Author's Note: So I suppose, I quite like writing fanfics set in alternate universes. This one is a Rurouni Kenshin fic! Yay! Anyway, the show is set during the early Meiji period in Japan. This story shall be set in 2010. Yay. Characters are not my own.

CHAPTER 1

A Spark

"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed."

"So cute!"

"You are so lucky!"

"It's so pretty!"

The nurses and other medical student trainees gathered around Megumi's left ring finger, cooing at the gorgeous canary diamond engagement ring perched primly on it. Megumi stared at the ring wistfully. Being engaged wasn't the titillating experience movies, songs, and books said it would be. From the moment she first accepted Aoshi Shinomori's date offer, she knew they would end up where they were. Aoshi came from a good family, was a respectable man. He offered her security and a comfortable life. Megumi's family approved of him and even was quite fond of him. Megumi couldn't find a reason not to accept his proposal.

"I can't believe you're engaged!" one nurse squealed. "When's the wedding?"

"In the spring," Megumi answered tactfully

"You're so lucky!" another gushed. "Dr. Shinomori is so handsome, I could just die!"

The others giggled in agreement. Megumi grinned at the other girls. He couldn't blame them for being enamored by Aoshi. He had the persona of the cool prince down perfectly and had all the young nurses and trainees in the hospital swooning. Just his cool gaze was enough to send them reeling. Megumi had been amused. Who knew what Aoshi thought of his admirers? She never talked about it with him and he never raised the issue.

An elderly doctor, Dr. Genzai, walked into the room and cleared his throat. The nurses and trainees dispersed. The good doctor shook his head.

"Megumi," he said as Megumi looked up at him, "there's a patient waiting in Exam Room 7. Why don't you take this one? Get me if it's something you haven't seen before."

"Yes sir," Megumi answered, accepting the clipboard of the patient's records Dr. Genzai handed her.

Megumi only had a few months left in her training. At the end of the spring, she would take her graduation exam and, assuming that she would pass it, she would become a doctor just like her father and two brothers. Aoshi was already a doctor. He was two years older than her and never failed to remind her much to Megumi's annoyance.

Megumi looked at the patient's records as she walked to Examination Room 7. Sanosuke Sagara. He had a long history of impact fractures and had a long history of broken bones mostly to his hands and his nose. What has this person been doing with himself? Megumi pondered over the possible reasons for so much broken bones as she neared Exam Room 7. Brittle bone? Pure skullduggery? Both?

"You can't pull answers out of thin air, Megumi. Facts not conjecture. Facts."

She could practically hear Aoshi lecturing her for her runaway thoughts again. She sighed as she put her hand on the doorknob. She pushed it open, a practiced professional smile draping her face instantly.

"Good afternoon, I'm Miss Megumi Takani and I'll be taking care of you today," she said brightly.

Megumi bit back a gasp as she took in the man who was standing in the room. He had a striking air about him. He had forsaken the examination bed and was standing in front of the window with his back to her. His hair was wild and disheveled but managed to look deliberate. His eyes had a sense of mischief and a spark of disobedience in them as he looked over his shoulder at her. He was tall and lean, muscles proudly displayed by his open shirt. His hands were plunged into his pockets. Megumi blinked curiously as the rapidly setting sun poured through the window he was standing in front of washed him in a bright orange light.

"Where's Dr. Genzai?" he asked. His voice was low and rough, Megumi noted.

Megumi regained her senses and shut the door behind her. "Dr. Genzai is busy at the moment but I'll be happy to help you in any way I can," she said to him and made a show of looking through his records. "Mr. Sagara, is it?"

"Yeah," he answered, watching her with interest.

"It's nice to meet you," Megumi gestured to the examination bed. "Would you please take a seat?"

"I think I'll stand," he answered, putting on a playful smirk.

Megumi blinked at him. He's going to be one of those patients, she concluded.

"Suit yourself," Megumi announced.

She pulled out the stethoscope and closed the distance between them. Megumi put on the earpiece and touched his shoulder, getting ready to listen to his heart beat. A sharp shock erupted between their skin contact and Megumi gasped, her heart skipping a beat. She looked up to see him watching her with a belligerent interest, an eyebrow raised. Megumi cleared her throat and continued.

"Breathe deeply please, Mr. Sagara," Megumi said, doing so herself to school her suddenly rapid heart rate.

