RK fic: Just What I Need ch.
Notes: Hello again, all. Thanks so much for your feedback. I feel so honored. - Lauri feels all warm and fuzzy inside! (hugs self) So, as promised, here’s the next chapter. I hope it lives up to you guys’ expectations, because the last chapter for me really sucked. I want this one to make up for it.
Reviewer’s thanks will come at the bottom.
Thank you all again for reading! This is my most popular RK fic so far, and I’m not giving up! (grips pen determinedly)
Warnings: Kenshin lapses into the past. Poor Kenshin.
OH, AND BLARG. I wrote the last chapter on a laptop, so my little lines (--- ) for breaks were converted into nothing. Sorry about that, guys. Hope it didn’t confuse any of you.
DOUBLE BLARG. I’ve seriously been hit by a writer’s block in this chapter. I’m sorry if it sucks.
Just What I Need
Lily the Frog Princess
Part Seven: House of Memory
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Hiko had always approved of me getting married to Mint, even though he didn’t show it. I remember the first time he’d met her, when we were eighteen. He had been more couth with her than anyone I remembered, and didn’t bark at her like he did me. However, when I proposed the idea of marriage at nineteen, he had a few choice words to yell at me. He made Mint wait in the other room, and dragged me into the bedroom by one big fist.
“Kenshin, did I raise a moron or what?” he complained, pacing the room roughly as he continued to glare at me. “What do you think you’re doing, proposing to a girl you probably just have a childhood crush on?”
So he thought it was a crush? It was my turn to glower. “I love her,” I told him firmly. “I know I do. You have no right to judge my feelings.”
“I have every right!” he roared back. “You’re my son, dammit.”
“I am not your son,” I bit back angrily.
“I am your legal gaurdian! I’m just trying to do what’s right for you, Kenshin. But like usual, you never take it to heart. You’re as thick-headed as your mother was.”
I frowned and perched myself on the edge of the bed, waiting for him to continue. “You won’t be able to provide for her, boy. You don’t have any money. What are you planning to do, be an x-ray technician? For someone your age, supporting a family is a no.”
“I’m going to school for her,” I told him. “I know I can be a strong person in the science field. Maybe I’ll be a teacher or something, I know what I’m doing, uncle!”
“You think you can just be whatever the hell you want?” Hiko snapped back. “You know the world doesn’t work like that, or did I truly raise an idiot for a son.”
“You don’t understand!” I snapped bitterly. I had always been serious about my studies. Why wouldn’t he take me seriously now?
He was about to roar something back at me when there came a small voice at the door. “Um...excuse me....if I’m....interrupting.”
It was Mint. She was standing in the doorway, her hands folded nervously in front of her, her head bowed. I bit my lip and started to go to her, but she stopped me with a look. Brushing her dark hair back confidently, she marched up to Hiko, who was staring at her with a perplexed expression on his face.
“Mr. Hiko, I know you don’t approve of Kenshin and I marrying so early, but he isn’t the only one trying to support us as a family, you know. I am training to be a nurse, and I should be through with medical school on a few years. We don’t need a lot to get by. I promise, I’ll try to take care of him, and I know he’ll take care of me, too.” She was really the only one who could talk to my uncle, and she was the only one he would really listen to.
Hiko sighed, and sat down wearily in a chair near the corner. “I’m talking to Miss Sarah about this.” Sarah was a good friend of his, and I knew he liked her, even if he wouldn’t admit it. “She’ll know what to do about it. For now, I’m too flustered to talk to you, Kenshin. Take the girl home. I’m going out.” He left the room, and I knew he’d probably meet Sarah for a drink or something.
Once the door slammed shut, I looked at Mint. Her dark eyes were shining at me in the darkness of the room. Biting my lip again, I reached for her hand. “I don’t care what he has to say,” I told her. “He can’t run my life anymore. We’ll get married anyway, and soon enough, he’ll see that we’re right.”
“You never try seeing things from other people’s point of view,” Mint scolded softly. “He made sense, if you looked at it his way. I love you, Kenshin, and I do want to get married...but I don’t want anyone upset with me.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said fiercely, and pulled her into a tight embrace. “He can’t order me around. Anyway, forget about him for now. I’ll take you home. It’s getting pretty late.”
