Ange: Hello again! It's been four weeks since my last update but I really like this chapter so I had to make it really good. I actually had this chapter done Friday but I decided to edit it seriously for once. I always make the riddles before composing the actual chapter to give me a general direction of where I want to go but this one doesn't really apply to the chapter so I apologize for that. I would have made another one but I don't want to delay this story than it already is.

Disclaimer: …There goes my mental high

The Torture

Chapter Cinco- Realization

Riddle me this:

I am the Way to the Gospel, the Path to Enlightenment. I am the oppressor of lies; the hero to what is good and righteous. For all those who fear me, for all those who can't handle me, for all those who deny me – beware for I shall lay it all out bare in the end. I will always come out victorious for I cannot and will not be defeated.

What am I?

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…I am truth

Done with the soothing task of cooking, Kenshin fixed dinner for both Tomoe and himself. It was a simple meal consisting of white rice and meatless oden. He really did need to go shopping. Seeing as how Tomoe was still asleep, Kenshin covered her dish and placed it on a plate warmer for when she awoke. She might resent him for letting her sleep in for so long but she'll get over it soon enough and if she didn't then it was no concern of his.

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Kaoru was the only women he could ever concern himself with.

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Kenshin took his dinner to the kitchen table staring sightlessly at the facing windows. With his cooking done and nothing else left to do his restlessness returned. His body and his mind ached to got out and do something anything to further help attain his goal. Instead he was sitting here and worse still living with a woman that he only kept around for the comfort and release that her body can give him.

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He was pathetic.

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It was no wonder that she left him.

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No, he refused to think that way. He refused to doubt his actions and his reasons. If he did then all that he had sacrificed will be for nothing and he will be left with nothing, which will be even less than he had already.

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Kenshin glanced down at his lukewarm dinner and started eating. It was bland in his mouth but that was more of his doing than the dish. Food was never quite as enjoyable as it use to be and that won't ever change until he got her back. But even so Kenshin still ate his meal, his expression mimicking that of his food's current taste.

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Chewing and swallowing each spoonful, he neither hinted whether he liked or disliked the food set before him. But Kenshin's thoughts weren't on appeasing his hunger but rather it remained steadfastly on Kaoru. And so he stomached the meal and consumed every bite all the while wondering if Kaoru had enough food to eat wherever she was at, wondering how she was getting on without him wherever she was at.

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Wondering if she missed him as much as he missed her wherever she was at.

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Looking absently over to his neighbor's apartment, Kenshin noticed that the kitchen lights were on and he heard the sounds of someone cleaning inside. Seeing an opportunity his mind quickly grasped a safer topic or rather a topic that was the lesser of the two evils.

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Kenshin knew that his neighbor often kept odd hours but cleaning this late was odd even for her. He watch intrigued as she moved her cleaning into the living room. Maybe she was restless too? Cleaning was one way to chase it away. But glancing around his own living space, it looks like that wouldn't help him at all.

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Sometimes being a neat freak has its downsides.

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Turning his attention back over to his neighbor Kenshin idly wondered if she might be hungry. He knew from the countless fire alarms and delivery boys that she wasn't the best of cooks. That was so much like Kaoru in a way. Maybe that is one reason why he couldn't help but be drawn to this nameless stranger of his.

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Coming to a decision Kenshin decided to take some of the leftover dinner he made to his neighbor's place. He always seemed to make too much whenever he cooked. Tomoe has such a small appetite as opposed to Kaoru's ever ravenous one. Kenshin guessed that he hadn't quite adapted to the sudden change yet.

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But the truth is he didn't want to.

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Before leaving he went to check up on Tomoe and from her even breathing he could tell that she was still sleeping. He considered leaving her a note but decided against it. He wasn't going to be gone for long, just long enough to drop off some food and to satisfy his own curiosity about his neighbor. It would be doubtful that Tomoe would be awake before he returned.

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So why was it that he couldn't help memorizing her face as though he wouldn't see her again?

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Shaking off his sense of foreboding, Kenshin quickly left the room covering Tomoe in a shroud of darkness. Picking up the food encased in Tupperware, Kenshin left the house locking the door behind him.

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Stepping into the cold night air he regretted not bringing a light jacket. Even though it was still summer, the nights were starting to turn cold. But Kenshin didn't go back inside his apartment to grab a coat but rather he wrapped his fingers around the warm food and walked on. A little cold wouldn't harm him any, after all he wasn't going to be gone long.

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But even to him those words sounded false and empty.

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All too soon Kenshin arrived at his neighbor's front door and turning around he could see his own apartment covered in darkness. Good, that meant Tomoe was still fast asleep. She had this odd habit of turning on all the lights even when she didn't need them. She told him once that it didn't make her feel so cold and that her soul felt warmer that way. He dropped the subject after she said that.

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He didn't want to get involved.

