A/N: Look out! Lime alert! Not too bad, just a little.

Glossary: Sho-jii=Outside door, Shin-yuu=Friend,

Chapter Twenty-two

Close Proximity's

Saitou House

The following morning

The Saitou household was in an uproar. The old wolf had taken one look at the teenagers that morning and known instantly what had transpired between them that night, and it had required the combined efforts of Sano, Aoshi, and Hiko to keep the furious blathering father from breaking every bone in Kenji's body. Even the voice of reason and spirit ki explanations did little to soothe the old man's ire, and Kenshin began to fear the worst considering the same circumstances needed to occur between his older son and Saitou's older daughter.

It was going to be a very long day.

"I don't give two hoots in the seven hells if they're supposed to be 'bonded' or not, Himura." Saitou snarled angrily into the smaller red haired man's calm face. "I won't have my daughter's dishonored and treated like so much street flesh. I won't have it, do you hear me? I won't have it!"

"They are not being treated like 'street flesh', Saitou." Kenshin struggled to keep his voice calm and level in the face of the glowering policeman turned enraged father. "Quite the contrary, both of my son's have every intention of marrying your daughter's once this issue of 'The Bane' has been settled... there is simply no time to deal with such matters at the present. 'The Bane' must come first... she must be dealt with and destroyed as soon as possible... THAT cannot wait. Surely you understand that?"

"To hell with 'The Bane'!" Saitou roared and swept his hand through the air in a wild gesture of impatience. "To hell with it all, I say. I won't have my daughters dishonored just so this power augmentation and fusion can be made possible. What if your son's die? What then, Himura? Whom will I marry my girls to after being spoiled as they will obviously be? No one! A deflowered unmarried girl is worse than the plague. They would never find husbands... their lives would be ruined."

"Then what do you propose we do, oh wise and mighty wolf?" Kenshin's temper finally got the better of him and he snarled in Saitou's face. "Perhaps you would prefer to let 'The Bane' continue to run free through Kyoto hunting and murdering where she will until she eventually works her way here to us... which is inevitable. Then maybe you'll care enough about HER to want to get up on your arrogant ass and do something about her. Is that what you'd rather wait for, because if it is, I have my doubts we'll be waiting for very much longer as it is." Amber tinged violet eyes stabbed angrily into the fuming topaz gaze opposite them as Kenshin waited for Saitou to consider what he had just said. The man had to be made to see reason. Yes, the dishonor of the girls was unfortunate but it could not be helped at this point. There was a task waiting to be done, and it was for those four young people to accomplish it, but not without taking certain steps before hand. Kenshin, himself, understood how difficult it was to face ones destiny knowing that certain unusual if not unorthodox things had to be done before one was fully prepared to step onto the path. After all, had he not been in much the same predicament before Kenji was born?

It was not always easy to accept the rules of the game when they were finally laid out before you, but if one is to play to win, one must play by the rules or all will be lost before the game has even begun.

The fury died in Saitou's eyes and a great despairing sigh lifted his broad shoulders as he finally accepted the truth of Kenshin's words. He had known all along the old rurouni was right, but having to give up his precious daughters in the way that was being asked of him was the most difficult thing he had ever faced in his life. No sword battle, no war zone, nothing had ever felt this difficult to him. The painful realities of being a father had never weighed more heavily upon his shoulders than they did at this moment. He wasn't sure he liked it very much.

"I want a small ceremony, Himura." Saitou's voice was smooth, quiet, and calm when he finally spoke. "A blessing from Buddha that at least bonds them in marriage. If we cannot have the fully ceremony before the doing of this task, then I demand at least this token of respect and promise. I believe that is well within my rights as a father to demand, and it can be done with little or no preparation."

"Hai. Saitou. I will accept that condition as long as the arrangements can be made no later than this evening or tomorrow morning. Is that possible? As always, Time remains our enemy in this matter, My Friend."

"Hai. I know a priest who will preform the blessing." Defeated topaz crystals lifted and locked with violet. "He owes me a favor." A small smile crossed Kenshin's lips as he gathered the meaning of Saitou's words and he nodded in agreement.

"Then let us be about it. The sooner the blessing is performed the better. There are plans to make."

"Hai. Preparation will be made for this evening, so have everything prepared before I get back."

