Title:  History Lessons  by Rose and Julie
Pairing:  Keiko/Kenshin, hints of Keiko/Kurama
Length:  14K-ish
Authors on LJ:  buffybot76 and whirleeq
Author Website:  Story found at MediaMiner.org

Why this is a must read:

I know I’ve stated somewhere that I’m a sucker for time travel fics.  This one is sort of a time travel with a bit of a twist at the end.  Or maybe a Rip Van Winkle description would be better.  With a twist.  Anyway, Keiko has been studying the Meiji Restoration in history class and gets a chance to meet the greatest assassin of the Ishin Shisi, the feared Hitokiri Battousai.  With a twist.

I loved the way these two authors paced the story.  I found the set up for the two to get together to be sweet with just the right amount of angst and of course the sex was hot, which is a given.  Having a basic knowledge of Samurai X/Rurouni Kenshin will help with this fic, as a lot of Kenshin’s early days before and just after he becomes a wanderer is mentioned.

History Lessions

"Hiko-san, you saved our lives," Okon said. "It's the least we could do. We are so grateful to you--if there's anything else we could do, anything at all..." She leaned in to emphasize her words, lips parted and cheeks flushed.

"Oh yes, " Omasu seconded. "Anything, Hiko-san." Her doe-like brown eyes rested on his lips as she spoke, and then began to travel down the rest of his body.

"What did you speak of, you and this hero?" she asked him with a smile.

"Nothing much," he responded. "We simply had a good conversation."

A short (for me as I tend to like longer stories) fic about Kenshin and Tomoe and their last days together. It's a sweet and sad little first time fic, just as the title implies.

 He settled back against the blankets with a sigh, eyes wide in wonderment at her boldness and beauty. She looked at him, gave a small smile and said, "Everything I will do to you you can do to me, and I will like it."

The Battousai Becomes A Man

Here is another fic by Conspirator. She is one of my favorite authors for this fandom and I have a few I’m going to rec this month. 

In Descent Into Madness, Conspirator creates a compelling transformation of the young, idealistic Himura Kenshin straight off his shishou’s mountain into the jaded, cold-blooded Hitokiri Battousai we see at the end of the OVA. Her style of writing in this fic, grips you from the very first pages and even if you know the tragic ending, you find yourself unable to put down until the very last swordfight. You feel everything Kenshin does from his joy in actually making friends his own age to the devastating heartache at the end of the story. There are humorous moments as well as he interacts with a wonderful cast of original characters. The descriptive way she writes fight scenes makes your mind’s eye see every leap and swordstroke. Overall, if there is only one fic you ever read about Kenshin’s early days, this should be it.

Iizuka felt Kenshin's eyes scrutinizing him and found it somewhat disconcerting, so he decided to make more conversation. "Yeah, you know, we tried before just to pick out some of our top swordsmen to be our hitokiri, but it never did work out…."

 "Hitokiri?" Kenshin said before he could stop himself.

 "Yeah, hitokiri—you know, your new job. Anyway, they were just clumsy and tended to talk too much—it didn't work out, so they've got a lot pinned on you and your skills."

Hitokiri. What the men at breakfast had been talking about. 'It's me,' Kenshin realized. 'I'm the hitokiri being billeted here permanently. But I'm no cold-blooded killer….,' and he hoped his new friends would realize this, too.

And such a talented boy he had turned out to be! He had learned to read kanji by the time he was five, had a positively magical touch at growing vegetables, and had mastered the pottery wheel in record time. He had even started studying the writings of the Buddha and learned to meditate. The nuns were so thrilled with this boy that they never missed a chance to tell him how wonderful he was, and he had to agree—he truly was wonderful.

A Star Is Born