A/N: Ahhhh....I sort of got carried away with this chapter...it got funny
in so many different spots, and I was having so much fun writing it....
well, it got kinda long. O-O Hope everyone enjoys it though. I thought I
would give everyone a break from the heavy/dark world... but it's only a
break.
Nigihayami Haruko: This is probably one of my favourite chapters, such a joy to read and beta-read. I'm sure all of you would love it too. Don't forget to review later on!
Kenshin Kodora Himura: Kodora=Small Tiger,
Chapter Nine
Digging In The Garbage October 31, 2001. Tuesday Halloween Day, 1000 a.m.
"It's a juvenile police report, Mrs. Anderson, and as the resident Commissioned School Master of Ive Payne High School where Kenshin Himura happens to be a student, I have every legal right to request a copy of it to have inside of his permanent file history. Especially considering that this institution is being considered the place of his incarceration. Now, I do not, in way, believe that I am making an outlandish or unreasonable request, and as you are employed by this educational institution as one of its higher paid staff, as well as being MY personal assistant, I am fairly certain that the procurement of said document or documents comes well under your direct line of job duties. Therefore, as I believe I am not mistaken in any of these assumptions, since I was the one responsible for writing your bloody job description last year, I would be more than grateful if you would get up off your fat doughnut laden ass and GET THIS DONE FOR ME TODAY SINCE I GAVE YOU THE REQUEST NEARLY A WEEK AGO AND SHOULD HAVE ALREADY HAD THE SAID DOCUMENT OR DOCUMENTS ON MY GODDAMN DESK YESTERDAY!"
"Yes-yes Sir, M-master S-saitou... I-I will g-g-get right on it." And suddenly Saitoh was treated to an unusual and almost grotesquely comical scene. The more than ample frame of one Mrs. Ellsa Anderson trying to extract herself from her own work station without spilling her 6 creams and 7 sugars large coffee as she eased her oblong butt out of her chair by wiggled it from side to side an inch at a time. Once she was finally free, she turned around, frantically grabbed up her coat, announced in a shrill squeaky voice that she was off to the County Court Office to see if they could help expedite the request, and then trotted at high speed down the hallway on her 4 inch heels looking much like a bright yellow, red, and white beach ball as she bounced feverishly on her way to try and rectify her obvious mistake.
"Dear Lord," Saitou moaned in agitation as he rubbed a hand across his disbelieving eyes and muttered under his breath. "May the Angels of Saint Mary save us all." Then he turned and walked back into his office slamming the door sharply behind him. The phone on his desk started to ring before he had quite made it back to his chair so he made a quick spin around the corner of his desk and scooped up the receiver.
"School Master Saitou, how can I help you?"
"Ahhh, yes, Master Saitou, this is Hiko Seijurou. I just received your letter in my mail this morning."
"I see." Saitou sat down and began to idly fiddle with the frayed corner of Kenshin's file where it sat on his desk. It seemed to have become a permanent fixture the last week. "And have you read it through, Mr. Seijurou? Have you had time to consider my request?"
"Yes, I have," Was the haughty retort from the other end of the telephone. "And I must admit that I find your request to be... unusual if not a bit... Unorthodox and poorly planned out."
"Unorthodox?" Saitou tried desperately to keep the irritation out of his voice as he responded to the strict single-minded man who was Kenshin Himura's step-father. "Perhaps you would care to explain why you perceive having Kenshin's younger brother coming up here so they could finish their Senior year of High School together as unorthodox and ill-perceived? I am afraid I do not follow your line of thinking on the matter. On the contrary, as close as the boys are to each other emotionally, I should think it would be a grand idea. What do you find to be so unappetizing about it?"
"Well, I would think it would be quite obvious, Master Saitoh." Hiko was sounding more and more like a businessman than a concerned father. "Soujiro is a Senior here at Westmore High School, and should graduate with his friends and colleagues with whom he has spent the last 3 years of his life with. It is ludicrous to even suggest transferring him to Ive Payne at this point simply to try and make Kenshin more comfortable."
"Ahhh, I see. That is the whole point, isn't it Mr. Seijruou? Making Kenshin comfortable."
"Excuse me?" The voice on the other end of the line was becoming increasingly irritated as the conversation progressed. "Just exactly what are you implying Master? That I am not concerned about the wefare of both of my son's?"
"Are you, Mr. Seijuro?" Saitou was losing his patience and his respect for this man quite swiftly and in fairly equal amounts. "I think that it is not that you don't approve of Soujiro's transfer, it is that you do not want to be bothered with Kenshin or what might be best for him at this critical point in his life. Is that not more closer to the truth, Sir?"
"That is outrageous." The other man blustered angrily in response to Saitou's challenge making him smile with a secret amount of self satisfaction. Unless he was mistaken, he had hit the target dead center with this self-centered egotist, and now the man was trying desperately to back-peddle to preserve his reputation as the vigilant father. "I am trying to think of what is best for both of them. I have always tried to do what was best for Kenshin, despite his ungrateful attitude. You know how difficult he can be to deal with, you said it yourself over the last 3 years. The boy can be insufferable, and I do not want him to be a bad influence on Soujiro. I must try and do what is right for them both, and I do not believe that Soujiro would want to leave his friends and his School behind in his Senior year."
"Have you asked Soujiro what he wants to, or have you kept the letter and its contents to yourself?"
"Of course I have kept it to myself. He does not need to be burdened with a decision such as this."
"Why not? He is almost 18 the same as Kenshin. Is he not old enough to start making some of his own choices, or is it that your are afraid he might actually want to come up here and be with his brother?"
"I do not think I like the sound of what you seem to be insinuating, Master Saitou."
"Really, you have no idea how much that upsets me, Mr. Seijurou."
"Are you trying to cause difficulties between us over this matter, Head Master? Because if you are, I assure you that I can come up there to the school and remove my son from your custody and have you relieved of your position as School Master on the grounds of interfering in my personal family business."
"I do not think so, Mr. Seijurou. In case you have not noticed lately, I have full legal custody of your son which means you cannot do a single thing with him or about him until after he graduates, and then, only if the courts feel the home environment is going to be conducive to his continued rehabilitation. and I have serious reservations about that. So," His voice was taking on the tone of a deep growl as his temper flared. "Do not threaten me unless you are prepared to have your entire household put under a fucking microscope by state ordered social services sent to determine if your fit to resume custody of your son."
"You would not dare."
"Wouldn't I?" Saitou's fingers began drumming an agitated rhythm on top of the dark blue folder as his topaz eyes narrowed dangerously. "I wonder what the authorities would have to say when your daughter told them she has not set eyes on her oldest brother since the day he was sent here, and that the only contacts she is allowed with him are the hand drawn pictures the two of them trade through the mail?"
"There are reasons that you couldn't possibly understand that we have chosen to keep Cleo away from her brother until he comes home." Hiko was starting to sound decidedly nervous now.
"Really? I can only imagine what they must be especially when the number one rehabilitation factor in every troubled teens life is the love, support, and unconditional acceptance of his or her ENTIRE family. Tell me, Mr. Seijurou," He seethed into the telephone as his hand balled up into a fist. "How would the Courts view the fact that you and your wife have never come to one of your son's yearly evaluations? And what would they have to say about the frequency or, rather, the INFREQUENCY of your familial visits here at the school?"
"There are. r-reasons Master Saitou. Important reasons for our a- absences. I."
"Oh please, do not insult my intelligence or my Honor any longer, Mr. Seijurou. I have heard and seen quite enough of your so-called 'reasons' to last me the rest of my life and Kenshin's as well. If there is a drop of truthfulness left in your veins, I challenge you to ask Soujiro what he wants to do with his Senior year of High School, and then call me back. If you have the Honor to do so." With that furiously stated remark, Saitou dropped the receiver into its cradle with an angry 'clack', and then proceeded to pull Kenshin's file over to him.
Flipping it open in frustrated agitation, he looked deeply into the fierce violet eyes that stared out from the school photo and wondered what it was about this boy that caused such ferocious emotions in the people around him. "Everyone except his Father." He muttered to himself as he started to absently tap the picture with his forefinger. "I am beginning to wonder, my Young and quite possibly misunderstood and insolent-friend, if that man has ever cared about how you felt or what you thought a day in your life?" The uneasy feeling he had been getting about this whole situation was gradually working itself into a large, uncomfortable knot that was starting to gnaw at the School Master's vitals.
"Why is he so against helping you?" He asked the photo just before he closed the file and set it back on the desk. "What is he holding against you, Small Tiger? What have you done that was so unforgivable that he would throw you to the wolves and then leave you to basically rot for four years among strangers in a foreign Country?"
Saitou twisted around in his swivel chair until he could look out the window behind his desk. It had started to snow in the last hour, and he let his eyes follow some of the large lazy flakes as they floated gracefully to the ground and then immediately melted. The clouds were that soft water- color gray that promised snowfall for the whole day and most likely long into the night. It was going to be another cold, wet Halloween.
A short chuckle escaped him as he remembered a Halloween from several years ago when it had snowed like this. Quii had been about 10 years old then, and she had spent the entire day wavering between hope and despair as the storm had relentlessly continued without showing any signs of slowing or stopping.
She was dressing up as and evil fairy princess that year, and had decided on a particularly wicked witch type of a costume with particularly ugly make-up to go with it in hopes to scare everyone she and her friends met while out scoping the neighborhood. She had informed Tokio that 'All the snotty girls were being pretty fairies', and she did not want to look like any of them. So she wanted to be ugly and scary just so she could be mean to them and it would be ok, but the snow was not cooperating with her plans, and if it did not stop soon, she would have to cover up her costume with her coat when they went out trick-or-treating. She had been furious all night, and he had not been able to stop himself from laughing at the sour faces she kept making. 'Life is such a big deal when you are young.' He thought to himself as he leaned back in his chair and covered his eyes with one of his hands.
"Halloween." He muttered in a mocking voice. "Bah! Humbug."
"You better change that to Bah-hum-batwing or something else more appropriate to the occasion, School Master-san, or they will laugh you right out of your office."
"Saints be praised," He swivelled around with a droll smile on his face. "You mean there is actually a way for me to get out of this hell hole? Why wasn't I told about this before?"
"Hajime..." Tokio giggled attractively as she rounded the corner of her husband's desk and leaned down to give him a soft kiss. "Where's your ghoulish spirit, Koishii? You are positively dour looking." She perched herself upon the corner of his desk and looked very intently into his thin face. "What's wrong?"
"Am I that transparent?"
"Only to me."
"Great."
"Hey, it could be worse."
"It could?" He looked at her from beneath his thick gray-black eyelashes. "How?"
"Everybody could know you were human instead of just me." She raised her eyebrows at him emphasizing her point, and he groaned covering his eyes again.
"Oh God, not that... please, not that. It's bad enough that you know. I couldn't stand it if everyone knew."
"All right then, stop belly-aching like a little boy and tell me what's eating you?"
"How do you know something's eating me? And don't tell me it's because you know me." He growled into her knowing face. "You came down to my office for a specific reason." His topaz eyes narrowed at her for a moment, and then he growled again, deep in his throat. "I get it." He gritted out. "Ellsa."
"Yes, Ellsa." Tokio's dark brown eyes twinkled with amusement. "What on earth did you do to that poor woman to get her into such a frazzle? She nearly crushed 6 students in the hall on her way out of the building a little while ago."
"Really?" A shadow of dark humor crossed his face. "I almost wish I could have seen that."
