A/N : Set during the train ride back from Kyoto. Cannon. Standard disclaimers apply...
"Hey Kenshin?" A thoughtful voice yanked him out of his daydream.
Amethyst eyes landed on the small dark haired boy who had taken the seat across him on the train.
"Yes Yahiko?" He responded mildly, mind still wandering a little.
"Can I ask you something?" Yahiko asked.
The note of seriousness in his tone made Kenshin redirect his entire focus on the boy.
"Of course" Kenshin answered with a smile.
"Its - well its about your master" Yahiko mumbled, slightly averting his eyes.
Kenshin's look of surprise was evident on his face and it seemed that Kaoru and Megumi both had similar reactions as they too turned to listen to where this conversation was headed.
Now slightly uncomfortable under the scrutiny but still really curious, Yahiko glanced towards the redhead in front of him.
"You beat him didn't you?" He questioned. Kenshin shrugged.
Indeed he had beaten his master in that one move, as every apprentice of the Hiten Mitsurugi ryu was meant to, But Kenshin highly doubted he would stand a chance if they had a real duel. His master could predict his moves before he could think of them, but back to the boy who was still talking…
"You are officially the next master aren't you? You are no longer his apprentice right?" Yahiko demanded.
Kenshin held back a wince at that. Hiko Seijuro the fourteenth. Nope, he did not fancy himself with that name and after being estranged with his master for so long, he dearly wanted to hold on to him now and no longer being his apprentice wasn't helping that.
"I still do not wish to pass down the technique Yahiko, that I do not" Kenshin said calmly, assuming that was where this was going.
"That's not what I was going to ask!" The boy shot at him indignantly.
A slightly surprised Kenshin could tell that Yahiko had indeed not been intending to broach that subject, not just then anyway. It would come up soon enough.
"Oro?" He allowed himself to ask, taken aback all the same.
The younger boy huffed before turning away to glance out at the passing scenery as the train continued to gain speed.
"I just wanted to know if it doesn't bother you... the way you are treated. He isn't your master anymore, you can ask him to stop" Yahiko continued to say.
"Oro?" Kenshin went again, this time completely stunned.
"Don't just sit there and Oro at us Kenshin, Yahiko has a point" Kaoru put in.
"Not that the stories weren't funny" Sano added, joining the conversation despite his fear for trains.
Thinking of the embarrassing stories Hiko had mentioned, especially the ones about the mushroom certainly made Sano feel much less sick.
"No, they do not bother this one, that they do not" He said pleasantly.
"But Kenshin, all he ever does is humiliate you" Yahiko argued, annoyance evident in his tones.
"And he probably shouldn't have said some of those stories, the bed wetting one was horrible" Megumi agreed
"And the time you tumbled off the log" Kaoru added.
"The river one wasn't pretty either" Sano put in.
Kenshin sighed. As much as they were defending him, he knew they had all found it amusing. But now that he thought about it, Yahiko had not been amused last night at the party either.
Of course Kenshin had been distracted by his attempts of keeping himself from raising to the bait and risking further disgrace and had therefore devoted himself to solely focusing on his food, so he hadn't noticed then.
Thoughtfully, he extended his Ki to sense a sliver of hurt behind the younger boy's annoyance and it made him smile slightly. How had he forgotten? Pride. An emotion he too had been so filled with at that age. An age where every taunt earned his master the exact reaction he had been going for.
Kenshin knew even if he didn't entirely understand that Yahiko looked up to him and having his hero belittled and teased had hurt the boy's pride.
"It isn't about what he says Yahiko, its about what he doesn't" Kenshin said, entirely truthful and sincere in his answer.
"What he doesn't say?" Yahiko repeated with a frown.
"Yes" Kenshin answered softly as he gazed out the window, for a moment overcome with memories and long suppressed emotions.
Large hands taking his petite ones and applying a generous amount of salve, trying then what Kenshin understood now, to wipe away not just the scars on the surface but the memories of the makeshift grave he had made.
Soothing fingers rubbing his chest as he choked on his food, unable to eat anything solid after starving for a week and living on Miso soup for months before that.
Hushed murmurs in the middle of the night that promised safety from just about everything. Words that somehow even managed to keep the nightmares away.
Long strides that never failed to slow down when the tell tale signs of overpowering tiredness appeared and thus allowing smaller feet to keep up.
A muscular chest that allowed a small head to bury itself in its warmth and cry over the other children refusing to play with such a strange looking child.
A watchful eye that always ensured his safety, halting every tumble and every fall before it could cause any real damage.
An extra swig of sake that washed down horrible tasting food because small hands had burnt themselves trying to make the small feast by the time he returned.
A large form allowing a smaller body to sidle into the futon for warmth because that particular winter was harsh.
Never ending patience that allowed a practice session to drag on for two hours past sunset because he was frustrated at being a failure, never mind that they were going to serve no purpose when the younger mind was so disturbed.
Sure arms that secured him during bad landings while training by the waterfall, strong knees that bent slightly in anticipation of the ground and yet never so much as jostling the smaller being.
A hundred doubts and fears and insecurities that had never been repeated once after their utterance, not to taunt him in private or humiliate him in public.
Secret confidences that had never been betrayed and a story of a slave of long ago that only one other living soul knew.
A heart that never revealed its affections but got broken when he so cruelly abandoned his training…
Just as his thoughts started slipping from the good days down to the unpleasant memories, he was pulled out of it by a mystified Yahiko, who couldn't understand the soft smile he was seeing.
"Kenshin!" The boy demanded.
The former imperialist swordsman nearly jumped, an unusual behaviour for him but Yahiko did not notice, he was far too annoyed as he waited for an answer to a question Kenshin had not even heard.
"Are you going to tell them?" Sano demanded, back to being grouchy when Kenshin took too long to reply.
"No, those stories aren't meant to be told, that they are not" Kenshin said serenely.
"Well nothing Hiko said were meant to be told either" Kaoru griped, hurt that Kenshin was saying no.
"Perhaps its not the best way, but it is his way of doing it I suppose" he answered, still a little caught up in his own reminiscences to attach his usual rurouni way of speech.
"Doing what?" she asked, by now completely lost.
"Reminding me I had a childhood too" He answered simply.
Silence fell upon them as the others contemplated his words and he remained lost in fond memories that resurfaced. He couldn't for the life of him fathom what had possessed him to fight his master for not agreeing to adopt a frog…
"Well if that was your childhood, it wasn't much of one" Yahiko said bluntly, still unhappy.
Ah, the hits, the chores, the taunts, the humiliation, the narcissism, the arrogance, the stubbornness, the pride...he could go on with a list of things that would make living with the man downright impossible.
Now that he thought about it, he supposed any other child would say miserable is the most flattering and sugar coated description that would fit. But to Kenshin, he wouldn't have it any other way and he chuckled as something else struck him.
"Actually Yahiko, it is the best time of my life" he admitted.
The boy looked horrified, the others stunned but he could only wonder how his master would react to that sentiment.
The thought made him smile and at that moment, it didn't matter because rare waves of happiness were crashing into him.
So much that he almost looked back wistfully towards Kyoto.
Yes, meeting Hiko Seijuro the thirteenth was the best thing that ever happened to him.
"Shishou…" he whispered quietly.
Somewhere atop a mountain, sitting alone with a disk of Sake in one hand, a handsome swordsman smiled.
"Baka Deshi..."
A/N : This was written a long time ago and I have removed all the Japanese from it, but couldn't quite bring myself to change the ending, so for those who need the reference...
Shishou - Master
Baka Deshi - Idiot apprentice