Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Third Impressions ❯ Mustard Popcorn And Foaming Mouths ( Chapter 5 )

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

In the spaces between battle and worrying, even the leaders of the war have time to laugh, love, and hve their microwaves threatened.

Anime/Manga: Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 11.20.2007 | Pages: 4 | Words: 7.3K | Visits: 364 | Status: Work In Progress

Third Impressions

Part V

She wasn't sure what had caused her cold (sirens were an underwater species! Standing out in the rain was nothing!). But it was very, very irritating.

She awoken the day after the battle and found herself unable to go longer than a few minutes without sneezing. Her nose was red, she felt congested, and she couldn't taste anything, including coffee. Kenshin had taken one look at her and called her in sick, despite her protests. She'd been put on strict bed-rest and fed a variety of hot liquids, including but not limited to several types of tea, coffee, soup, and medicine.

“I'm not an invalid!” Kaoru snapped after the third day of her torture. (Some would have called it being pampered beyond all reason, but Kaoru wasn't that type of person.)

“Of course not.” Kenshin said soothingly, handing her another cup of tea, putting a fresh box of tissues within reach, and discreetly kicking her bokken under the bed where she couldn't use it to hurt him or Yahiko, who was staying with them temporarily.

“Then why am I stuck here lying in bed and drinking god-forsaken tea?” Kaoru asked reaching for her bokken and finding it missing. Frowning, she checked the mountains of blankets surrounding her and under the twenty or so pillows behind her.

“I'm not that cold, Kenshin.” She said with a sigh. “Captured by my own bedding! How am I supposed to escape now?”

“You're not. That's the point.” He told her, making a mental note to remove the bokken to a safer, less obvious, and preferably locked place before she decided to take her frustrations out on innocent souls like Yahiko, or less innocent souls like himself.

“Great. I'm trapped in the forest of bedding. Oh, the horror.” She muttered sarcastically. “Who knows what horrible fate lies in wait for me? Maybe the pillows will eat me!”

“If you're not careful, I might.” Kenshin replied, putting yet another blanket over her. That made about thirty. If she tried to kill him, he'd have plenty of advanced warning. Unless she had a knife hidden in there somewhere...not that he'd supplied her with anything sharp. Maybe he should go and make her soup or something instead of antagonizing her.

“Hey! Ugly! Phone for you!” A cell came flying through the escape route, also called the open door. It landed with a plunk on Kaoru's lap, its fall cushioned by the blankets. She flipped it pen, recognizing the phone as her work number.

“Hello?” She said, wincing at the sound of her voice. She sounded awful.

“Hi! Like, this is, like, Shaista! And you're, like, not here, at the, like, shoot! Like I need, like, to have my picture, like, taken, so I can, like, get money for, like, clothes? So, like, get over, like, here? Like, now? Please?”

Kaoru mouthed, “It's Shaista.” at Kenshin's curious glance and then told the model, “Sorry, Shaista, but I'm sick. I can't be there. Besides, I've been promoted. I have to do Bunny's shoot with Kamatari and Usuda. One of the junior photographers will work with you for your shoot. Bye!” She closed the phone and laid it on top of the tissue box.

“What did she want?” Kenshin asked.

“Nothing. No one told her I was promoted to senior photographer, so she was waiting for me to show up.” Kaoru said, gulping down her tea and making a face at the tastelessness of it.

“Can you get me my computer? I have to work on touch-ups and stuff. For PUC.”

Kenshin left the room and returned with her work bag. “Here.”

“Thanks.” She said, turning it on.

“What were you saying you needed it for?” Kenshin asked.

“PUC. Photo Union Convention. It's this thing- all the major companies that do photography, they send an employee, on a commission, to represent them. It's good advertising. The more commissions one photographer has, the better. One is the norm; no one has ever had more then three of them. I have to compete with the other two senior photographers with the commission this year. Clients sometimes like your work enough to ask you to commission for them, but not usually. Only really top-grade photographers, the ones that do really high-class free-lance work- I mean they can pick an choose because they're in demands- get commissions from lots of people.”

“And you want to go to the Convention?” He sat down on the bed next to her.

“Yeah! I mean...going to Convention is a big deal. If you're there, you can advertise yourself. People get job offers, or free equipment- all kinds of stuff. And if some, say, really famous fashion icon likes something, she'll request you. If people request you enough, you don't even need a company, you can just take temp contracts.” Kaoru explained. “If I was that famous, I could do a lot of stuff.”

