End of A Weary Day--Formating Revised 12/21

A/N:Well, guys. This is it. End of A Weary Day is officially done. I want to extend my most humble thanks to all of you who have stopped by and read my little lemony offeringthe the RK world. I would not have finished it without you. You are my inspiration and the rock I stand on. Arigatou, My Friends. God Bless you all. Kanzen ne Tsuki

Glossary:Anata=Beloved Husband, Aisai=Beloved Wife, Koishii=Dear/ Darling, Hai=Yes, Ka=Good, Nani=What? Ne=No, Baka=Fool/Stupid, Saiai=Beloved, Onegai=Please, Kuso=Shit!,

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

Lily\'s and Jasmine


It took the Japanese Government nearly 3 months to get the supply lines between all of the flood damaged areas running and providing the needed foodstuffs medimedicine that the peoples needed in order to continue forward in rebuilding their lives and their homes. It would take many more months before full restoration was achieved, but at least progress had been reached and a state of calm determination had settled across the torn city bringing with it the much needed elements of hope, faith, and trust in a new future.

Construction of the new bridge between the two severed neighborhoods was finally set into motion as wellgreagreat lengths of lumber and loads of bricks and stones were delivered in preparation for the separate sections that would be built and then set into place. It would be close to a year before it was complete, but it was the last sign the storm ravaged people on both sides needed to see to know that their worlds were going to be rejoined again at some point in time. Plus, now that the raging waters had receded with the repair of the dam that had ruptured, people were ablepaddpaddle their boats across the much calmer river and venture to the other sides. Many families and worried friendships had been comforted as those who were thought lost were at last accounted for, and many celebrations had lit up the night skies for weeks following.

On one of these particular nights, the sky had turned into a deep rich velvety blue, and as each of the stars winked into being one by one, it became a dazzling carpet of glittering diamonds dancing overhead. The air was chilled making everything appear that much more sharp and clear, and as the lone couple dressed in purest white stood silhouetted against the pale light of the dozen or so candles that burned softly around them in a shimmering golden halo, time appeared to come to a standstill just for them as the world above and around seemed to freeze within that one magical moment of perfect beauty.

\"Have you ever seen the sky look so incredible, Kenshin?\" Kaoru relaxed back against her new husband and let her head drop backwards onto the curved support of his shoulder as she let her eyes bask in the spectacle of the thousands of twinkling diamonds that filled her vision. \"I do not think I ever remember seeing so many stars before... not like this. Have you?\"

\"Ne, Saiai.\" Rubbing his cold nose against the warm sensual curve of her throat, Kenshin let himself breath in the intoxicating scent of jasmine and musk that was so much a part of her, and had thus become so much a part of him. Then he tilted his head back and gazed upward into the night sky.

\"The bluest sky is crystal clear,
and infinitely high.\"

\"What is that?\" She turned in his arms as she listened to the strange words that he spoke so reverently to the starlit midnight sky. \"I have never heard that before. Where did it come from?\"

\"An old sensei I had many years ago during my years in the Bakumatsu. It was from a poem he used to tell us when he was training the Hitokiri.\"

\"What does it mean?\"

\"Whatever you want it too.\"

\"Whatever I want it too?\" A gentle laugh tumbled over the fullness of her soft lips as she cupped his scarred cheek in a tender hand. \"I don\'t think I understand, Anata. How does the sky being blue, clear, and so high mean anything I want it too?\"

\"It is a matter of how you let your mind look at the meaning, Aisai. It can stand for the most precious and far reaching dreams you have ever had, or it can be the result of all the things in your life that have already happened. It is the meaning of life, of love, of loneliness... It is everything you have every wished for, that which you desire the most, or the memory of the many things you have lost. It is Hope, it is Despair... it is all things and it is nothing.\"

\"What does it mean to you?\" A slow gentle smile of tender love crossed his handsome face as he looked long and deep into the round blue eyes that gazed up at him. It was a simple question she had asked of him, but the answer was so complex he wondered if he would be able to make her understand.

\"Are you certain you want to know, Aisai?\"

\"Yes, I want to know.\"

\"Then I will tell you.\" Pulling her closer against him, Kenshin rested his chin on top of her head and then began to rub lazy circles along her shapely back. \"It has meant many things to me over the years, but most recently it has stood for you and the different aspects of our life together.\"

\"Really??\" She stirred against him and he felt her arms slip around his waist and slide up over his shoulders. \"Like what?\"

\"Oh, like at one time it stood for how unreachable you were for me.\"

\"Unreachable? But, Kenshin, I have never been unreachable to you.\"

\"I did not know that, Aisai... now, did I?\" A low rumble of soft laughter escaped her as she moved to rub her nose against his chest.

\"No, I suppose you did not.\"

\"Then you understand my meaning. You were the one thing I wished for the most, desired the most, wanted the most, and loved above all other things, but I never believed I would even be able to touch your hand.\"

\"Anata... What a baka-man... I was yours long ago all you had to DO was touch my hand.\" Something close to a feline purr slid from Kenshin\'s throat as he nuzzled against his wife\'s silky black hair and let his hands slip to her waist where he began molding her body to the hardened planes of his. Kaoru snuggled into her husbands embrace and smiled to herself as the purr turned into more of a low growl. \"What else, Anata... what else does it mean to you?\"

\"It stands for our life together, Aisai, and what it still holds for us... children, making a family, learning to be parents as well as lovers and friends... there is still so much ahead of us, Kaoru.\"

\"There... there is something you should know now, though, Kenshin.\" The tones of her voice sounded tentative and perhaps even a little fearful.

