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Birthdays are useless. Who needs these things, it was just another day - nothing special, nothing new, just a reminder that you lived another year.
Honestly, Hijikata doesn’t get the appeal of the celebration, but Kondou insists on celebrating, and since the Shinsengumi heard about it, they’ve been planning some sort of party, and he doesn’t have any say with what the ‘preparations’ for his birthday.
Honestly. He would enjoy this more is birthdays actually mean or do something to the person… and it honestly isn’t bad if a certain someone makes it to the city…
But that’s not for today’s story… or is it-
And so, Hijikata lets them do what they want as he goes on with the week as normal, completely ignoring whatever anyone says about his upcoming birthday because they would not listen to him anyway. The only one who acts normally is Sougo, but that’s a given because he’s an asshole… something Hjikata never thought he would thank, but here he is, thankful that the gremlin isn't pushing it.
He sighs, doing his nightly routine before lying down on his futon, staring at the ceiling and thinking about whatever catastrophe the Shinsengumi is going to cook up on his birthday.
The start of his birthday wasn’t so bad, after all. No one surprised him when he woke up, even Sougo was suspiciously quiet and didn’t blow a horn right beside his ear.
As he goes outside of his room, no one treated him any differently. No one greeted him a ‘Happy Birthday’ or asked him about birthday plans. Honestly, it made him hope that they actually listened to him and didn’t do anything extravagant.
Of course, that’s not gonna work. They were probably thinking of acting like nothing is new to bring down his hopes then surprising him with a party later that night.
He would probably be affected if he were any other person, but he’s not, isn’t he?
So he goes along with their plans, ignoring the whispers of “He’s probably really hurt we didn’t greet him, but he’s just not showing it.”-
LIKE AS IF-
By the end of the day – with the car chases he had – he actually forgot it was even his birthday. That was, of course, until he opened the doors and was greeted with loud “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!”s
Which, again, didn’t affect him at all. No change in expression, no surprise and gratefulness. Just… normal, stoic, boring, Hijikata.
“Toshi! Blow the candles!” Kondou seems suspiciously excited for some reason. Well, not that he never gets excited, but this is a new level of excitement.
Suspicious.
Hijikata looks around and spot Sougo in the corner of the room, arms crossed and frowning, looking at the wall.
Even more suspicious because he would usually do his extra best to annoy Hijikata on his birthday.
He approaches the cake and leans down to blow the candles, except before he could do so, he smells the usual taste of mayonnaise. He squints his eyes and looks at Kondou, nonverbally asking for an explanation.
He grins, scratching the back of his neck. “Mitsuba-dono made you the cake.”
He hears Sougo huff in the corner but pays no attention to it, mind wandering to his sister that they left on the countryside.
Hijikata’s chest tightens, knowing how much he left and ignored just to avoid getting anyone hurt, yet knowing that they were still all hurting anyway.
He almost murders the people whispering, “He was surprised after all, I didn’t know he was capable of making such a face.”
Honestly, Hijikata doesn’t know what his face looks like, but the cigarette stick in his mouth felt like falling, so safe to say, he really was shocked. He took the stick off his mouth, turning his head to the cake. It was simply white with chocolate perched on top of the cake. It was obviously a two-tiered cake, and it wasn’t that small either, more like a medium sized cake.
He’s not well versed in cake terms, but it should be enough to feed at least half of the Shinsengumi. Of course, the likely outcome of this is that they bought another – a normal one – cake for everyone else, because no one really liked Hijikata’s taste for mayonnaise.
It's likely that Hijikata would eat most of it, maybe Kondou would also eat some, and then the rest would be thrown away.
He honestly doesn’t want to throw it away, because she made it, and it would simply be a waste, but even rotten food isn’t something Hijikata is experimental enough to explore.
He notices the wobbly but kinda neat lettering of “Happy Birthday, Hijikata Toushirou!” on top of the cake, definitely illuminated by the candle and accentuated by the chocolate.
The crowd cheers as he blows the candle.
He sits in the corner with his plate of cake, definitely more than he usually eats, but it’s mayonnaise, so all is well. He huffs in amusement at Kondou’s contorted face as he tries out the cake. Even the inside icing was mayonnaise, and according to what Mitsuba apparently told Kondou, even the ingredients used for the cake itself included mayonnaise.
Innovative, tasty, amazing-
He raises his brow as Sougo sits beside him, also having his own plate with the mayonnaise cake, although the mayonnaise icing itself were scraped off.
“Without the layer of dog food, it’s a decent enough cake.” Sougo says, stabbing the cake and putting it on his mouth.
Hijikata just rolls his eyes, taking another bite.
He honestly wished Mitsuba herself was here right now… but that would cause so many more problems than Hijikata wanted. He was a coward when it comes to love, and that much was noticeable with anyone who had a braincell.
Sure, he keeps telling himself and others that he just wanted to keep her safe, but that really wasn’t the extent of it. There was more to that feeling of loneliness, but even Hijikata can’t find it in himself to bring that out and explain himself.
It's better for people to hate him, anyway.
Sougo sneers, “You’re disguting.” His hand quickly goes under Hijikata’s plate and pushes it upwards, making the slam into HIjikata’s face.
Chaos ensues as Hijikata chases Sougo around the compound, the rest of the Shinsengumi laughing along to the usual shenanigans of the two.
It was much needed distraction from Hijikata’s thoughts, although he knows that he will eventually have to bring it out sooner or later.
(Although in this timeline, he brought it out a little too late.)
I love her so much.