Never Say Goodbye, a rurouni kenshin fanfic

Disclaimer - Never owned Rurouni Kenshin, never have, and never will

Yet another story...wow, I'm going to be pressed for time!

Anyways, happy reading!

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NEVER SAY GOODBYE

Prologue - Two Friends Separated

"Calm down Aoshi!"

Shinomori Aoshi's ice blue eyes glared at the young woman seated before him, who promptly stopped speaking, allowing Aoshi to continue his pacing in the waiting room of the hospital. However, only a few seconds of silence reigned before his friend began to speak yet again.

"Aoshi, I understand you're stressed, but many women give birth to children! It's a natural process! You don't have to be so worried about her!" insisted the woman reassuringly. "Misao will be fine! This pacing is the very reason why she kicked you out of the room, so perhaps you should stop!"

"Have you had children Tomoe?" asked Aoshi, stopping abruptly and cutting off Yukishiro Tomoe quickly. She scowled and glared at Aoshi.

"No Aoshi, I'm single" she replied dryly. "I don't even have a boyfriend, and will never have one if my little brother doesn't stop scaring off any man who comes within a ten-mile radius of my house."

"Then you don't get to talk" answered Aoshi simply, resuming his pacing yet again. Tomoe opened her mouth yet again, but decided against it, and resigned herself to flipping through a few of the musty books she had pulled out from his personal library in the hopes that he would be too distracted to pace.

So much for that plan…even a voracious reader can put down his books in order to fret about his wife giving birth…

Tomoe randomly chose a book from the pile and flipped through the pages without interest, confident that she wasn't even going to like the book.

Despite being friends, I don't think Aoshi and I have too much in common…and our tastes in books varies quite a bit!

Suddenly, Tomoe froze and stopped turning the pages. Pressed between the two sheets was a wallet-sized photo of a young girl. Tomoe carefully pulled out the photo and stared at the photograph curiously.

The girl was about eight or ten years old, and was quite pretty. Her shining sapphire blue eyes were full of mischief and delight. She was smiling sweetly, and looked especially cute with two strands of hair that framing her face and bangs that covered her forehead. Her blue headband pushed back the rest of her black, shoulder-length hair. Tomoe turned over the photo and read the childish scrawl that covered the back.

'Aoshi – This is my favorite book, so don't lose it! When we meet again, I want it back! I'll never say goodbye, because I know I'll see you again! Love you always – Kaoru'.

Tomoe flipped the book over and glanced at the spine to see the title "Howl's Moving Castle" in bold print. She snapped the book shut and glanced up at Aoshi's worried form.

"Aoshi?" called out Tomoe softly.

Aoshi ignored Tomoe and continued to pace. Tomoe decided to spring the question upon him anyways, in the hopes that he would stop pacing and finally calm down.

"Aoshi, who is Kaoru?" asked Tomoe curiously. Aoshi stopped pacing in shock and surprise, clearly taken aback by her question. Tomoe waved the photo in the air, and Aoshi made his way towards her to examine Tomoe's new discovery.

"I found this photo in the book "Howl's Moving Castle" explained Tomoe with a smile. "Why do you keep a children's book, and why do you keep this girl's photo in this book?"

Aoshi stared at the photo fondly and smiled slightly before turning to Tomoe once again. He removed the book from her hands and tucked the photo back into the pages.

"Her name was Kamiya Kaoru" answered Aoshi quietly. "She was my childhood friend, but when she was ten, her father was transferred, and she moved away. She left this book with me, and told me that she was going to come back so that she could meet me once again. However, after she left, I also moved away, and we lost touch."

"That was a cute message on the back of the photo" murmured Tomoe, leaning forward in her seat. "You two never met again?"

Before Aoshi could respond, the shrill cry of a newborn child filled the air. Aoshi rushed towards the hospital room Misao had been admitted in, Tomoe close at his heels, dropping the book in her excitement.

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"I can't believe you two are finally getting married!" exclaimed Sekihara Tae with a grin as she carefully placed the veil over the bride's head. "You and Kenshin were so slow, I didn't think you two would ever tie the knot!"

"Mou! Tae, we weren't that slow, were we?" asked the bride with a laugh, smoothing out her wedding dress before slipping on her high heels.

