Sapphire Scales, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 7 - The Snow
On a bright winter morning some time later, Kenshin woke slowly to the sound Kaoru's familiar growling. He smiled before opening his eyes, because he knew what she was mad about this time. "It's cold, and I don't have a blanket," he said lazily, looking into her accusing sapphire eyes without bothering to move. "You're warm."
"You'd die if I rolled over in my sleep, idiot," she pointed out.
"Mama dragons don't roll over on their little babies, do they?" he countered. Seeing the uncertainty in her eyes and the paling of her face-scales that meant she was blushing, he smiled again and snuggled his back closer against her scales, curling up against the cold. She made no move to push him away, and after a few minutes he fell asleep again.
Later, after breakfast, Kaoru curiously bent her head to inspect the thing he had finished shaping out of snow. She seemed tired and less energetic than usual these days, so Kenshin was glad she had come out with him today. He grinned up at her. "Look, I made a Kaoru-dono snowdragon."
She frowned as she gazed at it, and he yelped when her hot breath sent half of it trickling down as water. Then he had something else to think about, because she suddenly scooped up a chunk of snow and dropped it on him. Neck-deep in icy wetness, he stared at her in injured shock just long enough to watch her say smugly, "Look, I made a Kenshin snowman."
He shook free of the snow and glared playfully up at her, shuddering with cold as he hugged himself. "Ch-ch-eat-ter," he told her. It felt very good when she soon leaned over him again to breathe him warm and dry. He smiled up at her gratefully, and she smiled back.
He wanted to go to the "Little Lake," as they had unimaginatively started calling the one nearby. Kaoru seemed reluctant, but offered no protest as she got up to follow him. She outstripped him with practically the first step, and reached down to give him a lift the rest of the way. As soon as they got there, he jumped down without even waiting for her forelegs to reach the ground. It was cold, but he felt energetic and invigorated, almost like a child again.
He ventured out a few steps onto the ice before he heard Kaoru's distressed-sounding grunts behind him. "It's all right," he called over his shoulder, "the ice is thick. I want to see if I can catch a fish." He had never tried ice-fishing before, but he was in a good mood and it seemed like a fun thing to attempt.
Kaoru did not seem to agree, though she did not stop him. She lay morosely by the lake, her eyes fixed on him as he worked to poke a hole in the ice. Eventually he succeeded. Of course the hole ended up big enough to let a Kenshin through as well as a fish, and shortly afterwards Kenshin found himself wet and shivering in Kaoru's claws as she looked at him in concern. "Y-Yeah I kn-know," he chattered ruefully at her. "W-Was p-pret-ty d-dumb ag-gain." His happiness had not vanished, though, especially when he spread his arms to let her dry him.
He was still kind of cold. Frowning, Kenshin touched his clothes and found them still slightly damp, stiff with the frost that was threatening to form. "Could you try again?" he called up. He frowned again at her sluggish response. She was breathing a little too deeply and noisily, and her eyes looked unfocused. "Kaoru-dono? Are you all right?"
She did not answer, but merely dipped her head to breathe on him until he was completely dry. Then she lay down and closed her eyes.
"Kaoru-dono?" he said anxiously, putting his hands on the side of her face. "Kao-" His voice broke off when the thought finally hit him that dragons were very rarely seen in the winter. "Kaoru-dono!"
"Go away," she gestured sluggishly, her eyes still closed.
Kenshin's eyes narrowed, and he gritted his teeth. "No. Get up, Kaoru-dono."
She physically pushed him away, but seemed too tired to retract her foreleg when she had done so.
"Kaoru-dono, get UP!" He marched back and kicked her. Her eyelids fluttered a little, but she did not otherwise respond. So he found a more sensitive spot where her head joined her neck and the scales were softer, and he kicked her again. She grunted in annoyance and batted at him as if he was a pesky insect. "Get up. Get up, Kaoru-dono. Get up now." He kept kicking until she finally opened her eyes and raised her head, glaring in annoyance. "Get up and go back to the cave. I will make a fire."
"Horrible little redhead."
Very reluctantly, she dragged herself back to her feet and trudged to the cave at a pace even he was able to keep up with. When she paused or slowed down too much, he whacked at her toes with his sheathed sword close to where the claws emerged from the flesh, so that she charged ahead a pace or two, grumbling nastily at him. It seemed like ages before he was finally able to urge her back home, where he made sure she got right into her "bedroom" and curled up in her nest.
He went up to her face and looked at her anxiously. She cracked her eyes open and gazed at him. "Haaaa," she finally murmured, too tired to make sign language.
"Yes...yes, you're all right?"
