From: "Sekihara Tae" Hello all! Risu-chan would like some help with the ending of this one. I told her I didn't think you'd find anything wrong with it, but that I'd post it and ask for comments... so: Does anyone have any suggestions for the end? Another way of ending it? Domo! -Tae Toki to ki to koneko kitto... (or else "cats and babies") by Risu-chan (dlstrong@prairienet.org ) Kiriko was bored. Bored bored bored bored bored. Yahiko-niichan was gone, probably staring at Tsubame-neechan or something else Kiriko didn't understand -- if he was going to stare at her, wouldn't it make more sense to talk? It was all right for Tsubame-neechan, Tsubame-neechan never talked except to say "kowaiii...!" sometimes, but Kiriko knew Yahiko-niichan talked. Sometimes he never shut up until kaa-chan had to ahem-correct him. It always had the ahem, and was always fun to watch. But since he was gone, there wasn't going to be any ahem-correcting. Because kaa-chan was ahem-correcting to herself in the kitchen, which meant ...cooking. Kiriko knew much better than to go around kaa-chan when she was ...cooking. No matter how bored she was. Which was considerably. Bored. Bored bored bored... Even tou-chan was boring the last time she looked. As far as Kiriko could tell, the only interesting thing about laundry was bubbles, which were wonderful for splashing in; but tou-chan only splashed in bubbles when Kiriko was there; the rest of the time he just scrubbed. Boring boring tou-chan. Boring. Bored. Bored bored... Maybe tou-chan was done being boring. Laundry couldn't last forever. Kiriko decided to go check. Tou-chan was being quiet, but then tou-chan was almost always being quiet until Kiriko got there. Sometimes tou-chan was positively incomprehensible. If he could think of all those marvelous games to play with her and Ayame-neechan and Suzume-neechan, why didn't he play any by himself? Had to be better than being quiet all the time. 'Quiet' to Kiriko just meant 'bored.' Bored bored bored... Kiriko decided, with great altruism, to go rescue tou-chan from his boredness. "Tou-chaaaaan!" He looked up and smiled. Kiriko bounced across the room and plopped down beside him and snuggled against his shoulder. Tou-chan smiling made all the world into sunshine... Tou-chan put down his fluffy stick and put his arms around her. "Konbanwa, koneko-chan," he said, and Kiriko made purring sounds and rubbed her head against his hand so he would laugh. Tou-chan laughed just as nicely as he smiled, but not as often. One of these days, Kiriko decided, she was going to figure out how to fix that. "What'cha doing, tou-chan?" she asked. "Writing a letter to Misao-dono in Kyoto." Misao-neechan? Kiriko perked up immediately. "Me too! Wanna write a letter too!" The day was already looking much less boring. "You do, hmm?" he said, with a laugh in his voice. Kiriko nodded until her head wobbled. "Misao-neechan daisuki!" The laugh escaped, and tou-chan got another piece of paper, then stroked the fluffy stick over a flat rock with a puddle in it and handed it to her. "Go on, then." Delighted, Kiriko grabbed the stick and scrubbed it all over the page. It made lots of marks for a while, then kind of ran out of juice. She scrubbed harder. Tou-chan made a funny noise somewhere between a laugh and a groan. "More ink, kitten -- here, let me..." He made the stick work again and gave it back to her. Content, Kiriko made a few more marks, then nodded and graciously gave tou-chan his stick back so he could finish his. After all, tou-chan had to work at masterpieces harder than Kiriko did. Tou-chan ruffled her hair, and made a few marks on his page, and said, "What does yours say?" "Misao-neechan daisuki!" Kiriko glared at him a little, offended that it wasn't obvious. "Ah." He made a few more marks on his page, smiling. "You know, kitten, it does help the other person to read it if you make marks they know already." "What's read?" "'Read' is how Misao-dono will know what we're saying to her. By looking at the marks. Each of them means something different." Kiriko bent over his arm and looked at his page. Tou-chan made lots of marks. "Misao-neechan has to know what all those mean?" Tou-chan nodded gravely, struggling with a grin. Kiriko gulped hard. "Kiriko-chan mo?" "Don't worry. You've got plenty of time to learn them. You don't need to know them all at once." "Good," Kiriko said, snuggling against his arm again. Suddenly grown-up world had gotten a little too big and scary. Tou-chan stroked her hair again, and rubbed a different stick in the puddle for a minute, then took the fluffy stick again and went back to quietly