HI ALL! Look how fast I put up this next chapter. Don't get used to it. But isnt it nice? I'm playing with the idea of simply posting whatever length chapter leaps to mind. I was originally going to aim for them to have a more consistent length, but maybe yall would rather have regular content instead of heavy content? drop me a line and lmk!

I should have been a little more transparent in my last author chapter, but maybe its for the best, maybe it will weed out the nonbelievers. I love dirty lil rouken fanfics as much as the next lass, but I do love to stay in character whenever I can. I've never actually wriiiiittteennnn a rouken fic before, I always found the characters so lofty and complex, but this inspiration wasnt taking no for an answer so here I am. In that sense I'm going to work hard to try and maintain some of the original spirit of the characters whenever possible. Consider the first chapter a quiet prelude if you will. I hope to flex a few more muscles in this one.

Secondly, the rating of this story will go up with the intensity of some of the more sensuaaall scenes. I havent decided where they go yet, but once I do I will change that.

And thirdly, before anyone asks, I'm perfectly inept at Japanese customs and so I will be leaving all characters racially ambiguous or order to skirt around not having knowledge and possibly slipping down the appropriation/disrespectful slope by mistake. All I really know comes from the historical leanings of the manga (outdated by a few hundred or more years by this fic) and other rouken stories, neither are very helpful here. I will be making some cultural suggestions, but nothing which would direct you one way or the other about the ethnicities our main characters. I encourage you to see them in your mind's eye the way you always have, and go with the general flow :)

Anyone finding fun little easter eggs hidden here and there? I'm LAYING GROUNDWORK PEOPLE and finding fun little ways to pay homage to the inspiration material. So if you don't get something or feel like I should have put more explanation into a term,no worries, all will become clear. But if youve seen Stargate and Firefly, you may already understand a few of the things I mic dropped on yall last chap.

Much love.

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters and honestly have no business talking like i know space things


Kaoru poked around the plate of food suspiciously, wondering which particular protein had been pulled from cold storage that could possibly display such a vivid shade of orange when cooked. Stabbing a portion with her fork she gave it a hesitant sniff before taking the plunge. To her surprise, and surprised delight, the bite was perfectly yummy. A sigh of relief slipped out of her as she chewed, internally praising how far Yahiko had come with his skills in the kitchen. It certainly looked awful, but that was something she was well-accustomed to overlooking in all areas of her life. Still contentedly munching away, she didn't notice the slight shift of the blanket to her left. It was covering the prone body of their rescue, who had unexpectedly begun to stir.

While assaulting the multicolored side dish on her plate, the blue eyes of the captain had swung far enough that her peripherals caught movement just as her senses felt the familiar gentle tickle against its edges. Lowering her plate, fork still halfway raised in shock, Kaoru's full attention shot to the redhead on the infirmary cot. He was awake much sooner than anyone had thought possible, and she was suddenly glad she had enough time to confirm the food was edible before he woke.

Kaoru put down her plate on a small side table and turned in her seat. It was a funny choice for the infirmary - a plush easy chair with floral printed upholstery that had been with the ship as long as it had existed, one of several relics still clinging to use in old age. She happened to love the thing and the somewhat musty smell it gave off. Now oriented towards the stranger fully and on the edge of her cushion so that her knees were almost touching the bed, Kaoru leaned over with bright curiosity. After a few moments of waiting, her hands untangled themselves from where they had habitually joined with each other on her lap and one of them came up to the stranger's face, pushing back a few sticky strands of garnet hair from where his eyes were struggling to blink open.

"There now, I'm sure this is much more comfortable than that escape pod. Be still, our doctor says you're very weak." The hand which had brushed away his hair went to his shoulder to lightly apply pressure there, willing him to remain lying down as he shifted on the cot. He immediately halted when she did so. His tense body relaxed under her palm and the eyes that had for a brief second been washed in uncertain fog snapped to her with a sharp clarity. They swirled with color and Kaoru's lips parted slightly in awe as she watched them transition from the deep blue-violet of an oceanside pool to the hot glow of molten gold. The intensity of their eye contact brought her brow down into a furrow and her lips quirked from their open slack into the beginning of a question. There was heat under her palm and through it she felt a current of fire running through her blood, into every corner of her being it spread until her whole body felt consumed by it.

