Thank you so much for the reviews. I really appreciate them . Here's Chapter 2!

Chapter 2

Kaoru awoke to bright sun rays illuminating small beams of light through her room. The small particles of dust danced lightly and swayed disappearing and reappearing in the patches of light. She watched them and then smiled. Perhaps they were putting on a small show just for her?

She had guessed that she slept through the entire day and into the next morning. It was then that her mind drifted to what happened yesterday. She reached her hand up once again to brush against her ear and smiled. Her smile soon diminished and she brought her hand down away from her ear. 'I forgot you're not a child' rang over and over again filling her head with Kenshin's voice.

She let out an exasperated sigh while she sat up on her futon and stretched her arms above her head as high as they could reach. They then dropped like lead and her yukata slipped down exposing her back and her shoulders.

With a small click of her shojo door Kenshin's eyes roamed her bare body. He closed his eyes quickly, trying to lock away the other man inside himself that so desperately wanted to get out. His shoe hitting the ground as he backed away brought Kaoru's head to swing around and focus her attention on him. She had seen his eyes closed shut and him back away, as if disgusted by what he saw.

She quickly pulled her yukata up and tied it as tight as possible around her small body. She closed her eyes trying to hold back the tears that she felt begin to form. He was disgusted by the sight of her. She knew he was. He had to of been.

"Is breakfast ready Kenshin?" her voice was betraying her, becoming weak and shaky. She brushed a piece of hair behind her ear, a nervous habit, before looking back over the shoulder at him.

"Actually Miss Kaoru, y-you slept through breakfast, that you did." he replied as he brought back his violet eyes and his innocent gaze.

"…Oh…"

"Sano and Yahiko thought it would be nice to go to the Akabeko for lunch…I figured I would wake you up and see if you would like to join us.."

"Well I'm starved, so yes, I'll go with you. Just give me a few minutes to get changed and ready."

"I'll go tell Sano and Yahiko."

With that he closed her door and walked away. She began blinking back more tears knowing that that is just what he thinks of her to do. Cry, like a child.

"I'll show him child" she sternly said.

She walked over to her closet and pulled out not her best kimono, but one nicer than the one that she had always worn. She went with a beautiful light blue with yellow flowers. She thought she'd match the colors to the Spring weather.

She pulled her hair out of her high bun that she had put it in the day before. She had decided against her usual braid to go to sleep in because she had been too tired to even blink. When she unwrapped the hair tie her hair fell down like a cascading black water fall. The ends curled and instead of her flat straight hair it looked lively and wavy. She brought a brush and a ribbon out. When she looked into the mirror she immediately pulled her brush away from her hair deciding she wouldn't wear it up today. She took a small piece from each side of her head in the front of her hair and pinned it back, leaving the rest down. A few loose strands fell out and surrounded her face beautifully.

She then opened a small box that her mother had left to her. It was her make up. Inside were a few bottles of a shimmer powder in different colors. She went with a peach color to cover her cheeks and a pink for her eye lids. In all actuality, you couldn't even tell she was wearing any make up. Her face just looked healthier and brighter. She then dabbed a tiny pit of pink shimmer on her lips and rubbed them together making a popping sound when she was finished spreading it evenly.

She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. For the first time she even thought she looked beautiful. Her brows furrowed when her gaze was brought to her chest. Immediately flashes of Yumi's low, cleavage revealing kimono displayed themselves in her mind.

She quickly shook her head, "Ew…..but….hmmm...I couldn't…could I? "

Kaoru reached down and loosened her top a bit. She undid her wrapping around her chest so that there was more under her breasts, making them a bit more perky and now more visible for everyone to see. She closed the top of her kimono shut, and looked at herself once again in the mirror. She smiled and gave herself the nod approval.

"Not too much to make me seem like a tramp, but just enough to grab some attention. Perfect," she said with a wide smile.

Just before she left her room she grabbed her bottle of perfume and sprayed it into the air walking into scents of jasmine and chamomile. Now she was ready.

She closed her door and regret made her pause. 'How should I act?' she thought. 'Like I know I look different? Should I act different?'. After a minute she decided that she would simply act like herself. As if nothing changed. As if she didn't look different. As if she didn't try. As if she didn't want attention. As if it were simply nothing. It was just any old day, and she was just any old Kaoru.

