Misao opened her eyes just as the sun crept over the crest of the mountains, breaking the sky in early dawn.
The muscles in her legs and lower back ached as she rolled over onto her back, stretching her arms high above her head.
"…Aoshi…"
The memories of the previous evening and her confrontation with Aoshi, flooded her thoughts; Misao groaned and pulled the blanket over her head, burying her face in her pillow. I wonder if Aoshi is still here or…if he's already left.
She rolled onto her side and absently twisted the lose end of her braid around her finger, her eyes staring off deep in thought; despite Aoshi's past record of sudden disappearances, something inside her told her that this time would be different.
Misao groaned again. And just when I actually want him to leave, he'll end up sticking around; just my luck.
Just then, she was interrupted by a soft knock outside her door. "Misao?"
It was Omasu. "Breakfast will be ready in an hour…the bath house is free if you'd like to wash up before then."
Misao smiled warmly; ever since she was a child, she loved hot steaming early morning baths and no one knew that better than Omasu.
"Alright Omasu-san."
Fifteen minutes later, Misao was immersed up to her shoulders in a relaxing bath, reveling in the soothing warmth of the steaming water scented with twilight wood bath salts. She hated to leave her soothing languid refuge but breakfast would be soon so reluctantly she carefully stood to her feet, water dripping down her neck and shoulders as she stepped out of the bath.
Drying quickly, she donned a simple soft baby blue house Yukata and house sandals. Leaving the bath house which was located in the back of the aoiya, she slid open the back door and strode quietly back to her room.
Half way there, she came to the room that used to be Aoshi's back when he was still living with the oniwabansuu. She was just about to pass by when suddenly, the shoji slid open and there stood Aoshi in all of his pale flowing trench coat glory.
Misao froze in her tracks.
Aoshi stood still, his statuesque form ramrod straight as his steel blue eyes clashed with hers.
She spared him only a momentary glimpse of her oceanic eyes before silently walking past him without a single word.
Aoshi was caught off guard when he discovered Misao just a few feet outside his bedroom door that morning. He hadn't expected to see her so early in the morning and certainly not in her present state of—light clothing; he was accustomed to seeing her either in a ninja uniform or a very modest casual kimono but never had he seen her just out of bed with nothing more than a thin Yukata and wet hair. His steel blue eyes clashed with hers, his stoic expression perfectly in place but inside, Aoshi was shaking.
Misao brushed past him silently and he caught the strong scent of twilight wood drifting off her skin and the scent of Jasmine in her hair. He nearly staggered when her shoulder brushed against his arm, causing the sleeve of her Yukata to catch and pull just off her shoulder. The milky white skin revealed there nearly had Aoshi dropping to his knees but the broad-shouldered ninja clenched his jaw tightly and stood unmoving as the young woman moved past him.
Misao stopped just a few feet from him and turned a furtive glance at him over her shoulder. She expected him to be long gone but was surprised to find him rooted to the spot, steel blue eyes locked onto her.
Aoshi held his breath as Misao turned and gave him one last look. He couldn't believe how much she had changed—she was even taller now; where before the top of her head had reached only to his chest, she now stood a half foot taller, her crown nearly reaching his shoulder. She was still slender but womanly curves had replaced the skinny waist, hips and legs leaving an alluring hour glass figure in their place—a figure that Aoshi couldn't help but devour with his eyes in this moment.
"I didn't think you'd still be here."
She spoke and her words left him breathless somehow—what had come over him?
"I thought that…after last night you'd…well that you'd rather leave then—"
Her words dropped off but he wasn't satisfied; he could tell in the hesitant look of her eyes as they flickered from his face to the floor, that she had something more on her mind. "Misao I…"
She shook her head. "There's no need to explain—really I—I don't expect anything from you, Aoshi-sama." The corners of her mouth curved up in a sad smile as she came to stand directly in front of him. "You—you carry far too much on yourself, you know." Her small hand reached out hesitantly and came to rest in the center of his chest—slender fingers splayed across the perfectly chiseled muscles that rippled beneath the thin black fabric of his uniform. "I've—I've never understood why you've always blamed yourself for their deaths; it wasn't your fault. You know as well as I do that if the tables had been reversed, you would have done the same for them. You carry the guilt unnecessarily and I will never be able to understand that but—I respect it. Because I know that's who you are and as much as I may have wanted things to be different I see now that they will never be different; you will never change, Aoshi-sama and—it has been foolish of me to think you would and selfish of me to hope that you would change—for me. I understand that now. So no, I don't need an explanation—"Her eyes which had been fixed to the spot where her fingers splayed across his chest, now raised to meet his steel blue gaze. "I won't expect anything from you any longer; you have my word."
