Here it is! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: No rurouni for me.

Chapter 13: A Moment of Humility

"You have been nothing but an inconvenience ever since you came!"

"It's so pretty! Thank you, Kenshin!"

"Not even worth the effort!"

"The chain was broken. I will find a replacement for you… before you leave."

Trembling on the edge of uncertainty, Kaoru followed behind Megumi's sleek, red form knowing somewhere in the depths of her heart that nothing good could come from another confrontation. Not so soon. Not when everything was still so raw. Scratch that, not ever again.

It didn't even matter that she was now trying to come to terms with the idea that she could have possibly known Kenshin when she was four. Even stranger still that he might have been the one to give her the necklace to begin with and not her mother like she had been told. If it were true, though, someone would have surely said something to her. Kenshin himself had never let on and none of the servants spoke to her as if they had met before. Her own father had insisted that it was her mother that had gifted the necklace to her and that it had been something they had found and purchased from a vendor at the market. It had been cheap and something to please a child.

"I'm glad you are pleased, little one."

Shaking her head, Kaoru chased the voice from her mind. It had been well over two months now since she had taken up residence at the palace. Surely in that space of time she would have remembered something before this. Something that would remind her of anything that might have happened back when she was four. Anyway, four was an incredibly young age. There weren't many people she knew that could remember that far back. What if these memories were only a figment of her imagination? What if, out of her own desperation, she was dreaming up scenarios from her past to soften the blow of leaving? What if it was just some hopeless scheme to try and talk her way into getting to stay? She had no other facts to solidify its truth. Just a few words in the cadence of his voice that might have been remnants of a dream.

I will not make a fool of myself by bringing up something I have no real proof is true or not. And I will definitely not make it seem as if I am so needy and weak that I have to beg not to be thrown out after what he said and my own reply to it. Even if it was the truth he is obviously tired of me being here now, and nothing from the past is going to change that. Nothing will change his opinion of my worth.

Kenshin did not want her there. At least, not really. Whatever he had expected to obtain from her presence he was obviously not getting. Now that this was plain to him it was only natural that he would not wish to deal with her any longer. Kaoru was going to have to leave or remain a burden and unhappy forever.

Not that she really wanted to stay after the jerk had been so completely rude.

Megumi slipped through the outer wooden doors of the master's pavilion and led them both into the inner hallway of his quarters. A lone candle burned within the central room and illuminated the rice paper screens and the outline of a single, seated figure. The air was so still Kaoru wondered for a moment if he wasn't asleep.

Trotting up to the closed shoji, Megumi either pretended ignorance of the atmosphere or purposely ignored it. "My lord, I was informed that you were injured. May I come in to tend to the wounds?"

The silence became even more oppressive as it stretched until the moment seemed thin and worn until… "No. There is no point." There was a bleak note in his voice that sounded rather hopeless to Kaoru.

"But my lord, if you are bleeding…"

"It is a pointless gesture. I cannot die from it." Now the voice was resigned as he had to explain something that he thought should be obvious.

"Then the pain, at least, must be dealt with."

"This pain is nothing!" Losing his patience, his voice hissed irritably and Kaoru pursed her lips as she remembered why he was so irritating.

Stubborn jackass.

Reaching forward as her own patience snapped, Kaoru yanked open the door and met the glare he directed their way with a challenge of her own. "If you don't mind I would greatly appreciate you not bleeding all over the newly cleaned floors." Glancing down at the dots of blood dripping from his forearm onto the tatami mats, her voice dropped into sarcasm. "Any more than you already have."

He seemed to struggle with himself for a moment as his features twitched and jerked, but he ultimately looked away as he pulled his sprawled legs up closer to him. "Do as you wish."

"Thank you, I will."

The muscles in his left arm flexed and with the slightest tilt of his neck long hair slid over his shoulder to completely curtain his face from her sight. Effectively cut off Kaoru accepted the sharp ache it blossomed in her chest and instead focused on what she had come to do. Settling herself on the floor next to him she positioned the bowl and jug of clean water she had brought between them before unhooking the basket resting at her elbow. As before, she would carry out Megumi's orders while the fox sat next to her and examined the damage.

