Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin or anything that has to do with it.

Author's note: This is part two of the Identity series, my series about everyone in the Kenshin-gumi (so far I have Battosai, Yahiko, Megumi, and the Kenshin in between Battosai and rurouni.) I hope you enjoy this and continue to read the series. Thanks, and please review!

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He sat, eating udon, watching the first person he had ever loved. He found it funny when he thought about it. He hadn't ever even thought someone would want to get close to him, let alone be his. No, he hadn't ever thought someone would love the Hitokiri Battosai, but somehow she had seen around the fierce fighter and into his soul. The soul of Himura Kenshin.

Now Tomoe wrote in her diary, her hair falling beautifully in front of her face. Everything she did was beautiful to him. She was beautiful when she slept, ate, breathed, lived. She was beautiful, and she loved him.

He longed for some sort of physical contact with her, for him to be able to hold her hand, to caress her. He knew that she would never allow it, though. That no matter how happy of a couple they seemed to every child that came to play, they never acted it once inside the confines of their house. Battosai's love might as well be a crush upon some distant acquaintance.

And so, this night like so many others, went on quietly, Tomoe writing in her diary, and Battosai eating his dinner. The only sounds were of brush on paper and chopsticks on porcelain, of birds and animals and of snow. The first snow of the season. And with it had come a traveler. He had claimed to be Tomoe's brother, and now Battosai guessed she wrote in her diary of her sibling. Battosai smiled, lowering his empty bowl. Something within him was stirring.

Standing, Battosai turned his eyes upon Tomoe. "You going to bed?" she asked, looking up from her diary with her beautiful eyes.

"Yes," Battosai responded. He walked forward toward Tomoe and his futon. It was as he passed her that his brain urged him on. Hesitantly, Battosai stopped and brushed his hand against her shoulder, awaiting her reaction. He could feel her body tense suddenly and finally relax as she placed her hand on top of his.

Following the instincts that had kept him alive for so long, Kenshin knelt down beside her. She quickly closed her diary and turned to look at him, placing it back in her kimono. She began to rise, but Battosai placed a hand on her shoulder and lowered her back down. "You know, I was thinking. We've been married for six months now, Tomoe," he began hesitantly.

"Yes?"

"Well, don't you ever wonder why we don't act it?" Battosai looked down, scared for one of the first times in his life. Perhaps he had said the wrong thing.

"I suppose it's so neither one of us gets hurt. I've never given it much thought," Tomoe admitted. Battosai couldn't see her face, so he couldn't read her emotions. "Why do you ask?"

He stared at the ground a little longer before rising to meet her gaze. "I was just thinking about it is all," he finally said. Then, before his courage deserted him, he placed his hand upon hers once more. "I guess I'll go to bed."

It was Tomoe's turn to lower her gaze. "Yes. Good night, then." She turned back to her brush and fished out her diary. Sighing, Battosai got to his feet and prepared for bed, thoughts of Tomoe following him until his body hit the futon. That night, he fell asleep thinking about Tomoe and how great she was and how great his life with Tomoe was.

Little did he know that she would leave him that night, never to return.