+

Done teaching kendo for the day, Kaoru was on her way home when she spotted a lone figure down the sloped edge of the road, sitting by a tree along the river. Just by the rooster-comb style of that dark brown hair, she'd have to be blind not to recognize the person.

"Sanosuke!" she shouted.

No response.

Hence she repeated her call, twice as loud and clear.

Same result. Sano did no more than sit still, now prompting curious her to approach.

Drawing closer, Kaoru was about to call out Sano's name again, but couldn't bring herself to speak the moment his face came into her view. Sano was staring at the orange horizon of the nascent sunset, looking...sad. Almost miserable. Knees drawn close to his chest, slightly quivering lips set in a sullen downward curve, and brows sunken heavy over glazed brown eyes, he looked to be on the verge of crying.

Kaoru dropped herself and her things down a yard away to the side, and pressed on headlong to demand what on earth was the matter...only to find her tongue in a knot. She didn't know what to say. She honestly didn't know how to speak to a face like that.

It...scared her. Not at any time, under any condition, had she witnessed her loud, vibrant and carefree friend act as if the simple privilege of breathing was something he thought he didn't deserve. She would have found it troublesome to fathom such a thing, if only she wasn't seeing it with her own eyes right that moment.

Noticing her presence only now, "Oi, Jou-chan," Sano greeted, his voice atypically soft. He didn't meet her eyes as he turned a little toward her.

Kaoru bit her lip as she mustered enough nerve to ask, "Sanosuke, what's wrong?"

"... Nothing."

Nothing? The young woman couldn't help but frown. Men. Of course they'd never tell if something was wrong, even if all the world could see it. In her sudden frustration, she had to hazard the first guess that came to mind. "Is this about that old sleazebag again?" she posed, and when Sano didn't speak up Kaoru supposed she'd read him correctly and went on. "I've been telling you, Sanosuke: this isn't healthy! It's been a year now, for goodness' sake! You can't keep on brooding over that man!

"Didn't he make it blunt enough he was going back to his wife? He'll never leave her for you! What, would you be willing to be some kind of mistress?! That wouldn't be fair, that jerk just can't have his cake and eat it! You should get over him and find someone else! Someone you could have a family with! Someone who wouldn't treat you like a spare tire!

"Look at yourself, you're young, you've got good looks, why don't you get yourself a job and maybe nice girls would start fancying you! You need to have someone in your life! Look at Kenshin, he has me! Aoshi has Misao-chan! Even Yahiko has Tsubame-chan!

"My God, Sanosuke, I'm worried about you! You need someone who'd love you back and choose to stay with you till the end! You can't be forever lonely and alone! Just forget about that old jerk! He is not worth it! Oh! This is not like you at all!" Kaoru could feel her hands trembling as she finished.

A thin scowl rose over the sadness in Sano's eyes. "I don't care about all that, Jou-chan," he faced Kaoru at last, his voice now with a fraction of emotion.

"W-well, tell me then: why the long face??"

"...I just lost my fucking bracelet."

Kaoru blinked. "Your...bracelet?" She blinked again. "This is all about -- you mean you have a bracelet?"

"Used to. I said I lost it." Sano's gaze fell to his bare right wrist caught in the loose grip of his left hand. "I just found out I didn't have it on anymore, was too fucking stupid not to notice. I've retraced my steps back to my shack 'n looked every goddam place but it's not there. It's prob'ly in someone else's hands by now. Shit. This is silly, dammit, 'mean I keep it nice 'n tucked away for a whole year and now that I decide ta wear it just once I end up losing the damn thing. Shouldn't've worn it in the first place."

Kaoru wasn't sure what to make of the fact that the former kenkaya had come to have an article of ornament in his possession, but whatever that bracelet was, it was as clear as day to her nonetheless that it meant everything to Sano. "It's not your fault, Sanosuke," she said, her tone conveying sympathy. "Bracelets are supposed to be worn, aren't they? Maybe it just broke loose or something. Anyway, maybe you can just get another one."

Sano shook his head with the scarcest energy. "I dunno. ...it was all I had of him... He gave it to me for my birthday last year, the only present I got from anyone. I just thought I'd wear it today. ...for him."

Then Kaoru uttered a shrill gasp. "Oh my God, Sanosuke," she slapped a hand to her forehead, "I completely forgot it's your birthday today! Oh I'm so sorry! No wonder you're so depressed! You lose your bracelet and none of us remembers to greet you! I am so sorry, you poor thing! Would you --"

"Will you stop it, Jou-chan? It's alright, awright?" Sano managed a weak smile of reassurance. "Thanks, anyway."

"Um, how old are you?"

"Twenty-one."

Once again Kaoru could only sit dumbly and watch Sano stare at the tranquil river, the look on his face even more blue and forlorn. It just wrenched her heart to see him like this.

Unable to chase away a keen sense of guilt, "Come on, Sanosuke," she squeezed his shoulder, "let's go to my house, we'll throw a little party for you. You deserve it."

"You don't havta do that."

"Oh but I want to!"

