Okay I've finally updated Solitude so I don't feel too bad about shifting literally all of my attention to this, lol. It's terrible how entranced I am with plotting this fic; I've got a document filled with future quotes/snippets/scene outlines and it's becoming difficult to put them all in a linear, coherent plot. Ahhh. Hopefully you'll all be patient with me as I slowly spiral into insanity.

Again, the biggest thank you to all of my readers for not only supporting this story, but for putting up with my general incompetence; y'all are the marshmallow fluff to my peanut butter sandwich.

This chapter is a beast in comparison to my usual ones; over 11K+ words! This chapter was really difficult to write because [ACTUAL STORYLINE PLOT] and [FIGHT SCENES], both of which I'm learning to do as I go, so please forgive me if it seems a little choppy. Sob. I've also noticed that I always have the Kenshingumi eating. This is just getting ridiculous. I'll shut up now.

As always, I own nothing save for my raging inner desire to rock.

[PS This chapter is T+ for ass whooping and pretty much everyone's potty mouth.]

"It is not good for the man to be alone."

-2:18

Quite frankly, the man is an enigma.

Kenshin is a sweet man who's two parts humble and ten parts baffling conundrum. He's a sinewy slip of a man, soft-spoken and almost aggravatingly polite with a bowed head and unassuming ambience. But Kaoru can sense the iceberg looming beneath his smiles: something so large and so encompassing that its gravity draws her to him like a prodding, intrusive moon.

Kaoru watches him during his stay and so far has learned a handful of things. They're little things, such as how he seems to prefer oolong tea to barley in the evenings or how he always saves his rice for last when he eats. One night when she hears Sanosuke swearing in defeat from the living room she learns that he plays a phenomenal game of shogi, but the next day she learns after several hands of cards that he's awful at Daihinmin. He walks like a cat but he's easy to startle, and while he shows no partiality to music he seems to really enjoy the sound of passing cars and the wind chime hanging by her front door.

What Kaoru notices the most about him, however, is that Kenshin doesn't sleep well.

Over the course of a week and a half, Kaoru sees his hollowed cheeks fill out and his bruises turn a hundred different shades of blue and green and yellow, but the bags beneath his eyes are perpetual. One restless morning in particular Kaoru arises hours before her usual wake-up time and finds him propped against the wall on the far side of the living room with one leg drawn to his chest and his head bowed in a fretful sleep, bedding completely untouched. It concerns her, and she voices this concern over breakfast one morning when he seems to be falling asleep over the stove.

"Kenshin, are you alright?" She asks. His head perks up in a delayed response and turns to her with a somewhat sleepy smile.

"This one is just fine, Kaoru-dono. Why do you ask?"

Kaoru picks at her rice with her chopsticks, frowning. "Well, you're practically falling asleep on your feet. Have you been sleeping alright?" She already knows the answer, but something makes her want to hear him say it.

But he doesn't; Kenshin merely hums and turns back to the stove, poking at the omelette pan with a pair of chopsticks. He has quickly taken over the position of chef, insisting to pay Kaoru back in some way for allowing him to stay as he recovers. She had initially refused, thinking it rude to make her injured guest cook for them, but after a bit of bullying from Sanosuke she had relented. So now Kaoru sits and watches him prepare their breakfast with a furrowed brow.

"This one has never really slept well," Kenshin says. His answer is vague, but his tone is chipper as ever. The kettle on the stove shrieks to life and Kaoru sees him jump slightly, but when he turns to her with two mugs of fresh green tea his expression does not elaborate.

Kaoru nods a bit hesitantly, unsure of whether or not to press the matter. Her irresolution must be clear on her face, because he offers her a smile as he sets a cup down in front of her. "Kaoru-dono shouldn't trouble herself over it, that she shouldn't."

She doesn't comment, but instead looks down into her cup of tea and watches the wisps of steam swirl into the air. Her hands wrap around her mug, greedy for the warmth it provides. It's a particularly chilly morning, and she suspects it's because her auburn-headed guest had left the window open again. It's a habit that seems to bring him some sort of comfort, which she can tell for him is a rarity, so she keeps silent about the draft.

Sanosuke is much less accommodating as he bumbles into the kitchen, half-asleep and bleary-eyed.

"Why's it feel like the friggin' arctic in here?" He slurs. It's clear he's just rolled out of bed because his eyes are unfocused slits as he collapses into his chair with little grace. Kenshin apologizes sheepishly, pouring Sano a cup of tea as well. The young man wastes no time in letting the drink cool, opting to instead chug it while it's still hot enough to scorch his insides. Kaoru watches him with a grimace as he sighs, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand in satisfaction. "That's a little better."

"I'm sorry about the cold, Sano." Kenshin says as he flips the first tamagoyaki onto a plate. He sets it down in front of Sano, who wordlessly starts to devour it like a sluggish zombie. "I'll try to keep the window shut from now on, that I will."

"Why'd you keep it open in the first place?" He asks with a full mouth. "It's noisy."

Kenshin sets Kaoru's plate down and then his own, settling into his seat. "This one is just used to the noise of the city, that I am." He takes a small bite of his food, and Kaoru watches the tension in his jaw as he chews from the corner of her eye. "It's nice to remember that there's life outside of one's own head."

Kaoru opens her mouth to say something, but she sees the private glint of shadows in Kenshin's eyes and decides to sip her tea instead. Breakfast continues on as a quiet affair, but his words echo in her head all morning.

"You need to relax, Jo-chan."

Kaoru sucks her teeth, tugging at the strap of her bokken bag. It's digging into the side of her neck, and she curses the fact that she forgot her scarf at home before leaving for her job at the Maekawa Dojo. "I'm not going to relax." She says. "Something's bothering him, and I want to know what it is!"

Sano snorts, hands in his pockets. Despite the harsh January chill, he's only in his usual hoodie with the addition of his newly reclaimed t-shirt. "Nosy, ain't ya? Aren't you the one who's always goin' on about how there's always some stuff that people would rather keep to themselves?"

Kaoru blushes, scowling. "I know, I know. I'm just—concerned. Kenshin hasn't been sleeping well at all. I mean, have you seen the bags under his eyes? He looks like someone punched him!"

"Well don't look at me."

Kaoru elbows him hard in the side and Sano sniggers. "I'm being serious!" She scolds. "He's not going to heal properly if he doesn't get any sleep. Maybe he's sick?"

Sanosuke shrugs. "I don't know. I mean, he was in pretty crappy shape when you found him, right?"

She hums. Her mind drifts uneasily to the man currently back at her apartment, undoubtedly doing something absurd like rearranging her bookcase or polishing her silverware. It's a fairly recent development, this impromptu role of housekeeper that he seems to have adopted. It started out as small things, like offering to fold the laundry while he rested on the couch or helping to put away the dishes after dinner before retiring, until soon enough the laundry and cooking were entirely within his domain.

Kaoru was adamantly against it at first, saying that he should be resting and should try watching television or reading a book if he's desperate for something to alleviate the boredom of bed rest—not cleaning her house. But Kenshin promises up and down that he isn't doing anything strenuous and insists that he'd much rather pass time by doing something that's actually helpful because 'Kaoru-dono has already done so much for me, that she has.'

