Standard disclaimer applies

Standard disclaimer applies.

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews and for waiting for the revised chapters. I was having a great deal of fun to leave the last chapter hanging… heheheh… and well, I was planning to do it that way all through the coming chapters (to get me into your alert list…) ehemm… Aoshi's a bit Ooc but I have reasons to make him to and it will be disclosed in the later chapters. My apology again to Misao's fans. Don't flame me.) Anyway, about what Aoshi's second favor, read and find it out. Enjoy!

CHAPTER VIII

ENCOUNTERS

"We do thank you, Takani-sensei," Nagai Jiyu said.

"You'll have a very good time dealing with your little girl, Nagai-san. She's very… err… active and very adorable."

Megumi stifled an amused giggle remembering how the nine months old infant drove her young father to nuts with the mere task of keeping her settled. The little girl is a healthy hyperactive baby. A wonder to behold despite the long and difficult way Susumu delivered her. Just thinking by those long hours of labor made Megumi shudder because she can't help her thoughts from drifting back into the past. She lost that one and only battle of all battle for life that she encountered. This time, however, she felt comforted by the fruits of her labor and expertise.

She turned to the old woman standing next to the young father.

"Naoku-san, continue brewing that tea leaves I give for Susumu-san until about a week. She's quite fine but I want to make sure she has recovered fully. Bring her to my clinic after a week. I'll see then if she should stop drinking the tea."

Fujiyama Naoku nodded understandably.

"Jiyu-san, that tea I give you should be strictly only a cup a day. It's a potent relaxant."

"If my little Sakura could sleep soundly at night, then I wouldn't need that intolerable bitter tea."

"I've already given Susumu-san a salve for the little devil to make her sleep soundly at night. If it worked then you can stop drinking those."

"Thank you very much, Takani-sensei," Jiyu almost exclaimed in gratitude. "It's been months and I can't remember anymore when was the last time I had the luxury of a peaceful slumber."

"Don't mention it." Megumi laughed with them. She nodded slightly and bid to leave, heading to the wide door where Aoshi had waited patiently.

"Takani-sensei," Naoku called hesitantly.

"Yes, Naoku-san?"

"Yuri and I w-would not be able to h-help you t-tomorrow at the clinic. We have s-something very important to attend to."

"Something's wrong, Naoku-san?"

"Nothing, sensei. It's just that," The old woman leaned closer to Megumi to whisper into her ear. "Tomorrow we'll bring Sakura-chan to be baptized, y-you know." Then she resumed her voice level. "I hope you understand."

"Of course."

"Tired?"

Aoshi glanced at the woman walking beside him, wondering why she was unusually distant as if her thoughts had been nowhere around them.

"What made you think so?"

"Nothing. It's just unusual."

"I was never really usual. Could I be more unusual? " she glared at him.

"You know I don't mean that," he said calmly. If it had been Ryusei or anyone else, they would have cringed at the kind of look she was giving Aoshi, but the man was unaffected by her threatening sarcasm. No one messes up with a tired, deep in thought kitsune. However, well, she will have to excuse him for now. She rolled her eyes in attempt to dismiss her current irritation.

"I'm not tired. I just remembered something," she admitted.

"Or, someone, perhaps."

"W-what?" her attention finally snapped back to reality.

"It's about Ryusei."

"I-"

"That infant reminded you of your boy," he continued, ruthlessly ignoring her helpless gaping as she fixed him a mixture of surprised and deadly glare, wondering how Aoshi conjectured exactly the thoughts that had crowded her mind. But knowing Shinomori Aoshi's sharpness, she resorted into biting her bottom lip to restrain her fully charged annoyance, not wanting to upset the stillness of the quite evening. They were now crossing that same bridge where Aoshi rescued Ryusei again.

The water below was still and silvery, reflecting the moon's shiny spell. Few fireflies were hovering a little above the water's surface.

Suddenly, strong callused hand slipped through her small one.

