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Concessions	By : lawless Category: Rurouni Kenshin > General Views: 3636 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
CONCESSIONS
by Lawless

...She looked at him...This ghost from her past who haunted her even now...

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DISCLAIMER: This is a fanfic. I do not own Rurouni Kenshin or its characters.

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Chapter 4: The Pieces Start to Fall

He was having breakfast when the runner came. The thin man who was ushered in by one of his men looked flushed and slightly out of breath. He spared him only a second's glance, recognizing him right away as Kaga, the same man who delivered the message yesterday at the harbor. He returned his attention to his food, aware that Kaga was waiting for his acknowledgment. After taking a careful sip of his tea, he finally said, "What news?"
The thin kept his head lowered. "The delivery was made, Yazaki-sama."
"Good." He placed his cup down and raised his arm. A woman who had been sitting at a discreet corner rose and began clearing away the dishes. When she was done and left the room, he went on, "Tell them they should have the formula at the agreed time."
"Hai," Kaga said, then made as though to add something but seemed to hesitate.
Catching this, the man called 'Yazaki' asked, "Is there something else I need to know, Kaga-san?"
"They wish to warn you, Yazaki-sama."
Yazaki paused. "Warn, Kaga-san?"
"They said to watch out for the Red Lanterns."
A thoughtful frown came over Yazaki's face. He recognized the name, of course. The Red Lanterns were one of the most powerful and most feared underground network in Hong Kong. Their contacts were extensive. Their business, just as wide, but like everything else about them, shrouded in mystery. "What would the Red Lanterns be doing this far away from their home country?" His voice held a note of puzzlement.
"They have maintained contact with the Oniwabanshuu of Edo all these years. They have reason to believe they will contact them now to intercede with the plan," Kaga replied, watching with some alarm the transformation that came over the face of his master.
Yazaki was smiling, lips drawn tight but the black eyes behind his glasses burned with rage. Oniwabanshuu. The name was a curse. His curse. He noticed that his hands were trembling so he clenched them into fists as he said, his voice coming out in a rasp, "Tell them that...precautions shall be taken."
"Hai, Yazaki-sama." Kaga bowed before turning around to slide open the shoji.
"And, Kaga-san?" Yazaki called. The thin man turned. "Bring me the gaijin."

o0o
The midday sun was beating hard on the dusty streets when a traveling coach stopped near the Kamiya Dojo. The first person to alight was a tall, blond man with smiling blue eyes. He held out his hand to his companion who emerged a moment later.
Megumi shielded her eyes from the sun as David hurriedly opened the umbrella for her. He glanced at the unassuming wooden gate, passing only a cursory glance at the kanji lettering posted on the side. He could hear the muffled voices of what seemed to be several children shouting all at once. Kendo, he thought, remembering what Megumi told him about her Tokyo friends.
"So this is it," he said, casting her a sidelong glance. Her profile was etched against the dark cloth of her umbrella and he marveled not for the first time at how seemingly unconscious she was of her beauty.
"Hai," Megumi replied, returning his smile. She saw his eyes flare up and suddenly, she found herself held against him as he took her mouth. The kiss wasn't invited but it wasn't unpleasant either and when he finally let her go, her smile remained.
"So lunch tomorrow?" David asked while he took down her travel case from the coach. "You'll like my brother. He's great."
"Better than you?"
David pondered, completely missing the playful expression on her face. "In some ways," he replied truthfully.
"Then perhaps I have the wrong brother," she teased, laughing lightly at the look of dismay that came over his boyish features. "Yare, yare. I was joking, David-san," she said placatingly when his expression showed no signs of easing.
"I love you," he said instead.
The fierceness of his expression and the honesty in the blue depths of his eyes silenced Megumi. She lowered her lashes to hide the brief flicker in her own gold ones as she said, "I know." She felt something heavy tugging hard at her heart. The weight had grown familiar but she raised her chin stubbornly, fighting down the well of sadness and loneliness deep inside her. She had made a promise to herself and she would fulfill it.
There was comfort to be found in forgetting after all. But oh kami, how long is long enough? She asked herself, unaware that someone she knew had formed the same thought only a few hours ago in the stillness of the night.
After David left, Megumi turned once more towards the dojo. And she was still smiling inwardly to herself when a voice slightly mocking arrested her.
"Still up to your old tricks, I see."
That voice.
Megumi felt blood drain from her face and her limbs grow cold. She knew that voice, knew it from seven years ago. That warm, mildly insinuating voice. It isn't possible, she thought even as she turned.

