Aneka walked absentmindedly behind Sanosuke on their way to the dojo he had told her about. Well, at least she looked absentminded, with her hands clasped in front of her, and her legs swinging about like pendulums when she walked. The truth was… she was really nervous.  Sano wanted her to pretend to like some guy so as to get a girl jealous, she didn’t quite understand everything he said.

            Ah, well it had sounded kind of fun, and everything she’d done with Sano so far had been fun… She really couldn’t begrudge him the request, It’s not like he’d asked her to do anything really hard… or at least she hoped it wouldn’t be. She’d never pretended to like someone before.  But it had been proven that her imagination often went above and beyond the call of duty, and imagining things and acting them out went hand in hand didn’t they?

            Aneka sighed as she stared off into the sky. All this activity had almost made her forget that she would likely be nigh killed for just taking off for who knows how long. After all, she’d likely have to go back eventually. Sano would eventually decide she wasn’t worth the trouble and send her packing. It’s what always happened.

            People liked her well enough, easily enough, but no one stuck to it. She supposed the novelty of her eccentricity wore off or something. She never had any hard feelings about it though, it was her fault she wasn’t good enough or interesting enough to remember after people got used to her.

            Her train of thought came to a sudden screeching halt as they came to the gate of the dojo. Her eyes went wide as she saw… him.

            ‘Ah!’ she thought in surprise ‘It’s him!’ She stared thoughtfully as red suffused her face in a vicious blush.  ‘Is that Kenshin? …. No… Sano said Kenshin had long red hair and a scar across his cheek. Ohhh but I do wish it was, It would be much easier to hold a pretense that was real. It’s just as well though, the name Kenshin doesn’t suit him’

            Sano turned around and gave her a look, wondering why she’d stopped. She smiled nervously and started waking after him again. He turned back around without a second thought. Aneka’s eyes instantly drifted back to Enishi, who was being attacked by… by… Jin?!! She covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a gasp. ‘Why is he here? He’ll tell Sakamura-san where I am!!’

She turned away, but not before one last admiring look at Enishi’s lithe and effortless dodges. She just hopped she could either avoid Jin, or convince him to keep his mouth shut. Good luck with that…she knew the little brat thought girls lower than dirt and not even as useful. Maybe she could intimidate him into it. A sly smile stretched across her face as Sano led her into the Dojo.

                                                *            *            *            *

Jin felt prickles running up his spine, but he shook it off. He still hadn’t gotten one damn hit in on Enishi… not one word of actual conversation had passed between them either. Sure it was only the second day… but this guy was good! Jin felt himself awash with admiration for the lithe Goliath. Someone he could respect. He’d been wishing for someone who deserved his respect for a long time.

Sakamura-san… well, Jin didn’t really respect him. It was more just in his best interest to pretend that was the case. The old geezer was a snob and a bastard. Of course he couldn’t complain. By acting like the mans favorite, he got the best of everything, food clothes… and indulgences like being able to learn how to fight. Almost like a real son.

Jin looked up at Enishi… Damned if he wasn’t paying the least bit attention. Enishi appeared as casual and nonchalant as if he were doing stretches. Jin started to suspect he’d hit it right on the nail when he noticed the man was overdodging his attacks.

            Duck low stretch left, swing backwards to the right… Hell, the guy wasn’t even dodging. He really was doing stretches…. Jin stopped and waited, wondering if there was a pattern to his movements and a way to exploit them.  He thought he saw a faint smile across Enishi’s face but shook it off, concentrating harder on thinking of ways to hit the bastard.

                                                            *            *            *            *

            Enishi was indeed, as the boy had presumed, smiling. He was also doing stretches as well… well actually Katas. He had been taught many different stances, but his favorite had always been the tiger, crouching low under the grass to stalk it’s prey over the horizon. He’d long since combined it with favorite aspects of other ‘dances’ to create one entirely of his own. The tiger was still it’s basis.

            He’d studied for years under the famed Shaolin monks… although many of those years it had been in secret, watching their moves from the shadows. It had taken the boy, Jin, a while to catch on, but he had an intuitive feeling that this one would indeed go far. Something in his eyes foretold of a calculating mind behind the façade he’d brought with him.

            Enishi’s eyes narrowed as he recalled the day one of the monks had found him watching. They’d been astounded at how much he’d picked up just from watching them perform the regular rituals. But Enishi had always had a knack for reading a lot into subtle movements. It was a language of it’s own.

            Of course they’d only found out exactly what he’d been doing watching them, after he resisted them apprehending him. He’d gotten away that day. He never discovered what they had planned to do to him, but he’d been caught up in something far more dangerous after that.