When we stepped out of the house, Enishi was there, leaning against the side of his silver car, waiting for us.
Waiting for me.
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I wanted to see Kenji again, I really did. Something about him, ever since I’d met him, intrigued me. I’d had dealings with guys like him before, and I was just curious. My curiousity got me in trouble sometimes, and I would never guess that it would get me in trouble with Kenshin.
He agreed to let me visit, that day after work. He promised to drive me, so I found myself in his neat little truck, kept clean and free of any weird smells. A car freshener hung from the mirror, in fact, filling the car with a strange sandalwood scent. The rest of the car was tidy, a few papers tucked into the backs of the seat pockets and some tickets of some sort on the dashboard. Kenshin impressed me; he was very clean, for a guy. Not that I was stereotyping or anything.
His driving was a mix. Sometimes he would go nice and easy, maneuvering the wheel with care and expertise. Other times, he would wildly swerve or floor the gas pedal suddenly. It confused me, and I wondered if any of the papers resting on the dashboard were speeding tickets.
I decided to make light conversation as we drove.
“How old are you, Mr. Himura?” I asked cheerfully, releasing my death grip on my seatbelt after another wild turn.
He gave me an odd look, then switched his gaze back to the road as he answered. “I’m thirty-five.”
“Are you really?” I exclaimed. “Well, I suppose it’s to be expected. Your son’s a teenager, after all.”
“Hmm,” he nodded.
“You sure look young.”
“I get that a lot. The way people comment on it, you’d think it was a bad thing.”
“I don’t think so,” I said, fiddling with my beltbuckle.
“You look young too, Miss Kamiya,” he noted. “My uncle has already told me that you are twenty-five, though. You are young, to have a job at his company. In fact, you don’t look much over seventeen.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said dryly, folding my arms and sitting back in my seat. Yes, I got that a lot too. I had always looked a little younger than I actually was because of my round face and large eyes. I didn’t like it, but I got nice compliments from it sometimes.
“It’s not meant to be taken as an insult,” he amended, taking another, more- controlled turn down a steep street. “Don’t worry about it. It probably earns you a lot of attention, and that’s always a good thing.”
“Not always,” I murmured, staring out the window. If he heard me, he said nothing, merely drove to the end of the hill and turned again, parking the car on the driveway of the first street on the right. I stared up at his house curiously.
It was one-story, brick, with dark blue shudders on the windows. The shutters were open, but the blinds on all the windows were down, giving the house a closed-off appearance. A wind vane in the shape of a dragon was on top of the roof, spinning faintly in the light wind, and the hedges that lined the house were neatly trimmed, along with the grass. I noticed no weeds.
He was fumbling with the keys to the door, and I followed him to the front porch self-consciously. I couldn’t remember the last time I had gone to a man’s house....But what, was I going to fret over it? Goodness, sometimes I felt like I was thirteen.
When finally Kenshin found the right key, the door opened and I was greeted by the warm smell of his house---something of the sandalwood from the car and food. It smelled nice. The main hallway opened up into a living room on the left, and a dining room to the left. Just ahead was the kitchen, and branching off from that was another hallway that I supposed led to the bedrooms.
Kenshin offered to take my things politely, and he hung my purse and windbreaker on a coat rack right next to the door. He took off his own trenchcoat and hung it, then turned to me. “Please take a seat if you wish, Miss Kamiya. I’ll fix some tea for you.” Then he was off to the kitchen without a word, leaving me to look around.
The house was very well kept, I noted as I wandered into the living room. It consisted of navy blue couches, a long one and a short one, a chair of the same color, and a glass coffee table in front of it, holding a few pictures and a flowery centerpiece. Idly, I picked up one of the pictures and stared at it. No doubt it had to be Kenji, I could tell from the darker eyes and hair. He looked about five in the picture, dressed up like a pumpkin for Halloween. Next to him stood Kenshin, smiling at the camera, his hand on Kenji’s shoulder. He looked quite a bit younger and somehow more carefree. I smiled and set the picture down again.
