A/N: Hello everyone! As you can see from the previous update of 'Broken Legend' I've returned from me trip safe and sound!

I hope that those of you who are reading Waterfall and Light by Angel Wings won't be too upset that I update this first, will you? (And goal by heart for that matter)

Anyway, I'm just gonna get a move on because I'm just revved up to start typing.

Chapter 8 – A little bit of That

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Call me Kenshin…

Kaoru stared up at the ceiling of her room, the ceiling fan slowly spun, created a light breeze that played across her face. Her eyes blankly followed the constant motion of the fan's spinning. His words were echoing over and over in her mind. She slowly brought a hand up to trace her lips where his had been, the warm tingle still vibrating through them.

She slowly closed her sapphire eyes to try and recall exactly what had happened…

Flash Back

"Call me Kenshin."

Kaoru was just about to say a word of protest but her tongue became tied as she felt his hand bring her head up toward his face and before she even knew it, her lips were tied in a lip lock with his own. Kaoru's breath was stolen away as his lips sucked up anything she was going to say earlier.

Slowly, her eyes fluttered shut as she gave into his demanding kiss. Once she finally submitted to his control, she felt him move his head, pressing his lips more firmly against hers, twisting to test different positions of his mouth on hers.

Finally pulling away, Kaoru took a large intake of breath. She had been waiting for so long back in high school for that to happen. She couldn't speak. All she could do was stare into his lavender eyes, questions buzzing through her swimming head.

Neither of the spoke. They simply stared at each other wordlessly, as if waiting for the other to speak, but no one did…

End of Flash Back

Kaoru opened her eyes once more and brought her hand up to clutch the golden locket that was still laced around her neck. It had been so long since she'd seen him, she practically lost hope in ever seeing him again.

But here he was…entering her life once more, this time with a son.

Guilt started to weave it's way into her heart. She could have stopped him from going through with all that. She could have told him what was going to happen to him if he stayed in that deadly relationship with Tomoe. She could have prevented it all from happening. But she didn't…

She wasjust too afraid that the consequences of Akira's punishment wouldn't go avoided.

She cursed herself for being so selfish. But then again, the chances of him listening would have been a narrow margin. God had a plan for everyone in their lives and Kaoru guessed that this was his plan for Kenshin.

But was it really just something to sit on? Could she have made a difference if she really tried? It's not like everything in the outcome was awful. Kenji came out of it all and that was good, right?

But then again…having a child in the high school years was an awful choice.

Did Kenshin have to drop out of school? Did he have to try and find a job so he could pay for the baby? Kaoru knew first hand that diapers and baby formula were definitely not cheap.

So many questions on what happened to him after Kenji was born just wouldn't sit still in Kaoru's mind.

Why did Kenshin give her the precious locket and not his girlfriend?

How could Kenshin not see that Tomoe was so obviously going to turn on him?

Why didn't he go to the police when Akira and Tomoe teamed up to try and murder both Kenshin and his son?

Kaoru screamed out in frustration as she dug the palms of her hands into her eye sockets. She didn't see any possible way that she was going to get much sleep that night…

0o0o0o0o0o

Staring at the cherry wood of his kitchen table, Kenshin continued to peer into his deep thoughts. His chin was perched on his fists while his elbows were planted on the hard wood. He could feel the painful drag of his eyelids just weighing the sign of sleep onto him, but he knew sleep wasn't going to come easily at all. Why bother?

The creaking of his stairs brought him out of his drowsy pondering. He lifted his eyes to his son who slowly made his way down the steps in his large sleeping T-shirt and baggy pajama pants.

"Kenji. What are you doing up? You're suppose to be in bed…"

Kenji didn't answer as he slowly made his way over to where his father sat. As he reached the table, he pulled back one of the wooden chairs and plumped himself down onto the chair and scooted up to the table next to his dad.

"Kenji?"

Kenji stared at the wood a moment just as his dad did before taking a large breath of air, then turned to look into the lavender eyes of his dad with his turquoise.

"Dad…I've been thinking."

Kenshin's eyebrow cocked upward with a look of confusion. Thinking? His son could actually do that?

Himura, you're awful! This is your son here, focus on him! "You have? What about…?"

Kenji bit his lip as if unsure with the next question to ask, debating on whether or not he should actually ask the question in the first place. Finally, he closed his eyes and nodded in conferment.

"Dad…I want to know…what ever happened to…mom."

Kenshin's eyes widened. He definitely wasn't expecting this question. Looking into the eyes of his son, he could tell that he wasn't going to get out of the question with little answers like 'it didn't work.' He then swallowed a little and cleared his throat.

