Standard Disclaimer Applies.

A/N:Revised and reposted.


CHAPTER Six

The Offer

"I'm sorry I'm late."

She looked up from the book she had been reading the whole afternoon. Patients had been very few these days since the hospital's services had become quite available.

Her eyes rested with dismay on his face, whatever caused the delay of his return she was certain he suffered injury.

"Ryusei," she whispered

She rose and hurried around her desk.

"Where have you been child?" She had almost reached the little boy when she noticed the shadow behind him.

The man stepped next to the boy from where he had been standing at the darkened corner. Although his face was not marked, it seemed as white and stiff as Ryusei's.

"Tend to him first," Aoshi said stoically. His tone was deliberately light but she didn't like the strain in his face or what was in his eyes. She studied him a long moment, but he said nothing else. And offered no other explanation.

Finally, she followed her first instinct and dropped to her knees, her eyes level to Ryusei's face. She touched the cut on his chin and her fingers trembled slightly as it trailed over the discoloration under his eye.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"I hit myself to the ground," he lied.

Megumi looked up at Aoshi, seeking for an affirmation. But Aoshi's mouth was tightly compressed.

"What about that bump in your head. It's as big as a goose's egg." Her eyes came back to the child even as her mind tried to fathom why Aoshi looked so stern. So coldly controlled.

Ryusei glanced up at Aoshi and some silent masculine communication took place between them. The boy took a breath, the depth of it lifting his small shoulders, almost in surrender.

Megumi, a bit jealous and feeling pushed aside by the action, raised an annoyed brow.

"Takani Ryusei, you were never a good liar, you know that," she said sternly.

"Those boys," he finally admitted. "The ones from the village."

"They hit you?"

"The big one. He doesn't like me."

Megumi's eyes again found Aoshi's but his expression gave her no clue as to what had really happened.

"Have you done something to him, Ryusei?"

The child shook his head.

"Called him names?"

Again, the slow negative motion. "I would never do that."

"Then perhaps, he's jealous of you," she suggested.

Ryusei shrugged.

"Do you suppose you can tend to it quickly?"

Surprised, Megumi looked up at Aoshi. He gave her a look that said they needed to talk. Without Ryusei, she realized.

"Of course. Then, you'll have to wait a while, Shinomori-san."

Aoshi nodded, his face still set. Obviously something had happened that he believed she should know about. Something Ryusei had said or done to precipitate the boy's attack? She wondered.

Of course, speculations accomplish nothing. It seemed Aoshi would be more than willing to tell her the bad news. He had brought the child home, apparently for that purpose. And the sooner she got this over with, the better. But then, she wondered again. Why was Aoshi here in Aizu?

"You should have seen them scatter, Mama," Ryusei said, his excited narrative only occasionally interrupted by a gasp or a twist of his head as Megumi attempted to apply liniment to his scrapes and bruises. He rapped his fist against the table over which Megumi had spread out her medicinal.

"Ryu-chan!" she admonished, feeling a faint sickness stir in the pit of her stomach which had nothing to do with his scars. She was grateful his scrapes were no worse, of course, and very glad Ryusei had told her the truth this time about how he'd acquired them. Although she had long suspected he was the butt of the village boy's cruelty, he had never before admitted to being their target. Today, the news of Aoshi's intervention had apparently outweighed his reticence to tell her what had been going on.

Megumi wasn't sure if Ryusei was mature enough to wish to spare her the knowledge of what they said to him or if he had been afraid that she might try to interfere on his behalf and make things worse. Sometimes, she wished he wouldn't be that much mature so he could be just a child whom she could protective. In either case, she supposed she had reason to thank Aoshi far more than his timely rescue. Again, she wondered. What could have Aoshi want this time? What could be the reason he wanted to talk to her? She remembered the stern feature in his face, mindless that she was dabbing too vigorously at a small cut over Ryusei's brow.

"Ow!" he howled, pulling away.

"That's what you get for mingling with those brats," she said.

"Why did you have to use that thing on my wounds? It's stingy. Can't you just use that cold ointment you gave me the other day?" Ryusei whined.

"I have a number of reasons. Five, in fact" she grinned evilly.

"And they are?"

"One, for not telling me the whole time that those vermins were pestering you."

Ryusei was about to say something but she cut his words by dabbing again on his scraped skin earning a hiss from the child.

"Two, for coming home late looking like a battered puppy. Three, for straying out again without my permission. Four, you did not listen to me. I told you already to avoid those kids. And five..." she trailed off.

"What's five?" Ryusei asked. He seemed to enjoy irking his mother.

"It's not for you."

"Then it's not five, after all."

"It's still five. You brought number five here."

"Oh? I did?"

"Never mind. Here, come closer, Ryu-chan, I've yet to apply the last."

He nodded and trustingly submitted himself again to her ministration.

Megumi planted a kiss on his forehead and started gathering her materials.

"That's the last?" Ryusei pouted and was then grinning widely.

"Yep."

"Won't happen again," he promised, looking very sorry and guilty.

"Can't count anymore how many times you said those lines before," she commented, eyeing the boy.

He was silent for a while poking his two index fingers together. But his excitement over his new adventure flared again.

"They're afraid of his charger," he said, "but I wasn't. I wasn't at all afraid, Mama. And Shinomori-san took me up for a ride."

