Disclaimer: I do not own the RK characters. They all belong to Nobuhiro Watsuki.

A/N: Add a woman. Add another kid to the fray . . . Mix it up and what do you get? The chapter title says it all.

Drive Me Crazy

Chapter 10: Awkward Situations (Part 1)

By: LadyYuina

Suzume and Ayame wandered around the gigantic place they called a home. Mango barked happily and ran ahead of them, always waiting for them to catch up and then going on ahead again. When they rounded the corner they ran into a tall white haired man.

"Excuse me, children," he said politely.

Suzume and Ayame stared up at him in awe - they had never seen a person that wasn't old with white hair.

With the tenacity common to children, Suzume asked, "you have white hair, Mister. You're not old - my grandpa and grandma have white hair too."

"Are you an old man in disguise?" Ayame asked.

The white haired man laughed as he shook his head. He walked around the children, saying, "I need to use the restroom, perhaps we can talk later?"

"Wait, Mister, what's your name?" Ayame was curious to know.

"My name is Enishi."

"I'm Ayame and she's Suzume," Ayame said, pointing to her little sister. "And he is our dog, Mango." Enishi simply smiled, bowed, and walked off.

"We should have asked him where Kaoru was," Suzume surmised.

"Who do you think that man was? I've never seen him here before," Ayame noted, ignoring her sister's late suggestion.

"There you two are!" Soujirou exclaimed. He came up to them and took a hold of one of their hands, leading them back to the living room. "Don't go running off like that - this house is very big. There are many heavy and sharp objects lying around. I don't want either one of you to get hurt."

"We were looking for Kaoru . . . Have you seen her?" Ayame asked.

"Now that you mention it - I haven't seen her come home yesterday," Soujirou made note. "I wonder where she could be?"

"Daddy, who's that woman sleeping on the couch?" Naoto asked, as he entered the house. It was 3:30 pm and they had just made it home from school.

Kaoru stirred for a second but didn't wake up until more talking continued. Cracking a eye open she saw large blue eyes peering down at her. Startled, she opened both eyes and lifted up her groggy head - she did it more slowly than she had anticipated. Her vision was somewhat blurry. She saw a long length of red splotches in the distance.

"Daddy, she woke up," Naoto told him. He continued to stare at the woman curiously. If this girl was his daddy's love interest he was gonna have to do something about it . . . He didn't want another woman to marry his dad and then abandon them once more - not ever again did he want that to happen.

Kaoru sighed when a cold damp towel was placed on her throbbing forehead, she laid her head back down. She felt a hand gently move over her sweaty bangs out of her eyes. Her flitted open and closed - she felt so out of control.

"What's wrong with her, daddy?" Naoto never ceased his rapid fire of questions. As much as Kenshin tried to conceal to him that he didn't know her he couldn't hide it from his perceptive son.

"She has a hangover . . ."

"What does hangover mean?"

"That's a term that you shouldn't learn right now . . . Where's your brother?"

"He's using the bathroom. Who is she? Why is she in our house? Do you like her? Does she like you? Are you two going to get married? Does she have kids? Is she mean? Does she hit children who dislike her?"

"Naoto . . . uh, that's quite a bit of questions don't you think?" Kenshin looked at Kaoru's sleeping form. He still found it mind boggling that she'd end up here instead of the Okita's. "Run along and go play. I think she needs some restful sleep." From experience he knew that it was all too true.

"Don't do anything funny," Naoto warned him. Kenshin laughed - not bothering to take it seriously, yet Naoto was very serious about it.

"What does this button do?" Kaoru pushed it before Kenshin could stop her. The radio came on and Kaoru let out a high-pitched squeak. "Backstreet Boys' 'Never Gone'! I love this song!"

Kenshin wanted to cover his ears when the irritating raven haired woman sang - he would have if he weren't holding onto the steering wheel . . . Her singing suddenly turned into wails of despair as she started to cry - this was even more annoying than her insufferable singing.

"What are you crying about?" Kenshin asked, shouting above the loud music and wailing.

"My precious job! I lost my awesome, super cool job! Aoshi can kiss my ass! He doesn't deserve that job more than me!" Kaoru went silent after that and simply looked to the side. "Look at all the trees - I see birds flying onto them! How come it looks like daytime when I look to the side but nighttime when I look straight ahead? Why's that, Ken?"

Kenshin ignored her stupid questions. "You live with the Okita's, right?"

"No, I don't even know who you're talking about! Besides, Saitou doesn't want me at his place! Take me to yours!"

Kenshin couldn't get her to get out of the car when he drove to the Okita's. Kaoru insistently refused to budge from her side of the seat. Not wanting to look like a total fool trying to throw a woman out of his car, Kenshin got back in on the drivers' side and drove home.

Kenshin sat down on a chair and leaned his head back against the back support part of it. His eyes didn't find peace for long though because his doorbell rung. Groaning with annoyance Kenshin went to answer it. To his surprise he saw his son, Kenji, standing in front of him with two suitcases on either side of him.

