I'm not even done with my other project and I got blindsided by a bunny while driving to work. I think I was just gagging for some more Enishi/Kaoru in a fandom so dead I think I declared it dead 5 years ago and yet I keep the homefires burning anyway for my OTP. This came out of my brain independent of my will, don't be mad. Sometimes writing is closer to exorcism. It is what it is.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin dammit!

It would not be inaccurate to say that Kaoru had become mildly obsessed with the business across the street. As she scraped off peeling wallpaper and boarded up a broken window in her childhood home, she found her eyes drawn to it again and again to the point where she was worried about them actively and personally. For a new business, and a gym no less, it certainly seemed deserted all the time. She couldn't really tell because the tinting on the window was just enough to make everything indistinct, but other than the odd man with a duffel bag no one ever came around.

This obsessive thinking was probably a result of loneliness, because she had been home all of a month this summer and hadn't spoken to a single person other than cashiers at grocery and home improvement stores. Going to the library hadn't even counted because she had done self checkout. Ok, there had been that one call to Sano. But her useless uncle had obviously been in a loud bar at the time and even though he promised on his soul that he would be driving across two states to help her get the house in a condition where they could sell it, she knew that 'soon' was pretty relative for him. So here she was with her, moderately delayed, college diploma in her hand and a ruin of water damage, bad plumbing, and hopeless patchwork electrical systems and all she could think was it would be great if the sale of the house even covered her student loans.

When her dad died shortly after her high school graduation, she knew this day would come and had dreaded it. Who would want a sprawling old house in a bad part of town, particularly when half the house had been turned into a fencing studio and smelled like old sweat and mildew? The land, now that was worth something, but Kaoru was too bullheaded to take out a loan, bulldoze the house, and sell the land to the developers hoping to make this neighborhood bougie enough to attract chain coffee shops and trendy restaurants.

The gym was the newest business she had seen open out here and, like her, it scrappily held on in a place everyone else had seemingly abandoned.

Kaoru had been staring at one of her library books about home electrical repair, trying to get the nerve together to turn everything off and hopefully not either electrocute herself or burn the house down, when she realized a constant groan of irritation had been easing out of her lips. She wanted to smack something or someone, really hard, and maybe the next best thing would be to take out that aggression on some dumbbells. At least grunting and screaming wouldn't be that out of place in a gym.

So there she was, ill fitting workout clothes busted out of a taped up storage box in her old room, and with some cash in hand she marched over to the gym and boldly pushed open the doors. They didn't post hours, but it was a Tuesday afternoon and she assumed they would be open.

A long faced man with a sour expression was fiddling around on his phone when the bell at the top of the door announced her arrival. He looked confused when he saw her, and even more confused when she slapped money on the counter and asked how she signed up to join the gym.

After a moment he found his voice. "We're not accepting new memberships right now, lady."

"You're not exactly busy," Kaoru pointed out, as the entire gym was devoid of people. Neatly laid out weights looked brand new. Machines gleamed in the fluorescent light. There weren't even any weights leaning on anything or laid out on the floor next to the squat rack. It all looked pristine. "Look, I need to work out and you own a gym. I'm going to put some money here, and then I'm going to walk over to that bench press and lift weights. If a bunch of people march in and I'm in the way, I'll clear out, but what kind of business doesn't want any new business?"

The man's prominent adam's apple bobbed and he seemed at a loss. "Look lady, boss said to tell people we're not accepting new memberships right now. Unless you're here to buy some preworkout…"

"I'm not interested in that garbage, and if that's all your boss wanted to sell then he should have started a supplement store. I'll make it easy, here is the money," she slapped the cash on his side of the counter, "I'll be right over there. If you want to call your boss I'll tell him the same thing I told you."

The guy seemed absolutely unequipped to deal with her so he snatched up the cash and sneered. "Your funeral lady, go nuts."

Kaoru, who by this point absolutely needed to do something physical, wandered over to the bench press and located the weights she could add to it. It had been a while and she didn't want to overdo it. Her father would have been disappointed that she hadn't kept up with her fitness, but after he had died she had quit fencing like a bad habit. Working out followed not long after, and by the time she realized depression was the real culprit she felt out of shape and discouraged to start up again. It had been more important to pick up her school work again and try not to fail out of her freshman year of college a second time.

Memories crushed her down every day in that empty house, but lifting was simple and familiar. Maybe she'd even grab a saber later today, but that was getting ahead of herself. Inserting earbuds and pumping up her music, she resolved to make a workout playlist soon. On the bright side, she didn't have to turn them up much because the gym itself was dead silent. Much later she would smack herself for not noticing all the red flags waving in front of her, but in the moment this was everything she wanted.

