Work Text:
Inspired by Love, Actually
The Shinsengumi and Yorozuya trios were running late. ‘Late’, ‘Running’, and icy roads are never a good combination, especially not with that colorful combination of people.
It started with an out-of-control snowball-fight bet, which leads up to the next moments:
Sogo had burst in first with a giant snowball weapon to “surprise-attack” Kagura at the door, Kondo squeezed in behind Sogo to get to Tae who was there for whatever reason, while Hijikata was still running up the steps to go hold Sogo back from firing the huge bazooka inside a civilian home.
“You stupid Chihuahua idiot, you can’t say ‘surprise-attack’ when you attack, it ruins the element of surprise!” Kagura yells as she signals her own surprise-attack from the side. Sadaharu comes out from the bathroom busting down the door and biting the giant metal instrument in Sogo’s hands before wrecking it completely against the floor.
Sogo clicks his tongue, getting out from Hijikata’s hold and skillfully hurdling over Sadaharu to face his “nemesis” or whatever they were calling each other this time.
“You can’t call someone ‘stupid’ and an ‘idiot’ in the same sentence, China, bring it!” Sogo says standing his ground. Hijikata watches painfully aware of the damage their fights bring to any place they are.
The only thing they both see is each other down the broad stretch of the entryway shrinking narrower the more they measure the distance from each other and the attacks that would inflict the most damage.
“Woah-woah-woah, I told you two to behave or take it outside where the blood can be covered by snow!”
Gintoki comes into frame next to Kagura as he pushes her into one room, “Gin-Chan!”, and shuts the sliding door before walking over to Sogo and doing the same, “Sorry, Danna,” somehow snapping the doors back in place and locking him in the bathroom. Then Gintoki walks over to the door and pulls Hijikata inside, “Geez, it’s freezing,” Gintoki seethes before looking down at the marred bazooka and kicks outside and down the icy steps, Sadaharu chases after it, “…there goes perfectly good tax money.”
Gintoki closes the front door behind Hijikata, shivering before turning to yell out into the loud apartment, “Close the door when you come in, no one else here pays for heating!” Gintoki remarks.
He’s met with silence.
Then he turns back to Hijikata, “Hi.” Gintoki mumbles scratching the back of his head and looking any other way, his face pink from the cold.
“Hi.” Hijikata replies, taking his shoes off.
They hadn’t seen each other in a while, Hijikata acknowledged the awkwardness Gintoki must feel by the sudden and unplanned group-reunion.
“I thought you two were dating, weeeeird~!” Sogo exclaims from inside the bathroom, his voice muffled by the door between them.
“We’re not dating!” Gintoki shouts, a little too quick for Hijikata’s liking, but he was already walking back deeper into the room.
“Excuse…me.” Hijikata comes in behind Gintoki to find Shinpachi and Tae rummaging around while Tae was being followed around by Kondo until she tied him to the kitchen sink and forced him to help her with the dishes and kitchen clutter she had just finished using, coming out of the kitchen with Shinpachi carrying about two dozen bento’s in his steady arms.
“Hijikata-San! Nice to see you!” Tae exclaimed with a bright smile, though deaf to Kondo’s pleas in the kitchen. Hijikata just nodded respectfully.
Shinpachi poked his head over the packed lunches as he placed them down on the table in front of him, “Oh, Hi Hijikata-San, thanks for coming over, happy new year’s eve…”
“Shinpachi…” Hijikata nods.
Then a bright ball of pink and orange came bounding over the sofas, the sliding doors crashing down behind her. “Gin-Chan was really happy about it.”
Kagura rushes up to ‘Toshi’ and hugs his waist holding onto Hijikata without lightening her grip.
Hijikata patted her head, …which was nearing his shoulder now.
“What are you saying, Kagura? Get off him, annoying brat.”
Gintoki pushes her in Sogo’s direction, covering her mouth as he did.