making marks. Marks meant things. And people knew what they meant. Marks meant things. Sano-niichan's mark on his jacket was too complicated... she needed an easier one to start with... Kiriko blinked, and looked up at tou-chan's face. And then she bounced up and down beside him excitedly. "I know a mark!" she said happily. "Can I can I can I can I huh? Please?" Tou-chan brushed the fluffy end across the puddle again and handed it to her mildly. "Here you go." Kiriko turned the brush aground, and made a cross-shape on her cheek, and beamed up at tou-chan... ...and then her world fell apart. "No," tou-chan whispered, horrified, staring at her with something nameless but awful in his eyes. He grabbed a cloth off the table and dipped it in the water bowl and scrubbed at her cheek. Hard. More from bewilderment and heart-hurt than physical hurt, Kiriko started to cry. Tou-chan stopped, and dropped the cloth, and touched her cheek with a hand that shook. "I'm sorry, kitten -- did I hurt you...? I'm so sorry... I didn't mean..." Kiriko buried her face in his chest and sobbed. She didn't know what she'd done wrong; that mark meant tou-chan, which meant it had to be good... didn't it? She didn't even have a word for what she'd seen in his eyes when he looked at her like that -- all she knew was that she never ever wanted to make him look like that again. Never never never... Tou-chan held her close, rocking her back and forth, bent over her anxiously; his breath ruffled her hair. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you..." Kiriko shook her head against him, choking on sobs. She'd been bad before, but she always knew why she was being bad. This time was worse. She didn't know how to make it better this time. "S-sorry... bad Kiriko-chan..." "Oh, kitten, no. You're not bad. It's not your fault... it's mine. I'm the one who..." Kiriko pulled her head back and glared up at him fiercely. "No! Tou-chan is not bad! That's why..." She stopped herself short, and looked away from the mark on his face. "Tou-chan is not bad," she whispered. "That's why..." tou-chan echoed. His voice was low, and hurting. It made her hurt just hearing it. "That's why... because that means me, and... you just wanted to be like me, didn't you, kitten. Just like me..." Kiriko buried her face in his gi again. "Don't," she begged. "Don't what?" "Tou-chan's voice... hurts... don't..." "Oh," he said, and fell still, cradling her gently and stroking her hair. Kaa-chan came in with something that smelled like she'd been cooking it. Definitely. Too much. She looked at them, and put it down, and said with a smile under the pretend-anger, "Mou. My cooking's not that scary, Kiriko-chan!" Tou-chan shook his head a little, still bowed over her. "Well, come on, then," kaa-chan said encouragingly. "Come out for dinner, ne?" Kiriko sniffled and turned a tearful face toward kaa-chan. Kaa-chan looked at her -- and her eyes did the same wide scared hurting thing that tou-chan's had. Kiriko burst into tears again. "Gomen-n! Just... tou-chan's mark..." Kaa-chan put on her trying-to-be-happy voice. "It's all right, honey. Just tou-chan's mark. But let's go get you clean again!" She bent and scooped Kiriko up and carried her to the bath-house for soap. While kaa-chan scrubbed at her cheek, Kiriko bit back more sniffles. "Didn't mean..." "I know," kaa-chan said, trying really hard to smile, and the trying scared her. "Don't worry. It'll be all right. Yours washes right off!" "Kaa-chan mad...?" "No, honey, not mad. Just... upset." "Why?" "Oh, kitten." Kaa-chan curved a hand against her cheek. "Looking at you with tears on your sweet little face, and... that..." Then kaa-chan stopped and shook her head, and hugged Kiriko like tou-chan had, like she was almost scared to. "Never mind. You're all washed, everything's all better. Let's go eat dinner." Kiriko scrubbed a sleeve across her eyes. "...have to?" This time when kaa-chan's smile twitched, it was in a reassuringly familiar kaa-chan's-mad-about-her-cooking way. "Yes." Happy that some of the world was still the same, even if she didn't want to put that part in her mouth, Kiriko jumped down from the wash-stool and reached up for kaa-chan's hand. That night, after they'd tucked her under her blankets and kissed her good night, Kiriko lay very quietly, trying not even to breathe loud, to listen. "...not your fault. To her all it means is tou-chan, and tou-chan means wonderful." "Oh, koishii..." Tou-chan's voice hurt. After a minute, so did kaa-chan's. "I know. I don't want to tell her either." "It is my fault. I shouldn't have frightened her... and... --and I told