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Burned in Memories	By : PinayTiger Category: Rurouni Kenshin > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 1852 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the terms of the Rurouni Kenshin fandom. The brilliant master mind behind all of the characters is Watsuki himself, and I make no money off of this,

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Burned
in Memories

Chapter
2

Yahiko's
Arrival

By
Pinay Tiger

"Aoshi,"
Misao prompted, "why don't you ever give me any
flowers?" It was an artless question, innocent guilelessness threading her
inquisition. But surely, it was enough to get something out of the usually quiet
Aoshi. If he knew any better, he wouldn't say
anything to save himself from her. There was definitely no time to have her
blabbing about their relationship, only to have grounds met with how the way
she wanted things to be. He quirked an eyebrow, his eyes
searching hers. What exactly did she want from him, anyway - or at
least, what kind of answer? He could've told her he was shy of giving her
presents, or that materialistic value wasn't an important matter when it came
to love. But nothing of the sort came to mind and he opened his mouth to reply.

Nothing came out.

"Well, what is it?" she
beckoned. He blushed, but only because her reaction to his silence was laced
with inarticulate rage and disappointment. Just like Misao,
he admonished lightly from within. "Come on, answer the question,"
she pressed, suddenly straddling his lap. "I won't get mad at you if you
say that you're afraid to show your affection. I just want to know." His
shade of staining crimson shone brighter tenfold, and she smiled after seeing
his embarrassment. So he was scared to show his soft side. She squeaked
her amusement and locked her arms about his neck. "Never mind, you don't
have to answer that. I'll let you off the hook this once; but don't expect me
to be nice next time around. I want flowers! Big, red, sweet flowers! And I
want a big box of chocolates and an even bigger box of
cookies!"

He planted large hands on either
side of her petite waist and pulled her away from him to look her fully in the
eyes. "I was considering something else," he huskily breathed into
her ear. "Flowers never appealed to me as something capable of bringing
joy to your face. They're simple objects." Seductively
hoarse tone.

Misao blushed furiously and averted her gaze to the window whence
light from the fleeting moon passed. He smirked sensuously and brought a hand
to touch her cheek, and took the care of experience to press her to his hard
chest with the other. In response, Misao wrapped her
arms around his trim waste and rested her head against a shoulder.
"Flowers are always nice," she whispered. "But whatever you
throw at me can be just as good." His caressing touch impelled sleep to
surround her. She unwrapped a hand to snake up the length of his strong arm, stopping its trek to
fist in the material at the hem of his navy blue cotton shirt. The rise and
fall of her chest was indicative enough for him to rest a palm at the nape of
her neck without waking her. He kneaded at her skin lovingly and sighed out of
contentment.

Before he could envelope himself in
his own dream world, Kaoru crept silently into the apartment unbeknownst that Aoshi's leveled stare traced her lumber across the living
room floor. She tried being quiet upon entry, but the squeaking of her
shoes did none too much to prevent that. She abruptly
felt the hard stare of his gaze and turned to meet ice blue eyes. "Good
evening," she smiled.

"Hello," he said.
"Please, have a seat." She knew what came next, what came after those
four little words: a lecture. Absentmindedly, she mentally wrote out a list of
ways to evade him, but to no avail failed to do so. She simply smiled and
slipped out of her shoes, stalking to a leather recliner adjacent to where he
and Misao sat. "Since I've moved in," he
started, "I find you constantly coming home at odd hours. Funny that; you spend all your time with Kenshin.
Why not have him live with you?"

An awkward silence nearly blanketed
Kaoru's stiffening form. Was he crazy? What kind of question was that? To ask someone if she wanted her boyfriend to live with her?
Damn right she wanted him to!

She tried tidily to elude his
question at hand, tossing at him: "How long has Misao
been asleep?"

"Come now, Kaoru. Answer my
question," he incited. "Quite frankly, I've never known you as the
type to beat around the bush."

Even in the pitch darkness of the
room, Aoshi was able to point out the shady frown
amidst Kaoru's features. Oh, was she that readable? "It's really
nothing big," she started, slumping into the recliner. He was giving her a
stern look, one that warned her lying was never a good thing. And if she was
going to lie, she might as well have come up with something better to start off
her conversation. Not that she had anything better to say�. She sighed; Aoshi adjusted himself into a more feasible position, being
careful not to rouse the sleeping Misao. "The
thought never came to my mind, actually," she reluctantly exuded. "I
don't even think he'd consider it. He'd probably feel I was taking our
relationship up a notch, without truly understanding any motif I'd have for
asking him to live with me."

"Has he considered it?" came the curt question.

"I don't know." An exasperated sigh. Kaoru sat up straight to watch her best
friend's breathing quicken slightly. "I'm scared he'd refuse me."

