Chapter Text
then
The Mafia would of course have dealings with the Black Market. He swallows his distaste at dealing with pirates, not necessarily because of the work, because he wasn’t exactly one to talk, but because he was reminded of another air-headed pirate. And thoughts of that villain inevitably brought up thoughts of her.
Just his luck that he ended up dealing with another Yato. He must have an affinity for them, huh.
“How could you tell?” The Vice-Captain, and now temporary Commander of the Kaientai, had first asked suspiciously.
He just gestures to her overly large straw hat with his hands in his coat pockets. “I’ve had my fair share of dealings with Yato.”
She raises a brow at that, but he doesn’t deign to satisfy her curiosity during that first meeting. She eventually finds out what or who exactly he’s looking for. She was bound to, considering how often he followed up on his order for ‘The Strongest Weapon in the Universe’.
“You’re persistent, I have to say. Reminds me of another idiot once upon a time. But no. My channels are open, but I haven’t caught word yet.” Blank as her face may be (the same as his actually), he can somehow tell the faint traces of amusement that color her tone.
He sounds almost bored when he asks. “Are all Yato always so annoying?”
“Curious about Yato?” He opts not to answer so she ends up continuing. “Careful though. You’d have to stake your life on the line when dealing with Yato women. Not even the Greatest Alien Hunter in the Universe stood a chance.” Mutsu doesn’t know why she’s saying all of this to someone she doesn’t know that well, only that he was looking for Kagura, and as the only other female Yato she knew, Mutsu felt that she had to look out for her.
The young man who was supposed to be the head of the mafia only shrugs, “I like to live dangerously.”
Part of Mutsu wants to wipe the cockiness out of him, and the floor with him too, but another part of her can’t help but be amused. Were all samurai this shameless?
“You said I reminded you of someone?” She thinks that he wasn’t the type to make small talk, and yet even if he’d never bring up Kagura by name, it seemed like he couldn’t help his curiosity.
Mutsu isn’t one to tell stories either, but she thinks with a bit of nostalgia that she had loved to hear them. Through this way, she had heard a fairytale about a goddess, dragons, and the adventurer who stole her away. Perhaps if she shared one of her own, then the samurai in front of her would share some of his. He seemed like he’d have interesting stories to tell. Part of her hopes to hear about Kagura.
“Yeah, another foolhardy samurai who thought he could buy a Yato, a ship, and a crew, with shells and stars.” She had been the same age as Kagura when she met that dreaming samurai who was around the same age as the young man in front of her. She’d been a pirate who trafficked humans, and he’d been a war veteran. Now kids who were as young as they were back then were assassins and weapons. No matter the era, war would never be kind, even to saplings.
As he listens to her story, Sougo wonders if she’s also fishing for someone among the stars like he is.
“What’ll you do once you receive your order?” Mutsu narrows her eyes. Some stories exchanged didn’t mean she trusted the man, especially with the safety of her former bodyguard and friend’s daughter. “Chain it down so you don’t lose it again?”
Wryly, he thinks of the irony. More like keep her in MyHome, behind bars.
Instead, he stares at her with unnerving intensity and says seriously, “Unfortunately, even if policemen have to arrest criminals, we’re not in a position to take away someone’s freedom like that.”
She has to quirk a smile at that. “You call yourself the mafia. You’re fine with killing, but you draw the line at human trafficking?”
He throws a sardonic grin her way as he waves, “I’m fine with slaves, but money wouldn’t let me tie down that weapon. Who knows? Maybe I can buy it with shells and stars.” Seamlessly, he melts into the shadows, and just like that he’s gone as if he was never there.
Mutsu sighs. It was always hard doing business with eccentric types like that. He wasn’t going to get out of it that easily. Kagura may accept shells and stars but Mutsu was making sure the Kaientei was paid full in cash. Wryly, she apologizes to Kagura in her thoughts. She’d have to deal with that fool on her own.
Now and again he finds himself in Yoshiwara. Because they were in the same line of work, the Mafia and the Oniwabanshu often had to coordinate together to ensure that they weren’t targeting the same people. And because the Commander-General had a strange fondness for the Courtesan of Death, she’d often send him to Yoshiwara to get ninja training. Although Yoshiwara was now a government-approved tourist site, history would show that no matter the era, pleasure districts would always be a hotbed of secrets.
