Chapter 18
Confirmnation
"I don't know why people love to dance so much. Don't they have anything better to do than twirl around in their dresses and on high heels too?" I grumbled, personally I think PJ's are the most comfortable, being tied down to formal dresses.
"It's fun to dance once you've gotten the hang of it," says Soujiro.
"Mou, for you maybe," I say, sticking my tongue out.
"Ladies and gentlemen! I hope that you've enjoyed your meal tremendously. You should, because the Sagara's have gone through a lot of trouble just to make sure that everyone will enjoy the food," says the MC, earning a few laughs from the guests. "Anyway, on to more important things. I'm sure this is the time that everyone has been waiting for, am I right?"
"No," I mumbled under my breath, amidst the positive cheers of all the other guests. What important thing? I thought we were here for … well just here.
"Right. Just as I expected. Well, to make this a more memorable moment, why don't we invite our star for the night to lead the dance first? What do you all say?"
"Sou-chan," I say, pulling his sleeve, not really paying attention to what was going on.
"Do you have any sweets or mints on you?"
"Yup," he says, digging through his pockets.
"Sherbet lemon," he shrugged, handing one over to me, ignoring the game that the WC was announcing.
"Unfortunately, Sanosuske Sagara here does not have a partner. Would any of the lovely ladies out there like to dance with him?" asks the MC as another cheer erupted from the crowd.
"Or maybe we should let him choose himself. Should we?"
I happily unwrapped the candy wrapper and sucked on it, scrunching my face up a little at the sour taste.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen! Our man here has made a choice! The lucky person is…" he says, as drum rolls were heard.
Just as I was about to stuff the candy wrapper back into Danny's jacket pocket, a bright spotlight shone on me, blinding me for a while. Huh? What just happened?
"THAT LOVELY LADY IN THE BlUE DRESS!" yelled the MC into the microphone, as everyone present either cheered or clapped.
"What? What's going on?" I muttered to Soujiro, as Sano stepped down from the stage and made his way towards me.
"Just dance! I think it's a game." he mumbled back.
"May I?" asks Sano, winking at me and offering me his hand. I looked around at the sea of faces looking back at me expectantly, waiting for my reaction. Not knowing what else to do, I placed my hand in his and began to dance to the slow ballad.
"Sano! What do you think you're doing?" I hissed under my breath as he guided me across the dance floor.
"Dancing?"
"No! You know what I mean!" I say, glaring at him.
"At least I warned you! It's all part of the plan." he replied, smiling down at me.
"That's beside the point! You know I can't dance!... Hey! What plan?"
"Nothing, no plan, no, I mean you're doing pretty well right now, aren't you?"
"Sano!"
"Okay! Okay! Look, my dad came up with this idea just before the dinner started, and I didn't know what to do. I mean, look at me. I'm not exactly a lady's man, am I? Then I saw you, and I thought, Kaoru would do it. Plus it's just a game."
"Why me?" I ask, peering up at him.
"Well, you've always helped me out when I got into sticky situations like these in the past…so I figured you wouldn't really mind this time," he says.
"Mou!" I say, rolling my eyes. "Oooooh, remember the time when you were being stalked by this girl? And she wouldn't leave you alone no matter what?"
"Must you remind me of that incident?" he groaned.
"After what just happened…yup," I say, grinning up at him.
"Mushi mushi! You're such a rotten friend!" he says, pushing my forehead gently.
"At least I saved you from that girl!"
"Yeah! By saying that I had a lover who also looks like a rooster with dirty feet!"
"It was the only thing that I could think of at that time!" I say, trying to refrain myself from laughing out loud.
"Right. I'm sure," he says, shooting me a sideways glance. "Rooster lover with dirty feet! Did you see how fast she ran once you said that?"
"Lighten up, Sano!" I say, giggling. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been able to get away from her."
"I'm sure I could have come up with a better solution!" he retorted.
"Sano, your brain works so slow that I'm sure it'd take you about six years just to get rid of her. Besides, you should thank me for helping you out. She was scaring you so much that you were barely sleeping!"
"Hey! You'd feel pretty freaked too if somebody suddenly sent a message to your phone telling you to turn off the toilet lights right after you just finished using it! And she wasn't even living anywhere near me!... or so she said" he say, defensively.
"Right, right," I smiled and nodded my head, rolling my eyes.
Just then, Kenshin came up from behind Sano and tapped him lightly on the shoulder.
"May I?"
"Hey," I say softly, as he took my hands in his. So this his silly plan. Well I didn't expect anything too surprising out of Sano, his rooster hair took any brain that he does have into growing it.
"What was that all about?" he asks, raising an eyebrow and smiling warmly at me, bring me out of my day thoughts.
