Disclaimer: I own no rights to Rurouni Kenshin or its characters.
'Thoughts'
"Speech"
AN: before anyone complains at the end, this is during the period of the anime/manga when western ways start getting into Japan.
4 Words(To Choke Upon)
"Kenshin!" Kaoru yelled, looking all over the dojo for the red haired swordsman. She spotted Yahiko outside, and walked over to him.
"Yahiko, have you seen Kenshin?" she asked.
"No. What do you need him for?" the young boy asked.
She was about to blurt out the reason, when Sanosuke and Kenshin were walking back up the path to the dojo. Sanosuke was grinning like a mad hatter, and Kenshin was looking rather disappointed in his friend.
"Sano, did you really have to bring this one?" the red haired rurouni asked.
"Of course, with you around, I can't lose!" he said as he continued smiling devilishly.
"SANOSUKE!" a red faced Kaoru yelled.
"Uh-oh" Sano said, wiping the grin off his face. "This looks like trouble."
"That's what happens when you drag this one to the gambling dens" Kenshin said in an offhanded way.
"Yeah, yeah." Sano said, either blocking or dodging Kaoru's feeble attacks.
Kenshin then set to work on the choirs, leaving Kaoru and Sano to their own violent devices.
'Man' Kenshin thought as he started on the clothes washing. 'How is this one going to break this to Kaoru? Either way, it will not end well.' he thought as he hung up the laundry.
"Kenshin?" Kaoru asked form behind him, catching him off guard and making him fall to the floor and get dizzy eyes.
"Oro?" Kenshin said repeatedly as Kaoru ran up to him to make sure he was alright.
After a minute Kenshin finally sat up and said, "This one is fine. This one was just thinking and was caught off guard."
"Oh."
"Don't worry so much, Kaoru-dono."
"R-right" she said, suddenly caught in her own thoughts. Kenshin then went to work finishing the choirs.
"Kenshin?" she asked after a few minutes.
"Hmm?" he said, not looking up from what he was doing.
"I was wondering…" the sentence trailed off.
'This can't be good' Kenshin thought to himself
"I was wondering … if, maybe after you're done with the choirs we could-"
"Sorry, Kaoru-dono. This one already agreed to help Megumi-dono with some things" Kenshin interrupted, immediately wishing he hadn't said that, as she was red faced, and full of anger. However, just when he was expecting pain, he didn't receive any, and looked around only to see her entering the dojo, silently fuming.
"You sure have a way with women, Kenshin." Sano said, stepping out from behind the bushes he was hiding behind. "You still haven't told her, eh?"
"This one can't bear to break her like that."
"That's your Rurouni side speaking. You should just let your Battousai side out, and break her heart already, because you know that she'll eventually find out about you and Megumi."
"That may be true, Sano, but I can't just call forth Battousai at will. Anyway, it would be better if Kaoru found out on her own."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because, by the time she finds out, this one plans on being long gone. With Megumi."
"That's quite a simple plan, even by your standards."
"Sano, this one just wants to live peacefully, and put this one's past where it belongs: buried in memory."
"So I noticed" he said, pointing to the laundry. With that said, Kenshin finished the laundry and headed for the front gate. When he reached the gate, he turned around to Sanosuke who followed him to the gate and said, "Please keep Kaoru-dono busy. She will probably be looking for this one soon to get an apology, and this one would really rather not have to deal with a compromising situation."
"Gotcha. Don't get too wily, alright?"
With that, Kenshin just laughed, and turned around, and headed in the direction of Megumi's work place.
--
Kenshin went inside the small and not-so busy medical center that Megumi had been hired to work in. he approached her "office" and knocked on the door.
"Ken-kun, what are you doing here?"
"Oro? This one is here to see you."
She put her hand up to his forehead and asked, "Ken-kun, you're not sick are you?"
"Of course not. This one wanted to surprise you with a date." he said with a warm smile, and brought his hand out from behind his back. He was holding some flowers that appeared to be carefully arranged into a bouquet.
"Oh, Ken-kun, you remembered our anniversary!"
"How could one forget something as important as that?" he asked, still smiling. She took the bouquet from him and put it in a vase before leaping onto the rurouni and kissing him deeply. He returned the kiss with earnest.