\"Na\"Nani, Aisai?\" Pulling back from her, Kenshin looked down questioningly into her wary face, and as he gauged her worry, he began to feel an increase in his own level of concern. \"What is it, Kaoru? What should I know?\"

\"Well,\" She pulled away from him and took a step across the line of burning candles taking herself out of the security of the glowing halo. \"I probably should have told you before we went to the temple this morning, but... but I did not want to upset things.\"

\"Upset things? Kaoru? What is wrong?\" Stepping over the candles, Kenshin moved to stand behind his wife where he gently laid his hands on her slender shoulders in an attempt to comfort her. \"There is nothing you can tell me that is going to upset me... and surely you should have known that even this morning before we went to the temple. Now, calm your self and tell me what is wrong.\"

\"It is not really wrong, Kenshin... it is just... well, it is just I\'m... we\'re... there\'s a...\" Suddenly she turned in his arms and blurted out in a rush and jumble of words the secret she had been keeping to herself for the last 3 months. \"Oh Kenshin, I\'m pregnant... we\'re going to have a baby.\"

Clear crystalline amethyst eyes grew wide and round with shocked astonishment as the red-haired Samurai stared in bewildered silence at his anxious spouse who began to chew on her bottom lip in nervousness as she watched the dumbstruck look freeze on his face. \"A...a b-baby??\" Kenshin stuttered in a choked voice that threatened to crack beneath the strain he was putting on it. \"Did you say we are h-having a b-baby, Kaoru?\" Suddenly he sounded very much like a little boy looking for reassurance and Kaoru could not help the smile that finally spread across her face when she realized that he was not upset or angry.

\"Hai. Saia, that I did.\" Her hands reached up to tenderly caress his face as she searched his bewildered gaze. \"Are you happy about that? Kenshin? Are you pleased, Koishii?\"

\"Happy...? Pleased...?\" His voice was quiet, almost less than a whisper as he leaned his foreheadinto hers and cradled her body against his in the most gentle embrace Kaoru had ever felt from him. \"Kaoru... I do not know what to say, Koishii. I... the words will not come to me... I... I cannot seem to speak what is in my heart... I... Oh Saiai. I do not know what to say.\"

\"Can you at least tell me if what is in your heart is good or bad?\"

A low rumbling of nervous laughter spilt over his lips as he rubbed his trembling hands up and down her back once more. \"It is very good, Koishii... It is very, very good.\"

\"Thank-you, Kenshin. I-I was worried you might be angry or upset with me...\"

\"Whatever for?\" He rubbed his cold nose playfully against hers and Kaoru could feel him beginning to relax a little bit. \"Why would I be angry that you are carrying my child within your body, Saiai? It was bound to happen sooner or later... considering that neither Battousai nor myself can keep our hands off your for very long.\"

\"I was afraid you would be angry because I had not told you before the ceremony... that I had not told you when I first found out.\"

\"And when was that?\"

\"About six weeks ago.\"

\"Six weeks?!\" He pulled back and looked at her in amazement. \"Why did you wait so long?\"

\"There has been so much to do, and we have been so busy... I was afraid if I told you, you wouldn\'t let me help you do everything that needed to be done. I was afraid you\'d make me set down like I was some delicate flower that might get spoiled and watch while you did all of the work, and I just could not let you do that, so...\"

\"So, you did not tell me so you could continue working as if there were nothing different going on inside of you at all? Is that it?\"

\"Well... yes.\" She flinched slightly under the sternness of his growing glare knowing that if he had not been upset with her before, he certainly was now. \"But I feel fine, Kenshin, really I do.\"

\"That, Kaoru, is not the point. Women who are pregnant are not supposed to be bending and lifting and twisting and turning the way you have been. It isn\'t good for the baby.\"

\"Oh phewy. I think that is a lot of bolonie, Kenshin. I feel just as good as I did before I got pregnant. I get tired a little bit faster, but that is all. Why, I haven\'t even had morning sickness or anything with this baby.\"

\"I do not care, Kaoru. From now on, you will most definitely behave like a pregnant woman, and you WILL curb your physical activities accordingly. Is that understood, Young Lady?\"

\"Hai. Kenshin.\" The petulant look on Kaoru\'s face was just too much for him, and Kenshin was forced to abandon his stern demeanor as he burst into laughter. Hugging her precious form close to him, he buried his face against her throat and chuckled warmly into the thick silk of her ebony hair.

\"Aishiteru, My Beautiful Angel. Where would I be without you?\"

\"Sleeping along, Anata.\" Was her quipped reply. \"Sleeping alone.\"

\"Hai. That I would... but I am not without you, am I?\" Wicked golden eyes rose to gaze down into her mischievous smiling face as his hands slid suggestively to her rounded hips. \"Nor do I intend upon sleeping alone... not that you will be getting much sleep, My Lovely Aisai.\"

\"And why is that, Anata?\" Kaoru cast a decadent look up at Kenshin through the thick curtain of her heavy black eyelashes as a coy smile graced her pink lips. \"Is there something that is going to be keeping me awake?\"

\"Hai. Himura-san...\" He murmured in a husky voice as his gaze dropped meaningfully to her mouth making her unconsciously lick her lips in response. \"The Battousai and I are both planning on keeping you awake long into the night, Saiai-amon... do you have any complaints about that plan?\"

\"That depends, Anata.\"

\"On what?\"

\"On just exactly what you two have gotten planned.\" She tucked her chin playfully and began to play with the open edges of his white gi. \"What DO you have planned.... Kenshin?\"

\"Hmmmmm....\" A cold nose brushed against the smooth skin of her forehead as he tried to nudge her face back up toward his, but she merely giggled at his attempt and continued to concentrate on her hands and their fiddling play with his gi. A warm teasing chuckle rumbled in his chest as he finally gave up trying to get her to look at him, and instead decided to try and gain her attention in a more direct manner. So as he began to nibble and press soft kisses along her left cheek and temple, Kenshin did his best to explain to Kaoru what he and the Battousai had in store for her the rest of the night. Their wedding night.

\"I thought we might start out with candlelight and stargazing, which we are doing, because I know how much you love that, and then Battousai wanted to spend some time ravishing your lips, which you seem to be giving him a bit of difficulty over, and then once he had rendered you passionately receptive to our advances, we had planned to sweep you off your feet then carry you away to bed where we could all once more explore the joys of passion and pleasure. Of course, Koishii, if you would rather not...\" A devilish grin twisted his handsome lips as he felt her jerk in his arms.

