AU: KK After a disastrous scandal at court, Kaoru is sentenced to marry the cold, secluded lord of the North. She is escorted to her doom by a strange red-haired man who is much more than he seems…

Time and Time Again
Part One

Kaoru stood silently as the maids prepared her for the journey. She lifted her lifeless arms as they slipped a dress onto her slim frame, she let them pin her hair up into an elaborate style, and she even allowed them to remove the intricate gold chain that hung inconspicuously around her neck. She breathed in sharply as the maid unhooked the chain and slid it away from her skin. She suddenly felt more empty and lost than ever.

"Would you like me to pack it away with the rest of your things, Princess?" the maid asked her dutifully.

Kaoru opened her mouth to reply, but the calm, tired voice of her mother interrupted her. "No, Tsubame," the older woman said, taking the precious golden chain from the maid's small hands. "I will keep it in my care."

Tsubame bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty."

The queen examined the necklace. "It is quite beautiful." She gave her daughter a suspicious look. "Were you planning to take this with you?"

Kaoru rubbed her hands together guiltily, but faced the queen boldly. "It was a gift, Mother—"

"A gift that has no place in your new life," the queen said in clipped tones. "I thought that you agreed to cut all ties and never see him again?"

"Yes, Mother, I did. But—"

"There are no exceptions, Kaoru," the queen said. "Your father is already in a terrible state from your foolish actions. I am on the edge of despair as you are being sent away—Please, my dear, do not permit yourself to fall back into such a disastrous situation once more."

Kaoru winced at her mother's stern yet desperate tone. She gave a tense nod. "Yes, Mother."

The queen noticed her daughter's pained face. She touched Kaoru's cheek softly. "You made a mistake," the queen told her gently. "You are a young woman with a romantic heart—I understand. But you cannot allow that mistake to rule your life, Kaoru. This is your chance to start over."

Yes, a chance to start over…alone. She nodded again.

Her mother straightened up and turned to the maids. "Are all of her things packed away?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," the maids replied in chorus.

The queen shook her head approvingly. "Good. Sanosuke and the Northern envoy are waiting for you below."

Kaoru looked at her mother in surprise. "Sanosuke is accompanying me?"

"Yes," the queen said. "We can't just send you abroad with a strange man we haven't met. Your father trusts Sanosuke. He will look after you until you arrive at the Northern palace."

For the first time in days, Kaoru felt a flicker of happiness light inside of her. Sanosuke was one of her oldest childhood friends and also her cousin. In almost every way, he was her brother, her confidante, her partner-in-crime, her conscience—but where the hell was he when she made the most devastating decision of her life?

Gambling, she noted blandly. Gambling or fooling around with women. It has to be one of the two, or possibly both. There was plenty of each available at court.

The queen put a kind hand on Kaoru's back, leading her out the door. "Let's go, Kaoru. The carriage is waiting and you must greet the Northern envoy."

Kaoru suddenly felt several chills run down her back as she looked over the stone railings. The finality of her sentence came raining down on her as she saw her father standing in the entrance chamber, his usually jovial face plastered with severity, next to Sanosuke, whose trademark smile was strangely absent. The two of them were situated beside an unfamiliar redheaded man; he wore clothes not traditional to her kingdom and had two swords attached at his hip. He was shorter than her father or Sanosuke and yet his presence seemed to command the attention of the room. This must be the Northern envoy, sent to deliver her to her imminent doom. He was handsome, Kaoru noted indifferently, almost handsome as—No. This was not the right time to think about such a thing.

He was speaking quietly with Sanosuke but as Kaoru descended the steps, he tore away from his conversation and looked directly at her. Their eyes locked firmly and her breath caught in her throat. She felt, for some unknown reason, that she had felt this gaze on her before. She panicked for a brief second—did he know about her previous actions?—but then she realized that the gaze was not judgmental or appraising. It was simply…somehow familiar. Even from their distance, Kaoru could tell that his smoldering eyes were gold, burning like hot coals, as he watched her approach them, the queen only a few steps behind.

