So this will be in two parts. I should be working on my WIPs but this smacked me in the face.

Disclaimer: Just playing with the Rurouni Kenshin people, they aren't my property.

Kaoru tried to massage her aching shoulder and wondered if she should spend a bit of her precious tip money on lidocaine patches to ease the ache. Her feet hurt too, but it was the sharp pain from the muscle that had spontaneously locked up when she was carrying a tray of dirty dishes tonight that zinged her down to her toes when she leaned her head to the side just so. Honestly, she should have been grateful that it had been a busy Friday instead of the usual sluggish pace of Mondays and Wednesdays. More people meant more tips and she desperately needed those cash infusions. If she put away a little bit here and a little bit there maybe she'd have enough for patches on the leaky roof in, oh, roughly the same amount of time it would take for her to bite down on her pride and beg Sano and some of his buddies to do it on the cheap.

She really didn't want to ask Sano for anything after what had happened with her—former—car. He swore he could fix whatever had locked up her engine. In the end a bus pass was much less annoying than a greasy Sano permanently installed into her driveway. He meant well, but Kaoru could feel her rage grown by the day and words had been exchanged. Now her car was as good as a giant planter sitting in the driveway. At least cancelling the insurance had saved her a bit of money.

Other than a pulled muscle, today had been disappointing because with more people it meant 'glasses guy' definitely wouldn't be installed in his usual table in the corner and as little as she liked him the familiarity was of his presence was comforting. The Chinese restaurant that Kaoru waitressed at part time was known more for its authenticity than its speed just as she had been hired more for her pretty face and general robust athleticism than any real skill in speaking Chinese or with customer service in specific. The first time she met glasses guy he had tried to order in a language she didn't even remotely speak, and it was both humbling and angering to have to choke down his sneer with a smile when she had to admit she had no clue what he had said.

Since then she had seen him with the kind of regularity that had her unconsciously reserving his table in the corner when she showed people to their seats even though she didn't want to do him any favors. He always tipped exactly eighteen percent as well, down to the penny and written down without the help of a calculator. She had spied on him through the plastic plants so she knew he didn't use his phone to figure it out, even when he was dining with what she assumed were work colleagues and the figures were uneven. He always paid cash too, so she didn't even know his name other than people he worked with called him 'boss'.

There was something weirdly suspicious about a professional man who only paid in cash for things.

Digging around in her purse, Kaoru found her little notebook and logged her tips in so that she could do a bit of math under the street lights. A surprisingly sharp cold breeze reminded her that she would need to bring a thicker coat with her now that fall was here and sweat was drying while she sat at the bus stop. The restaurant was hot and humid to her with so many people ordering sizzling dishes in the colder weather. As she suspected, she had a slight surplus so far this month but the margins were tight.

She really needed to find a bit more work, but between her three current part time jobs she didn't think she had enough energy to do a proper job search. Usually a real job search required access to the internet, and as she had cut that expense first thing in favor of grocery money she'd have to make time to go to the library.

Kaoru's shoulder tweaked again and she sighed and slipped her notebook back in her bag. A hot bath and some streaming on her phone via pirated wifi from her neighbor was probably as close to a numbing agent as she was getting tonight. All she had to do was man a cash register in the bookstore tomorrow and occasionally make coffee from the limited café menu so she could probably stumble through with minimal lifting of her arm or swiveling of her head. It wasn't the first pulled muscle she'd worked through and she suspected it wouldn't be the last.

Sunday was always slow at the bookstore until the church crowd got out and streamed past, usually people who couldn't stomach what was offered for free in the gathering rooms after the service. Kaoru would also get the odd family out walking when the weather was nice. It was also only a half day of work and she enjoyed reclaiming a little bit of time before it got dark. As a bonus, the owner also encouraged her to take any old baked goods as the shop wouldn't be open Monday at all. Not overly fond of sweets, they were free calories all the same and she was grateful.

Sweeping after putting up the café chairs, the bell rang indicating someone hadn't really closely examined the flipped sign in the window.

"Sorry, but I just shut down all the machines and I can't fix you…" her words died as she saw the customer push fussy glasses up an aristocratic nose bridge.

Unique aware of how she looked a mess, Kaoru consciously forced her hands to stay on the broom handle and now sweep up to retie her messy bun of black hair. In the low light of the restaurant she often didn't focus on people's faces, more their words and actions, so seeing the glasses guy in the stark light of early afternoon highlighted traits she hadn't noticed before. The unusual shade of his eyes—not blue, not green—the shining health of his shock of white hair, muscles straining against casual athletic clothes. This wasn't the business suits he wore to the restaurant, and it suited him as well as the more formal wear.

