This will be two more chapters, I think, maybe three. I have the whole thing planned out for once! That isn't always the way of it. Working on it as I have time.

Thank you so much, all, for your reviews. It's always very gratifying to get feedback in small fandoms. Maybe the new live action movie will bring a little more light to this pairing once there's a real life Enishi in the upcoming live action movie. With real life abs. One can only hope.

Disclaimer: see part 1

The humidity was oppressive, causing Kaoru to sweat out precious water she could ill afford to lose. They had found a mature coconut palm and Enishi had used the metal piece to open up several that had fallen so that they could retrieve the water from inside, but it had tasted near rancid so they hadn't tried the meat. Despite that, they both drank greedily and decided to continue the journey inland. Rather, Enishi had decided they should continue inland and Kaoru had done her best to 'keep up' despite the terrible blisters forming on her feet from wet skin rubbing against expensive leather. Complaining wouldn't have accomplished much, so she tried to distract herself by remembering as much of her favorite songs as she could.

After what could have been hours for all Kaoru knew given the position of the sun was almost impossible to see beyond the canopy above them, Enishi whirled on her as she was humming the chorus of some top 40 hit she vaguely recalled.

"Is that necessary?!"

Taking a steadying breath, Kaoru did the calculus all women do around angry men, and decided to go with diffusing the situation since his eye was twitching a little.

"I can stop."

Closer to the edge that he had been with a metal pole sticking out of his back, Enishi spat out, "This is a serious situation and it's hard enough to stay aware of the surroundings without you singing off key behind me."

He may have been right, but she wasn't a soldier, she was a damn receptionist! "I don't know what kind of superior mental training goes into being a computer programmer but from where I'm sitting all I see is trees, bushes, and a whole lot of bugs."

"Just because you can't sense something doesn't mean you aren't in danger. I'm forced to be alert enough for both of us since you're insisting on stomping your way everywhere."

"Well I'm sure your socks aren't filling with blood, unlike my shoes." It felt good to say something snarky back, particularly because it was true. In actuality, the slickness in the shoes was from popped blisters, but it might as well have been blood.

Enishi gave her that considering look, as if trying to understand the meaning of what she said, then swept over and knelt in front of her. He lifted one of her feet and pulled off the shoe, seeing the mass of blisters her feet were becoming. Not quite furious, but definitely more than annoyed, he looked up at her from his vantage point.

"You should have told me." Back to the ice prince, all trace of temper hidden. He quickly stripped off his thick woolen socks and placed them on her feet instead after taking the shoes. "If it hurts too much, we'll wrap leaves around your feet outside the socks, but if you step softly then nothing should poke through easily. You're useless if you're immobile."

"Thank you," Kaoru was touched by both his tender treatment and how quickly he had believed her and acted on the problem, even if his motivations were calculated. How many times had she complained to Aoshi about tension headaches after work to have him totally ignore her? Maybe Enishi would have ignored her as well, but in her imagination he would at least throw a bottle of aspirin her way. It was a weird domestic thought, and in her tired mind Enishi and Aoshi juxtaposed. "Aren't you in any pain?"

Enishi finished tying his reclaimed shoe and stood up once more, sweat dripping down his forehead. "Yes."

"How do you ignore it then?"

"Have you ever worked out so hard you needed to throw up?"

It was such a confusing response that Kaoru gaped at him a moment, "Maybe once or twice?"

"Did you stop exercising after it happened?"

Kaoru felt like she was failing a test the way he looked at her when she responded, "Yeah…"

"I don't."

Examining the corded muscles on his arms, Kaoru's eyes slid back to his face where something self-satisfied was hinted at in the upwards slant of his mouth. He knew she was admiring him, and he was proud of his physique. Maybe if she worked out like she was training for the Olympics then she would be proud of her body as well. Kaoru wasn't a total slouch, but it had been a while since she's had a tennis racquet in her hand, and possibly even longer since she'd gone on a jog. Wedding planning had eaten her free time last year and a half pretty efficiently.

Still hurting, but reminding herself to tough it out if Enishi could with a hole in his back, Kaoru followed as silently as she was able.

