A/N: Finally got the next chapter out! Hope you like it and please review! It's...starting to focus on the more romantic aspects of the story, so if that was what you were going for, well, it's coming, don't worry! Please enjoy!


Kenji looked up at the stars, envious that they were so far away. The burning embers in the sky seldom faded and put the youth at ease whenever he gazed up into the night's sky. He wished, too, that he could leave his problems. And as a matter of fact, leave everything behind. "The stars look so peaceful. I'd give anything to feel such harmony," he muttered to himself, sighing heavily and bringing his knees to his chest where he wrapped his arms around his legs. He had already sat by himself for a good while, disregarding the fact that Kenshin had returned and what he had said to Chizuru.

Chizuru…

Kenji winced mentally. What he had said to her was very harsh on his part. "I wouldn't blame her if she was angry with me for saying that to her…" he whispered, staring at his feet. His tabi were bunched up around his ankles; he didn't even care. His mind had led him astray from things. The events prior had led his mind to wander.

"I may be stepping out of line…but this is not your argument to interfere in. You have no business, or the right to involve yourself in something like this …" he trailed off. Chizuru's eyes widened slowly and she involuntarily took a step backward.

"K-Kenji…" she whispered as she looked into his eyes. She noticed something. Something unusual that struck her as odd. It wasn't Kenji. The person who she was staring at had cold eyes. Cold, lifeless eyes.

"Chizuru-san…" he said mutely, proceeding to hold onto his knees tightly. He cared about her very much, and pushing her away was difficult for him to do. He slowly shut his eyes and took a short exasperated breath, annoyed with the fact that he most probably hurt her feelings. "I never meant for it to come out that way," he said aloud to himself. He was trying to busy himself with a few blades of grass, twirling them intricately between his forefingers. Nonetheless, the teen was too preoccupied in thinking about the mood he was in earlier.

It was strange to him because he knew that it was Chizuru's business. He made it her business. He wanted her to be a part of his life. Before he'd met her, he had no one his age to talk to. Of course Yahiko was always there to talk to him if and whenever Kenji needed to share what was on his mind. Still it wasn't the same. Yahiko was about ten years older and Kenji knew fully that he would soon start a new life with Tsubame. Kenji knew that eventually, there would be no one for him. Was he destined to live his life in the shadows of those who truly experienced happiness?

He thought he would. The one person who ended his lonely period of life was indeed Chizuru. Kenji smiled as he took one last long glance into the dark sky, swayed by the faint glimmering in which he gazed upon. As the teen was about to lie back and get a better view in order to stargaze, he paused while setting himself down on the grass. There happened to be a faint trail of ki that he picked up, though the odd thing was that he could barely detect it. "Whomever this belongs to… I can't even make it out…" Kenji thought incoherently, tempted to turn around and face the person. However, there was a part of him that was somehow too afraid to move, too afraid to recognize such ki that even he could not read clearly.

"Hello?" came a sudden small voice. Kenji's eyes widened and turned around with inexplicable ease after he had heard all he needed to hear. No wonder he couldn't pick up the ki.

It was Chizuru.

He knew not where his own ki ended and hers began. Perhaps it was his own fault for growing so fond of her over the time in which they became good friends.

"Can I come over and join you?" she asked quietly. His eyes widened.


Kenshin had worried for her, that much was blatantly apparent. His face had been enveloped in anxiousness, in a way that made him appear somber. He hadn't seen his wife for what seemed like forever. And her absence only delayed their reunion. Had he known from the start that Kaoru went to go collect groceries for dinner, he would have made sure to meet her there. To hold her in his arms once again. To feel her lips against his own again. If he could have and hold her as soon as possible, it would be all the better for him.

He casually entered the market, keeping an eye out for Kaoru as he walked past various food stands. As of yet, he hadn't even caught a glimpse of her stunning dark hair or bright blue eyes. He was beginning to think that his search was for naught but knew that it would be worth it if he had somehow managed to run into her. "Though," he thought to himself as he paused in front of a certain food stand, which served fruits and other various items. "Excuse me," he announced aloud, hoping to catch the attention of a certain woman who seemed to be working on something else rather than tend to her customers.

"Oh my!" The woman announced, "Himura-san!"

Kenshin smiled sheepishly once he recognized her to be an old family friend who used to tend to Kenji in his younger days. "It's been such a long time, I know," he said quickly, bowing slightly in front of the smiling elderly woman. "I've come back again this time…to stay here forever."

"You mean…you're not wandering to the continent any longer? Not even to other parts of Japan?"

"Not without my wife or my son, no."

"Well, I don't know what caused this change in you, Himura-san, but I am sure Kaoru will be ecstatic to know that you'll be with her always from now on." Kenshin nodded. "You know, it's always been so hard on her. She's tried to mask her emotions from everyone in town but little Kenji's told me that she cries more often than not when you're not here." Kenshin looked away guiltily. If it were possible, he just summoned up the urge to hold her more than he had wanted to in the first place. "Those tears will be dried forever now."

"I'm glad," Kenshin sighed, a small smile creeping onto his features as he studied his hands. "But…do you know where she might be right now? …I already went to the doujo and I got news from Chizuru-dono that she went to the market for a little while. And naturally I would have no worries with that at all except for the fact that she's been gone for a while apparently. It seems so because Chizuru-dono and my son had been sleeping for quite a significant period of time when Kaoru was gone…" Kenshin looked down at his sandals and took a deep breath in hopes of calming him down. "It's no use…I'm trying not to worry."

"She passed by here about…" she paused and tapped her index finger against her slender chin for a few brief moments, "two hours ago I would say…" Kenshin's eyes widened.

"That long?"

