Fanfic by Blueroseulan

July 18, 2004

Author's notes: Finally! The last chappie! I hope everyone would review and tell me what they think! Will Kaoru live? (wink wink ) Anyways… I wannna thank you guys for spending time on reading my fic… and oh, before I forget, I wouldn't put my kudos here in the last chapter; there's a separate chappie only for That. So, finish this one, and find (hopefully) your name in the next

Previously on Chapter 7:

Rushing towards the man with an unmoving bundle in his arms, Sanosuke assisted both of them in the carriage as Megumi grew pale with the sight of so many bloody wounds. Her shock lasted only for a mere few moments though, for she started to fuss all over the woman bathed in her own blood. Even with his wounds painfully creaking with each movement, he convinced the doctor that the other's wounds were more fatal than his and she therefore needed more of her attention. Wounded as he was, the emperor could just sit and watch with hopeless amber eyes.

Kaoru… please... live… live for me… Please… don't die on me Kaoru…Not now… Not now that we could live together…

CHAPTER 8

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The castle's infirmary was not at all poorly equipped as much of the villagers overly thought so. The emperor had seen to it that his servants were well taken of and had purchased different medical equipments, each ranging from different parts of the world be it tribal or western and had trusted its proper care and use for the resident doctor living in the imperial palace herself. Sensei Megumi Takani.

The scent of Chinese herbs as well as different indie spices floated around the room. Thick medical books and news articles related to such lined the far wall together with numerous rows of different medicines and remedies serving different purposes. Everything had a place. Even the small quills and pens the doctor used in writing recommendations had one. Her floors sparkled clean and her operating room never reeked of stale blood. Being a self proclaimed neat freak, the doctor had personally seen to that.

Now, all those foolish notions were cast aside. Thoughts of cleanliness and well polished floors were on the least of her list. As Sanosuke and another guard half dragged-half carried their bleeding emperor who had insisted on carrying the girl as well, Megumi spared her bloody floorings one last pitiful look, and had busied herself with her patients.

The emperor had insisted that she treat the girl first. Torn between her sense of urgency to treat the most important man in the land and the strict commanding tone of his voice, the latter won, seeing that the girl was in a poorer state. Instead of arguing some more, she had just merely asked him to sit down and allow Tsubame, the young servant girl to at least cleanse his wounds. A request that he finally obeyed.

With pale skillful hands, the doctor began to work, first of all undressing the raven haired girl that lay unconscious on her operating table. Making a quick assessment of her situation, an ebon eyebrow rose to find the half naked emperor, (the poor man was without his gi) standing beside her, eyes trained over the body of the woman. She knew that the lady had somewhat forged a bond between the emperor and she recognized her face that of which she had treated before, the woman she had concluded as Enishi's battered wife. With the final thoughts of indecency and impropriety cast aside, she immersed her hands in hot water and started to clean the woman's bloody wounds.

My gods… will she still live? These thoughts were running freely all over his mind as his eyes registered for the first times the number of fatalities Enishi had been animalistic enough to lay on his woman. He had never seen so many wounds in his own life. Scars here and there adorned her once smooth skin. Some were shallow, some still bled. He also knew she had undergone burn torture, for the flesh in her abdomen and in some parts of her shoulders were smoldered and blackened, a clear liquid salivating from it making him feel sick. Contusions and angry dark bruises were scattered on her face trailing below her neckline up to her arms. Her wrists and ankles were more than a hemorrhaging purplish red, a sign of blood staying under the pressure of the heavy handcuffs that had her suspended in the air. A gaping hole was on her side, a twin of his, but more fatal. He could see that Enishi's sword had clearly penetrated her body and his sword had pierced her side in a way that could prove as her own death. He could only wish that her vital organs had not been affected by his attack. Seeing her wounds made him sick and he could only wish that Enishi would live again so he could go up and kill him once more.

