Well...another one shot that has more KK lime/lemon than FFN might be comfortbale with.. As such, life moves on. This particular fic is a response to a 'what if' moment with a friend. Rach, its all your fault.
Ravyn.
This story contains adult content. It is NOT NC-17 but does push the R rating honestly. If you do not LIKE such stories, then do not read it! You have fair warning. If you want to simply miss the...mature content, don't read the ending.
I do now own Kenshin/Kaoru or any other Rurouni Kenshin related characters. Gavrael...however...is mine is his twisted, sick dementions.
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Kaoru truly questioned her talent for the unmentionable disasters that created havoc in her life. Stalker boyfriends, klutz attacks that generally left her injured, and over-protective best friends.
Really, was it so unheard of that she just wished for a break? A breather. A chance to kick back, massage her aching feet, drink her vanilla vodka and pineapple, and pretend that being alone was what she wanted. Needed.
Kaoru lazily flexed her foot, wincing at the tight pull on her arches. She hadn't properly stretched her body in weeks; much less beat it into submission through her sword work.
Her bokken was collecting dust and slowly finding itself buried in cobwebs. Not something she generally wished to contemplate.
Beep.
That was right; she had turned the ringer off on her phone.
"Kaoru, I know you're there. Answer your fucking phone."
Kaoru hummed to herself, ignoring the irritated voice of her ex.
"Listen here, bitch, you can't hide from me forever. I can promise you that. I don't let go of what is mine!"
Kaoru sighed as he disconnected the line, her mouth pulling into a dark frown of agitation. "Stupid asshole."
He was the epitome of blind dates gone wrong.
She shrugged and stood, smoothing her calf-length navy skirt into place. She made up for the length of the skirt by wearing the strapless shirt that hugged her figure from her rounded chest to her slim hips.
Imagination. She believed that was the key to the outfit, or that was Misao had claimed when Kaoru had walked out of the dressing room. Kaoru shrugged as she casually slipped her open-toe shoes on. They showed off her carefully painted toenails, and her small feet.
Kaoru would rather be heading over to Sano's in a burlap sack, but Misao had threatened to drag her back into the house and pick her outfit out herself if she didn't show skin.
Kaoru eyes her bare shoulders as she twisted her hair half-up, half down; the long dark strands sliding over the creamy skin of her shoulders.
She grabbed the simple choker her mother had bought for her years ago. Sighing, Kaoru decided she looked suitable and grabbed her purse as she heard the familiar knock on her door.
"KAAAORU!" Misao wailed through the door. "Let's go."
Kaoru yanked the door open and glared at the girl. "I am coming."
Misao eyed the outfit and sighed. "I assume this is the least amount of clothing I can get you into, barring a kunai threat?"
Kaoru shut her door and locked it. "Your kunai couldn't get me into anything smaller. I don't want to attract anyone. Period. I am sick of men Misao." Sick of empty promises and memories long buried, better dead.
Misao made a face, but held her tongue. The women were silent while they headed for Misao's jeep.
"He called again?"
"Misao." There was warning in Kaoru's voice, and Misao sighed in reluctance. Kaoru wasn't going to open up about Gavrael and Misao wasn't going to force it.
She felt guilty enough for the lingering bruises on her friend's heart as it was.
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"So, how you like the get-together, Kenshin?" Sano asked, waving to the general crowd with his beer. Sano was delighted to have an old friend of his and Aoshi's finally making it to Tokyo.
Kenshin eyed his long-time friend and then eyed the group of fifteen or so people who were strewn about the apartment.
The background was lit with the pulse of music, loud enough to match your heartbeat, but soft enough that conversation was at an easy level. No screaming to your partner as you attempted to bumble around with the normal pleasantries.
Sano had already dragged him around, introducing him to various names and faces that were easily catalogued under the 'no threat' file in his brain.