"Call me Sanosuke," he said in an entirely amused tone.

"Breathe deeply please, Mr. Sagara," Megumi stressed, feeling slightly irked.

He chuckled and did as he was told. Megumi repositioned moved to another spot on his chest.

"And again please," she said.

"Why are you doing this?" Sanosuke asked her.

Megumi looked up at him tempestuously, successfully annoyed. "I'm your doctor and as such I-"

"That's not what I meant," Sanosuke answered, walking away from her and plopping himself down in the cushiony swiveling doctor's chair. "I meant a nurse already did my vitals. That's not even what hurts, doc."

Megumi did all she could not to explode at him. Who was he to tell her how to do her job? Megumi crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Well, it seems that you are in perfect health," Megumi observed. "Why then did you think it necessary to visit us today? We have many patients today and if you aren't really hurt, then you're preventing other people from receiving treatment which-"

"Hand hurts," Sanosuke said, raising his right hand into the air. "I think I broke it or something."

Megumi's eyes widened at his hand. It was certainly a sight. It was red and blue and bruised. Megumi walked over to him, inspecting the hand meticulously.

"What did you do?" she asked as she reached out to touch it. He howled.

"Don't do that! It hurts!" he wailed. "I wailed on some guy who deserved it and totally busted my hand."

"We need to x-ray this hand," Megumi said, ignoring how moronic his reason was.

Minutes later, Sanosuke was sitting on a chair, his hand positioned under an x-ray machine, watching Megumi manipulate it. Sanosuke found himself curious about her. She was clearly a spunky thing yet it seemed she found it necessary to hide it. Weird, he concluded. He never was interested in people and usually minded his own business unless, of course, they got in his way. Why should he care about this woman? She was pretty though, he assessed. A glinting ring on her left hand caught Sanosuke's attention. Damn, he thought, taken. Of course she would be, he concluded, a pretty woman like her. It would be weird if she wasn't.

"You engaged, huh?" Sanosuke asked.

"Oh," Megumi said, glancing quickly at the ring on her finger, "yes."

"Lucky guy," he added.

"Thank you."

"You love him?"

"Excuse me?" she balked, staring at him incredulously.

"It's a simple question," Sanosuke shrugged. "Do you or don't you?"

"Mr. Sagara-"

"Sanosuke," he corrected.

"Mr. Sagara," she insisted, "my personal life is hardly any of your business. Why shouldn't I love the man I'm going to marry?"

"You askin' me, doc," Sanosuke said, waggling his eyebrows knowingly at her, "or yourself?"

"I… I…" Megumi recoiled.

Sanosuke chuckled. "I figured you love him," he said with a shrug, not waiting for her answer. "I mean, what kind of dummy marries someone they don't love, right?"

Megumi looked away, unable to answer him. Yes, what kind of dummy would do such a thing?

It turned out that Sanosuke's hand wasn't broken but was simply incredibly bruised. He and Megumi sat back in Exam Room 7. Megumi bandaged his hand, thinking all sorts of rude things about him that she would never say out loud. He was a rascal, a rogue, a ruffian. What sort of insane person willingly put themselves in jeopardy as this idiot obviously did? Moron, Megumi continued to think. Plus, what right did he have commenting on other people's love lives? It was her life. He didn't know anything about her. How dare he? She glanced quickly up at him. What is up with the stupid hair anyway? They invented combs for such a reason. Stupid rooster head, she thought scathingly.

"You see something you like, doc?" he spoke the trite line with arrogance, a smirk playing on his lips.

Megumi glared at him testily and drew back. "You're all finished," she said. "Be sure to take care of that hand. Try to elevate it and if at all possible, utilize your left hand until the right heals up."

"Hey, that feels great," Sanosuke said, brandishing his right hand in front of him. "It's kinda sexy, isn't it? Sexy in a tough way."

"Sexy as socks on a rooster," Megumi mumbled, putting the gauze and ointment away.

"Rooster?" Sanosuke exclaimed.

"Perhaps, Mr. Sagara," Megumi said, changing the subject, "you shouldn't get into fights more often. It's clearly unhealthy for a person to put so much stress on his hand."

"Hey, I don't tell you how to live your life, doc," Sanosuke argued.

"Pardon me for doing my job and advising you about your health," Megumi retorted, eyes narrowed in anger as she bolted to her feet.

