The Art of Seduction: Chapter 6
Apprehension
by iridian
Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, it belongs to Nobuhiro Watsuki-sama.
"My lady, you must get up, we must prepare for your wedding," exclaimed the maid, already bustling around Kaoru's room.
Kaoru sat in shock.
Wedding…I'm getting married today. To Himura Kenshin. Kami-sama, I didn't know it would come so soon…
Inoe, Tsukinoyo, and Nari filed into the room, smiling when they saw Kaoru's half-dazed, disheveled body propped halfway up on the bed.
"Ohayou, Kaoru-san. We all came to help you prepare," said Inoe, looking pointedly around the room. "It looks as if you'll be needing our help."
Tsukinoyo and Nari moved to the bed, hauling Kaoru off the sheets and into the bathroom.
Inoe sighed. "We have only just started."
Once inside the bathroom, Nari and Tsukinoyo dunked Kaoru into the water, both laughing when the princess surfaced, sputtering.
"Kuso, what did you do that for?" said Kaoru, rubbing the water out of her eyes.
"You weren't up. Now you are. It worked, ne?" said Tsukinoyo, a small smirk evident on her face.
Kaoru began laughing herself, the tension relaxing between the three.
"We'll leave you to your bath. You don't need help do you?" Nari giggled, then the two cousins left the room.
About fifteen minutes later, Kaoru emerged from the bathroom, her pale skin clean and her long black hair sleek and dripping water.
"Ah, Kaoru-san-."
Kaoru cut her off. "Please, call me Kaoru."
Inoe smiled, and then nodded. "Kaoru. I thought you would like to see your wedding kimono."
The kimono was finely woven black silk, golden sakura branches blossoming from the hems, and an invisible wind blowing the blood-red sakura flowers all over the fabric. The black silk was shot through at times with a strand of gold, the light catching onto it and illuminating the fabric. The dark red sakura pooled also at the bottom, delicate gold lining the rims of the petals, the pistils that ran out of the flower also gold. Her sleeves were, at the hem webbed with an intricate lacy pattern of gold and red, and the same pattern at the neckline as well.
The obi was a heavy length of patterned black and gold silk, a black stripe in the middle surrounded by gold stripes.
Kaoru gasped.
Inoe smiled at her reaction. "As for the dark red and gold, those are Kenshin's colors, so you'll be a walking sign that screams 'I belong to Kenshin.'"
Kaoru blushed, her head bending slightly and her hair moving to cover the red of her cheeks.
Inoe clapped her hands together, pleased that everything was now in order.
"Let's get started then!"
---
Kenshin sat in his bed, awake, but his eyes still closed.
"Kenshin! Oi, wake up!"
Kenshin's gold eyes snapped open, narrowing in annoyance at the disturbance.
After a minute, Sano began pounding on the door. The door, being a shoji door and not otherwise impervious to a master of the Futae no Kiwami, abruptly disintegrated.
Sano had the grace to look slightly sheepish.
"Uh…ohayou?"
Aoshi stepped in through where the door was, calmly picking his way so as not to get dust on his boots.
"The tori-atama here wanted to wake you up so we could go have fun on your last day as a bachelor."
Kenshin glared at Sano. "We're going to go party at 11 o'clock in the morning?"
Sano scratched his head sheepishly. "Well, I thought we could go grab some food first?"
Aoshi and Kenshin both rolled their eyes, Kenshin resignedly getting out of his bed.
"Let's go eat at the Akabeko," said Sano.
---
"Ah…you look beautiful," said Inoe, stepping back to admire her handiwork.
Both Arai and Tsukinoyo nodded in agreement.
A knock came on the door.
"Come in," called Nari.
Megumi stepped into the room, nodding in approval when she saw Kaoru.
"She cleans up very nicely for being such a tanuki-chan," she said.
Kaoru's face twisted into a slight snarl, about to pounce on the kitsune-sensei.
The four women merely watched in amusement as Kaoru found it difficult to walk at a fast pace in the kimono, let alone beat up Megumi in it.
Kaoru sighed. Her revenge would have to wait. "So, what are you four wearing?"
Inoe walked over to a kimono rack in Kaoru's closet, pulling it out.
"This is mine." She pointed to a pure white silk kimono, pale purple watermarked irisies dotting the fabric. She had a matching pale purple obi, shot through with silver silk.
She pointed in turn to the others.
Tsukinoyo's kimono was a pale silver fabric, several gold chrysanthemums embroidered on the bottom and on the sleeves. Her obi was solid black silk.
Nari's kimono was a pale inkwashed blue, an ink painted scene of a small village on the mountains depicted in a Chinese calligraphic style that melted into the pale blue sky that was the rest of the kimono. Her kimono was a metallic slate grey.