"Himura-sama…"

Slightly jolted from his reverie, he cocked his head to find the timid brown haired girl standing beside him, hands carrying a basin of hot water, a towel hanging limply on her arm.

"Megumi-sensei asked me to clean your wounds…" she trailed off, afraid that the emperor would grow mad. But instead, he followed her and sat on one of the beds, allowing the hot liquid to run over his wounds and wincing in the process. He felt warm hands gently smoothing bandages over his side and a feeling of heaviness seemed to envelope his droopy eyelids. Allowing his head to hit the pillow, he rationalized that it must have been fatigue and stress that had him feeling so tired all of a sudden. Just a nap… only for a few minutes and I'll watch over Kaoru… just a few minutes… Closing his eyes, though his mind unconsciously hammered at him to watch over Kaoru, he unwillingly slipped in the arms of sleep, his world becoming far and black in an instant.

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He woke up with sunlight streaming on his face. Suddenly jolted awake, a hand automatically came to grasp his aching shoulders as he tried to recall what had happened.

His nap had turned out to be a seven hour sleep. Wondering what had gotten him into a restful slumber in the first place while the love of his life lay dying on an operating bed, he quickly donned the yukata that sat on the edge of the bed and inched his way towards the 'imperial suite' Megumi had only for him in her infirmary. He had asked Kaoru to be placed on his bed, never mind if he slept on the common ones, and he knew the doctor would comply. Sliding the shouji door his eyes stared thoughtfully on the form that lay restless and feverish on the bed.

Kaoru…

Whispering her name, he neared her, seating himself beside her and grasping her pale clammy hands. She looked far better than how she did the first time they brought her in the infirmary. Her face was clean, albeit the numerous scars and bruises, for the blood were gone. She was bandaged form neck down and several bottles of salves and medical creams stood lining a small table. Kenshin however, took no notice of these as he faithfully sat on her side, mind occupied with the past events that seemed to fly.

How long has it been since this affair started? Forever… his mind seems to whisper. Kaoru had always been a fixed part of his life. Wherever he may be… a connection had been forged between them, even before he became emperor and that was quite some time.

But time and fate proved to be dirty players, for she had slipped off from his hands. Marrying Enishi was the most stupid thing to do, for him, for the man had her caged. Somewhere along the line she had lost not only a part of her self respect but she had also achieved a large dark void in her heart. A void, which she had admitted to him a time they lay quietly together, only he could fill.

His happiness was only short lived though, for Enishi had come back for his revenge. Using Kaoru to manipulate everyone, he had planned his disappearance far too well to know easily how they would react. Like a puppeteer playing with his own mannequins, he had anticipated the play of events well.

But that was now the past. He had the present and the future to look up to.

But how could he have a future if Kaoru's life was still teetering over the thin line between life and death?

STOP YOURSELF!

He closed his eyes, assumed that the voice was merely his subconscious and willed himself to stop thinking of Kaoru's death. Stop now and never think of it. Never ever. Nodding his head in agreement, once again, he felt his eyelids droop. Something's with me… maybe it's the medicine Megumi must have given me… I want to sleep… but there's so many work to do… Oh well… Sanosuke will take care of it… for now… For now, he settled himself beside her in a position that his head was buried in the link of their hands. Still slightly sore with his wounds, he preferred this position rather than sleeping in a comfortable bed, but a room's apart from her.

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"Oi fox, how's Jou-chan doing?"

The said 'fox' looked above the stack of medical paperwork to stare directly towards the lanky man that leaned on her table. Groaning inwardly, she regarded the man with much more irritation. A distraction was the least she needed now especially that there were so many things to do, so many papers to sign…

"Jou-chan? You mean the woman with the emperor…?" she asked dismissively, not caring to look at her companion while she busily signed another certificate for medication. What's with certificates these days? Everybody wants one…

"Aye that's the bird. How is she?" he asked.

She frowned, looking up, she met his gaze. "Not too well if I have to say so. You were there when we rescued them. You saw how in a bad shape she was."

