Hiya! Here it is, chapter 8! Very many thankies to faichan5 for being such an awesome beta and doing it in one night!!!

So here it is, hope you enjoy it, and sorry in advance for the evil cliffy (well, kind of...)!


8

Hijikata Toshizou impatiently paced his room, waiting for time to go by.

Again.

All this waiting was getting on his nerves, he wasn´t a person to sit around and hope for something to happen. He was a man of actions, and it bugged him even more since this particular matter was especially precarious and tense. He was personally involved here, what didn´t do his patience any good anyway…

"ICHIMURA!" he barked in the general direction of the garden, taking his pipe out of his mouth and killing some impudently chirping birds in the tree nearby with his unnerved, withering glare.

"H-hai, Hijikata-san," was the answer from somewhere outside; the muffled sound of bare feet hurrying over the porch, filled the air. The next moment a certain redhead skittered to a halt before his open paper door.

Hastily getting on his knees and bowing down before his master, Tetsu placed the tea cup on the polished wood.

Hovering over him was one stressed demon vice commander, wild gaze blazing down on him. Tetsu could almost swear that his poor head was starting to fume.

"What´s this?" Hijikata suddenly growled, narrowing his eyes and stopping to chew at his pipe.

"What?" the redhead frowned, looking up, but immediately choosing to stare at the polished panels when he met with the infuriated scowl above him.

"This," the man snarled, pointing with his sandal at something next to the cup. "You spilled it again!"

Tetsu stared hard at the spot where Hijikata was pointing at, but could not, for the hell of it, make anything out. "I don´t see anything Hijikata-sa-"

The feral growl from above made him shut up and with a pout he pulled down his sleeve to wipe the nothing away. Seriously, the man was killing him with his mood-swings and anyway, he never had any approving words for Tetsu, just glaring and shouting and taking his anger out on him even though Tetsu hadn´t done anything and it was all Hijikata-san's own fault for saying these awful things to Okita-san and-

In his agitated state, he probably was just a little too eager and suddenly there was something, namely the entire contents of the cup, spilling over the floor as Tetsunosuke accidently knocked it over.

He froze in action, becoming pale. Oh no, please, that would just give his master the justification he needed to go on a rant on him…

Luckily, the redhead was spared though, because just as the demon vice commander was taking a deep breath to give his unworthy, clumsy, and utterly useless page a good piece of his pissed mind, Yamanami came around the corner. Quickly assessing the situation, he lifted a hand in greeting and called out to his fellow vice commander.

"Toshi, there you are!"

Hijikata´s head snapped towards the other man and directed his frustration about being deterred from screaming at his page at him by snarling "Of course I am, where else would I be?!"

"Ma-ma," Yamanami tried to pacify the situation, throwing Tetsu a meaningful look to get out of the danger zone as long as the demon vice commander was distracted. Hurriedly the redhead gathered the cup and made a run for it, swearing to himself that it was healthier today to just not show up before his master again.

"What do you want, Sannan, as you can clearly see I am busy" Hijikata snapped surly, looking back at where his page was sitting, but only finding a wet, vacant spot. "What the-"

He swirled around and was just about to chase after the ungrateful brat, when Yamanami gave an inaudible sigh and drew the man´s attention back to him.

"Actually I came by, Toshi, to ask if you´d like to play a game of shogi with me? You seem a little stressed, it will calm you down." He smiled that calm, benign smile of his, but jerked back in surprise when Hijikata almost jumped at him, exploding into his face,

"I AM calm, damn you!!!"

Clearing his throat, the second vice commander adjusted his glasses, answering in a friendly manner "I see. My apologies."

Hijikata just huffed and dismissed it with an impatient gesture of his hand, taking a drag from his pipe and walking back into his room.

"So, how about a game," Yamanami offered with a smile, following the other into his quarters.

"I´m not in the mood…" the demon vice comander declared grumpily, plopping down on the tatami cross-legged and propping his head on one hand.

"Hm," was the understanding reply from the bespectacled man, as he knelt down before his friend, and looked at him with keen eyes.

They were silent for a moment, which Hijikata rather fancied, but of course Sannan just couldn´t keep his trap shut.

"Do you want to tell me what is keeping you so busy?" he asked quietly, and was instantly answered by a growled "No, I don´t."

Yamanami remained patient though, re-adjusting his glasses again.

