Author's notes: They're not mine, blah, blah, blah... hate red-tape.
Morning was fading away and Kenshin had just finished prepareing luch, but neither Yahiko nor Sanosuke had showed up to have their meals yet. Sitting down by the rurouni's side, Kaoru seemed quizzical.
"Hm... the dojo is still today... nobody's there but the two of us..." she suddenly crawled closer to him, as if she had just taken notice of what the weight of her word was. Before Kenshin could realize her mischievous smile at him and bug his eyes -and he'd surely have done so- Sanosuke's intruding voice came out of time like a firefly. "Hey there! 'm comin' in!"
Kaoru pulled herself back annoyed and waited to see the spiky-haired prizefighter breaking through the door.
"Hm! 'think I'm on time for lunch!"
"You are ALWAYS on time for food." Kaoru groaned. "It's only thing you were ever on time for."
"Eh, leh-leh... She's p'ssed off..." Sanosuke clasped a piece of fish. "Wha' did ya do to leave'er this way, Kenshin buddy?"
"Eh... hehehe, sessha cooked the meal." He answered smiling, placing himself between the Rooster and the Racoon, in order to prevent them from having a battle. Their animalistic auras raised from their skin as they faced each other, Kaoru with a glare that scarred the poor red-haired slasher. "Eh... uh... Sano, did you see Yahiko-kun around?"
"Yeah." Sano sat, out-of-the-blue, breaking the tension of that would-be argue. "He's creeping sneakly form Akabeko."
"Creeping?" Kaoru frowned. "Why?"
"Dunno." He said among loud chompings.
This very moment Kaoru heard footsteps from behind the building. She fetched her boken and rushed to see who it was. The two men followed her, trying to reach her quick and wide steps, but she got very far ahed from them. "Who's there? Gaaaahhh!" they could her her asking and attacking at the same time.
When Sano and Kenshin got outdoors they could only see Yahiko poured on the ground, curly eyes and a knob on the top of his head. Kaoru was by his side, trying to put him up and babbling something like "I didn't see it was you..." Back to consciousness from that attack -hey, she's a woman but she's rather strong!- he raised himself quickly and ran to indoors, looking as if he was going to topple over, due to his arched position, hand in front of his hips as if he was hiding something. Kaoru, Kenshin and Sanosuke stood there, turning their ruffled gaze from one's face to the other's.
^_^x
The whole afternoon Yahiko kept locked into the bathroom's small house. Kaoru spent all this time thinking curiously, yet annoyed, about this reaction while she did the chores around the dojo. "What on earth coul he be doing soooo long in there?" The blue sky started mauving, announcing that there must have been still an hour and a half before the sunset. "Not possible! He's been locked in the bathroom for five hours!"
Moved by anger and curiosity she wore her kendo clothes, got her boken and whacked the wooden door. "Yahiko! It's time to have some training! Come on, get out of there, lazy brat!" While she kept on knocking, Yahiko suddenly showed up by the door, benting a little, holding his shinai in front of him -it pointed to the ground- , it's tsuba at the height of his hips. He had that look as if he had done something wrong -like a cat that had shattered a pot of melasses- and Kaoru obviously realised it.
"Is anything wrong, Yahiko?" she frowned, suspicious.
"Not realy." He faltered.
"Alright..." she turned her back to him, heading to the dojo, yet a bit suspicious. "Let's have our class then." Yahiko followed her, yet on the position he was, arched back, sword in front of his hips, wakling slowly with short and succeeding steps.
They got to the training place. Yahiko stood near the door, Kaoru led to the other side of the room, clinging the tsuka firmly, on guard for the Kamyia Kasshin. Yahiko stood the way he was. "Yahiko, get on guard!" The boy didn't move an inch, just satred at his mistress. "Come on, Yahiko! You can't fight anybody in such a position, not even in Kamyia Kasshin!" Yahiko went on satring at her, then sighed and brought his shinai's kissaki up and kept its tsuba at the height of his hips, as if hiding something between his legs, what made him arch even more. This time Sanosuke entered the room tiptoeing and sat behind Kaoru to watch the training.
"Yahiko, the position! Straight you back!"
He made no movement.
"Yahiko, I'm not in the mood for jokes, it's not the apropriate time. Get erect NOW!"
Once again the boy sighed, obeying the mistress. When his shinai quit blocking Kaoru's sight of his hakama, she could realize why Yahiko didn't want to get on guard: there was a huge knoby protusion showing from inside his clothing on the line of his hips, right in the center. Kaoru bugged her eyes and blushed violently.
"Eh, Kaoru... 't seems that he was already... erect..." Sanosuke derided, among muffled chuckles.
"Shut up, Sano!" she screeched, turning her head violently and glaring the fighter. Then, looking back to her apprentice, she told him off. "And you, Yahiko! What does it mean?"
"Aaaaawwwhh... don't pretend ya donno what it is..." Sanosuke again laughed, ironically.
"Nex time you open this big bazoo I'll make you swallow my boken!"
