Reliving the Teens
Ch 9
Wow, this kinda took a long time didn't it? (covers ears to drown out loud screaming, ducks rotten tomatoes) OKAY OKAY! I get the hint! I AM sorry okay? sheesh (ducks) Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Also for more information on everything about me (smiles vainfully) please check out my profile... NOT a waste of time!
Please enjoy!
During the night Kaoru woke up in total darkness due to the fact that she could hear someone whimpering, and thrashing around in their sleep.
Worried, the girl stood up, wrapped her yukata more tightly around herself, and quietly walked out of her room, sliding the door shut behind her. Walkin down the hall, she paused at each door to listen for noise within. Finally she came to the end of the hall and the one room left was Kenshin's. They had planned on Hiko and his deshi sleeping the same room but the two had been at odds ever since their 'showdown' in the yard.
Kaoru paused at the door listening and heard soft cries coming from inside. She quietly pushed the door open and stepped inside, looking around the room to get her bearings.
Sitting against one of the walls, one leg resting against his chest and a sword propped against his shoulder, was Kenshin in his usual sleeping position. Kaoru sighed, one of these days she would convince Kenshin, or try to, to sleep on the futon with her.
The girl quietly walked over to the teen and kneeled in front of him. She watched him sleep for a moment; softly breathing in and out, his chest rising with each breath, his bangs shifting over his eyes. "Kenshin." She whispered and reached out to gently brush his soft hair away from his face, revealing pale skin. The girl froze when he shifted slightly by her touch, but then he went back to sleep and she let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"Kaoru." The redhead muttered and Kaoru quickly withdrew her hand, watching him carefully.
"Why, Kaoru?" He whispered and shifted his position slightly, his eyes still squeezed shut. Kaoru's eyebrows arched, "Why what?" She asked out loud, then stopped when she realized what she'd done.
But Kenshin responded in a whisper, not reacting to her question. "Why do you accept me so easily when no one else does?"
Kaoru sighed and smiled softly, "because I love you."
With a start, the redhead's eyes snapped open to reveal a cold, burning blue. But when he realized who it was the intensity faded to polite detachment.
"Are you all right Kenshin?" At his confused expression she explained, "you were having a nightmare."
"Ah." He responded quietly then looked away, "they're happening more and more often now," the redhead muttered to himself, but Kaoru heard.
"Why didn't you tell me? I would have tried to help."
Kenshin laughed sourly, "Ah, but could you?"
The girl opened her mouth to answer, but realized that Kenshin wasn't expecting one and closed it again.
"I worry about you sometimes Kenshin." She admitted, resting her hand at her side. Kaoru ignored the barely hidden shock in his eyes. "You're always telling us not to worry about you, while you're constantly worry about us. We never know what's happening with you and you don't tell us if you're hurt." The girl sighed and shook her head, "I just feel like you aren't letting us know things. Important things."
Kenshin opened his mouth to say something but realized that he had no response to that. The redhead settled on just looking at her with a blank expression.
Kaoru sighed. "Just like that. You need to tell me how you're feeling and if I'm doing something wrong." She smiled, "I guess we just need to communicate better."
The redhead inwardly sighed at how sincere she sounded and said, tilting his head down, "I'm sorry Kaoru, it's just that in the war I got used to not showing my emotions and now," his voice drifted off and Kaoru leaned closer worriedly, "it's hard to bring them back." Kenshin finished at a silent whisper.
"Ken-shin." Kaoru whispered quietly. "You don't have to be sorry, I just want you to talk to me." The redhead smiled slightly but was still unsure of whether to trust her or not. "Kenshin?" She questioned.
He looked away from her, "thank you for coming to see that I was alright Kaoru, but I'm fine now. You can return to you room."
Kaoru visibly winced at how harsh he sounded but instead of responding, she stood up, quietly said good night to the redhead and left the room.
The teen leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He didn't know if he could stand this anymore; all the offers of friendship were going to his head. Kenshin sighed and tried to attain to the peaceful sleep he needed.
