Better late than never for this: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin nor any of
its characters, so don't sue me unless you want to be paid in potatoes or
something.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, they made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Sorry for the late update, ffnet hasn't been letting me upload lately...
Chapter 2: Morning
I wake up early in the morning, but not early enough to beat the sun. Remembering the night before, I quickly sit up and look across the expanse of the room.
He's still there.
My dark eyes soften at his image, one I haven't been able to see for a long time. He's still fast asleep, and I don't blame him. If I had been working like he does for that long I'd sleep for days. One of his arms was strewn above him above his head, bent at the elbow. He still had the shirt of his police uniform on, but he had taken the jacket off. His long, thin bangs fell to either side of his face. I wanted to touch him, but I didn't want to wake him, and knowing him, he'd wake.
I've personally known Saitou for nine years, though I've known of him for much longer, since I had spent most of my years knowing of our soon-to- be marriage. My stepfather had arranged it with his parents a few years after I was born. His mother and father are both deceased now. I didn't meet my fiancé until after the revolution, and it took a year after that of preparing before we actually wed.
As quietly as possible, I pull my thin covers off of me and stand. I stop before going to my closet though to straighten the futon. I don't want to make noise and clean it up, but it shouldn't be laying out in a mess on the floor. After I'm done with that, I pad across the floorboard to the tall oak cabinets. I unlatch the doors silently, but swing them open quickly to avoid sound from the hinges. Inside are several kimonos hanging up, all facing the same way on their hangars. I remove the light peach one, the one with red flower petals up the left side, and a blue obi to go with it. I shut the doors gently and step around Saitou to the door. I'll dress in the bathroom today.
~
I all ready know what to cook for breakfast as the fire underneath the stove gets hot enough to begin heating the water I've placed upon it. Despite how odd it sounds, plain hot soba is a dish he likes, and it's simple to make.
My gaze moves from the small pot of water to the window in front of me. I'm surprised Eiji isn't up, though he may be and I'm just not aware of it. Since I don't teach today, I'll let Kari sleep in. I usually try to make sure her and Eiji are up around the same time every morning. I'm not sure why, but I find that it keep their daily activities more organized.
I adjust a pin in my hair while I wait for the water to boil. It comes to my mind that I should prepare something else in case the children dislike such an ordinary breakfast. I reach for the cupboard next to the stove and pull out a second pan, and return to the sink nearby to fill it with water from the pump. As I watch the cool liquid splash into the silver pan with every motion I make, I'm a bit surprised to see how concentrated I am on what I'm doing. Perhaps just knowing that he's back has reset the focus of my mind.
I let the last few drops from the pump fall into the pan before placing it beside the first, which water is beginning to simmer lightly. Grabbing a wooden bowl beside me, I take myself silently to the other side of the kitchen, where three large barrels of rice stand. I take the lid off the nearest one, two-thirds of it all ready gone. A small cup is left inside of it for when I need it, which is often. I take the container and scoop it full of the un-cooked meal and pour it into the bowl, watching the single grains of rice wash over the wooden bottom. I do this three more times until I decide it is enough for breakfast. After placing the lid back on the barrel, I return to my stove-side to prepare the soba noodles.
I really only have to wait a little while before my first pot of water is boiling so I can place the soba inside. I stir it around gently with a long wooden spoon, and see that my second pot is near ready as well. I remove the spoon from the noodles and simultaneously pour the rice into the second saucer. Both should take about the same time to cook, which makes preparing breakfast easier for me.
As I stir the rice in, I feel my breath stiffen slightly. I know he's there without even having to turn around.
~
"DADDY!"
The shrill does make me turn. It seems that Saitou isn't the only one up.
Kari's short hair bobs around her face as she runs a bit clumsily through the living room, all ready dressed in the day's kimono--the same one she had wanted to wear the night before. Saitou's attention turns to her as she reaches him, and he kneels down in a way to keep Kari from painfully colliding into him. She runs hard into his arms, and he picks her up and holds her against his hip.
"Kari, you've gotten bigger since I last saw you." He smiles.
"I have?" She asks, excited.
He nods, and Kari wraps her arms tightly around his neck, giggling.
I feel a bit jealous, but my thoughts change as another face comes into my view.
"Eiji, did you get Kari ready?" I ask, considering that she always needs help to dress in the morning.
He nodded. I can see the change in his eyes when he recognizes Saitou.
Saitou's voice is a bit lower when he addresses Eiji. "I see you are doing well."
"What are you doing here?" Eiji immediately responds.
"Eiji." I lightly scold, though I only use his name.