"What the-"

"In case you're thinking something foolish."

"Shinomori Aoshi! What the hell made you THINK I'd DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"

"It's inviting but we won't make it to your house in time if you keep staring there."

He dragged her along despite her ranting until they reached the end of the bridge.

Megumi was fuming, getting more pissed off by the passing seconds.

"Listen."

"What?" she exclaimed annoyingly. Again, the ice cold Shinomori Aoshi didn't even flinch.

"I'll be gone for the next three days."

"I'm neither surprised nor concerned."

"I don't see any reason for you to be." He countered her tone mockingly.

"Then? Are you going back to Kyoto already?"

"Not yet. But very soon and I hope you can be ready to leave with me when I get back."

"Moving out completely isn't easy. There's still a lot to manage. Naoku-san's family is one. They're the only one left to worry about, though. Still, I can't yet."

He knew she was making an alibi again to delay her transfer. Somehow, a part of her was still reluctant to leave her place and her hopes.

He took her hand again and drew her closer to his side. Aside from calling each other with their first name, being as close as they were now, is one of the many things their arrangement considered. She didn't look at him as the pressure of his hand pressed her small one, urging her to continue walking beside him.

"Don't let Ryusei leave the house during my absence."

"You don't need to remind me."

"From then on, I will no longer be able to give him enough time to train."

"It's not your obligation anyway."

"No one's always there to rescue him from trouble. To learn to defend is the best option."

Megumi sighed in defeat. She knew he was right. Moreover, she had a lot to thank him for the time and favor he spent for the two of them.

"If you are already needed at the Aoiya… I mean…" she paused, looking for the appropriate words to avoid giving the impression that she was shoving him away. "We can manage to move out by ourselves."

"I told you already, I won't leave without the two of you," Aoshi's tone was firm and final.

Surprisingly, Megumi let out a muffled laugh that baffled the shinobi's analytical mind.

"You're stranger than ever, Aoshi-san," she remarked.

"How was that so?" he half challenged.

"It's too cerebral to analyze."

"Then stop figuring me out."

"Hardly."

He gave her a quizzical look.

"I need to know what you are really up to. I still can't figure what you will get out from doing these. As you can see, there's nothing really that you can gain from us."

"You still don't trust me." He let go of her hand with reluctance.

"I'm sorry." It was all she said. She hadn't even tried to nullify his statement.

"Is that why you were so hesitant to accept my offer?"

"Not entirely," she said quietly. Each of them were staring lost at somewhere far though they stand so close to each other and their communication dug deeper a sense than their casual conversations were.

"Primarily, because it was me."

She didn't try to conceal her surprise when she gasped hearing that same statement that had confronted her when she adamantly refused first to go to Kyoto with him. That statement from him that left her so undecided and rendered her to neither affirm nor deny. However, this time, she knew the reason of her indecision during that time. It was not because she didn't trust him. Neither because he was - and still - a dangerous man nor the bitter past they had. It was merely because he was Shinomori Aoshi. In addition, she was scared, thrilled, and nervous. A mixture of emotions that threatened to overwhelm her that all she could do was to repudiate any chances for it to surface by rejecting stubbornly his first offer. Now, she knew and she finally had an answer.

"Yes."

"I understand." He paused, as if looking for the right words to say. "I would neither ask nor persuade you to trust me. But there's one thing I want you to keep in mind."

Megumi's eyes rose to meet the fierceness and sincerity in his blue gaze without fear in her own.

"I won't harm you. I won't let any harm befall on the two of you."

Perplexed she might be, with obvious calculation in her eyes, she nodded in response as a waiting silence grew between them, and her acceptance was the only thing permitted to seal that confrontation.

Then she concealed her perturbation by giving out a small mocking laugh.

"When we get there in Kyoto, you're role-playing will be over."

"It's inevitable."

"It seemed though that it's starting to get a tool on you, Aoshi-kun," she said teasingly using a new suffix for his name.

