Disclaimer: I do not own Ruruoni Kenshin, nor do I have rights to anything produced using that show. I do, however, lay claim to the concept conveyed in this story.
Summary: An idea, a thought-feeling, a thing of fleeting grace and lightness. Rated K.
It was a warm, clear night out that evening, with dusk painting the sky in pallets of purple and blue. The moon hung in its own little patch of lilac, delicately white and near-full.
Kaoru looked up to it with old, aching bones and considered it for a moment, her hands tucked in her lap and her greying hair tucked back in the same ponytail it had been for years. There were crickets singing already in the summer twilight, and cicadas, and even a few of the more stubborn species of avians. Together with the dusty sky it completed the very picture of midsummer serenity in a lower province.
But it was the moon that held Kaoru's attention that evening. The same moon that Kenshin would be looking at in a few hours, as he was still in China. She sighed, feeling something akin to loneliness in her breast, and let her eyes trace the seas and patterns on the lunar surface.
As she continued her solitary observation of the late dusk sky and the powder-white moon contained in it, se felt something: and idea of a person, a thought-feeling, a thing of fleeting grace and lightness that brushed against her spirit with a loving sigh. Like someone had thought of her, and a kind kami had answered.
I wonder how Kenshin is doing, she wondered suddenly. And with that, she knew.
She stood, entered the dojo, and began readying for the night's rest with sorrow weighing heavily on her soul.
It would be several weeks later that she would recieve word that Himura Kenshin, the Hitokiri Battosai, had caught ill in that far-off land and succumbed to his disease. Kaoru nodded, thanked the messenger, and began changing mechanically into the customary colors for grieving.
A/N: In memory of my grandmother. And yeah, I'm aware that it's not canon, but heck. I do what I want! I'll slap an AU on it and it'll all be good.
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