Early that morning, a little after the sun rose Kenshin woke and quietly snuck out of his room and into the dojo. Once there, he took a katana from the wall, paused for a moment to look around and then walked outside to the side yard.
The redhead stopped in the middle, took a deep breath and slid the sword through a loop in his hakama. He closed his eyes; hand poised over the hilt then abruptly began his kata practice.
Kenshin began with easy techniques then moved onto the more advanced ones, slowly gaining speed as he continued. The youth had been practicing for almost ten minutes when someone rudely interrupted him.
"You've gotten sloppy baka, that was far too slow."
He stopped in mid-stride, lowered the sword and turned towards the source of the scolding voice. It was no surprise to see his shishou leaning against the side of the house watching him.
"Sorry shishou, but its not like I've had time to practice lately," the teen snarled sarcastically. The older man 'hmph'-ed and walked over to stand slightly behind his deshi.
"Try it again, faster this time deshi. Perhaps you will be able to do it smoothly too." He mocked and pointed at the katana with a thick finger. Kenshin glared at him but turned back again, closing his eyes and started over under the 'guidance' of his shishou.
Kaoru, Sano and Yahiko woke up to loud yelling and the clanging of metal on metal coming from just outside the house.
They met in the hallway, all still in their sleeping clothes with sleep-filled eyes.
"What on earth is that?" Sano exclaimed, yawning loudly and stretching his arms above his head.
"I don't know but it's sure loud." Yahiko complained, sleepily rubbing his eyes.
"Let's go see what it is." Kaoru instructed and lead the way for the other two as the group walked down the hallway, out of the house and to the side yard.
The sight that met their eyes made the three stop right in their tracks.
"Woah." Yahiko exclaimed his eyes wide with delight and amazement.
Hiko was chiding the redhead as Kenshin attacked and defended against his master, responding to the continuous insults with sharp, angry retorts.
But, what was truly amazing was how fast the two were moving while dealing with the distractance of speaking.
After a few minutes shishou and deshi fell back, the redhead was breathing heavily and Hiko gazed upon him with his usual superior smirk.
"Still too slow baka. If you don't move faster you'll be hurt while trying to attack." By now Kenshin was glaring heatedly at the much taller man. "And what was with those strokes, were you trying to chop me to bits?"
Kenshin visibly ground his teeth then dashed at him with an angry "shishou!" He tried to strike at the man from the side and then from the air, but Hiko easily blocked the katana and with a swift flick of his wrist made the redhead fly back towards the dojo.
"Kenshin!" Kaoru called worriedly, but the teen flipped in midair, causing him to land lightly in a crouch on the roof. He sheathed the sword and shifted into a battojutsu stance.
Hiko smirked but also sheathed his sword, standing completely still, waiting.
With a shout Kenshin ran to the edge of the roof, then kicked off from the side to fly through the air. He unsheathed the sword in a quick motion and cut at his shishou… except the man wasn't there.
Worriedly the redhead dropped to the ground, leaving his sword out and looked around him. Not a moment too soon, he sensed Hiko above him and raised the katana to protect himself as the man bore harshly down on him. His shishou flashed a smirk as he hit the sword with all his strength, shattering the blade. He then felled Kenshin with a single, fluid move so that the boy laid on his back between Hiko's legs, angrily glaring at the man with the broken katana held tightly in his hand.
"Still can't beat me baka, what a disappointment." Hiko mocked, then removed his sword from the boy's throat and allowed him to scramble to his feet.
Kenshin absently brushed the dirt off of his clothes and dropped the broken hilt onto the ground. "I suspect that won't happen until you teach me the succession technique shishou."
"If you get that far baka." Hiko commented with his usual superior smirk. The redhead started, looking up at the man with wide blue eyes, surprising everyone with his public show of emotion. But a few seconds later the doubt, dwelling at the corners of his eyes, seeped in and the mask replaced the surprised expression. He whispered under his breath, "you mean if I stay alive that long," looking at the ground.