Aoshi's eyes narrowed slightly and ever so briefly, before he decided to ignore it.

"Before we get to Kyoto, though, I believe we need to be home before the old man Yuri starts to worry about us."

Gently, he tugged at her elbow to urge her to resume walking beside him.

"HOME, Aoshi-kun?" The foxy teasing was not lost yet in her tone.

"Keep walking, Megumi, or we'll never be able to get to YOUR house in time," he said firmly.

She was about to comment on his use of her name without the honorific when she noted the stern, controlled expression he wore and the subtle warning in his cold words.

"Just keep walking."

Megumi rolled her eyes boringly but did as told without looking back at him who walked just a couple of steps behind her. Fiery blue eyes fixed dangerously on her confident, walking profile despite the fact that she was nervously aware, though not looking, that agile eyes watched from behind.

Megumi had been standing before the familiar gravestone for some time already.

"Don't tell anyone. I couldn't bear them to get their hands on my baby."

Those were the words of the woman, whose name engraved on that marble tablet before her, which haunted her for years. Even if how much she tried to convince herself that there was no way Izumi's family would find out about Ryusei existence, still she can't get over the feeling that the four years of protecting Ryusei with her lies will soon be over. Megumi couldn't take away the strange inkling that the truth would soon all come out. In the worst possible way. It would ruin her. The possible separation she and Ryusei will experience would haunt them the rest of their lives.

She took a deep breath and smiled; trying to pacify the raging anxiety that would always plagued her every time.

When she had given her words to Izumi to keep the details of Ryusei's birth a secret, it had seemed such a simple promise. She had not thought twice about making it. This time, however, no matter how much she might regret it, that oath bound her.

So stupidly bound, but bounded all the same, she thought, taking a deep breath. She couldn't understand why she suddenly doubted the decision she made four years ago. All she knew was that it started the day she saw him at the Himuras almost five months ago.

Somehow, she felt a little bit secured remembering the assurance that Aoshi made. He had given his word, and along with it was what she had always wanted for her son. Protection. That was what all she needed to support the mantle she wove to cover Ryusei's vulnerability. The strength that she lacked and was beyond her person. She needed Shinomori Aoshi's strength for her son. And, perhaps, for her own.

With his absence, even if he said he would come back in three days, she felt so unpeaceful. She would never be able to understand yet but she knew she needed him by her and Ryusei's side.

That last night's conversation had made her realized something she should have told him. But she hadn't found the courage to correct him last night, even after he left that morning. This time, however, she wanted so much to tell him that he had not been entirely precise. He was right to decide not to persuade her to trust him because there was no need for that. She trusted his words. She learned to trust Shinomori Aoshi.

Sighing deeply, she smiled one last time.

"I'll see you again, Izumi-chan."

Turning, she was surprised to see a man a couple of steps from her. He was tall and regal, with a commanding presence, much like Aoshi. While Aoshi never failed to wear his impassive, dangerous expression, this man had a sad, painful manifestation written all over his attractive face.

"I had always thought I would see her bright innocent smile again. Now I know I would only be seeing it in my dreams."

Megumi felt her heart pricked with something like a needle hearing him. Yet, she glared at him mercilessly, feeling her privacy intruded by his presence.

"Who are you?" she ruthlessly asked the stranger. "What right you have to intrude my quiet moment."

"Takani-sensei, I apologize for not making you aware of my presence."

She felt alarm creeping all over her hearing that the man knew her.

"I am sorry but I waited until you are finished with your 'quiet moment' so I could also have my moment with her."

His gaze dropped to the grave behind Megumi.

"Who are you?" she repeated.

"I am Takatori Toshiki. Izumi's brother."

END OF CHAPTER EIGHT

That's it... to make up for the long waiting. I hope you like it.

Heheh.. Imagine Megumi's feeling to hear the introduction of the stranger.

Reviews….. Grammatical correction is much appreciated.