her myself." Tou-chan made a sound that could have been a laugh or a sob. "Marks mean things... bright little kitten. Marks mean things..." Kaa-chan said, "We tell her some people hurt tou-chan. That's all it means." "No, koishii. No. Tou-chan hurt some people." His voice fell softer. "Tou-chan hurt too many people..." Kaa-chan didn't say anything for a long time. Kiriko huddled under the covers. People hurt tou-chan, and tou-chan hurt people? She didn't want to hear any more. The next day, at breakfast, Kiriko was very very quiet, and very thoughtful. Kaa-chan said it meant one thing. Tou-chan said it meant something else. Kiriko tried not to think too much about what they said it meant. But if marks mean different things... ...maybe it didn't mean what tou-chan and kaa-chan thought. Tou-chan said she had years to learn what all the marks meant. So if she found someone older than tou-chan who knew more marks... Kiriko knew someone lots and lots older than tou-chan, too. Genzai-jiisan had to be the oldest and smartest person ever. And Ayame-neechan was old enough to go to school; maybe she could help Kiriko figure out how to ask Genzai-jiisan what tou-chan's mark meant. What it really meant. Because no matter what tou-chan and kaa-chan said, in Kiriko's world, it meant tou-chan. And that meant it couldn't mean what they said. So it had to mean something else. It had to. Kiriko gulped her tea quickly, and said, "Tou-chan, please, wanna go see Ayame-neesan and Suzume-neesan today! Please? Please please?" Tou-chan glanced at kaa-chan, who shrugged; tou-chan said ruefully, "Why not? Let's go when I finish the dishes." "Wai! Wai wai wai wai--" She ran across the table and flung her arms around tou-chan's neck. "Around next time, kitten," he said, laughing, and hugged her back. Tou-chan was laughing again. The world was getting better. Now all Kiriko had to do to fix everything was to find out what his mark really meant. Or even how to ask... Those were the longest dishes ever. At Genzai-jiisan's, tou-chan and Genzai-jiisan both sat there. Watching. Smiling, but watching. And Kiriko was not going to ask tou-chan what it meant. Definitely, definitely not. She squirmed, and said to Ayame-neechan, "Wanna go hide!" "All right," Ayame-neechan agreed. "I'll count..." "No! Wanna go hide together." "But then it's not hiding, is it?" "Yes it is. It's just hiding together. Ne?" Tou-chan called over, "She's right, you know," with the sun shining happy in his eyes. Stymied, Ayame-neechan scratched her head. "I don't get it, but... oh, well. Come on, sis." She took Suzume-neechan's hand on one side and Kiriko's on the other. "There's a real good tree for hiding around back..." It was a very good tree. It was short enough to get into and strong enough not to wobble too much when they did and not very far to fall if they had to. For hiding it wasn't much good, because there were lots of holes in it, but it was good enough for Kiriko since tou-chan was still on the other side of the house. Once they were all settled, Kiriko looked around in wide-eyed determination. "Got a question." "And we had to hide?" Suzume-neechan asked. "Why?" "Just... 'cause." Kiriko took a deep breath. "What's tou-chan's mark mean?" Ayame-neechan blinked. "Ken-nii's mark?" "You know!" She traced her finger across her cheek. "Why not just ask Ken-nii?" Suzume said. "It's his mark." "No!" Ayame-neechan blinked again. "Daijoubu, Kiriko-chan," she said carefully. "We won't ask. But why not?" "'Cause..." Kiriko squirmed, and hugged the tree branch, and said finally, "'cause tou-chan... hurts..." "Oh." Ayame-neechan thought for a minute. "Jiichan's got a big book with all the marks in it. Sensei calls 'em kanji. But I don't know how to use the book to find any marks I don't know already..." "Let's go ask jiichan," Suzume-neechan suggested. "But tou-chan's watching!" A little glumly, kicking her feet in the air, Kiriko added, "Tou-chan's always watching. Even when he's not." Ayame-neechan and Suzume-neechan looked at each other. "Except when he goes somewhere else inside his head," Ayame-neechan said wryly. "Know what I mean? Then anybody can bonk him with something. Balls are good. Or sticks." Kiriko wrinkled up her forehead. "Tell tou-chan to go play hide and seek in his head?" "No, no," Suzume-neechan said, giggling. "He just goes." Kiriko screwed her eyes shut and scrunched up her whole face and thought really hard. "Maybe... tell tou-chan to go hide, and we go find him? Only not 'til Genzai-jiisan's found his mark first?" "What if he doesn't want to?" Suzume-neechan asked. "This is hard!" Kiriko wailed. "It's all