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*Disclaimer* Still don't own it, want it though...
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AU-
I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prison
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison
-T.S. Eliot
***
Three days it had taken her to get here.

She had travelled by coach, horse back, boat, and foot to reach Kyoto before Kenshin could have one of his psychic inutitons and catch her. Now she had reached her destination.

She hadn't been caught, she hadn't been killed on the road, and she hadn't lost he nerve.

She hadn't counted on being so scared once she got here.

Kaoru swallowed hard and gripped the cloth bag she had tied around her shoulders so tightly that her fingernails bit into the flesh of her palm and drew blood.

The tiny hut with the kilns behind it seemed to loom over her like a fortress full of oni and blood-thirsty demons ready to leap out and tear her apart. Behind the building, the sun set in a bloody blaze of glory and washed everything over with ruddy light. It took only a small leap of the imagination to believe that the world was burning down around her.

"Come on, girl." she coached herself. "what are you so scared of?"

It's not like he's going to -eat- me! Kaoru thought. Kenshin says the only thing he lives on is sake'! That can't be true, no one could maintain those muscles on alcohol alone. Kaoru shook herself. "Get a grip... just go up , knock on the door frame and if he sends you away..."

"You're late."

Kaoru gasped and whirled to face the person who had snuck up behind her.

Hiko emerged from the copse of deciduous trees that surrounded his home. He had a jug of sake slung over his shoulder... presumably he'd been out getting supplies. "I was expecting you months ago, what kept you? Did my baka deshi get in trouble again?"

"Um... ah... no...." Kaoru stammered. "Things have been quiet lately... except for one or two things..."

Hiko snorted. "I curtained off a corner of the hut for you, it may have gotten a little dusty. Like I said, I was expecting you to come to your senses a bit sooner."

Kaoru bowed. "Then... then you know why I'm here?"

Hiko brushed past her and went into the hut. "Not really, I don't know what reason you have thought up for coming here... but I did know that you would show up eventually." he pulled the reed curtain away from his door. "Come in and tell me."

Kaoru picked up her scant luggage and followed him inside.

The hut was much the way she remembered it except for a corner that had been screened in by some shoji screens that looked just big enough to hold a single futon.

"There's a place where you can put your clothes under the bottom left tatami." Hiko instructed. He sat down by the fire while Kaoru stored her things, when she joined him he offered her a saucer and a bottle of sake.

Kaoru quietly poured herself a drink , Hiko watched passively as she knocked it back and followed it with another.

"You ready to talk?" he asked after her third shot.

Kaoru nodded and set down the Sake bottle and saucer. "It's Kenshin... not that he's been cruel or anything like that... it's just..." Kaoru heaved a sigh. "IT's just that... it always seems as if everyone else is improving but me."

Hiko nodded. "Feeling left behind?"

"No!" Kaoru flushed at her outburst. "Yes... but that not the part that bothers me... it's that I was rolling over and accepting it. What kind of swordsman practices everyday, preaches at the drop of a hat, holds her ideals before everyone else... and then just stands on the sidelines when it comes to a fight?" she threw up hjer hands. "I'm a joke!"

The swordsmaster raised an eyebrow. "I didn't notice you standing idly by when the Juupongatana attacked that inn in town. True, you needed the help from that weasle ninja girl but that's hardly something to be ashamed of. She couldn't have done it without you either."

"Misao isn't a weasle girl!" Kaoru flushed at her outburst, she was touchy about girls being called animal names (especially herself). "I'm not afraid to admit when I need help!"

"Hence your presence here." Hiko finished. "Tell me, when did you stop your training?"

Kaoru shrugged. "When my father died, after that I studied off of the scrolls, worked in other dojos... especially once money got tight, I taught as well..."

"That doesn't exactly replace a sensei of your own to guide through example." the older man intuited. "Well, that explains it. You and Kenshin share a problem... luckily, you are strong and smart enough to fix it. I wish I could say the same for that idiot I wasted ten years on." he snorted and glared at his sake.

Kaoru stiffened. "You didn't waste time on him."

Hiko cocked an eyebrow at the young shihondai and set down his sake. "You're still ready to defend him?"

Kaoru glared down at the tatami. "Whatever reasons I'm here mean nothing when it comes to that. My feelings for Kenshin are still the same; I love him with every scrap of emotion I can muster. I can willingly put my life in his hands and trust him with it." she looked up at Hiko with tears brimming. "but I won't let him live it for me. He has my heart and my soul in the palm of his hand, but my freedom is my own."

Hiko grinned and smacked his his knee as he guffawed. "Where were you twenty-five years ago when I was looking for an apprentice?" his laughter subsided and he wiped a few tears of mirth from his eyes. "Oh yes, you would have used the Hiten Mitsurugi the way it was meant to be."

"I don't understand." Kaoru said automatically and immediately cursed herself for it. She did understand, she could work things out on her own... she just had been trained to ask for explination.

'Think for yourself, aijou.' she remembered her father saying once. 'You don't need anyone to hold your hand, not me, not your future husband. Make your own decisions and blame no one when they are wrong. Learn, grow, become strong.'

'Oh, Ue!' Kaoru thought sadly. 'Why didn't I think of that -before- this became such a problem?'