A/N: this one has been on my mind for a minute, but i'm not good at writing complicated things :( i hope u enjoy!

…

Shinpachi was especially loud when he was drunk.

Sake wa nome, nome,

Nomu naraba,

Nomitoru ho do ni

Nomu naraba,

Korezo makoto no

Kuroda bushi!

"Shinpa-haah, idiot, will you shut the hell up! They're not gonna let your drunk ass on the last train at this rate," Sanosuke, the dear friend that he was, was helping lug the stumbling brunet down the less-crowded residential street to the train station. He was equally as red-faced as his friend, having spent the last few hours complaining about work and taking glass after glass of shochu in a bar downtown. It was already starting to drizzle a bit as the sun sank beneath the cityline, and in the warm evening air, everything felt stuffy. With one free hand, he yanked at his tie frustratingly. He wanted to go home already.

"I don't wanna be stuck dragging you around with me all night." He bemoaned. Shinpachi, who had his head tucked down as they walked, suddenly snapped up with a fierce, renewed look in his eye.

"Of course you don't," he replied, struggling briefly against his friend as they edged closer to the end of the sidewalk. Sanosuke held a hand up, trying to flag down a cab instead. There was no way he'd be okay by himself on the train at this hour-anyone would be terrified by a burly man in a tracksuit singing off-key. "You'd...you'd rather be with your little girlfriend, all cuddled up or some shit." Shinpachi spat the last few words with intended malice, but it came out slurred and silly-sounded instead.

Sanosuke rolled his eyes, not unkindly. "Actually, yes, I'd rather spend a rainy night like this at home." With a family. He waved his hand more enthusiastically when it looked like one of the yellow cabs flashed their high beams at him. The thought of a wife like Chizuru at home, awaiting his return, half-asleep in bed with a warm embrace and a smile made his heart squeeze. A pleasant, far-fetched dream. "But...you know. For now, your dumbass will do." He chuckled, and his eyes roamed the sea of headlights a stoplight away for a flash of yellow.

"No I don't know, Sano...Sanosuke," Shinpachi found this particularly funny for some reason and struggled to stop laughing. "Share some of your stupid good looks so the rest of us can have girlfriends too!"

Sanosuke chuckled as the car came to a screeching halt in front of them, yellow paint glistening from the gentle rainfall. "I don't think my girlfriend cares about-"

"Girlfriend?" The foreign voice penetrated both men's ears at the same time and caught them off guard. Shinpachi suddenly shot up like a beanstalk, staggering as he whirled around to the sound of the voice and confirmed his suspicions.

Unfortunately, it was exactly who they knew it to be. Heisuke's teal eyes were twinkling in the city lights as he cocked his head to the side, loose hair clinging to his neck and cheeks from the rain. "You have a girlfriend now, Sano-san?"

Being crowded in the backseat of a cab with two other men was the furthest idea of how Sanosuke figured this night would end, but at least inside of the car they could avoid suspicious eyes on the trio. To be frank, way before his relationship with Chizuru, Sanosuke has always played his working position fast and loose-Heisuke came to them through the Shiei Hall program like the two of them, and something about him was a league ahead of his similar-aged peers. It's what made him a captain who rivaled against both Saito and Okita so quickly, but unlike the two, Heisuke wasn't as noble or picky. He didn't mind their salacious jokes, and he drank with them sometimes too. The last time they had been together like this was before Chizuru had enrolled as a student at Hakuo. It's been awhile since the three could joke around like this.

If only the conversation hadn't started out so roughly. "What were you guys talkin' about earlier-'girlfriend'? Since when did you start dating, Sano?" Heisuke's boyish smile turned mischievous. "Have I seen her before?"

"Yeah, you have! Haha. Hahahaha..." Shinpachi snorted loudly from all his sudden laughter, wheezing once he caught a solid elbow jab from his redheaded friend.

Heisuke raised his eyebrow at Sano. "Really? Who is she, then?"

Sanosuke cleared his throat nervously. "You...you don't. Don't listen to this idiot; he's completely wasted."

"Damn right!" Shinpachi shouted, making the other two wince and lean away from him as he lurched forward in his seat excitedly. "This is what adulthood is all about! Let's go for another round!"

Heisuke and Sanosuke shared a look, then laughed. "It's past curfew Shinpatts-san, you have work and I have school tomorrow, remember?"

Shinpachi frowned at hearing this, but shrugged his shoulders in agreement. "Whatever."

Sanosuke elbowed him again, a bit gentler this time. "Stop yapping-the driver will toss us all out if you keep shouting." His yellow eyes flashed to the rearview mirror and indeed, the driver was peering back at him curiously, but quickly turned his gaze when he locked eyes to the much more intimidating golden gaze. They must have looked silly, two grown men and a high school crammed in the backseat like this, but as the conversation drifted into lighter and slightly risque topics of why Heisuke hadn't yet gone home after finishing practice nearly two hours ago, his heart felt at ease. Why was it that the most natural of things in his life were also the most questionable to others?

"Seems like Sano here isn't the only one chasing skirts after all, huh-" Shinpachi reached across Sanosuke who sat between them to grab at Heisuke, but his hands were slapped away angrily by the smaller brunet.

