Rituals and Revelations

This isn't really what I totally idealized this fic to turn out to be from the very beginning, but that's where my mind turned. Maybe one day, I'll write the version I was originally intending, but for some reason, my brain just fits Kenshin and Kaoru together, and anything otherwise makes me feel guilty. Oh, the plight of a fanfiction writer.

Regardless, enjoy!

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The revelation hung between the two women, settling itself demurely in the minute space that separated their knees. Teacups adorned with tiny pink cherry blossoms rested on the floor beside it.

They sat alone in the back room of the clinic in a newly established routine of confession and compassion. Megumi would press her back against the west wall, and Kaoru would kneel down in front of her, her toes poking out from under her body. They remained like this for hours at a time, talking of things that neither would speak of to anyone else under any circumstance. The air was thick with a tangible type of intimacy, one that had developed over months of close friendship and rivalry.

“Is that so?” Megumi spoke, ruby red lips curling in something preceding a smile. “I don’t think I can believe that, my little tanuki-chan.”

Kaoru stammered out a meek, “Why not?” and lowered her brilliant sapphire eyes. Even so, it did nothing to hide the pink dusting her cheeks. “I’m being honest. I don’t love him anymore.”

Allowing a chuckle to escaped, Megumi responded with a light “I was just teasing. You should know better. What brought on the sudden change of heart?”

The kendo instructed shied her eyes away from the floor to lock her gaze with the amused female doctor. “I can’t love him. He… will never understand me.”

Megumi raised an eyebrow. “I would think it to be the other way around. After all, he was the fabled Hitokiri Battousai. You should be less capable of understanding him.”

Kaoru shook her head. “No,” she replied with certainty, “I understand him, far better than he even understands himself. But to him, I will always be the pure and innocent Kaoru-dono. If he’s not willing to accept me for who I am instead the image he has of me, we will never be happy.”

“True, true,” Megumi murmured thoughtfully, “but aren’t you being selfish?”

“Maybe so, but I would rather be selfish than lie to him. He means too much to me for that.” Kaoru slid her quivering hands within the confines of her kimono sleeves to hide the effect the conversation was having. Megumi did not miss the action.

“I thought you said you don’t love him anymore?”

Kaoru shook her head. “You’re misinterpreting it… he’s still very dear to my heart. But I can’t love him the way he needs me too. He is a Rurouni know, but his scars from the Bakumatsu still bleed… and I’m not so sure I can heal them.”

“The Kenshin-gumi always thought the opposite. That you would be the only one to heal him,” Megumi says with deeply instilled conviction.

For the first time since they began their conversation, Kaoru appears uncertain. “Maybe so…” The thought of him in pieces for the remainder of his life almost brings her to tears. “But… how can I love him when at the same time, all I can think about is you?”

The shock of the young woman’s second revelation nearly paralyzes her. “You mean to say…”

Kaoru blushes once more, and nods, “I think I might be falling for you, Megumi.” Her honest feelings bleed into the words, and the doctor finds her chest constricting with something she hasn’t felt in ages.

“Is that so?” Megumi speaks cautiously, because years of loneliness have embittered her to the point where love seems like a mere girlish fantasy.

But Kaoru does not respond, and simply presses her lips to Megumi’s with all of the tenderness and softness that only a woman could manage. She thinks to pull away, but Kaoru does not allow it, and coaxes her mouth open.

“I want to understand you, Megumi. I want to understand your mind, and your body,” the younger woman says in a husky alto, tasting the skin below her left ear. “And most importantly, I want to taste you all over.”

The promise in Kaoru’s voice excites and frightens Megumi. “It’s been so long since I’ve been with a woman…” she says, voice trembling.

Kaoru does not grace her comment with a verbal response, but with another kiss, and the tanuki sucks the doctor’s tongue between her lips. The move sends heat pooling between Megumi’s legs.

“Taste you all over…” Kaoru murmurs, almost as a mantra, while untying Megumi’s yukata and parting it to partake the sight of the beautiful, pale skin. “You’re so pretty under here, Megumi-san. Why do you hide it with your medical garb?”

Megumi stammers her response as Kaoru takes a dusky nipple between her lips. “O-One must always be prepared for that which you l-le… oh god…”

“I see you’re already more than prepared down here,” Kaoru says, brushing over Megumi’s entrance, already seeping delicious arousal. She brings the damp fingers to her lips and tastes the wetness. “I want more where this came from.”

How dirty, how scandalous, how… hot, Megumi thinks as the tanuki parts her legs to taste her. The first stroke of Kaoru’s tongue jolts her like a bolt of electricity straight to her bones. The next sends her hips twisting to meet those talented lips and tongue. And over and over again, Kaoru tortures her with pleasure so powerful, she can’t even dream of resisting.

Her long, nimble fingers, worn from the brutality of healing, thread their way through that midnight black hair, pulling closer, until she screams her pleasure to…

…the cold and lonely night, and another stroke of her fingers reminds her of the unrequited love and lust that claims her in the darkness.

She breathes a sigh of shallow content, before a knock on the shouji startles her out of her euphoria. “Megumi-san, may I come in?”

Megumi closes her yukata and invites Kamiya Kaoru to enter her room. “Kenshin… why doesn’t he understand that I…”

She holds the younger woman close to her bosom, and can’t help but wonder…