iA/N:

The title is from Kagura's/ her father's quote. "Sometimes love starts in the bed." And this story is inspired from watching the Scandal Arc (oh yeah, that was one funny arc!) Well, this is my first Gintama fanfiction. I am just glad that I got a change to write about one of my Gintama otp. I simply love HijiTae. So for those who don't like them, I suggest don't read, because this story is all about HijiTae! ;) Now then, for those who're interested in this story...I hope you enjoy reading.

Chapter 1

Hijikata Toushirou groaned as he rolled over to sleep on his back without opening his eyes.

Nonchalantly, he pressed his fingers to his forehead and started rubbing as an attempt to remedy his pain-pounding headache, one that had been savagely disrupting his sleep.

Just how much did I drink last night?

Well, good thing it was his day off.

Trying to get back to sleep, he turned on his side and gingerly pulled the covers over his head. It was then he felt himself brushed up against something soft. His movement and contact had caused that certain something or someone to completely snuggled up against him. No, it wasn't just soft anymore, it was warm and he was in direct contact with whoever it was, as in no fabrics - no covers in between them.

Toushirou froze.

Despite the fact that he was still in bed and hadn't gotten the chance to wash his mouth, much less to get a drink, his throat went from normal morning dry to exceed dehydration. It was as if a ball of thorns was stuck in his throat and he dare not open his eyes, for fear of what he would find.

Steadily and with caution, he emerged his head out of the covers with his eyes closed and took three deep breaths to calm his senses. This is just a dream Toushirou! There's no way you just had an experience such as those from adult videos, so don't get your boxers in a knot. He tried to convince himself, overlooking the fact that he wasn't wearing any boxers at the time.

When he finally decided to open his eyes, he found himself staring at the low ceiling of the room. Unfamiliar and the light that was supposed to be hanging from the center was not there. Abruptly, he got up, seated on the bed with his feet still under the covers and carefully analyzed the room he was in.

It was definitely not his room.

There had never been a fancy television, or a full body length mirror right next to it, not to mention an exotic painting he had never seen before.

Where the hell am I ?

The head splitting ache was replaced by a major case of confusion. He shook his head vigorously, eyes shut tight, trying to get his head to clear up.

Yes, I'm still dreaming. I'm still asleep and dreaming. with that in thought, he slapped himself a couple of times.

But when he opened his eyes, his anxiety only escalated the moment he caught sight of his topless form through the mirror and he dare not look under the covers. The chilly feeling in between his legs, the kimono and underwear he wore last night along with a woman's kimono and her unmentionables were sprawled around the room; just served as sufficient proves of what he had done last night.

There was no mistake, he was completely naked and the woman who was sharing the same bed with him was no different, right under the god damn blanket.

What on Earth happened last night?! he tried to block out and deny the most obvious scenario.

He startled a little when he heard a soft and feminine moan came from the figure nestled under the thick blanket of covers and it was then he realized he was on a bed, an actual four-legged Western bed and not on a futon. The soft moan he heard was unmistakably belonged to a woman. Whoever she was, she was awake, and she would reveal herself in seconds. Toushirou was never a religious man, but at this point he was praying to every Gods and Goddesses out there, hoping it was not someone he knew.

Toushirou turned pale and had to stifle the urge to scream, as it seemed that even the divines had turned their backs against him. This, he could not imagine any sin he had done that could be compared to this. It was no better than murder.

Before him was the object of his Commander, Kondo Isao's affection and Yorozuya's Shimura Shinpachi's older sister. Naked, and has yet to take notice of his presence next to her.

Toushirou was paralyzed with fear and want nothing more than to run-screaming his lungs out of the room, for it was the nightmare of the century. Overlooking the fact that Shimura Tae was a beautiful woman; in which even Toushirou cannot deny, she was also deadly as hell. She had monstrous strength that could pulverize even a bear, hell, even a horde of Chupacabras were no match for her. And Hijikata Toushirou would soon be skinned alive and his meat, fed to the pigs the moment she opened her eyes.

Still not fully awake, Tae scanned around the room with half lidded eyes until her gaze met his. Three seconds later, she blinked.

"Hijikata-san?" her raspy voice still retained her usual gentle tone."What are you-"

Toushirou just stared at her face, for he had lost the ability to speak and couldn't even manage a gulp.