"HAJIME!"
"Ok, ok, ok.." He flinched under her glare of mock disapproval. "All right, look... I asked her to get me the police report in Kenshin's juvie file from Denton nearly a week ago, and she has put it off for so long, she totally forgot about. I guess I sort of blew up at her this morning."
"Sort of blew up at her?" Tokio looked at him suspiciously. "Just exactly WHAT did you say to her when you blew up at her?"
"Ummmm... well..."
"Spit it out Master Saitou. What did you say?"
"Oh hell." Saitou threw his hands up in the air in frustrated defeat and then started rifling through the drawers of his desk looking for his cigarettes. "I told her to get up off her fat dough-nut ass and get it done for me today."
"Aaakk... Hajime! You didn't.... did you?" Tokio's face was lost somewhere between horror, incredulity, and the verge of hilarity.
"Yes, I did." He cast a furtive look up at her face and saw her battling with herself not to burst into laughter, and his own lips began to twitch unconsciously. That was the end of Tokio's control.
They both burst into laughter.
Poor Ellsa.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ivy Payne High School Early dismissal for the Holiday (Evermore takes Halloween very seriously) School Gymnasium: 1:23 p.m. Preparations for the Halloween Dance
Every year it was the responsibility of the Senior class to decorate the Gymnasium for the Halloween dance. This year was no different except that there had been quite a few of the Junior's drafted' into helping. Several of them were off of the basketball team, for obvious reasons. Being tall had it's drawbacks when it came to being hunted down to help hang decorations, especially when it came to draping that cotton, fuzzy spider webbing stuff from one end of the Gym to the other while trying to attach it to every basketball hoop, light, screw, nail, and whatever else the 'Side-Walk-Superintendent' could find for them to attach it too.
The 'Side-Walk-Superintendent' was the One person who had been chosen to officially be 'In Charge' of the dance decorations, and it had been a hands-down landslide vote when nominations were made. Megumi Takani had taken more than 80% of the school votes and she was not even a Senior yet. She had earned the nickname 'Side-Walk-Superintendent' because she had proved herself to be better at telling people what to do than actually helping anyone do anything. When it came to the practical end of decorating, Megumi was hopeless. She was afraid of heights, so the ladder was out of the question. She was constantly griping about either breaking a nail or getting her clothes dirty, so stapling, pining, and taping were also out of the question because it involved digging through boxes and boxes of old decorations etc, and she just was NOT going to do that. Besides, there could be mice, and she could not stand mice.
"They carry diseases, you know." She had quipped in her own self defense when the others had given her the usual 'You have got to be kidding me,' looks before humphing at her and turning around to do it themselves. It was easier than arguing with her.
She did have a good eye for decorating though, and the Gym was really starting to come together and looking very cool and 'Halloween-ish' as Mrs. Gensai, the History teacher, has said when she had poked her head in for a look. Kaoru and Misao had just looked at each other and smiled through their dirt smudged faces and offered the older woman polite 'Thank-you's'. They were both still a little bit pissed off about being stuck doing this anyway. They were both Juniors like Megumi, but because they were her 'bestest friends', she had coerced them both into helping her do this. The only good thing about it was the guys. Both Kenshin and Aoshi were stuck in the Gym helping with decorations the same as they were, but they were stuck doing it because they were Seniors. But what was truly sad, was poor Sano. Now that he and Megumi had officially decided that they were officially going out, she was ordering him around like he was her personal slave, and the poor boy looked like he was just about frazzled to the bone.
"Come on, Sanosuke..." Megumi stuck her head out of one of the big double doors that opened off the Gym into the main hallway of the school, and craning her neck around the corner, she scowled in irritation at the young man stumbling down that same hallway as he tried to juggle several boxes filled with crape paper and cardboard skeletons among other assorted junk and faded wall hangings. "Hurry up, will you? You've got ladder duty on the East wall"
"I'm trying to, Kitsune... but-t these boxes are kinda... awkward ya know."
"Oh come on... don't give me that, there's only a couple of them." She pouted prettily as he reached her and struggled through the door she was holding open for him. "You're just not wanting to help me anymore. That's all it is, isn't it?"
"Huh? What?" He turned around with an incredulous look on his tired and dusty face, and as he did, he became tangled up in his own feet and went tumbling to the floor in a flurry of black and orange streamers and flying cardboard skeleton arms and legs... besides his own long and lanky extremities. "Huurooomph!.... Ahhhh dammit!" He swore as he landed hard with his rear end on the old wood floor.
"SANO!" Megumi shouted in anxiety and concern as she raced to his side and quickly knelt down to see if he was all right. "Are you Ok? I'm so sorry, Honey... did you hurt yourself? Did you break anything, Baby? Can you move? Is anything broken?" She was trying to bend his arms and his legs while he was trying to untangle himself from the paraphernalia that entrapped him, and he was becoming more frustrated by the moment as it seemed the harder he tried the more confined he became.
"I'M FINE!" He finally shouted when her 'ministrations' started causing more difficulties with him getting free than they were helping. "Stop, Ok... Just stop helping me for a minute will ya... Lemme' get out of this stuff for pete's sake. Shit!" Megumi immediately scooted back away from his struggling form wearing a damaged looked on her face and then stood up, her bottom lip trembling.
"You're just a great big stupid jerk." She snapped in a tight voice. "I was just trying to see if you'd broken anything or if you were hurt or... Oh crap, who cares anyway, you're just a big insensitive, selfish moron anyway." Then she turned and started to stomp away leaving Sano with his mouth hanging open wondering what in the hell was going on with her, but when she stopped and swung back to face him, he knew he was in real trouble. Her pretty face was scrunched up into a tight mask of hurt anger and there were tears brimming in her furious brown eyes.
"Uh-oh," He muttered under his breath. "I'm a dead man."
"You know..." She swayed suggestively over to him and bent down until she was almost looking him right in the eye, "I think maybe it's too bad you DIDN'T get hurt after the way you just treated me, you slimy snake." And with that she pulled her foot back and kicked him sharply in the butt which sent him howling in pain and put a smile of vindication on Megumi's otherwise sad and dejected face as she walked away leaving Sano moaning in abject agony.
"Hmmmm..." Misao looked at Kaoru, who was still looking pale since their ordeal at the Lighthouse a couple of nights ago, but otherwise Ok. "Do you think he'll be dancing tonight?"
"With HER?" Kaoru asked back with a touch of laughter in her voice.
"With ANYBODY." Was Misao's sarcastic response, and the two of them busted up into giggles as they tried to imagine the poor rooster trying to limp around the dance floor with a bruised derriere.
"I guess we'll all just have to wait and find out, won't we?" Came the dour baritone-tenor reply that brought both of them spinning around from the large pumpkin they were trying to get to stay taped to the wall to see who had caught them catching a bit of fun at their friends expense. Kenshin was leaning lazily on the long handle of the push broom he had been using to help stretch spider webbing a few moments earlier, and was nonchalantly giving the two embarrassed girls one of his rare mischievous smiles causing both of them to start and stutter just a little as they acknowledged his presence.
"Kenshin!" Kaoru squeaked in a flustered voice. "I... W-we didn't hear you c-come up."
"So I gathered." The smile on his face widened and two feminine hearts skipped a beat. "That was a rather unkind remark you made about the poor ole' rooster-boy, Miss Misao." He chided in a teasing voice as dark violet eyes filled with mirth settled on the flushed face of the Weasel Girl.
"Well, what do you think after that 'ass kicking' the kitsune just gave him?" Misao arched her shapely black eyebrows at him in question and retaliation for sneaking up on them like he had. "Do YOU think he's gonna be up to 'bumpin and grindin' anything or anybody after that?"
Kenshin tossed his head back and started to laugh at Misao's descriptive remark bringing surprised looks from many of the other students in his direction as they gawked at the usually somber and aloof red-headed Senior letting loose with an honest show of spontaneity, and as he laughed, shock rolled through the room like a wave rolls across the ocean. There was not one of them who could hardly believe it. It was not everyday one was allowed to see Kenshin Himura do anything other than wear that absent blank look of his that told everyone to 'stay the hell away from me, I bite,' which he always wore, let alone laugh or even crack a smile. This was shocking to say the very least.
'Go ahead, let them look. The stupid creeps.' Kaoru thought acidly as she watched the looks of shock and astonishment that passed between the students in the Gym as they shared their stunned bewilderment over Kenshin's show of emotion. As the exchange of words and finger pointing started, she felt the beginning of a tight little ball of fury forming in the pit of her stomach and her lips thinned in response.
'Go on and look you stupid Moron's!' Suddenly Kaoru wanted to scream at them for being so blind to him and so cruel in their judgements of him. What did they know? Nothing. Not one of them had ever tried to get to know him. Not one had ever tried to take the risk and peak behind the frozen mask on his face. hey were all just a bunch of stupid mice that lived in the dark too afraid to come out because they heard there was a cat on the prowl. 'Stupid mice,' She thought with a vicious click of her teeth as her jaw tightened. 'There is no cat, he's just as frightened of you as you are of him... you're just too damn stupid to see it. So how dare you judge him...you don't know him....you don't know anything about him, so go ahead and look you stupid fucking mice. Stare until your eyes pop out of your stupid heads. You are all blind anyway... you could never understand a person like him... you're all too damn shallow to understand anyone as complex and beautiful as Kenshin.' As the thoughts stormed through her mind, Kaoru was too preoccupied to notice when Kenshin stopped laughing and started watching her as she glared malevolently at the other students. Finally, when her eyes began to take on a feral gleam, he decided it was time to find out what was going on inside of her pretty head.
"Hey, Honey?" He asked quietly as he put two fingers beneath the rigidness of her chin and gently turned her head until he locked gazes with her. "What are you doing? It looks like you're about ready to pounce on somebody and inflict serious bodily harm here. What's going on with you? What are you doing?" He asked again.
"Watching them... watch you." She replied in a low furious voice as she felt the glittering anger reflected in her bright sapphire eyes began vibrating across an invisible energy stream that was suddenly connecting the two of them, and Kaoru watched in amazement as it began to dance and gleam like a thousand diamond chips inside the clear violet crystals that were reaching out and pulling her into the comfort of their tender gaze. She was captured.
"I can see that, Honey," Now that he had Kaoru's attention, Kenshin could feel the uncustomary anger draining out of her, and he breathed an unconscious sigh of relief as he continued. "What I meant before was... WHY are you watching them? And what are you so pissed off at them about?"
As he looked intently into Kaoru's large blue eyes, Kenshin absent mindedly handed Misao the broom he was holding so he could use his that hand to cup Kaoru's cheek, and then, just like that, the now stunned and totally bewildered girl standing beside them, as well as the janitorial implement, were completely forgotten.
For a moment Misao was hurt that she had been shut out of the conversation just that fast, but then she pursed her lips in a knowing smirk and made a silent exit as her two friends became completely immersed within one another. She decided to go find Aoshi. He ought to be in here somewhere and was no doubt in need of 'some sort' of help. She started pushing the broom along the floor as an excuse to make her way around the entire Gym in her covert search for the tall, graceful green-eyes Senior.
"I... I was watching them watch you." Kaoru's voice dropped to a lower tenor as one of her hands came up to trail finger tips along his right cheek. "They were all watching you laugh like you were some kind of a freak or something. It made me angry... it was cruel."
