I grew up with six, later seven, and now eight people under the same roof. You learn to distinguish who's awake, who's angry, who's sneaking around, only by the sound of their footsteps. It's a good skill to have.


"Footsteps" [Kaorugumi, family, canon] [written for RK Week 2014]

The day after Kaoru's father left for war, she didn't wake up till mid-morning. His customary kitchen-bound footsteps, her normal wake-up call, were missing and she paused in her rush to prepare for class after recognizing what that absence meant. Her home was oppressively quiet and she wondered why her father wanted such a large house to hold so small a family. On the day weeks later when the stern footsteps and sharp knock of the somberly-dressed military official shattered the peace, she was grateful for the rain to mask the quiet and her tears.

The weeks Kihei spent shuffling around her family's home broke the silence even as the noise in the dojo dwindled. After he and his brother were arrested, Kaoru spent hours scrubbing the floors to get rid of the filth he brought into her father's house and wondering if it would ever come clean.

Her new tenant, one Himura Kenshin, once Hitokiri Battousai, she watched carefully, for a number of reasons. She thought a legendary assassin would step lighter, and leave less of an echo. His footsteps were the last she heard falling asleep and the first she heard upon waking. She thought a lot of things about Kenshin early on, though the idea he purposefully made a little more noise when he walked to remind her that she was no longer alone never crossed her mind.

If Kenshin made more noise than he should, Yahiko made less. Her only student's foul mouth and ugly taunts disappeared when he believed himself out of earshot of his teacher and his idol. His walk became quieter, hesitant, almost as if drawing attention to himself would invite disaster. If he could not be seen, then he would not be heard; then they would not regret the decision to let a scrawny pickpocket in their home, and he might stay in this strange but safe place a little longer.

Sano's steps were strong and sturdy, much like the fighter himself, and often heard at hours Kaoru did not care to particularly hear them. He never remembered to take off his shoes and his appetite was a constant threat to her pantry. But despite the dust he raised in his wake, she began to anticipate the creak of the back gate because though Sano's arrival meant chaos, it also meant new stories and an abundance of laughter.

Megumi took soft, carefully-measured steps and they vibrated in Kaoru's mind to match a different cultured woman who walked the same halls before Death took her to walk in another world. But there were times when those lady-like feet fell a little more forcefully and Kaoru learned to tell when someone (sometimes herself, occasionally Kenshin, usually Sano) had disobeyed the doctor's orders for the last time.

Kaoru learned the hard way that ninja made for interesting house-guests. Misao's feet spent more time in the air than on the ground, and Aoshi's presence was inaudible. Once Kaoru learned to step cautiously around corners and brace herself before opening doors, her floors didn't suffer any more spilled tea and her neighbors appreciated the decrease of surprised shrieks.

The days rolled together, and some footsteps disappeared, while others grew more confident and new ones were added. It wasn't long before Kaoru stopped hearing Kenshin's footsteps in the morning because she was a late sleeper and he never left their bed before she did. At least until their son was old enough to race giggling through the halls at the first light of dawn; then Kaoru kicked her husband out to stumble after the latest addition to her family.

And when Kenji's little brother and sister joined him later on, and Yahiko and Tsubame brought over Shinya, and there were visits from Anzu and Kyoto, and uniform shouts rang out from the dojo, and the house was full of soft steps and quick steps, loud steps and heavy steps and and though there were days Kaoru was sure she would go mad from the noise, she knew what her father wanted when he built the house all those years ago.