“Stuff?” Kenshin asked.

Kaoru nodded, faintly embarrassed. “I want to reopen the dojo, but to do that I have to either have a job with fixed hours, or I have to be famous and in demand enough to make things fit my schedule.”

Kenshin thought about this for a while. “Why did you close the dojo?”

“The Order sort of shoved me into it.” She admitted. “Why are you a consultant?”

“Why? There's a rule regarding cover jobs. They have to match your real job in output.”

“Which means...?”

“Look at it this way. The results of policing nonhumans are power and money. A successful consultant has the same results. Therefore, no one would ever be suspicious if they decided to examine my assets. They'd see money, which I get from rich clients, and reputation, which I get from rich clients.”

“And the fact that said rich clients tend to die?” Kaoru asked with an arched brow.

He laughed wrapped an arm around her. “Occupational hazard.”

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“Who know what today is?” Misao asked.

“Bad Romantic Movie day!” the three girls said. Tokio looked baffled at their display. Picking up her cup of fruit juice, she asked a question.

“What's Bad Romantic Movie day?”

The girls all drank their respective drinks before Kaoru answered.

“It's a tradition, of sorts. We all meet with our significant other of the moment once a year and we invite them to come watch a movie with us. The movie is always romantic and awful. It's a way of measuring the strength of the relationship.”

“And they agree to this?” Tokio asked incredulously. She adjusted the ribbons on her spiky, multicolored pigtails.

“Oh, we don't tell them anything. It's all very casual.” Megumi assured her.

Misao sighed. “And I have no significant other, so I'm...alone...” She slumped over the table like a dead woman, silent. Kaoru poked her and got no response. Shrugging, she went and got a glass of ice water and proceeded to dump it over Misao's head.

“Eek! Kaoru, that's cold!” Misao yelled, frantically wringing out her bangs.

“Yes, I know.” Kaoru assured her. “I even put ice in, just for you.”

While the two squabbled, Megumi showed Tokio a stack of the latest, sappiest hits in their collection. Tokio chose the latest true-love-despite-arranged-marriage film and began reading the summary on the back.

Megumi meanwhile picked out a love-hate-between-rival-companies movie and followed suit. Realizing that all the good ones were being snapped up, Misao and Kaoru attacked the pile as well. Soon, all four were eagerly reading movie summaries.

In the end, Megumi and Tokio went with the movies they'd originally chosen and Kaoru and Misao both picked out modern-day-Romeo-and-Juliet pictures.

“I guess I'll watch by myself...” Misao said sadly. “It's so weird! Normally Kaoru is the one without a boyfriend!”

“It's your fault I have one.” Kaoru reminded her.

Misao nodded miserably, and hugged Tokio randomly. “I'm glad you're joining us! It makes me feel all squishy!”

Tokio pried Misao off her and nodded. “Me too, Misao, me too. I also feel the squishy nature of our blooming friendship.”

There was a silence, and then all four friends burst out laughing.

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“Mustard popcorn!” Sano declared, running towards the microwave before Megumi could stop him.

“Butter!” he heard her yell from the living room. Too late! He would definitely get his mustard popcorn this time, as soon as he opened the microwave...the microwave that wasn't in the kitchen...the microwave that had left a wide gap on the counter...

“Like I said, Sano, butter popcorn.” Megumi said, smirking.

“Megumi...”He whined, defeated. “What did you do to the microwave?”

“I moved it temporarily to the balcony.” Megumi told him. “It will return, safely, if you behave. If you can't, the microwave will take a downhill trip into the street.”

“Evil microwave stealing fox...” Sano mumbled as he sat down in front of the TV. “What are we watching?”

“This movie.” Megumi held up the box. It featured two people singing loudly in sequined suits in what appeared to be a circus. There were clowns in low-cut dresses and horses draped in fabric, and the title was written on an elephant in glitter. Sano gulped.

“Rival Circus Lovers.” Megumi said. “It was a recommendation from a friend. I thought we could spend time together watching it.”

“Rival...Circus...Lovers?” Sano managed. “Who writes this stuff?”

“It's supposed to be a thoughtful and heartwarming love story for everyone.” Megumi snapped, snatching the case from his hand. She loaded the DVD into the DVD player and grabbed the remote from Sano. Sitting back against the couch, she laughed inwardly at the look on Sano's face at the opening scene of the movie. This was going to be fun.

