A/N: Read on. Read on. Some things don't show up, so I'll try to fix that soon.

Disclaimer: I don't own RK. Watsuki Nobuhiro does.

Consequences of Matrimony

By CocaCola43

Part I:

To Encounter

The year Kaoru was born, a stately family lived in Japan. They had everything: money, jewelry, good looks, health, and respect. But what they didn't have was harmony. The oldest son was never home, leaving his pregnant wife in bed, weeping. The second son would always leave the house to go play poker and gamble with his friends, losing huge amounts of money and getting sullen when his parents refused to give him more. The youngest son was overly polite and quiet, never wanting to butt into things, and he was the light of his parents' life.

When Kaoru was one year old, the eldest son's wife had hardened, refusing to cry anymore. She became a commandeering woman who always demanded to know where her husband had been, and kept a literal leash around his arm. Her newly born daughter, whom they had christened Misao, was a loud child who screamed and threw things at her nurse. The second son had gotten better at gambling. And the youngest………he was still loved and cherished by his parents.

After five more years, Kaoru went to school for the first time. It was a small building, filled with rowdy children and harried old ladies who she assumed where teachers. She herself was ushered into a large auditorium with red chairs, and was told to sit down on one of them. Kaoru obeyed and sat down. The boy next to her had unnaturally spiky hair and a bored expression on his face. Kaoru's mother had said that school was an exciting experience, so why was he looking so bored?

"Why are you looking so bored?" she asked.

The boy didn't hear her at first. He was staring at the pigtails of the girl sitting in front of him, as if he would like nothing better than to yank them right then and there. Kaoru tried again. "Why are you so bored?"

This time he turned and looked at her. "'Cuz school is boring. I'd rather be drinking sake. Or gambling. For money. I'm good at it. My dad says so."

"Oh." Kaoru had never drank sake before and wondered what it tasted like. "What's it taste like?"

The boy's eyes widened, and he grinned. "It's wonderful. It's sweet and sour, like chicken. I love it. I could drink a gazillion gallons if I had it," he bragged.

"Who ARE you?" Kaoru asked. "You can't be the same age as me."

"Sagara Sanosuke!" he shouted. "And I'm proud of it!"

"I'm Ka –" But before she could finish introducing herself, Sanosuke stood up and left to go sit next to a tall girl with long black hair and big black eyes. Kaoru stared after him and shrugged.

Ten Years Later

Kaoru, now a junior in high school, felt that her previously happy life was slowly waning away, only to be replaced by a miserable black hole of nothing. Her grades, which had been straight A's through elementary, jr. high, and her freshman year in high school, had dropped dramatically; ever since her science teacher had started teaching about sex, she didn't feel like learning any more. It was hard to concentrate when the subject she was learning about gave her shivers of disgust (or fear; she couldn't tell), and even harder when the people sitting behind her cracked gross jokes about it. One of them was Sanosuke, now called Sano by easygoing friends. He always started snickering when the science teacher came in the classroom. Her name was unknown. She just told her students to call her Miss Yasumi because she said she was graceful and serene and pretty, so that was the best name that fit her. Little did she know that Sanosuke and his friends had a picture of her when she was not wearing make-up. He'd shown it to her, and after that Kaoru got a bad case of hiccups whenever Miss Yasumi said things like "Oh, I'll be winning a beauty contest next month" and "Guess what? I balanced a basketball on my head and walked to the end of my block without letting it fall! Is that cool or what?"

Another bad thing about going to school was a girl named Takani Megumi. She was tall and beautiful with long shiny black hair and slightly tanned skin. Half the boys in her school were madly in love with her. That knowledge seemed to give her an air of snobbishness. She wasn't horribly mean to Kaoru, just overly sarcastic and too friendly, as if she pitied the younger girl and wanted to "help out". But it didn't help. Megumi lived in a poor area of the city, but her gracefulness whispered of years in the presence of rich people. Her uncle's cousin was rich. So she visited him, and he gave her new clothes and accessories which Kaoru thought useless, and so she came to school decked out in new fashions and Abercrombie and Fitch.

Needless to say, Kaoru, who was poor and who didn't come to school wearing anything with words on it expect for her name and maybe an occasional "West Side Swim Team", disliked her. She and Megumi were neighbors; Megumi lived three houses away from her. They could have been close friends. But, no. She was just too lofty for Kaoru to handle.