"Well...to them, I am some kind of a freak or something, Tanuki." Kenshin leaned into her and rubbed his forehead against hers while he dropped the hand from her chin to slip in around her waist and gently pull her closer. "And I should imagine that seeing me laughing would be quite a spectacle for them. They are more used to me being the stand-offish type that bites when I get cornered... or something like that."
"But that is exactly what made me so mad, Kenshin." Her hand slid down the right side of his throat, over the curve of his shoulder, and then behind his upper arm so it could grip the hard muscular bulge of his triceps as they flexed beneath her soft touch. "They don't know you... they have no right to judge you or any of the things you do. It just isn't right, that's all." She was tentatively stepping closer to him as her other hand lifted and settled comfortably around his shoulders on the left side.
"Don't let it bother you, Honey." He said softly as the hand cupping her cheek carefully slipped along the curve of her jaw until it was beneath the weight of her hair gently massaging the sensitive nape of her neck. "I stopped looking and listening to them a long time ago, and I want you to do the same, all right? It does not matter to me what they say or think. It really doesn't."
"But..."
"No, there are no 'buts'." Kenshin cut her off a bit sharply as he pulled back and looked down into her face with glittering firmness in his eyes. "If I listened to everything everyone said about me at this school, and let it get to me... shit, I'd probably never come out of my room." Kaoru lowered her eyes for a moment and let her hands come in across his shoulders to rub the hard muscles of his chest. As she did that, she heard him catch his breath on a tiny gasp, and the flesh beneath her hands flexed hard for a half a second. Inwardly she was smiling with pure feminine pleasure. He liked her touch.
"That's funny, you know." She said as she looked back up at him through the thickness of her eyelashes and a sly smile on her full lips.
"Why?" He asked as he narrowed his eyes warily and let his hand slid from her nape to the center of her back where he splayed out his fingers to strengthen his embrace around her.
"Because," she shrugged and offered a shy giggle that suddenly had him worried. "I just can't picture you hiding in your room like a scared little mouse. It just looks all wrong up in my head."
"What do you mean, it looks wrong in your head?" He was wearing that boyish half-smile that made her stomach do somersaults, and Kaoru found herself trying to catch her breath and nervously batting her eyelashes. She wished he would not do that when she was trying to talk. It was just to hard to concentrate when he looked at her like that.
"Well," she began in a voice filled with giggles. "I'm trying to picture how you would be if you were a scared kid... and I keep coming up with this nerdy-type picture of you with oily, stringy hair half hanging out of your ponytail, round glasses that are all smudged up with tape wrapped around one of the temples cause their broken, high-water pants, argyle socks, hush-puppy shoes, polo shirts, and a sweat-gland problem."
"Oh my God..." Kenshin buried his face in the curve of Kaoru's neck and burst into uncontrolled laughter earning them both more gawking looks from the students in the Gym.
"See what I mean?" She said to the ear that was next to her cheek. "It just doesn't fit... does it?" At that last little jibe at his reputation, she began laughing with him half because of the tickling vibrations he was making on her skin with his mouth, and half because it was an awfully funny picture.
"Honey..." He choked against her throat. "That is just plain cruel. How could you do that to me?"
"I didn't mean it for real." The giggles just would not stop now that she had gotten started. But Kenshin liked her like this. This was the first time he had ever really heard her laugh and it was making him feel really good. Hell, who was he kidding... It was making him feel free, and that was an feeling he did not think he knew how to feel anymore. Kenshin's arms tightened around her as he unconsciously pulled her closer in an effort to soak up the positive energy that was growing and flowing between their souls, and to his surprise, Kaoru tightened her grip on him as well. It almost felt to him like she was holding on afraid if she let go it would all go away or something. Well, she might be in for quite a surprise if he had anything to do with it because he did not want it to go away.
"Hey," He whispered slyly into her ear. "Come here for a minute."
"Where?" She asked with big blue eyes searching his face in puzzlement.
"Just trust me... come on." And he took her by the hand leading her along the wall until they disappeared under the bleachers. In a moment Kenshin had opened a door that Kaoru had never noticed was there before, he silently ducked inside pulling her in behind him, and then quietly closed the door just before he turned on the light.
It was a small storage closet with shelves on one wall filled with floor cleaners, wood polishers, wax, clothes and other things that would be used exclusively for the care of the hard wood floor in the Gym. There was enough room for the two people to stand and move around inside, but that was all. It was a very small space.
"What are we doing in here, Kenshin?" Kaoru asked him in a squeaky breathless voice as she felt his hands slide easily around her waist and gently pull her closer to him. She could feel the thundering beat of his heart beneath her slightly trembling palms, as she instinctively laid her hands on the hard flat muscles of his chest.
"Nothing, Kao." Kenshin's voice was husky as he leaned into her and rubbed his cheek against hers in a rough feline-like caress that made her whole body tremble violently in response. "I just wanted to kiss you without everybody watching... and I didn't feel like waiting until later." Flaming golden crystals opened and gazed deeply into her innocent rounded sapphires as the warmth of his right hand lifted and traced the outline of her quivering lips bringing a startled gasp of pleasure and confusion from them. "Is that all right with you, Tanuki? Can I kiss you?" He asked in that same husky voice and it sent shivers of gooseflesh across her arms and down her back as her heart began racing frantically inside her chest. "I won't... if you don't want me too." Kenshin backed away and waited for permission or rejection without even realizing he was holding his breath. Maybe this had not been such a good idea. Maybe it was still too soon. Maybe she did not want him too... But that was a whole different problem...
"I want you to... Kenshin... I want you to..." Kaoru's voice was barely an audible whisper when she was finally able to speak past the wildly beating heart lodged in her throat, but as the heated moistness of her breath passed over his fingers, a low moan of relief escaped Kenshin's mouth as it parted and he pressed his lips into the sweet heaven of hers.
Kenshin had not kissed Kaoru since the night they had all gone to the Lighthouse. It was not that he had not wanted to. He had wanted to. He DID want to. It just had not seemed the right thing to do after everything that had happened that night especially after she had confided in him everything about the night her parents had died. He had just been trying to be there for her since then. Just being her 'boyfriend'. Being the guy who hangs around and to give her somebody to lean on if she wants, and all that. Wasn't that the kind of things boyfriends were supposed to do for their girlfriends? He wanted to be the kind of guy she deserved to have, and that seemed to be a good place to try and start. So he had not tried to push anything or do anything. He had just been there for her.
He had held her that night and let her cry for nearly 3 hours, and they had both nearly gotten caught for him being in her room, but he had managed to get out the window before Old Man Gensai had made it to her room for his 7:00 a.m. rounds that morning. Then he had almost bought the farm getting back to his own room in the boys dorm before Mr. Yukishiro did the same. It had been a tight squeeze getting past the sharp eyes and keen hearing of the rat-faced English teacher, who was also Tomoe's father. Poor Tomoe.
Since that night, things between the two of them had gotten... well, interesting. They had spent most of the next day together just setting down by the stream talking... talking about everything. He still could not believe it, but he had told her all about his family, his brother, his baby sister, and the bullshit that went down the night he and his 'friends' went their separate ways. He told her how his parents had just dumped him into the hands of the Cops and the Courts, how they never tried to find out from his what had happened, and how they never seemed to care what happened to him after that. She had sat beside him and listened... for hours it seemed... just listened, and did not say a word until he was finished, and then she had rolled over onto her knees and put her arms around him and hugged him really hard. It had shocked him so badly that he had just set there doing nothing for almost a full minute before he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him than he had ever held anybody, and they had stayed like that, just holding onto each other for the longest time. Kissing her had not even crossed his mind at that point, he had just wanted to hold onto her afraid that if he let go of her she would disappear and he would find out it had all been just a really bad joke on him, and that she had never been real at all and he was still totally alone. But, when they had finally let go of each other, nobody disappeared and she had laid her head on his shoulder and said something to him that still burned in his mind and heart.
"I am so glad I came here, Kenshin. I didn't want to, you know. I hated the idea of having to move all the way to Main from Oregon, but Yahiko and I did not have a choice. Dr. Gensai was who the courts chose from the list of possible Guardian's that our parents left. We were floundering in the School's back home... I guess it was just too close to... well, to everything. he house, the cemetery... everything."
And then she had looked back up into his face with those huge beautiful blue eyes of hers and smiled for the first time since he had met her. It was a real smile, not one of those half pasted on things that get you by when you know you have to be polite, but a real, honest smile that lit up her whole face. It was the most glorious thing Kenshin had ever seen, and it had taken his breath away, but the words that came with the smile would be engraved on his heart forever.
"Maybe God sent me here, Kenshin. Maybe God sent me here so I could help you and you could help me...maybe we're supposed to help each other." She had leaned up into him and tenderly kissed his cheek and then looked at him again. "I do know one thing for sure though."
"What is that?" He had asked in a quiet voice as his hand had reached out to touch her face.
"Meeting you is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because you're the best friend I ever had... and you always will be."
"So are you..." He had whispered back and then grasped both of her hands and buried his face in them. "So are you, Tanuki...so are you."
But then he had looked back up at her with wide questioning eyes. "Is that all we are going to be, Kaoru? Just friends?"
"Is that all you want us to be, Kenshin?" She had asked back with a worried look on her face.
"I-I...what do you want us to be?"
"That isn't fair." She had tried to pull her hands away, but he had refused to let them go.
"Why isn't it? Don't you think I am just as vulnerable as you are in this?"
"I guess that depends," Sapphires filled with deep anxiety and some other emotion he could not name were suddenly staring very intently at his face.
"Depends on what?" Nervous butterflies were starting to make him feel a bit nauseous as he found himself in a position of extreme worry and fear that he had never thought to experience.
"On whether or not we want the same thing... if we don't, one of us gets hurt." She dropped her head and looked at their conjoined hands and the silence between them stretched out until it became unbearable for Kenshin.
"All right, I can't take this..." His voice was small and even a little shaky and Kaoru looked at him with shock and concern on her face not sure how to react to his out-of-character behavior.
"What is wrong, Kenshin? What do you mean you can't take this?"
"I can't take the silence between us, and the waiting to see which one of us is going to give in first. We are both obviously too damn stubborn and too scared to do it... so, one of us is just going to have to jump off the cliff and take the chance."
"Jump off the cliff?" Kaoru's eyes got even rounder (if that were possible).
"Yes...one of us has to take the chance and tell the other what we want out of this relationship...if it is 'just best friends', or if...if 'it's more than just friends', and... and..." He stopped and pulled in a ragged breath while he readjusted his grip on her hands, and then he closed his eyes for a long moment and became very still. Kaoru watched him in concern wondering what he was doing, but, not daring to disturb him at that moment, she just sat and waited to see what would happen.
Suddenly his eyes opened and he had looked her straight in the face, drew a single deep breath, and then spoke in an even and clear toned voice.
"I want you to be my girlfriend, Kaoru. I don't want us to be 'just friends...' I want it to be more than that. I want to be able to do more than just hug you... I want to be able to hold you in my arms, and cuddle you close, and... and I want to kiss you... all over someday if you'll let me. But even if you don't, I want to be the one whose kisses make your heart beat faster; I want to be the one whose touches make you catch your breath and tremble; I want to be the one you come to when your hurt or afraid or lonely... or when you need a friend to talk to or... or just need someone to hold you just because you need it."
