Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin.
Author's Note—This story is kind of warped in my head. I'm trying to actually give it some semblance of a plot. Kenshin is a woman in this story.
16. You don't know what you have done to me
Okita was not a fool, but he was naturally curious. These two traits were very unfortunate for Himura as it resulted in Okita visiting the restaurant that Miss Mae owned-- each and every single day that she was to work the evening shift. This proved to be three nights a week, with Okita waiting patiently for Himura to take a break from her cooking and cleaning duties in the kitchen to talk with her.
Miss Mae found this quite amusing, and knowing partially what Himura did on the nights she was not working in the restaurant, encouraged Himura to take frequent breaks. The first week Okita did this, Himura politely answered his questions about her well-being and tried not to blush when he complimented her hair. She thought he would leave her alone after that but he came back the next week and the week after that and so on. Over the next two months, they began to form a strange friendly bond of sorts.
"Miss Himura, could I please have some warm sake?" Okita would call through the open kitchen door when a waitress passed through. Miss Mae always gave him the table closest to the kitchen, much to Himura's chagrin... at first.
"Go serve him," Miss Mae would say, pushing a jar and two cups into Himura's hand before pushing the woman herself out of the kitchen.
Himura would then sit and drink with him, knowing that Miss Mae would not let her back in the kitchen for a while. Then slowly they would talk, Himura quiet as ever and Okita cheerfully filling in the silences.
"Don't you have a job?" Himura asked suddenly one night. Okita's eyes flicked to her in mild surprise as he sipped his sake. He set the cup down to speak and Himura automatically refilled it for him.
"I work for the Shinsengumi," Okita answered easily. Himura's focus sharpened but she was genuinely interested in why this swordsman, one who apparently followed the Shinsengumi's beliefs, would spend so much time at a restaurant for a few meager snatches of conversation with her.
"What do you do?" she asked.
"As much as any man can do in times like these," Okita shrugged. "And you, Miss Himura? What is it that you do?"
"I cook, clean, do this," Himura gestured lightly to the set up of sake and cups between them.
"Three days a week only. You are very good but even Miss Mae cannot pay you enough to live off of three days work a week. What else do you do besides the restaurant?"
"Souji, sir..." Himura didn't want to lie, Okita would see through it. But if she didn't answer he would probe her until his curiousity was satiated.
"So polite," Okita smiled. There was another silence between them and not even Okita could come up with something witty to say to break it.
Himura had been wary of Okita due to the very fact that he was a swordsman. His association, whatever it was, with the Shinsengumi reinforced her instinctive paranoia. Yet she had come to enjoy his company, become as intrigued with the other youth as he was with her. She was supposed to be loyal to the Ishin Shishi, she could not risk anything, but the temptation was great.
Okita, as Himura suspected, was dying of curiousity but he was still no fool. Himura remained a mystery to him, and while he wished to untangle her secrets, he knew there was an underlying layer to her persona that he could not push without forcing her away. She had finally questioned him for once, he didn't want to undo what little progress he had made with her, but he was so curious...
Himura raised her cup to her lips and downed the sake in one swallow. She let Okita refill it as she said, "Forgive me, but I would rather not tell you what I do outside of this restaurant." The truth.
"Let us not speak of those things then."
"Agreed."
"Cheers," Okita raised his cup. Himura mimicked his action.
"Cheers."