'Who knows, they probably won't even noti-'

Her thoughts were interrupted by the expression on all three of her friends' faces. The second she appeared at the door Sano was muttering something that sounded like, "Took you long enough", and then they all looked at her, really looked.

All of their eyes went wide and their mouths seemed to hang open. Oh, they noticed alright.

"What…?" She questioned, hoping to somehow bring them out of their shock. "What is wrong with you guys?" She began to walk off the porch and advance further towards them, noticing that their eyes never once left her.

"Kaoru.." Kenshin started.

"You look hot!" Sano finished. Kenshin's gaze snapped from Kaoru to Sano and his eye's narrowed. 'Did he just call my Kaoru hot?'

'Did he just call me hot?' Kaoru thought.

Sano looked from Yahiko who was still gawking at Kaoru, to Kaoru who looked to be shocked by what he had just said, to Kenshin, who looked like he was going to kill him.

"What," he said innocently while rubbing the back of his neck with his hand "she does.."

"Oh, whatever you guys. Let's go." She started toward the Akabeko when she realized no one was following. She turned only to see Yahiko still shocked, Sano seemed worried, and Kenshin looked pissed. 'I wonder what's wrong with Kenshin.'

"Come on," she said annoyed and reached for the closest person next to her. That person happened to be Sano. She grabbed his hand and began pulling him away from the dojo.

The second her hand wrapped around his Kenshin's mind flared with jealousy. His eyes became the most gold they have been in years. No one seemed to notice though. Kaoru still had Sano's hand and Yahiko just sighed and began to follow.

Kaoru's head turned back to the dojo when she realized that Kenshin hadn't followed.

"You guys go ahead, I'll go see what's keeping Kenshin."

"Hurry it up, we're hungry." Yahiko whined.

"Yeah, yeah," she said and waved him off.

"Kenshin," Kaoru called. He was standing in the same place he had been she came out of the dojo. His bangs were covering his eyes and his body seemed tense.

"Kenshin," she said cheerfully. "Everyone is waiting for you."

He didn't reply. He just continued to stand there with his head down, almost as if he was arguing with himself on whether or not he should go.

"Kenshin," she said worriedly. The last thing she wanted to do was annoy him with her constant need to know what he was feeling. So she settled on grabbing his hand, just as she had grabbed Sano's, and start toward the other guys. She was abruptly stopped by Kenshin's relent to leave his position. Sometimes she really did forget how strong Kenshin was. She squeezed his hand lightly and tugged a little.

"Kenshin, you're hungry, I'm hungry, the boys are hungry, and you're holding us up!" she said in a kidding manner.

His voice came out harsher than he had intended.

"You're the one that held us up by making yourself look like that."

Her eyes widened. Was he actually mad at her? In the whole year that she had known Kenshin he had never once been angry with her, and if he was, he never told her or acted as if it were so.

"What's wrong with how I look?" Her voice was a mixed emotion of confusion, innocence, and sadness. What she didn't allow to be heard was the anger. She had decided to go against her usual temper tantrum that she would have normally thrown. She had no intentions of proving him right about his child assumption from the day earlier. She masked her anger with innocence and confusion, adding in a bit of sadness as if to maybe pull him through a little guilt trip. She spoke the words as if "Who me? It's what I normally wear? I think I look nice? Is it not nice? You hate it? I knew you'd hate it!"

She regretted grabbing his hand. She'd figure she'd let her anger out in some fashion and agreed with herself to pull her hand out of his. But her hand went nowhere.

The second he felt her pulling away from him his grip tighten around her small hand. He didn't mean to make her angry. 'Maybe she really doesn't know how different she looks. How wonderful she looks. How beautiful she looks.' He regretted his recent comment toward her. The images of her grabbing Sano's hand and then Sano calling her hot replayed in his mind. There were few things that Kenshin didn't handle well, and jealousy was at the top of that list. He had to think of some way to recover and make her think that nothings wrong. After a few seconds of pondering on the right words to say he figured it out.

'I've got it.'

"Nothing at all Miss Kaoru. I was teasing; getting you back for making me seem like the bad guy keeping you from lunch. That's all."

'He's a horrible liar,' she thought. 'Something is up with him…'

"Well ok, if that's all, then let's go before Sano and Yahiko pitch a fit." She said sweetly.

