A/N1: My RK muse ran away for quite a long time. (Perhaps a reaction to a slew of AtLA bunnies that demanded far more attention than I was able to give anything in this fandom.) However, I've recently rediscovered my love of this manga and it inspired what follows. This is actually an idea that has languished on my desktop for some years now, but only recently got any sort of devoted attention. It won't be a story in the traditional tense, but neither is it going to be a collection of drabbles, though that is closer to the format I've chosen for this fic. I'll discuss that more later. For the moment, enjoy.

Chapter 1: The Final Confession

For Himura Tomoe, the hardest part of the journey back to the small cabin she shared with her second love was keeping her brother from antagonizing her husband. Enishi still did not understand just what changes of heart she had undergone since her bitter departure from Edo a year before. When they had finally gained the relative safety of the farmhouse, she had helped Kenshin to a seat by the fire pit and set Enishi to the task of heating water to cleanse the many wounds the redhead had sustained during his fights, hoping having a task would calm her brother.

It hadn't.

"But you're hurt, nee-san!" he had protested. "Your shoulder-!"

"-Is not as serious as my husband's wounds, Enishi. Now please, heat the water."

Her stern glance had been enough to quell him for the moment, and he had grudgingly started a fire to heat water for her. Tomoe knelt at her husband's side, worry stabbing at her heart. Ever since they had arrived at their farmhouse, Kenshin had been drifting noticeably in and out of consciousness.

"Husband," she whispered, brushing his bangs out of his face. "Husband, please, wake up. We must see to your wounds."

Blue eyes blinked at her and confusion crossed his face. "T-Tomoe…? Where are…?"

"We are home," she told him. "Please, stay with me. Your wounds need tending."

Kenshin's gaze drifted over her face, cataloging every breath and sigh that told him she was still alive. As she shifted to her heels in preparation for standing to retrieve the bandages, her shoulder twinged. Wincing, Tomoe crashed back to her knees. "Ahh!"

"Tomoe!"

"Nee-san!"

Shaking her head, Tomoe gave both of them a reassuring gaze, unable to manage a smile. "I…am fine. Is the water ready, Enishi?"

Her brother's angry black eyes snapped. "Nee-san, you need help! Let me-!"

"Enishi," she interrupted him firmly. "I told you. We must see to my husband's wounds first."

Any response Enishi might have tried was interrupted by a soft, pained voice. "Tomoe."

Turning back to Kenshin, Tomoe waited for him to speak again. His blue eyes were troubled as they fixed on her shoulder. Her sleeve had been torn and the cloth was ruined by the blood that had soaked into it from the wound beneath. Movement of any kind was painful and Tomoe had kept her arm as close to her body as she could, sometimes cradling it with her uninjured arm, hoping to stabilize it until it could be tended to.

"I hurt you," he whispered. Tomoe's gaze softened the slightest bit. She shook her head.

"You were protecting me, and you did not know I was so close to him." she whispered. "I do not blame you."

Kenshin shook his head. "I promised to protect you, to protect your happiness…" His gaze seemed far away, now, his awareness of her injury the only thing anchoring him to the present. "All I do is hurt those around me…"

Tomoe leaned forward and gently tipped her husband's face upwards with a gentle hand. Kenshin blinked at her unexpected nearness.

"You did protect me. You had been – you are – gravely injured. Do not blame yourself for a wound you could not have prevented. I made the choice to intervene in your fight, and I would willingly do so again. It will heal quickly enough." Tomoe sat back again, a faint blush dusting her cheeks. She had never been this forward with him before. Enishi's semi-subdued growling in the background brought her attention back to the other pressing matter that needed tending to. "Now, you will have to help me, husband," she went on. "I have no formal training with such extensive wounds as you have, and there is not a doctor skilled enough in Otsu to help."

Kenshin's expression smoothed into understanding and he nodded. Neither needed to say that Battousai couldn't afford to be treated by a doctor of unknown loyalties, even had one of sufficient skill been close enough. His blue eyes sought out Enishi.