"Well…"

He seriously didn't know where to begin. He had been prepared about this question and knew that it was going to come one day or another. But now that he was actually in the process of answering that question, the answer just slipped away from his memory bank. He picked up his hand from his chin and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Wait, dad."

Kenshin stopped his thinking and turned to his son.

"First, lemme ask you this…how did mom and you meat?"

Kenshin sighed slightly. It wasn't as tongue twisting as the first question but it definitely brought back memories he'd like to forget. He closed his eyes before reopening them and bringing his hands down onto the wooden table.

"I guess you're going to find out one way or another…well…your mother and I met in high school, believe it or not. We weren't real acquainted or anything, but we knew that we were in the same school and community."

Kenji nodded with a straight face.

"She was quite popular and I was too, myself. She was on the cheerleading squad and I just…was popular out of no where, really. The girls clamed it was my looks and the guys clamed it was because I was just a great guy."

"Were you in any particular group of people?"

Kenshin stopped his story telling and looked at his son with a bit of confusion. Group?

"What do you mean?"

Kenji nodded his head from side to side, trying to think of an example.

"Y'know, like…cool people, punk people, goth people, geek people, nerd people…the works."

Kenshin chuckled a little at his sons response and shook his head.

"No, no. I wasn't really in a group…but I did have a group of friends I would hang out with all the time. But…after I met Tomoe and got together with her…they sort of…left my life…due to my fault."

Kenji then drawled a nod frowned just slightly at the saddened tone in his fathers voice when he mentioned the last part of his answer.

"Who were they?"

Kenshin's sad smile was then wiped from his face as he looked at his son.

"What?"

Kenji repeated his question.

"Who were they? Like…what were their names…?"

Kenshin bit his lip slightly and looked off to the side, unable to answer Kenji's question immediately. Could he admit that Kaoru was one of the people he used to hang out with, then abandoned? Kenshin shook his head. He couldn't leave his son in the dark.

"Sanosuke Sagara was my childhood best friend. We met each other while we were in the orphanage and became good friends. And it turned out we went to the same schools all through out Elementary, Junior High and High school.

"Aoshi Shinomori was another friend I hung out with. We met in high school when I accidentally rammed into him in the lunch line and drenched him in the cafeteria spaghetti. Heh, he and I spent a day in detention for that one and we became friends.

"Soujiro Seta was amongst the few who I got close to as well. He was in a grade lower than I was and so naturally, I was his 'superior'. I'd see him around the halls here and there and say hi maybe once or twice but it was another one of my friends who actually got us really in touch…"

Kenshin stopped right there in his explanation. He could barely find the gut to tell Kenji about Kaoru. The flashes of the misfortunes of him skipping Soujiro's mother's funeral, Aoshi's, Sano's and Soujiro's total memory wipe of their every three month's party night, Sano's bullet wound, and Kaoru's birthday all gone by without him even noticing, really stung.

"Well? Who was it that introduced you to this Soujiro guy?"

Kenshin lifted his head to Kenji and paused a moment before standing up from the table. Kenji lifted his gaze to his fathers retreating body.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

Kenshin walked into his working area and approached his wooden desk and stared at the hard cover year book of his high school years. Taking another racketing breath, he grabbed his Senior year book and returned back into the kitchen and sat at the table again, placing the untouched year book on the table.

"This is my Senior year book from high school. I haven't looked at it yet…not even once. The only one I've really looked at was my Sophomore year."

Kenshin sat down in his seat again and opened up the book, forcing the strong seal of the brand new binding to stretch.

"You can tell by the toughness of the book binding that I haven't looked at it. Sad, isn't it."

Kenji didn't reply, his eyes too focused on the book. Kenshin hoped that his memory served him right from those 10 years ago and flipped to the page where his friends had their pictures taken.

"…ah. Here they are."

Kenshin landed on the 34th page of the book, the white crisp paper clashing with the colorful images of the class. Black and white photos were further into the book where the class picture was taken. But in the front of the book were individual images that you yourself could pick out.

"Ironically, the last names of my friends all started with S so they're pretty much all grouped together. See? There's Sanosuke."

Kenshin shifted the book so that it was facing Kenji right side up, and pointed ot an image of a boy with spiky brown hair and cinnamon eyes, a red head band laced around his forehead as a few stray bangs floated in his face. Kenshin then lifted his finger and skimmed over to the right side of the page and landed on another picture of a boy.

"And this here is Soujiro."

The boy had a very friendly smile on his youthful features and had indigo eyes while his hair was cut in a simple bowl cut, the color of a solid brown, but his attractiveness still in effect.

"Heh, he never did stop smiling. And he sure had a lot of girls on his tail."

Flipping the page, his eyes skimmed the page a moment before finding who he was looking for. Pointing to yet another picture of a boy.

