A/N: An old entry for rkchallenge on livejournal. That is the place to find quality drabbles, btw, so be sure to visit from time to time!
Sano's Talent
Sano cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms over his head. Yawning loudly, he continued to walk towards his favorite dojo in town. Perhaps lunch would come along a little early if he prodded Kenshin along.
He reached the gate and smiled at the familiar sounds inside the courtyard: the swishing of laundry in one corner and the stern reprimands of the kendo teacher in another. Sano sighed peacefully. A sense of belongingness washed over him, filling him with an almost insatiable desire to… to… to help.
"Hey Kenshin."
"Good morning, Sano. Oro, Sessha is not done with the laundry yet. You're a little early today," Kenshin replied.
"Ha! Kenshin, what do you take me for? I didn't come here just for lunch, you know."
"Dinner as well?"
Sano looked at Kenshin, almost disappointed. I'm not that bad… He began to think to himself.
"Sano?"
"Yeah?"
"Sessha was teasing."
He looked closely at Kenshin once again and realized that he had been laughing silently this whole time. Kenshin, with his keen eyes, saw the slow dawn of realization spreading through Sano's face and started to laugh loudly. Sano couldn't help but join in, and soon their mirth brought out the kendo teacher.
"What's so funny?" Kaoru asked coming out of practice, sweating lightly.
"Sano is joining us for lunch."
"Again?"
"Not you too, Jou-chan." Sano groaned, his face downcast. He was surprised when a bokken poked him slightly at the ribs with the accompaniment of a light giggle.
"Mou, Sano, I was just joking. You're welcome to join us," she said lightly. "Kenshin, could you come look at the shoji door over there, I was having trouble with it…" Kenshin and Kaoru walked away from Sano, who was feeling slightly better about lunch. Slightly.
He blinked his eyes and realized that he had been staring at the laundry. A slow grin broke upon his face as he sat down to work.
Kenshin heard a happy whistle emanating from where he had left the laundry. Turning the corner, he saw Sano hanging up the rest of the clothes in the noon sun.
"What are you doing, Sano?" he asked almost too bewilderedly. But Sano was too pleased with himself to hear the apparent sound of awe laced in the rurouni's question.
"I finished the laundry. What???"
"It's just that—"
"I've done laundry before!"
"Could've fooled Sessha," murmured the rurouni. He inspected the clothes, and to his dismay, saw that some of them had dirt on the corners. Some of the clothes still had stains that looked as if they've only been soaked in the water.
"Huh?"
"Ah, nothing Sano. I believe Kaoru's in the kitchen, perhaps you would like to ask her what she wants from the market?" Kenshin said cheerily, waiting for Sano to turn the corner before hastily taking down the laundry and washing what he could.
Sano did as he was bid and saw that the kitchen was actually empty. Kaoru was taking a quick bath, but she had pulled out most of the ingredients for the soup. Sano looked around. It looks easy…
Kenshin went into the kitchen looking for Sano, only to have his jaw drop all the way to the ground.
Somewhere in the process of making soup, Sano had used all the knives and utensils available to him. Kenshin watched in horror as Sano swept the vegetables off the cutting board and into the violently boiling water. Kenshin almost fainted when Sano cracked an egg above said water and drop the yolk with little pieces of shell stuck onto it. Unfortunately for him, Sano wasn't done. Sano laid the last piece of meat they had for the week on the cutting board. Kenshin was about to take it from there, when to his horrified surprise, Sano brought upon the unsuspecting piece of meat his infamous knuckles. The meat vaporized into the air, pieces of it falling everywhere—some of it going into what Sano called soup.
"Kuso! I think overdid that one."
"What did you think you were doing?" Kenshin half-whispered, still recovering from the sacrilege that happened in his kitchen.
"Tenderizing the meat?"
Kenshin groaned inwardly. "Listen Sano, maybe you should go with Kaoru-dono to market and leave Sessha to the cooking."
"But it's almost done…"
"Demo, Sessha thinks it needs… uh more ingredients. Please go with Kaoru-dono, today's market day and it might get a little rough."
"Don't worry, buddy. I'll protect Jou-chan!" shouted Sano eagerly leaving a relieved red-head to strain the mushy vegetables from the dark concoction. Sano saw Kaoru outside in the courtyard. He was teething on a fishbone and grinning, truly pleased with himself.
"Hey Sano, is Kenshin coming?" Kaoru asked.
"Nope, he says I'll go with you instead."
"Oh okay. Can you wait here?" Kaoru had just surfaced from the bathhouse and was about to go into her room when she encountered Sano. So she went in, assumedly to get dressed and to get the money. "Hold on, Sano." She said again once she came out from the room. Running lightly to the dojo with a slightly strained face, she went in and kneeled on the floor pulling up a floorboard.
