Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin and I never will.

Author's Note: This story is from Yahiko's POV and it's from an older Yahiko looking back at the people who have become his family. That's why the story switches from present to past tense in a few places. Read and Review if you like but Flames will be ignored, thanks!

My Family

They are such a strange group of people, it seems that they have nothing in common and yet, to me, they all are the most important people in my life. They are my family, no matter how odd and mismatched they appear.

Kenshin, Kaoru, Sanosuke, Megumi, Tsubame…all of them are my family.

Himura Kenshin was a manslayer, the feared Hitokiri Battousai of the Bakumastsu and yet the Kenshin I know is a gentle man who enjoys doing work around the dojo. When I was younger he saw something in me that no one else ever did; he always treated me like a man instead of like the child that I still was.

He patiently listened as I poured out my dreams of being a warrior, he encouraged me to become stronger, not in the Hiten Mitsurugi style but in the Kamiya Kasshin style. He taught me that because I should strive to protect people losing a battle was unacceptable.

However, for all of the lessons he taught me, he was wise enough to let me fight my own battles, knowing that if I was always saved I would never grow stronger. He let me take the bruises and the injuries because he knew that only through pain would I grow strong.

He was my idol, the man I looked up to more then anyone else in the world, but more then that, he was a father to me, teaching me, through his actions, the most important lessons a boy could learn.

Kamiya Kaoru was a strange girl, for all the times she yelled at me, for all of the times she hit me, she really did love me. People always assumed we were siblings but Kaoru and I quickly set them straight. But now that I'm older I can see that we did act more like siblings then enemies.

I'd tease her to no end, making faces at her during training, insulting her cooking, incurring her wrath by calling her "busu" but when things got the hardest I was always ready to help her and keep her safe.

She'd make me practice till I could barely stand up straight, she'd force me to clean the dojo from top to bottom and she'd be quick to hit me with her boken when I insulted her but she still cared and she was still quick to help me even if I didn't want her help.

She pushed me harder then anyone had ever done but in the end I realized that the hard work she gave me and the hours of practicing she ordered me to do did make me stronger and for all of the times we harassed each other I think we both found the sibling we were looking for living in the other one.

Sagara Sanosuke came into our lives like an explosion and through him I was taught that life wasn't fair, that no government was perfect and that often good people were caught in the crossfire of corrupt politicians. But I also learned that dwelling in the past didn't do anyone any good and that sometimes you had to let go of the past so that you could move forward in time. Sano himself learned that lesson from Kenshin and he taught it to me.

Sano annoyed and fascinated me. He was the second strongest person I knew and yet he spent most of his time freeloading and skipping out on tabs. He treated me like a little kid most of the time and yet he still counted on me to do a man's job when the need arose.

He'd show up at the dojo as regularly as mealtimes came and at about the same time. At first I looked at him as a gangster turned bum who liked to mooch of off people but as I got to know him better I began to see a different side of him. I got to know a man who was fiercely loyal to his friends and would die to make sure they were safe. If he made a promise he's keep it and no enemy was too strong or too dangerous for him to take on. He got beaten sometimes but he never stopped trying.

I decided I wanted to be like Sano too, I wanted to be as loyal as he was and have the same defiance to what society expected of me. I wanted to have that same drive he had, that drive to protect the innocent no matter what the personal cost might be. In Sano I found an older brother that I could look up too and respect but that I could also harass if I wanted too.

The first time I met Takani Megumi she did not make a great impression on me. She was a sneaky fox with a past that she wouldn't reveal but she still wanted to be protected by us. I couldn't get her, I didn't understand her and I didn't want too.

Then she saved my life and she finally revealed her story to us and I began to understand. When Kenshin and the others went to save her from Kanryu I insisted that I go too because it was the only way I could repay her.

After she started working for Doctor Gensai I began to spend more time with her. She taught me about medicines and how to treat injuries but more importantly she taught me about how to let go of a dark past. From her I learned that it was possible to forgive yourself for the wrong things you might have done and to repent for your sins with your actions. She repented for her sin of making opium by healing people; I repented for my sin of pick pocketing by protecting innocent people.

She showed me what it meant to love someone without expecting to have her feelings returned and she showed me that strength doesn't lie in just the hearts of swordsmen, it lies in the hearts of any person who is strong enough to face the world and keep trying to change it, no matter what people tell them.

Sanzo Tsubame…the first time I met her I realized there was something different about her. There was something…special. She was the reason I got into my first real battle, she was the reason I wouldn't let myself lose. She was the person who confused and frustrated me because when I was with her I felt different, I felt like I could do anything she asked me to do no matter how impossible it might seem.

At first she was frightened by my attitude, my brash cockiness but after a while she got used to it. At first I was annoyed by her shyness but eventually I stopped trying to make her braver. In the end she was braver then most of us. She was the one who went to find Kenshin while the rest of us debated about if we should even tell him that Kaoru was still alive.

As I grew older I realized I loved her. Even more surprising, I realized she loved me and eventually I worked up the courage to ask her to marry me. I didn't do anything fancy, I wasn't even planning on asking her, the words just slipped out. She smiled and nodded, no other answer was needed.

It funny how a single person could understand me so thoroughly and accept me, faults and all but Tsubame was the person. Now we're married and we have our own family but every day she still manages to amaze me with the little things she does.

Family. It's such a little word and yet it encompasses so many people. All the people that I count as my family were alone once, they had all lost their real families but somehow we all managed to find each other and create a new family, a family made up of friends and though none of us share the same blood we all care for each other and would be willing to sacrifice everything we had for each other.

I'm proud to be part of this family and I'll defeat anyone who threatens them, using the lessons I've learned from all of them. They created me into the man I am today and they complete me. They gave me a direction in life and now it's my turn to teach others the lessons that I've learned from them.

Fin.