Title: Underestimated: Life in the Shinsengumi Pt 1

Author: Bonusmosh

Disclaimer: All characters in this PMK fic except Takara belongs to Nanae Chrono

Notes: Many of the scenes which take place in the story were taken from either the PMK anime or manga.

Part 1:

Takara sighed and leaned back in her seat.

She. Yamanami and Heisuke were seated in the black sedan that carried them back to the Shinsengumi headquarters. It had been almost 2 weeks since the demon vice-commander had sent them off on an errand and Takara was looking forward to going back to the place she considered her home.

Takara looked at the other two who were fast asleep their heads nodding along with the bumps of the sedan. Yamanami had his usual abacus sticking out from his kimono. His arms were crossed over his chest, and his expression was peaceful. Not that this was anything new. The more kind of the two vice-commanders was always seen to be smiling, in fact, everything about him was mild.

Takara then glanced at Heisuke who was seated next to her. The usually noisy 8th unit captain was now sleeping peacefully. For his case, this was quite a change. She couldn't tell if it was a good thing or not though, as the ride back was extremely boring, and the company of two sleeping men didn't help very much.

Waving her hands in front of Heisuke, she wanted to make sure that he was completely asleep. As she had guessed, he didn't even stir.

Slowly, she stretched out her hand, reaching into his kimono. She bit her lip as she tried to avoid feeling around too much. The cold of a metal blade between her fingers alerted her, and she quickly grabbed the pocket knife that Heisuke kept in his kimono, trying to pull it out as swiftly and quietly as possible.

'Can't keep your hands off me can you?' Heisuke's voice broke the silence, startling her slightly.

That perv.

He had grabbed Takara's wrist before she had a chance to pull away from him. Yawning, he smirked and freed the knife from her grasp, placing it back into his kimono where it rightfully belonged.

'Try harder Takara.'

Takara rolled her eyes and slunk back in her seat. Ever since Heisuke had shown her his knife, she had been fascinated with it. It was so small, yet lethal. Not to mention ever since then, she had been trying to steal it from him, and always to no avail.

'You know, you could make things easier if you'd just give it to me.' Takara pointed out, annoyed with the fact that this was the closest she had gotten so far.

'Nah. That'd take the fun out of it.'

'Idiot. I'll get it someday.'

Heisuke just grinned and stretched his arms. Obviously holding the younger girl's words in no threat.

'I can't wait to see Shinpattsan and Sano.' He continued, leaning back against his own arms and staring out at the sky. 'I wonder how they're doing without me.'

'Ahhh we're finally back!' Takara threw her arms up in delight as the three of them stepped out of the sedan. The familiar smell of well, sweat, seemed strangely pleasing to her. She turned round, savouring her surroundings, when all of a sudden,

'TAKARA!' A cheerful voice rang through the air, almost too cheerful.

'buk buk' Takara turned in time to see a ball of pink and a whiz of white flying towards her. The next thing she knew, she was held in a tight embrace by the feminine first unit captain. He practically lifted her off the ground, swinging her around.

'Okita-san.. It's great to see you again too..' Takara managed to say in a muffled voice, at the same time trying to get free from what almost seemed to be a deadlock.

'Of course! You don't know how dull it's been without you! And the incomplete comedian trio of course! And not to mention our beloved vice commander!' Okita continued happily, leaping from one person to another giving out a radiant overdose of energy as he fussed over them.

'Oh, and have you heard? Hijikata-san has gotten himself a new page! ' he continued, without waiting for any of them to say a thing. 'But I'll spare the details for later. Hijikata-san wishes to see the three of you now.'

Giving a wide, cheerful smile, he picked Saizo up in his arms and led them in.

'Yo! Sano, Shinpattsan!' Heisuke called out. 'You guys are comedic as usual.'

The second unit captain and the tenth unit captain turned their attention to the new person, and their faces lit up in delight as they saw who it was.

'Yo Heisuke!' Shinpachi called out, waving towards his friend.

Sanosuke, Shinpachi, and Heisuke, were famous for being known as the comedic trio in the Shinsengumi. Not only were they all captains of a respective unit, the three of them were the only ones around who dared to be loud enough to piss even the vice-commander off sometimes. Of course, without them, the Shinsengumi would seem to be nothing more than like a morgue. They were the core group who put the life into the place.

'What the hell's that?' Heisuke asked looking down at a red headed boy who lay face flat on the ground. He had never seen him, from what Heisuke made out that he was probably a kid, around before. 'Anyhow, I wanted to ask you. Hijikata-san's page, how cute is he?' He asked curiously, choosing to ignore the disturbing object that was on the ground.

'Modestly, is it like this?' Heisuke continued, before the other two could answer, 'Beautiful eyes, white skin, polite and naïve.. From his looks everyone would agree he's lovely.. like that?' The 8th unit captain drifted off, staring into space as he tried to picture the pretty young boy that Hijikata would've picked as a page.

There was an awkward moment of silence before both Shinpachi and Sanosuke broke out into fits of laughter, doubling over and almost collapsing on the floor in pain, leaving a very puzzled Heisuke staring at them in the midst of his thoughts.

'Heisuke! Sorry, but bite your nose and forget that idea now!' Shinpachi scoffed between peals of laughter, slapping his friend on the back.

Heisuke stared at his shorter friend and frowned, thinking for a moment. 'I know! HE'S GOOD IN BED!' He proclaimed loudly all of a sudden, his index finger up in the air, eyes shining in realisation.

Both Sanosuke and Shinpachi stopped laughing, and scrunched up their faces as such a scenario floated into their minds.

'You're free to shout it out loud, but if Hijikata-san hears this, he'll turn you into sliced meat.' Shinpachi pointed out, narrowing his eyes. 'Anyhow, the correct answer,' he held the boy Heisuke had seen lying on the ground previously, out. 'is this.'

'…' Heisuke was bewildered, his jaw wide open. So much for his prediction.

'Heisuke?'

'..Ka.. Ka.. KAWAII! He's extremely cute! He's just like a puppy!'

'… …' Both Sanosuke and Shinpachi were even more stunned.

'Of course Shinpattsan is small and cute too.' Heisuke added, grinning at his friend while patting the new page on the head. He then turned to the other two, furrowing his brows. 'Well anyway, was Hijikata-san's taste always like this?'

'Seriously, get away from that idea...' Seeing the look on page's face, Shinpachi immediately apologized. 'Oh sorry Tetsu-kun, this guy doesn't have bad intentions or anything. It's just that his words are subconsciously dirty.'

'Huh! No, that depends on how broad-minded the listener is.' Heisuke argued, trying to uphold his own dignity.

'… How rude.'

'Anyway, where's Takara and Yamanami-san?' Sano asked, looking around, breaking them from their previous topic.

Patting Tetsunosuke on the head once more, Heisuke replied, 'Oh, Yamanami-san is somewhere around, probably avoiding the demon vice-commander. And as for Takara, the demon sent her off to Shimabara to pick something up. Wonder why he wouldn't let me go though.'

'I'm not surprised.' Shinpachi muttered, shaking his head disapprovingly at his friend.

'I heard that Shinpattsan.'