Flip-Flops
Chapter 3
"The Guys"
By JazzQuirk
Kaoru could already tell it was going to be a long day.
But first she would have to make it through the morning.
She stood next to Kenshin in front of one of the cafeteria tables, currently occupied by her roommate's friends. The small crowd looked up from their energetic conversation as Kenshin and she drew close enough to set their trays down on the table.
"Good morning, everyone," Kenshin greeted.
"Kenshin! Hey, man! We were just talking about you!" greeted one of the guys back.
"Oh really?" Kenshin inquired, tone and smile implying that he doubted it was anything good.
"Yes," started another at the table, "we were just discussing your roo–"
"Waaaaiii! Is that him!?" Kaoru winced a little at the sudden abuse to her eardrums, and dually noted that she wasn't the only one. The sound (which even managed to pierce the loud humming of the cafeteria buzz with its screechiness) came from a third, enthusiastic voice, accompanied by a hand pointing to the right of Kenshin.
Kaoru watched as the redhead followed the direction of the finger until he was looking upon her, and they looked at each other with clearly confused expressions upon their faces. But she was glad to see that he had picked up on her uneasiness, and Kenshin tried quickly to diffuse the situation. "Uh, yes. Everyone, this is my roommate, Kaoru," then he turned to Kaoru, "Kaoru, this is everyone."
Kaoru took her cue and gave a nod of the head to the occupants of the table, "Good morning, it's nice to meet all o–"
But she, too, was cut off by the third person, who had just shot out of his seat to come running over to grab Kaoru by the face, her instant reaction being to jump back at the unexpected contact.
"Yatta! Finally, another bishounen for my collection!" declared the overwhelmingly taller student gleefully, attracting more than a few curious glances from the tables nearby. They quickly became eye rolls upon seeing who it was. Kaoru's face, on the other hand, had gone from mildly confused to completely horrified.
"Look at this face!" he continued. "Perfectly heart-shaped, high cheek bones, beautiful skin!"
"Kamatari, leave the poor guy alone," tried the first speaker of the table.
His attempts were futile as Kamatari only switched from holding Kaoru's face to engulfing him in a suffocating hug. Kaoru, realizing what he was about to do and where exactly his arms were going to land, threw her arms up in reflexive move to protect herself – both from involuntary molestation and from being exposed.
"I could just eat him up!" Kamatari let go for a moment and took another close look at her face, then scooped her up again.
"Ack!" she choked out, completely taken aback by the amount of strength the effeminate man had. Kaoru attempted to hold her breath as he squeezed the daylights out of her. A depressing thought that she wasn't cut out for a man's world briefly crossed her mind, and she prayed this one would let go soon.
"That's enough, Kamatari," the final voice instructed.
Kamatari, surprisingly, stopped his fawning, but did look at the person in protest. "What? I'm just complementing the guy and saying hello!" His face was all smiles again as if that had cleared everything up, snuggling his head against Kaoru's, unimpeded.
"And clearly traumatizing him."
This time Kamatari pulled all the way away from the shorter student, only to see that he truly was traumatizing her, if Kaoru's tightly closed eyes and tensed posture were any indication. Kamatari quickly released her, seemingly horrified by his own actions.
"Oh my gosh! Kaoru, I'm so sorry!"
Kaoru blinked open one eye, checking to see if the coast was clear.
"Forgive me! Sometimes I just get so caught up in the moment when I see something I like!" Kamatari explained, taking a step back as if to encourage Kaoru to relax. She only managed to open both eyes and begin taking regular amounts of breaths again, having had the air in her lungs effectively squeezed out by him.
Kenshin took the break in the commotion as an opportunity to separate the two and grabbed Kaoru by the shoulders to direct her to a seat on his left. Kaoru flinched a bit at his touch, still holding her arms in front of her chest, but didn't object as she was placed next to a tall man with equally tall blonde hair and then flanked on the other side by Kenshin himself.
Kamatari, now alone, returned to his seat on the opposite side of the table - graciously away from Kaoru. He continued to smile at her, though, and Kenshin pulled her food tray over to rest in front of her on the table. Then he gave her an apologetic smile and Kaoru slowly relaxed her shoulders while trying to make sense of what just happened – and praying to Kami that Kamatari hadn't copped a feel somehow.
The table became quiet, an awkward silence hanging over them after what had just happened, and Kaoru could feel the hairs rising on the back of her neck as Kamatari continued to look at her unabashedly.
"I'm Seta Soujirou," chimed the student directly across from Kaoru suddenly, "but you can call me Souji." He had plastered on one very charming smile, and Kaoru was relieved that someone was making an effort to break up some of the tension now permeating the space.
