Yay! I'm back! I'm really busy this summer, so I'll try to work on this story whenever I can. Though, considering that I'm a very slow typer, it may take a while. (lol)

Much thanks to all the people who reviewed! I feel special now, yay points finger at English teacher "haha! People do like my writing! Take that!"

RougeShadow, thanks for the advice, if I come up with any more terms, I'll try putting them all at the beginning.

Kenjutsu- swordmanship

Jo-chan : missie

Tanuki- raccoon dog

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouken, no suing please

It wouldn't take Kaoru too long to do the dishes. There was just the two of them. She could wash dishes just fine. Now if only she could cook. Her mom had died when she was still small, so she never had anyone teach her. I mean really, if you didn't have any idea how to cook, who wouldn't expect you to burn the house down. She had other priorities too. She was an only child, so her father had her practice kenjutsu in the place of a son. Now how many little boys are taught how to cook? Okay, Kenshin doesn't count, but still, Kaoru never had any time to learn how.

"You now," she thought, "I have more spare time now than I used to. Maybe now's the time to learn how to cook. Heh heh, that'll give Sano a slap in the face next time he visits." Kaoru made a pathetic attempt to imitate a Sano voice. "Oh, Jo-chan, I'm so sorry I ever made fun of your cooking. I'm hungry. Please feed me. I'll even pay for it." Kaoru chuckled while imagining her fantasy, which would never be real I might add: not in a million years. "Hmmm," she returned to reality," Maybe I can ask Tae-san to teach me. She runs the Akabeko, so she'd be a good teacher. Maybe Kenshin won't have to pretend to like a meal for once. He always forces himself to eat my cooking, no matter how bad it tastes. He just smiles that sad smile. I want to help bring out his real smile, one he doesn't have to fake…. Wow, I'm off topic… Ahh, I still have to put away these dishes. I daydream too often." Kaoru some hair from her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. She piled up the clean dishes and took them to the cabinet.

Kenshin completed his task of hanging up the laundry to dry. He walked back inside to find Kaoru searching through a trunk. "Oro? What's going on in here?"

"Oh, Kenshin. I was looking for a shawl. I was planning on going shopping. Would you like to come with me?"

"This one would love to help." With that Kenshin returned outside and went to wait by the gate. A few minutes later, Kaoru came out with a shawl around her shoulders, a money purse in one hand, and a scarf in the other. She quickly trotted over to him and placed the contents of her hand in his face. "Oro? What's this?"

"It's a scarf. Take it."

"But this one isn't co-"

Kaoru cut him off by shoving it even closer. "Take. It. Now." she commanded.

"Yes ma'am!" a very frightened rurouni spoke.

"Don't lie to me. I see those goosebumps on your arm. This is for you. You need to wear it."

They both walked into town together, and stopped once they reached their destination. Kaoru pulled out a list from her obi. "We need miso, salt, soy sauce…" she drifted off, mumbling the rest of the list to herself. Kenshin wondered to himself why they had to get all the heavy things at once. He was always the one who ended up having to carry them.

"So this one needs to get-"

"Actually, you only need to get the miso and salt. I'll get the soy sauce. Met me back here when you're done. Alright?"

Our rurouni drifted off into the crowd, though he didn't exactly blend in, considering his red hair. He himself questioning why Kaoru had taken the responsibility of buying the soy sauce. He would actually have preferred to follow her around and carry all of her purchases, though his hurting spine was grateful for the act of kindness.

It didn't take too long to find the two items, though he did have to buy salt twice. A rather elderly cop had spotted him with a sword and chased after him. Kenshin went into a fit of 'oro's' and ducked behind a crate to hide, dropping the salt in the process. After buying some more and eventually finding the miso, he started wandering back to meet up with Kaoru.

Before he found her, he passed by a soba stand. This triggered yet another flashback. This one happened to be the same one Kaoru had experienced that morning.

They had passed a soba stand that night by the docks. When he heard her say those words: 'But… I want to stay with you forever,' his heart had skipped a beat. Kenshin couldn't believe his own ears. Maybe, just maybe. Was it possible that she returned his feelings? What Kenshin thought would never happen now seemed very possible, and he was happy because of it. "She might love me back," he thought.

"This one… I..." he desperately tore through his mind, searching for the right words to say.

Kenshin actually found it funny when Kaoru ended up turning red and changed the subject, considering that he was about ready to do the same thing himself. He had been a few seconds away from going into an embarrassed frenzy of 'oro's.'

As if a great weight of nervous stress had been lifted, he found something to say. It wasn't exactly what he had hoped for, but he thought he got the message across, hopefully.

"This one said, 'it's good to be home.' That is the first time those words have been said since becoming a rurouni." That was rurouni code for- 'I love you, I'm not going to wander off without you… and now that I'm a permanent resident, why don't we get married." Okay, maybe not that last part, though that's not to say the thought hadn't passed through Kenshin's mind once or twice. Kenshin just hoped that he got some sort of compassionate message across to Kaoru, so as not to completely ruin a possibly romantic situation.

The loud shrill of a whistle broke Kenshin's train of thought. "Oro?" He turned around just in time to face the return of the angry, senile officer.

"I've got you now young man! How dare you violate the sword banning act! And right in front of my face too!

"Ororo!" Which translates to, 'No! I don't want to have to buy more salt!' It also meant, 'What? Young man? This one is 28.' He scampered away before the old man managed to cuff him. The cop followed in pursuit, only to run into a fish stall, head first I might add (someone needs glasses), and give himself a concussion.

"Ahh!" Kaoru jumped in the air out of fright, watching the fish stand collapse in front of her. "What was that!" She glanced up in time to see a certain rurouni scramble around the corner and down an alley. "Kenshin!" Kaoru leaped over the fallen cart and ran to catch up.

'Thud.'

"Oro?" Kenshin slowly moved his eyes up to see what rather large person he had ran into. He hoped it wasn't another sumo.

"Ahhhhhhh! It's the Battosai!" It was two, very pitifully scared, Hiruma brothers.

"Have mercy on an old man!" screeched Kihei.

Both brothers got down on their knees and bowed down in front of Kenshin, chanting, "Spare us! Spare us!"

"Ah, Kenshin, there you are." Kaoru walked up behind him. "Uhhhh, what's going on here?"

A very confused and wide eyed Kenshin just stood there. "Oro?"

"Ahh! It's Kihei and Gohei! What are you doing here?" Kaoru yelled. The last time she had seen them, they tried to kill her, take the dojo, and hired Zanza to kill Kenshin. She shot out a threat. "Kenshin defeated you once, he can do it again!"

Gohei's eyes welled up with tears. "We're sorry! Please, don't hurt us!"

"Ooookaaaaay…" Kaoru was just as confused as Kenshin now. "This is weird."

"Here! We'll carry your stuff!" The two brothers grabbed the purchases from the tanuki and rurouni and skipped off toward the Kamiya dojo at full speed.

Kenshin was still in oro-mode. "Oro? What just happened?"

Kaoru answered. "I'm not entirely sure."

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Okay, what do you think of the second chapter? I hope it was good (notice that I use the word hope)

I felt like lightening up the story a bit with the Hiruma brothers. They have a purpose later… hopefully… maybe not…

As for a preview of the next chapter- Kenshin gets sneaky (mwahaha) and they go to the Akabeko

I will update as soon as I can

For the 94 of you who read this and didn't review….. grrr….

Much thanks to the 5 who did review. I really appreciate it.

Please! Read and review!

Reviews make Misao-chan happy!