The house was a pleasant surprise, even if it did look like the jungle had made an effort to swallow it whole. They had walked uphill for what felt like the whole day, but as they broke into the clearing she saw that it was only likely early afternoon, if that. Their hike had only taken the morning, perhaps five hours. Whatever the circumstances, the house was utterly deserted and partially covered in creeping vines.

As if sensing she wanted to run over to it, Enishi held out an arm to bar her passing him. "Stay close."

Kaoru sighed, but did as he asked and as they approached the house she tried to feel some hope. Clearly, it was possible to survive on this island until help found them. And who knew what the house would contain! It was the kind of excitement that lifted her spirits, and she touched Enishi's arm to get his attention. He glanced back at her tentative smile, and the frown he was sporting flattened out into a more neutral expression. Kaoru guessed that he was already projecting at least five different dire circumstances.

"Be careful on the stairs and don't go out on the porch, it looks like parts of it have rotted all the way through and the last thing I need is for you to break an ankle." Yep, he was already imagining terrible things.

It was a weird sort of caring, so Kaoru rolled her eyes and followed her white-haired companion in without a peep. As he suspected, the stairs leading to the front door were rotted and one collapsed under Enishi's weight immediately. The rest only groaned. The door was locked, but partially come away from its hinges so the only thing holding it up was really the series of interior locks. Enishi gave it a solid kick and it collapsed enough inwards that they could slide inside near the hinges.

There was dust, dried animal droppings, and dead insects all over the floor but more importantly it was spacious and dry and it looked like the house itself was built of sturdy material even if the outside fixtures had not been. There were chairs in a living room area, but they were sad things listing to the side or with broken pieces hanging off of them. Books were on a bookshelf, but Kaoru was sure they would disintegrate as soon as she touched them.

"That looks like a kitchen…"

"I'll search the perimeter outside. There is no evidence that anyone has lived here in decades so you should be reasonably safe."

"I appreciate your concern," Maybe. Probably. Enishi hadn't sounded convinced that she wouldn't find some way to hurt herself spontaneously in this empty house. She wasn't some empty-headed ninny, no matter how hungry she was! "Go on, I'm fine." Kaoru made a shooing motion and Enishi gave her a bland look as he walked back out the broken doorway.

The kitchen was small, with a squat wood burning stove in the center, and a few countertops near it that probably were used for food prep long ago. Under the countertops were small aluminum pots that looked old but didn't seem otherwise effected. In the walk-in larder Kaoru found lots of jars and cans with faded labels in Chinese. There may have been a rice sack, but it had long ago rotted away or been eaten and shreds of fabric were all that was left on the floor. Nothing in here was safe to eat, but she was amazed there was so much. Whoever had left here had left many months of food behind. At least the utensils and cookware were probably still useful.

Wandering into one of several other rooms, Kaoru found a collapsed bed with a rotted mattress. No goodnight rest here, but at least if she swept things out and got rid of the mattress they could have a relatively dry night indoors. Additional rooms revealed two more bedrooms, and two storage rooms. There was a bathroom that held an empty tin bathtub with no faucet, a ceramic sink with no faucet, and a mirror.

Kaoru wandered back into one of the store rooms as there were large chests there that intrigued her. The first one opened easily and she saw that there was nothing in it but bottles. The labels were cracked and brown, and the parts she could make out seemed to be in Chinese so that was a dead end. Who knew what they contained? Better to not risk it.

The next chest was proving difficult to open so Kaoru put some muscle into it and leveraged it onto its side. Bracing her heel against the handle, she tried to force it open and was rewarded when the seal broke to the chest with a sucking noise. Kaoru almost cried with happiness as she saw clean, dry clothes tumble out of it. Plenty of plain white button up short sleeve shirts and grey pants with suspenders were to be found, but they all looked sized for someone about Kaoru's height. The only thing she found that looked like it might fit Enishi was a fancier outfit underneath it all. It felt like silk, and it looked more like an old-fashioned Chinese outfit like you'd see in a period movie. But clean clothes were clean clothes! Kaoru quickly slipped into a shirt and pants and she even found some slipper-like shoes that were just a smidge too big but much better than the socks.

No combs, but she ran her fingers through her long hair before retying it into a serviceable bun and securing it with some chopsticks she had found in the kitchen. They were food chopsticks, not hair chopsticks, but they did the trick.