"Your sister's shoulder needs to be seen to. There are fresh bandages by my herb basket. Will you bring them?"

Enishi looked torn between the desire to help his beloved sister and revulsion at doing anything Kenshin asked, but he turned to fetch the bandages all the same. Tomoe protested.

"Husband! Your wounds-"

"Aren't likely to kill me in the next ten minutes," he interrupted bluntly, gaze uncompromising. "Your shoulder needs to be seen to first." Seeing her faintly disapproving frown, he relented slightly, expression softening. "I hurt you, Tomoe, even while I tried to protect you." He ducked his head, abashed. "I've failed in that, at least let me do this right."

Tomoe couldn't hold her resolve in the face of that heart-broken, quiet plea. "…alright. But quickly, and you will tell Enishi how to bandage it. I do not want you to injure yourself further."

Compromise reached, the business of tending their wounds got underway.

It had taken a long time to treat all of their wounds. Enishi was the only one of the three with the full use of both of his hands, and Tomoe had had to coax him into helping with her husband's wounds. The short winter day had ended while they worked and the fire provided their only light.

Silence held them all in its thrall for several long minutes after every wound had been seen to and the unused supplies put away.

"I don't understand." Enishi broke the uneasy silence with his plaintive complaint, finally able to stand the oppressive silence no longer. He glared at his sister's husband. "This is all your fault!" He turned pleading eyes on his sister. "You wouldn't have gotten hurt if it hadn't been for him! Let's go home, please, nee-san?"

Tomoe shook her head, expression somber. "We cannot leave now, Enishi. My husband is in no condition to travel."

Enishi saw red. "Not with HIM!" he practically screamed. "He stole your happiness, nee-san! Why are you protecting him? Why did you stop tenchuu? He deserves to die for what he did and instead you just-"

"Enishi!" Tomoe exclaimed, half-shocked at her brother's words and half-petrified of Kenshin catching what he had implied. That her own beloved brother would use Kiyosato-san's death to support his argument… "That is enough! He hasn't done anything but protect me since I met him-"

"What does he mean? I stole your happiness…?"

Tomoe and Enishi both jumped slightly, turning to stare at the red-haired hitokiri, meeting tired, suspicious blue eyes. Kenshin let his gaze drop to Enishi's. "I don't claim to understand why you dislike me so much, when I'd never even known you were alive before yesterday. I only met your sister roughly a year ago. So why…" Kenshin's eyes narrowed. "Why are you so convinced I was the one who stole your sister's happiness?"

Enishi was more than ready to enlighten the man he hated, but Tomoe's hand on his shoulder silenced him. Looking back up at her, he frowned. "Nee-san?" he asked. Tomoe's gaze was locked on the fire, avoiding the gazes of her brother and her husband.

"Enishi…this…this is my story to tell." Tomoe took a deep breath and lifted her head to lock gazes with her husband. "When I told you of how I came to Kyoto…I did not reveal everything."

Kenshin watched her silently, much as he had yesterday afternoon, and Tomoe felt her heart breaking. Surely there was no way he could forgive her for this.

"I came to Kyoto for more than one reason. I came to find out what had happened to my fiancé, and I came to-" her eyes closed for a brief moment and she had to force herself to open them once more. "I came to find his killer." Her husband's face was blank, giving away none of his thoughts. Ice creeping towards her heart, Tomoe continued. "I focused all of my anger and grief on finding his killer. On hating his killer. I felt I would go insane if I did not."

Enishi shot a dark look at Kenshin, as if it were all his fault that his sister had suffered so much. Kenshin had a sinking suspicion that he was the reason she had lost her happiness once already, but he said nothing.

