Rurouni Kenshin
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Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin:
Table: table-1


Title: .068 Smile
Characters: Kenshin/Kaoru/Kamatari
Prompt: .068 Smile
Word Count: 729
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Roommate Series
Author's Notes: Random drabble



Kaoru picked up a sushi roll with a look of utter delight on her face. “I love you right now.”

Sano scowled. “My pocket book does not love you.”

“It’s jealous because I am getting all the attention.” Kaoru responded after she had chewed and swallowed. “We haven’t had sushi in forever.”

“You need a boyfriend.”

Kaoru peaked open one eye she had closed in bliss. “Why? I just bully you into buying me expensive food.”

“I get nothing out of it. At least your boyfriend would be getting sex in return for buying you expensive food. I just have to watch you make those silly faces.” He grunted when she kicked him under the table.

“I’ll let you order Mexican this weekend.”

“Why?"

“You bought me sushi and I’m not going to be there Friday night.” Kaoru returned as she picked up another piece. “The girls wanna go dancing.”

“I invited Kenshin to join us for lunch.” Kaoru paused mid-chew to give him a speaking look. Sano held up both hands. “He hasn’t been around and he has work tonight. I thought it would be nice to say hi.”

Kaoru swallowed. “You don’t invite Katsu to join us for sushi lunch.”

“That’s because Katsu thinks it’s girly.”

“It protein,” Kaoru reminded him indignantly. “Nothing girly about sushi, and what do you mean he has work? I can’t think of a nighttime job that would hire him.”

“He is a part-time bouncer at the bar.”

Kaoru froze and gawked at him. “Katsu’s bar?”

“Yes, that bar! Do you know of any other bar we call the bar?”

Kaoru kicked him for principle. “I can’t believe you invited him to each lunch with us.” She poked her chopsticks at him. “Katsu came once and he never said it was girly.”

“I think your funny faces offended him.”

Kaoru narrowed her eyes. “You’re buying me green tea ice cream to.”

“Hey!”

“Am I interrupting something?” Kenshin’s light tenor interrupted the growing argument and Kaoru took another piece of sushi for herself. Sano shook his head, waving him to sit down.

“Nah, I was just telling Kaoru that you were a bouncer.”

Kaoru rolled her eyes heavenward and chewed faster. Sano gave her a mischievous grin that spoke of revenge for the kicking. “She didn’t believe me.”

Kenshin smiled his thanks to the waitress who brought him a glass of water and shook his head no if he wanted something else. “Yes,” he said as he broke open his own chopsticks. “I remember a similar conversation from earlier.”

Kaoru finally swallowed. “It’s not my fault you look like a strong wind could knock you over.” She protested.

Those indigo-blue eyes swept over her frame. “You’re smaller than I am.” There was something warm in his tone and Sano coughed into his napkin. Kaoru rolled her eyes.

“You still look like I can break you.”

“You know,” Sano pointed out as he dipped his sushi in the wasabi sauce. “You said you and the girls were going dancing this weekend. You should just go by the bar and see for yourself.”

Kaoru lifted a brow. “You just want to see Megumi dressed up.”

Sano shrugged innocently.

“You should come by,” Kenshin agreed. There something mischievous in his eyes that didn’t really fit the lost kitten imagine in her head.

Kaoru considered those eyes as she picked up another sushi. “I’ll make you a deal.”

“Yes?”

“You managed to get Shinomori into the bar, thus getting me out of watching Misao mope all night, and I will even dance with you.”

Those eyes flickered with sparks of yellow for a moment and then they were gone. “It’s a deal.”

Sano snorted. “What makes you think he wants to dance with you?”

“I’m probably one of only a handful of women shorter than he is,” Kaoru pointed out cheerfully. Setting her chopsticks down, she grinned at Sano. “You may buy me ice-cream now.”

"My wallet hates you."

"Suck it up and be a man. I'm merely offering you practice for what Megumi is going to force you to do. Practice makes perfect you know."

"Brat."

"Rooster. Now a broke rooster at that."

"I hate women."

"I'll tell Megumi your changing preferences."

"Arg!"

"Are you two always like this?"

"No!"

"Of course not. I'm mature."

"Like a toddler."

"Hey!"



Title: .070 Alone
Characters: Kenshin/Kaoru/Tae
Prompt: .070 Alone
Word Count: 1115
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Weapons Master Kenshin
Author's Notes: Random drabble



The kitchen was still warm from dinner. It was late enough that Kaoru felt comfortable leaving her hair down to dry as she raided the food that Tae had left out for the half a dozen individuals who regularly missed dinner due to their duties. The usual stash of cookies or sweet bread in the breadbox was for a different kind of midnight snacker. Tonight, it was a pot of soup sitting next to the kitchen fire and a half a dozen spiced muffins. There was some unspoken schedule to eating, one she had never quite picked up on, and so she usually found herself alone for dinner. By morning, the muffins would be gone and the soup pot scrapped clean. The few occasions she had eaten before bathing, she had heard voices on her way back to her bunk, but she had never stopped to see who the other delinquents were.

