Standard disclaimers apply.

Kaoru was sleeping, a worried expression on her face. She had been up most of the night trying to decide what to do about Kenshin. She was grateful, as she fell asleep, that she didn't have to do anything the next day except take care of the dojo and Kenshin.

That way it didn't matter how late she had ended staying up until. She didn't have to get up at any set time. So for once, she planned to sleep in.

A sharp pain at the side of her skull jerked her awake a little past dawn. "Wahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Kenshin wailed beside her, his fist holding a handful of her ebony hair while it was pumping up and down furiously.

"Nani?" Kaoru murmured unhappily. She rubbed her eyes wearily and tried to take his hand out of her hair. "Kenshin. . . do you have any idea what time it is? What do you want?" she asked.

In response to her voice, Kenshin stopped crying and started to giggle. However, when Kaoru pulled his hand out of her hair and tried to go back to sleep, he was wailing again.

She sat up abruptly, a cross expression on her face. "What do you want?!" she asked, her voice tight with anger at her missing sleep. The blankets pooled around her feet as she stood up and the cool morning air brushed against her wet sleeping yukata.

She froze, kneeling down beside the bed and patting it lightly with her hand. To her dismay, the sheets were damp. Her patting hand checked over the happy looking baby, revealing that he had wet himself sometime during the night.

Kaoru tried to get upset with him, but he smiled at her. She sighed instead and picked him up, heading for the bathhouse to clean both of them up for the day.

After bathing, an event that went slightly better then the bath she tried to give Kenshin the previous day, Kaoru slipped into the kitchen and prepared some rice water for the baby. He ate greedily and smiled thankfully after he was done.

Kaoru ate several moments later, helping herself to some of the leftover soup. She frowned at her lack of culinary skills. The miso soup was some of the worst she had ever even attempted to make. It was downright gross.

Nevertheless, she ate and then cleaned up the dishes and headed back to her room to change. Sliding the door open, she set Kenshin down on the floor and reached for a kimono that was hanging on a rack.

"Are you just going to change in front of me?" Enishi asked from the bed as she started to change.

Kaoru started guiltily and tied the sash on her robe tightly around her waist. "Gomen, I forgot that you were sleeping in here," she murmured softly.

The white haired man leaned back and closed his eyes. "It doesn't matter. I won't look,'' he promised.

"All the same, I'm going to change in the other room," Kaoru announced firmly. She bent down and picked Kenshin up and reached for the door handle.

"Matte!" Enishi exclaimed. He shot out of the bed, a wild look on his face.

"What?!" Kaoru exclaimed. She looked around, trying to catch sight of what had spooked the older man. Seeing nothing alarming, she turned to look at him curiously.

"Leave Kenshin here with me," Enishi said, leaning back on her futon. "I haven't seen him in a while, and I miss him," he confessed.

"You just seen him yesterday," Kaoru pointed out. "And you need your rest. Kenshin just woke up, he'd just distract you from sleeping."

Enishi looked away for a moment. "I'm just going to take it easy. I won't be sleeping. I could keep an eye on him while you get changed, and I'm sure that you have all sorts of chores to do today so - "

"Maybe later," Kaoru responded quickly and closed the door before he could finish his protest. Her heart was beating heavily in her chest, and she was clutching Kenshin tightly to her bosom.

She realized that she had been worried that Enishi would try and take the baby away from her. She had been thinking that it would be nice to put Kenshin down for a couple of hours while she got some more sleep, but suddenly that plan was dashed to pieces.

She didn't want to leave Kenshin's side until she knew that when she came back for him, he would still be there. Leaving him with Enishi. . . . . she didn't think that she could do it.

There was a good reason for her reluctance to leave the child. If she were Enishi, she would take Kenshin and leave as soon as she was alone with him. That way no one could try and make him change back to his proper age.

She changed quickly in Kenshin's room and stepped into the hallway. Yahiko was standing in front of her.

Hey, Kaoru," he said lightly. There were dark rings under his eyes, and he didn't look like he had slept at all. "Can I . . . . . hold Kenshin?" He wouldn't meet her eyes as he spoke and Kaoru didn't want to hand him over to anyone.

