Pieces of Himura's Past
4. Emotions They Share
Sakina, or now Kaiya, didn't know how to react to him. Aoshi said he was her husband but he didn't seem familiar at all. She was deeply confused and wanted some answers about who she really was so she started asking him questions.
"Um.......Aoshi? How old am I?" She couldn't even look at him. She barely got the words out of her mouth.
Aoshi paniked. He had no idea. He figured she was about the battosai's age so he said, "Your twenty five, darling."
"Oh. Well what about my family? Do I have any siblings?"
He started to just answer without really thinking as if she was a character in a book, "No. You are an only child."
"Well........................" She then remembered that they were married, "Do we have any children?"
"Yes, of course we do." He then realized what he said but when he went to tell her he looked at how happy her face was knowing she was a mother, he just left her be.
"How many? What are their names!?" She was excited as could be.
"We have three children. Two boys and a girl. They are all small though. The oldest is five and then the youngest is just a few months old."
"Really?" She was getting out of bed, "I want to see them!" The pretend Kaiya was going to find her pretend children.
Aoshi had to stop her, "They aren't here right now. They went to go see my brother, Detsu. They won't be back for a few days."
"Oh........." She got quiet again. All the happiness had been sucked out of her it had seemed. Aoshi felt bad now that he had told her all of that.
"If it will make you feel any better I have to go that way for my work. I can go get them and bring them home. Is that ok with you?" He was starting to feel better and hoped that she did too.
"Yes!" She ran over and hugged him.
Shinomori wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him tightly. He put his hand to her face and made her look at him. Once he had her looking at him, he started to kiss her softly. Aoshi was suprised to notice that she had started to kiss him back. They started to get into the kissing and he laid his hand on her lower back. She didn't mind. She started to run her fingers through his soft black hair and it began to get messy. Aoshi pushed her against the wall. The kissing was never ending. He started to kiss harder and undo her kimono until there was a knock at the door. Without thinking, they answered, "Come in." It was Takota. Emabarrassed, Kaiya fixed her kimono back to the way it should be and her husband turned to talk to the intruder. He was furious that Takota had come at that time.
He asked in an angry whisper so "Kaiya" couldn't hear, "What do you want!?"
"Sir, it is time to leave. You told me to come get you at sunset so I did as ordered." Takota was trying to hide his jealousy from his boss.
"Fine. Just wait a minute," He walked over to his wife and looked at her in the eyes, "I promise I will be back soon and I will bring you the children."
Her face was beaming with excitement. She really wanted to see her children. Aoshi had a problem though. Where would he find three children around those ages in just a few hours? He looked at his staff and gave them direct orders, "If you find three children, two boys and a girl, oldest about five and the youngest a few months old, take them. I want them for Sakina." The group of men and Misao left obeyingly.
*at the dojo*
Kenshin woke up extremly late for the first time in a long time. He was hoping none of what had happened the day before had really happened. He was praying that she was right there asleep, but she wasn't. His priorities had been decided for him. He was determined to get her back. He wouldn't break his promise to his daughter. As he thought in a daydream for awhile he was taken out of it by the rumbles of his stomach, "Well, I guess I can't save my wife on an empty stomach."
He made his way to the kitchen area. When he got there all eyes were on him. Exspecially Kaoru's eyes. The ones he didn't want to see. He sat down next to his little girl and started to eat. He didn't break up the fights, he didn't give anyone advice, he barely spoke a word. When he was finally done, he went to the kitchen to wash his bowl, and Kaoru followed him.
She felt really bad about Aoshi coming and taking Sakina. She didn't think that he was going to do that to Kenshin or anyone. Just because he liked her? She just wanted to appologize to Kenshin for that and for making him and Miori so sad. As he was washing the bowl, Kaoru came behind him and tapped his shoulder.
"May I help you?" he asked in a very serious tone.
"Kenshin? Can I please talk to you about the other day?"
"I don't want to talk to you about that, Miss Kaoru. I know you say it was not your fault. You just thought you were doing a good deed. Am I correct?"
