Creeping Up On You

Anendee: yay! i got two more reviews! thank you! your questions will be answered to the best of my abilities with out giving away the stalker, i hope. thank you!

CHAPTER 6 - Stand Up

He says he love\'s you
But the make up will not cover up the bruises
He left on you
I tried to stop the cycle for you this relationship is whack
You bastard don\'t touch her anymore

Stand up stand up
He\'s a drunk and abusive
Stand up stand up
He thinks that you\'ll never leave him
Stand up stand up
I won\'t let him get near you
Stand up stand up
It\'s not your fault when he hurts you

I think you should have the chance
To enjoy the friends you have
He wants to erase them
I know that you are trying hard not to show it
But the coward is an asshole he\'s shameless

Adema- “Stand Up”

~!@#$%^&*()_++_)(*&^%$#@!~KAY

I didn’t sleep well that night. Cant say I am too surprised though. I knew I dreamed, though I couldn’t tell any one what it was about really. All I had were the feelings of terror and hopelessness, and flashes of lilies and trees, and a long shadow.

I was the first one up. Again, not surprising. I headed for the kitchen. I liked to make breakfast food, for some reason the time it takes to prepare and cook it is soothing to me. The girls always had a decent supply of everything I could think to make. They knew as well as I did that I did my best thinking when working on food. Besides they got a good meal out of it, not that that is why they let me do it.

My entire body hurt, I felt as if nothing was spared pain last night. My wrist was killing me but I was ignoring it. It was sprained, nothing more. I reached up for a pan I knew I wanted to make an omlete, but what kind?

The pan clattered on the tile flooring of the kitchen. I was shocked, cradling my wrist as I had the night before.

~!@#$%^&*()_++_)(*&^%$#@!~ MEMORY

Dusk had been creeping its way through the trees in the forest. I had long since started a fire to ward off the chill of the night. I had hung my frying pan that I had washed during the day from a tree to dry. I felt more then heard the forest go quiet. Not a natural quiet, this had a twist of danger, of a predator lurking near by. My back had been to the fire, reaching for the pan. I had it grasped in both hands ready to defend myself. Cliché as it may be, I got a good solid whap on the silhouette that had crept up behind me. Not good enough to knock it unconscious, I didn’t know what it was; my brain didn’t comprehend anything that wasn’t vital to survival, but enough to stun it and make my next move. My mind screamed “RUN!” and that was what I did…

~!@#$%^&*()_++_)(*&^%$#@!~MIA

I had heard Kaoru get up and head for the kitchen, I then heard the pan clatter. I let her be, I knew she had a lot on her mind. If what Sano and Ken had said was right, she was trying to do…something, push us away was my thought.

When I didn’t hear anything else I decided it was time to check on Kay. I think she was beginning to resent that, and I didn’t get it. We are her friends; we only want what is best for her, to protect her.

I turned on the radio, turning it down low as not to startle Kay or wake Megumi. Now there was someone truly terrifying in the morning. I made a beeline for the bathroom, right before the kitchen. Before I headed in I glanced in the kitchen. Kay was just standing there. Her eyes wide, breath shallow and quick. The effort her body seemed to be making to drag in air and the darkness that had consumed her eyes. She was just staring at the frying pan as if it were a poisonous snake. Her arm to her chest as if she were protecting something.

“Kaoru? Honey? Kaoru?!” I tried shaking her, she just wouldn’t respond. I was getting scared, she has never done anything like this before.

~!@#$%^&*()_++_)(*&^%$#@!~MEMORY

I am running, so far, so fast. I don’t know where I am in the forest anymore. I can hear him. It is male and human. Oh god, he is calling my name. “Kaoru, there is no use in this. Stop or I will have to punish you. Kaoruuuu!” My name haunts me as does his footfalls. I don’t know how he knows my name, I don’t care right now, I just have to keep moving…

~!@#$%^&*()_++_)(*&^%$#@!~MISAO

I can hear her crying, the sobs interfering with her breathing, the strangled cries for help. I just want to hug her to me and tell her everything would be alright, but I can’t lie to her, I don’t know if it will or not. I reach out to touch her again, but I don’t. I think she is in a memory.

I race for Megumi’s room. Today I don’t care abut the wrath hell has for those that interrupt sleep. I kick Meg’s bed, mustn’t get to close, she socked me in her sleep before when I touched her. “Meg! Come on wake up! Kay is in trouble!” Meg bolted up right and dragged me out of the room.

