A/n Hi everyone! Sorry to keep you waiting. For those waiting for me to update Endure my Love. Don't worry. I'm working on it right now. I have a lot on my plate (writing wise) and Endure is tougher than I thought. But it will be updated soon. I also have a bunch of other stories I'm going to start posting here in the next we weeks. I just want to get enough chapters done ahead of time.

Anyways…sorry this chapter is a little short. And I'm not very happy with it. In truth I'm a bit frustrated with it and I struggled a lot and changed it over and over again. But I wanted to update a chapter for you guys and finally decided that I wouldn't be happy with it and I needed to post it before I had a meltdown over it. Hopefully the next chapter will prove less difficult.

Thank you for all the reviews everyone. They make the struggling worthwhile.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kenshin.

Kaoru sipped at her miso soup. It was delicious, hot with green onions and just the right amount of tofu. Sitting at the table alone, she had to admit that her stranger had a wonderful housekeeper who made wonderful food as well as keep the house as impeccable as a high end hotel room. Beside her on the table Kaoru spotted a pile of envelopes. Her stranger must have just picked up the mail or else the housekeeper would have put the papers away. It was out of the ordinary here in a house that hardly looked lived in. She sat, spoon in hand and looked at them…and looked at them. She wondered...

With a glance up at the empty main room, she could hear the shower turn off. Her red-headed stranger was otherwise preoccupied. She took a deep breath and set the spoon down and reached across the table and took up the envelope from the top.

"To Current Resident."

Kaoru frowned and set it down and reached across the table for another.

"To Current Resident."

With a little growl Kaoru stood and scooped up the mail and started looking from one envelope to another. Another, another…

"What are you doing?" Said a voice behind her.

Kaoru jumped and turned around just as her stranger reached out and plucked the pile of letters from her hands. He wore little more than a towel around his hips, his chest was bare and his hair hung dripping wet down his back. Kaoru opened her mouth, but no words would come out. She'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"My junk mail?" he asked with a raised eyebrow as he tossed the envelopes back on the table. "What were you looking through my junk mail for?" He asked with a half laugh.

Kaoru opened her mouth, but it hung silent for moment. Her brain couldn't think up an excuse fast enough, and she was a terrible liar. "I was looking for your name." She admitted in a soft voice.

It seemed he already knew as much. "You broke the rules." Almost at once his eyes were hard, cold, narrow, his stance changed and the fact that he wore nothing but a damp towel hardly impaired him as he grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her away from the table.

Her face was hot, red from embarrassment that quickly turned to anger. She yanked her hand from his grasp. "I wasn't doing anything bad."

"No?" His voice was raised and he grabbed for her hand again.

"I…I just want to know your name!" she yanked back her hand but he had a stronger grip now and wouldn't let her go.

"That's not in the rules."

"I don't care about the rules! This isn't a game!" Kaoru couldn't help but shout. He looked conflicted, but the anger remained.

"We can't get personal." He insisted. "That's what we agreed on, that we did."

Kaoru scoffed. "We're sleeping together…how personal is that!" she glared at him. His eyes were slits now, swirling with a strange amber that was slowly overtaking the beautiful purple. He showed no sign of wavering. "Don't you want to know my name?"

"No." His voice was hard, clipped. It stung Kaoru more than she expected. He dropped her hand and she took a step back.

"Fine." She snapped, turning, she scooped up her purse and turned on her heal. "Fine, I broke the rules, the game is over. I'm leaving." She stalked across the apartment. "I don't need this." She muttered and had just enough time to take two steps out the door before it was yanked open so hard that it slammed into the wall. Kaoru glanced over her shoulder in time to see her red-headed stranger walk out into the main hall, still in nothing but a towel. He made a grab for her.

"What are you doing?" she shrieked as he yanked her away from the elevator and pinned her against the wall with his body.

"No. I don't want you to go." He rasped suddenly, rushed, as he caught Kaoru in a kiss that made her legs weak even though they were just together hardly half an hour before.

She pulled all her self-restraint together and pushed him away. "What are you-" But he pulled her back to his apartment. "No, I'm leaving. I can't do this anymore." She couldn't live like this; it was fun at first, daring, different, something wild and not her character at all. But now, his words and suspicion had hurt her. And she knew this was a bad sign, she shouldn't hurt… she shouldn't care.

"Can't do what?" he asked once he had her in his apartment again, the door was closed and she found she couldn't look at him.

She turned away, gazing at the impersonalized items decorating the room. "This…be impersonal. I wanna know who you are, what you do." She lifted one hand in a helpless gesture as she struggled to keep the tears from her eyes.

He was watching her very closely; she could feel the heat of his eyes on her even as she paced slowly about the room.

"What's changed?" he crossed his arms. "What's the matter?"

"Why does it matter?" she shot a look at him. "Why do you want to know, it's personal, and you don't like personal."

"Give a little…get a little." He said with a shrug before reaching out and catching her as she paced in front of him. "Tell me what's wrong, "the amber was draining from his eyes. "You were just fine with this an hour ago…what's changed?"

Kaoru opened her mouth but could do nothing but shake her head.

