Standart Disclaimer: Unfortunally I neither own Rurouni Kenshin nor the characters but at least the story is mine.
Author´s notes:
Yes, this is a fanfic about Misao and Saitou. No, I´m not crazy (well, not totally at least). I don´t know myself what was going on with me when I decided to write this down but ever since that insane idea popped into my head, I could not get rid of it. Please don´t flame me for it since usually, I´m a fanatic MisAoshi-supporter!
A great thanks goes to Mara, without whom this story could have never been written. She edited it, helped me with her excellent ideas and critized me were it was necessary! Thank you a lot!
(By the way, she plans to write a story with this pairing as well, so don´t miss to read it!!!! I´m absolutely convinced that it will be a success!)
Another thing I´d like you to know is that I´m no native speaker so if you find some mistakes, you may keep them ^_^
But enough with my bubbling, here comes the first (still very short) chapter...
Wolf and Weasel
Part One: Wolf, Weasel and the damned squirrels
The lonesome forest layed there under it´s heavy dark roof of oak branches, barely inviting but rather threating, it´s silence only broken by the few cicades who still didn´t resign before the cold and dark season. In it´s autumnly clothes, it reminded of a spidery ruin, a place once full of life but now the accommodation of darkness and loneliness, foreign to any living sound, foreign to any season that was not autumn.
But then...
"Saitou! SAITOU!! For God´s sake, are you DUMP?!"
Angrily the young girl with the long blue-black braid stopped right in front of the tall police officer who lead them through the uninviting surroundings. "Damn you, have you lost your ears, or what?"
Lifting a burning cigarette to his thin lips, the man, known to others as Saitou Hajime, ex-comander of the Shinsengumi´s third unit or Mibu´s wild wolf, regarded her mockingly with cold amber eyes.
"I should think that even the people in the next city are able to hear you, Weasel Girl", he stated cooly. The tip glowed bright for a moment then he quirked his lips and a trail of smoke issued from the corner of his mouth. "What is it?"
The girl gesticulated with her bare arm. "Why the hell do we take this freaking forest road?" she demanded angrily. "You kept telling me over and over again that we must reach Osaka as soon as possible so why don´t we take the eastern route?! And on top of this I doubt very hardly that anyone could hear me except from the damned squirrels! This is the lonesomest, most depressive place I have seen in years and believe me, I..."
Saitou sighed. "Perhaps expecting a weasel like you to understand about tactic was a futile attempt," he interrupted her casually. "For this one last time, Makimachi, we are taking this road because it is the only possible way to reach Osaka unnoticed by Shanghai´s spies. Please don't try to accomplish impossible demands and be stupider than you look."
The girl felt her blood raising to her face. "You cold blooded,-" she began furiously but then broke off, her anger even rising, when she saw the wolf lifting his cigarette once again, looking at her with a bored flick of one eyebrow.
"It would be no problem to reach Osaka by time, if your ninjas would have trained you better, Itachi Musume," he remarked, speaking the nickname with detachment, "I really haven´t took you with me just in order to stop every five minutes."
Misao´s eyes began to flare. "How dare you..." she began but the older man was already continuing his path.
"Would you be so nice and come on for once," he demanded without looking back. "I want to headway at least 2o km before dawn if that would be possible with such a useless companion."
Turning red, the girl reached for her kunai. "EAT THIS! KANSA..."
With a crisp flick, the former Shinsengumi sent ashes fluttering, the relaxed lines of his shoulders proclaiming that he knew of her movement but that he was completely unimpressed. "For the case that you were too stupid to notice, Weasel, we really do not have time to play."
"I know that!" she shoot back. "But I sure as hell..."
"If you know that, why don´t you finally shut up and come along." Mockingly he shook his head. "I really don´t know how your keepers are able to tolerate your childish temper tantrums."
Misao prepared for her famous demon kick, but then decided against the attack, feeling the familiar hopelessness welling up in her like whenever she had to deal with Mibu´s wolf. With a barely hearable sigh, she followed him, skipping every third or fourth step in order to catch up with his long legs. What was worse, was her knowledge that Saitou was completely right. If they didn´t reach Osaka by time, something terrible would happen, something against even Shishio´s planned kuni tori would be nothing more than a little disturbence.
Shishio...
With a sentiment very near to nostalgy, her thoughts wandered back to the events which layed back three years by now. How young she had been then, how energetic in her search for Aoshi. She had sworn to turn over every single stone in Japan just in order to find him and now that he was finally home again, she still travelled around the country, was still searching for...well, actually she did not know what she was looking for, she only knew that she had found it impossible to stay at the Aoiya...to stay with him.
