Once the digital clock on her laptop screen showed two-thirty PM, Sakata Kagura slammed it shut, shoving the gadget and her notebooks into her bag. She didn't even say good-bye to her seatmates or the teacher who wasn't busy lecturing in front of the room. The redhead simply stood up and headed out.

She loved Mondays. Contrary to the popular culture, she loved Mondays because it was the only day she got to go home earlier than usual. She was in her senior year, a few months shy of graduating, and she'd be lying if she said she didn't love the feeling of going home when the sun was still up and about. Well, that was Monday for her. It was the only day she pampered herself wherein she'd walk out of the campus, maybe take a detour to buy some snacks, and then go home to watch some of her favorite television shows, not thinking about her damned thesis.

She passes by the nice lady-guard by the school gates, though she doesn't greet the lady, and simply walks on. Two-thirty PM was a nice time to go home; there weren't a lot of people in the streets and there were only a few cars on the road. She looks both ways before she crosses to the other side where a convenience store stood.

She takes her time to meticulously choose her snacks. Of course, when you watch your favorite show while lying down with a comfortable pillow, it was a necessity to find the perfect comfort food. She hadn't realized that she had been staring at the snack row and the fridge for fifteen minutes each. In the end, she opted to have something sweet and something to contrast the sugary taste, or in other words, some sukonbu and the strawberry milk her guardian had taught her to love so much.

Her mouth formed a frown when she saw the skies getting darker and it started to drizzle. She wasn't even far from her campus and now she has to wait out the rain that was comically becoming heavy. Damn, she was really looking forward to her 'alone time'.

She didn't have a jacket and her long sleeves weren't really doing her any good. She was about to go back inside the store when a police car parked in front of her and the window rolled down. She breathes sharply― she knows what's next.

"China, fancy meeting you here." The window revealed a handsome, blond police officer. He, Okita Sougo, was wearing a dark-blue, formal jacket that covered his white shirt-sleeve uniform. "Shouldn't you be in class?"

She squints her eyes and gives him a sarcastic smile. "I go home every Monday at this time, FYI." She could see that giving him that information piqued his interest and she immediately regrets it. He may be a working member of society now and four years older than her, but that wasn't an excuse for him to stop acting like a jerk towards her. "How about you, shouldn't you be working? You know, like a normal policeman?"

He rests his elbow on the lowered window and rubs his chin as if in deep thought. "Uuhhh…" He drawls. Okita was doing it on purpose, she concluded. He knows she was getting very cold standing outside and the water that was splashing onto her wasn't helping. She furiously rubs her arms for warmth. "Not really." He finally says.

Kagura snaps and lets out a groan. "I can't take it anymore!"

She suddenly opens the door of the back seat and slides herself in, relieved to be out of the rain. Okita was reprimanding her and telling her to get out of the car, but she wasn't following. Instead, she moves further to her right so that the policeman can see her better.

"Don't turn the police car into an umbrella, China girl." He looks behind. "And if you're gonna sit in here, at least sit next to me. Don't make me look like your driver." He gestures with his thumb to the empty passenger seat beside him. She gives an annoyed sigh but complies. Expertly, she places her legs between the driver's seat and the passenger (good thing she was wearing pants) seat then easily slides herself into the leather seat.

"Happy?" she asks as she reaches for her bag. She felt her heart tighten a bit when he had asked her to sit next to him. Well, if she sat behind him, wouldn't she have looked like a criminal who was just arrested? Being the prankster he was, Okita must've definitely thought about that, right?

"Very." He sarcastically answers. "Do you mind if I turn up the air conditioner? It feels a bit warm in here." Before Kagura could even protest, he had already turned up the knob and a blast of bitter, cold air was meeting her face.

"You sadist! Turn it off, now!" she battled for her right to control the air conditioner, but Okita was simply stronger and faster than she was. Every time she attempted to turn it back, he would either slap or pinch her hands. "Fine then. I guess I'll use Mayora's coat." She took the dark-blue jacket (it was identical to his but larger) off the passenger seat's backrest and drapes it in front of her body, using it like a blanket.

