Imaginary

Kenshin smiled as Ayame and Suzume ran off to the Akabeko with Yahiko; each of them carrying origami swans Kenshin had helped them make.

Paper flowers

Kenshin sighed and remembered back to the times before the revolution, before he became a split-minded wonderer and samurai. He remembered back to when his parents were alive and when his mother had taught him about origami... and the special meanings behind each of the things he could make. A swan for happiness, a rose for love. A dragon to ask for romantic interests...

A single tear was allowed to slide down his cheek, but before it could touch his lips and cause them to quiver; he wiped it away and replaced his melancholy with a plastic smile.

The sun was setting, and it was time for bed. Tonight, he and Karou would be alone in the Kamiya house. He wandered back to his room and slid into bed easily, but sleep would not come. For sometime, he had not been able to sleep decently, and while normally it would not bother him, after several nights of wakeful nightmare-laden slumber, he begged for a night of peaceful rest.

After what had to have been several hours, He sighed and rolled off his futon. Sleep evaded him once again. He did not know why he wandered down the hall, but his feet stopped him at Karou's doorway.

I linger in the doorway

Of alarm clock screaming

Monsters calling my name

Let me stay

He slid the door open and peered inside a bit guiltily. Karou was there, asleep, just as he had suspected. But as he turned away from the door to leave, he heard a hushed commotion from inside. He looked over his shoulder to see Karou sit up facing him.

"I'm sorry, Karou-dono, I did not mean to disturb you." He said softly. He looked down and began to back out of the room.

"No, Kenshin, wait." She called back a bit childishly. "Please, come sit with me." She turned and lit a candle by her bed, illuminating the room and the both of them; it was with that light that she saw just how tired the Ruroni was.

"Miss, Karou, I really should just go back to my room." He said.

Karou would not let him leave with that weary look on his face. "Kenshin, please, tell me why you don't sleep at night? Is it because of the rain? I know this time of year is a bit rough on the senses." Karou wasn't going to let this go if she could help it.

Where the wind will whisper to me

Where the raindrops

As they're falling tell a story

Kenshin winced at the continuance of conversation. "Karou..." but she wouldn't let it go and he knew it. He resigned himself to her curiosity, and shut the door behind him.

"Karou-dono It is a very long tale to tell... there are things in my past... things I am not proud of... things that haunt me... For a while, this place calmed the fears in me... but recently, they have become more insistent, and... I cannot hide from my nightmares any longer..." Kenshin found himself saying more than he thought was proper for her to know.

"Kenshin, is there anything I can do?" Karou asked, genuinely worried. She had noticed his nighttime walks... though only tonight did she get the courage to confront him about them...

"The only time I am ok, Karou-dono, is when I am near you." Kenshin said and suddenly wished he were a thousand miles away... He was certain that that remark would get him slapped.

--But there was no slapping... Karou closed the distance between the two of them slowly, wrapping the samurai in her arms. She felt him go ridged, and she pulled herself back, a look of reassurance on her face.

In my field of paper flowers

And candy clouds of lullaby

I lie inside myself for hours

And watch my purple sky fly over me

"You don't have to be afraid of me, Kenshin." Karou said. She hadn't removed her arms from about his neck and shoulders. Kenshin looked her disbelievingly.

"Miss Karou, I don't think..." Kenshin tried his best to get the words out, but at the touch of her hands, all the dark haunting thoughts escaped him, and he was left in peace... He knew then that it was her that he needed to feel safe... And that thought was a forbidden one.

"I don't care what you think, I saw the look that crossed your face, and you're staying with me tonight... I'll fight off the nightmares when they come..." Karou did not realize what she was saying until she had said it... She had just asked Kenshin to sleep with her...

"Karou-dono, there are things I can't tell you... I am alright, really... I can find solace within myself, you know." Kenshin tried desperately to remove himself from Karou's grasp, but his body, so willed, would not budge.

"You're not going back to your room... If you do, you won't go alone..." Karou's gaze set on a decided glare.

Kenshin sighed and surrendered.

Don't say I'm out of touch

With the rampant chaos—you're reality

I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge

The nightmare I build my own world to escape

Kenshin allowed himself to be pulled down onto Karou's futon. He allowed her to pull him into her arms, and he found his own arms snaking their way around her waist and across her thinly covered back. "Kenshin" she spoke his name against his bare chest and he shuddered at the feel of her breath against him. All of a sudden, he became all too aware of her heat and her close proximity.

"Go to sleep, Kenshin." Karou said, burying her head in his chest, secretly loving the feel of his hard body against her own.

"I can't." He replied truthfully, though unwillingly. He clutched tightly at Karou, wanting to be nearer to her, to feel more of her; he ultimately wanted to lose himself within her...But he could not... would not tell her that...

"Why? Kenshin, you must not be afraid of talking to me." Karou said softly, pressing her self against him harder as she leaned back to look him in the face. He had to physically restrain himself from groaning. He closed his eyes and gained his composure...