Misao bit her lip, feeling the old pain welling up in her. Three years since she declared herself Okashira, three year since Aoshi-sama came back, and she could count the words he said to her in all that time on one hand. At first, she had been naive enough to think that time would heal Aoshi´s wounds but now she was obvious to the fact that this would probably never happen. It was more likable that Saitou would quit smoking.
Her glance shoot to the wolf´s muscular back. She still couldn´t quite believe that she was travelling with Mr.Kill-Evil-Instantly-And-Eat-My-Cigarettes Saitou in order to guarantee Japan´s safety against a crazy freak sitting in Shanghai, but since no dream would endure so long (and be so unnerving), she probably had to accept that reality was playing a bad joke on her costs once again.
A sarcastic smile appeared on her lips. Perhaps Aoshi´s stupid philosophers, whom he read all the time when not drinking tea, were just right: life was just a meaningless reptition of one and the same river; the whole story had began quite like this, with a freak´s conspirancy and herself wandering around with a legend from the Bakumatsu.
But then, how different it had been with sweet and gentle Himura these times.
Her oceanlike eyes narrowed. By the way...
"Hey, Saitou!"
Stubbing his cigarette carelessly under one boot, the wolf didn´t even bother to turn around. "Is there something in your veins that enables you to be quiet for just five minutes?" he drawled in a tone that made Misao´s temper sparkle like starved dry tinder. "What is it this time, Weasel?"
The girl fought very hard to resist the urge to knock his arrogant smile, which she for sure knew was there, out of his skinny face. "I just wondered why you haven´t called Himura?" she demanded fuming through gritted teeth. "He would have helped you definitely if you had told him what was going on."
Finally the former Shinsengumi-captain turned around, regarding her with these irritating cold amber eyes of his that always managed to send a prickle of cold up her spine. Freaking hell, did anyone ever hear of a man with such an eyecolour?!
"Is this one of your childish attempt to make a joke or are you stupid enough to ask a ridiculous question like this seriously?"
"You haven´t seen him since that Enishi affair", she continued, trying to ignore his ironic remark. "I simply don´t understand this! He could be so much more an help than..."
"Than you?" The police officer raised a sardonic eyebrow. "There you could be right."
His tone made her long for her kunais again. "Can´t you even answer a simple question, wolf?" she hissed. "Man, travelling around with you is worse than babysitting Okon´s and Hiko-sama´s daughter!"
Flaring a match and clenching a new cigarette between his thin lips, Saitou eyed her with what seemed to be complete indifference.
"The Battousai in a state of wedded bliss and sentimental father feelings should prove amusing but I doubt that he would be able to fight like this, Weasel girl", he told her in a tone a bit more sincere, before inhalting deeply. "You were present at his last fight. Didn´t you get the feeling that he nearly couldn´t handle the stress anymore?"
Misao wanted to protest loudly, but suddenly remembered how Himura had nearly been beaten by that crazy freak Enishi. He had looked so very exhausted...
Suspicious she glanced at the older man. "You don´t want to tell me that you decided against calling him just because you feel sorry for him?"
The wolf laughed, but it was a sound without any pleasure. "Do I look like a saint to you? No, I decided against calling Japan´s favourite hero simply because I don´t have any use for him. His time is over."
"But this is neither Kaoru´s nor little Kenji´s fault!" Angrily Misao felt the urge to defend her friend. "You know, guys like you just know the way of the sword and nothing else but there is something kenjutsu can´t give you! Kaoru-san and Kenji have shown this to Himura, they have shown him something his damned sword could not: happiness!"
To her shock his eyes opened in a flash, staring at her with something like fire in their depths. Where moments before Misao had been clutching her mantle against the cold, she now felt as if hot steam was drifting from her skin. Bewildered, she took a step back. How could such cold eyes burn this way?
Then Saitou, as suddenly as he had become like this, nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. "What does a kid like you know about this anyway?"
Without one more word, he turned around and continued his way, in his characteristic arrogance not even bothering to examine if the girl followed him.
Misao stared blankly after him for some moments. Then she angrily huried after him, her long braid flowing behind her.
"I hate him", she muttered to herself. "I simply hate this unsufferable, arrogant, cruel, pitiless, cold-blooded psycho cop!"
********************************************************************************
Well, what do you say? Is it worth continuing or am I just waisting my time?