"I know… but don't worry, Himura-san, maybe she just…decided to stop by the Akabeko…? Perhaps you should check there and see if she's talking with Tae or Tsubame?"

Kenshin bowed as quickly as he could, running off as he shouted a resounding, 'Thank you very much!' before continuing on his way. He was well aware that the Akabeko was not far from the food stand in which he once was. On the contrary, it was conveniently close to the Akabeko and Kenshin saw that as a mere advantage as he was able to easily reach the Akabeko within a matter of thirty seconds.

"Tae-dono!" Kenshin cried, poking his head into said beef pots restaurant, eyes nervously darting around as he did so. Several people eyed him with concern but the redhead paid no attention as he stepped inside to look around for a familiar face.

"Kenshin-san?" came a small feminine voice. Kenshin believed it was blatantly apparent as to who the owner of the voice happened to be. He turned around quickly only to find out that his hunch happened to be correct.

"Hello, Tsubame-dono," Kenshin replied concisely, torso bent forward as to show some politeness. "I apologize for the loud intrusion but…have you seen Kaoru at all today?"

"Y-yes…but I saw her hours ago…close to noontime. W-what's wrong? Did something happen to Kaoru-san?"

Kenshin slowly shielded his eyes with his unruly crimson bangs. Tsubame hesitated to say anything else until he spoke. "The truth is…I don't know. I arrived back in the area about close to a half-hour ago. And when I learned Kaoru wasn't in the doujo, I went into the marketplace to try and look for her. The woman running the fruit stand said that Kaoru stopped by two hours ago and hadn't seen her since."

Tsubame cupped her mouth with her left hand. "Oh no…that's awful!"

"Well then if you haven't seen her, I think I'll be on my way. Give my apologies to everyone I've startled and to Tae-dono for not greeting her properly." Tsubame nodded pensively. Kenshin smiled for a brief moment as he turned his back on the Akabeko and began to walk in a different direction. The marketplace had an extensive amount of places to search through and it worried him, as he thought it would take some time before he was able to reach his wife.

It had been about ten minutes before the small amounts of people already on the marketplace began subsiding even further. Kenshin hadn't minded. Just so long as he found any sort of trace of Kaoru. So far, his entire search had been for naught. Walking up and down the main roads of the marketplace, there was a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach that he hadn't been searching thoroughly enough. "Perhaps I should check the alleyways as well," he said calmly to himself, turning his body around and starting for the nearest alleyway.

As if fate was leading him toward said alleyway, he suddenly heard a loud thud in the direction that he was walking toward. His natural reaction led him to sprinting toward that sound, heart pounding fiercely within his chest. As he paused, his usually calm eyes widened in fear and his hands began to tremble involuntarily. He'd seen Kaoru lying on the floor, her hair loose and unkempt. Her kimono was dirtied and battered. Unceremoniously, Kenshin ran over to her and kneeled down. His scream echoed throughout the entire alleyway, "Kaoru!"


"When things get tough for me, I look up at the stars too…" Chizuru muttered, playing with the grass that lay at her feet. Kenji said nothing in response. "…um…I wanted to talk to you about earlier today, Kenji…"

"Don't say a word, Chizuru-san," Kenji whispered sincerely, suddenly staring into her large eyes. She paused and refrained from any sort of movement as Kenji looked down at her hands. "I was thinking about all that before you even got here and it really got to me. Everything that I said, I regret now because I hate talking out of anger. I hate saying things that I don't mean…" Kenji reluctantly paused only to place his hand on top of hers. "Chizuru-san… what I said to you before wasn't…true. I want you to be a part of my business and after I've told you everything that's been troubling you, you are a part of it."

"You don't have to apologize…I understand that what you said was only fueled by anger… and for you to even admit that makes me feel relieved. I didn't want to believe what you said earlier was true and now I don't even have to do that."

Kenji continued to stare at her hands, the solitude of the night drilled into his eardrums. His eyes slowly crawled down to half-mast as he said nothing, heard nothing, and continued to feel the smoothness of the back of her hand. He knew then, at the precise moment in which he touched her, that she was unique in his eyes. One of a kind. The one person that touched his heart in a certain way. He saw their familiarity as something to be cherished, seeing as how he hadn't experienced that sort of closeness with many people, let alone a girl his age. "Chizuru-san… in reality…"

She looked at him as he pensively glared at their entwined fingers. Kenji had been clutching her fingers at that point as if he wanted to say something important but couldn't.

"Chizuru-san…I…um…"

"What is it…?"

Kenji solely leaned in closer and rested his head on her shoulder. "Chizuru-san…you're so important to me. You mean so much to me. And I just wanted to tell you that…" He felt her body relax as soon as he finished his sentence. "It's…true. I've never felt this way before."

He slowly lifted his head from her shoulder and smiled deeply and affectionately at her. "If there's one person who's been beside me to listen to me and support me, it's you." Both teens closed the gap shortly after. The redhead affectionately nipped at her bottom lip for a moment, hesitating whether or not he should go through with kissing her. Though Chizuru returned his reluctantance without seeming slightly bothered, taking a strong hold of his hand as she hazily closed her eyes and proceeded to touch his lips again.

"Thank you…Chizuru-san," Kenji whispered in between their short, sincere kisses.


A/N: Well! There you have it...another chapter concluded! I was listening to old love songs while writing this so I thought it was sorta cute to write a Kenji/Chizuru moment in this. There will be more Kenshin/Kaoru in the next chapter, I promise! So please review, I really hope you enjoyed this! Thanks a lot for putting up with my delays in writing. My sister's wedding was yesterday and it was a success! Being a bridesmaid was an honor : ) So now all I have to worry about is completing my AP work and then I'll hopefully be updating regularly! Ja!

Son Christine