Warlords of Sengoku (Ikemen Segoku)

Part 5

Edited

Sasuke POV

"We should head back to Kasugayama castle." I suggested. Kenshin grunted in agreement and Kiren nodded. "It's only a couple miles back, so we should get there before sunset." We packed up our things and untied the horse from the tree. We then all started walking. It became evident very quickly, that Kenshin was having trouble walking. It irritated me that I knew if I offered help, he would most certainly reject me-

"Kenshin, get on the horse." Kiren demanded. My head spun to face her.

I still couldn't believe how free she was with her words around Kenshin. I wanted to warn her though because Kenshin definitely wasn't going to like her offer.

"What?!" He retorted.

"You're injured and you're slowing us down." I could tell that she was trying to make voice sound like it didn't care at all, but there was an undeniable warmth to her words that kept peeking through. 

"I will not be pitied by a woman-"

"I'm not pitying you. I'm stating a fact. You're injured. You can't walk. You are slowing us down."

"What if?" I interjected before the argument got any worse. "What if you both get on the horse?"

"Then you'd be the only one walking. I could not do that to you." Kenshin objected.

Kiren POV

Not gonna lie, that touched me to see Kenshin showing actual human emotions.

"Are you sure you'd be okay with walking?" I said brightly towards Sasuke

"Of course, it's not that far anyway." Sasuke assured us. I gave Kenshin a pleading look, trying to persuade him without speaking, so as not to sound desperate. I felt like I could get lost in his eyes, but my head started to spin, and I realised I had been holding my breath for the past minute. He gave me a quizzical look, probably because I'd been staring at him for an abnormally long time. He finally gave in because as we were walking, realised how slow he was moving.

"Fine." He grumbled as he mounted the horse. Despite, being badly hurt, he did it very elegantly. He then offered a hand to me, which I gratefully took. Usually, when I found myself being put on a horse, I have to sit in front of the warlord, practically on his lap. But Kenshin clearly wasn't like the other warlords, so I ended up sitting behind him, wrapping my arms round his waist, so as to not fall off. We kept going at a steady walk, so that Sasuke could keep up.

I quickly found myself getting very tired, the movement of the horse rocking me to sleep. Eventually, I couldn't hold my head up any longer so it gently fell to rest on his back, luckily he didn't seem to mind.

I could feel his heart beat. I could feel his breathing. The rising and falling of his shoulders. I could feel the warmth of his body, next to mine. For some reason I expecting him to be cold to the touch like a dead body of something. But no, he was warm, and comforting. Alive. Next thing I knew, I'd fallen asleep. The first proper sleep since I went through the wormhole.