Authors Notes: I'm so mad!! My log in screen thingy isn't letting me update my other story goal by heart! Err! ..I'm alright. Anyway, I figured I'm just gonna update this story since the log in is being stupid XD.

Chapter 2 – Surprise.

Kenshin had drove Kenji down the ice-cream parlor and bought him an ice-cream. He couldn't help but smile at his sun who just dove right into it.

They made it back to the car and got in. Kenshin started it up and backed out of the parking lot.

As they were driving down the road, Kenshin pulled out the sticky note paper with the name and the number written on it.

He pulled out his cell phone as well and dialed the number.

There were a few rings before a feminine voice answered.

"Hello?"

Kenshin almost choked on his words, but was able to answer.

"Uh, Yes, Hello."

Well, almost answer. Kenji was looking at him, questioning what he was doing exactly.

The woman on the other line only laughed good heartedly.

"Hello. Now, how may I help you?"

Kenshin breathed in a good heaping of air.

"Is this Miss Kamiya?"

Her voice held a smile.

"Yes it is! Are you calling for child care?"

Kenshin smiled.

"Yes. You see, I'm working almost all hours of the day and my son can't take babysitters so I need another place for him to stay."

Kenshin didn't want to say that babysitters couldn't stand him. That would just be a recipe for disaster.

Kenji perked up and looked at his dad. His mind was filled with questions like 'what's he up to?' and all of that sort.

"Ah. I see. Are you looking for directions?"

Kenshin sighed and his shoulders dropped in relief. This woman must have dealt with the same kind of people before.

"Yes please, miss."

She had explained the directions perfectly, and in no time, he had made it to the house in which she described to him.

He pulled into the drive way and parked.

Kenshin and Kenji both stepped out of the car and walked up to the front door.

"Dad, what is this place? Don't' tell me it's a day care!"

Kenshin couldn't answer because he didn't know himself. He lifted a hand and knocked on the door.

There was a few crashing noises and some little thumps and a muffled,

"I'm coming!"

After a minute or two, the door opened.

There stood a beautiful young lady. Her figure was developed, her hair was a gleaming black; held in a pony tail with bangs that were separated in the middle of her forehead, and glistening blue eyes.

"Hi there! You must be Mr. Himura and your son, Kenji." Her voice was sweet and her face held a heart warming smile.

"Yes, that's us." Kenshin answered.

She ushered them to come in. They hesitantly stepped inside.

Kenji looked around in wonder. There was a living room with a couch and large screen T.V, and looked to be surround sound. There were cushions that were piled everywhere and some bean bags as well.

About five other kids were there. They didn't seem to be little kids like Kenji imagined. They were mostly his age and maybe one year younger.

They didn't seem to be having a bad time either. Their faces were bright and they were smiling as well.

The woman smiled and gave Kenji a small noogie.

"Don't worry, Mr. Himura, we'll set him straight here. Right guys?" She turned to the group of kids.

"Yeah!"

Kenji gulped and turned back to his father. Kenshin only gave him a knowing smile.

"I'll pick Kenji up around 9:00pm. Um…is that too late, Miss Kamiya?"

She turned to him and shook her head.

"No, not at all. The latest I go is around 1:00 am. So don't worry about a thing, Mr. Himura." She smiled and gave him a friendly wink.

Kenshin smiled and walked over to his son and placed a hand on his head and ruffled his hair like that morning.

"Have fun. I'll be here around 9:00pm."

Kenji grumbled and swatted his hand away again. Kenshin only laughed and smiled at the woman. He turned around and headed toward the door.

Just before he walked out, he notice a small light flitter around the woman's neck. He squinted his eyes a little and noticed a small golden heart locket.

His mind jacked up a little. He kept the smile on his face and closed the door.

"That locket, her face, her eyes…and her name. They all seem so familiar. I got to figure this out."

He jumped into his car and quickly drove back home. He was taking the day off.

-

Kenji watched from inside the house as his father drove away. His eyes held sadness and his face, a frown.