"Well, if you must know," Hijikata suddenly flared up in an unnerved manner "the whole thing´s putting me on edge."

"I understand that," the other man said carefully, smiling a little. "But I am sure there is nothing to be concerned about," he assured, adding "Souji adores you, very much so. You shouldn´t worry too much, you have been friends for years. No one knows him better than you."

The demon vice commander snorted at that, a frustrated, resigned sound. "I doubt he has any friendly feelings for me right now."

That made a slight frown appear on the bespectacled man´s face, and he softly inquired "Did something happen?"

Taking the pipe out of his mouth Hijikata rubbed over his tired eyes, making a dismissive gesture again, and explaining, "We had a fight. I found out that he was hiding one of those… things from me, and I confronted him about it."

"Hm" Yamanami sighed.

"Yeah," the demon grumbled, draping his arm over his knee and taking another long drag from his pipe while morosely staring holes into the stupid tatami.

"He´s actually enjoying those presents and indirectly told me to mind my own business."

"I see," the other said in a sympathetic manner. "But that might just be a phase, he is at that age now-"

"I told him no one would ever love him because he´s a naive little kid and a monster."

"…Oh dear."

"I know," Hijikata snapped, agitated, and fell back to stare at the ceiling. "It isn´t like I meant it… Well, I did, but not like that."

Yamanami tried to hide his confused state, softly inquiring "Did you apologize to him?"

"I tried," was the bitter reply "but he just blocked it. He said that I was right and that there was nothing to apologize for. He has totally shut himself off from me. He hates me."

"Well, you said some pretty mean things to him," the other vice commander pointed out, but then a smile found its way back on his lips and he said in a reassuring manner "He doesn´t hate you, I am sure of that. He probably just needs some time. "

Closing his eyes, Hijikata gave an utterly unamused laughed. "I probably don´t have that time anymore. I´ve lost him to that gift-throwing-bastard for good, and maybe I just deserve it."

Yamanami didn´t know what to say to this, feeling that nothing he said would be of comfort to his friend anyway. And knowing Hijikata it was probably best to leave him alone for now, to figure things out himself.

"Why don´t you rest for a bit? I am sure things will look less fatal when you wake up."

There was no reply from the ground where Hijikata lay still with his eyes closed, one arm draped over his forehead.

Before the bespectacled man could make it out of the room though, the demon vice commander spoke up again, his voice echoing through the warm, lazy afternoon.

"It´s Yamazaki. I have lost two of the people I trusted most. But I will make sure that he gets what he deserves, very much so. When I´m done with him, he'll have wished he never took a step inside the shinsengumi. I will take him down Sannan, and if it´s the last thing I do."

The coldly spoken statement made the other man stiffen, his face becoming sad. The determined and utterly serious words held no bright future for one shinobi, and Yamanami was repulsed by that. Hijikata wasn´t called 'demon vice commander' for nothing, and once the reckless, cruel side of the man had taken control there was no mercy for his victims until he had them utterly destroyed.

"Just get some sleep," Yamanami said quietly, taking a last glance at the already half-asleep, exhausted figure of his friend and silently closing the door behind him.

*

"Is everyone in position?" Heisuke whispered, taking a glance over the utterly still and dark garden.

"Who knows," Sanosuke yawned, leaning against a tree with his hands behind his head and lazily observing the dark quarters of First Unit Captain Okita Souji opposite their hiding place. The light had been douzed maybe two hours ago and so far nothing unusual had happened at all.

They were sitting here since hours before, it was utterly boring, a root was pestering his sore ass, and he was so damn tired…

"Ah, man," the larger man exclaimed suddenly, in a slightly desperate way, sitting up and letting his hands drop in his lap. "Why do we have to do this anyway?! I mean, it´s just sweets and haiku, nothing that could get anyone hurt or killed."

"Stop sulking," came the dry reply from his partner, along with a warning look to lower his voice. Heisuke shifted his gaze back towards the object of their observations and then pointed out quietly, "It could get someone hurt, though."

There was a big question mark plastered to the other man´s face and shaking his head the 8th unit captain sighed with a lifted an eyebrow, "Hijikata-san, for example?"

Sanosuke still looked at him with big, questioning eyes, but then they lightened as it seemed to dawn on him. "Ah, you mean Hijikata-san-" he stopped, frowning, and then looked somewhat incredulous "Wait. You mean Hijikata-san and Souji are… are like this?"

