Hey guys! Look! I updated fast! Actually I would have updated yesterday, but I couldn't get on my login area. So now I am updateing. I'll just let you know there is a little 'scene' in here but it's not really anything . . .I don't even think I have to 'up' the rating of my story for it. (Thanks to Me, Myself and I, and Tin-tin-chan for giving me the courage. I actually had thought of this idea earlier but dismissed it.) So it's here. If you think I should 'up' the rating of my story let me know . . .I don't thin I do though. Anyways on to the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: Are you tired of this yet??? I AM! I DON'T OWN RUROUNI KENSHIN! OK?

Chapter 10: I Live Here Too

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The next two days passed quickly for the couple at the little farm, and soon Kenshin and Kaoru found themselves seated alongside one another on a chilly Sunday morning. Kaoru tried to amuse herself by counting th flowers along the roadside, but to no avail she soon grew bored and decided to steal a glimpse of her husband.

She gazed at him out of the corner of her eye. His hair was combed his face was washed and his eyes were clear. 'He's so handsome.' She thought for an instant before turning her eyes back to the road ahead. 'Maybe I should at least try and get to know him . . .yea . . .'

"Kenshin?"

"Hmmm?"

"Is it always this foggy on Sundays?"

"No. It's only foggy when we've had a very cold evening."

"Oh."

"I bet it was foggy almost all the time in London."

"London . . .yes . . .it was very dreary." Kaoru looked at her shoes.

Kenshin took this opportunity to look at her face. Her eyes looked distant and her hands laid motionless in her lap. 'She usually fidgets with her hands. I wonder if I said something wrong . . .WAIT she fidgets with her hands . . .When did I come to notice that?' While Kenshin debated with himself Kaoru looked up and saw him starting at her. She blushed.

Kenshin saw her blushing at him and immediately turned his eyes back on the road. 'Great job Himura. She caught you looking at her. Now why is that such a bad thing?' he thought in the back of his mind. He closed his eyes for a moment then reopened them to look ahead. He didn't need to be arguing with himself this morning. He and Kaoru were going to have to be friendly with Saito and his wife.

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Church let out about noon, and Kaoru took the opportunity to glance around for Megumi. She hadn't seen Megumi for almost a week. She hadn't even heard from her. She was just about to see if she was outside when she heard.

"Kaoru!"

She turned and there stood Misao in all her glory beaming at her with the biggest of smiles. "Kaoru, how are you?" Misao took both of Kaoru's hands in hers and jumped up and down. "It seems like forever since I last saw you. You really should come and visit me."

Kaoru smiled at her friend. 'Please Misao not now.' She thought desperately. 'I need to find Megumi.' But try as she might to wheedle herself out of the conversation it was of no use. Misao bantered on about her daily life, and all the wonderful things that had happened since she and Aoshi had wed.

Kenshin watched his wife from the back corner of the building. He saw how she stiffened when Misao began talking, and how after a few minutes her shoulders appeared to slump in defeat. He was quite baffled as to why she would be upset about anything.

"Himura." Kenshin came back from his musings to find himself being approached by Aoshi.

"Good morning Mayor." Kenshin lifted his hat.

"And to you the same! How are things going for you?"

Kenshin knew what he was asking. He was asking if he and his wife were getting along and if they had come to accept one another. But he also knew that it might embarrass Kaoru if he told the WHOLE truth so he decided to just tell half.

"Well, things appear to be going fine and at a steady rate." 'Yea, steady Himura . . .you two actually said more than "good morning" or "goodnight" today.' He inwardly kicked himself for his thought.

"Well, that's good. I'm glad things are working out for you. How is Sanoske?"

"He appears to be doing all right. I haven't talked to him since Wednesday though."

"Ahhh, well I must go gather up my wife. She tends to shed different pieces of her clothing everywhere?" Kenshin raised his eyebrows. "Yes. I found one of her gloves under the pew, then I found her jacket in the choir loft." Kenshin chuckled. He was sure Aoshi just loved having to clean up after his wife. "Well, if you'll excuse me Himura. Have a good day." Aoshi tipped his hat then went to take Misao by the arm and lead her out the front entrance.

Kenshin walked up behind Kaoru and placed his hand beneath her elbow. She jumped. "Kaoru?" He questioned. His eyes met hers. She looked so tired. Her eyes had dulled from their normal sparkling blue to a drab shady blue.