'Stop it,' she ordered herself mentally. 'Yahiko's not going to take Kenshin and run. He's going to just hold him for a second to see what a baby feels like.' The words sounded true, but they felt wrong.

Yahiko held out his hands and she reluctantly handed the small red haired child over.

She watched the older boy's face carefully as he gazed at his favorite swordsman. At one time, Yahiko had wanted to have Kenshin train him. Now there was a chance that Kenshin might grow up to be trained by Yahiko.

"Are you really him?" Yahiko asked Kenshin softly.

In response, the baby giggled and kicked him in the face.

Yahiko traced a thin white line on the baby's cheek. "Do you think his scar will get like it was?" he asked.

"What was that?" Kaoru asked in alarm. She plucked Kenshin out of Yahiko's hands and rubbed his check until she was certain that there were no marks on it. "Don't scare me like that," she snapped at Yahiko.

"Hey, give him back," Yahiko objected. "Megumi, Sano, and I are going to take him to the locale Shin- "

"I don't think that you should tell Jou-chan that," Sano announced from behind the both of them.

Kaoru started and glanced at him. "Why is that, Sano?" she inquired innocently. If they brought him to the temple they might return him to his proper age before she decided if it was the right thing to do or not.

"Because . . . . . . I think that you like Kenshin like he is right now," Sano said instantly. "You don't want him to return to his proper age. You want him to be stuck as a ba-"

At that point, Kaoru cut him off. "What would you know?" she demanded. "What I want is for Kenshin to be happy. Have any of you ever seen him smile like this before?" She thrust a happy baby towards Sano and Yahiko.

"Ken-san was happy," Megumi announced. "I've seen him happy like that before and you can't say that I haven't - "

Once again, Kaoru cut her off. "How often?" she challenged.

"A couple of times at least," the foxy doctor responded.

"He didn't like his past. He never wanted to be recognized as the hittokiri battousai. He . . . . . he's my responsibility, now get out!" Kaoru shouted.

"You can't just kick us out! Kenshin's our friend too," Megumi said firmly. "Whatever happens from here on out has to be a decision made by all of his friends. Besides, even if he's happy now, have you thought about what will happen later in his life?"

"I don't . . . . what do you mean?" Kaoru asked timidly. She was clutching Kenshin tight to herself again and watching them all with restless blue eyes.

"What I mean is, a child with a single parent is considered to be - "

"Be what?" Kaoru snapped. "Are you trying to imply that there was a problem with my upbringing? It was only my father and I as long as I can remember and - "

"But your mother, in spite of being dead, was married to your father. If you even think about raising Kenshin, you'll be branding him a bastard for life. And there wasn't a problem with your upbringing, but you obviously didn't turn out normal!" Megumi shouted.

Kaoru went still. "You're right," she whispered. "Kenshin would never be treated equally with a single unmarried mother. Then he'd ask about his father and - " Her voice dropped off abruptly and she retreated into her room, closing the door with an audible click.

Enishi looked up from the bed. "I want to raise Kenshin," he said after about eight minutes.

"No, Megumi's right, it would. . . . be worse for him in the end if I tried to raise him, and it'd be the same with you. We have to try and get him back to his regular age before too much happens to scar his mind."

Enishi was silent. He spent most of the rest of the day watching Kaoru. She had obviously decided to hide out in her room and avoid all of her friends for the day. She was actually really pretty, he noted. Even with her eyes puffy from crying she still seemed vibrant and -

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. It didn't really make sense to be thinking about her. At the moment, he should be focusing all of his attention on catching her off guard and taking Kenshin away with him.

Then a thought occurred to him, and he knew what he had to do. In the end, it was the only option available. He would have to do it and it would make everything right.

"Kamiya . . . . . .Kaoru," he said catching her attention.

She glanced at him, watching the way his green eyes locked onto hers. "What?" she mumbled.

He took a deep breath and prepared to propose.

Author's notes;

This story seems to be taking a long time to write. I had planned on finishing it three chapters ago. Oh well. So long as everyone likes it I'll continue.

As you probably can tell it's almost time for Enishi and Kaoru to get married. There's a lot of stuff planned for the next chapter, so please don't give up on my story even if I do have to take a while between chapters (it's all my jobs fault. I work way too much in the summer.)