Story time. I lost this last chapter when the old laptop sorta died. This was right when the pandemic started. So I got a new laptop and things were recovered but file names were not labeled the way I had them on the old laptop so I spent some time recovering Steam, Alpha and Page and then the pandemic got very serious and then my man caught pneumonia and I got sick and well…my readers all know, it was a rough year.
Then suddenly I started getting reviews for this story and I remembered I never recovered this last chapter. So I pulled out the file of recovered documents and….I couldn't find it I spent days opening files but no luck. I did find some old work I forgot about haha so more short stories should be appearing sometime too. Anyways, I did find the rough draft. So, I edited it as best as I could remember so now, finally…finally…

Chapter 24

Three weeks confined to a suite of three rooms and a small courtyard with the highlight of the day being an escorted visit to the bathhouse gave Kaoru long hours to dwell not only on Kenshin's physical attributes, but more dear, more precious, his mind, his words, his character.

She could not believe he was dead, yet all she had to base that hope on was hope itself. No news transmitted to her, although she clung to the comfort that her parents would not hesitate to tell her if word of his death was received. Inside was a constant, sore ache of worry, of loneliness and of love.

Defiance had got her nowhere. Kaoru sat on the stone bench in her little garden, drew up her knees, wrapped her arms around them and brooded. It was chilly outside now, but she missed the open sky over her head and defiantly wrapped herself in her cloak to stay out.

She was in no doubt that she would stay in these rooms until either she agreed to marry, or she faded away. Wisely her father had told her putative betrothed that she had been deeply distressed by her harrowing rescue, that her face had been badly cut and bruised and she could not cope with meeting until her looks and spirits were restored.

Her father was gambling on her giving in. Kaoru was slowly coming to realize that her only hope of escape lay in appearing to yield. The household was in a turmoil, preparing for a banquet her parents were giving to celebrate her mother's birthday. She could hear the bustle from where she sat.

"Aki." The slave whom her mother had sent to serve her, and more than likely to spy on her, looked up from her sewing.

"Yes, mistress?"

"Who is invited to the banquet tonight?"

"Why, everyone, mistress."

"Including my betrothed." She managed a soft, regretful sigh. "I had hoped he would come and visit me..."

"You want to see him, mistress?" The slave put down her mending.

"Oh, I don't know." Kaoru sighed again and rubbed the back of her hand across her eyes "I have been so...perhaps my parents…Oh, I don't know. I am so miserable, living like this."

"I will go and bring you a drink, a posset perhaps. It will help settle your spirits." Aki hurried out, although Kaoru did not risk a triumphant grin. For all she knew there were spy holes in the courtyard walls.

… . . …

Her suspicions about Aki were confirmed when her mother drifted in a half hour later. "How are you, Kaoru? She asked, more pleasantly that she had spoken to her for many days.

"Well enough. Mother is my fiancé coming to your party tonight?"

"Yes, he is. Why do you ask?"

Kaoru shrugged. "I...I had thought he would come see me before now."

"Your father did not wish it until he felt confident of your modest and compliant behavior." She said severely. "Are you telling me you are willing to receive him in a proper spirit?"

"Yes...Mother, being back, living in a proper household again...I realize how very different things are from the barbarian camp. I can understand clearly what is important."

"I see." Her mother frowned. "And if he comes to you, you will say all that is proper?"

"Oh, yes Mother." Kaoru said fervently. "But...it is going to be hard enough to have such a discussion, let alone with witnesses. May I speak with him by myself?"

"I do not see why not." Her mother looked thoughtful. "I think it is best if we fix his affections quite firmly now. I see no reason why, if he visits your rooms after the meal is over and the other guests are watching the entertainers, he should not stay for quite a while. Long enough to fully commit himself." She sent her daughter a very direct stare. "You understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes Mother." Kaoru dropped her eyes modestly to her linked hands and did her best to look both flustered and gratified. It could not be better. Even her mother would not expect her to make love to the man with half a dozen slaves in attendance, and the house would be in such a bustle, no one would notice a cloaked and veiled figure slipping out with the entertainers.

That was supposing she was capable of immobilizing one substantially built senator. Kaoru began to run through the possible weapons in her mind. The small water pitcher behind her bedchamber door seemed the best bet for something she could lift and which was hard enough to knock a man out.

"Thank you, Mother." She said earnestly. "Thank you for giving me another chance."

… . . …

Bathed, perfumed, painted and dressed in fine amber and gold silks, Kaoru fidgeted about her room. She was hardly dressed suitably for either assaulting the unsuspecting man, or for an escape disguised as an acrobat or musician, but she sensed that making at least a pretense of seduction was the best way to lull her suitor into complaisance.