o0o
When he turned the corner, it had taken him a moment to recognize her, He had thought at first that she was a ghost, a figment of his fevered imagination. She's in Aizu. She's supposed to be in Aizu. She was laughing lightly with a man, her golden-brown eyes softly teasing in that look that he had seen all too often grace her pale face. Her midnight hair was unbound and looked slightly mussed from travel, making them glisten a beautiful blue-black under the relentless sun. She looked...happy as she stared up at the blond gaijin. And when he saw the man lean down to kiss her and she didn't move to protest, he could scarcely breathe. He felt...he simply felt.
After seven years of being numb, he finally felt something. And he was angry, angry that he had spent all these years trying to forget only to find it all crashing down on him the moment he laid eyes on her...in the arms of another man.
"What are you doing here?" were the first words she spoke to him after seven years. Her voice held an accusatory note in a timbre made husky by an unspoken emotion. And she was staring at him, the gold flecks of her eyes swimming to the surface.
Sano struggled to keep his carefully constructed calm exterior even when his own emotions ran amuck. He gave her a lazy grin as he approached her slowly, peering at her through hooded eyes. For one fleeting moment, he caught a glimpse of a naked emotion deep in her molten eyes before the ivory mask she always wore fell into place, making him wonder if he had only imagined it after all. He said to her in the same casual tone, "Last time I checked, Megitsune, I live here."
Megumi clenched her fists as she looked at him, this ghost from her past who haunted her even now. He was grinning at her as though nothing had changed between them, as though the past seven years had been nothing but a few weeks. How could he appear so damned casual? "Last time you checked it was seven years ago," she said to him coldly.
That lazy smirk again. "Last time I checked, I didn't think you cared enough to count the years."
Megumi raised her brows. "Last time I checked, no one could speak with mouth filled with arrogance."
Even now, Sano could not for the life of him figure out what it was about her that drove him to insane bursts of temper. He had thought he had taken control of his emotions. He had thought he had taught himself not to feel. But here he was now, his fury raging inside him along with that feeling of utter helplessness in the face of such coldness. He wanted to lash out at her, hurt her, make her feel the way she made him feel, but instead, he grinned easily, feeling the bitterness in his voice as he said, "Che, Megitsune. You still got a mouth on you."
Was that bitterness in his voice? But when Megumi stared at him, she saw only the easy grin that was achingly familiar, the stormy dark eyes that mocked her. She wondered not for the first time what it was about him that spoiled her bearings, pushing her away from the pedestal of cool reserve she had created for herself into a precipice where everything was uncertain. That same uncertainty was forcing her to draw on that old familiar anger now as she spoke to him scathingly, "I see seven years hasn't changed you one bit, toriatama. Apparently, you still see yourself so high to think that you can just swagger in here and expect a warm welcome."
She had changed. These comments...they used to be only teasing but now they held an edge as though she meant every word she said. Didn't she know how much he regretted not being present when two of his closest friends passed away? Did she think him unfeeling? Or perhaps, it was he who had changed all these years. His past had finally caught up with him; it was literally staring him right in the face and he knew not what to do. He stared at her searchingly, trying to find his answers in her pale countenance but her face remained closed, until finally he was forced to look away, unsure whether he could take these searing intense feelings that were all too powerful and all too poignant.
Megumi saw only a second too late the look of utter despair in his sun-browned face. That look that came over him as soon as her words escaped her lips. She heard him say in a quiet tone of voice, a tone that she hadn't heard him use before, "I'm not some block of wood that holds no feelings, kitsune." And she looked at him then, seeing that he had changed. She saw that the same sorrow she felt mirrored in his stormy dark eyes as he continued, "I have regrets, Megitsune" - He gave her a small smile, a subtle tug in the corners of his lips - "This is one of them."
"Sano," she whispered, finally saying his name. It was perhaps the first time she had actually spoken his name and probably the last time she would but the memory of it would be etched forever in his head. "I'm sorry," she finished, her tone softly pleading.
Sano gazed at her, that peculiar searching look crossing his sun-browned face as he did so. Then, as though satisfied by what he saw there, he smiled, feeling his anger seep away. He had spent seven years trying to search for the elusive, vying for something that was forever beyond his grasp. And now, he's returned home only to find that what he had been searching for was here all along, in the embrace of this one person, a person who had found someone else to embrace. She was entitled to her own happiness after all. Who was he to be angry?
"Oi! What are you two doing over there?" Misao's cheery voice pierced the hazy cloud that had settled between Sano and Megumi. She was balancing herself carefully on the fence, looking down at them in puzzlement. Obviously, she had not heard the conversation that passed between the two older people (the fence was too high) but she had observed enough to know that it was a heavy moment. When they didn't make a single move to come inside, Misao placed her hands on her hips. "Are you two just going to stand there and stare at each other until you're blue in the face? Or are you coming in?"

- oo - TO BE CONTINUED - oo -

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A/N Fourth chapter. I had a freaking hard time writing this. I don't know if this chapter is effective or even remotely justifies their first meeting. I can only hope and I'll leave the real opinions to the reviewers. Once again, thanks to all who reviewed. You make writing worthwhile.
Oh, I made a few revisions of this chapter by the way. I've realized that I'm taking unusual amounts of liberties in this fanfic. Sorry. I have no excuse, except that I'm lazy when it comes to research (Is that even an excuse? Heh). This fic is supposed to have taken place seven years after Sano left. I think that would have made Yahiko 17...and he had a two-year old son, which says that he and Tsubame had him when he was only 15 and she 14? Yeesh. That might be a little too young but it's not unheard of in that period. And I think Kenji is supposed to be older than Yahiko's son but I just didn't know enough of him to make him say anything so there. Sorry *sweat drops* The plot doesn't look much at this point but at chapter 5, it should all begin to take form. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much to my reviewers.
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Concessions