Gin willed herself to relax in his embrace. The man she knew had never been fond of physical affection. He had avoided it, and people in general, whenever possible. Despite this there was no longer any doubt in her mind that he was the man she searched for. He was older, though it barely showed. He was still the same thin short man she had known, but there was something different about him, a softness that had not been there before.
Himura pushed away from her, his violet eyes searching her face intently. "It is you," he whispered.
She nodded. "Hai."
"Kenshin, what's going on?"
It was the girl, Kaoru. She was standing a short distance away, far enough so that the casual swipe of a sword would have no affect. Her estimation in Gin's eyes went up a notch.
"Kaoru-dono, Yahiko, this is Gin," Himura said, embarrassment clear in his voice.
Gin turned. Kaoru watched her with a barely held hostility that was tempered by curiosity. She was nervous, afraid, unsure; her posture, the way she held her hands all screamed it. But she was also willing to fight, that her ki shouted loud and clear. Gin's hand tightened on her katana.
"I am honored to meet you, Kamiya Kaoru, Miyojin Yahiko" she said, bowing deeply.
The two watched her. "Pleased to meet you as well, Gin-san," Kaoru answered automatically.
Yahiko wasn't nearly as polite. "Wait a minute! You come in here, fight with Kenshin, then just think you can bow and everything's all right? No way!"
Gin tilted her head. The boy was fiery, sure of himself, but he was also afraid. "I meant no harm to anyone, I assure you."
His eyes widened. "You tried to kill him! I've seen people fight before, and you weren't holding back a damned thing!"
"Yahiko!" Kaoru blushed.
"I had to be certain that Himura was who he claimed to be. The only way to do that would be to judge his abilities in battle."
The boy seethed, the answer not good enough for him. Before he could retort, Kenshin stepped in. "I'm sorry if she frightened you-"
"SHE?!" two unbelieving voices shouted at the same time.
"Yes, 'she'," Gin answered, staring into their disbelieving faces.
"Whoa, you're flatter than Misao- Hey!" Yahiko growled when Kaoru smacked him.
She turned to Kaoru. "Kamiya-san, I apologize for entering your home under false pretenses, and for frightening you and your student. Please forgive me for this intrusion."
The girl just stood there, mouth open. She stuttered out an acceptance before looking back to Kenshin.
"Gin-san, why are you here?" the question was spoken in all seriousness, and she turned to Himura.
"I learned that you had recently been to Kyoto. It was the first news I have had of you in a decade. I wished to see for my own eyes that you were alive," she nodded again. "Once again, I apologize for my behavior," she turned to leave, resheathing her katana. The slim blade slid effortlessly into the saya hidden on her back, disappearing completely from view.
"Wait, where are you going?" Kaoru called after her.
Gin turned back. The three of them were staring at her as if she'd suddenly grown another head. "Evening is coming, and there are several inns that may still have vacancies if I hurry."
Kaoru smiled. "I would be honored if you would stay with us."
She blinked. This girl, who barely knew her, who had just witnessed her attempt to kill a man she counted as friend, was asking her to stay. "I couldn't impose."
The girl smiled again, walked up and wrapped her arm around Gin's. To her credit the hitokiri didn't react. "I insist."
Gin looked between the three of them. Yahiko was still glaring daggers at her, while Kaoru and Kenshin were studying her intently. "If it would be no trouble-"
"No trouble at all!" Kaoru stepped forward and began dragging her towards the house. "I'm sure you'd like a bath after traveling all the way from Kyoto, Gin-san. Kenshin?"
"Oro? Oh. Hai!" the rurouni headed for the bath house.
Gin watched as he headed straight to the woodpile and began collecting logs. Watching him doing manual labor was something she was used to. When he wasn't killing, he often helped around the inn, hauling water, cutting wood. If he'd known she left their room to watch him from the roof she would have been severely punished. But to see him do so now, ordered about by a slip of a girl, was odd.
"You run this dojo by yourself, from what I understand," Gin said as they walked into the house.
Kaoru nodded. "It is my father's legacy to me. How did you know?"
Gin examined the hall they walked through. Everything was aged and slightly worn, but well loved. "I've been watching this place for some time. I also gathered some information in Tokyo."
Kaoru stared straight ahead. "Why were you gathering information about me?"
"Not about you in particular, but you and everyone associated with Himura-san. As I said, I wanted to make sure I had the right person."
"Why not just ask?"
She looked at the other woman incredulously. "Why let you know of my presence for no reason? If you were not the people I searched for, you would gain nothing knowing I was interested in you."
Kaoru blushed. She was prettier when she blushed, Gin noted. It made her look more feminine. She looked down at herself. Dressed as she was, feminine would be the last thing to enter anyone's mind concerning her. "Ah. I suppose that makes sense," she opened a door. "This can be your room for as long as you wish to stay."
Gin nodded. "Thank you for you hospitality. In truth, I hardly expected it, considering how I made my appearance."
Kaoru laughed nervously. "At least you weren't really trying to kill Kenshin. Everyone else who knew him comes with only that in mind, even when they need his help."
Gin cocked her head at this but said nothing. "Have you had much trouble from his past then, Kaoru-san?"
Her blue eyes darkened. "Some. But things have been quiet around here for some time. I think we were all waiting for something to happen and rock the boat," she laughed, the sound pure and clear in the room. "Look at me, keeping you from your bath. Please, take as much time as you like."