“Where is she, Misao?” She was scanning the living room area, not yet having let go of my wrist, she jerked me when I answered.

“Kitchen,” Meg dragged me like a rag doll in her wake. Meg stopped short of Kaoru. She let me go to shake Kaoru herself, as if I wasn’t smart enough to try that on my own.

“Kay?” She whispered as if to talk any louder and she would wake something evil. She wrapped her arms around Kaoru, crying. “Misao, call Ken, Sano, Hiko and Aoshi. It’s time to find out what last night has done to her.” I just nodded my head.

I head to the living room to call the guys, it was just about time. Amei needed to be returned…

~!@#$%^&*()_+_)(*&^%$#@!~MEGUMI

Mia had been bothering me recently, there has been a change in her I just cant figure out. I can’t figure out when it happened or what it was, I have been concentrating on Kay for so long. But I could feel it, my little sister was different, and I think I was the only one who could see it. I t has gotten to the point that the only one I trust with Kay anymore is Ken, but after Last night I began to wonder.

I pulled Kay’s form with me to the floor, I couldn’t stand up forever, and neither can she. I curled around her as best I could, as if I was her only shelter from all things wrong in the world; right now that was how I felt. I held her, rocked her sang to her for nearly 25 minutes before everyone was assembled. Kay had closed her eyes and appeared to be sleeping now. If that was a good or bad thing, don’t ask me all I knew was that it was a change.

Aoshi was the first to arrive. The quiet man had always looked after her with a small smile and soft eyes. He might not say much verbally but his body language said it all. All of the guys did. Hiko was a little more verbal, and yet a bit more covert. He loved her, I could tell he did, he and Aoshi loved her more then any man, in their mind. ever could. Sano and Ken loved her as a sister and a best friend, and yet there seemed to be just a little more with them. Maybe I was just being paranoid, yeah that was it, I never did see the predatory looks in Ken’s eyes, or in Sano’s. I never saw any other kind of anger flare except that of a protector, a righteous anger to protect her.

Despite the fact that Kay didn’t remember anything I did pick up on a few clues she herself shed. She is terriefied of men, so this gathering might be a hindrance before it is a blessing but she needed to be around men. What ever happened involved a man, probably a tall one, and maybe a dark one and we know it was rape. She shies from all males but the tall ones scare the bejesus out of her.

Kay is terrified of being in the dark alone, particularly outside, but what gets her worse is being out doors at dusk. It doesn’t matter if she is in the city, the country or the woods. Dusk scare her the most. Kaoru is in great shape, always has been, but after we got her back, she did more then just kendo to stay in shape. She ran for miles at a time, bike riding all over creation. She even took up strength training for a little while. She was motivated by something. While she no longer strength trains, she still will run, forever if you let her it seems. She had to run, she tried to fight. Not that wasn’t obvious in other ways as well.

One thing that is strange is her affinity with children. Sometimes I almost swear she is filling in a void. A void the size of her own child. Kay came out of that forest, bleeding broken battered and pregnant. She doesn’t remember it but we all stood by, watching over her like guardian gargoyles, as she struggled to carry and bear the child.

She never got to hold her child though; all we do know about the child is that it was a girl, the most beautiful girl ever born. She was snatched from us, from Kay, that night. I would have suspected Yumi and Shishio if they hadn’t been gone all that year, leaving Yahiko with Ken. I had also heard that Yumi was pregnant during that time. Ken is the only one of us who has seen his youngest sibling; he said that if you didn’t know Yumi and Kay weren’t related you would think so by looking at Tsubame. Tsubame apparently has gorgeous blue eyes and dark hair, like Kay, but slightly tanned skin, as if someone mixed Yumi’s with Shishio’s.

I know there is so much we don’t know about the man that held Kay against her will for all those weeks. I know a lot of what had happened but not all of it. That will rest in Kay’s head and heart until its time to be revealed, and held by her rapist.

Aoshi asked if he could hold her, get her off the floor in the kitchen were I had put us to be a bit more comfortable. I thought about it for a moment, if she woke up, things were going to get interesting. If she didn’t, well she would still wake up surrounded by males, damned if I did, damned if I didn’t. Joy.

