Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin belongs to Nobuhiro Watsuki and Jump comics. ^^ But this fic belongs to meeee!
Kenshin: No more White Russians for you, de gozaru yo.
I had no such thing.
Kenshin: Yes you did, you drank half of your brother's!
Nonsense, that was milk!
Saitou: Ahou.
It was milk, I tell you! Milk!
Kenshin: Enjoy the fic, de gozaru yo.
-saitou carries away an inebriated trikster-
Tokio wiped sweat from her forehead and blinked smoky eyes in the morning heat. Her kimono was sooty, her ribs ached terribly, and her hair hung limply down her back, but she didn't complain. Eiji was tired, and Hajime was silent, his mouth drawn together in a tight line. No, complaining would just make things worse.
They had been walking to the Himura residence since dawn, for their house was now a pile of charred wood and ashes. Hunger combined with exhaustion made Tokio unsteady on her feet, a man brushed past her roughly and she stumbled to the ground on her hands and knees. Saitou's hand was on his sword hilt, but Tokio shook her head and Eiji helped her to stand upright. When Saitou's back was turned, she sighed and rubbed her protesting sides.
"We're almost there," he said abruptly. Tokio merely nodded, but Eiji threw up his arms and began running ahead.
"Why couldn't we have hired a carrrriiiaggge???" he called as he ran past the pair.
"Gaki, get back here!" Tokio placed a hand on Saitou's arm.
"Let him run, Hajime. It's been a rough night." Saitou glared at the boy's retreating figure for several moments before looking down at his wife. His expression softened, and they continued walking towards the Kamiya dojo, which was now in sight.
"Saitou! What a surprise," a pleasant voice greeted them from the front gate. Tokio wondered how this short, redhaired man had known of their arrival, but then she noticed a panting Eiji standing next to him. A pretty girl with blue-black hair and a flowered kimono came out from the dojo and looked at Saitou with wide eyes.
"Saitou, what brings you here?"
"We didn't come for a social call, tanuki."
The redheaded man smiled and gently restrained the girl before she could engage in a verbal sparring match and gestured for them to enter. "Kaoru, will you please show Eiji-kun to the guest room?"
"Hai, Kenshin." Kaoru walked through another room with Eiji following behind, giving Saitou one last suspicious glance. Tokio bowed to Himura Kenshin, for that's who he surely was, meaning the young girl inside was his wife, Kamiya Kaoru. Himura Kaoru? The heat was getting to her; when she straightened from the bow, her head swam and her vision blurred. She placed a hand to her brow and stopped midstep. Kenshin looked at her with concern.
"Saitou, is this your wife?"
"Hai, Tokio."
Kenshin returned her bow, and for the first time she noticed his cross-shaped scar. The infamous Battousai was this smiling, softspoken man?
"Tokio-san, are you feeling alright? Perhaps you should see Megumi-dono while I speak with your husband." Tokio nodded gratefully and followed Kenshin to the main room, where an elegant woman was arguing with a bandaged Sanosuke.
"Next time, watch where you're going before you wander around drunk!"
"Itai!! Go easy, kitsune onna!"
"Megumi-dono," Kenshin intervened, "could you please check on Tokio-san before you return to the clinic?"
The bickering duo looked up in unison at the three standing in the doorway.
"Saitou?! What the hell happened to you? You look like shit!"
"Our house was firebombed, ahou. What's your excuse?"
Sanosuke glared at a smirking Saitou. "I ran into some trouble," was all he'd say before stomping out of the room with a fishbone hanging from his mouth.
"Firebombed?" Kenshin's brow was drawn together in confusion.
"Oh, you poor thing, and you walked all the way here?" Megumi brought Tokio down to a sitting position and began wiping her grimy face with a cloth.
A boy who looked to be Eiji's height, with similar spiky black hair, walked in through the back door. "Kenshin, what's for lunch? You're not letting busu cook again, are you?" He stopped short and looked at the serene woman sitting on the floor, then at the saturnine man leaning against the wall. "Oi, what's he doing here?"
"Saitou and his wife had their house burned down, Yahiko-kun."
"His w-wife?" Yahiko facefaulted while pointing at Tokio. "That nice-looking lady?"
"Hai, this is Tokio-san." Megumi smacked a stuttering Yahiko and threw the dirty cloth at him.
"Go get me a clean towel and some warm water, little boy."
Yahiko threw the cloth back at her and ran out to find the aforementioned supplies. Kenshin drew Saitou away to sit with him and talk in detail about what had happened the night before.
Megumi stood up to find disinfectant for the cuts along the side of her face where she had fallen upon the wood floor. Tokio took the opportunity to look around at the comfortable room. It seemed as if the dojo entertained more visitors than it trained young pupils, but the Himuras weren't lacking in furniture or food, from what she could smell from the kitchen. Her stomach rumbled and she blushed, putting a hand over her midsection.
"Tokio-san, are you hungry? Ken-san probably has lunch cooking, it shouldn't be much longer if his talk with Saitou is brief." Tokio nodded and smiled slightly. Knowing her husband's conversational skills, lunch would be ready very soon.
