A/N: I first thought that Kenshin would be good for the part, but then I thought that Kenji would be even better. Kenshin may not ever want to admit that he might be sick, but kids are worse than adults sometimes, given the right opportunities and...the fact that they hate medicine. So, I hope you like...

Yucky!

The water rushing under Kenji's hands and then into his throat cooled the slight burning it had. The boy looked around as he held the hose in his hand and sat getting drenched in the cool water he had snuck from the sprinkler that was watering his father's garden. He took a mouthful and swallowed again. His mother was inside vacuuming up in the summer, while his father was at work. Kenji turned back to the hose and looked in it as the water stopped. The footsteps alerted the small child and he got up from his scraped up knees. It was only in time that his mother's hands wrapped around his little figure and picked him up.

"Look at you...you're soaking wet." She laughed as she peeled off his shirt. He looked down to the hose that leaked a trickle of water and he reached to it as his mother turned him around to watch it get smaller and smaller.

"Hose."

"Daddy's hose." Kaoru said. "You know that your not suppose to play with daddy's hose."

"I like the hose though momma." Kenji rasped lightly.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine momma."

Kaoru looked at him for a moment, into his eyes carefully and his rosy cheeks. She smiled at her with that smile that got every child off the hook and she placed his head on her shoulder one more time getting him inside.

Kaoru put his on his bed and helped him change into dry clothes, her eyes fixed on him at all times. There was something up with her son that she couldn't place. It was a mother's intuition. She gave him one eye, but the child didn't budge. Finally, he got her to do what he wanted. She left the room, cracking the door. Kenji slid off the bed and rushed down the hallway after his mother, taking a different turn to be able to go back outside. He had a small cough, one that seemed nonexistent, but it made Kaoru turn fast.

"Kenji-chan?"

"I'm fine momma!" he called, and rushed out the screen door.

There was a pool that was slowly being filled in the backyard that would be ready in three days. That was what his mom and his dad said. And as a natural reaction as a kid, he couldn't be more excited. He could get Eiji and Yutaro and Yahiko to come over and swim with him and they would splash and have fun. He couldn't wait.

With his head on his knees, he smiled and looked at it imagining all the fun that was untimely possible of him.

--

Later that night, they all sat outside with listening to the crickets chirping and watching the fireflies all glimmer in the trees making Christmas lights of themselves. In the yard, a firefly was trying to run away from Kenji, who was running from his mother who was running from her husband. It was an odd chain around the big open space they had and loved using to full extent. It was a Friday after all.

Kenji tumbled in the grass, his hands clasping the firefly the lit up green in his hands. Kaoru picked him up, and as she put him up on her shoulders, she heard a light wheezing from him. She brought him down and listened to his chest. Kenshin stepped over and looked at his wife quizzically. She passed Kenji to him, and he too listened before cradling him in his arms.

"Kenji-chan?" Kenshin's light voice said. "Are you not feeling well?"

"I feel good daddy." He said with a rasp. But the look on Kenshin's face went from happy to a bit concerned. It was time to be his son's parent instead of his playmate.

"Does he look a little flushed to you?" Kaoru asked her husband. Kenshin walked up to the patio and sat in a plastic chair with his son on his knee. Kenji's little eyes twinkled against the stars, and Kenshin could see himself in those big puppy eyes. But they weren't working this time.

"Kenji-chan, open wide please." Kenshin asked like a doctor. Kenji tried to keep his little mouth glued shut. Kenshin carefully pried the boy's mouth open. It was like any child's mouth should be. Teeth missing and he was still trying to hold it shut even though his father was strong. "Wider Kenji-chan, please." He asked. But he only opened a millimeter. It was enough for Kenshin to see the redness in his throat. He let Kenji's mouth go and turned his head up to Kaoru.

"He's sick anata."

Kaoru picked her son up. "I though I heard him cough earlier." She started inside.

"We'll get you in bed."

"I don't wanna go to bed! It's to early momma!" Kenji yelled.

"Bed Kenji-chan. You need to get better." Kaoru coaxed.

