The Faerie Chronicles of Kenshin & Kaoru: Reclamation, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl

Chapter 2

It was a shock to Kaoru when she realized that she had never truly understood the definition of the word "early." The sun had not even risen when she was shaken out of bed by an angry housekeeper.

"I'm sleepy," she grumbled. "Leave me alone." That earned her a slap across the face and a threat of being dismissed. Kaoru was so stunned that for a minute, she was too outraged to react. Luckily, Megumi got to her in time, dragging her out of bed and making profuse apologies to the housekeeper before hustling Kaoru off with a hard pinch.

"Get dressed and get to work," Megumi hissed fiercely into her ear. "You are a servant now."

"Oh...oh yeah," Kaoru murmured, feeling disoriented. It seemed like there were a lot of things she had not taken into account when she had come up with this plan.

Megumi sounded very impatient, though also ever-so-slightly amused. "Here's your apron and your kerchief. Quickly now. You'll find that the only time you'll get noticed is when you're doing something wrong."

Being a servant seemed like the hardest work Kaoru had ever done in her life. Throughout the day, she found herself cleaning out fireplaces, scrubbing floors, plucking the feathers from dead birds (a disgusting task that made her almost want to swear off fowl for life), waiting on arrogant jerks, dodging the inappropriately-placed hands of leering noblemen, and ruining so many cooking projects that she was actually pulled aside and beaten by the head cook.

At first, she was too shocked to cry out, then she was too preoccupied with biting her lips to keep herself from yelling things that would give herself away. Then she was too busy trying to hold back tears that she forgot anything dangerous she might have wanted to say, and finally, she vowed to do a thorough investigation when she got home and assure herself that no servant was EVER beaten in her household.

The pain and humiliation of the experience threatened to consume her, and it seemed like insult to injury when she was not even allowed to slink off to lick her wounds afterwards, but was instead ordered to go and clean out the henhouses. "I-!" she started to shout. "-hate it here!" ended up as only a raging whisper, but the cook struck her once more for good measure and would have literally kicked her out the door if she hadn't shuffled aside just in time. "Remember what you're here for," Kaoru told herself angrily. "Remember." She limped out as fast as she could go.

Meanwhile, Sanosuke was having an easier time of it. The labor was hard and there was a serious lack of water provisions, but he was young and strong and up to the task. He tirelessly worked on, lifting and carrying and lifting and carrying, though the task was so mind-numbing that he started to get very restless by midmorning. Only the frequent, assessing glances of the foreman kept him in check - he couldn't act up now, he had to behave and earn the guy's trust so that he would be able to do his real work later. He wondered how the others were doing, and if they were chafing as much as he was...

Yahiko would have asserted that he was. Kept running back and forth on errands, cuffed and spoken to so rudely that he kept coming within a hair's breadth of making even ruder retorts and getting kicked out, the boy's greatest struggle was maintaining self-control.

Eventually, he figured out that nodding and smiling like he imagined Kenshin would tended to work better than gritting his teeth and making sulky faces. Just as he was perfecting this art, he nearly lost it again when he went out into the yard to get some eggs and found Kaoru dragging herself around, disheveled and with bruises marking her flesh.

"Did someone beat you up?! Who did this to you?!"

"I'm doing this for Kenshin," she nearly spat at him.

"Huh? What's that have to do with-?"

She looked at him, and he found himself falling silent. "...Yahiko?"

"Yeah?" he said cautiously.

"...Do you think I'm a strong person?"

He was caught by surprise. "Uh...sure."

Her expression hardened. Yahiko rarely felt true awe when in Kaoru's presence, but at the moment, she looked every inch a princess.

"I'm doing this for Kenshin," she said again. "I'm not going to let anything get me down. I'm sure others have had it far worse."

"Kaoru-hime," Yahiko said slowly, "it's really...I really hate seeing you like this. It means I wasn't there for you, that I failed. I wish I could have stopped you from getting hurt."

She smiled a little. "Well, I can't exactly have you go beat up the head cook for me," she said regretfully, "even though that was a total, total overreaction..."

"Wait, overreaction? You mean she got mad at you for something you did?"

"Hey, it's not like it's a crime to be a bad cook!"