Kaoru fought down the surge of jealousy that engulfed her when Gin emerged from the bathhouse. Without the dust of travel she was actually pretty. The light blue kimono and lavender obi she wore complemented her skin tone perfectly, her hair tumbled in short locks around her face. Even though she still had a boyish cast about her, it made her all the more endearing. Apparently, she wasn't as flat as Yahiko had assumed, since she filled out the kimono rather nicely. Everything she did looked effortless, down to the way she held her chopsticks. Even her politeness wasn't forced.

Then there was the way she looked at Kenshin. No, not looked, Kaoru corrected herself. Stared. Even though they were little more than short glances, they still had all the weight of a lengthy stare behind them. But he didn't seem to notice, or if he did, he didn't comment on them. But that wasn't the most disturbing thing.
The most disturbing thing was how he looked at her.
"So, you live in Kyoto?" Yahiko asked.
"Hai. I've lived there for almost eleven years now, ever since Bakumatsu."
"But you weren't there when we were there?"
"No. I was serving as a guard to the ambassador to Great Britain. I'd only just returned when I discovered that Himura had been in Kyoto."
"So you work for the government now?" Kenshin asked. It was the first direct question he'd given her since dinner started.
Gin nodded. "Yes. I was assigned to the secret police, under Saito Hajime."
"Saito, that jackass!?" "Why him!?"
Gin looked between the young boy and his teacher. "I take it you've met him?"
Both grimaced. "Unfortunately." they answered in unison.
"He really isn't as bad as he makes himself out to be," Gin started. "He enjoys pushing the buttons of others."
"Wait, you're defending that bastard!?" Yahiko looked like he was going to have a stroke. "He comes in here acting all high and mighty, challenges Kenshin, then drags him off to Kyoto..."
"Maa, maa, Yahiko. Calm down. It was nothing like that-"
"Yes it was, and you know it," Kaoru jumped in. "I cant believe anyone would be around that jerk anymore than they had to."
"Kaoru-dono, that's not fair-"
"AND WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING HIM!" both his friends shouted.
Gin watched the exchange. Never had she known anyone to raise their voice to him. No one would have dared. Most found it a harrowing experience to be in the same room with him, let alone carry on a conversation. Now these two children were yelling at him as if he were a common servant. What was even more astonishing was that he was allowing it, amusement glittering in his eyes as he watched them fight for the privilege of yelling at him.
"Don't yell at Kenshin!"
"Why not? You do, Busu!"
"What did you call me?!"

