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My Life: Chapter 20 - Dates and Dares

by Fitz

I stayed in the dorm the rest of the week. I had a lot of homework to finish, and it was more comfortable than hanging around at Uncle Hiko’s place. Fortunately, I was not alone those three days. Sano and Megumi were back from visiting his father. Megumi had a lot to do as well, so I got stuck with a bored Sano.

“You weren’t due back until tomorrow,” was the first thing he said when he discovered my presence on the floor. It had been a random meeting. I had not known he was there either, but when I went to use the floor’s microwave, I saw him in the TV lounge, watching Antique Road Show. He must have really been bored to sit in front of that.

“Plans fell through,” I shrugged, continuing to the small kitchen across the hall.

“How does a flight to California fall through?” he retorted. He heaved himself up out of the chair and followed me. “They let you reschedule cancelled flights for free.”

“I had a problem here,” I said mildly. As much as I would have liked to share the details with Sano (yeah, right), Kamatari deserved some discretion. Sano was pretty good at keeping secrets, but I did not want to explain what had happened. I could picture it, me stuttering out ‘yeah, and he kissed me, and... well what the hell was I supposed to do?’ There were so many things wrong with the scenario that I had to push the entire thing away. “We missed our flight.”

“Damn,” Sano groaned. “What a waste! You been here the whole time? Why didn’t you call me?”

“I wasn’t alone,” I pushed the bowl of Easy Mac into the microwave and set the timer--longer than the recommended because it was such a crappy piece of machinery. “And we made other plans. Kaoru and I went to Stillwater for a couple days.”

“What’s in Stillwater?” he blinked at me.

“A lot of antique shops,” I smirked, and he rolled his eyes.

“That sounds so much better than San Francisco,” he grumbled.

“We had a nice enough time,” I shrugged. “You? How was your vacation?”

He grinned.

“Dad loves her,” he declared. “And the brat liked her cooking.”

“That makes any woman perfect,” I murmured, trying not to smile as I said that. I recalled Kaoru’s disastrous attempts at preparing a meal. She couldn’t even make a frozen pizza.

“According to a kid ruled by his stomach,” Sano laughed. He leaned back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest comfortably. His laughter changed to something a little more serious but still smiling. “It’s all going perfectly, Kenshin. Who would have thought a guy like me could find a girl like her?”

“I never would have predicted it,” I replied, earning myself a punch in the shoulder. “Ow!”

“Asshole!” But he was grinning. “And look at you, Mr. Unsociable himself. When are you going to find a girl?”

If he tried to set me up on another blind date--

“Even Aoshi has a girlfriend,” Sano pointed out.

“They’re still going out?” I wondered. An obvious diversion, but if it worked...

“Last I heard--”

The microwave beeped loudly, cutting him off. I cautiously pulled out my food and stirred it. I added the little cheese packet, stirred again, and tossed the empty packet into the trash can.

“Maybe we could put out an ad,” Sano said.

I ate a bite of my Easy Mac, holding the bowl in my hand and turning to frown at Sano. Was it so important to be in a relationship? What was wrong with how things were? He grinned and laughed weakly.

“A suggestion,” he muttered.

I shook my head and walked out into the social lounge. Sano followed me again, sitting next to me when I went to the only table in the room. I was going to have to hurt him if he kept pressing this.

“What do you say we rent something and crash in my room?” he offered. “We haven’t done that in awhile.”

That surprised me. As a matter of fact, I had not spent much time with Sano lately. Kaoru, Kamatari, plenty of dates with homework... but not my best friend. I was surprised to admit that I really missed it.

“That sounds good.”

^_^

We watched Jurassic Park. Decent enough movie if you went for that. I brought a pillow, a blanket, and my gorilla, much to Sano’s amusement.

“I totally forgot about that thing!” he laughed when I propped my pillow against the arm of the little sofa in his room and settled down on the cushions. I ignored him and hugged the stuffed animal to my side. He was still chuckling after he pushed the video in and sat down next to me. Reaching over, he clapped his hand against the back of my head lightly, ruffling my hair. “You’re a goof.”

