"Fox!"
She would know that voice--and that nickname--anywhere, even if it had not been yelled across her clinic. "Sagara Sanosuke," she said, raising her voice just enough to be heard, but very deliberately not yelling, "I am with a patient. If there is something you absolutely must say to me, then wait outside until I'm done. If not, leave, because I'm busy."
When there was no further shouting, she smiled to herself, then concentrated on the stitches she was sewing into a young boy's arm. When she was finished, she gave the boy and his mother a few instructions, then added, "Next time you think your mother's vegetable knife would make a good practice sword, try not to cut yourself. You might end up chopping your hand off instead."
"There won't be a next time," the mother said, frowning at her son, but then turning and bowing to Megumi. "Thank you very much, Dr. Takani."
"Thank you," the boy echoed, and bowed as well. Megumi returned it, and then watched as they left.
"Now can I come in?" Sano asked, poking his head into the room, and then strolling in anyway. "Hello, Fox."
"Sano." She looked at him, and then her eyes narrowed--he was clean, and dressed marginally better than usual. That only happened for one reason. "I'm not lending you more money." She turned her back on him and started to clean her hands and her needle.
"Aw, Fox!" he protested, scratching the back of his head with one hand. "That's not the only reason I come to see you, you know."
"When you're clean and dressed up--or as dressed up as you ever get--it is," she said crisply. "And I've already told you no. Did Kaoru throw things at you when you asked her?"
"I didn't ask Kaoru anything," he said, looking hurt--though she didn't know if he really was. One never could tell with Sano. "I don't want to borrow money, Megumi."
He used her name. That was surprising enough that she set the needle down. "Then why are you here?" she asked, turning around and appraising him coolly.
"I was wondering," he started, and then stopped. His cheeks turned slightly pink. "I was wondering," he began again, and still stopped.
"Yes?" she asked, doing some wondering of her own. Something was flustering Sano?
"Would you like to come to dinner with me?" he blurted out suddenly, after a moment of silence. "Just you and me, at Akabeko. No Kenshin or Kaoru or Yahiko. I'll even pay."
Megumi was glad now that she'd put the needle down, or she would probably have stabbed herself. Sano was asking her to dinner? And was not trying to get a free meal out of her?
He looked at her eagerly, somehow seeming like a puppy in that earnest gaze. And she couldn't bear to kick him. "All right," she said, "but--"
"Yes!" he shouted, raising a fist in the air. Then, grinning, he ran out of the room.
He didn't even tell me when he's picking me up, she thought in bemusement. Oh well. He'll come back. He always does.