Chapter: 12
Something
Kenshin sat there in the corner of the cave rubbing his bruised head for the hundredth time. He looked over to kaoru who was sitting on the other side of the fire. She was huddled up near the fire looking rather chilled. She had her arms wrapped protectively around her body so kenshin couldn't get a good look at her even if he could see through the fire, which he couldn't.
Kenshin defiantly regretted the last thing he said to her, he didn't think she could hit THAT hard. The more he thought about it the more his head began to throb. Right where she hit him seemed to hurt every time he thought about that incident.
'Ok' Kenshins mind admitted. 'I guess I might have pushed her a little to far…but if she's going to be there for me shouldn't she be the way I want her to be?' he thought. At the thought of Kaorus silky naked body near him, red crept onto his cheeks and he quickly shoved that thought to a vacant spot in his mind.
He would save that thought for a rainy day…one where he wasn't naked in a cave with an angry Kaoru. He opened his mouth to apologize when he looked up to see her shivering violently. Kenshin stood up to check and see if her cloths were dry but found only his were mostly dry. Hers were still damp since they were further from the fire.
Kenshin pulled his clothes down from the ledge and handed them to her. She looked up and scowled at him and turned the other way. Kenshin sighed. "Kaoru your cold…" He stated plainly. She just let out a small humph and shot her nose up into the air.
"Take the damn clothes before you freeze." He said moving his clothes into her line of vision. Kaoru reluctantly grabbed his clothes and threw them on quickly. They seemed a bit baggy on her but Kenshin and her were relatively the same size.
Quickly her body began to warm up and she sat, happier, by the fire. Kenshin just watched her pleasantly. "Kaoru, Im sorry for what I did. It was wrong." Kenshin said in a forced apologetic tone. Kaoru laughed a bit.
"Wrong, yes. Sorry, no." She said in a tone that said she had it all figured out. Kenshin smiled. "But I gave you my clothes." He said in an almost whiny tone.
"By choice." She pointed out.
"Kaoru please forgive me. I am sorry. Though I meant it at the time I now know better." He said rubbing his head for emphasis. Kaoru laughed slightly.
"I guess so, but that's only because I don't know how much longer we'll be in this cave." She said watching the fire in exhaustion.
"Tired?" He asked as he let out a yawn.
"Yea." She said sleepily. Kenshin stood up and walked towards Kaoru and sat down next to her. His body was touching hers as he huddled up next to her.
"Cold?" She asked looking at him.
"Very." He said. "You can sleep on my shoulder." He stated like it was nothing. He didn't take his eyes off the fire in hopes that she would leave the beating stick on the ground. Surprisingly all she did was lean her head on his shoulder and close her weary eyes.
Several hours' later Kaoru's eyes pried themselves open and she tried to blink the sleepiness away. She felt very warm but saw that the fire had died down. She noticed that she was sleeping on something very soft and warm. She looked down to find a bare chest.
She jumped up and screamed, her loud shriek resonating throughout the cave. Kenshin was startled awake by the loud sound and he jumped into a sitting position. He looked around the cave to see the fire died down and Kaoru was standing looking horrified at him.
He rubbed his eyes and felt a chill sweep across his chest but he was warm so it didn't seem to affect him. He looked at her in a slightly confused manner. "What happened to you? See a snake?" He asked blinking for a long time trying to get used to the little light that there was.
He looked up at her innocently as if nothing had registered in his mind. "You…we were…and it was…but I didn't…and you couldn't…but, you don't know?" She fumbled as she tried to spit out her words. She looked at Kenshin in a helpless state. She just looked like she wanted him to know so she didn't have to look stupid and tell him.
"I just…and you were…and we didn't…you wouldn't…I would have remembered…it was only a little while…I…I'm having a lot of trouble." She said sighing and sitting back down on the ground. Kenshin smile was lopsided as he looked at her very amused. He was leaning on his arms feeling tepid and calm. At this moment he didn't give a damn about anything.
