Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Honest Nothing ❯ In Your Arms ( Chapter 8 )

Disclaimer: I, sadly enough, do not have enough creativity to make these characters up. And so therefore, they do not belong to me, but to their respective owners. The plot is mine though, and if it resembles any other plot line, then it is purely coincidental.

A/N: Wow . . . I just realized that I've gone 8 chapters with out a single lemon. Something is dreadfully wrong . . . not that I myself am a major hentai or anything . . .

As a side note: Ignore the grammar defects.

And now the story continues….

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Honest Nothing

Chapter Eight

In Your Arms

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~My Daddy~

"Daddy!" a child's voice called,

"I need you, I've falled."

Always near with a tender kiss,

Held in his arms a gentle bliss.

Memories sweet and forever bright.

Stories of old held us tight.

Woven tales of long ago days,

His eyes twinkle in golden rays.

Times we shared were rare and few,

Much of him I never knew.

A bond we shared never seen,

Only now am I keen.

Death looms closer by,

Always waiting in every sigh.

Sadness is close, drawing near.

Losing him now is what I fear.

Hope is mine in my heart.

Never shall we be torn apart.

Through life or death or whatever follow,

I will stay his daughter, his little swallow.

~*~ April Zumwalt ~*~

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Aiko sat on the engawa, basking in the warm rays of the morning light. Her eyes watched the students of Okita's dojo as they practiced their swings. A hint of pride touched her face as one particular student practiced with the accuracy she only expected to come from some one Okita taught. Turning her head to question Okita about the particular student, she was fascinated at how the pride seemed to radiate off of him.

"Okita, who is that student of yours?" Here she lifted her hand to point out the boy who seemed to be the one Okita was proud of also.

Okita looked to whom she was pointing at then quickly turned a beaming smile at her.

"He's my best student. He's been here for about a year now." Confusion marred his smile as he finished talking, "I don't know who he is though . . . he just showed up one day, demanding that I take him in."

Letting out a chuckle, Aiko smiled a knowing smile at him, "he reminds me an awful lot of our son." Aiko turned her head again to continue to watch Okita's praised student practice. "Always demanding things, always striving to be the best."

For the second time since Aiko had reentered his life, Okita felt his world become a jumbled mess. So his son was demanding, and he tried to be the best at what he did. Okita looked over to his side to study Aiko's profile and found it to be oddly fitting that their son should turn out like that. Almost an exact replica of how Aiko used to be.

Fisting his hands in his lap, Okita tried to dampen the anger that fought to consume him. He would have liked to have been there for his son, to be the father figure in his son's life.

The soft laughter that came from the one sitting beside him caused Okita to momentarily forget his internal conflicts and to listen as Aiko continued on in her story.

"My father, even though he had learned to be such a cold man, still had it in him to find a sort of softness for me and my sister. I wasn't able to comprehend it then, but I believe I have come to understand why it was that he was like that. I have spent only a fraction of time living the life of his, the life that I had tried hard to escape, but I can feel the coldness that once surrounded him start to overcome me. I may still disagree with some of the choices that he made, but I have come to respect them also.

"So my story continues here, while I was quarantined to your room, my father was off devising plans to get me out of Kyoto . . ."

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It was around mid day by the time Takara finally made it back to the clan, she figured that whatever it was that she was supposed to do today would have been forgotten and she would be in the clear. Smiling to herself, Takara made her way to where her leader, her father, could normally be found at this time of day. Under the oak located by the stream, it was such a peaceful place, tranquil in such a way Takara mentally wondered why it was her father who spent his afternoons there, and not her late mother.

She was right in her predictions, as always. Takara slowed her steps when the big oak tree came into view, and with the tree, the outline of her father sitting against the base. Shivers ran up her spin at the thought of how her father may just be slightly angered at her antics of skipping her chores again. Shaking her head to clear her mind, Takara silently berated herself for her fear. If her father was mad at her, then she could easily shift that anger onto another poor, unlucky comrade. First rule of being her father's daughter: be sneaky, be very sneaky. Of course the other rules were along the lines of doing your chores, brushing your teeth everyday and don't, at any costs, anger the leader. But most of those she chose to ignore.

