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My Life: Chapter 8 - Roommate Number Two

by Fitz

Spending nearly a month under my uncle’s roof over winter break was not what I would call a fun time. Unfortunately, my freshman year, that was exactly where I went. However, I had anticipated this, and I procured a job at a local shopping mall as, of all things, a fitting room checker. There was not a lot available for temporary employment. What I found were major clothing chain stores desperate for temps, and I was desperate to get out of the house. So I dressed in khaki pants and a bulky polo shirt, and none of the women particularly minded my presence. Granted, I was always careful where I looked. But it never failed, I would walk by, and some half-dressed woman would grab my arm, shove a shirt into it, and ask me to find it in a different size. I memorized the pattern of the carpet that month.

Finally, school started again, and I returned to the dorms. I was nervous about that, actually. After almost two months of being without a roommate, I was being paired with a transfer student. Apparently, he was very smart and received a grant from the school to study some chemicals or something. Personally, I avoided chemistry altogether by taking geology as my physical science.

Naturally, I was a bit apprehensive. My previous experience with a roommate had not been pleasant, and I did not want a repeat performance. I swore to myself that at the first sign of violence, I would file a complaint--or kick the guy’s ass. Whichever came first. Prior to winter break, the floor CA had sought me out and made certain I knew I could come to him if I had any problems. Right. Like some skinny computer geek would be able to do better.

My new roommate was already moving his stuff into the room by the time I got there. He did not have a lot, actually. Really nothing beyond the essentials, his books, and a computer.

Travel duffel over my shoulder, I walked into the room to find the guy putting his sheets on the top bunk. He stood on the floor doing this, meaning he was another very tall person. Sure, I was really short for a guy--hell, for a girl--but how come I got all the six foot and up people around me? Not only that, but he had a more athletic build than Jonas had. He obviously had some arm and leg strength to him.

He looked up when I dropped my bag in my closet, and I waved halfheartedly.

“Kenshin Himura?” he asked, his voice a flat, cool tenor.

“That’s me,” I confirmed, walking in and holding out my hand politely. He took it in a firm handshake. “No one ever told me your name.”

“It’s Shinomori,” he said simply. “Aoshi Shinomori.”

He pulled away then and returned to tugging his comforter into place. Feeling a bit awkward, I went back to my closet to unpack my duffel. I later learned this to be an odd thing, but Aoshi broke the silence first.

“I hear you had some trouble with your previous roommate,” he commented while stuffing his pillow into its case. I glanced at him briefly, then nodded and continued to transfer my newly cleaned clothes to a drawer.

“He was expelled,” I answered.

“What did he do to get expelled?” Aoshi asked, surprised by this bit of information. It was awfully difficult to be expelled from the University. You really had to try.

“Illegal drugs,” I flung my toothbrush up to the counter. “And he tried to kill me.”

“That would do it,” Aoshi muttered. I smirked. He threw his pillow on the bed. “That would also explain why a man in the lounge threatened to beat me into the hospital if I tried anything.”

“What’d he look like?”

“Average height,” Aoshi indicated a height slightly shorter than himself. “Brown hair in desperate need of a brush, and very cocky.”

I snorted.

“That’s Sanosuke,” I informed him. “But I won’t let you do what the other guy did, so you don’t have to worry about him.”

“I have to worry about you?” Aoshi lifted an eyebrow at me skeptically. I shrugged.

“Just don’t try to push me around, and we’ll get along fine.”

“Fair enough,” he allowed me to get away with that mild threat. “Anything else I should know?”

“That’s it,” I said with a pained smile. “You?”

“I’ll work odd hours,” he said coolly. “So don’t be surprised if I come and go at strange times.”

“That doesn’t bother me,” I waved that off. “That it?”

He looked at me, his blue eyes narrow in assessment.

“I am not interested in forming any relationships beyond the platonic,” he said bluntly.

That one pissed me off. He went from being a decent, tolerable young man to a complete ass in five seconds flat.

“I won’t try to play matchmaker, then,” I replied icily.

“And do you have any... significant other?” he asked, not at all put out by my sudden hostility.

“No,” I glared at him. “I don’t have any significant other. And learn more about a person before you start saying such insinuating things.”

Slamming the last drawer shut, I stalked out of the room and out into the lounge. There, I threw myself back into a chair angrily, still grumbling to myself. Sano and Katsu were watching Jeopardy, but they looked away from the television when I came in.

“What’s wrong?” Katsu wondered curiously.

“My new roommate’s an ass,” I growled.

“What’d he do?” Sano demanded, ready to go beat the shit out of Aoshi.

“All but told me not to start hitting on him,” I said, then grumbled under my breath about presumptuous assholes.

Sano and Katsu both laughed, and I glared at them balefully. I was in the chair next to Katsu, and he casually reached up and brushed some of my heavy bangs back. I frowned at him, but he just smiled deliberately.

“You do have the look about you, Kenshin,” he pointed out.

The ‘gay’ look. As if I was suddenly going to take to cross-dressing and go find a bar with a rainbow in the window. Maybe I should have joined that club for homosexuals on principle.