Gintoki walks away as Sadaharu walks beside the table and knocks over half the boxed lunches in front of Shinpachi. Hijikata helped Shinpachi reorganize them and then…
Hijikata had just gotten Kagura and Sogo outside, when he came back in to find Shinpachi again and help him out with one of Tae’s requests. But when stepped into the wrong room at the wrong time, he found Gintoki and Tae sharing a moment… Tae is smiling brightly, her hand coming up to gently cover her mouth, while Gintoki is practically grinning from ear-to-ear… two beer bottles forgotten on the table behind them. …He would be skeptical of their relationship in normal circumstances, but when Gintoki sees Hijikata and meets his eyes, he looks at him with the same smile but somehow his demeanor changes, he looks at him softly… warm… and Hijikata wonders how he could look at him like that when she’s right beside him.
Hijikata returns the eye contact for a moment but turns away, unaware of how red he was. Shinpachi finds him on his way out, startled.
Shinpachi follows behind him, speaking in a hushed nervous tone, “Hijikata-San, it’s not what you think …between Gin-San and my sister… they’re-“ “I know…” Hijikata stops him firmly.
Pitying Shinpachi watched the vice-commander walk… “Shin-Chan! Did you pack the noodles?!”
“Yes, Anego!”
Gintoki and Hijikata were pulling the two “enemies” towards the door, pulling their hats and scarves on and shoes, and jackets while they thrashed trying to kill the other. “Quit fighting like toddlers, how old are you two?!” Gintoki strained. Hijikata was just getting attacked by Sogo’s ‘attempts’ at Kagura that started to feel more like he was fighting Hijikata instead. Hijikata tied about nine packed lunches to Sogo’s back, a gift from Tae who giggled when she handed them to Hijikata. They were running late when Hijikata and Gintoki finally got the two youngest out the door after they realized they were going to be late. Gintoki slumped back on the floor heaving as Hijikata sat next to him, breathing heavily as well, from the exertion and the bruises that were probably forming.
“Ugh, I need a smoke, this is getting old…” Hijikata groaned, finding no cigarettes in this particular jacket.
“I am glad you came by…” Gintoki says sitting up next to him, handing him a new pack.
Hijikata huffed out a ‘thanks’ looking at him skeptically. Gintoki bumped his shoulder. Then Shinpachi walked past them, slipping his shoes on quickly before opening the door, “We should leave now or we won’t make it,” Shinpachi calls out, walking out.
Gintoki pushes himself up and pulls Hijikata up too, close… he hugs Hijikata’s waist, closing the distance between them, Kondo watches everything beside Tae from inside… Gintoki says something neither of them could hear from that far, and then Gintoki seems to lean forward before Hijikata gently taps Gintoki’s cheek with his fingers before slipping away, stepping into his boots and going out.
Gintoki watches him before noticing Kondo and Tae spying from afar. Tae waves, “Have fun!” While Kondo just looks as Gintoki stays silent and walks out.
They’re not perfect, they’re family after all.
…And they’re running now, running behind the ‘kids’ of this small dysfunctional family, while barely keeping up.
Sogo and Kagura disappeared somewhere in the distance with Shinpachi right behind them as Gintoki ran low on stamina, conveniently at the same time Hijikata started to cough and slow down.
“Are we getting old or are they just newly young?” Hijikata gasped, resting still to breathe in the cold dry air. Gintoki sneezed when he opened his mouth to answer and then realized what he meant, they were all adults now… and somehow that made him even more irritated.
They walked together, in slow strides now as they gave the other a chance to catch their breath again. Side by side, not one or the other giving the other their back; they found themselves walking at the same pace for once. Gintoki looked over at his companion. . .
…There would always be something to nag about, but when they weren’t picking at the other’s vices or bickering like an old married couple, still friends after too long in each others’ company, they would have winding conversations that lasted as long as their paths together before diverging. Maybe it was during one of those conversations that Gintoki knew for sure…
He smiled.
