Kendo Club
Ch 18
Sorry its been so long everyone! I've been really really busy...with AP and graduating high school (ALLELUIA!) and getting read for college... yes, I have excuses, legitamite ones as well.
Anyway...new chapter...ENJOY!
Back in the present day…
The day after Kaoru had stayed up far too late reading Kenshin's journal wasn't turning out very well. She had woken up late for school (slept through her alarm), been shouted at by Hiko (because he liked to shout), and harassed by Yahiko (because he was a brat). After a top-speed drive to school, during which Hiko had kept lecturing her, she raced upstairs, through the halls, and almost fell into her first class.
"Kaoru Kamiya, you tardy!"
And now she was tardy. She glanced up wearily to see Miss Lindstrom glaring at her from the wooden desk at the front of the room. Her expression didn't bode all that well for Kaoru's immediate future.
"Sorry, I didn't hear my alarm, and my ride was late, so-"
Miss Lindstrom cleared her throat and raised her hand. "Quiet. You go to desk."
Kaoru rolled her eyes internally and straightened. "Sure, sorry." She walked through the maze of chairs, stepping over backpacks, textbooks, hats and other abandoned belongings until she found her desk and sat down with a sigh. Then someone pointedly poked her in the side.
"Hey Kaoru!"
"What, Misao?" she asked tiredly, turning to look at her friend who was looking back with bright eyes and a happy-go-lucky grin, and was far too cheerful for this time of morning.
"Aw, don't be like that!" When she failed to get a response from her black-haired friend, Misao sighed. "What's wrong? Why're you late?"
Kaoru groaned and crossed her arms on her desk to use as a pillow. With her head comfortably settled, she spoke. "Kenshin, I guess. But it's mostly Hiko's fault."
"I'm not surprised." The young ninjitsu artist smiled. "everyone seems to get in trouble because of him." At a strong glare from her friend, Misao quickly amended, "Hiko! Not Kenshin. Kenshin's too sweet-natured for that."
"Kaoru, Misao!" Miss Lindstrom's voice cut through the quiet chatter, directed at the two being the least disruptive. "You two talk too much, be quiet!"
"Yes, Miss Lindstrom," the two droned together, barely batting an eyelash.
Satisfied with the newfound silence, the teacher turned back to the lesson she was scrawling on the board. Misao flicked her long braid over her shoulder and turned back to Kaoru. "She's so annoying."
"She very strict," Kaoru mimicked. "She very loud and annoyed!"
The ninja giggled quietly behind her hand, "Kaoru!"
They were quiet for a while, half listening to the important parts of the lesson. Every so often their eyes met, and they'd quickly break eye contact again, giggling at the memory of Kaoru's mocking. After becoming bored with pretending to take notes, Misao swiveled in her seat to face Kaoru again. "So, what's wrong with Kenshin?" she asked, barely bothering to keep her voice down.
Kaoru glanced over. "He-" she began to say, but cut herself off, considering what she had read in his journal the night before. Would Kenshin want all of his friends to know about his past as a hitokiri? Or would he rather they simply knew of him as Kenshin, unaware of the secrets he hid?
"He's... sick," she finally half-lied. "I told him to stay home, and Hiko's there to glare over him until he gets better."
Misao smiled knowingly. "You like him!" Her smile only grew wider at whatever expression appeared on Kaoru's face. "Kaoru's in love with Ken-shin!" she sang, thankfully in a quiet tone.
"I am not!" Kaoru denied hotly, and turned away angrily.
"Uh-huh..." Misao drawled, drawing it out as long as she could. She didn't believe a word her friend was saying.
Only a few minutes later, Kaoru was almost asleep while Misao was simply bored out of her brain, chin resting on her hand while a pencil twirled between her fingers. They spent the rest of the period like that, until the bell rang and students ran out the door, ignoring the homework Miss Lindstrom shouted at them.
When they got into the hall, Misao began interrogating Kaoru. "Come on, Kaoru, it's so obvious you like him!" she declared, hugging her books to her chest while her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Kenshin and Kaoru..."