He dipped into a low bow. "Your Majesty," he said to the queen in a clear, gracious voice. He kissed the queen's extended hand.

"Welcome, my lord," the queen said courteously.

He then turned to Kaoru and bowed to her, but not before catching her eyes once more. "Princess," he said. Kaoru held out a reluctant hand and he kissed it gently. For a moment, Kaoru thought that his warm lips were lingering longer than usual—but then they were gone and she dismissed her ridiculous thought.

"Kaoru, this is Lord Kenshin," the king told her in a strained tone. Kaoru looked up and noticed the tired glaze in her father's eyes. "He is the Northern envoy sent by the king to retrieve you. He, along with Sanosuke, will accompany you to the North."

Kaoru couldn't help but arch a brow despite the situation. "The Northern king could not retrieve me himself?" she asked Kenshin.

"Kaoru!" the queen said sharply.

"There is no problem, Your Majesty," Kenshin said to the queen. He turned to Kaoru. "Princess, the king demanded that I tell you that he would have loved to bring you to the North himself, but he is off calming a political upheaval in a nearby city; he will be at the palace when you arrive in a few days time."

"The Northern king is a busy man, Kaoru," the king said.

But as his future wife, Kaoru thought heatedly, doesn't he think that I should be at least one of his priorities?

"Please do not think that you are unimportant, Princess," Kenshin said, as if reading her thoughts. "The king treasures you endlessly."

Kaoru blinked in surprise. "He…treasures me?" Spite suddenly built up in her throat and she looked at the Northern envoy with chilly blue eyes. "I find that hard to believe since the two of us have never met. Where does his adoration stem from, I wonder?"

"Kaoru! How can you say such rude things?" the queen said. "The Northern king is gracious enough to ask you to be his wife and yet you—"

"Enough," her father said sternly. He gave Kaoru a strict glance to silence her outrageous remarks. "Lord Kenshin, I apologize for my daughter's behavior. She is quite frightened of leaving her home and so…"

Kenshin shook his head. "Do not worry about it, Your Majesty."

Sanosuke looked at the king. "Your Majesty, the carriages are ready. It's probably best that we leave now, so that we may reach our first stop before nightfall."

"Oh, yes, yes," the king said. He waited until Sanosuke and Kenshin headed out the grand doors first down to the waiting horses and carriages, which carried all of Kaoru's possessions in neatly packed trunks, before he pulled his daughter aside quickly.

"Kaoru," he said sharply. "This marriage is extremely important. Do you not remember your reckless actions?"

"When do you ever let me forget, Father?" Kaoru snapped back, more fiercely than she intended. "I have repented already—please let it be forgotten already!"

"I would like to forget, Kaoru. But when you jeopardize this marriage with your spiteful and careless comments, I cannot help but think that you do not want this for yourself!"

"I don't!" Kaoru said defiantly. "I begged, I pleaded…I cried to you, Father. But you did not relent! You insisted on shipping me away to marry some foreign king—a man that I have never met!"

"This is not a punishment, Kaoru!" the king said. "It is for your own good! Once you are in the North, you will be distanced from such irresponsible influences! Why are you so indignant against this marriage?"

The words spilled out of her mouth before she could stop them. "Because I do not love him!"

The king released his hold on Kaoru's arm and sighed. "I see." He looked away, a sad shine in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Kaoru, but love is no longer essential. What is important is your future. You ruined your chances for love when you made the most thoughtless decision of your life."

Kaoru stood silent after her father's final comment. "I know that," she said quietly.

"Then," the king said, "for your mother and father's sakes and for your own sake, do not mouth off to the Northern envoy about your true feelings for the marriage."

"Yes, Father," Kaoru said.

"Good," the king said and grabbing hold of her hand, led her out the grand chamber doors towards the carriage that would take her away to become the wife of a man that she had never met. But as she walked down the marble steps, she couldn't help but think about her joyful life at court and how she got herself into this terrible mess.

