Disclaimers: I do NOT own Rurouni Kenshin or any of its characters. I also do NOT own The Beatles or any of their music/lyrics.

Yep, it's another chapter of...sad...depressing...horribly written stuff... _ anyways, this one is a Megumi/Sano fic. Enjoy!

""= Speech ''= Thoughts **= Lyrics

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All the Lonely People...With Whom do They Belong?

*Ah, look at all the lonely people...*

*Ah, look at all the lonely people...*

Megumi quickly flashed a smile at the slightly drunken Kaoru as the doctor went outside for some "fresh air". The night cold bit into her skin, ignoring her once warm kimono as if it was merely a thin covering of silk. Breathing a sigh of relief and depression, she stared up at the sliver moon, the lunar rays illuminating her skin into a breathtaking pale peach...

It had been two days since her friend Kamiya Kaoru and her crush Himura Kenshin had gotten married. Friends from all over Japan had flocked to the large dojo as the news of the famous Himura Kenshin becoming a married man spread like wildfire. Fortunately, Sano had managed to scare off most of the mob, but Yahiko had to gnaw on a few heads to shoo away the extra- stubborn ones.

*Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been*

*Lives in her dream*

Megumi let out a soft snuffle, her greatest dream crushed by a 18-year old raccoon. The fox-woman had planned to win Kenshin's heart, marry him, and keep Kaoru as a friend ("Sano's always up for grabs, ne?"), but even the vixen becomes out foxed every once in a while...

At least she had the chicken-headed idiot, right?

"Oi megitsune, you there?" A gruff but soft voice rang out into the grove that Megumi was in. Quickly wiping the tears from her eyes, she plastered on a smile and turned around.

*Watching the window, wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door*

*Who is it for?*

"What do you want, tori-atama san?" she said coyly. Putting on a face of mock rage, Sano growled out, "Hey, it's not my fault my hair grows like this! You think I –like- being called a chicken head?" he grumbled. Megumi faintly heard him mumbling something that sounded like, "At least it's not as bad as broom-head's..."

Outside she let out one of her infamous, "Ohohohoho!"s, but inside...it was far different.

*All the lonely people*

*Where do they all come from?

Sano walked up to her, making Megumi flich a little. He said, "I noticed you were a little glum during the party...something on your mind, fox?" She replied with a smirk and a, "Hmm, never knew that a baka like you were so perceptive-" She suddenly stopped.

"Eh? Oi, Megumi, why did you stop?" he replied. But then he noticed her eyes were blazing...

Megumi tried to calm her voice and look serene and casual as possible, but the quivering in her speech betrayed her rage. "Sano, tell me...what's that?" She pointed at the multiple red spots on Sano's face, all of which looked oddly like an imprint of someone's...lips?

Sano's eyes bugged out for a split second, then stammered out, "Uh, I d- don't know what your talking about, fox." He quickly wiped away the marks and regained his composure.

Too late.

"You-you BAKA!!" She screamed. She proceeded to vent on Sano, pouring out all the stress she'd gathered over the past few weeks. Punctuating each word with a slap or a kick, she shrieked out, "You-" slap. "tori atama -" slap. "no baka!!" kick. Sano took it all in, his guilt numbing the blows that rained down on him somewhat. Despite that he was being stuck by a doctor, a woman at that (A/N: nothing against women, but stereotypically, women back then weren't exactly beefy...), the fact that it was Megumi made it hurt even more than being skewered by a sword. He would know, since his adventures with Kenshin got him multiple wounds of many kinds.

*All the lonely people*

*Where do they all belong?*

But Megumi wasn't done yet- not by a long shot. "I thought I could trust you!" slap. "I thought I had someone to love and to be comforted by now that Kenshin's married, but you go off with some, some wench?! Have you no sense?!!" smack. Suddenly, her energy flew out from her like a lost wraith, and she went down on her knees sobbing. "I loved you Sano...why? Why did you do this?" Sano could only stare, his guilt now raging at him from inside.

After a few minutes, Megumi stood up and said tearfully, "I'm going home. Go off with your new women. Forget about me." Before Sano could say anymore, Megumi speed-walked as fast as she could out of the moon-lit grove. "Megumi!" he shouted. "Wait!!"

Once again, too late.

For the first time since Captain Sagara was betrayed all those years ago, he felt murderous. But instead of the Ishin Shishi, his rage was directed at someone closer- himself.