"Yes you are." He said smiling a bit wider as he watched her trip over her words. She looked up at him and gave him the 'you're a jackass' smile.
"Kenshin do you know that when a girl sleeps on your shoulder you are supposed to stay awake?" She asked trying to get him to understand without having to really say it.
"Yea…and I did, you were asleep and then your head fell into my lap and my leg fell asleep so I decided to sleep because when you sleep you cant feel anything." He said knowingly but still not understanding. Though he didn't realize it having Kaoru sleeping on top of him gave him a sort of "high." Nothing seemed to be affecting him any more.
"Kenshin, I move in my sleep." She said plainly dropping larger and larger hints. Kenshin shrugged slightly.
"I know, you moved from my shoulder to my lap." He said slowly trying to figure out why she was telling him things he already knew. Kaoru's face began to heat up with frustration.
"Kenshin…we slept together!" She yelled loudly in an exasperating huff of emotion. Kenshin looked up to her in a cool manner until he understood what she had said and his eyes widened.
"And I was asleep for it?" He shrieked obviously upset that he missed this great event. Kaorus hand flew into the air and slammed hard against his cheek out of reaction.
"Not THAT" She said emphasizing the word 'that' and a faint blush appeared on her cheeks. Kenshin rubbed his soar cheek looking resentful. "No…no we didn't…you thought we…no…eww no." She said trying to defend herself and act like she had never thought about it before.
At first Kenshins cheeks flushed in embarrassment then it faded and he smiled. "Would it really be that bad?" Kenshin asked faking low self-esteem just to get her to go back on her word. He really just liked to hear her trip over her terminology.
"Well no…I guess…but we didn't...but if we had…I mean you aren't that hard on the eyes…but I've never thought about it…" She tried to begin but fell silent. She looked up to see a confidently smiling Kenshin beaming with pride.
She just looked at him shocked. 'I can't believe I just said…I just admitted that he's hot.' She thought her mouth slightly open.
"So you wouldn't really mind having sex with me? Because you think im sexy?" Kenshin said in an honest voice. Kaorus face turned a bright glowing red as she sat in the cave. She turned her head to hide her gaping mouth.
She mumbled a few incoherent words as she searched the cave for something to look at to distract her gaze. She looked upon the pile of wood sitting near her. She stood up mumbling about feeding the fire as she picked up a few logs and set them up around the small blaze.
Kenshin just smiled smugly as he watched her. He coughed as soon as she was done to draw her attention. She looked up a bit but her eyes dashed to the ground immediately.
"Kaoru, its ok." Kenshin said quietly still smiling like a fool. He loved to see her face turn red out of childish embarrassment. Some times she was so naive but it made her all the cuter.
"I know it's just…that fricken smile of yours…I can't seem to stay mad at you for long." She said speaking slower but still in clips and phrases. She smiled weakly as she sat back down on the ground. She plopped herself on her back, and she stared at the ceiling as she lay there.
As she ran over the events that had occurred during the day she smiled and even laughed a bit. Kenshin crawled over to the oblivious Kaoru. He moved his head into her line of vision and her eyes widened a bit in surprise. She had been so lost in though she forgot she was still in this cave with Kenshin.
"Hey." She said in a rather low quiet voice. His head looked upside down because he was above her. "Hi." He said in an expecting voice.
"You want to tell me what you're laughing about?" He asked tilting his head to the right in perplexity.
"You." She said smiling.
"Me? What did I do?" He asked at first curiously then his eyelids lowered a little as he looked at her in a seductive way.
"Not what your thinking." She said smiling complacently. "Just the stupid things you do that make me smile." She said her haughty smile fading into a small happy one.
"What stupid things do I do?" He asked defensively. Kaoru started laughing at his question but stopped quickly once she saw he wasn't kidding.
"Well…you drag me into a cave because its raining and foggy, you tell me to stay naked when im around you, you give me your dry clothes, you cant figure out that I slept NEAR of you despite my attempts to tell you, you ask me stupid questions." She said counting on her fingers.