"Your job is to patch me up when I get roughed up," he reminded her and then showed her his bandaged hand. "You did that already. I don't need you preaching to me."

"And I'm supposed to do nothing even if a sentence or two of warning can save someone's life?"

"That's what's wrong with doctors like you," Sanosuke quarreled. "You try to butt into other people's lives and try to tell them what's best for them. I pay you to fix me up not to sell me your values."

It took all of Megumi's will power not to slap the stupid rooster head. With some effort, she turned away from him and started to head out the door.

"Well, since I obviously did my end of the bargain," Megumi said, anger rattling her voice, "why don't you do yours and pay the nurse at the front desk. Have a good evening, Mr. Sagara."

Megumi slammed the door behind her.

Megumi slammed her locker shut, irritation still bubbling from her. Idiot! She had never met such a despicable and repugnant human being in all her life. She meant well and she only wanted to help him and he had started a fight. Idiot! Megumi stalked past the other nurses and trainees who were staring warily at the murderous look on her face. Megumi wished that she hadn't been too professional and just gave into the impulse of slapping the jerk. Even so, Megumi felt like she had crossed a line because she had argued with a patient.

"You must be professional, Megumi. You must be professional at all times."

Aoshi's voice in her head did nothing but irritate her further. Megumi stalked out the sliding front doors of the hospital, fuming madly. Stupid, stupid, stupid man! Megumi hoped he lapses into a coma! Maybe then he'll learn. Jerk.

"There you are."

Megumi looked up to see Aoshi push himself away from his resplendent black Mercedes and walk up to her, a cool smirk on his lips.

"Aoshi," Megumi said, accepting the kiss he planted on her cheek dutifully.

"You look all worked up," he observed, staring into her face clinically. "Long day?"

"Yes, it was," Megumi said, allowing a sigh to escape her lips.

"Shall we have dinner?"

"I'm meeting Kaoru later," Megumi said.

"An early dinner then?" he offered handsomely.

She looked up at his glittering dark eyes. She should obviously accept this offer so she did.

Megumi picked at her lasagna. She had suggested Italian but she wasn't really in the mood for it. What she really wanted was to head to the bar with Kaoru and toss back a few beers to celebrate the work week's conclusion. Megumi ate a bite lasagna to fool Aoshi into thinking that she was enjoying her dinner. She didn't want another lecture about eating disorders. Plus, if she was truly planning on pounding down a few beers with Kaoru, it would be better if there was something in her stomach. Megumi's eyes drifted to the ring on her left hand.

"…what kind of dummy marries someone they don't love…?"

Shut up, Megumi told Sano's voice in her head. What do you know about it? Megumi moved her eyes away from the lasagna to Aoshi who was working through his ricotta stuffed ravioli in silence. Did Aoshi propose because he loved her? Or was it because of the same sense of duty and obligation Megumi felt? She and Aoshi weren't really the couple that people called sappy. They kept their hands to themselves in public, gave each other their well deserved space, and spoke to each other like adults. That had suited Megumi just fine. She hated the idiots proclaiming their love to each other on the street as if it was anybody's business but their own. If Megumi remembered correctly, neither Aoshi nor she had ever said the coveted phrase "I love you." Not even once. Did Aoshi love her? Did he?

"Aoshi?"

"Yes, Megumi?" he asked, not sparing her a glance as he sipped his merlot.

"Do you…" Megumi trailed off; hesitating for a minute, "… love me?"

If Aoshi had been shocked, none of it showed on his smooth patrician face. Impassive as ever, Megumi thought.

"Of course I do," Aoshi said, tackling his ravioli again. "What brought this on all of a sudden?"

"I just…" Megumi sighed, feeling stupid. "I wanted to know. That's all."

"Be logical for a minute," he advised evenly. "I proposed to you. The logical conclusion would be that I love you. Correct?"

"Yes," Megumi breathed.

Satisfied, Aoshi turned his attention to the waitress and asked her to bring them dessert.

"I handled a very interesting case today," Aoshi began as the waitress walked away, her skirt twitching.

"Oh?" Megumi answered submissively.

