
Kenshin didn't turn to look at her as she tried to walk out of his life, but his thoughts remained on the stunning girl. He started to walk in the opposite direction of her, and headed to his car. His pace was slow, and he casually put both hands in his pockets. The park was still beaming with life all around him, but his mind was clouded by memories of her face, her tears, and her sadness. Her beautiful blue eyes had a profound sadness in them that he wanted to make go away. He remembered her laughter and way her face lit up when she was happy. He wanted nothing more than to be the one to bring her eternal laughter and happiness.
Her words continued to repeat over and over in his mind as he exited the park. Snapping out of his daydream, he smiled to himself as a plan formed in his mind. "This isn't over yet Kaoru…"
The red head walked to his silver car and climbed in. He flipped out his cell phone and scrolled through the phone book until it highlighted the name he was looking for.
"Misao" he muttered. He pressed the phone to his ear and the Z3 began to speed down the street.
About an hour and a half later he pulled up to a quaint café in downtown. He quickly parked his car and walked inside the bustling store. The décor was distinctively French-Country and it looked like the perfect setting for making small talk with someone you liked. The establishment was well lit, but by candlight, shabby-chic chandeliers hanging over head and the natural sunlight flooding through the delicately curtained windows. By now the afternoon was giving way to dusk and he looked down to his watch, "5:45 pm".
He began to scan the room and finally found who he was looking for. Misao sat in back at one of the bistro tables. She seemed to be sharing her frothy drink with another man. Kenshin thought he looked much older than the girl. "Must be Aoshi" he thought as he began to walk over.
"Hi Kenshin!" the girl beamed as soon as she noticed him.
She rose from her seat and instructed Kenshin to pull up a chair to the table. Her companion didn't anything. The man had hard, icy-blue eyes that contrasted sharply with his dark hair. His face was stern and Kenshin could read no emotion on his features.
Before Kenshin sat down, Misao instructed the man to properly introduce himself. He let out an irritated sigh and slowly stood from his seat.
"I am Aoshi, and you are?" the man asked holding out his hand.
Caught a bit off guard by the gruff introduction which was followed by a question, Kenshin replied, "Kenshin, Kenshin Himura".
The men shook hands and all three took their seats at the small metal table. Misao seemed miffed at the stoic man for his cold introduction. She reintroduced him to Kenshin. "Kenshin, this is Aoshi, my boyfriend and he's really not so bad once you get to know him" she giggled.
Kenshin smiled at the girl, as he heard Aoshi let out a defeat sigh in response.
"Kenshin, won't you have something to eat or drink? This place has the best coffee and tea in town! Me and Aoshi always sit here for hours when we meet up" Misao asked.
"No thanks Misao. I have a few things on my mind, which is why I asked to met with you so suddenly. I'm sorry if I disturbed your evening out."
"No, No Kenshin. It's okay. You said it was something important about Kaoru! What's up?"
Kenshin stared at the table top and started to explain his reason for wanting to see her. "Misao, I spoke with Kaoru this afternoon, and well she got very upset with me and stormed off…I, I'm not sure what I said wrong so I thought you would be able to help me, ah, understand her a bit better".
"Kenshin, you like her don't you?" the girl asked playfully.
Aoshi raised an eyebrow in interest as he peered at Kenshin from the corner of his eye.
"W-what? Well…yea, I do." He was amazed that the bubbly little girl could've been so observant. "Damn, is it THAT obvious?"
Misao laughed, "Of course I know. I mean you're always looking at her. Smiling at her, being extra sweet towards her. Then on Saturday you after her so well, even after suffering through all her abuse." She turned towards her boyfriend, "THIS is the guy I told you about how Kaoru slapped the crap outta' him. Hehe and he was still so sweet towards her." She looked back at Kenshin.
Aoshi let out a small chuckle and looked over again at Kenshin.
"Nice, now you're the laughing stock of the school Kenshin. They saw her slap me?"
Misao continued, "Well what did you say to her in the park today that got her so upset?"