"Yes. I only thought he was...." She knew what was coming.
"He what?!? Wouldn't do anything?!? Are you mad, Miss Kaoru?!? Of course he would do something! He's my enemy! It doesn't matter how many times you appologize or how much you say you care! You obviously don't if you let that man in here! Get away from me. You have made me and my child miserable."
He wasn't joking anymore. He had no more calm, sensitive, sweetness in his voice anymore. She didn't recognize this new Kenshin. She just took her hand back and looked down, "Well if that's how you really feel. I......," Kaoru tried to speak but nothing came out but sobs. She knew it was all her fault. She ran past everyone and went straight to her room.
"Wow," That was all that would come out of Yahiko's mouth, "I can't believe that Kenshin would say that to someone. Exspecially Kaoru of all people."
"Yeah. I mean she screwed up but he didn't have to shove it in her face like that." Sanoske and Yahiko waited for Kenshin to come out. When he finally did they were to scared to ask.
Kenshin noticed by their faces that he really went a little too far. He decided he was going to go appologize for the yelling. He got to her room and could hear her now. He felt even worse. Kenshin knocked on the door and waited for her to reply.
She answered thinking it was Sanoske or maybe Megumi, but she didn't think in a million years Kenshin would come after what was said. He walked in and sat next to her body as she laid with her head tucked in the pillow.
"Miss Kaoru?," He started with, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be a jerk to you in the kitchen. I guess my emotions got the better part of me. Please forgive me."
She looked up. There were tear stains all over, "If you say so, Kenshin. Its okay," She got up and hugged him, "But what about Sakina? How are we going to get her back?"
"We'll figure something out. We just need to find out where he took her."
*with Aoshi*
As he came back from his arrangement with a client, Takota joined him. He stood patiently as Aoshi came out the doors making his way to his ride home, "Did you find me some children?"
Takota answered him without any hesitation, "Yes sir, we did."
"Really? Where did you find them? I want the details."
"The five year old was an orphan we found wandering around in a small village. His name is Ateke. Rekki, she's two. The last one is a four month old name Hetoko. For the last two we had to kill the parents."
"Bring them to me. Now!"
"It has already been done, sir." They walked out to see the two older ones standing up and the smallest one was in Misao's arms. Unlike the two boys, Rekki seemed to be terrified so he went to her.
"It's okay, sweetie. Daddy's going to bring you home to mommy." He picked her up, but she was scared out of her mind.
"You aren't my daddy!" She told him. She tried to get away but it wasn't working.
"Well, I'm your daddy now," he told her straight in the eyes, "and if you tell your new mommy anything then I guess we will just have to do to you what we did to your real mommy and daddy." The little girl complied. She wouldn't risk it.
Once all was settled and they returned home, Aoshi went to get his wife as the children stayed in the main hallway.
"Kaiya? I'm home.......and I brought the children!," He walked in to find her asleep on the bed. He made his way over and rubbed her back, "Sweetie. Wake up. The children are here."
Kaiya started to awaken. She noticed that he had said he brought the children home and she awoke in seconds, "Oh, yes! Where are they?"
"They are in the main hallway with Misao and Takota. I'll bring you," He grabbed her hand and lead her to the place that he had left them, "There they are."
She practically ignored him and ran to her children. The expression of happiness was all over her face, "Oh, my children! How are my babies?" She took the smallest one from Misao's arms, "Awwww....my baby. You are so cute."
Aoshi was delighted to see Kaiya so happy, but deep inside he was wondering if she would remember the truth. He didn't want to lose her after all he did to get her in the first place, but he didn't want to make it obvious that he was nervous. He had to make sure that she and the children would get along. He looked at Kaiya holding what she thought was their youngest child, "Why don't we bring the children and get something to eat?"
The family went to the dining room and ate a wonderful meal. It gave them a chance to eat and get to know each other. Afterwards, Kaiya and Aoshi brought the children to their rooms and left them to sleep.
"Good night, Ateke and Rekki. I love you." She kissed their heads and hugged them both. But Rekki didn't want her to go. She had become very attatched to her new mother.
