Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Love Fool ❯ Love Fool ( One-Shot )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Love Fool
by Flamika


Reason will not lead to solution
I will end up lost in confusion
I don't care if you really care
as long as you don't go

"Love Fool"
Cardigans


"You gonna be alright, Kenshin? You got quite a shiner there..." Sano asked his companion as they walked the streets on the way back to the Kamiya dojo.

Kenshin glanced at Sanosuke and smiled kindly. "I'll be fine, Sano," he assured him calmly. "That man just got a lucky punch is all. He was quite an experienced fighter, that he was."

Sanosuke eyed the huge bruise on Kenshin's pale cheek dubiously, not liking the way the angry purples and yellows were splattered across that porcelain skin. He told himself that it wasn't comforting to see bruises on one who was considered to be invincible, but deep down, he knew that he didn't like to see Kenshin with any kind of injuries, period. Blood didn't look good on Kenshin.

//Clashes with his hair// Sano mocked himself lightly.

"Experienced fighter, sure," he said in response to Kenshin's earlier comment. "It's too bad he was just your common street thug."

"He should have been fighter-for-hire, ne?" Kenshin asked, an affectionate smile cutting any harshness Sanosuke might have imagined in his words.

The tall man grinned at his smaller companion. "Someone's feeling witty tonight," he commented.

Kenshin smiled. "It certainly has been an exciting night, that it has."

"You should come drinking with me more often then," Sano joked, knowing Kenshin would never agree. "At the rate we're going, we'd probably rid Tokyo of all its scum within a month's time."

Of course, the rurouni only graced his friend with a frustrating smile that meant everything and nothing at all. Sano had come to love and hate that smile. Sure, he thought it was cute when Kenshin's large lilac eyes scrunched up as he smiled, or the way the faint smile lines on the corners of his eyes became visible. But Kenshin used that smile on everyone, a universal gesture that had no meaning whatsoever to Sano. The harsh, piercing eyes of Hitokiri Battousai held a more weighty significance than that maddeningly beautiful smile.

Sano shook his head slightly to clear his mind of such thoughts as he absently kicked a rock that dared to stand in his path. He liked walking beside Kenshin in the embrace of the night; he wasn't about to ruin it with the foolish thoughts of a lovesick fool. And Sano did love Kenshin. He had admitted that to himself a long time ago. Now what to do about it was the real problem. So far he hadn't done anything because there was really nothing TO do when a man falls in love with his best friend. With Sano's hidden love and Kenshin's unconscious naiveté, they were going nowhere and getting there fast.

Still kicking his rock along the street, the tall young man frowned so deeply that his comrade took note of it.

"Sano?" Kenshin asked, turning his head so that he could peer at his friend's shadowy face. "Is something bothering you?"

//Nothing besides the fact that I'm in love with you, baka//

"Nope," Sano said as smoothly as he could, focusing on his rock as he nudged it along. "I was just wondering if it might rain tomorrow."

//What a sorry-ass lie//

Kenshin blinked. "Rain?"

"Well, yeah," Sano said with a laugh. "I was thinking of visiting Katsu tomorrow, and the streets get real muddy if it rains."

"But mud never seemed to bother you before, Sano."

Sano made a face at his friend. "Do YOU like walking in mud, Kenshin?"

"No, not really."

"See? Neither do I."

Kenshin smiled and lifted his face towards the sky, breathing in the night air deeply. As if on cue, a breeze ruffled his shadow-darkened red hair, sending the lengthy strands of his ponytail fluttering behind his head. Sano's headband drifted behind his own head in a similar fashion, but he paid it no heed, as he was enraptured by the simple visage of Kenshin's hair undulating in the wind.

The rurouni suddenly turned back to his friend. "I smell rain on the air. It might storm tonight, Sano."

Dubious brown eyes stared up at the cloudless midnight sky. "Really?"

Kenshin nodded, blinking instinctively as the wind blew some of his bangs into his eyes. "You don't have to walk me home, Sano, that you don't. Why don't you go on home so you don't get caught in the rain?"

Sano grinned and kept right on walking, kicking his faithful rock down the street. "No, then I'd feel bad."

"Why is that?" Kenshin asked, looking confused.

Smiling at his redheaded friend, Sano replied. "I'm the one who dragged you out tonight so I'm the one that has to take you back home." He pointed at himself with his thumb. "And if I get caught in the rain, then I guess it'll just serve me right, huh?" He winked.

For a moment, Kenshin looked like he was going to insist that Sano return to his "home" (which he had just been kicked out of last night, in fact), but then he smiled, shaking his head in weary affection and looking forward again.

It was with relief that Sano let an easy silence fall between them. Normally he found long bouts of quiet uncomfortable, especially between friends. With Kenshin, he never felt that way. It was as if the former manslayer was saying, "I will not intrude, but I am here if you need me." That was more than Sanosuke could ever have wished for in a best friend.

