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

Gingerbread-Gumi

With hands as steady as a surgeon Kenshin squeezed a line of icing along the top of the gingerbread castle wall and gently pressed the last roof in place.

He put down his icing bag and gave a relieved sigh. He was finally done, and he gazed at the elaborate edible masterpiece with great pride. He had decided to make a gingerbread castle instead of the traditional house he made every year, and finally, after eight hours and a great deal of patience, he was done. He had created a stunning and delicious castle, complete with sugar cone towers, a crushed blue candy moat full of tiny gummy fish and a draw bridge made of a chocolate bar with red liquorice as bridge chains.

Kenshin beamed; Kenji and his friends were going to love it. It was almost too pretty to eat.

He was so enthralled by his accomplishment he did not notice the hand slowly snaking around him. By the time he realized, the hand had already quickly snatched a gumdrop off the castle roof.

Turning, he frowned at his wife who was behind him chewing the stolen candy with a gleeful grin on her face.

"Kaoru," he huffed. "This is the third time. If you keep eating it, I'll never be done." He reached into the candy bag and pulled out another gumdrop and placed it on the empty space in the roof.

"Gomen, anata," Kaoru said with a childish pout. "But you've been at this all day, and with Kenji playing at Yutaro's house, I'm bored. Isn't there anything I can do that I can't mess up?"

Kenshin thought hard. He still had not gotten all that mashed potato that Kaoru had somehow gotten on the ceiling earlier, but there had to be something she could do that would not be ruined by his wife's destructive, yet beautiful hands.

"I know," he said brightly, an idea suddenly coming to him. "You can help me decorate the gingerbread people."

"I'll get them!" Kaoru said eagerly and began running to the counter where the tray of cookies were.

"No no," her husband said hurriedly, and he grabbed her arm, halting her in her tracks. "I will get them koishii. You just sit here and think of how we'll decorate them.

Kenshin brought over the tray of the bare gingerbread people and set them down in front of her. "Since our friends are spending Christmas with us, I decided to decorate the gingerbread people to look like them."

"That's a great idea anata," Kaoru cried, excitedly clapping her hands. "Let's do it!"

"Okay, let's do Megumi-dono." He picked up a thin tipped piping bag full of white icing

"Oh I know," Kaoru said. "Put fox ears on her." She picked up the bag of candy corn. "We can use these."

"Brilliant. And we can give her C-shaped eyes and mouth, for that mischievous look she gets when she's up to something."

"Yeah, and a fox tail!" Kaoru sniggered.

Kaoru attached the ears and Kenshin piped in gingerbread Megumi's face with white frosting and then used yellow for the bushy tail.

"How about we do Misao next?" Kenshin suggested.

"A long plait and kunai in her hand," Kaoru chimed, and Kenshin skilfully piped a cute black pigtail that wound around the body of gingerbread Misao and stuck peppermint candy pieces carved to look like kunai into the hand.

After putting a cheeky smile and using black liquorice to make messy black hair, they soon had gingerbread Yahiko. And there were two gingerbread cookies left; both taller and thinner than the others.

Kaoru put two round blue candies on the first one to represent Aoshi's icy eyes, and Kenshin piped it a grim little mouth that looked so extraordinarily like the man's serious expression that Kaoru giggled.

"Last, but not least, Sano," Kenshin said to her.

"Sano's an easy one," Kaoru said, with a wave of her hand. "Just put spiky brown hair, that old red bandana he's always wearing and a clueless expression."

Kenshin did what she said, and added the Japanese kanji for bad on gingerbread Sanosuke's chest.

He then made a few last minute touches to the cookies' clothes that were perfect imitations of ancient Japanese attire, and lined them all up on the outside of his gingerbread castle.

"There!" he said with a satisfied nod when he was finished. "All done!"

"They're perfect," Kaoru exclaimed as she looked at each gingerbread person. "Everyone's going to love these."

Kenshin smiled at his wife warmly. "I know I said they were for after dinner," he suddenly announced. "But as a way of thanks for making these beautiful gingerbread cookies..." He uncovered a plate of chocolate chip cookies and placed it in front of her.

"Really Kenshin?" Kaoru squealed in disbelief, her eyes round with delight as she looked at the plate of her favourite cookie.

"Go ahead koishii. You can have as many as you want."

She was already putting one of the cookies to her mouth, but when he said that she stopped and put it back on the plate. She aimed a suspicious frown at her husband. Kenshin never let her and Kenji have too many sweets before twelve, in case they ruined their dinner. "Why are you really letting me have these?" she asked sharply.

Kenshin laughed nervously and began scratching the back of his head. "L-like I s-said," he stammered. "As a thank you for helping me, and you know, it's Christmas."

She kept staring at him warily for a few moments, but finally she shrugged and popped a whole chocolate chip cookie into her mouth.

Kenshin let out a rush of air and then went to the refrigerator to retrieve some milk, that happened to be already poured into a glass. He put it in front of her and then said with a wide grin, "Cookies are best with milk."

Kaoru frowned at him again, but she picked up the glass and took a sip.

She was on her fourth cookie when Kenshin began fidgeting. "Um...koishii?" he murmured, his lavender eyes shifting and his fingers drumming anxiously on the counter.

"Yes?" Kaoru replied with her mouth full and covered in cookie crumbs.

He hesitated for a second, but then he said in one breath, "Sanosuke called about an hour ago and said he would not be able to babysit Kenji tonight."

"What!!" Kenshin flinched at her high outraged shriek. She tossed down the half eaten cookie she had in her hand. "I knew you were giving me so many cookies for a reason."

"Calm down koishii," Kenshin said, trying to soothe his quickly angering wife.

"Calm down?!!" she yelled. "We've had tickets to see the Nutcracker for months, and that spiky headed, sake guzzling, free-loading rooster, promised me he would baby-sit Kenji when we went to the theatre." She then pulled her face into an idiotic expression and did a goofy impression of Sanosuke. "You can count on me Jou-chan." She scowled. "My ass!" she bit out furiously.

"Please calm down koishii," Kenshin pleaded desperately. His eyes fell on the forgotten plate of cookies and he eagerly held it out to her. "Here, have another cookie. It'll make you feel better."

Still fuming, Kaoru studied the cookies under her nose for a moment, but suddenly she reached out and plucked the gingerbread Sano from the front of the gingerbread castle, and Kenshin watched in dismay as his wife bit off the head of the poor cookie and chomped on it fiercely.

A sweat drop appeared on Kenshin's brow. "Oro," he moaned. He definitely did not want to be in Sano's place when Kaoru got her hands on him.

Owari

O_o; *shivers* Kaoru is sc-ar-y...