They remained holding hands until they left the dojo gate. Kenshin didn't want anyone, including her, to get the wrong idea. He couldn't have Kaoru, and the other half of him was going to have to except that. He couldn't dirty her with his blood stained hands. He just couldn't.

Kaoru wasn't surprised when Kenshin let go of her hand. In fact, she anticipated it. She knew exactly when it was coming. 'Doesn't want anyone to get the wrong idea, I see how it is.' She didn't fret on it for long since the Akabeko wasn't a long walk.

For the first time ever, men were looking at Kaoru. If they ever had before, she hadn't notice. But now, it was hard to ignore. Their eyes followed her and their necks turned as far as humanly possible, and some turned even farther.

"Boy, you've got some admirers there Missy," Sano laughed.

Kaoru's cheeks were instantly stained with embarrassment. She'd never had to deal with this before. But hey, you learn something new every day.

"Stop that, no one is looking," she whispered.

"I didn't know necks could turn that far," Yahiko said in amazement.

"I think that guy's drooling," replied Sano. And with that they both began to laugh at the men's stupid faces and how uncomfortable Kaoru was.

"Oh, shut up," she muttered.

Unlike the others, Kenshin had noticed the stares from early on. 'They don't have a chance in hell,' he thought. 'Let it go, she's not yours. They can look all they want,' he reminded himself. 'Oh fuck that. I'll cut their eyes out of their hea-' 'No you won't. You have no claim to her. She's as free as a bird.' His mind mocked him. It didn't stop him from sending stares that made each guy think twice about looking their way.

Kaoru snuck a peek a Kenshin and noticed the looks he was giving the men. 'What the hell? Is he jealous, or just being overprotective?' An evil grin crossed her face. 'Maybe you should play it up a bit. Find out if he's jealous or not.' Her own voice in her head taunted her. She dug deep down into the very bottom of herself and drug up the smallest amount of self confidence and "sex appeal", if you can even call it that.

She raised her head and pulled her shoulders back. 'Why not acknowledge it?' She put a smile on her face and begin handing them around to every guy that had one for her.

When Kenshin noticed that the guys started up again in full force he quickly looked over at Kaoru and did a double take 'What in the hell does she think she's doing?'

One guy walking by brushed against Kaoru's shoulder and she laughed lightly. 'Men, so pathetic,' she thought.

The next guy that walked by was a big guy. Very tall, but not taller than Sano.

"Hi," he said.

Kaoru smiled sweetly. "Hi," she said back.

The man stepped forward toward Kaoru and Kenshin's arm immediately went up blocking him from proceeding any further.

"Good bye," Kenshin said.

The man took one look at Kenshin's gaze and held his hands in front of him. "Hey man, I didn't know. Sorry."

"Well now you do." Kenshin's tone was cool and yet heated. It made shivers go down Kaoru's spine.

'Interesting,' Kaoru thought. 'Very interesting.'

"You should try and ignore them as best as you can Miss Kaoru, that you should," Kenshin started. "Don't react, it will bring you unwanted attention."

"Who said it was unwanted," Kaoru said.

At this point Kenshin's eyes went wide and Sano and Yahiko stopped walking and looked back at her.

"Oh my gosh guys! I was kidding!" she laughed. "You're all so dense sometimes, I swear."

"Still-," Kenshin started but was cut off by Kaoru.

"I know. I was just curious. I wanted to see what they would do if I reacted the way they were." She gave a shrug of her shoulders. "I mean, can you blame me? I've never gotten that attention before. I just wanted to see what it was like. It won't happen again," she smiled at Kenshin. "I promise."

'Good,' Kenshin thought, but of course spoke differently. "I just want you to be safe is all."

Kaoru grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I know you do, I know."

She smiled at him and he smiled back her. Her eyes danced with amusement. Kenshin took notice to this and realized, 'She'd done it on purpose.'

He couldn't help but inwardly laugh to himself. 'My, my Kaoru. I didn't know you had it in you.'

Whether or not she was conscious of what she was making him feel, she was sparking things inside of him that no other person could do. Part of him was intrigued by her ability to play him the way she just had and the other part was just plain angry with her. How could she stoop down so low as to award those pathetic men with her attention. The attention that he wanted directed toward himself, and only himself. He'd decided then that from now on, he'd have to keep a closer eye on Kaoru.