Ange: Happy New Year! Sorry for the long wait but it's here now. I was trying to get this chapter out before the New Year but better late than later right? Today's my birthday and I am now officially an adult. I just want you all to consider this a birthday present to you all and myself in a way. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: 'It's my birthday I can cry if I want to, I can cry if I want to. You would cry to if Rurouni Kenshin didn't belong to you…'
The Torture
Chapter Cuatro: Bleed Like Me
Riddle me this:
Cut me and I weep tears as red as my flesh yet my heart is made of stone
What am I?
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…A cherry
Kaoru sighed struggling to break free from the bounds of her memories but she soon lost that struggle and so she continues reminiscing reliving moments that took years of her life to repress. Before long Kenshin had somehow managed to worm himself into her life so much that she couldn't imagine life without him, she couldn't remember life without and that frightened her. But Kaoru soon got over that and accepted it as a good thing. Besides he promised that he'll be with her forever and he never broke his promises, so then she shouldn't worry needlessly that'll he'll suddenly just up and leave her.
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How could she have known that it'll be the other way around?
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It was too good to last she knew and true to her fears it didn't and it came falling down around her, broken pieces of her heart lying scattered around her. She should have seen it coming. She should have noticed the signs and there were signs, there always is.
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Kaoru sighed, popping another juicy fruit into her awaiting mouth. Chewing thoughtfully her vague eyes focused on the past instead of the present, envisioning images only visible to her. She had been so stupid, so blind and because of her denial of reality, the truth hurt her more than it should. And because of her newly found truth of reality, she left him in the end. It was in the end that her cowardice shown through as she ran away form the one man that meant the world to her.
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As she ran away from the love he offered.
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Kaoru left her spot on the couch to dump her bowl in the sink for it to join ranks with the ever piling dirty dishes that she had yet to wash. All that remained in it were seeds mainly those of cherries- her favorite. The pits were stained with the blood-like juices of the actual fruits so much so that they look like blood soaked pebbles clustered in some sickening display. And the seeds were hard as stone and would break her before she could break them. Seeing them she couldn't help but liken them to her own predicament for at times her own heart felt like those seeds with its deceptive outer appearance coated in slick, bloody red while the inside was cold and impenetrable hardened by…circumstances.
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Kaoru shook herself out of these reflections and started working on the dishes. It was her final attempt to let the past stay buried. She worked too hard and too long for it to come and destroy the life that she created for herself. And the fact that washing the dished was constructive as well was just an added bonus.
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And so fully reenergized Kaoru lathered, rinsed and put away the now gleaming dished, storing them in her broken dishwasher to fully dry. Soon the sink was empty and all that remained were the diminishing suds from her fruitful labors. From the dishes Kaoru moved on to clean the rest of the kitchen only to later on include cleaning her living room then the rest of her apartment as well. She had too much energy building up inside her so she might as well put it to good use.
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So caught up in her impromptu cleaning that it took her awhile to hear her doorbell ringing. Finally hearing it Kaoru went to answer the door but not before surveying her progress. Earlier she had changed into a pair of faded jeans and an old tank top- clothes better suited for her rigorous cleaning. She had also placed her hair in a high ponytail, a hairstyle she had forsaken ever since she left.
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It was late at night, almost early morning so she didn't know who could be calling at her front door. But this was a safe neighborhood so she didn't bother checking who was at her door and rather she just swung it open heedless of the cold air seeping into her house.
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She couldn't have made a bigger mistake.
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Kaoru stared up at the man before her, noticing the changes he underwent in her absence. She couldn't tear her gaze away or escape into the safety of her apartment. Her mind was blank with desperation; her body was immobile as a statue, and her boundless energy that she earlier had apparently fled her at her visitor's unexpected arrival. And so Kaoru just stood there waiting for her punishment to be dealt out. There will be no escaping this time not when she had already been caught.
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She heard him then, she heard him speak. It was merely a short utterance of her name but it carried such deep meanings and undertones.
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"K Kaoru…?" he whispered painfully, his voice sliding like liquid over her. Even though his tone carried so much anguish and even though she was so stricken with fear, his voice never failed to affect her and if that hasn't changed even after so long not than it never will.
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Oh god, Kenshin was here.
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Kaoru then notices a detail that she had previously missed. The eyes that she had been staring at weren't the soft lavender that she had come to cherish nor were they the silvery, crystalline blue that never failed to leave her breathless. No the color that now graced Kenshin's intense orbs was an eerie golden amber. It was a color that she had only seen once before, the night that she had left him. And it was then in this realization that Kaoru understood how much trouble she was in.
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For the Battousai was here.
A/N: It's not my best chapter but it's the one that I worked the hardest on so far. The poem up there is not my own, the one in the prologue isn't mine as well but the others are. says no reviews and I don't know a way to get around that. I just want everyone to know that I appreciate the reviews and leave me a review if you want me to review you personally and for all the anonymous reviewers join up (it's free!) or leave your email so I can review and/or tell you when the chapters come up. Until next time bye and don't forget to review even if it's just to wish me a happy 18 birthday (hinthint)