Please R&R!!!
Author´s notes:
Yes, this is a fanfic about Misao and Saitou. No, I´m not crazy (well, not totally at least). I don´t know myself what was going on with me when I decided to write this down but ever since that insane idea popped into my head, I could not get rid of it. Please don´t flame me for it since usually, I´m a fanatic MisAoshi-supporter!
A great thanks goes to Mara, without whom this story could have never been written. She edited it, helped me with her excellent ideas and critized me were it was necessary! Thank you a lot!
(By the way, she plans to write a story with this pairing as well, so don´t miss to read it!!!! I´m absolutely convinced that it will be a success!)
Another thing I´d like you to know is that I´m no native speaker so if you find some mistakes, you may keep them ^_^
But enough with my bubbling, here comes the first (still very short) chapter...
Wolf and Weasel
Part One: Wolf, Weasel and the damned squirrels
The lonesome forest layed there under it´s heavy dark roof of oak branches, barely inviting but rather threating, it´s silence only broken by the few cicades who still didn´t resign before the cold and dark season. In it´s autumnly clothes, it reminded of a spidery ruin, a place once full of life but now the accommodation of darkness and loneliness, foreign to any living sound, foreign to any season that was not autumn.
But then...
"Saitou! SAITOU!! For God´s sake, are you DUMP?!"
Angrily the young girl with the long blue-black braid stopped right in front of the tall police officer who lead them through the uninviting surroundings. "Damn you, have you lost your ears, or what?"
Lifting a burning cigarette to his thin lips, the man, known to others as Saitou Hajime, ex-comander of the Shinsengumi´s third unit or Mibu´s wild wolf, regarded her mockingly with cold amber eyes.
"I should think that even the people in the next city are able to hear you, Weasel Girl", he stated cooly. The tip glowed bright for a moment then he quirked his lips and a trail of smoke issued from the corner of his mouth. "What is it?"
The girl gesticulated with her bare arm. "Why the hell do we take this freaking forest road?" she demanded angrily. "You kept telling me over and over again that we must reach Osaka as soon as possible so why don´t we take the eastern route?! And on top of this I doubt very hardly that anyone could hear me except from the damned squirrels! This is the lonesomest, most depressive place I have seen in years and believe me, I..."
Saitou sighed. "Perhaps expecting a weasel like you to understand about tactic was a futile attempt," he interrupted her casually. "For this one last time, Makimachi, we are taking this road because it is the only possible way to reach Osaka unnoticed by Shanghai´s spies. Please don't try to accomplish impossible demands and be stupider than you look."
The girl felt her blood raising to her face. "You cold blooded,-" she began furiously but then broke off, her anger even rising, when she saw the wolf lifting his cigarette once again, looking at her with a bored flick of one eyebrow.
"It would be no problem to reach Osaka by time, if your ninjas would have trained you better, Itachi Musume," he remarked, speaking the nickname with detachment, "I really haven´t took you with me just in order to stop every five minutes."
Misao´s eyes began to flare. "How dare you..." she began but the older man was already continuing his path.
"Would you be so nice and come on for once," he demanded without looking back. "I want to headway at least 2o km before dawn if that would be possible with such a useless companion."
Turning red, the girl reached for her kunai. "EAT THIS! KANSA..."
With a crisp flick, the former Shinsengumi sent ashes fluttering, the relaxed lines of his shoulders proclaiming that he knew of her movement but that he was completely unimpressed. "For the case that you were too stupid to notice, Weasel, we really do not have time to play."
"I know that!" she shoot back. "But I sure as hell..."
"If you know that, why don´t you finally shut up and come along." Mockingly he shook his head. "I really don´t know how your keepers are able to tolerate your childish temper tantrums."
Misao prepared for her famous demon kick, but then decided against the attack, feeling the familiar hopelessness welling up in her like whenever she had to deal with Mibu´s wolf. With a barely hearable sigh, she followed him, skipping every third or fourth step in order to catch up with his long legs. What was worse, was her knowledge that Saitou was completely right. If they didn´t reach Osaka by time, something terrible would happen, something against even Shishio´s planned kuni tori would be nothing more than a little disturbence.
Shishio...
With a sentiment very near to nostalgy, her thoughts wandered back to the events which layed back three years by now. How young she had been then, how energetic in her search for Aoshi. She had sworn to turn over every single stone in Japan just in order to find him and now that he was finally home again, she still travelled around the country, was still searching for...well, actually she did not know what she was looking for, she only knew that she had found it impossible to stay at the Aoiya...to stay with him.
