A/N: Hi everyone. No, I'm not magically better. Actually, I'm worse. But I've been nagged about updating so here it is.
I apologize if this chapter seems a little funky. My mind hasn't been too clear since I got laryngitis and this sinus infection. I usually NEVER get sick. So this is pretty awkward.
I'll reply to your reviews mkay:
PEACH : I'm glad that you like my story so much. (Don't mind the lack of exclamation points. I'm not too bouncy today XD) I figured that people would find this story attracting because Kenji was in it and he's older and is a little troublemaker who pretty much controls what happens from this chapter and on. Keep reviewing! Oh and P.S- I know. Kenji is cute. He's so adorable. (hugs him)
Hanna Parker : I'm glad you like it. I was hoping people would find it funny. You see, I think I'd try things in a different point of view. Because Kenji wouldn't be talking all sophisticated like because he's only a kid. So everything said in the last chapter defines that Kenji's not old enough and lacks the capacity to control his excitement XD.
Lynn-Minmay: Finally, someone who appreciates my different fanfic! Lol. My brain was burning trying to find a way to make a really different fic. Glad you like it! Please keep reviewing.
Larie-chan: ADD fic? You mean like…a fic that goes off track and doesn't focus? Lol XD I'm extremely pleased that you're enjoying this story so much! I have ADHD for that matter so that might explain the ADD X3. And thank you for putting me into your favorites! I appreciate it a lot! (picks up pearls and stuffs them in pocket) ;D
Kanzen Ne Tsuki: I take it that you liked it -. I'm glad! It was a lot of run writing that chapter because it sort of (hopefully) reminded people that Kenji was still a pre-teen and not all adult like XD. I just hope it didn't seem to sloppy :P. Anyway, thank you for reviewing, Tsuki-san!
kukkick007 : Wow. You convinced me you liked my chapter ;. I'm glad! Sorry if I seem like I'm just cutting you short but I can't think of much else to say except thank you and keep reviewing!
lady scorpio: I'm glad you found it really funny! I was aiming for that. Thank you and keep reviewing!
Princess-oro: Don't worry, Kenshin and Kaoru fluff is on it's way. And I'd NEVER forget Soujiro! (I don't think I could) And Misao's going to make her entrance as well. I'll try and find a spot where Sano's going to fit into this all as well. Not so sure about Aoshi. I'll try but I don't know where he'll fit in. Anyway, thanks for reviewing! (Oh, and P.S.- Megumi'll be showing as well so no worries.)
Shauntell: No worries. I've already got the ending to this story all planned out. ;D Thanks for the review!
Royal bluekitsune: It may be a little shocking to you, but I don't exactly favor cookies :P. I appreciate the offer, though XD. I'll find some time to update my work so no worries.
Tsumesgirl05: Thank you. I try ;. Keep reviewing!
Deal-with-it: More childish Kenshin's going to appear in later chapters and I think that's what truly is going to draw in the closeness of Kenji, Kenshin, and Kaoru. I'm glad you like all of it! Keep reviewing!
AnimeLCgrl: Thanks! I'm glad you like it! That's what I'm aiming for! Thank you for the review and keep reviewing!
Al: Thanks XD (laughs)
Brittanie Love: I'm glad you thought it was funny . Thanks for the review!
Suicidal Baka911: I actually wanted him to act that way! I'm glad you picked that up! Good for you! (gives thumbs up). I wanted him to seem like a high school kid because since Kenji came into his life a little too soon, he had to act like an adult, rather than a kid so that sort of brought back the childish self that was forced to be locked away! Good job! Thanks for the review!
Prohibited: Oh, I just wish I could smuggle the little squirt! He's adorable, really. Thank you, I do try to do good ;; But anyway, thank you for the review, and don't worry! KK Fluff is definitely on its way.
Becky: I'm really glad you enjoyed it! I aim to please . Keep reviewing!
Getfuzzyfan04: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! Please keep reviewing!
Kag-Kitsune: Thanks! I'm glad you thought it was good! Keep reviewing!
Kirin'sdaughter: Lol. You have laptops in class as well? That rocks. I always read when I get the time during classes and sometimes gain the attention of my peers. I roll anyway, I don't particularly care. But don't take that as an insult, I'm just that kinda person XD. Thanks for the review!
DragonBlade666: Well, I'm thinking on having Kenji approach Kaoru in a different way. But he'll get it out somehow . I can't tell you everything so you'll just have to wait and see on your other questions! Thank for you reviewing!
KikyoxSuikotsu: I'm glad you enjoyed it! Here's your update! Thanks for reviewing!
