He sat on the grass and took a breath of solitude. Kenshin wasn't lonely, even as a child he'd been a loner. He didn't have any friends but his parents, so he was used to the clatter of his own thoughts. Alone, on the hill over looking the village he let himself think about the tea party and the ramblings of Tsukasa as he patched up Kenshin's arm. A rebellion? Against the Emperor? What was that boy talking about? Was he insane or was there really a movement? He stared up at the stars, the moon made a dim light around itself. It was constant, the sky. The only thing he could really count on being there for him.
"I feel a need, otosan." Kenshin muttered to himself, recalling the image of a large man, a generous smile on his face as he plunged his hands into the sweet smelling earth to pull out weeds. "I need to help somehow." In his minds eye his fathers amber colored eyes smiled as always. He recalled very little of his parents, but the color of his fathers eyes was as vivid as the villagers reaction to them. Bad luck, as they thought. But Kenshin's mother had always prized them. "I have no need for gold." Kenshin smiled remembering a soft voice, "As long as my husband watches me, I'll always feel rich in his eyes." Kenshin sighed as he lay back, pillowing his head with his hands. "I don't know what to do okasan, Please, guide me…"
A soft rustling from the grass near his feet didn't have him alarmed. Her scent reached his nostrils before the sound had become apparent.
"Kenshin-sama?"
"Sumi-jo." Kenshin acknowledged her formality with his own.
"Who are you talking to?" She swung her head around, for all purposes looking like a teenage girl with a little too much curiosity. Kenshin smiled and patted the grass next to him, inviting her to sit.
"Don't worry, kunzite, I am not spying on your village. I am merely talking to myself like some poor half-wit."
She plopped down on the ground and rested her elbows on her knees. "How did you know I am ninja?"
"I did not sense your presence until you were almost on top of me. You are very skilled." Kenshin chanced a rare grin to show he was not upset.
"Yes." she agreed, grinning back. "But you were talking to someone, even if they are not here. May I know?"
"I was talking to my parents." Kenshin looked back up at the stars. "I am confused over some of the information Tsukasa shared, I was wondering if the world outside my mountain is really as he says."
"I'm sorry, Kenshin-san." Sumi let her head rest on her knees and wrapped her arms around her folded legs. "I do not know how to proceed, other than my task is ended and I must return to my master." Kenshin got to his feet and held out a hand to Sumi. She took it and let him help her up.
"Kenshin…" She was standing close, and still held his hand. Suddenly he was confronted by the image of Lila, staring into his eyes. Of Lila, falling, her lips brushing his. "You'll know." she breathed out softly and took a step back. Kenshin swallowed the spit that had crowded his throat.
"Su…" he couldn't stand it. These girls knew something he didn't, something that always seemed to be just out of his grasp…
"You'll figure it all out, trust them."
"Oro?"
"Trust the guidance your parents gave you, they must have been great people for you to look to them now." She turned away, only to find that Kenshin still held her hand.
"Sumi."
"Kenshin, I do need my hand back." she smiled, "We are not heading in the same direction, if I am not mistaken. Tsukasa will be mad with you."
"Then let him be mad. And let him live also. Take good care of your village kunzite. I am trusting you to make sure it is the same when I come back."
Sumi smiled when he squeezed her hand, then released it. He turned toward the path away from the village.
"Hai."
btw- Kunzite- female ninja.
otosan- father
okasan- mother.