After several minutes they needed to part for much needed air and something else …
"What's wrong Ken-kun?" she asked when he broke from her arms.
"Close your eyes for a moment."
"Alright." she said, closing them.
She heard some rustling of clothing and then she felt one of his hands on her left hand.
"You can open your eyes now." He said from what she considered a weird place, as it seemed as if he was on the floor …
She opened her eyes and they started to water almost immediately at the sight that she saw. He was kneeling on one knee and held a small ring in one of his hands. He had apparently decided to do things the western way. He slipped the ring on the correct finger and it fit perfectly. He didn't have to say any words to get his point across.
She went into his arms and whispered, "Yes" into his ear as she held him close, as if her life depended on it.
--
"What do you mean Kenshin's gone?!" Kaoru yelled.
"I mean just that, he's gone. I think he said something about going to think about something important in a secluded place before he was going to go help Megumi."
"Where did he go?!"
"Like I know, but I doubt he'll be by the river, he said he didn't want to be disturbed."
'Then maybe he went to the shrine in the forest where Jin-E took me …' "Fine, I'm going to the forest shrine." Kaoru finally said out loud.
'I doubt you'll find him there either.' he thought. 'You'll be paying big time for this favor, Kenshin' Sano thought.
--
"Ok, so that idea is a bust." Kaoru said to herself, about ten paces away form the door of the dojo, her clothes slightly torn in a few places as some of the tree's had rather sharp "claws". She then caught sight of Kenshin, sneaking carefully back to his room. She decided to follow him, and get some answers from him that she had been wanting for a while now.
He quietly slipped into his room, somehow unaware that he was followed. He was about to slide his door shut when he noticed Kaoru standing in front of his door.
"Kaoru-dono wha -" he started but was interrupted by Kaoru's finger on his lips.
"Don't say anything, Kenshin. I want you to listen to me for a bit." He nodded his head, and she removed her finger from his lips, and she moved to the inside of his room. He shut the door quietly.
"T-there's something that I've been meaning to talk to you about lately" Kaoru said. He almost said something, but remembered that he was supposed to listen. He nodded his head, and she continued.
"I-It's about…the possibility of…" the sentence trailed off a bit. Kenshin tensed, knowing what she was probably going to say next. 'This wasn't supposed to happen!' Kenshin thought. 'She was supposed to find out later. Much later.' She was also caught up in her thoughts when Kenshin broke them by speaking.
"Kaoru-dono, this one is sorry, but, this one can not be in a relationship of that kind with you."
"Why not?!" she asked, suddenly having tears threatening to roll down her cheeks.
"Because this one … no, I don't love you."
Her world fell apart at the seams at his words. She just stood there, staring at him, wide eyed, tear strolling down her face.
'He … doesn't … l-love me …' she thought to herself, which only made her cry harder, as she finally ran to his door, opened as quickly as she could, and ran on without looking back at him, or where she was going, but somehow made it to her room.
'Well, that's over with. I guess it's time I became rurouni once more, though, I should probably leave a note for Yahiko and Sano' he thought as he started to the task of writing a note for them. He wrote another one to Kaoru saying why he left, but not where. He left it fixed to the outside of her closed door, and headed off.
A few days later…
"Kaoru?" Yahiko asked from the other side oh her door.
"Go away" she said, resuming her crying
"Fine" he said, looking about for Kenshin. He never found him, and eventually gave up. Sano knew the whole time where Kenshin was, but never revealed where he went, especially as he couldn't as he was with Kenshin and Megumi.
"I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride." Kenshin did just that. He then led his new wife (really his only wife, as Tomoe was never his actual wife to begin with) to the carriage that was waiting to take them to somewhere quiet. After Megumi was in the carriage, he called for Sano to come over to him.
"You must never tell Kaoru about this."
"Are you sure Kenshin?"
"Yes. I'll tell her myself, when the time is right." He smiled at his friend, "And if you do tell her, I'll come back to Tokyo and kill you myself" he finished, a bit of gold penetrating his normally blue eyes. He then climbed inside the carriage himself, and it sped off.
"Did Kenshin just use 'I'?"
AN: A rather stupid ending, I know, but I felt like making you guys use your imaginations a little.