“Good to know,” I sighed. “What movie is this?”

“Jurassic Park.”

Conversation stopped at that. We watched the film in silence but for the random commentary that is necessary throughout a movie, according to Sanosuke Sagara. He could not keep his mouth shut for an hour and a half.

^_^

Late that night, we laid in the darkness, talking about nothing. He was on the floor, sprawled out on his back. I stayed on the couch and stared up at the dim little dots of light over the ceiling. His roommate had put those up there--glow-in-the-dark stars--god only knew why. His roommate had also dropped out of college in the middle of February. He never took those stickers with him, and Sano would be stuck with the pleasure of picking them off the ceiling when the time came to give up the room at the end of the semester.

“You think I’m doing the right thing?” Sano asked at one point. “Marrying Megumi, I mean.”

I glanced to the side, not that I could see him in the dark room.

“You love her?” I asked.

“More than anything.”

“Then why are you worrying?” The moron. “You met a girl with brains, money, looks, who loves you, and you love her back... Sano, don’t even start to have doubts now. You’ll regret it. She’s perfect.”

“Watch it,” Sano growled.

“For you, idiot,” I retorted. “For you. I wouldn’t be caught dead going out with her. She scares the hell out of me.”

“That’s confidence inspiring,” Sano chuckled. He had been asking for it.

“I do what I can.”

“Don’t get mad, now,” he stopped laughing. Ooohhhh, it was going back to me again. I could tell. “But why are you so against dating?”

I sighed.

“It’s not like you couldn’t get a girl,” he continued. “You’ve got looks, attitude--which some girls go for, don’t ask me why--you’re on the B honor roll... I’ve seen girls look at you. You just don’t look back.”

“Why are you so obsessed with getting me to date?” I complained. “I’m happy without it.”

“If you tell me you don’t like girls or guys--”

“Sano!”

“It’s been known to happen!”

I groaned, hugging that gorilla to my face to muffle the sound. To be perfectly honest, I had thought about this. No, not about that I was not interested in girls. More about how I would go about asking one out. I had never done it before.

“Fess up, Kenshin,” Sano urged. I sighed again and pulled the stuffed animal away form my face.

“How do you do it?” I wondered. “I can’t talk to people like you do.”

“Sure you can,” Sano snorted. “I’ve seen you do it. Just forget about what they’ll think. If a girl says no, then who needs her? There are more women in this world than men, you know.”

“Is that so?” Interesting little thought. I blinked and decided to ask him for a little advice. I figured I was safe with that. After all, he was the one who was engaged. “I was thinking about asking Kaoru out.”

He was quiet at first. Maybe that was a bad idea.

“You know...” he said finally, his voice so low I could barely hear him. “I’ve been wondering if you’d ever look at her that way.”

That was an odd thing to say.

“What do you mean?”

He sighed, apparently exasperated by my ignorance.

“You don’t find it much where a single guy and a single girl are just friends,” he explained. “She’s waiting for you, man.”

“She’s...” What did he mean by that?! “What?”

“Kaoru’s a pretty girl, Kenshin,” Sano stated easily. “Friendly, smart... loaded. Don’t you think she’s got men lined up out the door?”

She had never said anything about that. I did not think she was dating anyone. But... how much did I really know about her? Just what she told me, what I saw when I visited her. It seemed that she was about as straightforward as a person could get.

“But she keeps hanging around with you,” Sano added. “The little twit is smitten. Damned if I can figure out why. You treat her like shit.”

“I don’t!” I snapped. I had gone from pensive to pissed in a total of two seconds.

“So prove it, Romeo,” he drawled. “Unless you’re too chickenshit to do it.”

Like he could taunt me into it. I never would have agreed if I had not been contemplating it already.

“Fine!” I glared down at the dark shadow that was Sano on the floor. “But I don’t treat her like shit.”

“Fair enough,” he agreed blandly. “You used to.”

“But I don’t now!” Asshole.