"He wouldn't," Aoshi reassured. "I know him better than that."
Well of course he knew him better than that! For crying out loud, he
used to live with the young man before Misao
oh-so-quickly invited him to live with her in their new condo. Not that it
bothered Kaoru to have to awaken to disturbing noises in the middle of the
night�.

Kaoru brought her slender legs off
the ground and hugged them to herself. She really wasn't in the mood to chart
over her plans on having Kenshin move in with her just
yet. She sighed. "I'm going off to bed, it's really late."

"Fair
enough."

She stood and slipped her high
raised ponytail loose. "Night." And then a
distinct snap of her door indicated her absence. Aoshi
turned his attention to a snoring Misao and brushed a
stray lock from her placid face.

Even in the waking
moments of the morning, Kaoru found herself dreaming things she found too real.
She could've sworn - that even in her dreams - she smelt something burning from
outside her bedroom walls. Funny that - if ever there was a situation where, in
fact, there was something burning - it should have been her behind
it all. Ironic as it may sound, she really was no good when it came to the
culinary arts. Even cutting vegetables proved a difficult task that ended in
disaster.

When one dreary eye opened to meet
the warm blinding light of the sun, a small cloud of gray smoke seeping from
the cracks of the door caught her attention. Her first gut instinct, aside from
her mind screaming at her to call the fire department, was to run out there and
see the cause to all of this.

As she bolted out the door, the
thickness of this evil fog became more apparent. She frowned at the thought of
the fire detector's inability to sound out danger whenever smoke encrusted the
apartment in a threatening manner. "That thing deserves a battery change
anyways," she snarled aloud. "Stupid smoke. Stupid smoke detectors. Stupid whoever flamed the
kitchen this early in the morning!" She set her jaw and her eyes glowered
menacingly. "Misao!
Where are you?"

A hoarse coughing sliced through the
thickening blanket of gray. "What? I'm here; no need to be all mad so darn
early!" A perky and bouncy Misao came springing
out of the kitchen, her trademark braid done messily, her arms presenting a
smorgasbord of burnt - what were they anyway?

A burnt
and crusty egg?

Kaoru's nose wrinkled in distaste.
"Uh�."

"What? It's breakfast!"

"I didn't even know pancakes
could be that color!" she seethed. "And what did you do to the
house? Everything's all hazy and smells. Why don't you just save me the trouble
and burn everything down?" Kaoru's arms were flailing wildly. "And
while you're at that, take me, turn me upside down, and remind me why we ever
lived with each other! Maybe that way, I can clearly understand things
better."

"Aw, come on. You have to try
it! I thought it would be nice for a change to cook once in awhile,
considering that you like to sleep in. I really thought it would have made you
happy to not fuss with preparing breakfast for all of us."

"All of us? Who is this us?" she questioned.

"Well, Megumi, Sano and Kenshin said they'd be over in a bit! I told them to just
come whenever they had the time and stop for some breakfast."

"And
what of Aoshi?" Kaoru asked, looking around in the dinginess of the room in
front of her to see if a stall and quiet man was anywhere in sight.
"Where's he at?"

"I'm here," Aoshi replied, his voice as icy as ever.

Kaoru felt her heart skip several
beats and she nearly jumped at the impromptu response he gave her. She turned
to face him, her eyes shining anger. "Don't do that! What are you trying
to do? Give me a heart attack or something? There are normal people on
this earth who announce their presence instead of sneaking up behind others.
The both of you are going to give me gray hairs, and by the time I have my own
kids, I'd be looking like an old Egyptian mummy who was resurrected way back
when!"

Aoshi looked none too surprised, and all he did was wear that
ridiculous blanked look on his face. To have Kaoru out here in the morning,
screaming at the top of her lungs, to have her sweaty and yelling in less than
a minute, was something as ordinary as the sun rising to chase away Night's
skies, was something as ordinary as Misao's giddy
banter at four o'clock in the morning.

Misao's irritating high-pitched scream broke Kaoru's staring
contest with the reigning champion Aoshi. "So, kids,
you say? See Aoshi, what did I tell you? I knew
Kaoru wasn't as innocent as she presumably appears!" She turned to Kaoru
and said, "When are you due? No wait don't answer that! That's a stupid
question. So when did you and Himura actually get it
on?"

Kaoru's eyes widened. "Misao," she growled, "I am not pregnant! I am not
having kids anytime soon. And Kenshin and me never got it on! Understand?" she ended,
powerfully sending her foot down to ground the carpet. Maybe stomping her foot
too quickly to the floor was something she should've considered before the pain
registered to her mind. With the itching to grab her foot and soothe it
senseless, she mentally attacked at herself. It was too early to start a fight,
even if it were a few words. "Sorry guys," she finally said after a
moment of silence. "I'm just not feeling my usual self today. There's -
something - that feels different, something I can't just put my mind to. I
really believe there was something important about this day in
particular."