Unintentionally, she moaned in bliss as she felt the warmth of the coat envelop her. This, however, did not go unnoticed by the policeman beside her. She knew that Okita had this inferiority complex towards his superior, Hijikata Toshiro (a.k.a. Mayora), and, if she was being honest, she always thought that he had this tiny crush on her. Well, nothing wrong in assuming. As long as he doesn't find out.

"Take off that coat, China." He demanded. But Kagura teased him by snuggling more in Hijikata's coat.

"Ah, Mayora's coat is so warm! This must be how it feels like to be hugged by him, hihi." Her voice stepped up a few octaves. Making sure to really grind his gears, she lifts the collar to her nose and exaggeratingly sniffs while giving him the "What'cha gonna do about it?" stare. "Smells really nice, too."

Her plan was a success when he glared at her and then yanks the coat away just to throw it in the backseat. Really, it was like Okita's Achilles' heel to get jealous or feel undermined. No matter how tough or sadistic he pegged himself to be, it's the trivial things that are going to bring him down.

She stopped her musings when she saw him unbuttoning the coat he was wearing. He begrudgingly slips it off of him and throws it to her without care. He rolled down his window once more and grabbed Hijikata's coat to throw it outside as though it was normal.

Kagura wrapped herself in his coat the same way she did with the Mayora's and hid her mouth behind the collar. She was sniggering at how childish this policeman can be. He didn't even care that it was his superior's coat or that he would definitely receive another sermon once he got back to the station. If she hadn't known that he hated the Mayora's guts, she'd confirm that he does like her.

She already knows he won't explain why he gave her his coat, so she leans her head on the door and holds the article tighter. Secretly, she also takes a sniff of Okita's coat. It smells better than Mayora's.

"Oi, you tax-robber, wake me up when the rain stops." Without hearing whether he agreed or not, she easily let herself fall asleep.

Kagura wakes up to see a ceiling above her and the familiar couch of Gintoki's apartment below her.

"Finally awake?" Gintoki's voice called from the desk. "I don't know what you're doing, kid, but drinking in the afternoon and then having a police officer bring you home isn't really a good story to tell Baldie."

She instantly sat up upon hearing the hypocritical accusation of the perm head. "I don't drink, Gin-chan! And you're one to talk, you drink all the time." She remembered how she would wait hours on end for him to come home, only for her to find him passed out by the entrance the next morning and reeking of alcohol.

Without looking up from his JUMP Magazine (Seriously, wasn't he, like, thirty already?), he sarcastically answers the redhead, "Well at least policemen don't come calling you, asking where I lived, just so they could bring me home unconscious." Gin leans on the swivel chair and it makes Kagura so annoyed at how apathetic he looked. "Look, the Souichiro kid even left you his coat. That's another thing to wash."

She looks down to see the dark-blue coat draped over her lap. Her heart instantly races. What was that tax-robber doing? Didn't he know that leaving your jacket with a girl could mean something else? Something… romantic? But she brushes the thought aside. Maybe she was just watching too much TV shows that it was getting to her head.

"You're not the one who does the laundry, Gin-chan." She murmurs. She heads for her bedroom in the apartment unit, all the while slipping on Okita's coat and trying to hide her grin from Gintoki.

Epilogue.

Hijikata comes out of the convenience store, carrying a plastic bag that contained a bottle of his favorite mayonnaise and a pack of cigarettes. Whenever it rained or there were little to no work, it was his stress reliever to restock his favorite things. He thought today was a lucky day that there weren't too much work and it had started to rain.

Shopping time!

But, when he doesn't register the car he came to the convenience store in, he almost dropped the bag.

"Sougo?" He ventures further to get a good look. Maybe Sougo was had just parked somewhere else? He wasn't that long in buying, right? Well, granted that he had to choose which he would buy; mayonnaise or cigarettes? After an hour, in the end, he bought both. He was about to call the Captain when he spotted something familiar on the ground, all soaked in rain.

It was his coat.

He quickly dials the number and screams threats into the phone as soon as the other line picked up.

"Do you hear me? You're dead when you get back! I swear―"

"Die, Hijikata-san." The voice cut him. After that, all he could hear was drawling beep.

END

So guys, if you really squint, you'll see how it's related to the theme lol XD