Chapter 11

Choices

Megumi was angry. No, not just angry, she was incensed at every single one of the people she had talked to, or more accurately yelled at that day. First off, she wasn't sure if he was just dense or stupid or a bit of both, but Kaoru's ex mate was less than helpful. She couldn't get within ten feet of him without him feeling awkward about having a female so close to him and Sano was just trying to pick a fight with him when she enlisted his help to take the energy readings. All the foreign dragon's answers were either a shrug or a grin or "I am unsure."

Misao picked up on Sano's plan and now both of them were trying to ruffle feathers. Or scales, as the case was. Sano was insinuating that Kaoru couldn't have formed the bond herself and that the dragon had done something to try and entrap her. Between that and Misao's questions to the dragon that seemed to indicate she agreed with Sano, Megumi wondered if they all might be in for world war three or just a dragon clan feud. She had sent Aoshi in to cool the situation down, sent Sano and Misao off to anywhere else and marched into her room for a quick breather.

Her moment of rest should have helped her blooming headache despite the fact she could still hear Aioshi and the other dragon's somewhat heated voices, but it was right as she started copying her notes into her ledger that Kenshin had called. She immediately recognized the number.

"You took her where?" She asked in greeting, in the most reasonable voice she could manage after the day she had been having. Her voice was not reasonable.

"She asked to..."

"Please tell me you didn't make her hike up to that God forsaken place in the condition she's in."

"Well, Kaoru seemed to enjoy the..."

"Kenshin! It doesn't matter whether she liked the hike or not! Do you know how much energy that type of hike would take? Do you know how quickly she's going through her energy at this point in time? She's a human. Her energy is so unstable I don't even know what's keeping her together and you're bound and determined to rip it all apart."

"I don't think it's that bad. Her energy has been much more stable. Plus this place is still a fairly short flight away from you if anything should go wrong."

He did have a point, which did nothing to improve Megumi's mood and she snapped instructions at him before hanging up. Listening for the sounds of an argument, all she heard was silence and shrugged as she went back to her notes. She needed some time to calm down.

"What are you three doing?" Megumi asked as she walked into Aoshi's study. The three dragons were all leaned over computers, studying the screens with a fair amount of intensity. "Did our guest leave?"

"Yes. He wasn't quite thrilled with what we were insinuating and decided it was time to go." Misao said, looking up from her computer.

"I hope you did not need any more information from him?" Aoshi added, though he continued scrolling through his document.

"It was all useless." Megumi said shrugging. "I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know. And the erratic energy wasn't from him or their style of dragon magic. His is actually quite normal."

"Thought so." Aoshi said under his breath.

"So what is this?" Megumi asked again, indicating the three of them.

"Well, Sano was right." Misao started to explain. "Kaoru is human. She can't have formed a bond. Also, don't you think it's weird?"

"What?"

"She literally has no dragon connections, and she has lived and visited some regions with the most dense dragon populations around. Just by luck she should have at least befriended a couple. We were thinking that her ex mate or his family had something to do with his removal from her facebook page and other information going missing but I honestly don't think he knows anything about it. I feel that something is off about this whole situation. Kaoru is too wrapped up in dragons to be so far removed from them. You said it yourself about her energy…"

"It's not normal." Megumi said thoughtfully, looking past everyone as they continued searching for whatever they were searching for.

"Her family doesn't actually exist." Misao said, scrolling quickly through a document.

"She's mentioned her father, Misao. Was she hallucinating him?"

"I mean, the family exists on paper, but only for that generation. There's no connection anywhere else!"

"So who do they say they are, and who are they really?" Sano asked, pushing back from his computer. "Are we going with getting mixed up with dragons? Others? Simple witness protection?"

"Well, my working theory is this somehow ties in to a dragon clan." the petite dragon had jumped over to see what Aoshi was pulling up on his computer as she pulled something up on her own phone. "I have no idea what this means for Kaoru or her energy or why they would want to hide.." Stopping suddenly (Aoshi barely managed to catch her falling phone) she turned to Megumi who suddenly rocked back on her heels in shock when they made eye contact.

"What's happening?" Sano asked as he looked between the two women who seemed to be having some sort of epiphany that he was sure he wasn't having. He wasn't sure about Aoshi.

"Could you do it?" Misao asked the woman. "I mean, I know I'm not far off, that's what they would have had to have done. Why though? Do you think she knows?"

"It's completely possible. I couldn't imagine why. It wouldn't be possible if she knew." Megumi answered quickly turning on her heel to head to her room and her notes. Misao jumped over her computer desk to follow her out. "Keep looking, Aoshi! I need to help Megumi!"

Sano just blinked at Aoshi. "Did you get any of that?"