"You've been distracted today, that you have." He walked her over to the sofa and he sat, dragging her down to sit beside him. He turned his body; facing her he tried to catch her eyes. "You want me to tell you something about myself; you have to tell me something about you."

Kaoru gave a great sigh and suddenly her shoulders sagged. "I got a call, from my brother."

His interested spiked. He leaned in, took her hands. "Is he alright?"

Kaoru nodded to give herself time to calm herself. She could feel her hands trembling in his solid grip. "He's not coming home. But might come to see me soon." She glanced at him. "He sounded tired. I wanted him to come see me now. At least I would know he was safe and I could make sure he was eating good and sleeping enough."

He lifted a hand to stem her flow of words. "Don't coddle him. Let him come of his own accord and stay as long or as short as he wishes. You don't want to smother him. That would only chase him away, that it will."

Her glance turned into a glare and he held up his hands.

"I'm just giving advice... I was a teenage boy once."

"I feel like I want to tie him up and stuff him someplace safe." She laughed, it was shaky and quiet. But it made him smile.

"I know." He reached out and ran his hand down her arm. "Forgive me for being mad with you."

Kaoru shrugged. "I'm not sorry I was mad at you. I'm still mad at you."

He nodded. "Fair enough."

"It's not like I found anything. Nothing had your name on it." She gave him an accusing glare.

"I'm careful." He gave her a smile and kissed her quickly on the forehead before getting back to his feet. Kaoru followed him as he made his way back into his bedroom.

"You got mad at me for looking at mail you knew didn't have any information on it?" Kaoru set her fists on her hips and looked away as he nonchalantly dropped the damp towel from his hips and wandered naked to his dresser. He pulled out clothes with hardly a look at them. She could see the angry red welts her nails had left in his back, during their time together. She bit down on her bottom lip as she watched his marvelous backside as he tugged his blue boxers on.

"It was the idea of your betrayal." He said simply as he continued dressing.

"Ouch." Kaoru dropped her hands from her hips and wandered over to the large window looking out over the city. The glittering lights in the darkness always took her breath away almost as much as her stranger. "Betrayal…that's a strong word for you to throw at a stranger." He was silent and she watched him from the reflection in the window. He had paused in the middle of shrugging on a shirt, his lean stomach was still exposed, and his jeans zipped but not buttoned. He still looked unbelievably amazing.

He turned and looked at her; she watched his reflection as he struggled for an answer. For once he was unsure. The man who was so in control and had all the answers seemed unsure. Kaoru felt the thrill of her tiny victory and yet the idea that he was not at all in control of everything frightened her.

He was slow in answering, picking his words carefully. "Betrayal is a strong word, that it is. But it was the only word that I felt justified my feelings at the moment. He stepped up to her, pressing his chest against her back as he wrapped his arms around her middle and rested his chin on her shoulder. "At that moment I felt the sting and anger of betrayal. Everyone it seems, ends in their betrayal."

Kaoru kept watching out the window. "Everyone? You mean…other's you've been with?" The idea was like a hot coal in the back of her mind. Her stranger knew he was now treading unstable ground. She could feel it in the way his body tensed.

"They too couldn't seem to live in ignorance. The relationship we had, no matter how wonderful and satisfying it was…was not enough. They wanted to know who I was, what family I had, what I did for a living. It was almost predictable. When I wouldn't give them any information, the partnership grew unstable. Eventually they would leave. Or I would end the relationship."

"So then why didn't you want me to leave?"

He struggled and was silent for a long time. "I just…didn't want you to go." Suddenly he dropped his arms and Kaoru turned to look at him. His eyes were glittering with an emotion Kaoru couldn't place…hurt? Confusion? Suspicion? She couldn't peg it. "You're so different from the others, and yet so predictably the same…that you are."

… . . …

"What the heck is that supposed to mean? 'so predictable the same.'?" Misao snapped as she took a bite from her plate. Her chopsticks where clenched so tightly in her hand that her knuckles were turning white. "He means you're no different than those other floozies he's seen."

"Harsh Misao…harsh." Kaoru returned as she picked at the food on her plate.

"Maybe he's starting to like you but doesn't want to admit it." Misao offered with a shrug. "Like, likes you more than all those others…instead of dropping you for breaking the rules, he's giving you another shot."

"Maybe…maybe he'll allow us to break the rules; maybe he'll get rid of the rules all together!" Kaoru smiled as she took a gulp of her tea.

"You would like that, wouldn't you? I knew you weren't into that whole stranger thing. You can't be a stranger with someone you've been sleeping with for weeks."

Kaoru thought. She would like it. "I do like him; it would be nice if we could have a relationship…a normal one."

Misao was chewing on strings of noodles from her bowl. "Would this guy even be half as interesting and desirable if you had a normal relationship?" she asked around her full mouth.

She was right to wonder, Kaoru herself had often wondered if she would like her stranger once he wasn't a stranger anymore. "I would like to say I would still be as interested…but I can't be sure." She admitted with a shrug. "In my mind I'm wondering who he is and what he does and creating this false story for him, one that I would find fascinating. Maybe life would be boring once I knew the truth. But he is handsome…and funny and kind…I think I would have liked him had I met him the old fashioned way. If it turns out that he does like me and want's to have a normal relationship then I don't think I would be worried." She looked at Misao with a smile.

