HOHOHOHOHO!

no i'm not santa.... don't even ask... gr....

yo, i'm bleeding_orchid, don't ask about that either, and I don't own kenshin, but if I did, I couldn't be a toys R us... um... nevermind.

yeah... if i make any mistakes with names, like mibu's wolf or bakumatsu, please be kind... i am simply an otaky... :tear:

Kenshin sighed. Kaoru and Yahiko were beating on each other as usual, and there was Sano, flirting with Megumi with taunts... and there were the children, laughing, calling, "Ken-niichan! Ken-niichan!" and begging him to play.

His mind wasn't truly aware of the things around him.

Saitoh had returned earlier that week.

"Himura-san..." the one-time Shinsen Gumi had said. "You shouldn't leave a geisha waiting." Then he had left, left Kenshin, left the comment hanging.

Kenshin wondered. It was true, when he had been in Kyoto, as a boy hardly older than fifteen, the bakumatsu had taken him to the teahouses. That had been before sake had begun to taste of blood.

Kaoru was screaming now, whacking her student with her shindai, making him dizzy. Kenshin sighed. "Geisha," he whispered.

Saitoh turned, lighting his cigarette. "I told you not to come."

The girl stepped from the shadows. "I don't care," she retorted, voice light and young.

"I told you he'll not remember, or care." Saitoh glanced behind him. Several people walked past the alleyway's entrance.

The girl stuck out her chin, her hands buried in her furisode's sleeves. "He will remember."

"You aren't yet a geisha, are you."

"I wasn't a geisha then, and I'm not one now," she replied. She sniffed, her small nose crinkling in the alleyway. "Saitoh-san," she whined. "Can't we find a nice comfortable inn to stay at?"

The Shinsen Gumi sighed. "Geisha," he muttered.

Kaoru was shopping. She needed more rice, but Kenshin was busy training with Yahiko. And Sano... She had promised to buy Sano dinner if he came along as well. So, the langly youth followed behind her, muttering to himself, chewing on a fishbone.

"Sano!" she yelled, whipping out her kendo sword. "Come on!"

"Alrigh, alright Jo-chan... Don't get your panties in a knot."

"WHAT?!"

Sano's face bleached, and he began to dodge Kaoru's attacks. People stopped to stare, silently. Then, young laughter filled the air.

Kaoru and Sano paused to stare at the girl.

Her face was whiter than the lazy clouds that drifted overhead, and only her bottom lip was touched with a taint of color: bloodred. Her hair, so black it shone blue, was swept up into a globe over her head. Her kimono was dazzling, pale blue with a darker blue stream across the long sleeves and bottom, and her obi sparkled with golden threads. Edo-turned-Tokyo did have its own geisha, but this gem was nothing of the old-time fishing town.

When she realized everyone was staring at her, she smiled again, laughing more. "I'm so sorry!" she said, bowing in the way that only geisha can. "But your anger is so silly!" She stepped forward, clinging onto Sanosuke's arm. "Ah! Such a young one you are!"

Sanosuke blushed, and began to babble.

Kaoru's face turned deathly red, and her hand gripping her sword grew white with strength. The girl looked up, and for the first time, Kaoru noticed that her eyes were green.

"Sumimasen!" the young geisha cried, bouncing to Kaoru's side. "Do you know a Himura?"

"Himura?" Kaoru blinked.

"Yes! Hajime-san... eh.... Saitou-san said that he lived with a tall and handsome boy-" she fluttered her eyelashes to Sano who began to babble once more," and a lovely young woman with a hand for the sword!"

"Saitou?"

"Please tell me you know Himura!"

Kaoru sighed, and, without finishing her shopping, guided the geisha and babbling Sanosuke home. As the geisha began to talk quickly to Yahiko, who babbled like the elder Sagara, Kaoru glared, hissing, "Geisha."



so far so bad, ne....