His eyes were searching her face anxiously as he spoke, and his hands were unconsciously squeezing hers tighter as he looked for any sign of acceptance from her. But all she was doing was staring at him with a stunned blank look on her face, and Kenshin had felt his heart sinking down into the darkness of loneliness once more. He had dropped his eyes as a muscle had started to twitch in his jaw and a lump started to form in his throat. Pain, he had thought. Here comes the pain, but it had never happened because in the next moment Kaoru was tackling him to the ground as she threw herself at him in an enormous bear hug that sent them both rolling and laughing down the embankment as she had cried 'Yesyesyesyesyes' over and over again in wild joyous giggles. He had wanted to kiss her then, but his hopes and wants had been miserably dashed when they had both ended up in the freezing water instead.
Hysterical screams and loud laughter had followed the unexpected dousing, and they had struggled to help each other up and out of the stream but found it a more difficult task than they imagined. Due to the slippery moss covering the stones that lined the stream bed combined with their uncontrolled mirth, the two of them kept losing their footing and ending right back where they started... flat on their cold, wet butts.
Once they got out, got into clean dry clothes, they had spent the rest of the day in the commissary drinking hot tea and setting by the fireplace trying to stay warm. The question of 'boyfriend and girlfriend' had not come up again. It appeared to be a mute point.
After that was when she had started teasing him and laughing, and he had starting calling her Kao and smiling more often. They had spent nearly every possible waking moment together as well. He walked her to classes, they ate together in the commissary, and they even did their homework together and watched television. The rumors were starting to fly that they were a couple, and... well...after all, weren't they?
Now, a couple of days later, and both of them feeling a little more comfortable with each other, Kenshin had quietly pulled Kaoru into the tiny custodial closet that was hidden beneath the bleachers. Maybe 3 people in the entire school knew it was there.
The Custodian.
Master Saitou.
And Kenshin Himura, who used to use it as a private hide out to get away from everyone when he was tired of being bothered with too many things by too many people. It was his private out of the way haven, and no one ever went inside except during basketball season, and AFTER dances. So, he knew there was no way anyone was going to walk in on them. They were perfectly alone, and he finally had the chance to do what he had been aching to do since they had fallen into the stream... really kiss her.
At first it was just lips on lips, but as the passion and heat between them grew, and the kisses became wetter and longer Kenshin and Kaoru both began to look for something that was a little more satisfying.
His hands left her waist and rose to cup her face holding it immobile, and as the weight of his body pushed her back against the wall behind them, the tentative thrust of his tongue pressed against the barrier of her partially closed mouth and teeth asking a question which she passionately answered by fisting both of her hands into the thick mane of his dark red hair and opening the moistness of her lips to let him in.
As Kenshin listened to the tiny whimpering cries of burgeoning sexual awareness echo deep within Kaoru's slender throat, he slipped the hard strength of his tongue deep into her open mouth and pressed the firmness of his hips and thighs against the softness of hers. He felt her yield and mold herself into him as she accepted the pressure of him against her, and taking his left hand, he ran it down along the length of her thigh until he reached her knee, and then he deliberately lifted it up until he could drape her leg over his hip. This allowed him to press himself more intimately against her which brought an even more desperate cry of need from deep within her as she pushed herself against the hardness of him that she could feel digging into her lower stomach.
Dragging his mouth away from hers, he burned a trail of moist kisses down the side of her throat as his free hand rose to cup and tenderly massage her breast. This action caused a violent shudder to course through her body, and he felt her weight buckle in his arms as she cried his name out in a ragged voice.
"Kenn-nshhin... ooooOoooo God..."
"Kao..." Her name was a hoarse whisper torn from his throat as his arms swiftly encircled her to keep her from falling to the floor. "Oh Baby... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to go that far." Gently he pulled her quacking body closely against him and cradled her head in the curve of his shoulder. "You went straight to my head," He murmured in a shaky voice as he rested his cheek against her forehead. "I promise all I intended to do was just kiss you, Honey... I swear it was."
"I-I believe y-you..." She maneuvered herself slightly so she could slide her arms around his neck and pull him close to her. "It's Ok...It's not like I didn't get carried away right along with you, Sweetie."
"Are you sure?" Anxiety was clearly an issue as he tightened his arms around her. "I don't want this to turn into a trust issue. I really didn't..."
"STOP!" The tone was low and sharp as she gave him a little shake before pressing a soft reassuring kiss against the warmth of his neck. "Don't even go there, Mister Kenshin Himura, do you hear me?" Kaoru pulled back from him and locked gazes with his now deeply troubled violet eyes. "I swear, if you let yourself get all guilty and uptight over this... I'll... I'll never kiss you again."
"Excuse me?" One fine dark brown eyebrow arched arrogantly at her audacity and unmitigated gall to threaten HIM. (He loved it.) "WHAT did you say?"
"You heard me, Mr. Tough Guy. I said, I'll never kiss you again if you get all weird on me over this dumb thing." And as she stared him defiantly in the face, Kaoru saucily tossed her head back sending all of her long ebony hair cascading down her back and falling across his arms. "And IF you don't like that, bad boy... deal with it."
"You're spouting some pretty big talk for such a little girl... little girl." Violet eyes darkened to a deep purple as they narrowed into dangerous slits, and Kaoru felt a little shiver of a wariness snake up her spine as she met that predatory gaze he was raking her with.
"So, what are you going to do about it?" She quipped flippantly.
"Is that a challenge, Miss Kamiya?" The voice was close to a growl and Kaoru shivered with frightened delight. She had never seen Kenshin quite like this... this was fun.
"Possibly... what if it is?"
"Never, never make idle challenges, little tanuki... unless you are prepared to meet the consequences." The wicked being that was Kenshin leaned back into her and very slowly and deliberately began to burrow its nose through her thick black hair until it found the creamy soft flesh of her throat.
"What sort of c-conse-quences, Mister Himura?" Her voice was breathless and one of her hands was working its way into the mane of his hair as he worked his way into her throat.
"Dangerous ones..." He growled and then suddenly seized her around the waist and began to tickle her mercilessly. As her high-pitched squeals of panicked laughter began to fill the small closet space, Kenshin dove in and captured her mouth with his effectively silencing her cries for him to stop. The tickling frenzy continued for a few more seconds until Kenshin decided he was more interested in Kaoru's mouth that he was in her systematic torture for being such a mouthy brat.
As his hands began lazily rubbing her sides instead of abusing them, Kaoru relaxed against him and opened her mouth letting him gently slid his tongue inside to stroke it along the top and sides of hers. A long sigh of pleasurable comfort escaped her as she once more wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed the soft curves of her body against the harder planes of his.
With the initial needs and passions somewhat satisfied by the heat of the first kiss, and the reassurance of trust and mutual caring reestablished, the two teens succumbed to the simple pleasures of lips, tongues, and tender caressing hands as they stood comfortably within each others loving embraces. This time when Kenshin's hand rose to touch the softness of Kaoru's breast, it was a feathery brush of his palm across the rounded flesh instead of the full hand grasp of before, but it still brought a pleasurable whimper to her lips and a tremble of desire to her body. And when Kaoru's instincts led her to press the lower half of her body against the hardness of his, she basked in the glory of feeling a very similar tremor of desire and pleasure course through his much stronger frame. It would appear he was not any more immune to her than she was to him.
After a time of working on her beautiful lips, Kenshin finally pulled away from her and rested his forehead against hers and waited while their breathing steadied again. Slowly he raised a hand and tenderly began to trace the curve of her face as her eyes closed in the pleasure of simply soaking up the feeling of his touch on her skin.
"You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life, Kao." He spoke in a strangely reverent tone that brought her eyes open to search out his and finding them looking at her so tenderly that she felt the burn of tears coming to her eyes.
"Ken... What?" She touched his face gently and he turned so he could kiss her finger tips. Kaoru watched him and a wonderment she had never known filled her heart and glowed from her eyes and face. He was so beautiful, this socially complicated, emotionally complex red-haired angel- wolf she... loved? Is that what this was? This humongous, enormous feeling that she had when she looked at him now? Was this what loving someone felt like? Was this how her parents had felt about each other? This part playful child, part dangerous predator, part soulful philosopher, part hungry beast, part passionate lover... was all of this Love? It felt right, the word with the feeling, but it was frightening to think about it right now. Too soon... too fast... too much... Could it happen that fast? And if it did, could it last forever? Or even a lifetime?
Tender emotion filled violet pools looked into her face and Kaoru felt her world go to mush as Kenshin pulled her back into his arms and just held her close against him. Was this Love? It felt so good to be this close to him... to held by him this way, with all of this emotion and energy around them, but... was this Love?
"Kenshin, Sweetheart... Are you all right?" Kaoru gently stroked the long silken length of his hair as a fine tremor ran through his body. "Baby?" She was beginning to worry when he did not answer, but just continued to hold on to him as that seemed to be what he wanted. After a few long silent moments, he finally spoke to her in a voice muffled by her hair and shoulder.
"I am all right, Kao." She turned her head slightly so she could hear him better as he continued. "It is just... I... I..." He paused for a few seconds and then pulled back from her and looked into her concerned face. Kaoru gasped softly at what she saw.
There were tears on Kenshin's face, and more brimming in his beautiful amethyst eyes. Tenderly she lifted a hand and wiped some of the wetness away, but said nothing... she just waited for him to continue.
"It is so hard for me... you know that."
She nodded slightly and gently cupped his face as she maintained eye contact with him. "I... I do not understand what is happening to me... I... feel... I don't know what I feel, but... Oh Kao," His trembling hands rose to cup her face and more tears poured down his. "Honey... it's so BIG."
"I understand, Sweetheart," she whispered back as she leaned into him and pressed a teary kiss into his lips. She did not even know when she had begun to cry, but her face was just as wet as his was.
"Do you?" Anxious pools of violet searched the comforting warmth of dark blue cobalt. "How can you understand?"
"Because, you big goof..." Her smile was more brilliant than any starburst had ever been. "This THING I feel for you is BIG too, and I don't know how its happening either... it is just there, and that is all I know." A watery half smile curved his handsome mouth, and the anxiety in his eyes was replaced by something much more bright and cheerful as he soaked up the fact that she was just as confused as he was... felt just as stupid about it... and was just as happy about it as well... and she was not pulling away from him either. In fact, she was pulling him back into her for another wet kiss which he was more than happy to give to her.
Life did not get much better than that.
Kenshin decided at that moment that salty kisses were just about better than any of the others he had ever tried. They had a lot more impact on the whole relationship scheme of things than any of the others had... so, they were probably going to be the one's he remembered the most from that day he and Kaoru made out in the Custodian's closet before the Halloween Dance.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I love this story... I think it has turned into my own favorite... it seems to be everyone elses as well.
I realize I have asked this before on my other fiction, and on my webpage, but it is such an important issue to me, that I am going to ask again. Please, please my dear friends... go to either the K & K archives on my webpage or to my Favorite Stories on my Fanfiction.net Author's page and read the story, 'Being Held in Your Arms' by Female Hitokiri Battosai. I has been written in honor and tribute to her friend, Lisa, whose mother is dying of cancer and cannot be saved. This is one of the worst things I can imagine for a teen to go through, Female Hitokiri Battousai has written this exceptional piece of art in an attempt to help her friend deal with the loss. I only ask that you read and leave a review with you sympathetic wishes and prayers for her friends family. This is one of the most beautiful and selfless gestures I have ever seen... and one of the most heart-felt and magnificent works of emotional script I have ever read. Please help her help her friend, and help me help her to know that she is worth more to this world than just someone who writes fanfiction. Please do this with me... I know there are more people than myself who have enjoyed and benefitted from this beautiful girls gifted writing. Help me Help her Help her Friend. Thank you. Much Love, and God Bless Kanzen Ne Tsuki
Nigihayami Haruko: This is probably one of my favourite chapters, such a joy to read and beta-read. I'm sure all of you would love it too. Don't forget to review later on!
