From: Miss_Led Hi minna!!! Sorry about the repost, but I found myself unsatisfied with the ending of this chapter. It was a bit rushed and abrupt so..... I changed it a bit. Also, I thought about it and 14 was a bit to young for the purposes of my story. I've changed the age to 15 to make this fit in a bit better with the plot I had in mind. I also added a bit more to Sano's end scene with the wood. I really thought that was understated and suffered because I was tired so I've added to it. That's all. Miss DISCLAIMER: This fanfic is based on the story and characters of Rurouni Kenshin, created by Watsuki Nobuhiro. I’m just borrowing his characters for a spell, no copyright infringements were intended. I’m not getting paid for this Kiddies! This is my own private obsession! WARNING: Some things mentioned in this chapter may not be suitable for young adults or children. If you are easily offended by talk of prostituion I think you'd better find something else to read.... ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Hiding in Plain Sight By Miss_Led ##part 3 Sano looked up to see Tsubame standing awkwardly in the doorway. His eyes were still wide with shock from Tae’s tears and his mouth agape. One arm, positioned on the other side of Tae’s shoulder still supported his weight. His body had twisted at a strange angle when he’d turned to look at Tsubame. Tae lay on her side, curled in a tight ball, facing away from the man beside her. Finally, Sano’s bewildered mind managed to register the look of shock on Tsubame’s face. Realizing the compromising position he and Tae were in Sano quickly snatched his hand from the bedding, surging to his feet as he flushed guiltily. As he moved Tae also stirred, contracting even further in on herself. Sano saw this and winced visibly before he moved to the opposite side of the room, putting some proper, though now belated, distance between himself and Tae. The ex-gangster stood rigidly with his back towards the room’s other two occupants. ‘Shimatta Sanosuke!!! Why must you always act like such a brute with everyone! Now you’ve gone and damaged a lady!’ Inside, Sano’s thoughts were in turmoil as guilt clawed at his gut. He reached up and swiped the hair out of his face in an aggravated fashion before shoving his hands into his pockets as he mentally berated himself. In the mood he was in right now, it was the best place for them or else the walls would pay for his mistake. “Sanosuke-kun?” Tsubame stared up at him with wide, questioning eyes as she glanced from one adult to the other. She knew she had just walked in on something she shouldn’t have, but she had no idea what that *something* was. All she knew for certain was that Sano looked angry and Tae had been crying. Taking a deep breath Sano removed the fierce expression from his face. He turned and walked to Tsubame, leaning down to take the bowl of water and fresh cloth from her hands. “Tsubame-chan, Tae-san is fine. She’s awake now, just a little upset at the moment. She’ll be all right, but you had best go see to the customers downstairs. I’ll be down in a few minutes to help out.” He gave Tsubame a look that booked no arguments. The girl flinched visibly with a touch of fear in her eyes. Behind Sano, Tae sniffled once and sat up. Wiping away her tears, she smiled reassuringly to the anxious girl. “Tsubame, I’m sorry to make you worry so. The heat was just too much and it got the best of me.” Tae held out a hand and Tsubame rushed forward to grab hold of it. Pulling the young server closer, she gently squeezed the hand in her own and smiled softly. The older woman received a shy, hesitant smile in return. It disappeared when Sano shifted uncomfortably behind her. Tsubame nodded her head once to Tae and fled the room to return to her work. The chamber retained it’s tense silence for many moments after she left. Sano cleared his throat and turned to look Tae in the eyes. There were still lingering traces of hurt to be found in their warm brown depths, but the tears he had seen earlier were now gone. He was notably relieved, letting out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Tae knew the younger man was upset but she was unsure of the focus of that anger. She assumed that he was naturally upset with her and his anger pained her. He had every right to be angry with her, after all… She was the one who had broken into tears when he kissed her. What man wouldn’t be upset about something like that? But she hadn’t been able to stop them from falling, the tide of emotions that raged when his lips claimed hers was much too strong to hold back and she had wept. No wonder that he had rejected her. The silence between the two stretched out like an icy blanket, settling into a disturbing pall over the small room. Tae tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and got to her feet, trying vainly to restore herself to her former state of appearance. Seeing her doing thus, Sano quickly turned away as an embarrassed flush stained his face. Unable to bear the silence surrounding him for a minute longer, Sano spoke, “Tae-san…” His voice was low and harsh with emotion. “Sumenu… I never meant to do such a thing to you. I…” The words drifted away when a soft hand squeezed his shoulder. “Daijoubu, Sanosuke-kun. Don’t make any apologies to me.” As she said the words Tae struggled to keep her poise, even as her heart twisted painfully in her chest. “Tae-san, I think it’s better if we forget this whole episode and move on.” Sano wanted only to put the pain he had seen in Tae’s eyes in the back of his mind, but as he turned to look at her, he was scared by the hollow void that now filled the once lively brown eyes before him. “Tae…” Tae flinched as he said her name. The tone was soft and searching, killing her with kindness and pity. “Sanosuke-san, weren’t you going to go help Tsubame-chan downstairs?” Sano pulled back as if he’d been slapped, even though the woman before him had spoken in a calm even tome. Something in the icy politeness of her words chilled Sano from the inside out. She had given him a release from his guilt and an excuse to leave, but the whole scene was eerily wrong somehow. He nodded a quick assent before