The older man shook his head and tsked. "I know. The emperor's 'been keepin' watch over her. Speaking of which, how about his wounds?" his tone was gruff, but nevertheless transparent enough for her to see the underlying worry that laced his words.

"He's fine. I've seen his wounds. Deep but not too much fatal." Her answer brought a flood of relief in his face and Megumi felt better for it. "You should really stop worrying about him though, it doesn't match with your macho ego." She teased as an after thought allowing a smirk to tug at his lips.

"Oi, I'm not gay, if that's what you're thinkin' of woman." He frowned, managing to make her laugh aloud.

"Prove it."

His eyes widened. Suddenly taken aback with her sudden challenge, his mind quickly spun in scatter brained confusion. A victorious smile lit her face followed by a smirk. "I see… someone here's having an identical cri—mfff"

In an instant, his lips had covered hers; muffling any coherent word she might think of saying. He quickly withdrew though, afraid that a rejection may might as well come his way. When none came, he flashed her a look and was surprised when she licked her lips.

"I didn't know you love kisses fox." He muttered, trying hard to disperse the thick atmosphere that suddenly seemed to form between the two of them.

"Only if it comes from you."

Hey… she's really foxy… And finally, the tension began to fade, buffered by relief and a bit of romanticism. Romance was undeniably there, though both tried to dodge at the fact. Seemingly like two unpracticed teenagers tiptoeing in the notion of love. Her dare and his kiss had suddenly opened a world of opportunities for both of them.

"S-so… I guess you're a man after all…" she mumbled, cheeks suddenly turning an instant shade of red. He laughed, made a gesture of tipping his hat though he wore none and slowly moved towards the door.

"You knew it before. You were just waiting for me to prove it."

And so he left the room, leaving a doctor stunned, angered, and woozy and romanticized all at the same time with the man's words. Turning back to her paperwork, thoughts of medical certificates were now cast aside, replaced by tender thoughts about a man with a lanky built who had just proven his manhood and certainly his affection with just a single kiss.

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The candle wick was slowly growing shorter, the light deliberately dimming. Night had fallen but he had continually kept his watch despite the numerous doctor orders he had gotten.

How could I rest if she lays here weak?

True, Kaoru's condition had not improved. Fevers and chills continually racked her body and she continued fighting death. Sometimes, in the dark of a night, death would seem to overpower her and she would cease from breathing. But he was always there to call her back, his hold on her deathly tight as she struggled to take in gulps of air. Finally, after days of battling with sickness, Kaoru had slipped into a coma. At this point, the doctor had said it was a good thing for her body was slowly starting to utilize its own defense mechanism. The only question was, if and when would she wake up.

For his own part, Kenshin was a bit glad for the turn of events. The time before her coma was the worst on his list. The emotional rollercoaster of losing the one you love most, every night would have been too much for him to bear. And besides, with her state, it almost seemed that she was only slumbering, with the fevers and chills now gone, the emperor could bit by bit regain his duties.

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The days seem to pass. Slowly, everyone had resumed their normal routines. Like particles slowly starting to settle on the bottom of a clear glass, the lives of everyone begun to normalize again, blanketed with the safe security that no one would be likely as to inflict any kind of harm from now on.

Only one person seemed totally oblivious with the rustle in the imperial palace. One person lay hidden and obscured form any living soul save for a number of four that traded watches with one another to watch over her still form. Time had since flown form their grasp. Her period of absence was unmeasured, but it very well left a mark in one of the person's heart. Day and night he would come to sit beside her, grasp her hand and will for her to wake for in doing so, and then he would finally feel complete. Day and night the other three watched him with pitiful eyes as they recounted how doomed those two lovers were and how they'd wish their ending wouldn't be so much of a tragedy.

But only time held her life right now. Time and fate.