Her friend glared and denied everything. "I do not like him, Misao. And even if I did, it wouldn't be obvious!" She took a deep breath and kept going. "And don't act like you know what happened between us, you don't! What's happening is dangerous, especially for him, and it doesn't involve us as, well, us. He just happens to trust me. That's all."
Misao stared at Kaoru as if she were an alien. "Geez, Kaoru, you don't have to get so defensive about it. I just said it 'cause I thought it was true. Sorry for making assumptions." She spun on her heel and walked down the hall quickly, leaving Kaoru to walk on her own.
The lonely girl sighed and lowered her head. She hadn't meant to push Misao away so cruelly, but she was too questioning for her own good. She didn't want the girl tangled up in Kenshin's mess too, it wouldn't be safe for her. She didn't want to see Misao hurt.
Speaking of which, she shouldn't be involved either. Kaoru herself was too curious for her own good. She had pried into Kenshin's past, read his journal and found out about Kenshin's other self. Hitokiri Battousai.
Even that wouldn't be too bad, if she hadn't also found out about Katsura, about Aoshi's shadow job (and Misao, for that matter), about Saito and his deadliness, and about Soujiro and Shishio... about everything and everyone that a nice girl like her had no business knowing about.
Still, she had done what she had meant to do. She had found out the truth behind Kenshin's mask. But... she hadn't wanted to find out second-hand, and she hadn't wanted to find that Kenshin was as twisted, if not more so, than anybody else.
Kaoru sighed and walked faster, not wanting to be late to her next class.
She got to her English class just as the last bell rang. As she walked to her desk, the teacher's eyes followed her, watching her every move with an annoyed frown. Usually she and Misao broke the rules of sitting at an assigned desk, but Misao was ignoring her, so Kaoru sat in her originally assigned seat for the first time since the beginning of the semester.
A few minutes into the class, Kaoru became restless. For the rest of the period, she kept glancing out of the corner of her eye at Misao. Misao was pointedly watching the teacher, intent on the overheads she was showing to the class.
She suffered through in silence, and the teachers seemed to pity her enough to not call on her for any answers. Math was the same. None of her friends were in the class, so she usually doodled or slept through it. The bell rang, and Kaoru ran out of the room, only stopping at her locker to toss her books in before rushing to lunch.
She sat at the table where she and her friends always sat. It was only a few seconds before Misao arrived, though, and she sat across from Kaoru. "Hi, Misao," Kaoru said, trying to make conversation.
Misao simply glanced at Kaoru and looked away, back to her lunch. Kaoru took to glaring at her friend constantly as they ate. A few minutes into the awkward silence, Sano and Megumi arrived and sat next to each other, on Misao's left. They kept talking to each other until they noticed the lack of others talking. A glance between them confirmed that something was wrong between Kaoru and Misao.
Sano was the first to speak. "You two, what's up? Usually you wouldn't stop talking if the world was about to end.
"Try some tact some time soon, Sano," Megumi sighed, thwacking him with a textbook she had handy.
"Aw, Gumi!"
Kaoru stuffed the remainder of her taco into her mouth. "Nothin'," she mumbled around it, not making eye contact with any of the three- not that Misao would have looked at her for the world right now.
"Oh yes, nothing," Misao snickered, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She then stage-whispered to Megumi and Sanosuke. "As long as you don't ask about Kenshin Himura."
Kaoru jumped to her feet and slammed a hand on the table. "Will you please just shut up about that, Misao! I am not in love with him! And it doesn't matter if you believe me or not, because I know I'm not and that should be enough!"
Everyone stared at her until Misao started snickering again while Sano and Megumi looked slightly stunned at her outburst. "You know, Kaoru, nobody said that," the fox said slowly. "You just jumped to that conclusion."
"Did not!" Kaoru automatically replied, glaring.
Sano decided to ignore the fight brewing and began inhaling tacos. Megumi arched an eyebrow at Kaoru coolly.
Kaoru growled under her breath and pointed angrily at Misao. "She's just upset because her Aoshi-sama isn't here for her to worship the ground he walks on, and so she's been bugging me about Kenshin all day! Well, when she's been talking to me."
Misao hiccuped and tried to drink all her milk at once, avoiding a response.
