A/N: last update for the year, see you all in 2006, for once i'm replying to reviews, i always read them and take them into consideration but like most readers suggested that replies just makes the chapter look longer and it doesn't help unless they're asking questions. so i'll reply to the signed reviews and answer any questions but i appreciates all the reviews.

The Mystic Firefly: time period, sorry i haven't thought about that too much, well hm... i cna't say meiji because why would there be sports cars, um, let's say the 20th or 21st centry and it was Iraq battle, and not exactly revolution, sorry for the lame planning i have. ;;

Jeez: well Tomoe fighting low and kaoru won't scoop that low so let's let our fav. redhead take his ex. girlfriend on. plus i like it when Kenshin is forced to fight in between his current girl and his ex girl friend he's had for years.

JMai: it's good to know that someone actually reads the author notes. and i'll reply to some reviews.

Blooded Wyngs: very sorry to say this, but saitou won't show again. ;; i actually wanted him in too but he just didn't fit. and i will make kenshin suffer, a lot, i'm just so evil. Sano's coming up, and later his role is crucial, tho some of you might kill me for it but o well.

Karmen : i'm glad you like their fights because there'll be a lot more.

oro kenshin: Yes eventually he'll give in to his "rurouni" side and confess but hm,... will Kaoru accept or not?

forever angel: i will try to get the misao and aoshi thing started, (who says i don't listen to my readers?) but it may not work out the way you wanted it. but i will try

anonymous but very intrested: i got your review, went back and explained what her glass plaque was, i'm glad there's someone to point out the things that would be intreseting to go deeper on.

Royal Blue Kitsune: Tomoe's going to frame her, very bad. by the way i read your "the sea my love" story, i was amazed at how you painted beauty with your words, truely impressed.

quick a/n: if i didn't reply to you, it's probably because you didn't ask question but i will say i love you and your reviewing and i hope they keep on coming. i replied to chapter 7 reviews.

Chapter Eight:
Tomoe's Hatred II

All of us returned to the office, talking animatedly, our stomachs full.

"Hey Kaoru," yelled Tsubame. "There's a gift on your table!"

I turned towards her, from where I was standing. "What?"

"Yup. Here it is," answered Misao, lifting it up for me to see. It was wrapped in light pink paper, with a white ribbon fastened on the front. I made my way over to them and fingered the ribbon. There was no card or any note that was attached to the gift.

"Oooooooooh, Kaoru's got a secret admirer!" sang Yahiko.

"Yahiko-CHAN" I warned him, "It might just be a belated birthday gift from someone!" I said pulling out a bokken knocking Yahiko's head lightly.

"Belated birthday gift? When was your birthday?" asked Misao, widening her eyes.

"Oh…um…yesterday."

"YESTERDAY?" everyone chorused.

I looked up at them with wide eyes. "Why the sudden excitement?"

"Why didn't you mention anything?" asked Tsubame.

"Um, I felt there wasn't a need to…you know…tell everyone," I answered, earning a smack on the back of my head by Yahiko.

Just then, Tomoe entered the office and everyone scurried back to his or her places to resume their work. I gave her a small smile, only to have her glare at me. I sat down in my seat and pondered whether I should open the present or not. Before I could make up my mind, Tomoe came up to my desk and slammed a whole stack of files onto the table. She was still mad with both Kaoru and Kenshin.

'Kenshin's mad at me, and now all chummy with Kaoru, god I can't stand this girl. I just don't get it. I wonder if Kenshin broke my glass plaque on purpose, he gave it to me when he asked me out, it was like the symbol of our love. That liar, shattering our love and promises like that. This girl will never win me, and as long as she is here, she's a danger for me, and I will personally make her suffer.' Thoughts wheeled around through her head as she slammed down a stack of papers.

"I want you to retype all these documents. They have to be on my desk by 8 o'clock sharp tomorrow morning."

My jaw dropped open. She has got to be kidding me. There are about six files and thousands of papers altogether! "Ms. Yukishiro, why can't I just photocopy them? It'll save more time."

"When I tell you to retype them, you just do as I say. No questions asked, oh, also, I want you to fix the spelling errors," she answered, her voice steely.

I heaved a sigh. After she had entered her own room, a scrunched up paper ball landed on my table. I carefully opened the note and read what was inscribed on it.