right," Ayame-neechan said. "It's just a secret." "Secrets are hard!" "But once you find out, you can go tell him so it won't be a secret any more." Kiriko said softly, "Only if it means something good." "It will," Suzume-neechan said happily. "It's Ken-nii's mark." Kiriko didn't have any words to say why she was afraid of what would happen if that was wrong, so she tucked her thumb in her mouth and hopped down from the tree. "Come on," she mumbled around her thumb. "Go ask tou-chan now." Tou-chan was puzzled, but he still looked like sunshine instead of clouds, so everything was still all right. "I can do that," he said, and glanced at Genzai-jiisan with a mischievous grin. "Shall we both hide? I bet I can hide better." "No no no," Kiriko said, stamping a foot. Puzzled again by her vehemence, tou-chan asked, "Why not, kitten?" Kiriko froze in panic. Oh no oh no oh no-- Ayame-neechan was smart. She said, "Ken-nii, we're all short. We need somebody tall to look on top of stuff for us." Tou-chan smiled. "And I'm shorter than Genzai-sensei, so I wouldn't be any help, would I." "No," Ayame-neechan agreeed primly. "Go hide." Tou-chan put on a funny-sad face and shuffled his sandals around, walking toward the garden with his shoulders slumped. "Sessha ga wakaru de gozaru, honto ni, wakatta..." Kiriko struggled with herself. Tou-chan needed not to be watching, and she was pretty sure he was being funny, but... still... she needed to make sure she didn't hurt him again... "Tou-chan wa daijoubu?" she asked in a tiny voice. Tou-chan froze, and turned around quickly. "Hai, hai!" He reached down and stroked her hair. "Gomen ne -- I was just teasing you." Kiriko heaved a slightly annoyed sigh of relief; he tickled a fingertip under her chin so she would giggle, and said with a sweet smile, "There's my happy kitten. So. Where's a good place for a short person like me to hide?" He put a fingertip to his chin and looked up at the sky thoughtfully. "In the shed de gozaru ka?" "Tou-chan!" Kiriko stamped her foot again. "Not supposed to tell!" "Hai, hai. Sumanai de gozaru, sumanai de gozaru na..." Tou-chan made an elaborate show of tiptoeing away from the shed. Kiriko watched him until he was safely gone around the corner of the house, then nodded to herself emphatically and marched over and tugged on Genzai-jiisan's kimono. "Got a question!" she whispered fiercely. "Come on, minna, let's go inside," Ayame-neechan said, decisive. "But Himura-kun..." "Ken-nii's going to be lots better at hiding than he thought," Ayame-neechan said, sounding exactly like kaa-chan being determined. "Come on, jii-chan." "Yare yare..." Genzai-jiichan blinked down at the three of them, and quickly hid a smile behind his hand. "Let's see here," he said, and got a heavy book down from the bookshelf in his study. He sat it on the floor in front of them, then opened it and flipped a few pages and pointed. "Like that, you mean?" Kiriko bent over his arm and looked. "Hai!" "That one is kan," Genzai-jiichan said, smiling. "What's it mean?" "It's a way to weigh things. One kan is about the weight of a baby or a small cat." Kiriko blinked several times, then said, utterly nonplussed, "Stop teasing, jii-san." "Honestly, that's what it means!" He held up both hands in token of sincerity. Kiriko crossed her arms like kaa-chan when she was about to do some ahem-correcting of Yahiko-niichan. "There's lots more marks in there. Go check." "I promise, Kiriko-chan. That's what it means. Shall we go find your tou-chan now?" Ayame-neechan said, "Jii-chan, what about when it's a bit of something else?" "Oh." Genzai-jiisan sighed a little. "That would take us a while, girls. Are you sure we wouldn't rather go find Himura-kun?" Kiriko looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Genzai-jiisan, please please please -- it's got to mean something better than that. For tou-chan. It's got to." Genzai-jiichan flipped a few more pages, and pointed out the same mark in a box. "How's this? Zu, or hakaru. A picture, or a map, or measuring something..." Kiriko considered, then shook her head. "What else?" Genzai-jiichan let his finger wander down a few more pages; Ayame-neechan read over his shoulder. He tried to turn a page quickly; she stopped him, and pointed at one. "What's that? It's got that mark..." "Korosu," Genzai-jiichan said quietly. "Murder. Death." "No!" Kiriko wailed. "No no no -- that's all wrong!" "Definitely all wrong," Genzai-jiichan agreed with a sigh. "Poor Himura-kun..." He turned some more pages, and Ayame stopped him to point again. "Jii-chan..." "Nageku." Genzai-jiisan's voice softened a