Time has a habit of speeding up when you don't want it too, and Takara, sadly enough, fell pray to the speeding up of time.

Takara kneeled down by her leader's side, right knee up left knee down with her arms resting on the ground by one of her sets of daggers. Her head came down to rest calmly on her right knee, posing what she believed to be the perfect kneeling position. If someone tried to attack her leader at any given moment, then she would be ready for that unfortunate fellow, on guard as she was. Patience, however, was not her forte, as she quickly grew tired of this waiting game for father always put her though.

Lifting her head back up off her knee, Takara smiled widely for her father, chirping out as she did so, "I'm back!"

Her father barely paid her a glance before turning his head back to the stream to watch the fish try to swim against the current. Takara's smile slowly faded away when her father didn't pat her head like he normally would. It was a small show of affection, but coming form him, it meant so much more than that. Anyone who wasn't his daughter couldn't possibly understand the true meaning of it.

Blinking her eyes, Takara grimly shrugged her shoulders and turned to look at the fish also. So weak and helpless, she wondered why they even bothered to swim upstream.

Almost as if reading her thoughts, her father answered her unspoken question. "Safety. The fish swim upstream to where they know that their offspring will be able to grow in safety. The fish fight for the safety of their young."

Takara quirked an eyebrow at that logic. Fish can't fight, fish can only swim. They have no hands to hold weapons with, they have no fingers to grip with. All they have are fins that can be used for nothing but swimming. Okay, so Takara had to admit to herself that they could breath under water, and that had to be a plus no matter how you looked at it. But that still didn't mean they could fight. Takara pushed the idea far into the back of her mind, as she figured she could spend time on a different day to try and figure it out.

Again, her father seemed to read her thoughts as he gave a rare chuckle and finally patted her on her head.

"You'll understand when you're older."

They shared a moment of silence then, both watching the fish swim as they fought to make it to the safety of upstream.

The elder of the two spoke first, breaking the fragile silence that had fallen between them.

"I have a mission for you Takara."

Takara's eyebrows shot up, she wasn't supposed to be sent on missions yet, she was only twelve after all. "A mission?"

Her father turned to face her then, giving her all of his attention. "I need you to travel to Kyoto, infiltrate the Shinsengumi compounds and find out why it is your sister is there. Once that is through you are to return back and inform me of your findings."

Bowing her head down Takara mentally wondered why it was her and not some other person who was being sent on this mission.

"You have all the necessary skills to carry out this mission, I trust you will not fail me."

A battle waged within Takara's mind, to fulfil this mission would mean that she would more than likely end up betraying her sister. But if she didn't complete it, then she would inevitably betray her father.

"When would you like me to leave?"

Her father turned again to lean back against the tree base, his eyes following the path to the fish, "Tonight."

Standing up, Takara gave her father a nod before turning to leave, stopping only briefly when she heard his last command to her.

"And when you come back, I want you to start learning how to wield a katana."

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Words like "sex," "slave," and the one that caught her off guard the most "seppuku," were the only tidbits that Aiko was able to pick out from the three huddled together in front of her. Quirking her eyebrow and giving her head a slight shake Aiko silently tried to make her escape. Turning around and mentally preparing herself for the dash she was about to make, it was only to her demise that when she turned around and began her dash that it was not freedom that met her, but a brick wall.

The brick wall being slightly bouncier than it should have been, Aiko soon felt herself falling backwards toward the ground, the wind rushing from her lungs as she fell. Scrunching her face up, Aiko waited for the pain that would come soon. However, strong arms caught her not a second too late before the ground had the chance of giving her a new colorful bruise.