He was looking forward to seeing Aoshi again. The stoic man had mentioned in one of his emails that he had found someone special and Kenshin was interested to see what type of woman could capture the iceman's heart.
He knew the price paid for the woman of your dreams, and the cost it took to find her.
"I wonder where they are?" Sano questioned as he looked around.
"Who?"
"Misao and Kaoru." Sano absently replied.
Kenshin was about to ask exactly whom the women were when the front door opened and two women walked in.
One was perhaps the tiniest woman Kenshin had ever seen. She seemed to bounce her way into the room, and straight to Aoshi's side.
But it was the other one who caught and held his attention, the familiarity of her looks easing some unknown tensions and tightening others.
Long, silky black hair, dark navy eyes matched by her skirt and inviting top. Kenshin's unasked question was answered when Sano smiled.
His world, slowed, stopped, and spun out of control with her smile.
"Hey, Jou-chan. Get over here and meet Kenshin!"
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Kaoru turned at the sound of her name coming from Sano's lips and went very, very still.
Himura Kenshin.
Kaoru stared at him with the same intensity that was being directed back at her. Kaoru felt the rush of long-lost emotion twist in her veins.
Red hair.
Violet eyes with the tendency to burn burnished gold.
Kaoru shook herself out of her stupor and tossed her hair. "Himura."
"Kaoru." There were no pretenses of formality, just the soft, caressing way he had always said her name. Like he cherished the syllables, the same way he had once adored her.
Kaoru clenched her fists together, her mind going over every possible escape route. You could catch him off guard once, hide from him, and run. Twice was impossible.
No matter the ghosts that haunted your path and drove you into the shadows, he would follow.
The brilliant gold of his eyes proved her thoughts. Kaoru glared back, undaunted by her ex-lover's dark gaze.
"Wait…you two know each other?" Sano's bewildered voice brought them out of their staring match.
"Yes."
"No."
Kenshin gave Kaoru an amused look. "We don't?"
Kaoru turned. She tossed the words over her shoulder as she headed somewhere to find a stiff drink. "Not anymore."
"If you say so, Koishii." Kenshin called to her back, amused at the way she jerked at the endearment.
"Damn, man, if knew she was your 'Kaoru' I wouldn't have invited you over." Sano mused as he watched Kaoru head Misao off and both women collect a drink.
Kenshin shot Sano a glance. "Excuse me?" There was a trace of shadow in his voice.
Sano winced at the sparks of gold still lingering in his friend's gaze. "She just got out of a rather nasty relationship, Kenshin. Swore off all men and such; not overly happy to be here tonight, to tell the truth."
Kenshin calmly sipped his own mixed concoction. "All the more reason for me to be here." There was predatory note in his voice that Sano hadn't expected.
He shot a look to his long time friend who was pushing Misao onto his balcony and shrugged.
Maybe Kenshin was good for her.
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"What?" Misao hissed, only sheer force of will keeping her from spinning to stare at the red-haired man she had glanced at in passing. "You're sure?"
"Misao!" Kaoru exclaimed, laughter bubbling up in her chest. She hadn't had enough alcohol to properly loosen her up; she didn't dare.
Luckily, Misao's presence generally gave a person the same reaction as several fast shots. The smaller woman's face was one giant thundercloud, her blue eyes snapping.
"Well…damn."
Kaoru sighed, her hilarity dying. "I know. First Gavrael starts pestering me, and now I have to deal with him." Kaoru sighed and wished she could have stayed home and quietly gotten drunk.
If she drank anything else while she was here, she was going to end up in his bed, no questions asked. Kaoru hated herself for the physical attraction that still raced in her blood. Hated the way his eyes heated when they glanced at her, hated the way she went soft and pliant at the thought of his touch.
"So what are you going to do?" Misao questioned, her eyes worried. Kaoru had been hiding from her past for close to five years now. Kenshin was a big part of that past.
Misao had been helping her hide her identity, helped keep those she loved the most far away from her, misleading some of the best trackers in Japan into following shadows, ghosts of their own making.
