A/N Hi guys * waves* Now I know y'all want to see some action, but one
thing at a time ok ^_^. Things will come in time. Now this is the chapter
some of you have been waiting for... the time for Kenshin and Karou to talk.
I didn't make a big deal out of it...for something even bigger will be
happening. I just hope I didn't disappoint you. Now enough of this and on
to the story.
Disclaimer: Me no ownie Rurouni .
Devotion
By
Melissa ^_^x
Tanako never thought that she would be looking in on her fellow gang mates with bars between them. Well Ex-gang mates that is. She stood in the dark jail room her plum kimono causing her to blend perfectly with into the shadows, her pale skin was all that gave her away. Karou walked to stand next to her and held up a lantern destroying any attempt of Tanako hiding in the darkness.
"Their waiting for you." Karou whispered to her, keeping her eyes on the sulking gang members in their cell. She gave Tanako a slight nudge to send her on her way. Now that it came to it, Tanako had no idea how to go about talking to them. But Karou stayed right behind her and Kenshin stepped up to stand by her side, and they gave her the courage to continue. Sano was standing in the doorway making sure that they were not interrupted.
"Tanto," one of the men sneered as he stood up and leaned against the bars flicking his messy hair out of his eyes. Kenshin held an arm out to stop Tanako from stepping any closer, lest the man reach through the bars and grab her. The rest of the men glanced her way but didn't make a move to approach her as well. "You've been causin' a lot of trouble Tanto." The man continued.
"It looks like you're the ones causing the trouble Muko." Tanako said, her voice at ease as she spoke with her long time "Friends".
"We came here lookin' for you girl." He said just as easily. "And now look where we are."
"I wasn't the one who broke into a government building now was I? Muko nodded and smiled at Tanako's comment.
"When your mission went sour and ya didn't come back and Toshiki hadn't seen hide nor hair of ya, Sasorie sent us off to find ya, you're very important to him." He looked her up and down, "You look alive and very well in fact."
Tanako held her breath for a moment, Toshiki had survived the journey back home... "How- how is Toshiki?"
"Ah, so you knew he was wounded then." Muko eyed her again knowing that she just dug herself into a hole. "He's well, as far as I know, it was only a flesh wound...bad...but he'll live."
Tanako felt like falling to her knees and thanking the gods for watching over him, but she kept her composure and showed little sign of how happy she was at this bit of news. "My brothers, I beg you, return home and say you never found me." Her courage faltered when the rest of the small band stood up and glared at her in shock. "Please, I have found a new life." She looked over at Kenshin who still stood near and silent. "I have a family now and one day I may start a family of my own. I do not wish to return to the gang." The men muttered amongst themselves, unsure of what to say or do. Muko, however stayed out of the conversation and kept his eyes on Tanako.
"So ya found a new life then, and you wish to leave all your brothers behind." His eyes darted to Kenshin and Karou before returning back to Tanako. "Never knew you to be one to share Tanto." Tanako glared at Muko, praying that Karou wouldn't understand that he meant Kenshin. She glanced at Kenshin to see his reaction but she was not surprised to see that he acted as if he had not heard the remark.
"Hush Muko, you don't know what you're talking about." She slid closer to the bars and locked her eyes on his. "Will you do this for me Muko? I just want to disappear and become like everyone else. I want to live my own life away from the bonds of the Onozawa gang....its all I want." She held her breath when Muko narrowed his eyes and once again looked at Kenshin, Karou, and Sano in the door way. Finally he sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"We never found her did we?" He called over his shoulder. A string of no's came from the men behind him. "Bein' that we are to be executed, you have little to worry about." He reached through the bars and touched Tanako's face. Kenshin placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, his eyes trained on the man even though his eyes were covered by his fiery hair. But Muko only traced her face gently and smiled. "Ya never were one to do as you were told." Tanako beamed up at him, so he agreed, he was going to let her be and she'll be safe. At least for a few more weeks until Sasorie sent another band after her, but she hoped that he would give up on her.