He finds it interesting how so many people and groups who would have never met each other, much less work with each other, ended up having their threads of fate tangled, all because of one man. And it was because of that same man and his rag-tag family, that each one of them had ended up doing what they could, just to bring them all home.
The two female ninjas he meets often for training aren’t unfamiliar faces to him, although they never had a chance to interact this much before. He was even able to do SM play with one of them.
“If it isn’t Souko. How about it? Instead of assassination jobs, you could still come and work in Yoshiwara. With such a pretty face, I’m sure you’d still be a hit,” the once Shinigami Courtesan puffs leisurely at her kiseru. The light tone makes it clear that she’s joking.
“It’s Sougo,” he says deadpan. He didn’t think he’d have to do that whole shtick here. He often went to the SM clubs here, but even that started to get boring after a while.
With no particular thoughts in mind, he finishes his dango as he waits for the information for his next assignment. Despite the slight potshot, he doesn’t have it in him to go against the Shinigami Courtesan. They were both death gods, but the woman who was once Yoshiwara’s moon had finally entered into the light. In his case, the time wasn’t right yet. She had the same aura as anego’s that prevented him from messing with her. For some reason, he could never mess with the straightforward, honest types. Despite her profession, there was also a quiet dignity to her and in her gentle gaze that strangely reminded him of his late sister. As for the other one though…
“Although I admit you know your stuff, Gin-san is still a cut above! I won’t fall for your wiles. That was just a one-time thing. I’ll forever be Gin-san’s loyal sow.” It was hard to believe someone tied up in shibari could say that so proudly.
Sougo could say so many things like how he had a pair of handcuffs on him and if she’d like to test out that theory. Tsukuyo would have scolded Sarutobi and demanded that she at least do that in private, but the moment that name left her mouth, neither of them could say anything.
Even Sacchan was infected with the somber mood. With hesitation she asks, “Do you have any information about where he could be?”
Sougo shrugs. “Not a clue. Hijikata-san hasn’t seen hide nor permed hair yet either.”
“I see,” she mutters quietly, “…how about the other missing person, the former boss of the Oniwabanshu?”
When he doesn’t respond, the excited light leaves her eyes. They could pretend all they liked that everything was the same, but something would always be missing.
In her place, Tsukuyo responds. This was a place to gather and share information after all. “What about Kagura? Do you have any news? Shinpachi comes by from time to time. He’s putting up a strong front, but well…” Tsukuyo trails off. She doesn’t need to say that she can tell he’s pushing himself too hard, that she recognizes the signs, because she was like that as well.
Despite their quirks, both women were still kunoichi, so they could tell the minute change in breathing at the mention of Kagura. Despite that, the voice that responds is blank, “No idea.”
Silence befalls the group.
“Honestly, they should come home already. There are so many people who miss them.” Tsukuyo glances at the spot the pensive young man was occupying. She misses the sight of silver hair, of a useless man enjoying dango in that same spot. She misses the sight of lively red hair, and calming brown. She misses seeing all three of them together, none complete without the other.
Sougo sits in silence. To the other two, he might look almost apathetic. Inside he thinks, that this limbo was annoying. He was never an M, so why was it that he was like the two lovelorn ninja beside him. Why had he been stuck waiting?
Upon getting the information he needs from the M ninja, he immediately prepares to leave before being stopped by the Shinigami Courtesan, “As thanks for your information, you can have any of our services for free. How about it? As Sarutobi can attest, the SM clubs here don’t disappoint.”
He smirks, “Would you happen to have a red-headed Yato pig? Swears like a sailor, and with the ugliest face. If you had a girl like that, I’d probably think about it.”
Tsukuyo smiles with a tinge of melancholy, “Sadly Mr. Customer, that kind of a girl is one of a kind. You won’t be able to find her here.”
He shrugs. “Looks like I don’t have a choice. I’ll have to drag her down from the stars myself then. I’m sure she’d be perfect bait to rail in the person you’re waiting for too.”
