Summary: 50 stories about Kenshin and Kaoru, sometimes meandering to include the other Ruroken cast. A mix of canon and AU one-shots. Some crack can be expected. Read and Review!

Rating: T

Characters: Kaoru, Misao, Soujirou, Aoshi, Kamatari and Kenshin

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise here belongs to the one and only Watsuki Nobuhiro.

This drabble is set in the same universe as 'Hide' and 'Round One'. Kenshin is a high-schooler and Kaoru is a sixth grader who is also his neighbour.

Friends Like These

Kaoru hopped from one foot to the other. She stood on the tips of her toes and craned her neck, trying to check if the last piece of chocolate brownie was still sitting peacefully on its tray. It was still there! She grinned. There were just three people in front of her in the lunch line. The first two she knew from her failed attempt at ballet five years ago. Kaoru smirked. They wouldn't be caught dead even looking at the brownie, let alone picking it up and eating it. As for the kid in front of her….it was Troy Mathers. And he would leave the brownie well alone, if he knew what was good for him.

Five minutes later, the scrumptious-looking, moist cakey piece of heaven was sitting on her plate and Troy Mathers was growling at her back. Kaoru hummed to herself as she slid onto a bench. Pulling her earphones out of her pocket, she plugged them into her ears and opened her copy of Kundera.

Just as she was climbing the stairway to heaven, somebody yanked the earphones out of her ears and plonked down in the bench across her.

"Ow!" Kaoru glared at the girl sitting there. "Misao! What is wrong with you?"

"Never mind!" Misao waved her arms around like a madwoman. "I have been looking all over for you. I've been to the library, the football field, the gym, our homeroom and nobody has a clue where you are. And here you are! How can you sit and eat at a time like this?" The words were tumbling out of Misao's mouth as water from a broken fire hydrant. "Where have you been?"

Kaoru blinked, somewhat cowed down by the fireworks. "I've been right here, Misao. It is lunch hour. Where else would I be?" She raised a hand in confusion.

Misao drew a deep breath. She held her hands out in front of her. "Okay. You don't know what happened, so I have decided to let it go…this once."

Kaoru rolled her eyes. Misao was always so melodramatic. "How very kind of you." She twirled her fork in the spaghetti and neatly pulled the forkful of pasta into her mouth.

Misao leaned forward. "You are never going to guess what happened today." She tucked her hand against her cheek and leaned on the table. "Oh, it was wonderful! It was….fate."

Kaoru's eyebrow twitched. Misao uttering the words 'wonderful' and 'fate' together in the same sentence could only mean one thing. Shinomori Aoshi. Whenever she got that faraway, dreamy look in her eyes, it had something to do with him. She narrowed her eyes and poked the vegetables on her plate malevolently.

She looked up at the soft thud of a book bag beside her. Soujirou brushed his bangs out of his eyes and smiled at her; as he too settled down to eat lunch. Kaoru smiled back amiably. Soujirou was a decent sort; he was the only specimen of the sixth grade male species she hadn't had a desire to throttle…yet. He glanced up at Misao and blinked.

"Hi Misao." He spoke in his soft, delicate tones.

Misao kept staring off into space. Kaoru rolled her eyes. "Don't bother Soujirou. She can't hear you right now."

Soujirou cocked his head towards her, "Why? What's wrong with her?"

Kaoru pushed the healthy looking broccoli pieces to one side of her plate. "She's in dreamland. Give it time. I'd say we have about three minutes worth of Misao playing girlfriend-boyfriend with Aoshi in her sparkly pink princess castle."

Soujirou almost choked. Kaoru glanced at him absently before slamming a fist on his back. He coughed and drank some water before nodding at her in acknowledgement. With watery eyes, he looked at Kaoru, "Who…who is Aoshi?"

Kaoru shrugged. "Aoshi…is Aoshi." She watched a look of consternation whip past Soujirou's face and felt her jaw drop in astonishment and understanding. She whipped her eyes back to her plate and slapped herself silly inside her head. Of course! How could she be so mind-bogglingly stupid. Soujirou had a thing for Misao. Hell he'd had a thing for Misao since kindergarten, when Misao and her had been playing ninjas and they'd wanted a third player to rescue. Soujirou had agreed to become the dashing-rogue-in-sudden and inexplicable-distress and the rest, as they say was history.

Kaoru nibbled on her lip and kept staring at her plate. Soujirou frowned. "Kaoru? I'm asking you a question." He sounded serious. Hoo boy. Kaoru sighed. Oh, she hated serious Soujirou. Serious Soujirou was like getting stuck with Enishi for a lab partner in Chemistry. Creepy.

