A/N: Well well....im lazy as hell aren't I?....time to write more

"Kenshin seemed like a strong person, and I mean, compared to other people, he really was. He could stomach a lot of stuff. Having Yukishiro for a girlfriend, taking in his little mistake and having the family except it, I doubt there was anyone else they would let do that. He was in Katsura's good graces, not to mention he was Hiko's heir so....it didn't matter though. Even if he was strong, he wasn't really made to be one of the cut throat men that made up our organization. I doubted that he could control from here to down the street; I doubted he could make an honest hit on command, and I doubted that he could take a bullet...he had been wetting his feet for nine years...he was no Henry Hill, and he was definitely no Vito Corleone. You just have to face the facts...."

-Katsuhiro "Tsunan" Tsukioka

The first thing that I did was buy Kaoru a new car. I was the only one that had a mode of transportation, but with things starting to heat up I was aware that she was the one that would be dealing with picking out a house. I trusted her judgement when it came to choosing our modest abode. She and some of her friends went out, looking around at anything and everything they could. I never really gave Kaoru any certain perameters that she had to follow when it came to buying the house, but I was sure she knew I wasn't big on things that were flashy and obvious. I also knew that she was used to the comforts of suburbia, and that was the most likely kind of place she would pick.

Meanwhile, while she was out house shopping, I went over to Aoshi's apartment, hoping to make amends for what had happened. He'd spent two days in the hospital for the wound. I had caught wind that the wound was far worse than just the gushing blood and, feeling somewhat responsible for what happened, I knew I had to intervene.

His apartment was in the middle of everything. I don't mean just because it was nearly centered in the city, but because he was in the middle of the territory war between us and the Yukishiro family. He was probably fighting for his life on a daily basis, the Yukishiro goons crawling all over the place.

I made myself so obvious that I wasn't. I had sunglasses on and my hands tucked in my pockets. I counted maybe four guys lingering around the apartment alone, and I was sure that there were more actually residing in the complex. Despite that, I knew that nothing was ever going to happen. Though the wars between us and the Yukishiro's was nearly headline news, neither clan was so stupid as to whack a member in broad daylight, or risk that one of the Yukishiro members be the one to pull the trigger. Whoever pulled the trigger, whether they killed their intended target or not, would be whacked as well. And that could be by either side.

The dirty truth about the war was not that it was awful, but that despite those who were wounded in the process, we were really pretty close friends. Its how a lot of the families worked. For example, at this time in history, the Gambinos and the Luchesse families, two of the five families that basically controlled New York City, while not getting along with one another very well, would still have meetings and talk with one another, as if they were friends, that's not to say they didn't work behind each others backs, trying to whack members of each other's crews but, there was nothing you could really do about that, it was going to happen, but as long as they had their alliances...

We were all friends in business.

I walked up several stories until I reached Aoshi's apartment, Elvis music slipping out from beneath the door. I smirked, knocking loudly, hoping to get louder than the music.

"It's open!" I heard Aoshi yell. I pushed the door open and closed it behind me. Elvis' Jailhouse Rock was playing. I found it funny the mention of jail since all our members were getting pinched. Oh the irony.

Aoshi was down on the floor, his right hand, bandaged immensely, curled up against his chest while he worked on one handed push ups. He was breathing deeply and sweating hard, obviously having been doing this for a while. The record player skipped for a moment, drawing my attention up to it. Aoshi settled on his knees, wiping his forehead off with the back of his hand.

"Would you like to sit Himura?" Aoshi asked. I sat down in a recliner near him. Aoshi's home was sparsely decorated. He didn't even have curtains to cover the door to his balcony. "What brings you here?"

I shrugged. "I felt I should come," I said. "Heard you got out of the hospital."

"You don't have to apologize," Aoshi coolly responded. He went over to the record player and turned it off, making it easier for us to speak.

"Shishio's a little unstable, I know, but still..." I had a strange sensation that I was reasoning with myself instead of with him. Aoshi had turned away from me and went into the kitchen. "Anyways, I just wanted to stop by. Maybe make it up to you...we could go out to lunch, it's the least I can do."

"I'm busy," Aoshi replied. "Maybe another time."

"You're not going to make this easy are you?" I asked, standing and following him into the kitchen. "Aoshi?"