As Sacchan fan girls about Gin-san, while Tsukuyo splutters and blushes, he takes his leave and lets out a whistle. Danna really was a stud.
now
For some reason, he remembers the memory upon seeing the familiar sight of Danna pushing away a purple-haired ninja trying to kiss him. He notices Shinpachi ignoring the sight, while China hugs, or more like chokes, Danna from behind. He had trained with the Oniwabanshu for some time, so he notices another presence near them, nonchalantly reading Jump while sucking on a grape chuubert.
The sight should make him feel content – and it does. This is what they fought for after all. And yet, he doesn’t know if it’s the heat, the sight of a grape chuubert, or her face flushed pink with laughter, or a combination of all three, that pisses him off.
He avoids making contact with them and steals into a convenience store to escape the heat, or if he was being honest, the sight. It looks like it was his lucky day, because there was still a pack of grape chuuberts left, but upon grabbing it, someone also places their hand on the pack almost at the same instant.
He engages in a stare-off with the once boss of the Oniwabanshu. Or was he the boss again? Sougo doesn’t care, only that he has his hands on his pack of chuuberts.
“Hey Captain-san, I had my hands on these first. Get the soda-flavored ones instead.”
Maybe it was his naturally competitive spirit coming out, or maybe he’s irked facing the person who got the drop on him from right under his nose. It doesn’t matter that they had actually been on the same side, or that it was staged, or that he’d likely saved Sougo by brandishing the fake Shogun’s head around. If it had been real, Sougo would live with the knowledge that he failed to protect what he needed to protect because he wasn’t good enough and someone had been better than him. Ultimately it’s a moot point. They both failed at protecting what mattered. They all did.
“Oh, so you don’t consider this a pointless fight?”
Zenzou raises a brow, not that it could be seen through his shaggy mane of hair, at the slight hostility he detects. Why bring that up now, after all this time? It’s got to be more than that. He tracks the Captain’s unconscious gaze to the chaos outside the convenience store that could be seen through the window. Despite that, Zenzou’s confusion only increases. How did this kid know Sarutobi, and what did that have to do with anything?
It had nothing to do with the Shogun. It’s just that Sougo finds himself really irritated with men who leave their loved ones behind.
As if answering his unspoken question, the sadist in front of him smirks, goading, “We have compatible interests. She’s my type you could say. If I went after her, would you also back off?”
Zenzou sighs, the grape chuuberts left forgotten. “She wouldn’t give you the time of day, kid. And types and interests mean jack-shit when faced with the real thing. Trust me I know, and” he peers into the stoic face in front of him, “something tells me you know that too.”
Sougo takes his chance to take the pack, but it feels like a hollow victory, with the ninja in front of him psychoanalyzing him.
“Maybe if you’re older-whoops-,” Zenzo flips to avoid the sudden sword slash, “As I was saying,” he continues from his perch on the cashier stand, ignoring the cowering cashier boy, “Maybe when you’re older, you’ll realize that there’s more to protecting and caring about something than keeping it to yourself.”
Sougo scoffs. “Those just sound like the words of a coward. How can you say you’ve protected something, when you won’t even fight for it?”
“Maybe,” Zenzo agrees, “But emotions are a lot more complicated than that. Caring about someone doesn’t mean putting your wants above their own. As for being a coward,” he throws the younger man a mean smirk, “I guess it takes one to know one. Now what or who are you really angry at Captain-san? Because I sure as hell know it isn’t me.” In a whiff of ninja smoke, he disappears, leaving Sougo stewing.
If only either of them had looked outside, they would have noticed a pair of blue and purple eyes peer inside with concern.
China’s birthday is a week-long celebration. Sougo guesses it’s one of the perks of being besties with the Prime Minister of their country. He guesses, if her funeral was such a grandiose affair, then her birthday could be no less. They celebrate in Yoshiwara with free-flowing sake all around.
He can’t hold his drink at the best of times, but he had to admit that he’s out of control now. He doesn’t know if it’s the sight of her in a dainty blue kimono (Red, he thinks blearily, would suit her so much better), with her face made up delicately and lips painted a soft pink. Even if she was horrendous at making herself look pretty, and she lived with poor excuses of the male species, she had enough older sister figures that it wasn’t completely hopeless. She really was loved.
