Disclaimer: Though it is my fondest wish, I do not own Rurouni Kenshin……*WAIL*
SteamChapter 3:
"Sano-take care of Misao. Yahiko, get the Police. I will be back, that I will."
Kenshin saw Sanosuke's mouth open, but he didn't wait to hear what he had to say. He didn't have time to waste on his friend's protests. He was too busy trying to repress a dark, intense feeling that had steadily been building somewhere inside him ever since he'd heard the name Dokurou.
'If he's touched her, I swear I'll…'
Kenshin's teeth clenched as he shook his head to stop that particularly violent thought. Instead he moved faster down the torch-lit path, the scenery blurring past as he moved at an ungodly pace towards the springs. He could have sworn he heard her scream his name.
Kaoru…His speed increased more at the thought of her, naked and helpless, just as Misao had been. His eyes narrowed as he imagined another man looking at her, another man touching her…
'Kuso…'
Suddenly the hot spring wall rose before him and without even slowing, he leaped over it with an animalistic growl, landing in a crouch on the other side, ready to pounce.
'I smell fear…'
He made no sound as he rose to his full height, vision piercing the steam as he looked for his quarry.
He heard a whimper and then a rumbling voice drifted to him from somewhere to his left. Turning sharply towards the sound, he walked soundlessly forward as the steam parted to permit his entry.
The scene before him caused his teeth to sink into his cheek, drawing blood, and his pupils shrunk as his eyes darkened to a deep indigo.
A man with dark hair and cold eyes was holding Kaoru pinned between the hot spring wall and his body. He could see the creamy white skin of her shoulders above the ground level, half-hidden by her raven tresses. But then her ivory skin was covered with bronze as the man grabbed her shoulders roughly and crushed his mouth against hers.
'No…mine'
His sakaba slid from its sheath instantly. The motion a primal instinct… an instinct to protect what was his.
He stepped up to the edge behind Kaoru and let his battle ki flare, just a little, and watched with satisfaction when the other man stiffened at the hostile aura. He then slid his sakaba along Kaoru's neck until the sharp tip pushed into the other man's pulse point, forcing him off Kaoru with a dangerous pressure.
The man's startled gaze traveled up the length of the sword until it settled on its owner. Careful to keep his face shadowed, Kenshin watched as the man took in his insignificant height and tattered clothes, and finally arrogance and annoyance replaced the fear on his face.
"Who do you think you are? These are MY hot springs and this woman is mine. Now leave us be unless you want to suffer the consequences."
If Kenshin hadn't been so mad, he would have laughed out loud at this so-called Dokurou's lack of perception. 'Can't he see my restraint? Can't he see I hold his life in my hands?'
Obviously the lust-ridden murderer was blind to the fact that Kenshin was keeping his true aura in check, and that behind his ragged appearance was the instincts of a trained killer. The most notorious in all of Japan, to be precise.
'Why keep him in the dark?' Kenshin thought ruthlessly before releasing his true ki. He growled out loud as he directed the energy to flow down his arm and through his sakaba to finally wash over Dokurou. His voice came out deceivingly mild.
"No. You are wrong. She is MY woman and YOU will suffer the consequences for touching her, that…you…will."
The other man's eyes widened at both the redheaded man's burning ki and the implied words. He didn't miss Kaoru's gasp of surprise either, and quickly put two and two together. However, it took him several moments to steady his jumping nerves and swallow the lump that had suddenly risen in his throat. The latter proving to be quite difficult with a sword digging into his skin.
'Remember, you have the upper hand,' Dokurou reminded himself, glancing towards the trees. 'It's ten to one…I just need time…'
"So, you must be Kenshin," he broke off in a laugh, perhaps a little louder than necessary. "I've heard so much about you."
Kenshin's voice remained flat as his sword twisted a fraction deeper into Dokurou's neck.
"Have you?"
The dark-haired man held his hands up in surrender as he stumbled backwards in the water, his over-confident grin faltering slightly as blood tricked from the prick in his skin.
Kaoru watched the red trail in fascination as a thought struck her.
'The Kenshin I know wouldn't hurt someone intentionally…'
She barely felt the sword slide away from her neck as she stood and spun around quickly, forgetting her nudity, forgetting the sadistic man behind her. She had only one thought in mind: Calm Battousai.
"Kenshin, you… mustn't…" but the words died as a whisper in her mouth at the sight before her.
He had begun to step into the hot spring. The toned muscles in his thighs became defined through his hakama as he lowered himself gracefully into the water before her. Her eyes fell to his sword then, still held firmly in his right hand, then traveled up his arm to the tense muscles in his shoulders, then finally to his face.
A thick curtain of hair hid his eyes. The red locks had begun to darken and curl from the steam and the torchlight played with his loose ends, giving the illusion of fire.
But even more intriguing, the steam had dampened his clothes as well. And the pathetically worn material of his gi, now wet, drooped open to reveal his finely chiseled chest and the rippled hardness of his stomach, his skin slick with moisture.
She didn't dare look any lower and instead returned her entranced gaze to his face.
She watched wide-eyed as his sculpted lips curled up into a smile and then finally realized she was blatantly staring at Kenshin.
And he knew it.