Saitou raises an eyebrow at him. "This is where I live, boy."
Eiji looks at him oddly, but his features change as if he remembered something. "Oh yeah..." He glances over at me. He doesn't say anything more, just shrugs his shoulders and goes outside. Kari debates for a moment and follows after him.
"Gomen nasai, Saitou." I apologize as he puts Kari back on the ground. "He's just not used to you."
"It's all right, Tokio." He reassures me.
I wanted to say something more, but the sound of the boiling water catches my attention and I turn back around to it. I reach for the cupboard again and pull out a colander so I can drain everything before it becomes too soft. I drain the steaming soba noodles first over the sink, still leaving some water in to maintain the texture, and after placing them back into the pot I do the same with the rice. I have to let the rice cool before I can mold it, so it seems the soba will be ready first.
"I made you breakfast." I tell him, noticing him reaching near me towards the cupboard. He continues and gets out a small bowl.
"Thank you, I appreciate it." He answers.
I gently take the bowl from his hands, telling him I don't expect him to serve himself. "You can sit down," I remind him after a pause. I think I catch him smile just a little before taking a seat in the kitchen. I guess it wouldn't make too much sense for him to sit in the dining area.
"Do you have to work today?" I ask him, placing the soba noodles down before him with a clean pair of chopsticks.
"Yes." He answers. "I have to report to Kawaji today, I seem to have let it slip my mind."
I sit beside him. "When will you be back?"
He looks up at me for a moment, meeting his orange-brown eyes with mine for a few seconds before returning to the food before him. "I don't know."
I precede to tell him that I don't go to Seishun Preschool today, and I fill him in a bit on Eiji and Kari, the things they've been up to in his absence. I suppose the conversation was about what could be expected since I hadn't spoken to him person-to-person in a while, but it could just be the fact that he's eating. I want to ask him about Shishio, but I don't. I know from experience he prefers to leave the details of his work out of my mind.
"He really is a bright boy." I add on when he's finished. I take his bowl and get up to take it to the sink.
"I'm glad." He says, getting up as well. "I'm sure he's all ready learned a lot from you."
I think I feel myself blush a little from the minor compliment, but I'm not facing him, so he can't see. He leaves for a minute, and when he emerges into my sight again he has his blue cap on and his sword at his left side.
"Ja matta, Tokio." He says, nodding to me slightly and leaving out the same way Eiji previously had.
I go to the doorway and watch him walk down the path of the property and out the front gate. As he goes, Kari runs across the front yard, a ball rolling just ahead of her. I follow her movements with my eyes, and Eiji appears behind her, staying close as she bends over to retrieve the round object. Eiji will make a good father one day.
Kari's loud laugh wakes my attention back to her, and she throws the ball limply to Eiji, who sits down in front of her and passes it back. The sun shines of Kari's hair like it were ebony, and the streak of light it makes across her face illuminates her like an angel. Every time I see her I think of him, of that one night so long ago...
"Oi, Tokio, is breakfast read yet?" Eiji asks, seeing me watching them.
I regain my posture. "Oh Eiji, I forgot... it will be ready in a moment, hold on..." I retreat back inside towards the kitchen to finish the rice balls I had started earlier.
~
The morning continues on fairly normal, and until lunch I occupy myself by preparing a few things for my next school lesson and tidying my room as well as Kari's. I find after each task I complete and look out the nearest window to see if he's on his way home. I don't remember ever missing his presence this much, but it could just be that I've missed him. I miss the man whom I used to quietly sit with in the evening, not having anything to say to him, as if he were a stranger. Over the years my heart must have grown fond of him, perhaps more than I had realized. Kari is the constant reminder of that.
After lunch I locate Eiji in his room, lying on the floor and looking at the ceiling.
"Eiji," I begin, "Do you have any school work to do?"
The adolescent glances at me, but waves my question aside.
I sigh. "Eiji..." His silence tells me that he does. It must have been guilt that overtook him, because with a groan he sat up and folded his legs in front of him.
"Yeah." He replies.
"Would you like me to help you with it?"
Eiji looks at me oddly, but sighs heavily (as if to make sure I notice) and agrees. He crawls over to the far corner of the room and grabs a bag that had been slung there, and puts on a small act of dragging it back. I smile though. I know the reason he does so is because he has developed some form of attachment to me, as I have to him. I know that he has no family left, but living here has given him a new one.
"All right, let's see what you have here." I take the bag from him and open it up, pulling out a single book a several folded pieces of paper.