"Mommy? Do you have to go?" She had clenched the back of her mother's kimono with tears forming in her eyes.
"Rekki? What's the matter? Are you scared?" She was stroking her daughter's hair, but Aoshi was getting nervous again. He thought the girl was going to tell Kaiya about her real parents and who the children really were.
"I don't like the dark and I don't want you to go." She was starting to cry harder, so Kaiya held her in her arms.
"It's okay, sweetie." Aoshi watched from the distance as the fake Kaiya cradled her fake child. Once the little girl went to bed, so did she. Aoshi had to seperate the two and carry the mother to their room.
Once inside the room, he laid Kaiya on the bed and got ready for bed. The two of them had a long day. But the thoughts kept coming to him. What if she remembered? What if a child or someone told her everything? He tried his best not to think about it as he laid next to her. Inorder to go to sleep, he wrapped his arms around her body and simply watched until sleep took over his eyes finally.
*Kenshin*
Dinner was starting and everything seemed to be back in order somewhat. Kenshin was back to his normal self except for the fact his moping was still there over Sakina. As they ate, Kenshin announced his idea as to how they might be able to get her back. He had heard a rumor from a close friend where Aoshi Shinomori was now located.
"So what exactly do you want us to do?" Sanoske asked.
"Okay. All we need is a good distraction for most of the gaurds. The ones that aren't taken care of Sano and I will get rid of them. Once we found her, we'll hopefully not run into any suprises. If Shinomori and his new crew show up, we'll have a smoke bomb Miss Megumi made for us and that will be our way to escape."
"So who's the distraction for the guards going to be?" Yahiko was into the mission now.
"Well, I didn't really think about that," Kenshin admitted, "but I think we'll find one by then. What do yout think, Sano?"
Sano got into deep thought for a minute, and then he replied, "Well, they are men, and we do have women. So.....maybe Kaoru and Megumi?"
The two men and Yahiko looked at the two women. Yahiko looked back and asked, "I don't think Kaoru is going to work. Just Miss Megumi. Kaoru might get her feelings hurt when all the men see her and just ignore her compared to Miss Megumi's actual good looks." They all agreed.
They had a plan, everything was figured out, but they had to find out when to do it. Sano asked another question, "Well, when are we going to do this, Kenshin?"
The thought never crossed his mind once. He replied, "Tomorrow night."
*Aoshi*
Morning came quickly. Aoshi awoke to find Kaiya wasn't there. He paniked for a few minutes. He ran into the hallway and into the children's room. When he looked inside his paniking went away. She was playing with the kids and Takota was watching them. He slowly creeped out and went back to his room, but before he did, he listened in on what they were doing.
"Okay, Mommy, you can play with this dolly. I think the pink kimono would look good on her."
Obeyingly, Kaiya put the pink kimono on the doll she was given, "How does this look, Rekki?"
"It's so pretty on her!" Rekki took the doll from her mother's hands. She then went over to her new doll house to play. Kaiya got up and walked over by the window where Takota was standing.
"She's so precious," he told her, "She looks so much like you."
Kaiya blushed, "Oh, thank you. Are you married or have any children?"
"No. I wish i did, though. I would love to get married and have a few kids."
"Well, I think you will one day," he stared at her while she stared out the window, "just wait for the right person. You will find her, trust me. You are very good looking and you are always with lots of pretty women. One of them are the one, I think."
He took in what she said, and really thought about it. He couldn't see himself with any of them though. They just weren't his type or they just were not as perfect for him as he thought. For some reason, he thought about who would be the best thing for him. He looked at Kaiya and told her, "I want you to be the one." He leaned over and kissed her lips. She didn't fight back. She actually started to get into the kissing until she realized what she was doing.
"Takota!," she fiercely whispered, "Why did you do that?"
"I told you, I think you're the one." He still was holding her around her waist and pulling her close to him.
"I can't be! I'm married and have children!" She tried to break away, but she couldn't.
"I don't care. I fell in love with you. I want to be your husband. I don't know what else to tell you." He still had her in his arms.
