A/N This was originally written in 2006, and was my very first attempt at a multi-chapter story for the Kenshin fandom. For the sake of nostalgia, I have decided to resist the urge to edit/rewrite and just leave it alone and post it (and all my other very old writing). I hope you find it entertaining, and please be aware that there's a great deal of erotica in this story, especially the first couple of chapters. The fluffy stuff comes later. :)

AWAKENINGS

Chapter 1

~o~

Heat

Your hands, the look in your eyes. I am on fire. I am aching, burning, silently begging for your touch.

Can you not read the pleading cry in my eyes?

~o~

She stumbled to her feet and her hair flew forward, partially obscuring her vision. She brushed it back and ran to her door, flinging it open.

She stepped out into the cold night and felt her nipples harden against her yukata. The hair on her arms stood up at the invisible kiss of cool air, but it did nothing to cool her blood, nor quench the fire inside of her.

She turned to the right and ran. She had to get to him, he was the only one that could help.

She reached his room in seconds and slid the door open with a snap. Her eyes scanned for a moment until she saw him laying on his futon.

She closed the shoji behind her and stumbled forward again. She was burning inside with a strange, unknown feeling, and her heart was pounding.

She reached out towards him to pull back the covers, and he turned to her blinking the sleep from his eyes.

"Kaoru-dono? Is something wrong?" She made no answer, but reached out a trembling hand to touch his mouth, her fingers skimming across his lips.

"Kaoru?" he asked again in a voice laced with worry.

"Please," she whispered, "please, please.." she continued to say as her hand lowered from his face to touch the bare skin of his chest. The burning in her increased as she touched his skin, and she moaned at the sensation as she leaned forward to press her lips against his. She felt a jolt, a shock, as their lips touched and although the ache inside her increased, it was also somewhat soothed.

He kissed her for long moments, his tongue and lips tasting and caressing hers, before he suddenly sat up, dragging her with him and put his hands on her face, turning her towards the moonlight shining into the room so he could read her face. "Kaoru," he said in a deep voice that made her shiver, "what is it? Why are you here?"

Kaoru couldn't think. The look in his eyes prevented all thought. She could see hunger in his eyes...hunger for her, and her own was inflamed.

All she could do was respond by instinct to this burn, this ache, and instinct told her he was the only one that could soothe it. Touch was the answer.

"Please Kenshin, help me. Please..touch me, I...I burn." she said in a breathy whisper. She saw his eyes bleed from violet to a golden blaze with passion finally unleashed. It should have frightened her. She should have been utterly terrified at the raw power she saw as he looked at her, but she wasn't. Kaoru felt oddly comforted, and a shiver of excitement flared low in her belly.

He brought her face close to his and his lips captured hers in a needy kiss, both seeking to devour the other. Their lips and tongues tangled together in a dance as old as mankind. Kaoru gave herself fully to the hunger, and allowed her hands to touch him everywhere. Pushing aside his sleeping robe, she explored the taut, compact muscles of his shoulders and chest, to the warmth of his back and around again until her hands came up to touch his hair. Burying both hands in his hair, she jerked him back from kissing her so she could stare again into his impassioned gaze. Seeing the look in his eyes was like adding fuel to her already burning flame.

"Kaoru," Kenshin said in a low but slightly shaky voice, "are you sure this is what you want? You need to tell me now if you want to stop, because I will soon be unable to. Tell me what you want." he said again.

"Kenshin", she said in a quavering voice as she stroked his scarred cheek, "I need you. I don't know what's happening to me, but I know only you can help me. Please Kenshin, I don't want you to stop."

"Kaoru" he groaned as he pulled her against him and began kissing her neck and then sucked gently on her earlobe. He lowered her to the futon while he continued kissing her neck and the pale shoulder he had liberated from her sleeping garment. He reached out to deftly untie her yukata, and he pushed the fabric aside so his hands could touch the skin of her smooth stomach, and she trembled at the new sensations. She felt him go still beside her, and she looked up with questioning eyes into the fiercest yet most tender expression she had ever seen him wear. His gaze swept her naked form, taking in every detail in the bight moonlight that shone into the room. She felt his gaze as though he were touching her everywhere at once.

"Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?" he questioned in a husky voice. Embarrassed, she dropped her gaze to his chest as a blush burned her cheeks. He smiled and reached for her hand, and reverently kissed her fingers and then turned her hand over to press a kiss to her inner wrist. She reached for him and untied his robe so he could remove it, which he quickly did. He turned back towards her and pulled her naked body against his own. Kaoru gasped at the exquisite heat of skin against skin, the feel of his muscled form against her own, softer flesh.

He began kissing her again, trailing wetness with his tongue as he sucked on the creamy skin of her throat. She moaned when his hand cupped her breast, and then cried out when his mouth tasted her nipple, suckling hard and then lightly nipping the underside of her breast. She leaned her head over and bit into his shoulder, unaware of what she was doing. He growled low in his throat as he tasted the skin of her belly. He drew another moan from her when his tongue dipped into her belly button. He brought his hand down to touch the aching place between her legs, and she cried out as his fingers slipped into her when she felt his breath against her thigh. She bucked her hips and tried to shift away when she felt the dual assault of his fingers inside her as his tongue slid like silken torture against the sensitive nub of her womanhood. His other hand gripped her and prevented her from escaping the sensations he was teaching her.

Her head tossed from side to side as the sensations continued to build within her as his hands and tongue continued their relentless assault. As the waves of pleasure broke over her in waves she let out a cry as the muscles spasmed again and again, leaving her trembling and gasping for air.

