Still don’t own them. For full disclaimer and other info please see Part 1.
Authors note: Well this was a long time coming and I’m not sure how it is. When I started writing on this again I found out that any notes I’d had for this were all in my head and after 3 or 4 years I had forgotten what was supposed to happen. Hopefully I won’t end up to far off track though.
A Meeting of Minds
by Colleen
Part 6
How exactly do you mollify a woman who wants to take your head off and who has the training to make a very good attempt at it?
“Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
Kaoru growled at him.
Nope, thought Sano, his face mashed up against the wooden floors of the dojo, that’s not working.
Kaoru growled again before lifting her foot off the back of Sano’s neck. She shifted her gaze to Yahiko for a moment and was impressed that any human could go as white and boneless as he managed to pull off. Jellyfish would have been jealous.
And she still hadn’t even gotten to the yelling part yet.
She opened her mouth to start when Sano looked up. “Jou-chan,” he said quietly, “If I had known you and Kenshin were...” His sentence bled off and Kaoru closed her mouth, suddenly and acutely aware of the positions Kenshin and she had been in when they had been interrupted.
Nope, even that wouldn’t stop her.
Kaoru’s verbal harangue chewed up one side of Sano and down the other. He pulled his shoulders up around his ears in an attempt to cut the noise and settled down to ride out the storm.
--------000--------
Two men, one dry, the other soggy sat tensely on a log by the edge of a river, contemplating the water as it rushed by.
The man dressed in dry clothing picked up a twig and flicked it towards the water, watching it as it was swept away and drowned. Strange, he remembered the river like this the last time he had been there for real but every time he had recently visited it in this dream its nature, while fast, had been one of contemplation not the raging pull of water it currently was.
Still if this dream reflected the way either of them were feeling at the moment its wildness was hardly surprising and it probably explained why the man beside him had taken so long to make it back to this spot. His improvised attempt to ‘cool off’ had probably swept him down river a good mile of so before he could have made the shore.
The dryer man would have smirked at the thought if he hadn’t been contemplating his own immersion just before the other arrived.
His damp companion opened his mouth.
“No, I am not going back again.”
Rurouni closed his mouth, thought for a moment and then attempted to speak once again.
“No, I don’t care that I promised to stay the whole day.”
A mouth shut closed and a brain wracked itself once again.
An intake of breath and a parting of lips.
“No, nothing you say will change my mind.”
Breath rushed out in an aggravated sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl.
“Would you consider coming back in a week or two?” Rurouni asked, slightly startled that the other had finally allowed him to get a sentence out.
Amber eyes glared back at him. “No.”
The aggravated sound was definitely a growl this time.
“Why not?”
It really was a good thing that neither of the two men had populated the dream with any other creatures than themselves, a few fish and some worm bait. If they had the resulting stampede to get away from the out lashing of battle aura would have trampled the surrounding dreamscape flatter than a tatami mat. As it was even the few fish that were around waiting to be caught made themselves scarce and vowed not to return for the rest of the year.
As for the worms well...best not to ask.
--------000--------
Kaoru shivered slightly as she soaked in cold water and wondered why she hadn’t added heating the bath to the long list of chores she had dumped on Sano and Yahiko once she had finished chewing them out.
Then she remembered that for some reason she’d thought that a cool bath might do her some good.
Of course, she really didn’t want to think about just why it had sounded like a good idea to her. She’d tried to explain the decision away as a reasonable response to being all hot and sweaty from her sparring match with Kenshin but, it wasn‘t really working. She planted her face in her hands and groaned a little, knowing but unwilling to admit even to herself that hot and bothered probably better summed up the way she was feeling.
Another reason to groan was how Kenshin would probably react after this. If he continued to ‘be’ Battousai then he’d probably just go cold and ignore her as much as he could. If he reverted to the Kenshin she knew best, the sometimes silly but always reliable Rurouni then he’d probably spend the next few weeks being helpful while managing to skitter out of touching range, assuming he didn’t spend the next while pulling an out and out ghost routine and manage to stay out of sight as well.
She wasn’t even sure which of the two scenarios would be worse and she still hadn’t come up with a plan that would snap him out of it. Or at least a plan that didn’t involve her bokken and his head in close proximity.
Still undecided as to what to do Kaoru got out of the bath and quickly towelled off, trying to impart some warmth back into her body through friction. She pulled on the light yukata she’d brought out with her and slipped into her bathroom geta on the way out.
Crossing the yard she could hear Sano and Yahiko start up their third fight since she’d dumped a list of household chores on them. She was starting to make bets that by their fifth fight the two of them would end up in traction, and she just might be the one putting them there.
She slipped back out of her shoes before entering the house and padded down the hallway to her room, still shivering slightly from the cold water.
“Those were worms?”
What? She spun around looking for the voice she’d just heard.
“No, I don’t think you’ll be catching any fish with those.”
It was Kenshin’s voice, and it was coming from his room. Did he have someone in there with him?
A moment of jealousy passed through Kaoru’s body before she dismissed the idea, he hadn’t had time.
Probably.
Without even thinking about it she found herself at the door to his room, listening for any more conversation. When none came she timidly knocked at the door.
Nothing.
Concerned now she carefully slid the door open and looked in. Kenshin was sitting on the floor and leaning up against a wall with his sword against his shoulder. He was also fast asleep.