“I am so sick of people telling me that,” I replied hotly. “I don’t go around calling girls dykes because they chop their hair into ‘boy cuts.’”

“Stereotypes are difficult to overcome,” Katsu said with a little smile. “If you’d like, I can go show him how a true gay man behaves.”

“Would you really do that?” I asked curiously. Katsu blinked. Apparently he did not think I would respond so positively to that suggestion. Just the thought of Aoshi getting red-faced and indignant over Katsu’s suggestive words was enough to make me consider it. I could not help it. The man just rubbed me wrong.

“Only if he seems worth the effort,” Katsu answered with a sly smile. “Not many people are.”

I hated it when Katsu looked at me like that. Sano broke in then, to my relief.

“You never flirted with me, Katsu,” he remarked. Katsu sighed and smiled blandly at Sano.

“What does that say about you?” he wondered.

“Hey!”

I chuckled. The continual insults that flew between those two never ceased to astound me. Sano slapped my back lightly.

“Give it up, Kenshin,” he suggested. “Sometimes, you just can’t win.”

“Kenshin.”

All three of us jumped and whirled to see the subject of our conversation standing in the TV lounge entrance. To my surprise and discomfort, Katsu leaned forward, draping an arm over my shoulders.

“Aoshi!” he greeted. “We were just talking about you.”

“I have no doubt--” Aoshi started.

“After the dramatic end to Kenshin’s last roommate, we will all be following this semester’s roommate closely,” Katsu interrupted. I was distracted by the way he toyed with the hair that fell over my shoulder. Annoyed, I stood to get away from it. Whatever the guy’s game was, I wanted no part of it.

“What is it, Aoshi?” I asked, giving my new roommate opportunity to complete what he had begun to say.

“Someone is on the phone for you.”

Tossing an irritated glare at the two young men who were snickering in the lounge, I followed Aoshi back to the room. He went back to unpacking, and I picked up the phone.

“Yeah?”

“Was that your roommate?”

Uncle Hiko. The day kept getting better and better.

“Yes, it was.”

“Hn,” Uncle Hiko grunted. “You going to have any problems with him?”

I glanced at Aoshi. The blue-eyed bastard was placing his books on the shelf with great precision. His gaze shifted to the side slightly, and for a moment, he just stared at the photographs taking up minimal space near the corner. In one, there were an elegant man with black hair and brown eyes and a stunning woman with blue eyes and red hair. In the other, a beautiful young woman and myself. She was smiling just slightly, and I was behind her, laughing with my arms flung around her neck.

Aoshi glanced at me briefly, then back to the photographs. Then, he continued to unpack his books.

“Kid?”

“Fine,” I said, snapping back to the present. I looked back at that second photograph--the one with me in it. “Everything will be fine. Uncle Hiko?”

“What do you want?”

“It’s the seventeenth next Thursday,” I turned my gaze to the floor then. “We’ll still...”

“Yes, Kenshin,” his voice softened, as it only did when we broached this topic. “We’ll still go.”

“Okay,” I sighed. “Thanks, Uncle Hiko.”

“Just make sure I don’t get anymore calls from the police telling me my charge nearly got himself killed.”

He hung up. I rolled my eyes and returned the phone to the cradle. Lifting my eyes, I found that Aoshi was watching me. I frowned.

“What?”

“I thought you might like to know,” he said, looking just a little... nervous? Weary? I could not tell. Not exactly content, that was for sure. “A few friends of mine are planning to stop in this afternoon.”

“Uh... Okay,” I shrugged. Who cared? I could easily avoid that.

Aoshi looked like he wanted to say something more. In the end, he just closed his mouth, shook his head, and went back to straightening his books. He spent a good twenty minutes on that shelf, organizing and reorganizing those books to his liking. Weirdo. I went out to the lounge to watch The Simpsons like normal college students do.

^_^

That night did not go at all like I had planned. Granted, my ‘plan’ had been to remain in the dorm all of Saturday night, turn in fairly early, sleep in Sunday morning, and go to a movie Sunday afternoon with Sano and Katsu. That was before a group of four very strange men appeared by the lounge.

“Which one?”

“The red hair.”

I looked up curiously from the game of ‘Go Fish’ to which Sano had challenged me. The other three students in the lounge looked at me, then up at the newcomers.

They were an odd-looking bunch. The first man you saw was the biggest. He nearly filled the large doorway, being almost seven feet tall and all bulk. His was not a handsome face. In fact, none of these men were very good looking. I was willing to bet none of them had been on a date in quite some time.

The other three were less conspicuous than that huge man who drew the eye. There was a tall, slender man with scars on his face that could only have been made by fire. To his right, the man was quite a bit taller than the second, and bigger. He had the muscles of a dedicated bodybuilder. And the last man was shorter than I, for a change. His face was angular and pinched into a weird smirk.

Through the glass partition, I saw Aoshi emerge from the wing and walk to the little group. He did not move his gaze from the four men.

“Where are we going?” he asked. So these were his friends. I certainly had not pictured such a motley group.