"It will be done, Saitou." Kenshin exchanged glances with Kaoru and Tokio. "We will be ready."

Grunting in affirmation, Saitou pushed his long gangly length up off the floor and walked over to a silent but always observant Hiko. "Well, don't just sit there, old man." He grumbled. "Get up off your ass and come with me. I'm going to need all the moral support I can get if I'm going to get through this fiasco." Hiko grunted and heaved his hulking weight up off the floor, but for once had no scathing reply to his old friend's caustic words. He simply nodded and pulled his white cloak closer around his shoulders as they made to leave through the front sho-ji. "Himura?"

"Hai, Saitou?" Kenshin looked inquiringly into the stern face Saitou was wearing.

"I still don't like this." He grated through clenched teeth as his gaze fluttered past Kenshin and lingered fiercely upon the two young men who were kneeling silently behind their father. "I don't like it one damn bit." Kenji and Christian flinched.

"I know, Saitou." Kenshin cast a comforting look over his shoulder as he felt the increasing discomfort coming from both of his son's ki's. "But we must do what has to be done. We must meet 'The Bane' prepared." He allowed the truth of his gaze to lock and hold the troubled topaz eyes that rested upon him. "You know this. In your heart, you know this."

"I know it." The Wolf dropped his eyes and gritted his teeth in tense frustration. "I just never thought it would be so difficult to give up the things I love so much. I didn't know it would be so... frightening." The admission brought a confused look from his wife, but a knowing and understanding look from the red-haired swordsman.

"It is never easy to consider that we may be sacrificing the ones we love for a purpose larger and more important than our love for them, or our fear for their lives. It is a choice that no parent, brother, son, or friend should ever have to face, but face it we must when honor and duty call us, and our lives become based upon the sum of our skills and gifts... not the actual people that we are."

Saitou's topaz eyes rose slowly and he looked hard into the face of a man he had grudgingly learned to respect, and later called his 'shin-yuu'. A man that he, himself, had followed into the realm of uncertainties one fateful night not so many years ago, when choices had to made, and lives had to be risked. The same man had stood before he, and the rest of their comrade's telling them that he would not sacrifice their lives on a journey that was his alone to take. That same man, had spoke of his love for all of them, including Saitou, and revealed how he could not live with any of their deaths on his conscience, and begged them all to leave. He would have braved the perils inside the Palace alone, and considering what they met inside, he quite surely would have met his demise. It had taken all of them doing what their God-given gifts intended for them to do to meet the task, and they had been blessed that all of them had made it out alive. But the truth of the matter was, White Warrior or not, Kenshin could have never done it alone. He had needed their help, and if even one of them had been missing, failure could have been immanent.

The point of the matter was, Kenshin had been forced to place his Father, his spiritual blood brother, his adopted son, and a cherished friend all in mortal danger for the purpose of completing his predestined quest, and although it had hurt him beyond measure to risk even one of them, in the end, he'd had to give in for the greater good and done it none the less.

Finally Saitou understood what it meant to sacrifice for 'The Greater Good'. His paltry furies and meaningless growls meant nothing inside of the larger scheme of things. Kenshin was right. Stopping 'The Bane's' vicious murdering of the citizen's of Kyoto was far more important than whether or not his daughter's virginity remained intact. When compared to lives of thousands and potentially more, his selfish grousing over the necessary relationships between Kenshin's son's and his daughters seemed almost a blasphemy against the God-given gifts that were their's to use and wield as the Fate's saw fit in order to destroy that which did not belong in this world of the Living.

Suddenly he found himself feeling very foolish as well as contrite. 'Pride and arrogance profit a man nothing if his heart is not honorable and his soul is not humble.' Dropping his head down low to his chest, Saitou shook it in a self-depreciating manner as a sliver of guilt sliced through his heart.

"Forgive me, Himura." Saitou spoke softly and in a voice filled with much humility. "It seems you are still teaching me what it means to be an honorable man... as well as a humble one. I was not always very good at being either of those things."