"See?"
Megumi sighed and shook her head. "I give up."
Megumi and Sano were the only ones talking for the rest of lunch, since Kaoru and Misao refused to talk to each other. Just when they were all about to be driven crazy with the tension in the air, the bell rang for the last class of the day. Kaoru had to get her sketchbook out of her locker, so she was a little behind the rest of the students. The halls were almost empty when Saito and Aoshi appeared and cornered her. Before she could ask what they were doing, the two of them had grabbed her by the arms, and were dragging her into the nearest empty classroom.
"Hey! What are-" By the time she had said that, she was inside the room, with Aoshi blocking the only door.
"Where is Himura? Why is he not at school today?" The 'teacher' walked up to her, and leaned over her threateningly.
"Kenshin-!" she snapped, before remembering that it wasn't wise to blab the redhead's secrets to anyone who asked. But Saito already knew about him, and the beginning of the teen's relapse into a hitokiri... "He's at the hospital, still. But it's been too long. He, he should have left by now.
Aoshi, who had by now decided Kaoru wasn't going to run for the door, come to stand next to Saito. She felt a little claustrophobic, trapped between the two men. "What happened to Himura?" he demanded brusquely.
She frowned. "It's a long story. Basically, Katsura found Kenshin again, and gave him some medicine or something that's turning Kenshin back into Hitokiri Battousai. He had a fit or something a few nights later, so we took him to the hospital. He's still there, but I think he's getting better." She shrugged helplessly. "That's all I know."
Saito snorted at the unintentional meaning behind her words. "That's not what I meant!" Kaoru yelled, and glared at the wolf, her nails digging into her palms. But he just smirked and nodded, agreeing in a condescending way.
Aoshi glanced at the wolf before asking, "How do you know Himura was Hitokiri Battousai?"
"I read his journal. While he was in the hospital." At a look from Saito, she added, "He told me to!" indignantly.
"I see," Aoshi replied, then glanced over at Saito.
The wolf blinked, "you read his journal without asking him?" He said it in a way that made it sound like a crime.
"He told me to!"
Aoshi and Saito stared at her.
"Himura... let you read his diary?"
"Yes."
The two stared at her some more, then shared a significant look.
"Why?"
The girl blinked, "because he wanted me to?" She sighed, "Actually, I kind of pressured him into letting me. I figured something was wrong, with everything that was going on, so I told him to tell me what was happening, and finally he just said to read his diary. That's how I know about things now." She sighed again. "It's not like anybody tells me these things."
"What do you know, exactly?" Saito questioned, surprised by both her own actions, and Himura's. He had thought the idiot was more protective about his past then the girl was claiming he was. And the teen had never let anyone know about the diary he kept, or let anyone get as close to him as Kaoru was.
Kaoru frowned, "nearly everything, or everything, I think. At least, I read about his childhood, and how his parents died early in his life so Hiko took him in. He was the one who taught Kenshin to use a sword. And this whole 'Battousai,'" she made air quotes, "thing wouldn't have happened if the two of them hadn't had an argument which caused Kenshin to run away, and Katsura to pick him up. If it didn't happen, then we, or I, wouldn't be in this situation."
When the girl looked up to find the others staring at her, she realized that she had probably just said something she shouldn't have.
"I didn't know that," Aoshi commented, and Saito shook his head.
"Oops," Kaoru whispered and covered her mouth with her hands. "Um, don't tell Kenshin I told you that, please."
Saito smirked, but Aoshi sighed and said quietly, "if you keep baiting her Hajime, we'll never learn anything." He nodded to Kaoru, "go on."
But she glared at both of them, "why do you two want to know about this? Why do you care?"
"It will be dangerous if an assassin appears in the city again. You're young, but you must still remember the terror that ran through the city during the reign of the assassain Battousai, and the rest of Katsura's crowd. Everyone was afraid to go out at night, and almost everyone carried some kind of weapon for self-defense. No one thought they were safe, everyone was scared that their family were going to be attacked next." Saito rambled off the facts, just like the police officer he was.
