Author's note: Sorry about the delay peoples, but I'm back from out of town now! I will apologise in advance in case now, though, because upon my return I discovered that I (as well as everyone else in the building) am being evicted from my apartment so that they can tear the building down. I knew I lived in a dump, but I really didn't think it was THAT bad. Still, because of packing/moving/finding a new place to live AGAIN (the bus shelter looks enticing) I might be a little slower with updates for the rest of this fic. Things always seem to come up halfway through a fic.... Anyhow, please be patient. Also, I'd like to apologise for a slightly shorter chapter this chapter. We're not too many chapters away from the end of the story, though (I keep saying that but I keep misjudging) so hope you don't mind.
Response to Reviewers!:
Kasamihottie: Hello, a new reviwer! Welcome! Hiko's getting close, everyone's getting impatient with me, I know. Thanks for your review.
Kelsey: Tis okay, I don't like flames but so long as your criticism is constructive I don't mind at all. I'll try not to flag too much on the updates despite the sudden other pressing concerns in my life. Thanks for your review.
Crazy Girl Person: If it's going to take you until 2070 to get a 1000yen, then consider it charity, you need the money more than even I. Keep up with your fic, or I'll threaten you again! Thanks as always for the review and see you around.
MsJadey: I'm glad you think I'm good at suspense (everyone else is starting to hate me for it), and you're not getting any clues as to when the suspense will break! Bwa ha ha, absolute power! Okay, now that I'm over my brief power trip, I would think, in that situation, that Hiko's probably used to constant blackouts and such, and he seems to me to be a pretty assuming person - after all, in day-to-day life we don't question much of what we remember unless we're told otherwise. Yay, I'm so happy I get to put off the ending for another couple of chapters - more suspense, suspense and angst for everyone! Anyhow, thanks very much for the review, as always.
Emz: Thanks very much. Glad to see I can always rely on you, Emz. Loyalty is priceless in a reviewer.
LinaNverse: My trip sucked, thanks for asking, though I did convince my seatmate on the train that I worked as a stunt woman and I spent my high school years in a mental institution in Sydney. Hours of fun, right there. I'm sure no one's interested in that, though. Thanks for your review.
Kai: I'm not really personally into yaoi either, or yuri, but more the actual pairings of interesting characters and/or character relationships. Or something. Anyhow, don't die, I'll try to update, and the usual thanks for dropping a positive line.
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Routine
Chapter 12 - A Holiday of Sorts
By Sinnatious
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It really hurt.
That was certainly nothing new to Kenshin Himura by now. Nor was the brief panic that seized him when he opened his eyes blearily. Had he fallen asleep? How could he have been so careless?
No, that's right, they'd been training, and Hiko had suddenly launched into a Ryu-Tsui-Sen. Normally in training the path would be to evade it, but Hiko had been bearing down too fast for him to even properly try. Blocking it would have been useless, so he'd hoped to up his chances of breaking the attack by attacking himself. Had it worked? Hiko didn't usually get so serious in training without at least some warning. That's right.... it hadn't quite worked, and the impact from their collision had wound up throwing him back to the ground again. He must have received a concussion when he landed.
The sky was a myriad of dusky colours, indicating it was either already twilight or not far from it. Had he been unconscious for so long? At least the rest was welcome, though his sore body was protesting from being treated so harshly while it was still trying to heal.
Groaning, the young swordsman forced himself to sit up, clamping down on his ki relfexively as the pain freshened.
"It's about time you woke up, I was about to head back without you," Hiko said from behind him, seated comfortably on a rock.
The young red-head jerked around in surprise. "Shishou?"
"You've been asleep all afternoon. I was starting to get bored. If you're ready, we may as well head back now. It's going to be too dark to continue training up here soon." With these words, the swordmaster stood, replacing his sheathed katana to his side. Beginning to walk off, he cast a glance back at his baka deshi. "Well? Are you coming?"
"Coming, Shishou," Kenshin said, getting up carefully, still a little dizzy after the concussion, but at least not as tired as he'd been earlier. That was odd, he had been expecting Hiko to chew him out for using such a risky and probably foolish tactic, or at least pick on him for wasting so much of his time. Even criticise his technique like he nearly always did at the end of every day of training - he had been sloppy in his stances all day, there was plenty for him to critique.
Hiko, though, was occupied by his own thoughts; he was really looking forward to some sake now. He'd wasted the whole afternoon waiting for his baka deshi to wake up, trying to use the time constructively to figure out what by the Kami was going on these days but he hadn't reach a single plausible conclusion other than the usual nightmares the entire time. It would have been unfair to blame it all on the youth, though, given that it was largely his fault for not paying proper attention to what he was doing, the reason of which he also had failed to figure, but it was a problem that had to be dealt with - Kenshin still hadn't actually learnt from him how to break an aerial attack like the Ryu-Tsui-Sen, only how to evade it effectively, and to be honest with himself he was mildly impressed with how his apprentice had handled it. He was beginning to pick up nuances of the style without being actually taught them now, though Hiko would probably never actually tell him that; he didn't want his baka deshi to start thinking he was smart.
The swordmaster was still silently berating himself for losing such concentration, though. He might've had perfect control over the blade, but perfect control meant nothing if you weren't paying attention to what you were doing. Maybe his baka deshi's symptoms were contagious. Laziness would probably be next.
