Disclaimer: I don't own RK. There.
Five Things That Never Happened to Kamiya Kaoru
I.
Her mother had barely survived the childbirth, and had been weak ever since.
But her refusal was as adamant as anything.
"No," she said fiercely. "No. I won't have her wielding a sword like a barbarian, like the Hitokiri Battousai."
And her father, whose slumped posture and sad eyes belied his disappointment, agreed with his weak wife, and thought it would kill him.
Kaoru, watching from behind a tree in the courtyard, fought back tears.
II.
They were on their way back from visiting Grandma Sei in Otsu when bandits attacked them. He had sent four-year-old Kaoru into the forest, to hide, and as she ran she heard his final scream of pain and anger and felt blood splatter across her back as she plowed through the melting snow.
Tears fell from her eyes and something chased after her, but she was small and nimble and ran blindly, blindly. When he was gone from her back, she slowed, still sobbing, throat raw and hoarse. And it set in there. Her father was dead. Dead. Dead.
And she was horribly lost.
Eventually she stopped sobbing, simply because she ran out of tears to cry.
She ended up in front of a tiny cottage in a clearing where there was an odd red-haired man doing an advanced kata and there were…there were tears running down his face.
He nearly collapsed at the end of his kata as though he had put his whole soul, his whole life, into it, and she approached him and touched his shoulder. "Mister, are you all right?"
He turned and first she saw his scar: a new, still pink and slightly scabbed wound crossing an older one. They looked like they hurt, hurt inside him, not from the cuts themselves. He was old, but not old like her father. Younger than that. Much younger, but his eyes were so sad.
"Please don't be sad," she said, and hugged him; and even though he was kneeling and she was standing, they were face-to-face. He cried into her shoulder, and she cried too.
"Would you…stay with me?" the man—the boy asked later.
She smiled a little, and said yes.
III.
The first night the false Hitokiri Battousai had attacked and claimed Kamiya Kasshin Ryu as his style, Kihei had tried to urge her to sell the dojo.
She had been brushing her hair, already in her yukata, and weakened from the shock of this…this bastard who wanted to ruin her and destroy her father's dream for some unknown reason that when she refused and Kihei pushed her down, she didn't fight back.
"Tell the police," he threatened when he was finished with her, leaving her and her ripped yukata on the kitchen floor, "and I'll send the Battousai after you."
His usually complacent face was so threatening and dangerous she believed him.
She sold the dojo to one Hiruma Gohei the next week, and ran into a redheaded man as she left for Yokohama the week after.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, flushing hotly, and then hurried by him, head down, knuckles white around her bag of belongings.
IV.
"This one is rurouni. Once more, this one will wander. Thank you, and sayonara."
He left her in the fireflies.
She ran after him, and her fingers wrapped around his wrist and she flung herself into his arms again.
"I'm coming with you. And don't try to stop me."
He didn't.
V.
Enishi placed his hand over her mouth and said, "Now remain very, very still and perhaps it will not hurt too much."
He lied.
It hurt as the sword bit into her cheekbone, once, twice, and she decided it was time to start screaming.
She did, and heard yells of "Kaoru!" "Kaoru-dono!" "Kaoru-san!" "Jou-chan!" and even more loudly, "Kaoru-dono!" and she screamed again.
And then, just as Kenshin's face came into view, she felt cold steel slice her open, from left shoulder to right hip, and blood flew through the air, obscuring his angry, sad violet-blue eyes.
And she wondered if this is how it would always be for them, if they would always be separated by a sheen of warm blood.
ooo
A/N: I first came across this format (Five things that never happened to -insert name here-) in the Les Mis fandom, and always wanted to write one. And behold! I found inspiration. I may have to write more of these, in various fandoms. It's like a drabble, only better. And usually depressing, as you see, three of these don't end all too happily. But writing it (in one sitting, btw) was lot of fun. Um. Anyway, feedback would be nice, but I really don't care all that much. Ta-da!
Also, I'm not a big fan of fangirl Japanese, and typically run by manga translation, but four words slipped in: one: "Jou-chan"—'little missy,' Sano's name for Kaoru, two: "yukata"—basically a light kimono, and from what I've gathered, some were like summer daily wear and others were made to sleep in (correct me if I'm wrong), three: "kata"—a general martial arts exercise, in this case referring to a sword exercise, and four: "sayonara"—goodbye, basically. Although, I believe it's usually used in more final versions of goodbye (as in, I'll never see you again), as opposed to just "see you later!" correct me if I'm wrong; I'm in Latin, after all.
Shameless plug: also, I know I'm a bit new to the RK fandom, but if you like my writing or whatever, check out my LiveJournal (penname: nebulia) for some stuff I'm working on, in multiple fandoms. So yeah.
nebulia out.