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For Sougo, love starts like this:
Kagura lands a punch from under his jaw, and sends him flying back with strength he didn't expect. She kisses her knuckles and points her finger at him, her chest booming with pride. “Hah!” She huffs out, her cheeks pink. “Is this really the best dog the Shinsengumi can offer?”
He can taste the copper from his busted lip, can feel the remnants of her touch. He can hear his heart beat from his chest, an endless pounding that rings in his ears. He unsheathes his sword and runs towards her, wobbling when he gets up. She dodges him easily, but he’s quick to turn around and kick at her side.
Kagura lands on her knees, and he rushes towards her once more - Sougo smirks down at her when he grabs her hair and moves to force her head against the street light. “Let go of me you perverted sadistic freak!” Whines Kagura, winding her hands around his wrists. “There are entire districts in this city that could satisfy your weird hair-pulling kinks!”
He’s about to finally bash her head when she wraps her legs around his knees with core strength he has never seen from someone and straddles him to the floor. She’s on top of him before he can register it, blinking her bright blue eyes. Blood is rushing down her nose, her hair is clinging to her face with sweat, and her dress is all dirty, and she looks beautiful. His cheeks, and his neck, and the tip of his ears burn. He manages to smirk.
“Don't go calling the kettle black,” he grits out, and he hopes that he manages to get a reaction out of her. “You’re the one straddling me.”
Her cheeks flush, her lips quiver in disgust before frowning. She moves to get off him, yelling obscenities about his person. And yes, love for Sougo starts like this
According to all the soap operas he watches, love is taking her out on dates and kissing and handholding and gifts. According to Kondo it is stalking and clawing your way into her life. Sougo thinks it is none of that, though he does not have much to compare it to.
He goes to every place he knows she may be at until he realizes she is in none of them. So, he goes to her house instead. He picks up flowers from the scary guy down the street - asks how to say fuck you in flower language and when he realizes that the geremiahs and the foxhands or whatever they're called would fly over her head, he decides on a card too.
He rings the doorbell to Odd Jobs Gin multiple times before Kagura opens it, he hands the flowers to her with as much annoyance as he can muster.
“I always knew you liked me,” she mutters in disgust after opening his lovely hand-written card. It doesn't hurt his feelings, because for the second before she read its hateful contents, Kagura blushed.
“Want me to tell you what they mean?” asks Sougo, and before she can answer he begins pinpointing the flowers. “That one means stupidity, and this one uselessness, oh and that one hatred.”
Halfway through her curses and anger, he gets a word in: "Wanna go to the park?”
They fight their way over there, too. Kagura forces him away with her hands, intertwining her fingers between his and attempting to throw him to the floor. Her hands are soft and warm against his, and Sougo loves the way it feels. They go on this back and forth until they reach the park, and that’s when they begin fighting for real.
He connects his hand to her face with his punches, she meets him halfway in the middle with her kicks. They dance to the tune of their grunts and their attacks. The melody is intoxicatingly sweet, Sougo thinks, as he spits out blood on her brand new boots.
“Gin wasted an entire week's worth of food on these,” Kagura complains, her voice going into crying territory rather than whining . “You tax-robbers don't know what good, honest work is!”
He thinks of a few things to say; a few retorts and even an apology, but nothing comes to fruition. She spins her body to kick his face, and he makes no real move to dodge. His wallet hangs heavy on the pocket of the back of his pants, and for a second Sougo thinks to pay her for the damage. “They would have gotten dirty eventually,” he finally says.
“But now they're dirty with your disgusting body fluid!”
When they go back to their dance, he makes a deliberate move to drop his wallet on the ground. He thinks that it’s the romantic thing to do - let her steal his money to pay back for the boots he barely even damaged. Kondo would be proud. She stops their fight to pick up his wallet and takes more than enough to pay for the boots and food for the week.
“I’m arresting you for the robbery of an officer,” Sougo says just to speak, really. She’s staring at him with her eyes wide, as if she’s seeing through him. It makes him uncomfortable.
After a moment, she says: “I’m just getting back the money you steal when I pay taxes.”
“You don't pay taxes,” he deadpans, because it’s true. She scoffs and waves him goodbye, and he thinks that if love doesn't look like this, he doesn’t really want it.
