A/N: Sorry for the really long wait. I wanted to post it sooner. Really I did! What with all this awesome feedback and everything! Thanks a lot for it! I really appreciate it. Well, hope you enjoy more of the chaotic...ness with the Kenshingumi! Yeah, it gets a little random at times but hey, that's what humor is! (I think). Ah yes, in response to a reviewer, I meant for Kenshin to say Miss Jou-chan. He's drunk so he has no clue what words are coming out of his mouth. Baka rurouni. Tee hee!

DAY THREE

Kenshin hesitated but knew it was the right thing to do. His hand inched closer and closer but he didn't touch it. There was no way that he could go through with it. Oh well. He had to apologize to her so it was now or never. Kenshin's hand grazed the mahogany wood and instantaneously knocked on her shoji three times. There was no answer. "…Aaah, Miss Kaoru? Are you there?" He asked as he pressed his ear to the door. The deafening silence suddenly plagued poor Kenshin and he really believed that he deserved it.

Once Sanosuke had filled him in on everything that happened at the Akabeko, Kenshin felt his eyes bug out. Of course he hadn't meant to kiss Megumi…what with her being a slimy kitsune and all. In fact, he would much rather have wanted to kiss Kaoru. And being drunk was a nice plus, seeing how he 'wouldn't' be held accountable for his scatterbrained actions. But things got out of hand and the present situation only made Kenshin further and further away from achieving his main goal. Trying to seduce her in now four days time.

"Please, Miss Kaoru," Kenshin pleaded, hoping that she would slide open the door and forgive him for what he did. "May I speak to you?" Suddenly, she slid open the door and his amethyst eyes locked with vehement and irate azure eyes. Oh yes. He had it coming all right.

"Why don't you go ahead and call me Miss Jou-chan instead? Oh wait! Better yet: why don't you go and sleep with Megumi? You two looked awfully comfortable at the Akabeko last night!" Her fiery tone of voice had caused Kenshin to jump in surprise. "You know, you really have guts to come right to my room and show your face! You're better off seducing the entire population of Tokyo because I'm not going to waste my time with you." She tried to shut the door but with ungodly speed, the legendary swordsman put his hand out and gripped the shoji firmly. "Let go," Kaoru cried.

"Miss Kaoru. I never meant to hurt you. Please believe me when I say that. And from what Sanosuke told me, Miss Megumi was the one who took me away from you," he added gently, Kaoru only turning her nose up at the rurouni and folding her arms. "I never meant for any of that to happen, Miss Kaoru. Someone like me would never play with your heart and hurt you intentionally."

"Well even if it weren't to be intentional, it still hurt, Kenshin…" Kaoru muttered under her breath.

"Please, Miss Kaoru… I don't want you to hurt anymore. I am so sorry for this… you know what…" He said as he took a hold of her left hand. "I will even leave this dojo if that is your wish." Kaoru's eyes widened. "If I hurt you that much, then this will have to be the price I pay."

"Don't be so ridiculous!" Kaoru snapped. "Of course I wouldn't want you to move away." The rurouni sighed an unnoticeable sigh of relief. "That would be totally wrong of me to do. No matter what, you've been a part of this family for a really long time, Kenshin and I couldn't even drag you out…" Silence suddenly befell the pair and Kaoru took a few steps back into her room while Kenshin still stood there, holding her shoji so that it wouldn't close. "What do you want…?" came her inquiring whisper. "Do you want me to forgive you? Is that it?"

"I would appreciate it, that I would." He flashed a well-mannered smile and Kaoru couldn't help but feel the heat creep to her cheeks.

"Oh Kenshin, I can't stay mad at you…" Kaoru said as she smiled at him. And suddenly, her expression morphed into a sad one. "It's just that…well, Megumi kissed you right in front of everyone. I didn't know what to think. And…well, maybe things happen for a reason, Kenshin." The rurouni looked down into her cheerless blue eyes. "…I'm sorry for yelling at you before. Kenshin…this whole mess probably wasn't your fault."

"And if it makes you feel any better, I don't remember doing it…" He replied politely.

