[She was sitting quietly as she had been for the few hours that he had been fitfully sleeping. There was no denying she was getting really board, but there was no way she was going to let him alone like this
( ... )
[The current dream was an old one. The same one he'd been having since he had married her in December. He was in that field of white again. Always that field of white, fighting the men dressed in black, having his senses stolen from him--but now those men shifted to people had had yet to fight. A man with a cannon for an arm. A puppeteer inside a mechanical monster, and as always that far off figure with the white hair--]
[He desperately tried to make his way past them, to the person he knew lay behind them. The person they would hurt if he did nothing. The person they were going to hurt because of him...]
[Her face too shifted. Back and forth from black eyes and feathered hair to bright blue surrounded by by fringe--it was back and forth, the past and the present intermingling, threatening to repeat and repeat and repeat.]
[Always too late. Always his fault--]
[The snow was painted red, and he was still fighting to reach her, trying to make it past that sneering face with the dark glasses.]
[He lurched awake again with the shock, not quite able to sit up this time. He flailed around in confusion for several seconds, his eyes darting around in a panic as he tried to center himself in his surroundings again, until they landed on her--]
Kaoru!
[His voice came out in a worried gasp, trying to push himself up despite his protesting muscles.] Kaoru... [For a few seconds he looked half mad, fear and dread painted clearly in his eyes until he reached out and touched her, his hands confirming that she was there. She was real.]
[She was alive.]
[And then everything came flooding back on him--he was in the City. He had a fever. He had been dreaming...]
[He dropped back down onto the futon, his eyes looking haunted as he stared up at the ceiling, his right hand still clinging with a slight tremble to her arm.]
[Sano heard the sounds from the bedroom as soon as he walked in the door: faint moans, a mumble he couldn't quite make out. His first thought, well, wouldn't it have been anybody's first thought? His second thought, though, was that those didn't sound like happy noises. He hesitated. Waking Kenshin up in the middle of a bad dream, which, if that's what this was it was a hell of a nightmare - that sounded like a great way to get a sword-edge-shaped bruise on bits you needed. On the other hand, Sano was probably better suited to defend himself from that than Kenshin's brand-new fiancee. He huffed out a breath and opened the bedroom door.]
[Well, didn't look like a nightmare. Looked more like deathly sick. He muttered a couple of choice back-alley phrases and went over to check his friend's temperature with a hand to his forehead.]
[The voices in his mind and the voices in the room mingled together--though it seemed terribly odd to hear the name Hiko had given him in those dark streets. Rare to hear anything other than 'Himura' or 'Battousai.' Honestly, rare to hear either considering most fell to his blade before they could utter a response--]
[Then someone's hands were on him--how he'd let someone that close was beyond him. He startled awake, eyes wide and feverish, one hand shooting to the arm before his eyes, the other reaching for his katana at his side--which wasn't there.]
[It took a few seconds for his surroundings to sink in, as well as the identity of the person in front of him, and all but flopped back down onto his futon (not that he'd really had the strength to sit all the way up), looking fairly well irritated with himself.]
Sumanu, Sano... This unworthy one has been very confused on waking today...
[Lucky the reversed blade hadn't been anywhere near the bed, Sano thought, and let his hand fall back to his side. He fixed the redheaded ruroni with a glare somewhere between fierce and maybe-sort-of-slightly concerned.]
Yeah, I bet you have. You're burning up. There a doctor around here? 'Cause I think you ought to be seein' one.
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[He desperately tried to make his way past them, to the person he knew lay behind them. The person they would hurt if he did nothing. The person they were going to hurt because of him...]
[Her face too shifted. Back and forth from black eyes and feathered hair to bright blue surrounded by by fringe--it was back and forth, the past and the present intermingling, threatening to repeat and repeat and repeat.]
[Always too late. Always his fault--]
[The snow was painted red, and he was still fighting to reach her, trying to make it past that sneering face with the dark glasses.]
[I'm going to take her from you--why ( ... )
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Kaoru!
[His voice came out in a worried gasp, trying to push himself up despite his protesting muscles.] Kaoru... [For a few seconds he looked half mad, fear and dread painted clearly in his eyes until he reached out and touched her, his hands confirming that she was there. She was real.]
[She was alive.]
[And then everything came flooding back on him--he was in the City. He had a fever. He had been dreaming...]
[He dropped back down onto the futon, his eyes looking haunted as he stared up at the ceiling, his right hand still clinging with a slight tremble to her arm.]
Sumanu...
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Don't be.
[She was hiding her worry about what she had heard. She wasn't going to upset him while he was sick.]
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[Well, didn't look like a nightmare. Looked more like deathly sick. He muttered a couple of choice back-alley phrases and went over to check his friend's temperature with a hand to his forehead.]
Hey, Kenshin, you awake? Kenshin!
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[Then someone's hands were on him--how he'd let someone that close was beyond him. He startled awake, eyes wide and feverish, one hand shooting to the arm before his eyes, the other reaching for his katana at his side--which wasn't there.]
[It took a few seconds for his surroundings to sink in, as well as the identity of the person in front of him, and all but flopped back down onto his futon (not that he'd really had the strength to sit all the way up), looking fairly well irritated with himself.]
Sumanu, Sano... This unworthy one has been very confused on waking today...
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Yeah, I bet you have. You're burning up. There a doctor around here? 'Cause I think you ought to be seein' one.
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There's the hospital. Megumi-dono would make personal rounds while she was here. He's not sure if anyone else does that here...
Though he's not sure there's anything to really be done about this...
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