A/N: I love me some drabbles, guys. Seriously. I hope you guys keep enjoying it. :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin.

"I bought your home," Battousai tells her the night before their wedding. Kaoru lifts her eyes from her tea and stares at him, shock painted across her face. He does not look at her - his gaze remains squarely on the sunset. "With your dowry."

"You...bought the dojo?" Battousai shrugs, taking a sip of tea before he answers her.

"Well," he finally says, "I can't keep a wife stashed in a bolt hole in Kyoto, can I? And when the war is over," here his voice goes soft and thin, and it makes Kaoru's heart - even through her haze of grief and disbelief - pick up speed. "I will need a home, as well."

"This is a good home," Kaoru tells him, hoping he understands what she isn't saying. "You will love it as much as I do, one day."

"Do you think so?" There is...something in his voice. Something Kaoru can understand, because it is a raw throb, the same that she feels when she thinks of her parents. He looks at her, finally, and his eyes have changed color; they are a soft lavender, shot through with gold.

They are beautiful.

"Yes," Kaoru speaks firmly, and gives him the first smile she has worn since her father's death. It isn't as brilliant or large as she has been known to wear in the past, but it is a beginning, a step forward. "You will. I know it."

He smiles back. It is almost...shy. Kaoru tucks it against her heart as a promise that there is more to him than blood and killing, and she names that smile hope.


Word Count: 282