I Love You For You

(I do not in any way own Rurouni Kenshin)

"Kenshin, is something wrong?" asked Kaoru. For the past few days her husband had been distant. She knew why, and she knew if she told him he would shrug it off and say that it was nothing.

"Its nothing Kaoru. Don't worry yourself." He gave her one of his best Rurouni smiles.

I knew it. She thought. Though she really couldn't blame him. It was the anniversary of his first wife Tomoe death. On top of that it was snowing. It was exactly the same. She had to pry the confession out of him. She didn't want to but he left her no choice.

"Hey Kenshin?" she asked.

"Yes Kaoru?"

She played nervously with the end of her kimono before asking. "What was Tomoe-san like?"

For a minute Kenshin tensed but then began to relax. "Why do you ask?" Truthfully he was surprised she had asked. In truth Tomoe's death was not what was bothering him. In the past he might have felt horrible when thinking about it, but his two months of being married to Kaoru had changed all that. His past did not hurt as much as it had before. What was bothering him was that Kaoru would be worried if he acted as though he were happy. He was also worried that battosai would be restless tonight, and the last thing he would ever want to do was force Kaoru to do something she didn't want.

"Just asking" she said nervously. In truth she suspected there was another reason he was acting like that. She always thought that Tomoe was perfect and that she could never compare to her. She worried that when he thought about his former wife he would see how unwomanly she was and leave her. She knew she was being silly, but while Kenshin might have not shown it, he would be unhappy. That would be horrible. She loved Kenshin with all her heart and the last thing she wanted was for him to be unhappy.

He sighed. Well lets see, she was very polite, an excellent cook, and was very quiet." He said thoughtfully.

"I see." Kaoru said quietly.

"Say Kenshin, are you happy with me?" she asked.

Kenshin's eyes shot open. Oh no she must be at that stage!!! He thought nervously. "Of course I am. Why would you think that I'm not?"

Her lower lip started to tremble, oh no he thought, and that's when the waterworks started.

"Tomoe was so much better than me!!!!!!!!!!!" she cried. "She didn't throw things at people, or yell or anything. That's why your acting like this! You wish she was still your wife and not me!" she accused.

Kenshin just stood there was that what this was all about? He walked up to her and started cooing to her. He had to make sure she understood. "Kaoru look at me." he said gently. Slowly she tilted her head up. "I love you and don't you ever think differently. I love you because of all those things. Your spunk, your energy, your fierceness. I love it all Kaoru. I am only acted this way because if I didn't you would be worried." She didn't say anything because she knew he was right. If he didn't act like this she would have been more worried than she already was. "I also so did it be cause I didn't want battosai to surface."

Now Kaoru just felt stupid how could she doubt Kenshin like that after all he had done for her.

"Wait Kenshin, why were you scared of battosai?"

He sighed and looked down "I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to do, and with battosai I'm not sure that will be possible."

"You actually want me like this?!" she said surprised.

"Of course I do." he said. "Your beautiful like this he said."

"On today."

"Tomoe was a nice person I think she would want me happy." He started to kiss her softly. "Please Kaoru."

"Alright" she said surrendering.

As he spent the night showing his love for her he knew that Tomoe was smiling. And not just at him but also his wife and his unborn son.