Closing her eyes and leaning over the sink, Kari splashed the tepid water up on her soapy face. She repeated the action several times before blindly reaching for the towel she knew hung on its rack a few feet away. Water still dribbling down her chin, she buried her face in the towel, rubbing away water and remnant bubbles from the soap. After she was satisfied that her face was dry, she lowered the towel to look into the mirror. What she saw there pained her.

Of late eating seemed to have become automatic for her: she ate because she needed to, not because she wanted to. In fact, she had lost all desire to eat days ago; now she ate only when the hunger pangs grew too sharp to be ignored, and even then just enough to make them cease. This had had some decidedly negative effects on her appearance, and while she had never found herself especially beautiful, she usually thought of herself as decent-looking, and sometimes even a little bit pretty.

But the reflection in the mirror didn't look good at all: her face was thin and pale, her cheeks hollow, and her eyes, which she normally thought to be her best feature, were sunken and dull.

She stared at that face for a long time, barely recognizing it at her own.

I can't go on like this, she thought, shaking her head slightly, and averting her eyes from the pitiful creature the mirror showed. Something's got to give—

At that moment the bathroom door swung open, and Kari whirled about in surprise. Looking back at her with no less surprise was T.K., clad only in a pair of boxers, one hand still on the doorknob, the other grasping a towel slung over his bare shoulder.

For a long moment they just stared at each other.

"Oh," T.K. mumbled, blushing and inching back out the door. "Ah . . . Sorry? I--I didn't know you were in here . . ."

"That's . . . okay. I'm finished, anyway." She turned to gather up the few things she had spread out on the sink.

T.K. swallowed hard, finding himself watching her every move closely. He blushed even more deeply as he noticed her attire. Kari, who hadn't been expecting any 'visitors', had shed her fluffy pink robe, revealing the nightgown she wore beneath. It was barely modest, a pink-trimmed, white slip-like garment that flirted with indecency, falling to her mid-thigh, with a spaghetti-strap top. T.K. was surprised that she even owned something like that; somehow it just didn't seem to fit with the Kari he knew. Well, she does have an adventurous side to her. I guess something daring like that could be considered an 'adventure' of sorts . . .

If T.K. hadn't been so preoccupied with Kari's attire (or, rather, the lack of it), he might have noticed something very important. Kari hadn't just washed the day's dust and dirt off of her face; she'd washed something else off, too: makeup. A lot of it. And if he'd looked closer, he might also have noticed the deep, dark circles under her eyes that the makeup had been used to hide.

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

A/N:

Sorry about the text problem last time. --;; Hopefully it won't do that again. This one thought she had corrected that before posting...

Notes on comments! Yay!

Eowyn the Fair: Glad you like the Takari-ness. Sorries again about the paragraphs.

Prozacfairy: Candy? Gimme! And cliffies are just kinda...fun. 0 =) ?

battousai24: Thanks! This one will take your advice. As mentioned previously, it was unintentional. (Like your name! Kenshin fan?)