NB: I just want to thank those of you who reviewed. You made me so happy. All your words were so encouraging I went and wrote some more drabbles. Hope you like them as much as the others, and even if you don't I welcome constructive criticism.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin or any of its characters. I also don't own Christmas, but I'm so going to enjoy it any way! =3

Carolling Carolling Through The Snow

Kaoru hugged herself tightly and stomped her feet on the snowy pavement under her feet. Though none of it seemed to work against the biting cold in the air, and the temperature was dropping by the minute. She could only plead temporary insanity when she promised her sister that she would go carolling with her on Christmas Eve.

A sudden shiver travelled to every inch of Kaoru's body and she had to clench her teeth together to stop their violent chattering. She felt like she would never be warm again; the cold was seeping through her layers of clothes, into her skin and all the way down to her very bones.

She never thought she would get tired of Christmas decorations and snow, but if she had to see another Frosty the Snowman and trudge up another un-shovelled walk way, she was going to skin a certain hyperactive weasel.

Just then she heard a high-pitched shriek of laughter. When she looked up she saw that Misao was a good way ahead of her and had thrown herself into a large snow bank. She was giggling like a maniac while she flapped her arms and legs at the side of her madly.

The miniature pig-tailed girl leapt up when she was done and turned to Kaoru with her emerald eyes glittering with glee. She pointed excitedly to the spot in the snow where she had just been lying. "Look Kaoru!" she cried, more like a five-year-old than the thirteen-year-old she was. "Snow Angel!"

A big white cloud of frost came out of Kaoru's mouth as she huffed indignantly. "Very nice Misao," she said sarcastically. "I've never seen one of those."

Not picking up on her sister's foul mood, Misao only giggled and did several little pirouettes on her toes. "Yatta!" she crowed. "I love the twinkly lights, I love the presents, the wreaths, each of Santa's little reindeer; Dasher, Dancer, Harold, Marty....I love Christmas!"

"Ba-humbug," Kaoru mumbled and stomped her feet harder. She glared at her younger sister. "Will you keep it down Misao," she snapped. She knew she should not have given Misao that third glass of eggnog before they left the house. "And you wonder why these people don't welcome us when we come knocking on their door."

Misao only laughed louder and more hysterically.

Kaoru rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. "This can't get any worse," she told herself.

"Oya," Misao suddenly cried, her faced turned upward and her arms thrown in the air. "It's snowing!"

Kaoru looked up, and to her dismay, white flakes were truly floating from the sky all around her. She groaned and rubbed her mittened hands together vigorously. Clearly, she had spoken too soon.

Misao danced up to her and grinned. "Isn't this great Kaoru? Aren't you having fun?"

Kaoru raised her eyebrows incredulously at the grinning young girl standing in front of her. She had to be kidding.

"Well Misao, let me see..." Kaoru began agitatedly. "Am I having fun? So far we've been yelled at, cursed at, had the sprinklers turned on us, been hit with snowballs by several little brats and been chased by a very large German shepherd. I'm tired, hungry and I'm currently freezing my ass off."

Misao sniggered. "That's because you have a big gaping hole in the back of your pants."

"Nani?" Kaoru shriek, and when she swung around and looked, she saw that Misao was right. There was a huge rip in her pants, and through it one could see her lacy pink panties peeking through. She guessed she truly did just escape that German shepherd by the seat of her pants.

"Misao!" Kaoru screeched in disbelief. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought if I told you, it would ruin everything," Misao said in a tiny pathetic voice.

Kaoru threw up her arms with a furious growl. "I have news for you Misao; this night was ruined when we decided to leave the warmth of our fire at home and go out on this ludicrous task. Well, I've had enough of this so-called 'fun', you hear me. If I wanted this type of fun, I would have agreed to go sleazy bar hopping with Sano. I'm going home right now to wrap myself in my Snuggie and drink my weight in hot chocolate."