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“You're home early.” Kaoru commented as Kenshin walked back in through the door. “I thought were going to be late tonight.”

he smiled at her. “I took the night off. They'll survive without me.”

“I hope so.” She motioned to the ground beside her, in the space that wasn't occupied by a giant bowl of buttery popcorn and a bottle of water. “Come and watch this movie with me. A friend recommended it to me.”

“What movie is it?” Kenshin asked as he hung his coat up in the coat closet. He then picked up Kaoru's coat off of the closet floor and hung that up, too, in an accusatory fashion.

“Secretary In A Brown Suit, Three Sizes Too Big.” Kaoru showed him the cover; it displayed a crowd of laughing, scantily dressed people in a flashing club. In the center, behind the title, there was a woman with a bun, glasses, and a browns suit that was, indeed, far too large. She was smiling and holding a finger to her lips. There was nothing secretary-like about her-the bun was perfectly messy and the glasses were a bright, soul-searing pink.

“Who recommended that to you?”

“Why?”

“It looks...never mind.”

“Never mind what?” Kaoru asked, grabbing onto his arm. He looked away and prepared to duck.

“It looks like those videos they show you to warn against drug dealers.” He told her.

Sure enough, she tried and failed to hit him.

“We are going to watch this movie. Now shut up and eat your popcorn.”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“Shut up!”

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Tokio was nervous. Unlike the other three, she'd never done anything with her spouse. They'd gone from meeting once every few months to living in the little Spartan apartment, and it was a big change. Tokio had had to adjust to her husband's obsession with soba, and the faint smell of cigarette smoke everywhere, and the terrified employees that skulked in and out and called at all hours. She was slowly adjusting to the way he neatened up her carefully messy closet randomly, although she did draw the line at the bare white apartment- as soon as he left for work, she'd run out and get supplies. She was in the process of making cute little decorative pieces to display everywhere. The furniture had been upholstered, and most importantly the walls were now a warm yellow color.

He hadn't liked that, complaining about “flowery female décor” but she knew that if it really bothered him, he wouldn't have let her get away with it.

Before he got home, she'd made dinner (soba, of course) and put fluffy pillows in the living room, and of course checked to make sure there was popcorn. Now all she had to do was propose her idea.

“So.” She said, watching him eat his noodles. “I have this movie.”

“Movie?” he asked, eyeing her unfinished noodles. She pushed the bowl towards him, too nervous to eat.

“Yeah, a friend recommended it to me. We should watch it together, don't you think? It would be...bonding.”

“Binding.” He repeated.

Tokio felt a stir if impatience. “It's either this or couple's therapy.”

“Fine. What's the movie?” He was glaring, but at least she'd wormed him into it.

“It's about these exotic dancers from different rival families who want to get married but can't.” She told him excitedly. “It's so supposed to be really well-written.”

“Porn for the masses.”

“So we're going for couple's therapy?”

Saitou gulped. He didn't scare easily, but the maniacal glint in his wife's eyes frightened him more than any of his enemies ever had.

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The next day, the four girls met in a bookstore. Drinking coffee and reading magazines, they shared the details of Bad Romantic Movie Day.

“Okay, so did everyone convince their significant other to watch the movie, despite their misgivings?” Megumi asked. “Kaoru, your idea about the microwave worked, by the way. No mustard-flavored popcorn.”

“Great.” Kaoru said, laughing at the image of Sano's face when Megumi had threatened to smash the microwave. “Yeah, I got Kenshin to watch with me. He said that the movie reminded him of a documentary about drug dealers. I feel it was more a documentary on sexual exploitation, myself.”

“I threatened Hajime with couple's therapy. He gave in.” Tokio said with a self-satisfied smile. “He was right, too- that movie was porn. And sucky porn, too. I mean, if you're going to make porn, at least do it right.”

Misao was quiet. She'd been white and blank the whole time, and hadn't said a word about anything to anyone sine they'd arrived.

“Misao, are you with us?” Kaoru asked.

“Of course! Why wouldn't I be?” Misao replied cheerfully. Megumi raised an eyebrow at her.

“Then why are you reading a men's magazine?”

“Um...um...IwenttoseeAoshiandwatchamovieandIaccidentall ytoldhimIlovedhim...andthenIranaway.” She babbled at top speed.

“What?” The other three said simultaneously.

“Wait- you accidentally told him you loved him?” Kaoru, who'd been interpreting Misao's babble since grade school, was the first to comprehend her words. Megumi was choking on her drink in the background, and Tokio was still confused.