"Of course you were, Saitou-san. It was always just such a struggle for you to ever admit you could be wrong." A slow smile of irony curved the wolf's thin lips as he lifted his shimmering gaze to look at the smaller red-haired Samurai who sat on the floor in his house. A gentle smile was on Kenshin's face just as Saitou had known there would be, and his eyes were filled with twinkling amusement as well as empathy for the tall man's troubled emotions. "It is not easy for one to admit he is wrong, not when it comes to those he loves so dearly."

"Hai, Himura. It is not." With one last look into those dark violet eyes that always seemed to know what he was thinking, Saitou opened the sho-ji and left the house. Hiko followed swiftly behind throwing a look of deep affection and respect over his shoulder at the man he called 'son' just before he pulled the door shut behind him.

The wheels of Fate, it seemed, had finally been set into motion.

Glossary:Koishii=Dear/Darling, Itsumadema=Forever, Ren'ai=Making Love, Aman=Lover, Amor=Love, Doushita=What's wrong?, Nanigato=Nothing, Koibito=Sweetheart, Meito=Mate, Aishiteru=I love you, Setsuai=Love Deeply, Saiai=Beloved,

Despite the chill and bitter bit of the blowing breeze, Christian had gone outside to be alone. His muscle strength continued to improve at a remarkable rate, and he was once more able to stand and walk under his own power. It felt good to be caring for his own needs again; although, he would never deny how pleasant it had been to have Kuumi constantly fussing over his well-being while he had been ill.

A boyish smile curved his handsomely shaped mouth as he lowered his head and allowed his thoughts to turn inward in contemplation of the ebon haired girl with the mysterious blue-green eyes. Oft times he had sensed a depth of strength within her that belied her delicate form, but he had always shaken it off as merely a great need to nurture and care for those in need and pain. How foolish he had been. He should have realized what she was the day he'd gone into trance to speak with Alyse. It had been her hands reaching into the realms of fog and mist pulling him free and bringing him spiraling back to the conscious world, even if he had arrived in it completely comatose.

Somehow, he felt he should have known it would be she that would be the one to be able to reach him. Perhaps the only other person or persons that could have stood a chance at pulling him back would have been his brother or his father, but it was doubtful either of them would have been strong enough to reach him in the place where he had gone. Perhaps it had something to do with their destiny of being meant to be together, like Kenji and Quii. Perhaps that is what had given her the edge she needed besides her incredible psychic strength to reach into the vastness of his mind and find the breathing essence of his soul and bring it back into plain of reality.

He had thought long and hard about this phenomena, and he kept coming back to the same answers over and over again.

Kuumi was a being of incredible spiritual energy and psychic power. She had an enormous gift for insight, and was able to 'see' and 'touch' the feeling and emotions of those around her. She had also demonstrated her ability to 'feel' shifts and changes within the very fabric of cosmic energy that surrounded the earth itself, or at least a very large part it that surrounded them.

She had felt the 'birth' of 'The Bane', and she had felt the fluctuation in the Beasts energy signature when it evolved. She had also been able to 'look' inside of Christian's heart and see past the darkness of his de'Angeles anger and find the purity of his Himura blood. She was the only one, besides his father, who had known instantly that he was not innately an evil person. It was through her eyes that Kenji began to 'see' and understand that his brother was more 'light' than 'dark', thus allowing the strength of his Uncle's powerful 'Sea Spirit' to guide him to Christian's dying soul and save him.

She was his Mate as surely as Quii was Kenji's. She was the missing piece of his heart and the last piece of the puzzle that completed the structure of his soul. She made him feel complete. She made him feel whole, and he knew he would never be able to go forward in his life without her beside him.

He loved her.

"Kuumi." Christian breathed her name as if it were a prayer he could speak to God, and his dark blue eyes closed so he could envision the perfect beauty of her gentle face. "Kummi, me Amor."

"Chri-stan. I am here, Koibito." The gentle touch of her hand coming to rest on his shoulder brought the smallest of shivers to his body, and he raised his head and turned tender eyes to gaze upon her ever concerned face. "Doushita, Chri-stan? Are you all right?" The gentle light of worry was reflected in her large crystalline eyes as she studied his tan face, and she lifted her other hand to softly cup his cheek. "Tell me. Tell me what is troubling you."

"Nanigato, Kummi." He shook his head and covered her hand with his so he could rub his cheek against her palm. "I well. Have thinking."