JBella: Yes. Kenji is a mad genius in disguise of a punky twelve year old. Ha ha! (laughs evilly) I'm glad you like it so far! I made Kenji a little bit like Kenshin's nature in the cute kinda way and stuffs, but I just sorta whipped up this punk and stubborn attitude on my own :D Aren't you proud of me? Just joking. Thanks for reviewing!
Nilnil: Glad you liked it! I try to brighten peoples day up a little. Thanks for reviewing!
Angelstarhikaru: Mature! Aw, dang! Lol. Well, I'm hoping he didn't seem mature through ALL of the chapter. He's only twelve, lol. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!
Ruronichik13: I know. Kenji just owns the story. (laughs) I wanted him to see cool in this story because he truly is a really cool character in the real series! Thank you for reviewing!
Crooning Waterfall: I'm glad that you enjoyed it! Please keep reviewing!
Neko-Yuff16: Kenji just has skill. Lol, I'm happy you liked it! (Wow, that sentence really is getting old!) Anyway, please keep reviewing!
Aldailyn: I take it you enjoyed it! I wanted to put a little twelve year old slang in there or whatever twelve year olds might say (I'm basically 14 so I wouldn't know. Naw, just kidding… about the not knowing part I mean.) Thank you for reviewing!
Crystal Snowflakes: Glad you think it's cute! Thanks for the review!
Shout2danorth91: Shh! I have disabilities with spelling sometimes. (stabs homophones.) Anyway, thank you for the review!
Horse-crazy-gurl: I'm glad that you liked it! Kenji can be pretty evil at times, but his cuteness definitely makes up for it! Thanks for the review!
Monkeystarz: I'm glad you think it's cute! (Personally, so do I X3) Thanks for the review!
HALLELUJA! FINALLY! That was the most reviews I had to respond to! Thank you all!
You know what's sad:
…I just looked at my review for the first chapter of this story and I had only saw just now an anonymous review with no name saying 'you suck'. That amused me! ( I laughed. Wow, I'm so mean.) I never noticed until now! I somehow found that funny.
ANYWAY! Continuing with the story!
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Chapter 8 – Mischievous Plotting
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'Uuuuuugllyyyyy….'
'Ugggggllyyyyy…'
"…"
'Uggllyy…!'
"..mmm…"
"Ugly! Hey! Ugly!"
" W…what…?"
Kaoru's eyes slowly fluttered open as the images of her surroundings slowly came in as a blurry fog but eventually sharpening into less hazy blotches of abstract pictures, and more like her bedroom. Once her sleep finally gave her sight back to her, she finally spotted Yahiko standing by her bed with an annoyed look on his young face. It was only then did she notice the pillow that was held high over his head.
" W-wha--?"
Yahiko suddenly brought the pillow down and started beating her with it mercilessly.
"Ugly, it's time to get up! Gods, you've slept in late! I mean, I know you need your beauty sleep and all but it's almost 11:30!"
Kaoru shrieked as she put her hands up in defense of the attacking pillow, her groggy mind slowly coming into function with the repetitive hits. Finally tired of the beatings, Kaoru growled and answered back at his disrespectful comments.
"I'm up, I'm up! Sheesh! And watch your mouth, brat! I was up late last night! And if it wasn't for this ugly girl before you, you'd still be out on the streets! Show some respect and allow a girl some much needed Rn'R!"
Yahiko snuffed and put his hands on his hips and held his nose high in the air.
"'On the streets' my butt. You know very well that I would have gotten away! And don't talk to me about Rn'R! I was kind enough to let you sleep in! 'Brat' you say!"
Kaoru growled at the ignorant kid before her. No respect what so ever.
"That's it. You're getting it."
The tone in Kaoru's voice sparked the young boys interest as he looked back at her with curiosity at the sudden dark edge to her voice and was shocked to find her slowly stalking forward, approaching him while crawling on her mattress. If it wasn't for the evil twisted grin on her face, Yahiko could have easily said that she was almost as frightening as her cooking. Almost as frightening. Key word.
In a last line of defense, Yahiko chucked the pillow that was still clutched in his hand at Kaoru but failed miserably to aim at his target. Now left with nothing, she suddenly pounced on him and brought him to the ground.
"Ugh! Kaoru—Hahhahah! Kao- Kaoru s-sto- Hahah!"
Kaoru smirked as she mercilessly attacked his sides with her fingers, tickling him intensely as he writhed and laughed uncontrollably from the effects of her 'torture.' Yahiko, from the effects of his over dosed laughter, tried to beat Kaoru away with his hand but was only limited to a sad amount of strength as mirthful tears sprouted from his eyes.