The third day in a row she came to the gym, the guy at the front counter stopped protesting. He snorted and looked back down at his phone, ignoring her entrance even though she even smiled at him and said hello. Kaoru typically liked everyone, but this guy she wanted to drop kick, and she tried to compensate for that feeling guiltily by being super nice.

She was struggling with the extra weight she had just added onto the bench press when a bespectacled face startled her by leaning into her view. His mouth moved but she couldn't make out words over the music pounding in her head. With a red face she was pushing against the slightly too heavy weight now that her arms had sunk down too low at the shock of seeing another person and she had lost her leverage on them. Mortifyingly, the man leaning over her just shot out one hand and seemingly easily pulled it off her and set it on the bar.

Sitting up and pulling out her earbuds, Kaoru wiped an arm over her sweaty forehead and tried to calm her breathing.

"What did you say?" She leaned down to grab her water bottle, having learned the first day that there was no water fountain in this place. What kind of gym didn't even provide water for free? This place was going to fail at any moment.

"I said, you should have a spotter."

"Are you volunteering?" she shot back, taking another deep drink of water. It tasted a little funny and she was worried that after she finished with the electrical that plumbing was next on the docket. It was going to take longer to fix the house than it took to get her college degree, and she didn't have enough money for that.

"Certainly not."

The first and only person she had seen in this gym and they were an asshole. "Well, thanks for the feedback, but I don't exactly see a lot of people here to lean on for a little help."

"We aren't taking new memberships." Was the frosty reply. He looked like the poster boy for Under Armor in his tight fitting shirt and track pants, but he wasn't sweaty yet so maybe this was another employee.

"I noticed. But I paid my money and I'm not hurting anything so maybe you should let me get back to my workout. I wipe everything down, too, since you didn't even provide a sanitizing spray or towels. I brought them from home, and they are in the box over in the corner if you need to use them." Kaoru let down her hair, shook it out, then put it up again. All the while, the tall muscular man stared down at her with a glower over his glasses. Was that white hair bleached and dyed or natural, she wondered absently as she met his stare once more unflinchingly.

"Paid your money, huh?" The man whipped his head back to the front desk where the man who normally worked there tried to curl into a tiny ball as if he could hide in plain sight. "Did you buy any preworkout?"

"I don't use that garbage, it's just a bunch of chemicals, and it doesn't replace hard work if you want results. In my opinion anyway."

Maybe he was the manager; he was certainly high handed. "And you are…?"

"Kaoru Kamiya. I'll sign a membership form any time you're ready for me to, but I hear you're not taking new memberships." She examined him a little more closely, now that her blood was cooling down. Aristocratic nose with those round little hipster glasses and arresting blue-green eyes seemed totally out of place with those buff arms and casual but expensive workout clothes. He looked like he should be suited up in a boardroom, not quizzing some random girl who was just trying to get her workout done. "And you are…?" she mimicked his tone and delivery.

That actually caused his mouth to quirk at a corner. "Yukishiro," at first she thought he would stop there, but then he seemed to stumble over providing more. "Enishi Yukishiro."

"Like Bond, James Bond." It was a lame joke, but she forced herself to laugh when he just narrowed his eyes in her direction. This guy was so serious! Definitely the manager. Time to take a different tactic. Kaoru put on that contrite face that had melted Sano into a puddle more than once when she was little and wanted a candy but her dad had told her no. "I'm not causing anyone any trouble, and I clean up after myself. Can't you just overlook your policy for now? I really need this."

His stare could have frozen water in the glass.

"I promise I won't even use the freeweights without a spotter, anymore, if you think it's too much of a safety risk. I'll stick to the machines and the treadmill."

Still taking her measure, it was only after Kaoru felt her shoulders slumping in defeat that his smooth tenor put her out of her misery. "I'll get you a form."

Heart pounding in happiness, she shot up and gave him a quick appreciative hug before drawing back with an apology for getting him all sweaty. She had just been so happy, you see, and this really meant a lot to her to be able to get away from everything once a day.

Posture still stiff, he walked over to the man at the counter who was cringing as they traded words. Kaoru wiped down the bench press while they talked and after a moment in which she moved her sweatshirt and water over to the treadmill, Enishi came back with a form that looked like it had just been typed and printed. Obviously, they needed someone professional to make them a real form and they had just worked up something for her in the moment.