In my field of paper flowers

And candy clouds of lullaby

I lie inside myself for hours

And watch my purple sky fly over me

"Karou-dono, when I am alone, I can harm none but myself... I would only have it that way. I can disappear inside myself and not have to worry about making anyone else deal with my pains." Kenshin tried to reason with her but he found his thoughts clouded and his speech redundant.

"Kenshin, that's not a good reason..." Karou started, but the look of amber flashing in his eyes caught her off guard and she let the sentence fade away. "Kenshin...what's..." but in that instant, he breathed in deeply, and shut his eyes tight. When he reopened them, they were the same, hushed, and happy purple.

"Kenshin. Please let me know the real you... please? I know that there is a Battousai hiding somewhere deep within you, and I know that sometimes it wants out. I want nothing but to be there to help you when it does want to express itself." Karou didn't know what she was saying... or what was making her say it for that matter. But that it caused him to tighten his grip even more.

"Karou." He left the honorific off and the amber glow flickered once again in his gaze... "You don't know what you're saying... That side of me... I'm dangerous." Kenshin's voice grew lower in pitch and more mysterious and dangerous in tone. Karou shivered.

"I know." Was all she said and when she did, the glow became a bright and unwavering flame and Kenshin crushed her to him and buried his face in her hair.

"You don't know. You don't know what I am capable of." Kenshin rasped in a cold and unfriendly voice.

"Then show me, Battousai." Karou breathed back and then it was all over. She knew well by then that what she had said she could not take back. But she did not want to.

Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming

Cannot cease for fear of silent nights

Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming

The goddess of imaginary light...

Kenshin lifted his head from its aforementioned burial in Karou's nape, and pressed his lips to hers in a heated kiss. Behind drawn lids, amber raged through his eyes, and through his thoughts, she wanted the Battousai, she would have him... completely.

In no time, Kenshin had disrobed the young lady in his arms, and only in the nick of time did he stop and force himself to think of her. "Karou..." there was a question in his voice.

Karou's head was spinning, she never had imagined that this night would lead to this the way it had. She knew good and well that the Ruroni would never have had the courage to do this... but somewhere in the back of her brain, she realized that Battousai HAD wanted it. Karou shuddered when she heard her name come off of his lips as heatedly as it had.

"Please...." Was the only thing Karou could think to say. She looked at him with half-lidded lust-filled eyes. "Please." She said again, though this time it was hot and heavy-laden with a deeper meaning.

The Battousai needed no further encouragement or instruction.

In my field of paper flowers

And candy clouds of lullaby

I lie inside myself for hours

And watch my purple sky fly over me

Kenshin brought Karou into his world that night. He opened the doors to the innermost part of his being and she saw everything within him... and still she did not turn away. This surprised the Ruroni who had been chained to a wall in the darkest corner and dared to try and escape... Battousai had control... and the Ruroni was surprised beyond belief that Karou could do the things she did... He was petrified that the innermost thoughts and workings of himself would scare her off or scar her good name... and yet, she seemed... pleased...

Nothing made sense... But Karou did not care. She had finally gotten to know the man she loved most intimately. And now, in the early hours of the morning, she lay in his arms listening to him sleep, for the first time in she knew at least a few weeks.

She got up at dawn, and meandered out onto the front porch to watch for Ayame and Suzume and Yahiko. Sanosuke and Megumi were scheduled to arrive sooner or later as well, she knew.

Kenshin woke to the sound of the door sliding shut. He knew that Karou would be awaiting the others... it was about time for them to return, he knew. He stood, dressed in a robe as she had, and went to join her on the porch.

Karou felt strong arms surround her waist, and a soft kiss on her shoulder. "Good morning." Came Kenshin's voice.

"Morning." She replied, just as Suzume came running through the gates. Upon seeing Kenshin and Karou in their current embrace, she stopped, Ayame crashed rather ungracefully into her dumping her armful of origami flowers all over the ground...

"Suzume!! IT WORKED!!" she cried excitedly.

"I didn't know it would work so fast..." Suzume replied a bit impressed with her artwork. Yahiko entered and half grinned half grimaced at the site... He would never live this one down... after all, he was the ONLY one at the Akabeko that disagreed to the "origami magic"...

Ayame picked what she thought the best-folded flower up from the ground and presented it reverently to Karou. "I didn't make it... Misao did." She said, blushing a little. "But we wanted you two to have one... to help you love each other..."

"Thank you very much Ayame-chan. But we have loved each other for a long time..." Kenshin answered for the both of them... his arms tightening around Karou's waist as she took the flower from the child...

"WELL IT'S ABOUT TIME!!" came a loud voice from the gate... it was Sanosuke, a hand behind his head, and a bemused smile on his face.

"Paper flowers indeed..." Karou whispered to Kenshin, smiling.

"Yes, seems origami magic works after all..." Kenshin replied and together they turned to begin the daily routines of training and washing and cooking and cleaning...

Paper flowers...

August 10, 2003

© 2003

Aleesha Posey

Author's Notes: I don't own anything... I swear....