Destined to be Together

Author's Notes:  Keep in mind that this is an AU fic and Kaoru and everyone is at their original age but during the Bakumatsu. Sano is just an ex-gangster. Everyone except Kenshin that is, his 20 yrs old and is still the Battousai. I dunno whether or not I should put Tomoe in it but right now she doesn't exist in this fic. Also Kenshin doesn't know anyone besides the Ishinshini men and he doesn't show up this chapter coz it's the prologue =P

Prologue

       Kaoru lifted her hand up to wipe the sweat from her face while Yahiko was still counting his strokes. They have been training for hours since dawn and if everything is like what it was usually Sanosuke should be here any minute demanding lunch even if they do say that her food is poisonous. As if right on schedule Sanosuke walked right though the door with a pleased grin on his face.

"Oi! Jo-chan how have you been?" Sano asked while smiling even wider.

"Sano I hate to break it out to you but I am currently low on money so I wouldn't be able to lend you any. Also I could barely afford feeding Yahiko so I ask you nicely to please mooch of some one else." Kaoru sighed. It was a year ago when she had met Sanosuke and Yahiko.

She met Sano first when her dojo was put down. The thugs that made up rumors about her dojo had successfully driven out every one of her students and they even tried to take it over. Lucky she was skilled enough to defeat them. Even defeated these thugs did not give up so they hired the famous Zanza of the underworld. It proved to a mistake on their cause. When Sanosuke arrived at her dojo demanding the master of the dojo to die, he did not anticipate that the assistant master of the dojo and the only one there was a woman. It was against his rule to fight women so he left that night. After some research on the men that hired him, he found out that they are nothing but troublemakers so he went and defeated them all after apologizing to Kaoru. Her dojo name was cleared but no student came back. Yahiko was just a pickpocket which she rescued with the help of Sanosuke. It turned out that Yahiko had no living relative so she took him in and he became her only student at the dojo. After the Yahiko case Sano took it on himself that Kaoru is his protection and always acted as her surrogated brother. This meant he was constantly here asking for money and feeding himself, seeing he quit his job as a fighter for hire.

"Awww... Jo-chan! How could you think so low of me? Here I was about to invite you all to Akebeko for lunch and you come along and accuse your loving Ni-chan!" Sano exclaimed while faking a hurt expression on his face.

"What! Did I hear that Rooster head here is going to invite us to lunch or am I just delusional?" Yahiko said while walking towards them having finished the amount of strokes Kaoru has set him. 

"Shut up! Yahiko- CHAN I can afford to invite you guys to lunch! Unlike some one here who just live here!" Sano retorted.

"Why you ---"Yahiko started

"Would you two please be quiet? I am very happy that Sano is BUYING lunch for us so why don't we just go right ahead to Akebeko. I mean I'm hungry and I got to go and teach some sessions at another dojo this right after lunch so that we will have enough money to survive this war!" Kaoru interrupted walking towards the gate without looking behind and headed towards Akebeko knowing that they will follow her. The quickly quit bickering and hurried after Kaoru.

The people from the town watched as the three of the walked pass. It doesn't seem strange to them anymore to have the two men trying to bite each others heads of while Kaoru would just walk ahead and occasionally tell them to be quiet. Yep it was a normal day in the streets of Tokyo. To them Kaoru was the lonely girl who use to live in the dojo by herself and was occasionally checked up by Dr Gensai and kept company by his two granddaughters. No matter how much they visit her she was always by herself. It shock the public to boot when the found out the rumors about the Kamiya Dojo. It wasn't that they don't believe her it was just done to be on the safe side of things with people after her. It was already bad during the war they didn't want to pick up any unnecessary things along the way.

 Then the ex-gangster came along and now a pick pocket lives in her dojo with her. It was hard for them at first to accept that Kaoru a well raised and honorable daughter started associating with such people. They thought that Yahiko should be on the streets suffering from how much money he stole and Sanosuke should be out helping the war. However they all changed their minds when the town was once threatened and only these three stood up and defended it. Now they are glad that they are here and not out there.