It's not safe to talk. She'll probably bite our heads off if she hears any noise. In fact, I have a feeling she's monitoring us through those blinds that covers the glass panels of her office. Anyway, do you need any help in typing all those documents? We don't really have much to do so don't hesitate to ask us for help.
-Yahiko and Tsubame.

I glanced over at them and gave them a grateful smile. Then, with my pen, I scrawled my response just below their message.

Thanks for offering. I know you all mean well but I can't possibly accept it. I know for a fact that you guys are laden with work. Don't even try to lie to me. She made you guys create another 5 advertisements, this time with a catchy song. So don't worry about me. I'll manage it on my own. Besides, she gave me a dateline for tomorrow. I can always bring it home with me and type them out. Thanks loads though. I really appreciate it.
-Kaoru.

Making sure that Tomoe wasn't peeking through the blinds, I launched the scrunched paper ball back towards Yahiko's desk. Then, heaving an extra huge sigh, I picked up the topmost file, opened it and began to type.

After typing continuously for two and a half hours straight without any rest, my vision became blurry and I was beginning to feel a crick in the back of my neck. I stretched my arms and stood up, carrying my now empty mug with me and headed towards the coffee machine.

As I walk past Yahiko's desk, he asks me, "Alright there, Kaoru?"

I gave him a smile and nodded my head, indicating that I was doing pretty well. After refilling my mug with coffee, I went back to my desk and sat down, staring at my computer screen. Taking a sip of coffee, I decided to take a little break. To be honest, I was frustrated. Who wouldn't be? After typing for so long, I realized that I have not even completed a quarter of the first file.

Just then, I caught a glimpse of the present hidden under a pile of papers. I pulled the present out from under them and slowly, I began to pull off the ribbons and unwrap it. A thrill of exhilaration coursed through me as I lifted the lid of the box and peered inside it. I gave a small gasp at what I saw. Inside the box lay a beautiful cream colored scarf, with a discreet Hermès signature at one corner. I lifted the scarf and a small note fluttered out.

Thanks.

There was no doubt about it. It was from Kenshin. He was the only one I knew who left one word notes. I remember receiving something similar from him back in high school. I let the scarf run through my fingers. The material felt so soft and silky against my skin. It definitely must have cost him a bundle.

Suddenly, I remember all the hurtful things I said to his face this morning. How he stood up to Tomoe and how he helped me get my job back. Oh my God. I feel like a grade-A heel.

You deserve it, a small voice in the back of my head piped up. After all, you did use your favorite scarf to bandage his wound. Maybe this is his way of replacing your scarf. The one that he ruined.

I ignored the little voice. I still felt guilty about what I did earlier. Maybe it really just slipped his mind. I mean, he's always really busy and everything. He should be. He's the President of a whole corporation. I bit my lip and thought for while. Coming to a decision, I placed the scarf back into the box, got up from my seat and headed towards the elevator, the box tucked safely under my arm.

I had made up my mind.

The only noble thing to do was to go and apologize to him.

I made my way towards Yumi, who was Kenshin's secretary.

"May I help you, Ms. Kamiya?" she asked, giving me a smile.

"Yeah. I would like to see Mr. Himura. Is he in?"

"Hold on a moment, alright? I'll just make a call to him and ask whether he's free."

As I waited, I rehearsed what I was going to say to him, over and over again in my head, all the while twisting my fingers. To say I was nervous was just putting it mildly.

"You may enter now," says Yumi.

"Thanks." I straightened my clothes and took a deep breath, making my way through the familiar corridors that led to his room. I knocked softly on his door and when I heard a distinct, "Come in," I crossed my fingers behind my back for luck and hoped for the best before entering.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Himura," I said, bowing slightly. When I raised my head to look at him, I was surprised to see that he was wearing silver rimless spectacles. Funny. He never wore spectacles back in high school, but I suppose people change. Somehow, those spectacles only helped to accentuate his chiseled features more, making him look…good. I shook my head slightly to clear my thoughts. What am I doing? I'm here to apologize to him, for God's sake, not dwell on his looks. (I know you probably can't imagine Kenshin with glasses-another reason I wanted to make him Enishi- but bear with me)

"Is there something you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked, his voice grave and businesslike.

I went up to the front of his desk and pushed the box towards him. He raised his eyes up to me questioningly. "I'm sorry, but I can't accept this. Thank you though," I say, as sincerely as I could.