making a hasty retreat from the room. Tae watched his back as he left, then followed the sound of his footsteps to the stairs, they echoed in the small upper chambers like thunder, and with all thunder, rain is sure to follow. So it did as Tae fell to her knees, her arms wrapped double around her middle, holding her stomach as the floor before her was soaked by the salty downpour of tears from her eyes. Tae was silent but inside she wailed as ten years of sorrow came crashing through her mind in a vicious wave of bad memories that only made the tears more bitter. “Oi! Onna come here!” “H-hai!” “Oh!!!! She’s a nice one! Young too!” “Ouji-san! How much will you take for this one?” “How long do you want her?” “I don’t know, looks like she’ll last me all night!” The young girl with wide brown eyes looked back and forth from the fat samurai to her owner. There was a note of desperation in her gaze but she had long since learned to hold her tongue. Many a time had she suffered a beating from begging for mercy. She’d learned it was best to get the whole affair finished with and to forget it. Across the room she looked up to see her reflection gazing at her solemnly from the lap of another man. She and her sister were slaves in a whorehouse and had been so for several years. Twins were said to be evil, but anything evil was a vice for man. For the skin traders, Tae and her sister Sae were a rare find. They’d been only ten years old when they had been sold. Their family’s village had blamed them for several years of bad crops and a bout of unconnected deaths in the village. It was unsurprising to the twins. They’d been discriminated against from the day they were born, even by their own family. The only one’s they’d been able to trust were each other. On the day the skin traders came they’d felt no remorse upon leaving the dirty village behind, only fear for what remained before them. For five years they had labored as maids and helpers in one of the most notorious brothels in all Edo. On the day they turned fifteen they’d been dressed up in fine silks and jewels, one in red the other in blue. As one they were presented to the patrons. The sun and moon they had been dubbed then… celestial gems ripe for the picking. The bidding had started at 2000 ryuu. In the end the girls had sold for 14,000 ryuu to one of the Shogunate generals for a night of pleasure. They’d vowed never to talk of that night or of the things that they had been made to endure. From that day forward they had no longer been mere slaves, but had now been promoted to prostitutes. Tae cried for a past she’d sworn to move beyond, but Sano’s rejection had cost her more than she’d ever imagined. Finally, as the wracking sobs diminished, Tae pushed herself to her feet. She dipped the cloth in cold water, washing the tears from her face as if to remove some sort of filth. She scrubbed until her sensitive skin was a bright red before letting the cloth fall to the floor with a plop. She reached back unraveling her obi and putting it to the side as she wrapped her kimono around herself tightly once more. She then reapplied the padded cloth and tied it in a firm knot at her back. Satisfied that her appearance was once again proper, Tae patted a few hairs back into place and retrieved her apron from the floor. She refused to look at herself in the small looking glass, afraid of what her own face might reveal. She didn’t think she could handle another strain that day. As she left the room she could hear the buzz of early evening business beginning to pick up. Her feet touched the stairs lightly as she pasted her quaint smile back into place. ‘This is mine. I’ve built this restaurant with my own hard work and tears. I’ve risen beyond what I was and no one can make me go back to those days. No one. Not even you Sanosuke……’ Sano left the room feeling as if he were fleeing for his life. His feet trod heavily down the narrow wooden stairs to the first floor. He fervently wished each step he pounded down upon had been himself. Shame and roughly doused desire ate away at his insides as he called himself every type of fool. ‘Chisou! What did I do?!!? I hurt her and now she’s acting weird. I didn’t want to hurt her….She was so beautiful…..I-I…. Sano, you clumsy, stupid ass! Look what you’ve done to her!’ Reaching the bottom of the stairs Sano looked towards the restaurant’s main room. He was in no mood to greet customers. Instead he stomped out the side door of the restaurant into the small courtyard behind it. He spied a stack of logs, waiting to be cut, leaning against the building and set to work on them. The logs suffered dearly as Sano took all of his rage and directed it into his task as he wielded a heavy ax. The logs veritably shattered under the force of his blows. By the time the stack had dwindled to mere piles of kindling and oven logs, so too had Sano’s anger. As the sweat poured off his bare shoulders to be soaked up by the binding at his waist, Sano found he was free from the weight that had pursued his mind so well. He found however, that the void was quickly filled with a dull ache, a painful mix of longing and regret. Slowly turning, Sano looked back up to the second floor where he had left Tae. A gentle breeze chose that moment the flitter through the courtyard causing the leads of his bandanna to flutter behind him. Sano ached his neck to savor the sensation as the cool air wrapped around his body in a soothing embrace. In the building he had so longingly regarded a woman paused to look out the window, her breath catching in her throat as she watched the stunning man below. In the silence of the afternoon Sano’s stomach voiced it’s opinion loudly, rudely disrupting his moment of reprieve. Sano swore to himself at the untimely reminder. “Damn! Forgot to eat!” Scooping up his jacket he headed back inside to reclaim his skipped meal, hoping that he’d be able to put aside his scene with Tae. --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- Choose from a wide selection of high-quality newsletters at ONElist. For details on ONElist's PROS&PUNDITS newsletters, click below. Click Here ------------------------------------------------------------------------