He continued kicking his rock in front of them as they crossed the bridge leading into the residential area of Tokyo. He was surprised he had managed to hold onto the rock for so long. Usually, he inevitably managed to boot them into the grass lining the road or worse yet, send them sailing over the edge of the bridge into the watery depths of the river below.

//Tough little rock, to have lasted this long.//

Kenshin's shoes made soft scraping noises on the bridge, and a sudden gust of wind sent leaves skittering across the surface like energetic mice. Sano shivered a bit and shoved his hands in his pockets. The cool, crisp night foretold of the oncoming cold months; he would have to get warmer clothes by then or risk freezing his ass off.

Sano believed his slight shiver had been discreet, but a sidelong glance from Kenshin told him that he might have shuddered just a little harder than he thought. He hoped his friend wouldn't start fussing and asking if he was cold. For once, Sano wished Kenshin would just worry about himself and forget what others thought. Sure, Kenshin was all about protecting the weak and keeping them safe from harm, but there was no use sweating small things like whether or not Sano had a minor case of the shivers.

Thankfully, Kenshin didn't question Sano's condition but instead moved a couple of steps closer, leaning against his friend as they walked, the top of his shoulder pressed against Sano's bicep. The tall street fighter laughed softly at his friend's attempt to keep him warm. Kenshin was physically too small to offer much body warmth, and Sano could imagine that he had to be feeling the cold breezes that were entering through the open front of his gi; nevertheless, he appreciated Kenshin's kind, fuss-free effort.

Sano gave his rock a strong kick and then playfully leaned nearly all his weight against his small friend. Kenshin almost buckled underneath the sudden change in pressure, but then he smiled and pushed back against Sano's shoulder. By the time the two men got to end of the bridge, they were laughing and trying to knock each other over just using their body weight alone. Of course, it really was no contest to begin with. Sano probably could have gathered Kenshin in his arms and spun him around if he wanted to. Kenshin was certainly barking up the wrong tree if he wanted to brawl with someone based on weight alone.

Still, Sano relished the sound of Kenshin's full-throated laugher. Normally, he received the impression that Kenshin only laughed because he was *supposed* to, because the jokes or actions he witnessed were *supposed* to be funny. He was a peace-loving wanderer, and peace-loving wanderers laughed at certain things, smiled at certain things.

One thing that Sano always cherished was that Kenshin acted slightly different with him than he did with others. True, he didn't laugh as much, but when he did, it held an almost tangible sense of reality. Kenshin's real laugh was light yet masculine, strangely private and intimate, and with the night in full bloom all around them, Sano felt as if the only things that existed in the world were just the two of them.

Laughing, he wrapped his arms around Kenshin and clasped the small man to himself briefly under the pretense that he was going to wrestle the rurouni to the ground. Kenshin jokingly tried to extricate himself from the chokehold, shoes sliding on the bridge. Sano squeezed his friend tightly and then released him, having broken the unspoken rule that the two "contestants" weren't to use anything but their body weight. But it was a nice, warm closure to their little scuffle.

Sano's rock was waiting for him faithfully at the end of the bridge, and he resumed kicking it down the street as he and Kenshin made their way to the Kamiya dojo.

It seemed all too soon that they reached their destination. Sano was so intent on his loyal rock that he only realized they had reached the dojo when he gave the rock a good, stiff kick, only to have it strike the dojo's wall, crumbling into a cloud of dust upon impact, particles drifting away in the wind.

"Damn," he growled, coming to a stop. What he was cursing - their arrival or the demise of his rock - he didn't really know.

Kenshin stopped and looked up at his friend. "What is it?"

"My rock shattered," Sano grumbled. "It lasted the entire way down here. I was thinking about keeping it and carrying it around as a good luck charm."

"Sano, you have a more things to worry about than rocks, that you do," Kenshin warned, looking up at the sky, which was now covered with ominous dark clouds swollen with rainwater. They looked ready to burst at any minute.

"Oh!" Sanosuke exclaimed, grinning wryly. "When did THOSE clouds come in?"

"I told you it was going to rain, that I did," Kenshin said, actually sounding grumpy. "Now you're going to get caught in the rain, and you'll become ill and Megumi-dono will have to give you an examination."

A grin came to Sano's face. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

He expected Kenshin to smile tolerantly, but instead all he got was a serious shake of a red head. "You're welcome to stay at the dojo tonight, that you are. We'll set up an extra futon in my room."

//I'd rather share one with you, actually//

Though he wanted nothing more than to accept, Sano shrugged off his friend's suggestion. "No thanks. I'll have to pass this time, but I may take you up on that offer later on. Be ready, Kenshin."

