One day after school the little girl, no more than 4 was playing in the living room, she herd the phone ring and her father picked it up. Peering around the corner Misaki tried to hear the conversation but it was to faraway, the next thing she knew was her father had dropped the phone and fell to his knees. Not sure what happened the child ran over asking him what was wrong, all he did was pull her on to his lap and hold her close.

After a while he got up and carried her upstairs to her brothers room. Sitting on the bed he pulled both children on his lap and hugged them. Misaki still didn't know what was going on but she knew that it wasn't good, and her suspicions were confirmed when he started to speak. "I just spoke with the man that your daddy worked for…" He said quietly, no expression in his voice. "There has been an accident… he isn't coming back."

Both children went silent for a moment until the little girl spoke up. "But… But that's just for now… Right?" She asked as she looked at them. "Papa will be back later…" She said as Hisoka tore out of the room, not wanting them to see him crying.

Hijikata just shook his head and held her close. "I'm so sorry… " He said quietly, his voice shaking as he trembled slightly. At those words she just started to cry and didn't stop until she had worn herself out and fallen asleep. She had dreams of her dad, his voice playing over and over in her mind until she woke up the next day.

Getting out of bed slowly she sniffled and held her favourite toy close, it was one that he had brought back from one of his tours just after she was born. She went into her father's room and sat on his lap. "When's papa coming home?" She asked, forgetting what he had said the night before.

Hijikata's pen dropped out of his hand at the question and he hugged her. After a second she remembered and clung to him as she cried some more.

No one did much for the next couple days as they prepared for the man's funeral, No one could find the strength to go through the others things so they just left everything where it was. On the day of the funeral they all went to the funeral home early and greeted everyone else as they arrived. The small girl still didn't fully understand what was happening and continued to believe that her dad would be home soon.

The body was never found so they all gathered around the grave and watched as an empty casket was buried. Hijikata picked Misaki up and held the boys hand as he tried not to cry in front of them.

10 years later

Hijikata suddenly sat up in bed as he looked around, still feeling as if his husband was beside him, even though it had been so long he had barely touched any of the man's things. Hisoka had moved out not to long ago and Misaki was just about to start high school. He had tried his best to move on but it was a lot harder than he imagined, sighing as he got out of bed Hijikata slowly got dressed and headed downstairs to make breakfast.

Even after all these years Kondo would still drop by once a week to check on them, when the elder male came over Misaki had already left for school and he was looking through a box of old pictures from before the accident. Kondo joined him and they spent the day looking at the pictures together.