"Fill this out and leave it with Gein."

"What's with this… times and days of attendance? This membership form needs a lot of work."

Enishi wasn't amused. "Just fill it out. You should be counting yourself very fortunate I'm allowing this."

"Who died and made you boss of the world?" Kaoru said, even as she accepted the pen he held out to her and began to fill in her name and address.

Unlike her joke, that comment elicited a wide predatory smile. Suddenly uneasy, Kaoru focused her efforts down on the paper.

"Your form is all wrong," Enishi's words almost made her stumble as she jogged on the treadmill. Ever since joining the gym, she could count on the white haired menace to show up about every other day for at least half her workout. Before, every now and then, men in track suits used to come in with duffel bags. Some of them would buy preworkout, and some of them would take one look at her and turn around again. Maybe this place was secretly men only and that's why she had been so isolated. Fine by her, she didn't need anyone oogling her when she was trying to sweat out her frustrations over a dilapidated house.

But Enishi seemed to do what he wanted. Maybe he was the owner as well as the manager.

"I'm not a runner. I just do this for cardio," Kaoru said, gasping, now that she had tapped the emergency stop in the middle of her run. It was better than trying to argue while running, which they had done once before when he had commented that she needed better workout gear as there were holes in her shorts. Getting over the fact he had seen her underwear, even if they were a practical black pair of bikini cut, had taken her some time. Luckily, since he didn't treat her like a piece of meat, more an annoyance, she had gotten past that pretty fast.

He had started working out himself around her, after two sessions of him coming in to scowl at her before he realized she legitimately wanted to be here for the purpose she said she was coming for. More than once Kaoru had found that instead of staring at the brick wall she was using the wall mirror to examine Enishi's form. Too bad he was such a sourpuss, since he had a lot of feline grace to add on to that handsome face and nice body. The amount he lifted was unreal, too, and without a spotter she wanted to add. Hypocrite.

"You'll get shin splints if you keep striking down with your heel like that." It was almost concern, and Kaoru would have been more charitable if everything he remarked to her weren't a criticism.

"Oh yeah, well, maybe you can show me how its done then?" It was sarcastic, but Enishi didn't hesitate and got onto the small treadmill with her. She was boxed in, Enishi in front of her, and her back to the console of the treadmill. He had been doing some sort of martial arts form in the corner so he radiated heat even a foot away. Kaoru needed water, and to calm down a racing heart that had nothing to do with running. "Let me down first, you oaf."

"Why are you here?" Enishi said, before Kaoru firmly planted a hand on his chest and forced him to walk backwards off the machine. She passed by him and faced away to retie her hair, a tactic she found she did around Enishi when she felt nervous, before looking back to see him fiddling with the treadmill. He really was going to show her, the damn know-it-all.

"You want to know? Really?"

He pushed the button to speed up the treadmill. He matched the speed she had been going that had been winding her, then surpassed it. Typical.

"I have to take a break from renovating my family home or else I'm going to lose my mind. I spend all day reading home improvement how to books, and the other half painting and sanding and whatever else needs to be done. Someday my uncle will get here and maybe he can do the wiring, but I feel like it's a lost cause." It was nice to unload on someone. All her college friends were too busy getting jobs or working jobs, some of them were travelling. None of them had been chained to a house like a loadstone, and she had felt to ashamed of struggling with the weight of it all to post anything like a cry for help on social media. Kaoru could do this. Without Sano if need be. She was strong! Independent!

"I've only got a few more months of living expenses before I have to go get a job and just put it on the market…"

Enishi was running so fast, and he was barely breaking a sweat. Maybe he had been a sprinter in college or something. He certainly worked out like a professional something. His form really was perfect, which was even more galling. From the way he kept glancing at her, he was listening to her, too. It was nice to be able to unload her worries on someone that wasn't going to pepper her with suggestions and pity.

"You want to get something to eat?" Kaoru's words escaped her mouth before she knew it, and once out there she couldn't take it back. Now it was Enishi's turn to hit the emergency stop, leveling her with a considering gaze. "Not a date, just as a… friend. Everyone in the neighborhood moved away, and it's nice to talk to someone for once. I'm alone all the time." God, she sounded so pitiful. She needed to call Sano and harangue him into getting here faster, like before the seasons changed. "Nevermind, it's fine—"

"Ok." Enishi looked at her like he couldn't believe what he was saying. There was a cough from Gein in the corner, and he looked daggers at the man behind her. Meanwhile Kaoru was pretty sure she was gaping like a fish. "Everyone has to eat." He supplied.