Kaoru looked into his eyes and the smile was right back on her face. She unconsciously threw her arms around him, giving him a hug of a hug. "Mmm, Kenshin I'm sorry I accused you of doing it intentionally…" Kenshin froze in her embrace and couldn't believe how easily her mind was changed. He was aware that it always took little for her to throw her arms around him but the fact that she forgave him so easily was something that even he didn't see coming.

Kenshin felt a tear roll down his cheek. Just thinking of the innocence that she possessed made Kenshin a little worried. He didn't want the aforementioned innocence to lead her down a bad road and he most certainly didn't want to see her get hurt because of such vulnerability. "It's all right, Miss Kaoru," he whispered into her ear as she buried her face in his chest.

Sanosuke POV:

FOOD, FOOD, FOOD! Where is the fucking grub!? Damn dice…damn row house, damn so-called friends! I find myself walkin' down near the Akabeko again. I'm like a dog runnin' up to ohagi or something like that. Wait, bad memory of that damn Notaro…. Anyways, the bottom line is, it's so bad that I don't even have food to eat anymore. I can't keep askin' Jou-chan for stuff but I end up leaving their place with a lump on my head every freakin' time!

I hope that Kenshin made Jou-chan calm down. If she's still pissed at him for what happened last night, then he's gonna have a hell of a time with proving me wrong, that's for damn sure. Psh, that's the least of my problems right now. If I don't get any food in me, I'm gonna fall over in seconds flat. I seriously gotta remind myself that thinkin' on an empty stomach is something I can't do anymore. Whatever Kenshin does now is his problem and not mine. Though I'd be lying if I said I didn't care at all, ya know. He's my friend and I really hope he isn't gay… Now I'm freakin' out just thinkin' about it! Damn it!


"I think that being here at a carnival will help ease everyone's souls, that it will," Kenshin remarked cheerfully as he entered the publicity site with Kaoru, Sanosuke, and Yahiko. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision made by Kenshin. And by being at a carnival, he had sincerely hoped that he could for once, take his mind off of his 'mission' to seduce Kaoru. Yahiko was immediately searching for the nearest food stand while Sanosuke kept a close watch as well. "Maybe…we should go and play a game, that we should. And after that…we should eat." Yahiko's eyes lit up once he heard the word 'eat' come out of Kenshin's mouth. And with that said, they all shimmied into the heart of the carnival where activities and entertainment took place.

"Hey Kenshin, how'd it go…with Jou-chan, I mean…" Sanosuke whispered into Kenshin's ear while Kaoru and Yahiko were distracted with desserts from around the world. Kenshin eyed his best friend but didn't really say anything. "C'mon, it can't be that bad…"

"Actually, Sano… she's not mad at me anymore…I think…" Kenshin muttered under his breath. Sanosuke's eyes widened in surprise. "I know…I had the same reaction as you. I never believed that Miss Kaoru would be this forgiving toward me…especially since that little episode last night at the Akabeko wasn't too great." The ex-gangster nodded, pulling out his trademark fishbone and jabbing it in between his teeth. "But I guess this isn't going to be too bad for me…" Kenshin remarked with a shrug. He still wasn't too keen on the idea of seducing Kaoru but for the sake of his manhood, he had to do it.

"Atta boy. You just focus on doing what you gotta do. Remember that there's a time limit," he hummed.

"I am aware, that I am…orooo…."


"Step right up folks to the one and only game of chance! Win big prizes here! Hurry, hurry!" A man called out to Kenshin and the others as they were passing by. Sanosuke looked mildly intrigued since he had heard the word, 'chance.' And not realizing that his luck was incredibly lousy, he walked right up to the event and looked the man in the eyes. "Ho! We've got a thug ready to try his luck!" He continued to shout and Sanosuke looked intently at the game that he had to play. "Oookay then! You got a name there, lucky contestant?"

"Sagara Sanosuke," he said proudly.