"What are you thinking about?" She asked as a slow sweet smile curved her soft pink lips. Lifting her hand from his shoulder she carefully swept some of his long chestnut hair out of his face and tucked it behind his ear. "Anything interesting?" Her eyes twinkled with laughter as he smiled and pressed a very tentative kiss into the palm of her hand.

"Hai, Kuumi, think big. Think you and me." She giggled and blushed causing him to grin and reach out with his other hand and touch her face with his fingertips. "Good think." His voice dropped to a whisper as his eyes caressed her face and then dropped to her bow shaped mouth. "Thinking ren'ai you and me, Kuumi." Her eyes fluttered for a moment as the breath hitched in her throat, and then she was lowering her gaze as another blush rose to stain her cheeks a brilliant crimson.

"Where... where did you learn that word, Chri-stan?" She asked in a hushed and nervous voice. "It's not a very common word, and I don't think it is something you would have heard just anywhere. Where did you learn it?"

"Kenji." Was the short honest reply to her astonished question. "He teach new things. Better words. Let Christian talk Kuumi. Let Christian tell Kuumi big things."

"Big things?" Blue-green eyes glittering with uncertainty and anticipation rose to look at him as confusion became a new companion. "What kind of 'big' things, Chri-stan?"

While dropping the hand that covered hers to lightly rest it around her waist, he took a hesitant step closer to her. He listened to her catch her breath as the proximity of their bodies became close enough for the tips of her breasts to brush against his chest, and then he leaned into her and gently rested his forehead against hers.

"Big things like... aishiteru, Kuumi. Aishiteru setsuai, Saiai."

"Chri-stan..." Kuumi's voice caught on a sob of heavy emotion and her hands moved to rest on the breadth of his shoulders as she moved closer to him pressing her body against his.

"Kuumi, my Aman... my Koishii... my Meito. Aishiteru itsumadema." And then Christian buried his face in Kuumi's warm scented neck breathing in the pure essence of her as he allowed his other arm to curl around her back and pull her snugly against him. "Aishiteru, Kuumi." He murmured against the sweetness of her flesh. "Aishiteru for long days."

"Aishiteru, Chri-stan." She whispered in a torn voice that rose from the deepest part of her heart. "I have loved you from the first moment I saw you. You are the other half of my heart, Saiai. I feared I would never see the day come that I could tell you what I felt for you." Her strong young arms wound tightly about his neck and shoulders, and she pressed her face into the dark blue fabric of his gi. "I thought you would be lost to me forever."

"Baka Jou-chan." His mirth filled musical voice softly chided her as he pulled back just far enough to see her teary smile. "Kuumi know more." He tapped the side of her head with the tip of his finger. "Can see Christian not go from her. Christian no go from Kuumi. I stay. I stay all long days." And then he cupped her cheek and gently rubbed his nose against hers. "I no go any day."

"Chri-stan." Kuumi's hands moved to cup his beloved face as she nuzzled him back. "I will never leave you either. I will always be by your side, no matter what happens to us. I will always be with you." And then she watched while the sweetest, and most tender smile she had ever seen on a man's face curved his lips. He nodded and cocked his slightly so he could gently press a soft kiss against the smooth flesh of her cheek.

"Aishiteru, Kuumi, my Aijou."

"Aishiteru, Chri-stan, my Saiai." With one last warm nuzzle into the hollow of her throat, Christian gave into his screaming instincts and made the adjustments necessary to comfortably capture his beloved's lips inside of his own.

It was a soft, nondemanding kiss that spilled the warmth of Christian's love over into the waiting vessel of Kuumi's heart, and with the smallest of moans, she melted into his arms and dropped her jaw ever so slightly. As Christian felt her relax against him, he lifted one hand to cup the back of her head while he increased the pressure of his kiss and parted her mouth a little further. A delicate shudder quaked through her body and one of her hands fisted into the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling him harder into her. He groaned low in his throat and gently pressed the strength of his tongue past the barrier of her teeth and began caressing the moist length of hers.