I nodded, I needed up off the hard floor. He gingerly, as if one wrong move would break her, lifted her from my arms, settling her against his chest, like a knight to the rescue of a princess. His grace didn’t abandon him under her weight and the position she was in when he got her. I watched as his face softened from the mask of seeming indifference to that of, I don’t know, maybe a lover?

That thought sent chills down my spine. I watched him like a hawk. I know that Kay really likes him, but still, that look can’t be anything good. Had we just let her kidnapper hold her? Had we let her rapist in her inner circle? Dear God I hope not.

I watched as the other three men of the group approached Aoshi in the living room, before he could put Kaoru down. He ignored all of them, until he gently placed her on the couch. He stood up straight and faced them, then moved away from the couch.

I watched them all head into the kitchen, and I didn’t move from the sink were I had started washing dishes.

“Megumi” oh joy Ken just used my full name, not good. “Could we please have the kitchen for a few minutes?”

I didn’t want to let him have it. I wasn’t going to. I was as much, if not more so her friend then Aoshi and Hiko! If this concerned Kay, which I could tell it did, I was going to stand right here!

“No, Ken, I will not leave.” He just sighed, Sano was the one to argue with me. Two minutes later I won.

Sano rounded on Aoshi and stated their ‘meeting’. “You know that we are not supposed to touch her! That is a rule, the number one rule! We let you near her with the understanding that you wouldn’t break it and scare her. What if she had woke up while you were carrying her?”

While that was a good point, one I myself had thought of, this was ridiculous. We were dictating Kay’s life with that rule, maybe, just maybe, we had made this situation worse with such rules…

~!@#$%^&*()_++_)(*&^%$#@!~KAY

My head hurt, but I remembered a little more. The start, I guess, of it all. I heard voices in the Kitchen. Sano. He was yelling at someone, I could hear it all. Number one rule? I continued to listen. Aoshi. Hhhmm, he carried me in here? I shuddered, not that I hate him or anything, but he was…touching…me. I could feel tears well up in my eyes; I thought I could trust him.

I kept with my line of thought, I heard Meg yelling but I didn’t listen to what she was saying. I got off the couch, to realized I was still only in an oversized tee shirt and my underwear, which was covered by the shirt. The shirt only came to 2 inches above my knees.

I headed first for the guest room; I needed pants before I was willing to face the people in the kitchen. I walked out and made straight for the kitchen. I changed my mind before I got in there. I wouldn’t yell at them, I was going to ignore them. I wanted to think, to get back to making breakfast.

Refrigerator first, I needed the eggs and ham. Freezer right above it, for the cheese. Cabinet, mushrooms. Fridge for the peppers. I gathered everything at the sink, washed it off. I could hear them behind me, talking moving. I ignored them. I continued to work. Cutting, the knife issuing a fine tremble in my hands, crack of eggs, sizzle of the ingredients in the pan. In less then an hour of them behind me, of me striving to ignore them, breakfast was finished.

I set the table, not looking at one of them. The plates came down with a very audible chink, the silverware hurts my wrist too much to slam down so I didn’t, but the glasses let out a very satisfying thunk as I set them none too gently on the table.

“Breakfast is served,” I gave a bow as if I were a servant. I waited till all were seated, including Misao who had been called in by Sano. Before any of us could start to eat, Kenshin made an announcement. “Excuse me everyone, may I talk to Kay alone please?”

The uproar was tremendous, everyone but me had something to say.

“No Way!”

“We can’t do that!”

“Why not, she is my bloody sister!”

“We are only protecting her!”

“From her own brother?!”

“You are only her step brother!”

“So! I would rather die then hurt her!”

“Megumi you are acting as if you can’t trust any male near her with out you or Mia near by.”

“May be I shouldn’t“

THUNK! “That’s IT!” CRASH!

The entire room came to a complete stand still.

“ENOUGH FROM ALL OF YOU! I AM AN ADULT! I CAN HANDLE IT!” They noticed the glass that has shattered on the table and the remains of the plate on the floor. “Just leave me alone! He is my brother! You are all my friends! I can be with my friends by. My. SELF!”