Kenshin rose above her, possessiveness and desire reflected in his amber depths. She looked at him with languid eyes. He leaned down to kiss her deeply, and she tasted her own desire in his mouth. She felt the hardness of his manhood as he brushed against her wet softness. He groaned as she wrapped her legs around him granting him greater access to her secret place.

"Kaoru, look at me." Kenshin said. Kaoru opened her eyes to gaze into his dear face. "Kaoru, I love you. I love you, or I would never have done this. You mean the world to me, and I need you to know that before we go any farther." Kaoru smiled. "Kenshin, I love you too, that's why you are the only one I could have allowed to touch me. That I will ever want to touch me." He leaned forward to kiss her again. "Kenshin, come to me now." she said. "Yes" he breathed as he positioned himself at her entrance.

Kaoru's eyes snapped open. As she took in the familiar sight of her room, she groaned in frustration. "Mou, why do I have to keep having these dreams? If I have to have them, then why can't I finish them?" she huffed irritably. She pushed her covers back and fanned her face with her hands, still uncomfortable from the extreme state of arousal the dreams always left her in.

This was the sixth day in a row she had been having these erotic dreams about Kenshin, and she always woke up before she could complete the dream. "I wonder if this happens to other women?" she wondered aloud. "Maybe I'm just a pervert." she giggled as she imagined the look Sano would get on his face if she told him about her dreams. "Well, that will never happen." she affirmed to herself.

She got up and got dressed in her practice clothes, still thinking about the dreams. 'Hmmm, I wonder if Kenshin ever has any dreams about me?' she thought to herself, as she opened the door to her room and stepped out.

She walked to the bathhouse and went inside to complete her new morning ritual of splashing cold water on her face to try to get rid of the lingering heat left by the dreams. She just couldn't face Kenshin in such a state. Looking at his handsome face everyday was hard enough without adding all the new, graphic thoughts and images from her dreams. After patting her face dry, she squared her shoulders and pushed the dreams from her mind. She left the bathhouse and went to find Kenshin.

Kenshin sighed as he stirred the miso soup. Things were definitely heating up at the Kamiya dojo. For nearly a week now, he had scarcely gotten any sleep. The first night he heard Kaoru groaning in her sleep and thrashing around, he had run to her room thinking she was having a nightmare.

Kenshin slid the shoji open and looked at Kaoru twisting on her futon restlessly. He walked forward intending to wake her up if she was having a bad dream, but froze in his tracks as Kaoru moaned in her sleep "Ooohhh Kenshin, please…."

Every muscle in his body went taut at those words. Was Kaoru really dreaming about him like that? Sure, he had been having sinful dreams about her for a really long time, but for her to be having those types of dreams…she was so young, wasn't she? 'Baka! She's almost eighteen, that's three years older than you were when you married!' his inner voice shouted at him. 'True' he answered himself back, 'but is she really ready for marriage then?'

Kaoru broke through his thoughts with another breathy "Kenshiiiin". Kami, how he loved to hear her say his name, and in that tone of voice. Well, he had had many dreams about it, and had spent a lot of time trying to forget said dreams.

"Touch me.." Kaoru whispered. Kenshin's eyes snapped up to take in her flushed face and her hands twisting in the covers of her futon. He felt desire crash over him, and he knew he had to get out of there immediately, or he would surely lose all control and ravish the poor girl. 'Woman!' his mind screamed at him. He took in the curves of her body and the swell of her breasts which were plainly visible now since her thrashing had loosened her robe. 'Definitely a woman' he agreed with the voice in his head. After standing there breathing heavily for a moment, he turned suddenly and left her room, closing the door behind him.

He walked straight to the bath house and proceeded to subject his body to several buckets of cold water in an attempt to control his raging desire. He soon discovered that no amount of water could wash away the sights and sounds that had just been burned into his brain.

Kenshin pushed the thoughts from his mind as he carried the tray with breakfast and set it down on the low table.

"Good morning, Kenshin" Kaoru said cheerily. Kenshin turned around to face her and smiled. "Good morning, Kaoru-dono" he replied.

"Mou Kenshin, I thought I told you to stop calling me that. It's just Kaoru, right? Or would you rather I call you Kenshin-sama like Misao does to Aoshi?"

Kaoru laughed at the rueful expression on Kenshin's face. "Well Kenshin?" She prompted while tapping her foot in impatience.

"Very well….Kaoru"

"See Kenshin, that wasn't so hard now, was it?" she said as she walked over to him and tweaked his nose, then sat down and started eating. Kenshin sat down and joined her when Yahiko walked in.

"Oi, busu, don't eat all the food before I get there!" Yahiko yelled, taking the bowl of food Kenshin handed him and stuffing his mouth with rice.

"Next time, don't take so long getting here, Yahiko-chan!" she growled.

"Don't call me chan!" Yahiko yelled back, and the morning brawl was off to a fine start.

After breakfast, Yahiko and Kaoru went into the dojo to train, and Kenshin cleaned up from breakfast and started the laundry. Lifting his now clean gi from the water he hung it up to dry. The next thing he picked up to wash was one of Kaoru's sleeping yukatas. When he lifted it up his nose was assaulted by a powerful smell, sweat and….the smell of a woman's arousal.

'Kamisama, help me', he prayed silently as he looked at the garment, and giving in to temptation, he buried his nose in it breathing deeply.

~o~