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He couldn't afford to.

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Facing his neighbor's door once again, Kenshin felt a sense of anticipation welling up inside him. For some reason he felt that whatever lay beyond this door could help him with this endless search of his. It could help him find the answers that he had for so long sought. But that was all ridiculous, right? After all what help could a faceless stranger possibly give him?

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Even so the feeling wouldn't go away.

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Remembering his self-appointed task, Kenshin bottled up all of his conflicting emotions and gently knocked. Curiosity building he speculated what his neighbor look like. Did she have any pets? Did she enjoy gardening? Why for one so young and he could tell that she was even from his window, did she live in such a rundown place as this?

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Moments had passed in silence before Kenshin made up his mind to ring the doorbell since knocking had gotten him nowhere. From what he could hear it sounded like she was still cleaning. And so he raised his index finder and pressed softly against the doorbell letting it trill out within the apartment once, twice, and a third and final time. And it was with this action that sealed his fate.

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For the door finally opened.

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One the way here he had a speech prepared. Since it was thoughtless and rude of him to intrude into her home so late at night he had though up of some things to say to help put her at ease. But seeing his neighbor for the first time all thoughts fled him.

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Because Kaoru was standing right before him.

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Clenching the Tupperware with his whitened fingers for stability, Kenshin mutely observed the woman in front of him. At first glance she looked the same as always but he noticed the differences in her immediately.

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But then again he always had in the past.

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Kenshin noted that she had cut her hair but it looked like it was growing back to what it once was and in a few weeks it would be as if she had never cut it at all. She was much thinner than he remembered. Of course years had passed since their separation and a lot can happen in just two years. A lot had happened to him. Even so he clenched his jaws forcefully willing himself not to unleash all his turmoil on her yet.

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He had waited two years for this he could afford to wait some more.

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Kenshin peering closely into Kaoru's eyes noticed they weren't the crystalline blue that he had grown to appreciate. Instead they were a pair of brown colored irises that let her blend in more with the rest of the Japanese society. Was she so adverse to him finding her that she had to resort to disguises?

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That hurt him more than he was willing to admit…even to himself.

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Kenshin looked away from the muddy dull brown eyes that she tried to pass off as her own. They felt betraying to him somehow and the color reminded him too much of a woman that he left slumbering on his bed.

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A woman that he won't see again.

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Kenshin opened his mouth feeling the need to voice something after being apart from her for so long. But all he could manage was a husky whisper of her name. His voice twisted into a ghost of what it once was. He watched as Kaoru mouthed his own name voiceless, her eyes darting up to his and momentarily widening as a stunted gasp escaped her lips.

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So she noticed his golden eyes at last, a fair compensation for her brown colored ones that he had to endure.

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Kenshin noticed Kaoru tensing up as if preparing for flight. In response he grabbed her letting the food tumble from his grasp before she even had a chance to move. His momentum caused Kaoru to drag them inside and he deftly turned her around, taping Kaoru between himself and the slammed door.

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The room was silent with exception to the gasping breathes shared between them. Kenshin stared at Kaoru's face unflinchingly waiting for their breathing to slowly abate. Then with a sudden determination he reached for her eyes and gently took out her contacts unveiling the endless pools of blue beneath. Kenshin then smiled a lazy, predatory smirk, the ones that he only used when a sure victory is finally in his sight.

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And after two years that stands true for him.

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At long lat Kenshin spoke to her again but this time his voice purred filled with pure velvet as it calmly echoed around them. His voice was steady and sure, hiding all his intentions from his captive because now that he had finally found her was going to do it right.

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"Kaoru," he murmured watching as she tensed up at the mention of her name, "I think it about time we had a little chat."

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And Kenshin knew as much as she did that this time there'll be no escaping.

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He'll make sure of that.

A/N: It's finally done! Everyone jump for joy I know I am. The last part was pretty trick to write and I was tempted to end the chapter right where Kaoru opens the door and Kenshin realizes it's her, but I felt nice that day and decided to finish it. Now I'm worried about the next chapter that will be my hardest one yet I think. I have about one or two chapters left before this is done. It's kinda making me sad so I try not to think so far. On another note today's my one month anniversary of my birthday that is! I just want to thank everyone for wishing me a Happy Birthday and that was everybody who reviewed surprisingly enough. I want to let everyone know that I opened a Rurouni Kenshin forum for this story. It's to answer my reviews and to have a place for all your ideas as well. I'm going to try to get around to answering all the reviews and I'll put the anonymous reviews on the forum. I'm going to be busy this month because I'm heading down to Columbia (not the country) for the weekend, then it's valentine's frenzy (I'm going to make something from scratch!), and finally it's Katsucon in D.C (my first anime con ever!). I'm not sure when the next update will be put just stay strong and it'll be up before you know it.

Thanks for all the reviews and keep them coming!