He got up from his seat and propped his hands on the table, looking at me straight in the eye. "Why?"

"Oh, and I'm sorry about what I said to you this morning. I really shouldn't have accused you of all those things," I continued, ignoring his question.

"You still haven't answered my question."

I shifted my gaze away from him. Then, in a small voice, I said, "I don't deserve it."

He looked at me, with an amused smile. "And why don't you deserve it?"

I looked at him with a strange expression. "After all that I have said and done to you while I was working here, you feel I deserve it?"

He raised an eyebrow and I took it as a sign to continue.

"I mean, on my first day here I just barged into your room and yelled at you, and just this morning…" I trailed off, wincing slightly.

"But you also helped to clean my wound yesterday night, and your scarf was ruined in the process. Just treat this as a replacement for your other scarf."

"Um, there's no need for that. That scarf wasn't expensive or anything."

"Then treat it as a belated birthday gift."

My head snapped up at those words. How did he know? I didn't mention anything about it to him.

"Don't look so surprised. I saw the message in your cell phone," he said.

Oh, yeah. Now I remember walking in on him when he was looking through my phone. Mou! I mentally smacked myself. What was I thinking?

"But…this scarf is too expensive. I really can't accept it."

"Tell you what, why don't you do me a favor by accompanying me to the dinner hosted by the Kiyosato Corporations next week, and we'll call it even, alright?"

I thought about this for a while. "Alright," I finally answered.

"Guys! Brother-dear! I'm home!" I yelled, heaving all the files onto a couch nearby. I slumped down next to all the files and grabbed a pillow, hugging it to my chest. Footsteps were heard as all three of them ran down the stairs.

"Tired?" asked Aoshi, sitting down next to me. I nodded my head in response, closed my eyes and laid my head on his shoulder for a while.

"Wow…that's a lot of documents. Why'd you bring them home anyway?" asked Danny, leafing through one of them.

I raised my head and looked at all three of them. "I have to retype every single one of them by 8 o'clock sharp tomorrow morning!" I wailed.

"What? Why can't you just photocopy it?" asked Akira, reaching for one of the files.

"Mou! I know, that's what I told her! But she insisted that I type it. So I thought I would photocopy the whole thing behind her back, but then I realized that there are tons of typing mistakes in there. If I were to do it, she'd know for sure."

"Tomoe?" asked Soujiro, raising an eyebrow.

I groaned and nodded my head. "Anyway, I'd better start typing again. I'll be lucky if I could even sleep tonight," I said, standing up and sweeping the files up into my arms.

"Hold on," says Aoshi, "I could help you type some of them. I've got nothing to do."

"Yeah. Count us in," said Akira, pointing to both him and Soujiro.

I looked at them skeptically. "Are you guys sure?"

When they all nodded their heads furiously, I dropped all the files again and gave each of them a hug. "You guys are the greatest."

"Oh, you didn't have to tell us that. We knew it a long time ago," said Soujiro, grinning at me.

"Alright, let's get to work!" yelled Aoshi.

While Soujiro and Akira ran upstairs to fetch all our laptops, Aoshi cleared the flower arrangements from the dining table while I rummaged through the kitchen for drinks and all sorts of junk food that we would probably need to keep us going through the night. When we were sure we had everything we needed, we began typing away. We've practically set up a mini office in the dining room, the silence filled with the tapping of keyboards and random conversations.

"Oh yeah, Aoshi-sama, are you invited to the dinner party held by the Kyosato Corporations next week?" I asked.

"Yup," he answered, taking a sip of cola. "Why? Wanna come with me?"

"Um…I'm already going. Kenshin asked me to accompany him," I say, blushing furiously.

Everyone stopped typing and looked at me.

"Kenshin asked you to go with him?" said Soujiro, astounded.

"Well, there was a reason actually." I told them how I helped him to clean his wound, about him giving me the scarf then about his invitation.

"If he was the guy we saw at the Japanese restaurant the other day, I have to say, he doesn't look bad at all," says Akira, giving me a wink.

"Aki-san!" I yelled, throwing a popcorn at him, as everyone laughed.

"Anyway, Aoshi-sama, I need a favor from you."

"Hmmm, I knew this was coming. What is it?" he asked, ruffling my hair.

"I need you to pretend we're not brothers and sisters."

"Why?" he asked, his eyes wide open.

"You see, Kenshin doesn't know that I'm the sister of the President of Kasshin Ryu Corporations yet. And…" I trailed off.