He then turned to the woman and hung his head.

"What's wrong, little man?"

He only shook his head.

"Well, if you want someone to talk to, you can come to me anytime. Anyway, time to introduce myself. Well, my name is Kaoru."

One kid over in the corner with spiky black hair and fair skin waved a hand and his chocolate eyes gleamed.

"I'm Yahiko Miyojin!"

Kenji gave a small wave. Another kid with light brown hair and indigo eyes also waved.

"I'm Yutaro Tsukayama! Nice to meat you!"

Kenji smiled and got a bit more bold.

"I'm Kenji Himura."

The group of kids smiled and looked at each other deviously. They then looked back at Kenji and snickered, all standing up and slowly inching towards him. Kenji gulped and started to back up when he backed into someone. He looked up to see Kaoru staring down at him, a smirk also on her face.

"Kids, you know what to do with a new comer."

As they nodded and drew closer to him, he began to panic. He closed his eyes and braced a horrible impact or some sort of torture when he suddenly felt a tickling feeling on his ribs.

"Tickle fight!!!"

Instead of a torturous whipping or punching, Kenji started to laugh and writhe under all the hands of the group as they tickled him everywhere.

Before long, tears were streaming out of his eyes, he was laughing so hard. As all the other kids were tickling him In placed he didn't even know were ticklish, Kaoru had him laughing just as hard with her tickling his ribs.

His lungs felt like they were going to burst.

And if felt great.

-

Kenshin had made it home in record time. He ran up stairs up to his room and searched through his bookcase. He finally found his old high school year book. He placed it down on his computer desk and searched through all the pages until he finally found his class.

"Ah! Here it is."

He looked down to the 'K's.

"Kamiya. Kamiya. Kamiya…here it is! Kamiya Kaoru."

He looked over to her photo and suddenly, she seemed even more familiar than normal. But instead of a beautiful clean face like she did presently, her face was shaded and looked awful. Giant glasses were perched on the bridge of her nose and her alluring smile was bracketed in braces.

Her hair was short and frazzled.

Her beauty was definitely on hold for the moment. Yet she still wore the same locket upon her neck.

"Where did she get that…"

Almost as if lightning has struck him, the memories flooded back to him.

::"Kaoru, I'm so sorry…"

kaoru's face was damp and soaked with her own tears. She tried to hide her face as she whipped them away.

"P-Please…d-don't pity me…"

Kenshin's face was twisted into a sad state.

"Kaoru, you're my best friend! Your parents were just killed, your house burnt down, and you don't want my to feel bad for you?"

Kaoru nodded.

"I don't want pity because I only feel like I can't hold up for myself. I…I'll be able to deal with it…"

Kenshin's head dropped a little. His had fingered a small item in his pocket as he suddenly remembered. He pulled it out and looked at it a moment before taking her hand in his and placing the item in her palm.

"Kaoru, I want you to have this."

Kaoru took it and then re-opened her palm to see a gorgeous golden heart locket placed there.

"B-But Kenshin…I-I can't accept this! I…It's too much!"


Kenshin simply smiled.

"For you it's not. Just keep it. As a gift from me to you."

Kaoru's eyes brightened up again and threw her arms around Kenshin in a tight hug as tears flooded down her cheeks.

"Thank you so much Kenshin…for everything."

"Sure thing."::

Kenshin's eyes snapped open and he gasped. He quickly jolted his eyes back to the year book pictures. He now remembered that Kaoru was one of his high school best friends.

She was still there, smiling sadly in the picture. But although her face wasn't beautiful, her eyes made up for everything. They gleamed with a flame that seemed to burn brightly even in the colorless photo.

The memory that he just experienced seemed to just jog something in his mind that he locked away.

But for what reason…?

He was so wrapped up in his trying to remember the reason that when the microwave beeped to assure that his coffee was done he jumped back in his chair and fell over.

He quickly got up and fixed his chair before going to retrieve the coffee.