"'t must taste better than yoah meals..." he mumbled, just before recieving a strong Kamyia Kasshin attack on his head. "Ouch!"
"Now back to our conversation, Yahiko." She looked at him with a meddley of anger and shame on her eyes.
"I... I meant to tell you..."
"NO! I mean..." she tried to fix her overreaction -"He's becoming a man, Kaoru. He's starting to find out his body. Hold your horses.", she thought-, then sighed and went on, softer-voiced. "Well, I don't want to see this... scene again, OK?"
"A-alright... It'll vanish just now, I promise..." he said, leading his hands to the bulge, one from outside his hakama, the other one inside.
"STOP!!!!!!!" Kaoru yelled. "Don't you dare to do it here!"
"Why?"
"It's because I'm here! Well, let's talk to Megumi-dono. She's a doctor, she can explain this kind of things better than I do..."
"See Megumi-dono? A doctor? But it doesn't hurt!"
Kaoru got red as fireworks, as Yahiko stared at her quizzically and Sanosuke rolled on the floor, laughing loudly.
^_^x
Megumi had no serious patients that day. At that very moment she was bounding Tae's hand that was injured with a knife when she was preparing a piece of fish at Akabeko. She insisted that the wound wasn't so serious to come and bother Megumi-dono, but Tsubame-chan got so nervous with all that blood that she wouldn't feel ready and calm to get back to work before Tae got any kind of aid and, oh! what an useless worry of hers... This way she convinced the woman to go to Genzai-sensei's clinic and fix her injured hand.
"Tae, it was a bad wound."
"I'm used to it, Megumi-san! It's Tsubame's overreaction! She knows it happens all the time!"
"But it shouldn't! And thank that tinny smart girl! If it weren't for her persistence you would keep your ground and this injury could get worse. You could have had an infecction." She finished boundaging Tae's hand then turned to the firghtened Tsubame, hiding at the door. "Hey, Tsubame-chan, come here."
The girl got closer in small and hesitant steps. Megumi was telling her what to do with Tae -and what to look after about, confirming Tae was doing everything alright- when a hustle-and-bustle was heard from outdoors. Less than a minute after, Yahiko, Kaoru and Sanosuke had already broken noisily in the clinic, the boy hiding behind his mistress.
"Hey, can you please be silent?" Megumi raised herself, reprehending her friends. "It's a clinic! There are sick people here!"
"Uh, sorry, Megumi-dono..." Kaoru rubbed the back of her head, just like Kenshin did sometimes -obviously not with that lovely smile. "We have a problem. And I must say it's a BIG problem."
"Alright. What is it? Did this vagabond break the hand again?"
"No, if it was Sano I wouldn't have left my dojo to come here, just to keep him company."
Sanosuke looked really careless this time.
"Then what is it?"
"Uh... It's Yahiko..."
"What's the problem with him?"
"Show her your problem, Yahiko." She turned her back and looked to the boy.
He stepped aside so as Megumi could see him. Kaoru pointed at the great bulge on his hakama, then Megumi buged her eyes in astonishment. Tsubame hid her face behind her apron.
"Ya-Ya-Yahiko!" the doctor stuttered while looking to his "problem". "It's kind of.... big!"
"Megumi!" Kaoru screeched. "No time for prizing him now!"
"Well, what do you want me to do then?"
"You are supposed to know what to do! You are the doctor!"
"Well, I have nothing to do about... it!"
"Uh, girls..." Sanosuke interrupted them. " 'think yoah makin' a fuss 'bout it... 't's normal! He's a boy!"
"It's exactely because he's JUST a boy that I brought him here, so that Megumi can explain him... things."
"'t seems he doesn't need any explanation, girls..."
"Awh, for sure he does!" Kaoru yelled in reaction. "At least a moralistic one!"
"Okay, Kaoru! But YOU ate his mistress, not me!"
"But you are the doctor!"
Kaoru and Megumi intended to fight some more hours, but Tae interrupted them. "Hey, stop this! This way he'll think he's doing something wrong!"
The five of the people who were in the room -Yahiko, Kaoru, Sanosuke, Megumi and Tsubame- looked at Tae as she approached to the boy and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Yahiko, it's normal. You don't have to be ashamed. But you can't show up to everybody with this... uh... a-hem... I mean..." Tae cleared her throat and pointed to his bulge.
"I told Kaoru I'd make it desapear. It's so simple!" he once again placed one hand on his hakama, on the protusion, the other crawling under his clothing.
"NO! STOP!" Megumi held his arms while Tae flushed a little. "Not at the clinic!" And again the poor Tsubame tried to hide behind her apron.
"Uh... why? Are you affraid of it?"
"A-Af-Afraid????" she stuttered in amazement, mirroring all the other women's inner reaction.
"It won't hurt you, I'm sure!"
"WHAT?" the doctor boxed Yahiko's ears.
"Hey, boy..." Sanosuke came closer. "Yoah not that much, 'kay? Ya don' even know how to hurt anyone with it!"