One particular night, he sat beside her, amethyst eyes gazing at her still form. Tomorrow… tomorrow would mark the first year mark of Enishi's death. First year… it only meant that Kaoru had fallen into a coma for roughly a year…

So long…

So long… so long since he had last seen her beautiful sapphire orbs… so long since he had caressed her warm cheek… so long… so long… he closed his eyes, willing his tears to stop from falling. He had long since learned that crying would do nothing. It would serve no purpose as to bring her back. If it did, then he would have gladly cried all his bodily fluids out for her to rouse form her sleep.

But it was all too much. The unfairness of their situation only made his soul sink deeper in the pit of depression. They had done no wrong, and though it sounded too corny, like those of what he had read on novels, he was forced to make a conclusion that they made a mistake by loving one another too much.

Another irony that stirred bile in his heart was the fact that she had saved him. It was supposed to be the other way around but still, it had ended up, she taking the blow for him. The attack was meant for him, meant to give him death as a bittersweet reminder that he had again failed to protect the woman that meant his life…He wanted to blame her for being so unselfish… for loving him so unselfishly… but he couldn't… for he knew he would have done the same given the reversed circumstances.

Throughout his sobs, faintly, he heard a low moan… head automatically whipping to its owner, amethyst eyes widened to find hazy and cloudy cerulean gems slowly starting to open to gaze with his.

"K-Kaoru…?" he asked, voice cracking with uncertainty. Hesitation filling his awe-laden brain that this might just be a dream.

In response, a small smile slowly lit her lips.

It was the most beautiful thing he had seen in his entire life.

The words he had been planning and rehearsing to say the moment she woke up, all but came out in his sudden dry lips. But it was alright, a reaction understood and called for. No words were needed… seeing her awake was more than a sign that she would live and as he carefully but tightly held her form, his own trembling and shaking with slamming euphoria, he suddenly realized that everything will be alright… everything will turn out fine…

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Though Kaoru had woken up a few number of times, she was still weak as a reed and could still not get out of bed. The emperor all the more kept his watch beside her, glad to see her roused in her year long coma. It was a miracle, and while he had daunted time and fate for playing unfairly, it was only now that he realized that in the end, they had relented and handed Kaoru back to him.

It was a dark and starry night. He left no lamp light, knowing that his companion wouldn't mind and instead opted to open the doors of his balcony to allow the moonlight to stream in. Leaving his post for awhile, he followed his footsteps that led to the stoned terrace. Leaning his form in the railings, a sudden wave of relief, tension, melancholy and thankfulness seemed to envelope him whole and he found himself shaking with the silent sobs he tried to so hard to conceal. One by one, tears fell to wet the cold slab of stone but he didn't seem to mind…

A tear fell because he was utterly filled with relief that she was alive…

A tear fell because it still felt utterly unfair that she had just woken up only now… why only now… time had gone past their hands…

A tear fell because he missed her so much… missed her touch… missed her quiet reassurance…

A tear fell because the waves of tension and the heaviness his duties imposed seemed to crash down his shoulders…

He wept, totally oblivious to his surroundings as he became involved in his own dark world. Oblivion was fast shrouding his sight… he would have succumbed to the dark bare hands of madness had he not felt the gentle slipping of warm arms around his chest. He would have had lost it, had he not felt the gentle press of a face on the slumped posture of his back. At once, everything seemed to clear, his posture grew rigid and his body became tense.

So long… I have waited for this for so long…

Turning to face her, his body still felt stoned with tension and bewilderment. When he made no move to hold her, she frowned, mock pouted, and in still a raspy voice whispered:

"Mou… Is that your way of telling me how much you've missed me…?"

When still he made no move to touch her, she reached out. "Kenshin…?" Uncertainty ate her voice.

With the sound of his name his head whipped and in a flurry of motions, he suddenly snatched her form, for once ignoring the fact that she was whimpering form the tightness of his hold, wrapped his arms around her bony form and buried his face in the fall of her hair, never wanting to let go and holding her just like what a sinking man would do to a ply of wood.