little. "Regret. Grieving. Lamentation, sobbing aloud..." Kiriko wavered on the verge of a tantrum. "You're not helping!" She put her hand over the bad mark, and said, "It doesn't even look like tou-chan!" Genzai-jiisan blinked in befuddlement. "Doesn't look like tou-chan...?" "The picture one was better!" "Nani...?" Kiriko groped for the right words. "There's more pieces of tou-chan than that. The way his eyes do this--" she sketched a happy-eyes arc in the air with a fingertip -- "and his hair does this--" she shook all hers forward into her face. "Need one like that. Need one that smiles." "One that smiles," Genzai-jiichan repeated thoughtfully, and flipped forward and back a bit, looking for one in particular. "Ke, mune na. Rare, phenomenal, exquisite..." Big words, she didn't know exactly what they meant, but they didn't sound bad. "Better," Kiriko mumbled, "but... still doesn't look like tou-chan." "I know one," Ayame-neechan said. "Sensei showed us one with Ken-nii's mark on it last week. Jii-chan, where's ki at?" Genzai-jiisan flipped some pages and ran his finger down a column, then patted one. "This one," he said softly. "Spirit. Courage. Heart. Care, attention. Soul's essence..." Kiriko blinked at it, then nodded fiercely. "That one! That one that one that one -- want it? Please please want it please?" She reached over and hugged Ayame-neechan tight. "Thank you -- need that one -- need that one -- please please please--" Genzai-jiisan chuckled, and got a piece of paper and marking things. "How does this one look any more like Himura-kun, little one?" he asked, mixing ink. "Tou-chan's hair!" Kiriko announced proudly. "Some parts go this way, some parts go that way, but mostly it all goes both ways at once." Genzai-jiisan put the stick down and laughed until he had to scrub tears from his eyes. "Yahari Himura-kun... have to introduce the boy to a comb someday...!" Kiriko winced. "No." "No?" "Kaa-chan's got a comb. It hurts. And besides..." Kiriko chewed on a finger, and mumbled, "...tou-chan's hair daisuki." "Well, there we are, then," Genzai-jiisan chuckled. He made tou-chan's mark on the paper; Kiriko reached for it, and he stopped her quickly. "Just a minute, let the ink dry first..." "Mou." Genzai-jiisan laughed again. "You learned that one from your kaa-chan, didn't you!" Kiriko nodded, and reached out for the paper again; this time he gave it to her. "Arigatou!" She hugged Genzai-jiisan, who made harrumphing noises, and then hugged Ayame-neechan again. "Thank you for tou-chan's mark! Now gotta find tou-chan..." Kiriko let go and ran headlong out the door, shouting happily at the top of her lungs. "Tou-chan! Tou-chaaaaan!" Ayame looked up at jii-chan and said with infinitely world-weary resignation, "Was I ever that little?" It took a long time for jii-chan to stop laughing. And then he started again when Kiriko straggled panting back up onto the porch after her mad sprint around the house. "Problems?" "Tou-chan... hides too good..." "Kiriko-chan," Ayame-neechan said, "did you even stop to look?" "No..." She gasped for breath. "...didn't see him!" "That's why it's called hiding!" Suzume-neechan giggled. "Come on." Kenshin, perched on the edge of the bath-house's roof, put both hands over his mouth to stifle laughter when all three girls came tumbling out of the house and tore off in different directions, calling. "Ken-nii!" "Ken-niitan!" "Tou-chaaaaaaan! --Mou!" They were the ones who mentioned looking on top of things de gozaru yo! Still, not their fault if they only think of places they could go; no one's taught them a need to think differently. He waited for Suzume to vanish around the corner of the shed, then leapt down lightly and dusted his hands off. Hmm... somewhere only short people think to go, or to look... --on the sunny side, so they'll see the color of my gi and my hair. Kenshin crept under the house's porch and sat waiting in a warm bit of sunlight. Nice and bright. Nice bright pink and red under the porch. And me, why, I was just enjoying the sunbeam de gozaru ne... After they ran past him a second time, he sighed to himself, and smiled, and 'forgot' a little more conspicuously, leaning back on his elbows and stretching his legs out to cross his ankles in a soft patch of grass in the yard. White hakama, brown tabi, green grass. Just have to be careful none of them trip over my feet if they're not looking down... Kenshin smiled again at the sound of little feet trotting to a stop. The porch had legs now. The porch had tou-chan's legs now. "Waiiiiiiiiii!!" Kiriko ducked under the porch and threw herself on tou-chan delightedly. "Found you!" "Too sharp