“Joe’s is a decent place,” the muscled man said.

“Then let’s go,” Aoshi suggested quietly, moving toward the elevator hall.

“Right!” the other four chorused. Then, two of them walked into the lounge instead of following Aoshi. Sano looked at me, trying to figure out what was happening, but I could not have told him. I was too busy staring at the manic grin on that really strong-looking guy even if I did have an answer.

“You are Kenshin?” the scarred one asked.

“Um... yes, I am,” I replied warily, then yelped as the other guy grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. “Hey!”

Just like a protective dog, Sano was on his feet and pushing between me and the man.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

“We all want to meet Aoshi’s roommate,” the short one announced from the doorway. “We’re treating him, along with Aoshi, to dinner.”

“Huh?” Sano was baffled. More than a little confused myself, I did not protest when the strong guy and his slender friend hooked their arms through mine and dragged me out of the lounge. It was not an easy thing. Both of them were quite a bit taller than I was, so my feet were barely touching the floor by the time we reached the elevators. Behind us, Sano was getting irritated. “Wait a minute! Where are you going?”

“Sano...” I murmured quietly. I had known people like this before. They were intimidating at first appearance, but usually, they were harmless. Just out for a good time. Despite the way they carried me around, I was not feeling particularly threatened.

“Put him down!” Sano demanded.

“Calm down... is it Sanosuke?” Aoshi interjected.

“We don’t even know you,” Sano growled. “I’m not letting you take him out who knows where--”

“Joe’s,” the scarred man offered. “It’s on Washington and University.”

“I know where Joe’s is!”

“Sano!” I broke in then. It would escalate into a shouting match if someone did not step in. Being that I was the reason Sano was going all knight-in-shining-armor on us, I took it upon myself to straighten out the situation. “It’ll be fine.”

“You said that last semester,” Sano pointed out.

“Yeah, I was lying then,” I sighed.

“And you’re not now?” Sano asked incredulously. Did he not think I was trustworthy? Geez. You bend the truth a few dozen times, and suddenly they think you’re a pathological liar.

“Here,” Aoshi pushed a piece of paper into Sano’s hand at that point. “It’s my cell phone number. If we’re not back by one, feel free to call. If we’re not back by two, call the police.”

Sano glared at Aoshi, then looked at the scrap. He scowled and looked to me, just as the elevator dinged and opened. I sighed.

“‘Later, Sano,” I muttered, then was stuffed back into the elevator with those four men and my roommate. The doors shut, and I looked up at the men around me.

That big guy was huge. I mean, he had to duck to get into the elevator. Four people could stand in the space he took up. Not that the others were small. Well, that one guy was really short, but the man with the scarred face was around Aoshi’s height, and the guy who must have worked out every day in his life was a head taller. I felt very small suddenly, stuck in the elevator with them.

“So, Aoshi’s new roommate,” the muscular guy grinned at me. “I’m Shikijou. Good to meet you!”

“Uh... hi, Shikijou--”

“And this is Hannya,” he pointed at the man with the burn scars. I nodded at Hannya nervously, then followed Shikijou’s next motion. “The short guy’s Beshimi, and the big one’s Hyottoko.”

As we stepped into the lobby, it occurred to me that I had left my jacket in my room. Feeling a bit sheepish, I pointed this out. This, in turn, provoked an equally sheepish response. In the end, rather than going back to retrieve my jacket, Shikijou said he had an extra sweater in the van. So that night, I wore a sweatshirt big enough for someone three times my size and had a picture of the Warner Brother’s Tasmanian devil on the front.

^_^

We had hamburgers and pop at Joe’s, and I got to learn more about Aoshi than I ever needed to know. For example, his last girlfriend dumped him because he had gotten the grant she wanted. And apparently, he used to be a dancer. That is, until his dedication to his studies interfered. He had to choose, and he chose science. While it was all very interesting, it was information I did not necessarily need to hear.

Against my better judgment, I agreed to join the group when they suggested we take some time to explore the campus. After all, it was after ten and very dark and cold out. Minnesota January’s were not known for their kind weather conditions.

While we waited, shivering on the sidewalk, Shikijou dug around in the back of his van for something. Correction. I was shivering. The others did not seem to mind the cold so much. I tucked my hands under my arms and shifted a bit so that I stood beside Hyottoko, who blocked the worst of the wind.

“Cold, Kenshin?” Hannya asked mildly. Of the group, I liked him the most. The others were nice enough, but Hannya was the least offensive when it came to typical male habits.

“A little,” I muttered, not that my chattering teeth did not give it away.

“Shikijou!”

“I’m on it!”

A few seconds later, the van door slammed shut, and Shikijou joined us. He handed Hyottoko something that looked suspiciously like a six-pack and dropped a bulky shirt into my arms.

“That should keep you warm,” Shikijou said with a grin. “Let’s go.”

It was one of those polar fleece things. I pulled it on and followed the group toward Northrop mall. While it was very dark, there were street lights, so we could see.