"I'm here to pick up a book. It's paid in full, so I trust it won't inconvenience you to fetch it." The words were polite but the tone said 'obey, peon' and Kaoru would have bristled if she weren't so damn used to it from him. It was galling that she didn't see so much as a spark of recognition in that handsome face.

"What name is it under?" She set her broom aside and straightened her shoulders with pride. Maybe she wasn't significant enough in his life to be remembered, but it wasn't like he featured much in hers either. Occasional cranky eye candy didn't elevate him much in her estimation.

He stepped forward to the counter, eyeing her progress to a shelf behind the cash register where holds were marked with pieces of paper. "Yukishiro."

Kaoru flicked through the books until she noted an E. Yukishiro in the owner's crisp handwriting. The book looked old, and she'd be shocked if it wasn't both rare and valuable. The café may have kept cash flow up, but the owner was a bibliophile at heart.

"It's nice to know some people still actually shop for books." She tried to make conversation in the silence as she accepted and compared his receipt to the one rubber banded to the book. All the man did was exhale in a puff as if acknowledging her comment but little else. Once she handed over the book he turned on the heel of an expensive athletic shoe and proceeded to walk out without saying another word to her. It was unfair that he looked nearly as good leaving as he did arriving.

Blowing at hair that had fallen out of her bun and into her face, she tried not to be annoyed and failed spectacularly.

"Asshole…" She said it wistfully. Attractive rich people apparently didn't need to make small talk with nobodies.

Arching her back and hearing at least one satisfying pop, she picked up her broom and got back to the business of closing but not before she strode over purposefully to the shop door and turned the lock with more force than necessary.

Thursdays were always spent at the fencing studio. It was in a sprawling building in a suburb that required she take three different buses through the heart of the city, but she only had to make the trip once a week and the owner was an old friend of her father's. Back in the days when he had been an Olympic hopeful her father had made a lot of friends, and even after he was injured and had to rely on teaching and coaching to pay the bills his good nature had kept him connected to the community. Kaoru probably got her competitive streak from him, just as she had gotten her temper from her mother.

Or so her father had told her. She didn't really know.

What Kaoru did know was basic bookkeeping, having managed her father's finances from the time she was in middle school until the accident…

Anyway, Mr. Sanjo was kindly paying her twice the going rate to do minimal bookkeeping as well as some data entry and filing. He refused to buy a computer until a couple years ago when he finally realized that word of mouth was probably never going to keep the business alive on its own. The blossoming social media presence of the school had irritated many of the older students, but Kaoru was happy to see new faces. There were other similar schools that weren't adapting as well but Mr. Ikeda was wily.

There was more than one shot of his cute granddaughters on the school website. He had asked Kaoru if she'd like to model as well, but she wasn't the sort to play fight for a photo op. If she was going to get in all the gear, foil in hand, she wanted to have a real match. Plus she didn't merely get an attractive pink glow when she exercised hard, she got blotchy red and no one needed photos of that. No more than already existed anyway.

She was rounding the corner past the private practice rooms and heading towards the office when a door flew open and nearly slammed into her face. Stopping short with a startled curse, she watched a man with a bowl haircut storm out, his hand clapped over his arm. Perhaps a bruise had stopped the sparring match?

Bowl cut swung around to hiss at the open door, "Watch yourself, boss, or someone might think you're losing your legendary edge."

"That was about your sloppy footwork and inattention, Heishin." The flat voice from the interior of the room was both familiar and distinctive. Kaoru watched bowl cut stomp his way in the general direction of the locker room, and swallowed thickly as she quickly passed the open doorway. It was a mere glance, but Yukishiro looked damn good in his fencing uniform. The white of it made his complexion seem more tan, and it highlighted the uncanny whiteness of his hair, even matted down from having been under a mask.

Gasping as she ascended the stairs to the second floor office, she realized she had been holding her breath. It was silly. So what if she ran into him at her other part time jobs? Coincidence was more likely than conspiracy. After all he had had a reason to be at all those places. It wasn't like he was stalking her or anything.

It was a ridiculous thought, but Kaoru made a mental note to call people tonight before she went to sleep because she felt suddenly unsure. Maybe Yahiko would even pick up the phone. You'd think he was allergic given how little he responded to her attempts to talk, yet if she sent a text she'd get back ten. Maybe if Tsubame was around today at the school Kaoru could get her to call Yahiko instead, as he'd always pick up for her. Her brother was such an idiot sometimes.

