So did anyone else think it was a capital crime for Kenshin's hair to be short? I can't imagine Kaoru allowing it! Somehow, the explanation of that concept blended with my latest drabble, so you get the Drabble on Steroids. Yeah.

Thanks to my lovely reviewers, SeaSaltChocolate (welcome to the party!), caseyedith, and Syolen. Your reviews are love!

I do not own RK. I believe my position on the hair explains this.

Yeuk

-noun

itching sensation.

The moans from the little futon in the next room were becoming louder again. Kenshin suppressed a sigh, rubbing his eye with the back of his hand; this was exhausting. He was up all night dealing with this, and then Kaoru-dono had gone to Maekawa-san's dojo to teach all afternoon, so he wouldn't be getting a respite any time soon.

He picked up yet another bowl of cool herbal-infused water and carried it to the bedroom. Kenji made a truly pitiful picture, with splotches as red as his hair all over his body, curled up in a miserable ball amongst his bedclothes. Rags had been tied gently around his hands to prevent him scratching, but the damage has already been done; he was bleeding in some places where the raised welts were now scabby sores.

Wishing his son liked him a little more, and would therefore be less tantrum-prone (Kaoru-dono never had to deal with screaming fits!) Kenshin gently ran a cloth dampened with the herb-water down Kenji's back. Megumi-dono insisted that it was supposed to help: Chickenpox was a hot disease, and should respond to cooling herbs.

Kenji responded like a drowned cat.

"Le'mee looooone!" he wailed, yanking the covers up over his head. Kenshin rolled his eyes. He hadn't been that bad at three years old, had he?

Kenshin considered whether to press the point, but the question was solved for him when he heard a loud whistle—Sanosuke's favored form of greeting. Knocking had been outlawed after the incident with the door.

"Hello-o! Anybody here?"

"This one is home," Kenshin said, closing Kenji's shouji behind him. "What can sessha do for you, Sano?"

"Um…" Sano seemed a bit befuddled. "The Fox Lady sent me."

"Does she need help at the clinic?" Kenshin thought furiously. He couldn't leave Kenji home alone, but his son was still contagious, so he couldn't bring him along, either.

"She sent me to get some medicine," Sano confessed.

"Oro?" What medicine?

"Well, um, I've got this weird rash…." Sano unconsciously scratched at his forearm.

Understanding dawned. "Sano, you've never had chicken pox, have you?"

After one miserable rooster had been dosed and sent to bed (how did a kid originally from a little village in the country not end up with chicken pox at one point or another? It boggled the mind) Kenshin went back to check on Kenji.

The futon was empty.

He's probably going to the bathroom, Kenshin thought. He went to the kitchen, intending to fix some fish broth for the invalids, when he spotted Kenji up on one of the counters.

"Kenji-chan! No!"

The toddler had a disconcerting affinity for heights; Kaoru claimed it came from Kenshin's side of the family.

Kenji laughed and threw a rice ball at him.

Kenshin gritted his teeth. Shishou had much to answer for, but the 'let's throw things at Daddy' game introduced on their last visit to Kyoto was at the top of his list.

He dodged a pair of cooking chopsticks and another rice ball before picking up the giggling little boy.

"You are a monster, that you are," he grumbled as he headed toward the door. "You and Shishou deserve each other, I think—"

Kenji reached up and grabbed a piece of cloth hanging from a shelf. Kenshin realized a series of things in quick succession:

That cloth was a towel put under a cracked sake jug, set there to drain until Kenshin could figure out a use for the mostly intact bottom half

Kenji was much stronger than he looked

The jug was falling, and with Kenji wriggling in his arms he could neither dodge nor catch it.

As he passed into unconsciousness, he tried to fall backwards so he wouldn't land on Kenji.

Sano returned to consciousness groggily. He hadn't been sleeping well lately (damned itchy spots!) and the nap Kenshin had insisted he take was actually doing a surprising amount of good.

He noticed the normally turbulent Himura-Kamiya household was suspiciously quiet. If it was this quiet… what had woken him up?

Sano groaned and levered himself to his feet to investigate.

The bedrooms and main room were empty of redheads and their spawn, the dojo likewise. It wasn't until Sano heard childish giggling that he headed for the kitchen.

What he saw was either the funniest thing since that time he caught Yahiko with Tsubame at the river, or the most heinous since Shishio. It was hard to tell.

A redheaded toddler, naked but for a cloth diaper and a grin, was sitting in a puddle of rice waving a utility knife in one hand and a hank of red hair in the other. His father was unconscious on the floor, and missing a good chunk of his ponytail. Kenji was grinning in a drooly way.

"Sannasa! Dada seepy!"

Sano finally gave in and snickered. "You said it, kid. Your momma's gonna be ticked…."

Umm, just a couple more notes, then I'll stop, I promise.

My sister (beta extraordinaire! Go read her stuff- it's under the penname Rayneken, awesome looong Naruto fic) pointed out that Sano was probably in China when Kenji was a toddler. Since I do not acknowledge Seisou Hen as canon (Don't know if I've ranted about this yet, but I HATE HATE HATE that OVA; K&K deserve their happy ending!) we will say that Sano has run out of money and come back for a visit.

Also, as to Kenji's climbing skills/unusual dexterity... think about his genes. His daddy's a master of Hiten Mitsurugi and a frickin' acrobat in his ownright, and his momma's no slouch either. And kids are always in the last place, doing the last thing you want them to be...

Concrit would be awesome!