\"Rather not... wha... I... you... KENSHIN!\" Kaoru\'s head shot up in shocked indignation and anxiety and she found herself looking directly into the laughing golden orbs of the Battousai. \"Oh, you rotten rat!\" She fumed as she started pummel his chest with her small fists. \"I can\'t believe you even dared to suggest that we wouldn\'t... That I wouldn\'t want... Oh, you are rotten, absolutely rotten to the core, and just because you said that, I aught to just leave you standing out here in the cold all alone and go to bed by myself, that I should.\" And with that saucy statement, she tossed her hair over her shoulder, pushed her way out of his embrace and began to strut away with a haughty ‘humph.\' Battousai threw his head back and shouted with laughter, and then leveled his brilliant golden gaze at the high-spirited, mouthy brat that he and the Rurouni had married earlier that morning.

\"You better run, little takuni.\" It was a feral sounding growl that rasped deep down in his throat, and it pulled gooseflesh out on the back of Kaoru\'s neck, and as she threw a furtive glance over her shoulder, she gasped in anxious surprise to see the glittering eyes of the ‘wolfish pred\' g\' gleaming dangerously within the handsome face of her usually sweet and gentle husband, and a shiver of apprehensive fear slithered up her spine setting off all of her warning alarms. ‘Oh God! He\'s going to eat me alive!\'

\"Ken-n-nshin??\"

\"Not anymore, takuni...\"

\"Batt-tous-sai?\"

\"Hai. And I do not intend on being left out here in the cold, so... if you want to play games, my saucy mouthed takuni... then let\'s play.\"

\"P-play...\" Kaoru was walking backwards trying to keep an eye on the unmoving man while still trying to keep moving toward the haven of their room, but found herself stumbling as her footing became unsure in her nervousness. She was not really scared... she felt more of an adrenaline rush of fear laced with sexual excitement, and it was one of the most intoxicating sensations she had ever experienced. This was fun, and by the look on his face, she knew he was enjoying it as well.

\"Hai. Play takuni... now... run.\"

\"Run?\"

\"Run...\"

\"Wha...\" As the question formed on her l Bat Battousai suddenly sprang forward from his calm stance and began flying toward Kaoru at an amazing speed. A shocked scream of alarm issued from her wobbly form as she rolled off to the left and made a mad dash for the cover of the trees.

Diving past the hanging branches and jumping over small obstacles in her way, Kaoru suddenly found herself beside the koi pond. Without knowing or really understanding why, she stopped running and moved over to the cement pond and looked in. There were about six or seven fish in there, and even in the semi-dark, she could still make out their slender gray forms as they slid smoothly through the water. Strange. Ugly. Beautiful. Fluid. Graceful.

\"It is not much of a hunt, takuni, it the quarry does not run.\" Battousai\'s husky voice ran warm over the back of her neck and over her shoulder as the heat of his body began to permeate her white silk kimono. He had come up behind her without her hearing a single sound, and now he stood all but touching her and Kaoru\'s heart began to race in her chest.

\"I-I ... I just stopped here.\"

\"Why?\" The warmth of him moved even closer and she could feel the first grazing touch of him against her back and buttocks and the new proximity caused her breath to catch in her throat.

\"I-I... I-I d-don\'t know... I j-just stopped.\" He was so close yet hardly touching. She could feel him yet not feel him. It was an agony even as it was a pleasure, and as a small heavy moan of pure need echoed in her throat, Kaoru allowed her body to sag and relax back into his bringing them into full contact with one another which was what she wanted so desperately. Another moan, louder than the first, escaped her as the full heat of him enveloped her, and as the strength of his hands rose to grip her hips and pull her buttocks back against the hardness of his heavy erection, her head fell back onto the waiting curve of his neck and right shoulder. \"Feels so good....\" She breathed in response to his action as her face turned into his cheek and jawline. \"You always feel so good to me.\" Lifting her left hand, she caressed his scarred cheek, his jaw, chin, and lips and then she
slipped it back around his neck and buried it deep into the heavy length of his dark red hair and pulled at him. Rumbling laughter vibrated against her back as he dipped his head and began to massage her nape and throat with warm moist kisses.

\"Is this what you are wanting, Saiai?\"

\"Yessssss... Onegai... Onegai...\" Their cheeks were rubbing sensuously against each other as Battousai started to trace tiny circles of fire across her skin with the tip of his tongue until he at last reached the spot behind her ear which he knew drove her wild. Once there, he began to nuzzle and nibble and work his way back down into her sensitive nape. A smile curved his lips as he felt the uncontrolled shiver that quaked through the slender body he held against his, and then he caught his breath as he felt the responding flex and increasing ache in his manhood. The need for her was tremendous... it always was. Only her.

\"I want you, Aisai.\" The ragged whisper in her ear jolted Kaoru out of her golden world of warmth and pleasure and reminded her that there was another world waiting for her. A world where she could go, and she could take her lover with her... she liked going there the best anyway.

Turning in his arms and raising her passion drunk eyes to meet his hungry golden crystals, Kaoru slid her arms around her new husbands neck and leaned up into him. Her lips were mofromfrom her own tongue licking them while Battousai had been pleasuring her neck, so when they pressed against his mouth, it was easy for her to conform to his shape.

Battousai groaned in hunger, and cupping her head, parted her lips with his tongue and pushed it deeply into the hot wet cavern of her mouth so he could taste what she was so openly giving him. Their tongues battled for superiority and the dance of ages began once more as the love and lust rose to mix and mingle to become one within their hearts. As Kaoru fisted both of her hands deep into the rich mane of Battousai\'s red mane, his free hand rose to cup and then massage the softness of her breast through the silk of her kimono, and as the nipple grew hard and stiff, his thumb and forefinger began to carefully pinch and roll it between it making it just that much harder and stiffer. Hungry whimpering cries escaped from between their lips as she pushed herself into his hand begging him to continue, pleading for him not to stop... he willingly obliged by dropping his other hand from her head and beginning the same ministrations on her other breast. This, in turn, increased the intensity of her response to him until at last she tore her mouth free as moan after moan of pure mindless pleasure swept through her.