And then Aoshi joined in, "if we allow Himura to become an assassin once again, the city will fall back into such a state. Are you willing to let that happen?"
Kaoru squeaked with surprise, "what! Why is this my fault all of a sudden? Why is it my decision to make?"
"Because he trusted you enough to tell you about his past. Himura is very secretive, as you know, but, for some reason, he decided to tell you. I respect that decision, I don't know why, but you have to be sure to keep all of this a secret. No one can know."
"And since you are the only person he completely trusts, most likely you are the only one who can save him. From himself, and from what he's done," the teen ninja declared, looking the girl in the eyes.
She stared at them, looking back and forth between them, "what do you mean? What on earth are you saying?"
The wolf sighed, was the girl really this think? "We mean, Kamiya, that if anything goes wrong, we will have to depend on you to help bring him back to reality, and to help him return to his true self."
"What are you-"
Aoshi sighed, "it might happen Kaoru, you must be ready for it. I know you've read about what he was like back then, but, there is no way to prepare yourself for how he acts as an hitokiri, it's very different."
"Like he wrote you acted?" Kaoru blurted.
Her friend blinked, confused and surprised, "Himura mentioned me in his journal?"
The girl nodded, "yeah, a little. He talked about how you helped him, how you became his friend, and how you helped him on a few of his missions," she glanced up at him, grinning. "As the leader of the Oniwaban."
Aoshi leaned in menacingly towards her, "he told you that?"
"Yes, he wrote it in there. But Misao told me before."
"Really," Saito drawled.
She turned on him, "oh, he didn't forget about you either Saito-san." Kaoru smiled knowingly at him, "the things I could tell."
The wolf glared coldly at her, "you're lying."
"Am I?"
"Yes." He snapped at her, causing Kaoru to glare, but she didn't say what she knew and closed her mouth instead.
"Thank you," Saito acknowledged sarcastically.
Now Aoshi spoke up, "when does Himura leave the hospital?"
She glared at Saito again, then answered Aoshi's question. "Um, today's Friday, so, late tomorrow or early Sunday I would guess. If something else doesn't happen, of course."
Aoshi and Saito exchanged looks again, then turned back to Kaoru.
"Very well, you can go to class now. Just be sure to tell us when he gets home, and if anything happens," Saito informed her, then patted her on the head, despite her obvious dislike.
"What are you two, his shadow guardians? You're sure protective of him." Kaoru shuffled her feet nervously, "and you know, Sensei, that if I'm going to class I need a pass."
The teacher sneered at her. "I'm sorry Kamiya, but I don't happen to have any with me."
"Then write an excuse on a piece of paper!" She snapped annoyed, causing Saito to give her a holier-than-thou look, before he walked over to the teachers desk on the other side of the room, tore off a post-it note and began writing on it.
At the same time, Kaoru turned to Aoshi and informed him, smiling, "Misao's been worried about you all day. She couldn't stop talking about how she missed her "Aoshi-sama."
The teen nodded. "Please don't tell her you saw me. I'll call her tonight to make up for my absence."
Just then Saito returned, and held out a piece of paper to Kaoru, covered with messy, smushed handwriting. The girl hesitantly took it from him and scanned the message, once in a while glancing up at the man, frowning. After finishing, Kaoru stuffed it into her jean pocket, and nodded to Saito and then Aoshi, before exiting the classroom in a rush.
After she was gone, the teacher turned to the teenager. "Are you fully sure we can trust her?" he asked doubtfully.
"Himura does, and so can we," Aoshi said, in his typically stoic fashion.
When class ended, Kaoru rushed to her locker, hoping to catch her friends before they left. Luckily, all of their lockers were next to each other, and most of the others weren't as fast getting there as she was. A few minutes after she arrived, Sano and Megumi came striding up, followed by the sulking Misao.
Megumi was the first to notice the tanuki moving in quick mode, and commented on it. "My, Kaoru, where are you in such a hurry to get off to?" She smirked. "Meeting your secret lover behind the gym?"
"No." Kaoru replied heatedly, "I want to get home quickly to see if Kenshin's okay. He stayed home sick from school today," she half-lied, he was sick and she was worried about him, so it wasn't a complete lie.