It was how she had met Aoshi in the first place.
Kaoru sighed. "I won't be able to run from him again, Misao. He is going to want answers, and I don't know if I can give them to him tonight." Her eyes were dark, brooding.
Misao paused and then dug around for her keys. "Here. You haven't had enough to impair your driving and I can get Aoshi to take me home. Just leave the keys in the consol; I have a magnetic box hidden under the driver's side step."
Kaoru sighed her thanks and gave the inside of the apartment a once over. Kenshin was currently talking heatedly to Aoshi. He didn't need to keep both eyes on her, not now.
Winking at Misao she slipped over the side of the balcony and went down the fire escape. It took a few minutes with her skirt and heels, but she managed. Humming, she made fast work to her friend's Jeep and made her escape.
Misao watched Kaoru maneuver the stick shift easily, a skill Kaoru had once mentioned Kenshin had taught her.
Time to go and delay the inevitable. The things she did.
"So," Misao purred as she wrapped herself around Aoshi's side, her eyes flitting to Kenshin. "You're Himura Kenshin?"
Aoshi turned to look at the small woman in front of him. "Misao?" His voice was questioning. As far as he knew, Kenshin hadn't been introduced to her.
"Be careful with her, Himura." Misao's tone turned icy. Kenshin raised a brow at the small woman in front of him, his lips twisting in amusement.
"I am always careful with what is mine." His words were punctured with flashes of fire in his gaze.
Misao shrugged and easily slipped out of Aoshi's arms. "I did everything in my power to stop you once, I swear I will do it again. She is fragile right now. Keep that in mind, Red." Turning, Misao decided another drink and then she was calling a taxi.
Aoshi watched Misao saunter away, his eyes narrowed.
Kenshin clapped his friend on the back and smirked. "Something she hasn't told you, I take it?"
Aoshi grunted.
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It had been a week since that night at Sano's...
Kaoru huffed as she made up the last flight of stairs, her arms loaded with groceries. It was days like today that made her vow to get a ground floor apartment next time.
Three flights of stairs when the elevators crashed wasn't something she found overly enjoyable. Especially when she was carry groceries, or worse, laundry. However, it was a way to make sure she exercised her throbbing calf muscles.
Fiddling with her keys, she pushed the door open and groaned in disbelief at the sight that met her eyes.
Small, unnoticeable things... if you weren't aware of a lover's past habits.
A small fresh bouquet of jasmine; the blankets that had been tossed onto the back of the couch, folded. The laundry that had been strewn about in an attempt to keep from wrinkling was folded neatly and waiting for her to put up.
Kaoru half expected him to be cooking her dinner, but the apartment was empty. Kaoru set her bags down on her counter and examined her apartment. Nothing obvious. All her locks were back in place, and nothing was broken.
Kaoru sighed as she began to put her frozen dinners and instant ramen in their proper places. Turning she looked at the answering machine.
It was empty.
Kaoru suddenly had a very unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach. She always had a message from Gavrael when she came home from an outing.
Generally, it could be a message describing what she wore, or what she had bought that day at the grocery center she frequented.
Kaoru chewed on her lower lip and cursed inwardly. If Kenshin had been here, he had heard them. Deleted them too. She had left some on her machine in case she needed to prove he was stalking her.
Kaoru had a very bad feeling that Kenshin was going to do something drastic. Especially if Sano mentioned the slap that had ended her and Gavrael's relationship; Kenshin abhorred the idea of her getting hit.
Kenshin wasn't against slapping someone, be it a woman or man. Kaoru knew his line of work didn't allow for him to be overly concerned with those morals, but heaven help the man who hit her.
She remembered once, there had been a fight at the place she worked. A customer had become irate and hit her co-worker. Kaoru had stepped in, and gotten a nasty slap for her protests.
Kenshin had just walked in the door.
