A/N: Thank you so much for those who replied to my disclaimer. It appears that most of you wanted me to continue so I did. Hopefully people stop flaming me for this…
Chapter 17
Hidden Truth
"Kaoru-dono," he says, straightening himself and making his way towards me. My eyes darted around, looking for a possible escape route. As luck would have it, I couldn't find any. Either that, or I was just really slow. In just a matter of seconds, he was standing right in front of me, blocking my view entirely. Involuntarily, I took a step backwards, clutching the straps of my bag tightly till my knuckles turned white.
"What do you want?" I ask softly.
"To apologize," he says, moving forward one step.
"There's no need to," I reply shakily, taking another step backwards.
"Are you afraid of me?" he asks, his eyes dark and cold.
"N-no," I stammered.
"Then why do you keep moving backwards?" he asks, his golden eyes boring into mine.
"It's…it's getting late and I should be on my way before the guys start worrying. So if you'll excuse me…" I say, swiftly moving away from him.
"Wait," he says, reaching out to grab my arm.
"Ow!" I say, flinching a little. I jerked my arm away from his grasp and inspected the bruise that had formed there due to his tight grip earlier in the day.
"What's that?" he asks sharply.
"Nothing!" I say, moving my arm out of his view and mentally cursing myself.
"Let me see…no, let me see," he says, forcefully pulling my arm while I struggled with him. There was no doubt as to who would have won the little fight. He was, of course, way stronger than me. His eyes widened at the sight of the purple-black mark on my arm. Then he raised his head to look at me, his eyes searching my face. I avoided his gaze and traced his x-scar with my eyes.
"Did I do this?" he asks quietly.
"No!" I say, shaking my head furiously. "Of course not." Still looking at the scar.
"Then how did you get it?"
"I…uh…Yahiko bumped into me really hard today while he was carrying this whole stack of files…and…yeah…the bruise just came," I say, trying to convince him.
"You were never really good at lying, Kaoru-dono," he says after a pause. I bowed my head and averted my gaze away from him. "Come," he says, pulling me gently by the wrist.
"Where are we going?" I ask, following his lead, now staring at his red-brown hair in the night.
"I'm sending you home."
"Mou! Oh…no, there's no need for that. I can get back on my own."
He stopped in his tracks and turned to face me, gripping both my shoulders gently and staring intently into my eyes. "If you don't let me send you home, it means that you don't forgive me."
I opened my mouth to say something, but unfortunately, nothing came out. Slowly, I nodded my head in resignation, bringing a small smile onto his face.
"So, where do you live?" he asks, looking sideways at me while he steered his car around expertly.
"Sakura Street," I answered.
"Sakura Street?" he asks, frowning a little.
"Yeah, why?" I ask, turning to look at him.
"Oh, it's nothing," he says, giving me a small smile. "By the way, what's your house number?"
"seventeen."
The whole ride was pretty much silent. Small talk peeped out from boredom once in a while. A few minutes later, he pulled up right in front of my house, without any help whatsoever from me.
"Thanks," I say, smiling warmly at him. Just as I was about to step out of the car, he placed his arm gently on my wrist. I turned to look at him questioningly.
"I'm sorry for everything, Kaoru-dono," he says, his voice filled with guilt and regret, he looked at me from behind he bangs with those big purple eyes.
"No biggie," I say, grinning and getting out of the car. "Good night, Kenshin. Thanks for the ride," I say, before closing the passenger door.
"Kaoru-dono!" he yelled as he scrolled down the window.
"Yeah?" I say, turning around.
"Good night to you too. Sleep well," he says.
I stood there looking at him for a few moments then burst out giggling. "You know, Kenshin, I like you better like that," I say, before entering my house.
Kenshin watched her back until he was sure that she had safely entered the confines of her own home. He took in the structure of the house and noted the sheer size of it. His mind was filled with unanswered questions as he drove back to his own home. Everyone knows that houses on Sakura Street were so expensive that only millionaires were able to afford them. Granted, he was one, but even he wasn't willing to spend so much money on a brick structure. And by the looks of her house, he was sure that it definitely didn't come cheap. He remembers her mentioning that she lived with her brother, her cousin and Soujiro, and that her brother was the one who supported her all this time ever since her parents died. How did her brother get so much money to buy such an expensive house? Or if her parents were the ones who bought the house, they must have been pretty successful and well known. He searched his mind for any possible matches, but came up with nothing. He frowned at the thought that suddenly popped into his mind
Was Kaoru hiding something from him?
"Sou-chan, wake up!" I say, nudging the lump under the comforters gently. He grunted, turned over on his side, and continued to sleep.
"Sou-channnnnn, come on…get up!" I say, nudging him harder this time.
"Go away, Kaoru," he mumbled into his pillow.
"Sou-chan, wake up already! It's time to get dressed for Sano's dinner," I say, poking him in the ribs.
He sat up, rubbed his face a few times, and then looked over at me, his eyes on the verge of closing again.
"Can I not go?"
"Of course not!" I say, ruffling his hair. "Sano's expecting all of us to be there. You wouldn't want to let him down, do you?"
"But I'm so tired!" he groaned, leaning his head on my shoulder, his eyes closed.
"Mou! Sou-chan!" I say, pulling him out of bed and shoving him into the toilet. "Hurry up and wash your face, then get dressed, okay? And comb your cow lick. You look like Kamatari!"
