Another Chance: Just like old times
A fanfic set in the Rurouni Kenshin universe
standard disclaimers apply

The Kamiya dojo was empty, save for those who called it home.

Dinner had come and gone -- and despite Kaoru's cooking, Sanosuke Sagara had managed to survive the affair. That it had been quiet was also remarkable. A few years back -- dinners would have hardly ever seemed quiet, with Yahiko and Megumi teasing and torturing Kaoru, or Kaoru scolding Kenshin.

Sanosuke felt a sense of nostalgia as they sat on the wooden porch floor and talked about his travels and the latest news at the dojo. Of course, it was a little bit hard to focus on the conversation with Kenji sitting next to his "Uncle Sano," chewing and gnawing contentedly on his arm.

As the conversation lulled, Sano opened one eye and looked at the kid. "I don't know whether I should be honored or take this personally."

Kenshin chuckled. "I'd take it as a sign of affection."

Sano sighed. A few years back -- Yahiko used to do the same. And now something of that violent affection had rubbed off on Kenji.

Instead of scolding her child, Kaoru smirked. "You shouldn't have told him about wrestling bears out in the Wild West."

"You shouldn't have told him how Yahiko used to attack me, either." Sano gave Kaoru an irritated look. "Just because Yahiko wants to beat me, doesn't mean that little Kenji should start doing it too."

From somewhere around the side of the house came Yahiko's indignant voice. "For your information you big dummy, I will beat you someday!"

"In your dreams runt!" Sano grinned, waiting for the inevitable response.

"Runt?" Yahiko appeared on cue with his wooden sword in hand. "Let's settle this right now!"

"Yahiko!!" Kaoru glared at her assistant master. "You're setting a bad example for Kenji."

Yahiko took one look at Kenji, still affixed to Sano's arm, and smirked. "Kaoru, I don't think Kenji needs any help getting into trouble on his own."

"Kenji!" Kaoru finally pulled the child into her lap. Deprived of his amusement, Kenji started to cry.

When nothing would make Kenji stop, Kaoru gave her husband a pointed look, as if Kenji had suddenly become his problem. "Kenshin!"

"Oro?" Kenshin looked a bit confused.

Kenshin and Kaoru, Sano concluded, were hopeless. Wearily, he offered Kenji his arm.

Kaoru was mortified as Kenji happily began gnawing on Sanosuke's sleeve.

"Kenshin!" Kaoru looked exasperated.

Kenshin smiled helplessly. "Sanosuke and Kenji appear to get along well, that they do."

"You mean, by Sano's standards--" Yahiko interjected. He grinned at Sano. "In fact, it's just like old times. All we need is Megumi-sensei here yelling at you, and it'd be just about complete."

"Ah so," Kenshin nodded.

"Speaking of which, how is that fox-woman doing?" Sanosuke drawled, trying to sound rather casual about it.

Kenshin coughed, clearly not fooled by his seemingly nonchalant attitude.

Kaoru (oblivious to the curious expression on both the men's faces) chattered on as usual. "Oh she's fine. She says that she hasn't been up to much, but Gensai-sensei mentioned the other day that she was invited to speak to a bunch of Western doctors in Kyoto. ."

Yahiko looked pleased. "She's become pretty famous."

"Well, of course," Kenshin smiled, "She's the last of the Takani clan now. And from what we hear, her skill has become very much equal to that of her father's."

"And--" Yahiko seemed to stand taller, "--we can't forget that she was once one of the Kenshin-gumi."

Kenshin coughed, embarrassed.

"No reason to look so put out, Kenshin." Yahiko said proudly. "If we hadn't come along, who knows what she'd be doing now. "

Sano laughed."Kenshin is still the same old modest guy, Yahiko. You know better than to talk about the Kenshin-gumi. It makes him feel like he's leading some kind of warrior clan. We'll leave that stuff to you Yahiko."

As a tough look briefly crossed Yahiko's face, Sanosuke couldn't help but give Yahiko a fond smile. His declarations of pursuing the way of the samurai had seemed rather improbable a few years back, but it wasn't such an odd thing to believe any more. It was clear from how much Kaoru trusted Yahiko with the training at the dojo that Yahiko was very skilled.

"So Sanosuke," Kaoru spoke up as she finally coaxed Kenji away from Sano with a piece of candy. "What about you? Will you keep traveling?"

"Nah." He looked up at the sky again. "I think I've seen enough of the world now to know that there are some things more important than wandering around aimlessly. Besides," he turned back and looked at the three of them, "I think it's time I came back and actually did something about this Meiji government."

He laughed at the shocked silence that followed. "I'm not plotting to overthrow things. I just need some time to think. I'm going to go visit some old friends, and 'acquaintances' and see if anything I learned the past five years can be used in this era."

"Sanosuke," Kenshin's tone of voice turned quite serious."The police are quite strict these days. No goofing off."

"Ah, that's okay," Sano grinned. "The police are the first people I'll see, or rather -- take on."

"Sano!!" Kaoru and Yahiko glared at him.

Sano's expression soured. "You folks have gotten way too serious these past few years. I'm only kidding. I have no plans to take on the police force or beat up anyone."

He could see their shoulders sag in relief. Impishly he added, "Other than Saitou, of course."

"Saitou!" Yahiko didn't know whether to look awed or concerned.

Kenshin laughed nervously. "Well, I'm sure Saitou will be pleased to hear that."

Kaoru glared at Kenshin for not immediately scolding Sanosuke. She turned to Sano. "Don't be such an idiot. Just because you apparently have learned some things while traveling doesn't mean that that man isn't dangerous. Besides which -- you have to remember that he has a family."

"From what we know, he adopted Eiji, that he did." Kenshin spoke up.

