Sapphire Scales, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 5 - The Lake
This time he woke up before her. There was a second of disorientation, but then he remembered - 'I've been captured by a dragon.' It was not quite true, since saying, 'I've invaded a dragon's home and refuse to leave' would be more accurate, but the result was the same.
Without moving, he looked over at Kaoru and saw her curled up, tail tucked half over her face, her huge sides moving up and down regularly as she breathed. He wondered if she had always been this breathtaking, or if it was only because she was a dragon. He had very little experience with dragons. Were they like cats, almost all of them beautiful simply because of their design?
He jumped when one of the huge sapphire eyes popped open. It looked at him balefully (he wondered nervously if dragons could read minds), until he finally smiled and said, "Good morning." There was a low growl, and she closed her eyes again.
She was such a grumpy thing, but he supposed he could not blame her. He would be too in her position, at least if his theory was right. Actually if he was in her position, he would have either gone insane or lain down to die of self-loathing. He wondered how long she had been suffering, if she was so hurt that she would reject kindness when it finally came to her.
Sighing, Kenshin got up and rested his hand on her head for a moment (he had to reach up on tip-toes to do so), then went outside to see what could be done about breakfast.
How did Kaoru usually occupy her time? Kenshin wondered about that as he watched her spread her wings for takeoff. It would be boring, stuck here alone all day again. "Kaoru-dono," he called. He figured she deserved better than a mere "-san," what with the knack he seemed to have developed for irritating her. Plus she was so ridiculously huge and strong, addressing her as an equal seemed a bit presumptuous on his part.
She stumbled, and looked down at him in surprise.
"Can I come?"
Her eyes widened, but only a little. They were getting used to shocking each other.
After a long pause, she finally lay down and stretched out a wing toward him. It took him a minute to realize he was supposed to climb up it, and it was only when she shifted impatiently and began to growl (which did not do good things to his nerves) that he hastily tried to clamber up. It was a little difficult until she lifted her wing so that the surface was more or less even. After that he was able to walk (more or less) along it until he reached her body, where he settled down in the hollow at the base of her neck. "Is that uncomfortable?" he called up.
"Eeeaah," she grunted, preparing for takeoff again. Kenshin lurched to the side as she moved and saved himself by snatching one of the small (to her) spikes that lined her spine. There was another pressing upright against his back. It was not entirely comfortable, but he supposed that any other design would have resulted in a falling Kenshin from the sky. Yes, best to avoid that.
He was stalling, he realized. Because the minute he stopped concentrating on his balance and on looking at the dragon's scales before him, he would be noticing with full attention the fact that they were flying, as in, very high in the air with nothing between them and the ground. Going at a pretty fast clip, too. Kenshin swallowed, and maintaining his grip he forced himself to look over at what he could see of the ground.
He had never seen anything like it, this view of earth from above, moving so quickly that landmarks passed by like leaves flowing past in a river. Yet the land was so wide and open, bounded only by the far off mountains. 'Not so far off,' he realized in surprise. 'Not to her. She could get there in a day.'
He did not know how long it was that they flew, but just when his muscles began to relax and he began to enjoy the feel of the wind in his hair, he noticed that they were descending. The circling began to make him dizzy, but before it could evolve into full nausea, Kaoru had touched the ground and flowed to a practiced stop. It took Kenshin a minute to pull himself together enough to climb to his feet, and he had already wobbled halfway down her wing before he realized there was nothing below but water.
He stopped. "Wait a minute..." Then the wing tipped and Kenshin found himself splashing down into a lake again, for the second time in as many days. "Arrrgh!" Bursting back up again, he glared at Kaoru, who was baring her teeth at him in a dragon grin. "Don't laugh at me!" he pouted, and shoved his arms through the water to splash her.
Despite his best efforts, the little waves looked pathetic lapping peacefully against her bulk. Then she brought her tail around to splash back, and Kenshin found himself being smothered with huge sheets of water as if caught in the ocean. Luckily it was quite warm from her body heat, unlike last time. Coughing, he regained his balance to find her wading leisurely past him, steam rising around her as she approached the waterfall.