Six months ago

It was a cold and gloomy afternoon. The sun was hidden behind angry gray clouds and rain pounded down from the sky like a violent hurricane. Kaoru stared at her dull reflection in the window with bored eyes as she wished that the weather would clear up quickly so she could venture out onto the Eastern lands.

"Kaoru," Sanosuke said to her. "It's your turn."

Kaoru tore her gaze from the window sighed. She threw her cards down onto the table. "I don't want to play anymore!"

Sanosuke rolled his eyes in irritation. "It was your idea, if you could remember. You practically begged me to play with you."

"I know, I know. But I've grown bored of it. Isn't there anything else to do besides playing cards?"

"Half of court has become bed-ridden with sickness, Kaoru. Just be happy that you aren't one of them," Sanosuke advised her. "Besides, what will become of this place if Princess Kaoru, starlit of the royal court, falls ill?" He added as a sarcastic afterthought.

"Court would be terribly quiet. It could be silenced into a state of complete boredom," Kaoru said, smiling mischievously. "You, as my faithful collaborator, would have to do everything in your power to keep things lively."

"But of course," Sanosuke said with a bow of the head. Then he grinned. "My dear princess, since court lacks its vibrant feeling tonight, how should we go about to fix that?"
Kaoru tapped a slender finger to her chin. "Well, my dear cousin, I think that it will hard to top the evening at the Sakura Estate last week."

Sanosuke burst out into laughter. "Do you remember old Lord Takahiro's face when he saw the royal princess herself climbing out of the lake, drenched to the skin in her expensive silk gown?"
"Do you remember my mother's face when she was told that her daughter, her nephew, and their friends went swimming in the lake half-past midnight in front of hundreds of guests?" Kaoru shook her head before laughing as well. "Mother threatened to send me to live with Aunt Mikiko as punishment."

Both Sanosuke and Kaoru shuddered in fear. "At least Father was kind," Kaoru said. "'Oh, children do the most delightful things!' he said."
"It's great that the king dotes on you so much, Kaoru. Otherwise, I don't know what state we would be in," Sanosuke noted seriously.

"That's only because Father was wild before he settled down and married Mother. He understands the feelings of wanting to be free," Kaoru told him.

"So, are you saying that once you marry, your wild spirit will be tamed?" Sanosuke asked.

Kaoru lifted her chin up indignantly. "I will only marry a man that accepts me as I am, free spirit and all. That is one of my supreme conditions."

"I think that the queen will find someone to marry you way before you find one yourself," Sanosuke said. "She's sneaky like that."

She waved her hand. "Hardly. I'd blatantly refuse. Besides, there's no way Father would actually let that happen."

"I wouldn't be too sure, beloved princess," Sanosuke said as he shuffled through the deck of cards. "Your father might relent, if it is a prosperous marriage."

"What gives you that ridiculous idea?" Kaoru asked, arching a curious brow.

He dealt out the cards between the two of them. "The Northern king has asked for your hand again."

Kaoru pulled a face. "Again?"

"When he came here last week to discuss some issues with the king, he expressed interest in taking you as his wife." Sanosuke looked at the quiet princess with a silly grin. "Every time he visits our kingdom, he always asks if you are betrothed, and if you are not, he says that he would like to take you as his own."

Kaoru picked up her cards. She knew of the Northern king; he was one of the country's royals that lived in the isolation of the mountains, maintaining his own court, militia, land and riches. Rumors portrayed him to be cold and cruel, an excellent swordsman that would kill without a second thought. He had visited the palace several times to speak with her father, but she had never seen his face—nor did she ever want to.

"Well, he's awfully persistent," she noted absently. "But I have no intention of marrying him."

"Why not?" Sanosuke inquired as he swapped cards from the deck. "You've never even met him. How can you be so sure that you could never marry him?"

"Why are you on his side?" Kaoru shot back. "You're my cousin, aren't you? How could you expect me to marry a man that I've never met, especially one with his reputation?"