And that was his undoing.
The moment her small hand pressed against his chest, his cold expression faltered.
His perfect self-control, shattered.
Self-discipline to keep mind, body and spirit under complete restraint, vanished.
His Calculating resolve to keep Misao at arm's length and protect her from himself, dissolved at the moment of her touch.
Reason and logic were wiped away as though they had never existed and every rule and principle he'd once held himself to was broken.
In other words, everything that was once Aoshi Shinomori, came crumbling down in one jolting, pivotal moment.
Time stood still.
Misao's hand slipped from his chest as she turned away. Her swished behind her and brushed against the backs of his fingers.
He reached out a trembling hand and grasped the first bit of her he could reach; the collar of her yukata.
Misao felt a strong pull in the fabric and turned startled eyes just as Aoshi's trembling fingers wrapped around the thin baby blue fabric.
Ocean green clashed with Ice blue.
Aoshi yanked.
Misao gasped.
Soft alabaster skin and delicate curves crashed against broad chest and solid steel muscle as Aoshi Shinomori pulled Misao's lithe form flush against his own, wrapping a strong arm around her waist. He pinner her against him, his entire body shook and his eyes were wide and alive with a kind of fire that Misao had never before seen in the eyes of any man, let alone Aoshi's.
His fingers still gripped the collar of her yakata as his ice blue eyes bored into hers. "You—will not—walk away from me—Misao."
This sudden impassioned command suddenly made Misao bristle and her oceanic blue-green eyes hardened against his. "I—will not—? you are the one who has walked away from me countless times without a goodbye or even a look back so don't you dare tell me that I won't walk away! I'll do whatever I please, I'm eighteen and I can and will make my own decisions for my life so you can just get the hell—! "
Slender fingers gripped thin blue fabric.
More alabaster skin—shoulder and collar bone—were laid bare.
A muscled arm curved tightly around a slender waist as Aoshi crushed Misao against him, dipped his head and pressed his lips hard against hers in a flaming searing kiss.
Her throat tightened.
Breath froze in her lungs.
His heart hammered against his chest.
He's certain she could feel it.
His tongue pressed the seam of her lips, begging entrance.
Air flooded her mouth.
She inhaled sharply.
His tongue licked along the inside edge of her lips
Her chest heaved up and down.
She's certain he could feel it.
His fingertips dug into her hips as he pressed her hard against him.
She was certain he bruised her.
She didn't care.
He could feel her against him. Every inch of her.
Her soft supple skin tingled beneath his hungry fingertips as he pressed them against her waist. Her breath was the sweetest—most forbidden—nectar he ever dared to taste.
Then unexpectedly, Misao felt Aoshi's iron grip lesson ever so slightly and she was suddenly ripped from a daze of dizzying heat and passion.
She pushed against him.
With all her strength, she threw the force and weight of her body backwards and wrested herself from his arms.
Aoshi gasped at Misao's audacious strength, surprised that she'd managed to catch him off-handedly.
Suddenly, he felt robbed of her warmth at the instant she pushed out of his grasp, stumbling backwards away from him.
"Y—you!" She gasped; breathless, dismayed and enthralled all at once, Misao pressed trembling fingers to her still-heated tingling lips. She couldn't articulate a single thought or speak a word as her befuddled mind tried to grapple with what had just happened.
It couldn't be.
Aoshi Shinomori…had just kissed her.
Her!
I—I don't—b-believe it! But what—w-what's gotten into him?! He's—no this isn't happening. This can't be happening!
Astonishment turned to disbelief.
Disbelief to staggering realization—and suddenly staggering realization turned to hurt, indignation and humiliation.