"I never know how to deal with these scales of yours, my lord. Will it heal better or worse if we remove the broken ones?"

As he thought it over, Kaoru began unpacking everything she thought she might need and organizing it on the floor next to her. The soft noises she made were too loud in the silence. "Better… I think."

"Alright. Would you like a tonic to relieve the pain before we start?"

"No."

"Yes." Feeling pushy and sensitive Kaoru dug into the basket for Megumi's bottles of tonic. Finding one already prepared from earlier she shoved it at him demandingly. A small glare peeked at her from his golden irises but her glower quickly overpowered it. "Masochist."

Trying to hide her amusement Megumi ducked her head in the pretense of scratching her nose.

"Fine." Knocking the tonic back in one quick shot, he grimaced and handed the vial back to her.

"Really. Idiot." Mumbling, Kaoru shrugged out of her haori and tossed it to the side so it wouldn't be in the way then reached for his arm. Apparently unwilling to fight with her anymore he lifted it for her without so much as a huff. It was a little hard to tell what was really broken what with his skin being just as red as his blood, but the scales, she found, helped her locate the wound. It was a deep and jagged rake of what looked like teeth marks as if the hyena that had given it to him had latched on and then been thrown off to dislodge him. A ragged trail of broken and pointed scales lined all sides of the puncture sites and all in all it looked to be more painful than he had been letting on.

"Lady Kaoru, there should be some long tweezers in the basket. Why don't we go ahead and remove the scales now. It will give us a better view of the injury and I want to make sure there isn't anything stuck in the tissue that shouldn't be there."

Nodding, Kaoru located the tool specified and a smaller bowl to drop the collected scales into. Holding his arm over the larger bowl, she ran some of the water from the jug over the to wash away most of the blood. Hesitating for only a second as she tried to settle her stomach, she swallowed and then set to work.

It helped that he didn't so much as wince each time she had to yank on a scale to get to it let go. His hand was fisted, tensing the area of concern, but that only aided in keeping his arm steady when she did have to be a little more forceful.

"Good, it looks like we won't have to do much more than clean and bandage it. They're not deep or wide enough to need stitches, thankfully."

Thankfully. Since I can't sew. Now that would have been a nightmare.

Relaxing into the routine Megumi set, Kaoru let out a shaky sigh. Everything was going smoothly. The confrontation Koaru had expected didn't seem likely to happen what with the way he was being so apathetic. Of course, I'm not worth the effort, so… The injury was nearly taken care of so she wouldn't have to go home with a guilty conscience. The only thing that was bothering her now, besides her nails and the annoyingly insistent ache behind her ribs that reminded her she was unwanted, was that she wouldn't be getting a bath until she reached home the next day. It was too late to take one that evening and she wanted to leave early in the morning so she would arrive at the house before lunch. Maybe her dad would make his specialty in welcome.

It was halfway through the bandaging when the sensation of relief that comes with escaping punishment or glimpsing one's destination after a long journey was yanked away. Of course it had to be that stupid mutt that brought about her demise.

"Excuse me, my lord." Poking his nose in through the still opened shoji Sano ducked his head deferentially towards his seated master. "The fox is needed for an immediate treatment. One of Saitou's patrollers was bit by a wild snake. We're not sure if it was poisonous."

Waving his hand in dismissal Kenshin freed her to go. Before Kaoru could even question if she needed to go, too, Megumi was running her through what else the lord required.

"Go ahead and finish that up and then bandage those scrapes on his stomach." Taken aback, as she hadn't even looked to see if he was injured elsewhere, Kaoru darted a glance at his abdomen. "There should be some salve in the basket. Not that one. The cream colored jar. Clean them up and then smear that on before you wrap it. It shouldn't take you too long."

"Do you want me to come find you when I'm done?"

"No. I can get Tae or someone else to help me if I need to. If it is poisonous I won't be able to wait for you. It won't kill him, but he'll have an awful time healing. Go ahead and take your time. Rushing usually makes for sloppy work." With a flick of her tail the fox and the mutt were gone and the shoji was sliding shut after them.