"Those are just rumors, Kaoru," Sanosuke sighed.

"But he must have done things to give him that reputation, right?" She gave Sanosuke a curious gaze. "How do you know these affairs so well anyway?"

"I'm the one that entertains him when he comes to visit," Sanosuke explained. "Whatever the case, he's infatuated with you."

Kaoru rolled her eyes in exasperation. "But why?"

Sanosuke shrugged. "It beats the hell out of me." Yet his eyes told another story.

"Well, it doesn't matter," Kaoru said, drawing another card. "I have no desire to leave my home or my family. Mark my words, Sanosuke; I will never marry the Northern king."

It all seemed so pointless now—the indignation, the refusal, the defiance. None of her past actions, wishes or desires matter anymore. Despite her will not to succumb to such a convenient and loveless marriage, here she was; being escorted away from the only life she'd known to be the wife of a man she didn't love or even remotely care about.

You can only blame yourself, Kaoru. It's your own fault, her conscience told her seriously. If you hadn't done what you had done, then…

She stopped herself before her mind continued on. She knew all of this. After all, it was the one thought playing in her head after the incident; the only thing her mother and father would tell her as she wept on the cold stone floor; the single phrase that came out of Sanosuke's mouth as he attempted to console her.

Suddenly, Kaoru was thrown forward and the carriage shook slightly before stopping. Curious, she pushed aside the curtains and gazed out the window. It was still midday. They had only been traveling for a few hours now, still quite some distance away from reaching their destination of the Northern palace. She watched as several of men dismounted their horses and gathered to inspect something at the head of the carriage.

"Sanosuke!" she called to her cousin. The dark-haired man looked up and she waved him over. As he approached her, she asked, "What's going on? Why did we stop?"

He scratched the back of his head. "It looks like one of the wheels broke. We'll be delayed for an hour or two."

Kaoru leaned back against her seat. "I see."

Sanosuke cocked a brow at her. "That's it? I thought I would get some more complaining out of you from such a wait, especially since we're out in the middle of nowhere." He extended his arm to indicate the vast green pasture that surrounded them. "You're not the type to sit still for long."

"I actually don't mind the wait this time," Kaoru told him, pulling out her fan and blowing some cool air towards her face. "Anything to postpone my impending doom." She gave Sanosuke a hopeful stare. "You don't think this could be a sign—You know, that I'm actually not supposed to marry the Northern king?"

Sanosuke shook his head. "Sorry, Princess. But there's no way to stop this marriage. It's going to happen. You should just accept it."

"That's the whole problem, Sanosuke! I can't—I know that I should, that I should be grateful that he even wants me after what I did, but I can't accept it."

"You can't or won't? Because I think that it's the second. You won't accept the fact that you are marrying—"

"Some horrible, isolated king that I've never seen, let alone even met? Please, Sanosuke. It's not that easy to accept such a thing," she said, burying her face in her hands. "My entire life I've lived in the dream that I would marry the man that I love—but look at me now. I'm being shipped off to marry the monster of the North."

"Kaoru," Sanosuke said in a warning tone. "Refrain from saying such idiotic things. We're in the company of the Northern envoy and his companions. You know that they can relay everything that you say back to the king."

Kaoru shrugged. "It's not like I care. Who knows? Maybe he'll decide that he doesn't want me as a wife anymore."

Sanosuke burst out laughing. "Don't be stupid Kaoru. Do you think that after pining for you for so many years, the Northern king is going to just give you up?" He shook his head. "Anyway, you have to marry him. It's the only way to salvage the rest of your honor, isn't it?"

She glared at her cousin spitefully. "I'm aware of it. But it was Father and Mother's idea to send me away. I would have rather remained unmarried so long as I could stay at home. An unmarried princess, however, it not something my parents would like to see living in their castle."

"Oi, Sagara!" one of the nearby men called out. "Stop flirting with the princess and come over here and help."