He's ridiculous. Courteous and gallant, yes, but completely ridiculous, nonetheless. Kenshin means well though, and Kaoru cannot deny that having an extra pair of hands helping out at home is incredibly beneficial. After all, since Sano's abrupt return to the Kamiya household her laundry load has doubled, her grocery bill has tripled, and she's fairly sure that her dust bunnies are now on the cusp of sentience. Sure, Kaoru makes the lazy bum help out to the extent of his asinine abilities, but now with Kenshin's added assistance her apartment has never been cleaner. He's even managed to somehow resuscitate her little orchid plant: a miracle in and of itself.

"I don't know. Maybe I should just talk with hi—"

Kaoru doesn't get to finish her thought as somebody barrels into her at full-speed. She makes a rather unladylike shriek of surprise as she's sent flying backwards, but luckily Sano has been gifted with decent reflexes and manages to steady her. Once she's set back on her feet, she whips her head towards the small figure sprawled out on the pavement in front of her.

He's a young kid, no older than 12, dressed in a pair of faded green jeans and a ratty yellow sweatshirt. He sits up and rubs his head, but before Kaoru can ask if he's even alright, the boy fixes his cinnamon brown eyes on her and hisses, "Hey! Watch where you're going, busu!"

Kaoru sputters indignantly. "I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me, you hag!"

"Now listen here, you little—" She cuts off her righteous tirade on manners whens he notices something strange lying on the ground beside him. "Wait a minute, is that a katana?"

At the mention of the sheathed sword lying beside him, the boy's eyes bulge in panic. Immediately he lunges for it and attempts to bolt, but Sano is able to grab him by the hood of his sweatshirt. The boy kicks and shouts as he's hefted into the air and up to Sanosuke's eye level.

"Hold it, pipsqueak. Didn't anyone ever teach you that it's rude to run into people?" The kid throws a wild punch at Sano's face, which he effortlessly dodges with a turn of his head. "And what's a little kid like you doin' with a sword, anyhow?"

The boy's face flushes with some sort of mixture of embarrassment and outrage. "I'm not a little kid!" He spits, as if the very words themselves are disgusting on his tongue. "I've got the blood of samurai in me! I don't need to explain myself to some spikey-headed punk like you!"

"Listen, kid—" Sano dodges another kick, ignoring the boy's shout of 'I'm not a kid!' "This ain't the Edo. Swords ain't toys. Now I don't know where the hell you got that from, but I suggest you return it before you hurt yourself."

"It's not like I'm gonna cut anyone. The blade is on the wrong side!" He yells, taking another futile swing. "Now let me go!"

Sano quirked a brow, grabbing the hilt of the sword with his free hand. The boy cries his protests as he slides the blade from its sheath to examine it. He purses his lips thoughtfully. "Hey, the shrimp's right. Look at this, Jo-chan. The blade's totally reversed."

He hands the blade over to Kaoru. She's momentarily surprised by its weight; her own style of kenjutsu shies away from using live steel, so she's only ever been disciplined in the use of wooden swords. But despite her inexperience, she has been educated well enough to appreciate both the craftsmanship and the rarity of the blade. She turns it over in her hands, admiring the light as it dances on the edge of the sword.

"It's a sakabatō. I've only ever read about them before. Only a few are still around that aren't in museums since they weren't very practical weapons." She looks up to the irate child. "Where on earth did you get this?"

The boy crosses his arms and sticks out his tongue. "That's none of your business, ugly. And it may not cut anything, but it's practical enough for what I need it for!"

"What could you possibly—"

"Freeze!"

The three turn to see two out-of-breath police officers at the end of the street, pointing at the boy in Sano's grip. The kid's eyes nearly bug out of his head in panic and he swears, doubling his efforts to get out of the larger man's hold. "Crap. Lemme go, you moron! Hurry, hurry!"

"Wait a sec!" Sano yells, struggling to keep hold. "Why do you got the cops—"

Sano swears loudly when the boy suddenly nails him in the side of the head with the scabbard of the sword. He drops him in favor of clutching his throbbing skull, and the kid wastes no time snatching the sword from Kaoru's shocked hands and breaking into a mad dash in the opposite direction. "Later, busu!" He calls over his shoulder.

"You little shit!" Sanosuke shouts angrily as the two cops frantically sprint past them. He goes to chase the kid as well, but Kaoru grabs his sleeve. "Kaoru, are you slow? We gotta catch that little street rat!"

"Leave him," She chides. "The authorities are already after him. All that'll come from you chasing him is getting your butt landed in jail, too."

Sano rubs his head with a sour expression, but relents. "God, kids these days got some hell of a nerve," He snaps. Kaoru looks down the street with a frown where the policeman's heads disappear into the crowd of pedestrians. She shakes her head, adjusts the strap of her bag, and turns on her heel to continue on towards the dojo.

"Agreed."

Kenshin's chopsticks clatter on the table.

"He had a what?"

Sano picks up his glass and takes a long chug, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. "You heard me. The little punk had a sword! Can you believe it? Nailed me right upside the head with the damn thing."

A young boy with a sword? Kenshin's pulse spikes at the thought of what this news could mean. He can hear Sanosuke continuing his rant about today's youth and their abysmal manners, but he can't hear him over the roaring in his ears. He doesn't snap out of it until Sano actually waves his hand in front of his eyes, whistling. "Oi. Anyone home in there?"

Kenshin shakes himself out of his daze and quickly picks up his chopsticks, regaining his composure. He plasters a smile on his face, albeit a strained one. "Sorry. This one was merely surprised that such a young boy would have a katana. They're not exactly commonplace anymore. What did the boy look like, Sano?"

Sanosuke gives a half-shrug. "Like a bad-tempered shrimp. Why's it matter?"

Kenshin can feel Kaoru-dono's eyes on him, and despite the excitement building in his gut, he stomps it down and merely picks at his plate. "This one is simply curious, that I am."

"Well, he looked like he could've used a bath, for one. I mean, the kid looked like he just rolled around in a pile of mud. I don't know if that sweatshirt of his was actually yellow or if it was just stained."

Kenshin has to remind himself to breathe as he slowly sets down his chopsticks and picks up his glass of water. He takes a long, slow sip and it feels like he's swallowing sand. A yellow sweatshirt…it has to be him. It has to be. Despite having been practically delusional from hunger at the time of their meeting, Kenshin can picture the boy clearly; patchy yellow sweatshirt, fiery cinnamon eyes, and a spirit too big for his skin.

"One wonders what such a young boy would need with a sword." He muses out loud, setting his cup down.

"Especially one that doesn't cut."

Kenshin stares at Sano with wide eyes. "Oro?"

"It's true," Kaoru-dono says. She's watching him with those bright blue eyes of hers, and Kenshin tries to ignore the beginning pinpricks of guilt that bud in his chest. "The boy had a sakabatō. Sano let me look at it; the blade was fixed on the wrong end of the hilt. It couldn't cut a piece of paper."