Dishing herself a bowl of soup and grabbing a few of the muffins, Kaoru settled on the bench closets to the fire. Gathering her hair, she tossed it behind her shoulder and hoped that it would finish drying before she finished her meal. Most of the walk was indoors, but there was that jaunt between buildings, and the air had a bite in it tonight. Slowly relaxing as she worked through her meal, she let her mind wander. Castle life had been nothing as she had expected, and almost as difficult. Still, after the chaos of the past two years, it was almost relaxing. If relaxing could be the sort of mad disasters that always seemed to occur here, and teaching adolescents how to properly defend themselves had never been easy.

The skin at the back of her neck tightened before she hunched her shoulders in a defensive reflex at the sound of the door squeaking open. Fingers tightening on the spoon, she suppressed long held instincts, barely breathing as she waited to see who was coming in. In the past three months since she had started taking her meals late, she had never seen anyone... the wet and cloaked figure stomping mud from his boots was almost painfully familiar. It wasn't so much the set of his shoulders, or the way he carried himself as much as it was the long, strangely bright red hair that the cloak couldn't quite manage to contain. Sharp, pale eyes took glanced her direction, scanning over her frozen figure before he tilted his body into a half bow before removing his cloak.

Something about the lingering smile in the corner of his well shaped mouth always made her nervous. It was as if he knew something she didn't, and was just waiting for her to catch on. Shaking off her thoughts, she worked to loosen her shoulders before he had turned back around. It probably wouldn't have done her any good, odds were he had noticed the moment he glanced at her; Sword Master Himura didn't miss much, even when he wasn't looking at you.

"Miss Kamiya, I hope you are well?"

Except, he was too damn polite to call her on her obvious nerves.

“Well enough,” Kaoru said, tucking a strand of hair that had fallen forward behind her ear. Something flickered behind those light eyes at her movement, and she stubbornly took another bite of her soup. She hadn’t spoken to the Sword Master since her interview three months ago. She had come into the castle hoping to find a position, any position… and somehow, found herself employed teaching basic sword defense to the fresh guard recruits and the occasional nobleman's son. Her ‘interview’ hadn’t really been an interview, but a match with Himura. It had been one of the more embarrassing experiences of her life. He had taken apart her defense in a matter of heartbeats. She had known the moment he had extended the match to test her defensive skills, when he had changed the application of pressure… it had been embarrassing, but whatever he had seen had been enough that she had landed a job.

The sounds of Himura clanking around as he searched for a bowl had her eyes widening and she tucked back into her soup. She didn’t rush, that might have seemed rude, and you weren’t flagrantly rude to the man who hired you. Instead, she just chewed faster and tried not to choke when he settled across from her. To her relief, he didn’t start out with immediate conversation, instead he tucked into his own bowl, and eating neatly enough to give away court training. There was always such a precise way someone who had been formally trained.

“Winter rains will be settling in soon.”

Kaoru swallowed. Lifting her eyes, she curled her bare toes when she found him watching her with those bright sparks surrounding his pupils.

“Yes.”

“Most of the students and Lords sons in your classes will be going home for the worst of the weather shift, and not returning until the rains ease.”

Kaoru nodded, scrapping her spoon around the last of her meat and vegetables at the bottom of the bowl. Winter rains. A little of the constant knot in her stomach eased at the realization that once the rains started the passes would turn to mud and slush and the danger of slides would make them impassible for weeks.

“Miss Kamiya?”

She looked up to find more gold then violet watching her. Dropping her eyes, she slid her spoon into her bowl and stood. “I should be retiring for the evening.”

Before she could stand, warm fingers curled around her wrist. Startled, her eyes s hot back up to Himura's.

"Make sure you report to Quartermaster for a set of the winter uniform and a warmer cloak." His tone was soft, fingers leaving her skin the moment he finished speaking, yet it was several seconds before she could look away. Mouth dry, she angled her shoulders forward in a show of respect, jerkily set her bowl in the sink, and fled.

Stopping only when she was far enough away even he couldn't possible sense her, she curled her cold hand around the lingering warmth on her wrists. Shivering for a moment, she jerked her shoulders back and lifted her chin. Rains. How could she have forgotten how much worse the weather was here? Placing her hand on the rail, she sped up the stairs on silent feet. The passes would be closed for at least a month, maybe more if the storms were particularly violent. Her fingers trembled as she fumbled with the lock on her room.

How much time did this buy her? By now, they would be putting the pieces together. Word would have reached them from the border that she hadn’t gone that direction, and they would turn their sights to the city. The trip would take weeks, and they would be kept away from the rains. By then maybe they would have given up...

Running trembling fingers through her bangs, she breathed deeply. She might be able to pull this off…




Title: .071 Fast
Characters: Kenshin/Kaoru/Kamatari
Prompt: .071 Fast
Word Count: 729
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Demon Kenshin, Demon Kaoru… Biting
Author's Notes: Random drabble



Kaoru ran her tongue over dry lips. She wasn’t certain what had started the fight, but she was aware of what had ended it. He wasn’t the tallest man in the room but there was something to be said about a man with his coloring and the ability to command attention. Not to mention the fact that he had somehow splattered himself with blood and it did nothing to make him less attractive.