"Haaa," she agreed in a rumbling whisper. Then, licking her scaly lips, she brought her forelegs up and slowly made the sign for "sleep."
"All right," he agreed warily. "But this isn't like with humans, where they fall asleep and die of cold?"
"Dragon," she said tiredly. "No human."
He leaned forward, looking hard into her eyes. "Kaoru-dono, are you really a dragon?"
She growled, all her attention suddenly awake and fixed angrily on him.
He held her gaze steadily, his eyes narrowed. "You always get so angry when I touch your past."
He had to puzzle through "Kenshin," "kill," and "don't talk." Probably something like, "I never bug you about your past, do I?"
"At least I told you my past," he said meaningfully.
"Go away. Tired," she said stubbornly, and shut her eyes again. Kenshin shook his head and gave up for the moment.
He had grown used to the dragon taking care of all his heating needs, so it seemed strange now to have to find a suitable flint and spark a fire himself. He started with her nest, igniting the straw so that eventually she was lying in a bed of flames. It seemed to revive her a little; she uncurled slightly and half-opened her eyes to offer him a faint smile.
Satisfied that she was more comfortable, he hurried outside again to gather as much dry wood as he could carry. After several trips he ended up with enough for a bonfire, which was already merrily blazing before he realized that he had virtually sealed himself inside the cave. The heat emanating from Kaoru's "bedroom" was far too strong to allow him to pass unless he was desperate, which he was not quite. For a minute he was worried that he had overdone it, that perhaps it was possible for a dragon to be confronted with too much fire. Yet his fears were abated when he saw Kaoru raise her head to grin at him over the flames before settling down again, looking more cozy than he had seen her since the weather had turned.
With a little sigh of relief, Kenshin now turned to the only direction he could go from here - farther into the cave. He had never ventured very far back there before, mostly because he had seen that it upset Kaoru when he tried. Now, however, he walked purposefully into the dark, holding a burning brand he had taken from the edge of the fire.
It had been long enough. He knew Kaoru very well now, and it was obvious that she trusted him almost as much as he did her. Only one thing she still held back from him, and that was an acceptance of his love. It was obvious that she valued his friendship, and that she was happy with him, but the pain that still lurked in her eyes whenever he even hinted at the creature he knew her to truly be...
"Do you think I can't see?" he whispered sadly as he walked on. Her imprisoned spirit, sunk so deeply in bondage that she flinched away even from the hands that tried to free her. He had been waiting as patiently as he could for her to let him in, but he saw now that she never would until she was convinced that he truly desired to enter.
He did not know how long he walked or how many turns he made, but always there was only the one path, every other soon petering into a dead end. When he reached the back of the cave, he had to stop and stare a while before he could believe it, the things it contained so incongruous with their setting. The cave went no farther. In ended in a crudely furnished "room."
He circled it slowly, running his hand along the threadbare quilts with their faded colors; fingering the drooping toy dog with its stuffing coming out; watching the jewelry glimmering hopefully in the torchlight; coming to a startled stop when he saw the full-length mirror, its surface cracked. There was no sign of a small red-haired swordsman in it. Rather, a little fox looked up from licking its wounds and gazed at him with eyes as deep as the sky, filled with suffering and joy and longing. Kenshin raised a shaking hand toward the reflective glass, and the fox weakly raised a forepaw in exact imitation of his gesture.
Shuddering, Kenshin looked away and found his eyes caught by a tapestry hanging nearby. Two depictions of the same young woman were woven into it - sleek black hair, carefully arranged when she wore a pretty kimono and held a fan to cover her face; tied up in a ponytail when she wore hakama and held a wooden sword in challenge. The eyes of both were the same. He knew those eyes, woven in blue thread that had refused to fade with the rest.
"Kaoru-dono," he whispered, reaching up to touch her face, its expression arrogant and cold and utterly unfamiliar. At last he caught a glimpse of what it must be like for others, when they saw the hitokiri's scowl burning from his own face. 'I am not Hitokiri Battousai,' he thought, and a shiver went down his spine. 'Just as you are not what the protective mask claims you to be. Kaoru-dono...'
It was when he had picked up an elegant glass bottle half-full of blue liquid that he heard her coming. Kenshin smiled grimly, knowing what he needed to do, no matter how upset she would be or how she tried to stop him. He had not yet moved when he heard her round the last corner, when she saw him there in her roomful of secrets, when she opened her mouth in a roar of fear and outrage. Only then did he turn slowly to face her, idly playing with the potion in his hands, letting that cold smile rest on her.
"Interesting hoard you have here, Kaoru-dono."
To be continued...