Sweet Mistake

Honor

By Seabreeze

A/N: Writer's block again, the jerk. Sorry this took longer than usual to update. Seriously, guys, I dunno how to thank you for all the reviews. I had a story that had the most reviews I'd ever gotten, about 54, and Sweet Mistake has more than double that. 112 already, thank you guys so much. I'm so honored.

Disclaimer: Kenshin and his gang belong to Watsuki Nobuhiro.

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Kaoru was dutifully doing the dishes when she heard a loud banging on the front door. She frowned; Kenshin was out shopping for dinner, and her hands were covered in soap.

"Coming!" she called, setting the plate down and wiping her hands hastily on her sweatpants. She jogged to the front door and yanked it open.

"…hello," she said, cocking her head. "Can I help you?" the man, one she had never seen before, looked equally confused, and bowed. He wore training clothes and had a sheath at his waist.

"I'm looking for Himura. My name is Akira Kiyosato, and you are…?"

"Kamiya Kaoru, I'm Kenshin's… apprentice." It wasn't true anymore, but it was the closest way she could find to describe their relationship. Akira nodded, still looking confused. "Kenshin's out right now, but would you like to come in and wait?" she asked, beckoning him inside. Akira, looking unsure, nodded politely and entered. She lead him to the dojo, and sat across from him.

"So, Kiyosato-san, if you don't mind me asking, what do you need to see Kenshin for?" Kaoru asked cheerfully. Akira knelt, bangs in front of his eyes.

"Himura and I have a … matter… to settle." He said darkly. Kaoru felt her stomach flip nervously.

"A matter to settle? You mean like papers to get in order…?" she asked, dreading the answer she was expecting.

"Not exactly." He said, still concentrating on the floor. Kaoru frowned and stood.

"Then you want to fight him?" she demanded, arms crossing. He finally raised his face, looking at her appraisingly.

"Yes," he said. Kaoru stepped back a few feet, edging consciously towards the bokkens on the wall. "And it might be best if you stay out of this, miss Kamiya." He pulled the handle of the weapon in his sheath out, revealing a real, sharpened and dangerous katana. Kaoru sucked her breath in.

"Yeah, right!" she said, completely hostile now. "As the current master of the Kamiya Kasshin style, I cannot let you attack my former master!" she ran to the wall and grabbed her bokken, hurrying back and practically leaping into position. Akira had not moved from the floor, though he had pointedly re-sheathed his sword again.

"Kamiya-san, I respect your chivalry, but my fight is with Himura alone. I will not fight his apprentice."

"You will if you want to fight him," she said fiercely, crouching lower. "Now fight me!" despite the fact that he was easily 2 feet taller than her and at least a hundred pounds heavier, he felt the force of her ki and stood somberly.

"Alright, then," he said, drawing his katana slowly and getting into position. 'I'll go easy on her,' he thought. At the same moment, Kaoru swallowed a large lump in her throat. What had she gotten herself into? This man carried a weapon, a sword that could kill easily. She gripped her bokken harder, and bowed. Akira bowed in response, and Kaoru attacked without hesitation, knowing that surprise and agility may have been her only advantages, if she had any. She was surprised when her complicated attack landed a blow on his collarbone, making a loud thunking noise as his chest absorbed most of the blow. When she stepped back, she saw surprise also on his face; neither of them had expected her to get any hits in. Akira attacked, and Kaoru blocked his blow in a way that wouldn't damage her bokken, twisting it around his blade and using the leverage to propel his blade away from her. As soon as she could, she hurled herself towards him again, aiming lower and sending her bokken in a horizontal arc towards his side. His blade caught hers expertly and with such force that it cut halfway through the blade of her bokken. Kaoru's eyes widened as she backed off quickly, knowing she was in danger. Akira attacked, nearly mimicking Kaoru's first attack and aiming for her shoulder. Prepared as ever, Kaoru raised her bokken easily to meet his katana… and in a moment that seemed to go in slow-motion, his katana snapped her bokken easily in half with the earlier damage, and continued down to bury itself into the muscles of her right shoulder.

