by: K.C. "Kaoru-sensei" Hulsman
Special thanks to Will "Aoshi" Buacharern.
(*Author’s Note: Ok, here’s a nice sweet, sappy, yet appropriately Oniwabanshuu fanfiction for you. It roughly takes place oh..... three years after the Kyoto storyline in Rurouni Kenshin. Enjoy.)
Aoshi was seated in the middle of the wide open room enjoying his usual cup of tea after his time of meditation at a nearby temple. One used to brooding, the permanent scowl on his face, the lifelessness in his eyes was always present on his face, in all his features. But since that time Kenshin and he had faced off at Shishio’s palace, he had manage to find some inner peace, and new inner turmoils. Turmoils that tended to lead to one thing: Misao.
*He had come across Misao when she was a little girl orphaned, took her in and helped raised her. Her childish charm disappeared slowly until one day he realized she was a woman. Sometimes he wondered why she still had come after him after his sect of Oniwabanshuu was murdered, after he had turn his back on her and the rest of the clan. He tried to push her away, push her away from the pain he had endured not wanting her hurt. Yet she pursued him with her innocent heart.
(*Author's Note: This may not be right, I have two backgrounds for Misao I sued this one, when I find out which one is right, I'll correct if I need to.)
When he had returned after the destruction of Shishio’s palace, she was there with welcoming arms and welcoming tears glad to have him back. It was at that moment Aoshi realized that this was his home, and that she was no longer the little girl he helped raised.
In the months that followed both of them had matured, and they had become steadfast friends. But lately, Aoshi saw her as more than just a friend. He had begun to pull away. When things between them would get close, he would just vanish for a few weeks at a time, pissing Misao off to no end.
But he just could not stay. His walls were crumbling, and Misao could not be allowed close. He had brought nothing but pain and suffering to those he ever cared for, and he would sooner put a *sword through his stomach then ever have Misao cry one tear of pain associated with him.
(*Author’s Note: The sword through the stomach is perhaps the most traditional way of commiting suicide in Japan. Depending on the circumstances it is/was considered an honorable option.)
He glowered over his tea, the scowl on his face enough to make the tea freeze. Brooding as was his wont.
Misao....
Misao walked sprightly into the room, her hands behind her back.
“OI! Aoshi!”
Aoshi looked up from his afternoon tea.
“Hai, Misao-chan?”
“Come into town with me. Dinner and sake, my treat!”
“Misao-chan, how did you appropriate this money?”
Misao coughed a bit uneasily, then smiled broadly.
“A woman must never reveal her secrets, let’s just say I have my ways.”
The michievious glint in her eyes led Aoshi to the conclusion that she had purloined the funds from some unlucky bastard.
Aoshi was torn. Part of him wanted to go, another part told him to run away.
“Please,” spoke Misao practically standing on her toes in earnestness, “you’ve been away for so long.”
The pleading look in her eyes fell Aoshi to her charms.
“Ok, I’ll go. Cause otherwise you’d start using me for target practice with your knives.”
“Yep,” Misao showed her hand behind her back full of her patented knives, “afterall you taught me that we Oniwabanshuu have our means of getting what we wanted, and that any means is fair.”
Aoshi chuckled softly, “So I did. Seems my words come back to haunt me.”
Misao merely smiled, and waited for him to get up.
“So where are we going?”
“You will see.”
* * * * *
Where they ended up going was into the very seedy part of town. Aoshi’s eyebrows went up in a bit of shock. Sometimes Misao would go places, do things, have connections that he never dreamed this innocent creature capable of. Then again that innocence was a good disguise.
Misao led him through the backstreets with a confidence that suggested she traversed this area often. Finally, she wound her way around one last corner and stepped into the shop. She winked at the owner and nodded behind her to Aoshi.
“The usual, just double it.”
“Hai!,” replied the gruff looking owner.
Misao led Aoshi back to a corner, glared at the occupant at HER table, who with an audible gulp quickly vacated the table, and took a seat.