He tries to imagine his sword in Kaoru-dono's small, feminine hands and the thought makes him sick. Despite never drawing blood itself, that blade is tinged red with the burdens that its owner bears. Hands such as Kaoru-dono's, ones that are gentle but calloused from good, honest work should not hold something that's been molded to the hands of someone so filthy. He stands up suddenly, collecting his plate and glass.

"Perhaps not," Kenshin says thickly. His tongue feels clumsy in his mouth as he speaks, jittery and tripping over the adrenaline humming in his blood. "But just because a blade cannot cut does not mean that it is any less dangerous in the hands of someone with ill intent, that it does not. Now if one may be excused, I am feeling a bit under the weather, that I am."

He hears Kaoru-dono stammer out something that sounds like a question, but Kenshin's mind is racing too quickly to process anything other than the concern in her voice. He deposits his dishes in the sink before making a beeline for the bathroom. He doesn't look behind him, but he can feel Kaoru-dono's eyes on him the entire way.

Tonight. He has to leave tonight.

Doctor Oguni had just examined him yesterday and had said that he was almost completely healed. The splits on his knuckles and eye have long since scabbed over, and the bruises that had covered his person are now in the final stages of healing. Travel will still be unpleasant in this cold, but for the most part he's back to normal. His mind buzzes loudly with plans for his leave. Kenshin splashes cold water on his face and takes several deep breaths to calm his heart's erratic beating.

It has to be him. It's got to be. How many young boys are running around with reverse-blade swords? Kenshin can only think of one. It sounds like the boy is still on the streets, and he wonders if he'd be able to find him under the bridge where they had met the first time. Kenshin feels his arms prickle with goosebumps as a cold draft flows through the crack in the bottom of the bathroom door, and part of him hopes for the boy's own sake that he's not.

A knock on the door startles him.

"Kenshin?"

It's Kaoru-dono. She sounds worried, and Kenshin forces his usual happy tone despite his smile being noticeably absent.

"Yes, Kaoru-dono? Is there something this one can help you with?"

A momentary pause. "Um…well, you seemed like you were in a rush when you left dinner. I mean, you practically threw your plate in the sink…"

"I'm very sorry if I came off as rude, that I am. This one will do the dishes as soon as I am out."

"No! No, that's not what I meant!" Kaoru-dono squeaks. Kenshin can practically imagine her standing in the hallway waving her hands frantically at the door and the image almost makes his lip quirk up a bit despite himself. "I just…you've seemed like something's been bothering you, and then after what just happened in the kitchen, I wanted to make sure you were okay."

This time, Kenshin cannot help the small smile that slips onto his somber face. "This one is just fine, Kaoru-dono, just feeling a bit sick. I'm sorry to have worried you."

And he is. He hates making her worry. A woman with a heart like hers is meant to smile, always, not to fret over some vagabond she found curled up in an alleyway like a dying animal.

He can hear her small hum, and he thinks of the wind chime that she has hanging by her front door. Kenshin can hear it when the window is open, and despite the chill he can't help himself. It brings him back to long summer days running through the woods and a gruff voice pointing out stars in the sky. It's a time long since gone, but the sound brings him the comforting reminder that there was a time when life didn't used to be like this.

"Is it your stomach? I knew that tofu Sano picked out looked bad. I swear, I can't trust him with anything…I have some antacid tablets in the other room, just give me a second."

"Don't trouble yourself, Kaoru-dono. It shall pass soon." Kenshin assures her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Alright…But if you need anything, shout, okay?"

"That I will."

Kenshin can hear her shuffling outside of the door, as if she's shifting from foot to foot. "Kenshin?" She asks. Her voice is soft, almost timid sounding, and for such a lively person it seems kind of strange. He takes a few steps closer to the door, hand hovering over the knob. His voice is quiet as he responds.

"Yes, Kaoru-dono?"

"If…If something's bothering you…if you ever need to talk about anything, you can always come talk to me…I just wanted you to know that." Before Kenshin can respond, however, he hears her make a hasty retreat down the hall. Kenshin puts his back to the door and slides down, pulling his knee to his chest. He sighs deeply and rests his forehead against his knee.

Why? Why is this so difficult? Kenshin knew that this was going to happen. It's not like he was going to be staying for too much longer anyway; he'd be in this same situation come a few days. But the thought of leaving still wraps his heart in barbed wires. It's just as he feared: he's gotten comfortable. He's used to having food, a place to sleep, a roof over his head. He's used to company and concern, banter and idle chitchat and dammit, he really shouldn't have stayed.

He wants to, though. Kenshin's eyes widen a fraction the thought passes through his mind. In the dim lighting of the bathroom, surrounded by the now familiar smell of jasmine soap and laundry detergent, he admits it. He wants to stay. It's nice to have somebody to talk to, people to share meals with. It's been a while since he's stayed somewhere for such an extended period of time. There's routine now, responsibilities to uphold and things that are expected of him. Granted, he had taken them all on by himself, but he had done so happily, and it's been so long since he's done anything happily.

He leans his head back on the door, staring at the purple scarf that's looped on a hook and dangling above him. Kaoru-dono had hand washed it for him. 'It looked delicate,' she had said. 'I didn't want to trust the machine with it.' Kenshin would smile if he didn't feel the more pressing urge to smash his head against the wall.

In the short time he's known her, Kenshin has found a certain fondness for the raven-haired girl. To be honest, it's difficult to even pinpoint what it is about her. It's probably her warmth and generosity towards him, or possibly the earnest passion she just naturally seems to tackle life with. The first time he had found out that she was a kenjutsu instructor, he had actually laughed. Not because he couldn't believe it, but because it was just so fitting that he simply couldn't help himself. She had given him a good whack across the back of his head for it, but Kenshin couldn't bring himself to mind.

Perhaps it's her vehemence that one's past doesn't matter. Maybe it's her insistence on the ideals of her father's school that he's heard so much about. It's a childish ideal, the thought that a sword is meant to protect rather than take life. Kenshin's Shishou would have said it were foolish, even. But still Kaoru-dono persists, scraping and saving every spare yen she has to open a dojo and see these ideals take form in a world where violence has become the mainstream normalcy. It's a ridiculous idea, but Kenshin can't help but be drawn to her idealistic dreams like a beggar to a pile of gold.

And it's exactly for this reason that I need to leave, Kenshin thinks.

The last time he grew attached to someone, things took a turn for the worst. He's found a good friend in Kaoru-dono, and as he's reminded by the soft fabric hanging above him, all others are ever able to find in him is tragedy. He doesn't want to bring his demons to this house. He won't bring them here. Not to this home with this girl with a heart too big for her own good. His two weeks have come, and he will repay her kindness by honoring it.

As he exits the bathroom he notices with a morbid sort of humor that his scarf looks like a hanging noose.

He doesn't have to wait long.

Sanosuke had gone to his usual haunt, the Akabeko, for a few drinks not long after dinner had ended and Kaoru-dono retires for the evening soon after he exits the bathroom. He waits an hour to be safe and as soon as he hears no noise coming from his hostess' bedroom, Kenshin makes quick work of gathering his things.