It took her a moment to take in, it seemed. She looked down at her naked self and back at Toushirou. Her eyes widened, looking like they almost popped out of their sockets and her face turned as red as a tomato. With much haste, she pulled the covers tightly over her exposed body, assaulting Toushirou with her high pitched squeal.

It was unexpected.

He had thought she would have broken every working bone in his body and had him hospitalized, but no, she actually acted like a proper-normal woman would if one ever found themselves in such situation.

"Wha-what is going on?!" Tae refused to look at him straight in the face and stared at the covers instead, her face still red with embarrassment.

Toushirou took a moment to regain his voice by swallowing what little saliva he had and cleared his throat. "What do you think?"

"We, did we…"

"I think so."

Silence.

Each of them was searching for something to say, and eventually, Tae was the first to speak. "Um, do you remember anything?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, the last thing I remember was; we had a drink together at the Snack Smile." How did they ended up drinking that much, he could barely remember. He was just happened to visit her; reason was because of none other than that gorilla Commander of his. 'Never again will I do his bidding!' Look at what he'd gotten himself into. "What about you?" he added in hope Tae could at least recall more than he did.

"Same here." She murmured under her breath.

It was silence all over again, until Toushirou made the first move and got out of bed. Tae averted her gaze as he did and he told her to get dressed as he did so himself.

Tae stared at her naked self in the mirror while she was about to get dressed. Shades of red clouding her cheeks. There were bite marks all around her collarbones, her breast and she was afraid to look anywhere else. She could feel the slight pain in between her legs, a sign that she had lost her virginity to Hijikata Toushirou, the demonic Vice Chief of the Shinsengumi.

Tears started to swell in her eyes, biting on her lower lip, she stifled the urge to cry. She couldn't believe she had actually slept with a man she barely even know and to top it all, her first time was a drunken sex. She didn't even know if she should be glad that she couldn't remember any of it.

So much for the perfect magical first time and waiting until after marriage.

Wiping away the remaining tears, she reminded herself to smile and look forward. There was no use in dwelling on something that had already happened and besides, the man she had her affair with was waiting for her behind the folding screen. He must have heard her sob.

"Otae-san."

"Yes?" she managed to answer in a wavering voice. Her hands tidying up the obi knot of her kimono.

"I'm sorry." There was sincerity in his deep manly voice.

She bit at her tongue.

"There's no need to apologize." She said as she appeared before him, with a smile on her face. "You are not the only one who's drunk. And I am sure you did not force yourself on me, because if you have-"

He quirked an eyebrow and managed a smirk. "I'd be a corpse by now?" Though it sounded like he was just teasing her, there was no doubt it was the truth. Tae could reconstruct a man's face for sexually harassing her, she couldn't care less if they were customers or friends, she would always make sure they pay for defiling a pure woman such as herself. Not that she was one now, after last night.

She took a seat right across the man that was known to be the demonic Vice Chief of the Shinsengumi. There was no doubt she didn't resist this man's advances. She noticed a bite or two on his neck, what with him wearing his day-off kimono with his neck fully exposed. Tae averted her attention to her lap in embarrassment. Looking at them had somehow triggered flashes of erotic flashbacks.

"You should cover those with something." She said, pointing at him.

Hijikata looked down, but couldn't see a thing. "Cover what?"

Tae, red in the face, gestured at her own neck to let him know what she was referring to. It was then he noticed the bite marks on Tae's neck and it struck him that he must have a couple on him too, since Tae was telling him to cover 'them' up. Fuck me! How am I supposed to cover this?! He screamed inwardly as he scanned around the room for something, anything that can be served as a scarf. There was no way he's going back to the compound with these. No, he won't even step a foot out of this room before covering the marks. Because if he just walked out like this, the entire citizens living in Kabuki-cho would instantly be informed of his steamy rendezvous with a woman!

"Can I borrow your sword for a moment, Hijikata-san?"

"Huh?" He uttered, but soon realized her intention and lend her his sword.

The young woman stood from where she was seated and walked over to the bed they shared the night before, she draw his katana and immediately sliced the bed along with everything on it.

Hijikata stood abruptly. "Oi! What the hell are you doing?!" He had thought she was going to cut the pillow covers but to actually cut them along with the bed?!

Tae ignored him and continued to sadistically slicing until she was satisfied. With a smile on her face, she took a piece of cloth torn from her actions and offered it to him. "Here, use this."

