Disclaimer: CAUTION this story may be flammable. Now, I've never tried it. But I wouldn't go dousing your computer screen with a flame thrower anytime soon . . . you know, just in case.

"What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?'
'Cats don't have names,' it said.
'No?' said Coraline.
'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names."
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

LAST TIME

"This looks very good, Ms. Kaoru." Kenshin said surveying the fruit and biscuits.

Kaoru shrugged. "I thought something lighter on the system would be better since you haven't eaten in a while." She, of course, hadn't thought of this at all and it was really just a clever excuse to hide her cooking malfunction. No need for her highly attractive neighbor to know she tended to do the culinary equivalent of murder in the kitchen.

Men didn't like women who couldn't cook.

THIS TIME

They ate a quiet breakfast, perforated with the occasional polite comment. They didn't mention the sparing match or Kenshin's eating habits even though Kaoru's list of questions was growing every minute she spent in her temporary neighbor's company. She just had no clue where to start.

Kenshin thanked her for breakfast and insisted on doing the clean-up since she did the cooking. Kaoru felt weird about it since she was usually the cleaner back home but left it alone and sipped on her remaining orange juice as he cleared the table and scrubbed the handful of dishes they had created.

Kaoru sat sideways in her chair and watched Kenshin's back as his shoulders worked to slosh the soap and water around.

"Kenshin, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Ms. Kaoru. Ask away."

Kaoru had chosen to start with something simple. "Well, It's been bothering me for a while now, but why do you call me 'Ms. Kaoru'?" She saw Kenshin's arms stop working as he listened to her question. "I mean, we've already established that you're quite a bit older than me, plus you tack on a prefix to Megumi's name too even though you've known her for a long time. So . . ." She trailed off and waited.

Kenshin started organizing the dishes on the drying rack. "I don't really know. Old habits die hard, I suppose?" His shoulders bobbed. "It's just something I've always done. And it's respectful."

Kaoru thought about this. "It feels like you're purposefully abasing yourself in comparison to others." She murmured, not really meaning to give voice to the thought at all. "Like you don't think much of yourself at all."

Kenshin turned to look at her. She was gazing out the window, eyes unfocused but seeing more clearly than Kenshin was comfortable admitting. It shook him. She was surprising him at every turn.

"Do you think," She continued as though she hadn't just made an earth shifting revelation, "that you could call me 'Kaoru'?" Her deep blue pools shifted to him and grew soft like velvet. "Just 'Kaoru'. None of this 'Ms. Kaoru' business." She brought her palm up to cradle her head; her slender fingers wove themselves into her hair and curled around the soft strands. Her other arm draped itself over the back of the chair, relaxed and lackadaisical in the morning glow.

Kenshin couldn't take his eyes off of her. "I can make an effort." Kaoru's smile was brighter than the sunlight.

"Good. And if you mess it up, well, I'll just have to remind you."

Kenshin went home after everything was dried and put away. But not after, again, reminding Kaoru to call or drop by if she needed anything. Kaoru hoped it was because he enjoyed her company and not because he thought she was that incapable.

Regardless, Kenshin's absence left Kaoru, once again, facing the yawning empty silence of the house. She amused herself for a few minutes by looking around for Hikari and Sora, but the cats had apparently found some genius hiding place. No matter how many blankets, cubbies and pieces of furniture she looked through, Kaoru came up kitty-less.

With no cats and no Kenshin to keep her company, Kaoru decided to break in the day with some reading. She set up her laptop to loop a random 'let's play' video playlist from youtube for some much needed background noise and burrowed herself into the loveseat. She grabbed one of Megumi's color coordinated throws, this one with an autumn leaf print scattered across the fabric, turned to where she had left off reading last night.

The book was the Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España by Bernal Diaz: The Truthful History of the Conquest of New Spain - a first person account of the defeat of the Aztec empire in the early 1600s as told by a conquistador. It was a vivid and bloody story. Kaoru had read an excerpt for a university class during her last semester and was transfixed. The professor had given her the most peculiar look when she asked where she could acquire a full copy. Come to find out many students didn't actually attend class to learn. Shocking.

Kaoru worked her way through the next three chapters relatively slowly. She still had to work to piece the Spanish phrases together. She was making progress with the language, but she still got things turned around in the sentence structure sometimes.

She must have sat, quietly curled into the cushions for some time because, when she looked up from her book Sora was sitting statue still watching her with glowing blue eyes. Sora was a Himalayan Persian beauty with long silky fur, all white accepting her paws and face which were dark brown. She looked like she had waded through a tub of chocolate and then smeared the sugary substance all over her features trying to lick it off.

Kaoru just watched Sora quietly and tried very hard not to move and frighten the kitty because she looked like she was about to bolt; half hidden behind the opposite end of the love seat as she was. Kaoru shifted her eyes back down to the book and in her periphery she saw Sora move just a bit more behind the upholstery. She froze again, however, when Kaoru, again, looked directly at her. They played this game for a few minutes; Sora only trying to move when she thought Kaoru wasn't looking and Kaoru trying to catch her in the act. It was like a silent game of redlight-greenlight.

