A/N: once again, I found myself searching through and after about two pages of fanfiction, I couldn't find a story that really caught my interest. So I sat brainstorming for a minute and decided to do a RuroKen fic. I'm really happy with this idea and ohohohoho I'm having so much fun with it. REVIEW PLEASE!

"Kenshin!" called Kaoru.

"Yes, Miss Kaoru?"

""There's a basket of laundry outside that I need you to do. Get started on that and I'll begin to cook dinner."

"Don't you mean 'Or you'll cook dinner?' " Yahiko said poking his head into the room.

A swift stroke to the head with a bokken quickly silenced him.

"As I was saying," Kaoru continued with narrowed eyes, "get started on that or you guys aren't eating at all."

Kenshin sweatdropped and slid out of view.

The basket of laundry was just as Kaoru had said. Kenshin bent over and carried it over to the wash basin. He tied back his pink kimono and picked up a pair of Sanosuke's pants and began to scrub them. Slowly, the grass stain began to come out of the knee and it regained its white tint.

'White as her skin,' Kenshin found himself thinking.

He started, violet eyes open wide. 'Don't think about that,' he thought. 'This one doesn't want to think sad thoughts, that he doesn't.'

Kenshin finished scrubbing and pinned the clean pants on the clothesline. He knelt back down and grabbed Kaoru's pink kimono. Into the soapy water it went. Up and down the washboard Kenshin scrubbed it, still trying to shake certain thoughts from his head.

As soon as the washing was done, Kenshin unpinned his kimono and went inside, braced for whatever Kaoru may place before him.

Yahiko, Sanosuke, and Kenshin sat on their mats as Kaoru served out dinner. Kenshin picked up his bowl of rice and began to eat without (voiced) complaint.

After dinner and several trips to the bathroom, Kenshin sat down against a wall to sleep, sakabatou resting between his knees. His eyelids closed lightly and his breathing eventually became even as he fell deep into sleep.

Dreams of a white skinned, dark haired, soft spoken woman haunted his sleep she was speaking gently to him but he could not hear what she said. Tears glistened in her black eyes as she reached out a bloody hand to him. It was then that Kenshin saw that she had a great gash in her right side. Blood stood out startlingly on her white skin and kimono. She touched his scarred cheek and he awoke with a start.

Breathing quickly, Kenshin wiped his face on his sleeve. Someone tapped him gently on the shoulder.

"Kenshin," a woman said softly.

'That voice!'

Kenshin raised his eyes and saw her, the woman from his dream. Smiling, one hand outstretched, but the hand was free of blood.

"T-Tomoe", Kenshin whispered.

A/N: hmm that chapter didn't come out exactly as I'd planned, but I guess nothing can be put perfectly into words. Eh oh well. REVIEW FOR ME.