A/N-Thanks for putting up with the hitch in my updating schedule. This chapter is short, but I promise one of normal length in a couple days.

Disclaimer - I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.

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Grocery Store

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Chapter 5 - Champagne

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Friday, Kaoru knocked on Kenshin's door with a bottle of champagne. Her hair had grown to a length two inches past her shoulders.

"It's open."

She turned the doorknob. Inside it smelled like heaven.

The smell of heaven is many things to many people, and for Kaoru it was food: pretty much any dish that she hadn't cooked. Kaoru smelled heaven a lot.

"I've come to serve my time," she told him as she shut the door behind her and walked down the hallway towards his voice.

"You're late," he said from the kitchen.

Kaoru glanced down at her watch. "By three minutes!"

"I was beginning to think you weren't going to show."

"There is no way you're that insecure," she told him, walking into the kitchen and spotting him standing over the stove, his back to her.

"You're right," he admitted. He sat down the ladle he'd been holding and turned to face her. For the first time in a long while she actually looked at him. He'd become familiar to her. In the past few months she'd seen him multiple times every week, but she'd stopped looking at him. Here in front of her were the violet eyes that had initially attracted her, the easy smile, the handsome features, and the infuriatingly great hair. She'd always been attracted to Kenshin, but she'd managed to shove that awareness of his physical self away and concentrate on his personality, which was easy, since he required her full attention in conversation. And then he'd kissed her.

Kenshin stepped forward and lifted the champagne bottle from her hands, scrutinizing it for a few moments.

Kaoru shook off her thoughts and rolled her eyes. Kenshin and his alcohol standards. He didn't drink often, but if he did, it had to be something expensive. She'd make him pay for that ridiculously expensive bottle of champagne somehow. Oh yes, he'd pay.

"Acceptable," he said, and moved around her to put the champagne bottle in the fridge.

Kaoru scoffed. "Just acceptable? Do you know how much that thing cost?"

"About the price of a pleasant work environment?"

Kaoru narrowed her eyes. "Linda's more trouble than she's worth."

Kenshin grinned and shrugged. "I thought she was nice."

It was easy now, easy to fall into their usual pattern of conversation. "For the record, I think she likes you more than her son-in-law, and I hear good things about him. You're like this female-attracting monster. I can't figure out why they're always all over you."

"I think you're forgetting to include yourself in that group."

Kaoru ignored him. "But the real miracle is that men don't hate you. I mean, if had this friend who just attracted men, all the time, twenty-four seven, nonstop being hit on left and right, one marriage proposal a day, five dates a week if she wanted, gifts from rich guys, I'd hate her. And yet, I don't think I'd want to be her."

"It's hard being popular."

"Don't even start."

Kenshin laughed. "Go on."

Kaoru sighed. "You ruined it."

"I did?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

Kaoru sighed again. "So what are we doing until ten o'clock?"

"Dinner in five," he said as he turned back towards the stove and adjusted the burner temperature. "Dessert. Champagne."

"I knew that. It's not going to take three hours."

"I figured you'd need three hours of my excellent company to get your weekly Kenshin fix."

Kaoru snorted, not dignifying that with a response. "So how'd your date with what's-her-name go the other day?"

"Nina?"

Kaoru frowned. "No. Liz. Who's Nina?"

"Just a woman I met at the conference a couple weeks ago," he said vaguely. "We've been out once or twice."

"How many women are you dating anyway?"

He switched off the burner and turned back around to face her. "None."

Kaoru blinked. "Come again?"

"I'm not dating any of them, just dating in general. I never ask them out more than twice."

"So now you're going around breaking as many hearts as possible, huh?" Men. Kaoru's hands came to rest on her hips. This pose had intimidated her younger brother while they were growing up. She doubted it would work on Kenshin, but what the hell it made her feel good.

"I'm not breaking anyone's heart. I'm waiting for the right woman to come to her senses."

"I don't see how she will, when you're dating half the available women in your age group."

He shrugged. "It's more like a fifth of the available and acceptable women in my age group. There's a clear distinction, Kaoru. And I'm not dating any of them."

"Yes, you are!"

"No, I'm not."

"But you are!"

"But I'm not."

Kaoru frowned and regarded him silently. He stared back, outwardly looking calm, as if they were discussing something as mundane as broccoli. He stood there in his dress shirt and slacks, looking perfectly rational and secure in the fact that he was right and she was upset over nothing. Well he was wrong, dammit. If some guy as hot as Kenshin asked her out on not one, but two dates and then no call, no nothing, not so much as a 'sorry it's not you it's me' she'd be hurt and pissed and miserable for a few days. But it was nothing to him, just an endless parade of Nina and Liz and Gina from last month repeating over and over in different bodies, in different personalities.

"I'm guessing you think I should stop," he said, no doubt taking in her flushed face. She could feel the red rushing to her cheeks, hell, she felt red right now.

"Whatever," she muttered, and left the kitchen for the sofa in the living room. She grabbed the remote control and started flipping channels. Sano had been a real player, before Megumi had killed that particular personality trait in him, but that it hadn't bothered Kaoru. She'd dismissed it as a childish fear of commitment, and waited for him to grow up. She wasn't attracted to Sano, so it hadn't mattered. But Kenshin was different. It wasn't a fear of commitment. She knew him. He was waiting for a specific woman. He'd mentioned this woman before, but never by name, and it was starting to drive Kaoru crazy, the guessing. And even if she wound up guessing right, she'd never know if she was right, unless the woman 'came to her senses'. And she was also upset because Kenshin had dared to kiss her while he was waiting for this woman to come around, as if she was another one of those women who meant so little to him.

Well Kenshin and his secrets could just go and –

"Why are you so pissy tonight?" he asked, bearing two glasses of the champagne she'd brought over.

Kaoru accepted a glass and took a giant gulp. Mmm. Good stuff. "I'm not pissy."

"How many times have I told you not to lie?" he asked, sitting down next to her. Their shoulders touched and Kaoru forgave him for slipping up and kissing her a month ago. She was being unreasonable about it, really, when he obviously wanted to be friends. That proved she meant something to him. She was sure he wouldn't have done it if he'd known how much it had hurt her feelings. If only she wasn't physically attracted to him – then this never would have been an issue.

"I know," she admitted, "I know, I know. I suck at lying."

"You know this, and yet you keep on doing it."

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Kaoru took another large swallow of her drink.

Kenshin shook his head. "I don't think they meant lying."

"I bet they did. I bet whoever said that quote laughs every time someone applies it to something good. It's a joke on the world."

"You're also unusually pessimistic tonight," Kenshin observed. "Is this PMS?"

"If it was would you run away screaming into the night?"

He considered for a moment. "Well, I live here, so I'm going to say no."

Kaoru finished off the last of her glass of champagne and sat it down on the end table beside the couch.

His eyes pointedly followed her glass. "That was quick."

It wasn't like she'd demanded a refill. Kaoru decided to suck it up and say what was on her mind before Kenshin forced it out of her. "I guess I just didn't think you had someone already."

"What?" he asked in surprise. She noticed he'd barely drunk a third of his champagne.

"I didn't think you had someone so permanent in your life. You know, spend-the-rest-of-your-life-with permanent. It took you so long to get your ex off your mind."

"She was practice for this woman."

He said it clearly, matter-of-factly, with full confidence that whoever the mystery woman was, he'd soon be living the happily ever after story. Not even Megumi and Sano talked like that. Kaoru fully expected their marriage to be pitted with war zones. Kenshin's simple assurance awed her.

"Wow."

He smiled serenely. "Yeah."

He looked at the television then, but Kaoru could tell he was really looking beyond it.