Speaking of which..... "Baka deshi! We need some kindling for the fire. I'll meet you back at the hut."
"Yes, Shishou," Kenshin replied in the same monotone Hiko had become accustomed to, though he certainly didn't like it. Who would have thought he'd miss his fiery unpredictable red-head? Granted, the boy was still being unpredictable, just in more perplexing ways. It was fine to be surprising - however, in his opinion it was not fine if he couldn't figure out the justification behind it.
Hiko arrived back at the hut, Kenshin following not long after, and soon the natural rhythm of the evening took place; Kenshin making dinner, the two of them sitting down to eat in silence, Kenshin doing the dishes then Hiko sitting down to his much-loved sake. And, of course, once he was finished his baka deshi went and sat against the wall, head down and shoulders relaxed, not saying a thing. As if they didn't see enough of each other all day as it was. At least Hiko had some time to himself while the boy had been unconscious that afternoon.
The teen sat against the wall, breathing even and steady, silently praying to the Kami and considering making the prayers a new ritual, though they hardly ever actually seemed to work. He added the omission of a seductive Hiko to that of a violent one to his wishes that night; he had no desire to repeat the episode of the night before, as his master's questions, even in his drunken state, still pressed heavily on his mind. Not to mention his lack of sleep the night before meant he was more interested into going to bed as soon as possible rather than entertaining his master - at least his foray into dreamland that afternoon had replenished some of his reserves, though being knocked unconscious wasn't really what most people looked for when they were looking for some serious rest. What would his Shishou say if he told him that he wanted to take a holiday?
An amusing thought. Not that it would do much good. He could already see Hiko in his mind, saying "A holiday from what? You don't do anything half the time." They both knew it wasn't true, but that didn't seem to matter. So instead, he counted his holidays as the days when he was confronted only with a singing or a jovial Seijuuro. He still hadn't made up his mind about all the other personalities his master was known to adopt, though he was quite sure he didn't ever like getting beaten up.
Hiko was chuckling to himself about something over his sake. It was starting to look like it might be one of those precious holidays - unless Seductive Hiko had just figured out some amazing new way to woo him or something.
"Shishou?" Kenshin ventured hopefully, testing the grounds to see what his master's reaction would be.
"I keep telling you, deshi, you may as well call me Seijuuro!" Hiko cheerfully called over. He patted the space at the table next to him. "Come have a seat!"
Barely suppressing his grin of relief, the red-head obliged, settling himself next to his master. Getting right ahead, he said, "I'm afraid I don't have any interesting tales to tell you, Seijuuro."
"I think you're lying again," Hiko said, wagging a finger at him, then shrugging. He hiccupped, then covered his mouth - that alone made Kenshin want to snicker, as it was such an odd gesture coming from a man like Hiko Seijuuro the 13th. "What about travelling stories? Everybody has travelling stories."
"I've never been anywhere other than here, Seijuuro," the younger man replied patiently.
"I went to Shikoku, once," Hiko told him, leaning back in his chair with an odd sort of dreamy look on his face.
To say he wasn't surprised would have been lying - he had somehow envisioned his master living on this mountain forever, with maybe the odd trip to Kyoto for a thrill. But Shikoku, aside from being difficult to get to, didn't seem like the top of anyone's favourite destination list. "What was on Shikoku?"
Hiko became uninterested suddenly. "Hn. Not much of anything, really. Pretty boring, in fact."
Kenshin tried to keep from becoming exasperated. "Then why bother telling me about it?"
"About what?"
"The trip to Shikoku!"
Hiko appeared immensely confused by this. "You went to Shikoku? When?"
The young swordsman was beginning to think this was about to become a useless effort. "I didn't go to Shikoku, you did!"
"Well, of course I did! A waste of time, really, nothing there," Hiko informed him, as though it were priceless knowledge.
Kenshin tried a different tact. "Why bother going to Shikoku in the first place if there isn't anything there?"
"Why did you become a slave? That didn't seem like a terribly good idea either."
It was a good thing Himura Kenshin was not known for a quick temper. It probably helped that dealing with this conversation was much better than most alternatives. "I didn't CHOOSE to become a slave, Shishou - I mean, Seijuuro."
"Well, that explains a few things," Hiko said, frowning into his sake cup, disappointed to find it emptied. Shrugging, he reached for a refill.
Kenshin rolled his eyes. Hiko already knew these things, what on earth was he going on about? Still, he'd never known his master to travel very far, and was insatiably curious to know why the man would go to Shikoku of all places. "But why DID you go? You must have had a reason!"
The swordmaster considered this for a long time. "Oh yes.... that's right....."
Maybe he'd finally got a message through that thick skull. "What is it?"
"I left a pair of sandals there. Maybe I should go back one day."
Kenshin barely stifled his groan of exasperation. Standing up, he announced, "Shitsureishimasu Seijuuro, I'm going to bed."
"As you should, you need your beauty sleep you know!" Hiko congratulated him. He laughed at something that he found funny about that, then added, "We must do this again some time. You can tell me more about your trip to Shikoku."
Kenshin didn't even bother replying. Now apparently all of his holidays were imaginary. He'd go to sleep, and hopefully, like Hiko, maybe he'd have forgotten the whole sordid affair by morning.