"Were you afraid of those boys?"

"No, I'm not."

"Then why you looked so messed up?"

"They're many. I was the only one. You could ask Shinomori-san if you want."

When she looked up, his eyes were again full of remembered satisfaction over the routing of his enemies.

"Did you thank him for intervening on your behalf?"

"I don't remember," Ryusei confessed, his brow wrinkling as he tried to think.

"Forgotten your manners, huh? Well, you be with Naoku-san for now. Shinomori-san wanted to talk to me."

"What are you two going to talk about?"

"Something that's not for kids, I supposed," she answered while running her hand down her kimono to brush away some folds.

"How did you know that?" Ryusei was again in an attempt to piss his mother.

"Well, the way he said it."

"I didn't hear him say something like that."

"Pity on you then. I think you're having problems with your hearing." Megumi gave a foxy grin to her boy. "Don't be such a fuss, Ryu-chan. You go now to Naoku-san."

"You do like him, don't you?" Ryusei gave his own version of annoying grin.

"What?" She glared at him through the mirror attached to the first aid cabinet door.

He had his palm rubbing on his nape. "I said I'm going now to Obaasan." He then ran out towards the kitchen before his mother could do havoc on him.

Aoshi eased himself against the doorframe of Megumi's library. The room was separated from the rest of her clinic. His eyes examined the expanse of the small room filled with shelves of books and of different sizes of labeled bottles he supposed was her herbal concoctions. Suddenly, a memory flashed through his mind's eye.

A small room, a thunderstorm outside and a trembling woman in his arms. He closed his eyes to force the images away, clearing his mind from such highly inappropriate thoughts.

Spotting Aoshi that way, Megumi hurried to his side.

"Shinomori-san? Are you alright?"

His eyes snapped open. She just caught him off guard.

"I'm perfectly fine," he replied, stepping aside to give her way.

She slipped through the doorway, almost hesitantly, without touching him as she brushed by but he smelt an evocative hint of jasmine in the air. Dangerous woman.

"Shinomori-san, I am once again indebted to you. Thank you for rescuing Ryusei. I've suspected for sometime that he was being bullied by the older boys but he would never tell me the truth," she said.

"He wasn't crying and he was giving almost as good as he got," he told her as he watched Megumi clearing her table from the array of books she had been reading.

"You know, if there's one thing you're not very good at, it's certainly with humor." She gave him a smirk. "I almost wished he would. He's just a child, afterall."

"Bullies delight in cowering victims, Takani-sensei. Your boy had the right idea. Just the wrong technique."

Megumi's eyes narrowed. Whether Ryusei's was the right or wrong technique, she never wished for her son to live his life like the men of the past era did. She wanted Ryusei to lead a scholar's life. She wanted him to excel in the intellectual field and never, not even in her wildest dreams, to be involved with the kind of path this man in front of her and most men she knew, had led. They are not the kind of influence she wished for Ryusei. Except for one man, perhaps.

"And a decided lack of size. Even that will probably come in time," he added.

Enough. Her mind screamed in protest. But her mouth was pressed tightly. There was no point arguing with him. It's his opinion.

Silence stretched between them. Perhaps he was waiting for some comment about Ryusei's father and what might be expected for the boy's growth. And she could make none.

"In any case, I'm grateful for what you did," she said instead.

"I would have done the same for any kid."

Megumi made an amused smile. She can't help but notice the changes in him. While Aoshi still had his lofty, Olympian manners, he's more into talking nowadays. His statements were rich and meaningful as ever but his monotonous, single agreement "Aa", had progressed from 'speaking rarely' into 'speaking sometimes'.

She hid a laugh and grinned to herself. What on earth caused her to scrutinize this man's conversational skills? He's surely a smart, intellectual being and proven to be razor-tongued. But he chose to be the kind with only a few, meticulously selected words, observant and analytical.

"Would you like some tea?" she offered.

"Aa."

There it was again, she thought with amusement. Some things never change.

"Wait a while." She excused herself and went out of the room.

He watched her as she brushed by him. His eyes secretly followed her figure as she seemed to float and disappeared into a smaller room where, he supposed, she prepares her concoctions and perhaps where she kept a hot drink always ready.

He had watched the mischief playing in her eyes though she pasted a pleasant smile on her face. However he refused to entertain the thought, his mind was on its own, busy deciphering what she was really thinking. It's not his business really to try to fathom what idea had been swimming on her brain that stimulated the glitter of mirth in her eyes. Strange.

"What brought you here in Aizu?" she asked after she filled each cup with the hot liquid. Her actions were admiringly fluid and her grip on the teapot was precise and accurate, tension was not evident on her hand.

"Business," he said over his cup.

"Always the busy business man that you are. I won't mind if you feel like sharing about it."

Megumi glanced at him and saw no indication of interest to share his dealings with her.

"I wouldn't mind, too, if you at least tell me it's not my business." She placed her cup on the table. "You wanted to talk to me," she decided to go straight to the point.

"That's obviously why you came here for and definitely not just saving Ryusei from those boys. I just wish this is not part of that business you said a while ago."

"I have an offer," Aoshi started as his head lifted, blue eyes glowing directly at her.

END OF CHAPTER SIX