His most startling feature (she thought this with faint surprise, because his coloring was so dramatic) was the pair of wings he had furled tightly to his back once the fight was over. They were black, starkly contrasting to his vivid red hair, and almost as long as he was tall. Rubbing her damp palms along the waist of her pants, she was certain she wasn’t the only one admiring him.

She was rather certain that she was the one he had noticed.

It was such a pity she was supposed to be somewhere else. Those eyes had held a particular sort of promise any other night she would have been interested in exploring. Her breath caught in her throat as those yellow eyes slid in her direction again, and if reading something in her expression, the corner of his mouth kicked up. Narrowing her eyes slightly, Kaoru considered him. It was possible that he might take her disappearance as a challenge. Watching the way his muscles shifted under warm skin as he moved to sheath his sword, she almost hoped he would. However, she was supposed to meet someone soon and while it was going to be a… interesting meeting of sorts, she doubted it would be as fun as the redhead.

Life wasn’t easy. Such a pity.

Slipping back into the crowd, she moved towards the front door. It only took minutes to loose herself into the maze that the underworld had become. If humans knew what lived under their feet they might not sleep nearly as well at night. Fighting the urge to smile, she allowed the shadows to lead her deeper into the heart of the city. The club she had just left was on the fringes of the gate between worlds and a popular place for minor demons and imps to harass anyone who might have wandered a little deeper than they intended.

Where Kaoru wanted to be, minor imps and demons were not only the prey, but they were hardly worth the time of the bigger fish who stalked the streets. You could always tell when you were close. The faint, lingering scent of blood permeated the air, and the air wavered as if it was just waiting for a scream to send trilling through the air.

She pitied any human who wandered this deep. There were worse things than loosing your soul. Pausing, she breathed in deeply, enjoying the tang in the air. The shadows were welcoming to her kind, not deadly, and they sang. Too bad she couldn’t play with them either. Humming lightly in her throat, Kaoru continued to penetrate into the growing darkness.

“I was wondering if you would show.”

Kaoru turned and lifted a brow at the demon standing in front of her. She supposed he was supposed to be beautiful, but he was too… much, for her taste. Clicking her tongue, Kaoru shifted her weight, smiling slightly at the taller man. “Now, you should know better. I never turn down the chance for a good fight.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’ll sing a different tune when this is finished.” Runes, the color of blood, began to glow along the lines of his body. Kaoru laughed at him.

“Now, now pet. That isn’t want you want. This is my element.” She shook her head. “I have other… pleasurable activities to attend to. I was rather hoping you were going to point me in the direction of your master.”

Her black-blade formed in her hand as she watched the ruins continue to increase in power. Silly boy.

“How delightful,” the voice surprised both demons to turn and looked at the man approaching. Kaoru lifted a brow in surprise. It was the redhead from the club, his wings in a half-furl, looking amused as he approached. “I was almost hoping for a dramatic rescue, but you seem to have things well in hand.”

Kaoru lifted a brow as sharp fangs glittered in the moonlight as he smiled. If he had tracked her this deep, then her original classification of his rank would have to be rethought. She sighed as she was forced to take a step back and deal with the idiot. He has under estimated her powers, hoping the brightness of his magic would temporarily blind her light sensitive eyes. Poor little boy. He hadn’t realized that her mother had chosen her lovers in an attempt to breed some of her kind’s natural weaknesses out of her blood.

In the end she didn’t even have to use her sword. Sighing heavily at the lack of fun, Kaoru turned and eyed the redhead. “Now, as for dealing with you,” she sheathed her sword and placed one hand on her hip. “Don’t you know it’s not nice to stalk without at least giving the girl your name?”

“A shadow demon,” his voice was thoughtful as he moved forward, his movements almost lazy as his wings flexed behind his back. “I would never have guessed, your kind tend to keep deeper to the darkness.”

Kaoru flashed him a smile, not quite relaxing her stance. “My kind? I wasn’t aware that your kind spent much time in the shadows.” She was relatively amused that each step she took he echoed, pushing her further into the alley.

His smile was sharp but he said nothing.

Kaoru clucked her tongue. “You’re not one of those men who is all talk and no fun, are you?” Perhaps she shouldn’t have taunted him, but there had been a smug set to his mouth she wanted to get rid of.

Her back hit the wall hard enough that it was going to leave bruises, but it was the hand that fisted in her pony tail, jerked her head back so his fangs could sink into her bottom lip, splitting the skin, that had her jerking in surprise. She dug her claws into his side, feeling the way he jerked, the way his wings snapped open behind him, shielding her from view if anyone had been looking.

His tongue drew lazy circles along the line of her lip, until the wounds healed. “It’s not nice to tease,” he growled, lifting his head to watch her from heavy lidded eyes. “I tend to bite.”