With that, Kaoru pivoted on her heel and began stomping down the street. Misao immediately came running up around her and stood in her way with her arms held out wide.

"Please Kaoru," the young girl pleaded. "Just one more house, and I promise we can go home."

Kaoru was about to scream a firm 'no', but she made the mistake of gazing into Misao's face. The girl had pathetic puppy dog eyes and her bottom lip was trembling. Kaoru groaned; this was how Misao had convinced her to go carolling in the first place.

With a defeated sigh, Kaoru turned back around. "Just one last house. And then we go home and never speak of this night again."

"Yatta!" Misao squealed and skipped at her side. "I'll choose the next one."

They came to a house that had to be tackiest looking thing Kaoru had ever seen. It looked like Christmas had barfed all of it. There were lights of every colour on everything; the roof, around the chimney, lining the fence and even the branches of the trees outside were covered with sparkling icicle lights.

The lawn was completely white with a thick blanket of snow, but there were flashing plastic snowmen situated here and there, grinning cheerily and waving while musical bells played "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" in the background.

And to top it all off, like a cherry on top, on the roof there were eight bright neon reindeers, including Rudolph with a blinking red nose, pulling a sleigh containing a shining Santa that at every few seconds, would turn his head stiffly from side to side and say 'ho,ho,ho' in a creepy, horror movie sort of way.

Looking at the house, Kaoru had to blink several times to clear the spots dancing in front of her eyes. She did not know if the owner was decorating for Christmas or trying to land planes.

"I like this one," Misao announced and started to run up the walk. Kaoru shook her head; of course this was the one her sister would pick.

"Wah!" Misao suddenly shrieked and Kaoru watched as her sister slipped on the icy walkway and fell right on her butt.

Without really thinking about it, Kaoru rushed to the girl's side, worried that she might have seriously hurt herself. Of course she realized how stupid that idea was a few moments later.

"Oh Misao! Daijou-booo..." Kaoru's legs flew out from under her and she landed hard on her back right next to her sister.

"Owie," Misao groaned as she rubbed her injured posterior. "Kaoru? Daijoubu?"

Kaoru lay there staring up at the stars in the clear night sky, rage bubbling up inside of her. And then with a fierce snarl she jumped to her feet. She had had enough.

She slipped a little, but she was able to march up to the front of the house and hammer on the plastic wreath covered door with her fist.

The door opened and a red-headed man wearing a creamy Christmas sweater stepped out. "Hai," he said. "May I help yo-"

"Hey jingle balls!" Kaoru yelled in his face. "All me and my sister wanted to do was sing a couple of songs and wish you a Merry-freakin'-Christmas, but we couldn't because we were nearly killed by your stupid icy walkway. Do you want us to sue your ass?"

The man blinked his odd lavender coloured eyes at her, clearly stunned by a strange woman yelling at him on his front step. "Uh..." he said hesitantly.

"I mean," she continued to rage, not giving him a chance to speak. "You can decorate your house so it can be seen on the moon, but you can't make sure your walkway is safe for carollers to go up." She jabbed her mitten covered hand sharply into his chest. "What kind of moron are you?

"Oya lady," the man cried. "Who put the holly down your under pants."

Kaoru gritted her teeth and glowered. "Listen half-pint, I know this is your busy time of year, making all those toys for Santa and all, but are you going to apologize to me and my sister or not?"

The insult at his height caused the man's eyes to narrow and to Kaoru's surprise gold flecks began dancing in the purple irises. It made him look very intimidating, but she refused to back down. She just folded her arms and glared back at him, her chest rising and falling in time with the frost puffing out of her lips.

Strangely, the man's face relaxed, he then gazed at her up and down for a second and his mouth pulled up in a lopsided smirk. Kaoru started; his expression seemed intrigued as he looked at her, but what surprised her more was the fluttering feeling she suddenly felt in her stomach. Especially since he was now intently staring at her with those weird, but undeniably pretty, eyes.