"But --"

"I insist!"

"Jeesh, okay. Just lemme alone here for a while. I'll follow in a minute."

"Great! I'll see you then!" And glancing one last time at Sano, Kaoru bustled along straight to the Kamiya dojo.

+

Finding Kenshin standing guard at the gate, Kaoru was taken by surprise. She rushed to him nevertheless.

"Kenshin, did you know --"

"Kaoru-dono," Kenshin cut her short, springing forward to meet her, "it's Sano's birthday today."

"I know! I just found out! Did you know? Why didn't you remind me?"

"I forgot, too," the sheepish Kenshin scratched the back of his head. "In any case..."

The redhead gave a short nod to his left. Just across the road from them, leaning back against one of the trees, gazing down at the river as he smoked...was Saitou.

"What is that jerk doing here?" Kaoru muttered, glaring at the tall cop. He was in casual attire for once, and a suitcase sat by his feet. "Isn't he supposed to be in Kyoto, or wherever on earth his wife is?"

"Apparently, he just arrived," Kenshin explained. "He said Sano wasn't in his shack or at the gambling houses and he thought maybe Sano would be here with us for a party of sorts."

With the heartbreaking image of Sano still fresh in her mind, Kaoru found herself trembling in infuriation once again. "Well we're gonna have a party alright," she hissed under her breath, "but not with him. Why is he back here, Kenshin?! Don't you know how much pain he's caused our friend?!"

"Yes, although he said," Kenshin leaned closer, his voice next to inaudible, "that that was a lie he'd told Sano about going back to his wife. He never did. He actually was sent to a dangerous mission in Hokkaido and he just didn't want Sano to wait for him because he wasn't sure he'd even return. That's why he had to lie to him...or so he said."

"Oh that's the stupidest thing I've heard in my life! Then he had hurt themselves needlessly that way!"

"I agree. They had always seemed fond of hurting each other, though, hadn't they?"

"Kenshin, this is serious!" Kaoru frowned at the part silhouette of Saitou's figure. "Do you really believe that guy?"

"Well..." A gentle smile crossed Kenshin's scarred face. "Why is he here on Sano's birthday, of all the times, after all?"

Before Kaoru could argue further, Saitou now stepped around the tree, stubbing his cigarette out on the hard soil with his foot. "Is the ahou coming over?" he asked Kaoru, plain and outright.

Kaoru glowered at him. "Why do you care? So you can go tell Sanosuke another lie to hurt him again?"

"In all honesty," Saitou grunted, "it is none of your business what I tell him in the first place."

This made Kaoru stand in combat attention, but Kenshin was swift to appease her with a gentle hand on her back.

"I simply would like to ask him how I came to find this outside his apartment."

"Oh!" Kaoru cried, eyes lighting up at the string of little red beads with a dangling odd-shaped charm between Saitou's fingers. "Is that the bracelet you gave Sanosuke?"

"Yes -- why?"

"Oh my God! He's been looking all over for that! He's grieving down there by the tree thinking he'd lost it for good!"

"Ahou," Saitou murmured. Promptly he snatched up his suitcase and stalked down the road from where Kaoru came.

Together Kenshin and Kaoru watched him without a word.

"Oro," Kenshin blurted out after a while, "we'd better start preparing if we're indeed going to have a party!"

"You're right," nodded Kaoru, and followed Kenshin inside. Despite that Saitou had indeed come back in time for Sano's birthday, Kaoru had yet to derive from this the slightest comfort, what with Sano's purely disconsolate face still a harsh and vivid picture in her mind.

+

About a quarter-hour later...

"I just saw something weird out there."

Kenshin and Kaoru turned to see Yahiko shuffling into the kitchen.

"What was it you saw?" Kenshin asked, putting his long cooking chopsticks aside.

Slowly Yahiko leaned back against the wall, scratching his cheek thoughtfully. His face looked rather pale. "Down by the river, I saw Sanosuke and Saitou... ... ... ... ... ...kissing."

The room waxed silent for a moment, until:

"Oh silly, is that all?" Kaoru spun back to her chopping board, unable to keep herself from giggling.

"Is that all??" Yahiko gaped. "They were sucking face! Don't you freaking get that?!"

"Aa." Kenshin beamed at his steaming cucumbers. "It is not weird at all, Yahiko, that it isn't."

Yahiko nearly choked as he popped a diced carrot into his mouth. "Geezuz. Next thing you'll say, 'It's about time Sanosuke got pregnant!' You're crazy!"

Kaoru smiled delightedly to herself. A pregnant Sanosuke wasn't exactly a pretty thought, but she supposed it was something she'd rather clap eyes on than a woebegone Sanosuke any day. Oh, all the same, she could hardly wait to see him back to his jovial, lively old self again.

And that night, at the little party for Sano's birthday, Kaoru did. Sano sat glowing right next to Saitou -- who never left Sano's side, incidentally -- all manifestations of his earlier dejection gone without a trace, the bracelet of red beads fast and lovely around his wrist.

How Kaoru wished Kenshin would get her something like that.

END