Hyottoko passed around bottles, which were promptly opened and guzzled. I didn’t drink the beer. Just having it in my hand was enough to agitate me, but I kept my mouth shut. At least they were not having more than the one bottle apiece.

“This is a nice campus,” Beshimi commented.

“Hn,” Aoshi agreed.

“Hey, Kenshin!” Shikijou called. He seemed to like dragging me into the conversations. “You like the U?”

“It’s okay,” I shrugged. It was a school. So huge that a person like me was little more than a number in their computer network. ‘himu0009’ if one wanted to be specific. Not that it bothered me. I had enough of being singled out in high school to last me a lifetime. Anonymity was a welcome relief.

“What’s your experience been so far?”

“Go to class, study, write papers, take tests, eat and sleep,” I answered. “That’s about it.”

“Sounds dull.”

“It’s better than excitement,” I countered.

“That’s a strange thing to say,” Hannya observed. I shrugged and did not answer. To be perfectly honest, I did not want to talk about Jonas. He was gone, over and done with. What was the point in going back and hashing over the whole ugly experience again?

We walked past the Chemistry building, pausing briefly before it. Aoshi’s friends bantered back and forth over the place, finally deciding it was suitable for him. They were intrigued by the pathway between two of the buildings, built like a cave with two exits. It was a very short tunnel where students parked their bikes in the fall, spring, and summer. The bikes left for the winter were rusted out things no one wanted to touch. Even thieves left those alone.

At that point, I decided I could go no longer without a bathroom. I ducked into the Chemistry building, grateful it was only after ten-thirty, and the building had yet to be locked down for the night. Two minutes later, I walked back out again.

Those jerks were gone. I had told them I would be right back, but when I reached the place I had left them, there was no one in sight. I looked over toward the river, but all I saw was one man, tripping and stumbling along the sidewalk. So it was me, some drunkard, and the night. And Aoshi had that damned cell phone. A lot of good it did me when I was separated from them.

Grumbling curses under my breath, I walked around the Chemistry building once. Still, I did not find them.

Why does this shit always happen to me?

If I did not find the group soon, I would have to walk back to the dorm alone. I had done it before during the day, but I did not look forward to walking across the Washington Avenue bridge in the dark. It was nearly a mile walk from where I was.

I was pissed. Growling angrily, I turned and whipped my unopened beer bottle at the nearest large, solid object I could find--that being the Chemistry building. The cap exploded off the bottle, which soon followed in a tinkle of glass on the pavement.

“Hey!”

I cursed again and looked up to see a man with a flashlight jogging in my direction. It would have been a simple matter to outrun him, but the light suddenly flashed in my eyes, and he shouted again.

“Hold it right there!”

A cop on night patrol. He had probably just gotten out of his car to stretch his legs or relieve himself in the bushes somewhere, and I was just lucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Why me? Why is it always me?!

The stress levels were up, and I wanted desperately to smoke or have some of that alcohol I had just wasted against a brick wall. I hugged myself to stave off a sudden chill.

The cop stopped in front of me, still shining his flashlight in my face.

“Do you mind?” I muttered. “It’s hard enough to see without that light in my eyes.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” the man demanded, gesturing to the wall. “You think that’s funny?”

“I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I was frustrated.”

“That smells like alcohol!” Bravo for the cop for having a good sniffer. I was cursing up a storm in my mind. “You barely look sixteen, girl--” Bastard! “Let’s see some ID.”

Hissing softly in attempt not to swear at the police, I fumbled with the layers of bulky shirts to find my pockets. I produced my student badge and keys and handed the ID to the cop. It was the only thing I had on me, of course. Nowhere on that card did it give my age or gender.

“Kenshin, this doesn’t help you.”

“I’m eighteen, and I wasn’t drinking,” I said, growing more frustrated by the moment.

“If that’s so, you mind telling me why a girl would be walking alone at eleven o’clock on a Saturday night?”

“I don’t know why a girl would do that,” I growled. “But a guy like me might have just been ditched by the group he was with.”

“Sorry about the mistake there, kid,” the cop handed me my ID. “But that does not excuse what you just did.”

“You want me to pick it up?!” I demanded. It probably was not wise to be so antagonistic. Thinking better of it, I quickly backed down. “Sorry!” I held up my hands in apology. God, I was tired of putting up with this shit. “Sorry. I’ll pick it up.”

Maybe it was the apology. Maybe it was my bone-weary voice. Whatever the cause, the officer was sympathetic.

“Don’t bother, kid,” the man sighed. “You sound like you’re having a rough enough time without cutting yourself on broken glass. Look, I’ll escort you home.”

“I don’t need an escort--”

“Kenshin?! Who’s that you’re talking to?”

I blinked dumbly at the sound of Shikijou’s voice ringing through the darkness. Turning, I looked up the stairs to see him looking down at us curiously.

“Where have you been?” he demanded. “We’ve been looking all over for you!”

I wanted to go to the wall and do to my head what I had just done to that beer bottle. The cop looked at me curiously.

“The friends who you lost?” he asked.

Sighing noisily, I held a hand to my forehead, rubbing the tension there.

