Out of my league (songfic)

[EKmisao]

Hello everybody! I hope enough of you here recognize the song. It was pretty popular in my country. At any rate, hope you enjoy.

“Out of My League” by Stephen Speaks.

………………………


Everyone seems to wonder what I find so intriguing about doing the laundry. At least, why I keep doing it for the household. It is not required of me, I know, as a man—but I do want to do something I know I am capable of doing, in exchange for her many kindnesses to me.

But prior to living with her, laundry was something I detested. They all told me, in all the many places I served for money, that I was too small and too short to do anything else. I was always either made to do the dishes, cook, or wash clothes. Other wayfarers were asked to deliver goods, sell things, help paint houses. They were muscular men, definitely capable of doing the job. Not I.

So it was when I first met her, and lived at her dojo. However, by then I had gotten so used to being placed on laundry duty that it was like second nature. I gravitated to the piles of linen demanding to be washed. I found myself looking for a washboard and some soap, and attacking the laundry for all I was worth. Well, she appreciated the gesture, and, without speaking a word, I somehow knew I was getting this chore for as long as I stayed with her.

I am not complaining.

Doing the laundry has its many redeeming properties, you know. I could actually go on and say how it makes me feel to wash away dirt and grime from cloth—the way I would want to be cleansed from my guilt. But not today.

One of the best things about the afternoon laundry is the chance to see her from the front porch, returning from teaching kendo in some school nearby. She enters, whistling happily, her wooden sword slung at her back, uncaring that I am watching her from a tall stack of soap suds.


It’s her hair and her eyes today
That just simply takes me away
And the feeling that I’m falling
Further in love makes me shiver
But in a good way


Oh, yes, I know that I love her………I think I have known it since her life was threatened the first time. I would not have anyone on earth, heaven, or hell touch her and take her from me. Every time I see her flip her long ponytail away to her back, every time I see her grin sheepishly at me, every time I see her worried eyes, I relive that promise to myself.

The problem is, I do not know exactly how to say it.

So I continue to gaze at her from behind my washboard, my soapy arms immersed to my elbow in water, suds in my messy hair. I continue to admire her grace behind the boyish ways, her beauty behind the tousled dark locks. I watch her as she practices with her only real student, smiling with such ease and moving with such style. I watch her silently, afraid of breaking the spell she has on me, afraid of saying the wrong word.

All the times I have sat and stared
As she thoughtfully thumbs through her hair
And she purses her lips, bats her eyes
As she plays, with me sitting there slack-jawed
And nothing to say
But I love her with all that I am
And my voice shakes along with my hands
Cause I’m speechless to say what I’m feeling today
But I’m out of my league once again


Who am I to have this woman for myself? Oh, sure, she told me that she welcomed the me right now, and not my past self. But surely that part of me is always at the back of her mind, and it will always keep her from wanting to be with me forever.

“What are you looking at so intently, Kenshin?” she asks with a grin, and waves a hand across my eyes. I return to reality, that this bedsheet should have been done ten minutes ago. Oro. I scratch my head at her with embarrassment

Ah, but she called me by name. It is not exactly the name I was born to, but it is too late now to be called by any other. And why change it? It suits her to call me so. She gives a ring and a song to it that no one else ever could.

It’s a masterful melody
When she calls out my name to me
As the world spins around her
She laughs, rolls her eyes
And I feel like I’m falling but it’s no surprise
That I love her with all that I am
And my voice shakes along with my hands
Cause it’s frightening to be
Swimming in a strange sea
But I’d rather be here than on land
And she’s all that I see
And she’s all that I need
And I’m out of my league once again


She has no idea of the effect she has on me. And how much fear she strikes into my soul, every time she comes this close to me, her beautiful blue eyes looking through my violet ones, her handsome face smiling at my panicking one.

She cocks her pretty head at me. “Something wrong, Kenshin?”

“Oh, oh, no, nothing is wrong, Kaoru-dono.”

“Alright.”

“Ah, anou……Kaoru-dono……”

“Hm?”

I take a deep breath. I stand up and shake the soap off my wet hands. That failing, I simply hide my arms behind my back.

“The sun is coming down so beautifully……..would Kaoru-dono want to see it by the lake……with me?”

I sigh. I was actually able to say it. All that remains to be known is if she will…….she will………..

“I would like that very much, Kenshin.”


It is days like this that makes doing laundry, a bit of heaven on earth.

……………….

I did not use “sessha”, so it would look and feel smoother. And his respectfulness can also be shown in other ways. Thank you for reading this one-shot!

[Kari]

This is the first fic I ever read about Kenshin. But this story well lets say you have me hook, line and sinker. You've got me. This means I loved the story. Keep on writing please. :o
Kari

[Gundam Girl]

Yay, nice touch. I've seen read one about laundry-doing, and you fit Kenshin's anxiety over Kaoru in nicely. Kudos.