DISCLAIMER: no one's mine.

I made some changes in this chapter. Erased some errors and added few words.

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Chapter II

To say that Akira Kiyosato was scared after meeting his new red haired and amber eyed neighbor would be understatement. He was utterly terrified, the feeling of dread never leaving him. It wasn't that Akira was a scaredy-cat… or maybe it was one of the reasons of his fear… but hell! His new neighbor turned out not to be a nice old lady, odd old lady or even odd old lady who liked cats… Seriously, Akira could stand it. But no, life wasn't that fun, his new neighbor in that nice house next to his had to be the Battousai!

Akira absolutely wasn't used to things like this one. He had had his normal and boring life of an average dentist's. And whether he wanted it or not (rather the latter in his case), things like neighbors turning out to be hit men were definitely not supposed to happen to an average dentist (yeah, you can trust me on this one).

And many things attacked Akira's poor and frantic mind. He was not made for this kind of situations. His life should be absolutely normal without hit men next door. As if a crazy woman, as his oh so lovely wife, wasn't enough. Oh no, God had to be that mean and give him another, even better person as his neighbor. Who will be next? Hitler's reincarnation as his son? (Oh, God forbid!) Akira shuddered at the thought. Nope, such thoughts didn't help his situation at all…

"…still with us?" Akira jumped at the familiar voice. He looked up from his chair to be met with startlingly blue eyes.

"Huh?" was the only answer he could make in his state.

"Are you still with us?" she repeated, a worried frown marring her forehead.

"Nn… Yeah" he replied finally. Akira lifted the mug from the table to his lips and took a sip. A strange and unpleasant liquid made him want to throw up… perhaps that's how everything tasted when you knew that your life is in danger because of your neighbor - hit man.

"Are you alright?" his assistant's voice startled him again.

"I'm perfectly okay, Kaoru" he answered as calm as he could and gave Kaoru a weak smile.

"Are you sure? Because, you know…"

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm fine. Actually, I've never felt so good in my whole time… Yes, I'm ok" he took another sip and winced inwardly. Kaoru was looking at him oddly and he was sure that his cheeks were red by now.

"You know, this is my coffee" she stated after a while of scrutinizing him.

"Pardon?" he raised his eyebrows at her.

"My coffee" she pointed at the mug he was holding and had been taking sips from time to time. Akira looked down. 'Well, that explains the terrible taste' he thought. "You're drinking my coffee" Kaoru frowned. "Hmm… but he hates coffee…" she murmured to herself under her nose but not too quietly for him to hear.

"Ehm… I… I began to like it…" he finally said. Yeah, that was lame.

"Really? What about that 'coffee is bad, it makes your teeth look awfully?'" Kaoru perfectly mimicked the tone he usually used and his slightly different accent.

"Well… it's not like one coffee will destroy my teeth" he pouted and put the mug on the table.

"Well, but, allow me to repeat myself, it's my coffee. It's the coffee I made myself for my own use" she rolled her blue eyes at him and Akira finally understood what exactly she wanted from him.

"Uh oh! Is that a patient coming?" he smirked, though it didn't stop her from frowning at him.

"Akira?" he heard her unsure voice just when he was about to leave the room. He turned around and smiled at her weakly. "Is… is everything alright?" she asked and he couldn't help but feel better at her worried tone.

At that moment he wanted to tell her everything but his mind didn't allow him to do so. Akira knew that her knowing about Battousai wouldn't be a good idea. God only knew what Battousai could do to her…

"Yes, I'm fine" he lied to her. She smiled at him but he knew that she didn't buy this at all. Kaoru was a smart person, sometimes even too smart.

oxoxOxoxo

Kaoru knew that something was troubling Akira since he had entered his office in the morning. Gone was his honest smile replaced by the nervous one. Did he know something? Nope, that wasn't possible. She a long time ago had abandoned her task. And his wife wasn't that stupid, was she?

Kaoru took a sip of her newly made coffee. That's when she heard a terrified shriek from the dentist's office. At once she got up from her chair and ran towards the source of that scream.

"Oh, don't worry! Just hold still!" she recognized Akira's voice. She opened doors quickly. There she saw a patient who tried hard to break away from Akira's steel grip.