It happened rapidly but she didn't fight it. She had never felt anything so acutely surreal before, and from his own expression it seemed like he was experiencing something similar. Kaoru knew somewhere in her mind that this stranger was invading her like a virus, that she should pull away and put up a mental barrier between them. But that small part was quieted by another, an aspect of herself that she rarely engaged with directly, but which she associated with her energy senses and instincts. This part seemed to be relieved and, was it joyful? at the stranger's intrusion, and something about that piece of her soul strengthened inside her. Gently, and with hesitation, she reached out with that energy.


He had woken feeling like he had just been hit by a truck. All his bones felt broken and he was clammy inside his skin. He was sure he should be dead, but death would not be this kind to him. Then he remembered - the sensation of another's ki had touched his own with such a calm reassurance, he had felt like he was home again, and he had reached out to wrap himself around the familiar sensation. But he was too weak, and could barely manage a light touch before he had fallen back into the abyss of recovery. Now he was here... but where exactly was here?

His eyelids fluttered and he struggled to gain full consciousness as it danced just out of his reach. Then something soft and cool touched his forehead, the pads of calloused fingers, and the fight to open his eyes was won. As he looked to find the source of the touch, his gaze landed upon her. Then her hand moved and she was speaking but he barely registered the words, only able to feel the searing connection of her hand on his shoulder.

In an instant his vision cleared and she was all he could see. Her hair was blacker than space as it fell over one shoulder and shone with the same navy luster, and her eyes were shining blue in the artificial light of the room. They were alert and confident, but something arose in them that he couldn't recognize. He wasn't able to stop himself from bleeding into her, his ki flooding into the connection she had willingly made. It raced through her body and he could feel her, all of her; her strength and conviction and her openness to him, all of it was bared before the stampede of his weakened ki as it sought refuge and healing in her own body. He struggled to pull it back, not wanting to frighten his new host or cause her any discomfort, but his efforts went unnoticed. It was then that he realized that she wasn't fighting it. No, he thought with shock, it appeared in fact that she was embracing it.

Like a matching set their energy intertwined. He could see by the look on her face that she wasn't exactly upset, though there was caution in the set of her questioning brow and angle of her mouth. It felt as though time was slowing to a stop around them and their physical bodies were of no consequence - all they could feel was the waltz of their commingled ki as they explored each other's auras. Eventually he saw her regain enough of her senses to retake control and she retracted her hand. The dance came to an end.

The threads woven during their brief spiritual interaction thrummed between them, pulsating in a way that caused the woman's breath to hitch as her hand seemed lost in the air between their bodies. "What was that?" She whispered, likely not necessarily to him but for him nonetheless. He looked her over as he felt his senses returning to him, the gold fading from his eyes to leave behind a shade of lavender. "Who are you?" He could only look at her, wrestling with his internal dialogue and wondering what he should say. There was something unique about this woman but he was still not sure where he was, and while he knew from their little exchange that she was trustworthy, that did not necessarily make it safe to share with her. He wasn't sure he would be able to hold back if he started, either.

He watched her as she seemed to shake herself out of her stunned thought process and turn to collect a cup from a table beside her beside two plates of food, one of which looked to be half gone already. "You should eat something if you're able, and here's some water, to get you started. Now, easy, can you sit up? I'll help you." With her adjusting some of his pillows, taking particular care not to touch him directly he noticed with amusement, they had him sitting up in a few moments that felt to him like hours. His energy was fading fast again. He accepted the cup from her and drained it, the relief causing his eyelids to drop closed and a sigh come through his nose. Before he knew it the cup had been refilled and his eyes opened at the renewed weight in his hand, then swung to look at the woman. She was holding a pitcher attentively and smiling comfortably at him. His throat went dry again.

"Kenshin," He croaked, adjusting his grip on the cup and tearing his eyes away. "My name is Kenshin Himura." Another round of draining the cup into his exhausted body and having it swiftly refilled. Silence hung between them for a moment, he could feel her trying to decide what to say. It seemed he wasn't the only one who was attempting to be calculating.

"Kaoru Kamiya. This is the Cassiopeia you're on, we grabbed your escape pod," she paused for a second "- after we came upon the debris of the battle your ship was in." He could tell there was something she wasn't telling him, but she wasn't lying. A thread between them plucked and he took a moment to distract himself by looking all around the room they were in. "Cassiopeia," he murmured, rolling the name out easily and enjoying each syllable. "I have never heard this name before. Where does it come from, Miss Kamiya?" He could tell she did not appreciate the honorific he attached to her name by the little indignant twitch in her cheek, but she did not comment on it. After seeming to consider his query, a corner of her mouth perked up in a little smile and her eyes went down to his blanket.

