I'm so sorry for taking so long to update! I kind of hit a wall with the writing. I promised myself I wouldn't make a boring chapter and I really tried. However I've discovered that, if you're writing an actual story, there has to be a boring transition chapter. It's like a law of the universe. So I apologize for the unappealing-ness of this chapter. Please bear with me, the next chapter will be better! :)
Still don't own Kenshin :( (Or Megumi, or Sano...) However I do own Miyaji Hanako!
Megumi woke up an hour before sunrise like she usually did. She sat up, stretched, and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She rose from her futon and headed to the supply closet. She did inventory—noticing again the low supply of alcohol—and left, heading for the kitchen to make her morning tea.
As she sipped she recalled the events of the last day and decided the first order of business was deciding what to call this man. She thought it would take a matter of seconds, but instead her mind was pulling a complete blank.
She finished her tea and went into her office to check over the papers. Payments, debts, and bills she needed to worry about were piled up around her ears but she couldn't focus. Giving up, she left—promising herself to do it later—and set about tidying the clinic. She went room to room, picking up extra supplies she'd left the night before, emptying the trash cans and anything else she saw fit to do.
As she was making the futon in the last room she heard a faint knock on the door. Knowing instinctively who it was, she slowly approached the door. She hadn't thought of a name for this man. It would be extremely irritating to continue calling him 'sir'. She thought about it as she approached the door. It wasn't like it was a hard decision. It didn't have to mean anything, or be symbolic in any way.
Why on earth was it so difficult then?
Too late now she thought as she opened the door.
He was standing there with an idiotic grin on his face. He had switched his brown gi out for a dark blue one and had shaved. His face was smooth and he smelled clean.
"Hello, Takani-sensai," he said happily.
"Hello," she said, studying him. "You seem to be in a good mood this morning."
He shrugged, grin still in place. "How can one not be happy on their first day of work? Especially when working for such an important and beautiful lady?" he said, his grin transforming into a smirk.
She rolled her eyes. "Flattery will get you nowhere," her mind scrambled for a moment, "Tamotsu-san."
He cocked his head to the side, crossed an arm, and placed the other under his chin as if he was thinking. "Tamotsu, huh? I guess I can go with that."
"Good, because I was going to call you it anyway," she turned on her heel and marched inside. She heard him following behind her and led him to the kitchen. She lowered herself to her knees in front of the table and signaled him to do the same. Once settled, she placed her hands elegantly in her lap.
"I think it would be prudent to go over some of your responsibilities before the day starts," she said, looking into his eyes. "That way you can't get all whiney when I make you do something you don't want to do."
He laughed. Megumi couldn't help but smile a little bit. When this man laughed, he laughed. He threw his head back and practically fell over with all his gusto. His laugh filled the room. It was low sounding and very obnoxious. However, instead of being annoying, it made her want to join in. He placed his hand on his side as if it were in pain and gasped for several seconds.
"You're very blunt, Takani-sensai," he said, wiping away a tear. "It's refreshing," his voice trailed off.
"I won't every lie to you," said Megumi, smirk in place and fox-ears coming out, "Especially if it's about your own shortcomings."
That sent Tamotsu into another bout of laughter.
When he'd quieted down Megumi said, "Here is what you're expected to do: do inventory, take out the trash, make the futons, check in on patients who stayed the night and write down their status, make a list of incoming patients and send them in when I'm ready for them. I also expect you to attempt to keep the place tidy throughout the day. I would also appreciate it if you could keep the lawn looking nice—pull out weeds et cetera—along with chopping wood. Winter is coming soon and I don't have the strength to do it myself, nor the money to hire someone," she paused before continuing. "I also need someone as a bodyguard. People attempt to rob me often and frankly, it's annoying. I take about two hours in the middle of every other day off and go to the market to resupply. You'll accompany me," she looked up at the ceiling and wondered if she'd forgotten anything.
"You lay it on thick, don't ya?" he asked, scratching his chin. "Do I not even get to take it easy my first day?"
"Not at all," Megumi said. She stood up and looked down at him. "You're the assistant of a doctor. There is no such thing as 'taking it easy' anymore."
He stood up too but now he was looking down on her. "Whatever you say, Takani-sensai," he said, grinning.
"Good," she said, leaving the kitchen and beckoning him to follow her.
She began giving Tamotsu a tour of the house. She showed him the rooms where patients spent the night, the surgery room, her office, the supply closet, and the room where she simply diagnosed her patients. Lastly, she came to her personal section of the house.
There was a door that she always kept shut and locked. It led to a hallway that connected her room and her bathroom.
She approached the door and placed her hand on it, looking back at Tamotsu. "This is my personal quarters. No patient is allowed here. You are not allowed here. This door will remain locked at all times and you'll immediately be fired if I catch you trespassing." She then gave him a brief run-through of his schedule for the day, explaining where everything was and what time to do his allotted tasks.
Finally, an hour after the sun rose, she was done and the first patient walked in.
As she strode over to the patient she made one last comment over her shoulder. "Let's see if you paid any attention today."
She moved toward the patient and placed her polite, professional smile on her face. "Hello, I'm Doctor Takani. If you'll come this way, please," she led her into a room and shut the door as the woman sat. "How may I help you?"