He broke several bones in the man's face in three fast, easy hits. He had never touched her, however. Kaoru was dead certain it was beyond his chemical makeup to hurt her physically.
He had never even hurt her emotionally either. He had given her only one reason to run; one reason to hide, to disappear.
It hadn't even been his fault. Kaoru closed her eyes; the loneliness she had hidden away was once again in full bloom. She loved him, heaven help her, and had been determined to erase him from her heart. Nothing had helped.
He had broken through the fear of commitment spawned thanks to spending year after year in a new foster home until she hit eighteen.
Actually, she wasn't even sure her records were still in the system thanks to Misao's careful plunging of all and any information.
No, it wasn't Kenshin that scared her.
Kaoru sighed as she fingered the end of her shirt nervously. There were few things in this life that scared her.
Betraying him was one of them. Better to suffer alone than to cause his death, and to be forced to live with that knowledge for the rest of her life.
Nothing, not heaven or hell, would make her change her mind.
She absently rubbed at the small, white scar on the inside of her wrist and shuddered at the memory of what put it there.
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Kenshin stepped out of the bathroom, rubbing his long hair with a towel as he examined the closet for something comfortable.
A pair of sweatpants later he was in the kitchen, absently cooking himself a fast dinner.
He had business to attend to.
Kamiya Kaoru had been an obsession for as long as he could remember. Four years her senior, he had been in his last semester of college when he saw her for the first time.
He hadn't dated anyone seriously in years, never finding anyone that could meet his standards. Not since Tomoe had cheated on him his last year of high school.
He had seen her, walking out of the bookstore, her arms full of random general criteria based books, her large eyes narrowed in concentration.
Five minutes later, he was helping her get everything into her car and was inviting her for coffee. She had laughingly turned him down, insisting that she didn't want or need any attachments her first year of college.
Kenshin remembered being intrigued with the curious dimple that appeared and disappeared depending on her smile, and the way her eyes smiled her thanks for the help.
She had driven away and he had let her.
It wasn't long before his 'side' carrier had gotten a lot more complicated, and once he finished his degree his adopted father had pulled him straight in.
But one year to the day he had shown up outside one of her classes and made her the same offer for coffee.
This time she agreed.
He had told her once that a relationship with him was something dangerous. That he was a possessive, jealous man who would sell his soul for her.
He didn't easily release what was his. And the look in her eyes at Sano's promised that she knew she was still his.
She knew he was coming for her, and he hated to disappoint.
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Kaoru tied her still-damp hair up into a messy bun and crashed on her couch with a sigh. Her bare, clean feet were propped up on the table; the smooth fabric of her pants caressing her newly shaved legs.
She hadn't had a phone call from the psychopath she had dated for a few months in close to twenty-four hours. Not that he would try to do anything besides scare her into bed with him, Sano was an extremely intimidating man.
He had made the mistake of hitting her when Sano was in punching range. She figured Gavrael was going to have to have a nose job if he wanted his perfect features back.
She was beginning to worry, but Misao had mentioned a day or so ago seeing Gavrael with someone else. She prayed that was so, Kenshin wasn't going to go after him unless he kept bothering her.
At least, he hadn't gone after those who attempted to scare her unless it evolved death. She only hoped Gavrael was smart enough to just let her go.
Kaoru listened to the sound of knocking. Her eyes swung to the clock, and she sighed. It wasn't even ten yet, so it could be anyone. One of her neighbors had the tendency to stop by and ask for sugar, butter, and eggs at a startling rate.
If he didn't have this rather nasty habit of ogling her legs, she might have been tempted to ask him out in sheer desperation of scaring him off.
"I don't…"Kaoru's words died in her throat. Kenshin stood outside her door, his brows raised in question.
"Don't what?" his voice was amused and warm.
Kaoru promptly shut the door in his face and locked it. She stomped into her bedroom to pull a shirt on over her sports bra; she gave him thirty seconds to get past her locks.
