Disclaimer: RK isn't mine

AN: This is the end. Yes it took me THAT long… Sorry about that v_v" I'm not that satisfied with the story, especially with a slight OOCness (well I wouldn't say OOC but with Kenshin not being traumatised and constantly feeling guilty about himself, once can only assume what kind of personality he would have) but glad that this story becomes the simple story that I intended it to be. Thank you for reading, and I really appreciate the reviews, who knows that there are people who read my stories? lol. So here it goes! :D

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Morning Talk

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Kaoru wrapped herself around the blankets. The bed was too soft and the blankets were too warm that she had forgotten how to open her eyes. She stretched her body and then took a deep breath. The scent around her somehow different… a little masculine. It was some kind of fresh smell combined with a little bit of coffee scent which was comforting and tender. Then as she slowly becoming more awake, memories started rushing in. She opened her eyes and saw the beautiful redhead, sitting beside her while reading his newspaper and eating something that looked too amazing to be called a mere toast. He swallowed and looked at Kaoru with a smile.

"Morning. Breakfast?" He asked. Kaoru looked at him and blushed. Was he there for a long time, reading his newspaper and eating his breakfast, while she was sleeping beside him? Kaoru let out a squeak and hid herself under the blanket, quickly checked her face, just in case she was drooling or something. After a minute, she lowered the blanket and saw Kenshin looking at her with an amused face. "So, care for some toast?" He offered. Kaoru nodded shyly.

"Th… Thank you…" She said and took a super small bite of her mutated toast (mutated in a cool, X-men kind of way). Kenshin chuckled.

"I think we're past the phase where you have to eat politely in front of me. Kaoru blushed, but then snorted. She sat up on the bed and leaned against the wall before taking a big bite. Kenshin smiled. "That's more like you. I love to see you eat heartily. You look adorable like that." He said with a sweet voice. Kaoru sighed. How could this guy say these things without batting an eyelash?

"It's good, as usual." Kaoru complimented. Kenshin smiled. He was about to say something when someone banged at the door. The door handle went up and down violently for awhile before the banging started again. Kaoru sighed. "That must be Sano. Let me deal with the brat." Kaoru said, but Kenshin shook his head.

"I'll deal with him. You finish your breakfast." He said, his voice suddenly became a little grim. He tousled his own hair a little before getting up and opened the door. He unlocked the door, and right away Sano pushed the door violently, but Kenshin pushed back from the inside that he couldn't get in. Kaoru looked at the red haired in awe. His smaller frame could actually match Sano in strength.

"Open the door, Himura, I know she's here." Sano demanded with low voice.

"Sano, she chose to stay." Kenshin replied calmly. Sano's fists were white from anger.

"Kenshin, did you… With her…?" He asked with gritted teeth.

Kenshin glared at Sano, and then turned his face. "Go away, Sano. What she did or didn't do isn't your business anymore." He said. Sano screamed and blasted the door open, and Kenshin fell on the floor. Kaoru screamed as Sano jumped on him and gave him a loud-sounding punch on his cheek. Kenshin wipe the blood from his cracked lips and then headbutted Sano. Now it was his turn to sit on him.

"STOP IT!" Kaoru shouted as she jumped off the bed.

"Move away, Jou-chan." Sano said, and Kenshin, as if agreeing with the guy underneath him, pushed Kaoru back on the bed, before giving Sano a punch on the exact same spot Sano punched him.

"Let her go, Sano! You already have someone you've been wanting to be together with for months!"

"YOU LET HER GO YOU BASTARD! How could you sleep with her while still being in love with someone else?"

"AS IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO SAY THAT!" Kenshin snapped. "YOU'RE SLEEPING WITH HER WHILE YOU HAVE MEGUMI!"

"AND YOU TAPPED HER JUST COZ SHE'S THE FIRST FEMALE YOU SAW AFTER YOUR BREAK UP! JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE DEPRESSED ABOUT THAT LITTLE STUCK UP BITCH DUMPING YOUR ASS DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU CAN GRAB ANYONE WITHIN YOUR ARMLENGTH AND START FUCKING THEM!" Sano screamed as he pushed Kenshin and pinned him on the ground, with his arm pressing on Kenshin's throat. Kenshin managed to break free and punched Sano's nose.