Kenshin Kodora Himura: Kodora=Small Tiger,
Chapter Nine
Digging In The Garbage October 31, 2001. Tuesday Halloween Day, 1000 a.m.
"It's a juvenile police report, Mrs. Anderson, and as the resident Commissioned School Master of Ive Payne High School where Kenshin Himura happens to be a student, I have every legal right to request a copy of it to have inside of his permanent file history. Especially considering that this institution is being considered the place of his incarceration. Now, I do not, in way, believe that I am making an outlandish or unreasonable request, and as you are employed by this educational institution as one of its higher paid staff, as well as being MY personal assistant, I am fairly certain that the procurement of said document or documents comes well under your direct line of job duties. Therefore, as I believe I am not mistaken in any of these assumptions, since I was the one responsible for writing your bloody job description last year, I would be more than grateful if you would get up off your fat doughnut laden ass and GET THIS DONE FOR ME TODAY SINCE I GAVE YOU THE REQUEST NEARLY A WEEK AGO AND SHOULD HAVE ALREADY HAD THE SAID DOCUMENT OR DOCUMENTS ON MY GODDAMN DESK YESTERDAY!"
"Yes-yes Sir, M-master S-saitou... I-I will g-g-get right on it." And suddenly Saitoh was treated to an unusual and almost grotesquely comical scene. The more than ample frame of one Mrs. Ellsa Anderson trying to extract herself from her own work station without spilling her 6 creams and 7 sugars large coffee as she eased her oblong butt out of her chair by wiggled it from side to side an inch at a time. Once she was finally free, she turned around, frantically grabbed up her coat, announced in a shrill squeaky voice that she was off to the County Court Office to see if they could help expedite the request, and then trotted at high speed down the hallway on her 4 inch heels looking much like a bright yellow, red, and white beach ball as she bounced feverishly on her way to try and rectify her obvious mistake.
"Dear Lord," Saitou moaned in agitation as he rubbed a hand across his disbelieving eyes and muttered under his breath. "May the Angels of Saint Mary save us all." Then he turned and walked back into his office slamming the door sharply behind him. The phone on his desk started to ring before he had quite made it back to his chair so he made a quick spin around the corner of his desk and scooped up the receiver.
"School Master Saitou, how can I help you?"
"Ahhh, yes, Master Saitou, this is Hiko Seijurou. I just received your letter in my mail this morning."
"I see." Saitou sat down and began to idly fiddle with the frayed corner of Kenshin's file where it sat on his desk. It seemed to have become a permanent fixture the last week. "And have you read it through, Mr. Seijurou? Have you had time to consider my request?"
"Yes, I have," Was the haughty retort from the other end of the telephone. "And I must admit that I find your request to be... unusual if not a bit... Unorthodox and poorly planned out."
"Unorthodox?" Saitou tried desperately to keep the irritation out of his voice as he responded to the strict single-minded man who was Kenshin Himura's step-father. "Perhaps you would care to explain why you perceive having Kenshin's younger brother coming up here so they could finish their Senior year of High School together as unorthodox and ill-perceived? I am afraid I do not follow your line of thinking on the matter. On the contrary, as close as the boys are to each other emotionally, I should think it would be a grand idea. What do you find to be so unappetizing about it?"
"Well, I would think it would be quite obvious, Master Saitoh." Hiko was sounding more and more like a businessman than a concerned father. "Soujiro is a Senior here at Westmore High School, and should graduate with his friends and colleagues with whom he has spent the last 3 years of his life with. It is ludicrous to even suggest transferring him to Ive Payne at this point simply to try and make Kenshin more comfortable."
"Ahhh, I see. That is the whole point, isn't it Mr. Seijruou? Making Kenshin comfortable."
"Excuse me?" The voice on the other end of the line was becoming increasingly irritated as the conversation progressed. "Just exactly what are you implying Master? That I am not concerned about the wefare of both of my son's?"
"Are you, Mr. Seijuro?" Saitou was losing his patience and his respect for this man quite swiftly and in fairly equal amounts. "I think that it is not that you don't approve of Soujiro's transfer, it is that you do not want to be bothered with Kenshin or what might be best for him at this critical point in his life. Is that not more closer to the truth, Sir?"
"That is outrageous." The other man blustered angrily in response to Saitou's challenge making him smile with a secret amount of self satisfaction. Unless he was mistaken, he had hit the target dead center with this self-centered egotist, and now the man was trying desperately to back-peddle to preserve his reputation as the vigilant father. "I am trying to think of what is best for both of them. I have always tried to do what was best for Kenshin, despite his ungrateful attitude. You know how difficult he can be to deal with, you said it yourself over the last 3 years. The boy can be insufferable, and I do not want him to be a bad influence on Soujiro. I must try and do what is right for them both, and I do not believe that Soujiro would want to leave his friends and his School behind in his Senior year."
"Have you asked Soujiro what he wants to, or have you kept the letter and its contents to yourself?"
"Of course I have kept it to myself. He does not need to be burdened with a decision such as this."
"Why not? He is almost 18 the same as Kenshin. Is he not old enough to start making some of his own choices, or is it that your are afraid he might actually want to come up here and be with his brother?"
"I do not think I like the sound of what you seem to be insinuating, Master Saitou."
"Really, you have no idea how much that upsets me, Mr. Seijurou."
"Are you trying to cause difficulties between us over this matter, Head Master? Because if you are, I assure you that I can come up there to the school and remove my son from your custody and have you relieved of your position as School Master on the grounds of interfering in my personal family business."
"I do not think so, Mr. Seijurou. In case you have not noticed lately, I have full legal custody of your son which means you cannot do a single thing with him or about him until after he graduates, and then, only if the courts feel the home environment is going to be conducive to his continued rehabilitation. and I have serious reservations about that. So," His voice was taking on the tone of a deep growl as his temper flared. "Do not threaten me unless you are prepared to have your entire household put under a fucking microscope by state ordered social services sent to determine if your fit to resume custody of your son."
"You would not dare."
"Wouldn't I?" Saitou's fingers began drumming an agitated rhythm on top of the dark blue folder as his topaz eyes narrowed dangerously. "I wonder what the authorities would have to say when your daughter told them she has not set eyes on her oldest brother since the day he was sent here, and that the only contacts she is allowed with him are the hand drawn pictures the two of them trade through the mail?"
"There are reasons that you couldn't possibly understand that we have chosen to keep Cleo away from her brother until he comes home." Hiko was starting to sound decidedly nervous now.
"Really? I can only imagine what they must be especially when the number one rehabilitation factor in every troubled teens life is the love, support, and unconditional acceptance of his or her ENTIRE family. Tell me, Mr. Seijurou," He seethed into the telephone as his hand balled up into a fist. "How would the Courts view the fact that you and your wife have never come to one of your son's yearly evaluations? And what would they have to say about the frequency or, rather, the INFREQUENCY of your familial visits here at the school?"
"There are. r-reasons Master Saitou. Important reasons for our a- absences. I."
"Oh please, do not insult my intelligence or my Honor any longer, Mr. Seijurou. I have heard and seen quite enough of your so-called 'reasons' to last me the rest of my life and Kenshin's as well. If there is a drop of truthfulness left in your veins, I challenge you to ask Soujiro what he wants to do with his Senior year of High School, and then call me back. If you have the Honor to do so." With that furiously stated remark, Saitou dropped the receiver into its cradle with an angry 'clack', and then proceeded to pull Kenshin's file over to him.
Flipping it open in frustrated agitation, he looked deeply into the fierce violet eyes that stared out from the school photo and wondered what it was about this boy that caused such ferocious emotions in the people around him. "Everyone except his Father." He muttered to himself as he started to absently tap the picture with his forefinger. "I am beginning to wonder, my Young and quite possibly misunderstood and insolent-friend, if that man has ever cared about how you felt or what you thought a day in your life?" The uneasy feeling he had been getting about this whole situation was gradually working itself into a large, uncomfortable knot that was starting to gnaw at the School Master's vitals.
"Why is he so against helping you?" He asked the photo just before he closed the file and set it back on the desk. "What is he holding against you, Small Tiger? What have you done that was so unforgivable that he would throw you to the wolves and then leave you to basically rot for four years among strangers in a foreign Country?"
Saitou twisted around in his swivel chair until he could look out the window behind his desk. It had started to snow in the last hour, and he let his eyes follow some of the large lazy flakes as they floated gracefully to the ground and then immediately melted. The clouds were that soft water- color gray that promised snowfall for the whole day and most likely long into the night. It was going to be another cold, wet Halloween.
A short chuckle escaped him as he remembered a Halloween from several years ago when it had snowed like this. Quii had been about 10 years old then, and she had spent the entire day wavering between hope and despair as the storm had relentlessly continued without showing any signs of slowing or stopping.
She was dressing up as and evil fairy princess that year, and had decided on a particularly wicked witch type of a costume with particularly ugly make-up to go with it in hopes to scare everyone she and her friends met while out scoping the neighborhood. She had informed Tokio that 'All the snotty girls were being pretty fairies', and she did not want to look like any of them. So she wanted to be ugly and scary just so she could be mean to them and it would be ok, but the snow was not cooperating with her plans, and if it did not stop soon, she would have to cover up her costume with her coat when they went out trick-or-treating. She had been furious all night, and he had not been able to stop himself from laughing at the sour faces she kept making. 'Life is such a big deal when you are young.' He thought to himself as he leaned back in his chair and covered his eyes with one of his hands.
"Halloween." He muttered in a mocking voice. "Bah! Humbug."
"You better change that to Bah-hum-batwing or something else more appropriate to the occasion, School Master-san, or they will laugh you right out of your office."
"Saints be praised," He swivelled around with a droll smile on his face. "You mean there is actually a way for me to get out of this hell hole? Why wasn't I told about this before?"
"Hajime..." Tokio giggled attractively as she rounded the corner of her husband's desk and leaned down to give him a soft kiss. "Where's your ghoulish spirit, Koishii? You are positively dour looking." She perched herself upon the corner of his desk and looked very intently into his thin face. "What's wrong?"
"Am I that transparent?"
"Only to me."
"Great."
"Hey, it could be worse."
"It could?" He looked at her from beneath his thick gray-black eyelashes. "How?"
"Everybody could know you were human instead of just me." She raised her eyebrows at him emphasizing her point, and he groaned covering his eyes again.
"Oh God, not that... please, not that. It's bad enough that you know. I couldn't stand it if everyone knew."
"All right then, stop belly-aching like a little boy and tell me what's eating you?"
"How do you know something's eating me? And don't tell me it's because you know me." He growled into her knowing face. "You came down to my office for a specific reason." His topaz eyes narrowed at her for a moment, and then he growled again, deep in his throat. "I get it." He gritted out. "Ellsa."
"Yes, Ellsa." Tokio's dark brown eyes twinkled with amusement. "What on earth did you do to that poor woman to get her into such a frazzle? She nearly crushed 6 students in the hall on her way out of the building a little while ago."
"Really?" A shadow of dark humor crossed his face. "I almost wish I could have seen that."
"HAJIME!"