"Are you crazy?! If the owner of this hotel finds out, they'll make us pay for destroying their property!"

"Well, we can just tell them you are too strong and the bed broke." She said casually as if it was a laughing matter.

"I don't know if I should feel complimented or cry. Wait, that doesn't even make any sense..." He uttered incoherently and took the cloth she offered. Conveniently, it was long enough to cover his neck.

After they had properly secured their necks. Toushirou took the first chance to speak before Tae. "Listen, even if I don't deserve any woman in my life, I am still a man who is true to the Bushido codes. I will take responsibility of you because of what we did. Only if that's what you want, and I won't force you."

Tae was slightly taken aback by his words. Frankly, she didn't know what she wanted. "When you say take responsibility you mean..." She needed to confirm, afraid of taking in the wrong idea of what he was referring to.

"Marry you. Like I said, I'll marry you if that's what you want." He told her with a serious look on his handsome features.

Tae felt her heart thud against her ribcage and she could not help but blushed. Every woman would do anything to have him as their husband. Handsome, have a stable job, strong and honorable... If you overlook his fetish for mayonnaise and addiction to nicotine, he's the perfect guy you want to have for a husband.

But.

Without love, can they truly be happy? A marriage, in Tae's vocabulary, is about a pair of couple who loves each other, well, the man also has to have a good income at least so she could rebuild her father's Dojo. Still, she had heard stories about Hijikata Toushirou and the woman he loved who passed away not too long ago. Was it not cruel to take away his chance of finding new love?

And what about herself? What would Shinpachi say and do if he ever found out about this? He overreacted when Kyuu-chan kissed her and destroyed a part of her house to save her from marrying her best friend, she could not imagine what would happen to Hijikata-san if-

"Otae-san, what do you think?"

Tae stared up to meet his gaze, only to look away and took a moment to think.

There was only one thing they should do.

She was sure it'd be best for the both of them.

"Let's just forget it ever happened." a gentle smile graced her lips.

Toushirou took a moment to take in. He had expected her to start talking about his income again, at least that's what he'd gathered from what happened a while ago, during the soul switched incident with that useless Yorozuya bum.

This woman was truly difficult to understand. She was always flashing that fake smile of hers, and she could pulverize someone in a blink of an eye with that same smile. There was no way he could figure out what she was thinking. Was she truly okay with all this? He did heard her sob when he gave her some space to get dressed up. Did he heard wrong after all?

If she truly wished to forget, then so be it. It'd be for the better no? He could not deal with marriage, much less with the woman Kondou-san love. Imagine the gorilla's reaction when and if he ever found out that his dear friend Toushi had slept with his beloved Otae-san. All hell would break loose. Frankly, this wasn't something he could just forget, in fact, this matter should have him commit seppuku!

Toushirou had been secretly freaking out from the inside ever since he realized the situation they woke up in. He managed to get a hold of a cigarette and light them with a shaky hand. He would not let anyone find out about this even if it'll cost him his life.

"If that's what you want, then fine." He finally said , only right after he inhaled the nicotine that had managed to calm his nerves a little.

"Good. No one has to know about this. And I hope none of us acts weird when we see each other again." her voice did not betray her expression, she just smiled.

"R-Right back at you."

"Now that it's settled." She approached him closer and to his surprise, she adjusted the cloth around his neck with careful hands. "I'll leave first since I have a brother to take care of, and I think it'll be best if you stay behind for a short while."

Yes, her brother, Shimura Shinpachi, another problem to deal with if their secret ever exposed.

"So not to raise suspicion." Toushirou added after her.

Tae agreed with a nod. "Well then." she excuses herself with a courtesy bow of a hostess. "I'll take my leave." with that said, she made her way towards the exit and Toushirou watched her back until the door shut closed.

Although they ended their unfortunate incident peacefully, and the tension in his body had been lifted more than half the weight, a small part of him was worried. There's a fat chance and a weird feeling in his guts told him that this wasn't the end of their so called affair, that maybe, just maybe, what they did last night would come back to bite them in the ass. But he shrugged it away, thinking it was probably just the fear of being found out.

Yes, he'd best pretend that nothing even remotely sexual had happened between him and Shimura Tae.

Please do let me know what you think. I am open to constructive criticism, not flames ;) See you next chapter.