Hello, folks! I'm back with a new long fic. I haven't plotted everything out in my head, but I hope that starting this now would get my mind moving. Despite my theme, this won't be a spoiler fic. You should have known that it WOULD happen, and it did.  If you still don't know HOW this turn of events could have occurred, though, it's high time you visited www.maigo-chan.org/ruroken.html and read the translations for the Jinchuu arc.

Oh, this is my first time to download a story using HTML (Word "save as webpage" command). If you have any pointers, I would appreciate it! 

I hope you like it!

(reformatted)

…………………………………….

Meiji 12 (approximately 1881)

It has been two months since Himura Kenshin married Kamiya Kaoru, in simple ceremonies held at the Kamiya dojo.

The Akabeko sponsored for the reception. Countless other little shops offered to help with the expenses, such as decorations and gifts and wedding essentials. All of the assistance was accepted gratefully by the couple, which understandably did not have much money to spare. It was not much, they all told them, for all the many times they either bought goods from them, or protected their stalls from various nuisances.

It was most fortunate that this was a wedding held in Japan. Not for his life would Yahiko have been a ring-bearer. Things being what they were, 12-year-old Yahiko made himself useful that day by serving the innumerable guests that arrived, non-stop. It was alright; Tsubame was serving beside him. 

But the people came and came: the entire Oniwabanshuu, almost the entire police force, all of the dojo's neighbors, all of Kaoru's little kendo students from various schools, and many teachers from those schools. Many of the people who came, the couple barely knew, but they were all shaking their hands, thankful for some little or great thing they had done for them, and wishing them a long life together.

Yes, it had been a memorable day for everyone whose lives were touched by the owners of the Kamiya dojo. But life was getting quite back to normal in the little dojo.

Megumi still lived and worked in Aizu, but she frequently wrote to Kenshin and Kaoru, constantly asking if Sanosuke had written again. Unfortunately, that worthy wanderer was not much of a writer, and they were lucky if they got a note out of him every two months.

A new doctor was now assisting Gensai-sensei at the Oguni clinic, but he proved to be as kind as Megumi. He was patronized just as well. -

It was to this new doctor that Kaoru visited one fine sunny day. Recently she had been feeling queasy and dizzy, but she was unable place it to anything she ate. Kenshin did not think it was too much of a problem, and continued doing the laundry as she went on her way.

Kaoru, the brave woman she always was, made her way to the clinic alone but safely. The doctor welcomed her with a smile. 

"Anything I can do for you, Himura-san?"

"Well, I'd like you to tell me what's wrong with me, sensei," Kaoru replied, then she began to relate her recent feelings of dizziness.

"How long have you had these?"

"Roughly a month, and I've been having a few stomach pains, too, for about as long."

The doctor thought for a while, then quietly asked, "Himura-san, would it be alright if I examined you more carefully? I mean, touch you?  Would your husband mind?"

"Yes, um, no," Kaoru fumbled at this odd request, "um, I mean, it's alright, I don't mind." Her face wrinkled into a question.

The doctor went through a routine check of her stomach and lower back, asked a few more questions, and stared a little more at Kaoru's flushed face. He noted his findings in a little chart as Kaoru re-dressed herself.  When she had finished, the doctor returned and faced Kaoru with a serious look. 

"What is the matter with me, sensei? What medicine should I take? Something terribly wrong with my cooking?" Kaoru did not know what to think of all this. Kenshin had already taught her a thing or two about frying fish, so it wasn't the fish she cooked this morning……..

"Understand this carefully, Himura-san," the doctor began to say with a stern face. "I want you to come visit me every month from now on. If you could come every two weeks, that would be better."

Kaoru paled. "Sensei, don't tell me I'm going to die! I don't want to die! What about Kenshin……?"

But the doctor simply laughed at the panic in Kaoru's eyes.

………………………………..

Kenshin was still busy placing the newly washed laundry on the lines when Kaoru arrived. "Anata, I need to talk to you…….." she asked him hesitantly.

"Just a minute, Kaoru-dono. I'll be done with the laundry shortly, and I still have to fix dinner," he replied without looking at her.

Kaoru walked on to the house. She was anxious. The doctor had given her very serious news about her health, and she did know the best way to tell her husband.  If it was about himself, that would be easier, but how would react to something about HER?

This could wait until dinner, she decided.

But dinner came and went, as Kenshin chatted happily for the two of them. He had seen several people that day and had a wonderful talk. He planned to accept the job offer from one of the men who came. He would not have to work far away from home, and he would not have to sell anything. He talked and talked, excited about the prospect of more income for them, and the chance to be truly the breadwinner of the household……………

"HIMURA KENSHIN! Stop talking and listen to me!"

"Oro, Kaoru-dono!"  He jumped back a few inches from his plate on the floor. His chopsticks were held suspended in the air.

Kaoru lowered her head and looked at her half-finished dinner.  "Anata, um, well, I have to tell you, that, well……I'm not sure how to tell you….."

"Get on with it, then, Kaoru-dono. Just tell me." His chopsticks were still held high in anticipation. 

Using her chopsticks, she made circles with the soy sauce left on her dipping bowl. "Anata, um, I don't know how to say it. The doctor told me this afternoon……."

"Yes?"

Kaoru looked deep into Kenshin's purple eyes, and mustered enough strength in herself to say what she had to say.

"Kenshin. I……..I………..I am pregnant, Kenshin." 

Now it was Kenshin who turned pale. "By……by……..whom, Kaoru-dono?" 

"By you, of course, baka! How DARE you think of other men, Kenshin!"

"S-s-so you mean to say, Kaoru-dono, that I--that we--are going to have a child?"

Kaoru nodded. 

"Orororororooooo."   Chopsticks and rice bowl fell to the floor with a clatter.

………………………………………………

Anata----Japanese sweet term for a spouse. Probably equates to "honey". 

Baka----stupid

Sensei----usually used for teachers, but could be used also to address doctors

Please inform me if someone has already tried this story idea at FanFiction.net , and I promise I will stop right here if someone already did.  Suggestions, please, suggestions!  Thanks for reading this. I hope to keep up a good fic!