"Ok, ok, ok.." He flinched under her glare of mock disapproval. "All right, look... I asked her to get me the police report in Kenshin's juvie file from Denton nearly a week ago, and she has put it off for so long, she totally forgot about. I guess I sort of blew up at her this morning."
"Sort of blew up at her?" Tokio looked at him suspiciously. "Just exactly WHAT did you say to her when you blew up at her?"
"Ummmm... well..."
"Spit it out Master Saitou. What did you say?"
"Oh hell." Saitou threw his hands up in the air in frustrated defeat and then started rifling through the drawers of his desk looking for his cigarettes. "I told her to get up off her fat dough-nut ass and get it done for me today."
"Aaakk... Hajime! You didn't.... did you?" Tokio's face was lost somewhere between horror, incredulity, and the verge of hilarity.
"Yes, I did." He cast a furtive look up at her face and saw her battling with herself not to burst into laughter, and his own lips began to twitch unconsciously. That was the end of Tokio's control.
They both burst into laughter.
Poor Ellsa.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ivy Payne High School Early dismissal for the Holiday (Evermore takes Halloween very seriously) School Gymnasium: 1:23 p.m. Preparations for the Halloween Dance
Every year it was the responsibility of the Senior class to decorate the Gymnasium for the Halloween dance. This year was no different except that there had been quite a few of the Junior's drafted' into helping. Several of them were off of the basketball team, for obvious reasons. Being tall had it's drawbacks when it came to being hunted down to help hang decorations, especially when it came to draping that cotton, fuzzy spider webbing stuff from one end of the Gym to the other while trying to attach it to every basketball hoop, light, screw, nail, and whatever else the 'Side-Walk-Superintendent' could find for them to attach it too.
The 'Side-Walk-Superintendent' was the One person who had been chosen to officially be 'In Charge' of the dance decorations, and it had been a hands-down landslide vote when nominations were made. Megumi Takani had taken more than 80% of the school votes and she was not even a Senior yet. She had earned the nickname 'Side-Walk-Superintendent' because she had proved herself to be better at telling people what to do than actually helping anyone do anything. When it came to the practical end of decorating, Megumi was hopeless. She was afraid of heights, so the ladder was out of the question. She was constantly griping about either breaking a nail or getting her clothes dirty, so stapling, pining, and taping were also out of the question because it involved digging through boxes and boxes of old decorations etc, and she just was NOT going to do that. Besides, there could be mice, and she could not stand mice.
"They carry diseases, you know." She had quipped in her own self defense when the others had given her the usual 'You have got to be kidding me,' looks before humphing at her and turning around to do it themselves. It was easier than arguing with her.
She did have a good eye for decorating though, and the Gym was really starting to come together and looking very cool and 'Halloween-ish' as Mrs. Gensai, the History teacher, has said when she had poked her head in for a look. Kaoru and Misao had just looked at each other and smiled through their dirt smudged faces and offered the older woman polite 'Thank-you's'. They were both still a little bit pissed off about being stuck doing this anyway. They were both Juniors like Megumi, but because they were her 'bestest friends', she had coerced them both into helping her do this. The only good thing about it was the guys. Both Kenshin and Aoshi were stuck in the Gym helping with decorations the same as they were, but they were stuck doing it because they were Seniors. But what was truly sad, was poor Sano. Now that he and Megumi had officially decided that they were officially going out, she was ordering him around like he was her personal slave, and the poor boy looked like he was just about frazzled to the bone.
"Come on, Sanosuke..." Megumi stuck her head out of one of the big double doors that opened off the Gym into the main hallway of the school, and craning her neck around the corner, she scowled in irritation at the young man stumbling down that same hallway as he tried to juggle several boxes filled with crape paper and cardboard skeletons among other assorted junk and faded wall hangings. "Hurry up, will you? You've got ladder duty on the East wall"
"I'm trying to, Kitsune... but-t these boxes are kinda... awkward ya know."
"Oh come on... don't give me that, there's only a couple of them." She pouted prettily as he reached her and struggled through the door she was holding open for him. "You're just not wanting to help me anymore. That's all it is, isn't it?"
"Huh? What?" He turned around with an incredulous look on his tired and dusty face, and as he did, he became tangled up in his own feet and went tumbling to the floor in a flurry of black and orange streamers and flying cardboard skeleton arms and legs... besides his own long and lanky extremities. "Huurooomph!.... Ahhhh dammit!" He swore as he landed hard with his rear end on the old wood floor.
"SANO!" Megumi shouted in anxiety and concern as she raced to his side and quickly knelt down to see if he was all right. "Are you Ok? I'm so sorry, Honey... did you hurt yourself? Did you break anything, Baby? Can you move? Is anything broken?" She was trying to bend his arms and his legs while he was trying to untangle himself from the paraphernalia that entrapped him, and he was becoming more frustrated by the moment as it seemed the harder he tried the more confined he became.
"I'M FINE!" He finally shouted when her 'ministrations' started causing more difficulties with him getting free than they were helping. "Stop, Ok... Just stop helping me for a minute will ya... Lemme' get out of this stuff for pete's sake. Shit!" Megumi immediately scooted back away from his struggling form wearing a damaged looked on her face and then stood up, her bottom lip trembling.
"You're just a great big stupid jerk." She snapped in a tight voice. "I was just trying to see if you'd broken anything or if you were hurt or... Oh crap, who cares anyway, you're just a big insensitive, selfish moron anyway." Then she turned and started to stomp away leaving Sano with his mouth hanging open wondering what in the hell was going on with her, but when she stopped and swung back to face him, he knew he was in real trouble. Her pretty face was scrunched up into a tight mask of hurt anger and there were tears brimming in her furious brown eyes.
"Uh-oh," He muttered under his breath. "I'm a dead man."
"You know..." She swayed suggestively over to him and bent down until she was almost looking him right in the eye, "I think maybe it's too bad you DIDN'T get hurt after the way you just treated me, you slimy snake." And with that she pulled her foot back and kicked him sharply in the butt which sent him howling in pain and put a smile of vindication on Megumi's otherwise sad and dejected face as she walked away leaving Sano moaning in abject agony.
"Hmmmm..." Misao looked at Kaoru, who was still looking pale since their ordeal at the Lighthouse a couple of nights ago, but otherwise Ok. "Do you think he'll be dancing tonight?"
"With HER?" Kaoru asked back with a touch of laughter in her voice.
"With ANYBODY." Was Misao's sarcastic response, and the two of them busted up into giggles as they tried to imagine the poor rooster trying to limp around the dance floor with a bruised derriere.
"I guess we'll all just have to wait and find out, won't we?" Came the dour baritone-tenor reply that brought both of them spinning around from the large pumpkin they were trying to get to stay taped to the wall to see who had caught them catching a bit of fun at their friends expense. Kenshin was leaning lazily on the long handle of the push broom he had been using to help stretch spider webbing a few moments earlier, and was nonchalantly giving the two embarrassed girls one of his rare mischievous smiles causing both of them to start and stutter just a little as they acknowledged his presence.
"Kenshin!" Kaoru squeaked in a flustered voice. "I... W-we didn't hear you c-come up."
"So I gathered." The smile on his face widened and two feminine hearts skipped a beat. "That was a rather unkind remark you made about the poor ole' rooster-boy, Miss Misao." He chided in a teasing voice as dark violet eyes filled with mirth settled on the flushed face of the Weasel Girl.
"Well, what do you think after that 'ass kicking' the kitsune just gave him?" Misao arched her shapely black eyebrows at him in question and retaliation for sneaking up on them like he had. "Do YOU think he's gonna be up to 'bumpin and grindin' anything or anybody after that?"
Kenshin tossed his head back and started to laugh at Misao's descriptive remark bringing surprised looks from many of the other students in his direction as they gawked at the usually somber and aloof red-headed Senior letting loose with an honest show of spontaneity, and as he laughed, shock rolled through the room like a wave rolls across the ocean. There was not one of them who could hardly believe it. It was not everyday one was allowed to see Kenshin Himura do anything other than wear that absent blank look of his that told everyone to 'stay the hell away from me, I bite,' which he always wore, let alone laugh or even crack a smile. This was shocking to say the very least.
'Go ahead, let them look. The stupid creeps.' Kaoru thought acidly as she watched the looks of shock and astonishment that passed between the students in the Gym as they shared their stunned bewilderment over Kenshin's show of emotion. As the exchange of words and finger pointing started, she felt the beginning of a tight little ball of fury forming in the pit of her stomach and her lips thinned in response.
'Go on and look you stupid Moron's!' Suddenly Kaoru wanted to scream at them for being so blind to him and so cruel in their judgements of him. What did they know? Nothing. Not one of them had ever tried to get to know him. Not one had ever tried to take the risk and peak behind the frozen mask on his face. hey were all just a bunch of stupid mice that lived in the dark too afraid to come out because they heard there was a cat on the prowl. 'Stupid mice,' She thought with a vicious click of her teeth as her jaw tightened. 'There is no cat, he's just as frightened of you as you are of him... you're just too damn stupid to see it. So how dare you judge him...you don't know him....you don't know anything about him, so go ahead and look you stupid fucking mice. Stare until your eyes pop out of your stupid heads. You are all blind anyway... you could never understand a person like him... you're all too damn shallow to understand anyone as complex and beautiful as Kenshin.' As the thoughts stormed through her mind, Kaoru was too preoccupied to notice when Kenshin stopped laughing and started watching her as she glared malevolently at the other students. Finally, when her eyes began to take on a feral gleam, he decided it was time to find out what was going on inside of her pretty head.
"Hey, Honey?" He asked quietly as he put two fingers beneath the rigidness of her chin and gently turned her head until he locked gazes with her. "What are you doing? It looks like you're about ready to pounce on somebody and inflict serious bodily harm here. What's going on with you? What are you doing?" He asked again.
"Watching them... watch you." She replied in a low furious voice as she felt the glittering anger reflected in her bright sapphire eyes began vibrating across an invisible energy stream that was suddenly connecting the two of them, and Kaoru watched in amazement as it began to dance and gleam like a thousand diamond chips inside the clear violet crystals that were reaching out and pulling her into the comfort of their tender gaze. She was captured.
"I can see that, Honey," Now that he had Kaoru's attention, Kenshin could feel the uncustomary anger draining out of her, and he breathed an unconscious sigh of relief as he continued. "What I meant before was... WHY are you watching them? And what are you so pissed off at them about?"
As he looked intently into Kaoru's large blue eyes, Kenshin absent mindedly handed Misao the broom he was holding so he could use his that hand to cup Kaoru's cheek, and then, just like that, the now stunned and totally bewildered girl standing beside them, as well as the janitorial implement, were completely forgotten.
For a moment Misao was hurt that she had been shut out of the conversation just that fast, but then she pursed her lips in a knowing smirk and made a silent exit as her two friends became completely immersed within one another. She decided to go find Aoshi. He ought to be in here somewhere and was no doubt in need of 'some sort' of help. She started pushing the broom along the floor as an excuse to make her way around the entire Gym in her covert search for the tall, graceful green-eyes Senior.
"I... I was watching them watch you." Kaoru's voice dropped to a lower tenor as one of her hands came up to trail finger tips along his right cheek. "They were all watching you laugh like you were some kind of a freak or something. It made me angry... it was cruel."
"Well...to them, I am some kind of a freak or something, Tanuki." Kenshin leaned into her and rubbed his forehead against hers while he dropped the hand from her chin to slip in around her waist and gently pull her closer. "And I should imagine that seeing me laughing would be quite a spectacle for them. They are more used to me being the stand-offish type that bites when I get cornered... or something like that."
