Chapter 6: Kendou time 2

A fanfiction by Kyo

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Kenshin couldn't help but be startled when she first attacked. He had decided to spar with her. After all it was only a practice duel and he knew that of he refused, she would understand, but her pride would be hurt anyway. And he guessed that was just as bad as hurting her physically. That's why he had decided to spar with her on the silent agreement that he would only play defense, never offense. Kaoru knew she would have to be extra cunning to win the duel and make herself a worthy opponent of Kenshin.

Kenshin had been really startled when she had first attacked him. She had been so damn fast! He guessed that after almost five years of knowing him, she was bound to learn something from him, he supposed speed was that something.

He backed away seven steps before gaining some resemble of control over the situation. In the back of his mind he could distinguish the surprised gasps of his friends. The only other thing that filled his mind was the sound of wood against wood, bokkens slamming one against the other. He blocked one slash after another, each time refusing to attack, only defending himself.

Kaoru knew that she was no match for him if he decided to attack. But of course Kenshin was going to refuse attacking her. He was always protecting her. He was protective, not overly so, but protective nonetheless. He always made sure that no harm was done to her, physical or otherwise. And she appreciated that, she really did, but sometimes she became frustrated with him.

She attacked him almost mercilessly. It really did not do any difference, Kenshin knew how to take care of himself. Kenshin blocked her advances almost effortlessly.

The kids were amazed by the amount of skill and speed both possessed. However, they did notice how Kenshin refused to attack her, no matter how tight the situation he was in. Sometimes her bokken was stopped by his own only mere centimeters above his head.

Just then, after a session of blocks and dodges and attacks, they suddenly stopped, as if on mutual agreement. Neither of them dropped the fighting stance, both on alert. They were panting through their lips.

Quiet, almost hesitant claps were issued and the two contenders faced each other. Then Kaoru spoke.

"You only block."

Kenshin said nothing.

"You are supposed to attack me, too."

Kenshin still refused to talk.

"Attack me." She ordered. But she already knew that her order would go ignored.

Kenshin lowered his bokken to his side, but did not tear his gaze away from her. "You know I would never do anything to hurt you, Kaoru." He said seriously, meaning every word.

"Are you afraid?" She asked.

He hesitated, then nodded.

"Of what are you afraid?"

"Of hurting you. I . . . I would rather die than hurt you." (Every female in the room went Aw!)

"You won't hurt me. Attack me." Kaoru insisted yet again.

"No." He said firmly. It was the first time he had refused to do something Kaoru had asked him to do so directly.

Kaoru sighed, lowering her bokken too. She knew from the very beginning that the argument would led nowhere. She smiled nonetheless. She bowed as he did, before directing herself to the class.

"Okay class. Do what we just did. One plays offense, the other plays defense. Switch roles after two minutes." Kaoru sighed again and walked to the bench. From the corner of her eye she could see that the guys had already returned to what they were doing before the duel had begun. Aoshi and Misao were training kick and kunai launch in corner of the enormous dojo floor. Sano was showing off to Megumi while he taught her how to use her fists to defend herself. Yahiko was doing some swings with his shinai, while Tsubame watched him attentively.

Kaoru sat on the bench and rubbed her temples. She could feel a headache coming.Then, she felt, rather than heard, a gentle shuffle beside her. She opened her eyes only to find Kenshin looking at her with an expression she could not quite place. Was it worry? Concern? Or something else, more profound? She smiled gently at him, still rubbing her temples.

"What is it, Kenshin?" She asked in a quiet voice. Oh! It was going to be one big, bad, ugly headache.

"You are not mad at me, are you?" He asked sweetly, almost child-like. Kaoru had to smile at that. She tapped the space beside her on the bench, motioning him to take a seat. "Of course not, Kenshin. Why would I be mad at you?" She asked, even though she had a pretty good idea as to why he thought she should be mad at him.

"Because . . . I refused to fight you back there." He answered, his head bowed, as he sat next to her.

Kaoru's head tilted to one side, as if thinking of an answer. "Maybe I should be mad." She started, making Kenshin wince. "But I'm not. If it did not know you Kenshin, I would think that you think I'm too much of an incompetent to defend myself, but I know that's not the case. I'm not angry at you."

Kenshin smiled and nodded. So she did understand. He was so grateful for that, he did not know if he would be able to explain it to her if she did not. "I know you can defend yourself. You almost smashed me to pieces a couple of times back there."

