Hey all~! Thank you so much for reading, and for your reviews! Rurouni Kenshin is an all-time favorite of mine, and now that I have gotten back into writing I can't help but want to write all different kinds of stories with my favorite characters. In case any were wondering, this story will continue in chapter installments. Each one will be a moment in time during their college days, so it won't be written out in continuous segments. Time will pass between chapters—some times a few hours, to a day, to a week. It'll depend.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and please tell me what you think~!

Responses to questions: The ages of Sano, Meg, Aoshi, and Kenshin are not quite determined yet, because even Kaoru doesn't know their ages yet. I will say that Sano is about the same age as Kaoru, and it's no secret that he took time off from school for a while, and thus will be graduating late. (That school year he will graduate if all goes according to plan.) Kenshin and Aoshi have been rumored to have served time in the military, and thus the students living in the halls believe they served their time, and are now going through school a little late in the game. I will go into much further details, and more rumors will be heard with time. This story will be a little longer than I first thought, but it doesn't sound like anyone will be disappointed by that. So thank you, and enjoy!

P.S. Kaoru does not know if anyone knows she is a girl, but I tried to make it subtly obvious that, had Kenshin known, he would most certainly not have let Sanosuke begin undressing her. ~.^ Hahaha! Enjoy~!

I do not own these Rurouni Kenshin characters~

To Bare Witness

Ch. 3

Kaoru sighed for the fifth time in the past two hours. Almost a solid week had passed after the horrendous near mishap involving Kaoru finding her idiotic roommate having unwittingly pantsed her, and ever since she had mentioned the 'scars,' both Sano and Kenshin seemed to be watching her more than they normally had in the past. They were treating her as if she was a fragile figurine made of thin glass, and she was starting to get frustrated with their extra care around her, and the unrelenting way their eyes followed her whenever they were in the same room. She would have tried to beat their heads in if it hadn't been her own panicked mind that brought this upon her in her moment of near-discovery. Even Aoshi seemed to be sometimes watching her like a hawk, now.

Aoshi.

When she found out which one of them spilled she was going to…

"Are you gonna finish that?"

"Huh?" Kaoru blinked, Sano's gravelly voice suddenly next to her ear as he leaned in and peered over her shoulder at the food on her plate. He reached for something on her plate, and Kaoru smacked his hand away, finally returning from her thoughts.

"Sano, I paid for this with my own money. Where's your food?"

"Gone." He looked sheepish, and Kaoru raised an eyebrow.

"What he means to say is he ate it in all of two minutes." Misao piped up from her spot around the table their group was currently occupying.

At least Misao hadn't been treating her any differently as of late. Kaoru only hoped no one else would hear the tale about her scars, or ask to see them, for that matter.

Like Kenshin. A very… different Kenshin, with a softly controlled low voice and persistently strong, unrelenting hands. He hadn't been able to look at her after she told him. She wondered if he was ashamed for her. His concern said otherwise, however, and it was both nerve-wracking and slightly comforting to know he seemingly cared so much about what had happened. She shuddered. She almost hadn't been able to get him to drop it, having finally claimed exhaustion so she could curl up in bed and go to sleep. Sano had simply remained eerily silent, arms crossed and watching Kenshin and her in a way that made her wonder why he could seemingly be so observant in times where she wished he wasn't.

Maybe they'd forget eventually…?

Wishful thinking…

"Hey! It's not my fault the portion sizes aren't built for men of my stature!" Sano gloated, causing a few of his friends to chuckle and Misao to raise her eyebrows.

"These portion sizes are huge!" The petite girl carried on, incredulous. "You just eat enough food for six people!"

Kaoru cackled as a low grumble escaped Sanosuke. Kenshin, whom had remained quiet so far, choked on his food.

"What are you tryin' to say, you Weasel? That I'm a pig?"

"If the hoof fits…" Kaoru muttered lowly under her breath, but her friends still heard her.

"WHAT?" Sano roared, going red in the face as he slammed his palm down flatly on the top of their table and glared across at her.

Misao hooted with laughter while Kenshin had a mild coughing fit into his napkin. Aoshi sat, eating quietly and elegantly, non-pulsed, while Kaoru simply grinned pleasantly at Sano's thunderous expression.

"Kaoru, you are going to find some nasty surprises waiting for you in your bed tonight…" Sano growled out threateningly.

Narrowing her eyes, Kaoru tried to determine if he was bluffing. "You know I'll sic Kenshin on you. Then you had better feel bad if he ends up doing mountains of paper work writing you up!"

"O-oro? Ah… Kaoru… Sano… maybe we can… try to make peace?" Kenshin placated rather pathetically, looking quite uneasy all of a sudden.

"Why you dirty, rotten Tanuki!" Sano muttered, hands now clenched atop the table.

