Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ How the Past Can Change ❯ A Sense of Belonging ( Chapter 18 )

How the Past can Change

A K&K Rurouni Kenshin Romance FanFiction

by: bunny ;D

Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is the creation of Nobuhiro Watsuki, with the manga and anime rights belonging to Jump Comics and Sony Entertainment, respectively. I do not own and did not create the series or its characters...I'm just a fan, and I have no money anyways, so NO SUING ME!! :D

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AN: This story is altering the original story of Rurouni Kenshin / Samurai X. If you don't like that idea, or can't handle it…I would advise you not to read this fic. If you are a hard core Tomoe and Kenshin forever kind of person, I would advise you to not read this fic. Don't get me wrong, I like Tomoe, this is just a different story ok?

Ja ne,

Bunny ;D

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Kenshin put an arm over her shoulders and looked at her sideways. "Have I told you how cute you are lately koishii?"

Kaoru grinned. "No…why?" she asked happily.

"Because you are simply adorable." Kenshin finished and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

Despite herself, Kaoru blushed. It was weird, but he was acting strangely like his younger self…not that Kaoru minded. Just as they walked onto the pathway that headed out of the clearing and back to the dojo, a shadowed figure stepped in their path.

"I see how it is Kaoru." He said.

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Chapter Eighteen

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Kaoru and Kenshin stopped walking and stared at the figure for a moment.

"You see how what is anata?" Kaoru questioned Battousai.

Battousai brushed his wisps of bangs out of his eyes and gave a deep sigh. "You two…" he paused while pointing back and forth between Kaoru and his older self. "You are best friends." He looked down at the ground, still deep in thought. A lone tear traveled down his cheek as he looked back up at the couple. "I want that." He whispered.

"What? I don't understand…what are you talking about?" Kaoru questioned. Then she turned to the older Kenshin "What are you talking about?" she asked him.

Kenshin shrugged and looked to his younger self for an explanation.

"That's what was missing Kaoru…don't you see it?" Battousai said to her.

"No, I don't see it." Kaoru said in a low voice. And then proceeded to punched him in the side of his face while saying "Spit it out BAKA!!" Not even noticing that Kenshin had hit the floor assuming her attack would be directed at him. Before Battousai even had a chance to explain himself to his now quite fuming and frustrated wife, Kenshin began to laugh.

Kaoru turned her attention to the rurouni laughing on the ground. "And what are you laughing about BAKA!?" Kaoru yelled while slamming her fist onto the top of his laughing head. At this younger Battousai also began to laugh, finally relaxing for the first time since his arrival into the future. "It's too funny!!" they both exclaimed to Kaoru at her look of complete puzzlement while they continued to laugh.

'Why do I feel like I missed something very important here?' Kaoru wondered to herself. She frowned. 'MOU!! They BETTER NOT be laughing at ME!' she fumed in her head. "Would one of you bakas kindly tell me what is so funny?!" Kaoru yelled to them.

Kenshin, having collected himself, stood and grabbed both of Kaoru's hands into his own. "Koishii…" he began in a soft voice to as not upset her further. "I thought you were going to hit me, and then you hit the other me, and then you did hit me, and I think we both just found it funny that we both have gone through you hitting us like that." He explained.

"Exactly what I said." Battousai agreed with his older half.

Kaoru, having calmed down somewhat at Kenshin's tone, pondered on that information for a moment, tilting her head to the side slightly as if taking it all in. "I see." She finally said. Then turning back to her younger husband, Kaoru asked, "So what were you trying to tell me?"

Battousai stood back up and took Kaoru's hands from his older counterpart. "Kaoru…you and me…" he paused and smiled at her fondly. "We never had the friendship…we were so busy being in love with each other, we didn't take the time to get to know each other as just friends first. I loved you from the moment I met you, and I didn't hold back…all I wanted to do was be with you forever, we had all the romance, but…we didn't share the friendship that you have with him." He finished while looking over to his older self.

Silent tears started pouring down her face. "What -- what do you mean?" she asked him.