A slow smile crept over Yahiko's face. "Hey, that means that I can cook better than you. That is so sad, you can't even compete with a ten-year-old boy."

"Ooooh, why are you so rude?!"

He laughed. "Have to admit, though, you're the only one who'd ever put up with my backtalk. I never told you before, but...thanks."

She stared at him. "Okay, who are you, and what have you done with Yahiko?"

"Talk about rude! I can be nice, you know!"

"You call that nice?!"

"Take what you can get, busu-hime!"

"I really am gonna hit you!"

Yahiko opened his mouth for another retort, then suddenly paused.

"You look like you just had an idea," she said warily.

"Hey...Kaoru...how would you like to learn how to use a sword?"

o.o.o.o.o

Katsura's spy network already had information on the prison layout, the guard rotations, and some good guesses as to where Takasugi was probably being held. Since the last rescue attempt had gone horribly wrong, Kenshin insisted that no one accompany him except Sôjirô and Katsura.

"You really think we can pull this off without killing anyone?" Katsura asked doubtfully.

"Don't worry," Sôjirô assured him, "we're getting skilled at this sort of thing."

"Do you think it's wise to pull this off without killing anyone?" was Katsura's next, more pointed question.

"It would be better to reveal our faces and become targets than allow a single life to be extinguished.

"You're making me despair a bit for the mission," Katsura said wryly, "but at least it bodes well for your potential kingship."

*permanently incomplete*

The Faerie Chronicles of Kenshin & Kaoru: Reclamation, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl

Extra scene

A/N: Takes place between The Useless Sword and the Enchanted Rose and Reclamation (it's a flashback).

o.o.o

"Tomoe."

The enchantress blinked, and her hands in the Faerie Queen's hair went still.

"Tomoe."

Titania chuckled. "Selfish boy - he's calling for you again, isn't he."

"Tomoe."

"Well. Better go see what he wants."

Tomoe's thoughts were a whirl. 'Why...would he be calling for me?' Why now, when he finally had the chance to be at peace? Why was he still calling for her when...when he had Kaoru-san now?

"...Tomoe?"

"The poor boy's getting anxious," Titania laughed, though her eyes had a hard glint in them. "Aren't you going to answer?"

"My lady," Tomoe said softly, still shaken. "I have not finished-"

The queen waved a hand dismissively. "For heaven's sake, I have plenty of other maids to dress my hair for me. Go find the boy, I'm curious."

Tomoe swallowed. "Yes, my lady." She set down the brush and stepped across to the human realm.

He was waiting for her in Kaoru's garden, his expression tense and apprehensive. The moonlight played over his strange hair and the noticeably faded birthmark on his face. What on earth could be wrong? "Kenshin," she said softly.

He drew in a deep breath. "Tomoe. This one needs to speak with you, that he does."

The speech pattern surprised her. She knew that something about him was different, that he had somehow changed in the moment when he allowed himself to love Kaoru. She had not realized what odd forms the transformation would take. This new apparent humility...she could not decide how she felt about it. Was it a sign that his self-protective shields were crumbling, or had his guilt had simply found a different outlet?

Tomoe sat down on a bench and invited him with her eyes to do the same. He sat gingerly, on the very edge. "Have you and Kaoru-san had an argument, perhaps?"

He looked at her in surprise. "An argument?"

She gazed at him, trying to read him. It was no longer as easy as it had once been...in some ways, he was like a different person now. "You are engaged to be married to another woman," she said quietly. "Yet you still call to me."

He looked away. "That's what this one...wanted to talk to you about, that he did."

It couldn't be. Tomoe smiled a little, even as tears stung her eyes. "Don't tell me you're feeling guilty about this, of all things. I thought I had made myself clear on this matter long ago."

"I love you." The words shot out of him almost angrily. "This one will never stop loving you - he cannot." He shut his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. "But...I love her, too." Silence fell, as if he was waiting for some sort of verdict.

"Kenshin." She saw what an effort it took him to meet her eyes. "I've told you before, and I tell you again now. I love you. I want you to be happy." She found herself nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I want you to be happy. You will not find happiness with me."

"Tomoe, I told you-"

"I know. You are willing to endure the sort of half-life that is all I could ever offer you...and I am truly grateful for that. But when you could have so much more, Kenshin?"