The patient was an older woman and obviously a farmwife. Her hair was a little messy and her kimono was a simple blue one. Her hands were calloused from the field work. She had a very stern look on her face and she had a faint earthy smell.
"You're the doctor?" she demanded, her voice raspy.
"Yes, I am," Megumi said politely.
She raised an aged eyebrow and looked her up and down. "You seem awfully young to be a doctor."
Megumi strained to keep her smile on her face. "I've been training for years to be a doctor, ma'am. I'm perfectly qualified. So what seems to be ailing you?"
Momentarily deterred from the topic of Megumi's age, the woman said, "It's not me actually. It's my husband."
Megumi frowned. "Is he here?"
"No," she stated.
There was an awkward pause while Megumi waited for an explanation. When it became obvious one wasn't coming, Megumi said, "It'll be difficult for me to diagnose him if he isn't here."
"Well he is a farmer," she said like it was obvious. "He has a farm to farm. I just came to tell you that he has been having fevers the past few nights and he's lost his appetite. He's also had this really dry sounding cough. Then last night, he was complaining about his joints."
Megumi was about to answer when the woman began to speak again. "Now I know you'll probably just say it's his age but you don't know my husband. He's very hardy. I can count on one hand how many times he's been sick in our marriage but when he does get sick, it's bad. I want to stop this sickness before it gets to that point."
Megumi thought about it for a moment. It seemed like it was just a simple allergy. Something in the air could cause the fevers and the coughs and, whether the woman liked it or not, the joint issues could be simply because he was getting up there in age. However, something twisted in her stomach. There was something other than that.
She excused herself from the room and walked quickly to the supply closet. As she was walking past the waiting room she glanced in. There were three patients there already. It looked like Tamotsu was talking with a little girl who came with her mother. She stopped walking and watched.
Tamotsu was squatted so he was eye-level with the child. He was smiling and said something that made the little girl give a shy smile back. The little girl said something to him and Tamotsu gave his full-body laugh. The mother laughed with him.
Megumi continued down to the supply closet with a pang in her heart. She ignored it. Working hours had begun and she didn't have time for emotions.
It's a good thing he's good with children.
She got what she needed from the supply closet and headed back to the room, not looking into the waiting room. When she came back into the room she held up the bottle to show the woman.
"This is medicine that will sooth your husband's throat. Have him take it in the morning, before he works, and at night, before he goes to bed," she said, handing it to her.
Her hard, wrinkled hands clasped the bottle. "This will make him feel better?" she questioned, unbelieving.
"That will help his symptoms. If you could bring him in so I could ask him a few questions and check on a few things it would be very helpful," she said.
"Very well. So how much do I owe you for the medicine," asked the woman gruffly.
"You may pay me whatever you can afford," said Megumi humbly.
The woman looked up and pondered that for a moment. "I'll give you a chicken," she seemed to say herself. With that, she marched out of the room.
Megumi's eyes widened and she scrambled to find a pencil and a piece of paper. She ran out of the room to catch the surprisingly fast woman.
"Ma'am, wait! I need your name!" called Megumi, just as she was about to leave the clinic.
She turned and said, "Miyaji Hanako." She snapped her head back forward and proceeded out of the clinic.
Megumi quickly wrote down the name. She sighed at how stubborn a woman Miyaji-san was and turned around to head back to the waiting room. As she walked, she pondered the possible reasons for the discomforts of Miyaji-san's husband.
"If you look any more lost in thought, Takani-sensai, you might run into a wall."
Megumi whipped around and saw Tamotsu behind her. He was grinning idiotically and had his head tilted to the side. "Very funny. I was just thinking about my last patient."
"Oh? Do you know what's wrong with her?"
"It's not her, it's her husband. It sounds like it's just a simple allergic reaction," she trailed off and looked down, frowning. If it was an allergic reaction then why was she getting this weird feeling?
"Then why do you seem confused?" he questioned.
She looked up and saw him frowning at her. "I've just got a weird feeling."
He leaned forward slightly. "If I've learned anything in my travels it's that you should always trust your gut." His brown eyes opened wide and it seemed like Megumi could read his very soul. Their warm color seemed to envelop her and she lost herself in their depth.
Her heart fluttered and her stomach tightened. Instincts. Her instincts were telling her this man was someone she would have to be careful around. He could heal just as easily as he could wound her heart.
Megumi blinked twice and hoped her cheeks weren't red.
This is ridiculous. I've known the man all of two days. Don't be an idiot, Megumi. She immediately calmed the butterflies that had been soaring in her stomach. She noticed Tamotsu had taken a deep breath and released it slowly.
"Never mind," she said, flipping her hair to hide her embarrassment. "I'll figure it out later. Who's next on the list?"
Tamotsu lifted up the piece of paper in his hand and read off a name.
"Send him in," she said over her shoulder as she walked toward the room she'd just occupied. If she threw herself into her work, she wouldn't have to think about the man who was a stranger. She wouldn't have to look into the eyes of a man who revealed so much in a glance.
She wouldn't have to be reminded of another pair of brown eyes that never seemed to be too far in the back of her mind.
A/N: Hope you at least semi-enjoyed it. Please stick around for chapter 3!