"But that is exactly what made me so mad, Kenshin." Her hand slid down the right side of his throat, over the curve of his shoulder, and then behind his upper arm so it could grip the hard muscular bulge of his triceps as they flexed beneath her soft touch. "They don't know you... they have no right to judge you or any of the things you do. It just isn't right, that's all." She was tentatively stepping closer to him as her other hand lifted and settled comfortably around his shoulders on the left side.
"Don't let it bother you, Honey." He said softly as the hand cupping her cheek carefully slipped along the curve of her jaw until it was beneath the weight of her hair gently massaging the sensitive nape of her neck. "I stopped looking and listening to them a long time ago, and I want you to do the same, all right? It does not matter to me what they say or think. It really doesn't."
"But..."
"No, there are no 'buts'." Kenshin cut her off a bit sharply as he pulled back and looked down into her face with glittering firmness in his eyes. "If I listened to everything everyone said about me at this school, and let it get to me... shit, I'd probably never come out of my room." Kaoru lowered her eyes for a moment and let her hands come in across his shoulders to rub the hard muscles of his chest. As she did that, she heard him catch his breath on a tiny gasp, and the flesh beneath her hands flexed hard for a half a second. Inwardly she was smiling with pure feminine pleasure. He liked her touch.
"That's funny, you know." She said as she looked back up at him through the thickness of her eyelashes and a sly smile on her full lips.
"Why?" He asked as he narrowed his eyes warily and let his hand slid from her nape to the center of her back where he splayed out his fingers to strengthen his embrace around her.
"Because," she shrugged and offered a shy giggle that suddenly had him worried. "I just can't picture you hiding in your room like a scared little mouse. It just looks all wrong up in my head."
"What do you mean, it looks wrong in your head?" He was wearing that boyish half-smile that made her stomach do somersaults, and Kaoru found herself trying to catch her breath and nervously batting her eyelashes. She wished he would not do that when she was trying to talk. It was just to hard to concentrate when he looked at her like that.
"Well," she began in a voice filled with giggles. "I'm trying to picture how you would be if you were a scared kid... and I keep coming up with this nerdy-type picture of you with oily, stringy hair half hanging out of your ponytail, round glasses that are all smudged up with tape wrapped around one of the temples cause their broken, high-water pants, argyle socks, hush-puppy shoes, polo shirts, and a sweat-gland problem."
"Oh my God..." Kenshin buried his face in the curve of Kaoru's neck and burst into uncontrolled laughter earning them both more gawking looks from the students in the Gym.
"See what I mean?" She said to the ear that was next to her cheek. "It just doesn't fit... does it?" At that last little jibe at his reputation, she began laughing with him half because of the tickling vibrations he was making on her skin with his mouth, and half because it was an awfully funny picture.
"Honey..." He choked against her throat. "That is just plain cruel. How could you do that to me?"
"I didn't mean it for real." The giggles just would not stop now that she had gotten started. But Kenshin liked her like this. This was the first time he had ever really heard her laugh and it was making him feel really good. Hell, who was he kidding... It was making him feel free, and that was an feeling he did not think he knew how to feel anymore. Kenshin's arms tightened around her as he unconsciously pulled her closer in an effort to soak up the positive energy that was growing and flowing between their souls, and to his surprise, Kaoru tightened her grip on him as well. It almost felt to him like she was holding on afraid if she let go it would all go away or something. Well, she might be in for quite a surprise if he had anything to do with it because he did not want it to go away.
"Hey," He whispered slyly into her ear. "Come here for a minute."
"Where?" She asked with big blue eyes searching his face in puzzlement.
"Just trust me... come on." And he took her by the hand leading her along the wall until they disappeared under the bleachers. In a moment Kenshin had opened a door that Kaoru had never noticed was there before, he silently ducked inside pulling her in behind him, and then quietly closed the door just before he turned on the light.
It was a small storage closet with shelves on one wall filled with floor cleaners, wood polishers, wax, clothes and other things that would be used exclusively for the care of the hard wood floor in the Gym. There was enough room for the two people to stand and move around inside, but that was all. It was a very small space.
"What are we doing in here, Kenshin?" Kaoru asked him in a squeaky breathless voice as she felt his hands slide easily around her waist and gently pull her closer to him. She could feel the thundering beat of his heart beneath her slightly trembling palms, as she instinctively laid her hands on the hard flat muscles of his chest.
"Nothing, Kao." Kenshin's voice was husky as he leaned into her and rubbed his cheek against hers in a rough feline-like caress that made her whole body tremble violently in response. "I just wanted to kiss you without everybody watching... and I didn't feel like waiting until later." Flaming golden crystals opened and gazed deeply into her innocent rounded sapphires as the warmth of his right hand lifted and traced the outline of her quivering lips bringing a startled gasp of pleasure and confusion from them. "Is that all right with you, Tanuki? Can I kiss you?" He asked in that same husky voice and it sent shivers of gooseflesh across her arms and down her back as her heart began racing frantically inside her chest. "I won't... if you don't want me too." Kenshin backed away and waited for permission or rejection without even realizing he was holding his breath. Maybe this had not been such a good idea. Maybe it was still too soon. Maybe she did not want him too... But that was a whole different problem...
"I want you to... Kenshin... I want you to..." Kaoru's voice was barely an audible whisper when she was finally able to speak past the wildly beating heart lodged in her throat, but as the heated moistness of her breath passed over his fingers, a low moan of relief escaped Kenshin's mouth as it parted and he pressed his lips into the sweet heaven of hers.
Kenshin had not kissed Kaoru since the night they had all gone to the Lighthouse. It was not that he had not wanted to. He had wanted to. He DID want to. It just had not seemed the right thing to do after everything that had happened that night especially after she had confided in him everything about the night her parents had died. He had just been trying to be there for her since then. Just being her 'boyfriend'. Being the guy who hangs around and to give her somebody to lean on if she wants, and all that. Wasn't that the kind of things boyfriends were supposed to do for their girlfriends? He wanted to be the kind of guy she deserved to have, and that seemed to be a good place to try and start. So he had not tried to push anything or do anything. He had just been there for her.
He had held her that night and let her cry for nearly 3 hours, and they had both nearly gotten caught for him being in her room, but he had managed to get out the window before Old Man Gensai had made it to her room for his 7:00 a.m. rounds that morning. Then he had almost bought the farm getting back to his own room in the boys dorm before Mr. Yukishiro did the same. It had been a tight squeeze getting past the sharp eyes and keen hearing of the rat-faced English teacher, who was also Tomoe's father. Poor Tomoe.
Since that night, things between the two of them had gotten... well, interesting. They had spent most of the next day together just setting down by the stream talking... talking about everything. He still could not believe it, but he had told her all about his family, his brother, his baby sister, and the bullshit that went down the night he and his 'friends' went their separate ways. He told her how his parents had just dumped him into the hands of the Cops and the Courts, how they never tried to find out from his what had happened, and how they never seemed to care what happened to him after that. She had sat beside him and listened... for hours it seemed... just listened, and did not say a word until he was finished, and then she had rolled over onto her knees and put her arms around him and hugged him really hard. It had shocked him so badly that he had just set there doing nothing for almost a full minute before he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him than he had ever held anybody, and they had stayed like that, just holding onto each other for the longest time. Kissing her had not even crossed his mind at that point, he had just wanted to hold onto her afraid that if he let go of her she would disappear and he would find out it had all been just a really bad joke on him, and that she had never been real at all and he was still totally alone. But, when they had finally let go of each other, nobody disappeared and she had laid her head on his shoulder and said something to him that still burned in his mind and heart.
"I am so glad I came here, Kenshin. I didn't want to, you know. I hated the idea of having to move all the way to Main from Oregon, but Yahiko and I did not have a choice. Dr. Gensai was who the courts chose from the list of possible Guardian's that our parents left. We were floundering in the School's back home... I guess it was just too close to... well, to everything. he house, the cemetery... everything."
And then she had looked back up into his face with those huge beautiful blue eyes of hers and smiled for the first time since he had met her. It was a real smile, not one of those half pasted on things that get you by when you know you have to be polite, but a real, honest smile that lit up her whole face. It was the most glorious thing Kenshin had ever seen, and it had taken his breath away, but the words that came with the smile would be engraved on his heart forever.
"Maybe God sent me here, Kenshin. Maybe God sent me here so I could help you and you could help me...maybe we're supposed to help each other." She had leaned up into him and tenderly kissed his cheek and then looked at him again. "I do know one thing for sure though."
"What is that?" He had asked in a quiet voice as his hand had reached out to touch her face.
"Meeting you is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because you're the best friend I ever had... and you always will be."
"So are you..." He had whispered back and then grasped both of her hands and buried his face in them. "So are you, Tanuki...so are you."
But then he had looked back up at her with wide questioning eyes. "Is that all we are going to be, Kaoru? Just friends?"
"Is that all you want us to be, Kenshin?" She had asked back with a worried look on her face.
"I-I...what do you want us to be?"
"That isn't fair." She had tried to pull her hands away, but he had refused to let them go.
"Why isn't it? Don't you think I am just as vulnerable as you are in this?"
"I guess that depends," Sapphires filled with deep anxiety and some other emotion he could not name were suddenly staring very intently at his face.
"Depends on what?" Nervous butterflies were starting to make him feel a bit nauseous as he found himself in a position of extreme worry and fear that he had never thought to experience.
"On whether or not we want the same thing... if we don't, one of us gets hurt." She dropped her head and looked at their conjoined hands and the silence between them stretched out until it became unbearable for Kenshin.
"All right, I can't take this..." His voice was small and even a little shaky and Kaoru looked at him with shock and concern on her face not sure how to react to his out-of-character behavior.
"What is wrong, Kenshin? What do you mean you can't take this?"
"I can't take the silence between us, and the waiting to see which one of us is going to give in first. We are both obviously too damn stubborn and too scared to do it... so, one of us is just going to have to jump off the cliff and take the chance."
"Jump off the cliff?" Kaoru's eyes got even rounder (if that were possible).
"Yes...one of us has to take the chance and tell the other what we want out of this relationship...if it is 'just best friends', or if...if 'it's more than just friends', and... and..." He stopped and pulled in a ragged breath while he readjusted his grip on her hands, and then he closed his eyes for a long moment and became very still. Kaoru watched him in concern wondering what he was doing, but, not daring to disturb him at that moment, she just sat and waited to see what would happen.
Suddenly his eyes opened and he had looked her straight in the face, drew a single deep breath, and then spoke in an even and clear toned voice.
"I want you to be my girlfriend, Kaoru. I don't want us to be 'just friends...' I want it to be more than that. I want to be able to do more than just hug you... I want to be able to hold you in my arms, and cuddle you close, and... and I want to kiss you... all over someday if you'll let me. But even if you don't, I want to be the one whose kisses make your heart beat faster; I want to be the one whose touches make you catch your breath and tremble; I want to be the one you come to when your hurt or afraid or lonely... or when you need a friend to talk to or... or just need someone to hold you just because you need it."
