Kaoru stood confidently, shinai in hand. Squaring off against her was her first student, Yahiko, also gripping a shinai. With an attack call Yahiko leapt forward and lunged for a head shot at his sensei, which she quickly blocked. She made a counter of her own, and he also blocked.
Kenshin watched them both with a mixture of pride, jealousy, longing and love. He was proud of both of their skill, particularly Yahiko's, but he longed to join in their light-hearted sparing. At least, it was light-hearted to him. He knew that they were both training hard, but that didn't stop him wanting to play. He hadn't held a shinai since he fought a match in the makawaka dojo against Raijuta. He thumbed the sakabatou at his side and sighed slightly, turning his back on the fighting pair and moving off to go to town for some tofu.
Kaoru saw him turn to leave and quickly finished the match by sending Yahiko sailing to the floor. He grumbled as she called over.
"Kenshin! Yahiko can go get the tofu. Come spar with me." Kenshin turned, blinking.
"Oro?" Kaoru stifled a giggle and took a shinai from the wall, throwing it towards him. He caught it with ease (despite the slightly bad throw) and stared at it for a moment before smiling and moving the side, setting his sakabatou against the wall. Yahiko stood up and looked between them as he stood opposite her.
"You need a judge though!" They both knew Yahiko just wanted to stay and watch, and maybe get a chance to face Kenshin at the end, but neither minded. After all he had a small point.
"Fine, Yahiko. But you go get the tofu after!" Yahiko huffed loudly, but Kaoru had already moved into her stance, as had Kenshin. He stepped back, lifting his hand, but before he had a chance to swing it down, Kaoru had already lunged forward. So intent was her focus on Kenshin and the thought of their spar, she completely forgot to wait. Even had she remembered, it was unlikely she could have stopped herself.
Kenshin, ever-ready, dodged easily to the side and then leapt back, not prepared to finish her so soon. He'd go easy on her, draw this out. He enjoyed fighting light-heartedly for once. Kaoru turned and together they went into a long pattern of lunges, blocks, attacks and defence that both hoped could last all evening.
Even Yahiko, despite his desire to fight Kenshin himself, was watching hungrily, catching and remembering each and every move that both his sensei and Kenshin made.
Kaoru lunged again, aiming for Kenshin's head, and was quickly blocked. She didn't pull away, however, and they remained inches apart for a few precious moments. Yahiko had long since stopped counting the hits, mostly made by Kenshin, so it seemed unlikely to end any time soon. He watched intently as they suddenly surged back into motion, each spinning and lunging with such grace that it seemed as if they were dancing together. He sniggered quietly to himself. It was only during swordplay that Kaoru could be considered even remotely graceful. Kenshin, however, with his long fiery locks and slender body always seemed majestic. Indeed, never more so than in his natural element, in swordplay. Both seemed to be tiring, although compared to Kaoru's loud panting, Kenshin barely seemed fatigued at all. After a particularly slow but strong swipe from Kenshin's shinai, she fell backwards onto the floor. Kenshin immediately knelt before her, taking her hands and pulling her to her feet.
"Are you okay Kaoru-dono? This one hopes he didn't hurt you." Kaoru smiled, shaking her head. In reality she'd be feeling the smarting pain in her wrists and buttocks for days, but he didn't need to know that.
"I'm fine Kenshin, thank you. I guess you win. No surprise there then." Kenshin laughed, and Kaoru joined him. After a few moments, Yahiko realised they had finished and snapped his hand up.
"Match goes to Kenshin." Kaoru shrugged, and Kenshin smiled warmly at her. She returned it with the most heart-felt smile she knew, and saw Kenshin's own deepen at the sight. She sighed happily and tilted her head.
"Think you can manage one with Yahiko too? I know you'd really be helping. It isn't good to train against only one person all the time." Kenshin nodded, quite happy to oblige even before she had asked. And now that she had, he couldn't possibly refuse anyway.
"Of course. Come on then Yahiko." Kaoru stepped over to take up the centre spot which Yahiko had just vacated and held up her hand as Yahiko got into position opposite Kenshin. Interested to see how he'd fare, she quickly got the match underway.
The moment her hand dropped, Kenshin lunged. Kaoru blinked in surprise as Yahiko lifted to block just in the nick of time. She knew Kenshin wasn't doing anywhere near his best, but that he'd attack first made her think. He'd waited for her to attack before. Maybe he was testing Yahiko? After all with her it had been mostly play, but with Yahiko he was helping him train. Yahiko seemed to be having problems blocking Kenshin's blows at all. With each attack he seemed to get a little closer to falling over. Kenshin paused long enough to mutter an instruction and Yahiko changed his footing. After a few more of Kenshin's attacks it became obvious that Yahiko was no longer in danger of falling back and Kaoru smiled. This was definitely going to improve Yahiko's skill, no question about it.
She quickly lost her train of thought as she focussed on their movements. They didn't have the same grace as she and Kenshin had had, but that was to be expected. She watched as they moved around the dojo, keeping her eyes open for hits on either's part, but not calling all of them as she found herself absorbed in their fight. She'd noticed it before too. Whenever Kenshin fought, she got caught up in his flowing hair and twisting body. She watched the muscles in his arm flex and strain as he pulled the shinai to block Yahiko's attack. They paused for a moment, and then Kenshin threw Yahiko back. They stood at an impasse, Yahiko panting heavily. Kenshin too was breath hard, but that wasn't surprising after two spars. It was a work out, even if it wasn't necessarily a hard opponent. In a way it took more skill on his part to pull his swings so as not to cause an actual injury. A creak on the board behind him made him spin around, blocking Kaoru's shinai before it came close.
"Oro!" He heard Yahiko push off the floor and run towards him, and quickly twisted his position, slipping out of the way to allow Yahiko to fly head-on into Kaoru. They fell headfirst onto the floor, landing in a writhing heap. Kenshin laughed as he watched them struggle free of each other, yelling as they went. Glaring up at him, he quickly stopped laughing and turned tail, dropping his shinai and grabbing his sakabatou on the way out the door to get the tofu. It was best to give them time to cool off, he thought as he ran. He smiled, checking he had his wallet on him. He'd be going to the Akabeko to get them a treat.