"So long… I've waited for you for so long…" he whispered, disregarding the fact that both of them where shaking with the sudden slam of emotions. Crushing her lips with his, he drank on her kiss, like that of a starved man left to die alone.

"I missed you…" she breathed, eyes moistening with the thought of having been away for so long.

"And I missed you too…" he answered, his embrace all the more tightening. For a while they both stood there, deathly still like two statues molded into one, bathed in the streaming moonlight. Words were far too ineloquent to express how they really felt for one another…no one made a move neither to go inside… nor to remember that the other was still recuperating and therefore needs her rest. Nothing else was thought about. Nothing. Only their need to touch and feel the other was all that mattered.

EPILOGUE

Megumi sighed. After a whole day of playing with Sanosuke and her son Shiroisuke in the forest stream, the imperial prince had finally caught flu. This of course, much to her chagrin.

Those idiots… I told them not to join Kenji in their stupid antics… oh one of these days I would just wake up to find my hair gray… Sighing once again, she continued walking until she reached the far end of the hallway. Knocking slightly on the door, she opened it to find a woman wearing a red silken kimono with her long hair tied in a neat bun sitting beside the feverish child, her face etched with worry.

"Megumi-san…" she bowed as she acknowledged the doctor's presence. Bowing in return, the said woman could only notice the dark rings that had formed on the other's eyes.

"Kaoru… it's only a flu… don't get too much worried okay. Kenji will get well soon. It's just flu."

"She's right."

Head whipping towards the familiar voice, anxious sapphire eyes met gentle amethyst ones. His face was serene and peaceful, a total contrast to her own. She spared her child a final look of distress before she smiled, allowing her tension to seep away.

"Here. Give these to Kenji-kun every after four hours. This ought to make his fever go down." The doctor said decisively. Nodding in agreement and gratefulness, she watched as the slender woman exited out of the room.

"Love… do stop worrying about Kenji." He murmured in her ear.

"But I can't help it…" she replied, absent-mindedly tucking a stray strand of hair back in its place. He smiled gently, warmed with the thought of her concern with his child. Their child.

"Come love. There's no use in worrying. Take a rest… it would do you good." He suggested, smoothing a hand over Kenji's feverish forehead. "I see… Megumi's medicine really is effective."

Smiling, she allowed him to lead her out of the room and towards the one adjacent to it. Changing in a summer yukata, she quickly snuggled beside him in bed and tucked her face in the crook of his shoulder.

Sighing in contentment, he watched as the love of his life slowly succumbed to sleep. Now, he was totally complete. Truly totally complete. For five years he had been married to Kaoru. And it wasn't an affair... from then on she had become his legalized empress and though the title never ceased to amaze her… she had learned to live with it. And Kenji… in the course of their marriage, she had managed to bear him a son, a son that mirrored his exact same features, save the blue eyes… and the one that would live to succeed his throne.

Now… I am complete… there is nothing more that I could ask… the gods have given me everything I could possibly want in my life… my wife and my child… and with all my strength… I promise to protect them even so at the beck of my own life…

He stole one last look to his slumbering wife, whispered a soft 'Aishiterru', smiled and finally closed his eyes to join her in her dreams.

OWARI

AN:

Its finished! Its finished! Its finally finally finished! (prances around like a mad man)

Aww… I couldn't resist putting a light SanoMeg fluff scene right in the middle of this story! It was a spur of a moment kind of idea for me so I'm sorry if it sounded corny… I just hope those SanoMeg lovers out there appreciated it!

Shiroisuke was a character I made… in the manga, Sano and Megumi doesn't end up being married much more having a child of their own!

I'm so evil! MWAHAHA! I put Kaoru asleep for one whole year! (Wait… is this a sleeping beauty type of story or something?)

Anyways, I'm feeling glad and sad with the end of this fic (sobs). I hope you guys continue to review my other fics! Yah guys are the best! Go to the next chappie and see my kudos in there. (hopefully, you'll see your names)

Thanx!

JA!
BLUEROSE