All Aoshi
and Misao did was look at her skeptically, both
shrugging their shoulders casually as nothing of importance for the day skimmed
through their thoughts.

"You must be on your-"

"Misao!"
Kaoru interrupted. "No. Please, just - stop. You've had too many pancakes,
maybe. All that damn sugar and syrup musta gotten to
your head. It's nearly noon, and you're already up and ready to reek havoc."

The younger girl grinned. Proud to show her ability to cause stress and annoyance upon other
beings. Kaoru shook her head melodramatically, her hair falling forward
to brush her pale cheeks.

"Here." Kaoru sidestepped
to Misao and took the plate from her tiny hands.
"You go get a mop and clean up whatever mess you left in the
kitchen," she said placing the platter down on the coffee table delicately.
"I'll finish breakfast," she beamed, throwing two thumbs up to Misao and Aoshi. "Everything
will be ok!"

The tall man gave her a wry look. "You. Cook. No." His tone
was so deadpan, that it irked the crap out of her.

And oh, no! He was in for it. He was
definitely in for a smack down. He could have sworn he saw long, narrow
pointy teeth when she opened her mouth to attack at him. But seriously, who
would take the time to imagine things when Kamiya
Kaoru was in front of him, ready and willing to fight? What he needed to do was
get his sorry butt up and out of the room before the volcano blew its top.

"No?" she asked in a mock tone. Now - there was no room for
escape. Once you got her started, you were better off having someone next to
you to pick up the pieces.

She grabbed the burnt egg off the
table, readily awaiting Aoshi to say one more word,
just one more squeak. Her eyes were practically glittering
a sign that read, "Move. Say something. I dare you."

"I don't want to be poisoned
early in life-" A blinding flash of black stopped him mid-stride.

"Here, then!" She shoved
the egg right into his mouth. "Hope you like what Misao
makes! Must be oh-so-better than the crap I splurge onto your
plates!"

"Nghh,"
was all that she got from the surprised Aoshi. Kaoru
turned on her heel and trudged off, taking one menacing step after another.
Maybe that was enough to get her message out. Lucky for him he had all his
limbs attached, especially his - well�. He was just lucky.

The last that the two saw of Kaoru
was her hair swishing to and fro as she vanished into the kitchen. They did
hear fragments of her sharp rant, from things of "stupid selfish people
who don't have a taste for decent food," and "idiot best friends and
their lovers," to "I'll show them!"

The thick, wet yellow of the egg
dropped sloppily from Aoshi's face to the carpet. Misao stifled a laugh. But, to no avail, she found herself
cackling like rancid rabid hyena, only to have herself
falling into the leather recliner. She kept at it for some time until her side
hurt. "I'm so sorry, Aoshi. You shoulda seen the look on your face! I never thought you'd
have to feel the wrath of Kaoru!"

Aoshi gritted his teeth. "This is truly embarrassing�"

The door to the apartment creaked open
silently; light as bright as white snow engulfed the room,
and Kenshin's voice said, "And so it seems.
What's this, Aoshi? Kaoru burnt the food again?"

"No!" came a feminine
voice from behind. "The idiot weasel was the one who burnt the eggs. Aoshi was just so happy to eat them, which he forgot
any sense of etiquette and delved into his breakfast like some hungry bastard
wolf! Having him eat my food would have shamed Misao.
In fact, she did such a good job that all of the food that was intended to feed
all of us - as she so ambiguously stated when I was getting up - went
down his pie hole as if it were water!" Her nostrils were flaring as she
appeared in the hallway. And by gosh, she was a sight to see - all sweaty and
passionately fuming. Kenshin's eyebrows rose out of
amusement; this was by far the highlight of his day. That's the Kaoru I know
and love�he thought to himself.

Kaoru wanted to smug that coy, yet
so perverted, look off Kenshin's face. "What?
Why are you looking at me like that? Don't look at me like I'm your
dinner."

God, she's such a handful. Kenshin nearly rolled his eyes,
but thought against it. Leaning carelessly on the door, he brushed a hand
through his burnished copper hair. "There's bagels in the car, if you're
hungry, Misao. Just go over and get them. Aoshi," he then prompted, "maybe you should clean
up." He chuckled as the taller man marched for the bathroom.

"Can I take the car around for
a spin while I'm in there?" Misao asked as Kenshin gave her his keys.

"Be my guest," he smiled.

"Ok, thank you very much! You
rock, Himura!" she sang, brushing past him out
of the door.