Kaoru, very very slowly, began to inch her hand toward the toy box resting below the arm of her end of the love seat. Her fingers touched the metal latch and she winced when it made a metallic clicking sound. Sora's eyes jumped to the noise immediately and tensed as she watched the box being opened. Kaoru pulled one of the jingle balls from the collection and lifted it for Sora to inspect.

Sora moved just a fraction, attracted by the tinkling sound of one of her favorite toys.

Kaoru smiled, "You wanna play, Sora?" and shook the ball slightly.

Sora's ears twitched, swiveled and she lifted one of her dark paws to step forward.

I brushed against the freckles that a hated. / So, a light goes on and I heave a little sigh for you. / It's heavy, the love that I once shared with you, / Then It dissolved like it was just a sugar cube.

Kaoru's loud ringtone shredded the moment into tiny, little, unrecognizable pieces. Sora zipped out of the living room and up the stairs just when Kaoru looked down at the offending intrusion. Man, that cat was fast.

Kaoru glanced at the caller ID and answered. "Yeah?"

"Hey, Ugly. How's the house sitting going? Have you destroyed Megumi's house yet, or does that come after dinner?"

Kaoru could hear the stupid exaggerated smirk in the tone. "Keep making remarks like that and you'll never grow up, little Yahiko."

"Hey, shut up, you ugly raccoon! At least I have a pretty face." He said, putting intense stress on the "I" In that statement.

Kaoru growled into the phone at her little brother. "What do you want?"

"I need you to pick me up from school. I had to stay late so dad can't pick me up and I forgot my train pass this morning."

Kaoru made a disgusted noise. "Yahiko, don't go asking for favors right after you insult people. Manners!"

A sigh punched through the speaker of her phone. "Whatever, Kaoru. Are you commin' or ain't cha?"

Kaoru scowled at the phone. "I have half a mind not to." But she was moving to slip on her shoes and grab her keys even as she spoke.

"He he. That's okay. I'm pretty sure you don't normally use the whole thing for driving anyway."

They continued the banter until Kaoru slammed her car door and jammed her keys into the ignition.

"I'll be at the front of the school in fifteen minutes." Kaoru said, and hung up the phone.

Yahiko was lounging next to the school gates when she arrived, his baseball cap pulled over his eyes like he was napping. Kaoru gave a few quick jabs to the horn and Yahiko scrambled up.

"Isn't that thing against your school dress code." Kaoru pointed to the cap as they began to drive off.

Yahiko reached up and adjusted the rim of his black and orange Yomiuri Giants baseball cap like it was the finest of crowns. "Shadup, Ugly. It's not like I'm dyin' my hair blue and gettin' a dozen piercings or anything."

"You already have a piercing, Yahiko." Kaoru tugged on the tiny hole in his right earlobe.

Yahiko batted her hand away. "Not one I wear at school! Hey, turn here. Left, left."

Kaoru got into the turning lane. "What for? Is there construction further down?"

Yahiko shook his head. "Nah, I'm hungry. And there's a really good restaurant down that way."

Kaoru drummed the steering wheel irritably. "I thought I was taking you straight home, Yahiko."

Yahiko rolled his eyes heavenward. "Just turn, Kaoru. You ain't got nothin' goin' on tonight anyway."

Kaoru scoffed but made the turned. He was right. "Why don't we pick up something at the diner closer to the house? They have that pasta you like."

Yahiko leaned forward in his seat, pulling his seatbelt taught. "No. It has to be this place." He scanned the signs as they drove past, his eyes searching. "Tsubame just got a job there and I promised to come see her."

"We're going to see your girlfriend?!" It took every effort to watch the road instead of gaping at her brother.

"Yeah, so."

"It's just," Kaoru scrambled for words. "I was beginning to think she was imaginary." Yahiko shot her a look that told her she may have just sprouted another head so she continued. "You guys have been dating for a year already and you never introduced us."

Yahiko shrugged. "I'm about to. Besides, we're taking things slow. There's the place! Turn into that parking garage." Yahiko was grinning happily at a neon sign that read "AKABEKO" in big friendly letters.

Kaoru hung a right into the parking garage across the street and began the round-about process of looking for a parking space. "Taking it slow, huh. Like, how slow?" Kaoru watched Yahiko carefully out of the corner of her eye. "Have you guys, um, done it yet?"

Yahiko scrunched up his face, confused. "Done what, Ugly?"

"You know; it. Like, when a man and a women love each other very much-"

"Oh my, God. Stop!" Yahiko put up his hands like he was defending himself from the swing of a nine-iron. "I am not discussing that with you. Not now. Not ever." He was red as a newborn's slapped behind. "Especially not about Tsubame."

Kaoru was howling with laughter. "You have, haven't you?" She found a parking spot and rolled her car evenly between the stripes. Her laughter still echoed as they stepped out into the concrete structure.

Yahiko grunted. "Just, come on, will ya? And shut up with that banshee shrieking. There could be babies around you're murdering with that noise."

CHAPTER END

I just love Yahiko! He's such a brat. . In a lovable, adorable way, of course.

I hope all of my American viewers enjoyed their Independence Day break. We'll be getting back to a one chapter a day schedule now. So, talk to you tomorrow!

Reviews are love! 3