            A fallen monk had recognized his raw talent, and followed him back to the small shelter Enishi had built for himself. In those days all that was on his mind had been revenge… as it was much of the rest of his life as well. He didn’t care how he’d lived, or what he did as long as it would gain him more power. He had seen Kenshin’s strength, and as a child, even though Kenshin had been young himself, Kenshin had seemed so far above him.

            Which is why it had been a simple matter for the Fallen monk to convince Enishi to go with him to join the Syndicate that he would later find himself controlling… Enishi wiped his head of past thoughts. He’d come here to look for the future.  The past just got in the way.

            He turned to Jin, who was eating up his every movement with hungry eyes. He had a feeling if he stopped and asked the boy to repeat all his moves up until then, Jin would get them almost perfect.

            But Jin still needed to get into shape a little more. He’d been spoiled. No, he’d test the boys memory another day, but he had no doubt that his intuition would be right.

                                                *            *            *            *

Kaoru looked up as she heard scuffling coming from the hall. The way those footsteps sounded… that should be Sano. Sure enough the ex-gangster opened the door, a wide grin stretched across his face like it belonged.

Of course that wouldn’t be strange at all… except she hadn’t seen Sano grin like that since Enishi showed up. Kaoru blinked as she saw a nervous blond-haired girl behind him. A foreigner? She saw the girls eyes. Brown. Maybe half? No… they were almost a honey amber brown. Interesting.

Kaoru looked at Sano with curiosity clearly written across her face. Sano either noticed, or expected it, because he quickly started to explain in a somewhat smug tone that only caused twice as much curiosity as before.

“Ah, she’s my charge from now on, I hope you get along because I’ll be keeping her with me.”

“A girlfriend?” Kaoru asked, trying to glance at the girl who was all but hiding behind Sano. Sano gave her a look that said ‘are you crazy lady?’ as if it was the last possible reason anyone would think he had a girl with him, instead of the first thing that should pop to mind.

“No..” Sano blinked, as if trying to get rid of the incredulity of her question. “Actually I just kinda took her on because..well..” he glanced over at the girl, and decided against whatever it was he had been about to say. “It’s not important, but it does stand that it would be wrong of me to take advantage of the situation.”

Kaoru saw a soft smile drift across the girls face as if a silent reassurance had been passed along of something she herself had been afraid of.

“You going to tell me her name?” Kaoru asked, as she found it hard not to smile just as softly back at the girl. Something about her made her almost automatically likeable. She seemed so fragile, yet something hidden in her eyes spoke of a determination not to depend on anyone. Kaoru blinked in surprise as she saw something else in the girls eye, hidden so far back it was almost as if it were a permanent foundation. Fear, pain… distrust. The girl looked away suddenly as if she realized a forbidden corner had been seen. What about this girl made her so easy to read? Kaoru wondered.

Then it hit her. ‘She reminds me of me’ Kaoru thought in amazement, reminds her of when her father had died. The girl not only was determined not to depend on anyone… she didn’t trust that she could.  The smile faded slightly from Kaoru’s face as familiar pangs ripped through her gut. ‘Memories’ she thought ‘are always a pain’

“….Kaoru,  were ya listening?” she heard Sano say.  Kaoru turned read as she realized she had completely zoned out in her own thoughts.

“Ah! Gomen, I kind of dazed off” Kaoru exclaimed.

“You can say that again. I’ve been talking to you for the last five minutes almost.” He said grumpily.

“What did you say.” She asked, more of an order than a request. Sano gave her a look sideways.

“Nevermind, nothing important” he said. Kaoru frowned at him, almost positive that wasn’t the case. “Well I’m going to show her around a bit. See Ya” Sano said suddenly, walking off with Aneka behind her.

Aneka… where had that come from, Kaoru wondered. Obviously a part of her had been listening. If only she could remember the rest of what he said, and why she was so sure it was important. She frowned into the space he had occupied the second before.

                                                *            *            *            *

“Why didn’t you repeat what you said” Aneka asked Sano after they left the room. Sano looked at her and grinned.

“I realized it was better that she didn’t hear it.” He replied with that lilting quality to his voice that she found so interesting “It suddenly came to me, while I was saying it, that she might figure out that I’m trying to make her jealous if I bring it up o her that Kenshin thinks a lot of her. Ya know, put two n two together” Aneka nodded at him absentmindedly, a shudder going through her as she remembered the recognition she’d seen in Kaoru’s eyes. As it the girl had seen right through her.