\"OooooOoooooooooo.......\" Her hands were pulling at his hair and gi, grabbing at his shoulders, and pressing his hands even harder against her flesh. Kaoru was coming close to falling over the edge of sanity and into the world of sensation where rational thought no longer exists, and Battousai was more than happy to give her the final shove. He pulled one hand free from her mindless grasping and deftly found the folds of her kimono and parted them, and then ever so slowly he eased that same hand up along the outside of her thigh until he reached the bottom of her undershorts. Once he felt the cotton of her small clothes, he maneuvered his hand along the bottom edge until he reached her inner thigh, and then he slid his long fingers upward though the leg until he felt the unmistakable warmth of her crotch. Smiling, he buried his open mouth against her throat at the same time as he buried his fingers inside of her oozing honey slick womanhood.

\"KEENNSHHIIINN!!\" Wincing as he felt her fingernails dig into his shoulders, Battousai pushed that small pain from his mind as he felt her knees buckle and he swiftly snaked his free arm around her waist and caught her to his chest before she could collapse to the ground, and then he began to move his fingers in and out of her in an up and down twisting motion that ripped harsh ragged groans from her as she buried her face against his shoulder. \"OooooOooo God.... Ooooo God, Keennshin....\" Her body shuddered violently and he could feel the surge of warmth that cascaded over his fingers and pooled in the palm of his hand.

\"Oh Saiai-takuni... you are so wild... so free...\" Bringing his hand to his mouth, he carefully licked the tangy sweetness of her off his fingers with Kaoru watching. \"So sweet... You are so sweet...\" And then his mouth was on her\'s again, his tongue was deep inside, and she could taste ‘herself\' on him. It was a heady decadent thought to her that she was tasting her own pleasures from his mouth, and somehow, it just made her want to have him inside of her that much more.

\"I want you....\" It was a husky request against the corner of his mouth as her tongue licked at his bottom lip.

\"What do you want?\" Pulling away from her, Battousai looked deeply into her smouldering dark blue eyes and easily read the hunger that was there, but he was still going to make her tell him.

\"You... I want you.\"

\"You already said that, takuni. WHAT do you want?\"

\"You know what I want, Battousai.\"

\"Hai. I want you tell me.\"

\"Why?\"

\"Because, I want to hear you say it.\"

\"But you always make me say it.\"

\"Do I?\"

\"Yes. YOU do.\" She kissed him deeply and lowered her hand to suggestively rub and squeeze his throbbing manhood as it strained against his small clothes and hakama. This action elicited a ragged growl from him as he ground his hips against her hand and pushed the bone hard rod firmly into her hand. \"You want me too.\"

\"Hai. Your point.\"

\"Why don\'t YOU tell me what you want this time.\"

\"Me tell you? It doesn\'t work that way, takuni.\" He chuckled at her and licked at her mouth making her reach for his tongue, but he eluded her causing her to put on a pout which just made him laugh more. \"THAT is not going to get you anywhere.\"

\"Oh... well, then maybe I should just make good on my earlier threat and leave your sorry ass out here alone to freeze all night while I go in the room and ‘fix\' my problem on my own.\"

\"You wouldn\'t dare?\" His thin brown eyebrows narrowed dangerously as he glared at her suspiciously. \"Would you?\"

\"Why not?\" Tossing her hair over her shoulder for the second time that night, Kaoru favored Battousai with her best ‘I don\'t give a shit\' look and started to push her way out of his arms. \"If you can demand that kind of treatment from me... why should I not be able to demand the same thing from you? After all, I would like to hear that you want me too... and HOW.\" A wicked smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she shoved at his chest, and catching him off guard, broke free of his embrace and turned to walk away desperately hoping all the while that he would stop her.

\"Kaoru...\" She stopped midstep at the sound of the quiet yet roughly spoken word of her name as it floated up from behind her.

\"Yes... Battousai?\" Her head cocked to one side so she could hear better and then she waited.

\"I...\" The sound of shuffling feet could be heard followed by a deep dragging sigh and some unintelligible muttering, and then silence again.

\"I\'m waiting.\"

\"I know...\"

\"Are you going to say anything?\"

\"Kuso!\"

\"KENSHIN!\" Kaoru swung around with her mouth gapping open in shock. \"You cursed!\"

\"I know.\" He had the most frustrated and lost look on his face she had ever seen since she had known him. He actually looked like he had eaten something that had tasted particularly bad and he was really pissed about it.

\"You never curse... not even when your Battousai... not around me.\"

\"I know...\"

\"What is wrong? Is it so hard for you to tell me you want me? Or is it that I am asking you to tell me HOW you want me? Is that it? Am I stepping on the toes of your manhood\'s authority or something by turning the tables on you?\"

\"No... It\'s just I... I... I was not prepared for you to do that... You caught me by surprise and I did not know how to respond when you threatened me.\"

\"Oh Anata... It was all in fun, you know that.\" Kaoru ran back to him and threw her arms around his neck and began showering kisses over his face and along his lips. \"I didn\'t mean anything by it, truly I didn\'t.\"

\"I know, Kaoru. I just... I cannot explain. Gomen nasi, Aisai... I have ruined everything.\"

\"No, you haven\'t.\"

\"I have. The mood is gone. I...\"

\"Hush.\" Her fingers come to cover his mouth and stop further words of self recrimination. \"You know, I think I finally figured out why I stopped running when I got here.\"

\"Nani? Why?\" Confusion colored his voice.

\"This is where it all started for us... do you remember?\"

\"Started?\"

\"That first night we were together... I found you here by the pond... wishing you were a fish. Do you remember? You were so sad, and I wanted to make everything better because I could not bear to see you like that.\"

\"Hai.\" A tender look came to his eyes and he leaned against her forehead. \"I remember. I told you I loved you, and I was so surprised to find you loved me to... I kissed you for the first time here.\"

\"Yes. Setting on the edge of the pond... you had set me in your lap... and I was sooooo nervous.\"

\"Nervous?\" Pulling back he looked into her smiling face and laughed softly. \"Why were you nervous? I would not have hurt you for the world.\"

\"I know that.\"

\"Then why were you nervous?\"

\"Wellll... You set me right on top of your.... ahem... your ahhh... you know... and when we kissed, it got hard and it was right under my butt... I\'d never felt one before.\" Giggling with embarrassment, Kaoru hid her face in Kenshin\'s neck at which point he finally understood what she was getting at and began laughing in earnest.

