Sanosuke woke to the sound of crying and rolled over, reaching for the yukata he kept beside the futon. Slipping into it and tying the sash, he lit a candle and crept into the next room. "What's the matter, princess?" The baby was dry and he picked her up, smiling as she bumped her little head against his chest, her tiny mouth opening and closing. "Where do you put it all?"
He carried his child back to the futon, sliding in and putting her down next to his wife. Megumi half woke, took the little girl in her arms, and went back to sleep as the eager mouth found her breast. Sano put his arm around them both, falling asleep with the scent of jasmine wafting sweetly around him from Megumi's hair.
His next waking was more violent as Sozo jumped on him. "Wake up, Daddy!" Sanosuke pretended to be asleep, then suddenly lunged at his son, grabbing him and tickling him.
Megumi sat up, holding the baby close as her husband and son wrestled, then said sharply, "All right, you two, that's enough!"
They stopped immediately, grinning at her with identical expressions of mischief, and Sano reached for the baby. "Come on, son, let's let Mommy get up and get dressed." He went out with the children and Megumi straightened her sleeping kimono, shaking her head. Why had she ever thought that marriage to Sanosuke Sagara would be settling down to a peaceful way of life? The old days of terrifying encounters with villains of all stripes were gone, but her life was anything but quiet. And she knew she wouldn't have it any other way. She had been so happy since her first night in this house….
It was twilight as Sanosuke and Megumi Sagara walked away from their wedding reception hand in hand, and when they reached the doorway of their little house, he swept her up in his strong arms and carried her inside.
"What are you doing? Put me down!"
He grinned at her. "It's a custom I learned about in America. The first time a bride enters her house, her husband carries her."
"Why?"
Sano set her on her feet. "I don't know. I just thought I'd like to do it." He bent his head and kissed her lingeringly and a wave of heat went through her. She broke free and went into the back room where their big futon was waiting and Sanosuke followed her and seized her….
As they lay spent and gasping afterwards, their heart rates slowly returning to normal, Megumi whispered, "Was it good, Sano-chan?"
Her husband sighed contentedly. "It was very good."
The new wife gathered her courage. "Was it the best?"
Sanosuke touched her face. "It was the only."
"Sano!" Her voice was incredulous and he pulled her close.
"It's the truth, Meg-chan. You know what happened to me when I was eleven."
She remembered-he had told her years ago how as a child he had been taken off the street by what he thought was an inn-keeper, only to learn that the inn was really a brothel and they wanted to use him as their newest attraction. He had cut his wrist after fighting off his first "customer" and the mama-san had thrown him, bleeding, back to the street. He might never have said anything if she had not found the scar he kept hidden under the red tape on his left wrist, but she had seen it while she was caring for him after Saito stabbed him. Not knowing when he had inflicted the injury on himself, she asked him about it and he told her, relieved to finally have someone to trust with his secret. "You said you weren't upset about that, Sano-chan," Megumi murmured, taking his hand and kissing his scarred wrist.
"I'm not. I never was." Sanosuke stroked Megumi's hair. "But after that I did avoid letting anyone get close to me, till there was you. And once I met you I didn't want any other woman, not even for a few hours."
Megumi raised herself on one elbow, trying to see him in the darkness. "Is that really true?"
Sanosuke reached for her. "It really is."
Megumi felt flushed remembering that night and the next morning when Sanosuke stood up naked to get dressed. She had known his body as a doctor knows a patient, but she would never forget the first time she saw the difference between a man too weak from injuries to sit up and one in the full flush of youth and health. She had pulled him back down to the futon and it had been a long time before either of them even thought of breakfast….
"Megumi?" Sanosuke and Sozo were standing in the door. "Do you want me to start breakfast?"
She had to laugh at the expression on her son's face. The child obviously still remembered the time over a year ago when she had been sick in bed with a bad cold and Sano had done the cooking. "No, I'm coming, Sanosuke. Miso soup and rice sound okay?"