"There is peace even in the storm"
― Vincent van Gogh

LAST TIME

"Ok." Kaoru decided. "Food. Then Sleep."

Hikari bolted around the corner when another clap of thunder crescendoed through the walls. Kaoru was certain she saw a spoon resting on the counter rattle from the sound.

"But we'll turn the gas of first. So we don't risk dying in a fiery inferno and pissing off Kenshin."

THIS TIME

Kenshin was in his office when the chaos hit.

He was shifting through an exceptionally tedious contract, printed last week but never proofed. The stark white pages were illuminated by the sharp beam of a flashlight cleverly angled on a tower consisting of an old phonebook, a dust-streaked, faded photo album, and a paperweight made to resemble a turtle. That is, if turtles had noodle arms, thumbs, and pronounced cheeky grins.

Thunder boiled outside, wind hissed against the window panes, and tree branches whipped about like a tangle of angry serpents. But it wasn't until a grand and deafening thud reached Kenshin's ears that he took note. It wasn't thunder. It was more substantial. It had come from Megumi's house.

And it sounded big.

Kenshin reached for his mobile phone and called Kaoru.

It rang.

/Hi, you've reached Kaoru's phone! Sing your song after the beep./ BEEP

He hung up and shoved the device into his jeans pocket, already taking reaching strides towards the back door.

The darkness was thick. The power must have been out for several blocks. Kenshin could barely make out silhouettes in the distance between the houses. But it was enough.

He tore his way immediately to the garden behind Megumi's porch to snag the spare key. He had to count the bricks three time to be sure he had the right one. His hands were visibly shaking as he stuffed the piece of metal into the lock and twisted. It was even darker inside but Kenshin raced through the space by memory, only to have the breath physically knocked from his chest as he reached the staircase.

Kaoru awoke to tumult of cracks, thuds and a harsh jarring against her mattress. She shrieked as her body was flung several inches from the surface of the bed by the impact. She tore her eyes open. It was too dark. There was so much noise. Her legs wouldn't move. The blankets were soaking.

Water?

Kaoru groped in the darkness next to her.

Oh god. It was huge! The tree branch had to have been the size of her whole torso. The weight of it must have broken the bed because, even though she couldn't see, everything seemed tilted and off. Her fingers tangled in the dripping voluminous leaves to feel that one of its spindly arms had been thrown across her shins, pinning them down. Kaoru could feel the panic start to set in as she threw off what she could of the saturated blankets and yank violently at her legs. Her racing heartbeat and heaving breath made each tug seem like an eternity. Her legs jerked free and one of her knees slammed full-force into the trunk. Kaoru cried out in pain and took as much care as she could in her addled state to avoid the rest of her monstrous bedfellow. She stumbled on to the floor and grabbed her phone from the nightstand, flicking the light on as quickly as she could manage.

Somehow she didn't expect to see the gaping hole in the roof.

A bolt of lightning cracked the clouded sky above her head, further illuminating the wrecked beams. Shingles were scattered like the shards of a broken mirror beneath the weight of the great tree. The trunk stretched lengthwise through the roof, wall and a good chunk of the floor. The branches covered nearly the whole bed. If it had fallen only a handful of centimeters to the left...

Kaoru shuddered.

Water was pouring in by the bucket load. Kaoru kicked her suitcase closed and pushed it through the, thankfully unobstructed, door into the hallway. She shut the door behind her.

Now what?

There is a giant tree in the house. Not exactly the kind of home-invader she was trained to deal with. Megumi was going to shit kittens.

The cats?!

Kaoru whipped toward the stairs, phone gripped tight as death in her hand. She had almost made it all the way down when she slammed into...something?

"Oof."

Someone.

She felt arms clamp around her waist and before she could think she screamed bloody murder and was shoving twisting against them.

"Kaoru?!" Kenshin barely managed to cough the word out as he released the flailing woman.

Karou stopped moving as quickly as she had started.

"Kenshin!?" Kaoru stared wide-eyed at him, like he was some sort of apparition made flesh.

Kenshin recovered after a few solid heaving breaths and reached for her. "Kaoru, are you alright?!" His voice was rasping fire and she felt the tremors in his grip as his fingers reached her forearm.

"Well, there's uh..." She turned and looked back up the stairs into the dark upper floor. "There's a tree in the bedroom."

Kenshin followed her gaze and nodded. " I know. I heard it fall. Are you hurt?" Hie eyes shot back to her face, and he stepped back to arms length to scan her form as thoroughly as the near nonexistent lighting would allow.

"No, not really." Kaoru said offhandedly. "Have you seen Sora and Hikari?" She stepped around him and another crack of lightning lit the living area up for barely a heartbeat "The door's open." Kaoru rushed forward. "How long has the door been open?!" The numb lethargy she had begun to feel was overtaken my another wave of panic as she ducked her head under furniture, flipped over pillows in a frantic search.

"Barely a moment." Kenshin was catching on and began his own hurried survey of the space. "I only just came in."

"Sora? Here kitty kitty." Kaoru's voice was breathless with worry and wavering like a bent and battered wind chime. "Hikari? Come on out baby, we need to know you're OK. The storm can't get you right now."

As if it had been waiting for that very statement, a vibrating roar of thunder shook through the house. Kaoru jumped as she heard the skittering of nails across a hard floor and turned just in time to see a small shadow zip from the kitchen under the sofa. "I found one!" Kaoru hurriedly flicked her phone light back on and shone it under the narrow space between the sofa and the floor. Two sets of wide, glowing eyes dared to the bright intruder. Sora hissed and Hikari looked like she might make another run for it. "No,no, It's OK babies." Kaoru was quick to sooth and pointed the light just to the right of the cats so she could still see them but the light wasn't blinding the poor things. "It's just me, just auntie Kaoru. Kenshin, they're both here."

Kenshin came in from the dining room and watched Kaoru coo for a few moments. In the shaft of light from her phone he could make out several scratches and some fresh bruising on her bare feet and ankles. There were likely more too. He spotted her trainers by the door and scooped them up, beginning a circuit around the downstairs area checking locks, closing curtains, looking for further damage from the tree. When he made it back around Kaoru was sitting on the floor with both cats sitting snugly in her lap.

"It looks like the damage is limited to the upper floor but from what I saw outside we don't have a tarpaulin big enough to cover the breach. There are other trees close enough to the house for this to happen again. I think we need to take shelter."

"Shelter, where?" Karou's nose scrunched in thought. "I don't think the basement on this house is finished, and I am not taking a car out in that." Kaoru gestured toward the howling storm outside the bay window.

"I have a finished basement at my house. It's equipped with a generator, food, and water."

Kaoru grinned. "Of course you do." Kaoru's laughter tittered lightly in the heavy darkness. "Why am I not surprised?" She looked down at her lap. "The cats are coming with us." Her tone left no room for argument.

Kenshin smiled in spite of himself. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

CHAPTER END

I am seriously running out of ways to talk about thunder and lightening. Someone help!