He quickly came back to the desk and sipped at his coffee while fervently searching through the yearbook pages.

While he was searching, his eyes crossed over a familiar face.

"…" He smiled and lightly traced the picture of his child hood best friend.

"Sano…"

He really needed Sano at the point. He was so stressed and tensed up he needed someone who could just let him relax. Sano always was the one to bail him out on sticky situations. He really needed him now.

He glanced at a few more faces that rang a bell.

"Soujiro Seta…Aoshi Shinomori."

They were all such good friends. And they all adored Kaoru's personality just as he did. He suddenly remembered how they thought they'd never break apart.

"What happened?! What the hell happened…?"

His mind kept on trying to decipher what made them go their separate ways.

As he ran a hand through his hair and sighed exasperatedly, his eyes, once again, spotted an almost repelling face.

Although her face was beautiful, her herself was not.

"Tomoe…"

Once again, Kenshin's memory bank seemed to open up again.

::"Kenshin, what the hell's gotten into you, man? You're acting like we don't even matter to you anymore."

Kenshin looked at Sano in disbelief.

"How could you say that, Sano? You, Soujiro, Aoshi, and Kaoru are my best friends! I'd never forget you guys!"

Sano only glared at him and snuffed.

"Oh yeah. Really. Then go ahead and tell him the news, Soujiro."

Usually, Soujiro's face was friendly and kind. Always holding a smile. But this time his eyes were painted dully and his face was saddened.

"Yesterday was my mother's funeral, Kenshin. Everyone showed up except you. And you knew my mom the most. But you didn't even come to her funeral…"

Kenshin's eyes grew wide.

"Yesterday? I thought it was next week!"

Soujiro only shook his head solemnly.

Sano's glare continued to hang on Kenshin. He then turned to Aoshi and nodded.

Aoshi nodded back and started to speak up as well.

"Just last weekend was the weekend where all three of us get together once every three months and do everything we can to have fun in one night. You were busy with your girlfriend."

Kenshin was speechless.

Sano only stepped aside. Behind him was Kaoru. Her face was twisted with sadness and her eyes filled with crystalline tears.

"It's ok, Jou-chan…you can tell him…"

Kenshin only looked at Sano strangely.

"Today…w-was my birthday…but you never even spared me a glance…"

Kenshin's breath finally caught in his throat. He then turned to Sano.

"Well…what about you?"

Sano's face twisted into a snarl as he brought his hand back and swung his fist toward Kenshin, hitting him smack in the jaw.

"How many damn reasons do you need for us to prove that you're forgetting us, huh?!"

Kenshin recoiled and stumbled backward. He held his cheek tenderly as he looked up at Sano, almost in shock that he would do such a thing.

Sano slowly brought down the collar of his shirt to reveal a quarter sized hole. His eyes were shaded as he told Kenshin his reason.

"Last night, walking home from Soujiro's mother's funeral, Kaoru realized she had forgot her purse back at the funeral home. I went with her to get it so she'd be safe. While we were walking back, a group of guys decided to surround us. One pulled out a gun and was just about to shoot at Kaoru before I deflected it with my shoulder, and punched the guy in the nose with my other hand…They all fled after that. I got down to my knees and gripped my shoulder, and happened to lift my head…

There you were…standing on the other side of the street. Walking with your girlfriend. The only damn reason I'm not in the hospital was because I was too enraged to think about the pain. The bullet went all the way through anyway. But you didn't even spare a passing glance."

Kenshin shook his head.

"No! You're all wrong! You're just jealous because I have Tomoe and you don't even have a hooker looking at you!"

Before anyone could argue with him, Kenshin ran down the hall.

"Forget them! I don't need them! I have Tomoe now!"

He didn't' even look back as he left all of his best friends behind.::

Kenshin's eyes, somewhere through the memory, formed tears. They streaked down his face as he realized what a fool he was and what he could still have if he had only seen earlier.

He rested his head onto the desk and did the only thing he could imagine doing at the moment.

He cried.