A/N: I'm happy, I didn't get grounded from the computer. Thought I was millimeters away from getting a C and my parents going nuts. Well, I have another excuse. I have been drawing a manga idea out in this big notebook and when I showed it to my mom she wants to go and publish the thing! My parents...well, enough of my life, on with the story.

Resistance

Kaoru walked with Hiko down the hall. He was like a coach to her. He wasn't her master though. She looked up to him, the stoicism always got her. He hid behind these deep eyes in thought. There was something to him though this time. He seemed a little sadder than he usually was. There was actually a mourn in the tough general. She smiled though. He was probably happy about Kenshin. He was back after all. That was one thing that was probably worrying about it. That was momumental for Hiko.

" Your Highness?" Hiko addressed. Kaoru looked up to him. " You bought him back to me, and I thank you."

Swallowing, the princess nodded.

" It wasn't a problem," she hid behind a screen and changed into her training garb. Hiko sat glaring at several other warriors who held stares on him. One walked over and kneeled.

" What is the princess doing here?" he asked.

" She's training Kamatari. What does it look like to you?" the man fell to the floor. He had more of the grace of a woman than some women did. He was a bit of a cross-dresser sometimes as well. Hiko tried not to shudder at the way he sat and watched Kaoru come from behind the screen and bow to him.

" Wow. My princess, it's great to see you again!" Kamatari said holding out his arms to hug her. Kaoru willingly excepted. Kamatari had been a friend of her's for a while.

" Why are you in the Lotus? I thought that you liked being a guard at the palace." Kamatari saw Hiko look away and take a sip froma jug of sake hiding in his cloak. Kamatari snorted before taking Kaoru to the ther side of the room.

" Let's say after you went good-bye, so did I. I was around for you My princess, that was the only reason. And I'm not allowed in Eviary," he said. Kaoru nodded. " It's a long story. I don't want to go there. But, now that you're back I might reconsider." Kaoru seemed a little pleased as she started to stretch out. Kamatari examined her. " Oh dear..."

" What?"

" He did it to you didn't he?" Kaoru was raising an eyebrow. Kamatari looked over to Hiko who didn't seem interested but definately was. " I have a sixth sense about these things. He did it to you didn't he? Is the bastard really that desparate to have an heir?" Kaoru leaned on the wall rubbing on her arm carefully then looking to Kamatari who stared at her in wonderment.

" Did you try to kill Enishi? Is that why you're not allowed in Eviary?" Kaoru asked before Kamatari could try and continue this conversation further. Kamatari shrugged and turned crossing his arms.

" I tried a few swings once or twice. Maybe my scythe tried to knick him or something like that..." the man said vaguely trying to endulge himself in his cuticles. Kaoru nodded. That sounded good. If only Kamatari hadn't missed...

" Why?"

" What can I say? You're not his first. He's done it under mommy and daddys' noses. Then paid the women off. I'm guessing he tried you in the springs?" Kamatari asked smiling. Kaoru looked away tugging at her shirt. She was adding two and two.

" Did he try you...?"

" Let's say he can swing both ways." Kamatari gave a small laugh behind his hand. " Or maybe he didn't know until he thought he seduced me."

Kaoru knew that Enishi was a bit of a wolf, but he wasn't to kind when he did it. There were nights she would hear a sort of scream muffled by playful laughter outside her window. She supposed that it was a guards girlfriend or something outside the wall.

She began to bit her nails hesitantly and look around as Kamatari looked at himself in a small mirror. He turned to the almost grieving Kaoru and frowned at the mourn. " Oh dear, tears won't change what's already happened. I've told you that a million times. " Kaoru looked into Kamatari's eyes in dispare still tugging at the bottom of her shirt unsure. Kamatari let her go and looked to Hiko with his hands on his hips.

" What?" Hiko asked sipping down the sake. Kamatari shook his head and mumbled something before talking to Hiko.

" I want to work with Kaoru if that wouldn't be so wrong. I'm sure that you have other things that you can do in this place," he turned and looked over his shoulder with a wicked smile. " Maybe that puzzle I gave you for your birthday you have yet to complete?" he said with a laugh. Hiko started to go red in the face turning away before Kamatari could insult his intellegence any further.

" Go ahead. Take her. I need to speak with Kenshin anyway," Kamatari lit up like a lantern at those words.

" But, but, but...I thought that Kenshin was dead! We had a ceremony and everything!" Kamatari yelled. Hiko shrugged.

" Ask your princess here. She brought him back." Hiko jabbed a finger to Kaoru and Kamatari turned. When he looked back to talk to Hiko he found the front door ajar.

Kamatari returned his attention to Kaoru. She knew the minute he had heard about Kenshin that he would flare up. " How was he still alive!" Kamatari demanded from her. The raven-haired princess shrugged and picked up her bokken. " Aw! C'mon Kaoru I know you're not that cold hearted. The guys a looker!" that hit Kaoru hard. Even guys fawned over the great Tiger-Lily. She looked down to the floor as though she had no hope to get him. She had a minor infatuation. Okay, maybe not a minor one. He would have been so much better for her than Enishi. He knew how to take care of a woman. Not just because he was in the Lotus, though that might play a small role, just by what she knew of him.