"Oh…well that's nothing…you obviously haven't lived near Sano long enough. He's the stupid one." He said quickly trying to revive his calm collected reputation. 'I'm actually normally a calm guy…you just make me do goofy things and say things I would never say.' He thought to himself as he smiled at her, wishing he could tell her that.
"Oh, ok…sure." She said beginning to laugh. Kenshin laughed a little as well but they both fell silent relatively quick. Kenshin stood up quickly and took her now warm dry cloths off of the ledge and held them out to her hoping she would give him his cloths back.
At first she stared at the clothes like he was handing her some foreign object that she didn't know what to do with. Finally it clicked in her head and she stood up holding the clothes to her chest savoring the warmth. She held up her index finger and spun it.
Kenshins eyes showed a dim glimmer of disappointment as he turned around and folded his arms on his chest. He could hear his cotton clothes sliding off of her silky skin. The sound of the zipper sent a small chill up his spine and just as he was about to turn around and take a small peek a pair of blue pants met his face.
He toppled over from the contact and pulled his jeans off his head. He slipped on the pants and smiled wide. He had forgotten how nice it felt to have warm dry pants on. For a split second his mind turned over the fact that just a few seconds ago she was in his pants. He wished she were back in them but mentally punched himself for that thought. If that had slipped out of his mouth he would have been on the floor.
Kaoru had on her tight clothes again and felt more at home in them. She slipped on her tee shirt just as kenshin turned around. She smoothed out the wrinkles and looked herself over. She grinned and looked up at Kenshin.
She looked further south and realized that he was missing an item of clothing. She looked around her on the floor and under her feet but didn't see it. She scanned the cave quickly and tightened her fist. Then she felt the cotton fabric pressed in-between her fingers and palm. She held up his shirt looking guiltily stupid and tossed it to him.
She felt somewhat saddened when he slipped the shirt over his muscular abdomen. She preferred his chest showing but that as supposed to be out of her realm of thinking. She mentally forbade herself from thinking things like that and here she was going against her own promise.
She took in an awkward breath and looked from the viciously burning fire to him. She sat down cross-legged, having nothing else to do. Kenshin sat down as well rather close to her. He was facing the fire and keeping his eyes on it like there was no tomorrow. She looked at his harsh stare and tried to imitate it. She felt like she was trying to extinguish the lame with her mind. She laughed a bit but tried to keep concentration.
At the sound of cheerful laughter Kenshin looked over to her. "What are you doing?" He asked entranced by how concentrated she could be.
"Imitating you…do you think if we stare hard enough it will go out?" She asked referring to the fire. He smiled and laughed a bit at himself.
"I don't know, let's find out." He said staring at the blaze like she was. He snuck a few peeks at her gaze entranced by her wicked glare. He couldn't understand how someone could go from laughing and having a good time to such a spitfire.
"Kenshin, you have to look at it for it to work." She said looked up from the fire at him. Kaoru's eyes began to glow an intensely wild golden color drowning out the deep nurturing blue. That look, though unintentionally, could have scared anyone into doing whatever it was she wanted.
The fire seemed to hop into her blue orbs overwhelming them and transforming them into a dark golden with a flash of crimson. As her eyes danced with enjoyment he could practically feel the fear filling his. Though he wasn't afraid of her, he was more afraid of the spirit that seemed to posses her.
The demonic soul seemed to be jumping with joy in her cold eyes. He felt freezing but hot in the same moment on the brink of insanity but the calmest man alive. A cold sweat ran down his back and he tingled all over. Kenshin was overcome by this wild sensation to grab her and kiss her before this crazy spirit emptied from her body.
Another cold breeze swept through the cave and he shivered in his warm clothes. He had seemed to only anger the spirit and make the flames dance higher and more fierce in her eyes. He quickly averted his eyes to the flame staring hard at it trying to figure out how this was happening.