"My father used to tell stories of the galaxy where humans originally evolved, he said it was our ancestral homeworld," She sighed and her smile turned into one of recollection. Kenshin's heart twisted a little as he watched her mentally flip through memories to tell him a single narrative of the ship's name. Her eyes raised to his again and he found something shining in them that he quite suddenly wanted to cling to and never let go of. He thought it might be love. "He named this ship Cassiopeia in honor of that place. Our oldest ancestors would have looked to the night sky and seen that constellation. He was a very romantic man." Kenshin found it in himself to return her smile. "He sounds like a wonderful man," was his hoarse reply, affirming her statement with a slight rephrase.

Who exactly was this woman, and why was she so damned intoxicating? Her energy, her words, the little glimpses of emotion she shared so willingly through her aura. He wanted to drown himself in her clean spirit, revel in her unhindered love and he felt in that moment that he would move heaven and hell for her if only she asked it. But why? Unlike her father, Kenshin had never fancied himself a romantic of any sort. In fact, he had long ago solemnly banished any thought of companionship in this lifetime. He was shrouded in too much uncertainty, too much danger to have people close. He was a permanent liability to those around him, and in the past few years it had only gotten worse.

His throat worked to pull down more water and his hands tightened around the little cup, which was swiftly refilled as he stared into it. She gave so freely to someone she didn't know at all. He couldn't risk her life as well, he would never be able to stay. But he would revel and bask in her glow for now, and when he had to leave her again, he would hold those memories close.

Kenshin's eyes lifted to the door with a glimmer of surprise just as it slid open. Kaoru followed his gaze to see a smiling Misao beside a large and looming Aoshi. She was craning her neck to look up at him. He couldn't quite place it, but he recognized the girl's aura from somewhere in his past. It was just out of reach though, and when he couldn't place her he looked up to her companion instead for more clues.

"Aoshi, if he's still asleep he won't know if I'm in here with you, and he would never notice if we - " Big green eyes swept into the room and the sentence ended with a squeak as her cheeks went pink. She had not been expecting both occupants to be alert and listening to her propositioning her lover. Beside him he heard Kaoru snort in amusement, but the response was followed by a warning.

"Misao," Kaoru started with a tone both firm and warm, "this is exactly what I was talking about when you two began your little tryst - what have I told you about fooling around on the clock?" She stood and Kenshin watched with growing admiration as she transitioned smoothly into a position of authority. "You could have scarred Kenshin for life if he had woken up to that!" Thoroughly embarrassed, Misao hid behind Aoshi and offered a slew of placating apologies. Rapidly getting over her lapse in propriety however, the young woman became more visible again and peeked around Aoshi and Kaoru to get a better look at the redhead. "Kenshin, huh?" She asked with interest. Waving an awkward hello from the other side of Kaoru's body, some agreement must have been made that he did not see as she was suddenly gone. Only the tall dark man and Kaoru remained.

She turned back to him and gestured to the man. "Kenshin, this is Aoshi Shinomori, he is the security officer and protective detail aboard this ship. You will be under his supervision until we learn a little more about you, okay? For everyone's protection." He found himself nodding back at her, sinking lower into the pillows as exhaustion crept back up into his eyelids. He missed most of the quiet exchange between the two other people in the room with him, but towards the end his head tilted their way and he caught Aoshi bowing slightly with an affirmative "As you wish, captain."

'Captain,' He thought as his eyelids finally dropped. 'That magnificent woman is the captain…'


Author Notes

So you may have figured out by now that I'm muchhhhh more interested in subverting the "kaoru is a damsel in distress/liability" expectation in this fic. In fact there seems to be quite the role reversal happening! I am going to keep things balanced but I like the idea of Kaoru in charge and able to handle things before Kenshin ever shows up, which in my opinion is a little more true to the original manga. But Kenshin will of course change things up a bit, so who's to say who will be saving who *shrug* the parts of that trope that I DO like though is how ding dang infatuated with Kaoru Kenshin is. I just think thats everything Ive ever needed.

for someone with a busted spacebar Im really doing ok tho huh