Ah, welcome to the third chappie. I've finally moved into our new house and what a trip! Not like moving halfway across the country like the last time but boy! That's some hard stuff!
Anyway, a few people had some questions about their ages and why they all seem the same age even though this takes place over a hundred years in the future. Well it's like this. Really, their ages are five years after the anime so they are a bit older. And no they did not all die the same time as Kenshin did. Actually, everyone lived their lives fully. They're just this age now because in spirit they are the exact same way and age they were when Kenshin died. You get what I'm saying?
I hope that answers anyone's questions concerning their ages and such. Enjoy!
Japanese Glossary: Anata- endearment from a wife to her husband. Gomen- sorry. Jou-chan- Missy or Young Lady. Nani- what. Otou/Tou-san- father, dad. Hai- yes. Tenshi- angel. Okaa/Kaa-san- mother, mom. Iie- no. Oi- hey. Chibi- in this case it means runt. Oji-san- uncle. Kimoi- gross. Busu- not sure of the actual meaning but it's THE worst thing you can call a girl. Ondori- rooster. Aisai- beloved wife. Sumanai- I'm sorry. Koishii- darling. Nande- why. Owari- end.
Disclaimer: CA: Mutt does own RK… Oi! Lawyers, she does! She's claiming to!
:The lawyers chase JSB, suing her. While CA laughs her ass off watching:
JSB- NANI! I-I didn't say that! Ikeike! I'm gonna get you:running from the pummeling lawyers with rather large weapons: What! Are these people allowed to do that! I don't! I don't! AAHHHH!
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Love That Never Dies
Chapter Three
Forgiving Restoration
Kaoru held his confused gaze as she reached for his flesh but his own fingers grasped her wrist and his skin burned as fire to the touch. She gasped at the predatory gaze as he brought his face close to hers.
"I'll ask again and if you do not answer, I will kill you." Even as those words left his lips, the fire boiled into a consuming blaze throughout his body and beads of sweat drenched his brow but Battousai was determined to have this cease no matter the pain. No matter what it took. "What the hell are you doing to me!"
"I told you. I have nothing to do with this." She spat in his face, referring to the burning in his body and making his mind reel in shock. No one spoke to him in that manner unless they had a death wish. "All I want is my husband back, Kenshin!"
"You are insane, woman. And stop calling me that. I cannot taint a name such as that!" He snarled.
"I will help you," She said confidently. "Whether you want me to or not. I won't allow you to wander in this life like this anymore."
"Wander in this life?" He shook his head, not letting his grip on her shoulder or wrist slacken. "Who are you?"
"Do you not remember my face, Kenshin?" Her voice softened and a chill cooled his hands. "Can you not remember anything, Anata?" The burning flared again and his grip tightened as iron but she still refused to stop. "Does the name Himura Kaoru mean nothing to you?"
Battousai fell backwards soon as the name left her lips, the fire dropping him to his knees as he screamed. "What are you doing!"
"Gomen, Anata but you must remember. For me. For yourself." Her sapphire eyes were the only things he saw until a gentile hand slowly connected with his forehead and the world exploded in a blinding white light.
Then he saw.
He saw the katana guided by his blood stained hands protecting a village yet the steel did not kill. The sakabatou. That's what he had carried in those ten years after the Bakumatsu and the time thereafter.
He saw the first time he came across the familiar faces that had grown into what he saw as his family those first few months in Tokyo. He remembered Yahiko, Sanosuke, Megumi, and…Kaoru…
He remembered the hardest thing he thought he'd ever do was finally propose to her after he finally mustered the courage to court her. And he remembered how terribly wrong that was when she brought their first child into the world and the threats that flew viciously from her lips that were worse than death itself. He recalled holding his bundled son in his arms and staring in wonder at the little redhead whose face was the same color as his hair at all the screaming and thinking it to be the most treasured thing in the world. Until his daughter, his precious little gem.
And the fear washed over him in waves, drowning him like the angry breakers of the sea.
He had left them all.
RKRKRKRKRKRKKaoru knelt over his limp body, fresh tears falling from her eyes as Yahiko and Sano stood close by observing the event and to make sure Kenshin would not wake only to still be Battousai. The second he fell to the ground, she was by his side, calling his name. She couldn't lose him just as soon as there was some hope.