"So, you're worried?" Misao asked, saying her first words to her friend since their argument during their first lesson.
At that Sano grinned, "that's kinda sweet Jou-chan, 'specially for you."
"He's just a friend okay? If it was any of you in the same situation, I would do the same." Kaoru corrected, then when none of them spoke, she grabbed her books from inside her locker, slammed it shut, and while shouting goodbye, she nearly ran down the hall in order to meet Hiko on time.
Even though the man repeatedly commented that he wasn't worried about his nephew, Hiko had cancelled that night's Kendo practice, and had warned that the practices next week might be canceled as well.
Kaoru smiled, so even Hiko had a soft side, especially, it seemed, for his nephew. Her smile dimmed, but maybe he felt that way because he knew he was partially responsible for what had happened to Kenshin the first time, and now wanted to prevent it from happening again.
As she rushed through the front doors, a horn suddenly sounded, and the girl looked down to see Hiko's car parked down at the bottom of the steps. Grinning, she clutched her books to her chest as she ran down the steps to the car.
While she opened the door and threw her things inside, the man grumbled, "took you long enough. Next time when I say three, I mean three."
"Sorry," Kaoru apologized as she got intothe car, and buckled her seat belt.
"I tried to hurry, but everyone gathered at our lockers and kept talking to me."
Hiko stared the car, "that's one of the worst excuses I've heard Kamiya. Try a better one next time," he scolded, then pulled away from the curb and began rocketing down the street.
She frowned. "Great, first Misao getting angry at me, then Saito and Aoshi interrogating me, now you calling me a liar. This has been a great day."
The man, half-listening, commented, "what did they want to know?"
"About Kenshin, where he was, what was happening, and why I knew as much as I did."
He frowned, "what is that supposed to mean?"
"When we were at the hospital last night, I was worried about Kenshin, so I," she sighed, was she going to have to tell everyone this, "I practically ordered him to tell me what was going on…and he told me to read his journal, and I did later that night, so now, I pretty much understand what's happening with, and around, Kenshin. And they wanted to know why."
Hiko smirked, "the kid keeps a journal? How girlish!" He turned a corner, making the car swerve and tires squeal, "sounds like he's getting in touch with his feminine side."
The girl sighed and shook her head; he had the oddest sense of humor.
For a few minutes, it was quiet in the car, except for the sound coming in from the open window. Suddenly Hiko handed his cellular to Kaoru, telling her, "call the home voicemail and see if there are any messages."
Obediently she flipped open the phone, found the number under "voicemail" and called it. The security code was programmed in, so it went straight to messages.
There was only one recorded on it, dated less then an hour ago, from Yahiko. After the message had finished playing, Kaoru deleted it and closed the phone.
"Well?" The man asked impatiently.
"There was one from Yahiko, saying that he's staying at his friend Yutaro's house the whole weekend." She slapped the phone into his outstretched palm. "Brat didn't even ask me."
As they pulled into the hospital parking lot, Hiko commented quietly, "you must really care about your brother; you're very protective of him."
Kaoru sighed and leaned back against her seat, "I guess, it's just… after our parents died... We're all each other really has."
The man turned off the car, unbuckled his seat belt and climbed out of the car, while his female companion dully did the same, and then followed him into the hospital.
Before she hadn't thought about her actions towards her brother, she had just done what she thought was right, and necessary. But now, she supposed that even though they fought a lot, they still cared for each other.
Suddenly the girl felt weight on her shoulder, and she looked up to see Hiko's hand there. "What?"
He scowled at her, "there's no use brooding Kamiya. Keep your mind focused on the present, and what you're doing."
"Yes, Hiko-san," she muttered obediently, ignoring some, if not all, of his advice.
The man removed his hand, muttered something under his breath, and resumed walking.
Kaoru glanced around her as they moved, speed-walking down empty white hallways on their way towards Kenshin's room. The night before she had been so worried about her friend that she hadn't taken any notice of where she was, or what it was like. But then, she hadn't known what was really happening, and had thought that he was on the edge of dying.
"Hiko-san," the girl asked softly, causing the man to turn in mid-stride.