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Kenshin froze as he opened the door to the dojo – unlocked – and heard a heart-wrenching scream coming from inside.

"Kaoru," his whispered hoarsely, and ran quickly to the dojo, the source of his student's scream. What he saw when he stepped into the room made his blood chill.

There was a man, with a katana. It had blood on it. Kaoru was on her knees on the floor, panting heavily and breeding freely from her right shoulder. Her bokken lay, broken in two, on the floor between them.

He did not waste another moment running to stand protectively in front of Kaoru.

"Who are you!" he demanded of Kaoru's assailant, eyes flashing. The man looked torn.

"I… she wasn't supposed to get hurt!" he insisted, looking extremely worried.

"You came into my home and injured my student, now what do you want?" Kenshin snapped harshly. He could hear Kaoru's breathing become weaker behind him.

"I came to fight you. She insisted I fight her instead. I didn't mean to hurt her at all, I swear!"

Kenshin wanted nothing more than to beat the crap out of him, but Kaoru was his priority and needed his assitance.

"Wait here," he hissed, and without another word, scooped Kaoru up in his arms and carried her hurriedly to the kitchen. "Are you alright?" he whispered, feverishly tearing the cupboards apart for some bandages and setting her on the counter. Kaoru nodded, looking paler than ever and gripping the edges of the counter.

"The bleeding's slowing down," she said, looking dizzy. "Its shallow, I think. The cut." Kenshin pulled her shirt off to inspect the injury without hesitation, and found with great relief that the cut was indeed shallow. He wiped off the majority of the blood with a hot, warm cloth before wrapping her shoulder as quickly and tightly as possible with the length of medical cloth. Once the bandages were tied off, he fetched a towel from the bathroom and wrapped it around her chest, helping her off the counter again and carrying her to his bedroom. He set her on the bed and brushed her bangs from her sweaty forehead.

"I'm going to find out what that man wanted and get him out of here, and then I'll take you to the hospital, alright?"

His eyes stared so worriedly into her own that she grinned a little.

"I don't think I need the hospital. I'm ok, just a little dizzy. Be careful, Kenshin?" she implored the last part, looking vulnerable and a little scared. Kenshin felt an urge to gather her into his arms.

"Don't worry about me." He said gently, and with that, he was gone.

Kaoru shifted uncomfortably, feeling her skin go hot and cold in turns with the faintness her loss of blood brought. For a moment, she felt so antsy and uncomfortable she thought she would burst, so she stood. She felt dizzy almost immediately and swayed on the spot, but held her ground until the spell passed. Shaking her head, she made her way slowly and carefully towards the dojo, trying to be both silent and steady as she went. She leaned heavily against the wall and heard their tense voices, but whatever was being said was missed. Frowning in deep concentration, she continued to pull herself along the hallway. The voices grew tenser, and suddenly the sounds of metallic swords clanging took over.

'One attack,' she counted, hearing the first clash. 'Two.' She was nearer and nearer to the door, and just as she poked her head in, she saw Kenshin's blade in a low side sweep. She cringed as it hit the man Akira caught the force of the blow directly in the side, and she drew a breath in sharply. Had Kenshin just… killed that man?

But Akira fell to the ground, holding his side in pain, bloodless.

"Leave my home now," Kenshin said coldly. Akira stood, hunched a bit in pain, but he stood proudly nonetheless. Kaoru watched silently as he passed her in the doorway.

"Forgive me, Kamiya-san," he whispered, voice slightly pained. She stared after him wordlessly as he walked out of the dojo. When the door closed behind him, Kenshin dropped his sword – bladeless, she assumed – and ran to Kaoru. He grasped her shoulders.

"Kaoru, what on earth are you doing out of bed!" he demanded, bent over vaguely in worry. Kaoru noted a drop of sweat on his brown.