" Kamatari? Aren't we going to train?" Kaoru asked. The man had given up on Kaoru; he'd never really been able to make her spill on stuff that matter like that. He didn't even want to try and get her to say anything. Some things were just deep, but this was at the bottom of a well.

Kaoru moved through her practice without much of it on her mind. She shouldn't be so jealous of Kamatari liking Kenshin. After all, the guy had had feeling for Kenshin long ago. He knew that Kenshin was straight though. They went back pretty far though. The first time that they had seen each other was when Hiko had brought Kenshin along to show off to Kaoru's father. Kamatari, who was more or less her bodyguard back then, told her on the spot his little crush on the fifteen years old. Kaoru shuddered to think of it even now what could ahve been going on in Kamatari's twisted mind.

When she was knocked to the ground Kamatari crossed his arms and pouted at her. " Where is your mind today?" he scolded her. " It never goes this far on vacation!" Kaoru only shrugged and picked herself back up.

----

Kenshin sat in his old room having been dust collected and a few webs in the corners. He tried to imagine what it was like before he had ever left the country. He loved Antholl for all that it was. The flag had even hung on his bed post. It shook when the wind pushed it, the windows rattling. He'd been told to wait for Hiko.

It was hard to sit and wait; and it was hard to reminisce without coming to one of the two loves in his life. And in love, it was human. Both of the people that he loved were royal and who was he to barg in on the royalty. He was hardly what you would call ' royal. ' If he had the choice at this very moment in his life of what he would want to become, he would most certainly go back to a place like Megumi's and work for her and just keep a small tenant to shelter himself. He didn't care about titles; though he had many. He had to push on from from the past and look on to the future. That was what was most important.

The door opened and he looked out of the corner of his eye to the onyx haired general .He stood and saluted as he should the returned to sitting on the bed with the rough woolen sheets. Hiko took refuge on the chair next to Kenshin's bunk, the room unoccupied by any roommate. He swallowed and without saying a word handed his apprentice a scroll. There was an Anthollian seal upon it. Not the army's seal, but the emperor's.

" Sanosuke?" he asked beginning to ship the wax away. Hiko sat back and watched as his apprentice speed read the note that had been sent to him in early morning. It was not friendly.

Kenshin,

I know that you're not dead, but you're not a coward to hide either. I send this to you for several purposes. I may be MIA for the time being. If Antholl goes into panic, I trust you to know what to do. But, the reason I write this to you is more serious than that. It is much more crucial to the war and I want this only between you and the general. Eviary has it's own internal problems, and the king, Enishi, has done considerable crimes.

In Eviary, first, a civil war is about to become them by undergroud resistance by a mix of all three counties. I am part of this resistance. We will enter Eviary soon, but even I can't tell you when. We expect there to be bloodshed Kenshin, but this will be the final stage of this war.

Enishi will be killed. His crimes are far to great let him get away with. I'm sure you know of his little flings with the maids of his palace, but I very angered by the fact that he decides my sister is a toy of his as well.

Kenshin stopped reading for a moment and looked to the carpet. That was why Kaoru wasn't in Eviary; why she had come to collect him fron Megumi, why she has stayed at the army base and not moved on. He didn't want to, but forced it upon himself to read more of Sanosuke's letter.

I want you to protect her Kenshin, I know she must be with you; she's not stupid. She knows you were the one who brought her to Enishi. She trusts you most of all, and I know your feelings. The royal family is counting on you to help, and the underground resistance is hoping that you can somehow breech into the Eviarian palace. If I end up dead, tell Kaoru that it was my choice. I'll see ya around!

Sano

Kenshin smiled for a moment and rolled up the letter tucking it into a drawer. Hiko sat back waiting for him to tell the contents.

" Deshi?"

" There's an underground resistance forming of the three countries against Enishi. It's understandable, it is." He nodded to himself. " Sano is part of the resistance bent on taking down the corrupt rule; he wants my help in several ways." Kenshin said.

" How?"

" I must protect his sister, Kaoru. He also wants me to get in the walls of the palace and weaken Enishi somehow. He only wants me for some reason." Hiko was silent and kept his gaze to his pupil before standing. " Shishou?"

" You're a smart man. You'll figure it out," he let his cape flutter behind as he was about to leave. With the door open he said," and I think that Sanosuke knows what I do about you." He shut the door. Kenshin rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. He needed to find Kaoru.

----

The young queen walked down the halls of the army base with men turning to look as she passed. She was drenched in sweat; Kamatari hardly let up on her. She looked ahead that the large doors seeing one crack open in front of her. She stopped to look at the red head who entered and closed the door behind him. He came to her with a bow and took her hand. " Kenshin?"

" There isn't much time to explain, but you have to go back to Eviary." he said. Kaoru looked at him and pulled her arm away.

" Why?!"

" You need to go back Your Majesty." Kenshin said. He was so vague. When Kaoru stopped to look he was also exhausted and must have run through the grounds to get to her. " You need to go back. There is no other way to say it, that there isn't. I will escort you I will." He wasn't as pleasent as he was before. Something was shaking him badly.

" Kenshin, if you can tell me why then I will go with you."
Kenshin had an itch to him, he had this impulse that maybe she would understand when he did. With their stare locked he plunged to her and put his lips to hers.

A/N: Abrupt yet romantic ending. Those are my favorite! Well I hope you enjoyed and thank you reviewers! Till next time, KenSan out!