'She's right,' he thought. 'I really am a chicken-headed, freeloading idiot of a rooster. I don't deserve her.' He stood up. 'But it's not too late for redemption...I hope.'

*Father McKenzie, writing the words for a sermon that no one will hear*

*No one comes near*

From his tiny long house room, Sano sat deep in thought. "How am I going to apologize to her? Hmm..."

*Look at him working*

*Daring his socks in the night when nobody's there*

*What does he care?*

-About half an hour later-

'Aha! I got it! You are a genius, Sanosuke! This one will sweep her off her feet for sure!' Grinning like an idiot, he headed over to Megumi's clinic.

-Megumi's Clinic-

*All the lonely people*

*Where do they all come from?*

*All the lonely people*

*Where do they all belong?*

As she sat in the dark with a small paper pouch in her hand, Takani Megumi reminisced about the times she and her chicken-head had: Kanryuu's mansion, all those times when she stumbled on drunken men in dark alleys- the list went on and on.

Grabbing the pouch and cutting it open, she dumped the contents into a tea cup full of water. Quickly stirring it, she stopped when the rim touched her mouth. "If you live, Megumi-san, you can live on and repent." Kenshin's words rang through her head as if her head was empty and someone decided to play around with the echo effect inside. 'But what if you don't want to repent anymore, Ken-san?' she thought.

She tipped her head back and downed the whole cup in one gulp.

A few minutes later, Sano stood at Megumi's door. Coughing to clear his throat, he silently prayed, 'I hope this works...'

"Oi, Megumi, I just came by to say...I'm sorry." The silence that answered him seemed to mock at his futile efforts, laughing at his pitiful attempt at redemption. Annoyed a little bit, he said a little louder and gruffer, "Come on Megumi, open up. I know you're in there." Once again, silence.

He sighed. "Megitsune, I'm gonna barge in there if you don't answer me." The silence replied again with another "..."

He sighed again. 'Well, I hope she's not undressed or anything. Here goes-'

He expected Megumi to be on a futon crying, or just asleep. He certainly didn't expect her to be lying on the floor with a shattered tea cup next to her head.

*Eleanor Rigby, died in the church and was buried along with her name*

*Nobody came*

It took Sano a few minutes to gather what was going on. When he did, all he could do was go down on his knees, clutch at the lifeless body, and mutter in a deazed tone, "Megumi, come on, wake up...wake up for me fox...wake up...", each "wake up" crescendoing steadily into a wail. "Megumi! Wake up damn it! Wake up! Onegai! Wake up!!" The blood that leaked out of her mouth somehow made her seem all the more beautiful, hinting a metallic silver at the moon's steady glow...

*Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave*

*No one was saved*

*All the lonely people*

*Where do they all come from?*

Had Sano not been wailing like a lost and frightened child, he would have noticed the drying tears that ran down Megumi's forever closed eyes...

-Megumi's grave, at the end of the funeral-

The setting sun threw an orange cloak over the mourning Kenshin-gumi as they each reminisced about the happy days that they enjoyed with the sly fox-woman. All except for Sano. While Kaoru's teary eyes expressed grief, Kenshin's amethyst eyes reflected loss and Yahiko's fierce brown eyes were pacified by sorrow, Sanosuke's chocolate eyes were as dead as the dying leaves of the nearby trees...

Kenshin softly murmured, "We should go back home now, that we should." Everyone except Sanosuke nodded. As they left, Yahiko looked back and was about to call Sano, but Kenshin stopped him with a gentle touch to his shoulder. "Let him be, Yahiko. He needs his time with Megumi-dono." 'Why did everything have to turn out this way?' Kenshin thought. 'All the joy that we had at our wedding...it just all turned sour...' He let out a short but mournful sigh.

*All the lonely people*

*Where do they all belong?*

-Back at Megumi's grave-

The rising moon once again cast its silver spears at the two lovers in the cemetery. After a few hours of silence, Sano finally stirred. Falling on his knees, he muttered a phrase he said so many times. "Why?"

He continued on, "Why'd you leave fox? I loved you...despite all those times you called me an idiot, or a freeloader, or a chicken head. Why? We all need you, no, _I_ need you here..." He stretched himself across Megumi's grave, doing something he hadn't done in such a long time:

He cried.

As he lay there weeping, he thought, 'All the lonely people... with whom do they belong?'

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And so ends chapter two of my depressing story.

Thank you for your time.