“Yes! He asked me why I was there and then I said that when you loved someone for such a long time you couldn't just stop and then he kind of stared at me and then I ran away!” Misao burst into tears and began sobbing loudly.

Kaoru put her arms around her friend, and Megumi and Tokio joined her, paying no heed to the throngs of staring people around them, unnerved by the public spectacle.

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Meanwhile, the victims of Bad Romantic Movie Day were lurking in Sano's office. They weren't drinking but eating Chinese food that Kenshin had dragged from his car. Seated around the desk which was laid out with the food, they discussed the horrors of bad film.

“So, all of us were forced to watch weird movies?” Sano said incredulously. “Weird coincidence.”

“It's hardly coincidence, idiot.” Saitou said. He lit a cigarette, despite the no smoking sign hanging on his right in loud, fluorescent lettering. Sano grit his teeth and started to speak, but Kenshin cut him off.

“We should do something about this.”

“Like what?” Sano asked, distracted from Saitou's antagonizing.

Kenshin didn't answer, glancing at Aoshi, who was lent as usual. It took a moment before he realized what was wrong. The cup of green tea before him was full to the brim, undrunk.

“Something wrong, Aoshi?” He asked.

“Misao said that she loved me.” He replied. “When she came over with the movie.”

“What did you say to her?” Kenshin asked.

“Nothing, She ran away.”

“And you let her run away?” Sano yelled. “You idiot!” The rooster-headed man had had much experience with women (namely Megumi) running away from him in shock and/or anger.

“I couldn't stop her.” Aoshi said.

“What do you mean, you couldn't stop her? You're a soul-eating ninja!”

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When he came home that night, alter then he had anticipated, he found a box of donuts sitting n the table. Chocolate, glazed, fresh and hot donuts that smelled good. Donuts that he had definitely not bought and eaten half of. That left Yahiko, who was staying with a friend and whose guard's shift mix-up had been the source of his lateness, or Kaoru. Kaoru liked donuts, as he recalled; in fact, she seemed to nurse a fondness for sugary baked goods of an unhealthy manner.

Following a small, indiscernible trail of crumbs, he found her eating donuts in bed (he was going to have to wash those sheets or bugs would be everywhere, and h hated bugs) and watching TV.

“You would sell my soul for a cupcake, wouldn't you.” He said, amused.

“Of course not, Kenshin.” This answer surprised him; Kaoru was hardly ever sweet and nice.

“It would have to be a cupcake with icing.” She specified. “Sugary icing.”

“Forgive my grievous transgression.” He told her. “What's the occasion for the donuts?”

“I got four commissions. Four. Usuda, Kamatari, RK Photo, and RK's rival, BT Photo. I just broke the record for most commissions. And I get to go and work in Australia. For three whole months. I'm going to visit my aunt in a siren colony.” Kaoru replied, grinning hugely. “Isn't it great?”

“That's wonderful. Stop eating donuts in bed.” He took the plate of donuts away, ignoring her protests, and moved them to the dresser, out of reach.

“You're no fun.” She told him, pouting. He shrugged, sitting down next to her in bed. She grabbed his arm, using his shoulder as a pillow, and leaned on him. They watched the commercials and the food network for about an hour. Finally Kaoru grabbed the remote and turned the television off.

“Let's go for a drive.” She told him. “Come on.” She grabbed a sweater and began pulling it over her head.

Kenshin followed, noting how tense she seemed suddenly. They went down the stairs instead of taking the elevator, neither of them wanting to deal with the awkward silence it would bring. Staring down at the dark blue carpet, admiring absently the red specks decorating it, Kaoru couldn't help but second guess her split-second decision.

`What am I doing? Why am I taking him...there? You've never let anyone else see this, Kaoru, so why him?'

The answer was instinctive, coming from some wiser, deeper part of her.

Because he might be someone she could spend the rest of her life with, and no relationship would last built on lies.

They walked out of the lobby, underneath the chandeliers, and through the revolving door. Across the street was a parking complex, where their cars were parked. Kaoru went straight to her own car, climbing into the driver's seat and feeling a little better in the familiar surroundings.

They drove still silent as the moon, down a half-deserted highway and through a side road that cut through a forest. Beneath the trees, they couldn't even glimpse the sky, the glimmer of starlight darkened by the mass of branches and a thick cloud cover. It was spooky, and Kenshin took Kaoru's hand when he saw her shiver slightly.