Kaoru put her dress and Enishi's socks in a pile near the door, vowing to find a way to wash them, then moved into the next store room. In a corner, haphazardly thrown to the side, was a radio and microphone. She got so excited she could barely contain herself, and didn't bother to look at anything else in the room. A radio!

"Enishi!" Kaoru called, "I found something!"

Hastily running outside, she stumbled on the broken step in her haste. Loudly cursing, she saw Enishi round the corner, eyes wide and clutching the metal piece like he meant real business. When he saw she was fine he visibly deflated, definitely mad that she was crying wolf.

"I found a radio!" When his reaction was less than thrilled, she threw up her hands in his direction. "Hello? A radio? Like with a microphone and wires and stuff! It may be older than both of us put together but it isn't like radios work that much differently now, right? We can call for help!"

"I'm aware what a radio is for, but I'm assuming it needs electricity, and the generator I found in the shed doesn't look like its been in working order for at least half a century. And even if it wasn't a pile of rust we don't have any fuel for it." Enishi so quickly popped every single happy thought filtering through her head that she probably looked like she physically deflated. "Where are your clothes?"

"Oh, right, I found some stuff in the house. At least we can have a change of clothes. And if we find anything edible I could probably try my hand at cooking it."

Interested, Enishi cocked his head to the side and gestured for her to lead him to the storage rooms. Still disappointed by the radio, Kaoru managed to avoid the broken step and slowly make her way indoors properly. She hadn't found a broom yet, so she might have to fashion one out of branches or something. All the small animal droppings were seriously gross.

She was picking up the clothes out of the chest and showing them to him while he ignored the fashion show and examined the contents of one of the bottles. Kaoru sighed. "I don't exactly read Chinese or whatever, so who knows what's in that."

Unfastening the wax top of one, he picked out the cork and gave it a sniff. "It's probably laudanum." At Kaoru's blank expression he clarified. "Opium."

"Oh. OH." She supposed a house hidden on a remote island probably wasn't used for any legitimate purposes, and so it shouldn't be such a shock. But that begged the question why the people here had abandoned everything so quickly and never come back. Worry ate her alongside the hunger.

Enishi was trying to refasten the top to the bottle, but fumbled it and the bottle hit the floor with a tinkling crash. It didn't shatter so much as crack and the fluid immediately leaked through the cracks in the floorboard. He put a hand to his head, taking a slow deliberate breath.

"Did you find a bedroom?"

"Yes," Kaoru said, approaching him with her hand outstretched but not sure enough of herself and their relationship to offer a comforting touch. "Do you need to lie down? It's not very clean yet…"

"That isn't going to matter," He said cryptically, unfastening the buttons to his vest and pants.

Bristling, Kaoru wondered if she had misjudged him all this time. "Hey, now, I don't know what you're thinking but it's certainly not the time or place to be thinking about something like that. First of all, you're sure flattering yourself to think that I would leap into—"

"There's a water pump outside," Enishi interrupted through clenched teeth as he sank to his knees, clothes unfastened. "Boil it first, no matter how clean you think it is…" His eyes rolled back in his head as he sank to the floor with a groan and Kaoru ran to his side.

He was hot as the sun, hotter than a person should have been even in this heat and humidity. Ripping off the vest he had unfastened, she similarly pulled off the shirt bandage and saw how red and angry his back looked with the reddest, angriest part around his wound. Infection.

"You stubborn bastard." Kaoru said as she contemplated how to drag him into the bedroom when he was about a million pounds of muscle. Probably best to let him lie here until she got it cleaned out, then drag him. "You should have said something earlier." Remembering how he had scolded her for not telling him about her ailments, she wished he were less of a hypocrite. Not that they would have been able to do anything about what she realized had been a steadily worsening condition.

All she could do was wait and pray. And find some food.

He had saved her life, and now it was up to her to protect his. She didn't even have time to be scared, there was too much to do with the day. Smoothing back greasy white hair from a hot forehead, she wondered at how much younger he looked when he wasn't frowning. Almost vulnerable.

"I got this, Enishi. Trust me." But even Kaoru didn't know if that was true.