Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin isn't mine. I'm tired of being creative about this.
----
Diary of a Manslayer
Akai Kitsune
Chapter 13) Dry Bones, Dry Bones
----
By the time their third child was born - a sky-child, as Kenshin sometimes thought of him, hair a dull red like Kenji's, but eyes as brilliantly blue as the sky on a clear summer day - he was beginning to feel the weight of his past in physical ways, rather than simply in his mind. A school as demanding as Hiten Mitsurugi... did things to one's body, if one was not properly equipped to handle it.
Hiko was more than suited for it; Kenshin was not. Megumi had said as much, years ago, and he knew her casual dismissals of any worries he had during her examinations were just an attempt to conceal her worries - perhaps even fears. His swordsmanship would not kill him, but it could cause all manner of aches and pains before his time if he wasn't careful. He knew this, as did Megumi - he wondered how much Kaoru knew.
He was getting older, but he found it wasn't such a terrible thing to admit, though sometimes his back protested when Kenji asked to be carried around the dojo yard - he was almost too old for that, now - while Yuki tagged along below, clinging to his pants, sitting on his foot as he walked, the sound of Kaoru soothing the baby in the background. Soon that child, too, would be calling his name, demanding his attention and his strength, to be held and carried. He hoped, ruefully, for the sake of his back, that Kenji would have outgrown the heavy affection for piggyback rides by then. Yuki as well, perhaps, though she seemed to have a developing fear of heights. A strange thing, for the child of a man who could jump halfway up a waterfall.
Or used to, anyway.
He didn't spend too much time mulling over it, however. It was a waste of time, time better spent with his children while he still had the energy, his wife while she still had the time to spare and wasn't burdened with something so terrible as taking care of him. He knew he would be old and sore long before she was - his body had been wounded, battered, thrown about. He'd been close to death at least a dozen times in his short lifetime. It really wasn't a healthy thing to experience.
Kaoru would have scolded him for worrying. For someone who had spent a great deal of her prime fretting over him, she seemed to scold him for much the same thing. Or, perhaps, a different thing entirely; a child clinging to one's back and causing an ache over time wasn't very similar to having a sword plunge through it. Despite how similar it feels, he added ruefully, though only in his mind. She would have scolded him for that, too.
"Papa!" Yuki was tugging on his pant leg again, small legs wrapped around his heel, causing him to step a little more lightly on his toes as he dragged them all forward one slow step at a time. "Papa, when is it my turn?"
She was climbing waterfalls too, it seemed; seeking her courage in a world where it meant so little now, and yet so much, at the same time. Baby steps, slow steps, but the best kind, in his mind - the kind with a burden and a gift beyond measure clinging to your leg and calling for attention, slowing you down and making you smile, and reply that yes, it was her turn, and she had been very good and patient, hadn't she?
She had. She was a burden and a gift he could endure the rest of his days, as was Kenji, and Shinichi, their youngest, curled up against Kaoru's breast.
They were, however, heavy burdens, and would grow heavier still in time - and so, when Kenji climbed down to switch with his sister, he obediently followed Kenshin's request to switch to the other leg. A man could indulge himself as well as his children, some days.
----
This chapter is dedicated to my father, who for years and years carried my siblings around on his back and his feet without so much as a grumble. ... well, maybe a few. But he still did it, and we probably gave him bad knees, but he's never blamed us, because that's part of the job.
Apologies if there are any mistakes in this. I tried to edit it a few times but when you're going on 5 hours sleep every day during the week things get a bit fuzzy. (I need to go to bed earlier.)
I've been terribly lax in updating this fic, but my new job has me completely exhausted by the end of the day. I'll be nibbling away at fics bit by bit whenever I have the energy, so please be patient with me. You've all been more than polite so I have no doubts. Thank you very much for respecting me and real life! It means a lot.