"Oi Yahiko- chan don't you want to see your little girlfriend? You're walking too slowly! Kaoru has to go out later remember so that she would have enough money to feed your sorry ass" Sano remarked casually walking into Akebeko.

"Shut up ROOSTER HEAD!" Yahiko retorted having nothing better to say while his face was as red as a tomatoe.

"Let it go Yahiko. Lets just eat and go I don't have time for this!" Kaoru cut in pushing Yahiko in the restaurant.

They walked towards the empty table and settle comfortably while the waitress was standing there waiting to take their order.

"Yahiko what do you want to eat? You better not make it expensive coz you are gonna end up paying for it" Sano told him. Yahiko however seems to be off in his own little world and did not hear one word that Sano said. His eyes were darting every where as if looking of something or in this case some one. Sano not liking being ignored by a little kid whacked him on the head which successfully gained Yahiko's undivided attention.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Yahiko screamed while rubbing the back of his head where Sano had not too gently whacked him.

"I asked you want you want to eat for lunch but you were too busy looking for you little girlfriend Tsubame and now you have this nice young lady waiting for you." Sano gestured to the waitress standing there who was blushing madly.

"Come to think of it I don't see Tae-chan either… umm excuse me but who you happen to know where Tae-chan and Tsubame- chan are?" Kaoru asked the waitress standing there.

"They both went out to pick up more sake for tonight. It was said that some of the shogunate samurais are going to be here in a couple of days and we are running out of sake. She went and ordered more so that when the samurais to come we don't want to anger them by not having any sake left." She replied. Kaoru seems satisfied with the answer so she just ordered her food as well as the others. The food arrived and the sat there eating in silence

"Shogunate samurais.... I don't think that I want them here in our part of town." Kaoru whispered picking at her food.

"Jo-chan no one here wants them here in our part of town. They mean nothing but trouble. They are a bunch of men who seriously need their ego's deflated and need some one to teach them that they don't rule over us. But the truth is that they are part of the Tokugawa's men which pretty much summarizes it up. If I was in the war I would go for the Ishinshini men coz this era we have sucks and we are practically living in fear each day." Sano said while trying to get as much food as possible before Yahiko devours it all.

"Stop worrying Busu! It would do you no good anyway it makes you uglier then you are already" came Yahiko's voice slightly muffled by the food going down his throat.

"Shut up Yahiko-CHAN!" Kaoru whacked him on the back of his head causing him to spit out the contents in his mouth right on to the person next to him which so happens to be Sano.

"Why you ~" Sano said lunging forward towards those two.

"KAORU- CHAN!" Tae wailed as she latched herself onto Kaoru crying on her shoulder. Startled out of all actions every one just watched Tae cling on to Kaoru as if she was some sort of protection for her.

"Tae-chan what happened?" Kaoru asked softly while trying her best to calm the older woman down.

"I'm so sorry! They … oh my god… took Tsubame!"

"WHAT! WHO DARES TAKE MY TSUBAME!" Yahiko screamed. Both Kaoru and Sano shared a look but under such circumstances they refrained themselves from tease Yahiko with the 'MY' Tsubame.

"I don't… I don't know … all I know is that all of a sudden men came out of no where and started snickering at us. I told her to run and I thought she did but they went after her… I tried to hold them back … really I did when I thought that I'm dead for sure they just tossed me to the ground and left gagging Tsubame-chan" Tae managed out from her sobs.

"Tae-chan calm down, we will get her back. We won't let anything bad happen to Tsubame. Could you tell us what they look like so we could find her quicker?" Kaoru asked gently trying her best to calm her down.

"I don't remember…. But all I do remember is that they did say that they don't understand why boss keeps getting them to do this because Aiko already attracts enough customers."

"Aiko… Aiko…. Shit THE Aiko! Damn it! It's the goons from the Sakura Teahouse. I knew it! The customers aren't satisfied with waiting for ages for Aiko. I don't blame them all of the rest of the women there are all ugly and old." Sano smirked which earned himself a flying object coming in contact with his face.