“Why am I paying for your food?” Asks Hijikata in between mouthfuls of okonomiyaki flavored mayonnaise. The waitresses are all staring at the disgusting concoction.
Sougo takes a bite of his own okonomiyaki, and tries to think of a suitable answer. He wasted money on the flowers, the card, and then on paying her back the boots. He doesn't think Hijikata should know, so he doesn't answer.
“Did you get played by a girl?” Hijikata smiles when he speaks, all teasing and not at all real. “I always knew you had terrible taste.”
“Of course you’d know about bad taste,” Sougo replies, suddenly feeling defensive. He doesn't want Hijikata playing his pseudo-father in his relationships and he certainly doesn't want him going around insulting the women he likes, either. “You’re a case study on what not to do to get laid.”
Hijikata must think of a witty reply, not that Sougo cares for it much, he has pretty much begun ignoring certain things Hijikata says as if he were an annoying fly buzzing in his ears.
“I really wish you’d die, y’know,” Sougo mutters when he shuts up. He uses the table as leverage to get up, his hand gripping the wood. “Air is wasted on your lungs. I heard that the highway is a great place for a jog.”
“That’s uncalled for!” Hijikata barks out, but Sougo doesn't care about this either. He spots Kagura down the road, and the only thing more fun than trying to kill Hijikata is fighting Kagura. He wonders, briefly, if love is also preferring to spend time with her than with friends. It must be.
They fight well together.
It takes everyone by surprise, but not him. They’re meant to be, so why would they not fight well together? When the Amanto fall through the roof, Kagura jumps on his shoulder, her boots - new boots - dig into his skin and bones, but it lasts only a second. She is off of him the next minute, opening her umbrella to shoot off multiple of them at once, and then she’s on the ground, back to back with him.
His sword swings to cut down a few, his leg against some others. Kagura immediately speaks when the masses of Amanto calm down.“Oi, Sadist, you’re here too? Are you following me? I knew you were a creep.”
“Why the hell would I be at a hostess bar for you? If I wanted to see ugly monsters I’d go watch Godzilla!” He barks out, swinging his sword with precision - the blade cuts down multiple Amanto, but not nearly as many as Kagura's gun-umbrella does. She snarls at his insult, moving to shoot one behind him, and then kicking a different one that’s coming towards her. “It’s a drug front, Kondo sent me here. What are you doing here?”
Kagura ducks, and that gives him space to cut through a line of five Amanto. The blood gushes out, it’s red, but not as pretty of a shade as her hair. “Some mom hired us to find her daughter. She’s with Gintoki and Shinpachi.”
She grabs a random one by the collar. There is a cut on her cheek where one of the Amanto hit her, but outside of that she looks perfectly fine. She swings the alien carelessly, his blue skin somehow looking bluer. “You can keep this one for questioning, yes?”
“Sure,” agrees Sougo, snickering. “We can use you as the torture device; nobody would be able to stand looking at you for that long.”
When he goes home, culprits in handcuffs, Sougo comes to the conclusion that love must be fighting well alongside each other, too.
They’re sitting by the river bank, after a fight. The water washes off the blood from the hemline of his pants and leaves his boots soggy.
She’s staring at him with her eyes wide, blue - the same eyes as before. It’s as if she can stare through his bones, through the cage that shields his heart. Her hair is blowing against the wind, clinging to the blood that’s running down her forehead. Her expression is gentle.
“Nobody else would have survived fighting me this long, y’know,” she whispers, a sound so uncharacteristically soft that it leaves Sougo short of an answer. And then she smiles, toothy and bloody and so beautiful. “I’m glad… I’m glad it’s you. I’m so happy I met you.”
He licks his lips, and keeps staring at her even when she turns back to look at the river. He moves to speak, but I love you gets caught in his throat, threatening to escape, so he swallows and turns to look at the river bank too. Of course he loves her - love starts and ends with Kagura, Sougo finds, but if nothing else, he isn't ready to admit it just yet.
A long moment passes, the cicadas grow quiet, and it’s just them. He moves his hands, just enough to touch the tips of her fingers, and finally the words manage to come out.
“It’ll always be me,” he says at last, and the words fall somewhere between I love you and I’m glad I met you, too.