I was searching for some drabble challenges and stumbled upon a number of romantic themed ones provided by Sailor Draco for the Sailor Moon fandom. I'm going to try my hand at them, but for Rurouni Kenshin, of course.
This one I gave myself a 20 minute time limit. The theme was:
#13 poetry
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A Precious Bookmark
Kaoru looked fugitively around before sneaking the book off the shelf and hurrying to her room. Not that she really had to sneak around, since she had made sure the house was empty before heading over to the bookshelf. But she really didn't want to hear the teasing that she was sure to face if Yahiko or Sano discovered just what she had been reading these past few days.
Actually, she doubted that Sano had ever opened a book in his life, much less looked to see what was in the green volume she was reading. He and Kenshin had been walking by the other day when she was trying to quickly slip the book back in place before dinner. But Sano had been engrossed in retelling the story of his (miraculous) gambling win from the day before, so he hadn't paid her any attention.
Kenshin had probably noticed, since he notices everything, but Kenshin, being Kenshin, was unlikely to comment. Though being caught reading romantic poetry by Kenshin would probably be just as embarrassing as being caught by Yahiko, but for entirely different reasons.
Things had been different between them since his return from Kyoto. Better, closer, but still not quite 'together'. And while she might wish for Kenshin to read poetry to her (and perhaps pretend while reading that he was saying those things), she would still be embarrassed to get caught by him. Of course, that wasn't going to stop her from fantasizing about him…
Smiling, Kaoru recalled the soft look he had given her this morning, like he knew of some special secret that would make her happy. As she opened the book, she noticed a slip of paper tucked inside. She looked at the poem it marked – a bit of sweet love poetry, describing the beauty and spirit of a special woman. Glancing at the scrap a paper, she read:
This one reminds me of you.
-Kenshin