"Oh thank you Muko, You don't know how much this means to me, I only wish I could do something for you." Tanako suddenly felt very awful that her "friends" where going to die at any day. Muko only shook his head and smiled once more.
"Ya don't need to do anything for us Tanto. If ya tried ya might get caught and that would ruin the new life I just handed to ya. Now get out of here before I change my mind." He let his hand drop from her face and took one more look at the three others in the room. "Good luck Tanto." Tanako took a step back and bowed low to all of them in their cell.
"Thank you so very much." She whispered, not trusting her voice to be calm these last few moments. She knew that they had been sent to return her, but knowing that this may just be the last time she ever saw them alive again...well it pulled on her heart. Karou put a hand on her shoulder and lead her out of the dark room, past the guards that where standing by in case things got out of hand and out into the street. The slap of cool air refreshed Tanako and she took a deep breath.
"You did wonderful in there Tanako." Karou said and she helped her friend down the street, Kenshin and Sano following right behind them.
"Thank you Karou, I just feel so bad, they can to get me....and now they are going to die." Tanako twisted the sleeve of her kimono as she thought. It felt like she was the one who was going to kill them.
"There's nothing you can do Tanako," Karou held the lantern out so they could see where they where walking. "They are criminals, they got what they deserve."
"Do I deserve any less?"
Karou was at a loss for words, she didn't know how to answer that. True Tanako was a thief and a murder just like they....She looked behind her to catch a glance of Kenshin as he walked silently by Sano. Did Kenshin deserve the same?....No, he was only helping to bring on the revolution.
"You chose the right path Tanako, you will atone for the lives you have taken....just as Kenshin does. You deserve a life for you efforts, and you will have one. You took it into your own hands to make sure that you would stay safe...and the rest of us as well. You have protected the four of us...you have already started your atonement." She caught a smile tug at Tanako's lips and she smiled herself. "Things will get easer and better with time...trust me" she added.
"I do Karou....I do."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karou made sure that Tanako was well asleep before she left her side. The two had sat together and talked well into the night. Karou had learned much from Tanako, she relived her life to here even though she had already known from her eavesdropping, but she allowed Tanako to talk. The girls talked until Tanako dozed right off in the middle of a story. After tucking her in her bed roll Karou silently left the room and went straight outside for some air. She went straight for the shadow of the tree Tanako was meditating under.
"Karou-dono" came Kenshin's soft call from the somewhere out in the darkness, followed by his soft footsteps. Damn, she had hoped that he had forgotten his promise...but then again, when did Kenshin forget any promise. She turned and smiled at him as he materialized out of the darkness like some heated fantasy.
"Kenshin, what are you doing up at this hour, it is late." She downplayed the cheeriness of her voice, being that it was much to late for it and Kenshin would see right through it.
"You're up too Karou-dono, that you are." He said with a smile as he stepped up to her. He wanted to reach out and touch her but he was afraid that she would flinch away from him again. He kept his hands to himself even though the struggle to do so was wearing him out. "Karou we need to talk." He said when it seemed that nothing was going to be said if he didn't start it.
Karou sighed, this was what she had been dreading. "I know Kenshin," was all she said as she bowed her head and lowered her gaze to the ground. Kenshin couldn't fight it anymore, he reached out and put a hand on her cheek. She jumped, but only in surprise, them leaned into the touch, sending a wave of shock up his arm and into his body.
"Karou, talk to me. I've never known you to be so quiet....it scares me that it does." His other hand reached out and took hold of her arm just above the elbow and lead her deeper in the darkness of the tree; knowing that they both would be more comfortable with their faces hidden from each other. Yet he wanted to see her as they talked, he wanted to see every emotion as they play across her face.
"Forgive me Kenshin, I didn't mean to upset you." She whispered as she kneeled down on the cool ground, Kenshin quickly followed. "I guess I have been stubborn, I should have talked with you this morning." Karou felt awful about how her actions where hurting Kenshin. Even though her heart broke in two last night, she loved him too much to do anything of the sort to him. She realized that she loved him...from the moment she first set eyes on him, and she always will...nothing would ever change that, nothing.