\"Ahhhh, now I think I understand... Well, I would apologize, but as I recall, you did seem to enjoy my ‘ahem\' that got hard when we kissed... though it was a bit later that we did the ‘enjoying\'.\"

\"KENSHIN!\" Another cascade of giggles were buried in Kenshin neck, and he wrapped his arms tightly around her and crushed her to his chest as he chuckled along with her, and then he became quiet and strangely still.

\"You are right, Aisai... This is where it all started for us. Though we had loved each other for a long time before without knowing it, we fell in love right here that night, and this was the place I swore in my heart I would never leave your side.\"

\"You won\'t ever go wondering again?\"

\"No... there is too much here for me to stay for. I could never leave you now... my heart and soul are so completely bound to you, I could never live with you.\"

\"Aishiteru, Kenshin... I would have stayed with you for the rest of my life even if you had not married me.\"

\"I know, Kaoru. But there is something so much more binding to my mind and my body knowing that you carry my name as well as my child. I would not have you carry the shame of being an unmarried woman with a child and a live-in lover. You are too fine a woman for that. Besides, Himura Kaoru has a nice flow to it... don\'t you think?\"

\"Yes, I do.\" She snuggled closer to him and kissed his neck. \"Kenshin?\"

\"Nani, Aisia?\"

\"Take me to bed.\"

\"Nani?\"

\"Take me to bed... you made me a promise, AND Battousai started something that you are going to have to finish... take me to bed and make love to me. Onegai?\" He trembled at her words, but did not make her ask again as he swept her up into the strength of his arms and carried her back up to the dojo and deposited her in their room.

\"I will be right back.\" He said as he caressed her cheek. \"I have to go and put out the candles so we don\'t have a fire.\"

\"All right. I will get ready for bed.\" A quizzical look passed over his face and then he turned away and disappeared into the night. Kaoru closed the fusuma and moved over the table to light the lamp. The room burst into a soft glow as the wick flamed to life. Carefully she removed her wedding kimono draping the white silk over the back of a chair. Next came the under kimono which followed the way of the first. Quickly the under bandages that held her breasts in place were removed and left in an untidy pile on the floor. They were soon followed by her thin cotton undershorts. Fully naked at last, Kaoru stretched her arms high over her head and leaned back pulling all of her muscles in an effort to relieve some of the tension in them, and then she let out a long slow deep breath that also helped to relax her.

Slowly she padded across the room and pulled out the folded futon she shared with Kenshin and quickly laid it out on the floor, and then she open the cherry wood armoire and retrieved a brown paper wrapped package that had been setting inside on the bottom shelf. Unfolding the paper it revealed a set of pale silvery-blue satin sheets. Her hands slid over the smooth luxurious satin loving the feel of the rich soft material under her skin, and she knew it would feel glorious beneath their bodies. It only took a moment to smooth them out across the bed, and then she meticulously arranged herself among the wrinkles she created with the top sheet. Once satisfied with her position, Kaoru relaxed and lay waiting for her husband to come back from his task. The coy smile on her face told the world how much she wanted to please him, and she wanted THIS to please him. Little did she know... Kenshin\'s favorite Kaoru fantasy was aboutcomecome true.

As he walked back up the path to their room, Kenshin\'s mind was in a swirl of emotion and confusion. So many things had happened today. He still could hardly believe that his greatest wish had finally come true. Kaoru was his wife AND they were going to have a baby. A tremendous surge of happiness rushed through his body as he thought of all the years he had believed that such things would forever be out of his grasp, and yet now, they were his to love and eve everyday for the rest of his life. Kami-sama must have finally forgiven him the horrible sins of the Bakumatsu if he was being allowed to have this life. Within his heart he offered a fervent prayer of ‘Thanks\' to the deity for the ‘gift\' he had been given, and the ‘blessings\' he now enjoyed in his life and then his thoughts turned to this evening and a frown furrowed his brow. This evening had not gone well.

He was still very upset about how Battousai had responded to Kaoru\'s little game of ‘turning the tables\' on the Hitokiri, and how quickly it had destroyed the passionate mood between them. ‘She was almost ours.\' He chided his other self. ‘Why was it so hard for you to tell her what she wanted to hear?\'

‘Shut-up, Himura! Mind your own business.\' Battousai was not in the mood to talk.
‘I am talking about OUR wife, you imbecile. You better figure out what your problem is with what happened or WE are going to have problems again, and I do not want to have problems... do you understand me?\'

‘What do you want me to say, Himura?\'

‘I want you to be honest for once in your life. I want to know why you got so upset over what happened.\'

‘Because.\'

‘Because? What kind of an answer is that?\'

‘The only one you are going to get.\'

‘Not good enough. Spit it out...NOW!\'

‘Because... I.... KUSO!\'

‘NOW!\'

‘KUSO! Because I am used to being the one who is asked FOR the pleasure and then GIVES it.... I DO NOT ASK!\'

‘Ahhh... are you to strong to ask to be pleasured, my friend? Or are you afraid of looking weak to her? Or are you afraid you might find out that you NEED her more than you think you do?\'

‘You think too much, Himura. Go to bed, and make love to our wife. Go finish what I could not.\' Gloomy.

‘She would love you more if you told her what you wanted from her... just as you do her.\'
‘I do not want to talk about it any more tonight. She is waiting. Do not make her wait... she has been through enough. Go make her moan and scream, Himura. Make her cum until she is a trembling wild thing in your arms. Make love to her for both of us.\'

‘I will.\'


The fusuma slid open and then slid closed. Kenshin turned around began to speak, then found himself frozen unable to move or make a single sound. All he could do was look, swallow, and then try to catch his breath.