"Kamiya Kaoru," she replied, desperate to move past her most recent introduction as everyone else.
"We saw each other on the elevator yesterday, didn't we?" asked Souji.
Kaoru cocked her head a little, trying to remember said incident, "Yeah, I think we did. You were with your dad or someone, right?"
Souji nodded.
"WHhhaaattt!?" exclaimed Kamatari again, sending Kaoru (and even Souji) back in alert. "Shishio-sama was here yesterday!? Souji, why didn't you tell me?!"
Souji scratched his head bewilderedly, clearly avoiding eye-contact with the other student. "Guess it slipped my mind," Souji offered, but Kamatari didn't buy it.
"Dammit, you know how I feel about your dad, Souji!"
"That's exactly why he didn't tell you," commented the teen to Kaoru's left.
Kamatari flushed red and turned to take his anger out on Souji instead, who blatantly began ignoring Kamatari's questioning.
"Did he ask about me?" he demanded.
Souji shrugged.
"What about that burn on his arm? How's it healing? Does he take care of it properly?"
More non-verbal answers.
"Just ignore him," said the guy to Kaoru's left again. "He's always like this, and there's nothing you can do to stop him. And don't worry about that hug either, he's practically done it to everyone he likes, including us."
"Yes," interjected Kenshin. "I remember my first run in with Kamatari quite clearly myself. I recall him discussing my features at length as well, so you might even consider yourself a little lucky that you only got hugged."
"Well that's comforting," Kaoru remarked sarcastically, still not completely over her first encounter with the cuddly man. She wished she could brush it off knowing that it was a common occurrence in the group, but she doubted any of them had almost had their real identity exposed by being felt up.
"It's okay, you'll get used to it. I'm Chou, by the way, Chou Sawagejou," introduced the blonde man.
"Kamiya Kaoru, it's nice to meet you."
Chou nodded and then pointed with his head to across the table. "And this gloomy thing over here is–"
"Shinomori," Kaoru finished.
The three guys not involved with Kamatari looked at her then, all of them very clearly surprised by her knowledge of his name.
"You know Aoshi?" Kenshin asked.
"We met this morning," Kaoru explained, glad that she at least knew somebody. She looked at Shinomori for support.
But he only returned a curiously raised eyebrow. "We did?"
Kaoru felt a sweat drop forming on her temple, and smiled uncomfortably. "Yeah. Remember? You were in the kitchen on the second floor, drinking tea."
"Ah, that would explain it," Kenshin said, and Kaoru looked at him quizzically, not following. He turned his attention to Aoshi instead. "You still get up at five o'clock every morning to make tea?"
"Aah."
"Why do you do that?" asked Chou, noticeably disgusted by the idea of waking up at such an ungodly hour.
"Because I like to," Shinomori stated in a tone that implied the issue was not up for discussion.
"So you remember now?" Kaoru offered.
"No."
"Don't worry about it Kaoru," Kenshin intervened at seeing her dejected face. "Aoshi's really not a morning person. He's just been forced to get up ridiculously early his entire life that now he basically does it on auto pilot. But he never actually remembers anything that happens within the first hour or so of waking up. He's practically sleep-walking."
"You don't remember me at all?" Kaoru asked again, almost unable to believe what Kenshin said to be true (though, it would explain his rather unfriendly aura at the time). "Even after talking to me and asking me a question?"
Aoshi sat up straight and folder his arms in front of him, closing his eyes. Nobody said anything as they waited for him to finish his contemplating, an action done with almost zen-like meditation.
He stayed that way for a solid thirty seconds before unfolding his arms and taking another sip from his tea. Chou, Kaoru, and Kenshin leaned forward a little, waiting to hear his answer. The cup settled back onto the table.
"No."
Well, shit.
Chou ignored his own disappointment, "You know, maybe if you actually slept in to get a decent night's rest and didn't get up before the ass-crack of dawn you wouldn't be so pissy in the morning."
Aoshi's glare made the statement all the more justifiable.
"Speaking of early birds," started Kenshin, also ignoring Aoshi, "has anyone seen Sano?"
This effectively stalled Kamatari's banter with Souji and brought his attentions back to the rest of the group. "You mean that sack of shit that's currently my roommate?" he questioned, bitterness lacing every word. Kaoru noted the masculine drop in his voice as Kenshin nodded. "He was still passed out in his bed when I left this morning."
"Who's a sack of shit?"
Everyone turned to see the man in question stalking towards the edge of the table from the same direction Kenshin and Kaoru had come earlier. His appearance was disheveled and hastily thrown together, uniform wrinkled and long strands of brown hair sticking up everywhere. He'd opted not to grab a tray, all the food he'd picked up in line cradled in his arms.