He gave a small shrug as he continued his research at Misao's request.

"What?" Kenshin asked in disbelief. Kaoru looked up from where she was curled on the couch under a thick blanket. She had been enjoying the view from the large window, but was now watching Kenshin's brow furrow under his red bangs as he talked on the phone. He obviously wasn't getting very good news, but she couldn't tell much from the few "what"s and "are you sure"s that she was getting from his side of the conversation. She turned her attention back to the window.

Truthfully she wasn't much in the mood to try and figure it out. The hike up to the gorgeous views she was now looking at had been pretty intense and she was still feeling a bit out of breath. Even stopping several times along the way, she knew she had probably overdone it and was not looking forward to getting chewed out by Megumi.

"So what should we do?"

The answer was short and Kenshin hung up, letting out a weird sort of huff.

"Bad news? Good news?" She sat up a bit, hoping he'd come sit by her. He was so warm and she always felt better while she was near him.

In one fluid motion he was sitting next to her as she leaned in to his shoulder and he helped her arrange herself more comfortably against him. "Just that Megumi is very close to being able to help us, but not in the way I originally thought."

"So are we going to have to bond together?"

Kenshin went rigid. "How did you know about that?" He had not been expecting her to reach that conclusion, and he hadn't even been thinking of that with the news he had just been given.

"Really? You didn't think I could connect those dots?" She rolled her eyes. "Misao isn't exactly subtle, and while Megumi is, well, it's quite obvious they are both trying to get us together. Plus I know what's wrong with me and therefore I know what's wrong with you. It's not that much of a logical leap that two people with damaged bonds could repair them with each other." She spoke a bit slowly as she was still out of breath.

Kenshin, so close, monitored her energy levels as she talked. They were still erratic, pulsing in a weird rhythm. The energy was dragon, but not that of the young dragon with whom she had shared the bond. Everything about her was human, however. Her smell, her demeanor, her base energy.

Megumi could not possibly be right, but it was the only thing that made sense. Kaoru was human. She should have died. Kaoru had dragon energy keeping her alive. Kenshin could feel it even now, pushing its way around her and in her and through her human energy in a strange, fluid dance of spasms and pain that she didn't seem to be aware of. It was always there around her, always fascinating. Now it was even more so since he didn't understand where it had come from.

"Well. That was the original idea, though you seem to be a special case and Megumi believes she could help you without forming another bond."

"Does it have to do with my being human?" She asked curiously, curling a bit closer to Kenshin.

"Not quite." Kenshin subconsciously wrapped his arm around her a bit more tightly. His dragon purred as she snuggled closer.

"Does that help you as well? If Megumi can fix me, it should help you, right?"

"No. It would not be able to help me."

"So what makes me different?" Kaoru asked, frowning.

"I honestly can't tell you until you're ready to decide." Kenshin sighed. "It's a bit complicated, the practical part of what Megumi wants to do and there are certain rules. You have two options. What Megumi is thinking she could do for you is use a certain energy you posses that I do not have to reflect the bond back into yourself and seal everything up permanently. Then you would be just as you were before."

"And the second?"

"That would be Megumi's original plan of using our bonds to form a new one where we would be bonded to each other." To say Kenshin was a bit tense admitting that aloud was an understatement. He understood Misao's and Megumi's reactions to his original approach completely now. "Tying yourself to another is not a decision to be made lightly. I must admit to preferring one over the other, but in the end, it's your choice."

"Well, I wouldn't want to be stuck in the same position still dying either." Kaoru said thoughtfully.

"It's not just that." Turning from the view, he looked at Kaoru, his eyes probably more golden amber from the angle of the sun and his feelings and energy so close to the surface. How could he tell her, though? He didn't want it to come out as a plea for his life. He wanted her to know that he did have feelings for her, but not like this. "I am afraid you don't have too long to decide though. A week at most."

A/N: Well. It has been a while, ne? Yes, I'm surprised too. It has been a year of finishing old projects and now it is this story's time. I wish I could say I was still in love with my idea behind this story, but I can say it's not as bad as I remembered it. Plus I reread all of my reviews and knew I couldn't let everyone down any more! Y'all deserve a finished story and I want it to be good. Though I had originally planned this thing out to have about ten or so more chapters, I don't think I can do that and I know exactly how to wrap it up nicely without bogging it down with about twelve flashbacks. I might start doing drabbles of those ideas though. I need tons more writing practice to make up for not writing in the winter of my discontent.

Since I beat my depression and cPTSD a little under a year ago, I am really looking forward to writing and painting more. Especially Kenshin stories and fanart! Our Rurouni is the best! And y'all are even better! 3