There she lay on her right side nestled among the fragile looking wrinkles of the most incredible looking silver-blue satin sheets he had ever seen. Her right arm was tucked beneath her cheek pillowing her head while the mass of loose ebony tresses lay spread out across the bed behind her and draped across her left should and left side. Some of those raven strands fell down in soft feathery caresses over the fullness of her breasts spreading outward around the white globes and defining the hard nubs of her pink nipples as they peaked through. The other arm had draped itself elegantly along her waist and hip with the fingers of the hand splayed open over the top of a smooth shapely thigh. Her top leg was drawn up and bent at the knee so it could rest over the straightened length of her shapely bottom leg.

But it was the beauty of her eyes that truly captured him. They were large bottomless pools of luminescent cobalt that looked at him with a wealth of love and desire from the most beautiful face he could have ever imaginend and as he gazed into those sensuous depths, Kenshin he knew he was lost... he was drowning within her and his mind was consumed with thoughts of her. Touching her. Kissing her. Tasting her. Possessing her. Loving her. Making her his... for always. The need was beyond his own human comprehension.

\"Kaoru...\" At last her name fell from his lips and his feet found a will to move as Kenshin walked to the futon and looked down at her. \"Kirei... you are a goddess, Saiai. I have never seen anything as beautiful as you... and I do not believe I ever will.\" He watched as her eyes took on the shimmering glow of tears in response to his heart felt words, and then he methodically got undressed without once breaking eye contact with her. Lowering himself down beside her, he found that she had rolled onto her back as was pulling him into both of her arms making it a simple movement to graze her throat and jaw with his lips and tongue. A delicate shudder went through her body as his right hand passed over her breast, over her belly, over the curve of her hip, and then over and beneath her to grasp the rounded sphere of her butt pulling her lower body into his.

Kenshin ground the hardness of his desire into the softness of Kaoru\'s lower body as he lifted her left leg up and over his hip and then draped it around his waist as he caressed her thigh and butt eliciting a sting of moans and whimpering cries from her as he did. From there it was a short journey for him to bring his talented nimble fingers back to the quivering silk of her wet and aching sex, and as he brushed the lightest of touches across those sensitive fluttering petals, Kaoru arched away from him in an agony of pleasure as her breathing became short and raspy in her throat and her hands began to claw once more at his shoulders.

\"Shhhhhhhh,\" He soothed against her throat as the tip of his tongue traced the outline of her of severely arched neck and then moved downward to the vulnerability of her thrusting breasts as they pushed up against his chin. With a deliberateness that wrung a savage moaning cry from his helpless lover, Kenshin opened his mouth and purposefully sucked one of the flushed pebble hard nipples deeply inside and began to nip it sharply between his teeth while laving it roughly with his tongue at the same. A wolfish growl rumbled free from his as he felt an answer rush of hot liquid gush from the center of her and flow over his hand, and in response to her rising passion, he viciously rammed threngerngers up inside of her to the very last knuckle. Kaoru bucked her hips wildly against the incredible pressure of him being so far inside, and a violent shudder coursed through as a thin, barely discernable high-pitched scream was torn from her lips.

\"That\'s it...\" He rasped against the creamy flesh of her breast as he nipped harder and began pulling on the sensitive hard bud with more determination. \"Cum for me, my Angel... scream for me... give me everything you are... scream, Kaoru, scream...\" And he viciously ground his hand up inside of her again and again at a pace that left the muscles in his arm aching, but listening to the voice of her orgasms was the most wondrous sound Kenshin had ever heard in his life, and he found despite the growing ache, he could not stop, so he kept driving her on and on until her body was drenched in both of their sweat and his hand and her thighs were covered with her sweet creamy juices.

She was mindless putty in his arms, and he knew it as he rolled her onto her back and raised himself above her so he could look down into her passion flushed face. Her breathing was shallow and erratic at best and she was trembling from head to toe, and the smile that pulled at his mouth was one filled with love and tenderness. He could not remember another time when he had so totally satisfied or exhausted her, and this pleased him immensely. Leaning down, he gently brushed a moist kiss across her quivering lips and was surprised to find she still had enough energy to try and cling to his mouth.

\"Don\'t... stop...\" It was a shaky plea, and he tenderly wiped her tamp ebony tresses off her forehead as he smiled gently down at her.

\"Don\'t stop? Aren\'t you about out of energy, My Angel?\" Laughing softly he pressed another kiss into her waiting mouth and felt her arms reach out and wrap around his waist.

\"Not hardly,\" The ghost of a mischievous smile curled her lips as she returned his kiss. \"You haven\'t been satisfied yet, my beautiful husband, and I would see that done before I\'m finished with this night.\"

\"Oh you would?\" Once more he leaned back and gazed lovingly into her smiling flushed face. \"And how are you going to do that, Asiai?\"

\"By asking you what you want... and hoping you will tell me.\" Round pools of shimmering blue gazed with love and passion into his face as she brought one of her hands up between them and began to tenderly trace the contours of his beloved face with the tips of her fingers. \"Will you, Kenshin? Will you tell me what you want?\"

He blinked his large dark violet eyes at her in astonishment as he heard her ask him the same thing she had tried to get the Battousai to do... tell her he wanted her and HOW... could he do it where the Battousai had failed so miserably? Could he do what he had chided the Battousai for not doing? Did he have it in him to ASK to be pleasured by a woman... by THIS woman... by his wife... by the woman he loved? Did he?

Kaoru held her breath as she watched the battle of emotions flash through the expressive eyes of her lover, and felt herself begin to loose heart that she would ever hear those kind of words from this man... this incredible man who was so open and free with his love and pleasures toward her. Could he ever bring himself to ASK for the things he made her ask for when the passion was upon them... the things that upon hearing would push him over the edge and lead him to take her with such ferocity that it would leave them both weak and breathless? She watched and waited while he battled within himself over the same questions.