Kenshin snapped out of his thoughts, "N-nothing! Well, I mean I had asked her out before I dropped her home on Saturday. She told me she'd think about it and then she was acting all strange towards me in school today. So I waited to speak to her after school and she practically bite my head off when I offered her a ride. We walked through the park and she just went off on me. She said something about me not understanding, her not wanting to be like every other girl, and just kept going. Then she just walked off".
Misao sat for several moments analyzing the scenario he'd just told her about. Aoshi remained silent and continued to sip his warm drink.
"Well she was pissed at you today for completely blowing her off this morning. Maybe that's why!" she deduced.
"What? I didn't blow her off! I waited for her to say something to me, and she didn't. Then Sano grabbed me and started talking about this car he wanted to buy. I got sucked into the conversation but I didn't mean to blow her off! Besides, you two just walked off without word. Then she was ignoring me the whole day!" he fired back in defense.
"Right! You didn't do ANYTHING?" she asked sarcastically. "Hello? Kenshin, you had all those bimbos hanging off of you right in front of Kaoru. She doesn't want to be one of your personal cheerleaders!"
"Personal cheerleaders? I don't think of her that way!"
"How can Kaoru think that I'd treat her so cheaply?"
Finally, Aoshi broke his silence to interject, "Listen, she's a pretty straight-forward and serious girl. I've met her a few times but I don't bother to gather family history on everyone I meet. Doesn't her father have a drinking problem?"
Misao nodded and looked sadly towards Aoshi.
"Well, that could be one reason why she ran off like that. She probably doesn't want you to be with her and then she'll have to deal with her father. The man seems pretty unreasonable just by the way that Misao describes him. On top of that, Misao had mentioned Kaoru never had a boyfriend. Why should she trust you when you've given her no reason to? And clearly she was upset by your escapades with the others at school".
That was it; Kenshin had to speak up in his defense, "Whoa, hold on a minute! I didn't tell those girls to come talk to me and laugh and giggle and shit. What could've I done?"
"Here's a thought Romeo, you could've NOT flirted back!" Misao boomed. "You totally hurt her feelings when you were giving so much attention to those little whores! Besides, Kaoru's not the type to chase after ANY boy!"
Kenshin let everything stew in his mind as he fell silent. "She has no reason to trust me, he's right".
Aoshi took another sip from the cup and continued, "So you completely alienated her this morning, and then expect her to go out with you? I think you're probably going about this the wrong way. Like Misao said, she isn't going to chase you or pine after you like the rest of them. And if you push her too hard, you'll just push her away. The same tricks and empty words that you use on the rest won't work on her. She's smarter than that, and seems to be a lot more cautious."
Misao beamed with confidence at being validated by the object of her unwavering affection. "Yeah! Kaoru isn't looking to just date around casually and make out with a dozen different guys. She's looking for someone that'll really be there for her. I mean through the good times, but more for the really shitty times! The girl has a heavy load to deal with. And besides, her dad's majorly strict about boyfriends! So anyone that's up for the challenge should really know what they're gettin' into!"
Kenshin looked up, "Oh? What's the policy on dating with her parents?"
"There'll be none for Kaoru. THAT'S his policy! He thinks its degrading and dishonoring the family and stuff."
Aoshi chimed in, "old school, old customs, traditional beliefs".
"Yea, her mom seems cool though, but you never know" Misao added.
"How long has her dad been like this? I mean, the drinking and stuff" Kenshin asked.