Or maybe it was the slight downcast look in her eyes when he announced that he couldn’t be bothered to spend money on a gift for a pig, not even bringing a single dr*gon ball this time around, before he said he’d consider it if she kneeled and begged like a good slave, and she sucker-punched him, formal kimono or no.
Dizzily, he makes his way over to Danna who was drinking with the Kaientai Captain and Katsura. Danna’s clearly sloshed, but Sougo isn’t that much better. He hiccups, “Danna, I ought to arrest you for conver-cavort-for playing around with rebels, that or for being a disgusting lolicon and living with a young girl under your roof.” He manages to slide his way down to a seat next to him.
“SHADDUP SODA-KUN!” Gintoki hiccups as well. His eyes are already bloodshot, and he’s on the second to the last stage to blackout drunk. “Under what law huh? It’s not my fault they grow up so fast.” He finds his eyes getting teary, but that’s probably just the alcohol.
Sougo has his wits about him, but only barely. “Unmarried young women shouldn’t live with unmarried men,” he recites automatically, a barely remembered lesson from his aneue, “So there’s only one way to resolve this if you don’t wanna get arrested, Danna.”
Gintoki looks at him seriously in his drunk state, as if prepared to do it. Sougo glances slyly at the Shinigami Courtesan who only raises a questioning gaze at him. “Either you get married,” the beer Gintoki had been drinking spews out and all over Sougo’s hakama, “Or China does.” This time around, Gintoki doesn’t hold back and barfs all over him, but even the disgusting display doesn’t hold Sougo back. As he’s said, he can’t hold his drink, so he won’t be accountable for his next words.
Gintoki could almost say the next logical words that follow, ‘What, to you?’, but he doesn’t want to give the brat an opening.
Sougo, if he was in his right mind, would have enough faculties to deflect and say that he didn’t say anything about him being the one to marry China, but instead prepares a case for how she was already of the legal marrying age in Edo, and how it’d save Gintoki thousands in money and tax benefits, before he’s interrupted by an obnoxious laugh.
“AHahHAhahaha, lemme tell you son. Back away now when you have the chance. I can tell you from firsthand experience, Yato women’ll drive you to the cups. You can’t handle ‘em.” Gintoki only smashes Tatsuma’s head into the table to hurry him along to the blackout stage. He’d tie him nice and pretty for Mutsu later so he could get payment.
“I forgot what I was going to say.”
“Listen Sofa-kun-“
“It’s Sougo, Danna.”
“If this is some twisted attempt so that you can fight her crazy brother, and baldy father, there are less painful ways, for you, and more importantly for me.”
Drunk as he was, Sougo could manage a deadpan look well enough, before he sighs wistfully, “Hey Danna, how are you supposed’ta catch the moon?”
Though Gintoki tries not to, he can’t help when his gaze catches on blonde hair that shines golden in the moonlight, and a beautiful face. She was laughing and smiling tonight, a rare sight that brings a smile to his own. Seeing Kagura fully enjoying herself only intensifies the warmth, before he catches Sougo’s gaze on the same sight.
He wants to be angry and be in overprotective papa wolf mode, but he was too buzzed for it. Instead, he drawls, “I’m the last person you should be asking about that Souichiro-kun. Men like you and me, we can’t do it like usual, when it really counts.”
Sougo only absorbs the words with a blank look before smiling foolishly, “Does that mean we’re gonna be eternal bachelors then?”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna die surrounded by grandkids.”
Upon seeing the younger man open his mouth, Gintoki beats him to the chase, “If you say something like you’ll get grandkids if Kagura gives birth, you’ll find your face quickly introduced to Lake Touya.”
Sougo gives a shit-eating grin which proves that was exactly what he had in mind. Gintoki groans. “It just figures that Kagura would attract bubblegum-chewing, rude delinquents. At least you’re not a giant. And yet something tells me you’re more trouble than a hundred-feet tall titan. I bet ya don’t even know how to bow properly.”
Sougo could say he knew perfectly how to bow. The manners Mitsuba had instilled in him were still there somewhere. Instead he just snorts, “You don’t have to worry about that, Danna. I’m sure China’s type is the sweet and docile kind.” Or someone like you, but I don’t think I can measure up.