"You are!" retorted Kamatari, unfazed by the teen's sudden appearance.
"Yeah, well we'll see how you feel about me after I take a nap in your bed later…naked."
"Don't you dare!" cried Kamatari, who now stood up in warning. "I'll fucking kill you!"
Sano shrugged off the effeminate man's belligerent death threats and sat down next to Aoshi, noticing that their table had one more member than usual. He spotted Kaoru and gave her a welcoming smile, which Kaoru returned meekly.
"Hey, Kamiya, how's it goin'?"
"Okay," Kaoru responded, warily eyeing Kamatari as he fussed.
"Whoa, what happened you?" Sano asked, not missing the damper in Kaoru's mood.
"He was attacked by Kamatari earlier," Chou answered.
He need say no more as Sano grimaced accordingly. "Ooo, sorry 'bout that man, probably should have warned you yesterday. Guess this means you aren't still considering switching rooms with me, huh?"
Kenshin replied before Kaoru could even digest that question, "I clearly recall Kaoru giving you an answer yesterday."
"Hey, you never know! Besides," he motioned in Kamatari's direction with his head, "you can't blame me for trying."
Kaoru was still watching Kamatari with a wary eye when Kenshin nudged her in the side and motioned towards her food tray, "You better start eating, we've only got about ten more minutes left."
Kaoru looked down at her food as if it hadn't been there. "Oh, yeah," she said, but Kaoru could feel that her appetite had been somewhat curved from the mornings unusual activities. She decided to try and choke down some food anyways.
"You're new to the school, right, Kamiya?" Souji asked, having finally escaped Kamatari's questioning.
"Hai," Kaoru said just before starting in on her breakfast.
"Me, too. " He went on when Kaoru gave him a perplexed look, "I'm a first year."
"How do you know these guys?" Kaoru asked between bites.
"Well, as you might have already figured out, Kamatari knows my father," Souji whispered across the table, trying not to catch Kamatari's attention again. Then he leaned back, "We used to go to the same middle school as well, and I often went to Kamatari's matches once he came here. That's how I met these guys."
"Oh, so you're all from around the area?"
"Yeah." This time it was Chou. "Where are you from?"
Kaoru swallowed hastily. "Tokyo."
"You're from Tokyo!" bellowed Sano, who had almost already devoured his entire breakfast, a feat nobody had (miraculously) seen him do. "Why didn't you say so earlier!?"
"Didn't know it was such a big deal," Kaoru replied. She really wished people would stop yelling this early in the morning.
"Of course it's a big deal! Oi, tell me," Sano waved her to lean in closer across the table, which she did, "are the girls there as sexy as they say they are?
Whatever you do, don't punch him in the face, Kaoru. She bitterly wanted to tell him apparently not, seeing as he couldn't even tell that she was girl, but that was hardly an appropriate response. Although, neither was his question.
She settled for giving him her best you're-a-complete-idiot look and leaned back to sit up straight again. "That's why you're so excited to find out that I'm from Tokyo?" Yeah, change the subject.
Sano appeared unfazed, grinning cockily, "Gotta ask when you got the chance, ne?"
She ignored him.
"What made her decide to come to Kyoto?" Souji inquired, returning them to a more civilized conversation.
"This school."
"Oh yeah? You must have come to join one of the clubs then?" Chou asked, crumpling up the trash on his plate and forming it into a single ball before aiming it at the trashcan. He missed.
"Yeah, I came to join the kendo club."
Had this been a sitcom or comedy show on daily television, the group's immediate reaction to her last statement probably would have been funny, considering the circumstances. But as it was, being a girl disguised as a boy and declaring that you wanted to join the kendo club only to have six teenage boys all freeze in mid-action to look at you in amazement wasn't quite as funny as it sounded.
And then, Sano started to laugh.
A chortle at first, but it quickly grew in volume as one-by-one Chou, Kamatari, and Souji joined in, until all four of them sat there cackling with each other about what was obviously some perverse inside joke. It took them a little longer than Kaoru thought was necessary to calm down.
"Well, you don't say," Sano finally commented, and Kaoru could feel her eyebrow twitch in annoyance. Laughing at her for no apparent reason was one thing, but laughing at her because they thought she couldn't do kendo? They had better not be thinking that she was weak simply because of her size or lean figure. She prayed that didn't turn out to be the case, or the plan be damned - she would kick all their asses!
"Yeah, I do say," she returned, her anger at being laughed at apparent on her face. Insecurity from being in a new place kept her temper at bay, but the emotions were bubbling beneath the surface none the less.