“Why does this always happen to me?” I muttered, trudging up the stairs to join Shikijou.

“Consider this a warning, Kenshin,” the cop called out after me. “If I catch you out here littering again, I’ll have to issue a fine.”

“You won’t catch me again,” I called back. Shikijou slapped my back good-naturedly.

“Let’s head back, kid,” he suggested. “Beshimi and Hyottoko went ahead to warm up the van.”

“Where did you go?” I asked tiredy.

“We were waiting in the building,” Shikijou shrugged. “We must have just missed each other.”

“Great,” I shook my head angrily. I was ready to go back to my room. “Just great.”

We met up with Hannya and Aoshi, and together we walked back to the van. Thank god, but the night was over.

At least no one had been there when that cop had mistaken me for a girl.

^_^

January was always bad. Out of the whole year, I hated that month the most. Every year around the middle of January, I slipped into a bit of a funk. It was an effort to do anything--eat, sleep, go to class... anything. I spent most of my time in my room. It annoyed the hell out of Aoshi.

“Do you ever leave the room?” he asked me one night.

“Sure,” I did not look up from my book. I had no idea what book I was reading. “I had a class this afternoon.”

“That’s it?”

“I’ll go to the library tomorrow,” I turned the book to look at the cover. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Uncle Hiko gave it to me for Christmas... probably. Page sixteen, and I could not have told anyone what was happening. “And breakfast... dinner. More class.”

Aoshi shook his head and picked up his bag.

“I’ll be at the lab late tonight,” he announced. “Good night.”

I grunted my acknowledgment and flipped the pages of my book. Page one.

^_^

By the end of the month, I was okay again. I even ventured out to the lounge to watch Will and Grace. Sano walked in while I was out there and rubbed his knuckle on my head roughly, making me cringe and glare at him.

“Hey, stranger!” he greeted. “You finally recovering from Christmas?”

It was January twenty-ninth. Well over a month past the holiday.

“Yeah,” I smiled and consciously pushed all my dark thoughts to the corner of my mind. “I think so.”

“Good,” he smirked. “Because there’s a movie playing at the Uptown cinema that you’re taking me to.”

“Uptown is a lot of money,” I said uneasily.

“Blame Katsu,” Sano laughed and walked out of the room. “He said he doesn’t want to watch any of that animated crap.”

“Animated?”

“Sure,” he shrugged. “How about it?”

“When did you--

“Saturday, it’s playing,” he winked and gestured down the hall. “I’ve got a night class. I’ll talk to you later, Kenshin. Bye!”

I stared after him, feeling vaguely like I’d been run down by a student on bicycle.

“...Bye, Sano,” I said, though he had been gone for quite some time. Everyone around me started laughing, and I looked back to the television screen, hoping for a few laughs of my own.

^_^

After nearly a month of being cooped up in my room, I found myself restless to the point where I could barely spend a spare minute in it. The first weekend was the worst. Other than that movie Sano dragged me to, I had nothing to do. Even homework was not enough. Desperate to be free of the tiny room Sunday afternoon, I picked up a book and left the room, intending to spend some time in the TV lounge reading.

There were a couple students already there, but I had never let that bother me. This time, however, I stopped short of the door, not quite able to see the students. I could hear them quite clearly.

“--rfect for each other,” one young man laughed. “Who says the U can’t match up roommates?”

“That new guy--what’s his name?” another guy said--his voice was very deep.

“Aoshi, I think.” This was what made me stop.

“I didn’t think it was possible, but I think he’s colder than Kenshin!”

I frowned, frozen where I stood in the hall. Wisdom told me it would be best to turn around and pretend I had not heard anything--that, or continue into the men’s line of sight. That would have shut them up. But my feet were rooted in place. And they did not stop.

“What’s with the two of them, anyway?”

“Aoshi’s just a prick. I’d just like to know what’s up that runt. I mean--the mood swings, the long hair... you think maybe he’s really a she?”

The pair burst into snorting laughter. Still hiccupping with laughter, one of them spoke again.

“Wonder what he’d do if someone chopped that hair off!” he joined his friend, laughing again, who responded with a breathless, “Someone should try it!”

My anger was such that I could hardly think. As I walked slowly back to my room, an image of Jonas--that bastard--popped into my mind.

“I don’t know what you’re planning, fag...”

I growled softly, dropping the book without caring where it fell. My feet barely made it into the correct shoes while I pulled on my winter jacket at the same time. Grabbing my keys, I stormed back out of the room, barely taking the time to lock the door. I didn’t know what I would do if I passed the TV lounge and those two were still talking like they were, so I took the stairs down seven flights and went straight out the door.

Once outside, I started running. Across the street, through the courtyard, up the concrete steps, and to the bridge. At that point, I had a long, open space, free for the taking.

If there’s one thing I can boast about, it’s my speed. Early on in high school, I was the top sprinter in the state. After I pulled my life back into some semblance of order, I started running again, mostly to get back into shape. In a matter of months, I was almost to my original level of skill. Over a year later, I was faster than ever.