He changes out of the clothes that Kaoru-dono has lent him, folding them neatly and laying them out on top of his bedding before putting on his jeans and t-shirt. He collects his scarf and the toothbrush Kaoru-dono had bought him from the bathroom. He picks up the body wash she had given him and slides it into the pocket of his coat before returning to the living room. Kenshin is careful to tread lightly as he passes her room.

His handwriting is atrocious, and Kenshin desperately hopes that Kaoru-dono will be able to read the note he leaves on top of his pile of clothes. There are a hundred things he'd like to say, but in the end he keeps it simple. He balls his hand inside his pocket as he stares down at it, running his thumb over the cap on the bottle of body wash. As a last minute thought, he takes it from his pocket and gently sets it on top of the note.

With one final look around the apartment, he flicks open the deadbolt and slips out the front door and into the chill of the night.

Something isn't right.

Kaoru turns over in her bed for the umpteenth time that night, chewing on her bottom lip as she ponders the redhead in her living room. He's been acting strange for the last few days, and then there was the incident at dinner tonight. She frowns, shifting so she's lying on her back. The fan above casts long shadows across the ceiling, and in the distance she can hear cars laying on their horns.

It's nice to remember that there's life outside of one's own head.

He had said it like a passing thought, but Kaoru had seen the way that Kenshin's eyes had seemed to change. It was as if they had glossed over, dulled from their usual amethyst to a hazy mauve. There was something meaningful behind his words, something that hints once again to that iceberg. Kaoru doesn't know what it is, but she's determined to help however she can.

With a new resolution, Kaoru throws off her blankets and makes her way to the living room to speak with him. She's quiet as she makes her way down the hall, hoping to avoid waking him if Kenshin's managed to somehow fall asleep. He rarely sleeps well, so she refuses to interrupt him if he finally is.

"Kenshin?" She says softly. The room is silent, and Kaoru relents, settling to speak with him in the morning.

Before turning around, she spots that the deadbolt on the front door is unlocked. She rolls her eyes and makes a note to scold Sano for forgetting to lock up when he gets back as she pads over quietly and flips the deadbolt into place. Every time he stays here, he always forgets! Kaoru momentarily considers stapling a reminder to his forehead and snorts loudly at the thought. She slaps her hand to her mouth.

Idiot! She scolds in her head, praying that she didn't wake him up. The fact that he's actually asleep is a miracle, and she wouldn't forgive herself if she'd woken him up. But when she finally looks over she sees the distinctive absence of Kenshin's slim figure on the couch. In fact, the bedding is still folded neatly and looks as if it hadn't been used at all.

"Kenshin?" She calls out again, this time a little louder. Only silence and the increasingly loud beat of her heart responds. Kaoru is about to check the bathroom but halts when she sees a strange object lying on top of the blankets as she passes. Picking up in her hands, her stomach lurches when she recognizes it as Kenshin's bottle of body wash. She glances down at where it had been laying and sees a small piece of paper. The feeling of dread grows tenfold as she skims down the letter.

The handwriting on it is like chicken scratch, but Kaoru makes out the only three words she really needs to:

Thank you. Goodbye.

Kaoru stands in the living room clutching the note and the bottle of body wash, reading the words over and over again. Thank you. Goodbye. Over and over she reads them, until the words seem to lose all meaning.

"He left?" Kaoru whispers. The bottle and note fall from her hands as she stares dumbly into the darkness of her apartment. Why would he leave? She knows that this was inevitable, but she wasn't expecting him to leave so soon. He didn't mention anything about it.

Kenshin's presence these past two weeks has come to be welcomed. Expected, even. Since he's come to stay here the house actually feels lived in. She no longer has to fear wandering the house in the dark, or letting food spoil in the fridge because she'd bought too much, or keeping the radio blaring just so she doesn't forget what other people sound like. It's a selfish kind of thought, but Kaoru wishes to meet the person who lives alone and genuinely enjoys it.

Kaoru sinks down onto the couch. If he were planning to leave, he would have said something, right? She thinks back to the last few days, back to his behavior. He had been reserved as normal, eager to help and never without a smile. There was nothing about him that would have signified a desire to leave. He was even planning to come with her to the dojo tomorrow!

A car passes by outside, its headlights illuminating the small orchid on the windowsill.

This isn't right. In her bones she can feel it; that iceberg lurking beneath still water. The one that drags him under, that overshadows even his brightest grin. The one that she can see flashes of in his eyes when he's not careful. Kenshin never complains, never asks for anything, even for help. Even when he could barely move when he was still healing, he never asked for help. Kenshin's only ever asks how he can help.

Outside she hears the wind chime and disembodied voices of people passing on the street.

It's nice to remember that there's life outside of one's own head.

Kaoru balls her fists.

No. He's not leaving. She won't let him. If Kenshin wishes to leave, then Kaoru will let him go, no questions asked. But he's not leaving; he's running. Kaoru may not know exactly from what yet, but she will. Kenshin is her friend and if he needs help, then she's going to do everything in her power to help him.

She jumps from the couch and rushes to her room, hastily throwing on a pair of jeans, sweatshirt, and sneakers before grabbing her bokken from its stand. Kaoru only pauses long enough to glance at the orchid on the sill before running out the door and slamming it shut behind her.

Kaoru's breath comes out as puffs of vapor as she runs down the street, clutching her bokken tightly in her hands. The air is bitingly cold tonight, nipping at her cheeks and cutting through her light sweatshirt like knives. Because of this the streets are unusually vacant, and Kaoru doesn't know whether to call it luck or misfortune.

"Kenshin!" She calls, stopping briefly at every alleyway she passes to peer in, in the hopes of spotting a familiar mop of red hair. She searches for nearly an hour to no avail, until she finds herself by the riverbank, cold and shivering. She's doubled over, holding her knees as she tries to catch her breath. The air hurts her lungs and her legs are burning from the strain, and she's about to give in when she hears the faint noise of someone shouting. Kaoru perks up, glancing over the incline and down towards the riverside.

Kaoru can make out the vague shapes of a group of people huddled around something, but from her angle she can't see. It's only when the laughing men hold the subject up in the air that Kaoru realizes what's happening.

In the hazy yellow light of the streetlamps, Kaoru recognizes the young boy as the kid from earlier that day, being held up by the front of his shirt. The man holding him up leans in and says something Kaoru can't hear before punching the boy hard in the gut. He throws him to the ground like a piece of trash and the men surrounding them erupt in laughter as the man begins to kick him.

"Hey!" Kaoru hollers, immediately racing down the incline. "Hey! Get away from him!"

The men look up as she bounds towards them, and the one kicking the boy straightens up as she throws herself in front of the his crippled form. He's a cocky looking guy with his hair styled into a large spiked bouffant, lips schooled into an arrogant grin. "Well what do we got here?" He smirks.

"I'm not going to tell you again," Kaoru warns, taking a readying stance with her bokken. "Leave this boy alone, and I won't hurt you."