"It was Sano!" I say. "He needed a partner to dance with and…well…he picked me because I was his friend."
"Are you sure it wasn't because you're the prettiest girl in the whole room?" teased Kenshin, with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Of course not!" I say, blushing furiously, and averting my gaze away from him. "There are so many more prettier girls in here," I mumbled.
"To me, you're the prettiest one of them all," he says, lifting my chin up until I had nowhere else to look but into his eyes. "So, what do you think about us, Kaoru-dono?"
I stared at the top button of his shirt, conflicting thoughts and emotions warring inside me. I know I've taken an awfully long time, from that day in New York up till now, to make up my mind and that it wasn't very nice of me to keep him waiting for so long. Taking a deep breath, I braved myself to look up at him. "Well, we could give it a try," I say, giving him a small smile.
"Really?" he asks, almost unbelievably.
"Yeah."
"Thanks," he whispered, his arms encircling my waist as he kissed me on the forehead.
"Wait…I can't guarantee that it'll actually work out between the both of us…so don't get your hopes up all high and everything, okay?"
"Sure," he says, smiling warmly down at me.
"Kaoru," says Aoshi, as I settled down comfortably on his bed after taking my shower.
Soujiro lay on the floor, flipping through a magazine while Akira sat cross-legged in front of his laptop, not doing his work, totally engrossed in his game.
"What?"
"You know that guy you were with almost throughout the entire night? That Himura guy?"
"Yeah, what about him?" I ask cautiously while both Soujiro and Akira stopped what they were doing and turned to look at me.
"Are you guys…you know…together?" asks Aoshi.
"Umm…kinda," I say, my face flushing a deep shade of red.
"Awwwww…Kaoru's got a boyfriend!" teased Akira, grinning widely while Aoshi barely laughed.
"He's not exactly my boyfriend! I mean, I just said that we could give it a try," I protested.
"Now she's trying to cover it up!" says Akira, throwing a pillow in my direction.
"When did it happen?" asks Aoshi, being protective like always.
"Mou, Aoshi-SAMA! You're beginning to gossip like Tae!"
"No! I'm just looking out for my little sister! What if he turns out to be a serial rapist or something? Or if he has a criminal record? Or if he is a psychopath out to kill girls who are pretty? Or if he was this really cr—"
"Okay, okay, Aoshi! I get the point!"
"You're still not answering the question, Kaoru," Akira interrupted. "When did it happen?"
"When we were in New York," I say, resignedly.
"Did you guys do anything there that you weren't supposed to do?" asks Aoshi, inspecting me.
"AOSHI! Of course not! What do you think I am?" I say, whacking him on the back of his head.
"Just checking!" he say, rubbing his head. "And?" he prompted.
"And what?" I ask.
"What else happened?" he asks.
"Nothing much. Honest!" I say, seeing the look on Akira face. "He just told me about his feelings and asked me to think about it. And that's that."
"And you left the poor guy hanging until now?" asks Akira, shocked.
"Well…I needed time to think about it, right? And he said I could take however long I want!" I say, defensively.
"Yeah…but to keep him waiting that long…" he trailed off. "You are one cruel girl, Kaoru."
"Mou! Aoshi! Akira's being mean to me!" I say, shaking Aoshi's leg.
"Akira," he said, in a warning tone, then burst out laughing almost immediately, indicating that he was only playing around.
"Soujiro, why so quiet?" when I realized the only who didn't say anything.
Soujiro turned to look up at me and managed to question, "Why Kenshin?"
"Well...it's hard to explain. Look, I know the both of you don't exactly get on well with each other, but do you think you could make an exception for me? Please, Soujiro?" I ask, pleading with him.
He sighed loudly, quickly wiping any sign of unhappiness, replacing with his usual smiling face. "Does it look like I have a choice?"
"Thanks, Soujiro! You're the best!" I say, ruffling his hair.
"But," he says, holding up one finger. "I can't promise you anything just yet, although I will try my very best not to sock him in the face every time I see him."
"At least it's a start," I say, laughing, hoping he wasn't serious.
"And if he ever does anything to hurt you, I swear, he will not get away with it," says Soujiro. "And that's a promise."
"Same here," says Aoshi.
"Likewise," says Akira.
A/N: Sano's plan was originally to get her to dance with him. hm… this was kind of short and not a cliff hanger… sigh… I'm losing it… anyways… here's a quick preview:
Next Chapter: Tomoe's back in action to embarrass her… a small miniature plot. And some miniature romance.
Clearify: to one of my readers… Kamiya Kaoru is her real name, along with Kamiya Aoshi… but Shinomori is used for businesses. That way if Aoshi and Kaoru does get involved with someone not so rich, they won't be used because of their surname. Am I making any sense?