Buffer successfully erased, the easy atmosphere tightened and everything wrong that had happened between them seemed to hang in the air. Their traded words echoed in her ears, his piercing annoyance stabbed through her chest, and the palm of her hand stung from her slap. Just get this done and leave. It's the least you can do for him, anyway, for saving you.

Tying off the end of the swathe, her eyes strayed to his stomach and the abrasions that were burned into his skin. The flesh there was softer without the protective covering of his hard scales, and it had suffered the consequences of his selfless act to save her from her own folly. Touching the linen wrapped fingers of her left hand to his side, she jerked when this time he did wince. His hair twitched, his throat rumbled on a growl of warning, and she shoved aside all emotions of insecurity to brazenly make demands.

"Well sit up straight. I can't get a good look with you slouching."

Sullenly he did as she commanded and curled one leg up under the other for balance. As he shifted the arm that was away from her she thought she saw something gleam in his fisted claws. Whatever it was he was holding onto it as if it alone would save him from everything.

Careful and feeling just slightly improper bending so close to his lower abdomen, she cleaned the rashes and scuff marks on his exposed skin. Unfortunately, they disappeared underneath the waistband of his hakama and though she wanted to make sure they were fully taken care of she was not going to ask him to strip. Maybe they only go a little ways? Perhaps from the displacement of material when we slipped over the edge? Biting her lip she tentatively hooked a finger under the top seam of the hakama tie and inched it downward to see.

"Do you want my pants off as well?" Scoffing, he shifted uncomfortably to dislodge her touch and she sat back indignantly. "Just leave the salve and bandages. I'll manage myself."

"Well you don't have to be so crabby about it." Sitting the little cream jar down with more force than was necessary she glared and turned to grab the roll of bandages for him next. Eyes sliding over the leg he had outstretched she relaxed in disbelief as she caught sight of the smear of blood under his knee on the floor. "Oh for crying out loud! What is that?" Snagging the cloth of his hakama before he could draw away, she fingered the blood and chew holes that were hidden by its dark color and pleated texture. "Maybe I should strip you down just to make sure you aren't conveniently forgetting anything else I need to see!"

The muscles in his jaw tightened, but his eyes were lowered away from her and he looked like a scolded child. Rolling her eyes on a sigh she wondered what it was about the two of them that they couldn't just talk civilly to each other. Did it always have to be so difficult? Did they always have to resort to yelling? I suppose that's why we've ended up the way we have.

Irritated with everything, and angry that she was once again fighting back the depressive knowledge of his opinion, she yanked on the hem of his pants to bare his leg. Halfway through the motion she realized just how inappropriate her actions actually were, but she was already knee deep in the water and she wasn't about to turn back now. I just hope he's wearing a loin cloth.

Dropping the bunched material around his thigh, she sighed again at the sight of bite marks that were remarkably similar to the ones in his arm. Of course, since the thickness of his hakama had shielded the scaled flesh above his knee they weren't as deep. Easy enough, but I'll have to pull more scales. Aah! It gives me sympathy pains just thinking about it!

Kenshin tried his best to ignore the ripping pain tearing up his thigh as she set to work pulling each small, distorted scale like one would a tick. After enduring such treatment on his arm what did the woman expect, for him to jump right in and tell her about his leg so she could mangle it next? He knew it wasn't fair to blame her, as he himself could have lied and said nothing of the trouble his wounds would have healing with their broken shells getting in the way, and the physician's medicine was working, but it stung like needles. He'd almost rather go to battle.

Focusing his eyes on something to distract him, he lifted one of the curled finger of his left hand and revealed the new silver chain he had unearthed from his treasury. It was better crafted and more expensive than the one he had given to her as a child to hang the glass petal from. Of course, because she had been a child he had been thinking more of durability than appearance and worth. It rankled at his pride that some nobody merchant had inspected the piece of jewelry and pronounced its worth to be inconsequential. This time, since she was older and took more pride in her possessions, he had found her the best linked chain he owned.

Not that such a silly thing was going to convince her to stay.

Already she had proven she could not be won by material things, and it was almost laughable now that he was finally beginning to understand the reasons for their aggressive clashes.