"Well, um, ok." Kaoru replied lamely. "Don't worry, it won't be anything I make. The kitchen is barely functional, and even if it wasn't my cooking isn't something I'm proud of. I've set fire to mac and cheese before."

"If your house is such a dump maybe you should take out a policy and make dinner some night then." It was surely a joke, but the way he said it she thought he was half serious.

Kaoru laughed, unsure what else to do. "There's a ramen place that's been here forever, if you're ok with a little grease. You don't seem like a fast food kind of guy to me."

"I'll make an exception this time." The 'for you' was unspoken but lingered in the air between them. Kaoru wanted to fidget, somehow now unable to meet those aqua eyes. "Meanwhile, do you understand what you were doing wrong earlier? You will get shin splints and then you'll be useless until you allow them to heal."

Kaoru wondered why she even wanted to be friends with a man like this.

"This house is a death trap." Enishi picked up the side of a tarp that Kaoru had casually thrown over a lamp that she now noticed was still plugged in. She wondered if that was one of the sockets that still worked.

"It was nearly abandoned for almost six years. I'm just lucky I didn't have to have the city evict any squatters."

Enishi was at the non-boarded over window and glancing with a stony expression across the street to his empty-as-always gym. Feet spread, hands clasped lightly behind his back, Kaoru was struck as she often was by how poised he always seemed. Dinner a couple days ago at ramen, the seventh time they had gone in the past month, had been really awkward and mostly silent on his part. She had complained about her house as per usual, and all the various things she was doing to improve it. She had complained about Sano too, and about not knowing how to build a resume for whatever job an English degree prepared you for. Of course Enishi had a degree in finance and an MBA, he had disclosed, and he wasn't even thirty. Bastard overachiever. Then again, if he was so smart, he'd probably have more of a thriving business so maybe he was grappling with his own life choices. She knew he was still trying to find a way to deal with the death of his sister, who was buried in a fancy mausoleum across the country. He had gotten as far away from the things he knew as he could. While he hadn't said it in so many words, Kaoru had understood. Grief was a hulking beast, and while it gave him wings it had buried her. Losing people young was a trauma she could connect to easily.

He hadn't believed her about how terrible the house was, so here they were in the middle of a rainy summer day, and Kaoru was wondering if she needed to empty the bucket she had placed to catch the water that had started leaking on her while she tried to sleep yesterday. Her old room was so small, and the twin bed had been soaked by the time she had woken up to the wetness. Going to the gym had been all the more important today to combat her rage at being unable to keep up with all the problems this place had. It had almost literally drowned her, to pile on another stupid issue.

"Dad was never that handy when I was little, and things got a little shabby when mom died. I was ten." Kaoru unplugged the lamp, and looked around quickly for anything else that she should have done before putting an undercoat of paint on the living room. It was still drying and stunk to high heaven, but it was going to take days more to dry with this wet weather. The stark, patchy white made it feel institutional. "Sano, my uncle, came to live with us for a while then. He tried to do a few things here and there, but he was also the one that rewired everything and I'm finding out that maybe he didn't really know what he was doing…"

"You shouldn't be doing this by yourself, Kamiya."

Kaoru tried not to let her eyes roll to far back in her head, and was glad he was still staring across the street. "Well, obviously. But it needs to be done, and here I am. Are you volunteering?"

"No." he snorted out a laugh and turned to face her at last, mouth quirking in that half smile he was displaying more often around her. "But I might know some people."

"I don't think I can afford contractors right now. I need to do what I can do on my own first. Spending more money has got to be a last resort."

Enishi looked irritated that she was refusing his help so candidly. "As you like."

"C'mon, this is what I really want to show you. The fencing rooms are back here."

They walked down a hallway that should have led to a dining room, a den, and a library, but instead it opened up into a huge open area. There were still mats, and swords with hints of rust on the wall. Sabers and epees were in a locked case, and looked to be in better shape. Trophies and banners lined another wall. She had won some of those trophies in junior championships, and Kaoru felt a deep current of guilt at how she had abandoned all this. It felt like she had abandoned her father.

"If people had known all the stuff that was here, I'm sure someone would have broken in and stolen it all. I'm really glad they didn't. This looks just like it did after the funeral and reception, maybe dustier. I bet there's still a stash of solo cups behind that counter. I bought them for the punch." Kaoru was rambling, caught in her memories of a time that felt like both years ago and moments ago. Grief did funny things to your perception of time, so did depression. "You know anything about fencing?"

