A/N 1: Er, hello! *waves sheepishly* Since I don't really have much quality time with the computer nowadays but tons with boredom, I decided that (really short) drabbles were the way to go! I have several of these almost completed already, and they range wildly from canon-introspection to AU-humor.

Anyway, enough for now, onwards to the drabble!

Sketch One: On Love

What do you think of when you think about love? The Kenshin-gumi answers.

When she thinks about love the first thing that comes to mind is not, as everyone would expect, Kenshin. No, she is an optimist at heart, one who firmly believes in love, and she likes to think that true love is more than the constant doubt that plagues her and Kenshin's relationship. When she thinks about love she thinks about her father, on the day that he handed her a new bokken, declared her shihandai of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu and told her, "Remember, hime, that as long as you have the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, you have me." To her, love was that moment, when she knew with such absolute certainty that she would never be alone, that her father would always be there for her, that she would always be, in one way or another, wanted.

He thinks of love and pride as interchangeable things. When his father proudly told him, just before he left to fight for a cause he only half-believed in, that he would grow to be a great samurai – that was love. When his mother, amidst her wheezing coughs, whispered to him that she was proud of him – that was love. When Kenshin looked at him with pride in his gaze after finding out that he had defeated Henya all on his own – that was, he likes to believe, love. And when he felt so much shame for not being there where Kaoru had 'died', and later for believing that she really did – that was most definitely, undoubtedly, love.

He doesn't think much about love. To him, love is like flat feet – some people have it, some people don't. But he has seen great instances of love, moments that make him just a little envious and, more often than not, regretful for not having it. When he thinks of love – the great, all-encompassing sort – he remembers Captain Sagara's love for the common man. To desire something better for the people you love, to fight for them and then die for them, surely that was love, as pure as it comes. Some days, when he's particularly drunk, he would collapse on the dojo porch and stare up at the stars, wondering when it would be his turn to have love.

She thinks of love and scoffs, because she doesn't believe in love – at least, not the kind of eternal, everlasting love that people, especially certain tanuki girls, seem to believe so wholeheartedly in. She thinks love, like so many other things, is ephemeral – there one day and gone the next, just like her family. But even though she doesn't believe in endless love, she sometimes wonders, alone in the clinic, if temporary love could possibly give her enough happiness to tide her over the rest of her life. If forever wasn't possible, then maybe she could just make do with for now.

He doesn't like thinking about love. Because it reminds him of everything he had lost…

And now, everything he could lose. And that thought scares him far more than anything he has encountered in his life.

A/N 2: I think I've made it pretty obvious who's who, right? I just hope that they don't sound like one single character at different moments in his/her life…Unfortunately, I'm not really good at writing distinct voices. Which brings me to my next point… I'm in need of a beta reader so I can get these drabbles up asap (if left to my own devices, I would re-read them over and over again before I actually post anything). So if you're interested in beta-ing for little ole me, feel free to email me with anything you've written before.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Reviewing would make me happy and more likely to post more!