Disclaimer: I don't own RK. All credit goes to its creator, the genius Watsuki Nobuhiro-sensei. That short Sano quote (in italic) is from Maigo-chan's RK manga translations.

His Little Disappointment

By Moeru H.

"Yahiko! Quit staring and start working! Those floors won't clean by themselves!"

"Yeah, yeah, busu!"

Ha- haay. Everything's back to normal again. Normal….

Like that Jinchuu never happened, that Enishi… never appeared. That was just three weeks ago… but Kenshin's doing his chores just as always. Kaoru's being noisy and making me do things I don't want to. It doesn't seem right but I shouldn't complain. Why should I? I should be content with this.

But there's just some things you want to change and some remain. Like this place, it's not the same. Never will be the same again. Megumi won't be visiting for a while. That goes for Misao and Aoshi as well. But it's not like they were always here. But Sanosuke. No Sanosuke to hog the meals. No one laughing to insult me while I train. No one to fight… alongside Kenshin anymore. Hmm… why did he leave at a time like that?

At that time, I never imagined him reacting that way. It kinda… it kinda disappointed me.

"Forget it. Go home. Don't go see him again. You've got no time to waste with some guy who died while he was still alive. Go to my room at the longhouse. I'm giving it to you so you better move fast. You won't want to stay at the dojo much longer. Bye."

When he came back, I wasn't as relieved as I should be. And when I asked him why he left, he just waved me off. Just simply saying that he didn't understand him at all. Him… Kenshin. Then, after that, he started fighting alongside Kenshin again. Just like that. Kenshin was revived and Sano returned. I never doubted Kenshin to come back to his senses but I didn't expect Sano to give up on Kenshin that easily either.

It seems that a lot happened to him during the time he left while Kenshin rotted in Rakuninmura. When I asked him where he went, he told me he visited a relative. That he had some little trouble and then decided to come back. Of course Sano could do whatever he wanted with his life, but the fact remains that Sano left Kenshin at his fiercest battle.

I've always known that I look up to Kenshin. But, something inside of me also tells me that I look up to Sano as well. He was the only one Kenshin didn't have to protect. The only one who could fight alongside him. And THAT is what I mostly want to be. Kenshin seems to be the unreachable, and Sano my goal. So when he left, telling me to forget, to give up on Kenshin, I was really disappointed.

Even so, maybe he left to find something too. To settle the things he ran away from before. Maybe Kenshin's fall inevitable raised questions about his life as well. So before he could ask Kenshin to wake up, he had to reconcile something within himself first.

Though, I still won't forgive him for abandoning Kenshin at that time… but now, at least I'm not being too hard on him.

o0o0o0o0oo0o0o

At the half end of the world…

"Aaaaa—choooo!

"Aaaa---chooo!

"Aa---choo!

"Oh man, I guess the weather here's getting to me. A bottle of hot sake would be nice right now. Yare yare."

Owari

A/N: Just a short Yahiko POV after reading JinchuuHen for the nth time (a month ago, mind you! These past few weeks, I don't even have time to read fanfics.) This fic is somewhat an indirect response to Omasu's reply to one of my fics (Return) a long long time ago as to why I didn't put Sano in Kenshin's sorta "thank you" list. I don't know if she even remembers that! Haha! And sorry if there are a lot of typos or whatever. I haven't reread it yet. Anyhow, thanks for reading!:P