Enrolling into a statistics course instead of fixing up the roof had been a mistake. Naturally it had happened because of a fight with her brother. He had accused her of playing the martyr, having quit school to keep the home fire burning and send him bits and pieces of support money instead of really living and he refused to be guilted into moving closer to home. She had yelled at him for being ungrateful and a brat, and that if he hated her money so much maybe she should stop sending it to him.

Phones didn't have receivers anymore on which you could bang them down with a solid thunk like in old movies, so Kaoru had to settle form tossing it onto the other side of the couch with a small scream.

Lucky for her their argument had taken place on a Monday night and by Tuesday afternoon she had steamed her way to the library where she hopped onto a computer and registered for the prerequisite to her long delayed finance major that she had been putting off because it sounded too hard. Intermediate Statistics sounded harmless enough, but Kaoru never had a head for math. Accounting was different than math. Accounting and economics were about real things and math was all imaginary numbers, with statistics being extra imaginary. The easy superiority she felt at being able to prove Yahiko wrong about something gave way to the despair of logistics soon enough as she bussed home from the library.

When did she had the time or the energy to study? Where would she get a textbook? Unlike her other online classes where she could bluff through content from the notes and lectures, there would be problem sets and she couldn't make up answers to things that had objective solutions. She didn't even have her own computer anymore, having sold it and worked extra shifts at the restaurant to send Yahiko off to school with something decent of his own two years ago.

Wobbly feelings surfaced when she thought of how overjoyed he'd been. Even if thrift store sheik was in for college kids, everyone needed a nice computer to be successful and Yahiko was working hard and keeping his grades respectable. Damn, she missed him. Even if they fought like cats and dogs half the time, she missed his messy shoes grubbing up the kitchen after soccer practice. She missed him playing his music too loud when he studied. She even missed how he'd rag on her cooking but still eat every crumb.

Stepping off the bus, Kaoru paused at the covered stop while a cold fall rain poured down. It wouldn't take long to jog the block or so back to her house, but she was feeling maudlin and low energy. In the dying light of the afternoon, under the cloud cover, she paused at the bus stop and watched the expensive cars pour out of the fancy condo complex that had gone up across the street from her quaint neighborhood.

Tesla.

BMW.

Lexus.

Tesla.

Oh, Mazerati.

Kaoru thought of her sad broken Honda sitting in the driveway, no doubt rusting as she dithered around. Rubbing ephemeral warmth into her arms through the sweatshirt she had pulled on before she left, Kaoru pulled her large canvas bag closer to her side and started a swift jog through the ever worsening rain. She was underneath the awning in front of the locked door of the entrance to the condos and catching her breath before she sprinted across the street and around the corner to home before she knew it, already soaked to the bone.

A black car pulled up and a heavily made up woman in a tight red dress got out of the passenger seat with an umbrella, popping it out and extending it as the rear door of the car opened and a man she never expected to see there stepped in Kaoru's field of vision. Navy really was his color, and that suit looked expensive so Kaoru couldn't bring herself to do much more than gape in his direction.

He was polishing his glasses with a handkerchief so maybe she had time to leave before he saw her looking like a drowned rat, and she took off with a squeak of her balded sneakers. She only stumbled a little as she stepped off the curb, and she didn't look back for fear of still being recognized.

Of course he was basically her across the way neighbor.

Of course.

Dodging glasses guy became something of a hobby as fall progressed. It helped take Kaoru's mind off of the impending start of the quarter and her utter lack of statistical knowledge. The last class she had taken in any form had been over six months ago, and she could practically feel her friend Megumi's disapproval with her lackadaisical approach to higher education. Their conversation last night over a bottle of wine, a pizza, and some bad streamed movies had been simultaneously cathartic and enraging. If Kaoru ever wondered why she was Megumi's friend, it probably had a lot to do with each of them being stubborn and difficult. It made it easy to understand one another.

"You'll always be working a million shit jobs if you don't get a college degree. I don't see why you don't just bite the bullet and take out some loans…"

Easy for Megumi to say. As an established nurse and nearly done with her master's degree at that, she knew what she wanted and how much debt to earning would work out for her. It wasn't some shot in the dark she took hoping a random corporation would pick her out of the crowd and pay her a living wage with benefits.

Then again, Kaoru was working herself to death and barely making a living wage. With no benefits. Just a shitty public health plan with a deductible so high it was like having no health plan at all.

Her slightly bitter reverie was broken by a shock of white hair entering the restaurant. "Hey Tae, can you show glasses guy to his usual table? I need to make a quick call." She was taking a guess at who was working the shift today, since Tae's twin sister Sae could just as easily have been on shift with her. They traded around as needed, sometimes without telling anyone, depending on their own personal schedules.

