Story Summary: Passing through the four seasons, here is a short story telling Kenshin and Kaoru's marriage, her pregnancy, the birth of Kenji and possibly life after that.

Seasons
By Ombre Rose

Chapter One

- Spring -

The sun was shining kindly and the wind was blowing cool. The trees framing the picturesque scene were a lovely, soft gold. With the pulse of spring there was all the fresh and green, the faint perfume of flowers and the scent of mildly moist earth in the air that Himura Kenshin appreciated so much. It was the season of fresh beginnings, giving birth to new life after the dead of winter.

Both husband and wife took their afternoon tea on the engawa, and in their sharing they spoke of happy times. Kenshin listened attentively as he always did, watching the way Kaoru glowed as she recounted the events that took place that morning.

"Eight students after today's sign ups," Kaoru reflected, the wild vivacity that was in her face and manner infectious. "That's close to the number of students the dojo had since the incident with the Hiruma brothers, ne?"

"Aa. The dojo is gaining a lot more popularity these days, that it is."

"I'm really happy to see the school making progress." She sighed happily. "And I still can't believe I have Yahiko to thank for this."

"Yahiko?"

"Oh! I haven't told you?"

"Tell me what?"

"There was this fight yesterday," Kaoru began excitedly. "You know those boys who came to the dojo this morning? They ran into trouble with a group of gang members who called themselves the Bosozoku. You've heard them?"

A quick flame of recognition leaped in Kenshin's eyes. "I've heard of the Bosozoku, that I have."

"I thought so. I'm not too familiar with the group, but word has it that they're a militia of drug dealers. But more than just drug trafficking, they've been known for their gang violence too, picking up unnecessary fights with people they think are smaller and weaker than them."

"Anyway, it just so happened," Kaoru continued, "that the boys and those gang members were at the same restaurant. The Bosozoku got so drunk and were bothering some of the waitresses and other patrons. It was Aki tried to stop them."

"Who's Aki?"

"He's one of the boys who joined the dojo today," Kaoru explained hurriedly. "The Bosozoku got violent on them and anyone who tried to interfere. Until Yahiko showed up. From what I heard, he put up a really good fight. Came out of the battle a little battered and possibly even a little bloody from the looks of it, but otherwise he's fine."

"Did anyone else got hurt?" Kenshin asked.

"Barely a scratch," she said with some satisfaction. "I was practicing my katas after you left this morning when the kids came to the front gate. At first they asked if this was the dojo Yahiko studied kenjutsu at, and then they told me they wanted to learn kenjutsu at the school Yahiko trained. The next thing I know, well... You can pretty much guess what happened after that."

"I suppose you gave them their first lesson?"

Kaoru ventured a sheepish grin. "I did."

Kenshin chuckled. "The boys must have been thrilled."

"They could barely contain themselves. Shooting off questions about hand grips and basic exercises. It brought me back to that time when Yahiko first began his training."

She pondered for a moment. "Do you remember, Kenshin, what I said before? About how seeing kids like Yahiko and the others made me believe that the art of kenjutsu is becoming a way more than an art of killing?"

He nodded.

"After all that has happened, I realized I still believe in it," she murmured. "Perhaps it is naïve of me to continue believing in something that might not truly happen, but while I agree that times have changed and even kenjutsu have changed, that naïve dream can still become a reality."

She shifted her gaze from whatever she saw in her mind, and met his eyes. "You told me once that although I can do my best to teach people the right way, there are times when my words just don't reach them. But the day Yahiko became my student at my dojo, that's when I started believing they do. Seeing him now as he reaches out to others, showing them how the sword can give life rather than take them, I couldn't be more proud."

"In the end though," she continued with a smile. "It was you who made all of it happened. The day you came into our lives, it was the day everything changed."

"Sometimes it is not so much of how things happen, but what happens after, that it is."

"That is true, and so much has happened since then." She let her mind wander again in the mist of memories. "It's been more than a year, and Yahiko has grown way beyond our expectations. He's quite popular among the kids in town."

Kenshin smiled. "Is that so?"

"Not nearly as popular as you though, Kamiya Dojo's Himura Kenshin." Chuckling at his baffled expression, she added, "You know how kids are. They always look up to someone who's strong. They even came up with a nickname for you." Humour, with pleasure running just behind it, lit her face. "They're calling you Samurai X."