"A woman's heart is more sensitive than ours, little brother. You have to be careful what you say or you will hurt her feelings."

At the time Shinta had been talking to him about a confrontation he had gotten into between himself and his mother. Of course his mother was not the type of woman to get angry or yell, but he had hurt her feelings all the same and it was the sad tilt of her lilac eyes that spoke of it. Kinuko had reacted with silence and the heartbreaking sadness of a mother just rejected by her child. Kaoru was not the same type of woman his mother had been, though, and so did not react in the same way. Perhaps this was the reason he had thought nothing of his words affecting her as they had Kinuko. Kaoru yelled and got angry and confronted him in a way most men would not. Today, however, he had seen her tears, and just as her hand had slapped him in the face so too had the realization of why.

Kaoru had a strong personality, and even if she was a woman she did not like to show those tears. So she got mad instead. She was still a woman and she was still sensitive, she just did not like it. Since he had seen nothing else from her for two straight months, though, his impression of her had stuck firmly on the belief that she cared little for what he did, said, or felt. Having set his expectations on a young girl he had known for only one day the change in her attitude had disappointed him. It was only now that he was starting to see that when she had been a child of four he himself had treated her like an adult would a child: with care; with patience; with indulgence. Now that she was an adult he didn't know how to act around her at all. He had wanted to pamper her like he had the child. She wanted to take care of her own and even showed scorn towards his noble upbringing.

Where in the middle of all their fights, in all the mess he had gained enough power to hurt her… he didn't know. If she didn't care for him, if she didn't care what he thought, she wouldn't have cried. But she had. Kaoru had run off into a foreign, dark forest, unprotected, uncaring of the blood dripping from her hand or the pain that was causing her to limp, crying. It was as he had watched her, struggling to run away from him and hide her weakness, that he had realized the truth of what his brother had been trying to explain to him. With all the pain that she had been in physically it had all been nothing in the face of the pain he had given to her because of a few traded words. A few words he had spoken in anger and ignorance. Words that he had meant to be hurtful.

But now what? What did he do now that he had realized his own mistake in thinking she was not sensitive to his bitter thoughts? Shinta had warned him against hurting a woman's feelings, but he had already gone past that point. Kinuko was his mother. As her child he had gotten away with many things, including forestalling an actually apology because of her loving, maternal heart. An apology was needed, but…with her own return words she had given him pain as well doubt. Why would she wish to stay when it was obvious he was the last man in this land she should entrust her sensitive, woman heart to?

It would be best if he just let her go. She had been right. There was no place for her there. No place for a young, human, mortal woman among century old beings trapped in animal form, nor with their master who's appearance now mocked the dragon style of his swordsmanship. He should just hold his tongue and let her go.

"There you go. All done." For a moment she sounded cheerful, as if pleased with her work… or perhaps pleased with the opportunity to tend to him. The familiar bitterness he was used to returned and his mouth twisted at such a thought. No one would be pleased to attend to him. "Did I pull the bandage too tight?" Glancing up quickly he realized that she had mistook his grimace as one of a different kind of pain. Shaking his head quickly he reassured her that it wasn't.

"No, Kaoru-dono. The fit is fine."

"Okay." Reaching for his pant leg again she pulled it back down over his knee and he shifted, once more uncomfortable. It was slightly unnerving how easy it was for the woman to pull at his clothing without any appearance of embarrassment.

"I… I suppose it would be rude not to say thank you." This time when he looked at her she was the one avoiding his gaze. "You saved my life twice today." Between one blink and the next he thought he saw her bottom lip tremble. "I'm sorry I inconvenienced you." That old, buried pain inside his chest twisted. "But I shall be out of your hair in the morning." The supplies were all replaced as she spoke, and she was now collecting them to leave.

Fisting his left hand to force the metal of the links to bite into his palm he sat up when she moved and watched her jump and freeze. "Here." Shoving the fist at her, his muscles convulsed before relaxing to expose the new chain and his eyes focused steadily on her face. "The replacement I promised you." Her bottom lip was definitely quivering now, and when she reached to take it her hand was shaking.