She walked back into the living room, and sure enough he was standing there, looking for the entire world like he belonged.
"Do you need something, Himura?" Her tone and body language promised he wasn't wanted, but Kaoru couldn't completely hide the needy look in her eyes.
"Are we going to play that game, Kaoru?" Kenshin's tone had lost some of its warm playfulness, dropping into the rich baritone that always turned her insides to liquid.
"I don't think I owe you a damn thing, Himura!" Kaoru snapped, her temper and nerves alighting with her lighting fast temper.
"Is that so, Snapdragon?" Kenshin returned, his eyes lightening to pale amber.
Kaoru fumed. She hated being backed into a corner, hated it when he gave her that look of stark possession, hated how she melted every time.
"Look, Himura, it's none of you damn business." Her voice was low, dark with the frustration of how four years of being careful, of never stepping past certain bounds, were falling to her feet in scraps.
"Himura, Snapdragon?" His voice was soft, the edge still present but hidden under velvet. "We have never been on last name terms."
Kaoru turned away from him. "I have nothing to say."
"I do." She wasn't prepared for the feeling of his hands on her bare arms as he pulled her around, or for the darkening of pale amber to molten gold.
"Did you really expect to avoid me forever, Kaoru?" There was a testy note in his voice that told her he hadn't been any closer to finding her when he had run into at Sano's.
Kaoru jerked her chin up. "Did you really expect to find me?"
"You're still stubborn." His voice was back to being amused, and his grip on her arms had loosened.
Kaoru jerked out of his hold and walked towards the door, her message clear. "Well, your life depended on it." Kaoru was suddenly aware of the change in the room.
She closed her eyes and wished she could cry. She hadn't meant for that to slip, to clue him in. He would demand answers now.
"What was that?" His voice was deceptively soft, dangerous, silken steel cased by the soft shadow that demanded answers.
"Nothing." Kaoru replied, stubbornly holding onto the fragments of her dignity. Her right hand came up to caress her left wrist, absently rubbing at the pale scare in a defensive motion. It was not likely he would let her get away with that little comment, but she could try.
He turned her so fast her head spun. His hold was iron tight, but she knew it wouldn't leave bruises. He pressed her into the wall, his hard thighs holding her in place, and he placed both arms on either side of her head.
"Kaoru." His chest rumbled with the warning in his eyes. "What do you mean, my life?" There was no forgiveness in his tone, no hesitation in the stance of his body.
He wanted answers, and he wanted them now.
"Kenshin..." Kaoru tried, desperate for an escape route. His eyes flared with heat at the sound of his name, and his eyes gentled at the desperate look at her face, and one hand traced the line of her cheekbone, but he never gave in.
"Talk."
Kaoru lowered her lashes, and pursed her lips. She shook her head stubbornly.
"Kaoru, Koi, you are going to tell me eventually." His voice was coaxing, but Kaoru was just as stubborn. Her head shook so violently, strands of thick silk whipped into his face.
He scooped her into his arms and easily deposited her on his lap as he dropped them onto the couch. They sat there for long moments, Kenshin idly playing with her hair.
"The only person I can think of is Tomoe." His tone was hard, dark with the intent to harm.
Kaoru continued to sit, silent.
"Snapdragon..." There was warning now. He wasn't above using her body against her, and Kaoru ducked her head. Of course he would be gentle and loving, teasing her until she hovered at the edge, and then holding back.
Damn him.
He noticed her tears before she did, softly falling onto the skin of his forearm.
He pulled her into his arms and held her close as she sobbed.
Kenshin rubbed slow circles into her back, his demeanor changing with her tears. There was still the promise of death for whoever hurt her, them, but now it would be much, much slower.
He never liked her tears.
"It wasn't Tomoe." Kaoru whispered into his neck as the tears slowed. She felt some of the tension in his shoulder loosen.
"It was Enishi."
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