Hiko was the only one close enough to hear, but instead of making his usual sarcastic comment he chose to stay quiet. Didn't the boy understand that if his twenty-eight year old counterpart was alive in this time then he would be too? He glanced at the boy, obviously not.
"Kenshin," Kaoru whispered softly, taking a few more steps towards the redhead. He ignored her, his features formed into an angry frown.
"If you keep talking like that baka you won't live that long, despite the fact that there's one of you living here at the dojo in this time."
At this comment, Kenshin opened his mouth to yell, but a few seconds later he closed it again.
No one spoke for a few minutes until the teen finally mumbled angrily, "I'm going to go walk around town. Don't follow me."
With that, as the others watched, he strode over to the fence and easily jumped over it, clearing the top. They heard the crunching of dirt on the other side but it soon faded away.
After a moments breath Yhaiko commented, "Wow that was amazing! I've never seen Kenshin actually practice before."
Hiko made a disagreeable noise then turned sharply to Kaoru. "Did something happen with you two last night Kamiya?"
Kaoru, who had been daydreaming worrying about Kenshin, looked over at him. "Huh?" After the man repeated himself, she hung her head shyly. "Well actually,"
"Kamiya," Hiko said warningly.
The girl sighed, how had Kenshin lived with this man? "last night I woke up to the sound of someone crying. When I went out into the hall I found out the sound was coming from Kenshin's room. I went inside and found him leaning against the wall like he usually sleeps, but he was clearly having a nightmare; he continuously called out for his mother. Then he said my name and asked me 'why?' Why do I accept him."
She looked up at Hiko, a wide-eyed Yahiko and Sano with a shy smile and eyes brimming with tears.
"So I told him the truth."
Hiko sighed, "Which was what?"
There was a moment's pause in which you could hear a pin drop.
"That I love him."
Hiko smirked, "I bet he didn't take that well."
Kaoru frowned and shook her head, "No he didn't. Kenshin woke up after I said that, he looked startled but detached himself," she sighed, "after that he kept being confusingly sour."
"Sheesh tanuki, what'd you do that for?" Sano questioned her and Yahiko readily joined in.
"You two be quiet! You don't know anything about this kind of thing!" She shouted angrily at them, whipping around. The kendo instructor pulled out her ever-handy bokken and proceeded to chase them around the yard.
"Stupid baka."
Kenshin walked blindly down the streets, maneuvering between the crowds of people crowding the street. He sighed, annoyed. Why were there so many people out right now?
He kept walking and turned his thoughts towards what had just happened. Of course, shishou had to give him a verbal scolding worse then any other ones, and just after what had happened last night with Kaoru.
The teen sighed again, getting several odd looks from the other people near him. He hadn't meant to scare her like that, but everything he'd said was true. Perhaps he was starting to like her, even if it was a little bit.
Kenshin stopped in his tracks when he sensed a hostile ki coming near him. He looked around him, scanning the crowd until his eye caught the source.
It was the wolf from the day before.
The redhead waited until the wolf had paused in front of him, a lit cigarette held between his lips to comment scornfully.
"Saito."
Hee hee hee hee! Sry, I just had to have Saito 'pop up' again. Hee hee... um yeah.
So, I hope y'all enjoyed it, I really am sorry it took me so long, I know how long of a wait it can be between chapters (blinks at disbelieving looks) I DO READ YOU KNOW!
Anyways... thanks for reading... please check out my profile. No more news in the update, you lazy bums. (ahem) not.
You should all thank TeZukAb0ch0u for the training session... it was her/his idea. ;p
Thanks to my wonderful reviewers:
bluekitsune251, book-manga-freak, Sesshoumaru Minion, demonz800, kenihiko, Sweeteen19 and TeZukAb0ch0u
THANKS AGAIN!
Hope you enjoyed, see y'all in December O.o
ja ne
mijichan