"Sure, it's got no poison!" he said innocently.
"Ah, but there's something that's more dangerous than poison..." Megumi chuckled.
"And I can't control it. It wouldn't hurt you even if I wanted to."
"Shhhh... Don' tell all the details..." Sano shushed.
"But it's true! Look, it moves without me wanting so!" then he pointed to the bulge on his hakama: his "problem" was moving. Tsubame hid once again, this time not to allow them to see she was ashamed of what she was seeing.
"Hey! It moves!" Kaoru blushed.
"Sanosuke, do you know how to move it? You never did this to me!" Megumi made the rooster get blushed for the first time in his life.
"Awh, sure it moves! It's not dead!" Yahiko put both hands inside his hakama.
"Yahiko, don't do it here!" Kaoru repeated. "Respect the women here, specially Tsubame, that is young!"
"Well... I meant to show it to her..." he answered naively.
All of the people at the room got dumfounded, looking from side to side, till Kaoru could recover her breath and tell him off. "You... you perverted! Tsu... Tsubame is just a girl!"
"Perverted?" the boy frowned. "Why do you call me perverted? After all, what's so wrong with a simple snake?"
"Woah, Yahiko..." Sanosuke lifted his eyebrowns. "Ya don' have to call it 'snake'... In fact ya should avoid it in front o' the girls..."
"Well, and how do you suggest that I name it?"
"First, you souldn't name it at all, when you are with girls." Megumi aproached, trying to look didatic. "But you can name it... uh... for example..."
"Penis?" Sanosuke tried.
"Yes!" Megumi atested. "Call it 'penis'!"
This time it was Yahiko who bugged his eyes. "P-P-Penis? What are you talking about?"
"Uh... It's name is... penis..." Megumi faltered.
"A-are you sure that this breed is named 'penis'?"
"Breed?" Megumi frowned.
"Yes, breed! They separate snakes in different breeds, isn't it?"
A thought passed slightly like a lightning in Megumi's head. Skeptical to her own imagination she blinked twice, shook her head and came closer to Yahiko. "Ok, lad. Show us it."
Tsubame closed her eyes and Kaoru had nothing to say about Megumi's decision to ask him to show it. Her eyes started growing wider and wider -as well as everybody's eyes- when Yahiko started to pull out of his hakama the reason of such a mess: a green and curly snake that hissed puzzled with so many people staring at it. "I found it among the trees and I saw it had no poison." Yahiko started explaining, while he finished taking the poor animal from inside his clothes. It curled on his arm, leaving its head up, as if it wanted to take part on that human conversation. "I thought Kaoru would get mad if I got to the dojo with my new friend, so I hid it into my clothes."
"So... Why did you spend all afternoon long at the bathroom?" Kaoru asked.
"It likes to be in umid places. And the most wet spot at the dojo is the bathroom."
"Alright." Megumi concluded. "Now that the misunderstanding is undone you may go back to the dojo, Tae and Tsubame can get back to Akabeko and I must go back to my work, OK?
All of them left the clinic. Almost getting to the dojo, Kaoru started laughing alone. "And in the end it was just a snake!"
"What did you think it was?" Yahiko asked with sincere innocence. Sanosuke and Kaoru looked one to the other and laughed mischievously. Yahiko stared at them, taking him some minutes to understand what they were thinking. When he finally did, he blushed hardly and shouted angrily. "You perverted! That's ridiculous! What kind of stupid do you think I am?" And so he went on cursing and crying out revolted words angrily, till they got to the dojo.
^_^x
The nex morning, when Sanosuke arrived to have breakfast, he found Kenshin sitting outdoors, playing with the hissing snake. The fighter stopped and looked skpectically to his friend, then came closer.
"Oh, good morning, Sano!" Kenshin smiled.
"Uh... g' morning, Kenshin buddy... May I sit here?" he pointed reluctantly to a spot near his friend.
"Sure! Sit down!" he smiled and placed himself aside, so as to allow his friend to sit by. "It's a pitty that Kaoru-dono doesn't like pets. This snake is quite a good companion. But Yahiko will have to take it back to the trees, where it belongs to..."
"Uh, Kenshin... gotta talk to ya..."
"What about?" Kenshin cocked his head.
"Well, I'm yoah friend and I know wha' people tell around..."
"So...?"
"Kenshin, ya wear a pink gi and..."
"IT'S NOT PINK! It's kind of fuchsia..."
"Alright, a fuchsia gi... and Kaoru-san carries a torch fo' ya, yet ya hadn't gotten her yet... and .... yoah playing with a snake... people speak ill of ya..."
"Oro?!" Kenshin buged his eyes, releasing the snake free.
^_^x
*It's me again* Oh, did you like it? Our sweet Yahiko-kun is on puberty! And it seems that Kaoru-san will never leave it, with that hentai thoughts and lack of temperance... *Ouch, ouch! Hey girl, don't beat me! I'm telling the truth!*