"I don't need help!" The boy rasps out behind her. "Get out of here!"

Kaoru ignores the boy and stands her ground. The man takes a step towards her. His eyes hold a predatory glint, but she won't back down.

"You might wanna listen to the little punk over there. Didn't anybody tell you that it's dangerous for women to go walking alone at night?" Several lecherous cackles erupt from the group, and Kaoru bristles. She takes a step back.

"Don't come any closer," She warns again, tightening her grip on her bokken. She's trembling from the cold and something she refuses to call fear, but she clenches her teeth because somebody needs her right now, and she isn't about to back down to the likes of this filth. The man takes another step towards her.

"Come on, don't be like that." He grins lasciviously. "We just wanna have some fun."

They close in around her like a pack of rabid wolves, eyeing her like a scrap of meat. One makes a grab for her arm and she sidesteps, cracking her bokken down on his arm. He rears back and she lunges to meet him, delivering a blow across his chest that sends him to the ground.

"You little bitch!" Another shouts, charging her. She dodges his grip, whacking him in the shoulder before cracking him across the face. He too falls, and she turns back at the ready.

The leader snarls, enraged. "I'm done playing. Get her."

The group closes in, pouncing all at once. Kaoru holds her own, fending them off with well-placed hits and sharp, practiced katas. It's only until the head of the gang steps up that she faces a challenge. He's tall, fairly well-built with a menacing glare. She swallows, redjusting her grip as the others seem to back off with his unspoken command.

She takes a deep breath and charges, a shout escaping her lips as she swings. The man raises his forearm to block it, grinning. She leaps back, digging in her heels before attacking again. This time she manages to connect with his shoulder, but he shrugs off the hit easily. And so their dance continues for a minute or two, until Kaoru is frustrated and angry. He's standing there looking smug, as if her attacks have barely winded him.

I don't get it, he should be down by now! She thinks, infuriated. I've had enough of this!

Kaoru lets out a cry of anger, swinging for another attack but this time he manages to catch it with his hand. He yanks her towards him, a move that sets her off balance. She trips towards him as he leers at her from over her sword, bending it enough to crack it. Kaoru doesn't have a chance to dodge when he backhands her so hard across the face that she sees stars.

She falls to the ground, disoriented from the blow. Her eyes water from the pain and she rubs her cheek with her hand. Her damaged bokken clatters to the ground beside her, but when she dives for it the bastard kicks it out of her reach. She looks up towards the man who had slapped her with a snarl as he's handed a heavy metal chain.

"I think this bitch needs a little lesson in manners, don't you think?" He grins, wrapping the chain around his knuckles. The rest of the crowd makes catcalls of approval, and Kaoru pales.

"Leave her alone!" The boy yells, leaping towards the man. He easily bats him away with an elbow like a fly, and the boy goes tumbling across the ground. He turns to him with a snarl.

"Wait your turn. I'll deal with you in a minute, you little piece of shit. First, I gotta teach Girlie here some respect."

He raises his arm and Kaoru squeezes her eyes shut as the chain comes down at her like a whip, bracing herself for the impact.

Kenshin pulls his scarf tighter around his neck, turning his collar up against the harsh winter cold. Part of himself wishes to just turn around and return to the warmth of Kaoru-dono's apartment, but he reminds himself of just why he's chosen to leave by focusing on the missing weight on his left hip. He sighs, trudging onwards.

He had been by the bridge earlier but had found no one. Being familiar with the lifestyle of the homeless, he assumes that the boy had been cleared out by police and has been searching elsewhere for shelter. He remembers that the boy had, had a certain distaste for homeless shelters, so Kenshin makes his way up the riverbank, checking under every bridge and overhang he finds in the hopes of locating him.

When he hears the sound of voices up ahead, he perks up in excitement until he draws close enough to see exactly what he has stumbled upon. Sure enough, Kenshin finds the boy but he's sprawled across the ground like a broken, discarded toy, surrounded by a large group of sinister-looking men.

The group's collective ki makes Kenshin want to throw up. He's familiar with these ki's; he'd fought them not even two weeks ago. But tonight they're particularly vile, and when Kenshin sees the reason for it his heart nearly stops as his worst nightmare is realized.

Kaoru-dono?!

It's her, Kenshin is sure of it. There's no mistaking her bright, flickering ki, but it's subdued at the moment, smothered with fear. She's curled up on the ground, shielding herself as the group of men surround her like a pack of wild dogs. Kenshin doesn't need ki sense to understand their intentions, and the thought makes him sick.

The man towering above her raises his arm and as soon as Kenshin sees the glint of the chain in the streetlights, his body moves on its own.

The chain comes swinging down, and Kaoru hears it connect with flesh, but feels nothing. She's momentarily confused, until she hears the man swearing and opens her eyes to see a familiar mane of auburn hair.

"Kenshin?" She gasps.

Kenshin doubled-over, shielding her with his torso while his right arm is thrown out to his side to block the chain. She can see him shaking from the effort it takes to tug back on the chain, but his face betrays nothing. He looks at her and her breath catches in her throat at the sharpened look of his eyes.

"This one told you that you shouldn't wander alone at night." He chastises. "Are you unhurt?"

"I-I—" She stammers. Kaoru can hear the men shouting from in front of them, but her eyes are completely fixated on the redhead staring at her. His face is schooled into his normal smile, but it's as if his aura has completely morphed. The air around him seems to crackle from the intensity of it and it makes Kaoru bristle. She opens her mouth but her eye catches movement from over his shoulder and she has no time to shout as the man trains his gun on the back of Kenshin's head.

"Look out—!" The boy cries.

Kenshin gives the chain a rough tug that causes the man to fumble with his bad knee and in a motion so quick and so fluid that Kaoru almost misses it, he uppercuts the man in the jaw. He goes flying backwards to the pavement and lands hard on his back. Kaoru can hear the air force its way from his lungs in a loud whoosh as his gun falls from his hand, clattering on the ground a few feet away.

"I was speaking to Kaoru-dono," Kenshin says coldly. "It's rude to interrupt."

Kaoru stares disbelievingly at the thug's crumpled form, thought process screeching to a halt. Kenshin, the sweet, bumbling man who cooks her breakfast and folds her laundry just decommissioned a man twice his height with a single blow. Her brain reels with the effort it takes to process this.

Kenshin's turns to her again as if he hadn't just punched another man in the jaw, but suddenly he's as rigid as stone. If it wasn't for the fact that her entire consciousness is honed in on his right now, Kaoru is sure that she would have missed the slight raise of his brows and the widening of his eyes when he finally spots what must be a fantastic bruise blooming on her left cheek.

"They hit you." He breathes.

Something in his amethyst eyes shifts, twisting to something dark and hostile that makes Kaoru's stomach churn violently. He suddenly releases her and rises to his feet, turning away. He unwinds the chain from around his forearm before reaching for her discarded bokken. Kaoru's mouth opens and closes uselessly, tongue thick from shock and confusion. She fumbles to say something, to tell him to run, to get away from them because he's clearly outnumbered and all he's arming himself with is a splintering sword, but all that comes out of her mouth are jumbled noises.