Misao looked down at the table and was silent for a moment before she spoke. "For as long as I've known Kaoru really. I mean he used to own this Kendo school years back. He was actually a pretty good guy, really friendly, nice to talk to. Even my parents admired him for his hard work with the school. He was Kaoru's superhero almost and she really looked up to him. She'd follow him around the school, beggin' him to teach her. He finally did start teaching her, and she was really good. She won a lot of competitions, but then he just seemed to fall apart. He was always a social drinker, at least that's what my parents say. But then there were some months where he would just drink and drink, just day and night. Won't eat a thing, he'd bother them for money, and pretty much be at the brink of drinking himself to death. He wouldn't go anywhere out of the house, not even to teach. So they lost a lot of students, and eventually had to close down the school. Those were tough times for them, especially her mom. My parents tried to offer some help I think, but Kaoru's mom said she would be fine. She worked really hard, day and night, she still does! She's the sweetest woman you'll ever meet! Her dad though, he's a different story. I don't go over much and when I do, he's usually in the living room. The place will be all dark and gloomy and once when I did see him in the hallway, he looked just…I don't know how to describe it. It wasn't the same man! He's lost so much weight, he'll be unshaven, I'm pretty sure un-showered, and just completely out of it. Kaoru said there were months when he would stop drinking suddenly and work odd jobs here and there. But he always goes back to the bottle for some reason. No one can figure out why he's like that, not even Kaoru. She's always had it tough because of him. She won't let it show on the outside, but sometimes I catch her looking so sad I just wanna' cry. Kenshin, she's really a strong girl, but sometimes I just want to hug her tight. It scares me the way she won't let anyone else into her world to help her. She doesn't think it's anyone else's business, and barely tells me unless I make her. In fact, don't tell her I told you all this, otherwise she'll kill me!"
Kenshin had no words to describe how he was feeling at that moment. Misao had finished speaking several seconds ago, but her words still rung in his head. His thoughts went to the times he'd seen Kaoru in school. How she would never look sad or depressed, but always laughed and smiled. She never let any of it affect her outside of home, or so it had seemed.
"Does he…hit them?" he finally asked in a quiet tone.
"I…I don't think so. I mean I don't think Kaoru would allow that. She's pretty tough…God I don't even wanna' think about that!"
Aoshi covered Misao's hand with his own to comfort her. He looked up at the red headed boy, "Listen, what exactly do you want with her?" He was clearly angry at Kenshin.
"Want from her? I…listen it's nothing like THAT. I just…I…."
"Kenshin if you really don't care about her, then please don't put her through this!" Misao pleaded with him. "I don't want to see her hurt. There're a million other girls…"
"Why does everyone keep saying that? A million other girls! What girls? I want nothing to do with them! SHE'S the one that I am interested in…damnit!" He had had enough from everyone. Kaoru saying it was worse enough, but now it seemed everyone believed he was some sort of roaming, unfaithful, treacherous lecher.
Misao was dumbfounded by his sudden outburst. She'd never seen him angry before and his eyes had seemed to glow with rage. He was so determined to make them understand and so passionate about defending himself.
Aoshi was surprised as well, but no one could've guessed from the still void expression on his face. "Well if you're that determined to be with her, than like I said before, you need to reconsider how you confront her. She's nothing like what you're used to and you might be surprised."
Kenshin took a few deep breaths as he listened to Aoshi. Composing himself once more he slowly rose from his seat.
"Thank you both for this. I appreciate you guys trusting me with all this information, and…" he looked at Misao, "I promise I won't hurt your friend." He flashed them both a grin and walked coolly out of the café.
Misao looked at him as he walked out and then back at Aoshi with bewilderment, "what the hell?"
The icy man merely chuckled as he finished his drink, "he has no idea what he's getting himself into."
END CHAPTER 10
Hey all, sorry this chappy is a bit short again. I just wanted to get something up before the weekend since you know…SUNDAY IS MY BIRTHDAY! LOL…so I'll be celebrating my ass off and I don't know if I'll get a chance to update till next week.
Well this chappy was all about Kaoru's family history. Her dad and his drinking and of course our boy Kenshin's decision to win her over! Awww!
And Aoshi made his appearance…stoic as ever! I promise the next chappy will be juicy..slurp, slurp! Kenshin has to think of an ingenious way to get Kaoru to trust him, and things should get quite interesting!
So please, even though this chappy was anything special, review for me! Thanks! I promise more stuff next week…after I party hard! Jk!
-Arrigato!