"Not really my thing, but I'm no stranger to swords."

"That sounds like we need to spar, then. Though I warn you, I'm out of practice but still probably pretty good. Let me grab some of the training sabers." Kaoru dug out a rusty key from its hiding spot, unmoved through the years, even if she had to pull it up harder than expected as the rust had fused it to the top of the case. It wasn't a good hiding spot, but then her father had never really been a sneaky sort of person. Neither was Kaoru, and she was amazed he had been able to run a successful business for so long when he had no natural instinct for being cutthroat. Kaoru suspected the only thing that had really sustained them was help from her mother's life insurance policy, but that was almost gone. She was living off of the dregs of it now, and the little bit she had saved aside while working as a waitress and going to school.

"Can you use one of these?" Kaoru handed it to him, handle first, and she watched him stretch into the usual martial forms she had seen him practice time and again while she worked out across the gym from him. With a sword in hand they finally made sense to her, the missing element supplied, and the deadly dance he was engaged in mesmerized her. Yes, he could use one of these, and much better than she could judging from the easy arcs and slashes. "Show off," she mumbled as he finished with a wide proud smile in her direction. He'd been showing off for her benefit.

Whipping her saber around for a few practice swings, she took a ready stance and smiled as Enishi casually stood there with his blade pointed to the floor.

"You afraid of a girl? C'mon Enishi, I promise I'll go easy on you." Kaoru could barely say it without a laugh. She knew she was going to be outclassed, but she didn't know how badly until they began in earnest. Enishi didn't seem to have the ability to go any less than 100% and Kaoru supposed she should have known that judging from the way he worked out. Before she knew it, a dull blade was pressed against her throat even as she was pressed into the floor.

"That was unreal." Kaoru had gone from joking to serious. "We're going to try that again." Enishi arched one of those weirdly perfect eyebrows at her (plucked? she wasn't sure). He was asking her wordlessly if she was sure she wanted to go again, but she felt her temper flare as she got in ready position again.

The second time she was a little more prepared for his nearly inhuman speed, but the problem was even if she compensated for his speed with better defense that the aggressiveness of his attacks unsettled her into making mistakes. Their blades hit off one another with force, and Kaoru wondered at the rush of adrenaline. How had she ever left this? How could she had discarded something that made her feel so alive? Muscle memory saved her from another kill stroke, but it seemed like it had only worked because Enishi's strikes weren't as focused for whatever reason.

Before Kaoru knew it, she had been on the defensive so long without switching position that her back was against the wall. Partially lost in the heat of battle, Enishi seemed to realize what he was doing only when Kaoru cried out her concession. His saber, dull as it was, still pierced drywall several inches into the wall by her waist. He could have killed her, Kaoru turned angry eyes away from the sword sticking out of the wall and up at the sparring partner that had almost skewered her.

"What is your problem!?" she screeched into his face, encountering a glazed look from the tall man. He let go of the saber still impossibly embedded and planted palms on the wall next to her shoulders. That glazed look became determined, and with a growl he crushed their lips together.

Kaoru should have stabbed him the way he had nearly stabbed her, but instead boneless fingers dropped her weapon with a clang and instead of pushing him back her traitorous hands slid up under his shirt. She felt like a fire was lit in her body and she was going to burn to cinders even as they bumped teeth and tore at one another's clothes.

It was only when they sank to the ground, clearly about to do something that the room was entirely unintended for, that Kaoru felt like the curtain of lust that had blinded her peeled back just enough to let some sanity through.

"We can't do this here!" She pulled back, trying to sit up, and Enishi reeled her back in for a kiss that featured more tongue than lips and held a hell of a lot of promise for more. Kaoru, unwilling to concede the point, sat up again. "Seriously, Enishi, we need to stop."

His hand was fully under her shirt but over her bra, and she knew that if any of these rooms weren't a roach hotel she would have pulled him in and finished what they were starting. But desire couldn't cloud the disgust she had for all the dirt, nor could it completely mute the painfully fond memories, and she wasn't going to desecrate the practice hall.

Enishi finally seemed to come back to earth, and it was with a spectacular crash judging by the anger in his eyes. It wasn't for her, she figured, as he gently smoothed down her shirt and even helped her stand back up. He hadn't meant for this to happen, Kaoru realized, and now he was mad at himself. They didn't speak as he walked over to the wall and, muscles cording with effort, pulled the saber from its impromptu hilt.