"May I?" He asks her. Language eludes her, but he must take her silence as permission because he lifts the sword and weighs it experimentally in his hand.

"Just who the fuck do you think you are?" One of the men yells. Someone must recognize him from somewhere, because another adds, "Hey, isn't that the punk who broke Gasuke-san's nose a couple weeks ago?" A loud chorus of realization ripples through the men.

Kenshin ignores them, turning to the young boy. The boy looks a little worse for wear, but his eyes are still bright and alert. They widen and he stammers out, "It's you!"

Kenshin does not acknowledge the boy's surprise. "Yahiko, can you stand?"

Yahiko shifts some of his weight and winces, but nods. "Y-Yeah, I think so."

"Good. Do you think you can run?"

"Uh, yeah." He says hesitantly. "Probably."

Kenshin pats the boy on the shoulder before taking him by the hand and hoisting him to his feet. "I need you to take Kaoru-dono and run. Go to the Akabeko and find a man named Sagara Sanosuke. Then, find the authorities. Can you do that?"

"Ye-Yeah."

Kaoru watches the exchange with a dry mouth. The words aren't processing—nothing is making sense. Then she feels Kenshin's hands gripping her arms, the same hands that he had just used to block a metal chain and knock someone out, lifting her up to stand on unsteady feet. Her eyes watch him with incredulity, but she feels another tug on her arm. This time it's Yahiko urging her to run, but her limbs are like anchors, her entire being fixated on the man before her that suddenly a stranger again.

"Ugly, come on!" Yahiko yells, yanking at her sleeve. But she doesn't listen even though she should. How can she? Everything is moving in slow motion around her, and Kenshin—Kenshin!—is crouching into a stance that she does not recognize, about to take on upwards of ten armed men, and the only thing that seems real about any of this is the throbbing ache of her cheekbone. The click of a gun cocking cuts through the fog.

"Move!"

The gun goes off and her body surges to life. Suddenly she's sprinting, fast and hard, away from the group and away from Kenshin. She shouldn't, but she turns around with barbed wire in her throat and fire in her lungs and please let him be okay—!

She turns in time to watch him take a single step and vanish like a mist.

They're not prepared for his speed, and that's exactly what Kenshin had been hoping for. The last time they had fought, his movements were slow and jerky from a mixture of hunger, exhaustion, and exposure, but now he's back to form. It's obvious that these men have never been formally trained in combat and if they have, only the bare basics. They rush at him in a disorganized cluster and he can't possibly ask for an easier target.

It takes him a moment to adjust to the significant weight difference between his katana and Kaoru-dono's wooden bokken, but Kenshin manages in time to land a swift blow to his first opponent's stomach. He doubles over from the force of the blow and Kenshin uses this momentum to spin himself around and brings the sword down hard on the man's back. Kenshin hears a low crack and the man drops to the cement, wheezing.

Years in the military have tuned Kenshin's senses to an almost inhuman efficiency, so he is easily able to hear the sound of the second man's chain whip slicing the air long before it manages to connect. Kenshin sidesteps it and lets it twirl and catch on the bokken. He yanks the sword and the man fumbles towards him. He lands a kick on the man's chest that makes him release the whip and Kenshin cracks the bokken across his head before spinning on his heel to face the remaining group.

"You son of a bitch!" One roars, charging him. Kenshin races towards him and meets his wakizashi head-on, the blade biting into the wood of the bokken. The wood groans in his hands, crack growing. He hears the click of a cocked gun behind him and Kenshin immediately drops to the ground. The bullet catches his opponent in the shoulder and the man screams with pain, dropping his blade to clutch his bloodied arm. Kenshin scoops it up, flipping the blade to its dulled side with a flick of his wrist.

Two, three, four—

The man continues to fire off rapidly at Kenshin, and he keeps careful count of the number of rounds fired off in his head as he bobs and weaves around the chaotic mix of bodies that try furiously to catch him. One bullet screams past his left ear as he lands the flat of the wakizashi's blade against one man's nose before turning to smash the end cap of the hilt into the side of another's neck.

"You dumb shits! How hard is it to land a goddamned hit?" The man with the gun howls. "Quit fucking around and kill him!"

One takes a mad swing at him with an aluminum bat. Kenshin lifts the wakizashi to block it and the force of the impact sends shockwaves coursing down his left arm. The man's greasy face splits into a sneer when Kenshin flinches.

"Ain't so tough, are ya?" He mocks, shoving hard against Kenshin's blade. He doesn't dignify the man with an answer, but instead chooses to ignore the pain and smashes the bokken into the man's exposed side. The man hollers like a wounded animal as Kenshin kicks him into another opponent. They collapse to the ground in a frenzied tangle of limbs and the redhead wastes no time turning to face the rest of the brood.

An influx of bodies rages towards him. Kenshin turns tail, willing his feet to gain traction on the wet pavement as he sprints towards a nearby floodwall. His muscles burn from the exertion, pulse thrumming with adrenaline. It's a familiar, heady sort of feeling that simultaneously elates and disgusts him. He hears a roar of frustration as another two rounds whizz past him.

Five, six—

And then he sees it.

"Are you slow? Move it!" Yahiko hisses, tugging her hard on the arm. They're running up the riverbank, but Kaoru's movements are clumsy because she keeps stopping to look back at Kenshin.

He's like a demon in human skin; lightning fast with merciless accuracy. Kaoru watches him take down two, three, four men with nothing but her bokken and now a wakizashi, cutting through the mass of men as if they were merely blades of grass. The sound of a gunshot pierces the icy air, and Kaoru's knees give out when she loses sight of Kenshin in the throng of bodies. She doesn't realize that she's not breathing until she spots his mane of red, zigzagging through the crowd like a trail of fire.

"What are you doing?" Yahiko demands. "Get up, we gotta go!"

Kaoru doesn't dare to take her eyes away from the fight as she says, "Go without me."

Yahiko drops her sleeve, cinnamon eyes wide with disbelief. "Are you stupid or something?" He shouts. "If they catch us, we're screwed!"

"I'm not leaving him behind!" Kaoru shouts back defiantly. She grabs him by the shoulders and forces their eyes to meet. "Look, you're probably faster than me anyway. So do what Kenshin said and go get help!"

"But—"

"I'll be fine," She says, voice as steady as the beat of a taiko drum. "Now don't waste any more time arguing. Go."

Yahiko looks down at his feet and over towards the fight before meeting Kaoru's gaze again. He stares at her with hard brown eyes, but after a moment gives a firm nod and takes off running. Kaoru watches Yahiko long enough to make sure that he's going in the right direction before turning back to watch the fight.

She stares at the scene with wide, astonished eyes as she watches Kenshin take down each man one by one. His fighting skills are unbelievable, and his speed even more so. The only way she can track him is by watching the other men as they fold like sheets of paper.