“Out all of you! I want to know what Kenshin has to say and maybe I will tell you after he has talked to me, alone!” I was pissed. This had gone on for far too long and I had let it. I didn’t give any real thought to my friends and what I had been doing to them with this entire mess. No more. I waited silently, with a stony expression on my face, daring any one of them to say any thing against my decision. Meg was the one I figured would speak but she kept it to herself as he passed me. Her glare seared both Kenshin and myself and I wasn’t the recipient of the look. Mia just headed out; I think she knew it would come to this someday. Shinomori gave me a sad look before vacating the room. Sano tried to make it look like he wasn’t hurt by giving me the thumbs up, but I knew. When all had left as I had decreed, I turned to Ken. “What is so important that I had to make my stand on this, instead of when I was completely ready?” The ice in my tone would have frozen alcohol.

He twitched, almost as if he was all of a sudden nervous. “Spit it out Ken before I go home.” It wasn’t where I really wanted to be, but I had to get away from everyone else and soon.

He cleared his throat. “Yumi asks that you take Yahiko and Tsubame for a couple of weeks. Something has come up.” He wouldn’t look me in the eye when he told me that.

“I am not taking them until I know why. They are not going to be used as pawns by the witch and her Husband. If I take them now, I will keep them. No one deserves to be used the way she let Shishio.” Ken looked up at me in surprise.

“What? You thought you had hid that from me? The fact that my baby brother has become a pick pocket and my step sister is his decoy? I knew Shishio had bought out nearly every cop in the city. I think the only one he hadn’t got was the one from last night, officer Saito.”

“And did you think you could hide the attack from me?! I knew before you even called me. Why didn’t you tell me that bastard tried to ra- attack you?! Why? I am you brother and love you, I don’t want anything more to happen to you.” His voice settled low as he said the last part. It hurt me to hear the pain and sadness in his eyes. “What I needed to tell you was Shishio and Yumi both were found dead early this morning. Shishio was found by Hiko and I on our way to your place to talk and Yumi was found by Officer Saito when he went over to heir place to inform her. Shishio was in the alley by the police station. It appears that some one strangled him to death then beat him till damn near every bone in his body was broken at least once. Yumi was just strangled. The thing is that no one else at her place was hurt, and nothing was stolen.”

I was shaken, I know that I had wished bad things on them, and that they would deserve it, but that wasn’t really true, no one deserved to die like that.

Ken apparently wasn’t done yet though. “I am asking you to take the kids because Yahiko refuses to see me until he has seen you and is keeping Mae from me as well. I think that you will love Mae as if she were your own.”

I was stuck in the moment. I was still trying to get round the fact that I had seen them both yesterday, alive, well and torturing me. There is no way they could be gone. Not Yumi, one of the last links to my father. We would sit and talk about him, not often, but a few times, when she didn’t seem to hate me. Shishio, though he always leered at me, until he involved my younger sibling in his crimes, was a somewhat decent father to Yahiko. No the two people I thought would never leave me because that would mean I won against them in the battle of wills. The only mother and father Yahiko really remembered, the parents of my baby step-sister.

I raised my hand to wipe the tears from my eyes, tears I hadn’t even realized I was crying, for people who lived to torment me. Now their death was doing the same. “I will take the kids. They will never want for anything with me. I will need help through my last semester at college, my associates is enough for me to get normal job and look after the kids.”

Ken nodded, he didn’t try to talk me into staying in school, or working as I did with him and at the café. He just let my decision ride. I headed into the living room to tell every one what was happening

~!@#$%^&*()_++_)(*&^%$#@!~

Anendee: hello every one! Thank you for reading my fic! Ok for my reviewers…

Icedbox: I can’t tell you that! But what I can tell you is that he is tall, with dark hair and you have met him in the fic already. Hehe. Only a few more chapters (like 5) to go, but if you guess it right I will email you.

Citrusbaby: once again I can’t not tell you that at this moment, but you will get to find out soon enough. Well done though, you are getting close, as had Effah on a previous chapter. 5 more chapters 3 or four before he is unmasked!)

Author’s Yada Yada: CONTAINS SPIOLERS FOR THE FIC!!!

~!@#$%^&*()_++_)(*&&^^%$#@!~`1234567890-==-0987654321`SPIOLER!

Ok, here’s the deal, I have said before that the stalker is on the list in chapter 1. I have also said that he isn’t Kenshin and that the stalker is tall dark has been introduced to the story. Saito isn’t him, nor is Yahiko (ew and well Shishio is dead so it cant be him either). This leaves you with three other choices, if I have done this right. It can be either Hiko, Sano or Aoshi.