Watching her retreating back, Kenshin sighed ruefully, frustrated at the huge discrepancy in their strength. He wasn't used to this... I'izuka and the others often teased him, Shishou liked to beat him up during training, but no one ever made him feel as helpless as Kaoru did. It might even be possible that Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryuu wouldn't-
Kenshin suddenly grinned and drew his sword for a Doryuusen.
Kaoru actually lurched when the wall of water hit her, and the look of astonishment in her eyes as she looked back at him was priceless. But then the huge amounts of displaced water came surging back, and Kenshin felt his grin dissolve. He just had time to think, 'Oh, you stupid idiot' at himself before he was caught up in the angry currents.
Tumbling in a sudden world of water, pulled in what felt like several directions at once, it was all Kenshin could do to maintain his grip on the sakabatô, which suddenly felt ten times heavier than usual. Holding his breath was becoming difficult; he really, really hoped that the lake would calm down enough for him to surface before his lungs gave out...
There was a sudden huge scrabbling, and Kenshin nearly lost the last of his air to a yell of alarm. 'It's Kaoru-dono, it's only Kaoru-dono,' he told himself frantically, though it was still horrible watching those enormous claws searching through the water for him. She scooped him up so quickly that he nearly passed out from the lack of air; when he finally had his breath back, he found himself in a wet heap on the grass. Shakily, he climbed to his feet and looked up at Kaoru, whose head was lowered to gaze at him with anxious eyes. "Thank you," he croaked.
She pulled back and gestured oddly with her forelegs, as if she was holding a katana in front of her heart. Then she swept her forelegs around to indicate her body in a sign he did not understand and was truthfully not very interested in at the moment. "Kaoru-dono," he gasped, still short on breath and stricken with amazement, "You said my name." Sword-heart. Of course.
Then Kenshin's mouth dropped open, even as Kaoru was still blinking and growling in that embarrassed way of hers. "Kaoru-dono - you know how to hold a sword!" This time she snarled and turned her back on him, which only strengthened the truth of his realization. True, she could have observed how human warriors gripped their weapons, but the other explanation seemed much more likely. "Kaoru-dono..."
He smiled as he looked at her sulking form, especially when she glanced reluctantly back over her shoulder with slitted eyes. Such a touchy creature... His heart went out to her more and more, as he saw how deep must be the wounds she was trying to protect. If only he could find out what to say, what to do, so that she would let him in...
A cool breeze brushed past him, and he shivered. It would have been pleasant enough ordinarily, but drenched to the skin like this-
Kaoru was coming for him. Alarmed, Kenshin backed away from the wide-open jaws that were descending, and his nerve nearly broke. Before he could run, her breath suddenly washed over him; he flung his arm over his face protectively and shouted her name.
However, nothing more happened, and when the hot blast was over, he looked up cautiously at her, confused. "Kaoru-dono...?" Her head was very close and she was staring at him tensely. Then he noticed that the front of him felt much more pleasant than the opposite side. Wonderingly, he touched his long bangs and the front of his clothes, which were perfectly dry where she had breathed on him, but his ponytail was dripping and the breeze was still making him shiver.
He laughed a little, meeting her eyes gratefully, then turned around and spread his arms. "Will you please do my back, too?" There was a pause, and then her breath came washing over him again. The hot blast made his shoulders ache, but he laughed again when he found himself completely dry. "Amazing." He took a moment to re-tie his wildly ruffled hair, then turned back to face Kaoru with a smile. "Thank you very much, Kaoru-dono."
She grunted in reply. Then she straightened again and swiped her foreleg through the water in imitation of Doryuusen, and knocked on her own head meaningfully.
He laughed self-consciously. "I know. I guess that was kind of dumb...but it was worth it."
She made a noise that he was sure meant something like, "Oh, really?" and scooped up some water to fling at him.
"No fair!" he cried, dodging through the sudden rain. "You want to take me on again? Let's see how well you handle Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryuu from dry land!"
It was a wonder the lake had any water left in it by the time they gave up. As Kenshin leaned back against Kaoru's spines on the way home (home?), raising his hand to touch the wind as they flew, it occurred to him that, not only had he played with a dragon and lived to tell the tale, but...it had actually been pretty fun, too.
o.o.o.o.o
"Kaoru-dono," he ventured that night, as he sat by a fire outside the cave and looked at her comfortably sprawling form. "You are a very...extraordinary dragon. I would very much like to hear your story." Then he braced himself, but the rumbling noise she made was not as fierce as her usual growling. Though she did not bother to move the rest of her body, her head slid away from him on the grass until he could not see her eyes anymore. For long minutes neither of them moved, and he finally sighed in disappointment.