"Busu! Busu, busu, busu..." WHACK!
"Yahiko, that is hardly something you call your sensei-"
"Stay out of it Kenshin!"
"Yahiko, respect your elders!"
That made the rurouni blush to the roots of his hair. Elder indeed. He barely looked more than five years older than Yahiko himself.
Gin looked between the three people. Odd wasn't the word to describe the scene.
"Himura-san, how did you manage to find these two?" she asked quietly as the boy and girl argued.
He smiled. "Actually, they managed to find me. Kaoru challenged me nearly seven months ago. She believed that I was a serial killer that was using the name Hitokiri Battousai. After everything was cleared up, she wanted me to stay."
"And Yahiko?"
"A pickpocket who was in the employ of the local yakuza. They rethought their claim to him."
She watched his eyes lighten. "I'm sure they did."
"Hey, what are you two whispering about?" Yahiko asked, his breathing labored as Kaoru was currently sitting on him.
"Nothing of import," Gin answered lightly. "I take it you lost the argument?"
Yahiko grinned. "No, its just that busu's so damn heavy that... HEY!"
Whatever the boy had been about to say was cut off by a dumpling being shoved unceremoniously into his mouth.
"Quite a pair, are they not?" Kenshin asked, amusement and exasperation in his voice.
Gin watched the struggling duo before nodding. "Hai."
After a few more minutes the two calmed down again, and Kaoru began gathering the dishes. "So, I guess I'll start cleaning. Yahiko, want to help me?"
The boy laughed. "No."
"Yahiko, grab a bowl," Gin pretended not to notice the way Kaoru looked at her and Kenshin, trying to get the boy to see the point. He did, but grumbled as he gathered cups and bowls and stalked into the kitchen.
"As subtle as a boulder, isn't she?"
Kenshin smiled. "Her frankness is refreshing. Kaoru-dono is a good person, with an open and ready heart. She merely as something of a temper," he fingered the back of his head.
"You allow her to hit you."
"It makes her feel better, that it does."
Gin looked to the door, the argument the two were currently having drifting through the thin paper. "An odd woman. But then again, you seem to attract nothing but."
Kenshin drank his tea slowly, staring into nothing. For the barest of moments Gin felt something like guilt, but it was quickly extinguished. "So, I understand that you have been traveling for these last eleven years. That was the penance you finally decided on."
The rurouni looked into this cup. "There was nothing else to do after Bakumatsu, so I traveled, helping people where I could. I even left Japan itself for three years."
That got Gin's attention. "Where?"
"China," Kenshin's eyes lightened at the memory. "There were so many refugees in the ports that I had almost no trouble communicating, nor did another person speaking Japanese seem out of place. After a few months I decided to stretch a bit farther, and headed for America."
Gin lifted one eyebrow as she drank her tea. America, the little she'd seen on her way to Britain, had been less than welcoming of anyone. "How did you like it?"
"I daresay I had an easier time than most, with my coloring," he fingered one of the red strands. "Learning the language proved more difficult than I would have imagined."
"I didn't know you could speak English," Gin said in that language. Over the past three years her accent had gotten rather good, at least enough so that she'd shocked the British people she'd spoken to near the end of her stay.
Kenshin smiled and set down his cup. "Not nearly as well as you," he answered in slightly halting phrases. His accent was still thick, but understandable. "I traveled along the western seaboard before returning home," he said in Japanese. "I heard many things about the east and south of the country, but decided that I needed to see my homeland again. Three years was long enough for the bloodiest of my wounds to heal."
Gin said nothing. So that was how he managed to disappear so completely. The Meiji government had sent several people out to find him in the first years after Bakumatsu, but no one found anything. It had been unbelievable, for how could someone with such unique coloring simply vanish without a trace? "It is something, isn't it?" Gin stared off into the distance. "London was so crowded, the people were dirty and rude. Coming home was strange. I kept expecting to wake up in London again, and have to deal with dressing in those horrible outfits," in her minds eye she recalled the first time the maids had placed her in a corset. "And the food was less than appetizing, though there were a few dishes that I learned to make."
"Like?"
Gin smiled. "I'll have to surprise you someday."
The rurouni suddenly became serious. "What happened, Gin-san. I was told you were captured, and died."
Gin felt what little lightness that had entered her soul drain away. She tried to not remember what had happened to her, letting the memory drift along the edges of her mind in the vain hope that it would eventually fade. "The assignment in Nagoya was a setup. The hitokiri who was supposed to take it was actually a spy. I think some of the Ishin must have known, which was why he was stationed so far from anywhere important. He was to contact the Shinsen Gumi stationed there with information concerning a meeting between Katsura and Himata. A whole detachment was awaiting me at the target's house," she closed her eyes, remembering how the men had seemed to keep coming, how she finally fell beneath them, and fingered the bullet scar on her shoulder. "Apparently, it was decided that anyone captured be detained and kept for questioning. They knew that I must be another hitokiri, one that they had no knowledge of," she grimaced. "Once they examined the corpses they believed they'd caught the famous Battousai, and sent word to their superiors in Kyoto."
Kenshin closed his eyes. He'd been hunted for almost three years before that. The militia must have been overjoyed, believing they finally had the chance to avenge their fallen comrades. "How long?"
"Twenty-six days."
Kenshin felt a wave of sadness wash over him. He'd seen what happened to men who were captured during the wars, those few that managed to return alive. He could only imagine what had happened to her there. "But you escaped."
"Familiarity breeds contempt. When I never tried to escape they became lax in their security. Eventually, one of them made a mistake," It was the last any of them made. She'd killed everyone stationed there, fifteen men dead before anyone truly knew the prisoner was free. She didn't know how she'd done it. It seemed as if she'd fallen asleep, and woken to a house of corpses. "I made my way back to Kyoto after that, hoping that I would find you, but you were already gone."
The two sat in silence for a moment. " When I returned it was like coming back from the dead. Everyone treated me like a ghost in those first few days. Katsura-san nursed me back to health, which wasn't easy. My shoulder and wrist had to be rebroken and set properly, among other things. I was healing for ten months before I had fully recovered. When Katsura-san deemed me well enough, I was turned over to Okubo, and then stationed under Saito for the time being. They believed he was more than capable of reigning in such a volatile person," Gin stopped and took a long drink of her tea. The liquid was still hot, and burned a path down her throat. "There were a few others like us there as well. Most of them have either died or retired now, their pasts a memory," Gin finished the tea in her cup, and stared into the bottom. "We are the last of a dying breed, Himura- san."
"Hai," he whispered.

Thank you so much for reading this!!! Extra special thanks goes to Namiko the anime wizard and haku baiko for their reviews. Thanks so much!!!!

Please leave a donation in the feedback box on your way out!! I love hearing what people think and I do take suggestions and constructive criticism to heart!!! What would you like to get out of this fic? Let me know!!!! All reviews are placed on a shrine next to my computer for moral support. All flames will be eaten with soy sauce and rum (