"Finding one man, in Kyoto, where all those who carry swords have killed at least one person…" Tomoe shook her head. "It is a hopeless task. I started drinking to dull my pain. I thought I would never find justice for my fiancé. And then, when I had given up hope, a man approached me. He recognized me from what Kiyosato-san had spoken of me, he said." Meeting her husband's flat gaze finally became too much for her. Tomoe looked away. "He told me that my fiancé had died trying to defend his commander, Shigekura Jubei-sama. He died trying to prevent...prevent his assassination by Himura Battousai."

Kenshin's sharp intake of breath pierced Tomoe through the heart. His blank expression had dissolved into shock and Enishi looked perversely pleased at her husband's pain. She closed her eyes and hung her head. Surely he couldn't forgive her for what she would say next, but she had to continue. He deserved to know why she had initially come to him. The only grace she could find in this situation was that Enishi seemed content to let her speak and destroy her husband's illusions about her on her own.

"He told me to get close to you; to find your weakness. That when I had ascertained what it was, I was to send a messenger I trusted to him, and we would bring justice to our causes." Tomoe felt tears threaten and knew her control was cracking, but she could not break down as she had done yesterday. She had no right. "I did as he said. I looked for a weakness all through our early acquaintance. I studied you and I questioned you; not to get to know you, but to find a way to exploit a weakness I had convinced myself was just beyond my reach."

Tomoe swallowed hard and opened her eyes again, daring a quick look through her lashes at her husband's face. The blank mask had reappeared, though he sat tense. She had to look away again.

"But you were different in every way from what I had expected. I expected to find a cold-blooded murderer, a man so consumed by blood-lust that he didn't care for anyone." She shook her head slightly. "You were so different," she repeated. "You were awkward around me. You were protective of my reputation with the other men. You obviously did not enjoy killing, but you did so anyway, at Katsura-san's request. I could hardly decide what to think of you, but I found I could not hate you." Her one free hand smoothed some wrinkles out of her kimono. "Katsura-san spoke to me, once, of your role in this revolution he is leading. That you were the vanguard of madness, the "cruelest job of all". And the next day, you shoved me away before you could injure me - kill me - when I startled you awake. I believe that was when I truly decided not to send any type of message, whether I found your weakness or not. Whatever you were, whatever I was beginning to feel, I knew I could not betray you."

Enishi made a strangled noise. Tomoe glanced to the side, her expression sad as she nodded in acknowledgement of the pained shock in his gaze. "This is why I wanted you to return to Edo, Enishi," she said softly. "I did not want my only brother to suffer in this dangerous business because of my own mistakes." She took another deep breath and faced her husband once again, head bowed submissively. "I can make no atonement for my actions. I hoped to mitigate the trouble I had brought to you by misleading your enemies, giving them a false weakness. I hoped to protect you, to protect Enishi, by playing the part I had accepted whole-heartedly a year ago. Instead I became that weakness, despite my intentions." She bowed as low as she could manage with her shoulder and strove not to cry. "I am sorry."

Stunned silence reigned in their cabin.

A/N2: Like I said above, this will be much closer to a collection of drabbles than a truly chaptered story. The next two or three chapters will continue this scene, but after that, we'll skip around to various points during their lives together. (Tomoe's survival changes SO MANY different things. XD) I'll probably continue this until I run out of ideas, or reach the point where I've caught them up to the Jinchuu arch of the manga. Cause after that, really, the changes will be pretty well established.

I've knocked the dust off of my RK muse and chased the vultures away from Fortunate Relapse. I'll need to make a few more editorial changes that didn't get made before my RK muse died, but ch. 4 will be up by the weekend. (No, seriously this time!)

And, just cause I'm STILL that excited, who else is hyped for the RK live action movie? Or the revamp of the anime? If anyone knows of a link where someone's translated the trailer for the movie, I'd love it if you'll share. I don't speak Japanese, and my sister says the narrator speaks too quickly for her to translate it for me. (Though, granted, just watching the trailer is squee-worthy all on it's own. Takeru Sato actually LOOKS like a RL version of Kenshin! I'm impressed with the make-up artists already.)