“There.” She pointed outside, to a hut by the side of the road. “The fortune-teller lived there. I saw her every time I went up this road...” her voice quavered and she let her sentence go unfinished. He understood, surely, that she didn't want to talk about Jineh and his short career as a serial-killer.

At the end of the winding road, there was a tall, white building. The sign in front of it was large, and lettered blackly across it were the words Mayfield Moore Asylum.

At last Kenshin realized where they were. The institution where Kaoru's biological father, who had gone insane after the death of his wife, the man who he was fairly certain had been the victim of very, very powerful mind control. He knew that in long-term cases like this, there was little or no chance of repairing the damage. But despite this haunting knowledge, he still didn't know exactly why she had brought him here, in the middle of the night.

“He keeps odd hours, so he's probably still awake.” Kaoru said softly. She tugged at his hand. “Come on, isn't it a tradition to introduce your boyfriend to your father?”

She smiled weakly, but it didn't reach her eyes, and after a second she let the attempt at humor drop. Going through the double doors, they found themselves in a spacious lobby. The front desk was made of dark, polished wood, and the light fixtures were glassy and delicate looking for a medical facility. Even the woman at the desk was smiling and looking, if not quite happy to be there, not unwilling either. She recognized Kaoru immediately.

“Miss Kamiya. Your father is doing well, I hear.” The nametag on her blouse read Patience. Under her name there was the word volunteer, in red lettering.

“I'm glad to hear that. The doctor's last reports said he had a cold. This is Kenshin, Maria. He's going in with me.” Kaoru motioned to the man behind her. Maria neatly wrote their names in a guest sign-in book and checked their ID cards. Then she pointed out the appropriate ward to them and waved them off, smiling still.

“He's always getting moved around. It's...hard on the other patients, having him around. They can't get rid of him, and it's generous to isolate him, so they shuffle him around to keep anyone from getting too influenced by him.” Her voice was flat, blank and cold now. If she pretended it was someone she didn't know, she could sound perfectly calm. It wouldn't help matters any if she ha a crying breakdown now.

Her father was his room. The nurse on duty led him into a visitor room not unlike the rooms used to admit visitors in jail, wit a thick glass wall between the couple and Koshijiro. As soon as he was inside his end of the room, the nurse backed out and locked the door behind her. It seemed he was a threat even to the staff around him.

“You spawn! You devil! Die, you fiend, DIE!” Mouth foaming, the crazed man through himself against the wall, practically biting as the glass. His screaming mouth was pressed against the barrier, his hands scrabbling at it, his feet kicking it. He kept falling down and standing up to rage against the glass again.

Kaoru just stood there, watching him with sadness. She could remember a time when this man had smiled, and laughed, and loved his little girl and his beautiful wife with all he had. No, he couldn't even look at her, Daddy's little girl, without going into a animalistic temper that lasted until she got out of the hospital. Out of his sight. Even when she wasn't there to cause his outbursts, he screamed and cursed and caused a ruckus about his hell-spawn wife and daughter. He couldn't stand the sight of young, pretty girls with Kaoru's coloring. He didn't even seem to have noticed Kenshin's presence.

“He's always like this. I can't even try and talk to him; he excites himself too much and starts biting and scratching himself in his frenzy.”

“I'm sorry.” Kenshin murmured, looking carefully at the spells on Koshijiro. As he had feared, it was permanent and irreversible. There was nothing he could do to help.

“It's magic, isn't it?” Kaoru said. “I came and checked myself. I read a little on mind control like this...there's nothing I can do...?”

“No.” Kenshin said, embracing her so he wouldn't have to watch the hope flicker out and die in her eyes. “It's irreversible, unless the Order itself knows how. Once we breach their headquarters, we'll be able to find out.”

She sobbed quietly for a few minutes, then let herself be led back out of the ward by the hand. She numbly stared at Kenshin from behind, not knowing what to say. Now he knew what her father was. What would he think? She'd never, ever, brought anyone else to see this, not even her foster father. It was too painful.

Outside, Kenshin leaned on the car, letting Kaoru cry into his shoulder.

`For hurting her like his, I will never stop hunting the Order. Not until they're dead and gone from this world.'

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Short one, but there was some romance. No plot, just romantic and relationship-ish development. Hopefully this whets your appetites.

Next Chapter: How do you infiltrate a fanatical religious Order? Well, Kaoru, Misao and Tokio have an idea, but convincing their significant others to let them do it is a whole different thing...

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