Sano peeked in and saw Kaoru wriggling out a few yen from a small bag. Sano's heart softened. Jou-chan…
He backed away when Kaoru came out with a light smile. "Let's go!"
Sano and Kaoru walked in companionable silence. Once finished with the rice, tofu, and some little errands, they proceeded to walk home. Not much happened. Neither Kaoru nor Sano strayed to look at any of the new shops that opened just for that week.
There was one point, however, when Sano, coming back from the vendor, found Kaoru fingering a small piece of magenta cloth from one of the stalls. With an almost longing look, she reached up to her own ribbon, her fingers rubbing the slightly torn edges.
Sano sighed, but pretended not to have seen anything since Kaoru's determined face fell in place when she saw Sano's approach.
Sano ate lunch with Kenshin, Kaoru, and Yahiko. Somehow, Kenshin managed to scrounge something from whatever Sano was cooking and even gave all the credit to the man. Yahiko almost laughed, but saw that Kenshin wasn't kidding.
"No way, rooster-head made this?" Yahiko teased.
"If you don't want any, Yahiko-chan, just give it to me!" Sano said, starting their all-time favorite game of stealing from each other's plates.
It was only when he caught Kenshin glancing at a quiet Kaoru that Sano stopped his usual horsing around. Kenshin and Jou-chan… so nice to me…
Sano went running out of the gate the moment he finished lunch. "I'll see you guys later!"
"Bum freeloader" Yahiko murmured as he picked up the plates.
Kenshin and Kaoru just smiled at each other and proceeded with their afternoon routine.
"Are you sure, Sano? Last time we did this, you didn't do so well. What have you got to bet anyways?"
That stumped the determined man, but he wasn't about to give up. With a determined face, he took off his precious white shirt and placed it on the table.
"What am I supposed to do with this piece of trash?"
"Trash!? Do you not see that this shirt is one-of-a-kind? Look at the logo on the back. It's positively unique!" Sano's ears steamed.
"Haha, do you hear him boss?"
"Yeah, but lets just play his little game. I always thought Sagara would come to the point of losing the very 'clothes on his back.'"
Sano harrumphed and took the dice in hand.
One…
Two…
Three….!
Sano saw Kenshin at the market that afternoon.
"Here."
"Sano, what's this?" Kenshin took what was offered to him.
"Just think of it as payment for giving me credit for lunch today. I don't know how for the love of Kami you got those eggshells out…"
Kenshin laughed and looked at it. "Kaoru-dono has been trying her hardest to make it work for so long. You saw her picking out some hidden yen from the floorboard of the dojo?"
"Yeah…"
"You should give it to her." Kenshin gave back the ribbon and proceeded to walk home, leaving a flustered Sano.
"Sessha found Sano, he'll be joining us for dinner tonight."
At the dinner table, Yahiko continued his antics of pretending to vomit every bite. Kaoru had cooked dinner. Yahiko and Sano were stealing from each other's plates again, despite the silly complaints they made, while Kaoru tried to attack Yahiko-chan.
"Don't call me –chan!"
Kenshin had on his rurouni smile, looking around at his friends over the dinner table, absolutely amused. Once dinner and dishes were done, and Yahiko had been ordered to his room, the three friends took their tea outside to watch the nighttime sky.
Sano had finished saying his goodbyes when he snapped his fingers and turned around to grin mischieviously the rurouni.
"So, Kenshin, what's that in your pocket?" Sano suddenly asked.
"Oro?" Kenshin frowned a little. Kaoru turned her eyes to the somewhat confused rurouni who was looking hard at something in his pocket. Kenshin smiled and looked up once at the grinning rooster. He sighed. "Kaoru-dono, this is for you."
Kenshin held up a long piece of embroidered magenta ribbon to the light for Kaoru. She promptly set down her cup and slowly reached out to take it. Swiftly yet gently, Kenshin grabbed her hand and placed the soft silk into her palm, closing her fingers around it and giving her a warm smile. "Please put it on."
"Wi—Will you help me, Kenshin?" asked Kaoru, blushing brightly.
Go Jou-chan, now Kenshin…
"Aa." Kenshin knelt behind her and pulled out her old ribbon. Careful not to seem to liberal with her hair, he only stroke it once or twice before pulling it up again with the new ribbon, his eyes softening the feeling of her hair between his fingers. All the while, Kaoru's eyes, hidden from Kenshin's view, grew drowsy and almost feverish at the feeling. Ignoring everything else around them, they smiled shyly at each other before returning to their teacups.
Sano was already out the dojo gates, satisfied with the food and pleased that he had at least done something right.
A/N: Some slight changes from the original entry, though hopefully, that won't present much of a problem :D