When Kenshin's eyes opened, staring unseeing into the black sky boiling with thunder and lightning striking long figures across the rainless air, the colors of his eyes flashed from the amber to deep blue that they changed to whatever provoked, to the blue-violet of the rurouni. His body convulsed ferociously as his mouth froze gape in silent screams.
She never left him, even when his skin became so hot that it physically burned her own flesh. As his temperature finally started to recede, small whiffs of steam rising from the leftover drops of water falling and contacting his fire-hot skin, he still did not wake. Worry overcame her at the heaviness in his limbs and the dead weight of his body. Kaoru cradled his head to her chest, rocking as she held him, begging for his eyes to open.
"Is he gonna wake up?" Yahiko asked, looking to Sano.
The taller man shrugged. "I don't know what Jou-chan did to him."
"It was the right thing to do." Kaoru said as she turned her head to face them. "It was just like you said Yahiko. I think that's all I had to do but waking him up…"
"Call him again."
"Nani?"
Yahiko imitated Sano with a lazy shrug. "Maybe it'll work now that he's not freaking out."
"But, that's what I've been doing-"
"Try it now." Yahiko waved a hand towards the redhead cradled in her arms and looked away, red tinting his cheeks.
Kaoru brought her gaze back to Kenshin's peaceful features and took a breath. "Kenshin?"
Immediately his eyes opened, a blue-violet in color, and shot from Kaoru's lap with a surprised jerk. She placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him from falling backwards as he placed a hand over his forehead and blinked with a frown. "Kaoru?"
"Well, whadda know. The brat was right." Sano grinned as Kaoru sighed gratefully for the man on the ground.
"Course I was right." Yahiko beamed.
"What's going on?" A small voice called behind Sano's legs and deep blue-violet eyes peeked to the scene before him.
"Kenji." Kenshin breathed and sat up fully to take the running boy with flaming red hair a couple shades darker than his own locks into his arms. He looked the same. The same five-year-old he last saw that day.
"Where'd you go, Otou-san?" Kenji asked with wide questioning eyes as he patted his father's tear-stained cheeks.
"Gomen, Kenji-chan. I was gone a long time, wasn't I?" Kenshin brought his legs underneath him to help support the extra weight in his arms before standing easily with the excited child secure in his father's loving grasp.
The boy thought over it for a moment before nodding. "Hai. I missed you a lot, Tou-san." Kenji wrapped his little arms around Kenshin's neck. "Sanami missed you too."
Kenshin followed the little finger to a small redheaded girl, three years in age. Her fourth birthday was the day after he left. More tears fell from his eyes as she ran with a bit unsteadiness in her step and latched onto his hakama, blinking deep blue eyes at him. He scooped her easily into his other arm, Kenji frowning a bit that he wasn't getting all of daddy's attention anymore and tugged at a strand of red bangs belonging to Kenshin.
"Otou-san!" Sanami squealed happily, attempting to do the same thing she saw her nii-chan do by wrapping her arms around his neck but missed and grabbed Kenshin's head instead in her haste, smothering his mouth with her arm. "Miss you 'lot!" She squealed in his ear but he could care less at the moment.
"Sanami." Kenshin said over his daughter's baby soft skin. "My little tenshi."
"Kaa-san?" Kenji asked the dark haired woman watching silently.
"Nani, Kenji? What is it?" Kaoru answered, blinking the tears from her eyes.
"Tou-san's coming with us, ne? He's not leaving again, is he?"
"Iie, Kenji-chan. Tou-san is coming with us." Only then did she make eye contact with him, locking them in place as the two little ones showered Kenshin with questions while patting his face to get him to listen.
"Oi, chibis! C'mere for a moment." Sano called, getting them to squirm to be put down.
"What is it, Oji-san?" Kenji asked.
"Why don't we go on ahead and let your parents follow? I think they need to talk alone."
"Kiss! Kiss!" Sanami clapped her hands gleefully and waved to her mother and father.
"Kimoi! No they won't!" Kenji shrieked, scrunching up his face with disgust at the thought of his parents kissing. "That's gross, Ami-chan! Ow!" He hollered as the little girl kicked her nii-chan in the shin and ran to ask Yahiko to pick her up, waving her arms until the boy complied.
Yahiko gave the little innocent look Sanami sported and wary one and spoke to Sano. "She's so much like Busu that it's scary."
"Got that right." The ondori glanced over his shoulder and smirked at his friend and his wife standing, locked in one another's gaze. "Why were we here anyway? We weren't much of a help."