The stately family that had been living in Japan for so long had by now begun to collapse in itself. The eldest son and his wife and daughter were living a not-so-happy life. Their poor daughter was stuck between all the fighting and yelling between her father, Shishio Makoto, and her mother, Shishio Manami. Recently, her uncle had changed her name to Makimachi Misao (Makimachi was her mother's maiden name) because she just couldn't bear to be related to her idiot of a father. "He is a horrible person," she cried, her voice throbbing with passion. "Why the hell did my mother marry him?" To this, her uncle could say nothing. Before his niece could hurl another silk pillow at him, he fled from the room and took up drinking tea downstairs at the living room table.

This uncle, a red-haired man named Himura Kenshin (Himura being the maiden name of his other, as the three sons did everything they could to stay different from each other), was angelic. Every move he made was graceful and had a purpose; no wasted words with this man, no sire. Misao's grandparents were very, very proud of him. In fact, they were so proud of him, they had forced him to get engaged to Yukishiro Tomoe, a prim and proper rich beauty, in hopes of producing beautiful grandchildren.

Misao's OTHER uncle, the one who was always gaming, had died a time before. Apparently he had been in a drunk driving incident, although her parents had never told her who was the driver. He had a son named Sanosuke who was also a skilled gambler, but still a little too triumphant when Lady Luck took favor on him; everyone knew when he got a Royal Flush in poker, and when he got a very bad hand. Thus, it was easy for his opponents to manipulate him by saying, "Nice cards you got there, eh?" The poor boy would snap his head up, shocked, as the offending mind-reader chuckled and swiped a couple chips from Sano's stockpile while he wasn't looking.

Now, back to Kaoru. She lived a harsh life: Everyday, after school was over, she would rush home to help her mother with household work. Her little cousin Myojin Yahiko had recently moved in with them because of family complications (his parents had died in a plane crash on their way back home from their fifth honeymoon). Yahiko refused to talk, and wouldn't socialize with anyone outside the family circle, so he was home schooled by Kaoru's mother, his aunt. With him he had brought his two little sisters, Ayame and Suzume to the family also. These two worshiped their brother and if he didn't talk, neither did they. If he didn't ride on a big yellow school bus like all the other kids his age did, then what reason would they have to ride on it? Thus, they were home schooled also. Yahiko went through his day angrily, pushing too hard with his pencil and breaking the tip when called to write, and often stomping on the wooden floor of the dojo. (Kaoru's late father had been a kendo teacher.)

This concludes the history lesson and begins the real story.

Walking down the sidewalk, and watching her schoolmates clamor happily around a huge billboard with a picture of a famous movie star on it, Kaoru couldn't help but feel thankful that her parents had raised her to be less boy chasing and more studious. She leaned against a stop sign and sighed, her mind filled with the troubles of finishing all her work and still managing to take care of her cousins. Those bratty little…She exhaled, clearing her thoughts. She couldn't let others know she hated them. How shocked they would look!

And then she would be reprimanded, and they would remind her that she needed to take care of them because they were still in trauma and had to adapt to the fact that their parents were gone and would never come back. The stupid idiot Yahiko only served to make trouble, and his sisters were no better. When they did talk, most of what they said followed the lines of, "Come ON, Kaoru-nee! Hurry! Kaoru-nee, you're so slow…Oh, Kaoru-nee, look at that puppy dog! I want a doggy! I want a doggy!" And when she told them they couldn't get a dog, it would be too expensive, and besides, dogs shed hair all over the place, they burst into wailing tears and screamed, "Kaoru-nee, you're no fun! I hate you!" How could everyone else see them as perfect little angels when in truth they were just…UGH!

In her pessimistic thinking she had unconsciously balled her hands into tight fists – she used the advice of her guidance counselor and took deep breaths, deep breaths. Happy thoughts. Think rainbows, joyfulness, cheerful bunnies hopping over the grass…Oh God, no. Not bunnies again.

People were beginning to stare at her. She quickly turned and walked toward home.

"I'm home, Mom," she called wearily, setting her schoolbag down by the door and taking off her shoes. "Hello?"

Peals of laughter floated down the hallway, and she followed the sound to the living room, where her mother and cousins were playing Monopoly together. Presumably, Ayame had just bought a hotel, and had placed it on the square that read, "Go to Jail." Suzume giggled as her mother pantomimed her top hat scooting down the board, expecting to be given luxurious accommodations at the hotel but was instead greeted with the prospect of jail. Yahiko glared at his little sister, and elbowed her to make her stop laughing.

