Not many people knew it to be true, but Kenshin is a coward.
Not in the sense most people use it, when they talk of courage and bravery in swordplay and love and the stuff of legends which never seems to fade. It is there: in the tilt of his chin and the glint of his eye. His stance holds promises and the tens of thousands of lives and dreams of Japan's past, present and future.
But the hero is not always as selfassured as he could want to be, or need to be.
Megumi sees it in his eyes sometimes, when he stares at Kaoru. Half afraid and hesitant to touch her in her sick bed, half afraid to lose someone so precious again. And she can see that,that slightly tender tone he usesand thelooks he gives her. Not out of pity, guilt or mere friendship, but mixed in with those was something bordering on love.
She's heard all about Tomoe from Kaouru, the good doctor has, assailing the girl's fears while confirming her own. Sometimes she allow herself the luxury to wonder if Kenshin mixes the two together but then scolds herself for thinking that of a friend. But she does wonder where this will lead them: two people who love each other - not lovers now, not yet - at the brink of a new beggining and the resurfacing of the old world. She fears for Kaoru, the wide eyed girl who's seen too much yet understands so little, that Kenshin's past, their past would consume her own sorrows, her own brief light in their life.
She thinks, if Kenshin could be a coward, why not he?