Megumi applied the stinging disinfectant to the small cuts before asking Tokio if she had pain anywhere else on her body.
"Yes, my ribs are sore, but I think I just bruised my side when I was thrown to the floor," she replied. Megumi pushed aside her outer kimono to poke and prod at the injured area. Tokio winced and bit her lip to keep from crying out when she touched several places on her left side. The doctor sat back on her heels and shook her head.
"One of your ribs is cracked, I imagine you must have either fallen on something other than the floor or have been hit with something before you fell. Did you pass out for any period of time?"
Tokio thought back to the previous night. "I don't, I don't quite remember," she said pensively, "Saitou came in almost directly after the explosion occurred. I don't think it was enough time to have been unconscious."
"Blackouts can occur for anywhere between one second and one week," the fox doctor informed her, instructing the returning Yahiko to fetch her clean bandages. Yahiko grumbled and turned around, heading back the way he came.
Megumi used the bandages to wrap her midsection tightly, "just to keep the fractured rib in place," she explained. Tokio nodded and thanked her profusely, but she waved it off with her hand and double-checked the wrapping.
"It's nothing Tokio-san, you complain far less than the Roosterhead. I wish all my patients were as cooperative as you." Megumi paused, as if unsure how to ask this next question. "What is it like, living with Saitou?"
Tokio smiled. "Very much like speaking with him and seeing him here, except he is a great deal more relaxed."
Megumi's fox ears popped up. "O hohoho, I can't imagine Saitou-san being relaxed, just as I can't imagine Ken-san carrying a tanto and smoking cigarettes." Tokio raised a hand to cover her smile, and bowed once more before standing rather stiffly to her feet because of the tight bandages.
Saitou was sitting at the low table, smoking and watching calmly as Yahiko gnawed on Sanosuke's head, both of them yelling insults at each other. From the lines on his face and the position of his body, she could tell he was tired but sadistically amused at the display. Kenshin was in the kitchen, preparing the rest of lunch.
"Oh, Tokio-san, daijobu? I'm Kaoru, I didn't get to meet you before."
Tokio bowed her head, unable to go any deeper, but she smiled kindly at the young wife who had appeared next to her. "Daijobu, Himura-san. Thank you for letting us stay in your home, I know it was rather unexpected."
Kaoru smiled in return. "Please, just Kaoru. We've had our share of unexpected visitors, and it's good to have finally met you."
"Hey busu, lunch is ready!"
"Show some manners in front of our guest, Yahiko-CHAN!" Yahiko made a face and stuck out his tongue at her, prompting the previously composed young girl to chase him around the house with her bokken outstretched. Kenshin set the food on the table without comment as if this was quite a usual occurrence.
"You've got your work cut out for you, Himura," Saitou remarked, nodding his head towards a now-panting Kaoru. Kenshin blushed and Tokio frowned disapprovingly at her husband. He smirked and put out his cigarette.
"The food is very good, Himura-san," Tokio said quietly.
"Arigatou gozaimes. Eiji is asleep on a futon in the guest room, and now that Saitou has explained your situation to me, I think we should discuss where to go from here."
"I've already told you, Himura, we just need a place to stay until we can find another house in the city. There's nothing more that needs to be discussed, unless you have new information about the Ichihashinsei."
Kenshin placed his teacup onto the table, keeping both hands loosely curled around the sides. "Nothing save that they move fast, de gozaru yo. If it was truly them who burned your house, and if Tokio was their main target, then I'd say it's best to keep her here while you look for another home."
Saitou, for all that it killed him, had to agree with Kenshin. "We don't know if it was Tokio for sure, but the note clearly said 'loved ones.'" His mouth turned down at the last two words, as if he was quite unused to saying such a phrase. Tokio sensed her husband's discomfort and figured that the discussion would be less awkward for him if she were not present. She placed her chopsticks across her rice bowl, got to her feet, and bowed with her hands pressed to her sides.
"Domo arigatou, Himura-san, for the wonderful lunch. Unfortunately, I am feeling very tired from the recent experience. If you could just point me to the guest room…?" Kaoru rose to her feet and smiled, leading the shorter woman down the hallway. Kenshin watched their retreating figures before turning back to Saitou.
"Tokio is a remarkable woman, de gozaru yo."
"Hnn," was all the police chief would say on the matter. Kenshin smiled knowingly and returned to the topic at hand.
"So we'll keep her here, and make sure no one knows of her or Eiji's whereabouts. Today, after you've rested, you can begin looking for an available house nearby. Shinomori Aoshi arrives tomorrow, so today will be a day of rest and repair rather than a day to make plans and battle the Yakuza."
Saitou smirked and lit another cigarette. "Never thought we'd actually be fighting such a beginner's gang. Yakuza are meant to be rooted out and squashed, not studied and strategically attacked."
"Hai, but these are not ordinary Yakuza, de gozaru yo. Their motives are different, and they don't live to gamble and steal. They seem to have an actual reason for causing trouble in Tokyo, though what it is, we have yet to find out." Saitou had nothing at all to say to this statement, and it hung in the air along with the smoke from his cigarette, cloying around the senses like an ugly taste of what was yet to come.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*
"Well OBVIOUSLY they're gone, you moron, where else would they go?"