He was silent...conflicted, which was a good thing.

"She is free in a way that neither of us are," Tomoe said softly. "You need that, Kenshin. So much of your life has been and will be full of hardship and betrayal. You need someone who is free to support you with all her heart. You need a foothold out of the darkness. You need her."

"Yes-" His voice was full of emotion. "Yes, this one needs her. So much. But what about you, Tomoe? You still need me, just as much as this one needs her. I can't just - abandon you!"

Selfish. It was selfish, wasn't it, to soak this up? To let it feel so warm? He wasn't hers anymore. Yet to know that he still loved her like this, it felt so, so good.

"Kenshin." She couldn't tell him, not yet, about the small new light in her life, because she was still fighting that light, determined not to lose it as she had lost Kenshin. "I chose her for you." That much was true. "She found you on her own, and I kept her on the path. She was meant for you. Please...this is my gift to you. Do not refuse it, or spoil it with your wavering."

He was fiddling with the sword he had not yet gotten used to, her other gift to him. "Now you're starting to sound like Shishô."

"For all his lack of tact, Hiko-san is very wise," she said gravely. "Stand firm, Kenshin. Be strong. Don't look back. You know your place and your duty, and for that, you must look forward."

His mouth tightened in a grim line. He had known that already...he just didn't like it. Isn't that why he had called her, after all?

"Kenshin...how many times must I say good-bye to you?"

He finally looked at her then. "This one keeps hurting you," he said softly.

"Yes."

He stared at her. Opened his mouth, closed it again and shook his head. Then said in a low voice, "Forgive me."

"Always."

She said it so quickly that he looked at her again in surprise. "It's every time, isn't it. Every time you are wronged, you always forgive me."

"If only we could do the same for you. Right?" It was too serious to be teasing. They both knew how many enemies he had, how many people thought of him with hatred.

"Tomoe...isn't there anything this one can do for you? Please. It's just..."

"Be happy," she said softly. "That is what I want from you most of all. Please be happy. You have your chance now: take it."

He scuffed his foot against the grass. "It seems so selfish of me."

"Now you are sounding like Hiko-san," she said dryly. "Selfish as you are, Kenshin, it's the most selfless selfishness I've ever seen. It's part of the reason why I could not help loving you."

"'Couldn't help,'" he repeated, his turn for wryness. "So if you'd had a choice, you would never have loved me."

"Of course."

He looked at her in surprise, then smiled humorlessly. "Of course. Because you can't afford to love, can you."

She was silent. They both knew it was true.

"But neither can this one. Don't you see? Neither of us can afford to love...yet somehow, love has found this one anyway. This one, but not you. It's not-"

"Of course it isn't," she said softly. Life was never fair. Not for mortals, not for the fae. "That is why you accept the gifts you are offered, just as you accept the hardships."

He nodded, then looked at her again. "If this one ever finds a way to free you, you will be freed."

She looked at him in surprise, and hope tinged with sadness. He had said if. "So you've finally accepted it." That she never expected to be free.

His eyes were hard. "This one doesn't like it, and has not given up hope that there might still be a chance. But...yes. I've accepted it." He could do no less, now that there was Kaoru to think of.

Tomoe smiled. "Thank you." For letting go at last.

"This one does not want to hurt you anymore."

"Yes."

A long moment of silence hung between them. He shifted, went still again. Then he picked up her hand and kissed it, very softly. "Good-bye, Tomoe."

"Good-bye, Kenshin," she whispered. "I will be watching over you."

"I know," he whispered back. "You always have. From the bottom of this one's heart...thank you."

They rose and parted ways, neither of them looking back.

xXxXxXx

Author's Notes: So...yeah. This story has languished for years on my flash drive, and I finally gave up. I still love the RuroKen manga as much as ever, but I'm simply not interested in writing fanfiction for it anymore. I want to get all my old projects out of the way, whether complete or not, so that they will no longer stress me out. Sorry, guys. Ftr, Senkaku is defeated, Kenshin & Kaoru and their allies are all reunited, Kenshin is crowned the true king of his own country with Kaoru as his wife, and everyone lives happily ever after (eventually).