He frowned, annoyed, "don't call me Hiko-san, just Hiko."
"Fine. But, I wanted to ask you… what do you think will happen with Kenshin? Do you think, do you think he'll survive this?"
The man rolled his eyes and slowed his pace slightly. "I don't know why I have to repeat myself…he'll be fine. The kid will probably have a few scars, and mentally who knows, but in the end he'll be alright." Hiko glanced over at her, "have a little more faith Kamiya, he does in you."
Kaoru frowned, not meeting his eyes, and kept her head down as they continued to walk. She did have faith in Kenshin, but, everything had happened so fast. One day he was fine, smiling at her, laughing with her. Then, just in one night, he had shown up late, hesitantly not looking at them, and Hiko had ordered her and Yahiko away. And the next time she saw him, he had seemed distant…then a few minutes into their conversation he had had some kind of fit, and fell unconscious. Whatever it had been, it was severe enough for him to go to the hospital.
And now…
The two of them stopped in front of the door to Kenshin's room, and Hiko glanced at her warningly, before putting his hand on the doorknob.
But suddenly the door slammed open, nearly hitting him.
All of them looked at each other, the female doctor seeming more startled then they were. "Can, can I help you?"
Hiko blinked at her, then stated, "we're here to see Kenshin," and pointed towards the door. The hastily-scrawled label said 'Himura Kenshin'.
The doctor raised her eyebrows, glanced at them, and then to the door. "You can't. Only family is allowed."
"We are family. I'm his guardian, and the boy's uncle, while she," he vaguely waved his hand in Kaoru's direction, "is his cousin."
Kenshin's supposed cousin stared at the man's back, and opened her mouth to deny what he said. She didn't look anything like Kenshin! Neither did he, for that matter. But, he must have noticed her annoyance, because he flapped his hand at her behind his back, quieting her.
Still, the woman doctor didn't look convinced. "Even though that might be," she paused to squint suspiciously at him, "I still can't allow you inside."
"What's your excuse now?"
'Of course he manages to annoy Kenshin's doctor,' Kaoru thought, 'she probably won't let us in at all now.'
The doctor glared at Hiko, thoroughly irritated. "Himura needs rest. He is still recovering, and should not be disturbed."
He glared right back at her, and replied shortly, "I don't care. He's obviously fine, and I'm going to see him no matter what you say." With that response, the man pushed past the doctor, opening the door on his way. Hiko smirked at her, and waved for Kaoru to enter.
She looked doubtfully at him, as she walked up next to the man. Before the girl stepped inside, she bobbed her head apologetically at the doctor, and then went in, glared at the man and nearly slammed the door behind her.
On the other side, Hiko and the doctor continued to glare at each other for a few minutes, before they turned their backs.
Stubborn, indeed.
Inside, Kaoru locked the door and walked over to the bed to watch Kenshin. By the way he hadn't responded when she came in, she guessed he was asleep, sound asleep, so she listened to the steady beeping of the monitors and watched as his chest raised and lowered with each breath.
It was such a normal sight that it calmed her, and she smiled as she moved to the side of the bed, pulled up a chair and sat down as she observed her friend, or boyfriend, or whatever he was.
He was a wonderful person, even if he was slightly secretive and had had a bad life, he was still sweet. So, why did so much change when he became the hitokiri? What had made his personality change so drastically from the Kenshin she knew now, to how people described him when he was the Battousai?
He had said in his journal that it was after Katsura had given him the medicine that he had begun to forget, and when his personality changed.
But could medicine make such a difference?
Thoughtfully she went over the conversation she had had with Saito and Aoshi. They both had said that if the situation became dire, she would have to bring Kenshin back, and help him remember. Although Kaoru cared for, and maybe even loved him (no matter what she said to Misao), she wasn't certain if she wanted things to become so grave that she had to resort to doing that. What if she failed, or if he refused to listen to reason?
The girl shook her head, trying to forget the negative thoughts. That wouldn't happen. Kenshin would be fine. Everything would be fine.
She heard a rustle from in front of her, and looked up to see that the boy had rolled over and was now facing her.