“You’re sounding a mighty tad bitter over there Okita-kun. Hero worship is one thing, but you don’t have ta copy your gorilla commander on the type of women you liked too. Do ya really wanna be with such violent women huh?! I’m starting to suspect you’re not really a sadist, but a masochist like that hentai kunoichi.” Gintoki bangs down his mug, and rants, “I shoulda known from the start. I mean why would someone like you get into that sh*tty video game. Only someone with blue b*lls who couldn’t get the girl they liked, virgins, or losers would be desperate enough.”
Sougo just raises a brow to get Gintoki to go over what he said.
“OI, EXCEPT ME. Gin-san isn’t a loser or a virgin.”
He lets out a deep sigh. Gintoki thinks he’s getting too old for this. “Although part of me wants to bury you in cement and push you in Edo Bay where no one can ever find you, I think your sister’d haunt me if I did that. And because you started this, I might as well listen to the ramblings of a fellow drunk.”
Danna had actually called him by name this time, which tells him more than anything else that he must really look pitiful right about now.
For some reason Gintoki couldn’t fathom, the sadistic captain seemed to look up to him. An awful decision really. For him as well as the other kids Gintoki had collected like gachapon over the years, Gintoki thought he was far from a good role model. Regardless, a useless adult was still an adult, and it was an adult’s responsibility to impart life lessons, even if they were to no-good sadists who were potentially trying to get into his daughter’s pants.
As if his filter was removed, and a dam had been opened, Sougo sloppily recounted everything.
“I’m used to hating and messing with Hijikata-san, but I hate feeling inferior to him for some reason. Why is that, Danna?”
“Trust me, anyone would hate feeling inferior to that mayo addict. But really it’s the same reason why I mispronounce your name all the time.”
“You’re making me blush, Danna. But don’t flatter me. You call Hijikata-san the wrong name all the time too. I’m not special.”
“No see, I don’t get along well with that guy. It makes sense for me to make fun of him. But we get along well enough since we’re pretty similar, and yet I still say yours with a snide undertone. See the difference?”
Sougo nods sleepily like he gets it.
Time passes as he rambles about how he can’t ask anyone in Edo, because all the men he knew were hopeless cases, till he was forced to ask Gintoki even though he didn’t want to.
“Can you imagine, Danna? Even Kondou-san looks like he has a better chance than the rest of us. Anego liked his food so much that he gets to go through the front door every other day.”
The thought does piss Gintoki off a bit. He unleashes his frustration on an inebriated and unaware Zura by stomping him to the ground. To think that a gorilla and a terrorist had the best chance at getting some tail compared to the rest of them made Gintoki feel slightly murderous, but he just chalks it up to the alcohol.
“And what d’ya want me to do about it Shogi-kun?”
“That isn’t even one of the names you called me in the anime anymore, Danna.”
For all that Gintoki jokes around, he can see from Sougo’s face that he’s waiting for a serious answer. Maybe it was the alcohol, but his usual bloody eyes just looked innocent and accepting.
Gintoki sighs, rubbing a hand through his hair. “I really don’t know what advice I can give you. Only that love doesn’t depend on superficial characteristics. It’s more than your expectations and desires. It’s real and ugly. And it’s only when you know the ugliest parts of each other can you say that you love each other for real. You’re not always going to like how you feel. You may feel like you’re going too fast, or too slow, but there’s no need to rush.”
He pauses. Despite all that he’s said, he doesn’t think he has to emphasize that point. The both of them had already seen the worst of each other, amidst blood and vomit, broken bones, and perversion. If despite all that, he still wanted that gero-ine, and Kagura despite all that, still wanted this prince of sadists, who was he to stop them? He could only be there to guide them.
“The decision has to be hers, but even as I say that, she has to know that there’s a decision to be made in the first place. We’re only sadists because we’re insecure, but you have to put yourself out there. If she decides she’s not ready, do you think you can wait for her?”