“Yeah it was probably best that you didn’t repeat it.” She replied as they rounded the corner and went out into the side where Kenshin was doing laundry.

Aneka blinked at the first sight of him. There was something almost… petite, about him. His looks were… charming, in a cutesy sort of way and he seemed almost Fae, like the story tales she remembered her mother telling her years ago. His red hair was shocking to say the least, especially when he was entirely Japanese.

Or was he. Sano hadn’t said. Aneka frowned slightly as she looked at him. His eyes, hi eyes were what gave him away, and she really wondered, truly, if he weren’t Irish. She’d lived there a while, and Red hair was common… the purple eyes, they weren’t common there, but she’d seen a few people with them, and her mother had told her it was faerie blood.

Her mind drifted away from her speculation to more concerning matters. She appraised him in a way as to read his personality. It soon became obvious to her that Sano needn’t have bothered with the warning not to fall in love with him herself. He wasn’t bad to look at, and she tried not to discriminate against short people, so that wasn’t it. He seemed too much like… well..nice.

Something about him reminded her too much of what one would consider their father’s friend… or in this age case, maybe an older brothers. He was far to amiable, and although he wasn’t quite feminine, there was nothing completely… male about him. Aneka sighed. This might be a hard thing to do.

She briefly wondered if Sano would tell Kenshin about the plan, and if this nice little man would agree to it. He seemed to be the type to always wish to do the good thing, weather it was in fact the right thing or not in the long run.

Sano stepped forward and introduced them. She noticed, that when Sano and Kenshin started talking, something about Kenshin changed. An aspect of his personality fell away. It was then, that she first realized that Kenshin was hiding from himself. When people hide from themselves, that hidden part of them can weave traps completely out of the view of the other part. It’s a dangerous thing. Aneka herself had things she didn’t like about herself, things that scared her. She’d finally accepted them, even if she didn’t agree with them. That way she knew exactly what those thoughts were planning.

Aneka stared intently at Kenshin, trying to read into that hidden place. ‘If nothing else’, she decided then and there, ‘I’m going to change that.’

                                        *            *            *            *

Kenshin looked at the girl Sano had brought with him, and was startled by her gaze. There was something dangerous about it. Not threatening, but something in it was foreboeding. He looked at her incredulously, brushing off his wary impression to examine her.

So Sano wanted to make Kaoru jealous with her. He wondered if it would even work, and he must have said so outloud, because Aneka responded.

“If we do it right it will” she said quietly. Something about her tone made him nervous. “And if you keep looking at me like that of course it won’t work.” She said narrowing her eyes almost imperceptibly.  Sano looked at her in surprise. She hadn’t seemed more than just passably willing to go along with this. He wondered what had changed her mind.

Kenshin nodded at her and smiled tenativly. Aneka nodded sagely.

“That’s better, now let me give you a little insight on how this is going to work.” Sano stared at her dumbfounded. Kenshin paid polite attention. “It won’t do any good to have me show up and just have things happen like that. Not only is that obvious, but it won’t work for other reasons that I won’t go into.”

“Anyway, we don’t really want her to think you like me. We just want her to get the impression that you might. Possible competition. If she thinks you like me, she may just give you up and go to the other guy that you guys are so worried about.” Aneka went on explaining.

Sano looked at her and started to narrow his eyes, growing a little tense. Was she just like Megumi had been? Pretend to be defenseless, and just as it was too late, embroil you into a scheme that was so intricate it would be impossible to untangle?

Sano stared at her for a moment but then relaxed. No, she hadn’t asked for any help, and seemed none to eager to receive it. Her wide eyed enthusiasm of the gambling and drinking had been genuine and refreshing. She had been utterly nervous about sharing a house with him, and painfully suspicious of his intentions. He had pretended to be unaware of the tension radiating from her in order to put her more at ease. It had thankfully worked.  Sano smiled wryly. No, it was probably safe to say that girls just thought too damn much, period.

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Happy easter peoples.. for those of you who celebrate. Or passover too. I used to visit some people who did that. It was a very interesting thing ^_^

Anyhow... hehehe more fun for next chapter. Don't worry I won't be slowing sown anytime soon. I've got idea's for the story right up to the end. Not like With blood and Snow where i just wrote as I went along mostly... not that I was very slow on that mind you... hehehe

Please review!! I much enjoy reviews and I'm feeling selfishly deprived that I don't get as many as I used to. I guess it's my fault for that long pause with this story. Must have lost some regulars... T_T dooooan leeeeave meeee.... =P j/k

Just remember it's people reading that motivates me to write. When I'm doing something for someone else I do it twice as good as if i were doing it for myself. ^__^