"It's my fault," he said, his voice somewhat dim. "Can I trust you with something?" He looked over to me, his eyes questioning me strongly. The look in his eyes wasn't so different than usual, but if you were friends with him as long as I have been, you could see a certain desperation in his eyes a mile away. I nodded.

"Of course."

"You tell anyone..." he warned in a paranoid fashion.

"I won't."

He bowed his head. "I...I am the police still."

The way he said it was so sappy that it wasn't believeable. And maybe that was what he was wanting. To get it off his chest and make it sound so unbeliveable that it didn't matter what he told you.

"I know. We covered that at the meeting didn't we?" I asked. I walked closer to him. "I get it, you feel like you've betrayed the family but...you haven't. I mean, Hiko and Kogoro know about it right?"

He turned to look back at me, but never turned his head. He lifted it up and nodded. "Guess your right."

I should have seen it then. When he didn't give me eye contact, when he just backed down after making such a big deal out of what he had just said. I shrugged my shoulders and sighed. "You sure you don't wanna go out for lunch? It'll take your mind off things."

"I'm positive."

I couldn't persuade him. Maybe it was because of his fear, or paranoia. I'm sure just my being around him scared him. I wasn't sure why. There wasn't any way that Hiko or Kogoro would let him get hurt again, especially by Shishio. Then again, as I thought, if there was one member that people had a hard time keeping track of, it was Shishio. He had been in and out of jail more times then we could count. It added credibility to him too, being in jail so much. There was a certain amount of respect that he had gained, even with Hiko and Kogoro, though he wasn't exactly the role model out of our group...not to say that any of us were.

"Alright," I nodded my head. "Well, I'll be going then."

"Himura?"

"Hm?"

"I would be careful," he said to be, like we all said to each other. I took it as him warning me about the Yukishiro clan.

"I will."

Kaoru had come home with a few respectable places. Most of them were middle class homes in the dead center of suburbia; nothing like Hiko had, but nothing like my dingy little apartment. I told her to pick whichever one she thought would be best for that family. She lit up.

After that though, after her hype had died down and everythign got quiet in our home, I was confronted with her scared side. The side of her that was terrified for me because of the few days before. I shrugged my shoulders at her, knowing that it was just one of those incidences that was going to happen and I had no control over. Then she asked me the ultimate question:

"What if something happens to you?"

I was left speechless for a moment. I lowered my head and closed my eyes, almost laughing to myself. I didn't really set up a response for this question. There was always the answer 'nothing's ever going to happen to me' but then, that wasn't necessarily true. The cops were scoping out the apartment, we were in the middle of a territory war, and the family itself as having internal issues. I rubbed my temples and said to her:

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," and left it at that. Kaoru hadn't settled with that answer. I could see that she was still fidgetty, but there was really nothing else that I could say to her that would sum up everything that needed to be said.

1976 was quiet after that. Not a blip on the radar that we had to reckon with. Sure, there was the usual things like dealing with the police, worrying if maybe some kind of heist would go wrong, among other things. Once we settled in a modest little ranch home on a cul-de-sac not much different from the one I use to live on with Dad, things almost settled down.

I was spending a lot of time with my wife and son. I worked my regular hours at the restaurant, as well as working outside the realm of my "job". For the most part I worked as a numbers runner, something that really had to do with the family. We had out hands sunk deep into things besides the blackmarket. Most of the bookies in the city were own by us, or of course the Yukishiros. There was also the gambling places, the shylocking, better known as loan sharking, among other things. I helped in a lot of weird deals, doing my part in the family. I was just waiting to be pinched, not that I wanted to be. But, as it seemed to go, it gave you a certain amount of credibility in the family, like you'd done something special.

January 9th, 1977, was Superbowl XI in Pasadena, California. It was, as any Superbowl, a big deal. I had never cared for football. My most significant memory of it was after Koshijiro had been killed, and I heard the end of the Oakland-Pittsburgh game in '72. Despite me not getting into football all that much, that year I had a certain piqued interest. The Raiders, how convenient, were favored by four that year. I went around, on a whim, to several different bookies and placed some bets on the Raiders, just to see what had happened. I split up maybe 10,000 dollars. Kaoru had never known about what I was doing, and she didn't understand why I was so curious to watch the game that afternoon. I had even taken off work, just to see what would happen. Still, she sat through it with me. By the end of the first half Oakland was up 16, and I felt sure I was getting my money. Oakland won, 32-14. The moment that clock hit zero in the fourth quarter, revealing that Oakland was indeed the winner, I stood up, walked over to Kaoru, and picked her up, carrying her bridal style.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" she asked. "It's just a stupid football game."