There were scuff marks on the pads of his fingers from where he had held onto the ledge. Their rough texture scraped across her skin when she collected the chain, and his claws were an added gentle, tickling brush over the hollow of her palm. She had to get out of there. If she didn't she was going to cry again and she couldn't let him see that a second time.

Stuffing the silver necklace into the pocket holding her other Kaoru nodded her head as the only sign of acceptance she could muster and stood with the basket, bowl, and jug. Briefly she cast a longing look at the haori she had tossed to the floor, but it wasn't hers and she couldn't take it with her.

The action was not lost on Kenshin, either, and when she turned to leave without it he reached and pulled its bundled weight into his lap. It was still warm. This was what sadness was like, he thought in wonder and pain. An emotion that he had had never been allowed to truly experience before in his life, brought into being by this young lady with her back to him. Sadness for the pavilion that would be empty by tomorrow evening, the meals he would once again take alone, and the scent of jasmine that would eventually fade from the cloth of his haori.

She was leaving, but he had to let her go.

The shoji was open and once it was closed so would her decision to leave be final.

Crushing the haori in both hands he struggled to stop the pain that his sadness was churning in his stomach. It demanded he do something more than just sit there and he knew he shouldn't follow its urging.

Both of her feet were firm on the wooden floor of the enclosed hallway. With one small flick of her arm, the same arm that was now bare from the linen wrapping at her elbow to the tear of her kimono at the shoulder, and the distance that stood between them would stay there forever.

"Don't go."

He wasn't strong enough to fight it. The demand had won.

"I don't want you to go." It was so incredibly hard to keep his voice steady or to keep his breathing steady. Afraid of what his face might show he let the concealing bangs he had grown long to hide his appearance shield him from the world. Especially from her denial, for that was all she was sure to give. "I didn't mean what I said, and… I'm… I'm sorry I made you cry. Just please don't go."

The tense span of her back was still visible and framed by the open shoji so she had not left. Not yet, anyway. Not until she had heard every last pitiful, imploring word wrung from his lips by her threat of departure. Now she would leave and he would know why his father had allowed nothing so soft-hearted as longing to ever taint his thoughts.

"Okay." Keeping her back to him to hide her happy and relieved expression, she bit her lip on a shaky smile. "But only because you asked so nicely." Trying to be playful, her words and laughter were slightly breathy in the quiet.

Thank you. Relief flooded his mind, just as refreshing and vulnerable as a child in desperate need of a nap. One battle had been won in favor of his eldest brother, defeating the ethics of his father with the help of her forgiving heart. She would stay and he would get the chance to try and understand why he wanted her there so badly.

"And I'm sorry too… for hitting you."

More than aware he had deserved it anyway, Kenshin bowed his head in acknowledgement. "I accept your apology."

Standing to his feet as she spoke a more sure and steady goodnight, he stepped the few paces to the door and dropped the haori he still held over her shoulders. "Please keep this, Kaoru-dono. It is too cold to go without one." Hurriedly she nodded as her head lowered nervously at his sudden proximity. "I shall see you in the morning then. Goodnight… my lady."

The shoji slid softly shut between them but it no longer spelled out a finality neither could live with. Releasing a nervous breath, golden eyes closed and he fisted a hand into the hair around his scalp and smiled.

X

A/N: Yeah, it was short, but I hope you liked it anyway. I don't really have much to say… except Shinta's influence keeps getting bigger and bigger. Somebody had mentioned something about how sad it was that Sano and Kenshin weren't friends, and I must agree, but I couldn't think of anyway around their situation to make them friends. Not with Kenshin's back story and Sano being a servant. There are too many reasons I have not to make them be friends. Maybe after this is all said and done Kenshin might be friends with most of them because of Kaoru's influence, but… yeah. So, I think, with all this in mind, Shinta was the only one close enough to Kenshin to be of any help to him in this kind of situation… even if he isn't around. Anyway, I kind of liked it. Shinta is fast becoming a favorite character of mine. Next chapter, we get to progress past their disagreeable stage and explore a new, budding relationship. Perhaps even recall some past events. Yay. Please leave a review, and see you later.