Dropping it on the floor carelessly he stalked over to Kaoru until they were nearly toe to toe. She took a shallow breath as he scowled down at her from his full height.

"This isn't over." He ground out, then made his exit. The dramatic bastard.

Time to give them both some space, Kaoru thought, unwilling to concede how this new development made her feel cowardly. Maybe it was time to take a break from working out as well. Distance would bring perspective to both of them, she figured. They had gotten too close too fast, and something about battle changed Enishi into a totally different person.

More troubling was the thought Kaoru couldn't shake was that that was the real Enishi all along.

Sano, the bum, finally showed up a day after a frantic call she made about a break in. The air mattress she had bought since her ancient bed had been soaked through with rain water wasn't the most comfortable, and so when there was some crashing coming from somewhere downstairs, she hadn't hesitated to grab an old lamp as a club and rush downstairs screaming about calling the police. The person had run out, and once the cops had shown up and helped Kaoru inspect everything all she had been left with, other than a deep loss of security in her own home, was wonder at how little damage the intruder had caused.

In fact, while the cops had basically written it off as a junkie trying to pull copper out of the electrical system, what Kaoru realized later was that instead of more chaos the electrical system looked a lot neater than she remembered it. It was sheer insanity to think that some rogue electrician was breaking into houses to work pro bono, so she replaced the basement locks and called Sano to tell him he needed to get here now before she was murdered in her sleep.

It took him a sleepless twenty-four hours, but he responded to her when it really mattered. Sano wrapped her into a bear hug on the front porch as soon as she opened the door, and it almost felt like this stupid house was a home again. Sano had been there for all the moments he could, given he was an alcoholic who liked to gamble and so often spent half the day asleep. Money he had gotten from a settlement when a routine surgery had ended in removing his spleen accidentally is what funded his dissolute lifestyle, but Kaoru wasn't in the mood to lecture him until he got settled in. He smelled like whiskey and snack cakes.

"Hey little lady, I'm so glad you're ok!"

"Thanks, Sano, but can we get inside now? Do you have bags or anything in the car?" She glanced over to see stuff piled up in his sedan halfway up the windows. She supposed he had literally just thrown things in it and left. "Nevermind, just come on in and we can order a pizza."

It was stupid, but she still felt nervous when she was in view of the gym. It had been only a week since her encounter with Enishi and she hadn't gotten up the nerve to go back. Someday she'd have to get herself together and bite the bullet. After so many days of working out consistently, the loss of routine had been harder than she would admit. She felt sluggish and stir crazy.

"Man, Kaoru, this place is a dump." Sano said, sniffing the dusty air as he entered. The second coat of paint was now drying in the living room, a mellow yellow that cheered her up.

"And whose fault is that? I thought you were going to live here and keep it up while I was away at college."

Sano ruffled her hair; she hated that. "Most people only go to college for four years, kiddo. You were gone for six. I couldn't put my life on hold that long."

"You didn't even stay here a year…" She waggled a finger at him while picking up her phone to dial the only pizza place that would deliver in this part of town.

Sano laughed that great big friendly laugh of his that had gotten him out of multiple scrapes with unsavory characters. It was hard to stay mad at Sano, even if he was a screw up. "Who wants to live someplace like this? It's all gangs and crazy developers trying to make cheap condos. Not really my scene. I mean, I hate the idea of you being here honestly. Take that gym across the way, if that doesn't scream money laundering front I'll eat my hat."

"What's that?" Kaoru had just ordered two large pepperoni pizzas, knowing Sano would eat one and probably all her leftovers as well when she finally tuned into his words.

"That gym. Probably triad run. You know, they start up businesses places and then use them as fronts for other things. This part of town is perfect because no one respectable lives here anymore."

Kaoru thought about it, the crazy sense of it all, the shady men with duffel bags at all hours, the lack of anyone actually using it as a gym. Worst of all, it was so much easier to imagine Enishi as a gangster than the owner of a failing business in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly she wasn't all that hungry for pizza.

He was lounging around the leather seat he had installed next to the front desk of the "gym", actually in a suit that made him look fully like the gangster she now knew him to be. Unfairly, Enishi was as handsome as sin and despite being in a towering rage Kaoru still felt magnetically drawn to the villain.

"Tell your underling to make himself scarce," Kaoru said with all the conviction she could muster.

Enishi gave her a considering smile and over the protests of Gein who was already starting to call her various uncomplimentary names, told him to get out before he made him leave. That shut up the older man, who skulked out and slammed the front door behind him. The little bell attached to it clanged loudly in protest.