Once again the two guys rolled around the floor trying to pin each other on the ground. They were screaming rubbish until suddenly something wet splashed on their heads. Wet, scalding hot, and black. They both jumped and then turned around, to see Kaoru with two empty cups on her hands and what seemed to be fury on her face.

"Jou-chan…"

"Kaoru…"

Sano closed his eyes firmly in anticipation. When Kaoru's face is as red as a crab like that, she would surely beat anyone until they're almost dead. But instead he heard a sob.

"Is that… Is… Is that…" She sobbed and then continued. "Is that… What you two think of me? That I'm someone who would sleep with guys just like that?"

"Huh?" The guys uttered in unison. Kaoru turned around and looked at Sano.

"YOU ACTUALLY THOUGHT THAT I WOULD EASILY SLEEP WITH ANYONE! Geez Sano! I thought you know me better than that! I'm not that stupid, okay!" Kaoru screeched.

"WELL IS IT MY FAULT THAT I THINK THAT WAY? You're eating breakfast under his friggin' blanket, for f's sake!" Sano replied defensively and got a pretty nasty kick for that. She then turned his head towards Kenshin, who gulped. This time her tears fell on her cheek. Kenshin reached his hand and was about to wipe her tears when she slapped it instead.

"You, Mister… What do you take me for? Sleeping with my best friend's boyfriend… Shamelessly parading around his house after doing such a horrible deed… Is that the kind of girl you took me for? Is this why you invited me in last night? Well I guess you're pretty disappointed that I fell asleep and you didn't get your portion of fun last night." She said with a cold tone. She inhaled, trying to hold in the tears, and then chuckled. "And I guess that's my fault to make you think that way as well… I just wanted… I wanted to see you, you know… Like most girls, I admired you from afar, so I just wanted to see you… I stayed at Sano's place just to see you every morning…" She sobbed.

"Kaoru…"

Kaoru erased her tears and sighed. "Well, sorry to make you two misunderstood each other like this. I better leave." She said with a trembling voice, before grabbing her jacket and walked out of the apartment. Yes, walked, because the two guys were too stupefied to even try and stop her.

OOOOO

That day, for the whole day, Kaoru had gone missing. She didn't answer her friends' calls, and she didn't reply to any text messages or emails as well. Someone even knocked at her apartment door and she didn't open the door. They all could hear the sound of television from inside her rather thin apartment wall, so after awhile everyone finally decided to stop bothering her.

Even with the over-the-top soap operas and old movies which usually would screw with your head and made you forget everything, Kaoru still couldn't get the fact that she had been really stupid for the past few weeks out of her head. Obviously Kenshin would think that she slept with Sano. Even though she thought of Sano as her harmless little buddy, much like a Ken doll, obviously everyone wouldn't think so, remembering the fact that Sano had slept with half of the women population in the campus. She was too ignorant, too naïve, and Sano had warned her about this, but, obviously, she had to be stubborn about it. The anger had evaporated, and all that's left was humiliation.

The next morning, she was awake much, much earlier than usual. She spent a couple of hours longer taking a bath and tried to erase her puffy eyes, from crying the whole night and falling asleep and waking up every hour of the night. She sighed as she applied an extra amount of concealer under her eyes, trying to lessen the puffiness, but she looked like those girls in ukiyo-e (traditional Japanese painting) with her small eyes, puffy cheek and red, swollen lips. She yawned and threw her make up bag on the side of the sink, realizing that no amount of make up would help her with her swollen face. Right then, she heard a knock.

She sighed and decided to ignore the person outside of her door. Soon, the knock became elaborate in rhythm, changing randomly from hip hop rhythm to death metal drumming style. Pissed, she came out of the bathroom when she heard two men talking outside.

"We should just kick the door open." A guy with a deeper tone said, sounded a little irritated.

"We should wait… She might be in the bathroom or something." The other guy with a calmer, more mature voice replied.

"Nope, can't wait nemore. HERE I GO!" The other guy screamed and Kaoru became pale. She ran to the door and opened it.