People seemed startled when I whipped past them, but I did not care. I was just blowing off a little steam. Very little. I still felt the need to hit someone.

I had to slow down at the end of the bridge for risk of running into anything. Perhaps I was fast, but I was not able to stop on a dime--or alter my course very quickly. After running into a wall or two, a person tended to learn not to do that anymore.

Even so, I was still moving rapidly when I hit the snow-covered mall. It had not snowed much that year, which I did not mind at all, and the University always kept the sidewalks clear. I shot around a corner, heading down the sidewalk. Up another flight of stairs, and into the bicycle tunnel.

Someone stepped off the stairs, right in front of me. I had an instant to stop. Yeah, right.

We collided, hitting the ground in a heap of limbs and fluttering papers. I grunted and tried to extricate myself from my unsuspecting victim. That would hurt later.

“What are you doing?”

Stunned, I stared at Aoshi. He did not look pleased, but he did not say much else as he pulled away and started picking up his papers.

“Sorry,” I muttered, reaching to help him with his scattered homework.

“You’re crumpling it,” he snatched the papers out of my hand. “I’ll do it.”

“Excuse me for breathing,” I snapped, standing and stalking off. What was it with everyone? A bunch of hypocritical jerks, all of them! I never did anything to them. What right did they have to treat me like that?

“Kenshin, wait!”

Sighing loudly, I stopped and glared over my shoulder as Aoshi jogged toward me, his folders once again in pristine condition.

“What?” I demanded.

“Where are you going?” he asked, slowing to a walk when he was close enough to converse without shouting.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged and reached to unzip my jacket. After running so much, I was warm. “Why?”

“You’re alone?” he asked awkwardly.

“Do you see anyone with me?” I gestured to the empty space around us. Aoshi just lifted his eyebrow at me.

“It’s almost dark,” he pointed out.

“By god, it is,” I looked at the sky, rapidly changing from dark blue to a deep sapphire. “What of it?”

“A person...” he stumbled over the words. “Someone of your... stature... should not walk around Minneapolis alone.”

“Someone of my stature,” I echoed mockingly. I was angrier than I had originally thought. Typically, I was not so bold with my insults. “You think I can’t handle myself?”

“I did not intend to imply--”

“Well, you did,” I growled. “And I can handle myself, thank you.”

He stopped me before I could leave, his hand on my arm. I scowled.

“Have you any plans for tonight?” he asked.

I could not come up with a response to that, so I continued to glare at him. He was not at all fazed.

“Do you know how to fight?” he pressed.

Huh??!

“What?”

“I know some Kenpo,” he explained. “But I don’t know of anyone who could be my sparring partner.”

“You want me to fight you?” Kenpo?!! What the hell was that? It sounded vaguely Japanese. Some sort of karate, I was figuring. “Are you serious?”

“The gym will have some mats,” Aoshi shrugged. “Are you a decent fighter?”

“I guess...” I was intrigued. My bad mood fell away at this new development. I was curious as to how this would turn out.

Pushing away all hesitation, I fell into step next to Aoshi, and we walked to the gym.

^_^

Owie... I winced as I walked with Aoshi back to the dorm. After over an hour of being thrown around, I was sore.

“Are you okay?” Aoshi had noticed my flinch.

“Eh heh heh heh... yeah,” I smiled weakly. “I’ve never done that before.”

“Sparred with someone?” Aoshi seemed surprised.

“Well... it was just judo lessons,” I sighed. “The occasional competition. Nothing that involved going against anyone other than the instructor.”

“You were not bad, considering,” Aoshi observed.

“Says the man who flipped me and threw me into a wall more than once,” I grumbled.

“You also caught me off-guard a few times,” Aoshi shook his head. That was true. I did get him several times, actually. It was quite a thrill to send someone sprawling to the floor, even if the ground was padded. “Do you practice much?”

“Not since last summer,” I admitted. “And not for a few years before that.”

“Then that is why I beat you,” he walked through the door at the end of the bridge and held it open for me to follow. I nodded my thanks, still rubbing my side tenderly. “You have the potential to be better than I am. I could see it in your movements.”

“You think so?” I thought he was just trying to stroke my ego, but Aoshi really was not like that. Even so, I found it difficult to accept that compliment. “And I suppose you’re the expert on these things.”

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye, a slight smirk on his face. Then, he shrugged and walked down the steps to the courtyard. He never did answer me, and I was not inclined to press the issue.

Aoshi took off at such a stride that I had to jog to keep up with him. He glanced at me, then slowed his pace. Fast I may have been, but his legs were longer.

We took the elevator to the seventh floor and walked back to the room together. The two glacial men of the floor.

^_^

For the most part, Aoshi was a dull roommate. He was gone, off in lab most times, and if we were ever in the room together, he was a silent companion. Small talk and Aoshi did not mix. Other than that, we did not have much to talk about. He was a chemistry major, and I avoided the subject like I would the plague. My opinion was that he was just boring. Except on one occasion.