"Ano….Aiko-san, you are not supposed to be out of my room."

Aiko's face scrunched up even further when instead of tumbling to the ground, she was met with the confused voice of Okita. Dread filled her thoughts at how she had again not followed the demand that she stay in Okita's room. But how could she have, it was too humid and hot in that room, anyone who spent their days away in there would die of heat stroke.

With the ground once again in its rightful place beneath her feet, Aiko hesitantly slid her eyes open. The image of a blurry Okita slowly cleared into the smooth lines of his face, and Aiko felt her heartbeat speed up a notch. Instincts took over and her senses heightened themselves to be fully aware of the situation she had placed herself in. The calm curves of his face loomed closer still as his breath warmed her already red cheeks.

"Ano…Aiko-san, I think you should hurry back to my room before some one notices that you are out."

All she could think of was how the heat from his body was slowly creeping in through her borrowed kimono. With no thoughts on her mind besides how close he was, Aiko slowly nodded her agreement and wiggled herself out from the safety of his arms. Once out of his arms she bowed her head to help hide the bright blush that stained her cheeks and inched past him, mentally chanting to herself to not run and give herself away.

Okita watched Aiko take her leave of him in amusement, smirking to himself at how he was the one to make her blush so deep. Turning away from the retreating form of Aiko, Okita was met by three faces he knew so well.

The smallest nodded his head in understanding and rubbed his chin, then turned sly eyes to Okita. Waggling his eyebrows he spoke, "So the rumors are too then?"

Before Okita had the chance to speak up his protests to whatever the rumors were saying about him, he received a hearty slap on the back by the tallest of the three. In turn knocking the air from his lungs and the sense from his brain.

"I always knew you had it in you."

Okita swung his head in the direction of the taller before turning pleading eyes to the remaining companion the of the three. Silently beseeching the last to be more understanding of what was truly going on. When no understanding words came from the thirds mouth Okita slumped his shoulders in a sulking manner, knowing that he had one more demeaning remark to live through.

"She doesn't seem like the type to be a sex slave?"

Back stiff, Okita turned wide eyes to Todou before speaking in a smooth, but deadly voice. His voice dropped an octave to indicate that the subject was closed as of then.

"Never call Aiko-chan that again, or…" He left the remaining portion of his threat unsaid to leave it up to the three to plan what things he would do to them.

The trio gulped, Okita walked away.

Okita silently played with the idea of Aiko being his own personal sex slave, but then realized exactly what it was he was thinking about and gave a deep blush. Thoughts like those weren't meant to be contemplated at that moment. He would have to do something to make it clear to everyone that she was not his sex slave and that the rumors were wrong. And he knew just the person to talk to about that. The only problem was, was that the person was gone today and wouldn't be returning for another few hours. Okita's shoulders slouched as he passively agreed that his concerns would just have to wait later.

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Aiko continued walking forward till the voices in the background faded away to nothing. Not feeling entirely like returning to the sparse room that Okita claimed belonged to him, she wondered off in a different direction. The compounds all looked the same to her, each building resembling the next that it was hard to tell where she was heading and where not. Many voices whispered through the breeze and Aiko remembered what it was like back at home, how it was much like this place. Only instead of a wall enclosing them, it was the trees of a forest. Instead of having a grand dojo to practice in, home had a meadow. There were so many differences, and yet it seemed like it was the differences that made this place so much like her home.

Turning around the side of the building, Aiko was presented with a clear view of two individuals sitting in a room no more than ten yards away from her. She didn't want to pry and snoop, but she had always been told her curiosity always got the better of her. And in cases like these, where she was being held practically captive, she figured it would cause no harm to learn a few more things about her captors.

Curiosity kills the cat though, or it at least will render it motionless. And Aiko found herself become the pray as one of the individuals in that room she clearly remembered. Her elegant bun, the silky blue kimono, it was obvious that the lady she had met in the town was the same lady who was currently discussing some topic with the other man.