"Sure thing, Kaoru!" Tae didn't bother to grab a menu, well aware glasses guy—Yukishiro—was a regular. He was in a garish athletic suit as well, so it was pleasure not business that brought him today. You'd think this was the only place to get Chinese food in town the way he acted.

Kaoru paused before she headed back through the kitchen to make her imaginary call. "Before you head over grab a hot pot of tea. He always asks for that first before he orders so it will save you some time."

"Thanks!" the cheerful waitress responded with a wide smile.

As Tae grabbed one of the more faded tea cups from the pile, Kaoru found herself frowning. Usually she remembered to get a cup with the design more vivid and she wondered if he'd even notice or if it was her imagination that he preferred details like that seen to during his meal. Her eyes sought him out one more time, and by chance they seemed to meet. Kaoru quickly retreated before he could see her fiery blush.

She felt ashamed for the first time in a long while that she was working a menial job. They would probably have nothing to talk about. He had whatever high powered hostile corporate lifestyle he led, and other than work she pirated wifi and borrowed her brother's streaming password for fun. They were apples and oranges. His existence reminded her there was more to aspire to than extra time to binge watch cooking shows.

Lying to Tae—to anyone really—made her sick to her stomach so she walked out the back door of the kitchen and sat down on an empty crate in the alley and texted Megumi. Maybe someone at her friend's fancy grad school knew where to get a math tutor for cheap.

It was a nice day. After closing up shop at the bookstore, Kaoru took in a refreshing breath and opted to walk home instead of the short bus ride back to her neighborhood. Stale croissant in hand, she munched thoughtfully and pulled her knit cap over her ears to block out the chill. Clear days always meant cold, even if the sun was shining, and the breeze was a little more than brisk. Kaoru finished up her pastry and then blew into her hands to warm them.

Ahead, a jogger was hunched over in pause, taking deep shuddering breaths in weather that probably felt like breathing pure ice into his lungs. Nice butt, she thought. Then he straightened and Kaoru's body went still as if she could hide in plain sight.

Yukishiro.

His hair was matted with sweat, and every bit of skin on him that was visible was glistening. The fussy round glasses were nowhere to be found, so maybe if fortune favored her today he would be nearsighted and assume she was a slow moving blob, or a particularly poorly placed tree. Like the fencing outfit, his pants left little to the imagination and Kaoru sorely wished she had agreed to that blind date that her dear friend Misao had threatened to send her on. Lusting after a stranger was awkward at best and deeply embarrassing to her personally.

Misao assured her this guy wasn't weird or smelly, but her track record of setting Kaoru up was not stellar. All her friends wanted to meddle in her life, it seemed. Well, pshaw, she didn't need their help! It had been a bold statement in the moment and regret looked like it was over six feet tall and could probably easily bench press two of her.

Seeing a nearby bench she planted herself and waited until Yukishiro began jogging again. Until then, she checked her phone and pulled a partially squished donut out of her jacket pocket. It was supposed to be dessert tonight, but she needed to stress eat right about now and it was the only thing she had on hand besides some mints in her purse. Stress eating mints sounded like a good way to get a stomach ache.

Too cold to delay any more, Kaoru began walking again and tried to cajole herself into the same happy mood as when she had started home from her job. Maybe she could watch a cooking show while she ate her leftover stir fry. She liked watching the ones where normal people tried their best because it gave her a sense of hope for her own culinary future. Equally appealing were the shows where people failed at cooking spectacularly since that was closer to her own lived experience.

She was lost in her own mind, chores and dinner her main concerns, when what felt like a steel band wrapped around her upper arm and pulled her into the narrow alley between the expensive condos and some older town homes. It wasn't wide enough for a car, and it was obscured from the outside by overgrown bushes. She had never given it much thought before, but as a large hand clapped over her mouth she had visions of chalked body outlines and true crime horror stories. Megumi loved watching those murder shows and then telling Kaoru all about them to make her squirm.

"Just tell me who you work for and this doesn't have to end poorly for you." Even if he were not right in front of her, practically merging her body into a cold brick wall, Kaoru would know that voice anywhere. He wasn't sweaty anymore, and Yukishiro's body radiated heat like a furnace in his cold weather jogging clothes. Hard thighs caged her legs, close enough that she didn't have much leverage to knee him in the groin without him stopping her. With the one free hand she fumbled in her pocket for her phone and tried not let panic get the best of her.

What side of the damn phone screen was the emergency button? It was so hard to think of anything with Yukishiro's snarling face inches from hers.

