tampered | I wish [closed]

Current Mood: anxious

I wish [closed]

When; Night of October 27, 2008
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Kenshin and Kaoru
Summary; Kaoru is trying to get the fuck outt'a Dodge. Kenshin's trying to get the fuck into ~~Kaoru~~ Dodge.

Log;

Kaoru hadn't stopped to find out what was coming after her. Unarmed and in a place she neither knew nor understood meant that whatever it was probably spelled trouble. If she was wrong she'd have to re-evaluate everything later. Right now getting away from whatever it was mattered more then that.

She noticed a dim light from a small seeming hold just ahead and slanting upward. If she could manage to get there before this thing found her, then maybe she'd be safe. She altered her course and headed for it, scrambling over lose rock and dirt, making a horrible mess of her kimono and body. Not that such a thing had ever stopped her before. Kaoru wasn't a dainty girl.

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His mind raced. If it wasn't one thing it was another.

He'd spent well two months worried sick about her fate back in their world, and now she was back again. She was back... but...

The fact that she didn't know where she was, or what the computer was for that matter, spoke volumes...

It was Kaoru... But it wasn't the same Kaoru... And that meant...

It didn't matter, he wiped it from his mind now. Kaoru was Kaoru, whether she remembered the City or not. And right now, he was almost certain she was in the underground.

He chided himself for not having sent a message to anyone before bolting from the apartment building. There were so many entrances to the underground that he couldn't possibly check them all. And now she was moving--which was better than her not moving based on the sounds coming from the last post.

The underground of all places...

He bolted toward the nearest entrance he could think of, the one near the subway, a streak of red to anyone passing by. He just needed to find her. The rest could be sorted out later.

There was tugging and ripping and scraping as she made her progress toward the top. Whatever had been pursuing her wasn't giving up just because she was out of reach.

She heard the sick ripping of cloth and she knew part of her kimono was gone. Better it then a part of her leg. Though the searing pain let her know that her leg had been close to being removed as well.

Finally she made her way out of the hole. Dirt covering her face with scratches here and there from the climb. When she pulled her legs free she noticed the three gashes in her leg where the fabric of her kimono had been ripped off. They weren't too deep, just enough to sting, bleed and look angry.

She pulled off her hair ribbon and started to wrap the leg. She still had to learn how to get home from this place.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he reached the entrance he was thinking of... and just stood there and stared dumbfounded.

She was there. She was really there. Whatever the odds were that he would find her on the first try... they had to be a billion to one in this place... maybe for once the City was giving him a break...

She hadn't seen him yet. She was certainly roughed up, but that seemed a product of getting out of the underground more than anything...

He took a step forward, a wave of relief so tangible going through him that he almost shook from it. "Kaoru," he said--and then the realization came back to him, "-dono..."

Kaoru. She'd heard it clear as day. Heard it from Kenshin. In Kenshin's voice. It was important, but what was more important right now was that he was there. His back wasn't turned to her, he wasn't saying goodbye.

"K - Kenshin?" She knew she was going to start to cry again. You can only stay strong for so long when someone breaks your world into pieces and then is standing in front of you again.

Whatever relief he had found was squashed out of him fairly quickly. It felt like he had been doused with ice water all of a sudden between the look on her face and the sadness in her voice.

He knew what she had said of the fight with Enishi... but if he had died... She would not be so calm seeing him alive again...

The only time he had known her to be this upset was when...

Oh... hell...

"Kaoru-dono," he said again, this time moving forward to kneel beside her. Whether she remembered the City, or what took place in it, or not, he didn't care at this point. With little hesitation, he reached out and pulled her against him in a secure hug, inwardly cursing the City. Of all times to pull her in, why that night of all nights? Of course, he couldn't be sure... but...

She cried that night. She was wearing this kimono that night. The image of her devastated face was burned into his memory as surely as the image of his retreating back was burned into hers... Damn it all...

"Kaoru-dono..." he said again--bringing the honorific back to her name after so long a slight knife in his side. "He came back..." His brows knit and he held her a little tighter. "We all came back to Tokyo together..."