"And we've heard rumors of two other children. Two girls, I think." Kaoru added, somewhat uncertain of her information.*

Sano's mouth twitched."A family man, huh? Two little girls?" Sano started to laugh. "That's justice for you!"

When he didn't stop laughing, Kaoru glared at him. "What happens to be wrong with having girls!?!"

"Oh nothing, Jou-chan," Sano grinned. "But I still can't even get used to the idea of that jerk having a wife and a bunch of kids calling him 'Papa.'" His expression turned slightly mischievous. "I think I'll just have to write the 'family man' a letter of congratulations and tell him that for his kids' sake I won't beat him up. As for my visit to the police, I'll just have to skip it."

Kenshin turned an amused look in his direction. "Then do you mean to see Megumi-dono first?"

Sano gave Kenshin a dirty look as Yahiko and Kaoru began staring at him intently. Kenshin merely smiled that annoyingly innocent smile of his.

Sano rubbed his arm."Well, now that Kenji has pretty much ruined my arm, I think I'm going to need to see a doctor."

"Gosh, Sanosuke," Yahiko smirked. "It's only a few bites. You don't have to go all the way up to see Megumi-san in Aizu. I'm sure that it's something even Kaoru could fix ."

"What do you mean by that?" Kaoru's attention shifted to Yahiko. "I'll have you know I'm very good with injuries."

"Yeah, yeah," the boy sneered. "You're still using Megumi's medicine chest for most of the injuries here or sending for Dr. Gensei. It's not like you know what you're doing."

As Kaoru's eyes turned dark, he could see Kenshin's face grow alarmed.

Sanosuke cleared his throat. "So—is the doctor still in the same place? Or did she move from Aizu?"

The two sometimes were so easily distracted. Kaoru immediately forgot Yahiko. "She's in Aizu Wakamatsu."

"By herself?" The question slipped out before he could realize how damaging it could sound. "I mean--" he added hastily, "Did she ever find her family?"

"No." All three gave him a suspicious look before Kaoru answered. "She tried, but from what Gensei-sensei said, it's pretty much hopeless."

He frowned. "So why is she still up there? I stopped by Gensei's old clinic and the doc there told me Gensei had offered her the practice."

"You know her, Sano." Yahiko shrugged. "Gensei tried hard to convince her to come, but she insisted on staying up in Aizu."

Sanosuke puzzled over this question for a moment. Did she still have hopes of finding her family? Or was there some other reason? "Stubborn fox. If it were me, I would have dragged her down here."

Kenshin looked at Sano and smiled. "Perhaps you should tell her that when you see her."

"It would be nice to see her again," Kaoru added quietly. "We haven't seen her more than once when she came down to see the cherry blossoms with us."

Sano realized then that they were actually encouraging him to go see the doctor. To remind her of the people that cared for her. He frowned though as he considered that his efforts might in fact backfire. He rubbed his head. "Uhh- in case I do go up there and pay her a visit -- the last time you saw her, she didn't say whether she was mad at me by any chance? I don't want to go all the way up there only to have her beat me over the head."

Kaoru and Yahiko gave Sano a disgusted look.

Sano looked at them puzzled. Why did they seem so irritated by his question? "What?!"

" 'In case you do go'? " Yahiko rolled his eyes. "Why do you keep making lameass excuses?"

Sano frowned. "Who's making excuses?"

"Even I know that you want to go see her," Yahiko muttered.

Kaoru glared at Sano, "And you're being so insensitive. You haven't written a word to her these past five years. Don't you think Megumi-san would like to see you? Don't be—"

"—such a" Yahiko added.

"—roosterhead!" they yelled in unison.

"Roosterhead?!" A dark cloud settled over Sanosuke. He leapt up. "Who ya calling roosterhead?"

Yahiko slammed his pole on the ground. "What kind of fighter is afraid of a woman? You're a big chicken through and through!"

"Eh--" Kenshin weakly tried to interject, noticing that Kaoru had started to turn interesting shades of red. Noting no effect, he reached in and quietly took Kenji from Kaoru.

Sanosuke suddenly realized the danger he was in as well. He slowly edged himself away from Kaoru and silently began counting to himself.

One.

Two

Three.

Kaoru jumped up and collared Yahiko. "What's wrong with women?!!"

"For the record--" Sano interjected. "I'm not afraid of a mere woman."

Kaoru forgot Yahiko and turned back to Sano. Her voice had turned even more dangerous. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Ah geez, Kaoru." Yahiko was annoyed. "We're talking about Megumi-san here. It's just Megumi-san!"

"Yahiko-chan," Kaoru suddenly turned her attention back to Yahiko. "Don't talk about your elders in that way!"

"Elder?!?!" Yahiko's nostrils flared. "I'm not a kid anymore!"

"Yes you are, kid." Sanosuke grinned as he placed emphasis on his last word.

And with that, the fighting amongst the three seemed destined to grow worse.

"Everyone, please." The only other adult present was trying desperately to calm the situation. However, Kenshin's plea fell uselessly on deaf ears. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, he quietly retreated into the house, with a stunned Kenji in tow. All in all, given their mutual history, things like this were to be expected.

It was just another "quiet" dinner at the Kamiyo dojo, ruined.


Author's notes. While reformatting and editing this part, I changed some of the dialogue slightly more to bring Yahiko more in line with his age at this time (15-16). This does preced the Yahiko epilogue that appeared in Shonen Jump and so he does not yet have Kenshin's sakabatou. For the most part, Yahiko should appear to be a little more mature, although apparently still prone to being irritated by the right combination of persons.

*Just for your information, the historical Hajime Saitou did not have girls. He had three boys :-)