It was a Thursday night in late April. The day had been cloudy and cool, the night the same. Nights like that, a lot of students stayed indoors. I was out in the social lounge, studying for a Spanish exam with Megumi. Well, I studied Spanish. Megumi worked on a microbiology report. At the beginning, Sano had been there too, working on his math assignment, but he quickly bored of that and went to watch Clue in the TV lounge.

Aoshi’s friends had arrived earlier that day to take Aoshi to some movie. They invited me along, but I declined. Because trying to understand the difference between Spanish past and imperfect verb tenses was so much more enticing.

“I give up,” I grumbled, shoving the notebook away. Two hours of studying was more than enough. I would do well on the test, or I wouldn’t. Either way, I would be doing no more studying that night. My brain was fried. “It’s impossible.”

“If it was impossible, no one would speak the language,” Megumi informed knowledgeably.

I frowned at her, then sighed noisily and leaned back in my chair. Stretching my arms out over my head, I glanced around to see what everyone else was doing. It was then that Aoshi returned.

Shikijou was with him. In fact, he was the only reason Aoshi was still on his feet. He was a lot taller than Aoshi, but he was easily strong enough to carry the man should he need to. As it was, he had an arm around Aoshi’s back and was guiding him into the lounge cautiously.

Of course, Shikijou spotted me right away.

“Hey there, Kenshin!” he called out cheerfully. “Come help me with your roommate!”

I glanced at Megumi in wide-eyed alarm, but she just smiled and shrugged. Groaning softly, I stood and walked across the room. It was not difficult to guess why Aoshi was so off balance, especially when I got close enough to smell the alcohol on him.

“What did you do to him?” I asked mildly.

“Ah... Beshimi spiked his drink,” Shikijou said, a bit embarrassed. Of course. All of Aoshi’s friends were older than he was--that is, over the drinking age.* “He’s never been able to handle alcohol very well.”

Aoshi snorted softly, apparently understanding what Shikijou had said.

“I’m fine,” he declared. “If you’d stop pushing me around...”

With that, he pulled away from Shikijou’s helping hands. The taller man tried to help him, but Aoshi was determined, it seemed. He stumbled away, right into me. I had to catch him or risk being crushed by my drunken roommate.

“Ooof!” I gasped, cringing away from the sharp stink of liquor on his breath. “For god’s sake! What did you give him?”

“Not a clue,” Shikijou chuckled. “I think some vodka... and maybe a little whisky.”

“You mixed drinks?” I asked reproachfully.

“Beshimi did,” Shikijou said quickly. “The guys are waiting for me downstairs. You mind taking him? Thanks, kid. I owe you.”

He took off like there were demons chasing after him with flaming pitchforks.

“Wait!” I protested, unable to follow him with Aoshi in my arms. “What am I supposed to do with him?!”

Of course, the man did not reply. I was left there, in the middle of the floor social lounge, my tipsy roommate almost on his knees, most of his weight against me. He really was not that heavy, and I was pretty strong for my size. But it was not easy to maneuver something so much larger than me.

“What kind of shampoo do you use?” asked Aoshi. His face was buried in the hair at my neck. I don’t think he had the ability to move away. “Not bad... do you know what kind of chemicals they use to make it smell like that?”

I sighed. The people around me thought it was about the funniest thing they had seen all year. Even Megumi was chuckling softly to the side, although most of the students were in hysterics.

I was getting irritated. None of them even offered to help. Had Megumi been much for this kind of thing, she probably would have. Sano was nowhere to be seen.

Aoshi sneezed, and I shivered unhappily. Right into my hair... God, that was disgusting. I nearly dropped him. If he had taken the alcohol on his own, I would have. He would have deserved to spend the night passed out in the middle of the floor.

Growling in annoyance, I shifted my grip to the front of his shirt and shoved him back. He reeled, looking a little surprised as I forced him back to his feet.

“What are you doing?” he snapped, suddenly mad.

“Taking you to your room,” I replied, just as angry as he. “Because your friends thought it would be funny to dump you rather than help you to bed.”

“I don’t need help,” he grunted.

“You don’t? Well, then!” I let go of his shirt and let him topple. The lucky bastard managed to catch the wall. I went back to the table where Megumi still sat and picked up my books. By the time I was to the hall, Aoshi had managed to lower himself into a chair.

“Kenshin!” Megumi called out uncertainly. “Are you going to leave him?”

“I’m thinking about it,” I replied irately. But after I dropped my stuff in my room and shoved the sheets back on my bed, which was the lower bunk, I trudged back to the lounge. Aoshi was dozing, his chin on his chest, while several students snickered around him. The idiots. I wondered where Sano had gone. The jerk could have helped.

“Get up,” I ordered, grabbing Aoshi’s collar and yanking him to his feet. He staggered and nearly fell on me again. Not giving him the opportunity to recover, I dragged him down the hall. He did well, actually, without that time to think. His feet moved on their own accord, following my lead, into the room. Once to the bed, he fell and was content not to get up again.

“You’re not even a funny drunk,” I informed him as I tugged his shoes off his feet. “Idiot.”