She chuckled. "Yeah I guess. I thought that if I put you in a really tight situation you would have to fight me back to defend yourself. I think it didn't work." She finished, closing her eyes as she continued to rub her temples with her thumbs. She was slightly surprised when she felt the gentle press of Kenshin's fingers on the back of her neck but she did not protest to it. It was a soothing sensation, driving away her impending headache almost immediately. She sighed, relaxing against him. He smiled as he continued his ministrations, temporarily forgetting his obligations as a sensei.

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Sano chuckled when he saw the couple at the far side of the dojo. They had completely forgotten about them not being alone in the huge room. But it was okay. He would have to take over for a while. It wouldn't hurt, and Megumi could learn a few things too.

"C'mon, kitsune. Looks like the two lovebirds cannot teach their class for the moment. Let's get to them. I'll teach them some of my many amazing abilities, and you might learn something too, kitsune." Sano said with a cocky grin as she approached the sparring class. They didn't seem to have noticed that their sensei's were not paying attention to them.

"Sheah, right." Megumi answered, but followed him anyway.

Sano had to call out a few times to get everybody's attention, mainly because he did not want to shout. If he shouted, it was quite possible that Kenshin heard him, and if Kenshin heard him, there would be no more fun for him.

Sano had to admit that he really liked teaching the children, specially since they seemed to admire every single thing he did. It was quite an ego-booster, and he quite liked that.

He had made them leave their shinais and follow his every movement. Being it a kick or a punch, and they followed. He walked around them to correct their mistakes.

As for the Fox, she quite liked the idea of seeing him teach the children. It gave her the opportunity to stare at him without him actually noticing it or boosting his ego with the particular fact.

She liked the way his muscles rippled with the intensity of his kicks and she just loved his finely chiseled washboard stomach. She grinned kind of evilly. He might not know it, and she would certainly not tell him, but he was particularly delectable, specially with his slick perspiration running over his muscles like that.

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When Kaoru was snapped out of her reverie, she was almost asleep, the headache gloriously gone. Kenshin was still supporting most of her weight and his fingers still massaged her nape. Kaoru thought he was just so sweet she cold eat him. She shifted lightly when she did not heard the swishes of shinais cutting through the air, or the war cries and excited yells of little kids. She wanted to open her eyes and see what was going on, but it proved to be quite a challenge. It felt so good just to stay there, and that's exactly what she did.

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On the other corner of the dojo, another couple was spending time together. Aoshi had never been one to talk much. He was more of the kind that liked to listen, and when he talked, it was to say concise, precise things, not much rambling involved. In that sense, Misao was exactly the opposite to him. She liked to talk. She actually enjoyed it. She talked about all and nothing and was always happy and smiling.

He would be lying if he said that he didn't find her totally endearing, the way a single smile of hers could bring happiness to others. He smile was contagious and addictive, and anybody inside her range, could not help but smile. Except, maybe, for himself.

Misao indeed like to talk, but she knew how to listen too, and she also knew how to coax others to talk. They both had been trained as spies, and spied have to learn how to pull put information out of the enemy, right? In that case, she had to be the best spy there was. She could take information put of everybody. Except, maybe, Aoshi.

This reluctance of his to smile or talk to her frustrated her and angered her. It made her wonder if there was something wrong with her. That had been until the day they had talked at the sleepover, and he had admitted all those things to her and she had assured him that he was not alone anymore.

Since that day, he had been definitely more open, and even though one had to make the exact questions to take the answer one needed from him, it was still some progress. And Misao was infinitely happy and grateful for that.

Now she smiled even brighter. Now, her relationship with Aoshi was going somewhere. She knew he had some feelings for her. It was almost painfully obvious. If some boy was trying to get a date out of her, he made sure to make his presence known even before the boy had a chance to talk. When she talked about a guy, even when she was not talking to him and he heard, his jealousy was palpable, it surrounded him like some sort of aura, powerful dangerous aura.

And now, she was planning some schemes to make him confess.

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Kenshin did notice that Sano had taken over his job. But he was grateful for that. He just wanted to stay where he was, with Kaoru by his side. Besides, it was almost hour to go. Only a few more minutes and three o'clock would strike, and besides, Sano was doing a really would job teaching the kids to kick and punch. And the kids seemed to like him so there was no point on interrupting Sano and his newfound passion for teaching. Kenshin could use the break, and apparently, Kaoru could too.

He noticed with some amusement that Kaoru was almost asleep, letting him support most of her weight so she wouldn't fall backwards. He was amazed with how she could sleep over the hell of noise the kids and Sano were doing. He concluded she must have been tired. Thinking again, he was tired too . . .

