you lift me up when i am weak your arms wrap around me

[givingsword]

Who: Kaoru and Kenshin
What: Home is wherever you are. Kaoru and Kenshin come to an understanding, and everything changes.
Where: Somewhere outside in the city.
Rating: ..PG? I don't know where it's going. It's rabu time.
When: Late afternoon.

Comments

[maashiro]

Although Kenshin would have wanted to speak sooner rather than later, Kaoru's avoidance of him gave him the chance to speak to Tomoe before he made the final move. He owed it to her, at least; though it was hard face to face with her, able to watch her face grow tighter and tighter with control, to continue to remind himself that he could not think of her as someone with whom he would have a future. He loved Tomoe, and that was irrevocable, and he hated knowing what this was doing to her. But it was unavoidable, a hard truth. She would not want him in the past, either; and he truly desired to walk down the path that he knew would lead him home.

That was where Kaoru came in.

He waited until she was ready to talk to him, not wanting to push her, and not wanting to push himself, either. She finally caught him after an evening watch shift as he was returning in, and though he hadn't been entirely expecting it, he immediately turned to head back outside.

"Mm. Let's walk for a little while."

[givingsword]

Kaoru swallowed--before she nodded, hesitant smile once again. "..alright." She said simply, and Kaoru began to follow him. The space between them felt like a chasm. Each step felt heavy, and her heart was racing in her chest.

Her face was blank, even though on the inside the best word could be tortured. She wasn't sure what to expect. She was unsure of what she even wanted from him anymore--at least, within reason now.

If I stay quiet..things will stay as they are. That's all she thought as she silently walked beside him.

"It sure is..um, nice out, isn't it?" Her voice was light, she had to fill the silence somehow. "All the colors --it's not much different from home if the sky is still like this." She purposely left out the grinning Moon laughing as the Sun began to go down.

Her heart was pounding so hard her chest was starting to hurt.

[maashiro]

Kenshin wasn't so much aware of the space as Kaoru, perhaps, was, though he could tell she was trying to close herself off to him in a way that would have frustrated him further were he still able to sense kenki. As it was, he walked in silence for a time, slightly in front of Kaoru and trusting that she was behind him. He didn't know for sure how long or far they walked, but he could not decide how to start any more than she likely did; instead he held his tongue, watching his surroundings and taking note in the tone of the silence.

He stopped when she spoke, shoes scuffing lightly on the pavement as he turned to face her fully. Kenshin lifted his head to the sky at her mention of it, not so much looking at it as picturing the sky in Tokyo, devoid of the faced sun and moon. "Maybe," he said, voice a little distant, "but it's a sky that still watches over a world that's unable to find its way to peace. Not like at home, where we've long since welcomed in a new era."

[givingsword]

Her hands clenched quietly in her kimono, nodding once. "..That's true. But it's still a sky where people are trying their best to live their lives, no matter what's going on. Even if it's war." She looked up with a small smile.

"I'm sure..everyone is fighting for that place they can return to, right now. " Her expression turned wistful.

"Maybe because of a promise they made---or--" Kaoru's throat constricted, but she kept going. "Or a person..they have something that's keeping them going in any world..--" She turned, looking at him at last.

"Don't..you think so?"