“Goodnight, Kenshin.”

“Go to hell, idiot,” I grumbled, leaning back against my pillow again. His answering chuckle was enough to prove he did not take me at all seriously. I sighed and rolled onto my side, facing the back of the sofa and putting my back to him.

I didn’t go to sleep right away. First, I could hear Sano moving from the floor to his bed. After that, my mind drifted to the conversation I had just shared, and I realized something kind of stupid: I had inadvertently talked Sano into daring me to ask Kaoru out on a date. It was my own fault. He never would have done that if I had not brought her into the conversation--if I had not voiced the thought.

Well, it was only natural, right? Sano made a very good point. We had been friends for half a year, and how often do a guy and a girl become just friends? When one or both of them is married to someone else? When one of them is gay? Katsu had once teased me, claiming a gay man was the best friend for a woman--better than another woman. I didn’t know about that, and I was not gay, so it really did not apply to me. Which made me wonder... did Kaoru ever think like that?

“Sano?” I frowned at the sound of my own voice. Turning over, I stared in the direction I knew he had gone. I lifted my voice a little. “Sano?”

“Nnngh... huh?” He was not sleeping, but he was close to it. Oh well.

“Sano, do you think she even likes me in that way?” Since he chose to be the expert...

“Mmmm... who?” he grumbled.

“Kaoru!”

“Kao... who?”

“Sano!” That jerk knew full well who I was talking about, half asleep or not. He snorted.

“Ask her, Kenshin,” Sano grunted, sounding rather annoyed with me. Well, I guess I had interrupted his sleep. However, I really needed to ask this. And Sano was my best friend. He would understand... I hoped.

“Really, Sano...” I tried again. “I mean, she knows all this... stuff about me.”

“Do I need to come over there?” Sano asked, but the threat was weak. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know...” I sighed. “All that nasty shit no one else knows about. She knows. You think... maybe that’ll change anything?”

He didn’t answer for awhile, and I figured he wasn’t going to answer. The frustrating bastard. I never knew what he would do or say. This was one of those times when I really wanted feedback, and of course he was not going to give me any.

I sat up, hunching over my gorilla as I considered things. Kaoru had been really nice after waking me up from that nightmare. She even held me until I fell asleep again. She seemed honest enough when she smiled at me.

“You’re talking about the drugs,” Sano’s quiet voice startled me. I had been certain he was asleep. “Aren’t you?”

“Among other things,” I muttered. Thank god for the darkness that hid the way my face burned. Sano did not need to know that. He would hate me. Or worse--treat me like some breakable thing.

“Ahhhh...” Sano moved, sitting up from the sounds of it. “Some of that stuff you don’t want to tell me.”

I blinked. He sounded... angry about it.

“I didn’t intend to tell her,” I frowned uneasily. I hoped he was not angry with me. “She just... found out.”

“I don’t even know what you told her, Kenshin,” Sano grunted. “How should I know if it would make her hate you?”

I hissed in surprise, flinching a bit at his words.

“Son of a bitch...” the words flew out of me before I could bite them back. It didn’t sound like my voice at all, saying that. It was too deep, too breathy. I squeezed my eyes shut, biting down on my knuckles to keep from saying anything worse. The sharp taste of blood startled me again, and I relaxed my jaw, sucking on my fingers. I took a deep breath and pulled my hand away from my mouth. “Everyone has something about themselves they don’t want anyone else to know. You have secrets you keep from me. Don’t get on my case about things I don’t tell you.”

“But you tell the bi--”

“Hey!” The gorilla went flying, and I heard it swish and thud into him. Ass! I wised I’d had something harder to throw at him. “Don’t even think about finishing that! What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Me?! I’m not the one abandoning his friend for some girl!”

“Ffffff...” I struggled to hold that word in, and I shoved off the couch, standing in the middle of the small, dark room. “Hypocrite! What about you and Megumi?! You’re off with her all the time! Why the hell do you think I started spending so much time with Kamatari this year?” I immediately hated myself for bringing Kamatari into the argument. Kamatari had nothing to do with this.