"Kaoru, I think snails are faster than you and Ken-san" replied Megumi with a laugh, arranging Kaoru's bridal bouquet before handing the flowers over to the bride. "I always thought that Sanosuke and I would get married after you two, but I lost that bet! Do you know how much I suffered when I lost that bet?"

"Hey, I didn't tell you to marry Sanosuke!" answered Kaoru with a laugh. "What did he do once he won the bet?"

"It had to do with a very expensive sound system and a high-tech TV" muttered Megumi dryly, causing Tae and Kaoru to explode into laughter upon looking at the disgust on Megumi's face.

"Enough foolishness!" declared Megumi, interrupting the laughter suddenly. "There is a wedding in thirty minutes, and the limo shall be arriving in five minutes to pick you up and take you to the garden. Are you completely prepared Kaoru?"

"I guess I am" responded Kaoru with a smile. "Thanks for helping me get ready guys!"

"Just think" murmured Tae with a sigh. "In an hour, you'll be Mrs. Himura Kaoru…aren't you excited Kaoru?"

"I'm thrilled!" replied Kaoru with a wide smile, her sapphire blue eyes sparkling with delight. "I'm marrying my high school sweetheart, the man of my dreams! For years, I've been wishing for this day, and now, my wish has finally come true!"

"Do you have your something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue?" asked Megumi with a grin, slipping on her own high heels. Kaoru laughed and nodded.

"I'm wearing my mother's wedding lace veil, the wedding dress is new, I borrowed Tae's pearl necklace and earring set, and I'm wearing your blue garter Megumi!" answered Kaoru with a chuckle.

Tae glanced at her fancy gold watch and suddenly jumped up from her seat. "Oh my gosh Kaoru-chan, we should head for the door immediately! The limo will be here any minute!"

Kaoru rose to join Tae, and Megumi reached over to grab her purse, but promptly knocked over a pile of CDs that had been sitting precariously on the edge of Kaoru's shelf. The one on the top of the pile fell to the floor and the case shattered, letting the CD slide to the floor.

"Megumi, don't worry, we'll clean those later!" exclaimed Kaoru quickly. "Those are old anyways, so they aren't too important!"

"I'll just pick it up and set it on your bed" replied Megumi, leaning over and picking up the CD and the booklet that had been tucked into the case. However, just as the booklet left the ground, a small photo slid out of it. Megumi glanced at the photo in curiosity.

Looking up at her was a young boy, about ten years old, his deep turquoise-blue eyes serious, but a small smile spread across his face. His hair was pitch black, and his bangs had just begun to fall into his eyes a bit. He had a slightly narrow face, but Megumi could tell that he was going to grow up to be devastatingly handsome. She flipped the photo over and read the words that were written on the back.

'Kaoru – Did I ever say goodbye? You gave me a book, so I give you a CD. Don't lose it; I know how messy you can be. We shall meet again – Aoshi'.

Megumi glanced at the booklet to see the word "Beethoven" printed on the first page. She stared at the booklet for a minute, and then called out to Kaoru.

"Kaoru?"

"Megumi, let's go! Tae's going to kill us!" insisted Kaoru, who had been making sure her dress was perfectly smoothed out.

"Kaoru, who is Aoshi?" asked Megumi quickly, so that Kaoru couldn't interrupt her again. Kaoru froze for a moment and stared at Megumi, her sapphire eyes surprised and shock. Megumi waved the booklet in the air placed both the booklet and photo into Kaoru's hand. A smile spread across Kaoru's face as she fingered the photo sadly before tucking the photo into the CD jacket

"Aoshi was a dear friend of mine when I was a child" explained Kaoru softly. "But when I was ten, Daddy told me we were moving. I left, and wrote back, but I received a letter informing me that a month after I had left, Aoshi too, moved away. We never spoke to each other again…"

Before Megumi could speak, a horn blared outside, and both women jumped.

"Come on Megumi, let's go!" exclaimed Kaoru in delight. "I'm finally getting married!"

Kaoru dropped the booklet onto the bed and lifted her skirts before rushing out of her room, Megumi following closely as an impatient Tae held open the door for them.

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