"Tell me Karou, Please let me know what I did to cause this." He begged. Grasping both her hands in his and lock his eyes with hers even though the darkness prevented him from really seeing what was going on in their lovely sapphire depths.
Karou sighed once more, it was now or never; so taking a deep breath she told him everything. "I saw you and Tanako last night, you gave her that ribbon and she was hugging you. You were complementing her, running you hands through her hair. I felt so bad, I was torn up inside. It was as if my heart shattered in my chest." She slipped out of his grasp and instead griped him with her own hands. "Do you still feel the same way before Tanako came to be with us? Has your heart changed?" the questions where out before she could stop them. She had not intended for it to go so far. She shut her mouth with a snap, knowing that she couldn't take the questions back...she wanted to know the answer even though she was dreading it.
"So you saw that." He whispered, guilt washing over him. Karou was so self conscious about herself that was one of the reasons she got so jealous. For her to have seen him comforting Tanako...giving her a gift as if in secret; no wonder she could hardly look him in the eye that morning. " Karou, there's nothing I can do to take back what I've done. But you must believe me when I say that it was all in friendship, that it was." He saw Karou look away, her eyes hidden in the shadows, but he reached out and took her by the chin and lifted her head to face him again. "Tanako just lost some one she loved dearly... she needed to weep....I could feel the sorrow building in her. She has not had the best of lives Karou, she didn't know how to act to the gift."
"What do you mean Kenshin?...some one she loved?" Karou had not once heard about a lost love in all of Tanako's stories.
"She has never come right out and say it." Kenshin sighed. "But I can feel it...her heart is dying. Remember when she asked about a certain gang member at the jail earlier? The one who was wounded?"
Karou remembered, the name was... "Toshiki?" Kenshin nodded.
"Yes, I believe it is him. She left him behind.....she will never see him again, she is grieving. She felt so bad about how things have been going for you....and with all the new things changing in her life....She could not hold in her feelings any more. What you saw last night was not the beginning of a new love Kaoru, you saw the mourning of one that died."
Karou felt tears burning her eyes, she didn't know about any of this. Had she been so blinded by the jealousy that never went away to see what Kenshin saw? "Oh Kenshin I'm so sorry...I didn't know."
"No Kaoru...dear Karou don't be sorry, it is not your fault." He moved closer to her, pulling her into an embrace. "Never forget Karou...I love you and only you." Warm tears slid down his face and into Karou's hair. He would never forgive himself for being the cause of his love's pain. Karou wrapped her arms around him, her own tears falling and she cried into his shoulder.
"I love only you Kenshin, and I always will." She whispered with a raspy tear filled voice. After that no word where spoken between them. They just sat in a comforting silence, cloaked in darkness and made up silently with no one around, or no ears to pry, or eyes to watch....all they had where each other...and that was all they ever wanted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Muko steeped over the body of one of the guards, his fellow brothers silently gathered their weapons from where they had been safely locked away. "I can't believe Tanto would leave us like that." He said to the one who had freed them...one who was able to escape the police.
"What are we going to do Muko? Do you really want to leave her here?" He asked.
"I would have....but I saw who it was she was livin' her new life with...red hair....cross shaped scar..." Muko trailed off as realization came to his brother's eyes.
"The Battousai? The master assassin?"
"The one and only, still carries his sword aroun' Sasorie-san would love to hear about this...no, we go after her...take her back. Sasorie would want to know all he could find out 'bout the Battousai..." He was handed his pair of Katana swords and he strapped him on to his belt, out in plain view. "It won't take long to find em, that boy with the wicked character on his jacket...I've seen him wandering around ever since we got here....a few well placed questions will lead us right to em...."
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A/N Oh dear...they got away...how many of you saw that that coming??? * grins* I'm sure some of ya did. Anyway, things seem like they are going to be just peachy...but come the morning.... Their whole world will be shaken.^_- . Tanako is in much danger now that everyone has let their guard down and the gang is out and about hunting down info on Sano and Kenshin. I hope to get a lot of reviews to hold me over the weekend.... I need lots of feed back so I can get the next chapter up as soon as I can....well have a great weekend and please leave a review...bye ! * waves* ^_^x
Disclaimer: Me no ownie Rurouni .