“Well, why don’t you ask him out, hmm?” Sano growled. “It’d be good for you. You obviously can’t lead a relationship.”

I would have been less shocked if he had shoved his fist into my gut. My reaction was about the same, either way. I couldn’t breathe. When I opened my mouth to respond, I couldn’t say anything. The sound caught in my throat, coming out strangled and pained.

“Shit, Kenshin,” Sano was on his feet. I could see his shadow, moving toward me. “I didn’t mean that.”

I didn’t want him touching me. His hands brushed my arm, and I pulled away, stumbling in the opposite direction. The room was not very big, though, and I hit an obstacle after three steps. It felt like a chair, heavy and wooden, and I gasped as the contact made me lose my balance.

“Watch it!” His warning came at the same time his hands caught my arms, yanking me back again. My entire body felt like it just coiled up, ready to spring away from him. I resisted the urge because it would just send me sprawling over something else. But that did not prevent me from growling out an angry warning.

“Let go!”

“You were going to fall.”

“I don’t care. Let go!”

He did, and I fell back, hitting the sofa again. That big shadow shifted down, Sano crouching in front of me.

“I’m sorry, Kenshin,” he said quietly.

“What the fuck did you mean by that?” I hated using that word against this man who was supposed to be my friend, but I couldn’t help it. He never should have said that. It was a direct attack, and he knew it. He knew how much that bothered me.

“I didn’t mean anything, Kenshin,” he said, still in that soft, conciliatory tone. “It was a stupid thing to say.”

“Why’d you say it then?” I glared--at him, at the room, at anything. My anger was fading rapidly. It just hurt. God, Kaoru was right. This was why I never trusted anybody. If anyone else had said it, I would have brushed it off with annoyance. But Sano... he had known how much that would hurt.

“I was mad,” he grunted. “I knew it would make you mad, so I said it. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I wasn’t thinking.”

Damn it. Damnitdamnitdamnit! My fist lashed out of its own accord, hitting his cheek painfully. It hurt me, in any rate. He was barely rocked from the blow, and I had used my left hand--the same hand whose fingers I had bitten only minutes ago. I bit my lip against the cry that threatened to escape me, muffling it a bit. Growling softly, I pushed the pain away and glared down at my lap.

“Fine,” I whispered reluctantly. “Fine, you’re sorry. I forgive you. Don’t say anything like that again.”

“...Okay,” Sano said slowly. “Hey, Kenshin?”

“What?” That came out a bit testy, but I was justified, right?

“Why don’t you want to tell me?” It was so subdued and quiet that I lost my hold on that resentment, and tilted my head to look at him. I had to strain my eyes to see anything, so I did not attempt to see his expression. I sighed.

“It’s just something I don’t tell people, Sano,” I told him. “It’s embarrassing and kind of scary. I never would have told Kaoru, but I guess I was having a bad dream and...” I trailed off, remembering the moment. The fear had consumed me, making any coherent thought an impossibility. In a way, I was lucky it had been Kaoru. Had I been alone, it would have been better, but for someone to wake me... well, if it had been Sano, I could not begin to imagine what I would have done. It would not have been pretty, that’s all I knew. I shook my head. “It was humiliating. I didn’t know what to say to her, and I wouldn’t know what to say to you. So could you let me keep this one a secret?”

Sano sighed and agreed finally.

“Kaoru won’t reject you,” he stated abruptly. I had to pause a minute to recall exactly what we had been discussing before he had made that awful comment. “If she was going to, she would have when you told her... whatever you told her.”

“You think so?” I frowned, thinking on that. It made sense. “She was trying pretty hard to make me comfortable.”

“You see?” Sano sighed, rubbing his face tiredly. “Now what’s all the fuss... what--?”

I looked at him oddly, wondering why he had cut off so suddenly. His hands were still up by his face, and he sniffed a couple times.

“That’s...” he murmured. “You didn’t hit me that hard.”