His eyes were searching her face anxiously as he spoke, and his hands were unconsciously squeezing hers tighter as he looked for any sign of acceptance from her. But all she was doing was staring at him with a stunned blank look on her face, and Kenshin had felt his heart sinking down into the darkness of loneliness once more. He had dropped his eyes as a muscle had started to twitch in his jaw and a lump started to form in his throat. Pain, he had thought. Here comes the pain, but it had never happened because in the next moment Kaoru was tackling him to the ground as she threw herself at him in an enormous bear hug that sent them both rolling and laughing down the embankment as she had cried 'Yesyesyesyesyes' over and over again in wild joyous giggles. He had wanted to kiss her then, but his hopes and wants had been miserably dashed when they had both ended up in the freezing water instead.
Hysterical screams and loud laughter had followed the unexpected dousing, and they had struggled to help each other up and out of the stream but found it a more difficult task than they imagined. Due to the slippery moss covering the stones that lined the stream bed combined with their uncontrolled mirth, the two of them kept losing their footing and ending right back where they started... flat on their cold, wet butts.
Once they got out, got into clean dry clothes, they had spent the rest of the day in the commissary drinking hot tea and setting by the fireplace trying to stay warm. The question of 'boyfriend and girlfriend' had not come up again. It appeared to be a mute point.
After that was when she had started teasing him and laughing, and he had starting calling her Kao and smiling more often. They had spent nearly every possible waking moment together as well. He walked her to classes, they ate together in the commissary, and they even did their homework together and watched television. The rumors were starting to fly that they were a couple, and... well...after all, weren't they?
Now, a couple of days later, and both of them feeling a little more comfortable with each other, Kenshin had quietly pulled Kaoru into the tiny custodial closet that was hidden beneath the bleachers. Maybe 3 people in the entire school knew it was there.
The Custodian.
Master Saitou.
And Kenshin Himura, who used to use it as a private hide out to get away from everyone when he was tired of being bothered with too many things by too many people. It was his private out of the way haven, and no one ever went inside except during basketball season, and AFTER dances. So, he knew there was no way anyone was going to walk in on them. They were perfectly alone, and he finally had the chance to do what he had been aching to do since they had fallen into the stream... really kiss her.
At first it was just lips on lips, but as the passion and heat between them grew, and the kisses became wetter and longer Kenshin and Kaoru both began to look for something that was a little more satisfying.
His hands left her waist and rose to cup her face holding it immobile, and as the weight of his body pushed her back against the wall behind them, the tentative thrust of his tongue pressed against the barrier of her partially closed mouth and teeth asking a question which she passionately answered by fisting both of her hands into the thick mane of his dark red hair and opening the moistness of her lips to let him in.
As Kenshin listened to the tiny whimpering cries of burgeoning sexual awareness echo deep within Kaoru's slender throat, he slipped the hard strength of his tongue deep into her open mouth and pressed the firmness of his hips and thighs against the softness of hers. He felt her yield and mold herself into him as she accepted the pressure of him against her, and taking his left hand, he ran it down along the length of her thigh until he reached her knee, and then he deliberately lifted it up until he could drape her leg over his hip. This allowed him to press himself more intimately against her which brought an even more desperate cry of need from deep within her as she pushed herself against the hardness of him that she could feel digging into her lower stomach.
Dragging his mouth away from hers, he burned a trail of moist kisses down the side of her throat as his free hand rose to cup and tenderly massage her breast. This action caused a violent shudder to course through her body, and he felt her weight buckle in his arms as she cried his name out in a ragged voice.
"Kenn-nshhin... ooooOoooo God..."
"Kao..." Her name was a hoarse whisper torn from his throat as his arms swiftly encircled her to keep her from falling to the floor. "Oh Baby... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to go that far." Gently he pulled her quacking body closely against him and cradled her head in the curve of his shoulder. "You went straight to my head," He murmured in a shaky voice as he rested his cheek against her forehead. "I promise all I intended to do was just kiss you, Honey... I swear it was."
"I-I believe y-you..." She maneuvered herself slightly so she could slide her arms around his neck and pull him close to her. "It's Ok...It's not like I didn't get carried away right along with you, Sweetie."
"Are you sure?" Anxiety was clearly an issue as he tightened his arms around her. "I don't want this to turn into a trust issue. I really didn't..."
"STOP!" The tone was low and sharp as she gave him a little shake before pressing a soft reassuring kiss against the warmth of his neck. "Don't even go there, Mister Kenshin Himura, do you hear me?" Kaoru pulled back from him and locked gazes with his now deeply troubled violet eyes. "I swear, if you let yourself get all guilty and uptight over this... I'll... I'll never kiss you again."
"Excuse me?" One fine dark brown eyebrow arched arrogantly at her audacity and unmitigated gall to threaten HIM. (He loved it.) "WHAT did you say?"
"You heard me, Mr. Tough Guy. I said, I'll never kiss you again if you get all weird on me over this dumb thing." And as she stared him defiantly in the face, Kaoru saucily tossed her head back sending all of her long ebony hair cascading down her back and falling across his arms. "And IF you don't like that, bad boy... deal with it."
"You're spouting some pretty big talk for such a little girl... little girl." Violet eyes darkened to a deep purple as they narrowed into dangerous slits, and Kaoru felt a little shiver of a wariness snake up her spine as she met that predatory gaze he was raking her with.
"So, what are you going to do about it?" She quipped flippantly.
"Is that a challenge, Miss Kamiya?" The voice was close to a growl and Kaoru shivered with frightened delight. She had never seen Kenshin quite like this... this was fun.
"Possibly... what if it is?"
"Never, never make idle challenges, little tanuki... unless you are prepared to meet the consequences." The wicked being that was Kenshin leaned back into her and very slowly and deliberately began to burrow its nose through her thick black hair until it found the creamy soft flesh of her throat.
"What sort of c-conse-quences, Mister Himura?" Her voice was breathless and one of her hands was working its way into the mane of his hair as he worked his way into her throat.
"Dangerous ones..." He growled and then suddenly seized her around the waist and began to tickle her mercilessly. As her high-pitched squeals of panicked laughter began to fill the small closet space, Kenshin dove in and captured her mouth with his effectively silencing her cries for him to stop. The tickling frenzy continued for a few more seconds until Kenshin decided he was more interested in Kaoru's mouth that he was in her systematic torture for being such a mouthy brat.
As his hands began lazily rubbing her sides instead of abusing them, Kaoru relaxed against him and opened her mouth letting him gently slid his tongue inside to stroke it along the top and sides of hers. A long sigh of pleasurable comfort escaped her as she once more wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed the soft curves of her body against the harder planes of his.
With the initial needs and passions somewhat satisfied by the heat of the first kiss, and the reassurance of trust and mutual caring reestablished, the two teens succumbed to the simple pleasures of lips, tongues, and tender caressing hands as they stood comfortably within each others loving embraces. This time when Kenshin's hand rose to touch the softness of Kaoru's breast, it was a feathery brush of his palm across the rounded flesh instead of the full hand grasp of before, but it still brought a pleasurable whimper to her lips and a tremble of desire to her body. And when Kaoru's instincts led her to press the lower half of her body against the hardness of his, she basked in the glory of feeling a very similar tremor of desire and pleasure course through his much stronger frame. It would appear he was not any more immune to her than she was to him.
After a time of working on her beautiful lips, Kenshin finally pulled away from her and rested his forehead against hers and waited while their breathing steadied again. Slowly he raised a hand and tenderly began to trace the curve of her face as her eyes closed in the pleasure of simply soaking up the feeling of his touch on her skin.
"You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life, Kao." He spoke in a strangely reverent tone that brought her eyes open to search out his and finding them looking at her so tenderly that she felt the burn of tears coming to her eyes.
"Ken... What?" She touched his face gently and he turned so he could kiss her finger tips. Kaoru watched him and a wonderment she had never known filled her heart and glowed from her eyes and face. He was so beautiful, this socially complicated, emotionally complex red-haired angel- wolf she... loved? Is that what this was? This humongous, enormous feeling that she had when she looked at him now? Was this what loving someone felt like? Was this how her parents had felt about each other? This part playful child, part dangerous predator, part soulful philosopher, part hungry beast, part passionate lover... was all of this Love? It felt right, the word with the feeling, but it was frightening to think about it right now. Too soon... too fast... too much... Could it happen that fast? And if it did, could it last forever? Or even a lifetime?
Tender emotion filled violet pools looked into her face and Kaoru felt her world go to mush as Kenshin pulled her back into his arms and just held her close against him. Was this Love? It felt so good to be this close to him... to held by him this way, with all of this emotion and energy around them, but... was this Love?
"Kenshin, Sweetheart... Are you all right?" Kaoru gently stroked the long silken length of his hair as a fine tremor ran through his body. "Baby?" She was beginning to worry when he did not answer, but just continued to hold on to him as that seemed to be what he wanted. After a few long silent moments, he finally spoke to her in a voice muffled by her hair and shoulder.
"I am all right, Kao." She turned her head slightly so she could hear him better as he continued. "It is just... I... I..." He paused for a few seconds and then pulled back from her and looked into her concerned face. Kaoru gasped softly at what she saw.
There were tears on Kenshin's face, and more brimming in his beautiful amethyst eyes. Tenderly she lifted a hand and wiped some of the wetness away, but said nothing... she just waited for him to continue.
"It is so hard for me... you know that."
She nodded slightly and gently cupped his face as she maintained eye contact with him. "I... I do not understand what is happening to me... I... feel... I don't know what I feel, but... Oh Kao," His trembling hands rose to cup her face and more tears poured down his. "Honey... it's so BIG."
"I understand, Sweetheart," she whispered back as she leaned into him and pressed a teary kiss into his lips. She did not even know when she had begun to cry, but her face was just as wet as his was.
"Do you?" Anxious pools of violet searched the comforting warmth of dark blue cobalt. "How can you understand?"
"Because, you big goof..." Her smile was more brilliant than any starburst had ever been. "This THING I feel for you is BIG too, and I don't know how its happening either... it is just there, and that is all I know." A watery half smile curved his handsome mouth, and the anxiety in his eyes was replaced by something much more bright and cheerful as he soaked up the fact that she was just as confused as he was... felt just as stupid about it... and was just as happy about it as well... and she was not pulling away from him either. In fact, she was pulling him back into her for another wet kiss which he was more than happy to give to her.
Life did not get much better than that.
Kenshin decided at that moment that salty kisses were just about better than any of the others he had ever tried. They had a lot more impact on the whole relationship scheme of things than any of the others had... so, they were probably going to be the one's he remembered the most from that day he and Kaoru made out in the Custodian's closet before the Halloween Dance.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I love this story... I think it has turned into my own favorite... it seems to be everyone elses as well.
I realize I have asked this before on my other fiction, and on my webpage, but it is such an important issue to me, that I am going to ask again. Please, please my dear friends... go to either the K & K archives on my webpage or to my Favorite Stories on my Fanfiction.net Author's page and read the story, 'Being Held in Your Arms' by Female Hitokiri Battosai. I has been written in honor and tribute to her friend, Lisa, whose mother is dying of cancer and cannot be saved. This is one of the worst things I can imagine for a teen to go through, Female Hitokiri Battousai has written this exceptional piece of art in an attempt to help her friend deal with the loss. I only ask that you read and leave a review with you sympathetic wishes and prayers for her friends family. This is one of the most beautiful and selfless gestures I have ever seen... and one of the most heart-felt and magnificent works of emotional script I have ever read. Please help her help her friend, and help me help her to know that she is worth more to this world than just someone who writes fanfiction. Please do this with me... I know there are more people than myself who have enjoyed and benefitted from this beautiful girls gifted writing. Help me Help her Help her Friend. Thank you. Much Love, and God Bless Kanzen Ne Tsuki