\"Kaoru... I... I have never... asked...\"

\"I know... You don\'t have too...\" Her voice trailed off and she offered him a beautiful smile as her fingers caressed his mouth. \"I am always here for you to do with as you want, you know that.\"

\"I know.\" His mouth opened and he sucked one of her fingers inside and began caressing it with his tongue. Her eyes turned a dark midnight blue as the passion within her flared to life again at the seductive touch and her hips stirred wantonly beneath him. \"Kaoru...\" He whispered in an aching voice as he released her finger and bent down to hungrily devour her mouth with his thrusting his tongue deep inside as she opened up to him. \"Aishiteru, My beautiful Angel... Aishiteru.\" And then he was letting the majority of his weight come to rest upon her as he ravished the glory of her open mouth.

Moaning beneath him, Kaoru wrapped her arms around his torso and squeezed him tightly into the softness of her body while she parted her legs beneath him and felt his hips drop between her thighs. A long deep sigh of satisfaction escaped between their mouths as she moved beneath him and then wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled herself up against the rigidness of his swollen desire.

\"Take me, Anata...\" The purring request of his wife murmured so seductively against his mouth sent a heat rushing through Kenshin\'s body making him shudder and groan harshly against her soft swollen lips even as he roughly shoved himself up against the slippery heat of her. She moaned and pulled up against him in response and nipped at his lower lip as she openly showed her desire for him to claim her as him, and the knowledge of that burned within his senses making him realize once and for all that he could trust her with anything.

\"Kaoru...\" The voice was hoarse and ragged.

\"N-nani...?\"

\"I... I....\" He was struggling.

\"Nani, my love...?\" Her hands cupped his flushed face and she looked deeply into his feverish eyes. \"Tell me...\"

\"I want you to... to touch me.\" He whispered in a thick voice. \"And... and put your... put your m-mouth on m-me...\" There, it was out... for good or for bad... it was out in the open. The last fantasy he had ever had, but never dared even speak to himself. Carefully, with an open vulnerability shining from his glassy eyes, Kenshin watched her face as understanding of what he had just asked her to do dawned on her, and then a slow, seductive and almost wolfish grin passed over her features, and before he knew what she was doing, she had managed to flip their positions until it was he who was on the bottom and she on top.

\"That is what Battousai would not say?\" She asked as she bent over his face her hair dropping down to tickle his nose. \"And I thought it was just that he did not want me to do anything... I didn\'t know he was... too embarrassed to ask.\" A feral gleam crept into those glittering blue sapphires as she ran her tongue across his trembling lower lip. \"Baka Battousai... he should know me better than that by now.\"

\"Ka-kaoru?\" Kenshin was watching her with huge round amethysts filled with disbelief and shock. \"You mean... you would have... you aren\'t... we could have...\"

\"You baka man, Himura Kenshin.\" A sensual sound of laughter rolled off her tongue as she began scooting down his body. \"All you had to do was ask... a long time a go.\"

\"I-it w-was?\" He was stammering badly and he knew it, but the closer she got to his swollen cock the harder it was getting for him to breath... or think.

\"Yes, it was. Besides,\" She cast a purely wolfish grin at him that made him catch his breath and blink in trepidation. \"I have been wondering if I could give you as much pleasure with MY tongue and mouth down here as you give to me DOWN THERE?\"

\"Y-you have?\" He squeaked as his anticipation and anxiety grew to monumental proportions at the mere thought of her thinking about doing THAT to him. \"Why didn\'t you ever s- say anyth-thing?\"

\"I didn\'t know if I was Ok or not since you never mentioned it once.\" The thick curtain of her eyelashes drooped over those amazing eyes and Kaoru dropped her head down toward Kenshin\'s aching hard-on, and as she did, his whole body stiffened in anticipation.

The warm moist cavity of her mouth opened and the tip of her tongue appeared to tentatively touch the bulbous hood of the head of his burgeoning shaft, and then she let it slid experimentally down and around the entire rounded contour of the top. This innocent action brought a deep guttural groan of pleasure from her husband the likes of which she had never heard him make before, and gaining a little more confidence, Kaoru opened her mouth farther and pulled as much of him as she could inside. Then she let her tongue lave up and down and around the sides of his throbbing erection while she increased the suction pressure inside of her mouth. Slowly, but deliberately she pulled her mouth up off him as she pleasured him with her tongue, but before letting go of him completely, she pulled him back into her mouth trying to take in more of him as she did. Beneath her clenched buttocks, she could feel the increased trembling of his thighs and it brought a sense of pure feminine satisfaction to her. She had never made him tremble like THIS before... she liked having this much control over his body, so she continued doing exactly what she was doing only deciding to add a little something else as it occurred to her.

Kenshin groaned heavily and arched his back as Kaoru sucked him back into her mouth and began her mind blowing torture on him once more, only this time, he felt one of her hands reach between his legs and start to fondle his ultrasensative sac and the two equally sensitive organs inside. It was almost more than he could take, and he could feel his climax building to a dangerous proportion. If he was not careful, he would cum in her mouth and that was something he did not want to do. So, with supreme effort, he rose up on his elbows, reached out with a shaky hand, and stopped her.

\"Nani, Kenshin? Am I doing something wrong, Anata?\" She looked so beautiful and so bloody desirable with a thin string of precum lacing down her chin. She was right, he should have asked her long ago.

\"No... You are not doing anything wrong, Saiai... but if you don\'t stop, I will release in your mouth, and I don\'t want to do that. So, come here, and let me love you again... Let me bring you with me one more time.\" And he pulled her down on top of his sweat damp chest and seized her lips in hungry kiss that took all of her breath away. In a moment, he had rolled her beneath him and was slipping his fingers inside of her wetness to tease her and bring her into the raging storm with him once more. It did not take long before she was moaning and thrusting her hips against those talented fingers as well as battling tongues and nipping lips with him. As her responses grew in intensity, and he felt the wetness of her increase, Kenshin\'s hunger spun out of his control. With a harsh growl he rolled on top of her, and spreading her thighs with one of his knees, he pulled her bent knees up on either side of his ribcage and found simple purchase to her precious treasure.