Kaoru hears another gunshot and a nearby lamp erupts, washing the riverbank in semi-darkness. It's both a blessing and a curse; the shadows hide her well enough to keep her from being seen, but at the same time she loses what little visual she had of Kenshin.

Two more gunshots ring out, and her blood freezes in her veins at the deafening roar that echoes down the riverbank.

There. Lying on the ground about ten feet away is Kenshin's sakabatō. Between them are several angry-looking thugs and the barrel of a gun. He braces himself before charging them.

Even with the chaos around him, Kenshin's mind whirs with cold, analytical data: the standard choice of firearms for low-ranking yakuza is a Walther P38, a semi-auto that can only hold eight rounds excluding one round in the chamber. He'll assume that the man had started off with a full set of ammunition, and if the man is as poor at reloading his magazine as he is with aiming at a moving target, then Kenshin estimates that he has about a six-second window of opportunity. It'll be risky, but he's done better with worse before.

He slides low on his heels across the slick sidewalk to avoid a stray switchblade and leaps upwards to dodge a sloppy swing of a nunchaku, never losing his momentum. A gunshot fires behind him and the streetlight above them explodes in a downpour of sparks—seven.

Almost there—!

He takes advantage of the limited light to twist and weave his way towards the sword. The man's aim will be even more compromised with less visibility. As for Kenshin, he pushes the thought of how easy it is for him to track each man's movements in the shadow-lined riverbank away from his mind; he can worry about things like humanity and relapses when there isn't live ammunition being fired at his head.

He throws the broken bokken over his shoulder and dives for the sword, tucking into a role before leaping to his feet again. It's a welcomed weight in his hands, familiar and leveling. And now that he has it, Kenshin decides that it's high time that this little dance ends. He sucks in a cold breath that burns his lungs and continues on in a mad sprint towards the floodwall.

The eighth round imbeds itself into the cement wall beside him just as Kenshin scales it with quick, practiced steps. With a strong push of his legs he launches himself off of the wall like a rocket over the heads of his pursuers. It's a move that leaves him vulnerable and his target takes full advantage of this, firing off the final round at Kenshin's airborne form. He twists himself midair, serpentine and just as lethal as the bullet merely grazes his arm.

Nine.

The man's eyes are wild with panic as he fumbles with emptying his magazine as Kenshin descends upon him like a fiery bird of prey. A furious roar rips from Kenshin's throat as he brings the blade down on the man's skull. Gracefully he lands and sheathes his sword in one fluid motion as the man stands there choking on his own tongue before collapsing to the ground, motionless.

Kenshin's peripherals catch the bastard with the chain from earlier crawling towards his gun a couple of feet away. In three swift strides, Kenshin crushes the man's outstretched hand beneath his foot. The man howls with pain as he digs his heel in.

"I would advise against that," He says flatly. The man whimpers as Kenshin retracts his foot.

He straightens and turns his icy glare on the remaining men, ki pulsating with the unspoken dare to challenge him. Kenshin looks each of them in the eyes with every bit of the ferocity that had earned him the name of Battousai. With a voice as cold and unforgiving as the blade in his hand, he orders them to surrender. The men stare on in a horrified silence, their weapons falling to the ground in a unanimous clamor of steel.

"The next time, I will not be so merciful." He growls. Before they get the sense to run, he strikes them all in the back of the head with the sheath of his sakabatō, rendering them unconscious save for two. Kenshin turns to them with promises of retribution in his eyes if they resist.

"You two. Go to the police and bring them here." Kenshin commands. The two men stand there, however, frozen like deer in a fear-induced stupor until he barks, "Go!"

The trembling men take off like a gunshot, scrambling up the slick grassy incline of the riverbank. They trip and fumble the entire way up before disappearing down the street. Kenshin watches them long enough to confirm that they're headed in the direction of the station and then turns his attention to the sprawl of unconscious bodies scattered across the cement.

"No matter where I go…" Kenshin murmurs solemnly. He sighs heavily, sliding the sheath of his sakabatō into his belt.

"Kenshin!"

He turns in surprise, quicky running towards the familiar voice. "Kaoru-dono?"

Kaoru is breathless as she runs to him, sliding down the slope of the bank. Her ears still ring from Kenshin's scream, and her heart feels ready to burst through her ribs.

"Kenshin!" She shouts. "Kenshin, where are you?"

She skids to a stop as the extent of the damage comes into focus in the hazy shadows of the riverbank.

Kaoru stares at the crumpled bodies of her attackers in morbid astonishment. Their low groans of pain are frequent, but otherwise the men may as well have been corpses in their stillness. It still won't process that it was Kenshin who had done all of this; that it was the same ditzy man who's been living on her couch and cleaning her house and making her home feel lived-in. But she had seen it with her own two eyes, no matter how disbelieving she is of them. Kenshin had taken all of these men down with a cold and meticulous efficiency.

"Kaoru-dono?"

She looks up to see a short figure running towards her. Even in such dim lighting, she can make out his wild red hair like a beacon, and relief swells in her chest.

"What are you doing here?" Kenshin asks her. When she's this close to him Kaoru can see the sweat on the brow and the deep heaving of his chest as he tries to catch his breath. At this distance he doesn't look like a fire-haired demon, but a very concerned, very human man. "This one told you to run!"

A thousand different things claw up her throat, fighting to be said: 'What was that?' or 'Where did you learn to do that?' being two of the strongest contenders. But as he stands before her, her eyes spot a tear in his sleeve and a dark patch where the blood has already saturated the cloth, and so the first thing she blurts out is "You're bleeding."

Kenshin's violet eyes widen in confusion, and he looks at his arm as if this is the first he's heard of this news. "Oro?"

"You're bleeding." She repeats stupidly, tanzanite eyes fixated on the bright red patch of skin visible through the tear. It's practically fluorescent against his pale skin. "You got shot."

Kenshin touches his fingers to the wound experimentally. He retracts his fingers and rubs them together, examining the sticky redness. "So I did," He muses, turning back to her with a small, almost tired smile. "It only grazed me though, that it did."

And there it is; that shift, that dizzying one-eighty he pulls with little effort. Despite her daze, she's somewhat surprised at how relieved she is to hear the redhead's more habitual speech patterns. He's beside her now, examining her cheek with worried eyes that are much more familiar than those steely ones from earlier, absolutely no concern for his own injury. And for some reason, this makes her angry. Livid.

"Kenshin, I don't know if you realized what the heck just happened," She remarks with incredulity, "But someone just shot you."

"Oro?"

"Don't you 'oro' me, you jerk!" She howls. Kaoru slips off her shoe and whacks him hard upside the head with it. He yelps in surprise from the blow loses his balance, and falls back on his arms. His face tells her that he's jolted by her attitude, but she can't bring herself to care: she has a point to make.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was when I woke up and found your note?" She reels, waving her shoe at his face. "And while we're on the subject of your note: really? You couldn't at least have the decency to say goodbye to my face?"

Kaoru sniffles, and stubbornly blames it on the cold and not the typhoon of emotions raging in her chest. She clutches her sneaker so tightly that her hand shakes. "You're the worst, Kenshin!"