Battousai pulled Kaoru into a tight embrace and whispered to her, "what I mean is that, we have love…lots of love, and I will always love you, our time together will always be my sweetest memory." He pulled slightly back from their embrace so that he could look at her face, gently wiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks, and continued, "but I need you to be my best friend too…you already have a best friend…so now I'm going to go find mine. I know that you're waiting for me…back in the past…waiting for me to come and find you because not only will you be my only love, but you will also be my best friend."

Kaoru bit her lip, not quite sure what to say to that, only knowing that in a way it was true.

"Do you see what I mean koishii?" he asked her softly, looking into her eyes. "Do you see how that was the missing part of our relationship? You love me yes, but it's because I'm Kenshin that you love me, I'm not your best friend that you share all the memories with though."

Kaoru nodded her head in agreement, her tears continuing to fall down her cheeks, as the younger Kenshin failed at wiping them all away. "So…so does this mean that I'm never going to see you again? Are you leaving now? Are you going to go back to the past now?" she asked, her voice raspy, her sadness apparent.

"Yes." Battousai said, looking deeply into her eyes, as if memorizing the look of her love reflected in them.

"I will love you for always." Kaoru whispered to him.

"I know." He said. "And, I will always be with you. I promise I won't mess things up this time, I'll do better than he did." He said, a smile on his face as he glanced as his older self.

Kenshin just glared daggers at his younger half, happy that he would be leaving.

Battousai smirked and then kissed Kaoru thoroughly, before turning away from her and walking into the forest.

"Bye…Kenshin." Kaoru whispered to his retreating form.

Kenshin stepped over to Kaoru and wrapped his arms around her from behind. "Are you going to be ok?" he asked her softly.

Kaoru turned her head so she could look at him and smiled through her tears. "Of course." She said. "I have you, what more could I possibly want?" she asked him.

Kenshin frowned. "I'm just scared that you might love him more than you love me." He confided.

"No. How could I?" she asked. "You are everything to me…I am just worried about you…what you will have to go through before we can be together again."

"Yes…but he will do things better, I'm sure, and he doesn't have the hurt that I had." Kenshin said.

"You're right." Kaoru agreed. "Let's go home anata." She said while stepping out of his embrace and grabbing his hand to drag him back to the dojo.

"Yes, koishii." Kenshin replied, allowing himself to be drug back to their home, with a smile of contentment on his face. Kaoru was back…she loved him more than ever…he had made his peace with Tomoe…and Kaoru and he would be married tomorrow…all was right in the world.

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A/N: SEE NO CLIFFHANGER THIS TIME!! ^_^;; So many complaints about that from the last chapter. Yeesh!! So just to make every1 happy, I ended this chapter w/o a cliffhanger. Are you happy? Please tell me that you are happy!! :D

Anyhow, please leave me some feedback, this chapter was really difficult to get through and I want to make sure it was worth the wait. I'm really sorry about the wait. I have been really busy. For those of you who don't know, I'm the webmistress of 6 websites, one of them being a very large sailor moon website (www.princessserenity.net) and they keep me really busy. I also had to turn my mailing list for ps.net into a yahoo group recently due to the number of members I had being to large. I also am in the process of wrapping up the 2001 Sailor Moon FanFicton Contest for my site, so I've been really slammed. Then to top everything off, my computer's hard drive burned this last weekend, and I'm on this really slow loaner computer, and I lost all my files, so GOMEN NASAI, but I did have a good excuse!!

Anyhow, this fic is still pretty far from done. We are headed back into the past to check up on every1's favorite violet eyed assassin and how he's going to meet his Kaoru "and do things better" **snickers** ::hehehe::

Much much fun a head for all of us!! Got any ideas of stuff you would like to happen? Leave me a comment in the reviews about it!! If it wasn't for Gypsy-chan, young Battousai wouldn't have visited, so I do take your ideas seriously!!

I'm also going to try to pump out another chapter today, or early next week!!

Take Care,

Bunny ;D