The Illusion of Normal

Note: if you are confused by Callesto, please bear with me, she's been through at least four different versions and this is the final. She's a combination of Kaoru and Tomoe.

Part 3: When Love Returns

The sound of students rushing toward their classes, Kenshin looked outside the window, he watched, then saw something that struck his fancy. He sat outside sitting on a tatami mat watching as a young woman stood sketching from an easel, she was not paying much mind to anyone.

Something drew Kenshin out of the house, he walked toward the sketch, that was when some students looked out. "Is that…can it be? The heir walking in the sunlight?" someone was muttering to the teacher.

Kenshin was standing behind her, he was gazing at her picture. It was the image of a man, it was himself. "Oro?"

The woman jumped and in shock, he saw almost someone who looked almost like Kaoru. "Oh! You scared me."

"Gomen!"He jumped back a little and hid behind a playful smile. "This one did not mean to frighten you. You seemed to concentrate so much on this picture why?"

"I was waiting for the person that would sit in the sunlight, now I see he's standing looking at my work, how embarrassing that it is not done," she sputtered shyly.

Kenshin smiled at the picture and then looked at her. "This one would like to know your name."

"Crawford Callesto," she blushed a little looking away from him shyly.

Something about this woman made Kenshin feel strange, he felt like his head was not quite thinking straight, when she left. He leaned on the door to the house smiling a little, his eyes down. "KENSHIN!" He looked up as Ran came up to him and was looking worried. "You should be resting, not wandering outside."

"This one is fine," he smiled and went into his room. "I think something returned to me."

"Just rest," Ran helped Kenshin into his room, laid him in his futon and shut the door. "You had enough excitement for one day."

Excitement, I'm tired of being a child to Ran, Kenshin lay on the futon and smiled again at the thought about the girl. I hope she returns to the tomorrow.

Sure enough as the next day came, the young lady was there again, she was holding onto the picture, this time it was painted and looked rather pretty. Kenshin gazed at it, his eyes were wide as he gazed at the picture of himself gazing out a window, his eyes watching the sunlight. "Oro?"

"Well…when I was walking to school, I saw you sitting staring out the window, you looked so lonely in there," she looked away and seemed to gaze into the dojo. "I asked your cousin and he didn't seem to mind that I came to draw sometimes during the day. I'm getting the painting framed in a day or two, so if you would like it…"

"Oh this one couldn't possibly keep an artist from her work, no that I could not do," he gasped.

"Think it a gift from me to you." Callesto smiled as Kenshin convinced her to come in for tea.

Going into the kitchen, Kenshin found the tea kettle, he learned enough about running water that he put some in the kettle, turned on the stove top too. Putting the kettle on for a boil, he went to get a tea pot and some cups. The green tea was in a small tin bottle, he smiled getting out a tea holder putting it in the hot water long enough for it to steep.

Sitting down in the living room with her, they were talking a little. "This is the first time I got to see you without your cousin rushing out to tell me to leave," Callesto told Kenshin smiling a little.

"Ran has always been a little over protective of this one," Kenshin was going to have a long talk with Ran in regards to Callesto. He smiled a bit at the thought of her giving him artwork at least. He was happy with talking with someone like Callesto, she was brilliant when it came to artwork. "I'm actually attending Tokyo University in their Art department, if you would like, you can come to the gallery next week for an exhibit."

Kenshin had not left the dojo in nearly hundred years, he blinked and smiled. "This one would like that."

They parted after awhile, and Kenshin smiled sitting down by the door watching her leave. He let his eyes wonder toward her. She was such a shy girl, there was something familiar and yet something so gentle about her. What is wrong with me? He thought about this and let his head down, he looked over at Kaoru's shrine and sat down next to it. He lit some incense and prayed there thinking, am I losing my mind, Kaoru-dono? Did I just see you staring right back at me? Yet this girl..this young lady seems so troubled and sad to me, Kenshin smiled watching the gate and put his left hand under his chin gazing out.

"You've been doing that a lot lately," he heard Ran in the background. "Waiting for someone?"

"Hai, a young lady, a very nice one," Kenshin was blinking when he turned to look at Ran as he walked into the room. "You have been chasing her off, this one does not mind that she comes by the dojo to draw, in fact I quite enjoy her, that I do."

"She saw you," Ran walked into the hall.

"And if she did? I spoke with her a few times since," Kenshin smiled a little, his eyes were bright as if in thought. "Callesto-dono, she's an American and…"

"I know where she is from and personally I don't care for her," Ran walked into his room.

"You may not, but I do. This one worries, because I can't sense her emotions, it is like a quiet void when she is here. This one quite enjoys her," he smiled letting his fangs show a little.

"And what if you bite her!"