More of Kenji lined the walls, and there were a few more of Kenshin, but I couldn’t spy the woman of the house. It must be a divorce, I thought. Even if she had died he wouldn’t get rid of her photos...would he?
I decided a man like Kenshin wouldn’t do that.
Carefully, I perched myself on the very edge of the long couch, crossing my legs and placing my hands on my lap. I waited until Kenshin came out with two steaming mugs of tea, wearing fuzzy blue bedroom slippers instead of his shoes. He sat one mug in front of me, and sat opposite me on the short couch.
“I like the pictures you have around, Mr. Himura,” I told him, gesturing vaguely at the ones on the wall. “Kenji was a very cute little kid.”
Kenshin smiled faintly. “If only he were still as well behaved,” he replied, setting his tea down. He did not drink any, so I didn’t either.
“Um, I couldn’t help but notice you have none of your wife around,” I started to say uneasily, looking down. “Did you guys divorce, or something?”
There was a very long silence, and I looked up. Kenshin was staring at me oddly, a mixture of pain and horror written on his face. I suddenly realized I was nosing into his life again. I always did that to people. It was a bad habit I needed to break.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized softly. “I didn’t mean to pry. You don’t have to answer that...”
“She’s dead,” Kenshin said shortly. I blinked. Had I heard that right?
Seeing my blank look, Kenshin lowered his head, staring at his hands. “...Dead?” I repeated, fearfully, my voice a whisper. I felt terrible. The pain he still felt was written clearly in his eyes. “....I’m so sorry for asking....”
“It’s all right,” he said, getting up. “You didn’t know. And besides, apologizing isn’t going to do anything.” He faced the window for a moment, then padded over to the hall near the kitchen. “Kenji!” he called.
I could hear a TV, turned up loud, from down in that direction. It lowered suddenly, and an irritable voice called back. “What?”
“Would you come out here please?”
There was no answer, but presuming his son would join us, Kenshin walked back over and sat across from me again, staring at his still-full cup of tea. After a momet, Kenji came stomping out. Today, he wore a faded Ramones t-shirt with ripped jeans, and a few black bracelets. (They were the kind that, if someone broke them, you belonged to that person, or some such nonsense. I didn’t really know much about them.) His hair was tied high on his head again, but sloppily. A few pieces hung over his ears and eyes. His eyes widened to see me, and then he scowled. “What’s she doing here?”
Kenshin’s words from earlier that week, about how Kenji was fond of me, came bouncing back. He sure didn’t sound like he was pleased to see me.
“She is here to see you,” Kenshin replied, not seeming to be pleased with the boy’s attitude. I looked at Kenji brightly, hoping he would return the smile.
He didn’t.
“Why does she want to see me?” he inquired of his father, idly sweeping the hair away from his face.
“Why don’t you ask her?” Kenshin suggested. “I’ll be reading---call me if you need anything. Why don’t you take Miss Kamiya outside? I’m sure she’d prefer to get some air.”
He started to get up. “Dad,” Kenji started. “I don’t want to....”
“I don’t care. Do it anyway.” With that, Kenshin walked off, leaving me alone with Kenji. I gulped. Why did he leave? I suddenly felt very nervous, and I was talking to a child!
Kenji scuffed at the rug with his foot. “Miss Kamiya, was it?” he asked, under his breath.
“Yes,” I replied, standing up. “It’s nice to see you again, Kenji.”
“What did you want to talk to me about?” he asked, his hands in his pockets. I could tell he was uneasy. I smiled, brushing my hair back as I watched him. He was cute, in a little-boy sort of way. He definitely took after his father. He was almost a spitting image of Kenshin, but I noticed his hair was a darker red, and his eyes were more blue than purple.
“Um...” I paused. Not the truth. Not just yet. “...Things,” I said finally. “I’m a friend of your dad’s now, and since he took me to visit, I thought I’d get to know you too.”