“You know who you look like?” he asked me. I did not look at him. I was too busy trying to shove his feet under the blankets. I indulged him.

“Who do I look like?”

“If your hair and eyes were brown... and you were a lot taller... and had bigger breasts--” I glared at him. He did not notice. “Then you look just like my late fiancée.”

Late fiancée--! I blinked.

“She died, you know,” he sighed and stared at the underside of the top bunk. “Carbon monoxide poisoning.”

“I’m sorry,” I muttered, pulling the covers up to his chin.

“Bad furnace,” he grumbled, voice fading away as he drifted into slumber. “Sued the people who made it. Sued them out of business... but it didn’t bring her back...”

He sighed again, and he was gone. I shook my head. He was going to have one hell of a hangover.

^_^

*For all people not familiar with laws in the US, this would be 21.

^_^

Aoshi made a surly companion when he was hung over. I was something of a morning person, so I was awake to witness his irritable awakening. In fact, I was preparing for my morning class when he woke.

His low groan alerted me that he was awake. At the moment, I was pacing the room, combing out the tangles in my hair and glaring at the wet spots on my shirt. I had yet to solve that problem. No matter what I did, if my hair was wet when I dressed, it soaked the shoulders of my shirt.

“What time is it?” he asked, his face buried in his--my--pillow.

“About ten after nine,” I replied, setting down the comb and searching for a binder. What was it about those little elastics that they always disappeared? I could put one down, right in the same place I always put it, and the next time I looked, it would be gone. They were like library cards. You lost them, searched all over the place for them, then gave up. After you bought another, you returned and immediately located the one you lost.

“Nnnngh... who hit me?”

“Your friends and a couple bottles of hard liquor,” I replied. “Don’t you have a class at ten? That TA job?”

He muttered something that sounded suspiciously vulgar, then flung his arm out, hand reaching toward me. I frowned at him.

“Trash can...” his muffled voice requested.

A bit confused, I grabbed his trash bin from beside his desk and brought it to him. As soon as it hit his fingers, he grabbed it, dragged his upper body around, and threw up into it.

“Ugh!” I had to turn away from that, wincing at the unpleasant sound. It would have been nice to have some advanced warning. Feeling a little ill myself, I snatched up my bag, a spring jacket, and my shoes and made a beeline for the door. “You’d better have that emptied by the time I get back here!”

“Go to hell,” he managed before heaving again. That was just disgusting. I darted out of the room, the door slamming behind me. People didn’t like others making all that noise so early in the day, but I didn’t care. It was better than the sounds he was making!

I had to go to Katsu’s room after that. Sano would have been asleep, not that he would have been able to solve my dilemma anyway.

“Good morning, Kenshin,” Katsu blinked at me. I rarely visited him without Sano dragging me along in a headlock. “You look... disheveled.”

He was referring to my hair, still wet and unbound. I sighed and frowned at him.

“Aoshi’s making the room a rather unpleasant place to be,” I admitted. “I did not want to stay to search for anything...” I gestured vaguely to my appearance. “Do you have anything extra?”

“I always have something to hold my hair back when I paint,” he said with a little smile. “You want to borrow one?”

“I would appreciate it,” I followed him into the room cautiously. His room was a mess to my eyes. There were art supplies all over the place--paints, clean and unused canvases, paint palettes, brushes, and various other things I did not know as well. Katsu seemed to know exactly what went where and had no problem with the clutter. I would have gone nuts in this mess.

“Will this work?” he held out a green ribbon. I blinked at it, then nodded and accepted the offer.

“Sure.” I was a bit leery. How the heck was I supposed to use that thing? It was not easy to hold hair back and tie a ribbon with only two hands. My uncertainty must have been visible because Katsu smirked.

“Here,” he snatched the ribbon from my hand and pushed me around. I stumbled a bit and stood awkwardly as he fixed my hair for me. “There!” he said happily. “That looks good. Have you ever thought of braiding--”

“No,” I snapped off immediately. Absolutely not! As if I didn’t look girlish as it was. Now let’s stick me in braids. I’d have every stranger on the street calling me ‘miss.’

“It’s your hair,” Katsu backed down quickly. He knew better than to press the issue. “Just out of curiosity, what is Aoshi doing that you don’t want to be in the room with him?”

“He’s hung over,” I explained, pulling on my jacket and making my way back to the hall. I wanted to get to class early so I could spend more time studying for the test. “He threw up into the trash bin.”

“How pleasant,” Katsu grimaced.

“I’ve got to go,” I backed out of the room cautiously. Thus far, Katsu had not hit on me once. I hoped to keep it that way. “Thanks for the string--”

“Ribbon,” he corrected me.

“Ribbon... um, thanks,” I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll bring it back tonight.”

“What’s the rush?” Katsu had that awful gleam in his eyes.

“Class,” I said quickly. “I’ve got a test.”

“Ah,” he smiled. “Well, come back and visit me anytime, Kenshin.”

“Sure, Katsu,” I was in the hallway. What a relief. “Thanks. I’ll, uh... I’ll see you later.”

I fled to the elevator.

^_^