Author's Note: Written by request for Vespe ~ I hope you enjoy this!

Fashion Show
(Kenshin x MC)

I broached the subject to Kenshin that evening, as we sat together sipping sake and watching the last rays of sunlight fade from the sky. The warmth of the day still lingered pleasantly in wood and stone, but the soft breeze that had been ruffling the ends of my hair for the past quarter hour now held the promise of a chilly evening, and made me glad for the soft shawl I'd brought out with me. It was an unusual, varicoloured pale blue, lined with white - a gift from Kenshin, of course.

"So… you know that I've been working on several new pieces lately?" It was arhetorical question, since he always remembered what I told him about my projects.

"Yes - are they ready to show me?" He smiled with genuine enthusiasm at the prospect of seeing my latest creations, and I had to smile back. It still made me ridiculously happy to see such warmth in eyes that had once been so cold, especially when he was smiling over something other than the prospect of battle.

"They are… well, almost. But I - my staff and I - would like to introduce them to you a little differently than usual. And I'm hoping that you'll allow me to invite a few others as well."

"Invite?" His head tilted quizzically, as he parsed my words. I instinctively looked for the old jealousy and fear that once would have been there at the prospect of involving others in anything that was truly important to me. But his expression seemed to hold only curiosity. "Will it be a party then? A celebration?"

This time I'm couldn't stop myself from beaming at him - he'd understood it exactly! It was like him to put together the pieces so quickly.

"Yes! You see, where I'm from, designers" - he knew the term by now, and was fully on-board with the idea that designing was its own skill, although he'd gotten there by way of an analogy to swords and smithing - "showcase their new pieces as collections, usually with a unifying theme of some kind. They host a grand gala, and invite the wealthy, and the famous, and the well-connected, and so on" - I didn't want to get derailed by getting into a discussion about fashion media - "and they hire models show off the new clothing."

"Ah." I caught the edge of something like relief in Kenshin's tone, and realized that although he was so much better - entire worlds and galaxies better! - than he had been, he had still been uncomfortable at the idea of me personally modelling my outfits for somebody other than him. Not that I would!

I hurried on, so as to make what I had in mind for the here and now perfectly clear to him. I knew he'd be supportive of whatever I suggested - within fairly wide limits, these days - but I had no desire to push any boundaries with this particular proposal.

"I'm not suggesting doing any of that stuff - inviting all your chief vassals or something! - for this party, I promise. But it would be fun - for me and for the women who've been working with me - to put a bit of excitement into showing off the new clothes." I noticed that he had emptied his drink, and lifted the bottle to pour more for him.

Kenshin held out his cup to me with amusement crinkling the corners of his light eyes, and no trace of shadow marring his beautiful features. "I am grateful to you for sparing me from an invasion of guests, but if you truly wanted it, I'm sure I could convince my vassals to demonstrate their appreciation for your talent." I had a sudden vision of Kenshin compelling some of his more hidebound vassal warlords - and there were several - into gushing over new fall colour combinations and innovative stitching. It made me snicker involuntarily.

"That's okay, but thank you for offering, Kenshin. What I really want to do is invite you - of course - and Sasuke, Shingen, and Yukimura, and perhaps two or three other men of the castle staff - at your discretion - and then most of the women of the castle, …and maybe the two cloth merchants I deal with most often -"

"And here I thought it wouldn't be an invasion," murmured Kenshin. When I blushed - because I had gone maybe a little farther than I'd meant to for first introducing the idea - he gently brushed a tendril of hair from my face, and then traced my jaw with his fingers. My mind had been firmly on my fashion show, but his touch left heat in its wake, as it so often did.

"I will agree to this party of yours, but on one condition." He pressed a sweet-tasting kiss to my lips. "You are to sit and pour for me whenever you are at liberty to do so." His next kiss caressed the soft skin beneath my ear. "I won't have you leave me to be waited on by other women, this time."

My flushed skin had a lot more to do with his kisses than with his words, by this point, but I did have enough self-possession left to give him what I hoped was a mildly reproachful stare.

"You said you'd forgiven me for that, um, unfortunate mistake on my part, Kenshin!"

The first party I'd tried to organize for the women of Kasugayama had been undertaken in a misguided attempt to demonstrate that Kenshin wasn't actually a woman-hater. The upshot had been that Kenshin had been forced to endure being served drinks by an endless-seeming queue of excited women, while I'd ignored him with the best of intentions, as well as to try to keep my co-conspirators in line. Shingen had been brilliant, of course, but Sasuke had been more confusing than charming - which was odd, because I knew that he could be surprisingly charming - and Yukimura had managed to offend half his admirers and turn the other half into tsundere-fangirls (Sasuke's term, not mine).

At that point in my thoughts, Kenshin lifted my half-finished sake bowl to my lips with inimitable grace, and all thoughts of everything and everyone else scattered from my brain. I sipped obediently, my eyes fixed on his well-known, oh-so-well-loved features.

"There was nothing to forgive, as I've told you." He set down the bowl and pulled me closer to him, setting me on his lap, and pressing a longer, more lingering kiss to my lips, slipping his tongue barely between them as though savouring the quality of the sake I'd just drunk.

"Ahhh, yes… Kenshin…" But I had no idea if I was agreeing with him, or just asking him not to stop what he was doing. Probably both, but who cared?

"Of course you may have your celebration" - he kissed me more deeply, his tongue winding with mine for a long moment - "and you may invite whomever you choose" - his next kiss stole my breath, and his hands on the back of my head, and on my waist, were possessive in the very best way - "as long as you promise to pour my drinks, whenever you are free." He moved his face away from mine, a little. "Do you agree to those terms?"

I think I would've agreed to almost anything at that point, if he'd asked me. Fortunately for my thoroughly love-and-lust-addled brain, there was no need to think.

"Yes… absolutely." If it sounded like I was agreeing to far more than devoting myself to pouring him sake at my fashion show, that was just fine, in my opinion.

Kenshin rose, drawing me up with him, and holding me so that I was practically moulded to his lean, muscled body. My knees were weak from far more than sake.

"Let's go in, shall we? I have other things I wish to discuss with you now."

[END]

A/Note: My first Kenshin drabble, and I think I'd like to write more about the proposed fashion show :) We'll see. Thank you, so very much, to the many kind people in the Ikesen fandom who have read and commented on my stories thus far. ~ Imp