LA! LA! LA! LA! LA!

Chapter 7

Kenshin looked anything but like the friendly Rurouni they had come to love. He wasn't smiling. His mouth was in a grimace unwilling to let him hide his pain from the people he cared most about. "I cause her pain, so much pain before I met her," he whispered out. He was a monster. He is a monster.

"She was to be married to a man named Akira Kiyosato. But he left on a bodyguard assignment. One that I was supposed to ambush. I did, he was so stubborn. Unwilling to die. That is what I thought when I was fighting him. He was the last one to go, he had to go do. He finally managed to get me. He gave me the vertical scar in this cross-shaped pantomime." He told them tracing the scar that he was talking about, putting his finger along the ridges.

Sanosuke, Megumi and Yahiko were stunned by what they heard. How could all this be true? How could their harmless rurouni do something like that? Yes, they had heard all the bloody rumors of the war, but hearing it come from Kenshin, from the Hitokiri Battousai was horrifying.

"Kenshin, you don't have to go on," Megumi told him once she gathered her courage to work her frozen jaw.

"You should hear this," he answered her but kept his eyes on the ground. "It was the first time I had gotten injured on the job." He said the last part with a little venom, the only emotion he showed besides the sadness that consumed him."It would bleed long after it should have healed up. I didn't like it, seeing so much of my own blood."

"When I was going to the inn that we stayed at another hired assassin like me ambushed me. After I laid the final bow on him I found out that our fight had not gone unwatched. Tomoe was standing before me, covered in the blood of the man I had just killed."

They watched him, stunned. That's their beautiful first meeting? How could some one fall in love with some one after a thing like that?

"She offered to help me, I guessed then that she wanted to help get rid of all the blood. But she fainted before she could walk to me. I took her back to the inn not knowing what else to do with her. The owner on the inn took her in for the night. I-"

"Kenshin!" Megumi spoke up sharply. "I don't care what happened. I don't need to know, and if I hear anymore I don't know what I'll do! We already told you your past doesn't matter to us and if you can't see that then we'll help you. But please, don't make me hear anymore of this!"

She was in tears, she couldn't stand the gruesome story enfolding before her. How could the peaceful Rurouni before her hurt anyone? She looked to her left, then her right at the boys she had walked in there with to make sure they caught her drift.

"Yeah Kenshin," Sanosuke agreed. "We don't care what you did in your past. We've already told you countless times that it doesn't matter to us. We won't hear anymore."

Megumi was the first to get up; she walked serenely to the door and waited for them to catch up. Sanosuke walked over to her and with a glance from Megumi Yahiko too left the room.

When they got outside into he crisp night air they all exhaled a sigh that spoke of freedom. Megumi sat down where she stood and held herself to stop from shivering. She knew that Kenshin was an assassin but she couldn't bare the thought of him killing any one. She always thought of him as somehow... pure. He seemed like it when ever they teased him.

"Why'd we have to leave?" Yahiko muttered from in front of her.

"Didn't you see, couldn't you hear how hard it was for him to speak? I do not want to hurt him in any way."

Kenshin let out a little oro after their departure but stayed where he was. He was well aware that they said they didn't care about his past, but he could feel their greed to know more. He could tell it was hard for Megumi to say those words and leave. If he were willing to tell them then why wouldn't they want to hear?

"Kenshin..." Kaoru whispered his name. It was the first time she had spoken since he started telling her the story. He didn't finish telling her the whole story but now he was reluctant to do so. "How... why would..." She crawled over to him and sat down right in front of him. "Did you love her?"

"Yes," came the pained answer.

"Do you love me?"

He looked up from the flooring he had been starring at and looked into her sapphire eyes. "I am unworthy to love some one as innocent and pure as you are. But..." he continued as he saw the disappointment arise in her, "I love you Kaoru. I have loved you since I first met you. You are so beautiful and lovable. How could any one not love you?"

"That is all I needed Kenshin," Kaoru told him resting a hand over his mouth so that no more unwelcome thoughts about his unworthiness popped out. "And I love you too. I will always love you."

Kenshin moved in closer to her, kissing her hand out of the way. "I will always love you too." He hugged her never wanting to let go and she returned his hug. They laid in that warm embrace until they decided to find out more about the other. Kenshin kissed her neck, which let out a high giggle from Kaoru.

The End