Rolling his eyes, Heisuke focused his attention back on his mission. " They are probably not like that yet, but Hijikata may want to, and that´s why we are here and have to scare away whoever makes moves on him. I mean why not? Souji´s a cool guy, funny, skilled, well-mannered if he wants to be and not to forget stunningly beautiful."

Frowning, Sanosuke threw his friend a suspicious look, asking a bit alienated "Ya sure you ain´t the culprit?!" He was infamous for being a sucker for cute things after all…

Before the joker could give a wry reply to that, something caught his eye though, and he abruptly withdrew deeper into the shadows of the bushes, giving his friend a sign to stay silent.

On alert now, Sanosuke grabbed for his spear and jumped into a sitting position, ready to dart out and pin whoever it was that sauntered into their quarters past midnight.

At first, he couldn´t make out anything in the dark garden, but then the clouds wandered past the moon and cast the suroundings into dull silver light. And there it was; a dark silouette creeping towards Souji Okita´s quarters.

Sharing a meaningful look, the two shinsengumi members crawled forward without making a sound. Out of the corner of his eye Heisuke could see the rest of the troop move as well.

They didn´t need any signals to understand, they knew each other for so long that they worked on instinct, like a silent connection had beenh built between them. And so they jumped out in unison, trapping the enemy in a human circle.

Before the culprit could act at all, a latern was lit and suddenly thrust in his face, while several sharp objects deterred him from even thinking about escaping.

The tension was almost killing Tetsu, but he wasn´t the only one to stare aghast at the finally exposed perpetrator once the light hit his face.

"YOU?!"

*

glorious strategist Hijikata Toshizou :5

unlucky, dumb, and soon-to-be-sliced shinobi: 0 (Minus 3 for the dumbness)


Yeah, I needed to get back some fun into the story, because it got a bit angsty, and the two parts of the joker trio just came in handy^^

Beta Note- I love this frickin' story! Anyhow I laugh at Suzume for being minus three points. HEHEHE. Go !

wyrdsister jr.: Aww, your grammatics were fine, I understood everything! Haha, you´re so sweet! I´ll punch the firat one to throw a stone into a bloody pulp :} You gave me a lot of wonderful plotbunnies, maybe my muses will feed on it and I´ll try another story^^ I especially liked the idea with Okita producing ambigious situations to harass poor Hijikata... (And about the 5 ways of Okita trying to seduce Hijikata: I might include that into the next story I´m planning, if you don´t mind? Give you credit of course!). About the chapter: we still don´t know if it´s Suzumu or not, but I´m still taking bets ;)

Naokiru Michiyuki: Ah, I´m sorry *sigh* Yes, there is tension between Souji and Toshi, but it´s understandable I think... It was a bit inevitable, but I´d rather see them being happy together too! But I´m positive that things will get better for them, eventually (if as lovers is another matter, though...). Glad you still liked it! (And btw: what a nice sounding pen name you have! I just noticed by saying it out loud^^)

dragonfly-affinity: Haha, thank you! We´ll see about the HijiOki thing, but things certainly are heated up between them ;) Thank you on the compliment for portraying Hijikata! I probably said it before, but he´s not an easy character... On the one hand he´s grumpy and evil, but then he can be very caring and lenient as well, especially where Souji is concerned (that was the impression I got from both, the manga and anime). So thank you very much again, and I hope you look forward to the bunny I´ll pull out in the next chapter^^

Shadow Hylian: Yay, I´m glad you even liked the angsty part! I know it started off quite fluffy, and got dramatically angsty later on, but love isn´t such an easy matter and not always sunshine. It´s something you have to fight for and sometimes you even can fail... I thought long about how Souji might react, and decided that he wouldn´t be a whiny little child. He didn´t even cry after he killed Yamanami in the manga, so I thought he wouldn´t about something like that either... We´ll see about the confrontation next chapter, so just another few days (until it´s betaed) and then I´ll post it!

Aiko Celeste: Thank you! I feel like I have to throw in some lighter parts, because it´s getting too angsty otherwise and that just wouldn´t really suit the whole PM atmosphere I think^^ Glad you liked it!

Minh-Tuyet: Yes, I know! Sorry, I put in a funny part this time, so it doesn´t look too serious. I hope you like it and thank you for reviewing!

So, see you next chapter, and review please? (It´s already written, btw and you know the drill: the more reviews, the sooner posted ;))