“I was too close,” I shrugged. “What do you mean?”

“There’s blood on my cheek,” he replied.

“Oh...” Whoops.

“So it’s got to be you,” Sano grumbled. “Idiot yourself. Hold on, I’ll get a Kleenex.”

He flicked on his closet light, and came back with the promised tissue. I wrapped it around the fingers I had unintentionally injured and studied Sano cautiously. Something was really bothering him.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, settling on the direct approach.

He lifted his eyebrows and looked at me, then sighed and flopped back on the sofa next to me. He stretched his arms out, draping them over the back cushion. His arms were nearly long enough to span the entire sofa like that.

“I never thought it would bother me,” he admitted finally. “I mean, everybody’s got to live their own life, right?”

“Sure,” I agreed, as if I actually knew what he was talking about. I figured he would tell me soon enough, so I didn’t ask.

“But look at us,” he sighed loudly. “Katsu’s off in Italy, I’m getting married next year, you’re running full speed into god knows what kind of life, and we’re losing everything we got here.”

Oh. I had no idea what to say. If Kaoru had been there, or Megumi or even Kamatari... they would have had some sort of good response. But they were not there, and so it was left up to me to say something deep and inspirational. Yeah, I could have told that to my mind, which was busy sipping lemonade under the sun in the Bahamas.

“I don’t know, Sano,” I swallowed and fiddled with my tee shirt. I drew a great big blank--utterly useless. “We don’t have to let that happen.”

“You think you’re going to make the effort to keep in touch?” Sano grumbled. “I mean... I thought Katsu would, but I don’t even know where he’s staying.”

Ouch. I had to agree with him on Katsu’s account, though. I would have thought that guy would write or something. Email. That was quick and easy. And I suppose I had not given anyone any reason to believe I would ever write or call once we left.

“Um...” Not exactly the most intelligent response.

“Hey, forget it,” Sano grunted. His arm hooked around my neck, and I choked as he dragged me against his side. His knuckle came down on my head and rubbed against my skull unpleasantly. I yelped and squirmed in complaint.

“Ow!” It hurt! I hated it when people did that. “Stop it!”

He stopped after a few seconds, releasing me and shifting suddenly so his legs were flung over my lap, and he was laying with his head on my pillow.

“Sano!” I shoved at his legs without much luck. “Sano, I’m tired too!”

“You’re the one who woke me up,” Sano sighed, sounding perfectly content.

“The lights are still on,” I pointed out hopefully.

“So?” I clenched my teeth in frustration.

“Get off!”

“Why? I’m comfortable,” he chuckled.

“I’m not!”

“That’s hardly my problem.”

“Sano!”

^_^

It was snowing. Again. My intention had been to go for a run that morning, but there was no way I was going out in that. It was just as well. Sano wanted some company, and I still had homework to finish before Monday.

We sat in the TV lounge, some Jerry Springer rerun going in the background. I ignored it, too busy reading through some research material for my writing class and talking to Sano. His feet were up on the back of my chair, his hands behind his head, that cocky smirk on his face.

“Over the phone or in person?” I asked. I dug around for my highlighter and discovered it was not where it should be. Sighing impatiently, I climbed off the chair to look for it.

“That depends on what kind of  result you’re looking for,” Sano smirked, and I glanced at him.

“What do you mean?”

“You want to get laid?”

Of all the--! I found myself momentarily speechless, shocked that he would suggest that.

“Sanosuke!” I finally settled for glaring at him. “Of course not! I-I-I--” I needed to shut up if I could not spit that out. I spotted my highlighter on the floor under my chair. Huffing in irritation, I snatched it up and dropped it onto my book. “You know me better than that.”

“Now this sounds like an intriguing conversation!”

We looked up to see Chou, leaning against the glass partition between the TV and social lounges. He was grinning broadly, apparently amused by the conversation.

“You shouldn’t ask the kid questions like that, chicken,” Chou continued. Sano twitched beside me, probably reacting to the ‘chicken’ comment. It was his twist on Kamatari’s nickname, and Sano hated it. I did not blame him, although I no more appreciated being called ‘kid.’ “We all know he’s commitment shy.”

