Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin and all characters therein belong to Nobuhiro Watsuki.

Siege

Rock is Dead

Sano shifted the heavy shopping bag from one hand to the other and frowned down at his wife, clearing his throat suggestively when she continued to stare indecisively at the menu board in front of them. Completely unperturbed, Megumi folded her arms over her chest and turned to look around at the other available stands.

"Oh come on!" Sano complained loudly enough for a few passing women to turn curious stares in their direction. Glaring at them until they hurried on their way, he turned that same glare down on his decidedly unimpressed spouse.

Expertly hiding her amusement, Megumi tapped a finger to her lips in mock contemplation and taunted, "There are so many choices…"

Sano huffed down at her irritably, "At this point, food is food."

"Don't be so impatient," Megumi scolded. "It's not going to kill you to wait a few more minutes."

"You keep right on thinking that," Sano muttered, absently glancing around the pedestrians to distract himself from the growling in his stomach. "When you turn around and find nothing but-" he stopped abruptly, eyebrows rising in surprise at what had caught his attention.

Megumi glanced up at him. "What's wrong?"

"I think I see Jou-chan," Sano explained, leaning to one side in an effort to get a better angle on his view. Finally, the foot traffic shifted, and the confusion changed to a smug smile at the familiar figure waiting by a line of vending machines. "I was right! It IS her! I almost didn't recognize her without a skirt on."

Rolling her eyes at the general stupidity of men where women's fashion was concerned, Megumi pressed a hand to his chest to balance herself as she rose up on her toes and curiously looked in the same direction. After a moment, she finally managed to spot what her obnoxiously tall husband had so easily found. She admitted Sano had been right about the change the more casual clothing made to the young woman's appearance. Although to save herself any added aggravation, she kept that to herself and instead tried to turn him to a different topic. "I wonder what she's doing here."

Sano shrugged carelessly. "Shopping?"

Tilting her head at the option, her brows furrowed and she corrected, "No... she looks like she's waiting for someone."

"That little gal lives and breathes work," Sano snorted. "She's probably meeting Aoshi for an emergency or something boring like that." Frowning at the distasteful thought, he suddenly grinned down at Megumi and urged, "Let's invite her to eat with us!"

"The last thing she likely wants to do is spend a day off with people from work." Megumi shook her head, rapping her knuckles on his chest.

"We've got an obligation to make her feel like part of the family," Sano argued. "And Aoshi says we should be extra friendly since Kenshin's being all hovering and weird lately. Gotta show her we're not all crazy!"

"You might not be the best person for that," Megumi pointed out dryly. "Especially if your best idea for keeping Kenshin's reasons discreet is that he's just being 'hovering and weird.'"

Sano started to raise his hand to get Kaoru's attention. "Hey, compared to you and Misao, I-"

His hand froze in place when an attractive, dark-haired man wearing a suit that looked expensive even to Sano's untrained eye all but materialized in front of Kaoru. In a flash, he hooked his hands under her arms and hoisted her up off her feet. Swinging her around enthusiastically, the man kissed her soundly on the mouth before finally putting her back on her feet. Even from the distance, it was easy to see the blush on Kaoru's cheeks as she smacked the man on the shoulder. But he laughed it off and just as quickly had her arm looped through his to tug her against his side and lead her off into the crowd.

Eventually, the stunned awe faded and Megumi cleared her throat as she lowered back down to stand normally. Anxiously chewing the corner of her lower lip, she turned a speculative look at her husband's shell-shocked expression and poked his raised hand. "Janken. Loser tells Kenshin."

Numbly, Sano curled his hand into a fist and followed the low-spoken beats more out of instinct than active participation. His eyes never moved from the pair walking down the sidewalk, morbidly fascinated by how close together their heads were as they maneuvered through the other people. Kaoru burst out laughing at something her companion said and wrapped her arms around the man's shoulders, squeezing him with open affection.

"Pon."

Sano's hand automatically stopped, still in the same loose fist.

Megumi scowled at their hands, biting back the urge to curse at being beaten. But when Sano didn't make any move to celebrate his victory, she snuck a look up at his face. Her eyes narrowed slyly at his lack of attention, and watching him closely, she slowly opened the rest of her fingers to change from scissors to paper without catching his eye.

Schooling her expression into a properly sympathetic smile with the switch safely made, she tapped his fist with her hand to finally bring him back to the challenge.

Sano blinked, finally coming back to present enough to look down and stare at their hands.

"Shit."