Megumi's kimono was a dark red, the bottom depicting a koi pond filled with orange, gold, and red fish. Her obi was a soft shade of orange.
Kaoru gestured to the last kimono on the rack. It was a deep emerald green with embroidered black and gold birds seemingly taking off the fabric. A matching green and gold obi accompanied it on the rack.
"Who is that for?"
"It is Misao's. We always have to track her down and tranquilize the girl to get her into her kimono," replied Megumi dryly.
Kaoru laughed.
"She's such a weasel…"
---
Kenshin, Sano, and Aoshi had managed to reach the Akabeko and walked inside, sitting themselves down at their usual table.
Tae walked out, presumably to greet her new customers, but her bright smile melted into a scowl when she saw them.
Sano looked confused, leaning over to whisper, "Guys, I did pay off my tab for last week, right?"
Neither of them got the chance to answer as Tae strode over, a disapproving expression etched on her face.
"And what do you think you're doing here?"
Sano answered, hesitantly. "We're eating?"
"What makes you three think you can just sit yourselves down anytime you please?" said Tae, her scowl growing.
"Because we're friends?" said Sano, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Then why is it I don't hear about it when you all just traipse off and don't say a word? And then I don't see you until you three freeloaders come for a free meal?" shouted Tae, her eyes narrowed in a glare.
"We did send someone to tell you," said Aoshi.
"Who was this invisible messenger?"
"We told Hiko to tell you," replied Kenshin.
Tae calmed down. "And why were you all going off anyway?"
"To pick up my fiancé," said Kenshin.
Tae visibly brightened. "Fiancé?"
Sano perked up slightly. "Can you feed us now?"
Tae didn't hear. "I have to go help her out!"
She dashed off towards the door, pulling off her apron and setting it aside, while yelling at some girls to take care of the Akabeko while she was gone.
"Wait…" said Sano, drooping.
"What about my food?"
---
The girls were just starting to put Kaoru's hair into a traditional style when the door popped open, revealing a beaming Tae.
"Tae?" said Nari, raising an eyebrow at her abrupt arrival.
"I'm here to help! Hajimemashite Kaoru, watashi wa Sekihara Tae," she said, her words rushed.
"I'm so glad that Kenshin will finally have a wife to ground him, I mean the man is a one-man traveling circus for Kami-sama's sake," ramble Tae, her bright smile still firmly in place even though Kaoru looked confused and a touch frightened.
Finally, Tae stopped speaking, and Kaoru quickly cut in.
"Arigatou gozaimasu, Tae-san, for your praise, even though it is not true. Kenshin is going to be getting the short end of the stick in this marriage, I'm afraid," said Kaoru, princess mode kicking in as she thought of the most diplomatic answer she could.
"Nonsense. And call me Tae, I'm practically going to be your stepmother after all," cried Tae.
Kaoru furrowed her brow. "I beg your pardon?"
"Well, Kenshin's family was once overthrown by a man, who stole everything he had and left the little boy helpless and alone. My husband, Hiko, found him and took him in, training and aiding him until eventually Kenshin gained the skill and support needed to win back his estates," said Tae.
"We were not exactly the most fortunate family in the beginning, but we fought it through and look where we are now!" said Nari, trying to lighten the mood, her light tone forced when she saw the sad expression on Kaoru's face.
"And we had a lot of fun beating back those damn Juppongatana too," added Tsukinoyo.
Kaoru's mind was spinning. Kenshin had had his estate stolen from him by the Juppongatana, and apparently his cousins are good enough fighters to have aided him in their defeat? And Kenshin managed to not kill Soujirou when he saw him at the hotel, even though he was part of it?
"Enough of the past. It's time for the present," said Inoe, smiling gently at the whole party, her mercurial eyes carefully blank, her smile not reaching the depths of her eyes.
Kaoru's eyes narrowed slightly. If they want to keep it from me for now, I will concede. Now is not the time to ask questions. After the wedding…I will know.
Kaoru smiled, her muscles merely moving through the motions.
"Let's continue, shall we?"
---
Sano had long since devoured his share of the food, and the waitresses were hard pressed to continue feeding the small black hole that had made its appearance in the Akabeko.
"How is it that he doesn't asphyxiate?" said Aoshi, quietly musing while he sipped his green tea.
"He's probably not breathing. It's probably why he's so slow, he constantly cuts off his own air supply and kills brain cells," replied Kenshin, his golden eyes narrowed slightly in thought.
At that precise moment, the thirteenth master of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu decided to come into the scene, cuffing Sano on the back of the head and standing next to their table.
Sano abruptly began turning vaguely blue, his face covered in random food bits as he desperately tried to breathe.
Hiko sighed in annoyance, cuffing him again, a small piece of food dislodging itself from Sano's mouth as the master of the Futae no Kiwami managed to breathe again.
Hiko scoffed, amazed at the ignorance even tier one fighters could display.