"Are you going to cooperate? If you scream I'll have no choice but to use more forceful measures, so nod if you understand me."

He was a madman. She nodded slowly, treacherous eyes watering from her own helpless rage and fear.

His hand dropped from her face and he asked his question again, tone clipped. "Who do you work for?"

How in the hell was she supposed to answer that?! Now that he was paying closer attention to her he noticed her fidgeting hand and pushed it away from her pocket. Her phone slid out with the hand and hit the pavement with a crack that told Kaoru she'd definitely need a new screen if she came out of this alive. It added fuel to her already towering rage. "I don't know, maybe the bank since they hold my mortgage? Myself? I feel like this is a trick question."

"You think this is funny?" Either from the run or from the intensity of this moment, Kaoru noted a pulsing vein that stood out on the side of his head and tried to will it to pop with her mind.

"No. This isn't funny at all. You clearly want answers but the questions don't even make sense!" She wanted her voice to be solid, but a whine had crept in anyway.

Yukishiro's eyes bored into her and Kaoru tried to match his ferocity despite being at a total disadvantage. "You've been following me for weeks. Shadowing my movements."

Oh god he was delusional. "You're crazy. I've been working in the same places for years! You've seen me at the restaurant at least twice a week since I started there!"

"There is no coincidence in my world. Given how sloppy and obvious you are at this my bet is on Heishin." He said the name seemingly hoping to get some sort of rise from her, but she had no clue who he was talking about. The name sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn't place it.

"And I'm telling you I don't give a shit what you do with your time. I'm too busy with my own life to have to bother keeping tabs on someone else! I work my crappy jobs, I ride the crappy bus, and I eat my crappy food in my wreck of a house. You want me to outline when all my shifts are so you can avoid seeing me?! I'm all for that!" The heat rolling off him was suffocating even in the cold weather. Kaoru knew the moment she lost her fierce attitude she was going to dissolve into a puddle of shock so she gave him her best disapproving frown. It was the face she made when she caught Yahiko dodging chores as a teen, and she knew it was an excellent mix of righteous and displeased.

Then he did something outrageous: dipping down slightly he shoved a hand under both her coat and blouse and calloused fingers skimmed over her back.

"What in all the hells are you doing?!" Her voice rose an octave.

"Looking for the wire." He said, his face a stony mask. Seemingly satisfied there wasn't one he withdrew his hand and then took several steps back. Without the support of his body, Kaoru felt her legs simply give and she slid to the ground slowly. He stared down at her, and Kaoru found she wasn't quite able to meet his eyes as she tried to calm her shaking body. All her adrenaline had dumped at once and the tremors were involuntary. "Let's say I believe you for now. I'm rarely incorrect, but mistakes can happen."

So assaulting her in an alleyway was a little mistake, was it?! "You utter prick!" Launching herself at him as if a wild punch could do much beyond breaking her hand against his muscles, he neatly sidestepped and watched curiously as she smacked into the bushes and fencing that surrounded the town houses. Sputtering, Kaoru extracted herself from the shrubbery. "You could at least have the grace to let me punch you after what you just put me through! I thought you were going to strangle me!"

"If that were my objective it wouldn't have happened here." He watched her seethe, signs of irritation finally cracking his cold exterior once more. If he was irritated at her or himself, Kaoru couldn't be sure. "Let me be clear, if you go to the police regarding this… misunderstanding… you'll regret it."

"… you have got to be joking, you think you can assault someone in broad daylight—"

"—shaded alleyway—"

"Just because there are no witnesses doesn't mean I'm going to forget how you touched me—"

"—with no marks and no DNA evidence." Yukishiro took one step towards her, and traces of a smile lit his lips when Kaoru simultaneously took a step back even though it landed her right in the bushes again. "You have no evidence beyond a cracked phone."

Having said his piece and seemingly confident in his intimidation tactics, Yukishiro turned on his heel and stalked back towards the exit to the alley. Kaoru didn't move from her position until he was out of eyeshot and she had calmed her thumping heart down to a normal pace. Then with a screamed profanity she punched and kicked at the bushes behind her.

She had taken self-defense classes, from her father no less! She had trained for being attacked by people stronger and larger and thought that no matter what she was at least not one of those shrinking violets, and if it came down to it she could fight. Kaoru had frozen up when she should have fought and now, above all the other indignities she had suffered, she felt vulnerable.

If Yukishiro dared to come to her restaurant again she would be sorely tempted to dump hot tea in his lap before braining him with the steel pot.

Gathering up her shattered pride along with her shattered phone, she made sure it at least functioned before letting out a shaky sigh and exiting the alley.