He looked at me for a moment. Then, he smiled at me. "Alright. I'll do that. But what are you going to do about the others? Most of dad's friends are bound to be there and they'll recognize you almost immediately."

"We'll just have to think of something," I answered, resuming my typing. 'for now I just have to worried about not being fired.

Three hours later.

"Aoshi-sama, Kaoru-dono there is someone at the door, they ask to see Kamiya-san. I don't know who it is." Tae-san called up to us.

We looked up from our laptops, who could it be we asked each other. Aoshi got up first then gave me a hand as I was numb from sitting so long. Both of us walked down stairs to see Misao standing out there in the rain under an umbrella.

I quickly ran to the door and unlocked it, inviting her in. "Misao! What are you doing? Are you cold?"

She didn't reply but took a look around, "Wow, you have a large house. And no I'm fine. I heard about what Tomoe made you do and I came over to help you type."

"Are you sure? There's a lot to type." I asked.

"I'm fine, let's get started."

"ah hem." Aoshi on the side of the stairs noted.

"O, right, Misao, this is my brother Aoshi. Aoshi this is my friend from work, the ever happy and cheerful Misao."

"How do you do?" Misao said extending her hand towards Aoshi.

"… Fine… Thank you." Aoshi slowly muttered. This is funny, I've never seen Aoshi stumble on words.

The three of us went up to the second floor living room. I introduced her to everyone and soon the five of us started to type away.

(o man, that misao entry really didn't fit, I'm sorry, just some of you wanted to include misao and Aoshi thing, that the last time I insert Misao randomly in a small gap, sorry readers)

I ran as fast as I could into the building, my hair in a wild disarray behind me and my arms loaded with files. I sprinted across the marble floor and put out one free hand to stop the elevator doors from closing. I bowed to whoever was inside and murmured an apology, then pressed the button for the 26th floor. I leaned against the walls of the elevator and closed my eyes, trying to catch my breath.

The three of us had stayed up almost all night trying to finish typing all the documents, and neither of us could get a shut eye until about 4.30 in the morning. Too tired to go back up to our rooms, we had dragged ourselves to the living room and slept on the couches there. Tae-san had woken us up at 7.15, telling us to go back to our rooms to sleep, Misao is probably still in my room. Not really knowing how I actually did it, I had managed to get myself ready in 10 minutes and had driven at about 120 mph just to get here before 8 o'clock.

The moment the elevator doors pinged open at my floor, I made a beeline for Tomoe's office, not bothering to knock. The only thing on my mind was that I had to get those files to her on time.

"Ms. Yukishiro," I said, heaving all the files on her desk, "here are the documents that you wanted."

When I looked up, my jaw dropped open when I saw Kenshin standing there, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a file, leaning against the cupboard looking at me, one eyebrow raised. No sign of Tomoe anywhere. I mentally kicked myself. Why is it that every time I make a fool of myself, he's always there to witness it?

"Mou! I'm sorry, Mr. Himura," I said, bowing slightly, "I didn't know you were in here."

"It's alright," he answered, a strange expression on his face. "Were you in a rush this morning?"

I looked up at him in surprise. "Yeah. How did you know?"

Slowly, he walks towards me, until he's standing just in front of me. He lifts his hand and rakes his fingers through my messy hair in a bid to straighten them. I froze at his gesture, like a rabbit caught in a pair of headlights.

My mind was in a jumble and I was unable to form a coherent thought. I look up and met his gaze, and feel a little jolt inside me. I can't tear my eyes away from his, it's just that his eyes, they're different today. A swirl of purple and amber, it hooked onto my own blue eyes. I can't even move my body. I'm completely transfixed. His fingers had stopped raking through my hair a while ago and he was now leaning towards me, very slowly.

Just then, the doorknob rattled and we both snapped back into impassive expressions and move slightly away from each other. The doors open and my stomach gives a lurch.

Tomoe's beady eyes swept across the room, stopping first to look at Kenshin, then at me.

"What were you guys doing in here?" she asked, staring straight at me, her eyes blazing.

I raised my chin defiantly. "We weren't doing anything. When I came in to hand over the documents that you asked me to type yesterday, he was already in here."

She assessed me from head to toe, a disgusted curl forming on her lips.

"If there isn't anything else, may I please leave now?" I asked, in a clipped voice.