Kenshin's eyes widened in dumb surprise. "Oro?"

She let out a giggle. "When I first heard it, it made me laugh so hard. It gave me a notion."

"Oro? What notion?"

She made a show as though she was seriously contemplating his question. "Well, if you decide to leave me behind again the way you did before heading to Kyoto –" At that, she gave him a pointed look, easing a sheepish and somewhat guilty smile out of him before continuing, "I'll know exactly where to find you. Because you know what they say..." She pointed to the scar on his left cheek. "X marks the spot!"

Kenshin laughed. It was thick, rich and full of appreciation. "I think I ought to know better than to run out you again, that I do."

"You had better!" She warned as she poked him, her smile filled with playfulness and exuberance. "Because if you don't, I will make certain that you suffer at the hands of Kamiya Kaoru!"

"Himura Kaoru," he corrected, causing her eyes to light with wonted happiness. "And as I recall, I've been under the hands of such a person, and didn't find them to be in the slightest bit sufferable, that I did not." A flood of pride rose in him when blushing clouds of pink came to touch the apples of her cheeks.

"Mou, Kenshin!"

"Now, now. No need to be embarrassed. I did thoroughly enjoyed the experience, that I did."

She flushed a little deeper at his implications. "I bet you wouldn't be saying that once I start beating you with a bokken."

"I'd prefer the hands, that I do," he mumbled, feigning horror.

They laughed together then, like the sudden outburst of the glad bird in the tree-top. The sound, the sheer joy of it, deep and broad fell onto Kenshin's heart. And Kaoru's face, which glowed from the exertion of her merriment, was as radiant as a burst of sunshine on a cloudy day.

"By the way, I went to see Genzai-sensei yesterday," she started, after their laughter quieten down.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"I was feeling a little sick and threw up again a few days ago."

Kenshin's brows drew together. "Why didn't you tell me? I would have brought you to see Genzai-sensei myself."

"I know you would have, but you were going to the market at that time and I didn't want to bother you with something so trivial."

"When it comes to your well-being, nothing is trivial."

Kaoru looked at him kindly, catching the tone of disappointment that had crept into his voice. "I know. I just wanted to make sure it's nothing before worrying you."

Kenshin said nothing in reply, considering her quietly. "So it's nothing?" he asked.

"It's nothing." In a musing state of contemplation, she peered at him over the brim of her teacup. "Nothing that won't go away in nine months."

"Oro?"

"Kenshin..." With deliberate ease, she set her cup down and looked at him, her eyes very clear. "There is something important I have to tell you. Something Genzai-sensei found during my last visit."

"Ororo?"

Reaching for his hand, she linked her fingers with his. She watched the way his doe-like eyes blinked back at hers in a kind of confused astonishment. On a long and slightly nervous breath, she confessed, "I'm pregnant."

In the shocked silence, he stared at her in a sort of stunned incredulity. There can still be shocks beyond imagining, Kenshin realised. Had it always been this quiet, he wondered fleetingly, for the only sound he heard now was the thundering beat of his heart. But even as the palpitating stillness lengthened, he couldn't bring himself to speak. He wanted to say something – anything, but he had no voice. When he finally broke out of his stunned reverie, his words barely came out as a raspy whisper.

"You're pregnant," he breathed, repeating the words as if he was still trying to absorb the words.

There was a faint tremor of amusement on her lips. Her free hand fluttered over his scarred cheek like a brush of wings, sweeping his fiery hair away from his still dazed face. "I am."

"This means that I'm... that I'm going to be a father?"

The smile she softly used filled the atmosphere with a reassuring tranquility as all the sounds went lost to him in the whistle of air humming by. "That's right, Kenshin. And you know what?" The hand that touched his cheek moved to frame the side of his face. "You're going to be such a wonderful father."

He felt something stir in his violet eyes, and felt its twin shift inside his heart.

Feeling the heights of magnanimity and love, Kenshin took her chin with his fingers and sought her lips with his for a long and sensual kiss.

Author's notes: I borrowed the name Bosozoku from a Japanese real-life gang of motor-bikers. Just in case you recognised it.