Devotion
By
Melissa ^_^x
Tanako never thought that she would be looking in on her fellow gang mates with bars between them. Well Ex-gang mates that is. She stood in the dark jail room her plum kimono causing her to blend perfectly with into the shadows, her pale skin was all that gave her away. Karou walked to stand next to her and held up a lantern destroying any attempt of Tanako hiding in the darkness.
"Their waiting for you." Karou whispered to her, keeping her eyes on the sulking gang members in their cell. She gave Tanako a slight nudge to send her on her way. Now that it came to it, Tanako had no idea how to go about talking to them. But Karou stayed right behind her and Kenshin stepped up to stand by her side, and they gave her the courage to continue. Sano was standing in the doorway making sure that they were not interrupted.
"Tanto," one of the men sneered as he stood up and leaned against the bars flicking his messy hair out of his eyes. Kenshin held an arm out to stop Tanako from stepping any closer, lest the man reach through the bars and grab her. The rest of the men glanced her way but didn't make a move to approach her as well. "You've been causin' a lot of trouble Tanto." The man continued.
"It looks like you're the ones causing the trouble Muko." Tanako said, her voice at ease as she spoke with her long time "Friends".
"We came here lookin' for you girl." He said just as easily. "And now look where we are."
"I wasn't the one who broke into a government building now was I? Muko nodded and smiled at Tanako's comment.
"When your mission went sour and ya didn't come back and Toshiki hadn't seen hide nor hair of ya, Sasorie sent us off to find ya, you're very important to him." He looked her up and down, "You look alive and very well in fact."
Tanako held her breath for a moment, Toshiki had survived the journey back home... "How- how is Toshiki?"
"Ah, so you knew he was wounded then." Muko eyed her again knowing that she just dug herself into a hole. "He's well, as far as I know, it was only a flesh wound...bad...but he'll live."
Tanako felt like falling to her knees and thanking the gods for watching over him, but she kept her composure and showed little sign of how happy she was at this bit of news. "My brothers, I beg you, return home and say you never found me." Her courage faltered when the rest of the small band stood up and glared at her in shock. "Please, I have found a new life." She looked over at Kenshin who still stood near and silent. "I have a family now and one day I may start a family of my own. I do not wish to return to the gang." The men muttered amongst themselves, unsure of what to say or do. Muko, however stayed out of the conversation and kept his eyes on Tanako.
"So ya found a new life then, and you wish to leave all your brothers behind." His eyes darted to Kenshin and Karou before returning back to Tanako. "Never knew you to be one to share Tanto." Tanako glared at Muko, praying that Karou wouldn't understand that he meant Kenshin. She glanced at Kenshin to see his reaction but she was not surprised to see that he acted as if he had not heard the remark.
"Hush Muko, you don't know what you're talking about." She slid closer to the bars and locked her eyes on his. "Will you do this for me Muko? I just want to disappear and become like everyone else. I want to live my own life away from the bonds of the Onozawa gang....its all I want." She held her breath when Muko narrowed his eyes and once again looked at Kenshin, Karou, and Sano in the door way. Finally he sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"We never found her did we?" He called over his shoulder. A string of no's came from the men behind him. "Bein' that we are to be executed, you have little to worry about." He reached through the bars and touched Tanako's face. Kenshin placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, his eyes trained on the man even though his eyes were covered by his fiery hair. But Muko only traced her face gently and smiled. "Ya never were one to do as you were told." Tanako beamed up at him, so he agreed, he was going to let her be and she'll be safe. At least for a few more weeks until Sasorie sent another band after her, but she hoped that he would give up on her.
"Oh thank you Muko, You don't know how much this means to me, I only wish I could do something for you." Tanako suddenly felt very awful that her "friends" where going to die at any day. Muko only shook his head and smiled once more.