Sougo stares at him seriously. It’s not just Shinpachi and Kagura who have grown but all of them. It does make him feel a bit lonely. “Danna, I waited more than two years for her. What’s a little more? But I’ll take your advice as well. Thanks.” Unsteadily he makes his way over to Kagura, and though he looks like a newborn fawn, Gintoki feels proud of him. That is until he opens his mouth-
“Hey China! I wanna put my xxxx in your xxxx!”
At Kagura’s dropkick rendering him unconscious, he could only face-palm. That was totally on him.
Sougo wakes up to the sound of snores. He feels something soft pillowing his head, and opens his eyes to a truly horrendous sight, that of China drooling all over him. He must still be drunk, because he can’t help but think her sleeping and open face was adorable. From his vantage point, he can count each individual eyelash. He really must be drunk to have such a loss of control over his limbs because he finds his fingers tracing over her cheek softly.
Suddenly her eyes open, before she narrows and stares at him as if to burn a laser through his forehead. “I know I’m gorgeous, but you don’t have to creepily stare like that, yes?”
He scoffs. “If gorgeous, you mean horrifyingly ugly, then yes. And you’re the one who took advantage of an unconscious man to do a lap pillow. Who knows what you’ve been doing with my virtue while I was asleep,” he pokes at her cheek and grins smugly.
She burns red. He half expects her to bang his head to the ground, but she continues to let him lie on her lap. It looks like they were in one of the rooms in Yoshiwara, and though the thought of them alone in a room here would normally warm him up in an instant, he notices they’re far from alone, with various members of the Yorozuya, Shinsengumi, Kabuki-cho, and her kinsmen in various sleeping positions scattered all around them. His hand suddenly itches for permanent marker.
She whispers something too low for him to hear, that he asks her to repeat it.
“I’m sorry, yes!” She whisper-shouts shrilly. “I did not know you were drunk. I shouldn’t have hit you. It’s almost as bad as hitting you while you were defenseless.”
They never had a problem playing dirty before, but he supposes like him, it didn’t sit right with her if they couldn’t fight each other all out. And that thought, despite everything that’s happened, everything that’s changed, does comfort him, because he knows that no matter what happens, whether China accepts him or not, that won’t ever change.
He knows she gave it her all to say that, so this time it’s his turn to be brave. “Heh, you did end up kneeling and being submissive for me, so I’ll count it.” He reaches into his kimono and draws out a long wooden box. “Here you go. A master has to reward his pet from time to time.”
As expected she smacks his forehead, but considering her strength, it’s more like a love tap than anything. She looks at the box with suspicion. “You said you wouldn’t spend money, yes?”
“I didn’t.” And Sougo was being honest. He didn’t have to spend a single yen, and yet what he’d given her was priceless. He can’t help but smile at her obviously pleased gasp.
She draws out a beautiful red kanzashi decorated with lilies. She extends it towards him, and beams. It’s the kind of smile he wants to take a picture of, before realizing that maybe he didn’t have to now, that maybe he could convince her to still smile like that for him from time to time in the future. “Put it on for me, yes?”
He makes a show of not wanting to get up. He really was quite comfortable here, before she shakes him silly and shouts at him to stop being lazy. If she continued, she’d wake everyone else up, and Sougo doesn’t want to leave this comfortable bubble where it was just her and him, just yet. “Tsk, so spoiled. No wonder Danna’s broke all the time.”
She crosses her arms over her chest, and huffs, “Everyone says the birthday girl must be spoiled, yes?”
He’s glad she’s facing front so she doesn’t see the indulgent smile on his face. Carefully, almost reverently he combs the strands of her fire-colored hair. Upon twisting it up and securing the bun with the kanzashi, he looks at his work with discerning eyes. Yup, he thinks, red really did suit her best.
She goes over to one of the table mirrors, before exhaling a soft gasp of surprise. “Wow, Sadist. This is beautiful. Where did you learn how to do this?” She touches her hair and the hairpin with wonder.
He shrugs, but remembers a young boy helping his older sister with her hair. “I knew I was good, but to be able to make a pig look like a girl, I must be a miracle worker or something,” he shakes his head with his shoulders raised. Though the words are biting, the tone is soft, which is why Kagura just scowls at him. She turns so that they’re kneeling face to face. Only the light from the moon illuminates them. As always, he has that smug look on his face, but maybe because it was him, the sight comforts Kagura anyway. “You should treat girls more delicately, yes? You’ll never get a good woman like this.” That’s a lie. Kagura knows he has plenty of women who’d fall at his feet if he wanted.