Kenshin and Aoshi hadn't reacted in the same way as their tablemates, and Kaoru managed to catch their openly shared knowing-looks. It only served to prove that she was very much out of the loop and that just pissed her off even more. She hated being out of the loop.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Sano said throwing his hands up defense, "I didn't mean it like that. It's just funny that you should say you wanna be in that particular club, that's all."
"Oh yeah? And why's that?" Kaoru asked, grabbing her water and idly thinking she might be throwing it soon.
Sano didn't say anything back right away, choosing instead to eye Kenshin in that suspicious way as if to say 'should I tell him?' Kaoru whipped her head back and forth between him and her roommate as neither spoke verbally, but she could see there was definitely some form of conversation going on. Kenshin sat trying to fight off a full-out scowl as Sano continued to stare at him. The he began wiggling his eyebrows and Kenshin wadded up a napkin to throw at him.
Sano laughed victoriously, and everyone else (minus Kenshin, of course) chortled at the teens' antics. Even Aoshi cracked a smirk.
Kaoru almost slammed her water back onto her tray. "What's so funny?" she bit out, not sure how much longer she could stand this. This was too much crap for one morning…
"Sorry, sorry, Kaoru, don't be upset," Kamatari tried to sooth over, but Kaoru hardly took any comfort from him. "We're not laughing at you, we're laughing at Kenshin."
She felt the tenseness in her body suddenly evaporate as one eyebrow shot up in confusion. "You are?"
"Yeah, 'cause he just lost a bet!" Sano bragged, still smiling as if he'd won the lottery.
Kaoru tried to gage Kenshin's reaction, but he had turned away from her so she couldn't see his face.
She felt something sink in her gut a little bit, and asked blatantly to no one in particular, "Did I lose him the bet?"
"Yes you did!" Sano cried, breaking into another bout of maniacal laughter.
Kaoru gave an exaggerated exhale at the stupidity of it all (for she was certain that whatever this bet turned out to be it was dumb), but couldn't help being relieved it hadn't been anything about her really. She'd been under stress before, but this level of paranoia was starting to get to her. Hopefully it wouldn't last forever.
She picked up the piece of fruit on her tray and stuffed it in her bag for later – she definitely didn't have the appetite to eat anymore now – and ignored the cackling Sano and scowling Kenshin. "So what was this bet about?"
"Sano bet Kenshin that he would get another Kendo club member for a roommate," Souji told her.
"Why would they bet on that?"
"Well," Chou cut in, "Kenshin didn't exactly have the best dorm experience last year."
"That's the understatement of the year," Kenshin grunted out, just before shoving an overly large piece of food into his mouth.
"The guy's name is Enishi," Chou continued, catching Kaoru's attention again, "and both he and Kenshin made it onto the competition team for Kendo in their first year."
Kaoru nodded along, now very much interested after learning her roommate was also into Kendo.
"At first it seemed that they would get along really well, 'cause they had a lot in common," Chou went on. "Both first years, both really good, both here on scholarships, both lady-killers at all the tournaments – I admit, I was a little jealous."
He could do more than kill a girl with those looks, Kaoru thought.
"But that was before we all found out that Enishi has a bit of a competitive slash jealousy issue," Kamatari chimed in, looking very put off by his own description of the teen. "It was very disappointing."
"Yeah," Chou finished, "and it wasn't long before he was after Kenshin's throat."
"Did you guys get in a fight?" Kaoru asked, turning to question Kenshin directly.
"We mostly took it out on each other during practice, but it got a lot worse as the school year progressed," he answered.
"Especially after Sano opened his big, fat mouth and let it slip that Kenshin liked Enishi's older sister," Kamatari informed her, sending Sano another look of disgust.
"Hey, I already apologized a hundred times for that, okay!" Sano yelled defensively. "Besides, we all agreed he would have found out eventually!"
"Better later than sooner," Kenshin said bitterly.
"What happened when he found out?" Kaoru had turned back to Chou, effectively cutting off anything Sano might have said in rebuttal.
"Kenshin is a little vague on the details of what happened in the beginning, but it ended with him and Enishi in a fist fight in the dorm halls."
Kaoru didn't stop herself from eyeing Kenshin in a way that screamed 'You? In a fight?' She had to know how he faired. "Did you win?"
Kenshin sighed and rested his head in his hand, arm propped on the table. "Nah. One of the teachers came up and broke up the fight before I could smash his face in."
"How many weeks of detention did you get for that again?" Sano asked.
"Two weeks. Plus Hiko-sensei made us clean the dojo for a whole month."