"This is Aoshi. It was almost scary how quiet he always was when he was around different people."

He face was lean and his mouth was in a thin line, his eyes a sharp lightning blue/green. His hair, a jet black color with long bangs that parted in the middle of his forehead.

"Dad…what about that other person?"

Kenshin nodded. Of course. He hesitated a moment before slowly flipping the pages back to the 'Ks'. Finally landing on the correct page, Kenshin hesitated once more. Fisting up his palms, he finally hovered over the page until he landed on the image of a young girl this time.

"This…is her. She's the one…who introduced me to Soujiro."

Kenjis eyes narrowed a moment, looking at the picture hard. Finally, after a while of staring, his eyes widened and he quickly looked back up to his father.

"…Kaoru?.!"

Kenshin nodded slowly.

"That's her, alright. She changed so much in the time I was with Tomoe…"

Kenshin also stared at the picture. Glasses no longer rimmed her face, letting her sapphire eyes captivate the person looking at her picture. A white, toothy grin laced her smile, braces no longer marring her mouth either. Her long, glossy, navy blue/black hair was held in a semi pony tail with a small ribbon laced around the strands to keep it in place while large bands like Aoshi's framed her face, parting in the middle of her forehead. And still laced around her slender neck was the same golden locket.

"Wow…you and her were friends in high school?"

Kenshin shook his head just slightly.

"No…we were best friends. No one, besides Sano, were as close as Kaoru and I. We were two birds of a feather…deux paire, two of a kind. We met in her Freshmen year, my Sophomore year. She was getting teased by the older group of kids one morning on her way to class and I happened to be walking by. I stopped them and sent them on their way and helped her to her feet. From then on we just became inseparable. I don't know what it was about her that just drew me in. If it was her personality…or if it was her voice or her smile, I don't know. But we just became as close as could be…"

Kenshin sighed as he glanced at his son, the look of sadness clearly displayed on Kenji's face.

"What happened…?"

Kenshin took a deep breath, preparing to answer his sons question to the fullest.

"I had entered my Junior year of high school and I was slowly developing a crush on Tomoe from afar. Somehow, she figured that out and we soon became an item. And during that time…something happened. I grew distant from my friends…every one of them. So distant to the point where they were afraid to approach me. Then…one day they all approached me….

So many things had happened. Soujiro's mother died from a heart attack during the night. She had had heart problems all her life and she was expected to die soon. Soujiro, Aoshi, Sano, and myself always had one night ever three months where we'd just party and have fun and I totally forgot about that. Kaoru's birthday had come and gone and I missed it, as if I didn't even know she existed. And on the night of the funeral for Soujiro's mom, Sano and Kaoru were attacked and Sano was shot in the shoulder.

It was crazy. It was as if everything was happening when I wasn't there. Like a turn of events that only happened just to spite me…"

Kenji stared at his dad with shock riddled in his eyes. Did this all really happen to his dad? He blinked multiple times then stared back down at the picture of Kaoru in the year book.

"But…I thought that…; It's practically fate that best friends of the opposite gender fall in love and get married…right? It happens so frequently that it's known as natural tradition! I heard that somewhere and I never forgot it…how come it never happened with you…?"

Kenshin smiled sadly at his son and placed a hand on top of his head.

"Kenji…just because your biological mother and I were…in love once, doesn't mean that it's going to be my one and only love, you know…"

"So basically…you're telling me that back then you loved that girl…right?"

"Kenji, she's your mo-"

"I'm not calling that woman my mom. A mom is someone who takes care of their child and is always there. Someone to love you and care for you. She was never there…so she doesn't even deserve that title…"

Kenshin stared at his son.

"Kenji…"

Kenji closed his eyes a moment before slowly coming to a realization.

"Kenji…just because your biological mother and I were…in love once, doesn't mean that it's going to be my one and only love, you know…"

Dad said that Kaoru and him where best friends…and that nothing could tear them apart. But yet this woman did…so that must only mean that she was never suppose to be there in the first place!

Kenji stared at his dad a moment before a boyish grin appeared on his face.

"Ah hah! I get it!"

Kenshin's smile slowly faded off of his face as he cocked his head to the side, questioning his son's actions.

"A mom is someone who loves and cares for you, Dad. The only figure that I've ever seen like that is Kaoru."

Kenshin jerked back just slightly, still trying to follow exactly what his son was getting to with his small theory of his and Kaoru's relationship.

"And Kaoru and you were best friends before, so basically, that means you're pretty much best friends now!"

Kenshin cocked an eyebrow, calculating his son's reasoning then slowly started to nod his head shrugging his shoulders in the process.