She tried to break free again but it still wasn't working. Aoshi was forced to watch his wife. His anger was getting to him, but he didn't want to fight or do anything drastic in front of the children. He decided to wait.
"Look. You kissed me too, you have to have some feelings for me." Takota was determined to make her fall in love with him.
"It was just for the moment, though." She was still trying to flee.
Takota whispered in her ear, "Let me take you somewhere so we can be together. Alone. I can make you happy. I can make you feel better than you have ever felt before." He started to kiss her neck and rub his arms all over her body.
"I............I don't think we should. I have my husband and the children." She didn't know what to do.
Finally, Takota let go. She turned to see her daughter watching them. She asked curiously, "Why were you hugging Mr. Takota, Mommy? Is he sad?"
Kaiya just turned and looked at Takota, "Yes, Rekki. He was just upset and needed a hug from a friend."
After she said it, she watched her daughter come and hug Takota's leg since she was too short to hug anything else, "It's okay, Mr. Takota. Everything will be better soon."
Takota looked down at the sweet girl and then looked at Kaiya. Their eyes met and then quickly went away. The little girl just simply went back to what she had origionally been doing with her dolls.
Kaiya didn't want to be there anymore, so she walked out of the kid's room to go back to hers. As soon as she turned outside the door, she felt hands pull her from behind, and she screamed at the top of her lungs. Just as quickly, Takota rushed out to see what she had yelled for. Aoshi was there with her and she was breathing hard.
"Why did you do that, Aoshi! I didn't know what was happening!" she was in such a panic that her breath was taking a long time to come back.
"I'm sorry. I didn't think anything of it."
"Well since there's no problem here," Takota started to say, "I guess I'll...."
"Wrong, Takota. There is a problem that I would like to discuss with you. So please, follow me in my office."
"Of course, sir." He obeyingly followed the orders and walked behind him.
Kaiya grabbed her husband's hand and walked with him. Once they got to the office, he told her to stay out in the hallway. She did as she was told but went by the door to hear what was being said. She was shocked to know that her husband had seen the whole affair she had partially taken part of.
"How dare you!" Aoshi would not let Takota ever get away with the way he handled Kaiya. Even if she wasn't really his wife, she was close enough.
"What are you talking about, sir?" he figured if he played stupid he could get out of trouble.
"You know what I'm talking about," he had picked up a sword in his hand as he faced him, "Don't you dare think that you can hold her or sweet-talk her into something or most importantly, kissing her."
"I don't know what you are talking about, sir." he turned to leave, but as soon as his hand touched the door, outside Kaiya could hear a yell of pain.
The second she heard it, she slammed the doors open of the large office, she noticed at once the blood all over the floor and on her husband's sword. She then looked on the floor to see Takota bleeding from his back as he tried to get up slowly. She couldn't bear to look at him, "Oh my goodness! Takota! What happened here? Aoshi? What did you do to him?"
Aoshi didn't really care that Takota was hurting, but he was furious to see his "wife" trying to help the man who tried to take her away. He went behind her and knocked her out cold. He told Takota, "The next time you mess with her make sure I don't find out. It might be different the next time." He then called in some men to take him away to a doctor and have the cut looked at. He just didn't know how he was going to be able to explain this to "Kaiya". She would be upset and he understood that, but he didn't hear every word that was said so he also wondered what he told her before they had kissed. He had lots to plan for and he new just how to make her warm up to him.
*Kenshin and the others*
As they got their plan together and prepared, Kenshin's crew waited as he brought Miori to the doctor. As Kenshin walked up to the doorway, the doctor met them outside after he walked off the porch. He took the small child from his arms and they walked to the door together. The doctor laid her down in her own bed, and he mentioned to Kenshin, "What should I tell her in the morning when she awakes?"
Kenshin waited a minute before answering, "Tell her that daddy is going to bring mommy home." He then thanked the doctor for taking her and they walked off into the moonlight. Within a few hours they would be bringing Sakina home to Miori. By morning, hopefully, operation "Take Back" would be a success.