The Wandering Road

by LadyChi and Kat Morning

Summary: Journeys are strange things. Sometimes you find things in the search that you didn't even know were lost. Destinations and people change, but it's not the final outcome, it's the journey itself that matters.

.:Chapter 1:.

Three days. Three days of travel from Kyoto had become one week, and was now stretching towards two. Something, Kaoru knew, was wrong. And not just wrong. Bordering on worldwide crisis... Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, Kaoru thought ruefully as she paced from one edge of her kitchen to the other.

The unmassacred portions of dinner cowered on the cutting board, waiting for Yahiko to return and rescue the meal after an emergency trip to the Akabeko for more supplies. Kaoru's contribution, complete with wood splinters matching the gouges made in the cutting board, now rested in a bucket just outside the door.

She would have done better, she mused, if she hadn't been so worried about Kenshin, the thoughtless fool. She hadn't really been worried until yesterday, when she'd recieved Misao's carefully worded note. Kenshin had sent word that he would arrive on Monday. It was Wednesday. Had something delayed his trip?

'Of course something delayed him!' she thought darkly. Whether the delay came from a ghost from his shadowed past with an over-inflated sense of vengeance, or from the overprotective and caring nature that endeared him to her, her rurouni rarely made it home on time. Still, she fumed, a week?

"Kaasan?" There was a soft tug on her kimono, and Kaoru schooled her expression to something a little less murderous.

"Hmm, what is it, Kenji?"

"When will Daddy be home? Yahiko-nii said he would be home any day now."

"Soon, Kenji-chan," Kaoru reassured her son, scooping him up into her arms and cuddling him instead of pacing. Kenji allowed the attention after only a token squirm and wrapped his small arms around his mother's neck. After a moment, Kaoru put Kenji back on the floor and gave him a gentle shove towards the open shouji. "Why don't you go watch for Yahiko?"

"Hai, Kaasan! I'll pick you some flowers, okay?"

"Okay, Kenji-chan. Be careful," she added needlessly, as she often did. It was just that he so often reminded her uncannily of his father, who often got into situations, not out of a desire to find trouble, but because trouble had such an easy time locating him. She couldn't help but wonder if that was the case now...

Regardless, she kept an ear out for crashes, yelps, or swearing coming the direction of her son. The last occurence wouldn't usually be Kenji, unless Sano was around and Kaoru had corrected that with a fast bokken and a dose of dire imprecations, but it could indicate Yahiko's return with the rest of dinner.

In the meantime, Kaoru took out her knife and began to hack away at some of the remains of her attempt. She might practice the sword that gives life, but she still believed very firmly in the therapeutic value of chopping what was once whole into very, very tiny pieces.

The creaking rustle of the front gate followed by Yahiko's "Tadaima!" heralded the return of her apprentice. A startled shout moments later heralded a sneak attack by Kenji on Yahiko's person. At this, Kaoru dropped the knife, and hurried to the door, hoping Kenji had not dropped out of a tree on the hapless apprentice, again, and truly sabotaged dinner, again.

Unmuffled, high-pitched shrieks assailed Kaoru's ears, but she smiled. Coming out of the dojo, she saw what she knew she would see. Her son, like his father, was an innately talented ki-reader. However, he did not possess the years of experience that Yahiko had in sensing ambushes. As such, her red-headed bundle of joy was suspended by his feet, hanging upside down in the capable arms of her apprentice.

A collection of jars and covered bowls sat a safe distance away from the shrieking pair. More, in fact, than Kaoru had expected Yahiko to return with, meaning that Tae had taken pity on them, or was starting to worry that the trio would starve in Kenshin's absence.

Or perhaps, there was another explanation... Kaoru let the romantic thought swirl around her head before she forcefully brought herself back down to reality to control her two boys. "Yahiko! Kenji-chan! There is a hungry woman in this dojo! Bring the food inside quickly." The look on their faces was comical as they both realized how hungry they were as well.

With a flurry of activity, Tae's donated dinner was whisked into the building and on the table. Kaoru, settled in her usual place, caught her eyes and attention straying and her irritation with her wayward rurouni vying for attention with her worry. Part of her wanted to bokken her irritation into his red-haired skull, or at least banish him to the storage room for a few nights. A smaller part was tempted to send a message to the Kyoto Oniwabanshu pestering Misao for more information. The largest part just wanted the idiot back home, even if she had to walk out the front gate and board the next train to Kyoto.

Yahiko sat down and studied the meal for a moment before he and Kenji looked at each other and exchanged a small nod. "Itadakimasu!" they shouted in unison, and grabbed for food in a manner somewhat resembling greedy raccoons.

"Hey, Tanuki-chan, you'd better grab some before it's all gone, ne?" Jerking her attention back to the table, Kaoru realized that a large amount of the food had already been portioned out.

"Yahiko, Kenji, you should have saved some more…." A knock on the dojo alerted her to the presence of someone else shortly before she heard the door slide open.

Kaoru's hand dropped to her bokken, which she had tucked beside her on the tatami, as she shifted enough that she could turn to see and, if need be, roll to her feet easily, or dodge out of the way and take Kenji with her. She caught Yahiko's hand wrapping around the hilt of his shinai as a tall shadow fell over the three of them and a whump of cloth hitting tatami sounded beside the door.

Kenji shrieked at the sight of the tall man filling the door and launched himself past her like a tiny bolt of foxfire, to himself onto the person of their guest. He caught the tiny boy with one large hand and moved his head back to avoid Kenji's grasping fingers as they reached for his shaggy black hair. Grinning, Sanosuke waved with the hand not occupied with a dangling six-year-ld.

"Oi, Jou-chan! Looks like you didn't cook tonight."