Amber eyes flicked to Kaoru who was
still tempered, her face a stern warning and reminder of the damage she was
capable of inflicting. But the image of her ceased to
disappear from within the little redhead's mind. His steely gold gaze
darted slowly from her head to toe. And still she was getting annoyed. "Coffee?" she asked, cunningly trying to evade his hungry
gaze.

He merely presented his acquiesce
with a nod and an innocent upturned curve of his lips.

Coffee was made and drunk with
appreciation, Kenshin mentally thanking the gods that
Kaoru was indeed proficient in making something of decent taste. Even though it
was somewhat chalky, and bolder than it should have been, he was giving her
props for her attempts. The room was still perfumed with the burnt food Misao had made, and the fragrant steam of the coffee
curling in the air of the apartment did rather nothing to eliminate such odors.

"So," Kenshin
said, breaking the quiet, "you seemed confused about this day." He
padded towards the sofa Kaoru was laying on, his eyes never leaving hers.
"Don't tell me you forgot." He frowned as she chewed on her bottom
lip to idly think things through.

"Um, is it Sano and Megumi's
anniversary?"

"No."

"How about: Aoshi's
birthday?"

Kenshin sighed. Hands resting on his hips, his legs spreading apart
as he rocked easily on the balls of his feet, he clarified in a soft voice,
"It's already noon, sweet. Yahiko has been at
the airport for nearly an hour. I thought you and Misao
were going to get him. But unfortunately-"

"That's today?" she
screamed, shooting up. "K-Kenshin?
That's today?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Oh
my god, oh my god! I totally forgot about that
brat!" She took the palm of her hand and drove it forcefully into the
couch. "No wonder I was so damn moody! I totally forgot Father was sending
him over for a week! And why? Just so he 'can spend
quality time with his big sister!' This is going to be hell�."

"Kaoru," Kenshin voiced.

"No! Don't try to calm me down!
I know exactly what you're going to say!"

He stepped toward her, leaning in as
he took her hands. In a quick fluid motion, he brusquely pulled Kaoru into him,
the wind suddenly leaving her, as she was pressed hard against his chest. He
took a hand, sending it to rest at her nape, his fingers brushing sensuously
there. "Shh. Don't stress out. We'll go there,
together, and get him."

"I can do it alone, thank
you!" she snapped.

"Kaoru, look at me," he
said, imperative decisiveness threading his tone. She refused to do so.
Sighing, he drawled, "I should've done this first." Her head snapped
up and she was taken aback as he brought his mouth to hers. But what followed
didn't deserve the name of a kiss, but, rather, that of a tender and innocent
caress. Kaoru's reluctance and anger died, stifled by Kenshin's
gentle assault. Gingerly at first, his lips brushed and grazed at hers. Then,
having received a groan from within her throat, he quickened his pace, his lips
and tongue forceful and sweetly bruising. Her neck, bent from the pressure of
his lips, and her body, suddenly melting at the contact of him being so
dangerously close, seemed to have the control sucked out of them. His hand at
her nape moved to palm at her scalp, her ebony lace soft as silk against the
backside to his hand. He supported her head, holding her steady, even as the
stroking of his ravishing tongue drove deeply within her mouth.

Whimpering almost in a vulnerable
manner, Kaoru acted with an unthinking terror and sank her teeth into his
bottom lip. Pushing her back a bit, Kenshin's
laborious breathing was evident in the rise and fall of his chest. Kaoru drew
in a long inhalation of air, bringing her forehead to rest against his chest.
"Kenshin, you're such a jerk."

He smiled. "I'll have Misao bring my car around." He let Kaoru go and turned
for the door, leaving her in a dizzily dazed stance.

Kenshin remained in his sleek black car, waiting for Kaoru to fetch
her younger brother, Yahiko. After the incessant
battle of trying to have Kenshin come out with her to
introduce him to said brat, he had brushed off her many reasons why he should
tag along, only to say that her being there to greet Yahiko
after not seeing him for over a year would have done the child good. And with
her chin rising defiantly, Kaoru composed her anger and stomped off into the
terminal, waiting for Yahiko to come bounding out
happy to see her.

But, what greeted her was a grumpy
and groggily and sleepy child.

"So," she started, "I
can't believe you're here Yahiko! We're finally
spending time together after so long! I promise you, this will be the best
spring break ever" Her voice was so fake, and Yahiko glared at her.

"Stop pretending," he
seethed. "I know you're only being nice just to try and show me your good
side. Well it ain't gonna
work with me, you ugly old hag!"

"What was that?"

"You heard me!" he
countered, dropping his luggage to the hard, white linoleum floor. "I came
here just cause Father wanted me to! And that doesn't
make me and you best friends, got that?"

"You know what," she
sneered, taking her arms to grab at his shirt, gruffly yanking him forward.
"I'll see to it that you have a great time!"

"Shut
up, you ugly!"

"Brat!"
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Burned in Memories