"You lied to me…" Kaoru started with a hiss.

"When did I do that? Tell me. I'm very interested to know at what point I told you you should insert yourself into a business that told you point blank it didn't want your presence. You made it abundantly clear you were going to do what you wanted to do, and I think under the circumstances I was very accommodating. I even made sure my associates never arrived at times that overlapped with your workouts." Enishi, upon finishing his statement, slid his phone into his pocket and stood up. He fastened the buttons on his expensive black suit and walked just close enough to force her to look up at him.

It had taken days to work herself into this frenzy. "You're selling drugs aren't you?"

"Do I need to check you for a wire?" He took a step closer, eyes hooded, and Kaoru refused to take the defensive and possibly end up pinned to another wall. Or floor.

"I'm not calling the cops. I thought I would give you the chance to take the honorable route first." God, it had seemed like the right thing to do when she was fuming in her room last night, but now she knew she just sounded naïve. She really should have told Sano where she was going, and now he was under the sink working out the kitchen plumbing with the classic rock station at full volume. No one would know she was gone for hours.

"Or else what?" He was a snake, and he could strike her at any moment, she knew. But it was complicated because of what was between them now. She had told him about her dead dad, and her depression. He had told her about his dead sister, and his anxiety. They had shared meals, and worked out together. He had even finally spotted for her on the bench press before things got weird, dammit it all. There was a bond here, and she couldn't betray a friend no matter how depraved he turned out to be. It had to be a character flaw in her at this point, given how extreme the circumstances were.

"I'm going to start the fencing school up again." Her tactic startled Enishi from whatever mood he had been descending into. "I'm going to make a real go of it, like my dad always wanted for me. I'm passionate about fencing, and you're the one that reminded me of that. If we're going to be neighbors I can't have problems. Kids will take lessons here. Kids, Enishi." She was blushing, remembering just how passionate that reminder had been.

Appealing to his decency was probably useless. What integrity could he have left?

Storms brewed behind those fussy glasses, but he didn't acknowledge her words so much as change the subject to something she had suspected his involvement in anyway. "Get that electrical system figured out yet? Your library books are late."

"I'll pay the fines." Kaoru ground out. He was as good as admitting he had some thug break into her house in the middle of the night to fix her wiring. It was simultaneously sweet and frightening. She really needed to invest in a home security system.

"Get out of here, Kamiya, you don't belong in this place." He pulled his phone out, dismissing her.

"Kaoru." She snapped.

"What?"

"After all this, you should call me Kaoru." She sighed, realizing he was letting her out of here without problems even though she knew enough to be dangerous to him legally. It was probably the most caring thing he could do. "This isn't over," she mimicked his last words to her only hers didn't carry the sensual promise his had. It shouldn't have felt disappointing, but it was, deeply.

Sano was out buying groceries since Kaoru said it was about time they started cooking at home to save money. They both dreaded it, since neither of them could make heads or tails of anything in the kitchen but Sano had met a lady and she had promised to come cook them a meal. He had gotten into a fight and this Megumi chick had been putting stitches in his forehead in the wee hours of the morning. A doctor was too good for Sano, but he had always been damn lucky. This one wasn't going to take his spleen, he joked.

Kaoru was trying to get this cheap new laptop to load the website creation software she had just bought. The ads were out for fencing instructors, just to cast a wide enough net along with talking to all the contacts that had worked with her dad. It had only been a few years, and all those guys remembered her well and even recalled some of her old matches that had earned her those trophies. They were glad she was coming back to the sport. They were also worried she might be making a big mistake trying to revive her dad's business. Well, so was Kaoru.

The doorbell rang, the last chime off key (she had never really figured out how to fix that), and she opened the door to a crisp late fall day and a very familiar white haired man in a suit. He didn't wait for an invitation, he just handed her an envelope and walked right in.

"It looks good in here. You did well." His praise shouldn't have meant anything, but he had seen the before so he knew it had gone from disaster to homey. That was her hard work, and Sano's. Of course the second floor and the basement were both still almost unlivable, but three months had gotten them a long way towards livable.

"What's this?" She waved the envelope at him as Enishi inspected an old couch and then decided against sitting on it. Elitist.

Ripping the seal she saw a long list of credentials with his name at the top.

"This is a resume."

"Your English degree comes in handy again I see." He walked over, without invitation yet again she would add, to the computer that was finishing its download. He struck a few keys quickly and the screen lit up with a welcome message to her website model building program. "You should pay someone to do this work. You don't know anything about computers."