A long heavy sigh of pleasure and passion filled Kuumi's lungs as she molded herself more fully into her Beloved's embrace, and as instinct began to win out over rationality, she opened her mouth farther and let her tongue push boldly against his. The myriads of sensations that simple action released between them were astonishing and threatened to consume them both. The heat began to pool deep in her belly and there was suddenly no way she seemed to be able to get close enough to him, and as it was, his hands could not seem to find a place on her body where they were content to stay. They were in her hair holding her head still so he could plunder her mouth. They were at her waist pulling her body closer to his so he could feel her heat and revel in the fact that he had filled her with it, and they were on her hips holding her against the rigidness of his heat as he ground it against her inner thighs.

Harsh moans and whimpers began to ooze free from her when he started pressing himself into her softness. She could feel his desire for her, and an answering shudder of need coursed through her making her tremble against him as she whispered his name and pulled his head into the flesh of her throat. The forbidden passions were flaring between them hotter than any fire, and somewhere in the back of each of their minds they began to understand what Kenji and Quii must have felt.

It was intoxicating.

It was irresistible.

It was dangerous.

A fierce shudder passed through Christian's frame, and he crushed Kuumi to his with what strength he possessed. He had never known the feelings of lust or desire for a woman, even during the time he had been at sea aboard the 'Bloody Queen' with Whiskey Jack, he had never felt the need to go ashore with the other men when they went seeking their pleasures. Although, he heard enough stories about their wicked adventures when they returned to make him feel like he'd almost been there himself.

Christian was not a complete innocent to the ways between men and women, he had just never had the need or desire to put to use his vast knowledge about pleasuring the fairer sex... until he met Kuumi. Now his poor mind was filled with hentai thoughts that involved him doing some of the most indecent things to her. He felt as if every ounce of heat in his body was being sucked into his face as the worst blush he'd ever experienced began to burn in his cheeks.

Love and lust. The powerful combination of he two emotions together were almost the undoing of his personal level of control, and Christian gritted his teeth tightly together as he fought the nearly uncontrollable urge to scoop her up into his arms and melt into the trees to find a quiet and very secluded place where he could explore the complexities of passion and desire undisturbed. But he knew in his heart and mind that he had to fight down that urge. Saitou-san was fetching a Priest even now at this moment to come and offer a prayer of marriage over them this very day. Kuumi would be his Wife before the Sun slipped below the horizon, and then he could touch her without fear of being 'caught' or discovered.

He would have the 'right' to touch her.

He would have the 'right' to hold her and make her his, and the bonding between them would be pure and untainted even in his mind. He did not look upon his brother's bonding with his life-mate as impure, but he knew that he would never be able to live with himself if he took Kuumi before they were wed to one another. His Catholic upbringing simply would not allow it, so with a supreme effort born from years of abstinence, Christian gently loosened the ferocity of his embrace around the woman he loved, raised one of his hands, and tenderly began to stroke to her hair in a quiet loving gesture meant to calm them both. A tiny shiver passed through Kuummi's body as she shifted in his arms, and then turned her head so it was resting on the curve of his right shoulder, her forehead pressed against the side of his neck. A deep sigh of contentment slipped free of her lips, and her hands dropped to loosely grasp the backs of his shoulders as she melted into the tender embrace.

Christian smiled and pressed a tender kiss into the bridge of her nose as he spread his feet a little wider so he could support their combined weight on a better balance platform, and then he readjusted his arms and upper body slightly so he could rest his cheek against her forehead. It was a very comfortable and reassuring position for both of them, and neither saw any reason whatsoever to move, so they relaxed confidently against each other and settled into a slow, but natural rocking motion.

"Kuumi cold?" Christian asked gently as he rubbed his hand lightly up and down her back.

"Ne. I'm warm." She snuggled her face a little deeper into the warmth of his throat and sighed contentedly. "Are you cold?"

"No. I fine. Stay here?"

"Hai." She whispered and slid her left hand around to gently massage the nape of his neck. "Stay here." Christian smiled tenderly and cupped the back of her neck as he continued to rock her. The long open sleeves of his blue gi were wrapped around her like a blanket, and she was cradled against the natural warmth of his body. He decided that despite the coldness of the breeze, she was well enough protected that it would be all right if they stayed where they were. He didn't particularly want to move as it was. Having her this close, and knowing that she loved him as much as he loved her was had made him so happy, he hardly felt the chill in the air. It was in that moment that something powerful dawned on him.