"OK- HAHAHA!- I GIVE, I GIVE!"
Kaoru didn't stop her tickling as she just grinned with victory and looked down her nose at the rolling boy below her.
"Uncllleee?"
Kaoru suggested the little code word for 'truce' with a sadistic grin.
"UNCLE-HAHAH! UNCLE, UNCLE!"
Kaoru finally stopped her tickling and laughed a little as the boy before her tried desperately to regain his lost breath, a large grin on his tear stained face. She ruffled his black hair and stood up from her kneeling spot on the ground and was just about to make her way over to her bathroom when she felt small hands around her ankle.
"Psych!"
Yahiko had quickly recovered from the aggressive tickle attack and quickly yanked her ankle from underneath her as she quickly fell to the ground with a thump.
"Yahikooooo!"
She hissed out his name dangerously as he snickered deviously but was then interrupted with the sound of the doorbell. They stared at her door a moment before exchanging looks themselves. Then Yahiko got a grin on his face and quickly sprang to his feet.
"Last one to the door is an ugly raccoon!"
And with that, he dashed out of the door with Kaoru hot on his heels. Kaoru quickly grabbed a hold on his large T-shirt collar and yanked backward causing Yahiko to stumble backward as Kaoru eagerly took the lead.
"Coming!" Kaoru called.
Yahiko growled as Kaoru neared the door. Bursting into a sprint, Yahiko lunged for her and tackled her to the ground just as her hand was about to open the door after she had turned the knob.
Kaoru had quickly been cut short of her victory as she was roughly tackled to the ground.
"UGH!"
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Kenshin and Kenji stood at the door of Kaoru's house after just ringing the door bell. Following a short period of silence, a sudden jumble of thumping sounds could be heard. Then Kaorus voice rang out from inside, making Kenshin smile unknowingly while his son simply smirked as his dads expression.
"Coming!"
Both their faces were then aligned with smiles as they saw the door knob slowly turn, ready to be greeted by the friendly face of Kaoru. But suddenly, another loud thump was heard along with a bash and a loud grunt which sounded much like Kaorus voice.
Kenshin and his son both exchanged odd glances.
"What in the world…." Kenshin pondered aloud.
"Is she having some sort of a wrestling match in there or something…?" Kenji asked in interested and tried to peek through the door although his attempts were obviously fruitless.
Then hearing small grunts and angry rambles, much to the similarity of a cat fight, Kenshin nervously knocked on the door again.
"….Kaoru…?"
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"Arrrghhh, get off me, will you!"
Yahiko had his arms securely wrapped around Kaorus waist as he tried desperately to keep her pinned to the ground. Kaoru wrestled with him and tried to pry him off her but was left futile and decided to reach for the door instead, previously hearing the impatient knock.
She craned her arm as much as she could and nicked the knob of the door. She growled as she dragged herself closer to the entrance while Yahiko protested fervently. She finally got a hold on the door knob and turned it, then with all her might, tugged it open before letting her right arm collapse back onto the ground after its strain.
Heaving slightly, she snickered at Yahiko but when she turned to face him, saw that he had previously forgot about his wrestle with her and was staring intently at the figures in the doorway, dead still. Kaoru blinked as she slowly turned her head from looking back at Yahiko and almost nervously brought her gaze upward toward the doors entrance. That's when she finally spotted her loyal little companion, 'the squirt' … along with his faithful dad… 'the handsome-prior best-friend-in-high-school-that-was-now-standing-on-her-doorstep-looking-at-her-with-a-desirablly-sexy-look'. Curses. Damned be the fates.
"Mr. Himura!"
Quickly springing to her feet, she somehow managed to finally get Yahiko to let go of her and dusted herself off. She gave them a lop sided grin and laughed nervously as she tried to ignore the blaring reminder in her head that she was still in her night ware.
"Eh- heh.. um…what are you two doing here?"
She tried to act more casual but found her hand rubbing the back of her neck uneasily. Luckily, Kenshin complied with her and simply chuckled while Kenji snickered at the sight of his disheveled baby sitter.
"We thought that we'd just stop by, is all. It's summer and all, you know."
Kaoru nodded in agreement while Yahiko picked himself off the ground, rubbing his head from the bump he received when being shoved off of Kaoru. Kenji cleared his throat with and obvious intention to hint something. Kenshin whipped his head over to his son and glared. Kenji stopped his throat clearing and sighed as the two continued to remain silent, then walked behind his dad and pushed him forward, inside.
"Go on, dad!"