Tearing her eyes away, she looked down to hide her blush only to see her own bare breasts. She didn't move for several moments as the fact that Kenshin had seen her naked, waist deep in water, slowly sunk into her brain.
'So that's why he's smiling! That HENTAI!'
Her fear was forgotten as embarrassment and fury clouded her thoughts. With an angry sniff, she spun away from Kenshin only to be met with the sinister gaze of a certain serial killer she had forgotten was watching.
Her anger faded as his grin grew. His icy eyes remained on her as he spoke to Kenshin.
"Your women? I think you've already had your chance to take her… and now I want mine!"
Dokurou smirked when Kenshin visibly tensed. 'And now to get rid of this punk…'
Dokurou whistled a signal to his waiting men and grinned as if victory was already his. He watched Kenshin for signs of surprise, but the smaller man only kept his head down, not even glancing at the nine men advancing on his back.
'Aw, well, the sooner he's dead the better…but why doesn't the woman warn him?' Dokurou wondered. When he had whistled, Kaoru had spun around to see what was happening, and was remaining completely silent as Kenshin's seemingly inescapable doom surrounded him from behind. Her eyes remained glued to Kenshin's obscured face as if awaiting a kind of signal from him.
Then it finally came in Kenshin's clear voice.
"Ten to one hardly seems fair, that it doesn't."
Kaoru sighed in what seemed to be relief, which Dokurou just could not understand. His confusion only added to his surprise, however. This Kenshin had acted like he knew the men had been there all along. Exactly where and how many.
'Calm down, you're thinking too much,' Dokurou convinced himself. He shrugged and grinned instead.
"Yes, I must admit the odds are a bit unfair. I'd kill you myself, but I hardly have the time, or patience, to waste on a little fuck like you, so if you'll excuse me…" Dokurou then motioned for his men to close in for the kill as he took a step towards Kaoru. "…I have some fucking of my own to do."
Dokurou kept his gaze on Kenshin as he waded up behind Kaoru, watching for any hostile action, but the only movement coming from the small man was a slight shaking of his shoulders.
Dokurou's eyes narrowed on Kenshin's bowed head as his shoulders shook as if he were crying.
'No…he's not crying, he's… laughing?!'
Dokurou's eyes widened as a low chuckle reached his ears, and then, everyone froze when Kenshin suddenly threw back his head as his deep, rumbling laughter filled the enclosure the way Kaoru's screams had only minutes before.
Everyone watched the red-haired man, transfixed as his laughter slowly died and he leveled a wide grin at Dokurou as if he had just told the funniest joke in the world, and he talked to him in a tone that one would use with a close friend.
"No, no, no. When I said the odds didn't seem fair, I didn't mean for me…I meant for you, that I did."
Dokurou and his men blinked once before barking with laughter of their own at the ridiculousness of that statement. Dokurou's chuckles died away as he took his first good look at Kenshin's face. He couldn't help but smile as the purple-eyed little man grinned amiably in the face of certain death.
"How could a 5-foot-nothing, red-haired, scar-faced punk like you …"
Dokurou's smile froze mid-sentence. His men looked at him quizzically for a second, unable to see Kenshin's face from behind. But realization quickly took root as the description suck in. A description of a man they had all thought to be legend.
'Oh shit…' was the mutual thought running through the gang's 11 heads.
Dokorou, once again, recovered quickly, only to change tactics as he backed slowly away from Kaoru, and smiled, if a bit stiffly back at Kenshin.
'Stay calm; it might not even be him! Just buy time. Distract him…somehow!' were his frantic thoughts as he realized he didn't need more time to kill an annoyance; he needed time to keep that annoyance from killing him.
Kenshin was no fool. He felt the instant the men's ki changed from bloodthirsty to apprehensive. They had recognized him. He waited patiently for the ringleader to make the first move, and it came quicker than he expected.
"Well, Kenshin, if this woman is indeed yours, then you will have no problem proving it to us…all of us," he added with a flourish, stepping out of the hot spring with a triumphant grin as Kenshin stood momentarily shocked at the sudden offer.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously at Dokurou, but then he looked down a Kaoru's beautiful, flushed face and smirked with satisfaction.
'Now I have a reason.'
Kenshin's purple gaze leveled once again with Dokurou's icy one and he answered just as swiftly.
"I have no problem…that I don't"
TBC…
HAHAAAAAAAA!!!! IT'S DOOOOOOONE!!! For now anyway!!! You're all gonna hafta wait for the lemony stuff ONE MORE TIME though!!! I've decided to put that part in a separate chapter, since it was taking too long to write! Well??? What'd you think?? Tell me your thoughts, your concerns, your ideas!!! Just hit that button and REVIEW!!! I love you all! And I'd respond to ALL of your reviews if I could but I just don't have TIME!!! You know why??? Cuz I got over A HUNDERED REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!! Thank you SO much for your enthusiasm and your comments!!!! I'll try hard to update the lemony chapter sooner!!
SO… to all you reviewers: Yes, Kenshin IS a hottie, there WILL be lots of sexual situations and tension, this story DOES continue after this particular hot spring scene (I've got lots of goodies planned!!) and there will most DEFINITELY be plenty of Battousai!!
Until next time!!!
Hoy! T-moe!!!! I love ya darling! (she's gonna be helping me with the lemon *blush* I'm a first timer! Hehe)