She knew it was stupid and weak of her, but her fingers tightened into his gi and she pulled him tighter to her. If this was all just a dream, some strange trick of grief, then she wanted it to linger a little while longer.

"You .... came back?" Even if it was a dream, she still wanted to hear him say he would return to her. To the place she needed him to be.

That was all the confirmation he needed. The night he left for Kyoto...

He was over two months to her future... which meant he still didn't know what would happen when he returned... if Enishi...

But she was here now...

One hand tightened to a fist behind her back, so hard that he caused his own knuckles to crack. He pressed his cheek to the top of her head, his brows still knit. "Aa," he whispered. "He came back."

He stayed that way for a long moment, continuing to inwardly curse the City's sense of humor, before finally speaking again.

"You were right before. This is not Japan..." He paused again, trying to find the right words. "It... is difficult to explain, and even more difficult to understand..." He pulled away then, looking at her with a serious expression. "It would probably be better to try to explain somewhere comfortable..." He paused, looking toward her leg. "And we should have that looked at... Will you come with him?"

Edited 2008-10-28 04:44 (UTC)

She nodded. Kaoru still felt so numb from everything that happened. He had said goodbye to her. Then, just as he was out of sight she arrived here and he was by her side again. It was all a bit too much for her to get a grip on.

She pushed herself to her feet before her ankle twisted slightly and she stumbled, causing the wound to bleed more. "Why did you say goodbye then .... if you were going to come back?" Why had he made her so worried and broken her heart when he was going to come back all along?

He caught her when stumbled, eying her leg for a moment. It didn't appear so bad that she couldn't walk herself, but if she so much as missed one step again he would be carrying her. Whether she wanted him to or not.

He couldn't quite look at her then, but he would tell her the honest truth... or at least part of it... "Because... at that time he didn't expect to survive to in order to come back..."

He shook his head after a moment. "Kaoru-dono, none of this will make sense yet... and he doesn't want to try to explain this place out here..."

She felt her heart skip when he caught her. After what she had been through in the past few minutes, to be held by Kenshin was .... was something she had never expected to happen.

Without realizing that she was doing it she held onto him a little longer and a little more tightly before letting go and righting herself. She wasn't a weak girl, she could handle a little scratch like this. Righting herself she brushed herself off. Not that she had any idea how horrible she looked at the moment.

She wouldn't have known it, but it was taking every thread of his self control not crush her against him and refuse to let go. He'd done it before, after all.

But he let her go easily when she stepped back and watched as she brushed herself off.

He still had all of her belongings from before. Save her ring. He would find her a change of clothes once they were back...

"It's a mile or two back... will you be alright to walk?"

Really, she was forcing herself not to cling to him again. Before he'd left she had .... she couldn't cling to him. She had to be strong. Even if just for a little bit longer.

At his question she nodded, taking ginger steps on the uneven ground. She couldn't put much weight on the leg, but she wouldn't let on how badly she had actually been hurt. Kenshin would just worry.

"This way," he said, leading her out from the entrance way toward the paved sidewalk not 20 feet away.

She followed, stumbling a bit and almost tripping, her ankle wanting to give out on her. Still, she covered it well. She was a fighter, she wasn't going to allow herself to be a burden. Not after what had happened between them.

That was enough. He didn't really care how strong she was--and he damn well knew just how formidable a woman she was--he wasn't going to continue letting her stumble about.

"Mou... you are going to twist your ankle on top of it at this rate... Here," he turned back on her, not even half way to the pavement and scooped her up into his arms. It would have been easier to carry her on his back, but with her wearing a kimono that wasn't going to be that easy. "This unworthy one will carry you there until we have your leg looked at..."

As soon as he grabbed her the heat rushed to her cheeks. "I'm .... I'm fine!" Still, her protest wasn't as strong as it should have been and her fingers curled into his gi as he started walking. His body felt so warm, so there against her.

"He believes you," and that was true. He knew she would be fine, "but he would prefer not to take any chances..."