"I hear your getting married to your woman today, baka-deshi," said Hiko, his narrow brown eyes twinkling.
"Hai, I am shishou," said Kenshin.
"Then what are you doing here?" replied Hiko.
"Sano thought we should go out to celebrate," replied Aoshi, casting a faint look of disgust towards the man who had promptly began gorging himself again once he regained his ability to breathe.
Hiko began laughing, a deep, throaty sound.
"You followed….the rooster's…idea?" got out Hiko, his sentence punctuated by laughing.
Kenshin and Aoshi watched stoically as Hiko found his own jokes immensely amusing, and continued to laugh heartily.
Sano noticed, vaguely, that he was being insulted, but then his next order of sukiyaki and tempura came and all was forgotten.
"How is it that they don't asphyxiate?" said Aoshi, back to sipping his green tea.
Kenshin placed an order for their strongest sake.
"Hiko's arrogance provides enough hot air for his lungs to operate on," replied Kenshin.
Two minutes later, Hiko was still laughing, Sano was still eating, and Aoshi was still sipping his green tea.
Kenshin was on his second bottle.
---
The five women stepped back, admiring their work.
Kaoru walked slowly over to the looking glass that was on the opposite side of the room, eager to see what she looked like.
She saw a princess.
A pale face was set with two sapphire blue eyes, long raven hair swept into a complicated up-do with various ornaments sticking out, a long red and gold dragon twining around her hair, its head dangling down next to her ear, its roar frozen. Several crystallized scarlet chrysanthemums were nestled in her hair, the blood red petals gilded in gold.
The kimono was as perfect as she imagined, the obi tied into the traditional wedding knot.
Kaoru held her hand up to her face to hide her gasp.
The five women smiled in silence, moving off to prepare themselves.
This is me? I've never looked like more of a princess…Kenshin's princess.
Kaoru turned.
"Where is Misao?"
Tsukinoyo and Nari looked at each other mischievously.
"The hunt." The two both grinned predator's smiles, their eyes glinting gold and purple.
Kaoru watched with an eyebrow raised as the two disappeared from the room, sensing their ki scaling the walls, and then…nothing.
"They mask their ki?" said Kaoru.
"We all do," replied Inoe.
With this cryptic statement, Inoe knelt gracefully on a tatami, patiently awaiting her sister's return with an irate Misao.
Kaoru knelt next to her, the elder of the two pouring tea and inviting Megumi to sit.
Kaoru had just took the first sip of her tea when the shoji door burst open, the two cousins dragging Misao in.
"I will not be dressed up!" declared Misao defiantly.
Kaoru smiled indulgently at the girl.
"I heard that Aoshi thinks you look very pretty in green, Misao," said Inoe, looking pointedly at the emerald green kimono on the rack.
Misao still looked defiant.
Kaoru decided to go for a new tactic. "Sou-chan told me he thought you would look very nice in the kimono he picked out for you, he had hoped that you would wear it."
Misao stopped moving, thinking it over. She sighed.
"Just tie me up in the stupid fabric and be done with it," said Misao.
Four heads spun to look at Kaoru.
Misao's scowl reappeared.
"Oh stop looking at her. Sou-chan and I are best friends," said Misao, narrowing her eyes at the group.
"And nothing more than that!"
At that time, someone was lurking on the roof, his steps silent and swift.
The figure dropped down soundlessly, trying to calm the slight flare in ki that had escaped in a sudden flare of emotion. The expression on his face was indiscernible, all traces of forced emotion gone, only his eyes betraying raw emotion.
Kaoru gazed out the window, her eyes sad.
What have you done to him?
---
Sano had finally finished eating, and announced, "Have to leave room for tonight, right?"
Hiko had very slowly wound down, more because he thought it was about time to start on his other hobbies. Namely, drinking, making fun of his baka deshi, making pottery, spending time with his wife, etc. Seijirou Hiko was a busy man. He flipped out a small pocket-sized notebook, and crossed off number one, laugh at lower life forms.
Kenshin and Aoshi looked at the two, wondering at their own bad luck.
Better not say anything. The exertion required to answer might make Sano hungry again. Then Hiko would start laughing. Aoshi shook his head, trying to rid himself of these thoughts. I really must go and meditate more.
Abruptly, Kenshin stood.
"I would love to stay," he began, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "But I have a wedding to go to."
He stood, walking slowly to the door, his head held high, and his face leaking menace and command.
As soon as he was out of sight of the Akabeko, he turned, looking suspiciously around him, and sped off, using his god-like speed, his body not even leaving a blur behind.
Sorry about the long wait, but I honestly haven't had any time. Review! Ja ne until next time!
Iri
Thanks to:
royal blueKitsune
Reignashii
simplee sweet
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Wolf Sapphire
For reviewing!