The noise level from the main part of the house was considerable now. The guests were arriving, being greeted, chattering and drinking before being ushered into the banquet. Kaoru tried to make herself relax and plan the best way to hit her fiancé.

By the time she judged the final course to have been served she had already rearranged her room three times. Now the couch sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by flickering lanterns. The eyes of anyone entering would be drawn to it at once and the light would dazzle as they came in from a poorly lit courtyard. She hefted the pitcher standing just behind the door one last time. Perfect. She sent up a last heartfelt prayer for herself, for Kenshin and as an afterthought, for the poor unsuspecting man and set herself to wait.

It did not take long. She heard the catch on the gate into the courtyard click open, then the faint creak as the gate opened and shut. Footsteps cautious, but obviously male, on the pavement.

She pushed the door ajar, so the light spilt out onto the design of peacocks and cherry blossoms and called softly. "In here."

Standing in the narrow space between the door and the wall, looking through the gap at the hinge end, she could see a figure, see a large male shadow of a man in a yukata. There was a rustle of heavy silk as he put his hand on the door, then he was stepping inside. Kaoru glimpsed a foot clad in a house sandal and the hem of a richly dyed and embroidered green yukata, then she swung up the pitcher and stepped out of cover, just behind him as he entered. The vessel blocked her view of his head as she swung downward just as senses started to protest. He's too short.

The man spun around at speed and caught the earthenware vessel in both hands and wrenched it out of her grasp and threw it away to shatter on the floor. The door banged shut, the lanterns guttered and smoked, half of them going out. Kaoru found herself sized in a ruthless grip.

"Oh, my fierce geisha girl," Said a voice she had feared never to hear again and she was crushed into an embrace so tight she thought her ribs would crack.

"Kenshin? I thought..." The rest of her words were lost as he took her mouth. He was not gentle. It was a kiss of possession, of weeks of fear and loss, of desperate claiming. His tongue swept her mouth, testing, tasting, and she answered with a thrust of her own.

It was him! His taste, his scent, the feel of his skin under her hands, the thud of his heart against her breast. He was here, it was a miracle. Then, as the first intensity slipped into something else, and his arms relaxed and his hands slid up to her shoulder blades to hold her more gently and his lips moved across hers in a tantalizing, silent question, she realized that something was different.

The mouth that was worshiping her was not surrounded by a day's growth of beard. The prickle of it did not graze her cheek as he turned his head. Kaoru reached up, pressing a hand to either side of his face. He was clean-shaven and as smooth as a young boy. And that shadow she saw spilling into the courtyard...she had thought it was the senator. Why?

Ice clutching her heart, she raised her hands to his head and found the locks ruthlessly cropped short. She could feel the tendons at this nape, the curl of his ear. Her fingers closed and the short hair slipped from her grasp.

"No!" She said it against his mouth, but he heard her and lifted his lips from hers. Then he opened his hands and stepped back, watching her.

The man in front of her would have fitted in perfectly in the banqueting room just on the other side of the wall. His strange hair color made him stand out some. But he could pass as a wealthy visitor from afar. His shoulders were broad and strong, impeccably groomed save the boyish mop of locks that matched the length of his bangs. In rich silks, the tasteful glint of gold at his neck the only sign of the jewelry he used to wear.

He looked almost like the man she knew, the lavender eyes watching her steadily, the long lashes, the imperious nose that had once been broken, the sensual, expressive mouth, But this man had a strong pointed chin, girlish cheekbones and delicate neck that she had never seen before, only felt under caressing fingers or caught a glimpse of as the wind caught his mane of hair. His sacred hair, the hair of a king.

"What have you done?" She whispered. His words came back to her, it seemed from years before. "You said no man whose hair is shorn can lead, let alone rule. His only roll can be as an outcast or a priest."

"I have no intention of becoming a priest." His eyes on her were watchful, measuring. Was he expecting her to reject him, as presumably his people had?

"Your hair," She said helplessly. "Who cut it?" Had he been defeated, had it come to a fight and had revenge been taken out on the rival?

"I did. Or at least Yahiko did as best he could."

"What? You did this of your own free will?" He must not think she was spurning him as the others must have. She took his hands in hers. "Why?"

His mouth twisted in amusement. "Can you imagine me strolling into the city, let alone this house, looking like a barbarian come to call?"

"You did that just to find me? Oh, no, Kenshin, I would never have asked it, you know I never would have." The tears were pouring down her face. He lifted his, still trapped hands in hers and cupped her wet cheeks.

"I know." His thumbs wiped gently under her eyes, catching the tears. "I had to make a decision, not only about you, but about what I wanted and about what I should do. Come, come and sit down, I will explain, that I will."