Aoshi stood breathless, his body still shaking and his mind in complete and utter bewilderment. One moment, she chastises him for leaving her and then the next when he's throwing himself into her in a moment of reckless abandon, she is the one who pulls a way, in essence rejecting him! He felt a strange feeling bloom deep in his heart at that moment; was it anger? Indignation? Determination? Whatever it was, the feeling grew and burned through his veins, giving Aoshi an inner strength and boldness he'd never felt before in all his twenty-eight years of life.
For the first time in years, the ghost of a smile appeared in the handsome ninja's eyes and he vowed that this was a fight he would never again walk away from.
Besides, Aoshi Shinomori always loved a good challenge.
"Misao." He spoke her name in a low, firm timber.
"I don't know what you are—trying to do, Aoshi but it is cruel! If you think you can rip my heart into a million pieces and then turn around and mock me—you're sadly mistaken." Her voice took on an icy, dangerous edge to it; one that Aoshi was not familiar with and frankly, he didn't like the look of ire blossoming in those beautiful oceanic orbs.
"There is much you may not know or understand about me, Misao but one thing you of all people should know, I have never mocked anyone's pain; I know too well of the pain this hard life can bring and I—it pains me to see that look in your eyes, Misao; that look of harshness was all that I always wanted to protect you from." He took a step towards her.
"Don't. you're avoiding the issue, Aoshi, don't do this! I don't—aghrr! I don't understand you at all!"
"Listen to me Misao." His voice was still firm but there was an edge of gentle pleading in it that somehow shook Misao to her core and her lithe body began to tremble.
"Why?" The tears in her voice were becoming evident in her eyes as she uttered the question that sounded more like the weakened whimper of a frightened wounded dog.
"After everything you've—p-put me through—why would you rob me of the last shred of pride I have left and kiss me?" a few lone tears escaped beneath the long lashes, leaving wet trails that glistened against her porcelain cheeks.
"Misao I—please don't cry, Misao. You must—"Aoshi was struggling with the overwhelming surge of emotions bubbling just below the surface.
Misao could see the inner struggle reflected in his eyes though he maintained his poise outwardly.
"You have—you've changed, Misao. I can't even begin to understand or comprehend the—woman you've become. It amazes me. So long I saw you as just a child; innocent, bright always happy and vibrant; it didn't matter how dark the world around you was, you always shone so bright just like the sun. And now, I come back to find you. This. You're standing before me all grown up and I—I just can't—I don't know how to deal with this, Misao. Himura told me once that you were no longer a child. I didn't understand him fully then.
But I do now."
"Aoshi…sama." Her quiet voice reached his ears and he felt himself weaken even further.
She has—completely unhinged me! He thought to himself, a paralyzing reality that struck him more painfully than the blows of any vicious foe he had ever faced. "You—you have—completely bewitched me, Misao!" He spoke breathlessly and passionately, sending a heated shudder down her spine; her voice caught in her throat, her pink lips parted.
"I—I can't—no." she willed herself to remain composed and strong. She wouldn't lose her pride, whatever pride she had left. "I can't hear this anymore, Aoshi-sama. I can't. You may be ten years my junior and that gives you the right to honor and respect. But I also have the right to protect my honor and I also deserve respect. You can't just come in here and take advantage of my vulnerability! And you know my weaknesses which makes this even more unfair; you are my weakness—"
Aoshi gasped at her admission. Deep down, he'd always known he had this power over her but there was always a part of him that refused to accept it and the denial had been going on for so many years, he'd actually almost made himself believe that it wasn't possible. Now, hearing the words from her very own lips, only confirmed this and the weight of it was staggering.
"—only when you choose to and I respect that but that doesn't mean that I can just stand here and listen to you when you're being so—s-so—" her cheeks flushed a deep red as the memory of Aoshi's searing kiss caused every inch of her skin to heat up.
"Misao, please…"
She shook her head, tears still staining her cheeks; but she was resolved. "No, Aoshi."
With that, she turned and walked past him without another word. When Aoshi turned around, she was gone leaving him speechless, disappointed but above all, aching and wanting for more.