Disclaimer: I haven't written in a while (I haven't even finished my Ranma fanfic and I know the readers hate me for this), but let me start off this year with a simple (if not rambling), Rurouni Kenshin story. This happens after Jinchuu. Kaoru has been thinking through a lot of things. After all, times are changing.

Some quotes are based on manga volume 28. RK is not mine. No flames, but comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.

Lunar Ember presents a Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction

With You, With Me

It wasn't her who suggested it. To her surprise, the question came from him.

"Would Kaoru-dono go visit Tomoe with me?"

Kenshin had asked her as she helped him sit up from his futon, fixing his bandages in Megumi's absence. He had awoken in the middle of the night, and though she was happy to be the first person he saw, her childish giddiness had been replaced by something else – worry, and a sense of responsibility heavier that what she used to carry. She had heard the stories about how broken he was when he learned about her so-called death. She was not dumb. She now knew that he was much more fragile than how he deemed himself to be, and it was as if he was a glass globe that she held in her hands.

The knowledge that she had such an effect on a man like him did not excite her. Instead, it frightened her, but once she had faced that fear she knew what to do.

She had to grow up. She had to be a woman worthy of such devotion.

And so as she looked at him for a few moments, thinking if he was just asking out of respect or if it was just a round-about way of him asking permission to leave for a few days. With him, she learned that she could never assume.

"Would you want me to?" She finally whispered in response.

Lose auburn locks slid down his shoulders as he lowered his head in thought. "Yes. Yes, I would very much appreciate it if you would." He paused. "But if it would be such a bother, I would not want to impose such a tiring trip on Kaoru-dono."

After tying the bandage over his abdomen and securing the sling over his arm, she helped him back into his hakama. "I would very much like to come with you. You're not that well yet, after all. You need someone to change your bandages."

She knew it would be hopeless to stop him, anyway. He looked at her in gratitude, soft lamplight dancing in his tired, violet eyes.

"Thank you."

Slowly, she helped him on to his back once more, and folded her hands on her lap, determined to stay awake in case he needed anything.

"Can we please leave the day after tomorrow?"

Kaoru blinked, "That soon? But your wounds and your arm – "

"—Will be fine. You need not worry." He smiled that gentle smile for her, and she knew that there was no room for argument.

"All right," she said. "I'll just have to tell Sano and the others tomorrow about the arrangement."

His fingers on her hand silenced her, and she knew that he'd rather not have them know because they'd definitely not allow him out of their sights in his condition.

And so when the day came, she left a note on the dining table and gently padded outside Kenshin's room. The shoji silently slid open to reveal the rurouni, carrying a light traveling pouch in his good hand.

"Ohayou, Kaoru-dono."

"Ohayou, Kenshin," She said as she took the pouch from him. To her surprise, he didn't stop her.

"Shall we go?"

The trip to Kyoto was uneventful. For most part, Kenshin was silent, and following her gut, Kaoru did not disturb him as much as she could.

She couldn't really muster an overly sunny attitude even if she tried anyway. The incident with Enishi still gnawed at her, and the gods knew that it was ever more so for him. It was unlike any other battle that Kenshin and his family had faced – it was a battle with past ghosts that opened old wounds. Even for her, it changed many things.

Kenshin had a wife who sacrificed herself for his safety. She was no wife, that's for sure, but if his reaction to her "death" was as severe as Megumi had told her, then she was someone that was important to him, as important as he was to her. She already knew what she wanted when he stumbled into her arms on that beach after the battle with Enishi – to be his support as long as she needed him to be – and it was a promise that changed everything. It now defined who she was.

The gentle scent of incense wafted over Himura Tomoe's grave.

"Tomoe-san", she prayed. "I am forever in your debt for helping Kenshin rise above himself yet again. I know that was your doing. I also want to thank you for keeping him and me safe, but I am also here for one request and to ask for your permission. Tomoe-san," She closed her eyes tightly. "Please let me take care of him from now on."

The wind gently caressed her cheek, and somehow, she felt at peace.

"…What did you tell Tomoe?"

Kaoru blinked, slightly startled by the soft sound of his voice. She rested her arms on her knees.

"Thank you… I guess. During Jinchuu and that last time on the island…" She slightly smiled. "Enishi, unable to kill girls around the same age as Tomoe-san, ended up saving me. But now that I think about it, perhaps it was Tomoe-san who protected me…"

She felt his eyes on her.

"Later, to others also with various meanings," she said mysteriously. "Definitely, 'thank you.'"

In passing, she spoke of Enishi, and wondered where he was. In spite of everything he had done, she couldn't help but have pity for the man, even if it was the last thing she knew he'd want anybody to feel for him. Tomoe would watch over him, Kenshin said. Tomoe is kinder than anyone or anything.

"How about you?" She asked gingerly, "What did you tell Tomoe-san?"

He paused for a while, and Kaoru almost kicked herself for being so inquisitive.

"The same as Kaoru-dono," he said, surprising her with his answer. "'Thank you.' That, and 'sorry.'"

He smiled.

"And 'goodbye.'"

She looked at him, a mix of emotions dousing her all at once and it left her speechless. "Goodbye" for Kenshin was a powerful word, and she knew it first-hand when he said the same thing to her on that firefly night. "Goodbye" for Kenshin meant letting go.

He was finally letting go of Tomoe-san, and of a past that haunted him for fifteen long and lonely years.

His auburn locks danced before his eyes as he faced her and held out his hand.

"Shall we be going soon?"

She returned his smile and reached out for him.

There were still so many questions that needed answers and so many changes that she needed to get used to. Suddenly, Kenshin was not anymore the innocent-looking rurouni who hid his emotions under a smile and an "oro". He seemed a greater person than he was before, a man who was slowly accepting that maybe, just maybe, he could be happy as others were. Without shame and without apprehensions, he closed his hand over hers and walked by her side in a comfortable silence that spoke volumes.

This was the man she fell in love with. He was not a hitokiri, or a rurouni, he was just Kenshin. And now she knew, without any doubt, that he was hers, as much as she was his.

"Things will be different from now on," she said.

"Aa," he nodded and looked down at the sprawling city of Kyoto where his story had begun. "But it will be easier now."

"How so?"

He never gave her an answer. He only looked at her and entwined his fingers with hers.

And she knew that he was right.

owari