Summary: 50 stories about Kenshin and Kaoru, sometimes meandering to include the other Ruroken cast. A mix of canon and AU one-shots. Some crack can be expected. Read and Review!

Rating: T

Characters: Kenshin, Shinta, Aoshi and Kaoru

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise here belongs to the one and only Watsuki Nobuhiro.

A Case of Mistaken Identity

Kenshin grimaced at the pile of boxes still waiting to be carried out of the truck and into the house. He didn't even want to think about the second truck on its way with even more stuff. Sighing, he rolled up his sleeves and heaved a box up in his arms. As he made his way inside, he could hear his brother and his best friend arguing about which way to best lift the couch through the curving staircase.

He rolled his eyes as a voice boomed through the hall. "Stop wasting time and just get that thing up here!" He trudged over to the staircase to see how far they'd gotten. Shinta stood in the middle of the staircase, hands gripping one end of the couch. At the bottom step, Aoshi held the other end, frown firmly in place.

"You have move with the curves, Aoshi." Shinta bit out.

"We haven't even got to that part yet. Start moving and I'll do what needs to be done." Aoshi sneered back. There was really no love lost between these two.

"If you two nincompoops don't get that couch up here in the next two minutes, I am going to toss all three of you in the pool. Kenshin! Baka! Why don't you help them out?"

Kenshin sighed. "Hai, Shishou". He tapped Aoshi's shoulder. "Aoshi, start climbing, he'll have to move eventually. Shinta, just take one step at a time, I'm going to lift it with Aoshi from this end."

Shinta nodded. Kenshin slipped his hands under the couch and lifted. "Okay, on the count of three, one….two…three!" The three boys rushed up the stairs, swerved madly to avoid collision with the aquarium, and set the couch down.

Shinta shook his bangs out of his eyes. "Whew. I thought we'd never make it." Aoshi was just about to make a sarcastic comment when the doorbell rang. Vigorously. The three looked at each other.

Kenshin lifted his chin and looked at his twin. "You go."

Shinta scoffed. "I've been getting it all morning. Why should I go? Tell Ice Man here to go."

Aoshi crossed his arms over his chest. "This isn't even my house."

"Kenshin! Get the damn door!"

Shinta snickered. Aoshi smiled depreciatingly. Kenshin hung his head. "Hai, Shishou."

Glaring darkly at the two, Kenshin quickly raced down the stairs, through the hall and flung the door open. "What is_umph?"

He can't breath. He can't speak. He can't even see anything except for the mass of silky midnight blue hair that somehow curls up in his fists. There is the soft, warm skin of someone's neck. There is the faint, almost imaginary perfume of jasmine in the air, and there is the heady, intoxicating taste of a mouth on his. Lips that belie their softness by the intensity with which they attack his. A tongue as smooth as satin that slips past his lips and strokes the roof of his mouth. It is a kiss that consumes him, devours him and makes him captive and he has yet to put a face to it. The kiss sparks an electric current that races through every nerve and tissue of his body, that reaches under his eyes, inside his blood, beyond his capacity to think.

A weak thought at the edge of his consciousness is telling him, he's never been kissed so thoroughly, so hungrily before. And then, the lips pull away. There is a soft hand at his cheek and a voice at his ear,

"I missed you so much!"

"Kenshin?" Aoshi's voice snaps him out of his drifting dream, and he blinks and looks. Aoshi is staring at them pointedly, taking in his hand resting at her hip. Kenshin dropped his eyes and removed his hand from her body.

"Ken..shin?" She says, horror seeping into her eyes. She let go immediately. She stepped back and looked from him to Aoshi with wide-eyed fear and confusion.

He starts to say something but Aoshi beats him to it. "We need you upstairs Kenshin." Is it just his imagination, or is Aoshi stressing his name more than usual, more than necessary?

"Oh god." She gasped, covering her mouth with one hand. He's still trying to get a word out, but his mouth just keeps opening and closing before he can string a sentence together. If he remembers how to string a sentence together.

There is the sound of someone coming down the stairs. A breathless laugh. "Kaoru? Is that you?"

And suddenly Shinta is standing beside him. Kaoru stares at him, and then back at the man she has just kissed like the world was ending.

"Shinta?" She manages to squeak.

Shinta grins before pulling her into a hug. "I see you met my brother."

"Y-your bro-brother?"

"Yeah, he just moved back. That's why the whole place is a mess…"

"You never mentioned that you had a twin." She replied, studiously avoiding looking at said brother.

Shinta frowned. "I didn't?"

"No, you didn't."

"Oh well, no harm done. This," he pulled Kenshin into a one armed hug, "is Kenshin, my brother. Kenshin, this is Kaoru, my girlfriend."

Kenshin pulls the corners of his mouth up automatically. "Nice to meet you."

"Well, oh, hey! Kaoru, there's something I wanted to show you, come on up." He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the stairs. Kenshin turned away and took a deep breath. Smirking, he turns to find her eyes upon him. Wide-eyed still, she bites her lip as she stares at him until she is out of sight.

Kaoru. Very nice to meet you.

X-X

Author's Note

I know I was trying to keep these one-shots strictly canon but...well as they say, you can the girl out of the Alternate Universe but you can't take AU out of the girl. ehehehe. Okay, that was sad. I know. Point being, this popped into my head while watching Mulan for some strange reason. I hope you all like it.

Let me know what you think. Please comment.