He was just dozing off when Sano tapped his shoulder. It was time to go home.

"Oi! Kenshin! Wake up!" He said lightly, as not to wake up jou-chan.

"Hmmm what?" Kenshin asked sleepily, his numb mind not being able to grasp the meaning of such simple words.

"Wake up, man! It's already three. I have already dismissed the children. It's time to go home." He finished almost impatiently as Megumi joined him. Aoshi and Misao were just behind her, talking quietly.

"Oh! Yeah!" Kenshin finally reacted and proceeded to wake up Kaoru as his friends packed up their things.

"Kaoru?" He elbowed her uncertainly. "Wake up." He said gently. Kaoru murmured something incoherent in her sleep, but did not wake up.

"Wake up, Kaoru." He said a little bit more forcefully, with the same results. Then, he shook her. That woke her up.

"Huh? What? Where? When?" Kaoru said looking around and rubbing her eyes to rid them from sleep.

Kenshin chuckled. "Class is over, Kaoru. Let's go home." Kaoru smiled and nodded, finally awake.

They went to their respective dressing rooms and gathered again in the lobby of the huge building. Once they were all dressed in their normal clothes they proceeded to go out of Jounan Elementary School and to their cars. Just when they were about to reach their respective cars. Kenshin's silver Audi TT was the nearest one, followed by Megumi's red Porsche Boxster and Aoshi's black Jaguar XKR (sorry for the fancy cars, but I just couldn't resist).

Kenshin opened his car and tossed his bag inside, taking off the top in the process. But he did not step in, instead he followed Kaoru to Aoshi's car.

"Do you want me to take you, Kaoru?" He asked tentatively. Kaoru smiled up at him and replied. "Sure."

"Do you want to go home straight away? Because, you see . . . it's my turn to make dinner, so I thought maybe . . . you would like to have dinner with us?"

Kaoru smiled widely and nodded. "That would be lovely, thank you, Kenshin."

Meanwhile, just behind them, another couple was having one of their usual arguments. "I'll drive rooster-head and that's final."

"But I wan to drive, kitsune. C'mon, be nice to your boyfriend."

"I'm driving tori-atama, and if you try to drive, I'll use some of the skills you taught me to use today,"

"But Fox!"

"Besides, it's my car! And I want to drive it, so shut up, baka rooster-head."

Sano hmphed cutely and sat on the copilot seat, while Megumi pushed some buttons and took off the top. "C'mon Tsubmae-chan, step in." The girl nodded before kissing Yahiko in the cheek goodbye. Both blushed and Tsubmane stepped in to hide her blush.

At the same time, Misao was talking into her cell phone with her brother. "But Sou-chan! I did not bring my car, you were supposed to pick me up today, remember? Now I'll have to walk. I'm gonna pin you to the wall when you arrive for this!" Misao near screamed. She stopped complaining to Soujiro in the phone, though, when she felt gentle hand on her shoulder.

"I'll take you, Misao. Don't worry." At first, Misao was really surprised with this, but then she smiled. "Thank you Aoshi. That's so nice of you." Aoshi just nodded, only the hint of a smile on his lips.

"It's okay, Sou-chan. Aoshi'll take me. That doesn't mean I'll not pin you to the wall, understood?" She threatened and then hung up quite abruptly.

"Aoshi-nii!" Kaoru called, already inside Kenshin's car. "I'll not come over for dinner. Behave while I'm gone, okay?" She said with a smile.

"Yeah, whatever, busu." Yahiko commented. He didn't even see the pen that it him right between the eyes. Yahiko fell over his back, landing unconscious on the small space between the two seats of Aoshi's Jaguar.

Once everybody was comfortably accommodated on their seats, they took off to their respective places.

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"Tadaima!" Kenshin called as he opened the door of his apartment. He figured Hiko would have already arrived and would be complaining about him being late, lazy and being a baka deshi. He just hoped he wouldn't embarrass him in front of Kaoru. He didn't think he would be able to live with that if it ever happened.

"Okaerinasai, baka deshi. It was about damn time you came home." Hiko said grumpily. He was about to say something else, but stopped short when he saw that Kaoru was just behind him. "Hello, Kaoru-san. Good to see you again."

"Ohayou, Hiko-san. Is good to see you again, too."

"Come in, Kaoru." Kenshin coaxed with a smile as he opened the door for her. She entered happily, her bags in her hands. Other reason that she had accepted his offer was that they had to make a project together. She left her bags on Kenshin's room and prepared for an exciting afternoon on the Hiko household.

Things were always interesting here.

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