Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is owned by "Nobuhiro" Watsuki. So please no suing.
 

Chapter 1

            Kaoru sat near the window and gazed at the moonlit sky. Every muscle was tense in anticipation, her mind was clouded with thoughts, her emotions are in turmoil, and her body was rigid with exhaustion as she waited the news of her sister's condition.

            The defeated expression on Dr. Gensai's face as he stepped into the hall outside of the emergency room, where Tomoe was brought that morning, gave pure terror on Kaoru's lovely face. The Doctor looked from his right to left and spotted Kaoru, sitting sulking with trepidation. He walked towards her and he said quietly, "I'm sorry my Kaoru, but there is nothing I can do to save Tomoe. In a minute or two she'll leave this world of the living." He stopped and looked at her not knowing what to do to ease the pain that started to arise in her brilliant blue eyes.

            For Kaoru, everything suddenly crushed in on her. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, and she couldn't utter a single word of denial, everything became hazy. Unshed tears suddenly formed in her eyes as she tried to stifle her scream of agony. She looked at Dr. Gensai without actually seeing him and hearing him as he continued with his dreadful news.

He continued, "She's beyond hope and beyond reach now. The only thing you can do right now is pray." He took a deep breath and watched her for a sign of tears but none came. A tap on the doctor's shoulder made him turn and looked at the intrusion. The nurse whispered something that gave lit in his hazelnut eyes. He look back at Kaoru and hastily said in hope to comfort her, "Her son is alive Kaoru, he made it through. Do you want to see him?" Dr. Gensai looked behind his shoulder and gazed at her again with hope and understanding in his eyes.

Kaoru's eyes were glazed and uncertain as she raised it to Dr. Gensai's face

            Dr. Gensai took hold of Kaoru's arm and led her towards the nursery room.

            Every heartbreaking step she took, every second it makes was etched into her soul. She stopped in front of a big glass where her sister's son lay. The nurse whirled around over her nephew's cot and displayed him with a wide smile. Kaoru looked back at the nurse, her face was pale and strained, and her eyes lost its gleam. The nurse stopped smiling but Kaoru didn't even notice it. Her attention had locked into her nephew, who was sucking his thumb diligently. His hair was red and his eyes were purple. 'There was nothing of Tomoe in him' she thought. 'He looked so unhappy, so unfit as if he knows that his mother was dead. She cringed inside and began to walk up the hall on legs that didn't feel strong enough to support her.

            She remembered how healthy her sister was. How Tomoe jest with her as they started to go home from a celebration with her friend. She remembered her sister talked about a happy family, everything that women like her dreamed off. Tomoe had been intelligence, beauty, everything to live for until Akira Himura had come into her life and wasted it. Intense Emotions such as anger suddenly gripped Kaoru until she couldn't breathe anymore.

            "Miss Kamiya…"

            The sound of her surname from a dark handsome voice halted her in her tracks and made her turn around as she slowly raised her head. He stood several feet away from her; he was a little taller than her, she noted. He had that deadly grace of a panther as he walked towards her and intimidating purple-amber eyes that could send grown men to their knees.

            Kaoru stared in bewilderment as he stopped in front of her and extended his right hand, she noticed absently, were beautifully curved so is his face. It was chiseled perfectly as if a great sculptor created him and turned him into a human being. His hair was red, like Tomoe's son, which could hide his daunting eyes. His lip was perfectly shaped that looks soft and hard at the same time. His cheeks were soft and almost smooth except for the wound in his left cheeks that gives him a dark handsome looks. 'There is nothing vulnerable in his face', she thought. His hands took hold of her hands, "If you would allow me to offer my deepest sympathy on your sister's death." He whispered in a stiff undertone.

            She recoiled from his touch as if it turned into a fire and stepped back as if to ward off an incurable disease permeate the air. "Wh-What a-are y-y-you doing here? A-and h-how did you know my sister was dead?" She demanded shakily.

            "I asked one of the nurses here about a patient name Tomoe Kamiya and they told me about her death. As for my presence, I remember that you left an urgent message in my brother's answering machine when in fact it was my answering machine and my brother is not there at that time." He answered in a gruff tone.

            "The doctor made me phone, but I didn't ask for you to come here, Mr. Himura," Kaoru nearly shouted. "I asked for your brother."

            "As I told you my brother was not there when you phoned me. He was somewhere at this time." Kenshin Himura looked at her impassively and continued, "I also informed him about Tomoe's death a minute ago and he is deeply distressed," he informed her.

            Sanity began to return in Kaoru's eyes as she laughed hysterically. "He was deeply distressed?" she rasped out. "After what he did?" she laughed and whirled around unable to bear a minute with him. She gripped her hands tightly and her knuckles turned white. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She remained her back at him and tried to fight the uncontrollable bitterness she suddenly feel.

            "Miss Kamiya I also learned about my nephew and I would like to see him." He said with supreme coolness but without reprimand and he ignored the sudden flare of fire in her eyes as she whirled around to face him again.

            "You will not!" she emphasized every word she utter between her clenched teeth, her body became rigid with hatred deep down inside her. She detested Kenshin Himura more than any man alive. She glared daggers at him and if looks could kill she's doing it right now.

            "I have a right that equals yours and I…." he was cut off as Kaoru's temper explode. "Right? What right are you talking about after what you and your brother did to my older sister! You don't have any right at all. If there has been right for you, my sister should have been alive right now!" Kaoru spat in a near shout.

            Kenshin was unaffected by her outburst, "You are upset right now. If you would like, let us talk somewhere where people cannot over hear us." He informed her calmly. Kaoru was not fooled by his calm façade. She noticed how the muscle jerked in his jaw as he clenched his teeth in near frustration. "I'm not going anywhere with you and I'm certain as hell that I have nothing to discuss with you." Kaoru shot back at him and tried to walk past him.

            A strong hand caught her wrist and spun her around. "Miss Kamiya, I really want to talk with you in private. If you could please lower your voice it is not ladylike." He said through clenched teeth.

            "Didn't you understand what I said. I said I'm not going anywhere with you and I'm through discussing matters with you! Now let go of me, and leave me in peace you pilicock!" Kaoru hissed in outrage.  

            "As a matter of fact you are not yet through discussing matters with me. And were it not for the fact that I am capable of making allowances for your comprehensible grief, I would demand an apology," Kenshin slashed down at her and his eyes turned cold amber as he gaze at her. Fury was etched in his face as he tightened his hold.

            With every inch of sanity in Kaoru's bone, her fury fueled his own. She lifted her free hand and tried to hit that arrogant face with all the strength in her bone. Her eyes were burning with unshed tears as she raised her hand but he caught it with lightning speed. She pushed him instead. He didn't even budge from his spot as he watched her puny attempt to ward him off. He let go of her as she fell on her but.

            He couldn't believe what he was seeing. From the age of 15 people started to cower in his presence. Servants never crossed him. People did not speak to him with insolence or any other except in a timid way. But this hardly a woman was speaking to him as if all the courage that eludes other men she possessed it. If not for their given situation he would admire that child-woman who was standing at his feet. She didn't fear him. A smile tugged on the corner of his mouth.

            Kaoru looked up at him and saw that small smile that tugged on the corner of his mouth. Mistaken it for mocking her she scrambled to her feet and hit him in his face.

            Kenshin looked at her as if two horns had grown in her head. He didn't comprehend what had happened to her. And he sure as hell that he didn't expected the blow.

            Kaoru left ran past him towards the door. Door out of the hospital.

AN: Hey guys I'm sorry I couldn't continue my other stories co'z I kinda left them at my home and my family and I are in a vacation. So I wrote another one and I hope you would love it.