Kenji seemed a little irked, but didn’t say anything, sighing. “Well, come on outside,” he said instead, gesturing for me to follow him. I did, happily, into the kitchen. There, he paused to get a bottle of pop out of the fridge, meanwhile offering me one, but I declined. Shrugging, he popped the top and took a long swallow. I hear the gulping sounds as he did so. Then he turned and oushed on the screen door, holding it open for me to come into the yard with him. I did, taking a look around.
Unlike most of the house, the backyard was messier. The grass was a little overgrown, and a cracked and overturned birdbath rested against the fence. There was a moldy old picnic table and a lively flower bed, though most likely the flower bed was the only lively thing. Kenji took us over to a swing that one would normally put on a porch, and sat down. I cautiously sat down beside him.
“This was my mother’s favorite place to go to,” he said absently, swinging back and forth a little. I followed the motion.
“Your mother....”
“She’s gone,” he said. “Died when I was really little. In a fire.”
“A fire?” Kenshin had failed to mention that.
“Yeah. It was at our house, the first one we moved into. It caught fire one day. I don’t remember how or why, because I was only about three, and dad won’t tell me anything. I can still remember mom though.”
I stared at him for a moment, his eyes averted as they studied the dirt under his feet. “Your...mother was....?”
“I was closer to her than to dad, if that’s what you mean. He doesn’t ever mention her anymore, and he won’t show me any of her pictures. He won’t even take me to her grave. It’s like he doesn’t even miss her.”
“I’m sure he does,” I told him softly, remembering the pain in Kenshin’s eyes.
“No, he doesn’t.” The boy’s tone was flat, and I couldn’t very well argue since I didn’t know the story. I shouldn’t ask for any more information. After all, Kenshin didn’t see me as a friend yet.
I looked out at the yard, shivering in the cool air and wishing I hadn’t left my coat inside. Kenji, in his t-shirt, didn’t seem to mind it at all.
“I miss her,” he said suddenly, and my attention snapped back to him. “I miss her a lot. She’s so much more understanding, so much easier to deal with...It’s almost as if dad doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s so....cold. And he’s depressed a lot too. It gets irritating after awhile.”
“Do you know why he’s irritated?” I asked.
“No.”
He was silent again for a moment, and then he continued. “I like you, Miss Kamiya...”
“Hmm?” I could hardly believe my ears.
“I like you...” he repeated, looking a little embarassed. “You’re kinder than dad. I’ve liked you ever since I first ran into you. You cared for my bee sting, when I couldb’t find dad....” He trailed off.
So Kenshin had been right. I was stunned.
“How is your bee sting?” I wondered. I’d meant to ask about it before.
He lifted up his shirt, where I could see a tiny spot where the sting had been. “Almost gone,” he said. “It wasn’t all that bad of a sting anyway.”
I nodded, some part of me glad about his confession. “Thanks, Kenji....”
“Huh?” It was his turn to look up.
I ruffled his hair playfully. “I like you too, kid.” He ducked away, but I thought I saw a tiny smile on his face, and grinned in triumph.
Point for Kaoru Kamiya!
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Kenshin invited me to stay for dinner. It was nearing the eating hour anyway, and my stomach was protesting its complaints. I glared angrily at it when it decided to growl at me in the silence, and Kenshin chuckled, saying it would be all right if I ate with them. He went off into the kitchen to fix the meal, and Kenji disappeared into his room again, leaving me all alone. I actually was bored just sitting there on the couch, the clock ticking the time away, so I hopped up and joined him in the kitchen.
He seemed surprised. “Miss Kamiya, do you need anything?”
“No,” I replied, folding my hands behind my back. “No, I don’t need anything....I just didn’t want to sit out there all alone.”
“Kenji didn’t stay with you?”
“No.”
Kenshin frowned, then grinned at me. “Well then, I’m sorry for leaving you out there. You can stay in here if you want.”
I nodded, walking over to where he was stirring some sort of noodle in the pot. Spaghetti, I believe. It was steaming nicely and already smelled good. “Can I help?” I asked, innocently enough. I wasn’t a true genius when it came to cooking, but I felt like trying. He glanced at me curiously, but I only grinned. He sighed and shook his head slowly.