“I am not afraid to commit!” I snapped back immediately, even though that was a boldfaced lie, and everyone knew it. Even if I was afraid to commit, that did not mean I was incapable of it!

“I’ll bet you’ve never even thought about getting laid,” Chou replied.

“I’ve thought about it!” I scowled.

“With who, huh?” Chou laughed. Sano was snickering as well, and I hooked my foot around the back of my chair, shoving it forward. His feet dropped, sending him sprawling forward with them.

“Shut up!” I complained. It was somewhat satisfying to see Sano so off balance like that. “I can commit! Just because I don’t want to immediately jump into the sack with Kaoru doesn’t mean I’m not serious about this!”

“You took a dare, Kenshin,” Sano pointed out, yanking my chair back so he could prop his feet up on it again. “You wouldn’t even be asking her.”

Jerk. I kicked the chair forward again, and he muttered some curses while he regained his balance. I picked up my books and glared at both of them.

“I’ll ask her in person,” I said hotly. “And if you start spreading the word that I want to sleep with her, I swear to god--”

“Relax, kid,” Chou clapped his hand against my back as I pushed past him. “We would not want to risk such rumors reaching the innocent ears of your girl.”

Innocent ears. Right. Kaoru was less likely to be shocked by this than I was. I shook my head and walked away from them, back to my room. The argument had taken up more time than I had anticipated, and I was going to be late. Oh well. A mad dash through falling snow would not kill me.

^_^

I did worse that Saturday morning than I had done the first time I sparred with Kaoru. It might have been the fact that I was already somewhat worn out, having run the entire way to the gym (which was no small distance). Or maybe I was distracted because of all that talk about asking her out. The most likely reason was that Sano’s and Chou’s words kept flashing through my mind, making me hesitate every time I got close enough to do anything.

“You’re distracted today, Kenshin,” Kaoru observed. Of course, she was barely breathing hard. I remained seated to catch my breath. She smiled and knelt across from me. “Getting geared up for classes again?”

“I’ve got most of my homework done,” I nodded. All the while, this little voice in the back of my head was chanting, ‘Ask her! Ask her! Ask her!’ I sighed. “You?” I was such a pathetic wimp.

“Eh,” she shrugged carelessly, smiling brightly. “I didn’t have that much. Ready to go again?”

“Sure.”

“You really need to strengthen your stance,” she reminded me. “You’re completely off balance. Look...”

I watched her set her feet, just as I knew I was supposed to be doing. It was not that I did not know what to do. But how was she to know it was only my own distracted thoughts that would not let my body cooperate? So I tried to do what she suggested.

“No, look,” she said again, reaching toward me. This was going to be a painful one. “Look, I can knock you flat without trying.”

She did just that. I gasped as she twisted my arm and sent me sprawling. My back hit the mats, and I coughed, panting in protest of the impact. Kaoru stood over my head, hands braced on her thighs as she smiled down at me.

“What’s the deal, Kenshin?” she asked. “I’ve never seen you this distracted.”

“I-its...” It was really hard to talk when I could barely breathe. I held up a hand to hold off any questions until I was ready to respond. Kaoru waited patiently. “I... wanted to ask...”

“Ask what, Kenshin?” Kaoru wondered.

I stared up at her. She would not reject me. I knew that. So why was it so damned difficult to spit out the question?

Kaoru just kept staring at me, her head tilted inquisitively.

“Would you...” I almost screwed it up right then and there. My instinct was to spit out some meaningless question. But I had said I would do this. And Sano would laugh me out of the dorms if I chickened out and went back without asking.

“Hey, are you feeling okay?” Kaoru laughed, touching my forehead lightly. I frowned and reached up to catch her hand, pulling it away from my face. She blinked at me. “Kenshin?”

“Will you go out with me this Friday?” It came out a little rushed, but I said it. Not bad. That was the first time I had ever asked anyone out on a date. And, as I should have expected, Kaoru did not respond in the way I would have hoped.