Suddenly that brought Kenshin to reality, he looked surprised and almost depressed with this realization, he could do real harm to her. He brought a blanket up to his shoulders, as Ran left him a bottle of cow's blood, he sniffed the bottle and made a face. "Don't give me that look, it was the same amount of blood I gave you last time," Ran growled and walked off.

Taking a drink, Kenshin looked out the window again, his eyes down. "You know, I always thought vampires were hurt in the sunlight, but I was wrong…"

"Yeah, well…" he heard the other walk out holding something then frowned. "You haven't used the electricity in awhile, hell you hate television, and why am I paying so much in this?" He sighed and saw Kenshin shake his head. "Have you left any lights on?"

"No, but you did leave the lights on in your bedroom," Kenshin pointed to the small ill used room. "I only ran the washing machine four two hours washing both our clothes. By the way, one of your white shirts turned pink."

"Never mix colored clothing with whites!" Ran stared in shock as his ancestor shrugged, then again it was an easy mistake. "Why were you in my room to begin with?"

"Laundry day," he saw the other smile, showing how vindictive he could be when it came to chores. "I was also bored."

Bored huh? Ran had made no fight this time, he walked into his room and came out with a book. "Well, why don't you read some books?"

"I read that already, Lord of the Rings was interesting, do you have anything else?"

Okay, so I have a fantasy addict, he gave a groan as Kenshin shot down every other idea. "Fine…fine, I'll go to the library and check out more books."

"Why not let me do it myself?" Kenshin decided to do this.

"And have you bite someone? I'm not foolish enough to let you go out and get discovered. You're the last relative I have left! Other than Aya-chan, seriously, do you know how dangerous it is to…"

"It was dangerous back then too, I could walk down the street and someone could come at me with a katana drawn, I know how to protect myself."

It was not as if this argument was going to end without the two coming to some kind bokken on bokken battle in the dojo. Ran had seen Kenshin get frustrated and also was not going to let the Hitokiri Battosai have his way when it came to a fight! "Ran, do you think I'm not going to have to learn about this century. I would like to see Callesto-dono again."

So that's it, the only reason my ancestor would want to leave the Dojo to see the world was to see a woman, not only that a foreigner. "Callesto doesn't sound Japanese."

"She's half Japanese, half American, I don't see how that comes to any difference to me considering that your friend, Ken-san is half as well," Kenshin gave a horrible glare and walked to his room. "There is no sense talking to a mule over this, I'm going out and that's final tomorrow…"

"At least take Omi with you."

Omi started to feel like he was going to have deal with a horrible situation, he watched for a moment as pale Kenshin stood outside the dojo's gate. He gazed around almost like it was looking at an alien land he had never left. Of course it would be alien to him, imagine being born inside that place and never really knowing about the outside world? To only read and hear about it all because you're so ill and your family is afraid you'll die at any minute, Omi thought this wondering if it was a good idea at all to expose Kenshin to so much.

"He's just going to the library, nowhere else!" Aya had told him that, and it was not as if it was good idea to let Kenshin walked with Omi toward the library.

Sure enough it was easy to take Kenshin to the library as long as he did not wander too far, it was going to be hard for him to check out books without a library card or an ID. "I can't believe your cousin didn't tell you," Omi saw the look on Kenshin's face.

Walking to the office to get an ID made, sure enough it took some money from Omi's pocket to get Kenshin one. The picture was not easy, the lamenation took more than a few hours, considering the line. The picture was hard enough to take, having to make him stand there and look straight ahead.

"All this trouble," Kenshin shook his head.

"Don't worry, you needed one anyway, your cousin will pay me back," Omi smiled as Kenshin walked into the library to show his ID slip and saw the librarian smile.

The library card was signed in Kenshin's name and he was free to check out whatever he wanted without his cousin looking over his shoulders. Coming home with a huge collection of science fiction and fantasy novels that seemed to make Kenshin grin more.

"Oh….wow…" Omi stopped midstep at the front of a new stand and looked down at a magazine for Art. "Wow, Callesto-chan really did it? I bet her brother is all upset over this," he smiled taking some money out of his pocket and saw the look on Kenshin's face. "What?"

"You know Callesto-dono?" Kenshin asked.

"Yeah, she graduated from my school last year," the boy explained. "Her brother works for one of the security firms around here in Tokyo. He's really overprotective. I know when she transferred into my school, she wasn't allowed to go out with anyone or even go on field trips. She also got sick a lot."

"I had no idea she was ill," Kenshin brought his hand to his mouth, he was looking at the picture of the girl, she looked so pale and yet still held some kind of sadness.

"When did you meet her?" the boy's voice brought Kenshin back a little.

"She came to the Dojo to draw a picture," Kenshin sighed and smiled. "I had tea with her not too long ago, it was nice to talk to someone outside of Ran."

Right, I can't use Aya-kun's name around him, Omi reminded himself and smiled. "Wow, I bet it upset your cousin."