"This fellow came in and he…"

Aoshi talked and Megumi pretended to listen. He said he loved her. Did he really? If he indeed felt love for her, there was no proof of it in his pragmatic face. And what about her? She accepted his proposal. She had consoled herself with the thought that it was inevitable and it was just something she would have to wait for. Now that it had happened, she found herself questioning it. What a fool, she thought of herself. Fate deemed her worthy of a good husband and a comfortable life and there she was questioning whether she wanted it or not. Did she really love Aoshi? Or was it only convenient that he was there by her side? Was she going to be happy with him? Or would her life be an endless string of niceties and convenience? Megumi took a big sip of her pinot grigio and emptied the glass. It wouldn't be the last drop of alcohol she would have tonight.

Kaoru was younger than Megumi. Perhaps a year or two. She was working part time as a teacher at a local elementary school, teaching kindergarten. Megumi couldn't believe Kaoru would pick such a career. She acted a child herself and was too impatient for her own good. No matter how many qualms Megumi had about the job, Kaoru still took it and was apparently having the time of her life with it. Megumi thought it was because she was around children who thought the same way she did. The mental jibe put a smirk on Megumi's face as she and Kaoru headed for the door of the Akabeko Restaurant and Bar.

"I can't wait for you to meet him, Meg," Kaoru gushed. "He's a great guy. You'll love him."

"I hope not," Megumi said with a grin. "You know you'll never stand a chance if I decide to steal him from you."

"You can't have him," Kaoru pouted. "You already have Aoshi. Leave some men for the rest of us."

"If you say so," Megumi said, flitting through the door with her.

"Kenshin!" Kaoru yelled, waving ecstatically at someone at the bar.

A man with a shocking mop of red hair looked over at her and raised his right hand in an awkward wave. Kaoru grabbed Megumi by the arm and dragged her to him. Interesting, Megumi concluded. He's not usually the kind of guy that sniffed around Kaoru. The boys around Kaoru consisted mostly of arrogant jerks who think punching someone in the face solved any problem. This Kenshin person looked as if he wouldn't dare harm a flea.

"I hope we didn't keep you waiting long," Kaoru said to him.

"No, I just got here a few minutes ago actually," Kenshin answered. His eyes drifted towards Megumi. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh! Kenshin Himura, meet my friend, Megumi Takani," Kaoru introduced graciously. "Megumi, this is my friend and colleague, Kenshin Himura."

"It's very nice to meet you, Miss Megumi," Kenshin bowed.

"It's very nice to meet you," Megumi said, bowing in response. "Kaoru's told me so much about you."

"All of it good, I hope," Kenshin smiled brightly.

"Far more than good," Megumi commented, noting the dreamy look on Kaoru's face as she looked at Kenshin. "Kaoru told me you moved here only recently, Mr. Himura."

"Yes, I spent two years in America, a year in Seoul, a year in Osaka and Yokohama and I just moved here to Tokyo from Kyoto recently," Kenshin said and then laughed. "I guess you can say I'm a bit of a wanderer."

"I hope you'll be staying here for a long time," Kaoru pointed out.

"Yes, I like it here," Kenshin agreed. "I think I'll stay for a long while."

"What were you doing in all those places?" Megumi asked interestedly.

"Studying, working," Kenshin shrugged. ""Whatever was-"

Kenshin didn't get a chance to finish. A pair of arms grabbed him around the neck in a choke hold. Kaoru gasped. Megumi raised an eyebrow. She would have been worried but Kenshin seemed relaxed enough and was even chortling as if he expected it.

"Kenshin, you bastard," a voice that Megumi recognized said, "you come into town and didn't even bother to call me. You said you were going to marry me, you jerk."

"I don't think that would be practical, Sano," Kenshin sniggered.

Megumi stared at the head of untidy brown hair and the electric dark eyes. She scowled. Just when she was starting to have some fun, the headache of the day came barging in on her good time.

"Do you know him, Kenshin?" Kaoru asked, watching the two wrestle worriedly.

"Yes," Kenshin choked out. "Though I'm reevaluating if it was wise to stay friends with Sano."

"Kenshin and I go way back. We were in middle school and high school together. Up until Kenshin disappeared after high school graduation that is. You bastard!" Sanosuke said loudly, giving Kenshin a noogie. "You gonna introduce me to your lady friends?"

"Sanosuke Sagara, meet Miss Kaoru Kamiya and Miss Megumi Takani," Kenshin stuttered, trying to free himself from his grasp.

Sanosuke's eyes drifted towards Megumi and he let Kenshin go as he stared at her. She met him with a cool and piercing scowl.

"What are you doing here?" Sanosuke asked in a hard voice.