"Kenshin you JERK!" Emanated a furious Kamiya Kaoru, gingerly cradling in her arms a nearly empty bottle of sake as if it were a baby. Her face blood red and teeth clenched as she stared with murderous intent at a dutifully busy Himura Kenshin slaving away in the kitchen.
"Oro?" Kenshin squeaked, seemingly shrinking under the terror, "what…what seems to be the problem Ms. Kaoru?"
"Problem? Problem?! The problem is you, Himura Kenshin!", thundered the tiny Kenjutsu instructor, but she may as well have been ten feet tall at the moment. "You used my sake! The sake my father left me for an extra special occasion! "It was 30 years old and you used it to make dinner?!"
Going from rage to sadness, Kaoru burst into tears and fell to her knees in the kitchen. Her hands covering her mouth and her eyes looking like shiny marbles quivering as tears flowed from them.
"How could you do this to me Kenshin?" her voice whimpering and whiney, "I was waiting for that special moment."
Kenshin, stiff as a board and cowering in his apron, remembered why he had used the sake in the first place. With a sigh of relief, Kenshin smiled and gazed at Kaoru with his violet eyes, the same smile he gave her the day they met, and every day hence.
"Today is a special day, Ms. Kaoru, that it is." Kaoru's tears began to dry up and her expression softened. "Today is the day I ended my life as a wanderer. The day I met you, Ms. Kaoru."
"What? Oh. You're right Kenshin, it is, isn't it?" Kaoru gently said as she realized herself of the importance of that day. After all, Kenshin was the most significant figure in her life since her father had died. Through all the hardships and harrowing adventures, she went from having a crush on Kenshin to falling madly in love with him. And though he was a man of few words, she knew he loved her as well. This was his way of showing that, she thought. Not bad for a goofball samurai that only knew how to fight.
"I made us Nabemono!" A rare favorite of Kaoru's, a dish that must have cut deep into the coin purse of the relatively non-wealthy samurai.
Overjoyed with the news of such a delicious dish being made just for her, Kaoru with a squeal of excitement, jumped Kenshin. Nearly knocking him over, she squeezed him as hard as she could, lifting him into the air with a feat of strength that blew Kenshin away.
"Oh thank, thank you, THANK YOU!"
Kaoru set Kenshin down and dashed out of the kitchen to tell everyone else at the dinner table of the good news. Picking himself off the floor, Kenshin pondered, "why would someone with my past be blessed with such a perfect present?" the scarlet haired swordsmen smiled and shook his head, "either way, I'm glad I was, that I am."
For the past 5 years Himura Kenshin has made his home at the Kamiya Dojo. For what he thought would be an end to his days as a swordsman, surprisingly turned out to be some of the most trying and dangerous moments of his life- at least for the first couple of years anyway. However, when the storm had finally calmed, it confirmed to him that he had found his forever home. And here he was sitting down in what had become his home having an extra special dinner with his family. And here they were in front of him laughing and yelling and being what Kenshin needed.
Sanosuke, the passionate brute, Kenshin's best friend. He was always by Kenshin's side whether he liked it or not. Megumi, the sly but brilliant doctor whom Kenshin and company saved from the tyrannical Kanryu Takeda all those years ago. Kenshin always felt a little nervous around Megumi even after the hugs and gropings had stopped. Then there's Yahiko Myojin. The once young brash and brazen son of a samurai. He was now a tall strong young swordsman of Kamiya Kasshin. Though physically matured, when his mouth opened, the loud mouth snot nosed kid Kenshin "bumped" into, comes soaring back. And finally Kaoru. At first she was just a kind woman, then a really good friend. And somewhere along the way she became more than that. Slowly, and maybe somewhat forcibly, Kaoru's love for Kenshin was requited. He couldn't imagine seeing himself with anyone else. He had to protect her. He had to live for her.
As he looked at all of his family, Kenshin's eyes met Kaoru's from across the table. The smile that shot across her face reminded Kenshin. He was going to propose to Kaoru tonight.