A/N: I realize that this might be a little confusing...but dont worry. It will become clearer later.

"Dad came into my room one day, dragging the phone with him. The cord had long since stretched its limit, but Dad had refused to put it down for whatever the reason. He had the strangest look on his face. He didn't seem upset, but he wasn't happy either. He couldn't decide what he wanted to be. The corners of his mouth twitched ferociously. Finally he said to me 'Kaoru, you have Mr. Seijuuro on the line' which was a lie since Hiko rarely, if ever, made a direct call. It was someone who worked from him calling from a pay phone. But it was Hiko's words. He was telling me how he'd like me to come to the restaurant in a week to meet his son. His son had died a long while a go; he had some disease at birth. I couldn't imagine what Hiko wanted, being I was only twelve years old at the time. I accepted though....I never thought I would get involved with Kenshin again." -Kaoru Kamiya

Time was nonexistent anymore, I just let the days pass on by like blobs. eventually everything was like it should be; normal. I felt that I was in a place where I belonged and I was a part of something that widely accepted me. It was thoroughly enjoyable. One night as we were closing, there came a car pulling up into the restaurant; Kaoru's family's car. Now, I wasn't all too surprised when this occurred, especially since Hiko had told me he was going to get in contact with the Koshijiro Kamiya, Kaoru's father. What surprised me was at this hour of the night that Kaoru was climbing out of the car with her father, her eyes sprinkled with the Sandman's sand and her clothes drooping like she'd just gotten out of bed.

Hiko went to the door in an orderly fashion, but there was something about his strut that was different. Mr. Kamiya came inside and shook Hiko's hand warmly, and they exchanged a few words and laughed like old friends did. Hiko let his arm travel across the dining room, and Mr. Kamiya took a seat nearest the exit while Kaoru wandered over to me.

I had been busing tables all night and was finishing up with a few plates to take back into the kitchen. She sat down at the table I was busing, stealing the few pieces of bread still left in the basket. She didn't know what to say to me it seemed, but she kept flicking her eyes up to me and looking me over.

"Something I can do for you?" I asked her, trying to be curteous.

"Kenshin!" I heard Hiko call out. My head bounced up to him. "You're still on the clock!"

"Yessir!"

Koshijiro mumbled something to Hiko which, in return, he laughed. I rushed back into the kitchen, looking over my shoulder to Hiko motioning for Kaoru to come and sit next to him. I lingered in the doorway with Katsu at my side and I watched her, curious. I could never know what Hiko was planning for me, but I was aware that Hiko knew where he wanted me to go. I bit my lip and went into the kitchen hoping to occupy my time with a few dishes. After about an hour of talking an laughing I was falling asleep with my hands in the water. The door opened, waking me up.

"Kenshin?"

"Huh?"

"Time to go home."

"What was that for?"

"Nothing important."

"He brought Kaoru..."

"It was nothing," he shook his head. "You have school tomorrow don't you?"

"Yeah."

"Go home and go to bed."

"About that..."I said to him, drying my hands off. I was about to rub the skin off them at how nervous I was. "I was thinking..."

"Yes..."

"Well, I was thinking about quitting so I can work full time," I said, my nails digging into my flesh. Hiko was silent. He turned his back to me and crossed his arms, his head hanging in thought. Then he turned back to me and his hand hit my face faster than I had time to react. I was stunned, but I knew he wasn't even trying. My head lingered at the side for a moment, tears welling in my eyes.

"Wha..?"

Steadily I turned my head to look at him and I was surprised to see the look on contempt splashed over his face. A few feet scuttled around, the onlookers who would do nothing. "You're an idiot," he said and turne don his heel, leaving the kitchen. I was thoroughly stunned and could feel my cheek turning red. I fell backward, unable to think about anything but the pain in my cheek. I remembered him telling me that my education didn't matter to him, that it wasn't his problem...so why was it his problem now?

"Ken?" I felt Sozo's hand on my back. "You okay?"

"He...hit me."

"He does that."

My head bowed. "I...I can't believe it."

Sozo knelt next to me. "He's being a parent, believe it or not. He's not doing to bad a job though...he could have reacted a little better."

"He hit me..."

"It's alright, c'mon stand up," Sozo pulled me up on my legs, but the shook. "He's not good with the emotions thing but he's concerned for you. I think he knows you're smart and he doesn't want to see you squander it away."

I pushed Sozo away, threw the towel on the ground and stormed out of the back of the kitchen so Hiko couldn't know. I didn't know what I was going to do. Dad had hit me before, but he made up for it. Hiko...he did it without any remorse and I know he did. Just the stony look on his face was enough to tell me. I squatted down outside wishing the tears weren't leaking from my face, but they were. I couldn't go anywhere, I couldn't do anything except work at the restaurant. I had been living off of Hiko's hospitality for this long.

Somehow I convinced myself that it was all the for the best, even as the bruise formed.

I suppose that you will assume that Hiko and Mr. Kamiya were planning something that had to do with me and Kaoru. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they did, if it was in the fifteenth century or so. But we lived in a modern era where...at the time....Nixon was the president and we were living during a war that most people were protesting and there was a lot of freedom that people were trying to get. I will admit that at first the thought crossed my mind, I mean what other reason would two fathers meet? But then I remembered the year and my own will and I knew it was something different.

That's not to say that there wasn't anything going on that night. I didn't dwell on it for to long, but I realized that something was going to happen eventually. it happened the next year, when I was seventeen. Kaoru moved into our neighborhood, just a few doors down from Hiko. I was shocked, but then I was sure that Hiko had a hand in this. Koshijiro was a modest man, to say the least, so I didn't expect for him to transplant his family into some nice place overnight just for the hell of it.