"DO YOU WANT TO DIE? WHY DO YOU EVEN THINK OF KICKING MY DOOR?" Kaoru asked with an angry voice. In front of her, Kenshin was looking at her with an apologetic stare, and Sano grinned at her, both of them were carrying two big plastic bags filled with something that looked like food. Their faces were worse than her swollen face; there were bruises, cuts and swollen parts all over.

"Hi, Kaoru. We're here to make you some breakfast." Kenshin said. Kaoru looked away.

"Thanks but no thanks. I don't really eat breakfasts anyway." She said with a small voice. Sano snorted.

"See, I told you she would be like this." He said to Kenshin. Kenshin sighed.

"Plan B, then." He said before lifting Kaoru on his shoulder using one hand with all his might, and then entered her house while Sano followed him from behind.

"PUT ME DOOOWN!" Kaoru screamed. She was about to hit Kenshin when he suddenly dropped her on the couch.

"Breakfast will be served soon." He said calmly. He then joined Sano in the kitchen, and soon the whole house started to sound as if someone was doing a construction work, due to Sano's incompetence in cooking. After a noisy half an hour, Sano called her to the dining table. He seated her on one of the chair while Kenshin served the breakfast. Looking at the breakfast he served, Kaoru couldn't help but laugh.

There was an omelette with "sorry" written on top using tomato ketchup, two slices of sandwich with "sorry written on it using mustard, and then there's a cup of latte, also with "sorry" written on top with some milk foam and cocoa powder.

"I chopped the vegetables inside the sandwich and wrote the sorry on top of the omelette." Sano said proudly, and Kaoru couldn't help but blurted out a giggle. The two guys looked at each other and sighed in relief.

"You're finally smiling again." Kenshin said, and Sano nodded with a happy smile. Kaoru blushed, and then looked away.

"Aren't you guys eating?" She asked shyly.

"Nope, my baby is making breakfast for me, so I gotta run." Sano said with a grin. He then looked at Kaoru, as if he just remembered something important. "Anyways, before I leave, Jou-chan, I've never thought of you as easy or anything, but sometimes, love makes you do stupid things, and I just want to take care of you, so that you don't do stupid things that might harm yourself. You're like a sister to me." He said with a shrug.

"Thank you, Sano. I love you too." Kaoru said with an innocent smile, and Sano blushed.

"Shut up. I'm leaving." He murmured before leaving the apartment, leaving Kenshin and Kaoru alone.

Kenshin looked at her looking at him. It was probably his time to speak, after Sano gave such a corny but sincere speech.

"I…" Kenshin gulped as he felt Kaoru's stare got even more intense. "… want you to be my girlfriend." He said, and then cursed inwardly. That was supposed to be the end of his speech. Kaoru frowned.

"I don't get you." Kaoru said quietly while munching the soft omelette. "Are you trying to make amends or something? I mean, you don't have to. We didn't sleep together, you cooked me free breakfast all the time, it was my fault that you thought of me as one of Sano's happy meals and I got you all beaten up and, I believe, scalded by the coffee I poured on your head… I should probably pay you some breakfast fee and hospital fee instead."

Kenshin sighed. "Okay, that was supposed to be the epilogue of what I was going to say." He said. Kaoru looked at him, and he coughed nervously. "I like you, I really do. Yes, at one point I did think that you're mean towards your friend, but honestly, I can't care less about it. You're charming, funny and you make my days brighter, and I don't care if I had to snatch you away from Sano. For what I could see, if I did that, everyone goes home happy. Sano will be faithful to his girlfriend, and you'll be with me. Happy." He explained. He then frowned and sighed. "Wow. I just heard how pathetic I sounded." He murmured.

"Not really… It sounds… rather nice…" Kaoru replied quietly.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

Kaoru smiled as she scooped a spoonful of rice and offered it to Kenshin. "Then why don't you have breakfast with me first, and see how it goes?" She asked. A smile blossomed on Kenshin's lips, and he took a seat beside Kaoru.

"Yeah. Alright." He said, before allowing himself to be spoon-fed by Kaoru. Finally, a morning talk that goes somewhere.