"Kenji?" Horror-stricken eyes looked at his son up and down. Kenji was dressed in black from head to toe - atop his head he had on a black baseball cap with no logo . . . even his lips were painted black with dark mascara lining his eyes. Around his neck were chain after chain of crosses and human skull shaped necklaces. He had on a black sweatshirt jacket and black baggy jeans, finished off with a belt chain.

Kenji raised a black gloved hand in greeting. "Yo."

"He's moving in with you," Mrs. Himura demanded, as she came up to the doorway. "I cant stand anymore of his rebellion and irresponsible attitude." Grabbing at a chunk of her hair she showed Kenshin that she was starting to sprout gray strands. She was only twenty-nine, much too young to be getting white hair . . .

"Tomoe - you can't just come barging in here a year later and force Kenji upon me. It was your choice in court that you had custody over him," Kenshin spat. "And it's your fault that he is this way now."

"I don't understand - I raised him to be a good boy but now - now, he's become this hideous dark person.!"

"Gothic, mom, you mean gothic," Kenji corrected her. She crossed her arms and he rolled his eyes at her. "Besides, what do you really know about being a mom. These past few months you've been ignoring me - actually . . . ever since you and dad split. I think you regret taking care of me . . . but your pride got the best of you so you didn't change your mind until now."

"Kenji, how dare-"

"Listen to me, mom!" Kenji stared angry blue daggers at her. "I remind you of dad, don't I? I remind you of everything he is, from his hair color to his face and deep down to the core. Everything."

"Shut up! What would a kid like you know?"

Naoto and Ietsuna appeared on the arguing trio. Ietsuna clung to Naoto as he saw the woman that had abandoned them a year ago - she was here . . . Tomoe spotted them. She looked at them with hateful eyes. Ietsuna cowered under her gaze while Naoto threw her back a nasty look of his own.

"I see you still have those two brats, I was sure you'd return them to their rightful place."

"Don't go adding them to this mess," Kenshin warned.

"They are a part of this - no need to exclude them."

"Naoto and Ietsuna did nothing wrong . . . you just couldn't handle them. After all, it was your idea to adopt them." Kenshin realized he spoke too soon - he could feel Naoto and Ietsuna's eyes on him. Looking inside him to see what was in his innermost depths. "Naoto . . ." Naoto and Ietsuna joined hands as they ran into Naoto's room, locking the door behind them with a sound click. "Ietsuna . . ."

"My dear Kenshin, this just goes to show how much you really care for them."

Kenshin growled - at that moment he felt like punching his ex-wife in the face, yet he restrained himself. If he had hit her she'd made sure it'd been trialed in court as abuse.

"Dad!" Kenji called from the living room. He had obviously slipped inside without Kenshin noticing. "Who's this woman?"

"A woman, eh?" Tomoe smirked while looking at her husband. "Sign this piece of crap, will you? This will relinquish my ties with our pitiful son." Kenshin snatched the document and pen from her as he wrote his name down. He handed it back to her. "Good day, Kenshin. I sure do hope that we'll never have to cross paths again."

"Tomoe . . . wait!" Kenshin shouted. The red-head couldn't deny his feelings for his wife - he thought his love for her had extinguished a year ago but somehow some of the light had remained. Now that light became an open flame again - his heart shamefully ached for her presence. Her hand no longer welcomed his to intertwine with hers.

"Leave me alone, Kenshin - I want you out of my life. At last, I have rid myself of a part of you that I should have done much sooner. Say goodbye to the kids for me." Kenshin was dumbstruck, he also felt as if his heart had shattered into a million pieces. Recollecting them sounded like a painful process as each piece he picked up would prick him. Bleeding blood . . .

Kenshin was utterly heartbroken - even now, when he tried to push Tomoe out of his heart he found it was a lot harder to do than he'd thought.

Going back into the house Kenshin closed the front door behind him. He looked to the bedroom door that Naoto and Ietsuna had ran into - Kenshin wanted to go comfort them, likewise, there was Kenji to deal with first. As he walked into the living room he found his son watching Kaoru sleeping peacefully. She hadn't even stirred despite of all the ruckus that was going on before.

"Uh . . . Dad?" Kenji lowered his head so that the baseball cap hid his eyes from view.

Kenshin knew then, that Kenji felt out of place. It was like he was thrown into a whole new world with different rules and settings. If Kenshin were his son he'd be overwhelmed too. And it must have felt painful for him to be tossed away by his own mother.

"It's okay son, you can live here. If your mother won't love you you'll still have me." Kenji looked up, his eyes brimming over with tears. "Kenji . . ."

"Dad!" Kenji cried, he ran forward to hug his father. This made Kenshin wonder how many times he had or hadn't cried around his mother. But hid guess was that he hid it all along. Weakness wasn't a trait Tomoe liked seeing.

"What your mother did was wrong . . . now - she has abandoned all of us. You are finally truly mine at last, and I'll love you always. Don't forget that."

Kaoru slept on as father and son grieved over the loss of a mother and a once loving wife. Tomoe may have dealt a harsh blow to her family but they weren't going to fall apart at the seams because of it . . .

Chapter 10: END

A/N: Kenji is 13 years old. Didn't want to put it at the top so I won't spoil who the other kid was. Kenshin had him when he was really young! ;P

Merry Christmas everyone!