She dismissed me with a swish of her hand and without looking at Kenshin, I turned on my heel and let myself out of her room.

I went back to my desk and put my head in my hands, a little confused. What exactly happened back there? Although I had never dated anyone before, no thanks to Soujiro, whom most people often mistook as my boyfriend, I was certain that there was some sort of connection between the both of us just now. It was as though an unknown force was drawing me towards him. I banged my head on the table. Oh my God. If Tomoe had not burst in on us when she did…I shuddered to think of what might have happened.

"Himura Kenshin," sneered Tomoe, folding her arms across her chest, "what were you guys really doing in here? And don't give me that crap about not doing anything."

Kenshin looked over at her coldly. "My affairs are none of your business," he said, turning away. "By the way, you address me as Mr. Himura when we are at the office."

After he had practically slammed the door in her face, she walked over to her seat and sat down in a huff. She just didn't get it. What did Kaoru have that she didn't? Why was Kenshin so infatuated with her?

As she thought about all these, her fists clenched in anger and her eyes narrowed to slits.

Well, if I can't have Kenshin, neither can she.

Kenshin closed the door to his office and made his way towards the wheeled cart holding a tray of heavy crystal decanters filled with liquor. Although it was only 8.30 in the morning, he poured himself a finger's worth of vodka and went to sit at his desk after draining the glass in one gulp.

He couldn't focus his mind on business and that's what was most troubling. Kenshin had long felt that one of his greatest assets was his ability to concentrate on a single problem for endless hours, turning the matter this way and that to look at it from every conceivable angle. But now, he was neglecting his duty shamefully, a thing that rankled a man as hidebound as himself.

He finally allowed himself ten minutes to think about Kaoru, and mentally relived the encounter he had with her.

'Why did Tomoe have to come in at that time and spoil everything? Does Kaoru feel the same way that I do about her?'

He exhaled and ran his fingers through his own hair. The ten minutes came and went in the blink of an eye. Ten minutes just wasn't nearly enough to let his mind do justice to sort out all his thoughts and feelings, so he allotted an unprecedented twenty minutes.

At the end of thirty minutes, Kenshin decided it was time to banish all thoughts of Kaoru from his mind, and concentrate for a while on all the business matters that were continually pressing in upon him. With all that on his mind, it should have been child's play for him to forget all about her. The problem was, no matter how many times he turned his thoughts toward the arcane business practices of the international banking community, his focus faded and Kenshin, once again, rose to the forefront of his consciousness, demanding his total awareness.

"I've got to concentrate," he whispered to himself, rubbing his temples lightly, staring at the cover page of a contract on his desk.

"Alright everyone, listen up!" yelled Tomoe, clapping her hands to try to get our attention. I hurriedly typed the last few words of my article, then looked up at her. "Mr. Himura has called for a meeting with all of us at 10 o'clock sharp later in the conference room. Please do not be late. Oh, and Kaoru," she says, giving me a sickeningly sweet smile. "You wouldn't mind helping to serve the teas and coffees during the meeting, right?"

"Of course not, Ms. Yukishiro," I reply, evenly.

The moment she turned her back on us, I slumped back down in my seat and groaned. Ever since that incident with Kenshin in her room, I had tried my best to avoid him at all costs. And I've been doing pretty well, if I might say so myself. Parking my car a few blocks away from the building, burying my head in newspapers, ducking behind potted plants every time I spotted him walking in my direction…you know the works. A thought popped into my mind just then, causing me to frown slightly. Three more days till the dinner. The guys seemed pretty hyped up about the whole thing. In fact, I'm supposed to go shopping with them later in the day to pick out my dress and shoes, assuming that I could get off from work early. Weird, huh? I never knew guys liked shopping either.
I blew the hair out of my face, stood up and headed over to the coffee machine to refill my mug.

Today is going to be a long, long day.

Oh my God. I can't deal with this. I can't deal with any of this! As I go round the table pouring out coffee and tea for the members of the marketing department, I look calm on the outside, smiling at everyone and even chatting pleasantly. But inside, I'm all unsettled and confused. I fix my attention firmly on the tea trolley, then went up to Kenshin.

"Would you like coffee or tea?" I ask, as blandly as I could.

"Coffee."

"How many cubes of sugar?"

"One."