"Sano could you be more sensitive! You mean to tell me that thugs from this teahouse have kidnapped Tsubame so that she could be their new geisha!" Kaoru asked, her anger begin to boil and threatening to tip.

"Jo-chan that's what they do! I bet they are low in business or something but consider it lucky that this Teahouse do not lay a finger on the girls in the daytime unless they are pros. They do however get her beautiful and ready to give a high price to the man who is willing to pay for a virgin whom Tsubame is obviously is. So we have until the sunset to get her back."

"That's it I'm going now!" Yahiko yelled getting up but only be pushed back down by both Kaoru and Sano while Tae was sitting there confused and tired. "Why did you do that for? I want to go and save her now! I don't want her to be touched by those filthy men!"

"And neither do us! But do you think that we could just walk in there demanding for Tsubame and they would happy give her back to us? No you dumbass we can't do that! We have to think of a plan then when we have enough evidence we go and kick their pathetic ass!" Sano whispered loudly partly because they were beginning to attract a lot of attention.

"Sano is right Yahiko. We need a plan. That is exactly why I am going to go there and try to get them to accept me as one of the prostitutes." Kaoru told them with determination in her eyes.

"What are you nuts? You're not going in there! I refuse to let them even touch you!" Sano glared at Kaoru hoping to get some sense in her.

"That is exactly while you are going to be a customer there! You're going there to see that I'm going to be fine! Do you think that I want to be touched?" Kaoru said outrage at what he was saying.

"If both of you are going then what am I going to do! I refuse to just sit here and wait for you! I want to go and make them pay!" Yahiko said.

"You are going to snick around the place and you will meet me somewhere when I come out with Tsubame okay?" Kaoru asked. Yahiko nodded although he would rather prefer doing something involving more action but he knew that Kaoru is only going to let him that close to it.

"Ah Jo-chan we have a problem…just where am I going to get the money to ASK for a geisha and the sake where you have to get it? I just got you guys lunch and that's about all the money I have" Sano said sheepishly. Slowly all three of them turned their heads toward Tae who had been silent all along listening to their plan.

"Oh no! No you don't ….. Not again!" Tae sighed in defeat.

Right after Kaoru finished teaching at the dojo. She went and asked for a job at the Sakura Teahouse. It was just like Sano said they need new people and they accepted Kaoru only asking why she wanted a job there. Her answer was that she needs to feed her brother but she hasn't got anymore money but she need to find some real quick. At first they were unwilling but after they heard that she was a virgin the welcome her with open arms.  For the whole afternoon they dressed her up in clothing's which are considered inappropriate in the society. Fortunate for her she only needs to parade them in front of women. They settled for a kimono that just rest on her shoulders and have two long slits running down the legs and up to her mid thigh. The color of the kimono matches her eyes and has little intricate designs on it. Her hair was done up and light make up was applied on her face. Now that she was ready and only has around 30 minutes before the teahouse accepts customers. She was told to walk around and know the grounds so that she would know where to go when her customer wishes to be in different places.

Thinking that this is the perfect chance to go and look for Tsubame she began to search the place. A loud thud could be heard far off and a man screaming could be heard. Thinking that it was Tsubame, Kaoru ran towards the noise. Opening the paper door she came face to face to an angry man and a woman who looks older then her lying on the floor with a red hand print on her face. The man looked at her and mumbled some profanities and pushed pass her. Concern for the woman Kaoru went and helped her up.

"I'm alright now. It was nothing out of the ordinary." The woman said softly gesturing Kaoru to sit down in the sit besides her.

"But your hurt! Are you sure that it's okay? You mean to tell me that they do this often? Why don't you just leave then?" Kaoru exclaimed.

"Hahaha run away? You think that I haven't tried. I have done it before and it only resulted in deeper punishment and the girls here also got hurt because of me. They would find me and hunt me down. But they are far more sick then that. You must be new here and obviously you are very innocent."

"Yeah I just started today so I don't know the people here yet. I'm Kamiya Kaoru, please to meet you." Kaoru said extending her hand out to her. She looked at it and slowly a smile appeared on her face as she raised her hand up to shake Kaoru's.

"Takani Megumi"

TBC