"Not really, he was more upset that I mixed up the laundry again, I put a white shirt in with the colors."

Omi stopped walking and without warning he could not get the image of Kenshin doing laundry and mixing something into the wash like that. "You did it intentionally didn't you?"

"Okay, yeah, I was kind of bored and wasn't paying attention, so I thought Ran needed something more to his white shirt. Can you imagine that awful orange thing he calls a sweater…I have a hard enough time believing that Aya-dono would make something like that for him in that color!" Kenshin said it and they were inside the gate, just as Ken rushed out.

"You guys, he's on the war path, I think we best just take Kenshin to the flower shop and hide him there." Ken was running passed, he looked rather worried. "Apparently, I kind of burned part of the kitchen making something for lunch."

"WHAT?" Omi suddenly stormed into the house and made his way to the kitchen, sure enough Ran was putting out a small fire in a pain. He walked up, grabbed some baking soda and poured it onto the fire, that soon went out.

"YAY! Omi, the domestic wizard strikes again," Ken trotted off, only to be blocked by Kenshin.

"Don't you dare tell me it was a joke," Kenshin whispered, his eyes narrowing as Ken let out a yelp.

"I was just making something to eat," Ken was sputtering as Aya rounded on him, took a spatula and threw it at him, hitting him with the flat end. "OW! Sorry!"

Kenshin just smiled and closed his eyes. "It was an accident, Ran, these things happen."

"Yes, with Ken it's a consistant! First at the apartment at the flower shop, then here…I don't think anyone should let you in the kitchen!" Someone new was sitting down, he had short blond hair.

"Oh…Yohji-kun," Omi turned his attention to see Yohji just sitting take a deep breath as he seemed to convey some sense of adultness around him. "Kenshin-kun, this is Yohji-kun."

Nodding slowly, Kenshin yawned. "Time to go, Kenshin needs his rest," Aya was pushing everyone out. "Please just let him…"

"It is nice to meet you, even if it was for a short time, Himura-san, hope you come to visit the flower shop sometime, that is if your cousin let's you."

Kenshin could not handle rudeness, not with his own relatives, Ran knew he was in trouble when he saw the dark purple eyes turn darker. "I don't think you should have been so mean to your friends. Accidents happen," Kenshin told him bluntly.

"Ken was not paying attention, he knew that…he was just doing this here because the oven isn't big enough at the apartment." Ran made a face and shook his head. "He was trying to impress Maya-chan." He walked away shook his head. "He's fooling himself if he thinks she's going to see what he made."

"Oro? I'm sure in matters of the heart, he did something nice for her," Kenshin smiled a little.

"She's blind, Maya-chan is light blind, she can't see in the sunlight," Ran finally walked into the hall as he let Kenshin rest. "Ken is just fooling himself if he thinks she's ever going to…" He shook his head and walked away. "If she can't see in the light, what makes Ken think it will matter?"

"It will matter," Kenshin looked at what Ken was doing, a pile of cookies were stacked up on a dish. "They seem okay to me." He thought it was a shame that vampires could only drink blood and not taste food anymore. He sniffed at them and smiled. "He put a lot of effort into making these for her, so it isn't worthless, no not in the least."

Leave it to Kenshin to look on something like that something good, Ran had to wait for awhile, as he went into the frig to bring out the bottles of blood. "You must be thirsty."

"A little," Kenshin smiled taking a drink from one of the bottles, his eyes turning for a moment to a deep yellowish glow. "I liked the library, that I did. Omi is such a smart boy, shame though…when he was living in my time he would be sent off to a military school. These kids are lucky to not know those things."

Speak for yourself, Ran sighed and walked into the bedroom and unrolled Kenshin's futon, he turned his head to see Kenshin leaning on the door thinking. "Omi is very smart, though that isn't his real name is it?"

"Huh?" Ran stopped and looked at him. "What?"

"He reminds me of a little boy that was the son of one of your cousins," Kenshin sighed. "Kikono-dono left this world too early and her precious little Mamoru disappeared." He seemed sad, "She used to come here to talk to me and help me, she brought Mamoru, he sat in my lap as I told him stories. He was such a sweet little boy."

"Why didn't you name him as your heir?" Ran asked.

"Mamoru was too little to handle the curse, I don't even think he has it in his blood. Truth is some of Kenji's children's children did not get the curse. Some of them that did committed suicide when they couldn't handle it, while Kikono-dono seemed to show no sign." Kenshin lay down, he his head resting a little to one side, then without thinking he grabbed Ran biting into his shoulder drinking very slowly. "This one was able to handle a few hours of human contact." He withdrew and curled into a ball. "I can't keep doing this."

"Kenshin?" Ran touched his shoulder, he shook his head. "Just rest, you had a busy day."

"This one wishes to see Callesto-dono again."