"Aren't you going to get ready?" his muffled voice came through the door.
"Shishio isn't here yet," I say grimacing. "But I suppose I should go and change first. I'll see you downstairs!" I say, closing the door to his room behind me softly.
"Aoshi!" I say, running down the steps and giving him a hug.
"Don't you look so pretty!" he says, looking down at me fondly.
"Of course she does," says Shishio, beaming proudly at him. "I fixed her up!"
"Kamatari what are you doing here!" I exclaimed when I thought I saw a girl coming in after Shishio.
"Oh, You know him? he's taking over now since I found a new job. I joined firefighters in the town next to Kyoto. He'll be your hairdresser from now on" Shishio explained.
"Okay, I'm here—ooooooooh… pretty! Like a raccoon!" says Soujiro, grinning pointing at me.
"A raccoon? But I don't want to look like a raccoon!" I say, mortified. "SHISHIO!" I yell accusingly.
"What? What'd I do?" he asks.
"Where's Akira?" asks Aoshi, interrupting.
"Coming!" he yelled, running down the stairs and fixing his tie.
"Slow poke," says Soujiro, poking him in the abs with his always-there-smile.
"EKS!" Akira squealed and jumped five feet in the air.
"Akira's ticklish! Akira's ticklish!" I chanted as I circled him, poking him once in a while. This was the day I'll never forget, Akira being ticklish. I finally stopped when he turned around with a growl and a threat to pin me down and tickle me…
"Moving on, pretend you didn't see that, hear that or anything else," retorted Akira. "Anyway, how do I look?" he asks, turning to look at me.
"Great, cept your hair is all messed up." I say, giving him the thumbs-up.
"You don't look so bad yourself either," he says, giving me a wink.
"Like a raccoon," Soujiro whispered.
"No! Anything but a raccoon!" I say, whacking him on the arm.
"So, Akira," says Aoshi, clearing his throat. "Why so conscious of how you look? Anyone you want to impress over there?"
"Ooooooh…Akira's got a crush, Akira's got a crush," I chanted, skipping around him in a circle.
"No! I don't have a crush," says Akira bopping me on the head. "I just want to look my best."
"OI! Don't mess up her hair!" yelled Shishio, coming over the inspect the damage.
"Okay, everyone ready? Got all your things with you?" asks Akira as we all nodded our heads. "All right then, let's go!"
"I don't understand why people actually like to attend all these formal dinners," Aoshi say grumpily steping outside besides me as I was holding on to Soujiro's arm as we entered the dining hall.
"Well…for the guys, you get to check out pretty girls, and for the girls, you get to check out good-looking guys. Simple," says Soujiro.
"Nobody's that desperate, Sou-chan."
"Are you trying to imply something?" he asks, glancing sideways at me.
"What? Me? No! Of course not!" I say, looking at him innocently, earning a pinch on the arm.
"Jou-chan! Soujiro!" says Sano, making his way towards us through the throng of people. "Oh, hello, Akira and Aoshi. So glad you could all make it!" he says grinning happily.
"We wouldn't miss it for anything, Sano," says Aoshi. "Anyway, congratulations!"
"Thanks!" says Sano. "Anyway, make yourself comfortable, okay? If there's anything you need, just tell me."
"Sure thing. We'll catch you later," says Akira.
"Soujiro, looking good as always. And jou-chan…what can I say? You look beautiful."
"Like a raccoon," says Soujiro.
"Stop it with the raccoon thing already!" I whined.
"A raccoon? Why a raccoon?" asks Sano. "Anyway, are you sure you're not trying to upstage me, Kaoru? Because you're making me feel like the wallpaper over there."
"You're so full of nonsense, Sano. You look pretty good, especially with you're new hair cut. Way better than Soujiro," I say, sticking my tongue out at Soujiro.
"Thanks for the compliment," says Sano, laughing.
"Anytime. Where's Honjou Kamatari?" I ask, just noticing he disappeared since we left the house.
"Who's Kamatari?" asks Soujrio, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, he's this really, really nice guy. Awfully fun too. You should meet him! he's a guy that looks more like a girl than you." I say enthusiastically.
"I heard my name," says Kamatari from behind me.
"Kamatari!" I say, smiling up at him. "Meet Soujiro! He's my bestest friend."
"Hello," says Kamatari warmly. "You must be Seta Soujiro. Sano told me loads about you."
"Sano seems to be talking a lot about us behind our backs, you know," I say to Soujiro. "When I first met Kamatari, he said that he has heard a lot of things about me from Sano. And now, when he meets you, he says the same thing. You tend to wonder what sort of gossip Sano has been telling his friends, huh?"
"Do I look like a snooby woman who loves to gossip, Soujiro?" asks Sano, feigning a hurt look.
Soujiro glanced down at me and I looked up at him. After a momentary pause, he looked at Sano. "Yup!" he says, laughing.
"And the both of you are supposed to be my friends," says Sano, pulling a face. "Oh, I need to get going now. It's about to start soon," he says, checking his watch. "Listen, jou-chan. If things seem a bit strange today…just go with it, okay?"
"Is there something I should know about?" I ask, giving him a sideways look.
"No…none that I can think of," he says, putting on an innocent look. "Catch you guys later!"
A/N : hmm.. what does that mean, I have yet to decide. i feel like twisting the next chapter a bit, so give me a lil time. and sorry no previouw this time...