She turned back to him and made the "sword-heart" gesture.
He frowned. "Me? You mean, tell my story first?" He was prepared for the sudden glint of firelight on dragon fangs, so her smile did not startle him this time. "Well...I suppose it's only fair."
He drew in an unhappy breath. Had Kaoru ever killed anyone before? Part of him hoped that she had not... He had been thinking of her as a caring, even innocent creature trapped beneath the awkward clumsiness, and he was not entirely willing to be disillusioned. Yet, if she had killed anyone, given her nature, which was becoming more and more familiar to him - she would understand. "Kaoru-dono," he whispered.
Her eyes narrowed and she gestured at her ears.
He laughed self-consciously and spoke louder. "Kaoru-dono, I suppose you've never...killed anyone...have you?"
Her head came up, towering over him in insulted indignation.
He raised his hands placatingly. "I know, I know, I didn't think so. It would have just...made things a little easier, that's all."
She cocked her head, then leaned down and sniffed at him. He really did not want to know what sort of emotions she was smelling on him, or if dragons could pick up things that lesser beasts could not. He shivered when her wet nose touched the back of his neck as the rest of him felt scorched from her breath, and she withdrew. Settling down again, she gestured at him to continue.
He tried to smile. "Kaoru-dono...what would you say if you knew that these hands have shed more blood than yours? Human blood, I mean."
She snorted scornfully.
"Kaoru-dono...Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryuu was not originally designed for playing with dragons, you know."
Sitting up, she signed "Kenshin," held her claws very close together as if squishing something, swiped a claw past her throat in the "kill" gesture, then shook her head.
His mouth fell open in indignation. "You're...you're not saying I'm - too small to kill anyone, are you?"
She grinned.
"Oh, shut up! You and everyone else," he grumbled, pouting when he heard her make a rumbling dragon chuckle. "Look, Kaoru-dono-"
She cut him off (a bit hastily, he thought) by signing "Kenshin" again, then cupping her claws delicately around her face and batting her eyes, then "kill" and an emphatic shaking of the head.
"You think I'm too pretty to kill anyone?" That was even worse.
"No," she tried again. "Kenshin is too *something* to kill."
"Too...what?" She had made a gesture that looked to him like rocking a baby. "Too maternal?"
She growled in frustration, then reached down to hug him with her claws. "Too...nice?"
"Yes, yes! Kenshin is too nice to kill anyone."
He looked away. "I'm only nice when I want to be," he muttered. "My enemies don't think I'm very nice at all."
She made a noise to get his attention again. "Kenshin is nice to a big dragon."
"You're not my enemy," he pointed out.
"Big dragon. Eat you." Then she made unpleasant gestures with her claws that looked like clashing armies. "Enemy," maybe.
"You have never been my enemy, Kaoru-dono," he told her clearly. "Even when I thought you were going to eat me, you were no enemy." Just a wild creature, who would have quite reasonably accepted a gift of a free meal.
She sighed heavily. "Kenshin is too nice to *something*. Come out of sky." (Huh?) "I like very much."
"I like you very much also," he told her, and was surprised to find how true it was. When had his pity changed into true compassion, into the sort of caring he would have felt for a fellow human rather than a dragon? "But I think you still don't believe me." 'Because if you did, I'm sure you wouldn't want anything to do with me.'
"Kenshin is too nice to kill anyone," she repeated stubbornly.
He sighed. "Well then, what about you? I've told - or tried to tell - my story, so what's yours?"
She grinned. "I'm sleepy." Then she had the nerve to carve oyasumi in the dirt at his feet before heaving herself up to enter the cave.
"That's not fair!" he called after her, leaping to his feet. There was no answer except a mischievous flick of the tip of her tail before she disappeared into the darkness. Kenshin rolled his eyes, put out the fire, and went in after her, yawning.
To be continued...
Author's Note: "Oyasumi" means "Good night." Very informal, but it's shorter than "Oyasumi-nasai," and Kaoru would want to go easy on her claws.