Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is not mine…I'm just a wannabe trying to write fics about his work…
Summary: [One shot] A night on the firefly bend where Tomoe visits and talks to Kaoru…R&R please!!!
A/N: My first attempt to write a Rurouni fiction and a one-shot. I'm an ayashi no ceres freak and RK is my second fave anime. I want to dedicate this to my closest friend in the internet, Kaira-san! Also known as Tenshin no Ame or angelofrain. She gives me courage, so Kaira-san, this one's for you…!
The Love Behind the Scar
It was a rainy night but it wasn't that hard. It was quiet. It was still. It seemed almost…romantic. I sat on the grass, leaning on the big tree by the river bend. I was looking for peace but I felt the peace on the dojo is not enough to bring it to my mind and to my heart.
Everybody must be sleeping in the dojo right now. Yahiko maybe murmuring and Kenshin, well, maybe he's sleeping peacefully. Peacefully. But I'm not as peaceful as him or as everybody else. I'm still thinking what caused the cross mark on his right cheek. My mind's been full these days and it's going to blow-up if it doesn't get…free. I need to be free from the chaotic world, from anxiety. I feel the rain; the sound of the water flowing in the river and the light of the fireflies is enough to give me freedom and peace, even for just a while, a moment.
Everything is so quiet now. Very quiet that I can hear myself breathing and my own heart pounding slowly. I wasn't afraid of the night because I feel that the silence in the world around me, the peaceful sound of the river, and the light of the moon, stars and fireflies are there to give me protection and guidance, something Kenshin never failed to give to anyone who needs it.
My mind's pondering again. I still can't believe Kenshin once became a ruthless killer and that he had a wife. Tomoe should have been a good, a strong and a beautiful woman. That good and beautiful to make a Battosai and a Kenshin to fall in love with her. Will I able to replace her in Kenshin's heart? Does he still love her or did he already forget her? I know he didn't. Deep in his heart, there is still a part or maybe his whole heart is still occupied by Tomoe. Can I do something to find a way through his heart? Will I ever surpass Tomoe's great love for Kenshin? Will Kenshin love me as much as he had loved her? Whether he will or he will not, even if he does or he doesn't, it doesn't matter. As long as I love him and he doesn't leave me, I would be more than contented.
The rain stopped as well as the thoughts that crossed my mind. It was blanked…all blanked. I was about to close my eyes in a dream when I heard someone calling my name. Her voice was sweet and I never heard anyone other than Kenshin who mentioned it so lovingly and sweet. Her. It was a voice of a woman but I couldn't see her. Then, the dancing cherries in the gentle breeze revealed and cleared her image to me. She was tall, beautiful and most unlikely, familiar. I felt she is someone I dreamed to meet; she couldn't be her…could she? Confusion struck my mind again but when she went near, I was more than convinced that it was really her. The first love of Kenshin, his late wife…Tomoe! I moved backwards when she went near. I was so amazed with her face. Never have I seen a woman so pretty, so… beautiful.
"Don't be afraid of me Kaoru", she gently said and I loved the part where she mentioned my name.
"Do you know who I am, Kaoru?" she asked as her hands reached out to touch my face. Her hands were cold and it drove my confusion and fear away.
"You're Kenshin's wife, Tomoe", my lips trembling as I looked in her beautiful yet sad eyes. "What do you want with me?"
"I just want to see you. To see the woman whom Kenshin now loved" she answered with a smile as she took her hands away from my face to put it in her lap.
"I see a feeling of confusion, sorrow and sadness in your loving heart, Kaoru. You must let it go so you will be able to get the peace your heart and mind desires. Kenshin loves you. I'm happy he does. You healed the scar I caused in Kenshin's heart. I went away because I wanted to and not because he made me so. I'm glad you managed to help him forget the painful memories of his past and made him happy in the present which I know you will also be doing in the future".
"B-but…I can't. I have no right to replace you in his heart. You were the one he loved and I believe he still…" I wasn't able to continue because her finger touched my lips and blocked it from saying anything.
"He does" Tomoe continued for me and I know she knew what I should have said if she didn't make me…stop. She stopped me from saying than Kenshin still loves her but she said he does. I don't know but why was I hurt? Why did I feel a sword slashing through my heart? I was about to cry when she said something.
"But" I was able to control my strong emotions and feelings and tears from falling when she said that word. "He loves somebody else now. Even more than he ever loved me" she carried on looking directly to my eyes with tears that are about to fall.
"I am the past, Kaoru, you are the present and future." She said still looking at my eyes.
"Here we are" she looked away. "Two women. Different in all aspects but he have something in common… Kenshin", she stopped as her hand lifted my face. "We both love the same man but this same man can only love one of us at a time. He already loved me in the past but it wasn't enough to last in the future but I believe your love for him will last more than a lifetime, more than forever, more than eternity. Love him, Kaoru. Give him all the love and care he needs because he has spent one forever living without any family, any friends to love him and he has nobody, no one to love in return. When he met you, he became what he is today. A man well loved by a family and by friends and a man who loves everyone in return. I was the only one he loved and who loved him yesterday but everybody loves him today and if tomorrow everybody is gone, I know you are still there to love him. Do it today and tomorrow and never ever leave him just like I did. Can you keep that as a promise?" she finished it with a smile but she also shed tears, we both did. I never felt so happy, so glad, so trusted in all my life. She grabbed me and embraced me just like a sister with a feeling I only feel when I'm with Kenshin. She let me go and stood to leave but when she was far away, she turned to me with a smile and lovingly said, "Tell Kenshin I love him and I'll always will" and with that she disappeared. I smiled back and I feel something strange in my mind and heart. I suddenly felt…peaceful…!