At that moment Misao came up behind her, carefully stepping on the slippery ground, trying to stay on her feet. "It's okay Kaoru," she whispered and pulled on her arm earnestly "Let's just go."

"Fine," Kaoru bit out, not taking her frown off the man. "We'll go, but I hope you get lots of coal in your stocking this year, you creep." She took Misao's hand, and with her nose in the air, she turned from him to walk back down the path.

"Wait!" the man called and Kaoru turned back to find him staring at them with a friendly smile that instantly made Kaoru notice the discernible fact that he was extremely good-looking.

Kaoru quickly shoved the thought out of her mind; she was supposed to be angry at him. "What do you want?" she asked as tartly as she could.

"Listen, I'm really sorry about my walkway," he said. And then with a sincere bow, he added, "Gomen nasai."

"It's okay," Misao chirped at her side and after a few seconds Kaoru nodded stiffly. He grinned at them, and Kaoru felt her heart thump hard against her chest. He was not just good-looking. He was gorgeous!

Kaoru was admiring how his sweater accentuated his finely sculpted chest when he interrupted her rather naughty thoughts by saying, "I would really like to hear some Christmas carols, but it's so cold out here: would you like to come in?"

Kaoru suddenly felt shy under his charming gaze and she felt a blush slowly spreading across her cheeks. She heard herself begin to giggle foolishly, and she just wanted the floor to open up and swallow her whole.

"My brother Aoshi makes the best hot chocolate," he continued. "And I'm sure you girls would enjoy a cup while you warm up by the fire."

"That sounds great mister," Misao supplied helpfully, since her sister seemed to have forgotten how to talk. "But my Onee-chan is really tired, and I'm feeling a little tired myself, so I really think we should go home."

"Alright," he said and Kaoru swore she heard the slight sound of regret in his voice. "Well then, Merry Christmas." He said it to both of them, but he had his eyes fixed on Kaoru.

"Merry Christmas!" Misao returned brightly. "And sorry we could not accept your generous offer to come insi-"

"Kenshin?" a voice came from inside behind the red headed man. "What's taking you so long at the door?"

Misao's jaw dropped at the man that appeared at the door. Kaoru did not blame her. This was most likely the brother Kenshin had spoken of. He was stunning with his statuesque height and beautiful electric blue eyes, and judging by his fine features, it was obvious this family had some strong supermodel gene running through their veins.

"Aoshi, these beautiful ladies wanted to sing us some Christmas carols," Kenshin explained to the taller man. "I invited them in, but unfortunately they are in a hurry to go home."

"Actually," Misao began hastily while she practically leapt into the house. The young girl then proceeded to flutter her eyelashes up at Kenshin's brother. "I would love to have some of your delicious, sweet, hot chocolate," she said, stressing on each word so that her true meaning was emphatic.

Kaoru shook her head as she went passed Kenshin inside the house. "I guess we're staying," she told him sheepishly.

"I'm glad," he said gently with another one of his dazzling smiles that made her insides quiver.

"I'm Kaoru Kamiya, by the way." She pointed to where the tiny girl was standing by the fire gushing over a very harassed looking Aoshi. "That's my weasel sister, Misao."

Kenshin gave a throaty chuckle. "Please to meet you Kaoru," he said, taking her hand to shake it.

The way he said her name made her shiver pleasantly, and even though she was wearing mittens, she swore she felt a spark when he enveloped her hand in his.

Still smiling, he gestured for her to go ahead of him to the very welcoming fire in his fireplace and Kaoru instantly went towards it, eager to get the chill off of her.

"Uh...Kaoru-dono?" she heard Kenshin say rather hesitantly behind her.

"Hai Kenshin," she answered, turning around to face him.

She was confused when she saw the rather sly expression on his face and the mischievous glint in his eye.

"You really should not wear those types of underwear at this time of year," he said with a huge grin. "You'll freeze your cute little butt off."

Owari

Hee hee! I love a cheeky Kenshin. Don't you?