"I don't have to do that." Eiji announces, pulling a paper out of my hand. "I finished it all ready."
"That's good." What do you have to do?"
"Math." He says blandly.
I look at the book. It's a math book. I hand it to him, and instruct him to find the page his teacher had left him off on. He does, and somehow he knows which of the papers is his assignment. He only has the first problem done, but he's only been assigned ten. I look it over before getting him started, and it's generally all division. The first problem is done correctly, though his writing is a bit lopsided and several characters are scratched out. He has a thin brush with him, but no ink. I offer to go downstairs and get it for him, but he says he can do it himself and leaves momentarily. I have his book and papers laid out when he returns.
I move over so that he can have the full space before his studies. He stares at the book for a moment, then dips the brush lightly in the ink bottle and writes down a character. I stop him before he finishes his strokes.
"Fifteen, Eiji." I correct him. "It's easier if you look at the problem backwards as multiplication before you write down your answer.
He nods and does so. I smile; he's patient with me.
He sighs as he moves onto problem three. "I hate this." He grumbles.
I watch him for a minute while he tries to contemplate the problem, and an idea comes into my head.
"Eiji?"
He looks up, probably frustrated that I interrupted his thinking. "What?"
"I suppose if you do well in your school work for a while, I could find a dojo to enroll you in."
At my remark his eyes light up. Since he's gotten here he's practiced with that broken weapon of his, and never once have I offered him any professional training, especially since I wanted him to settle into a school.
"Really?" He asks, making sure he heard right.
"Hai." I answer. "But only if..."
"Got it!" He cuts in. When he returns to his paper, it's with a new vigor. I grin inwardly. I suppose methods like these that I've learned still work.
~
"Kari!" I call coming down the stairs, though my voice isn't loud enough for her to hear if she's not close. I have a good while before I need to start dinner, but going down to the market now isn't a bad idea. I have no problem with Eiji staying home, but I'd like Kari to come with me. I reach the living room and look around. She may be in the bathroom.
"Kari?" I ask again, walking in my socks down the back hallway. I knock on the door. There's no answer, so I open it and peer inside. Sighing, I check my own bedroom just in case, and head towards the kitchen.
"Kari, please come out." I peek into the kitchen, but it's silent. Of course my next assumption is that she's outside, so I go out the door in the kitchen that faces the garden.
"Kari?" . . .
"Kari?"
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, they made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Sorry for the late update, ffnet hasn't been letting me upload lately...
Chapter 2: Morning
I wake up early in the morning, but not early enough to beat the sun. Remembering the night before, I quickly sit up and look across the expanse of the room.
He's still there.
My dark eyes soften at his image, one I haven't been able to see for a long time. He's still fast asleep, and I don't blame him. If I had been working like he does for that long I'd sleep for days. One of his arms was strewn above him above his head, bent at the elbow. He still had the shirt of his police uniform on, but he had taken the jacket off. His long, thin bangs fell to either side of his face. I wanted to touch him, but I didn't want to wake him, and knowing him, he'd wake.
I've personally known Saitou for nine years, though I've known of him for much longer, since I had spent most of my years knowing of our soon-to- be marriage. My stepfather had arranged it with his parents a few years after I was born. His mother and father are both deceased now. I didn't meet my fiancé until after the revolution, and it took a year after that of preparing before we actually wed.
As quietly as possible, I pull my thin covers off of me and stand. I stop before going to my closet though to straighten the futon. I don't want to make noise and clean it up, but it shouldn't be laying out in a mess on the floor. After I'm done with that, I pad across the floorboard to the tall oak cabinets. I unlatch the doors silently, but swing them open quickly to avoid sound from the hinges. Inside are several kimonos hanging up, all facing the same way on their hangars. I remove the light peach one, the one with red flower petals up the left side, and a blue obi to go with it. I shut the doors gently and step around Saitou to the door. I'll dress in the bathroom today.
~
I all ready know what to cook for breakfast as the fire underneath the stove gets hot enough to begin heating the water I've placed upon it. Despite how odd it sounds, plain hot soba is a dish he likes, and it's simple to make.
My gaze moves from the small pot of water to the window in front of me. I'm surprised Eiji isn't up, though he may be and I'm just not aware of it. Since I don't teach today, I'll let Kari sleep in. I usually try to make sure her and Eiji are up around the same time every morning. I'm not sure why, but I find that it keep their daily activities more organized.