A whimpering cry of fulfillment and hunger fell from her mouth as his hardened shaft entered her waiting body, and she buried her face in the dampness of his throat. The hoarseness of his breathing sounded like the great rushing waters in her ear as he pumped a wild thundering pace against her, and the pressure of her growing need was building quickly.

\"Ken......\" It was a cry of anguished ecstasy as she arched away from him her entire body tightening up as the breath froze in her lungs and she struggled violently against the mindless vortex that thrned ned to consume her. Starbursts and exploding supernova\'s flashed before her eyes, and the feelings of floating and being apart from herself and the world drifted through her mind and images she had not seen for years floated before her.

Her Mother.... Her Father.... The Dojo the way it had looked when she was a little girl... Her Father teaching her Kamiya Kassin Ryu... and then......

\"Aisai?\" The beautiful sound of her lovers voice as he nuzzled against her throat pressing soft kisses into her flesh, one of his hands caressing her face. \"Are you all right, Aisai... Did I hurt you?\" Sweet concern... worry... so much love. It was always there, and as she listened to the sounds and inflections within his voice, Kaoru lifted her heavy arms and wrapped them around her beloved as she turned and kissed the curve of his shoulder.

\"Yes, Anata. I am all right. Why wouldn\'t I be?\"

\"I... I became rather... uncontrolled at the end.\" He almost sounded... embarrassed.

\"Did you?\" She sounded more than pleased, and it made him smile.

\"Hai. I did.\"

\"You have lost control before, Anata. Why so worried?\"

\"Because, Aisai... this time, YOU made me lose control.\"

\"But I thought I always made you lose control, Saiai?\" She was laughing and he chuckled softly in response and then propped himself up on his elbows so he could look down at her smiling face.

\"You do... but never quite like THIS.\"

\"Then... you liked what I did?\"

\"Hai... I liked it.\" A wicked gleam filled his violet eyes as he bent to rub his nose against hers. \"Battousai doesn\'t know what he missed.\"

\"Hmmmm,\" Kaoru tilted her head to one side as she gazed into her husbands wickedly dancing eyes noticing just a hint of gold glowing around the irises. \"I think maybe he does, Anata... I think maybe he does, but...\" She cupped his face and pulled him down for a long passion filled kiss. \"That doesn\'t mean we can\'t torture him over it for a while... now does it?\"

Kenshin tossed his head back and roared with laughter and then rolled onto his back pulling the wicked blue-eyed beauty that was his wife over on top of him so he could better see the mischief brewing on her face. \"The Takuni who tamed the Battousai....... who would have ever thought.\"

\"Indeed... who would have?\" He smiled and then began to stroke her face tenderly as a more serious light filled his violet eyes.

\" \"You saved my soul, Kaoru. You saved my soul, my sanity, and my very life. You saved me from myself. I never believed that anyone would or could ever love me after all of the things I have done, but somehow you looked past it all and saw ‘me\' and loved what you saw. Because of that, you will always be the most precious and treasured thing in my life. I will love you always and through every life Kami-sama blesses us with, for surly, this cannot be the only one.\"

\"Oh Kenshin.\" Kaoru dropped down on his chest and burrowed her face into his throat as tears burned her eyes. \"If we are granted more than one life, I will always pray that Kami-sama lets me spend it with you. You are the other half of me. Only with you have I ever felt whole. If you had ever gone wandering again... I think... No, I am sure that eventually I would have set out looking for you. I would have searched all of Japan if I had too until I found you again.\"

\"You would have... looked for me?\" His voice was filled with incredulity.

\"Yes, I believe I would have. It might have taken me a couple of years to realize I could not live without you, but in time, I would have come looking for you, and I would have looked until I found you.\"

\"What would you haone one then, Kaoru? What would you have done once you found me?\"

\"Hung onto you with both hands whether you liked it or not.\"

\"Whether I liked it or not? Why do you say it like that?\" His voice was filled with a strange emotion.

\"Because, if you left me, it meant either you didn\'t want to be with me, or you didn\'t feel like you could be... either way, you had still left me behind so... you might not want me around. Then, I would have to just latch onto you like a... a monkey and wrap myself around you and never let go no matter what you said.\"

\"Oh.\" His voice sounded small and he moved to rest his chin on top of her head. \"Kaoru,\"

\"Nani Kenshin?\"

\"You wouldn\'t have had to hang on with both hand or latch onto me like a monkey.\"

\"I-I wouldn\'t?\"

\"Ne. The way I feel about you, I would have most likely bowed down at your feet and wept in pure joy that you had found me. Then I would have put my arms around you, buried my face against your breasts, and never let you go...\"

\"Y-you would?\" She pulled back and looked down into his stoic face noticing the sheen of unshed tears glistening inside of brilliant lavender eyes filled with a wealth of love and devotion meant only for her.

\"Hai, my Angel. I would.\"

\"Aishiture, My beautiful Rurouni...\" Kaoru whispered as she pressed her forehead against his and stroked his scarred cheek with a trembling hand. \"I love you so much.\"

\"Aishiteru, My Angel.\" He breathed back and stole a tender kiss from her quivering lips.
\"But Kaoru,\"

\"Nani Kenshin?\"

\"I\'m not a Rurouni anymore.\"

\"No, you\'re not.\" A glorious smile lit up her face as she kissed him back. \"You are my Husband now, and you belong to me.\"

\"Hai. My Angel... that I do.\" And moving her off his body, Kenshin snuggled Kaoru tightly up against his side and tucked her head into the curve of his neck and shoulder so her cheek was resting on his chest. It was late and the lamp was still burning, but he was too tired and too comfortable to get up and blow it out. ‘It will burn out on its own eventually.\' He thought as he caressed his wife\'s smooth forehead with his lips. ‘I am where I belong... in bed next to my beloved... I will not be separated from her for even a moment, not tonight. The lamp can stay as it is.\' With that thought he closed his eyes and felt himself drifting off to sleep, and for the first time in his life he really felt like he was home.

And he was.

THE END

Though the story is at an end... Reviews are always appreciated.
Check out my new RK fanfiction on this same website... \"Do You Want To Live Forever?\"