“Sure,” she smiled again. “Where should we go? Misao’s been bugging me to go see that film with Ben Affleck in it. Maybe we could all go see--”

“Kaoru,” I cut her off, sitting up--slowly to accommodate for my sore back.

“Hm?”

“I was kind of...” I sighed and shook my head. I offered her a wary smile. “I meant that I would like to take you out this Friday. Just the two of us.”

She stared at me.

“You mean... like a date?” she asked uncertainly.

“Yeah... like a date,” I echoed.

She smiled slowly.

“Sure.”

Thank god. It was over, and she’d said yes. Just like Sano had insisted she would. I grinned and pushed myself to my feet.

“Now that I’ve gotten that accomplished,” I shifted and set up my stance. “You think we can try this again?”

Kaoru laughed incredulously and straightened as well.

“Why do I get the feeling this was all just to get me off my balance so you could start winning?”

I smirked, lifting my eyebrows at her.

“You think?” I challenged.

“No,” she tossed right back, making me pause. “I think you were losing because you hadn’t asked. And I know you never would have asked if it hadn’t been eating at you for a long time. Ready?”

I staggered back, out of her range as she attacked. The little--! She thought she had it all figured out, didn’t she? I scowled at her.

“For that,” I grunted as her hand hit my arm. “See if I proofread any of your reports again.”

I caught her hand, twisted, and she was down. Triumph.

“Come on, Kenshin! You’ve read those things! I’d fail half my classes if I didn’t get someone good to look them over!”

Triumph again. I grinned and held my hand out to her.

^_^

Sano was many things, but a dating expert he was not. It made me wonder how he had gotten so far with Megumi when he kept insisting I could get by with taking Kaoru to Taco John’s for dinner followed by whatever movie was on HBO that night. I may have been looking to save a buck, but that was just being cheap. No way was I going to impress Kaoru with a burrito.

I disputed his ideas while I dug through my closet, trying to decide what to wear that Friday. Girls were not the only ones who stressed over that stuff. The clothes didn’t jump out of my closet into my arms. I had to make decisions too.

“I’m serious, Sano,” I groaned, glaring over my shoulder at him for a second before looking back at the shirts hanging in the closet. There was a lot of black. Black, some blue, several white, and if I looked really hard, I could spot that orange sweater my aunt gave me last Christmas. I never was one for variety. If I found something that worked, I stuck with it. That sweater clashed something awful with my hair. Even Sano agreed it looked bad. It went straight to the back of the closet. “I want to do something nice. She lives in Sun Fish Lake, for god’s sake! She’s used to fancy stuff.”

Sano just laughed at me. He finally heaved his butt off my futon and walked over to the closet, leaning over me to look at the choices.

“Look at you, you idiot,” he chuckled. “Getting all flustered over a date.”

“We can’t all be suave lady’s men,” I grumbled. Sano had put a nice portion of his weight against my back, and it was not easy to stay standing where I was. I was tempted to move forward just to spite him. The only thing stopping me was the knowledge that putting him off balance could mean making him fall--and if he fell while I was in his path... A little of his weight was better than all of it.

“Kaoru’s not going to care where you go,” Sano ignored my comment for the moment. “You’ve gone out with her before.”

“Not on a date,” I protested.

“Whatever.” I ducked as he reached over me and pulled something out of the closet, knocking down another three shirts in the process. “What’s this? I never saw you wear this.”

I eyed those fallen shirts a moment before glancing to the one in his hand. It was an odd thing, actually. It was dark blue, and although it was difficult to tell in the dim light of the closet, there was some intricate pattern in the fabric in an even darker blue. The shirt had one of those Mandarin collars and buttoned down the front and at the cuffs. It was a nice shirt, but I always thought it looked strange. That, and it had been a graduation gift from Enishi, and I had generally avoided anything that involved him. Stupid to let that transfer over into a shirt, but that’s what I did.