Misao bit her lip, feeling the old pain welling up in her. Three years since she declared herself Okashira, three year since Aoshi-sama came back, and she could count the words he said to her in all that time on one hand. At first, she had been naive enough to think that time would heal Aoshi´s wounds but now she was obvious to the fact that this would probably never happen. It was more likable that Saitou would quit smoking.
Her glance shoot to the wolf´s muscular back. She still couldn´t quite believe that she was travelling with Mr.Kill-Evil-Instantly-And-Eat-My-Cigarettes Saitou in order to guarantee Japan´s safety against a crazy freak sitting in Shanghai, but since no dream would endure so long (and be so unnerving), she probably had to accept that reality was playing a bad joke on her costs once again.
A sarcastic smile appeared on her lips. Perhaps Aoshi´s stupid philosophers, whom he read all the time when not drinking tea, were just right: life was just a meaningless reptition of one and the same river; the whole story had began quite like this, with a freak´s conspirancy and herself wandering around with a legend from the Bakumatsu.
But then, how different it had been with sweet and gentle Himura these times.
Her oceanlike eyes narrowed. By the way...
"Hey, Saitou!"
Stubbing his cigarette carelessly under one boot, the wolf didn´t even bother to turn around. "Is there something in your veins that enables you to be quiet for just five minutes?" he drawled in a tone that made Misao´s temper sparkle like starved dry tinder. "What is it this time, Weasel?"
The girl fought very hard to resist the urge to knock his arrogant smile, which she for sure knew was there, out of his skinny face. "I just wondered why you haven´t called Himura?" she demanded fuming through gritted teeth. "He would have helped you definitely if you had told him what was going on."
Finally the former Shinsengumi-captain turned around, regarding her with these irritating cold amber eyes of his that always managed to send a prickle of cold up her spine. Freaking hell, did anyone ever hear of a man with such an eyecolour?!
"Is this one of your childish attempt to make a joke or are you stupid enough to ask a ridiculous question like this seriously?"
"You haven´t seen him since that Enishi affair", she continued, trying to ignore his ironic remark. "I simply don´t understand this! He could be so much more an help than..."
"Than you?" The police officer raised a sardonic eyebrow. "There you could be right."
His tone made her long for her kunais again. "Can´t you even answer a simple question, wolf?" she hissed. "Man, travelling around with you is worse than babysitting Okon´s and Hiko-sama´s daughter!"
Flaring a match and clenching a new cigarette between his thin lips, Saitou eyed her with what seemed to be complete indifference.
"The Battousai in a state of wedded bliss and sentimental father feelings should prove amusing but I doubt that he would be able to fight like this, Weasel girl", he told her in a tone a bit more sincere, before inhalting deeply. "You were present at his last fight. Didn´t you get the feeling that he nearly couldn´t handle the stress anymore?"
Misao wanted to protest loudly, but suddenly remembered how Himura had nearly been beaten by that crazy freak Enishi. He had looked so very exhausted...
Suspicious she glanced at the older man. "You don´t want to tell me that you decided against calling him just because you feel sorry for him?"
The wolf laughed, but it was a sound without any pleasure. "Do I look like a saint to you? No, I decided against calling Japan´s favourite hero simply because I don´t have any use for him. His time is over."
"But this is neither Kaoru´s nor little Kenji´s fault!" Angrily Misao felt the urge to defend her friend. "You know, guys like you just know the way of the sword and nothing else but there is something kenjutsu can´t give you! Kaoru-san and Kenji have shown this to Himura, they have shown him something his damned sword could not: happiness!"
To her shock his eyes opened in a flash, staring at her with something like fire in their depths. Where moments before Misao had been clutching her mantle against the cold, she now felt as if hot steam was drifting from her skin. Bewildered, she took a step back. How could such cold eyes burn this way?
Then Saitou, as suddenly as he had become like this, nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. "What does a kid like you know about this anyway?"
Without one more word, he turned around and continued his way, in his characteristic arrogance not even bothering to examine if the girl followed him.
Misao stared blankly after him for some moments. Then she angrily huried after him, her long braid flowing behind her.
"I hate him", she muttered to herself. "I simply hate this unsufferable, arrogant, cruel, pitiless, cold-blooded psycho cop!"
********************************************************************************
Well, what do you say? Is it worth continuing or am I just waisting my time?
Please R&R!!!