I poured him a cup of steaming hot coffee, dropped a cube of sugar into it and stirred it a little. I could feel him looking at me from the corners of his eyes. Carefully avoiding his gaze, I placed the cup on a saucer and put it in front of him.

"We need more lateral thinking, people," Tomoe is saying. "The fizzy drinks are simply not performing as it should. Yahiko, you have the latest research statistics?"

Yahiko stands up and I feel a flip of apprehension on his behalf. Poor guy. I can tell he's really nervous from the way he keeps fiddling with his pen.

"That's right."

He picks up a clipboard and clears his throat. Then, he presses his remote control and a graph appears on the screen behind him, and we all stare at it obediently, while he began explaining. I stifled a yawn after a few minutes. Oh God. I know it's Yahiko, the guy who've helped me through hard times and who has always been a really great friend. But honestly, couldn't he make this whole thing sound a little bit more interesting?

I glanced around the table at everyone else to see how they were taking it. Omasu had jotted down brief notes on her notepad, both Misao and Megumi were paying rapt attention to whatever Yahiko was saying, and even Tomoe's gaze was fixed on the graph, her eyebrows furrowed in deep concentration.

Wait…am I the only one who finds this whole thing boring?

I shifted my gaze over to Kenshin and he raised his eyebrows at me. Immediately I shifted my gaze back to Yahiko, trying as hard as I could to concentrate and mentally kicking myself.

"Alright, let's all take a break," says Kenshin, closing his file.

At his words, everybody began to stand up and stretch themselves. I rubbed my face a few times, trying to get rid of my drowsiness. Throughout the whole meeting, I had only narrowly escaped from falling asleep. Every time I so much as closed my eyes, Yahiko would pinch me really, really hard on the arm. Crazy wombat. Remind me never to sit next to him again.

"Kaoru! Get up and serve the teas and coffees," snapped Tomoe.

I threw her an irritated look, then got up and headed towards the tea trolley. I went round the table refilling everyone's cups, occasionally making small talk.

"Kaoru, I want a new cup of tea," says Tomoe.

I blew the hair out of my face, and rummaged around the tea trolley for new tea bags. I groaned, realizing that there were none.

"Ms. Yukishiro, would it be all right if you drank coffee instead? We've run out of new tea bags."

She shot me an icy glare. "If you've run out of tea bags, go and get new ones."

"But that means I have to go all the way back down to the Marketing Department and come back up again!" I whined.

"So? Do I look like I care?"

I shot her a glare, then turned on my heel and headed towards the Marketing Department.

I searched high and low for new tea bags in our mini kitchen, opening and closing drawers, but unfortunately, found none. I stood up and ran my hand through my hair, exhaling a frustrated sigh. Stupid ostrich. She just has to drink tea.

I walked around the perimeters of the kitchen, thinking where I could find more tea bags when I remembered that Tomoe kept lots of them in her room, on the coffee table. Well, if she wants some tea, she can use her own tea bags. I made my way towards her office, grabbed a few sachets of tea bags and went out of her room. As I passed by my desk, my stomach gave a little rumble. Hesitating a little, I took out the little tupperware filled with snacks that Aoshi had packed for me this morning, from my bag on the table.

As I waited for the elevators to arrive, the position of my bag, which I had found it in earlier, struck me as odd, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I dismissed the thought with a shrug, when the elevators arrived. I had more pressing matters on hand, such as filling my stomach.

In just a matter of minutes, the cookies that Aoshi had packed for me were gone. I had decided to share them with everyone else because if I was hungry I was sure that they were too. The meeting went on for another three hours, before it finally ended. There was a flurry of activity as everyone closed their files and stood up. I stretched myself, then proceeded to clear all the cups from the table.

"Leave them alone. Someone will be up here to clean it," says Kenshin, tightly.

I was only too happy to follow his orders. After all those tea and coffee pouring, my arms were pretty sore. Whoever knew the pots were so heavy? I followed everyone out of the conference room and headed towards the elevators. Once inside, Omasu pressed the button for the 26th floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Tomoe and Kenshin huddled together in one corner of the elevator, talking in low voices. No doubt talking about business.

When the elevator doors pinged open, we all stepped out, heading back to our own desks while Kenshin followed Tomoe into her room, still talking. I slumped down in my seat, and closed my eyes for a while before resuming the work that I had left earlier. Neither of us had opened our mouths to speak to each other because we didn't want to show the President that we weren't work oriented. The tapping of keyboards and the sound of files opening and closing filled the silence.