Odd, Aiko mused, as she had originally suspected her to be one of her father's many followers, not someone else who lived here. Or maybe it was just that the lady had pin pointed her position and was even now sneaking her way into the compounds to watch over her. That idea seemed to far fetched for it to be true though, the idea that her father would send some one to so plainly watch her just wasn't the way he operated. Which meant that her earlier calculations had been in fact wrong and this lady was simply just like any other lady. But that didn't match up fully to everything, as that lady had still known her father.

Aiko was starting to give herself a headache.

Throwing caution to the wind, Aiko calmly made her way toward the room where the mystery lady sat in waiting. She would get the answers she wanted soon enough even if it meant that she would have to strangle them out of her.

The two were still to deep in their conversation by the time that Aiko had reached the shoji that neither of them had noticed her presence. Aiko gave her head a little shake before lightly tapping on the shoji to kindly inform the two occupants of the room that she was there.

Nothing but silence greeted her. The lady had her head bowed down toward her clasped hands, and the man continued to gaze at the lady. Heaving a sigh, the big man turned to sit in her direction and smiled a big, warm smile.

"Ahhh, Aiko-san, we were just speaking about you."

The lady seemed to perk up at that time and also turned to sit in front of Aiko. "Yes, please come and join us. This is Isami Kondo, and I am his sister Isami Nariko"

She tried to form a response to say, but the words were stuck in her throat and didn't want to be said. Aiko frowned a bit at the faces. She knew those faces, she just couldn't figure out from where and when. Worrying her lip between her teeth, Aiko wondered why it was that everyone was starting to seem so familiar to her. She leveled her head and gazed back at Nariko and questioned, "How do you know my father?"

For a moment Aiko doubted that this was the time to bring up such a question when she saw, from out of the corner of her eye, the big man's face go completely blank and the lady look almost guilty. But if not now, then what other time would she have such an opportunity to voice her questions?

Nariko shrugged Aiko's question off with a wave of her hand and a tilt of her head. Once again she gave Aiko a smile and answered, "Now is not the time to explain it, as I'm sure your wound needs to be redressed." The lady stood and gave Kondo a bow before grabbing Aiko's hand and pulling her out of the room.

With a sad smile Kondo watched the two leave his room and head toward Okita's. The corners of his mouth lifted into what could be considered a small smile, but inside his mind cried out in muted pain. She didn't remember, and though that was to be expected since he hadn't seen her in twelve years, it still hurt.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Hijikata growled at his soldier's incompetence.

He had left with the intention of learning the their enemy's new location, but alas, his soldier had to be a complete moron and force him to waste an entire day walking to and forth. Some one was going to get an earful, and he almost felt pity for the poor fool who would be the one.

Grumbling some more, Hijikata treaded on, completely unaware that he was already within Kyoto's city limits. He wouldn't notice until he was standing outside the compound's gates, but then he would growl more about how his fool soldier had caused him to lose track of time.

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With a freshly dressed wound, Aiko quietly sat on her futon. Nariko had told her that she should take a nap and rest so that her injury would heal quicker, but she just wasn't tired. Instead, she thought about the big man, and how he seemed to be so familiar. It had to mean something that both brother and sister were part of her old memories.

He was older now, his face looked more rugged, but it still retained that loving look. Why she remembered that though, she wasn't sure. To her knowledge she had been living in the forest for her whole life. And yet, she did have a few memories that would dispute otherwise. Her mind went into overtime trying to seek out what she wanted.

The lady had said that she knew her father, well, maybe not that she knew him but that she would say hello for her to him. So the lady had to know her father. And when she had asked of it, the man Kondo had responded to the question with such strangeness that could only mean that he too knew her father. But what did that mean?

Could they by chance be relatives to her father? The two were about the same age as him, but if they were family, then why did they not live in the forest with the rest?