"Are we going to the Saito's now?" She asked expectantly. He nodded.

"Kaoru if you don't feel good, then maybe we should go home."

Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean don't feel good? I feel fine."

"You looked tired that's all."

"Oh so you're saying I look awful?" Kenshin was confused. For once he was generally concerned and she thought that he thought she looked awful.

"No! How does 'you look tired' turn into you look awful?" He asked a bit perturbed.

"That's what people generally say when they're trying to find a nice way of saying you don't look good today."

"Well, that may be true from where you come from but where I come from it just means you look tired. I promise if you ever look awful, I'll just say you look awful okay? Not that you could ever look awful if you wanted to you're beautiful." Kenshin bit his tongue. 'No, that wasn't supposed to come out.' "Come on lets go." He said forcefully, and practically dragged Kaoru out of the church to their buggy. He helped her up into her seat and got in his own and started off.

Kaoru just sat there in utter confusion. 'First he says I'm beautiful and now he acts like he's mad at me. Stupid, stupid, Kaoru. You should have known he wasn't saying you looked awful. But it did get you a compliment' the back of her mind countered. 'Oh shut up!' Kaoru yelled back to silence it. She had a long day ahead of her and already she could see it was going to be rough.

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They arrived at Hajime Saito's house in no time. Kenshin helped Kaoru down from the seat, and upon seeing her face realized he had been to insensative.

He leaned over and said quietly "I'm sorry . . ." but before he could say more Hajime had exited his house and was walking over to greet them.

"Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Himura. Tokio, they're here." Soon she appeared in the doorway drying her hands in a dishtowel. She smiled.

"Hello, I believe your name was Kaoru was it not?" Kaoru nodded. "And you must be Kenshin." Kenshin smiled.

"I am. It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Saito."

"Tokio, please."

"Mrs. Tokio."

"Well, why doesn't everyone come inside. Hajime would you mind fetching more wood for the stove? Well, follow me."

Kenshin and Kaoru followed Tokio into the little, white house. Kaoru was amazed at how beautifully decorated it all was, she wished she could decorate her house the same, but she was afraid that it would upset Kenshin so she had done nothing. Meanwhile, Kenshin had a twinge of sadness as he thought of how little Kaoru had done to make their house more of a home. "Perhaps she doesn't like the house.' He thought sadly.

"Make yourself at home Mr. Himura."

"Kenshin, please."

"Mr. Kenshin, Hajime should be inside momentarily."

Kaoru took the opportunity to offer Tokio help in the kitchen and Tokio graciously accepted, and Kenshin soon found himself alone in the tiny sitting room. He thought about the morning and how peculiar his wife was about some things. 'She seems to be very sensitive . . .it's probably still the affect of how I greeted her the first time.' He sighed. He could be such an idiot sometimes. Soon Hajime entered through the back door with a bundle of logs in his hands.

"Tokio, where do you want me to put these?"

"On the hearth." Kenshin heard her yell from the other room. Saito unlaoded his arms and walked over to sit down across from Kenshin. He took out a cigar and was about to light it when-

"Hajime. Please don't smoke inside the house. We have guests." Tokio's voice filtered through the doorway. Saito looked up astonished . . . 'How did she know?' he thought with irritation. 'Oh well.' He looked at Kenshin who was grinning.

"You think that's pretty funny don't you Himura?"

"That I do . . ." Kenshin chuckled.

"Well, you just wait until your wife decides she doesn't like one of your habits."

Kenshin grew still. 'How can my wife grow tired of my habits when we hardly spend half an hour a day around each other.' Saito watched Kenshin's face with interest, but decided it best not to probe.

Kaoru stuck her head out of the doorway, "Lunch is ready Gentlemen." Both men got up and went into the kitchen to eat.

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It was late in the evening when Kenshin and Kaoru were finally on their way back home. Kaoru was exhausted . . .but then again it was nice having another woman to talk to, even if it was just for the day. Kenshin glanced over at Kaoru. 'She looks worn out . . .not like I'm gonna tell her or anything. I should probably make sure she goes straight to bed when we get home.'

The night had grown cool with the setting of the sun, and the clouds had turned their final colors as the sun slipped behind the hill. The couple soon arrived home and Kenshin took the team into the barn to un-harness. Kaoru watched him go, then decided she would go on to bed. She had to get up early in the morning. 'Of course, I have to get up early every morning.' She had something to look forward to, however, Hajime and Tokio had invited them over for dinner again that Friday evening, so she had best get as much work done tomorrow as she could. She slipped into bed and soon fell asleep.