“I’ve never worn it,” I admitted. “It’s a little dressy, Sano. We’re not going to the Ritz.”

“That would require a tie,” Sano pushed the shirt back into the closet, knocking down two more hangers. I wanted to pick those up, but again I faced the problem of what would happen if Sano suddenly lost all his support. “Just wear some color, Kenshin. Much more black, and you’d be gothic.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“If you go out and get your tongue pierced, I’m finding a new best man,” Sano laughed. He knew I would never do that. For one, the mere thought of having some metal rod shoved through my tongue (or any other body part for that matter) was enough to make me ill to my stomach. What was more, I doubt most kids thought about what they would look like later in life. A middle-aged, overweight man with earrings down the shell of one ear, a nose ring, and a tongue piercing was just an ugly thought.

“I didn’t mean I’d start dressing like that,” I moved forward, then shifted back as Sano’s weight followed me. “Sano... Sano, can you just--”

“You’ve got those khakis still, right?” he interrupted, not letting me finish. I sighed and braced an arm against the counter to help take some of the strain off my back.

“You mean those ones I wore to work?”

“I don’t know what you wore to work,” he snorted.

“They’re in the drawe--” I gasped as he suddenly shifted away, the movement sending me sprawling back. Apparently he did not think so much about what his actions would do.

“Whoa,” Sano chuckled and grabbed my arms, pushing me forward again. “You’re not impressing anyone if you can’t stand on your own two feet.”

I looked at him incredulously, but he was already pulling open the drawers, searching for the pants.

“Sano, I don’t even know where to take her,” I pointed out.

“Like I said before,” Sano yanked out some khaki pants and shook them lightly. “They’ll need an iron... or something... ah, Kaoru’s not going to care where you take her. If she wanted someone to take her someplace fancy, she would have set her sights on someone she knew could afford it.”

He threw the pants at me and turned to look at me. I shifted uneasily. I looked pretty bad, I knew. It was Sunday, and I wasn’t going anywhere, so I had not put much more effort into myself beyond a shower and a clean pair of clothes. I lost all my hair elastics again, so a pencil was all that kept it out of my face for the moment.

“I can’t do anything with... that,” he pointed at the tangled mess that was my hair. I sighed. “There’s got to be someone on this floor... maybe one of the girls--”

“I barely know any of the girls on the floor,” I groaned. Did Kaoru go through all this just to go on a single date?

Sano snapped his fingers.

“I’ve got just the person,” he declared, just before disappearing through the door.

I sighed again, shaking my head in amusement. Sano had agreed to help me with the whole ‘dating Kaoru’ thing. I had never been on a date in my life, and he was getting married, so it seemed he should have been a good advisor. Of course, Megumi was a lot different than Kaoru, but the basics were the same, right? And he had helped me get up the guts to actually ask Kaoru out in the first place.

Sano’s voice drifted back into my room a few seconds later, while I picked up those shirts he had spilled onto the floor. The other voice that joined his startled me, and I froze, my heart speeding up in my chest.

“Here we go,” Sano announced, returning to the room with his help. “Kamatari agreed to help with your hair.”

I found myself caught in Kamatari’s dark-eyed stare for the first time since we had parted so cautiously last week. He smiled, but it looked strained.

“Finally got Kaoru to go out with you,” he murmured.

“Uh...” Oh dear god. Of all people. But Sano did not know what had happened last week. It was not my place to tell him. “Have fun in West Virginia?” That was horribly weak.

“Not really,” his smile didn’t change. “But we’ve got more important things to think about, right? Like how we’re going to make you look more masculine for your girlfriend.”

With that, he reached forward, transferred the shirts from my hands to Sano’s, and pulled me into the room.

“Girls are vain, sweetheart,” he said lightly. “And no girl wants a relationship where her boyfriend is prettier than she is.”

That one brought a flush of red to my face, and I let him pull me across the hall to the bathroom. He had a bold smirk on his face when I met his eyes in the mirror. I had a bad feeling about that.

“Let’s get started!”

^_^