Huh?
“Worms,” Kenshin said in a disbelieving voice.
Kaoru moved a little closer to him, “Kenshin?”
Nothing.
She moved even a little closer, peering down at him intently. Then she realized that despite the fact that he’d just spoken he was actually asleep.
Other than a nightmare she remembered him having that woke her up a while back she’d never noticed him talking in his sleep before.
A noise outside startled her and she looked up, listening. It took a moment but she soon realized that it was Sano and Yahiko starting up their fourth fight. Sighing in annoyance she was just about to leave and go stop the two of them before they could get to their fifth fight when she was tackled and pulled to the floor.
--------000--------
Battousai and Rurouni were both marvelled over what had happened to the worms, not so much because it was strange, which it was, but because of the fact that in what was really their dream they had managed to come up with something like that.
“Worms.” Battousai said his voice full of disbelief.
“Apparently,” Rurouni said, shaking his head.
Battousai opened his mouth to comment further but both his and Rurouni’s heads snapped to attention.
“Someone’s in the room with us,” Rurouni said.
Battousai’s eyes narrowed as he tried to sense if the intruder meant them harm, while preparing to act if that should be the case.
And he never even noticed as Rurouni crept up behind him and pushed.
--------000--------
Battousai took down the intruder, noticing as he did that he hadn’t even bothered to draw his sword. Whoever it was probably didn’t pose much of a threat, in fact it was probably Sano or Yahiko come to complain about the well deserved retribution that Kaoru had no doubt dished out to them.
If it was them he’d be happy to ladle a little more on them himself. If it wasn’t them whoever it was would be facing a very pissed off former assassin, since he couldn’t at the moment get back at Rurouni.
He couldn’t believe that the bastard had pushed him. When he got hold of him again what had happened to the worms would pale in comparison to what he would do to him.
“K.. K.. Kenshin?”
He snapped out of contemplating just what he could do with a length of rope, a tuning fork and the bucket of former worms and looked down at who he had tackled and was now laying on top of.
Crap.
Golden eyes widened as he stared into startled blue ones.
“Uhhh.”
Double crap.
Get off of her you idiot, get off of her now.
He shifted, intending to do just that. The movement informed him suddenly of every curve the young woman beneath him possessed as well as just how thin the material of the robe Kaoru was wearing was.
Her body was cool under his, something he was sure he could remedy.
That thought alone would have gotten him to his feet in a horrified rush but Kaoru chose that moment to shift under him, the movement just enough to slide their bodies into a position where they seemed to fit together perfectly.
They both shuddered and all thoughts of getting up seemed to fly from his head.
“Kenshin?” Kaoru’s voice was soft with an undercurrent of both worry and something that felt like longing. Two emotions that Battousai was feeling himself in abundance, along with a little surprise that the woman under him hadn‘t already tried to kick him off her and follow that through with a long piece of wood to the side of his head.
“Kaoru,” Kenshin said in a choked voice, part of his mind screaming at him to get up and apologise. The rest of his mind was having thoughts he wouldn’t have allowed himself to even contemplate as the Rurouni, much less as he was now.
And yet still he was having them.
Whatever he might have said to her next was lost as a loud bang and arguing voices heralded the arrival of Sano and Yahiko entrance into the house. As one Battousai and Kaoru looked from their position on the floor towards the still open door of Kenshin’s room.
Well at the very least it got him to his feet. In a flash he was through the sliding door and closing it carefully behind him with Sanosuke and Yahiko just steps away.
“Hey Kenshin, how’s... it...gulp.” Sano’s voice trailed off and Yahiko moved slightly towards and behind him as they both saw and felt the glare that Battousai was giving them.
“I would have thought Kaoru would have assigned the two of you a few chores for interrupting our... training session. I’m rather surprised that you’ve finished them.”
“Yeah, well you know, all work and no play...” Sanosuke’s voice trailed off again. Did that glare just get worse?
“All work and no play?” Kenshin asked, echoing Sano’s words.
“Is exactly what we deserve, right Yahiko?” Honestly he wasn’t really afraid of Battousai, really, but he also wasn’t that stupid either, no matter what anyone might think.
Yahiko just nodded and started backing away.
“So we’ll just go do that work thing and you, have a nice day.” Sano winced as he said that and backed away with Yahiko while keeping an eye out for Jou-chan, expecting the swordswoman to step out of another room and add to their woes.
Truthfully when it came down to it he was actually more afraid of Kaoru. After all the only thing Battousai would do was probably kill him. Kaoru, he was certain, could come up with far worse.
Maybe they’d go get the groceries Kaoru wanted. Even if they’d be breaking their backs dragging home the bulk items Jou-chan had on her list it would probably be safer than staying here. Besides they could always stop in at the Akabeko for a little snack before heading back.
Yeah, a little sake, er snack would be good right now, after all he hadn’t been able to get any breakfast this morning and having seen this mornings remains of it he doubted Yahiko had eaten much either.
Once they’d backed up enough to make it out the door Sano sent Yahiko off for the list and told him to meet him at the gate.
Now the only thing he’d need to do is see if he could get the kid to ask Tae for a tab because he seemed to remember something about hell freezing over before she’d extend anymore credit to him.
Women.
End Part 6
Author’s note: Sano and Yahiko have some of the worst timing don’t they?
Chapter Five Chapter Seven
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