Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Separate Lives ❯ 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Separate Lives

By

Barbara Sheridan

Chapter Three

The handsome face of Aoshi Shinomori haunted Megumi all the way back to Aizu. She told herself that she'd imagined his faint smile. He certainly hadn't been smiling at her and if he had smiled surely it had something to do with her son. Everyone smiled at babies. Everyone. Yes, that was it. Aoshi had been amused by Kae.

She put the incident behind her after a few days and immersed herself in her work. While that normally took her mind off her general loneliness she and Dr. Oguni were innundated with expectant mothers all giving birth withing weeks of each other. Between them they delievered over a dozen babies in the month following Kenshin and Kaoru's wedding.

And each time she helped bring a new life into the world Megumi couldn't help but remember her own son's birth. Unfortunately that memory brought with it the memory of her one reckless encounter with Kenshin. It still seemed like a dream and more than once she found herself wishing that things had turned out differently.

She'd known that Kenshin didn't love her, but being there and touching his bare skin had been too much and the woman in her swept aside her doctor's detachment and made her touch bolder, more insistant. And when Kenshin had turned to stare at her she kissed him with a passion she hadn't been able to control, a passion that swept him along so that he acted with his manly instincts instead of his usual cautious nature.

However, the hardest thing to admit now was that as heated as that brief encounter had been it paled in comparision to the what she'd felt as a virgin in the skillful hands of Aoshi Shinomori.

Megumi closed her eyes and took a deep breath while silently ordering her imagination to stop replaying that night. Like the episode with Kenshin it had been a wicked impulse, a lapse in judgement that she could never allow herself to repeat.

****

"Are you certain you wouldn't like me to fix something for you?" Dr Oguni asked a few days later when he returned to the clinic from an outside appointment.

Megumi shook her head. "I'm fine. I've just been tired. It will pass," she lied, knowing very well that the dreams of late would continue to torment her.The dreams of herself and Aoshi Shinomori.

The older doctor nodded then smiled. "I think there's soemthing outsde that might lift your spirits. It's a young man. A handsome young man who's asking for you."

"Sano?"

"No. This one isn't familiar to me. He's a handsome one though, dressed in fine Western clothes though he has the eyes of a seasoned warrior."

Kenshin? she wondered as she left the office.No he wouldn't wear Western clothes. She stopped in her tracks when she recognized the visitor though he had his back to the door.

Aoshi turned, his blue eyes sparking in the sunlight streaming through the window to his right. "I'm not disturbing you am I? I can leave if---"

"No, it's fine," Megumi interrupted though her practical side urged her to send him away. She smiled and thought she detected the faintest hint of a smile on Aoshi's face as well. "I was thinking of going home to have lunch with Kae. Would you like to eat with us?"

"I don't want to impose."

"It's no trouble."

He nodded. "I would enjoy it, then."

Megumi told Dr. Oguni who suggested she take the rest of the day to herself.

****

Megumi was glad for her son's lively presence as she felt the mesmerizing gaze of Aoshi Shinomori stray her way again and again as they ate the lunch her housekeeper prepared. After lunch they took Kaemon out to the small garden. Aoshi sat next to her on the rear porch as the boy amused himself by kicking and chasing a ball in the grass.

Megumi kept her attention on her son because knowing that Aoshi was watching her was as unnerving as it was exciting. Finally she forced herself to look his way, and found herself captured by those seductive, icy eyes of his. She cleared her through to break the spell. "So what brings you all the way to Aizu?"

"Business. I'm thinking of investing in an export company headquartered here. I wanted to meet with the owners, look over their financial records and the like. If I decide to invest I imagine I'll be traveling here on a fairly regular basis. Once a month at least, unless the weather is bad."

"Oh," Megumi said simply as her pulse quickened at the thought. Stop being so foolish, she ordered herself. It's not as if you'll be seeing him. And it certainly isn't as if you want to see him.

Aoshi stood. "I need to get to my appointment, but I would like to take you to dinner after if you have no plans. "

"Dinner?"

There it was again that smile that wasn't quite a smile.

"Yes. You've given me a fine meal and I would like to return the hospitality." He reached down and took hold of her hand. "Are you available?"

Megumi told herself that she was imagining the hidden meaning she thought she detected in the simple question. "I have no plans."

"I will be by later then. I'm not sure when."

"I'll be here."

This time there was no mistaking the faint smile that brightened the ninja's blue eyes. "Wonderful."

****

Megumi felt as though a swarm of fireflies had taken up residence in her stomach as the afternoon dragged by. The knowing grins of her housekeeper and Dr. Oguni when she told them her plans didn't help matters either.

"This is just the medicine you need, Megumi," Oguni said. "Don't you worry about a thing? I will take care of any emergency that might arise. You go and have a good time with your young man."

He isn't my young man. He's a friend. Not even a friend just an old acquaintance really."

"As you wish."

****

Megumi had just tucked her son into bed when Aoshi arrived that evening. "I think this is a bit---showy," she told her housekeeper, Sakura, referring to the elaborate bow the older woman had made in Megumi's obi. The bow was in the shape of a large flower blossom in shades of deep pink and green that highlighted the simple ivory kimono Megumi wore.

"My hair, then. I should take it down---"

Sakura gave Megumi a gentle nudge towards the door. "You look lovely, Megumi-san. Your young man will be pleased."

"But he isn't my young man..."