"Ya don't need to do anything for us Tanto. If ya tried ya might get caught and that would ruin the new life I just handed to ya. Now get out of here before I change my mind." He let his hand drop from her face and took one more look at the three others in the room. "Good luck Tanto." Tanako took a step back and bowed low to all of them in their cell.
"Thank you so very much." She whispered, not trusting her voice to be calm these last few moments. She knew that they had been sent to return her, but knowing that this may just be the last time she ever saw them alive again...well it pulled on her heart. Karou put a hand on her shoulder and lead her out of the dark room, past the guards that where standing by in case things got out of hand and out into the street. The slap of cool air refreshed Tanako and she took a deep breath.
"You did wonderful in there Tanako." Karou said and she helped her friend down the street, Kenshin and Sano following right behind them.
"Thank you Karou, I just feel so bad, they can to get me....and now they are going to die." Tanako twisted the sleeve of her kimono as she thought. It felt like she was the one who was going to kill them.
"There's nothing you can do Tanako," Karou held the lantern out so they could see where they where walking. "They are criminals, they got what they deserve."
"Do I deserve any less?"
Karou was at a loss for words, she didn't know how to answer that. True Tanako was a thief and a murder just like they....She looked behind her to catch a glance of Kenshin as he walked silently by Sano. Did Kenshin deserve the same?....No, he was only helping to bring on the revolution.
"You chose the right path Tanako, you will atone for the lives you have taken....just as Kenshin does. You deserve a life for you efforts, and you will have one. You took it into your own hands to make sure that you would stay safe...and the rest of us as well. You have protected the four of us...you have already started your atonement." She caught a smile tug at Tanako's lips and she smiled herself. "Things will get easer and better with time...trust me" she added.
"I do Karou....I do."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karou made sure that Tanako was well asleep before she left her side. The two had sat together and talked well into the night. Karou had learned much from Tanako, she relived her life to here even though she had already known from her eavesdropping, but she allowed Tanako to talk. The girls talked until Tanako dozed right off in the middle of a story. After tucking her in her bed roll Karou silently left the room and went straight outside for some air. She went straight for the shadow of the tree Tanako was meditating under.
"Karou-dono" came Kenshin's soft call from the somewhere out in the darkness, followed by his soft footsteps. Damn, she had hoped that he had forgotten his promise...but then again, when did Kenshin forget any promise. She turned and smiled at him as he materialized out of the darkness like some heated fantasy.
"Kenshin, what are you doing up at this hour, it is late." She downplayed the cheeriness of her voice, being that it was much to late for it and Kenshin would see right through it.
"You're up too Karou-dono, that you are." He said with a smile as he stepped up to her. He wanted to reach out and touch her but he was afraid that she would flinch away from him again. He kept his hands to himself even though the struggle to do so was wearing him out. "Karou we need to talk." He said when it seemed that nothing was going to be said if he didn't start it.
Karou sighed, this was what she had been dreading. "I know Kenshin," was all she said as she bowed her head and lowered her gaze to the ground. Kenshin couldn't fight it anymore, he reached out and put a hand on her cheek. She jumped, but only in surprise, them leaned into the touch, sending a wave of shock up his arm and into his body.
"Karou, talk to me. I've never known you to be so quiet....it scares me that it does." His other hand reached out and took hold of her arm just above the elbow and lead her deeper in the darkness of the tree; knowing that they both would be more comfortable with their faces hidden from each other. Yet he wanted to see her as they talked, he wanted to see every emotion as they play across her face.
"Forgive me Kenshin, I didn't mean to upset you." She whispered as she kneeled down on the cool ground, Kenshin quickly followed. "I guess I have been stubborn, I should have talked with you this morning." Karou felt awful about how her actions where hurting Kenshin. Even though her heart broke in two last night, she loved him too much to do anything of the sort to him. She realized that she loved him...from the moment she first set eyes on him, and she always will...nothing would ever change that, nothing.
"Tell me Karou, Please let me know what I did to cause this." He begged. Grasping both her hands in his and lock his eyes with hers even though the darkness prevented him from really seeing what was going on in their lovely sapphire depths.
