From the author's desk: So I'm back with a new "snapshot" for the "album". Thank you all so much for your support of this collection, and I'm glad that all of you readers and reviewers alike are thoroughly enjoying these little moments of Kenshin/Kaoru goodness. Now, I know this is another short entry, but now on top of getting used to my surroundings, I'm also dealing with a new schedule of classes, and more homework. It's my first semester of college! But many thanks again to all of you wonderful readers. I love each and every one of you, whether I reply back to your review or not. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin and Kaoru would have kissed in the last volume of the manga. Alas, I am not so fortunate.

Warning: LIME. I can't judge how heavy it is; that's up to you readers to decide. I'm just letting you know it's there. Feel free to turn back now if you don't like that sort of thing.

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An Album of Memories
captured by IceAngelKaoru

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Snapshot: Six
Label: Paradise
Note: The couple spends some time alone at the beach.

Kaoru stretched her arms up to the sky, and lightly tilted her head back to arch her back a bit more.

"It feels so good to stretch!" she sighed in contentment.

She heard a soft chuckle from behind her, and turned to look at her husband, who was setting up their campsite on the floor of the medium-sized cave they had picked as their shelter for the night.

"Are you laughing at me?" she groused, albeit teasingly.

"And if I am?" Kenshin asked, standing up from the pallet he had set up in the corner and walking over to wrap his arms around Kaoru's waist from behind.

"Well…I don't know. But I'll think of something," she tossed back.

"Hm. In that case, perhaps we should stock up on firewood, and then we can go and enjoy ourselves on the beach," he suggested matter-of-factly.

Kaoru nodded in agreement. When it came to being out and about on a journey – or a short camping trip for the two of them – she trusted Kenshin's judgment. After all, he had wandered around Japan for ten years; he had to know something about living in the wild for short periods of time.

The couple went hand in hand into the nearby woods and began gathering piles of short and long twigs into their arms. As they walked, Kaoru found little treasures for herself from the floor of small forest – a large and sweetly scented pine cone, a beautiful and rather large feather patterned in different shades of brown and gold, a small bunch of juniper flowers.

They returned to the cave and dropped off the wood, and left, once more hand in hand, after Kaoru had changed into a bathing kimono and Kenshin had simply removed his gi and grabbed a blanket for the two of them to lounge on.

They had been lucky enough to find a deserted area of the beach. The sand was warm and comfortably gritty under their feet, and the sun cast bright rays of light over them, stretching their shadows out behind them.

After Kaoru had spread the blanket out on the sand, Kenshin dragged her to the lapping waters of the bright blue ocean which reached as far as the eye could see.

"Kenshin!" Kaoru feebly protested as she struggled against his firm yet gentle grip. She squealed when the cold water kissed her toes, wrenched her wrist from Kenshin's hold, and backed away from the water.

The redhead chuckled at his wife, and continued into the water until he was up to his waist in the salty liquid.

Smiling, he turned back to Kaoru, who stood rooted on the shore.

"Come in! It's not so bad!" he called to her, stretching out his hand to her.

Kaoru looked at him, unsure, and hesitantly stepped in while flinching lightly from the temperature of the water.

"Don't worry. The water will warm up once you start moving around," Kenshin prodded her gently, his hand still outstretched toward her.

Keeping her eyes on the form of her topless husband (and quite happily at that), Kaoru slowly yet steadily allowed her body to gradually disappear beneath the surface of the sour-tasting water. She reached out her hand, and grabbed that of her husband when she was close enough.

Kenshin immediately pulled her into him, and chuckled as she squeaked when he began to move the both of them further into the water.

"Kenshin! Some warning would be good before you do that!" she muttered as she lightly smacked his chest.

He chuckled, and easily released her to the point where they were only connected by their joined hands. The rolling waves of the water gently pushed them further away from shore, until they were soaked up to their shoulders and were treading water to keep afloat.

"Shall we swim a bit?" he asked her, a large smile gracing his features.

She smiled at him and let go of his hand with a nod of her head. She took a deep breath, and dove under the water, kicking and stroking easily. Though the salt in the water stung, she kept her eyes open, watching as schools of blurry, colorful fish swarmed around her and her husband.

Kenshin swam closer to the reef and Kaoru followed his hazy image. Once she got to the reef, she floated up to the surface to get some much needed air into her lightly burning lungs, and this time, Kenshin followed her.

"The fish are beautiful," she commented, her voice loud so that he would hear her over the waves. He nodded in agreement, and dove back underwater with Kaoru.

They continued to swim and watch the fish for quite some time more, until Kaoru finally signaled to him that she was ready to return to shore. He nodded, and they began to swim back.