Aoshi just kind of followed suit in a mild sort of shock.
The owner brought over two jugs of sake, placing one with a colored handle in front of Misao, the other he handed to Aoshi. He left a bowl of rice, and returned to his post, waiting for the rest of their meal to be ready.
Misao took up her watered down sake, (thanks to a lovely prearrangment with the management of the establishment) and chugged it merrily down.
“*Itadakimasu!”
(* Author’s Note: It’s kinda like let’s eat, everyone dig in. (Aoshi: But did I spell that right? hmmm)
Aoshi sipped at his sake, and was pretty surprised.
“Potent stuff.”
Misao smiled trying to hide some of her frustration.
“I think it’s rather weak personally. Hey that’s no way to drink sake! Come on! Drink up!”
Misao guzzled down some more of the sake, Aoshi merely sat there dumbfounded.
Misao noticed he was not drinking.
“Hey come on. I’m paying for it. Drink up,” spoke Misao with her most charming smile.
“Gomenasai (sorry), I prefer to drink my sake slower and appreciate it.”
Misao was grinding her mental teeth together in frustration.
Shimata! How the hell am I going to get him drunk now? I have been planning this for weeks. I have to know how he really feels about me.
Misao started shoveling the rice into her mouth, with a ferocity, bouncing ideas off her head left and right, trying to make her plan work.
A familiar man walked by, Misao too distracted to noticed was woken out of her concentrated state by Aoshi’s voice.
“Hiko Seijuurou! How have you been?”
Hiko turned around, and beamed his macho grin at the pair.
“I have been well.”
“Why don’t you join us for some sake,” Aoshi spoke, but then with voicless words begged him to stay, voiceless words lipread and understood by Misao.
Misao refusing to allow herself to cry, stood up stiffly, and tossed a bag of money on the table.
“Enjoy your dinner. I will go somewhere where I am wanted.”
She walked past Aoshi and out of the grimy restaurant, walked brisquely till she reached the edge of town, and ran into the woods.
Aoshi sat there slightly dazed with a pained expression on his face, then got up and left, paying the owner, and said a hasty farewell to Hiko.
* * * * *
Aoshi had a hard time following her trail. She was every inch the ninja and had learned to hide her trail years ago, but as a mark of how upset she was, she left a few tell-tale signs to a trained eye that she had passed by. Despite her sloppiness, Aoshi still went around in circles at times when he had lost her trail.
Eventually, he thought he had totally lost the trail, but something made him look up. He could barely discern her amongst the branches, but it was Misao, a crying Misao.
He walked to the base of the tree, and laid his hand on the trunk. He stood there a while quiet in the last rays of the setting sun. Confused, was he, trying to figure out what he wanted to do, with what he felt was necessary.
I have to end this, I am doing nothing but hurting her.
Aoshi, pain buried deep in his heart, cleared his throat.
“Misao?” he spoke softly with tenderness and concern.
Misao raised her head ever so slightly, but she still kept her face turned away from him, then sighed.
“I am not some little girl you need to coddle. I am my own woman. If you did not want to come you did not have to.”
Aoshi glanced downwards, the brooding expression on his face returning.
“I know that you are a woman. And I do not coddle you. I am sorry Misao. I never meant to hurt your feelings. It is not wise for you to be so close to me. I am a relic from the past. You are different, you are the future, and I do nothing but hinder you.”
“Is that what you think you are? A hindrance?,” she asked urgently turning around to face him.
“Hai,” spoke Aoshi quietly, “You have your own path to lead. I am nothing but an obstruction. I will not allow myself to obstruct your path. I am sorry Misao.”
Aoshi turned sharply on his heel, and began to walk away, every step a tearing rift to his heart.
Misao was floored. She sat there in the tree in shock. The sound of an owl breaking her from her inactivity. She hopped down from the tree and ran after him.