So she decided to hedge. "Eh…well….Aoshi…hmm…let's see now…Aoshi is…"

"He's beautiful…" Misao murmured in a dreamy, breathy voice, eyes still glazed over like she was on a sugar high.

Kaoru groaned and ran her palm over her face. "Oh, for the love of clams Misao! Get a hold of yourself." She sneaked a glance to Soujirou, who sat straight as a poker, eating his food quickly in very precise, very tiny bite-size portions. His eyes were on his plate and she suddenly had the feeling that he was trying very hard not to simply stand up and leave.

"What?" Misao sat up suddenly, blinked at the both of them. Her eyes lit up just as quickly though and she launched into a monologue. "Oh Kaoru! You won't believe what happened to me on the way to school! I was late right? So I thought I'd take the shortcut, you know the rickety old bridge across the river? Yeah, well it leads to a meadow and then there's a path that goes straight to the back of the school." Misao tossed her braid over her shoulder. "So I'm cycling as fast as I can, and I'm almost at the rickety old gate at the back of school when this mangy old cat jumps up at me out of nowhere, and it threw my balance and I fell, and my bike landed on me!"

Soujirou twitched. He paused in eating and looked at Misao, "Were you hurt, Misao?"

Misao waved a hand at him. "Nope. But that's not important." She turned to Kaoru. "So I'm lying there, thinking how crappy the morning is turning out to be and suddenly there's these muscular arms lifting the bike off me, and holding a hand out to me. It was him! Oh Kaoru, the minute I saw his eyes, I just…I just…" Misao sighed heavily and fell silent, staring off into space again.

Kaoru blinked. Her eyebrows hurt with the strain of being pushed into her hairline since the elusive 'him' of Misao's narrative had shown up. She narrowed her eyes.

"Then, what?"

"Nothing. He helped me up; made sure I was okay and walked me to school."

"Oh."

"He's amazing. I mean, it was so sweet of him to do that."

"Hmmm I guess." Kaoru replied non-commitally. She sneaked a glance at Soujirou, who was discreetly rolling his eyes as he ate his rice.

"And that's not all!"

"There's more?" Soujirou grunted in disgust, but Misao ignored him. She was too busy rifling through her backpack. Kaoru leaned forward with curiosity. Crying out in delight, Misao pulled a slightly battered notebook out. Kaoru glanced at the notebook, then at Misao, who brandished the stationery like it was treasure. It was official. If she had any doubts before this, now she was certain: Misao was nuts.

"Eh…Misao, it's a notebook."

"Not just any old notebook. It's Aoshi's math notebook! Isn't this wonderful!" Misao squealed with delight, jumping about in her seat, making both her friends cringe and squirm painfully at the sight of their friend acting like a groupie.

"Yeah….great." Kaoru mumbled.

Misao put the notebook down. "So this is what we're going to do…I have to go give this back to Aoshi and you two are coming with me."

Soujirou snorted. "What for?"

"Well, you can't just leave me to do this by myself…I'll make a total mess of it! Come on. I need you guys to keep me sane while I do this. I don't want him to think I'm some sort of fan girl."

Soujirou and Kaoru exchanged a glance, then looked at her and raised their eyebrows. Together. Misao rolled her eyes. "I mean…sheesh, whatever. The thing is…he doesn't have to know that!"

Soujirou shouldered his bag and stood. "Much as I'd love to help you Misao…I have to study. Bye. Bye Kaoru." He strode off. Kaoru waved ineffectually at his back.

Misao huffed. "What crawled up his ass and died?" Kaoru groaned as her palm made contact with her face again. "So Kaoru…I have it all planned out."

Kaoru groaned and banged her head against the table.

X

"Do you see him? Is he alone?" Kaoru rolled her eyes and slipped back beside Misao, who stood craning her neck as far as she dared. They were standing outside the high-school parking lot. To their left was a basketball court and to the right, the exit leading out of the school to the main street.

Kaoru brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "Yes, I see him and no, he's not alone. He's with his moronic friends."

Misao scrunched up her nose. "How do you know they're moronic?"

Kaoru scoffed. "It's a figure of speech Misao. Don't take everything so literally." She dusted her jeans off. Not that she wanted to impress anybody but it would never do to go into enemy territory looking anything less than competent. "So, how are we doing this?"

Misao took a deep breath. "Okay. You wait here. I'll go."

"Okay…I thought you wanted somebody along to keep your leash tight." Kaoru smirked. "You know, just in case you jump him."