"You weren't." Yahiko said smugly. "But if I wasn't here, Kaoru wouldn't have even gotten the job done!" Sano swatted him in the back of his head and he yelled. "Oi! Not while I'm holding the kid!"
Kenshin listened as the four of them walked away and slowly disappeared into thin air with fading voices, never taking his eyes from her beautiful face.
"Kaoru." He said to her and she ran into his open arms, hugging him as she cried. "Aisai, sumanai de gozaru." He reverted back to the humble speech she insisted that he change before their wedding.
"Iie." She choked on the words, trying to speak. "Iie. It was all my fault. I felt there was something wrong but I didn't say anything to you about it!"
"Nonsense." Kenshin whispered in her ear, squeezing her tightly as she shook with sobs. "I-I still would have gone." She stared into his sadden eyes as he spoke. "I still would have gone, Koishii. It was something I had to do. You know that."
"But you were killed, Kenshin."
He couldn't bear the hurt in her eye and looked away. Truthfully, he had no idea what he had been up against and had no idea the man was…didn't know he would… "Nande? Why did you come for me after I broke what I had promised our wedding night? I left you. I left all of you." He shook his head as memories of that last week flared to life. "And the way I acted. Kaoru…"
"Kenshin." Kaoru shook her head and placed her hand over the scar and forced him to face her. "You didn't know. But you would have had I said what I was thinking."
"I should have been there." He closed his eyes tightly. "I should have been by your side. I left you to raise our children alone."
"Don't. Don't do this to yourself. That's the last thing we need from you. What's done is done. The past cannot be changed." She swallowed before continuing. "No matter how we wish it could." She wiped the tears that poured from his closed eyes and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"Still, sessha-"
She covered his lips with a finger, a small glare in her eyes. "Don't start that again, Kenshin. It took me forever to get you to stop. Now stop it."
"Gomen, Koishii." He placed his forehead to hers, her eyes the only thing visible this close. "I'll try. De gozaru ka." He smiled as she swatted his arm halfheartedly. He was glad she did not change in his long absence. Her eyes did not hold as much shine as they once had but just having him close had brought most of it back and it made him happier then he could recall.
He felt, for the first time in his life, at peace though not fully understanding why.
"Perhaps we should go too." Kaoru spoke from his chest and made to move away from him but he didn't let her go. Not just yet. "Kenshin?" The expressions in the look he gave her said so much more than any words from the mouth could say or mean and her heart jumped as he brought her closer to him with a smile. "K-Kenshin?"
"Not just yet, Koishii." He breathed over her lips and she felt a shiver run down her spine. He planted a short, soft brush of his lips over hers, leaving her longing for more. Another smile and he could not help himself as he captured her lips. Her already slack jaw left her mouth open for exploration as he ran his tongue over hers and she moaned into his mouth.
With the sun now beginning to peek over the horizon and the storms once ruling the skies dissipated, their bodies began to fade with the growing light. Locked in a deep, loving kiss, they completely disappeared, forever together in a love that would never die.
Owari
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Now, before anyone starts yelling about this being the ending, let me explain something further to you. THERE WILL BE A PREQUEL. And it will explain all the hows and whys, trust me. I have not started it as of yet seeing that there are other stories that have my fully divided attention right now. Do not fret! I do have a good grip on how I want it. As soon as possible I will begin on the prequel so keep an eye out for it.
Why did I do this one first? It was originally an AU one-shot but it sort of took a life of it's own so I just went with it. I like how it turned out. And I hope you did too. I wondered once I finished that readers would be left very confused and such so that is where the idea of a prequel was born.
So no hurting the authoress onegai.
CA: That was sooooo sad! Oh my gosh Jenn, you SAP! Sappiness, there's so much of it I can't believe you did this! Oh well, she actually DOES have a heart. Bitch.
JSB: …It wasn't that sappy was it?
CA: I think it was. HA! Sap!
JSB: I think I need another's opinion here…
The Great Naxa: Um…
JSB: Well? C'mon!
TGN: I refuse to answer that! Why? Because you write better than me! Oh and I'll give her some inspiration for the prequel. :smacks JSB over the head:
JSB: What the crap!
CA: That was funny! Do it again!
JSB: Kuso!
Thank you to anyone who read my story all the way through, reviews or not. Yes I see you lurkers. :waves: Anyway, I hope to see all of you at the prequel!
Arigatou, minna-san!