Karou sighed once more, it was now or never; so taking a deep breath she told him everything. "I saw you and Tanako last night, you gave her that ribbon and she was hugging you. You were complementing her, running you hands through her hair. I felt so bad, I was torn up inside. It was as if my heart shattered in my chest." She slipped out of his grasp and instead griped him with her own hands. "Do you still feel the same way before Tanako came to be with us? Has your heart changed?" the questions where out before she could stop them. She had not intended for it to go so far. She shut her mouth with a snap, knowing that she couldn't take the questions back...she wanted to know the answer even though she was dreading it.
"So you saw that." He whispered, guilt washing over him. Karou was so self conscious about herself that was one of the reasons she got so jealous. For her to have seen him comforting Tanako...giving her a gift as if in secret; no wonder she could hardly look him in the eye that morning. " Karou, there's nothing I can do to take back what I've done. But you must believe me when I say that it was all in friendship, that it was." He saw Karou look away, her eyes hidden in the shadows, but he reached out and took her by the chin and lifted her head to face him again. "Tanako just lost some one she loved dearly... she needed to weep....I could feel the sorrow building in her. She has not had the best of lives Karou, she didn't know how to act to the gift."
"What do you mean Kenshin?...some one she loved?" Karou had not once heard about a lost love in all of Tanako's stories.
"She has never come right out and say it." Kenshin sighed. "But I can feel it...her heart is dying. Remember when she asked about a certain gang member at the jail earlier? The one who was wounded?"
Karou remembered, the name was... "Toshiki?" Kenshin nodded.
"Yes, I believe it is him. She left him behind.....she will never see him again, she is grieving. She felt so bad about how things have been going for you....and with all the new things changing in her life....She could not hold in her feelings any more. What you saw last night was not the beginning of a new love Kaoru, you saw the mourning of one that died."
Karou felt tears burning her eyes, she didn't know about any of this. Had she been so blinded by the jealousy that never went away to see what Kenshin saw? "Oh Kenshin I'm so sorry...I didn't know."
"No Kaoru...dear Karou don't be sorry, it is not your fault." He moved closer to her, pulling her into an embrace. "Never forget Karou...I love you and only you." Warm tears slid down his face and into Karou's hair. He would never forgive himself for being the cause of his love's pain. Karou wrapped her arms around him, her own tears falling and she cried into his shoulder.
"I love only you Kenshin, and I always will." She whispered with a raspy tear filled voice. After that no word where spoken between them. They just sat in a comforting silence, cloaked in darkness and made up silently with no one around, or no ears to pry, or eyes to watch....all they had where each other...and that was all they ever wanted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Muko steeped over the body of one of the guards, his fellow brothers silently gathered their weapons from where they had been safely locked away. "I can't believe Tanto would leave us like that." He said to the one who had freed them...one who was able to escape the police.
"What are we going to do Muko? Do you really want to leave her here?" He asked.
"I would have....but I saw who it was she was livin' her new life with...red hair....cross shaped scar..." Muko trailed off as realization came to his brother's eyes.
"The Battousai? The master assassin?"
"The one and only, still carries his sword aroun' Sasorie-san would love to hear about this...no, we go after her...take her back. Sasorie would want to know all he could find out 'bout the Battousai..." He was handed his pair of Katana swords and he strapped him on to his belt, out in plain view. "It won't take long to find em, that boy with the wicked character on his jacket...I've seen him wandering around ever since we got here....a few well placed questions will lead us right to em...."
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A/N Oh dear...they got away...how many of you saw that that coming??? * grins* I'm sure some of ya did. Anyway, things seem like they are going to be just peachy...but come the morning.... Their whole world will be shaken.^_- . Tanako is in much danger now that everyone has let their guard down and the gang is out and about hunting down info on Sano and Kenshin. I hope to get a lot of reviews to hold me over the weekend.... I need lots of feed back so I can get the next chapter up as soon as I can....well have a great weekend and please leave a review...bye ! * waves* ^_^x