for silly little me," tou-chan said, and brushed a fingertip down her nose to pat the tip lightly. "You'll have to teach me how to hide better sometime." Kiriko shook her head back and forth. "Tou-chan hid too good already!" She'd scrunched the paper when she'd jumped on tou-chan, and tried to smooth the wrinkes out some. "Found it too!" "Hmm?" "Found tou-chan's mark! The right one!" His hands went too still. Kiriko shoved Genzai-jiisan's paper into his hands and patted firmly. "See? See? Tou-chan and kaa-chan forgot! There's more parts!" "Eh...?" "The one about weighing the cats and the babies is just one of 'em, see?" Tou-chan looked like he'd been hit with a fish. (When kaa-chan hit him with radishes he looked a little more dizzy; this was definitely a dazed, hit-with-fish-type face.) "Cats and babies de gozaru ka...?" Quickly, in case this was a bad thing again, she brushed a finger across the cross-shape. "--Never mind that one! Tou-chan has lots more parts than that one." Kiriko reached up and patted his face gently. "See, lots more parts. Just like the mark. And it even goes all kinds of ways like tou-chan's hair. And it's a good mark. It is it is it is! Ne? Onegai?" Tou-chan sat up and cradled her very gently in his arms, with his head bent so all his hair spilled forward into his face. Kiriko brushed back some of his hair anxiously. "Onegai?" she whispered. "It's a good mark. It is. Genzai-jiisan said what it was and everything. Onegai?" Kiriko took a careful breath and reached up to pat tou-chan's cheek. "Just like tou-chan..." "I love you," tou-chan said very softly. "I love you so much, kitten." But his voice hurts again. Why? Kiriko looked down at the paper in his hands, and bit her lip. Maybe it was wrong. Yes. Definitely wrong -- "Genzai-jiichan couldn't find one with tou-chan's smile, though... gomen...?" "It's beautiful," tou-chan said, and hugged her fiercely. "It's perfect. Thank you. I love you so much...." Kiriko struggled a little, anxious, because his voice sounded like tears. "Did... did that... hurt? Gomen..." "No," tou-chan whispered, snuggling the cheek with the mark against her hair, though he still sounded like tears and she needed to see him smile. "No, kitten. You didn't hurt me. You..." He took a ragged breath, rocking her back and forth. "This is the first time it hasn't hurt... in a long, long time. Thank you. Thank you..." "But you're crying," she choked. "Shouldn't..." "I know," he said, and laughed a little. "I'm sorry. Very silly... foolish tou-chan. Crying because..." he kissed the top of her head, and murmured, "because I believe you. I believe your innocence." "So stop crying!" Kiriko scolded, on the verge of tears herself. "I know. I'm sorry, kitten." He laughed again. "Silly, silly tou-chan. 'More parts than that,' because of love. Because you need them. Because you need them, you find them in me; and when you touch them, when you look with love... for the first time... so can I. As though it's the first time, because it is for you... foolish tou-chan, to ever forget..." Kiriko thumped a little fist on his shoulder like kaa-chan did. "Always had lots more parts!" She tugged on his hair. "Just like that! Otherwise there wouldn't be tou-chan, just that mark... so stop crying! Onegai?" Tou-chan scrubbed his sleeve across his face and nodded at her. "Silly tou-chan..." "Silly tou-chan," Kiriko agreed. "Smile!" Tou-chan smiled, for her, and all the clouds went away. Even with tear-marks still on his face, she could see the sunshine clear through his eyes, all the way down deep, like the pond in the summer. The world was warm and happy and safe again. Relieved and exhausted, Kiriko snuggled into the crook of his arm and smiled up at him too. "Keep doing that," she directed, her eyes drifting closed. "Sleepy little kitten," tou-chan murmured, and scratched behind her ears; Kiriko giggled. "Go ahead. Rest. I'll be right here." "...smile..." "I'll smile too. Just for you. I promise." Kiriko snuggled against him and yawned hugely and closed her eyes. Sleeping's good. Tou-chan's here smiling. Happy now... ...be bored again later. Later. Right now just happy. "...love tou-chan..." She could hear the smile in his voice as she drifted off to sleep. "I love you too, kitten. Always." Kenshin watched his little kitten fall asleep in his arms, and smiled to himself in silent awe, lifting light fingertips to his scarred cheek. Cats... and babies... How remarkable. I'll have to tell Kaoru. Cats, and babies, and our sweet kitten. --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- ?? 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