"But the pool momma!"

"It will be there when you get better."

She put him in his pajamas and snuggled him into bed. She sat next to him, and that's when he started to cough real badly. He tried to hide it behind his hands, but he couldn't do it. He lifted his head up and sneezed. Kaoru gave him a tissue, but he didn't use it.

"Kenji, you need to get that out."

"I'm not sick momma! I was playing out with you guys!" Kenshin came in, moving the boys' toys out of the way and sitting in a chair next to him son. Kaoru was a little fearful now. He held in his hand a bottle, and it wasn't just any bottle, it was a medicine bottle. Cherry medicine. She shuddered even. Even Kaoru hated the stuff, and she knew that Kenshin probably hated it too. But it made kids better, so that was the only reason that they would put him through it.

"Daddy! I'm not sick. See?" he said standing up, but he fell back down. Kenshin put his hand to his son's forehead as he coughed into his hand.

"He had a fever."

"Does it seem bad anata?"

"Not too, but he does need medicine."

"No daddy! No!" Kenji yelled and coughed. His nose poured snot and Kaoru put the tissue up to it. He blew; he wanted to get rid of it. All the while she was looking at her husband still slightly scared as he poured the red liquid into the spoon. Kenji was cringing and pulling the blanket up as Kenshin tried to get it near his mouth. Kaoru was struggling to keep her son from running out the door, holding him to the mattress.

"Kenji-chan..." Kenshin said, holding it at a distance that Kenji couldn't flail and swat it out of his hand making it fly everywhere.

"I'm not sick daddy!"

"Kenji-chan, this will ensure that." Kenshin tried to coax some comfort into his son. Kenji coughed again and Kaoru pulled the blanket down and Kenshin tried to put it in his son's mouth. Pushing himself further into his mother's chest, Kenji backed himself into a corner and Kenshin finally got it in his son's mouth. Kenji's eyes went wide. He gazed over at his father, his cheeks like a chipmunks, and then he spit all of it out, plus spit. Kaoru clapped her hands over her mouth. Her husband was covered in red liquid that matched his hair. His shoulders hunched, and he finally opened his eyes to his son who had crossed his arms.

"Yucky!" He screeched. "Yucky! yucky! yucky!" Kenji screamed and tried to wipe his tongue off with his hands.

"Kenji! That was mean!" Kaoru scolded her son and turned him toward her. "Say sorry to daddy and then you'll take the medicine."

"I don't want to take the medicine." He complained. "It's icky!"

"Say sorry." Kaoru said.

"Sorry daddy."

Kenshin nodded and handed the things over to Kaoru who tried this time. Kenji looked up to her. Even though his father was strong, he wasn't as intimidating as his mother.

"Momma..." Kenji said sucking his snot back into his nose, only for it to dribble out one more time.

"Medicine Kenji. Then to bed, and we'll see you in the morning."

"Icky!"

"Kenji, if you don't take the medicine, you don't get to get in the pool."

Kenji's eyes went big and you could see that he was about to drop his mouth open and scream bloody murder that he wasn't going to get to do the thing that he wanted to do. Kaoru nodded to him as he continued shaking his head that she was lying. Finally, with another sniff, he crossed his arms and opened his mouth. Kaoru put it in his mouth and then handed him water. He sucked down all of it to get rid of taste. He gave his mother back the glass as he spit the rest of the taste. Kenshin smiled and laughed behind his mouth.

Kaoru kissed her son on the forehead and tucked Kenji into bed. Kenshin waited for Kaoru outside.

"How many times did we tell ourselves we would never do what our parents did?" Kenshin asked going into their bedroom.

"Well, we know why our parents did it. There's no other way in the world." Kaoru stated.

"Sad, but true huh?" Kenshin said lying back on the bed, looking at the ceiling. Kaoru was lying next to him. "You know what?"

"What?"

"The worst part is...he's right."

"What?" Kaoru asked.

"Yucky."

A/N: You realize these things as you get older. I hate medicine, but that way show I acted and I know you might have acted. I just had to write something. Till next time. KenSan out!