"I just wanted to know who that man was. I'm fine, Kenshin, really, I've gotten worse cuts filing paper." She smiled at him reassuringly, but he couldn't help but notice that she was still considerably paler than usual.

"I somehow doubt that." He put an arm around her good shoulder, cupping her other arm. "Come on, its time to take you to the hospital."

"No, Kenshin, I promise, I'm fine." She pushed at him, standing without his support or the wall's, for emphasis. "Look, it bled a lot, but a lot of shallow cuts do that. Your wedding's coming up in a few days –" Kenshin looked for any sort of hostility and found none " – and you don't need to spend an evening in the hospital." Kenshin began to interrupt, but Kaoru overpowered him. "Tomorrow morning you can check it out, and if you're still worried, we can go then." She crossed her arms and waited for his response, but he could only stare at her.

"Kaoru…" he seemed at a loss for words. He stepped towards her, his expressive violet eyes shining, and Kaoru blinked in surprise. "Forgive me," he whispered, and tipped her chin upwards before kissing her.

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A/N: Sorry, this chapter is short and bad. For some reason, it was hard to write. One more to go, strange, huh? Though I personally like the note I ended it on

Thanks:

RK-128 – haha you crack me up. Yeah, I had it planned that Kaoru master the Kamiya Kasshin style from chapter one. I'm glad she put her title to use in this chapter, though it was probably not her wisest move… oh well. Also glad you don't hate the Tomoe. If only she had more backbone in the real ovas! Ok, so after this story is over and my one-shot is posted, can I start bouncing the next mini-series off you? As a warning, its all (allllllllllllllllllllllll) fluff. Okeydoke, thanks for reviewing, fox! Oh, and also: I'm so mad you missed the karate stuff on tv! It… was so… AWESOME! Jo was right, asian people can fly! But don't worry, there was another one and I taped it.

MissyHaze – thanks! I hope you don't totally hate this bad chapter, and only one more to go! Thanks for readin'.

Ss1128 – lol I know what you mean, but unfortunately I am one of those authors who likes to torture. Muaha! Ok, thanks for the review.

Royal blueKitsune – yeah, its weird that its almost over. Hmm. As for Tomoe breaking it off – to be fair, both she and Kenshin are being cheating jerks to each other. Just not a healthy relationship, I'm thinking. Thanks for reading.

GreenEyedFloozy – lol! Tomoe is feeling the reader pressure, lol. Thanks for reading.

-little oro- - your username is cute! I just pictured a baby Kenshin oroing, it was adorable! Thank you very much for the compliment and the review.

Jess-chan of the Nya Nya Neko – other dance/romance/action/Kenshin fans on here that I know of are RK-128 (the dance team captain) and ASKinfinity. You'll have to tell me when your fic is up, because it sounds cool and I'd love to read it. Yeah, Tomoe's doin' a little cheating… why'd those two get engaged, anyways? I was excited to write the scene where Kaoru beats Kenshin, but worried people would find it unrealistic – I mean, Kenshin is Kenshin, the man with god-like speed who's never been defeated. My trick was, both Kaoru and Kenshin fought on the Kamiya-Kasshin level, and Kaoru beat him there. Had he used the Hiten Mitserugi style… bad news for Kaoru. But anyways. I hope you like how things are developing (or, I guess, ending, now… sad!) thanks for reading.

SparklingEmeralds – wow, I didn't know other people had the same initial idea as me. It'd be interesting to see where they took it. One chapter left. Thanks so much for the review.

Tootifruity – thanks! I hope you like this chapter and the next (and enjoy them). Thanks for reading.

Tsubasa wo Motsu Mono – oh, I dunno, I think anything frozen placed in a room full of fire won't last too long, lol. Thanks for stopping by (again)

Sulou – I'm glad you like what you're reading, I hope this chapter is up to par. Thanks for reading.

Mistress Kamiya – lol, hopefully you are not too disgruntled to find out I tried to make Tomoe more likeable. Thanks for leaving a review.

Aoi senshi – thanks! I definitely will (am?) continuing it.