"Don't get angry at me just because YOU failed to complete YOUR mission!"
"Deng will have all our heads for this, you insolent brat; who's mission it was doesn't matter to him."
"Don't pull that seniority shit on me. What do we do now, fearless leader? Itai!"
"Oh suck it up, I didn't hit you that hard. Send out two more spies to follow their tracks. I want to know where they're staying and who they've talked to."
"What about me?"
"You report back and tell them the woman is still alive."
"Why do I have to? I'll just get punished for your mistake!"
"Look at my face. No, I'm not playing, just look at it. Now, does it look like I care? In ten seconds, this face is going to be very very angry, and instead of smacking you, I'm going to box your ears off and feed them to the dogs! Get going, runt!"
A small, thin figure burst through the door of a small wooden hut, running as fast as it's bare feet could take it down the quiet road. Only the silent moon bore witness to the exchange, and everyone knew She would never tell.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Hajime?" Tokio looked up at her husband as he entered the guest room. He didn't turn around.
"Hajime…" Saitou changed out of his police uniform and into a sleeping yukata, setting his sword on the floor. He kneeled on the futon next to his wife, where she was sitting upright with a book in her hands.
"I found a place we can move into, not far from here. I can probably get re-stationed to the police station here, as well."
"That's good," she commented quietly, putting aside her book. As she turned to put it away, a sharp pain lanced through her side and she fell back to the floor, gasping for breath. Saitou was up in an instant, bending over her and forcing her hands away from her ribs. He pulled back the top of her yukata and found the bandages wrapped around her midsection.
"Tokio, what is this?" His voice was low, dangerous. She tried to regulate her breathing and ignore the shooting pain as she shifted into a more comfortable position on her back.
"N-nothing, Hajime, I just cracked a rib when I fell. It only hurts when I turn a certain way," she assured him. It didn't seem to make a difference to Saitou, but he was silent as she pushed herself up again.
For a while, there was no sound in the room except for Eiji's even breathing and the quietly beating hearts of husband and wife. Neither had anything to say to the other, but it was a comfortable silence, each with their own separate thoughts.
Tokio was thinking about how much of a burden she must seem to Hajime, and wishing that she was safely at home with him far away and out of danger. Separation was difficult, but it was so dangerous when she was near enough to be a distraction! Even when he couldn't see her, it was dangerous that his enemies should be able to find her so easily. Still, she would rather be near him and in danger than safe and apart.
Saitou was pondering other issues, mainly which squads to send out for scout work, and which buffoons he could trust in actual combat with trained Yakuza. But were they trained? He would have to see some of them in action, and soon if they were to come up with any actual plan. His thoughts turned to Shinomori, and then to the shuriken that had been lodged in the wood of his front door, along with the disturbing note. A connection between onmitsu and Yakuza? Perhaps they used onmitsu styles of fighting. Or perhaps they had used onmitsu weapons and adapted them to their own unique styles. He stored that theory away in his mental files, resolving to investigate it in the morning. A soft, barely audible sigh brought his attention back to the slender woman sitting in front of him. Some of the creases in his forehead eased out as he watched her stare off into space, apparently not noticing that she had let herself sigh.
Tokio looked up to see him watching her. She couldn't read any of the hidden emotion in his gold eyes, but she knew by the lines of his face that he was uncharacteristically tired and doing his best to pretend he wasn't. Her hands came up to stroke his forehead and run through his cropped dark hair, letting the telltale bangs fall across the bridge of his sharp nose. Everything about this man was sharp, from his nature to the planes of his face.
"Tokio…" her name was said more as a whisper than a command to stop. She continued her quiet petting, smiling as his eyelids dropped to half-mast. He caught her wrist before she could begin on his neck.
He nipped at her index finger and smirked as she gasped involuntarily. "See how you like it, small one." Tokio drew her hand away and laid back on the futon, grasping the edges of his yukata to bring him down with her. Saitou kissed her forehead and brought his mouth down to her own, resting a moment there before encircling her with his arms and flipping her over in one fluid motion so that she was on her uninjured side.
Letting a small sigh of contentment escape her, Tokio spooned herself against his broad chest and listened to the steady beating of his heart.
"We haven't lain together in a long time, Hajime."
She could feel his shoulders shake slightly as he chuckled. "In both senses of the word." A blush spread across her cheeks, unseen by Saitou.
"Tomorrow, I have to talk to those ahous at the station."
"I'll be here."
"I know. Don't leave the house. If you need something, Eiji can get it for you. If he goes out, make sure he wears a disguise." She nodded against his chest, quickly growing tired.
"And Tokio?" His breath stirred the hair by her ear.
"Hmm?" she asked sleepily.
"This will be over soon."
She smiled drowsily and closed her eyes. "Hai, Hajime. Oyasumi nasai."
"Oyasumi."
Outside, the moon shone bright over the peaceful Himura household, keeping her face away from the evil brewing within the quiet city. She will never tell, but she will watch. Watch and wait for the inevitable.
To beeee continued…