“BAKAYAROU!,” she cried throwing her knives at him, pinning him to the tree by use of his trenchcoat.(Stupid Ass)
Aoshi swallowed hard, and looked at his predicament. He noted mildly that her knife throwing skill had improved. Not a single one of the knives had scratched him, but they did manage to rent sufficient holes and tears in the trenchcoat.
Misao ran up to him, tears falling.
“Stop it, JUST STOP IT! Stop running away, Stop Hiding.”
Aoshi looked up more shocked than he would have been had she slapped him.
Misao lowered her angry voice to a urgent one.
“You are not a hindrance. You never were.”
Aoshi faltered beneath the intensity in her eyes and turned his head away from her.
“Don’t do that,” she said as she titlted his head back up to look at him. “I can not stand it anymore.”
She gazed deep into his eyes, and with tears streaming from her eyes she leaned forward and kissed him.
Just this once... even if it is the only time. How could he ever love me?
Misao broke off the kiss, her eyes closed as she pulled away then opened her eyes back up, the tears softly falling.
“You are the best thing in my life. You are all I ever want of this world. I.... I love you.”
Misao looked fiercly into his eyes, and then her head bowed, tears flowing from her face, the hand she had used to tilt his face now fell limply to her side.
Aoshi was speechless, hell thoughtless would be more like it. He was struck dumb, a war fought inside of him without his conscious mind even aware of it. Her words had brought joy to his heart, her tears pain.
He did the only thing he could. He let his heart escape unto his face, and the gentle trickle of tears escape from his eyes.
The soft moistness of his tears hitting Misao's hand made her look up. In wondernment she lifted her hand back up to his face, gently caressing his cheek. Her own tears forgotten.
Aoshi leaned his face into her hand, a few tears gently rolling off his now not-so-brooding chin, as he even now stubbornly tried to blink them back. Misao with shaking hands began to pull the knives pinning him by way of his trenchcoat to the tree, until he was able to fall into her arms, his own arms wrapping strongly about her.
Misao was awed. In all her years, she had never once seen a tear on Aoshi's face. She merely held him, wondering what this forebode for them.
After a while of holding and being held, Aoshi began to gently tuck the stray wisps of her hair behind her ears.
Misao looked up hope shining in her eyes, yet she was prepared for the worst.
He looked down on her and smiled softly, and gently flicked away her tears. He leaned down and scooped her up in his arms, kissing her with the sweet joy in his heart.
Their kiss was sweet and tender, all the pain shared and melted away. Aoshi broke the kiss, but the smile was far broader this time.
“I love you,” he looked into her eyes a great weight lifted from his shoulders, his hand reached out to caress her hair.
Misao smiled happily, and held him close, her head resting against his chest.
“But why? Why were you trying to leave?”
For a while they just stood there in silence, Aoshi searching for the words, the words to speak the truth.
“Everything that I have ever cared for I lost. I... did not want to lose you. I was afraid.”
Misao realized how much that cost him to say, and raised her head from his shoulder and stared intently in his eyes;her arms still hanging loosely but firmly around him.
“Baka, (Idiot)” she said softly as she gently cuffed his cheek, “I have lost those I loved too. But I would rather be with you and take a chance than not be with you at all.”
Aoshi took those words in, and sighed. Then he looked down at his dream in his arm and smiled.
“I would rather be with you than without, but I will always worry. I always have.”
“I know, it is your nature. And I worry about you too. Especially how you kept just disappearing on me.”
“I’m sorry. I promise not to disappear on you again. I am to use to keeping my own thoughts and being alone. But I don’t mean to push you away. Not anymore.”
“That’s ok. If you start pushing me away I’ll give you a rude awakening with my knives,” teased Misao.
“I never doubted it,” chuckled Aoshi as he ruffled her hair.
“Let’s go home.”
“Hai, home,” spoke Aoshi as he offered out his arm to her, and helped her pick up her knives on the ground at their feet.
The two walked home together in the coming twilight, the light in Misao’s eyes brighter than any other light possibly could be. Oh things were far from over, but it was a beginning, one filled with hope and promise for the future.
End.
