Chapter 12

Not Much of a Vacation

Sano could never understand why he was the one who always got sent on these dragon-collecting errands. He could see he was a bit more personable than the icy Aoshi, but besides that Sano was always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Like now.

It wasn't his fault that he'd tracked the dragon to some sort of underground, black market gambling hole. It wasn't his fault that the dragon he was looking for was under some sort of illegal contract. It wasn't his fault he'd gotten caught up in a game of dice for the life of the dragon. It also wasn't his fault that he'd won and been accused of cheating.

That last one had been the kid's fault, the cheeky idiot.

So it also wasn't his fault that he had to bust everyone around the mouth to be able to leave with the dragon he came for.

He was quite sure Aoshi or Kenshin would have handled it more gracefully. At least less messily. Okay, so they probably wouldn't have broken any laws and be counting on the "black-marketness" of the whole situation to keep the whole of the Japanese underground from coming after them. When the whole of the Japanese underground woke up, of course.

But… just in case… Sano huffed through his scaled nostrils and sent smoke rings flying with each short breath as he beat his wings harder for more altitude, hoping to put enough distance between them and not be recognized. He didn't think any of the others knew he was dragon, but he couldn't be sure.

This damn kid weighs a ton.

The small dragon he had with him, barely a fifth of his size and nowhere near large enough to fly yet was tucked at the base of Sano's wings and latched on in a way that wasn't painful but still quite uncomfortable. The little dragon was sulking and smirking that the same time, probably glad to leave but still quite miffed about having to come along. He didn't necessarily need the dragon, but after what just happened he couldn't leave him, and it was faster by air. The dark black baby scales poked him, making his back itchy with each beat of his wings.

Misao. You owe me one.

Kaoru and Kenshin had spent most of their time curled up together on the couch looking out the window. Or reading. Or on the computer. Kaoru spent a lot of time sleeping against Kenshin as well. Kaoru liked that he was so warm and ever since that night at the motel Kenshin liked being as physically close to her as possible as well. It was much easier to monitor her energy levels which were starting to fluctuate more and more.

Kenshin watched her carefully, making sure she wasn't pulling her energy incorrectly or doing anything that could damage herself. She would have never felt any of the dragon energy or focus he took for granted. Everything about him that was dragon that he used to interact with the world would be something that she would have had reflected back into herself in a loop that, if Megumi was right, could be repaired along with her bond energy. Kaoru would once again be whole and completely human, devoid of any dragon energy.

He just couldn't understand why.

Why would they have done that to Kaoru?

The spells that would be needed would be costly and could have even killed Kaoru if who ever had preformed them had waited too late.

Dragon magic was powerful and needed to be released. Human forms weren't meant to be permanent and to force a dragon to be human would crush the unlucky dragon under the metaphysical weight of the dragon's own magic. Younger dragons spent much more time in their dragon form learning to control these explosions of magic and emotion. The older a dragon became, the longer it could control the human form. The only exception was for hatchlings. Fresh from the eggs there would be a small window of time to manipulate the magic and bind the hatchling to a human form.

Kenshin frowned as he watched Kaoru.

He was sure she was dragon now, more than anything. The energy he was feeling was tied too tightly to her but she was unaware. There was no connection between the human Kaoru and her dragon. The energy was desolate, listless, and without an anchor. It was no wonder he didn't associate her with the dragon energy surrounding her.

He still could not even fathom why.

Her blue eyes should spark with dragon energy. She should be controlling this power that surrounded her. She should be using her magic to respond to him and his magic.

It was almost physically painful watching her and her magic exist apart from each other and wonder if she would ever be able to completely understand.

It hadn't really occurred to Kaoru or Kenshin that anything was different about their relationship until Misao and Megumi arrived several days later.

They of course heard Misao before they saw her. "Hey Kenshin! Kaoru! I've got some news for… Oh Em Gee you'd better either have clothes on or just stay under that blanket!" Misao had come through the doorway talking and covered her eyes in mock horror when she saw them.