Suddenly, a loud curse was heard from Tomoe's room and the door flung open to reveal a very disheveled and a very angry Tomoe.

"Which one of you stole my watch?" she ground out.

We looked at her in bewilderment. Kenshin came up next to her to try to calm her down, but she ignored him.

"I said, which one of you stole my watch? My diamond watch! The one that I left on the table before going for that meeting. Who did it?" she asks, her voice rising to a shriek.
We all looked at one another and shook our heads.

"How could one of us have done it? We were all at the meeting with you," says Misao.

"Okay, if none of you wants to own up, we'll just have to search everybody," yelled Tomoe, moving towards Yahiko's desk which was closest to her.

She thoroughly searched through everyone's desk, bags, and coats. Finally, she reached my desk. The only desk that she had not checked.

"Why don't you just return it to me and we'll pretend none of this ever happened?"

I looked up at her defiantly. "Are you trying to accuse me of stealing?"

"Well, I've searched everyone else and found nothing. Who else could have done it?"

"I didn't do it," I say shortly.

"Very well. We'll see about that." She began rummaging through all my drawers, creating a big mess in the process. Finding nothing in there, she straightened herself and searched through my coat pockets, then my bag. As she dumped everything inside my bag onto the tabletop, her diamond watch fell out, amidst all the other items. I stared at it in shock. She lifted the watch up triumphantly, for everyone to see. Then she turned to face me.

"So, how do you explain this, Kamiya Kaoru?"

"I really didn't do it," I say, hotly.

"Oh really? Then what is it doing in your bag?" she asked, sneering.

I was at a loss for words. How did it get in there? I looked up at all my other colleagues, and I could see that they were pretty gob-smacked as well. Kenshin came over to stand next to Tomoe, his face grave and his eyes hard.

"Did you do it, Kaoru?" he asks, in a very cold voice.

My jaw dropped open in disbelief. "I didn't do it! How many times must I repeat that? I didn't do it!"

"Maybe it's just a little mix-up," says Misao, coming to my defense. I silently thanked her. "She couldn't have done it. She was with us the whole time. Right, Kaoru?"

I nodded my head.

"Then, how did you get those new tea bags, Kaoru? Because if I'm not mistaken, those tea bags are mine. I personally bought them myself. Didn't you think that I'd notice?"

"I only went into your room to get those tea bags. You were the only one who wanted tea, and you refused to drink coffee when I told you that we had run out of tea bags. There weren't any in the kitchen drawers. Where did you expect me to get new ones? Go out and buy?"

"What did you do after taking the tea bags?" asks Kenshin.

"I exited her room, then when I passed by my desk, I decided to take out the tu— "

I stopped in mid sentence. Now I knew what was wrong with the whole picture earlier. Someone had shifted my bag. I had slung it over my chair before going to the meeting but when I came in to get those tea bags, it was on my desk. This whole thing was a bloody set-up. And there was only one person who was mean enough to do it.

I looked up at her, my eyes cold. "Somebody wants to frame me."

She raised an eyebrow. "Don't put the blame on others, Kaoru."

"It's up to you whether you want to believe me or not. And I'm saying this for the last time. I did not do it," I say, emphasizing every word.

Just then, Kenshin stepped in. "Kaoru, you are suspended for three days while we investigate this matter."

"Fine," I answer, evenly. "Oh, and you can go to that stupid dinner yourself, because I never wanted to go with you in the first place." I know I sounded pretty pathetic and childish, but was I couldn't believe everyone doubted me.

With that, I hurriedly shoved all my belongings back into my bag and stalked out of the office, not wanting anybody to see the tears that were pricking my eyes.

A/N: Sorry again about Misao popping up, but that does seem like misao to just randomly come up. this chapter was really hard to write so i hope i don't come across some thing like this again, decided new characters is a pain in the butt. the things i do for my readers.

ok that was a long chapter, longest one yet, twice as much as normally. I may have one more this long, but anyways.

Next chapter: Does Kaoru get fired? Is she framed? By who, and will the truth ever be revealed or will Kenshin doubted her? Kiyosato's (is that how u spell Akira's last name?) Party, another disaster.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY READERS, THIS ONE WAS LONG AS A CHRISTMAS/NEW YEAR'S PRESENT.

I'm off to write the next few chapters because I'll be crazy the moment school starts.