ONLY TIME CAN TELL

A Fanfic by Flori-dono

Disclaimer: This is a Rurouni Kenshin-inspired fan fiction. The author is not 
making any money out of this. The characters of Rurouni Kenshin belong to 
Watsuki Nobuhiro, Shounen Jump, and
Sony and others that should be mentioned but were not.

I

Yahiko smiled as he saw the familiar surroundings passed him by.It had been a 
long time since he saw Tokyo and everything wassomehow both old and new. It had 
been five years in fact since he had gone to Yokohama to train as an imperial 
soldier. 

Of course, Kenshin with Kaoru and their little son Kenji would always visit him. 
Even Sanosuke and Megumi would come and see him too. He smiled as he remembered 
his reaction upon finding out that the two had gone and married each other 
(right after Sanosuke came back to Tokyo after travelling for his sort-of-
training, and Megumi having came back also to take over
the clinic after old Doctor Gensei had retired). To say that he was poleaxed was 
an understatement. He knew that two would eventually end up together. It was 
just a matter of time, like, seven years.

He sighed. Training had been hard but certainly gratifying. Sometimes he would 
think of giving up. There were days when he would be so homesick that he wanted 
to go home but couldn't. It was a 24-hour, 365 days a year and five years of 
training. They weren't even allowed to go home for holidays. But Yahiko was not 
a quitter. He persevered and finished his training, graduating on top of his 
class. He was now a soldier of the imperial army. 

After his fight with Kenshin, he decided that he needed to find his own path in 
life. That was when he saw the announcement in the newspaper that the national 
army was accepting trainees. Being a soldier was his lifelong dream and he 
decided to pursue it. Well, Kaoru gave him a hard time at first, but relented 
when Kenshin pointed out that he was almost grown up and he needed to decide for 
himself. So off he went, and now...

He paused as he arrived in front of the dojo gate. He felt a surge of 
excitedness. 

"They would be surprised," he thought. "They don't know I'll be coming home."

He let himself in and proceeded to the dining room where he could hear noises. 
How he missed his family. A lump started to form in his throat. Yes, they were 
his family. 

He slid the door open.

"Tadaima!" he announced, a wide grin on his face.

"Yahiko!" Kaoru gasped. "Why are you here?"

Kenshin laughed. "You sound like you don't want him here."

Kaoru stood up as she glared at her husband. 

"Of course not!" she said then she turned to Yahiko and smiled at him, her arms 
extended "Okaeri nasai, Yahiko-kun."

Yahiko beamed and hugged Kaoru, not as hard as he would've wanted to, due to the 
pregnant roundness of the latter's stomach. "Heh ugly, you didn't tell me you're 
this large already!"

Kaoru let that remark pass. She was surprised upon seeing Yahiko that tears 
started to well in her eyes.

"Welcome home, Yahiko." Kenshin said as he clasped the younger man's shoulder, a 
gesture which was both brotherly and fatherly.

"Oy, Yahiko niichan!" Little Kenji who was now eight years old ("Only two years 
younger than when I first met Kenshin and Kaoru," Yahiko thought) jumped into 
the air with his bokken and tried to hit Yahiko with a swing. Surprised but not 
exactly unprepared, Yahiko caught the wooden sword in one hand and scooped the 
boy with the other.

"What a way to greet your oniichan huh?" he said as he tousled Kenji's hair 
which brought giggles from the boy. He rummaged the inside of his bag and looked 
for his gifts. Yes, there was the ribbon for Kaoru, the jacket for Kenshin and a 
little toy boat for Kenji. They were all accepted with pleasure and a lot of 
"arigatous". 

After putting the gifts aside, and the little boy having retreated to one corner 
of the room to play, was only when the questions started pouring in.

"So they finally let you go on vacation?" Kaoru asked.

"Sort of. To tell you the truth, I've finished the training already," he said 
then added with a proud smile. "I finished on top of our class."

"Oh Yahiko, we're so proud of you!" Kaoru said as tears fell down her eyes.

Kenshin himself was finding it hard not to cry. He was so happy for the young 
man, Yahiko being almost like a son to him. 

"So you're staying for good?"

Yahiko shook his head. "Unfortunately, I only have one month here. I'm being 
assigned to Kyoto."

"So soon" Kaoru wailed. "But we've just had you back!"

Kenshin put a hand on his wife's shoulder. "Then we'll just have to make do with 
that one month, ne koishii?"

She sighed then smiled weakly. "Well, we might as well eat!"

"Good," Yahiko exclaimed. "I'm hungry!"

"Oi Kenji-kun, let go of the toy and finish your lunch!" Kaoru said as she 
ladled miso soup on a bowl.

The young boy pouted and sat down again hurriedly devouring his meal.

Yahiko still chuckling also sat down in his place. Kaoru handed him the bowl, 
which he hesitantly took.

"I hope Kenshin cooked," he said.

She glared at him. "Hmmp, they didn't train you to be polite, ne?

Kenshin laughed. "Yes, actually I did lunch, but Kaoru's cooking has improved 
much. You'd be surprised!"

Kaoru let out a "hmp!"

"Don't worry Yahiko, we'll go to the Akabeko this evening to celebrate!" she 
said.

Yahiko stilled his noodle-laden chopsticks halfway to his mouth. The Akabeko...

"Is Tsubame still working there?" Yahiko asked.

Kenshin and Kaoru exchanged looks.

"Uh yes," Kaoru said, seemingly flustered. She even accidentally swept her bowl 
with her hand causing it to topple down on the floor. 

"Oh, clumsy me," she said standing up then added as she went away. "Uh, I'll 
just get some rag to clean this mess."

Yahiko wasn't fooled. He knew there was something wrong. 

"Kenshin, what's the matter?" he asked the red-haired man. 

"We were meaning to tell you Yahiko," Kenshin started, his head bowed low. "It's 
about Tsubame."

Yahiko's eyes slanted a little. What happened to Tsubame?

Kenshin had never felt so uncomfortable in his entire life. How could he break 
the news to this young man? He sighed.

"You see...Yutarou has come to visit a month ago from Germany," he began. "And 
we forgot to tell you that he's been staying here too, for two months, he said."

Yahiko was still puzzled. "Why, that's great! If he's here where is he? And what 
has he got to do with what you're telling about Tsubame?"

A lot of questions, all of them very hard to answer. But it was better for him 
to know now than him finding it out on his own later. "It's just that he and 
Tsubam..."

He never got his sentence to be finished. At that exact moment the people 
involved were standing at the door and...

"Yahiko!" a feminine voice cried.

Yahiko froze as he recognized the voice as Tsubame's. He had never forgotten 
her, even in those five years. But hearing it again was a dream come true. One 
of the reasons why he decided to get home was to ask her if she could...

Yahiko turned around, but regretted as soon as he saw the couple before him.

"Tsubame... Yutarou..." were the only words he could utter. His gaze was on 
their hands which were intertwined. Obviously, Yutarou's one-month stay in Tokyo 
was pretty much productive. 

"Konnichiwa Tsubame... Yutarou," he said. Where did he get such a calm voice? It 
belied the anger he felt at the moment. Anger at Tsubame, anger at Yutarou and 
anger at himself for being so stupid. He couldn't stand it any longer, the room 
seemed to be suffocating. 

"Excuse me," he said. He needed time to be alone, a little time to think. He 
couldn't even look at the two directly. 

Yahiko stood up and walked outside away from everybody.

 On to chapter 2