"Misao! I'm completely decent!" Kaoru wailed, her immediate happiness seeing her friend tempered by her friend's reaction.

"Well you are right now because you're under the blanket!" Misao was giggling and Kaoru sputtering as Megumi entered at a more leisurely pace.

"Are you comfortable in that blanket. Should I come back later? Oh ho!" Megumi was smirking and Kaoru was almost growling as she answered.

"We. were watching. A movie. Oh!" Kaoru had been untangling herself and had just about jumped up to brain both of her two friends when Kenshin grabbed the end of her ponytail, jerking her back against him.

"You shouldn't spend so much energy like that Miss Kaoru, you haven't been doing too well." He said it kindly as Kaoru turned to stare daggers at him instead. "Your energy has been so erratic the last few days and I think the doctor should look at you now!" He coward against Kaoru's rage and spoke quickly, shrinking back.

"Erratic?" Misao's eyes were shining. "What have you two been doing while you've been away?"

Kenshin once again had to keep Kaoru from killing the two laughing women who had starting unpacking Megumi's medical kit. Kaoru was bright red and fuming.

"Kenshin is right, dear. Your energy is so much worse than I would have thought. You shouldn't be going through so much of it. It looks like it's having a hard time balancing." Misao was still chortling while Megumi had become serious. The objects coming out of the bag seemed to Kaoru to be a strange mix of magical artifacts out of some fantasy world and your everyday basics of technology. Crystals and wands mixed with a couple of tools that wouldn't be out of place at a modern hospital. Kaoru could not make heads or tails of any of it, and watched as Megumi began putting what looked to be a magic wand into an iPhone jack.

"I don't remember that." Kaoru said.

"Oh, I need to take more accurate energy readings and take a snapshot for later. I have your energy readings when you first came in but you were out cold for most of that." She was coiling some metal wires around the phone and rod as she talked, finally attaching a large, long crystal. "Okay, hold it like this" she passed it to Kaoru, "No, finger here please. Perfect. Don't move."

Kaoru stood perfectly still, eyebrow cocked.

"Okay. That's good, just keep holding it for a bit, you can move now."

"What's my energy like on this?" When told she could move, Kaoru immediately shifted to be closer to Kenshin, and barely glared at Misao's and Megumi's smiles.

"Oh, no, that was just a quick measure of your heart rate. I'm doing your energy levels now. You can put the heart rate monitor on your own phone, but the energy conductor and app are home brewed. It works but the interface leaves a lot to be desired."

"Everyone's a critic" Misao laughed as she finished unpacking Megumi's bag. "You should be happy I was even able to get it to work. I'm not going to make it pretty for you too."

"Hmm. 140. 97.2. Skin is pale." Megumi continued to make observations and call out numbers to Misao who began writing in the ledger without prompting. She didn't understand what she was saying about her energy levels, but she could almost feel the shift in Kenshin behind her, even though he hadn't moved.

"It's that bad?" Kaoru asked, interrupting.

"It's certainly not good. There's a lot about your condition that's quite unique. I'm having to make some educated guesses, but you have a little more than a couple of hours to decide what you want to do. I thought you'd have a few more, but this energy process is accelerating and become more powerful and stable. Soon I won't be able to reverse the process at all."

"Reverse it? We aren't talking about the bond, right?"

"No. You have, for lack of a better phrase, a puncture in your energy." Megumi spoke slowly and deliberately. I can funnel that energy back in on itself and reseal everything back up. You'll be just as you were before."

"And with my other option? What will happen to me?"

"It will hurt like fire and salt and might rip you apart and will most definitely change you."

"Megumi!"

"What, Misao? She deserves to know what is going to happen! It's her choice to make!"

A/N: Hey look. I'm back again and it hasn't even been half a decade. Woot. I've had most of this planned out for a while, but I've made one giant change that I wouldn't have written even a year ago. Mostly I needed Kaoru to have a choice. I think it's something that bothered me about the original idea and I'm much, much more comfortable with the story now. I'm still having fun with it and I just want to say "thank you!" to all my readers and especially my reviewers. Big squishy cuddles to you all! /3