'I have to put her in danger...' A cold chill that had nothing to do with the weather shivered up his spine and ended with a jolt inside of his brain shaking him into alarmed awareness. 'My Kuumi has to stand at the forefront of us all and be the one to face 'The Bane'... it is she who is 'The Weilder', not I or Kenji. It is her gift that is strong enough to hold the weapon without being destroyed by. She is the only one who can use it to fight that thing. Mon Dios! I have to stand back with Kenji, and focus my power into a single source while she... I won't be able to help her. None of us will... she will be alone.'

Blue eyes turned deep purple with frightened anxiety as the reality of Fate finally made itself clear within the fabric of his brain. Quii would wrap and focus the power sending it to Kuumi, who would capture it with her powerful gift, hone it into the 'weapon of holy destruction', and then turn in on the Beast. No one really knew what the 'weapon' was going to look like or even if it was going to be some visible. All that was known was that it was going to be the sum of Kenji's pure white power combined with the identical opposite force of Christian's de'Angeles Magick, wrapped together like a mighty rope, and then fused into a single energy stream of unspeakable force. No one was even sure how strong that force would be; although, Aoshi had eluded something about the earth being cracked in half.

No one thought he was very funny. Sano had tried to take his head off, but a quick thinking Saitou had prevented that little foray.

"You've been gone a long time, Sagara." He told the red faced ex-gangster. "Shinomori developed a bad case of sarcasm while you were away, and it tends to raise its ugly head at the strangest times."

"Yeah, no shit." Sano had glared at Aoshi the rest of that evening, but the blank faced ninja seemed completely nonplused by it. In fact, there came a point when the thin icy eyed man had wandered over to the dark haired fighter and leaned nonchalantly into his ear speaking in a quiet conspirital voice.

"You know, you missed the last show, Sagara, but you're just in time for this one. Perhaps we can find something useful for you to do, like watch the kids while the rest of us go 'Bane' hunting? I'm certain you could handle that type of task, couldn't you Sanosuke? Hmmm?" And then, as he turned to walk away, he had given an arrogant wave of his hand as if dismissing the stunned Sano. "We'll discuss it later."

Sano had gone thermal.

It had been a long night, and the thick-headed fighter just could not seem to get it through his skull that the blank faced, cold ninja he remembered could possibly be the same man who was taking such sardonic delight in teasing and tormenting him. It just wasn't possible, and although the man did not once crack a smile or offer so much as a chuckle, the dancing mischief in his icy jade colored eyes was enough to set Sano's temper off worse than anyone had in years.

This was not Shinomori Aoshi. This was some Demon that only 'looked' like Shinomori Aoshi, and the real Aoshi was dead or trapped in limbo somewhere. Sano couldn't figure out why he was the only one who could see that.

Kenshin just shook his head and smiled.

Poor Sano. Nothing ever really changed, but then again, nothing ever really stayed the same either. Each of them were still the sum of their individual lives, experiences, and spiritual gifts. There was no way Aoshi could have stayed the same exact person he had been when Sanosuke had last seen him, but then again, Sanosuke was not the same man he had been the last time Aoshi saw him either.

Sanosuke, the freeloading, gambling gangster was no more. He had evolved into a devoted husband and loving father. Who would have ever guessed that? He had settled into both roles quite comfortably and had become a good provider as well. He had taken a job with the City government, and was in charge of a committee that organized youth groups and taught them self defense, basic survival skills, and helped them find employment. The committee had helped reduce the crime rate by over 30% in the last 4 years and was considered a great success.

Sagara Sanosuke was no longer a bum, and he had given up his 'bad' image long ago, though he kept his 'evil' jacket hanging in his and Megumi's bedroom as a reminder of where he came from. He said it helped him keep the world in perspective so he never got to thinking he was too high and mighty above anybody else. He was still just a street fighter at heart even if he had turned respectful. The hunger and the rage would always be a part of him, even if it was tamed to a point. It would never really go away.

I know that was a quick shift from Christian's thoughts to some background on Sano, but I sort of went around the bend for a minute. Anyway... so much for being done in 2-3 chapters, eh? I guess the story knows better when it's going to be done than I do... it's not done yet. Obviously. But it is getting damn close. Thanks for reading you few who have stayed with. You are my family. KnT