Kenshin jerked forward at the sudden push and nearly stumbled over as he clumsily entered her house hold. He finally regained his composure as he cleared his throat as well and took a deep breath.
"Actually, there's a more…well reasonable reason as to why we came."
Kaoru laughed as he obviously regretted his poor choice of wording and leaned against the door's entrance with a small smile.
"Yeah?"
Kenshin nodded and looked off to the side.
"….Well…?"
Kaoru coaxed with a laugh as she tried to provoke him to tell her the reasons for his arrival in her humble abode. She laughed as Kenshin snapped his head back to face her with a small blush.
"Right…well, I was actually wondering if you'd…well…if you'd like to spend the afternoon with me…"
Kaoru blinked a few times but then let the smile return to her face. She hesitantly looked at Kenji who had a large grin on his face as he leaned back and forth on the heals and toes of his feet.
"…You mean…'us'? As in….no squirt…?"
Kenshin lightly nodded his head as his face colored slightly, trying to change the direction of his gaze but was thrown off guard as he heard Kaoru giggled lightly. He looked back at her with one raised eyebrow. Then his expression dropped.
She must think I'm joking…most likely telling herself that I'm talking crazy…
"I'd like that."
Kenshin's thoughts were cut off as he blinked a few times, then smiled greatly.
"Really…? That's great!"
Kaoru laughed and shook her head at the childish side of the man before her. Kenshin smiled brightly as a small brush lighted up his cheeks. Kaoru pointed to her bedroom, silently informing Kenshin that she was going to go change before she headed into the room.
Once the door was safely shut, Kaoru squealed like a little girl would when getting a large lollipop and shuffled her feet excitedly, much like the training the boys get at football practice, she noted. Then she sprang into a leaping fest around the room.
"He asked me out! He asked me out! Oh my god, I'm acting like a teenager, but he asked me out! "
Finally Kaoru let a large sigh escape her mouth as she fell back onto her mattress blissfully.
"Oh what a life…"
Smiling like a carefree child, she quickly jerked herself off of her bed and zipped over to her dresser, swaying her hips innocently at an imaginary tune. Rummaging through her clothes she picked the ones that seemed fitted for a simple outing for lunch. A nice pair of small, low ride high thigh jean shorts and a simple T-shirt. Perfect!
Emerging from her bedroom she smiled as she approached Kenshin who stood, leaned up against the wall.
Kaoru had left Yahiko in charge for the time that her and Kenshin would be gone and made him promise that he wouldn't burn down the house. With a scouts honor, Yahiko was left trusted with Kenji and her home.
With innocent smiles, Kenji and Yahiko watched Kenshin and Kaoru drive off to their lunch outing, Kenji and Yahiko quickly slammed the door closed and dashed over to the living room and jumped onto the couches. Adjusting themselves to face each other, they started off their conversation with smug grins.
"So…did you ask 'im?"
Kenji snickered and nodded.
"Sure did! And I got a full out answer!"
Yahiko rubbed his hands together in satisfaction, licking his lips.
"So? What did he say?"
Kenji laughed sadistically and grinned.
"He totally digs Kaoru."
The grin the was emanating from Kenji's face suddenly became contagious as Yahiko threw his first in the air, then drew it back into his side, whispering a 'yes'.
"Excellent! The plan's going along nicely. Now to get Kaoru to fess up."
Kenji nodded and smiled before the smile disappeared from his face.
"But what will we do once we get Kaoru to tell the truth? What's up next?"
Yahiko smirked and laughed, causing the confusion to rise in Kenji's expression.
"You don't need to worry about that. I've got everything planned out."
Kenji snickered as Yahiko gave him a wink. Their little plan was working. He already got his dad to confess, with much detail, that he loved Kaoru like (in his words) a love sick puppy. Now if only Kaoru could do the same.
Oh the excitement was just too much at times! He couldn't wait to be the ring bearer. Oh he could see it now. But he couldn't help letting his mind wander a bit.
What exactly did lunch outings work?
Especially with a baby sitter and a lousy ladies man?
Kenjis eyes went wide as groaned slightly and bit his lip, gulping
.…Suddenly, things didn't seem too promising.
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A/N: WHOO! GO ME! Wow. I finally finished this chapter. I loved the way it turned out. I always wanted to enunciate on Yahiko's and Kaoru's relationship. Because I know that even though it may seem like they hate each other, we all know in our hearts it's not true. They love each other!
Really and truly.
They just deny it!
With…every fiber of their being…
Yeah.
Anyway! Thank you for waiting so long! I'll try to have the other chapters for my other stories updated soon!
Review!