"How 'bout we take a vacation?" I asked nonchalantly. She was shocked. "Anywhere you wanna go."

"Uh..."she looked be square in the eye as she said: "Take me to Hawaii. Two weeks."

I think that could slide.

I had never told Kaoru that I had bet so much on a game that I hardly understood. I think it was best that I just made it up to her by taking her to Hawaii for the two weeks she asked. It was just me, her and Kenji and the beaches of Waikiki to two weeks. My three year old son was absolutely thrilled playing in the sand. We must have collected two dozen seashells to keep, some of which we still own. There are things that you just can't let go of sometimes.

By the time we returned, it was still the dead of winter at home, snow about two inches deep, which we figured out as we went to the airport parking lot, looking around for our ride. Sanosuke pulled up, rolling down the window as quickly as he could. His eyes seemed a little dark, his mouth a flat line across his face. This concludes the vacation ladies and gentlemen, reality had now come back to power.

Karou climbed in the back of the car while I loaded our things in the trunk. Sanosuke had gotten a new car over the time we were gone, a nice '66 Thunderbird. I got into the passenger side, taking in the quiet. It was only like that for so long before Sanosuke said to me: "You're a stupid shit ya know that?"

Kaoru covered Kenji's ears tightly, knowing that Sanosuke was about to go into a rant. I closed my eyes. "What did I do now?"

"You left dammit!"

I lulled my had to the side, staring at Sanosuke tiredly. "I left? That's a stupid excuse. I told you guys we were going on vacation. I haven't had one in forever."

"You pick...the stupidest time to leave."

"What happened?" I demanded. "You yelling at me for being stupid does not tell me what I've done."

Sanosuke sucked in a deep breath. That was when I realized that whatever happened had happened to him. He shook his head. "You're my partner, aren't you?" he asked. Kaoru was cooing to Kenji in the back, the boy babbling to her, pulling her hair. "We were pulling one of our normal little stunts," he said, referring to some sort of shipment hijacking, probably cigarettes or watches or even money from the airport. "The police caught up to us, nearly took us out. It was like some fucking action movie scene," he said, closing his eyes. "I know damn well if you were there no body would have fucked with us."

"I have no control over the police."

"They like you."

I stopped, my mouth half open, then I furrowed my brows. "What are you talking about?"

"Because they like Hiko, so they like you," he nodded his head sharply following what he said.

"No one likes Hiko."

"The police love Hiko. Believe it or not," he said. "They're so far up his ass that they could tell you if he farted before he could," I cringed at Sanosuke's metaphor, but understood what he meant. Most of the time Hiko was extremely generous to the police. He had done a lot of nice things for them. Call him charitable, but Hiko was usually the one supporting the police, or a certain political candidate, or something of that nature, though I knew he wasn't pleased with Carter being elected, seeing as Hiko was a Republican.

"So what, they think I'm with Hiko?"

"You are his heir aren't you?" Sanosuke asked.

"Well, sure if you want to put it that way."

"Your his."

I shook my head. "This makes so sense Sano..."

Sanosuke cleared his throat, as if he were preparing to say something huge. He stayed silent the rest of the car ride. The only sound was the cooing of Kenji in the background. Sanosuke pulled up to our house, Kaoru getting out back and pulling out the bags, Kenji trying to help her. I was hardly home an hour before I was back to work again. I said I was sorry to Karou, and kissed her hoping that I could somehow make up for my circumstances. She didn't really say anything to me, just walked into the house carrying in our bags.

Sanosuke then zipped out of the cul-de-sac, and started down the highway. "Where are we going?"

"Lunch."

"Lunch or "lunch"?" I asked. Sanosuke shrugged his shoulders, not committing to any certain answer. I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen this snowy afternoon. I had even considered asking Kaoru if she wanted to stay in Hawaii for a few more days, just so I could let the feeling subside, but I knew whatever was in for me as going to waiting until I got back.