Kaoru beamed. "Why yes, Kenshin… I do think that would be for the best," Kaoru breathed out in saccharine tones, triumphant smile never leaving her face as her eyes remained locked on Sanosuke's.

Suddenly Sano smirked, and Kaoru's indigo orbs narrowed.

"Hey Tanuki… guess who's coming to visit me?"

Kaoru didn't say a word, but both Kenshin and Misao's interests were piqued.

"Who?" Misao asked, having finished with taking a swig of her soda.

"Is it anyone we know?" Kenshin wondered lightly.

Sano's smirk widened, and Kaoru had a feeling she would not like whatever was about to come out of his mouth. "My girlfriend, Meg. And she's staying with us," Sano rubbed in, crossing his arms, expression clearly stating he won this round.

Dark brows kissed in confusion on Kaoru's face, and she slowly shook her head. "And here Misao and I thought the rumored Megumi was all a figment of your imagination." She shook her head, applauding herself mentally at the dark frown that now crossed Sano's face. Her confusion remained however, and she tilted her head to one side.

"What's so bad about that?" Misao asked, once again sipping at her coke.

Kaoru wondered with her, giving a light shrug. "It'll be nice to finally meet her, though I will have to wonder at which screws are loose for her to agree to dating you…" She paused deliberately, and Sano's outraged shout filled the silence predictably. Kaoru chuckled. "But we won't hold that against her. After all, we're your friends, so we must be missing a few screws, too."

Kenshin chuckled, and Kaoru felt a pleased blush stain her cheeks. She wouldn't glance over at him, though. He did odd things to her chest, and belly. And she could feel his eyes on her. Breathing was suddenly very difficult. She knew she'd see warmth and darkness and heat and things she didn't understand in his partially guarded gaze. So right now—like this—she would ignore it, when she knew she wasn't strong enough to not do something crazy.

"So, why are you grinning like you've got one up on the world, Sanosuke?" Misao finally drawled, though her concentration was settled on a silent Aoshi seated next to her.

"It's simple," he started out, taking a deep breath, crossing his arms, and letting out a self-satisfied smile as he released a soft sigh. "Sex."

Misao blinked. Aoshi glared. Kenshin stopped breathing, and Kaoru felt his hesitant gaze searing into the side of her head.

Kaoru's stomach plopped out from under her. "S-s-s-s-sex?" She cried out suddenly, turning a vibrant red and rising to both feet in horrified realization.

Then she realized how loud she had shouted 'sex,' in a cafeteria of at least fifty hormone-driven young adults, and she went white, quickly ducking back into her chair and attempting to make herself look as small as possible. When talk slowly began to pick up again, amidst a few chuckles, Kaoru found her voice.

"You are not having sex with your girlfriend in our room!" She hissed out between blenched teeth.

Sano raised an eyebrow, the sparkle in his eyes making Kaoru wish bodily harm upon his form. And his girlfriend's!

"You gonna be the one to pull us apart?" He taunted.

Kaoru went white, quickly rising to her feet and shaking her head in wide-eyed horror. "Misao!" She started, then stopped. She almost hadn't caught her blunder. Aoshi would have eaten her alive! "Don't listen to a word this rooster-head is saying! Kenshin!" The said young man snapped to attention, and Kaoru had to finally meet his eyes. She was lost in them before she knew it. Had they really held such a vibrantly violet color? She shook herself from her thoughts. "I'm sleeping in your room tonight!"

Then, with that, Kaoru marched away from their lunch table, missing the awkwardly nervous expression that consumed Kenshin's face as he stared after her, a light blush rising over his cheeks.

Aoshi returned to eating his food slowly and meticulously while Misao stared in confusion a moment, then shrugged before returning her attention to her soda.

"Heh." Sano let out the self-satisfied sound, eyes riveted to Kenshin's face, and the tell-tale signs he read there.

"Sano…" Kenshin's voice held a nervous, hesitant whimper to it Sanosuke Sagara had never heard before.

"Yes Kenshin?"

The red-head sighed, lowering his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I really do not think that was a good idea, that I do not." Silence met Kenshin's words, and when the third floor RA finally relaxed his tensed shoulders and met his friend's stare, Kenshin's eyes were serious. "Would you really go so far as having sex in your room with your roommate present? Would Miss Megumi, for that matter?"

Smirking, Sano gave a careless shrug. "The fox likes her privacy, and I haven't seen her for a while. Whether we have some fun or not, Meg would have gone to extreme lengths to get Kaoru to leave if she really wanted to—even if all we do is talk." Sano remained unrepentant, then chuckled with a knowing smirk sent Kenshin's way, at Kenshin's expense, no doubt.

"Besides…" The rooster continued, Kenshin not liking where this was going. "The tanuki doesn't need to know that."

Kenshin sighed, eyes closed and somewhat pained.

It was going to be a looooong night.

Sorry it was so short, guys! The next chapter will be longer, I promise. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!