"Having fun?" Kaoru asked loudly. Her mother looked up, tears of mirth dripping down her face.

"Of course, dear! I'm just exploding with laughter." She wiped her face with a handkerchief, and calmed down, although a small giggle erupted from her at random intervals. "Why don't you go get some (giggle) tea for us (giggle) Kaoru dear?"

"Of course, Mother," she replied dryly. "I was about to do just that."

"That's my daughter," her mother said, smiling.

Kaoru escaped to the kitchen, where she began to get out the teapot, banged her head against the door of the cabinet, and slipped on a mass of ice cubes. "What do they do during the day," she muttered, "that may one day kill me?" As she watched water boil, she heard another sound of glee, probably coming from Ayame – she giggled like that, a high-pitched squeal that could make a bat cringe. Then she heard her mother's deep laughter. Mom never laughed like that when she played Monopoly with me. She thought about accidentally burning her hand. Maybe that would get some attention.

No, she decided. She wouldn't lower herself to that. The kettle whistled, and she turned off the heat. "Jasmine tea…jasmine tea…" Her hands fumbled with the canister, and dried leaves poured onto the counter. A musty odor arose, and Kaoru gagged. Disgusting, but her mother and the brats liked it. She herself preferred coffee, all black and thin.

She saved as many leaves as she could, but the rest of it she threw away. Soon, three steaming cups of tea and a white teapot made its way to the Monopoly playing persons. She'd even added some small biscuits. Sugar cookies – disgusting. Kaoru set the tray down on the low coffee table, greeting them with, "Here's your tea, Mother."

Her mother turned, all smiles, holding a peach $50 bill in her hand. Stupid Monopoly money. "Oh, thank you, dear." She placed her money on the hardwood floor. "Now, go have fun."

"Yes, mother," she replied, her face stony and emotionless. A mask. A mask, hiding the unkind feelings and hatred toward her idiot cousins. Suzume brightened when she saw the tea, but when she figured out that it was Kaoru who had made it, she complained, "I don't want any."

Her mother asked gently, sweetly, "But why, Suzume-chan?"

She pointed at Kaoru with a chubby finger. "'Cause she made it."

"Oh, Suzume-chan…" Her mother looked at Kaoru sadly. "Kaoru, dear, what did you do to your cousin now?"

She felt a need to protest. "I didn't do – "

"Go." Her mom looked away. "I'm very disappointed in you, Kaoru."

She left, gritting her teeth, seething with fury. Hadn't she made the tea? Hadn't she slaved for them, taking them to amusement parks, to the zoo? And now, she was being blamed for something she didn't do!

Kaoru stomped outside, breathing in the soothing aroma from the orange tree in her front yard. Be good, the plants seemed to tell her. Don't be angry.

"But I can't HELP being angry," she told them.

"Don't be angry," the tree said. "For many a wise man has met his downfall with senseless anger."

"I know…I'm sorry, Mr. Tree, but sometimes your advice doesn't work."

Kenshin blinked. Had the black-haired girl just called him a tree? "I'm not a tree."

Kaoru blinked. Had the orange tree just said it wasn't a tree? "Who's there?" she asked, wary of the fact that there might be someone speaking to her.

Kenshin extricated himself from the branches of the tree. Some kind of fruit – probably oranges, although they were greenish still – stuck to his foot. As he fell on the ground, the poor citrus gave a soft squish and was no more. Kaoru screamed when the man got up.

"Stalker!"

He tried to explain. "I'm not – "

"Stalker!"

"Miss!" He brushed the grass off his clothing. "I was just examining your fruit. They seem very healthy."

"Not anymore," Kaoru retorted. "You just stepped on one."

"Eheheh…" He peeled off the remains of the orange from his shoe. "Sorry about that, miss." He turned away. "Well, I'll be seeing you around."

"Good-bye!" she called. "And don't come back!"

When he was out of earshot, she muttered, "Stupid redheaded idiot. Just like my cousins…always getting into things…" She shook her head and sighed. How was she going to explain the fallen fruit to her mother?

At least now she had something to think about while she did chores for her mom.

A/N: I know you're thinking I'm weird for coming up with such a stupid story, but well…what can I say? I think a lot.

Next:

Part II: To Experience

Review, onegai!