I adjust a pin in my hair while I wait for the water to boil. It comes to my mind that I should prepare something else in case the children dislike such an ordinary breakfast. I reach for the cupboard next to the stove and pull out a second pan, and return to the sink nearby to fill it with water from the pump. As I watch the cool liquid splash into the silver pan with every motion I make, I'm a bit surprised to see how concentrated I am on what I'm doing. Perhaps just knowing that he's back has reset the focus of my mind.
I let the last few drops from the pump fall into the pan before placing it beside the first, which water is beginning to simmer lightly. Grabbing a wooden bowl beside me, I take myself silently to the other side of the kitchen, where three large barrels of rice stand. I take the lid off the nearest one, two-thirds of it all ready gone. A small cup is left inside of it for when I need it, which is often. I take the container and scoop it full of the un-cooked meal and pour it into the bowl, watching the single grains of rice wash over the wooden bottom. I do this three more times until I decide it is enough for breakfast. After placing the lid back on the barrel, I return to my stove-side to prepare the soba noodles.
I really only have to wait a little while before my first pot of water is boiling so I can place the soba inside. I stir it around gently with a long wooden spoon, and see that my second pot is near ready as well. I remove the spoon from the noodles and simultaneously pour the rice into the second saucer. Both should take about the same time to cook, which makes preparing breakfast easier for me.
As I stir the rice in, I feel my breath stiffen slightly. I know he's there without even having to turn around.
~
"DADDY!"
The shrill does make me turn. It seems that Saitou isn't the only one up.
Kari's short hair bobs around her face as she runs a bit clumsily through the living room, all ready dressed in the day's kimono--the same one she had wanted to wear the night before. Saitou's attention turns to her as she reaches him, and he kneels down in a way to keep Kari from painfully colliding into him. She runs hard into his arms, and he picks her up and holds her against his hip.
"Kari, you've gotten bigger since I last saw you." He smiles.
"I have?" She asks, excited.
He nods, and Kari wraps her arms tightly around his neck, giggling.
I feel a bit jealous, but my thoughts change as another face comes into my view.
"Eiji, did you get Kari ready?" I ask, considering that she always needs help to dress in the morning.
He nodded. I can see the change in his eyes when he recognizes Saitou.
Saitou's voice is a bit lower when he addresses Eiji. "I see you are doing well."
"What are you doing here?" Eiji immediately responds.
"Eiji." I lightly scold, though I only use his name.
Saitou raises an eyebrow at him. "This is where I live, boy."
Eiji looks at him oddly, but his features change as if he remembered something. "Oh yeah..." He glances over at me. He doesn't say anything more, just shrugs his shoulders and goes outside. Kari debates for a moment and follows after him.
"Gomen nasai, Saitou." I apologize as he puts Kari back on the ground. "He's just not used to you."
"It's all right, Tokio." He reassures me.
I wanted to say something more, but the sound of the boiling water catches my attention and I turn back around to it. I reach for the cupboard again and pull out a colander so I can drain everything before it becomes too soft. I drain the steaming soba noodles first over the sink, still leaving some water in to maintain the texture, and after placing them back into the pot I do the same with the rice. I have to let the rice cool before I can mold it, so it seems the soba will be ready first.
"I made you breakfast." I tell him, noticing him reaching near me towards the cupboard. He continues and gets out a small bowl.
"Thank you, I appreciate it." He answers.
I gently take the bowl from his hands, telling him I don't expect him to serve himself. "You can sit down," I remind him after a pause. I think I catch him smile just a little before taking a seat in the kitchen. I guess it wouldn't make too much sense for him to sit in the dining area.
"Do you have to work today?" I ask him, placing the soba noodles down before him with a clean pair of chopsticks.
"Yes." He answers. "I have to report to Kawaji today, I seem to have let it slip my mind."
I sit beside him. "When will you be back?"
He looks up at me for a moment, meeting his orange-brown eyes with mine for a few seconds before returning to the food before him. "I don't know."
I precede to tell him that I don't go to Seishun Preschool today, and I fill him in a bit on Eiji and Kari, the things they've been up to in his absence. I suppose the conversation was about what could be expected since I hadn't spoken to him person-to-person in a while, but it could just be the fact that he's eating. I want to ask him about Shishio, but I don't. I know from experience he prefers to leave the details of his work out of my mind.
"He really is a bright boy." I add on when he's finished. I take his bowl and get up to take it to the sink.
"I'm glad." He says, getting up as well. "I'm sure he's all ready learned a lot from you."
I think I feel myself blush a little from the minor compliment, but I'm not facing him, so he can't see. He leaves for a minute, and when he emerges into my sight again he has his blue cap on and his sword at his left side.