Kaoru and I didn't go to the same school, we didn't do the same activities so honestly we weren't really around each other all that much. I suppose that it was age difference. By that time she was only thirteen so it made me feel just a bit awkward when it came to talking to her, not that I didn't talk to her at all.

Between the ages of 17 and 23 things for me weren't really interesting. I began floating through my life doing all the things that I was suppose to do. I finished high school with a B average and by that time I had been working with Sozo to learn how to cook better, which I found was something that almost came naturally for me. I was working in the kitchen the same time that I was going to a culinary school. Hiko said that it would be something that I could thrive in since he'd seen me in the kitchen, but I knew what it was.

There was a family that I know belonged in, being Hiko's son and whatnot. I know it wasn't really official, but I was learning to be close to people. I was surprised that Sanosuke was included, but then I thought about it, and knew that Sozo worked at the restaurant, and as far as I knew he always worked there. So when Sanosuke told me that he had known what his Dad was all along, I smiled. I was a part of something, a place where I knew I belonged and people who supported me in my little ventures. I never had a lift a finger through college, and neither did Sanosuke. We just got the grades and they gave us the money that we needed. Textbook? Sure here you go. Boarding fees? Make sure you get an A in that mandatory math class. I became closer to my friend than ever before, but found that we were isolating Aoshi along the way.

I came back with Sanosuke to the restaurant on my winter break, Hiko sitting at one of the tables with what I presumed was a client, a very suspcious one at that. I was 20 years old at the time and I had grown up. I learned that this world wasn't kind and that we weren't going to have it good. The things that we did may have caused a little trouble, but it wasn't our fault that there were idiots out there.

Hiko motioned for me to come up to the table, and when I did I realized who the client was. Koshijiro sat there solemnly, but he was looking less than normal. The bridge of his nose was covered by a bandage, and there were bruises ringing around his eyes.

"What happened?" I asked immediately. Koshijiro hung his head.

"He got into a little trouble," Hiko answered, as though Koshijiro was unable to speak. When he said this, I knew that the word troublewas a little loaded. Clients never got in trouble, as far as the family was concerned. If they did, whether it be by the cops or anyone else who felt they were going to pick on them, the family was quick to be their protection. It usually only took one good warning for them to stay out of the client's business, but this trouble was not the cops or someone else, this trouble was close trouble.

Hiko stood up telling Koshijiro he'd be right back. The man nodded, his bruised eyes following me as Hiko grabbed my arm and walked me across the dining room. Sanosuke was close behind, an ear on our conversation. Hiko's lips pursed and he told Sanosuke to go talk with Sozo in the kitchen. Sanosuke nodded, running off to the kitchen doors. Once he was finished, I felt Hiko pull my hand up, pressing something into it. My hand gripped around a wooden handle, and I was reluctant to look at my face in the steel of the carving knife.

"What the..?" But I didn't need to ask when I glanced up to Koshijiro.

"He's taken and embezzled too much money," Hiko gripped his hands around my upper arms tightly. I glanced down to the blade, seeing myself in it and wondering why I was the one to do this. One look to Hiko told me all I needed to know. The grim smile, the dim eyes. It was hurting him tremendously. Koshijiro had been his friend, and apparently for a long time. "I would have hoped that he would stop when his daughter was on the table too but..."his hands fell from my arms and he walked toward Koshijiro putting on a smile and talking to him about what all was going on. At that time, I started to stare at myself in the knife; stainless steel.

My head went up to Sanosuke emerging from the kitchen, his hands in his pockets. I glanced to Koshijiro and then to the knife before looking to Sanosuke. He nodded to me then came over to me as I tucked the knife into my jacket. Koshijiro looked over to me momentarily, thankfully after the knife was away. Sanosuke's hand went on my shoulder warmly.

"I...can't do this," I whispered. I felt weak now. I was part of the family. I had to do my part inthat family right? Even if it hurt. And then I thought of Kaoru just as I had convinced myself that this was something that I had to do. She was young, and how would she benefit from her father being dead.

"You can," Sanosuke replied. "It's not like Hiko wants you to either. It's from a higher word," he explained. "Hiko has only one person to answer to, and that Kogoro," I knew the name. He was the head of the family. The patriarch of out little society within society. He was the only person who could tell Hiko to do or not do something. Kogoro Katsura was a man that I had yet to meet, but knew I was destined to. "I've met Mr. Katsura, he's not a bad guy. Quiet."

"I'll meet him soon," I whispered. We walked outside of the restaurant to find that it was snowing. "I can't do this."

"It won't be so bad," Sanosuke replied with a strange bout of enthusiasm. "I've done it once or twice. We just...need to trim the fat sometimes."

"You say it so simply. I can't put a knife through someone."

Sanosuke rubbed my shoulder. "He'll want it done in two weeks probably. That's how long he gives someone to come up with the money, and Kamiya in there owes a lot. So...it's likely that you'll be doing it when he comes back into the restaurant with his tail between his legs.

What about his daughter? I was about to say, but I lowered my eyes a little.

"I guess."

"Don't stress," he rubbed my shoulder more, pushing me into his chest in a very brotherly way. "Once it's done, it's done. Then you'll not have to worry about it."

Sanosuke went toward my car. I had driven us to the restaurant where we intended to make a pit stop then leave. I now had a small apartment and Sanosuke was floor below me. "Hey! You coming!" he asked. I had my hand at my cheek and was looking at Hiko feeling anger bubble in my body.

"Yeah! Be there in a sec!" I turned on my heel and swallowed my childhood.

A/N: Strange eh? This is where the fun really starts.