A/N: Woo hoo! I updated!

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

They Say True Love Never Dies

Chapter 2

"You ok man?" Sano noted Aoshi rather strange behavior.

"Yeah, just tired."

"So I take it you don't want to go to the party at Megumi's house?"

"I'll have to sit this one out."

"What'd Kaoru say to you?"

"Nothing much."

"For nothing much she sure seemed pretty pissed."

"Sano, I just don't want to talk about it."

"Ok, well I'm going to go hang with Megumi." Sano moved a couple seats down on the bus.

It was probably best this way, left to ponder on those words.

The car ride home was silent.

"How's it going?" Kaoru patted Misao on the thigh.

No response.

"Misao, I'll all be ok."

"There's nothing wrong." she smiled as if to reserve her true emotions.

"Ok." Kaoru sighed as she turned her focus back to the road.

"Kaoru?"

"Hmm?"

"How do you manage to keep yourself calm when you know Kenshin is off at another school screwing Tomoe?"

Kaoru could barely believe the words that had come out of her friend's mouth.

"Well…" she stopped to search for the words. "…part of me still wishes I could be with him but the other part of me feels that this was all meant to be."

Misao nodded absently.

The rest of the ride home was silent.

Aoshi practically fell into his bed when he got home.

He turned on the lamp on the bedside table and just stared up at the old ceiling.

It was as if everything was swirling around him, he just couldn't escape.

His icy blue eyes drifted to his dresser. There was junk and clothes piled everywhere, including his old year book.

He retrieved it and then settled back onto his bed.

He thumbed through the pages examining every detail, every face.

He found her picture, she was calm and that smile…that amazing smile. (A/N: Yeah, my smile probably won't be remembered by many but my sigh will. I sigh ALOT (yeah I know it's a lot but it makes it more dramatic!), Ryan makes fun of me all the time cuz of it.)

He flipped towards the end of the book to the autographs.

'I can't believe this is the end, we've been through so much together, I'm going to miss you so much'

He smiled. The truth was he'd also missed her.

But what he'd said to Kaoru was the truth, well part of it anyway.

He didn't want to hurt her which would probably happen if he led her on.

And if she could, he did want her to move on. He wasn't all that deserving.

But the part about having no place for her, that was a huge lie. It seemed like she held the biggest place.

With a deep sigh he dropped the book down onto the wooden floor with a thud.

All his energy had been drained. Slowly, he drifted off to sleep.

Misao slammed the door of her locker, it'd been a miserable weekend, and the odd thing, she wasn't sure why it'd been bad.

Seeing Aoshi wasn't bad, it'd just taken her by surprise.

"Hey Misao, how come you didn't go to homecoming?" Soujirou inquired.

"I wasn't feeling so hot this weekend."

"Did it have to do with that quarterback guy?" he asked blindly.

Misao was shocked.

"I'd rather not discuss it."

"Kay, whatever."

"Well I have to go, see ya."

Kaoru was sitting alone at the lunch table waiting for Soujirou and Misao.

"Hey Kaoru, what's up with that quarterback, when I asked her she seemed kinda distant."

"Oh Soujirou you didn't?" her voice was full of concern.

"Why? What's the big deal?"

"Ok well Misao and Aoshi were like best friends for years and she had a crush on him all that time. She had to go through a lot of pain considering Aoshi was pretty popular. Then in middle school she had to finally say goodbye to the one person who brightened her day."

"Well that sucks."

"Yeah, and then at the game said he didn't have room in his heart for her."

"Ouch! So what are you gonna do?"

"Hmm?"

"Come on Kamiya you have to have some kind of evil scheme to get them together."

Kaoru smiled slyly. "Wow Soujirou, you can read me like a book. Wanna help?"

"For Misao? Anything. So what do you have in mind?"

"You recall that Misao is on the volleyball team right?"

Soujirou nodded.

"Marie Karry is on that team right?"

"Yeah, but how's the biggest whore in the school gonna help us."

"Simple, we'll have to play with Aoshi's mind."

"Oh, wow Kaoru, you play dirty."

"Of course, I care."

Later that day Kaoru decided to drop by volleyball practice to 'watch'.

"Wait, Kaoru won't this hurt Misao?"

"Yeah, but it's the only thing that will help."

Then Marie came and sat on the bench.

"Hey Marie!" Kaoru smiled.

"Hey."

"You know Aoshi Shinomori right?"

"Yeah, he's like totally hot!"

"Yeah, well I heard he was checking you out, why don't you ask him out?"

"Should I?! Oh, what's his number?"

Kaoru handed her her cell phone.

"Hello?" his cool voice answered.

"Hey Aoshi, this is Marie Karry, you know from Kunai high school?"

"Yeah, what's up? Why are you calling from Kaoru's number?"

"Oh I'm just borrowing her phone. I just wanted to ask you if you were interested in going to the movies tonight? I mean, I'd really like it if you could come."

"Are you asking me to go out with you?"

"Yeah."

"Sure, ok."

"Great, I'll talk to ya later."

"Bye."

Marie copied down his number and handed Kaoru her phone.

"Thanks so much!" she squealed and headed off.

"No what?"

"We wait."

A/N: Ugh! I'm totally pissed at the world right now! My 'best friend' is a real jerk! Anyways please review and thanks for reading my little rant.