A Wanderer's Sword:

A Sequel to "Broken Hearts"

Ch. 3

Stirring Up Trouble

Author's Note: When I read some of my reviews I realized that I haven't been expressing time understandably. Just to catch you up: Kenshin and Kaoru were married in late summer will the last chapter was in late fall going into early winter….that's a two or three months people!

"All's fair in love and war…" Right? No, I thought so too! But love and war was exactly what was troubling Kaoru on a cold winter's day early in the morning. She was taking down the laundry from the line, which she had so absentmindedly left out all night, and was folding the cold cloth gently while humming breathlessly when a hard cold wind swept up through her hair. She shivered; the weather sure had been strange in the past few weeks.

But the weather wasn't the only thing that was acting strange; she had spotted Kenshin looking off into the distance, daydreaming halfheartedly. On more than one occasion she would be speaking to him and after quite some time she realized he hadn't heard a word. At this she would whack him on the head, as usual, and rebuke him for being so rude. But this didn't stop his mind from wandering.

One time in particular she had left the house with a large basket of blankets to be washed when she found him with his sword drawn and yelling threateningly at a bush. At first she was afraid that he'd gone insane but her worries were quickly drowned with laughter when he turned suddenly, his face blushing, giving out his normal little squeak of "Oro!"

She had finally concluded that he was simply bored out of his mind, and she couldn't blame him either. Since the winter cold had come most of the time not spent doing chores was spent inside keeping warm. She could tell Kenshin was not at all used to this, no less the lack of adventure.

It was nearly an hour before Kaoru had slowed down enough to notice the odd silence that filled the dojo. Neither Kenshin nor Yahiko had made a noise all morning. This was quite surprising, especially for Yahiko, since the two were supposed to busy at work.

"Where did that idiot boy go now?" Kaoru wondered out loud. She was amazed that he hadn't come to nag her about lessons. Yahiko seemed to have a growing interest in them recently. He seemed to think that Kenshin was "getting soft" and that "…someone's got to protect this place…"

She was getting red in the face with built up frustration before she finally heard voices coming from the room down the hall. "Ouch! Hey that hurt! What was that for!"

It was Yahiko and he seemed to be upset. "You were supposed to block my attack, that you were!" she heard Kenshin reply with a small little laugh.

"You could have warned—" Yahiko started but stopped dead in his tracks as Kaoru entered the room angrily.

"What are you two doing in here!" she insisted looking between them, Yahiko was messaging his arm with a frown on his face and Kenshin seemed to be having a hard time holding back a laugh and they both were holding wooden practice swords.

"None of your business UGLY!" Yahiko said sticking out his tongue irritably.

"What did you call me, you little brat!" Kaoru said lunging at him.

"Now Kaoru there's no need to get up—" Kenshin said stepping in her way.

"Move Kenshin, I'm going to teach that idiot boy a lesson!"

"Nah nah nah!" Yahiko teased, his tongue out further than ever, "Ugly, ugly, ugly!"

"Why you little—" she said trying to grab him around Kenshin.

"No need for violence Kaoru…"

"Neh…neh…neh!"

"I'm going to kill that—" she cut off as she grabbed the wooden sword from Kenshin's hand.

WHACK! WHACK!

"Ouch! Hey!" Yahiko screamed throwing his arms over his head and jumping out of her reach.

"Kaoru stop! There's no need—" he struggled to hold her back.

"You little br—" Kaoru said breathless, struggling against Kenshin's grip. She broke off suddenly when the wooden sword fell from her hand and she fell limply into Kenshin's arms.

"KAORU!" Kenshin yelled as she slid to the floor, unconscious.

"What happened?" Yahiko asked startled.

"I think she's fainted…" he said quietly watching her chest still steadily moving up and down. He placed a hand to her forehead, "I think she just overworked herself…"

"Well serves her right for whacking me like that!" Yahiko said angrily.

Kenshin didn't reply. He picked her up gently and took her carefully into their bedroom. There he covered her with a blanket and after a second and third worried glance he left her to rest.

"She sure has been ill a lot lately…" Sano said after a gulp of his drink.

Kenshin looked out the restaurant window with a troubled face. "It's probably just the flu…or something like that…"

"You sure?" Sano said eating noisily.

Kenshin didn't answer, he was listening intently to a conversation at the table next to them. "Yeah…they say Sensei's mad…ever since the death of his brother he's been recruiting all his friends for some kind of army. I heard the other day that they attacked an old Samurai outside of town."

"Yeah…" said the other excitedly. "Just this morning I saw Sensei's servant out looking for more recruits."

"I heard they're after some wander…" said a third.

"Kenshin, you listening to me?" Sano said after consuming another bowl of soup.

"…Sensei…" Kenshin said more to himself than Sano, "…where have I heard that name before…"

"Oh probably some punk stirring up trouble." said Sano pushing his bowl away.

"No really I'm fine." Kaoru said getting slowly out of bed the next morning.

"Why don't you just go visit Megumi today, maybe she could give you something to make you feel better. It couldn't hurt, that it could not." Kenshin said not letting her up until she agreed.

"Kenshin, really I'm fine."

He looked at her uneasily, "Just take it easy today…I don't want you to get ill, that I do not."

"Okay Kenshin." she said with a smile as she patted him lovingly on the cheek.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Kaoru finished up her chores, slapped Yahiko on the head for not finishing his yesterday, and got through his lesson with enough energy to make supper, which Yahiko complained about loudly.

"For once I'd like some food that doesn't taste like crap!" he said miserably as he pushed the bowl away.

"If you don't like my food then you can just go and find your own!" Kaoru said indignantly.

"I like Kaoru's food." Kenshin said rather matter-of-factly. Then he tried to change the subject, growing tired of all the yelling. "Sano and I went into town yesterday—"

"Did you get the food I had on the list?" Kaoru inquired.

"Ah…no…" he said guiltily. "—But I did hear something at the restaurant…"

"You went out without me!" Yahiko said upset.

Kenshin ignored him and looked at Kaoru. "You heard of a man named Sensei?"

"Um…no I don't think so, why?"

"No reason." Kenshin lied, it had been troubling him for quite some time.

Kaoru looked at him with a frown but shrugged it off. The three of them stayed up well into the night talking about various things. Yahiko soon fell asleep right at the table and Kaoru and Kenshin slipped out of the room quietly and left him there with his face in his food.

Kaoru fell asleep at Kenshin's side, her head on his arm, still holding his hand affectionately. But Kenshin lay awake well into the morning staring up into the ceiling, lost deep in thought. He was only able to sleep when he heard Kaoru mumble his name in her sleep; she would worry about him if he looked tired. He closed his eyes but and opened them blinkingly to the sunrise just a few hours later.

TO BE CONTINUED