"Noo! I don't wanna! Go away!" the patient was screaming. Kaoru could've laughed if that hadn't been such a scary situation for the patient.

"Hold still, it's just drilling!" the dentist cried.

"Akira!" Kaoru shouted and caught his arm just when he was about to start drilling the good looking and perfectly healthy tooth.

"He's insane! He wants to kill me!" the patient yelled again and took the opportunity and ran.

"Akira, what's wrong?" she asked him sitting in a chair. Kaoru watched as he hid his face in hands. She heard Akira sighing.

"I'm just tired I guess" was his answer when he finally looked up at her.

"Something's wrong, I can see it. You nearly killed that man" she tried hard not to chuckle and somehow managed to keep calm.

"I didn't. He just didn't want to hold still" Akira pouted and Kaoru rolled her eyes at this.

"Did too. I've never seen such a terrified man"

"Oh, whatever, it was just drilling! If he was so scared then he could've tell me so"

"Well, he's tried to tell you but…"

"I don't want to think about this" he cut in with irritation though she could see a ghost of a smile on his lips.

"You wanna go home? I can cancel all appointments if you want…" a genuine smile appeared on her face bringing sparkles to her dark blue eyes.

"No… I'm fine... There's no need to…" he started but she silenced him with a sudden glare.

"Well, I don't want to this for you only. I just want to keep your patients alive" she smirked at him.

"Gee… Thanks" he answered and she laughed at this.

"Oh, come on, I'll drive you home"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming" he gave up making a face.

oxoxOxoxo

They drove in silence, Akira looking out of the window and Kaoru cursing under her breath at 'idiots who shouldn't be given a driver's license' from time to time.

"Oh, you have a new neighbor, why haven't you told me?" she asked, disrupting the silence, when she noticed a red haired man on the porch of the house next to Akira's. Akira winced at this, he so didn't want to talk about this. He wanted to scream that this was the Battousai, silly, but that perhaps wasn't such a good idea.

"Well… I forgot I guess…" he replied lamely hoping that she would leave the topic. But knowing Kaoru Kamiya…

"Have you met him already?" yep, no such luck. She was looking at him with an odd look he was sure he hadn't seen before.

"Uhm, talked to him once" Akira answered after a while, when he got out of Kaoru's car. To his surprise she too left the car. Wasn't she to go to her own house? Akira's wife was at home right now and somehow Akira knew that Kaoru didn't like her, so she probably wouldn't want to visit him now, would she?

"Introduce me to him" she said after a while.

"Pardon?" he asked and blinked at her. Was she insane?

"I want to meet him… he looks pretty handsome for me" she scrutinized Battousai's silhouette and predatory smile appeared on her pale face.

"Trust me, you don't" he stated calmly and Kaoru looked at him surprised raising an eyebrow questioningly. Then she sighed.

"Damn, he has a wife, doesn't he?" Kaoru's smile faltered as Akira nodded. The dentist frowned. He had started to lie recently. "Shame" Kaoru muttered still looking at the Battousai longingly.

"Yeah, shame indeed" the dentist agreed absent-mindedly gaining an odd look from Kaoru. She arched an eyebrow. "Well… uh… we would be neighbors if…" he stopped when she started to laugh. "Oi! That's not funny!" he protested but she laughed even louder. What a friend she was…

"I'll see you tomorrow, hm?" she smiled at him when she get into the car.

"Yeah, guess so" he replied, his cheeks still burning red. His new neighbor surely could make his life troublesome. He watched as Kaoru turned the engine on and shut it off just after. She opened the window and gave him a bright smile.

"Don't worry. Whatever's troubling you, it'll be all right, got it?" she smiled again in that cheerful way of hers and he couldn't help but smile back at her.

No one noticed that two amber eyes were watching carefully from the next house's porch the car that pulled from Akira's driveway.

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Sorry about the delay. I have some family issues… Eh, I live with my grandma, I visit home rarely and… oh, well, it's not like you care about this anyway, so just review ;) And sorry for mistakes but I gotta get to my grandma and I don't have time for this now.

Oh, and my tooth is killing me. :/

Merry Christmas, y'all. There's no snow in my town (even though it's a mountain town) and I kinda forgot. Forgive this unworthy one :D

Ciao!