"Yeah, yeah," Sanosuke said, turning away, but looking back when he heard Kaoru stepping down from the carriage. "What are you doing?" he asked her.

"I'm going on a walk," she told him flatly. "I'm not just going to stay in the carriage while we wait for it to be fixed. I'll become bored out of my mind."

"And there it is," Sanosuke sighed. "All right; but don't stray too far."

"Why thank you, sir," Kaoru said sarcastically, giving him a mocking curtsey. She reached back inside the carriage and grabbed her novel, the one she planned to read along the journey, before turning around, expecting to sit out in the flower fields and read under the warm spring sun, but collided with a person instead.

"Oh, forgive me, Princess," a male voice said.

Kaoru looked up to see that she was standing in the arms of the Northern envoy, Lord Kenshin. He was staring down at her with the same smoldering golden eyes and that familiar gaze. She stepped back and shook her head.

"It is my fault, Lord Kenshin," she said. "I wasn't paying attention to which way I was heading."

He looked around. "Which way are you headed, Princess, if I may ask?" Kenshin said, tilting his head to the side in curiosity.

Kaoru looked out over the field and saw a tree standing in center of the grassland. It was large and entirely green with branches and leaves hanging out every which way. She pointed at that particular tree.

"I am headed over there, my lord. To settle under the shade and read my book while I wait for the carriage to be fixed," she told him.

"I do apologize for the delay, Princess," Kenshin said. "We'll have the carriage repaired quickly so that we can continue our journey."

"I don't mind the wait," Kaoru replied. "Actually, I welcome it."

"Do you?" Kenshin said, surprised. "Sanosuke told me that you are not a very patient lady."

"Well, usually, that is true. However, in this situation, an interruption puts me at ease," she said. She flashed him a smile before walking out towards the field.

"Princess, are you unhappy?" Kenshin said suddenly, causing her to stop and look over her shoulder.

She trotted back to the Northern envoy. "What gives you that idea, my lord?"

"The king has told me that you are a very lively and cheerful young woman. Yet, I can't help but think that you don't seem quite like…yourself today."

"You're very observant, Lord Kenshin," Kaoru said, clutching her book to her chest. "But I am not unhappy. Rather, I am resigned to my fate. It's strange how easily the two coincide, isn't it?"

"What fate have you resigned to, Princess?" Kenshin inquired.

"I've resigned to a fate that I did not imagine for myself," she answered honestly. She smiled when she saw the Northerner's confused expression. "It's hard to explain."

"Please, Princess. Explain yourself. I would love to hear about it. On the behalf on the king, of course," he added quickly.

"For the king, of course," Kaoru agreed. "But perhaps another time, my lord."

He bowed. "Another time then, Princess."

Kaoru turned and headed towards her reading destination once more, but not before a lingering question blew back into her mind. She spun around and called out to Kenshin.

He looked around at her. "Yes, Princess?"

"Before you said that the Northern king told you things about me." She bit down on her bottom lip nervously. "Does he talk about me often?" A soft blush crossed her cheeks as she realized how foolish she must be sounding right now.

"No, Princess, not often," Kenshin replied.

The blush deepened. Now she truly must look arrogant and stupid. She simply assumed that because the king wanted her after all this time that he would speak of her—

"Incessantly," Kenshin said, causing Kaoru to look at the redheaded man in surprise. "He talks about you incessantly." He smiled before bowing and walking away, leaving Kaoru standing there in a whirlwind of mixed thoughts.

Author's Note: Um. Yeah. New story! It will actually be a short 3 or 4 chapter series that I will be working on as I see fit. If you see parallels between This Heart of Mine and this story, it's because this was actually my rough draft for that story before I changed it all to become my real THOM story. This story is now entirely different from THOM so reading this won't spoil it at all!

And about THOM and UTSM… Yeah, I'm lacking inspiration, and that's why I rewrote/created this story. Don't worry though, I'm not giving up on either of those stories! They WILL be updated… I just don't know when.

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review telling me whether or not I should continue this story! No response means no continuation.

-Aya