"Yeah, I guess so…"

"Well? Don't you see what this means?.!"

Kenshin's nodding continued before it slowed down a little and then came to a halt as he started to shake his head in disagreement, a confused look on his face.

"I'm not following."

Kenji rolled his eyes before standing up, a large grin on his face.

"Don't you see! Kaoru and you were always meant to be together! That woman simply got in the way of all that, and now, time is repairing what ever was broken between Kaoru and yourself! You said yourself that your first love won't always be your last, totally avoiding my question about what happened between Kaoru and you! That can only mean that you're expecting to get together with her! See? Fate brought you together! With me being born and Kaoru looking after me, all this has come into play of the true meaning as to why Kaoru and yourself weren't together before! You're suppose to be together now!"

Kenshin's eyes widened extensively as his son blared out a complicated explanation to his theory. Was he right? Was his son actually stating the truth? Was he subconsciously starting to expect the get together of Kaoru and himself? Was fate waiting until he was stable enough to start a family and had Kaoru appear into his life in that way? After all those years?.!

"Kenji, that is absolutely absurd!.!"

Although Kenshin saw the workings behind it all, it still didn't seem like it fit. Or maybe he was didn't want it to. Kenji spat his tongue out with a smug grin on his face.

"Denial is the first siiiggnn!"

Kenshin twisted his mouth into a frown of annoyance as he quickly came back with a retort.

"Kenji, your logic may be explainable, but that doesn't mean it's true!"

Kenji ignored his dad and started to dance, snickering and pointing at his dad menacingly, laughing even more profoundly as he caught his father red faced and blushing like mad.

"You're in looooove. You're in looooove."

Kenshin forgot all means of maturity and quickly covered his ears childishly and continued to argue against his sons declarations, blabbering random gibberish to drown out Kenji's chanting.

"LALALAL! I can't HEEARR yoouu!"

Kenji continued to pester his father over and over again with small kissing gestures and hugging actions along with more silly dancing and snickers.

"Daddy loooves Kaoru! Daddy loooves Kaoru!"

"Dot not!"

"DO TOO!"

"DO NOT!"

"Oh really! Then how come you were kissing her on the porch last night?.!"

"I-"

Kenshin stopped in his mid sentence hearing his son shout the gospel truth at him. He had been caught kissing his son's baby sitter by none other than his son himself.

"I uhh…"

Kenji's smile widened even more extensively if possible.

"OH! SA-LAM! YOU JUST GOT SERVED!"

Kenshin's embarrassment quickly diminished as he quickly whipped his head to face his overjoyed son in a duel of tongue lashing.

"And what about you? Weren't you suppose to be asleep?.!"

Kenji simple shrugged his shoulders.

"What does it matter? I still caught you! And besides, Yahiko and I knew that you two wouldn't do anything when we were awake so we faked it! It's not that hard you know."

Kenshin's jaw dropped.

"You mean Yahiko knows about it too?"

"Duh! I mean he lives there! But like I said! What does it matter? I caught you and that's that! You are SO in love with her!"

Once again, their childish debate started up again.

"I am not!"

"ARE TOO! And if you don't admit it then I'm going to tell her tomorrow!"

Kenshin's mouth went dry and his eyes widened again as he quickly shook his head vigorously, clasping his hands together, begging his son not to do what he threatened to.

Kenji's eyebrows rose and another smirk plastered onto his face as he placed his hands on his hips and looked at his dad with a snort.

"So you are in love with her…"

Kenshin finally had to come to a conclusion. He was either to admit to his son the truth of it all, or be humiliated by his son when he told his sitter that his dad had feelings for her.

"Yes. I admit it! I'm head over heels! I'm a love sick puppy, struck down by cupid himself! I'm in love with her! I love her, I love her, I love her, I love her! There! Are you satisfied? Now please don't even breath a word of that to her!"

Kenji stared at his dad. He had never seen him spill the beans like that! He did it! He finally got his dad to admit that he loved Kaoru! Oh the sweet feeling of success!

"Ha…I knew it."

"Yes, yes you did! Now please!"

Kenji simply waved his hand in front of his dad.

"Ahhh, don't worry about it. I finally got what I wanted! No need to threaten any more! I'll just be on my way to bed now. G'night, dad!"

And with that, Kenji hopped down from his chair and walked to an invisible beat back to the stairs, whistling a little tune as he journeyed up to his bedroom and shut the door.

Kenshin still sat by the table with a look of overload on his tired face. Then with an exasperated sigh, he dropped his head onto the table with a bang.

"What in the world have I gotten myself into…"

0o0o0o0o0o

A/N: Well, that's all for now! Oh, that argue between Kenji and Kenshin was so much fun! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Review!