She knew his smile, she knew his face, and she knew his eyes! She just couldn't place from where.

And then, as if the storm in her mind had finally let up, it all became clear to Aiko. Who the man was, who the lady was. The truth left her so shocked she found it hard to breathe. One word escaped her frozen lips and seemed to linger in the air.

"No . . ."

Strength came back to her limbs and she quickly jumped to her feet. Her destination set in mind she ran toward the direction she had just come from.

The truth was so obvious, so heart wrenching that a few tears sneaked their way down Aiko's cheeks. She reached Kondo's room and hurriedly stepped inside. There were more people in there besides just Kondo and Nariko. But she didn't care; she just didn't care who saw her show of weakness. She had finally found him, and that was all that mattered.

Her shoulders shook with repressed sobs as she looked upon his face. The inside of her mouth felt sticky and dry, but she forced the word out anyway.

"Papa?"

A choked laugh came from Kondo as he opened his arms to his grown up girl. She wasn't so small anymore; she had grown up tall and beautiful, just like her mother.

"Aiko."

Aiko took a hesitant step forward before launching herself into her father's awaiting arms. Her sobs broke free from their restraints when she felt herself become engulfed in a huge hug. In the kind of hug only a father could give. She wrapped her arms around his waist and gave a mental laugh when only her fingertips could touch. A sigh of contentment passed her lips before she breathed in her father's, her true father's, scent. For the past twelve years her life may have been a lie, but in the arms of her father she found comfort in the hope that now it would all be okay.

Tbc.

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I don't know, its not really so much of a cliffy right?

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Next Chapter:

Aiko finds comfort in Okita goodness . . . and the truth about where she really came from.

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Character Notes:

Aiko: Hey, if you saw two faces that you remembered from younger years, wouldn't you contemplate from where? Anyway, to clear up any misgivings . . . Aiko is 16, she was torn away from her real father when she was merely 4.

Okita: Yes, I'm sure some of you select few are questioning why Okita has a dojo in the Present/future huh? Well, okay, lets see if I can say this so that even I don't get confused. Okita never had tuberculoses and therefore, has been able to live a real life. After the Shinsengumi fell, he decided to do what he did best. Play with kids.

Hijikata: He, uh, yeah, has only a small part in this chapter. He went to go gather info, what else is there to be said besides that he thinks his soldier is a moron?

Kondo: Oh come now, we all have learned that Kondo can be serious some times. Anyway, for those of you who don't believe me, Kondo really did have two daughters. The names I am using however, are purely fictional and should not be taken to heart.

Nariko: Hm, Kondo's sister. The mysterious lady from the second chap . . . I think it was the second . . . maybe the third?

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To the reviewers: I love this part! *hands candy baskets to each reviewer* I love you!

Leakkhenna: Yeah, I love tetsu too! He's just too cute and puppy like to not!

Ione-girl: *backs away slowly* are you sure you haven't raided Pepsi Corp. yet? Lol, thank you very much baka! If you liked my Takara in the last chap, then your sure to enjoy this one!

Alicja: *blows on fingernails* Yes, I know, I am the best . . . wait, you didn't say that . . . Tee hee!!! I'm happy that you like it, it doesn't seem as though many people do. Lol.

Venora Strikes Again: Squee! I hope you like this chap! I tried to add the drama that I claimed would be in here. I never suspected it would go against my natural habit to make everything funny though…T.T Eh hehehe?

huh? Oh..Mystic~me: LOL, glad to know that you left a decent review for once. Jk. Lol. Yep, no lemonade in the last chapter, and none in this one . . . but soon, oh yes, very soon. O.o! bwahahahahahaha. Hey, and we even know more about the present/future Okita too. HA HA, the play off between the three is just too much fun to leave alone. I think they will be gaining bigger roles later . . . along with Saitou and um, Yamanamai. Not sure yet though……….

Fanfic by inca

U.U . . . I don't wanna go to work tomorrow!