A/N: HAhAHAHA… at first I was just going to go along with the story, but your guys' comments are sooooo funny I'm gonna add in a little twist from the ideas I got from you guys. I love you all.

Chapter 21
Kenshin's Daughter?

"Guys, come and have your breakfast!" I say, yelling at the top of my voice.

"Last one down is a rotten egg!" yelled Soujiro, thundering down the stairs.

A few seconds later, the thumping of many feet down the stairs could be heard, as both Kenshin and Sano entered the kitchen first, followed shortly by Soujiro, and Akira. Aoshi came in minutes after everyone else quietly like always whenever Kenshin's around.

"Where's Yahiko?" I ask, setting seven colorful plates down on the table.

"I'm here!" says Yahiko running in, his hair, dripping wet.

"Ewwwww…you're a rotten, smelly and squashed Egg!" says Sano, backing a few steps away from him.

Yahiko turned to glare at Sano, then, smiled evilly, before shaking his head left and right, causing little droplets of water to pelt all six of us.

"Yahiko!" I yelled, pulling out a bokku from behind me and wacked him on the head, only that he ducked and I ended up hitting Kenshin.

"ORO!"

"Haha busu, you have really bad aim," he scoffed, taking a seat at the table and piling pancakes on his plate.

Without hesitation I reached over and pulled his ear, stopping him from beginning to eat.

"WAIT! Don't eat yet! We haven't done the proper introductions yet!" says Akira, slapping Yahiko on the back of his head.

"Ow! Did I suddenly turn into a punching bag or something?" growled Yahiko, breaking into a grin a few moments later. "And you don't need to introduce me to anyone. He's my boss/manager of the company I work at. Morning, Mr. Himura."

"Yahiko, right?" asks Kenshin, returning the smile.

"See," says Yahiko, shooting us a triumphant look.

"And you already know who we are," says Soujiro, pointing to both him and Sano.

"Right. So that leaves the both of us," says Aoshi, grinning. "I'm Kamiya Aoshi, Kaoru's brother," he says, extending his hand towards Kenshin for a handshake.

"Himura Kenshin," replied Kenshin, grasping Aoshi's hand.

"And I'm Kiyosato Akira, her cousin," Akira jumped in, also shaking Kenshin's hand.

"All right, now that everything's settled, LET'S EAT!" yelled Yahiko.

As Kenshin sat at the table, joking and laughing with them, something at the back of his mind kept nagging at him. The name Aoshi sounded awfully familiar. If only he could pinpoint exactly where he had heard it before…

"Kaoru, you should never cook, the pancake is burnt on one side!" Akira complained, while Aoshi smirked at me, and Soujiro just silently nodded his head.

"well, it's not that bad. I'm sure if Kaoru-dono cooks more often, she'll get better." Kenshin said with a happy face, giving me smile.

"Thank you, Kenshin" I said back with warmth while I smacked everyone else.

"You know," begins Soujiro, folding his arms on the table after the dishes were cleared. "It's a good thing you guys fell asleep at the office on a Friday night. Imagine if you were caught together, still clad in the same clothes as the day before by all your workers."

"Yeah…it's pretty hard to clear up those kind of rumors," says Akira, shuddering a little. All six pairs of eyes turned to look at him. "What?"

"Have you been caught before, Akira?" I teased.

"Were you doing something with your secretary?" asks Soujiro, poking him in the sides.

"No, I wasn't!" exclaimed Akira, turning a deep shade of red.

"Oh really?" drawled Aoshi, grinning broadly at him.

"Stop it, Aoshi!" wailed Akira.

"Anyway, don't the both of you have things to do and places to go? It's a Saturday!" says Aoshi, ruffling my hair. "You honestly weren't planning on staying home, were you?"

"Not really. As a matter of fact, I think we should be leaving now," says Kenshin, pulling me up and leading me to the door. "Thanks for breakfast. I'll have these clothes cleaned and sent back to you."

"No problem, Himura," says Aoshi. "Take your time in returning them. It's not like we need it in a rush or anything."

"I will, thanks again!"

"Where are we going?" I ask, as I fastened my seatbelt securely.

"To meet someone," he says, grinning at me.

"Ooooooh….who?" I ask, clapping my hands together.

"You'll see," he replied secretively.

"Wait, you're not bringing to meet your parents or anything, are you? Because if you are, you'd better turn back. I'm not dressed properly AND I didn't prepare a gift for them," I say nervously.

"No, I'm not bringing you to meet my parents. Don't worry!" he says, controlling the steering wheel with one hand, and reaching for my hand with the other.

"Umm…don't you want to change your clothes first?"

"Nah. I have spare clothes over there. Just sit back and relax, okay, Kaoru-dono?" he asks, smiling at me.

"Okay!" I say, leaning back in my seat and making myself comfortable.

We came to a stop in front of a beautiful white cottage, which was situated at the end of the road. It had a red slate roof and a dark green front door. There were yellow roses and honeysuckle, growing up a lattice round the door and the leaded windows, and in the big garden, a huge cherry tree stood in one corner.

"Wow," I breathed, getting out of the car. "It's beautiful!"

"It is, isn't it?" says Kenshin, coming to stand next to me. "What are you waiting for? Let's go in," he says, pulling me by my hand.

"Don't we have to ring the doorbell first?" I ask, as he pushed open the little white gate.

"No. Not really," he says, winking at me. Then, he turned the knob of the front door, stepped inside the house and yelled, "SAKURA-CHAN!"

I heard a little girl squeal from upstairs, then the clicking of her shiny black shoes against the parquet as she ran down the stairs and straight into Kenshin's arms.

"Otou-san!" she yelled delightfully.

I was rooted to the ground, my jaw wide open in disbelief as I stared at what was happening right in front of my eyes.