Kaoru had just reached the point where she had first met Kenshin in the water when she noticed he was not swimming behind her. Worried, she waited a few minutes more, hoping to see some sign of him.

There was none.

Taking a deep breath, she went back into the water, swimming quickly with strong kicks and strokes, the adrenaline coursing through her pushing her to find her redheaded lover.

She finally saw him struggling to free himself from a large tangle of seaweed. Unfortunately, his long crimson hair was obscuring his vision, and he was in an odd, bent over position which was causing him to lose air more quickly as he blindly groped at the offending plant.

Feeling the vibrations of something coming toward him in the water, Kenshin looked up through his titian locks to see the form of a seemingly ethereal woman clad in pale blue and white speedily swimming toward him, her long loose dark hair floating around her like a feathery cloud, the sunlight of the nearing sunset filtering through the water setting her aglow.

He smiled at the image his Kaoru made as she swam toward him as he tried to ignore the burning that was growing in his lungs.

He needed air, and soon. His head was beginning to hurt with the lack of oxygen.

Trying her best not to panic, Kaoru swam right up to Kenshin, before quickly breaking the surface to gather some air in her own lungs. Once finished gathering her breath, she dove back down again.

And then she kissed him, right there in the water.

Kenshin felt the burning in his chest subside as his wife passed the air she had gathered into his mouth. The kiss was short-lived, however, only there to get some air into him, and as soon as she broke away, she reached down to his tangled ankle, and her fingers deftly peeled the offending seaweed away from him, setting him free.

He grabbed her by the arms once he was loose, and together they kicked themselves to the surface. They gathered air into their lungs, and once more took off to shore, this time swimming hand in hand.

They came running out of the water, only to collapse in a heap of tired limbs on the sun-warmed blanket spread out on the beach, panting heavily as they rested from the rigorous exercise they endured.

Kaoru maneuvered herself so that she was lying with her head on Kenshin's chest, and he wrapped his right arm around her snugly as she gently traced random patterns on his damp skin.

She giggled as he flinched at her feathery touch, and laughed outright when she heard a suppressed (and very girlish) squeal escape him.

She caught him pouting childishly at her in indignation, and she continued tickling him, causing him to flinch and squeal even more.

"Consider this payback for making me worry and come rescue you," she teased with a smile.

He looked at her with an arched crimson brow, and half-raised his body on an elbow. "Payback, hmm…?"

Kaoru blinked in surprise as she suddenly found herself flipped on her back, his face looming over her own, amber-flecked violet jewels twinkling with mischief and hunger, lips curved in a loving yet wicked smile.

A shiver ran down her spine as he bent his head to whisper in her ear, "Allow me to show you what 'payback' should be."

Her eyes drooped closed, then, as he dipped his head and kissed her soundly on the mouth, the salt from the sea water blending wonderfully with the smoky sweet taste that was uniquely his own.

As his mouth worked its magic on her sense of taste, his hands performed their own enchantments, sending pleasurable jolts of fire down her spine every time the pads of his fingers slipped beneath the folds of her drenched swimming kimono to trace lazy patterns on the skin of her collar, her breast, her thigh…

Kaoru was deaf to the sound of the pounding waves, blind to the dying sun, numb to the blanket that separated the two of them from the gritty smoothness of the sand covering the shoreline.

The only thing she was aware of was her husband—his gentle ministrations on her body, his love for her, his passion for her—and the intense feelings of love and desire she felt for him in return. For the moment, they were no longer part of the real world, but had escaped to their own paradise, where no one existed but themselves…

And as they lay in the afterglow of their passion reminiscent of a pile of naked, boneless limbs, Kaoru clung to him in contentment, never wanting to let go.

She would never admit to him, or anyone else, that she had felt the small piercing of fear's arrow in her heart when she didn't see him coming up behind her in the water that afternoon. She would never tell a soul that she was afraid that he had drowned, and had died, and left her alone in the world once more. She could never express to anyone the amount of relief she felt when she saw him in the water, struggling to set himself free.

There was, however, one humorous aspect to the semi-dramatic ordeal they had faced that day, and Kaoru couldn't help snickering aloud.

"What are you laughing at now?" he asked her in curiosity, his tenor vibrating pleasantly in his chest.

"I'm laughing at the fact that the great Battousai was taken down by a simple tangle of seaweed. How the mighty have fallen," she teased him with a smile.

He shook his head.

"Kaoru, one day…" He trailed off.

"What?" she prodded, blue eyes blinking owlishly.

"…Never mind." And then he kissed her with desire once more.