The redhead stares at her, completely taken aback by her outburst. Kenshin doesn't say a word but simply stares up at her in astonishment, so Kaoru angrily turns on her heel and marches away. The cold quickly starts to seep in through her now wet sock, so she pauses in her furious retreat to slip her shoe back on. She hops around on one foot as she tries to get it on, and simply throws it a few feet away when she can't get the back of it over her heel.

"Stupid shoe," Kaoru hisses. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

"Kaoru-dono," Kenshin calls behind her.

"No. Go if you want to go." She snaps. It's freezing near the waterside, and Kaoru curses herself for forgetting a jacket. Then again, if she weren't in such a hurry to find him, she wouldn't have been so forgetful. She also wouldn't have been outside to begin with. In fact, she'd probably be lying at home in her bed, wishing for some sort of sound other than the deafening silence that fills each room come nightfall. She tries to swallow the lump that forms in her throat to no avail.

Suddenly, a heavy jacket falls over her shoulders. Kaoru's eyes widen; it smells like sandalwood.

"Please forgive this unworthy one for his carelessness." Kenshin says behind her. "I'm not used to having people worry for me, that I'm not."

"Well get used to it," Kaoru quips. "You're my friend, so it's going to happen a lot from now on."

"Friend," Kenshin says. He says it as if the word is foreign on his tongue, clunky from lack of use. A strange sort of light comes to his face. She watches him walk over to her shoe and pick it up. He offers it to her with a soft, apologetic smile. "It's been a long time since I've called anyone that, that it has."

Kaoru takes the shoe from him and the two stand in silence as she slides her foot back into it. Kenshin holds her hand to help her balance as she tugs the back of it over her heel.

"I'm sorry that you had to see this, that I am." Kenshin apologizes quietly, releasing her hand once she's finished. Kaoru looks up at him with a furrowed brow, and watches as the light slowly fades from his eyes. "I was hoping that you would never know that I was capable of such things."

"Believe me, I had no idea," She chuckles humorlessly. Kaoru glances at the unconscious figures littering the ground not ten feet from them, and she frowns. "Kenshin, where did you even learn to do that?"

"The military." He says, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword. There is no pride in his voice, but nor is there spite. Rather, Kenshin says it with a mechanical sort of detachment that makes anxiety twist in Kaoru's gut. This is his iceberg, she realizes. as Kenshin bows his head, refusing to meet her eyes.

"Until about ten years ago, I served as part of the Tokushu Sakusen Gun."

"The Tokushu Sakusen Gun…?" Kaoru repeats, and suddenly it hits her. She covers her mouth with her hand in shock. "You mean you were serving during the revolution?"

Kenshin nods grimly.

"My apologies that I never told you about me. I hated not telling you the truth, Kaoru-dono, but it was just something that I didn't want to talk about if it was possible." Kenshin gives her a sad smile. "After all, dogs of the regime are not exactly well-liked after what took place during the war."

Kenshin waits for her to say something, anything. But Kaoru-dono merely stands there in a stunned silence, hand over her mouth and her imperial blue eyes wide. Something flashes across her face, something that looks uncomfortably like pity, and he has to turn away.

It always ends like this: with either anger or pity. Kenshin would say that he's sick of it, but in all honesty he doubts that he has any more energy to give towards being upset about it anymore. The only regret he is able to feel is the deep regret for having deceived her for so long, especially after everything Kaoru-dono has done for him. She had given him a safe haven to rest his weary bones in, fed him until his cheeks were no longer sunken from hunger, talked and listened to him when he thought people had long since stopped, and all he's repaid her with is trouble. He pulls at his scarf around his neck before bowing at the waist.

"Forgive me," Kenshin says. "I'll go."

He doesn't get more than three feet before Kaoru-dono shouts,

"Wait a second!"

Kenshin turns around, surprised at her outburst. She's standing there with her arms crossed, staring at him with a look of…anger?

"Where do you think you're going, Himura Kenshin?" Kaoru-dono demands. "First you leave without saying goodbye to my face, then you make me run all over Tokyo trying to find you, and when I do, you make me worry about you getting yourself killed. You're going to need to do a lot of laundry before I even think about forgiving you for this."

Kenshin blinks, the meaning of her words dawning on him. Kaoru-dono puts her hands on her hips, and he can't keep himself from smiling. "Is that an invitation?"

Kaoru-dono's hand flies to her mouth again, and even in the dim light of the remaining streetlights, Kenshin can see her cheeks flush. She opens her mouth to no doubt reprimand him for teasing her at such a time, but Sanosuke's bellow cuts her off.

"Jo-chan, Kenshin, what the hell's goin' on? This shrimp just came flyin' into the Akabeko like a bat outta hell and ho—ly shit!"

The tall man comes barreling down the incline, Yahiko's shorter form not far behind him. He slows his pace to a jog as he approaches them, slack-jawed at the sight of the yakuza thugs behind them. "What the fuck happened here? And what happened to your face?!"

"Don't worry about it. Did you guys call the police?"

"Yeah, Tae's on the phone with 'em as we speak but—wait, what do you mean 'don't worry about it'?!"

Before Kaoru-dono can answer, Kenshin puts his hand on her shoulder. "It's this one's fault, that it is. I'm afraid that I haven't been completely honest with you."

"What the fuck does that mean, you haven't been 'honest with us'?" Sano demands. He whips his head to Kaoru-dono. "What's that supposed to mean? What in the ever-loving fuck is going on?!"

"What it means is that we should probably get out of the cold and go back to Kaoru-dono's, that it does."

Kaoru-dono's head snaps towards him with a hopeful look and when he gives her a small smile, her eyes light up like a firework. He turns back to the other two who are much less enthused, one tired and bruised and the other ready to blow a gasket, and offers an apologetic grin.

"It's a rather long story, I'm afraid, so why doesn't this one make us all some tea?"

Japanese Vocabulary:

-Shogi- Sometimes referred to as "Japanese Chess"; it's a strategy game that Sano is quite fond of.

-Daihinmin- Also known as "Rich Man, Poor Man" or "Daifugo", it's a card game where the object is to get rid of one's cards as quickly as possible.

-Tamagoyaki- A type of omelette prepared in a special square-shaped frying pan.

-Bokken- A type of wooden sword. While Yahiko is often seen with a shinai, Kaoru is often seen with a bokken.

-"Busu"- it can mean "ugly" or "hag", but is typically used to describe one's attitude. This is Yahiko's nickname for Kaoru.

-Edo Period- Also called the Tokugawa Era, it was the period in Japanese history between 1603 and 1867 when the land was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate and samurai were commonplace. This was the last major era before the Bakumatsu and the Meiji Era of restoration.

-Sakabatō- Kenshin's reverse-blade sword.

-Wakizashi-A type of traditional katana, but usually smaller (between 30-60cm long)

-Nunchaku- A traditional Okinawan weapon consisting of two sticks chained together. Also referred to as "nunchucks" and "danger sticks".

-Battousai- literally "Master of Battō"; Kenshin's nickname during the war and in this AU, his codename.