"As a matter of fact, I didn't, but you don't have to look so happy about it,' Kaoru grumbled, tossing her hair back and releasing her hold on her bokken. It seemed that Kenshin's absence made her more nervous than she cared to admit.

"Hey, Uncle Sano! Guess what?"

"What, kid?"

"Yahiko and I picked some flowers for Kaasan. Did you bring any flowers?"

"Um, nope. Sorry about that." Sano shrugged his shoulders, then turned to look at Yahiko and mouthed the word, "Flowers?"

Yahiko shrugged and circumspectly edged his rice bowl closer. Sano chopsticks had a tendency to wander, after all and Yahiko already had to guard anything sweet from Kenji. Which usually resulted in losing most, if not all of the sweet dish as Yahiko did not find a match of wills, or chopsticks, with a six-year-old to be an honorable battle.

"I thought you were in China," Kaoru commented with deceptive mildness, as she resettled Kenji and pointedly stuck his chopsticks in his hand. Kenji took the hint and turned back to his dinner.

"I was," Sano said, in a careful tone as he looked very pointedly at Kenji. "I'm not there now, and I'm very hungry. Got anything left for an old friend?"

Kaoru sighed. At least he was more polite about mooching than he used to be. "I'm sure we do," she said and deftly took some off her own bowl and Yahiko's, despite his protest. "If I'd have know you were coming, I would have gotten more."

"I could go get the rice I made earlier," Kaoru offered cheerfully, moving to get to her feet. "And cooking the vegetables I cut before Yahiko came home won't take long."

Sano blanched at the offer and scrambled to push her back into her cushion. "No! Ah, I mean ... won't be necessary, Kaoru. I've been on a boat most of today and that's cut down my appetite, y'know? This'll be plenty. Don't go to any trouble! So ... um ... where's Kenshin?"

At the question, Kaoru rose to her feet completely and walked over to stand by the door where Sano had just entered, unconsciously looking down the road for her absent husband.

"He's making his yearly trip to Kyoto," Yahiko said, "but we expected him home…. Well, quite a while ago."

Sano frowned. "Not like him to just wander off and not tell anyone where he was going."

"It's exactly like him to do that," Kaoru countered sullenly. "And he told us where he was going, he just didn't tell us when he was coming back. Misao sent a note last week saying he would be back three days ago."

Sano scratched thoughtfully at the shaggy hairs running up the back of his neck. "I'll check around with a few people and see what I can dig up. Haven't been in Tokyo for a while, but maybe someone's heard something. Kenshin's not exactly subtle."

"No, he's not," Kaoru agreed. "I'd really appreciate that, Sano. I don't know what to do. I want to punch something, or someone. I probably have got nothing to be angry about, but it's very frustrating not knowing where he is… how he is."

Sano made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat, and turned to look at Yahiko. Lowering his voice, he asked, "Has she been okay?"

Yahiko shrugged. "She's got Kenji to take care of. Honestly, at this point, we're all worried. Kenshin doesn't mean to get in trouble, it's just that sometimes, situations draw him in. Especially of the dangerous variety."

"Or the just plain weird variety," Sano added. "I'll see what I can find. Someone should probably tell the weasel what's going on just in case."

"In case what?" Yahiko demanded, keeping his voice low. Kaoru, mercifully, was distracted by Kenji who had decided to wear his rice bowl, even though it was still half full of rice, and was not paying attention to the sotto-voce conversation going on at the other side of the table.

"In case she knows something we don't. Maybe she could get some of her people on this, I don't know. I've got a bad feeling about this, Yahiko. As soon as I got off the boat to head here, an owl followed me for an entire night."

Yahiko raised his eyebrows. "An entire night? Maybe you're right…"

"Hey, what are you two talking about over there?" Kaoru called.

She had succeeded in coaxing the bowl away from Kenji before he added daikon decorations to go with the rice that had been in his bowl, but that did nothing for the whitish clumps clinging to his auburn hair.

"Um ... maybe you should get Kenji-chan cleaned up first, ne Kaoru?" Yahiko ventured. "Need help?"

Kaoru pulled Kenji into her arms and sighed. "I know a dodge when I hear one, Yahiko."

"I freely admit it," Yahiko said with a grin. "Come on, Kenji-chan, let's get you cleaned up, okay?"

"Bath time!" The child shouted with delight.

"Yes indeed. Doesn't take after his father at all, does he, Jou-chan?" The teasing tone of Sano caused Kaoru to unconsciously relax. This, at least, was familiar territory.

"In more surprising ways than one," she returned cryptically. "So, what are you doing here, Sano?"

Sano shrugged casually as he picked a fishbone out of the remains of dinner. "Like I said, I was kinda hungry..."

LadyChi's Author Note: Okay, I've got a lot to say about this fic, so I'll have to pace myself. First, and most importantly, any and all Japanese-type mistakes are mine, but blame them on Kat, 'cause she was supposed to catch 'em. Special thanks to Emy, who did an amazing beta job, and Shinou, who read this fic several times through and reassured us countless times that it didn't suck. If she lied, be sure to blame her. Oh, and one last and final thing... Never have a conversation with Kat about how much you hate Seishousen... that particular discussion leads to very unexpected experience... but a nice one. Thanks for reading!

Kat's Author's Note: Echo'ing Chi here with a huge thank you, and plates of cybercookies to Shinou and Emerald Dragon (aka Emy). However, don't believe her on the fic being my fault. It wasn't. I'm pretty sure she helped, and gets to share the blame here. .:grins:. What really happened is that we discussed it, I posed an alternative, and then she insisted that we write it. It was going to be a short fic anyway and wouldn't take much time. Never believe your muses when they say that.