RK and company belong to Watsuki. I'm just doing this for fun, not profit.
This could be considered the sequel to "Thoughts of Her", which describes his thoughts as he is separated from Kenshin's group after the defeat of Shishio.
The Return
As I sit sipping my tea, my mind wanders to the events of this morning. I see his tattered, bloody, smoke-stained body standing before me. I knew he would return to me. He always returns to me, but not usually like this.
All I could do was stifle a gasp when I first saw him leaning on the doorway. I wanted to cringe, but I didn't. It would not have been useful. All I could say was, "Welcome home, Hajime."
My husband is a man of few words, but the words he chooses always convey a wealth of meaning, at least to my ears. He tells me what he thinks I should know, what he thinks I need to know. This morning I remember the words so clearly. "My mission," he said before pausing, "was successful." I merely nodded to him and told him I was glad, before I reached for his hand and lead him into our home.
Gingerly, with great care, I tended to the lacerations on his legs and the ones on his torso. There were some slight burn marks, too, on the back of his hands and on one of his arms. His wounds were too severe to allow him to be immersed in the bath, so I carefully and gently cleansed away the grime and dried blood for him, before I dressed the wounds and bound them in clean cloth.
Yes, the wounds were too severe to have him soak in a hot bath. I know he would have liked that, but it would have been foolish to do so. The water would have been red with his blood.
It will not be possible to repair the uniform he was wearing. It is too far-gone; it sustained too much damage. Just as he did. But it was only his flesh that was damaged, not his spirit, and flesh will recover more easily and more completely than the spirit ever would.
He is sleeping now. In our room. Soon I will join him. Just to lie next to him, to be near him and to feel the heat that radiates from him. The heat that lets me know that he lives to survive again, another day.