The younger woman gave a shrug. "I don't want to rain on your special day Kaoru. But if he realizes that he's giving you the special treatment…he might just dump you to keep from deviating from his relationship with strangers, which it's obvious he values."

That deflated Kaoru's smile.

"Hey! I thought you said you didn't care if this ended." Misao snapped, jabbing in her direction with her chopsticks. "Remember a few weeks ago you said that because you were strangers it wouldn't hurt. Because you had no emotional attachment to him."

"It's still true." Kaoru protested. "If he wants to end it, then that's fine. It just means I'll have to go hunting around for someone else to have a secret love affair with." Kaoru laughed and Misao threw her napkin at her.

"I'm serious. I have a feeling that this is going to bum you out like any other relationship."

"No, you're right, i would be bummed." Kaoru agreed, calming down. "But it wouldn't be so bad…it's not like I'd be crushed."

"Good…cause I'd hate to see that." Was all her friend said before she went silent for a moment. "Well, be happy it's your day off,"

"I am."

… . . …

Kaoru rolled over in her bed and stretched. She reached over, knowing her stranger would not be there. She was in her home, not his, and it was the weekend, so she would have to wait two more days until Tuesday. Two long days before she could see him again. With a growl, Kaoru banished the dream of him from her mind and crawled out of bed and into the shower. With hot water beating down on her head, she found herself gazing though her wet curtain of hair at the water running past her feet and circling down the drain.

The water was like time…the time she was waiting to drain away until the next time she could be with her stranger.

And that was ridiculous. Kaoru took a deep breath and took her eyes from the flowing water. She couldn't sit around like she was, waiting for the two days of the week to come by. How many weeks had it been? It seemed as if she had been consumed, she had become a slave to the calendar. This man…she was becoming obsessed with him. But she couldn't allow this. This was not something that was going to last. He could call an end to it tomorrow for all she knew. There was no investment in this relationship…only her emotional investment. Kaoru gave a frustrated whimper and pressed her forehead to the cold tile of the shower wall. She wasn't supposed to get emotionally invested in this; it was his rule, her rule as well. She swore to Misao that she could care less about this; she only wanted a break from her life, a few hours in a fantasy.

But she knew she couldn't keep her heart out of this for much longer.

… . . …

Kaoru found refuge from her racing thoughts in her office. She flipped through books of fabric swatches, matching patterns and colors and themes. She couldn't stay at home; she had to keep her mind busy to prove to herself that her fiery haired stranger wouldn't take up her mind. On the up side she was getting a lot of work done, work that she had been putting off all week. She was also getting paid overtime for it. The downside was that she had to deal with Misao and her ever knowing looks. She knew Kaoru loved her days off and wouldn't be caught dead in her office on her day off. The fact that Misao was so startled and then suspicious when she found Kaoru in her office late that morning only confirmed to both Misao and Kaoru that Misao's worries about her inability to keep her feeling out of the relationship might be true.

Kaoru was getting far too involved with this farce of a relationship.

Thankfully Misao was wise and she kept quiet about it, but that didn't stop her from giving her looks every time she came in.

"I'm heading across the street to get a bento for lunch. You want anything?" Misao asked.

Kaoru looked up and glanced at the clock on her desk. It was well after lunch, already almost two. She was surprised to see how late in the day it was. She took the pins from her mouth and stuck them back in the pin cushion. "Sure, just grab me whatever you're going to get."

Misao smiled. "Sure thing."

Hardly two minutes had passed before her cell phone vibrated on her desk. Kaoru set the scrap of fabric she'd been working on on her lap and reached for the phone. She had turned the ringer off and had missed a call. She hardly had a chance to see who had called her before the phone on her desk trilled. Kaoru dropped her cell and reached for her desk phone. "Hello? Kaoru speaking."

"Kaoru? You're father tried to get a hold of you."

It was her aunt, and that was strange. Kaoru could hear some kind of commotion in the background and her aunt sounded upset.

"Is that mom?" Kaoru asked. "What's wrong?"

A/n The plot thickens! Kinda cliché but it accurately describes what's going on here. Our stranger seems to be stretching the rules for Kaoru. Kaoru is having feelings for her stranger, and she gets yet another strange phone call.

p.s. as many of you know, I'm working on a bunch of stories for R. Kenshin. I'm thinking about posting them soon. So those on my author alert list may start getting new story alerts from me soon.

Also, I have a new poll… please take 2 minutes and submit votes so I can better serve you, my readers.

Oh, and one more question. I have a bunch of little one-shot drabbles, mostly Kenshin/Kaoru romances…little fluffy stories…should I post these as their own story, or post all my one-shots in one story, each one-shot is in its own chapter? Kinda like a K/K grab bag of drabbles, pick a chapter and read a short story type of thing. Let me know in your reviews! I would like to start posting these little things.

Thanks for reading everyone! Reviews are loved!