And yet, Sadist is here in this tiny space they’d created amidst all of their family members. He’s here with her. He raises a brow, before starting. Kagura expected another cutting remark. She doesn’t expect the sincere voice. Half of her thinks he was setting up another prank, but that thought flies out the window when he places both his hands on her rapidly warming cheeks. He smiles a boyish smile, not a sadistic or creepy one, and she could almost see why women and men alike would or could fall in love with him. She gulps, her heart beating out a staccato rhythm. “Alright then,” he says, caressing her cheeks softly, “Happy birthday, ojou-san,” he whispers in the space between them, and Kagura could almost swoon.
As one they turn to look at the moon together. Somehow or the other, with the both of them side-by-side like this, she feels warmth where his fingers fill in the gaps between hers, not quite interlacing but just there. “Next time you decide to explore the galaxy, drop me a line okay? If only so I can shoot my bazooka at your face for a proper send-off.”
And because he is who he is, and she is who she is, at his remark, they end up engaged in a childish thumb war, with the winner allowed to give an order to the loser. Sougo smirks ready for the challenge. If he won, he’d order her to wear a collar, or if she didn’t want to do that…maybe just kiss his cheek instead.
Photos of the past somehow comforted him. In the same way, that image of her he held inside, always waiting and laughing, unadorned, in that clean and unchanging place, was something he kept secret and close like an omamori when he and the Shinsengumi had been away. He’d expected to return to an Edo that was still the same, and to see her at her - no their - bridge (it was only fair, if she’d desecrate his sacred places, then he would too).
Even when they’d left, he could see the Shinsengumi amongst the sakura trees playing around with a couple of troublemakers. He’d see traces of those same troublemakers all over the streets of Edo. Although he’d never show himself, time and again, when he’d chance by and pass anego’s, he’d see the silhouette of a gorilla by the light poles, and a flash from glasses. If he frequented a certain diner, that was no one’s business, but his own. And anyway, the place had great alcohol, and free to boot, because without fail, he’d always put it on someone else’s tab – lucky for him that there were two open and running.
Going through a barricaded barracks, or through the streets of Kabuki-cho made his stomach churn enough to want to take a dump. And yet without fail, he’d pass by that same bridge, and see a purple parasol, and a cocky smirk, and he’d be left waiting, waiting, waiting, in the rain or for the sun to set.
Could it be called haunting if it was done by the living? He had carried enough ghosts on his back, and one in his heart. Was he really so bad that he also deserved to be haunted in his memories? He didn’t think he had already wracked up enough bad karma. (Hijikata-san would say otherwise, but when had he ever listened to him.)
And despite it all, he thinks those two years worth it. He doesn’t have to feel unbalanced by those changes because it meant that he’d no longer have to settle with stolen photos when he could take one of her smiling face directly (and kneeling on the ground, cut him some slack, he was still a sadist at heart). Because it meant that there was some hope, that some day, neither of them would have to wait anymore, and he could also be in that spot with her, in that clean and unchanging place, together.
As Sougo looks at their clasped hands, and her mercilessly squish his thumb with a scrunched up look on her face making her look like a constipated gorilla completely at odds with her elegant hairstyle and pin keeping it in place, as he decides to cheat (she wanted to play fair, but he had no such compunctions) and pull her in to land a tender kiss on her forehead, which eventually turns into a sloppy one so that he leaves a wet spot (he wouldn’t change all the way) so that he ends up tasting the warmth and redness of her blush, and eventual anger, he thinks, softly laughing, catching both her raised fists in his, that this – this was fine.
If Hijikata is shocked to see Mitsuba’s old hair pin on China at their next patrol, he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to because his smug grin at Sougo’s reddening ears was enough for Sougo to blast him away with his bazooka. Die, Hijikata-san.
...
‘Remember, Sou-chan. Give this to someone special.’
‘How am I supposed to know, aneue?’
Mitsuba’s eyes twinkle as she looks at her beloved younger brother. ‘You just will.’
...