"Did you guys get into any more fights after that?" inquired Kaoru. She hadn't realized there would be so much drama at an all-boys school; but, then again, she wasn't all that surprised.
"No. After cleaning the dojo for that long by ourselves it was clear it wasn't worth doing again. We lapsed into an unspoken truce that involved not speaking to each other and ignoring each other's existence unless absolutely necessary."
"Enishi did almost flip his shit again, though, when you got voted to be Captain of the team at the end of last year," Sano commented idly.
Kaoru nodded slowly in agreement, empathizing with Kenshin's situation. She'd had her fair share of problems with some violent boys who couldn't get their heads out of the asses back in Tokyo, but certainly nothing – wait, WHAT!?
"Did you just say Kenshin is Captain of the Kendo team?!" Kaoru blurted at Sano, unbelieving that she had heard him correctly.
"Yeah," he responded nonchalantly, obviously seeing it as unimportant information, "and Aoshi's the Vice Captain."
Kaoru's jaw dropped.
"No way!" She shouted, almost rising from her chair in shock. A few students nearby glanced at their table again. Kaoru couldn't believe it! Her roommate – Captain of the Kendo team! And Aoshi – the first guy she tried her school disguise on today but didn't even remember meeting her – was Vice? This was just too insane!
Kaoru didn't know if she wanted to jump for joy or throw up.
"Oi, don't get so excited," Sano snarled lightly, sticking a finger in his ear.
Kaoru quickly covered her mouth with her hands, cheeks blushing profusely as Chou and Kamatari laughed at her. Aoshi eyed her skeptically, but Kenshin looked like he was trying to hold back his own laugh…
…and thankfully not upset.
"Sorry," she mumbled, getting herself back under control. "I wasn't expecting it, that's all."
A hand came up and slapped her on the back abruptly, her body lurching forward from the force of it. "You should be excited," Chou bellowed, slapping her a second time for good measure and she had to brace herself against the table. "You just hit the jackpot for friends! Souji and I are on the team, too."
"Err, I'm not on the team yet, Chou," Souji stated. "I still have to try out first."
"Don't be silly!" chided Kamatari. "You were scouted. That means you're a shoe win for sure."
"Scouted?" Kaoru repeated, but lost her opportunity for a response as the school bell went off. The noise in the cafeteria instantly notched up a few levels as all the remaining students got up to dump their trays and leave. She quickly followed suit as everyone at her table got up to do the same, and she hurriedly ran after Kenshin as he went to throw his trash.
"I hope you're not mad about the bet," Kenshin said as they walked side by side in the herd of students heading outside. "I already think you're a hundred times better than Enishi as a roommate, and I still prefer you over Sano."
"Ah, no, it's fine," Kaoru replied back. She caught the door to hold it open for the person behind her, letting it go when he'd gotten his hand on it. "It really doesn't have anything to do with me, although I do feel bad for you. And don't worry, I'm nothing like Enishi."
On so many levels, she noted silently.
"I'm sorry for shouting," she apologized, changing topics.
Kenshin laughed, and it made her strangely happy to have been the source of it. "Don't worry about it," he told her, "it's good to be enthusiastic. You'll need it if you're going to be on the Kendo team."
"Why, because of Enishi?" she joked.
Kenshin scoffed. "I was thinking more about the training schedules, but yeah, that too."
"You still like his sister?" Kaoru questioned before she could stop herself. She knew instantly that she wanted to know for less than manly reasons and kicked herself mentally for it.
He didn't say anything at first, but she could see the blush working its way up onto his cheeks. "Yeah," he breathed out after a moment, eyes forlorn as he spoke.
Kaoru felt her lips move into a small frown as a little bubble of hope floating around in her heart somewhere suddenly burst. The contents sunk to the pit of her stomach and laid there.
Sadly, she knew, it was probably for the best.
Kenshin didn't say anything else as they made their way to the entrance ceremony with everyone else. She shook her head a little to brush off the feelings of disappointment and wiped the frown from her face. Kenshin was just a temporary fixation, a new boy in her life in a new place. Her interest in him and his looks would pass just like every other time she met a boy who'd caught her eye, and then everything would be fine. She couldn't afford to get distracted with boys right now anyway – she had work to do.
And besides – Kaoru had a strict no-dating rule with her fellow Kendo students.
A/N: Ah, nah, did she just do some name drops! You bet your ass I did!
I know this was a long time to wait, but I have to say I'm happy I did. The last half of this chapter just wasn't happening, but when I finally got the flow it just wrote itself so perfectly (in my opinion)! Thanks for all the reviews and patience, Chapter 4 is underway.
And thanks to Timbletum for your support on this one!