There was a party today at the Aoiya.  Yahiko and Jou-chan had been talking about it for weeks now.  Even Kenshin seemed absurdly happy that they were going to see their Kyoto friends again – but then Kenshin seemed absurdly happy about a lot of things.

Look, Ayame-chan!  That cloud looks just like a little dog, doesn't it?  How funny!

Look, Suzume-chan!  Those two birds are building a nest – isn't that wonderful?

Hey, Sano!  I'm just going to go off and fight someone who is as good or better than me (funny how they were so few back when I was the Battousai, they certainly seem to be crawling out of the woodwork now!) and I'm not going to tell anyone about it because I don't want them to get hurt, despite the fact that most of them are fairly well capable of defending themselves!  Incidentally, I'm going to be breaking my promise to you for the nth time, because I don't want you to get hurt either, forget that you of all my friends are closer to my skill level than anyone and actually have a reasonable chance at defeating me if we fight hand-to-hand (and that's not just because I suck at kempo)!  Say goodbye to Kaoru-dono for me – oh, wait, I already did that!  So I guess you don't have to worry about anything at all, do you?  Isn't it great?

Well, maybe not that last one.  At least, not in so many words.

Sagara Sanosuke sighed and kicked a pebble in the dusty Kyoto street.  At least they had left a few days ago, so they wouldn't have to ride on one of those giant tea-kettles again.  He shuddered at the thought, and bumped into someone.

"Sor'y, man-"

"Oh, it's no problem, young man.  Good day to you."

Sano grunted, and resumed brooding, paying no attention to the cheerful man who had kept walking along.  If he had been feeling charitable, he would have allowed for the fact that, of all of them, Kenshin would probably be the only one who would know what was wrong, and not even Kenshin could be expected to remember everything.  Had he been feeling charitable, he would have recognized, even if only mentally, that Kenshin's sympathy or understanding would, quite frankly, not be worth a damn – not for this.  At least – had he been feeling charitable – he would have understood that he was being very immature sulking over the whole thing like this, and that the least he could do way try to put on a good face, get royally drunk at the party, and hope no one thought anything of it.

Sano was not feeling very charitable today.

Oh, sure, he was being a brat about this, so much so that Kaoru and Yahiko were even now walking a few feet ahead of him, tired with his attitude (Kenshin, the smiling bastard, hadn't done anything to indicate if he had noticed Sano's mood, or indeed, if he had noticed that everyone was looking remarkably vertical today).  But still …

K'so – why did he have to act all happy today, of all days?