Kaoru smiled and leaned closer to him. She reached forward to brush some hair away from his face, but it fell back, causing the boy to wrinkle his nose and press his face into the pillow. She mischievously lifted the strands of hair and began lightly brushing it across his cheeks and nose. He sleepily tried to wave it away, but missed.
Finally, the boy blearily opened his eyes, and rubbed his cheeks and nose before looking up at her from around the pillow with sleepy violet eyes.
Kaoru smiled at him and greeted, "morning, sunshine," as she removed her hand and placed it on her lap.
"Morning," he greeted gruffly.
The girl laughed, "Actually its afternoon. School got out an hour ago."
Kenshin blinked at her, ignoring the correction as he wondered why this girl had come to see him, and why she was so cheerful.
"… I was worried about you Kenshin, and so is everyone else. We really care, you know. That's why I came straight here after school."
Well that answered his question.
But why could he not remember her name, or remember how they knew each other?
She was a friend, he knew that much, and also that they knew, and cared for each other.
Although for the life of him, he couldn't put a name to her face.
"Kenshin?" He heard her ask, and looked up to see the girl staring worriedly down at him.
The redhead smiled reassuringly, but avoided her eyes, hoping she hadn't realized that he didn't address her by her name.
"Are you alright? You look strange." She asked, and then he felt a light pressure on his forehead.
"I'm fine."
He saw her frown, but she left it at that, obviously putting his shortness down for having been woken up so abruptly.
When she didn't speak again, Kenshin returned to the problem of her name. The boy knew that he had known it earlier, but for some reason it was eluding him.
How had he forgotten her name when he knew she was so important to him?
For some reason he was able to remember the names of everyone else he knew; Hiko, Ishi, Saito, Aoshi, Katsura-san, but her name was the one he didn't know.
Kenshin quickly tuned into her one-sided conversation to only realize that she was talking about school, and some people named Sano, Megumi and Misao.
Since she wasn't paying attention to him, the teen returned to his thoughts.
He remembered that hers was a short name, one that began with a "k" and was two syllables…
Kathy, Kate, Kaorin, Kasumi…. Kaoru…
Kaoru?
The redhead opened his eyes and asked quietly, "Kaoru?"
To his delight, she smiled at him, replying, "Yes?"
Kenshin shook his head, giving her a false smile, "nothing, just…thanks for coming."
"No problem Kenshin. That's what friends do, we care for each other."
He tried to smile agreeably at her, but could only manage a thin smile. The girl, Kaoru, pulled her chair closer to the side of the bed and gently pulled his hand out from under the pillow, to gently grasp it in hers.
"Actually, Kenshin…"
The redhead looked up at her, worriedly.
… "we need to talk."
DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN!
Sorry, I felt that need to add that.
So now, next chapter we shall the discussion between Ken and Kaoru of what she read in his journal, as well as a transition kind of thing to the next part of the story.
Hee hee, it was so fun to write the scene between Aoshi, Saito and Kaoru...can't you just imagine them doing that to the poor girl?
Also, did anyone notice the little hint I gave in the last part? Thats a sign of what is to come!
Okay, I am SO SO SO sorry I didn't update soon, but I have excuses, like I said above, as well as the fact that I gave Ash-chan four chapters at the same time to edit...THANK YOU ASH-CHAN! So updates depend on her. If your getting antsy bug the girl, although I wouldn't recommend it. (Mistakes are all her fault u (jk!))
One very IMPORTANT note: I shall be starting college on tues, well classes, I'm already at college, so updates are forcasted to be short and have long times inbetween, but not yearly..thatd be AWFUL.
Just a warning. But I will try to do the best I can.
Another note, I'm starting a new story called "Perfection," another RK AU (what a suprise) so please read it once I post (once again, Ash-chan's fault for the delay). I would like to know what you think.
I will try to update my other fics as soon as possible, but I'm not sure how soon that will be.
Thank you for your patience.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed for the last chapter, I'm sorry but I can't get to your names at the moment, but you know who you are! THANKS AGAIN!
Please review!
Thats all for now!
ja ne,
mijichan
P.S FIREFLY RULES!