In the few second preceding this strange staring contest with the blaze from hell the very same breeze as before swept through but it was a gale than a breeze. Just as Kenshin stared at the fire it went out. It flickered to the left then right then it was gone. It seemed as if the blaze just blew out.
However, the scary thing was that neither Kenshin nor Kaoru felt this breeze but they could see it grab the flame and squish it out of existence. Both eyes widened in fright as they watched the last of the ashes burn out as well. The fire spot looked like the fire had gone out hours ago.
Kenshin looked over to Kaoru, sitting in the darkness with just a few rays of barely visible sun peeking into greet them. The light was so bad it was as if he were under a blanket in the middle of a moonless night. Kenshin swore that for the first few seconds he could see her golden eyes still gleaming in the dark.
He was so scared that her eyes were permanently like this that he shut his eyes. For the next two seconds Kenshin could only think of one thing. He wanted to kiss her. He knew her eyes must still hold that golden huge and he wanted to kiss her before the spirit left her body for good.
Hell, if it were strong enough to wipe out that fire then him kissing her wouldn't be that strange. So he leaned in towards the area he assumed was her lips. Surprisingly he managed to hit the general region of her mouth and within seconds his lips were gently capturing hers. She leaned into his innocent kiss and pushed it a bit further.
She couldn't tell what had come over her but all at once with the strange event of the fire blowing out she felt alive. She felt open and free and like anything that happened in this overwhelming darkness could be quickly forgotten or accepted. She wanted to open her mouth and mind and let herself go. This new personality of hers was exciting and adventurous and gave her an adrenaline rush. However, her safe closed self didn't want to open herself up to much.
She allowed him to suck the passion out of her until she felt somewhat empty inside. She wished desperately for the fire to be reborn and the light and warmth to fill her up once more. Just as she was feeling vulnerable and flighty again Kenshin's hand found its way to the nape of her neck slightly tilting her head.
She nudged closer to him as the warm spread to her stomach and filled her up. Though she was in a cold damp dark cave she felt warm and cozy sitting next to him. She separated slowly from him resting her forehead on his as she bit her lower lip in worry. She never had high self-esteem and couldn't figure out if she had made him happy or not.
She could almost feel his smile spreading across his skin to hers. She felt a ripple of excitement tingle through her as she opened her eyes and tried her best to make out his expression. No matter how hard she tried to find his figure in the darkness she could not. She rested her head against his shoulder waiting for him to speak. Waiting for an explanation…or a comforting gesture to keep her questioning thoughts to a minimum.
"Your beautiful." He whispered into her hair as the scent of jasmine wafted into his nostrils sending him on an aromatic trip. Her skin tingled with the feeling of his hot breath on her neck. She opened her mouth to say something, to comment to make some sort of vocal remark but all she could do was wrap her arms tighter around his waist.
Kenshin smiled and laughed a bit, his deep chuckle rumbling low through out the cave. Kaoru laughed a bit with him and snuggled in deeper. Kenshin closed his eyes for a bit his hands rubbing along the curves of her body. He wasn't feeling her up or anything he was just casually stroking her thy. In that moment that he was laying in the dark feeling content and happy with Kaoru huddled up in his lap he remembered his job.
He suddenly tensed up and hugged her tight savoring this carefree moment then pulled his arms away and gently placed her into a sitting position.
"Kenshin, what's wrong?" Kaoru asked her voice rising as she reached her hand out to feel were he was. He stood up and groped the air for her hand. He found her hand and pulled her into a standing position and let go. He found the fire and kicked a log, which didn't make any ashes fly up so he assumed he could leave it.
"Kaoru, its time to leave." Kenshin said a bit wearily as he found her hand once more and squeezed it in an action of silence. He didn't want her to say anything and the squeeze and reassuring tug told her that. They walked hand in hand out towards the front of the cave. Once they got to the mouth Kenshin released her hand and they both shielded their eyes from the harsh but very welcomed sun shine.