Misao glared at her. "Oh ha ha Kaoru. Very funny." Her fingers shook as she took the notebook out. "You are forgetting that you're only here to provide muscle and drive the getaway car."

"Excuse me? I'm the muscle?"

Misao shrugged. "You're the only girl I know who has the balls to take on a guy more than two times her size."

Kaoru blushed in pleasure. "Really?"

Misao glanced at her and good-naturedly bumped her shoulder with hers. "Of course. You're tough Kaoru." She grinned at her. "Okay, here I go. Wish me luck."

"Good luck."

Misao took a deep breath and walked out into the parking lot. Kaoru watched as she walked purposefully past two cars and just as purposefully, dropped the notebook and scrambled back to the wall after picking it up. Kaoru gawked as Misao rushed madly back into their little hiding spot. She looked across the parking lot, where Aoshi leaned against a car with his friends. They had not noticed anything.

"Misao!" She hissed. "What are you doing?"

Misao panted. "I can't do it!"

"What?" Kaoru felt like tearing her hair out by the roots. "Misao, we've been standing here for half an hour, waiting for the parking lot to clear. He's going to leave any minute now."

"I know." Misao answered with a whine. "But I just can't do it, Kaoru. It's too embarrassing."

Kaoru folded her arms across her chest. "Get up Misao." She spoke in her no-nonsense voice. Grabbing Misao by the arm, she pulled her to her feet and began to march her out into the parking lot. Misao gasped in horror and dragged her feet in the opposite direction.

"Kaoru! What are you doing?" She struggled but Kaoru held firm and kept pushing her towards the group of boys. "No…Kaoru...no, please don't…Kaoru I mean it. Kaoru…." Misao begged desperately. Kaoru ignored her.

The boys finally noticed them. It was pretty hard to ignore the commotion they were making. One of the boys leaned forward, trying to get a good look at the girls.

Kamatari let out a small laugh. "Hey Kenshin, isn't that kid your high-voltage neighbour?"

Kenshin dumped his bag in the backseat of Aoshi's car and looked out. "It is." He wondered what she was doing out here though.

Kaoru stopped in front of them and pulled Misao out from where she was hiding behind her. Kenshin blinked in confusion. Misao bit her lip sheepishly. Kamatari grinned and Aoshi remained stoically silent. He remembered the smaller girl from this morning.

Kaoru nudged Misao and jerked her chin towards the older boys. Misao took a deep breath and turned to them, plastering on a sparkling smile for effect.

"Hi!" She waved.

No response. The wind blew a plastic bag across the parking lot.

Finally, Kamatari took some pity on the pair in front of him and held his hand up. "Hey." He looked at Kaoru. "What's up Tiger?" She gaped at him. He smirked back, obviously enjoying her reaction. Misao took that moment to dive in.

She stepped up to Aoshi and held the notebook out like a live grenade. "Here'."

Aoshi narrowed his eyes. "What?"

Kamatari leaned towards him. "I think she mentioned its your notebook and you left it with her this morning." Aoshi glowered at him. Kamatari ignored him and winked at Misao.

Aoshi took the notebook. "Thanks."

Kenshin beamed at Misao. "So nice of you to bring it back. He's been worried about it all day, haven't you Aoshi?"

Kaoru nudged Misao again. Misao started. "Err…well I just wanted to thank you for helping me this morning. I really appreciated it. Thank you." She bowed quickly.

Aoshi shrugged. "It was no big deal. Don't worry about it." Misao shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Kaoru sneaked a glance at her. Behind her back, Misao held a small box of chocolates clutched in her fingers. She had brought it along as a token of appreciation but now it seemed she had lost her nerve once again. Of course, the fact that his friends were watching like they were starved for entertainment didn't help either. Kaoru groaned inwardly.

She made a great show about losing an earring and requested Kamatari and Kenshin to help her find it. "If you two help, I stand a better chance of finding it."

Misao's eyes widened. She mouthed a quick 'thank-you' and Kaoru conveniently led the other two boys away.

X

Ten minutes later, the three of them sat on the sidewalk. Kenshin ran his hands through his hair. "So, you think that's enough time we've wasted, Kaoru-chan?"

Kaoru looked back. Misao was waving her arms around and talking fifty miles a minute. Aoshi was leaning against his car, an infinitesimal smile on his face.

She grinned. "Yep, I think that's enough time."

X

Please comment. This one is based on a real incident involving a friend of mine when we were in 7th grade. She had this giant crush on this guy who was a junior at our school. Great memories. Hope you all enjoy!