"Ja matta, Tokio." He says, nodding to me slightly and leaving out the same way Eiji previously had.
I go to the doorway and watch him walk down the path of the property and out the front gate. As he goes, Kari runs across the front yard, a ball rolling just ahead of her. I follow her movements with my eyes, and Eiji appears behind her, staying close as she bends over to retrieve the round object. Eiji will make a good father one day.
Kari's loud laugh wakes my attention back to her, and she throws the ball limply to Eiji, who sits down in front of her and passes it back. The sun shines of Kari's hair like it were ebony, and the streak of light it makes across her face illuminates her like an angel. Every time I see her I think of him, of that one night so long ago...
"Oi, Tokio, is breakfast read yet?" Eiji asks, seeing me watching them.
I regain my posture. "Oh Eiji, I forgot... it will be ready in a moment, hold on..." I retreat back inside towards the kitchen to finish the rice balls I had started earlier.
~
The morning continues on fairly normal, and until lunch I occupy myself by preparing a few things for my next school lesson and tidying my room as well as Kari's. I find after each task I complete and look out the nearest window to see if he's on his way home. I don't remember ever missing his presence this much, but it could just be that I've missed him. I miss the man whom I used to quietly sit with in the evening, not having anything to say to him, as if he were a stranger. Over the years my heart must have grown fond of him, perhaps more than I had realized. Kari is the constant reminder of that.
After lunch I locate Eiji in his room, lying on the floor and looking at the ceiling.
"Eiji," I begin, "Do you have any school work to do?"
The adolescent glances at me, but waves my question aside.
I sigh. "Eiji..." His silence tells me that he does. It must have been guilt that overtook him, because with a groan he sat up and folded his legs in front of him.
"Yeah." He replies.
"Would you like me to help you with it?"
Eiji looks at me oddly, but sighs heavily (as if to make sure I notice) and agrees. He crawls over to the far corner of the room and grabs a bag that had been slung there, and puts on a small act of dragging it back. I smile though. I know the reason he does so is because he has developed some form of attachment to me, as I have to him. I know that he has no family left, but living here has given him a new one.
"All right, let's see what you have here." I take the bag from him and open it up, pulling out a single book a several folded pieces of paper.
"I don't have to do that." Eiji announces, pulling a paper out of my hand. "I finished it all ready."
"That's good." What do you have to do?"
"Math." He says blandly.
I look at the book. It's a math book. I hand it to him, and instruct him to find the page his teacher had left him off on. He does, and somehow he knows which of the papers is his assignment. He only has the first problem done, but he's only been assigned ten. I look it over before getting him started, and it's generally all division. The first problem is done correctly, though his writing is a bit lopsided and several characters are scratched out. He has a thin brush with him, but no ink. I offer to go downstairs and get it for him, but he says he can do it himself and leaves momentarily. I have his book and papers laid out when he returns.
I move over so that he can have the full space before his studies. He stares at the book for a moment, then dips the brush lightly in the ink bottle and writes down a character. I stop him before he finishes his strokes.
"Fifteen, Eiji." I correct him. "It's easier if you look at the problem backwards as multiplication before you write down your answer.
He nods and does so. I smile; he's patient with me.
He sighs as he moves onto problem three. "I hate this." He grumbles.
I watch him for a minute while he tries to contemplate the problem, and an idea comes into my head.
"Eiji?"
He looks up, probably frustrated that I interrupted his thinking. "What?"
"I suppose if you do well in your school work for a while, I could find a dojo to enroll you in."
At my remark his eyes light up. Since he's gotten here he's practiced with that broken weapon of his, and never once have I offered him any professional training, especially since I wanted him to settle into a school.
"Really?" He asks, making sure he heard right.
"Hai." I answer. "But only if..."
"Got it!" He cuts in. When he returns to his paper, it's with a new vigor. I grin inwardly. I suppose methods like these that I've learned still work.
~
"Kari!" I call coming down the stairs, though my voice isn't loud enough for her to hear if she's not close. I have a good while before I need to start dinner, but going down to the market now isn't a bad idea. I have no problem with Eiji staying home, but I'd like Kari to come with me. I reach the living room and look around. She may be in the bathroom.
"Kari?" I ask again, walking in my socks down the back hallway. I knock on the door. There's no answer, so I open it and peer inside. Sighing, I check my own bedroom just in case, and head towards the kitchen.
"Kari, please come out." I peek into the kitchen, but it's silent. Of course my next assumption is that she's outside, so I go out the door in the kitchen that faces the garden.
"Kari?" . . .
"Kari?"