Still trembling with reaction, she let him lead her to the couch and sat beside him. "We regrouped after the ambush. All your friends are safe. So is Kaito. We went on to the place we had choses for the decision and there was a long debate. I listened to Kaito and heard my own thoughts, my own ambitions for out people, echoing back to me from his lips. There is nothing I can do as King that he cannot."

"You are you," she protested loyally. "You are the better man."

"He is more ruthless, more ambitious. I threw my vote and my kin behind him, but it was not enough. People were scared, they were unsettled by the loss of Aoshi. The ambush was the final straw. They wanted continuity and I think the marriage of the Emporer's sister into the group as a sign of hope that they will be treated fairly at last."

"I know- I thought it meant that you and Kaito must be dead." Kaoru curled her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in the angle of his neck, so strange without the fall of hair to mingle with hers.

"Oh, my gilded caged bird." His hand pressed her against him. I was free to come for you. I discussed it with my kin, my nearest advisors, and I told them what I planned to do, both to find you, and then afterwards.

I went north to buy land, rather than wait to be given it. I told my kin, and that if it was not what they wanted I knew the new king whoever it was going to be, would take them in. Most wanted to come with me." His lips twisted wryly. Kaoru found herself fascinated by them. She would have to relearn how to read his face now that it was shiny, smooth and new. She never noticed that he was so delicate in the face. Far more feminine than she had remembered.

"Then I told them what I had to do to come for you and told them that they would need to choose another leader, for I would no longer be eligible."

"What did they say?"

"That they would follow me anyways. They conceded that a king must keep his hair, but it seems, in this new world, a leader need not."

"I think," Kaoru said gently, reading in his eyes how he moved he was by that loyalty, "I think that it very much depends on the leader."

She saw his adam's apple moved convulsively as he swallowed, but his voice when he spoke was gently teasing. "You? You mind?"

"The smooth cheeks, no." She decided, finding it almost impossible to stop running her fingers down the smooth planes of his cheeks, along his jawbone. "But the hair, yes, I do miss that."

"Typical woman." He pretended to grumble, pulling her onto his lap. "You leave me the shore of shaving and my hair -" His head came up sharply. "There's someone at your gate."

"Oh no! It's my betrothed! He's come to seduce me." Kaoru said in a panic.

"What?" How Kenshin managed to thunder in a whisper she had no idea. Stifling a hysterical giggle, Kaoru watched him slip behind the door and gesture her to call out.

"I-in here." She called, wondering what Kenshin could possibly be thinking.

"Kaoru, my dear." The senator stepped through the door, smiling widely.

Father has been plying him with drink. Kaoru guessed, holding out her hands as if in welcome.

His face when he felt a tap on his shoulder was a picture of incredulity. He swung round and met Kenshin's right fist, which lifted him off his feet to land with a crash at Kaoru's feet.

"He'll be fine." Kenshin said in answer to her gasp of alarm. "What do you mean seduce you?" he began to drag the unconscious man through the door. "Is there another room we can lock?"

"Yes, that one there. He was coming to propose, and my parents thought, as I was taken by barbarians, it would be best if he, er, committed himself."

"He's taken long enough about it." Kenshin snatched a cloth from her slave's mending basket, tore it into strips and began to bind his hands and feet. "There, that'll keep him quiet, that it will." He added a gag, pulled the door shut, put the stop through the latch and led her back into her bedchamber.

"At first I was not very cooperative." Kaoru confessed. "When my father told me I had to receive him, I said I would catalogue my barbarian lover's attributes and compare them with his."

Kenshin choked back a gasp of laughter. "Oro, how I do love you, my little geisha girl"

"You do?" He had never said it before; the doubts shook her again, then she saw his eyes.

"More than my life, I love you. Can you doubt it?"

"It is easy to be unsure, when you are in love and cannot face the thought of being wrong." She murmured.

"Did I read your lips correctly? Just after you sent me a shield?" His hands has slipped down to cup her rear, pulling her against him, the evidence of his arousal very clear.

"Yes. I love you. Oh, I love you. Oh! That spear! It went right out of my head when I saw you with short hair. I thought you were dead." She linked her hands behind his neck, her fingers playing with the short curls as she stared up into his face, searching.

"It caught in the links of my mail. It penetrated a little, made a mess with the mail, but it's already healed. I am in reasonably good condition to be a bridegroom, that I am."

"Is that a proposal?"

"Yes, it is, my love. At least provide you can convince me that your intentions tonight were not to seduce that senator."

"No. I meant to hit him on the head with the pitcher, escape disguised as one of the entertainers, change into some simple clothes I found in my servant's room and walk until I found all of you."

"Not steal a horse?"

"No." She flashed a provocative glance up from under her lashes. "And how do you plan to get us out?"