There weren't words to express the relief he felt just by having her solidly in his arms again--after two and a half months of worry...

He had said that he didn't want to discuss this place out here, but really it was because he didn't want to start on the topic and then have to worry about her reaction. Well... now that he had a good hold on her and he didn't need to worry about her passing out or panicking or refusing to come home with him, he figured it was safe enough to start.

Because otherwise he was liable to make some sort of move that would be... a little more difficult to explain... like nuzzling into her hair.

Yes, that would be a little awkward... if she didn't remember anything...

He gave a slight sigh. "This place... is just called 'the City'. It has no other name and what exactly it is or where exactly it is... none of us know... What is certain is that there is no easy way out of here. No one knows how people are drawn in, but one way or another we are. To add to the craziness of that, the people here are from different worlds and different times..." He paused for a long moment. "This unworthy one is not a good person to try to explain the City, he really isn't... but... when he says people are from different times... he means it. Just... based on what you've said, it was May the last you remember, correct?" He paused again, waiting for the affirmative answer he knew he would get. "The last time this unworthy one was home... it was August..."

He looked at her, trying to catch her eyes. "You, Yahiko and Sanosuke. You all followed him to Kyoto. This unworthy one stopped Shishio Makoto... and we all went back to Tokyo together. All of us."

He knew it had to be surreal. Before they had been from roughly the same time. There was nothing to fill each other in about... but the need for this explanation, not to mention... There was only so much a person's mind could take in at once, after all...

Kenshin seemed to be determined to make the young girl go soft. He was paying more attention to her then normal. At least of the soft variety. Her fingers stayed firmly curled into his gi and she let herself rest against him, her mind focusing on the fact that she could hear his heart beat.

Most of what he said went through a dunk-like haze for her .... until he mentioned dates. "August?" She sat up, looking the swordsman directly in the eyes. "That doesn't make sense." Even through her complete complacency at his being here with her she could still figure out logic. He was saying he was from the future.

He nodded, his face remaining serious. "He knows it makes not sense..."

He kept walking, moving much faster than they would have if he had let her walk herself. Yes, his words made no sense, but if she was paying any attention at all the look of the City itself might give him at least some credibility.

He stared ahead again. "It will not make sense, and seem like a dream for a long time... But it doesn't change the fact that it's true." He gave a shallow sigh. "He has the new scars to prove it..."

.... scars? That worried her, and with the emotional roller coaster she had been through today, it was clear to see that she was worried. She didn't say anything, but her face and expression demanded that he tell her what was going on, what scars he was talking about.

She'd hunt down and beat the person responsible for hurting him. Especially now that she had him back with her. She was a protective tanuki.

Well... at the very least she seemed a little more normal just then...

"From Kyoto," he said, trying to clear things up. "He has the scars to prove that the battle occurred... to prove the time difference..."

They were out onto the sidewalk now, walking past one of the apartment buildings, but not to building 10 yet.

She did notice the strangeness in the buildings, but right now her mind was focused on Kenshin. Her face was a very certain 'show me' not believing. She would have to see this Kenshin's from the future proof herself.

Even if it was more then likely going to make her faint.

He tried to ignore the way that... lasers seemed to be coming out of her eyes... In fact, he could have sword it felt like part of his face was melting right off with the way she was glaring at the moment.

But glaring was much better than that crushed look she had on before...

Instead, he shifted topics back to the City. It was important to get it all out there, after all.

"Time passes differently in this place... most of the time people are taken from their worlds, and when they are sent back it is to the same point in time that they were taken, so it was like they were never gone back home, no matter how much time was spent here..."

Oh good. He could at least see building 10. Only a few more minutes...

He had no idea what was going to happen when they walked in the door though. He'd worried the girl and she was going to demand proof of what he was saying.

WAIT! Did he just say .... "When I go back you'll have ...." She gave the old man a death glare and looked away, arms crossed. He was getting a snubbing even after she had cried so hard over his leaving.

He gave a slight sigh when she turned away.

Still. Anything was better than her crying.

"Sumanu..."

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