Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. Don't ask to borrow it.
Author's Note: I will be completing my other stories in time but right now the plot bunnies are pulling me in a different direction. This will be a collection of one-shots focusing on different male characters and their emotions as they hold their first child. I will be following all canon pairings and I might have some character/OC also. Read and Review if you like but Flames will be sent to Shishio. Thanks!
True Atonement
Himura Kenshin looked at the tiny bundle nestled in his arms. The baby was perfect, from his tufts of red hair to the beautiful blues eyes he had gotten from his mother.
Kenshin glanced towards his sleeping wife and smiled before looking back at their son.
"Himura Kenji." His whispered the name, as if trying to see how it would fit his child.
In response the infant raised a tiny fist and weakly grasped at Kenshin's bangs and a tiny smile formed on his mouth. Kenshin felt a smile growing on his own face, "When you get big enough Kenji you're going to be a student of the Kamiya Kasshin dojo that you are," his whisper died away as Kenji drifted into sleep.
Kenshin leaned against a wall support and held Kenji a little tighter to his chest, barely able to contain his joy.
Two years ago if someone would have told him he would be a father he would have just smiled and changed the subject, knowing his heart that he was to tainted to ever bring anything pure into the world but this little baby, his son, had proved him wrong.
It was a miracle and as Kenshin gently traced his son's face he swore that Kenji would grow up safely, not the way may of Kenshin's other friends or Kenshin himself had.
He would have a family, a mother who loved him and a father who was proud of him. And he would never have to kill people nor have his innocent hands stained in blood.
Maybe this was atonement in its purest form.
Kenshin had killed people, many people, in the name of peace. He had then lived his life to satisfy the spirits of those he had killed by protecting people in this new era of peace. And now because of the blood he had shed and the scars that would never leave his body or soul he could guarantee that his son would grow up in peace and never have to see the streets run with blood or feel the terror of war.
As Kenshin felt his own eyes droop with sleep he smiled, he might never forgive himself for all of the deaths he had caused, but if it meant that this one precious life would grow up in safety then his could bear his burdens much easer that he could.