Yahiko has been scouting around. It took us some time to find where you lived. He has been delivering your vegetables for a few days, waiting for news of some function I could infiltrate. I thought we could simply walk out together, provided you have something that can cover your face. Otherwise we'll need to go over the wall."

"Not it this yukata." She let her palms slide down his ribs, enjoying the feel of the thick silk over his muscles.

"Kaoru." His voice was husky. She let her hands stray between them, then wander down. "Stop it! When is the best time for us to leave?"

She paused and listened. "Another half-hour. I think. The first guests will be going, but there is less risk of my parents coming out at that stage."

"Excellent." He began to work the folds of silk from her body. "Plenty of time."

"For what?" Her voice came out as a gasp. It was all to plain as her first layer of the kimono, then under robe and shift were whisked away. He stripped off the lovely silk from his own body, kicking off the house sandals impatiently.

"This." It was a growl as he swept her up and down onto the couch, his weight coming over her to cover and possess her as he took her mouth. Kaoru arched under him, cradling him between her thighs, tipping her pelvis to incite him shamelessly. He surged into her and she felt her body accept him as a scabbard accepts the sword it was made for.

"Mine." He said fiercely. "My love, always."

"Mine." She echoed. Pulling his head down again so she could kiss him, nibbling along the edge of his lips, teasing the sensitive skin with her tongue. But he was impatient to her, moving hard already so her head began to thrash on the pillows and she had to swallow her moans of desire.

She had waited too long for him, the shock of his presence was too intense for her to withstand her own body. Her cry as he took her over the edge was swallowed up by his kiss, then he threw his head, holding back his own cry of triumph, but only just. He collapsed into her embrace.

"I love you." She murmured, savoring the feel of his body, still within her.

"I love you," He answered, nuzzling her neck. "The bliss of being able to say it."

She smiled, turning her head to give him better access. "No, don't." She murmured as she felt his thy muscles tense as he began to lift himself away from her.

"We must go. Sooner or later your parents are going to conclude that your senator has been delayed by more than your charms, that they will."

"I want to stay like this forever." She sighed as he slipped from her body and stood up, naked and glorious in the lantern light.

"Come." Kenshin held out his hand and pulled her to her feet to stand next to him. "I love the way your skin looks next to mine." She snuggled up next to him and he laughed. "No! We must stop this before we wake up and find the cocks crowing get dressed Kaoru. Time to leave your father's house, that it is."

She slipped into an old kimono, fixed her hair and modestly covered her head with a veil as if to ward off the chill of the night. She held it across her face like any well-bred matron about to emerge onto a public street. When she turned from her mirror, Kenshin was already dressed.

"So, shall we go my dear?"

It was so easy, slipping out amidst slightly tipsy guests. The slaves were scurrying back and forth, calling for chairs, finding ladies cloaks. Kenshin sauntered through the middle of the it all, Kaoru at his side and they were out into the street in moments.

"Around the corner, Don't hurry."

There was a wagon, it's bulging load sheeted, two figures apparently asleep in the driver's seat. At the sound of their steps, one looked up. "It's them! Kaoru!" there was a gruff bark and a cold wet nose pressed into her hand.

"Hush Yahiko, Saitou." Sanjo, her face just a shadow with the slash of teeth in the darkness of the unlit street. "I'm so glad you're safe."

They embraced, scrambling into the seat together. Kaoru felt their warm bodies, the fierceness of their hugs, the pressure of their lips, clumsy in the gloom, and knew that she was home.

"Let's go." Kenshin said. "We will be at the gate before dawn and then we will meet the others. Megumi and Sano will travel with us, the rest in small groups of not more than five wagons. We will be inconspicuous, unthreatening and blend in." He leaned forward to prod the oxen and Kaoru spared one last glance at her old home.

"I'm not cutting my hair." Yahiko said. Obvious pursuing an old argument as Sanjo began to tease him softly.

Kaoru turned on the cramped seat and slipped her arm through Kenshin's "I love you." She whispered fiercely. "And now I am home."

"So am I. Do you know, I thought I would never have one until we found a place to settle? I did not realize all that I needed was to be where my love was. So simple, so hard to find. You are my home Kaoru, my love."

She pressed against his side, letting her other hand rest on the flat plane of her belly. She hoped that somehow tonight they had created the future, the child she craved so much. She wanted to tell Kenshin, even though it was laughable that she could foresee such a thing. Besides, he would fuss over her so.

Kenshin turned his head and she could sense his smile in the darkness. He took the reins in one hand and slipped the other to lie over hers. She had forgotten his incredible hearing.

"I love you both." He whispered as the wagon rumbled slowly into the night, out of the city and into a new start.

The end