Kenshin, instead stayed up later than normal. He had recently had a hard time of falling asleep. So he sat up late in his chair reading or thinking. 'Himura you've really got to get some sleep.' He thought disdainfully. But try as he might, sleep came slowly for Kenshin Himura . . .even in the late hours of the night.

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Kenshin awoke the next morning to aching muscles all down his back. HE slowly sat up in his chair and rubbed them groggily. He glanced back at the bedroom door. 'No noise.' He thought. 'She must still be asleep.' He got up from where he was sitting and went outside. The air was crisp and biting. Kenshin had a sharp intake of breath as he shut the door behind him. He then went out to the barn to tend to the animals.

After about an hour's worth of work, he decided he would go visit Sano and take him his milk. He entered the house to tell Kaoru he was leaving. 'She couldn't still be asleep' he thought with irritation. 'I might as well go wake her up.' He walked to the back and opened the door, when he was greeted with a loud scream. Kaoru was sitting in a silver tub bathing. His eyes bulged and he immediately whipped the door shut as objects were flung at his head.

"KENSHIN! What do you think you're doing?"

"I thought I was coming back to talk to my wife before leaving."

"YOU CAN'T JUST WALK IN A ROOM LIKET HAT!" She yelled back.

"Well I HAD THOUGHT THIS WAS MY HOUSE!" He replied quite angry with her for yelling at him.

"Well, there ARE other people living here you know!"

"YEAH! MY WIFE! And I think I should be able to go anywhere and do anything in my own house!"

"Well, GUESS AGAIN BUSTER!" Kaoru screeched.

Kenshin tightened his fists and slammed the front door as he left for Sano's. He didn't have to take this . . .not in his own house. He grunted as he mounted Summer and road off. He would deal with this problem later.

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Well, there ya go! Heh heh . . .I kinda stopped it at a bad place . . .he he o well! That'll just make you guys review faster! On to thank my reviewers!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*My Reviewers~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Moonsilver- Thanks for reviewing by e-mail! I'm so glad the review system is somewhat fixed now! I got like 26 review alerts for one review . . .and I'm STILL GETTING THEM! O well . . .at least I can read my reviews now! Hope you liked this chapter!

Noner_89- Yes . . . he was ooc but that's just the way it has to be. Because after all he doesn't have any grudges towards Kenshin so he would be a little nicer. I tried to get him a little back into character this chapter though. Thanks for the review!

Allin656- Yea . . .wasn't it great? I loved making him do that, cause I know it had to kill him!

Koishii Sweet- I promise I'm going as fast as my little fingers will allow me! Not to mention my brain. I'll update again soon!

Me, Myself, and I- Yea I got over it as fast as I could. I hate leaving projects alone. Anyway thanks for the idea . . .or the courage . . .because I had and idea like it before but I just dismissed it because I thought that maybe no one would like it. Do I need to change the rating of my story? I didn't really do anything. O well let me know! And I can't wait to Beta the next chapter of your story!

Gypsy-chan- Heheh . . .yea Kenshin and the horses . . . gotta love it! As for Megumi- oops almost had a slip there. : P heheh just wait!

Bob-san- Glad you liked it! Hope this was an interesting turn of events!

Tintin-chan- Hides under computer desk . . .I really am sorry about the long update. But you'll be happy to know I have about a million ideas for this story now! I'm so happy you really like my fanfic. Yea the Aoshi and Misao scene was fun to write! Hehe oh yea and thanks for helping me get the guts to have this . . .interesting fun with the characters!

Mishorou Mie- I'm so glad you love it! Here's more!

Lily of the Shadow- (Waves sparkly thing) Hey! It worked! I'm so sorry you're sick . . . (hands over a box of chocolates and other assorted candies) Hope this helps! Thanks for reviewing!

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Well that's all for now. Hope I didn't miss anyone . . .if I did let me know! Oh and one more thing. If you left a review for chapter 8 and didn't see a response in chapter 9 at the time, go back and re-check because I added more reviews in! Okie doke! Please remember to review! The more reviews the more quickly I get the next chapter out! Hope you all liked it! NOW REVIEW!

~Kairi7~