"So, how's my little girl doing?" asks Kenshin, lifting her up into his arms. "Have you been good?"

"Yup!" she replied, nodding her head furiously, causing her curls to bounce up and down on her shoulders.

"Did you eat all your meals?"

"Uh-huh," she says, still nodding her head.

"Did you listen to Aunty Ayame?"

"Uh-huh."

"Really? I'm going to go ask her," says Kenshin, tapping her lightly on the nose.

"Otou-san…" she trailed off, looking at me. I hurriedly plastered a smile onto my face but I guess something must have showed because Kenshin set the little girl down on the floor almost immediately and took a step towards me.

"You… and Tomoe?" I managed to choke out with trying to keep a smile for the girl.

"It's not what you're thinking," he says in a rush. "She's not my daughter. Honest!"

"Okay…" I say doubtfully.

"I've always tried to get her to call me Onii-san but she always ends up calling me Otou-san," he continued.

"Okay…"

"I think she may have some problems with her brain or something...maybe it's some sort of deficiency that causes her not to be able to differentiate between Onii and Otou."

"All right! All right! I get the drift. She's not your daughter!" I say, laughing. Bending down so that I was eye level with the little girl, I smiled at her and extended my hand towards her.

"Hello there. I'm Kaoru. What's your name?" She quickly ran behind Kenshin and peeked out from behind his legs, ducking almost immediately when she caught me still staring back at her.

Okay then, I know I look hideous, but she doesn't need to be THAT scared of me! I mean, come on, the mirrors don't crack every time I look into them, do they?

"Sakura-chan, don't be shy," coaxed Kenshin, trying to get her to come out from behind his legs. "She's really nice. Come on out. If you do, I'll let you eat ice-cream later!"

"Promise?" she asks, extending her pinky towards him.

"Promise," replied Kenshin, linking his pinky with her.

Then, after pinching her lightly on the cheeks, he pushed her gently in my direction. She took a few tentative steps forward, often turning to look back at Kenshin who kept encouraging her to come closer towards me.

"Hi, nee-san," she says, looking down at her shoes, her right hand holding on to the edge of her skirt while she twisted her body left and right.

"Hello, Sakura-chan," I say, tilting her chin up so that she was looking at me. "You look very pretty today."

"Really?" she asks, her whole face lighting up.

"Really," I say, smiling at her.

"Nee-san," she says, looking up at my hair clips. "I've got clips which are sparkly too!" she says, pointing to her own clips.

"Oh? Where did you get yours from?" I ask, admiring her clips.

"Otou-san bought it for me!" she grinned, pointing in Kenshin direction, who muttered 'oro' at that title.

"Why do you call me Otou-san but you call her Nee-san? If I'm Otou-san, she should be Oka-san!" says Kenshin.

I stared at Kenshin, did he know what he just said? After looking at my flushed face, he realized what he just implied and started blushing as well. But Sakura-chan just kept on talking.

"Nope," says Sakura, shaking her head then picking up a blue crayon and a sheet of paper nearby. We both crowded round her to see what she was writing.

Kenshin old + take care of me Otou-san
Kaoru pretty + nice Onee-san

"Oro! Sakura-chan!" says Kenshin, bopping her lightly on the head while I laughed.

"So, Kenshin," I say, leaning back on the couch. "Whose child is she?" I ask, looking over at Sakura who was playing with both our cell phones.

"Well," he began, coming to sit next to me. "Are you sure you want to know about it? It's a pretty long story."

"Why not? I've got the entire day!" I grinned.

"Right. But you have to promise me one thing, and that is to never tell a single soul anything that I'm going to tell you now, okay?"

"Okay," I say. "Do you want to link pinkies with me?" I ask, extending my little finger towards him.

"It wouldn't hurt, would it?" he replied, all the while grinning broadly while he linked his finger with mine.

"It all started when…"

Unknown to the both of them, littleSakura had accidentally pressed the call button on Kenshin's cell phone, enabling the person on the other line to listen in on their entire conversation.

Tomoe rummaged through her handbag for her ringing cell phone. She whipped her phone open and her smile widened when she saw Kenshin's number blinking on the screen.

"Hello?"

When there was no answer, she called out again.

"Hello? Kenshin? Are you there?"

Just as she was about to disconnect the call, thinking that Kenshin had probably pressed the call button without knowing it, she heard his voice through the phone, loud and clear.

"Two years after my mother died of cancer, my father had an affair which resulted with this child."

"I'm sorry," came another voice, which sounded awfully like Kaoru, causing Tomoe to frown a little. "By the way, where's her mother?"

"She ran off with another guy and left her daughter here."

"Oh dear…why didn't you all just raise her in your own home? Wouldn't it be more convenient?"

"We couldn't. It would tarnish my father's reputation, and it would set all the reporter's tongues wagging if they found out he had an affair. So, we hired a nanny to take care of her here."

"Wouldn't she feel…lonely?"

"Well, Dr. Genzai brings his little nieces over to play with her once in a while, and I make it a point to come and visit almost every day. Apart from that, her nanny often brings her cousins over too, just to keep her company."

Feeling that she has heard enough, Tomoe flipped her phone shut and her smile widened some more. So, the Himura have an illegitimate child, eh? This will teach Kenshin and Kaoru never to mess with Tomoe, she thought as a plan began forming in her head.

A/N: I need your opinion. Right now I'm thinking of putting Tomoe into some confinement. But i thought it'll be fun to hook her up with Akira. Any opinions? Currently I'm thinking of pairs for Soujiro, but it's kind of hard, and Sano won't have a pair, but I have my reason. (it's really sad).

Next Chappie: their last waff for a long shot. Tomoe finds ways to reveal Kaoru's secrets.