It was so unfair he could just show up like the hadn't basically said goodbye three months ago. He didn't even acknowledge how the gym had been closed and shuttered for the past thirty days. She sincerely doubted he was doing anything different, he had just moved his operations away from her. It had warmed her heart, when she saw Gein put up the CLOSED sign and walk away, but it had also stung. She had thought he would at least say goodbye, or something.

"You want to work for me?" She read the resume again. He didn't fence, but no one said the only thing she had to teach here was fencing. He had the skill and more qualifications than she thought possible, even if most of the tournaments he seemed to have won were in China. That was a journey she wanted to hear about, even as she was telling herself she should be kicking him out.

"With. I'm willing to invest in a partnership. I only supplied the resume so that you can assure people your partner has the qualifications to teach. I could bring the trophies out of storage and display them if that would make you feel better. Mine are bigger and more numerous than yours, so you'd need to move some things around."

"I don't want your dirty money. I can do this on my own."

Enishi tsked at her, moving back into her personal space the way he had a tendency to when he wanted to fluster her. It was probably natural to him to aggressively posture, and she wished she couldn't smell that damn cologne of his or vividly remember the feel of his arms around her.

"I have the advanced degree in business, not you, and how do you know where I got all my money? Some things I do because I'm good at them and they amuse me, not out of any need."

That was probably him admitting he wasn't going to stop whatever sort of nefarious thing he did for the triads.

"But if it eases your mind, I'm out of the preworkout business. That's being handled by someone else, at my request, despite being extremely lucrative for me I'll add. Everyone else is wondering what my next move will be, and it's almost been worth the loss of a high status project for the interest it generated." He reached out behind her to slowly pull her hair free from her ponytail. It flowed around Kaoru's shoulders, dark and soft, and his pupils dilated even as she recognized how her breath was catching. They had unfinished business, and she had a bed upstairs.

Stubbornly, she reiterated her point slightly breathlessly. "You seriously expect me to trust you? To go into business with you?"

"I could have lied and done it through a shell company. I could have paid off one of your supposed 'old friends' to be a front for me. I didn't do those things, instead I typed up a fucking resume. I have respect for you, Kamiya."

He was toxic, but there was a certain honor to this criminal. She was in so much trouble.

His voice was gravelly with suppressed feeling. "I think you'll find my attention, once gotten, is rather annoyingly persistent."

Kaoru felt her mouth quirk to mirror his, and she felt his lips nearing so that her words were a whisper against him. "I said call me Kaoru…"

Tongue halfway down her throat, Enishi still had enough presence of mind to maneuver her behind him and flip a knife out when the door burst open from Sano kicking it open. He had kicked it open because his arms were full of groceries. It took her uncle all of a second to take in the scene, while she wondered how she would ever explain.

"Who the HELL is this?! Kaoru, you are so grounded!" Sano dropped the grocery bags he was holding and Kaoru heard the distinct sound of eggs cracking as oranges rolled past her ankles.

"I'm too old for you to ground me, uncle… and this is my new business partner. So I'd appreciate it if you would put those fists down. And I will take this, thank you." She eased the switchblade, which she was pretty sure was illegal in of itself, out of Enishi's grasp. Enishi allowed her to after initial resistance, and she laid it down next to the humming laptop. "Uncle Sano, Enishi Yukishiro. Enishi, this is my father's brother. I think I had mentioned him to you before."

Sano quickly realized that this wasn't just some guy off the street, and extended a hand grimly. He had a strong grip, and she saw him strain to get a crushing pressure established. Enishi seemed to be doing the same, and she knew there would be trouble when her friend (boyfriend?) decided he needed to show Sano just how much Kaoru had talked to him.

"Right, the one that left you to live in this wreck alone for months. When you brought me here I was concerned for your safety. What a relief he's joined you."

Every word was punctuated by a pulsing vein in Sano's forehead. She was afraid it would burst his stitches.

"Kaoru, where did you meet this guy?" Sano didn't like him, maybe never would, but there had been plenty of her friends in the past he had hated at first blush and then got used to. Sano knew Kaoru had a tendency to take in human strays, and hopefully he'd at least give Enishi the benefit of the doubt. Even though he clearly thought the white haired man was bad news, and was completely correct in that assumption.

"At the gym," Kaoru said, unable to think of anything else that even remotely explained how they ended up here.

Enishi ended the handshake and put his arm around Kaoru's shoulders, drawing her closer, smiling his devil's smile.