Kaoru and the whole gang were eating the dinner that Kaoru made they all sat at the small table munching away. Ayame and Suzume made muffled faces as if the rice they just ate was poisoned. While Sanoske made occasional comments of how he'd rather eat rat poisoning then Kaoru's cooking, and Yahiko complained of Kaoru's weak cooking skills, but tried to look manly and tough while saying it all. But Kenshin was the only one that ate his dinner with no criticism and kindly commented that the food tasted good.
"Yuck, Kaoru I can't tell if your food tastes more like wood or dirt" Sanoske complained. Kaoru then picked up a bowl and threw it at him "maybe you should try cooking once in awhile...you should at least be happy we ate SOMETHING tonight!" The bowl hit Sanoske in the face "ouch" he was beginning to angrily steam up you could tell by the way his face looked like with rage.
"Look here little missy...its not my fault that we live with a woman that can't cook" he retorted taking the bowl out of his face.
Kaoru was temporarily in the state of shock, trying to find some kind of good come back. Her mouth was open and her ocean blue eyes were paralyzed, the she went back to her usual angered expression.
"Well Sano, maybe if we didn't have such a small budget we could actually eat food, and between you and Yahiko both of you eat us all out of house and home and show NO appreciation what-so-ever" Kaoru blurted out.
Kenshin was now standing in between both of them "now, now" he nervously said waving his hands back and forth. "I'm sure all of us can think of a way to make some money" he said it with such a simple Kenshin smile on his face. Kaoru looked at his smile she began to feel herself turning a little red. His smile was the same always happy yet worried.
Oh Kenshin...... sometimes you make it seem like the world is so simple Kaoru thought, but she was interrupted with the sound of Yahiko's annoying voice. "You n' raccoon girl here are so stupid Sano, haven't you ever heard or the spring festival?"
"Who're you callin stupid?" Kaoru yelled through clenched teeth and a fist Sanoske backed her up with a "yeah!" Yahiko only replied with "Listen ugly... do you hafta be so thick-headed, the spring festival is comin up."
Kaoru looked a little sad at the mention of the spring festival, for some reason she couldn't find the right words to say at this moment. "So what about the festival? How's that gonna help us with money problems, really Yahiko stop thinking about having fun or else we'll starve" and with that she left the room and shut the door behind her. Kenshin watched her as she frustratingly stomped out.
"Look Kenshin, Sano... every year the town holds this stupid spring festival there's a bunch of contests and most of the prizes are money, of course ugly wouldn't even listen to what I would say" Yahiko said matter of factly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kaoru sat outside staring ahead out into the darkness of the night, there was no moon tonight, and you couldn't even see a star because the sky was ambushed with hundred of clouds.
She felt sad and empty inside, when her father was alive she always went with him to the spring festival, but now it was worthless going. He was gone and just the thought of her father made her feel sick. She hated showing her weakness, that she couldn't stand loneliness, so every time her father was mentioned she would paste on a smile and a deceiving face that everything was fine. She suddenly had a flash back of when Kenshin was going to battle Kurogasa, she remembered how she told him flat out she would stay with him. Then she gave him her favorite indigo ribbon, she wanted Kenshin to stay. For some reason she felt that if Kenshin left, everything else would fall apart, even before Kenshin came...Kaoru had been so lonely. But that was different now and he was here.
She buried her face in her arms and cradled her self, she rocked back and forth, "Ms. Kaoru" said a beautiful voice.
Kenshin sat down right next to her with his sword in his right hand. "I wish the moon was out, then I could see the stars" he said.
"But you know everything else outside looks pretty" said Kenshin, Kaoru looked at the surroundings to realize he was right. The flowers swayed back and forth just like Kenshin's hair in the warm breeze. She thought to herself as she watched Kenshin looking at the flower as if he was in awe of such beauty, like a child staring at a rainbow for the first time.
At the corner of her eye she could see Kenshin's breath taking violet purple eyes, staring at her with concern. He wasn't smiling either, a worried frown was on his soft lips replacing his gentle smile before, it made Kaoru's heart break into millions of pieces. She couldn't stand looking at him at that moment she quickly looked away.
"Ms. Kaoru... is something wrong?" he asked in a concerned voice, Kaoru put on a fake smile her eyes a little blurry with tears she immediately blurted out "N..no...I'm fine Kenshin, really." She knew right away it wasn't convincing, Kenshin looked at her with his sweet eyes and smiled, all of the sudden some mumbling was heard and Sanoske and Yahiko came tumbling out the door from trying to hear what was happening.
Kaoru and Kenshin immediately stood up, Kenshin had an oro face on while Kaoru was in the state of fury.
"Why you jerks!" she joined them in a fistfight, Kenshin approached them trying to come everyone down, but he was eventually pulled into the fight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In The Middle Of The Night~~~~~~~
he air that night was troubled and hot, the humid inside the dojo was too beyond hot for normal levels. The heat of the night became too much to ignore, Kenshin opened his eyes to see ashes scattering in his room and nearby his whole wall engulfed with flames, he quickly sat upright to find smoke hovering near the top of the room. There were no windows to get out only the door in his room, he fumbled through the smoke to get to his sword. He finally reached the handle of his reversed blade sword, he turned his head to look for his door. He squinted terribly to catch a glimpse of the door through the thick smoke. He can feel himself passing out slowly. Finally he caught sight of the door, instinctively he thrust his sword towards the door.
The sword cut through the door leaving an opening for him to get out. Kenshin immediately jumped through the opening and woke up everyone in the house.
"Yahiko!" he yelled, instantly Yahiko sat up yawning and complaining Kenshin interrupted him, "The house it's going to burn! Quickly get some water from the water pump and help me put out the fire."
Yahiko jumped out bolt right and ran outside to get the water with Kenshin, the air outside was cool and soothed their withered out lungs from breathing the thick smoke in.
Then both of them ran back and tried to put out the fire after a couple of minutes the fire was slowly going out, but a part of the room was still burning.
Suddenly Kenshin looked as if he was going to faint, "M...Ms. Kaoru, she's still in the house, we don't know if the fire caught on to her room."
Yahiko stood there in shock, paralyzed with fear, both began to run to her room. But Kenshin suddenly stopped Yahiko, "Yahiko you put the rest of the fire out, we can't afford for the rest of the house to burn" he said. Yahiko began to protest, but decided there were no arguments in this situation.
Kenshin ran further down in the house, how could I've been so stupid as not to remember Ms. Kaoru's dorm he frantically thought. His eye's were beginning to swell with worry. Every step it took to take to Kaoru's room seemed heavier then usual, as if the whole fire now was going in slow motion.
By the time Kenshin reached Kaoru's room, it was engulfed in flames, he looked past the fire to see a certain soft face, to see her dark hair fly in the wind. She lay there on the floor so helpless with tears coming down her eyes, her once strong blue eyes now held a large fear but not for her own life but Suzume's. She was covering Suzume from the hateful flames, but while protecting the small girl her pants and parts of her sleeve got burned. She also had burns on her legs, and every second the fire grew worse, so did Kaoru's burns. Suzume began to cry into Kaoru's chest, Kaoru was softly telling her everything would be alright once Uncle Kenny comes to help them. Suzume felt a little better and tried not to cry, Kaoru had a look on her face that told Kenshin everything wouldn't be alright if this fire kept on going.
Kaoru turned her head back and forth as if hoping to find Kenshin, searching for a savior for Suzume. Kaoru's small hoarse voice was heard, it sounded so weak and hurt "Ken...shin."

To Be Continued..............


Well that was my first fan fic feel free to comment ^_^ just please don't be mean cuz its my first.