“Isn’t it funny? How you would turn out to be my person?”
Hijikata watches the path, “What are you saying? You’re drunk.”
Gintoki laughed, “I’m not, I’m being serious.”
“I’m not going to argue with your drunk arse,” Hijikata looked away, he was somewhere between a pout and a grumble.
“I’m being serious, we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together whether we want to or not,” now they were both looking out to the barren icy streets in front of them.
Hijikata sighed, “Regardless. . . how unfortunate for me…”
“Hey, I should be the one saying that, yet another year of your endless nagging.”
Hijikata then grabbed Gintoki’s collar and pulled him into an empty alleyway, he pushed him against the wall and grabbed his jaw to pull him to his lips and pressed their mouths together, Hijikata poured everything he could into that split-second kiss.
“Don’t say things when you don’t know what they mean.” Hijikata glared at him with soft eyes.
That’s him, the love of my life, “Can you do that one more time? I don’t think I understood what you meant,” he says with a big grin.
Hijikata pushed his chest, “Asshole,” he snapped.
“Gotcha.”
Gintoki leaned into him, and kissed him slowly, holding his nape as he took control, grazing Hijkata’s tongue and lips, knowing Hijikata liked feeling teeth and feeling him on him. Hijikata’s hands pulled Gintoki’s torso closer.
Gintoki pinned Hijikata against the alley wall now, using his vantage to wrap his arms around Hijikata’s warm body and hold them against each other.
Hijikata stilled but still held him, “It’s almost the new year… we didn’t make it with the kids.”
Gintoki sighed happily, burying his nose in Hijikata’s neck, “Let’s hope for another year of sneaking around on the down-low without anyone knowing or bothering us.”
Hijikata turns to Gintoki, “Kagura knows… Shinpachi knows too.”
“They don’t,” Gintoki murmurs, hanging onto that little bit of bliss.
“They asked me if I was planning to accept your marriage proposal.”
Gintoki looked up at Hijikata, “Those brats, I’m not paying them their salaries this year.”
“Do you ever?” Hijikata asked plainly.
“That’s besides the point...”
Hijikata warmed up and melted into Gintoki’s warmth, he wrapped his arms around the other’s neck… “They’ll be around forever, Sogo too, and Kondo.”
“...Oh right, they know too,” Gintoki continued, ignoring how Hijikata tensed up, “...Which is why we need to form an alliance.”
Hijikata considers it before he detaches himself from Gintoki, “It’s a little fast.”
Gintoki reached out to hold his arm back in a panic, “Not that kind of alliance!”
“What did you mean then?”
Gintoki rubbed the back of his neck, “I don’t know. . . I just wish I could keep you to myself, selfishly-” he says, loosening his grip on Hijikata’s arm.
Hijikata turns back to him, and settles back in his arms.
Hijikata buried his face in Gintoki’s shoulder, avoiding Gintoki seeing his face, “I’ll move in. . . I’ll sleep there on weekends at least, just give me a drawer.”
He’s been waiting on this.
Gintoki sighed warmly, then he leaned in to kiss him again, before sighing out loud, “It’s really warm like this.”
Then fireworks, which startled Hijikata briefly who was trained to jump at any sign of Sogo’s attacks, but it was just brightly colored fireworks. Hijikata turned back to Gintoki who was looking at him that same way again. Hijikata chuckled lightly, before returning his smile.
“Just like that huh?. . .” Gintoki whispered, “...Happy new year, Toshiro.”
Gintoki leaned in once more, warm breaths mingling, his hands came up to cover Hijikata’s red ears.
Hijikata smiled, “Only about sixty more to go with your ass.”
Gintoki grinned into the kiss, pressing their lips together.
“I’m looking forward to it.” Gintoki whispers. The silver bands shuffle in Gintoki’s pocket, resting there still after Hijikata felt their outline earlier.
Soon enough… maybe the next morning… or sometime this week… or when Hijikata told him he loved him a few seconds later…