Point to Vesca, who knows where Sano came from! I would expound on that, but I don't want to give it away.
Usual Disclaimers of not owning stuff and usual assertions of owning other stuff.
***********
Hikari raised her chin over Sano's shoulder and winked at Kenshin, "Not really."
Kenshin looked back at her, and everything came flooding back to him, the unity, the comfort and safety he felt with her. Then suddenly the stabbing fear. He remembered the offer she had made him. Why would she come if the time were not now? Was he just going to drop dead right here, or would he have to fight the samurai?
Sano had to try not to laugh, listening to both Kenshin and Hikari's thoughts at once. Both of them were pondering exactly how to get out of this unscathed. While the thought of having to fight the little red-haired man was unsettling, Sano wasn't terribly concerned. He bowed his head and interrupted the cacophony of thoughts, "I beg your pardon sir, but I do not have the honor of being a Tokugawa."
Kaoru clutched the baby close to her, vaguely remembering the woman, though differently and in a much worse situation. The man was wearing the Tokugawa hollyhock openly and proudly. She was concerned he might be a vigilante, though he looked very cultured and spoke quietly and politely.
Hikari finally spoke up, "Not that it should concern you; but sometimes, and I only mean sometimes, I have to deal with other concerns than you. Himura Kenshin, please meet Ichiro Sano, he works for Ieyasu now, and worked for his descendant when he was alive. Now, he's teaching me how to fit in. And we were just walking."
Kaoru, always willing to offer helpful if not always welcome advice pointed out, "Well, this is the Meiji. You might not want the police to see you wearing the mon of the Shogunate."
Sano looked over his shoulder at Hikari, half-inclined to ignore Kaoru, but she reminded him of his own wife, whose passage to enlightenment had left Sano to make his own choice. "She does have a point," he conceded.
Hikari shrugged in response and smiled at the baby, "Well, nice to see you've kept yourself busy." She reached out the little boy who squealed with delight as she offered him her finger to grab onto.
Kaoru looked at Hikari suspiciously, "You're not going to kill anyone are you?"
Hikari looked at her, and the otherworldly gaze sent chills down Kaoru's spine, "Not today."
Sano heard her wondering why she had to suffer with the reputation for killing people. She didn't kill mortals, normally. She preferred to let them live long lives with lots of pain and suffering rather than kill them. Sano turned his attention to Kenshin.
Kenshin was appraising this Sano. He couldn't help feeling a certain possessiveness toward both of the women who were near him, and despite his restored memory, could not shake the image of Sano as a sort of competition.
The thoughts overwhelmed Hikari who looked up from the baby, "Oh, I made him the same offer I made you. He turned me down." She turned her attention back to the baby, trying to listen to the thoughts of both of the very confused mortals and not laugh too much. Some part of her, probably the part that would later become the American judicial code of ethics, enjoyed these little games immensely, and took great delight in the process.
Kenshin inhaled deeply, "I would like the chance to put things in order. I had hoped to watch Kenji grow up, but I don't suppose we can ever really schedule these sort of things for our convenience." Hikari listened to his mind trying to ready him for death and almost had to sit down she wanted to laugh so much.
She extricated her hand from Kenji's and looked at Kenshin, all mirth and amusement gone from her face, "Death comes as a thief in the night, and steals your breath and everything you had wanted to do or have or be. Death does not show up and introduce itself while taking a sunny walk with a friend. Would you please calm down?"
Kenshin remembered then that Hikari couldn't lie. Well, she could, just so badly that everyone knew it was a lie. She was telling the truth. She wasn't there to take him from his family. Just when he had known home, to be moved again would break his heart.
Sano looked at the little family, "Perhaps the sun is getting in the way of clear vision. Something nice and cool to drink in the shade would do us all some good." He pulled off the vest with the hollyhock mons in gold and folded it. He continued to fold it until it was so small it vanished from his fingers. Kenji clapped his hands in delight and Kaoru looked at the man, fascinated.
Hikari nodded, "It is warm."
Kenshin looked at Kaoru for approval before extending an invitation to the pair, "We would be most honored if you would like to sit for a moment in the shade of our home."
The formality unsettled Hikari, who didn't like it when people hid themselves behind a shiny veneer of politesse. She started to extend her hand toward Sano, who looked at her and reminded her that in Japan, she walked behind. She rolled her eyes at him and followed.
But they never made it there. Hikari diverted them away from the path they had been following, and left the young family to figure out what had happened. Hikari grabbed Sano's wrist, her arm covered in the steely metal of her armor.
Sano turned to Hikari as he had usually seen her, the wings and armor and scariness. She dropped her head and they were in the gray spaces near the golden skies of her realm.
"Would you care to explain that?" Sano said, stepping out of the grayness and into the soft golden light of the courtyard of her home. He knew where he was going.
"Not really," she replied.
"Count on you to give an honest answer," Sano said, as they passed into her home, its branches weaving intricate balconies and railings around them.
She shook her head, "I watch him sometimes. Farral's post is still open, and probably will be for a while yet. Not a lot for me to do here. And when I'm there, I want to watch him. I can live through him."
Sano looked down, "You felt that way about me once."
She nodded, settling down on a pile of pillows in a sort of den-like room.
Sano looked at her, "I lived my entire life for you," He dropped to his knees beside her, "All I wanted was to serve Justice, and hope against hope that it would be worthwhile. I'm sorry I turned you down. It was hard for me to understand then."
Hikari nodded, "I had watched you and watched you. It was all very mysterious and fun to watch, and I knew your heart. I watched you time and again take the right way rather than the easy way; and sometimes I wanted to tell you to take the easy way."
"I couldn't," Sano said.
"I know," she answered, "But why turn me down. You lived your life for me, and I came to thank you."
He shook his head, "Justice as a woman? A Western woman at that…I couldn't understand it."
"By nature Justice is fickle, there is something maternal to process of protection and the Western thing isn't any of our faults. Women are mercurial and fickle by nature. Women are also protectors that will happily fell any man who threatens something that means enough to them. If you had ever raised a hand to your son, she would have killed you. It would have killed her, but you would have had to deal with me sooner than you thought."
Sano nodded, "I just couldn't accept the idea of serving a woman."
Hikari leaned forward, "You would never have been a servant. Servants I have. It's friends I need more of."
Her hair slipped forward with her, sliding and flowing over her shoulders and down past her hips. Her eyes still unnerved Sano, who respected the detachment, but despised the chill in those baleful green eyes.
He swallowed, unnecessarily, and met her eye to eye, "Is he actually worth all of this?"
Hikari smiled a little, just a quirk of the lips to change the rosy shape of them, "You were worth it, and I didn't even get you."
Sano bowed his head with a smile, conceding her point, "Very well."
She grinned and winked at him as she leaned back in the pillows, her hair sighed with the movement, "I'm glad you approve."
Sano replied, "I'm glad my approval means so much to you."
*******
Kenshin slipped away after Kaoru and Kenji were asleep, and under a tatami, he found the compartment where he had hidden the feather. It was long and boldly colored in gold and red, like a long flame from his fingertips.
As he snuck out of the house, he couldn't help but see Kaoru and Kenji, and sighed sadly. What was he doing?
He was doing what was best for his family, he thought to himself. He would make Hikari answer for today and would secure her promise that he could live to his son grow up. She kept her promises and wanted him to have a full and happy life. He hoped.