At First Sight

by tir-synni

 

A/N:  Little Kenshin snippet.  A small pre-slash fic about what Sano was thinking when he first saw Kenshin.  I'm hoping this is a little more in character than my other yaoi Kenshin fic.  Maybe I'll start writing some more small stories about this.  Maybe.

 

 

            I noticed him before I had finished entering the room.  The scent of blood caught my interest immediately.  Even in the underground, the addictive scent was rare.  The Meiji Era had driven out the true warriors, leaving only cheap imitations.  But this...this was a true scent.  I inhaled deeply, allowing the scent to pervade my body.  It invigorated me, and I knew I had to find the owner.  Only a true warrior, a true killer, had the scent around him so strongly.  Perhaps I had finally found my challenge.

            I ordered and kept a careful eye out.  Hmph!  Fools, all of them.  Weak.  None of them were worth my time.  The drunks in the corner were the weakest of them all, with their raving words.  I doubted they even knew what they were saying, and still, they continued drinking sake.  One carelessly threw something, not even paying attention to where it went.  Absently, I followed it....

            And found my warrior.

            The scent of blood exploded in my nostrils.  I gasped, and I only had a glimpse of long, crimson hair before the object slammed into him.  In a moment, I grasped the scene.  The warrior had known it was coming.  I had seen the almost invisible tensing, the tiniest cockings of his head to make sure it hit its target.  It smashed, and the killer cried out.  He collapsed backwards, and I heard his companions calling to him.

            Kenshin.  Heart of the Sword.  How interesting.

            Now I could see the full scene.  If he had moved, the lovely young lady across from him would have received the blow in her face.   She would not have been so pretty then, would she?  As the young boy with him leaped to his feet, I took the opportunity to peruse the redhead.  Surely, with that move and the scent around him, he had to be the killer I sensed, but....I had not realized how beautiful he would be.  I had to look my fill.  A dramatic cross-scar slash one cheek, but otherwise his face was smooth and pale.  His eyes....I was convinced he was a killer, but I had yet to convince myself he was human.  So delicate looking and so beautiful, and he had still efficiently blocked the blow without major injury.  No, with those large, violet eyes and silken, bloody tresses, surely he was a legendary kitsune demon.  Sagara-san had told me of them long ago.  Had Sagara-san sent me this one?  Had he finally sent me--

            A young maid had stepped forward to try to stop the fight.  I stood up in time to catch her as one of the drunks smacked her back.  What a weakling.  I inobtrusively glanced again at my redheaded demon.  It is not these fools I wish to fight.  I wish to fight him, the one.

            And perhaps...fight him off the battlefield.

            Heh.  I wonder when they would realize that I never paid my bill.