//Besides, I can only take so much delightful torture at once. Don't know if I could restrain myself if I slept in the same room with him. I'm especially bad tonight. Must be something in the air//

Kenshin sighed dejectedly, frown still tugging on the corners of his full mouth. "Fine, Sano. You're-"

"Such a stubborn ass?" Sano finished, winking at his friend.

"Yes," Kenshin agreed, surprising the young man again. Lilac eyes locked onto brown ones, and Sano realized that Kenshin was in a strangely serious mood for some odd reason.

"Hey, I'll be fine," he said awkwardly, shifting his weight from leg to leg. Kenshin's eyes could be piercing even without Battousai's help.

"I know you will," the rurouni said softly. "Take care of yourself on your way home, Sanosuke."

Sano gazed down at his best friend - the friend that trouble always managed to find, the friend that always seemed to be in danger twenty-four hours a day because of circumstances beyond his control. Himura Kenshin was as good a person as there ever was, but looking down into those drowning lavender eyes, Sano knew that one day he was going to lose his friend, either to the blade of some vengeful manslayer, or to a woman, to death, to time…

Kenshin didn't move as Sano leaned down and kissed him on the left cheek, in the middle of the cross-shaped scar. He loved Kenshin's scar. He had fantasies about tracing it with his lips and tongue, but now was not the time to fulfill such desires. He pulled back enough to give Kenshin a gentle kiss on the mouth, lingering only long enough to find that the other man's lips were the warmest and softest he'd ever kissed.

Sano drew away from Kenshin and took a couple of steps back in order to put some distance between them. It was probably one of the hardest things he had ever done. His arms ached with the urge to hold the smaller man and never let him go. Sano shoved his hands in his pockets.

Kenshin was standing shock still, staring up at Sanosuke with the oddest expression on his handsome face. He didn't look stunned, not exactly, and he certainly didn't look disgusted, but at the same time, Sano could actually say that he looked happy either. His eyes were half-lidded as if he was sleepy, and his full lips were parted slightly, looking all too inviting in the darkness.

//K'so...I'd better get the hell out of here while I'm still ahead//

"Well," he fumbled, voice sounding loud and unwanted after what had just transpired. "I guess I'll be headin' home now, Kenshin. Oyasumi."

He waved once and whirled around, trudging down the street and wondering what the HELL had come over him. Kenshin's eyes were burning holes into his back, and Sano had serious doubts that things were ever going to be the same again. Dammit! Why die he have to go and do a stupid thing like-

"Sano!"

//Dammit again//

Swallowing hard, Sanosuke stopped walking and slowly turned back to see that Kenshin had followed him for a couple of steps and was now standing with a heady, trembling light in his pale purple eyes.

"Why," the redhead started, "don't you come for breakfast tomorrow, Sano? I'll make extra for you." He smiled wanly.

For a moment, all Sano could do was stare. Kenshin was offering him a way out, a path back to the normal way of things. To pretend this night never happened. Even if Kenshin wished to remember it, he wouldn't if Sano didn't want to. Of course, that was Himura Kenshin: always looking out for everyone's happiness but his own.

Well, Sano wouldn't have that. He wanted to remember the unexpected brawl that left Kenshin with a bruise on his cheek. He wanted to remember the rock that he had kicked while strolling along beside Kenshin. Their little wrestling match on the bridge and the furtive hug he'd given Kenshin afterwards. The storm clouds. The soft kiss.

Sano laughed, closing his eyes briefly in relief. "Sure, I'll come," he assured Kenshin as he half-turned, ready to leave. "But, still, I'm hoping you'll come drinking with me again one of these nights. I think it would be fun." He winked, and the gesture was slightly more friendly then usual.

Kenshin smiled; the expression reached all the way to his eyes. "I think I'll take you up on that offer, Sano, that I will. Oyasumi nasai."

He turned and walked back to the doors of the dojo, unlocking them and slipping inside quietly, lifting his hand to Sano briefly in parting before he closed the doors. Sano waved back and resumed his aimless walk down to the street, to a home that didn't exist.

But damn, was he ever happy.

He even managed to find a new rock. It was sitting lonely in the grass lining the side of the road, seated amongst the blades as if waiting for him. Sano dipped down and picked up the familiar object, pleased to find that it was more solid than his ill-fated rock earlier that night. He placed it in front of his feet and started to kick it down the road.

The rain came five minutes later, just like Kenshin said it would. Oh well. Looked like Sano was going to get wet and sick after all. But he was still happy even as thunder crashed overhead and rain turned dirt into mud. He had kissed Kenshin, and with any luck, he would kiss him again sometime in the near future. That was certainly a hell of a lot more than a love fool like himself could ever dream of.

Sano smiled up at the stormy sky and sauntered down the muddy street, kicking his new rock in front of him as he went.

~fin