"Sanosuke, I'm gonna explain the rules now. There are about thirty cups here, ooh about thirty cups give or take a few shattered ones on the ground right near your feet, sonny." Sanosuke immediately looked down and noticed two or three busted cups. Shaking his head dumbfoundedly, he tried to continue listening to the explanation and did his level best not to focus on the broken china beneath his feet. "There are a bunch of numbers written on the bottoms of these here cups and durin' this game, you can only pick out two. The sum of your two numbers that you pick will determine the prize you get, oh yes the prize." Sanosuke was having a hard time remembering what exactly a sum was…

"Sum…when you add two of those number things together right?"

"Correct! And here I thought you were stupid!" The owner of the game announced, adding his two cents to Sanosuke's scatterbrained statement. "So are you gonna play, young sir? It's only five yen!" Sanosuke clapped his hands together. If there was one thing he knew for sure, it was that he had to have had at least five yen somewhere in his pockets. And so, reaching triumphantly into each and every one of his pockets, he found… lint, a hair, three buttons, and two yen. "Ooooh, SO sorry, kiddo! Next!"

Kenshin really felt sorry for Sanosuke but hey, he wasn't any richer than his ex-gangster friend. "Maybe we should find something else to do, that we should."

"Here, Sanosuke…" Kaoru said, accompanied a heavy sigh. "You owe me big!" She said as she slapped five yen into the taller man's hand.

"Yes! Thanks Jou-chan!" Sanosuke squealed as he handed the money to the man and rolled up one sleeve, ready to test his luck yet again. "All right! Should I start now or something?"

"Yeah, yeah start away!" The man said as he looked to the left for a brief moment. Sanosuke noticed that he wasn't paying any attention and used that to his advantage by flipping over every single cup and using the two largest numbers for the biggest possible combination. "You done yet sir?" He looked back and noticed that the ex-gangster was whistling nonchalantly, indicating that he was indeed finished with his selection. "All right! Let's see what you got!" Flipping them over, the owner's eyes widened in surprise. "Two tens, ladies and gentleman! This has never been done before and here we have a winner! The biggest prize goes to this young man in white!" Sanosuke grinned and began to wave egotistically at the people who passed him by. "So you can choose between any of these three biggest gifts. And since you look about old enough, I'll throw this gift into there too."

Sanosuke scrutinized every option but searched no more once his eyes laid upon a sake set, complete with saucers. "ALL RIGHT!" He shrieked as he pointed to the item in which he most desperately wanted. The man running the store handed it to the ever gleeful Sanosuke. "You guys, I think I might leave this carnival early…I think that I need to try this thing out with Katsu later on!" Kaoru rolled her flashing azure eyes at the now-idiotic-hoodlum.

"Kenshin, you could try if you want," Kaoru remarked, holding out five more yen. The rurouni smiled cheerfully and politely took the money and handed it to the game owner.

"All right ladies and gentlemen! We now have a redheaded man with a cross-shaped scar ready to try his luck! Ready to try his luck at the one and only game of chance!" Kenshin winced mentally. All of the repetition that the owner seemed to use in his speech was really beginning to get on his nerves. "Hurry, hurry! We've got great karma around! Great karma!" The owner bent down and asked Kenshin, "so what is your name, son?"

"I am Himura Kenshin, that I am."

"Whoaaaa, what's with the weird speech, son? You trying to hurt my head? Ladies and gentlemen, what a character this redhead is!" Kenshin rolled his eyes.

Kenshin POV:

Orooo… that man has no right to criticize me when he's the one who feels the need to repeat every single thing! My head is starting to hurt but I just ignore the pain as I look at every single cup. How Sanosuke was able to cheat in that short amount of time was beyond me but I had decided to ignore it. There was a swarm of people around me already as it was. Kaoru too, watched me and I couldn't help but smile at her. And then I made up my mind. Whatever I won, I would give to her.

I study the cups as best I can and pull two at random. The crowd boos. A three and a one. Four. Orooo…. Well so much for making Miss Kaoru happy. The prize that I DO get however is a small porcelain panda. Kaoru eyes light up and I smile contently. Good. At least she won't be entirely disappointed with me. And so I hand it to her and watch her facial expressions. I'm so glad that I can make her happy… though I hope that this happiness can really last… Orooo…

A/N: Hope you liked it! Please review for this starving artist! Thank you so much! Ciao!