We arrived at a small restaurant, one that was favored by Katsura Kogoro, but seemed almost like a hole in the wall. It was a down and out kind of place, a hovel from the outside, but I knew the inside was lavish, and for the elite like Kogoro. I wondered if maybe it was disgusting on the outside just so it could deter normal people.

We walked up to the restaurant, but I paused for a few moments just before the door. It was in the middle of a few other old time shops, the kind that still closed on Sunday, and it was almost dead. "Am I in trouble?" I asked, like a little kid walking up tot the teacher after being called on. Sanosuke shrugged his shoulders and walked inside, prompting me to go inside with him. It wasn't a really big, but it was really warm to walk into. I immediately took off my coat, revealing the Hawaiian shirt I brought back from my vacation.

A waiter took us back into a back room, my eyes falling on Sozo, Shinsaku and Kogoro. Sozo and Shinsaku were eating, but Kogoro was leaned back, his hands folded on the table. He wasn't looking too well, his face a little pasty and his hair drooped somewhat. Sanosuke and I sat down across from the three, Kogoro leaned against the wall, his eyes closed.

"Afternoon Himura," Shinsaku said. I jumped a little. Call me sensative, but I was a little scared at this moment. I nodded to him. "Have a good vacation?"

I rolled my shoulders. "Yeah, actually. Better than this snow."

There was a bit of laughter. Kogoro opened his eyes and grabbed the glass of wine sitting on the table. I knew that Shinsaku was sick, but I wasn't aware that Kogoro might have some sort of illness. "Did I miss something important?" I asked, wondering if I really was in trouble since Shinsaku had brought it up. Maybe I had unintentionally skipped something during my little absence, but I doubted there was anything that important that I could have missed.

"I just wanted you to lunch," said Kogoro, clearing my mind. "I needed new company is all."

"Hiko getting old?" I asked.

"We all are," he looked over to Shinsaku with the saddest glance. Though I knew that Kogoro was happily married, and very faithful to his wife, there were times that I would look at the way he looked at Shinsaku and question it. I lowered my head a little. "Anyways, yes, he is very stale. I figured maybe you could prove to be better entertainment."

"Did something happen?"

"You mean..."he jutted his chin over to Sanosuke who was ordering. I shook my head at the waiter, not very hungry around all these men. I was scared shitless, no fooling. I nodded to Kogoro. "It was just an accident. Don't believe what he tells you."

Sozo snickered a little while Sanosuke pouted. "You're one mean sonofabitch," Sanosuke said, "ya know that?" I wasn't sure it he was directing it at his father or at Kogoro, but judging by the way that Kogoro was laughing it didn't seem to matter. After that things seemed to clear up the slightest bit, a weight lifted off of my shoulders. I talked to the men, the merry men, sharing all the details of the vacation...allof them. Me and Karou had this bond ya know, but I'm sure you know...

We left together, but I was walking and talking with Kogoro, going with him to his car to be polite. That, and we had a good conversation going. He was telling me all the things that he and Hiko use to do when they were kids, when things were so much more innocent than they were.

That was when I realized, on January 23rd, 1977, was going to be the start of the end.

Just before we reached Kogoro's car, and old '50 something Cadillac, we were all stopped by the sound of gunfire rattling off in the distance. If you've ever heard a bullet come out from a gun, you know the shrill sound that it makes, the whizzing as it comes near you, and the imminent danger you were in. I started to duck down and without thinking I pushed Kogoro with me, my hand sliding into my coat pocket, hoping to grab the gun I had (lately I felt I needed it, being a number runner and all).

Kogoro's Cadillac was dinged up something awful, and I could feel something stinging in my left arm, blood oozing down to my hand, staining my coat sleeve. It took me a minute to realize that Kogoro was laying on the sidewalk, bleeding out a hole in his side. I pressed my hands to it, like I were trying to hold ever single drop of it in, though it just moved right past my fingers. I looked back to the other guys, lying below a car, out of fire. There were already police on the scene, shooing away whoever had shot at us. I looked back down to Kogoro, his face ever more ashen. It was pointless of me to be holding in the blood....he wouldn't be needing it any longer.

A/N: The start of the end....heehee....well...the seventies and eighties were when things got rough for teh mobs so....figured it worked....till next time, KenSan out!