“Spaghetti isn’t that hard to make, Miss Kamiya. I think I can manage on my own,” he said, his arm moving the large spoon carefully around and around in the pot. I poked out my lower lip.
“Okay, sorry if I bothered you.” I leaned against the counter, folding my arms over my stomach. It wasn’t long before I felt a small twinge there, though a little lower, and sighed.
“Can you please tell me where the restroom is?” I asked Kenshin.
“Down the hall, second door on the right,” he replied, never taking his eyes off the boiling spaghetti. I thanked him, and set off in the direction he had given me.
The bathroom was spacious, clean like the rest of the house, with white- tiled walls and sweet-smelling soap resting near the sinks. Fluffy blue towels hung from silver racks, although the tub looked like it could use a good scrubbing. I could see mildew beginning to form there.
I freshened up a bit, splashing my face with some cool water. For some reason, it was really hot in Kenshin’s house, and I wondered if he had the AC running. Did he even have AC? I was just re-doing my ponytail when the door swung open.
Startled, I turned and saw Kenji standing there, one hand on the doorknob, staring at me oddly. Slowly, a blush crept up to his cheeks, and he muttered, “Sorry,” before shutting the door again hastily. I ran over and yanked it open again, calling down the hall to him.
“Kenji! Wait!”
He had already disappeared somewhere. Looking down at the carpeted floor, I saw he had dropped something in his haste. I stooped down to pick it up.
It was a charm bracelet, a silver one. There weren’t a lot of charms on there: a book, a diploma, a dolphin, a heart, and what appeared to be the letter T. Curious, I carried it back into the kitchen with me. Kenshin was still stirring the spaghetti.
“Um, Kenji dropped this,” I said, showing it to him. “Do you know where he went? I want to give it back....”
I trailed off as all the blood seemed to drain from Kenshin’s face. He stared dumbly down at the bracelet, as if it were the most horrendous thing he had ever set his eyes on. I watched the different emotions chase their way across his face.
“W...Where did he find it...” he blurted, softly. I frowned.
“Mr. Himura, are you okay?”
He blinked. “Yeah....yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it, Miss Kamiya. I’ll give it back to him.” With that, Kenshin slipped the small trinket into his pocket and urged me to wait in the dining room for him.
Dinner was a quiet ordeal. I noticed that when he called Kenji to eat, Kenshin glared mightily at his son, and Kenji seemed clueless as to why. He didn’t give the bracelet back, either, like he had said he would. We talked about the most ordinary things in the world, nothing that really mattered, though mostly we sat in silence. Sometimes the only sound were our forks as they clinked against the plates. Kenji excused himself early, and shut himself in his room down the hall.
Kenshin told me I didn’t need to help him with the cleanup, and he ushered me out almost rudely. His house wasn’t that far from mine, so I walked, calling over my shoulder as I went down the steps.
“Goodnight, Mr. Himura.”
“Goodnight, Miss Kamiya.” He didn’t wave like I did, and didn’t wait until I was out of sight to shut the door. As I shoved my hands in my pockets, as it had gotten a little colder, I wondered why on earth he seemed so distant and sad.
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Whew. That’s it for this chapter. I have an updating schedule now, just so you guys won’t have to guess on when I update. A new chapter shall hopefully come out every Saturday. That means this Saturday too, as most of chapter 8 has already been written. To the reviewers, thanks so much, and I’ll have detailed responses next chapter. Until then, ja!
Next: Some new information on Kenshin’s past, and we find out who Mint is. See you on Saturday!
Notes: This chapter was actually written right after five---for some reason, I just wanted to write it. It’s somewhat of a bonus chapter--- nothing but Kenshin’s memories. Kind of fun to write, really. I hope this is amusing to some of you guys. It sure was amusing to me.
Warnings: Saito smoking, Hiko ragging, random snappy stuff between Kenshin and a certain other.
Disclaimer: This is wasting my life away. I doubt anyone even READS the disclaimers. Oh, well. If it’s there, it means I own nothing. I do, however, own Hope and Unity. Mwahahahahahaha.