"Shut up! That's not it at all. Souji got roped into some stupid group date at the karaoke bar after practice and I just got dragged along to distract all the girls he didn't want to talk to." Recalling his earlier evening, the brunet sighed heavily and leaned back into the leather seats. "It's a pain, actually-finding a girlfriend. How is someone supposed to get to know someone that quickly enough to know you like them, anyway? I'd want more time building that kind of relationship...but I think I already have that, ehehe." His eyes darted playfully at Sanosuke for approval.

The latter only nodded, numbly. He wondered if they had the same person in mind.

Sanosuke glanced out of the window and noticed they entered into a familiar neighborhood. Heisuke was being dropped off first, and it made Sanosuke's skin crawl to think that Heisuke was lucky enough to live so close to Chizuru. At least he had yet to notice when Sanosuke did sneak by to visit Chizuru with gifts or a useless excuse to come inside her home. He made sure to be as invisible as possible to any suspicious neighbors.

"Eh? Sano-san, why are you staring at Chizuru's house so hard?" Heisuke's face twisted up into something resembling angry possessiveness. "She's probably asleep right now, so don't think about anything! That goes for you too, Shinpatts-san!"

Shinpachi laughed aloud then like he made a joke, and that was enough to break the tension as the cab slowly came to a gentle stop at the end of the block, but Sanosuke really wished he could throttle the kid for his audaciousness.

"Whatever." He repeated after Shinpachi, and ignored the look of meaning from the other men.

"'Whatever' - my ass! Go bother your so-called "girlfriend" and leave girls like Chizuru alone! She needs a guy her age, anyway." Heisuke gave him the stink eye and then fumbled for the door handle with a laugh. "Ok, goodnight you two."

"Night chibi!" Shinpachi yelled, narrowly dodging a thrown punch. Sanosuke sighed and pushed Heisuke out gently-he was aching to stretch his legs and move a bit away from Shinpachi's stench of heavy liquor.

"'Night, Heisuke."

The smaller boy nodded, closed the rear driver's side door and tapped on the hood of the car twice out of habit. As the car pulled away, he looked up at Chizuru's house, and noticed the light in the entire house was off, shrouding the entire home in darkness. She must be sleeping peacefully. He smiled to himself, and then walked off towards his front door.

Sanosuke could barely remember homeroom ending with his stinging hangover under the bright morning sun and then the bell rang and suddenly it was over. The ringing lasted in his ear and made his skin break out in goosebumps all over. He needed water. Now.

Searching up and down the podium desk he was half-leaning against he found a stowed away bottle of water that he greedily snatched up. Thankfully it was unopened but he frowned at the temperature. Warm water was not ideal, but it'd do. He took three deep gulps, nearly finishing the plastic container when a student approached him from the side, shyly.

It was Chizuru. She was already looking flustered in the early heat and had been pulling at her necktie, leaving a small space open to let one peek at the creamy white skin of her collarbones. He immediately began to choke on the last swallow of water.

"H-harada-sensei?! Are you okay?" She yelped in surprise, hand already outstretched as if to pat at his back but luckily, she caught herself and instead curled her hand to her chest with worry evident in her eyes.

He wanted to laugh but he was still busy clearing water out of his nasal passage. Damn! Did she have any idea how powerful just her presence was to him?

"Ah...I'm fine...uh, did you need something, Yukimura? You only have a few more minutes until the next period." He wiped the excess moisture off his lips with the back of his hand and licked them once for good measure missing the auburn eyes following each of his movements, entranced.

She blushed when he turned his eyes to her-under his inquisitive gaze she seemed to lose confidence. Sanosuke wished he could tease her a bit by it, but in public like this they had to remain completely detached. How frustrating. "Ah...it's the tutoring...um…"

He tried to fight off a grin. Instead, he prompted her with his hands, staying aware of who was watching. "Yes?"

"Could I-if you aren't busy after school, I mean-"

He was halfway between nodding and simply melting into a pool of adoration when an unexpected brunet showed up to spoil the moment. Again. Heisuke sprinted into the classroom as if it were part of the track field and launched himself into Chizuru's back, giving her a friendly bump. She 'eeped' out of surprise and turned to look at who it was, smiling widely when she recognized him.

"Heisuke-kun!" Her eyes warmed immediately, and then she frowned in confusion. "Why are you-"

But Heisuke's eyes were already pointing themselves towards Sanosuke, sharp as daggers. Sanosuke bit his tongue, wanting to snatch his girlfriend from underneath the boy's overly-friendly touches but unable to say as much. Instead, he put on his best teacher voice.

"If you need any help with an assignment, I have office hours today." He didn't miss the hint of rejection that flashed in her eyes as she nodded softly in response. But he didn't have time to guess at what she was really asking after. Then he narrowed his eyes at Heisuke threateningly. "Finish this visit up and scram back to class, alright? I won't cover for you if Hijikata-sensei comes looking."

Heisuke opened his mouth widely to retort but was caught off by Chizuru who stuttered a small thank you and bowed deeply at her esteemed teacher, then pulled at Heisuke by the cuff of his sleeve.

"Um, Heisuke-kun, you shouldn't show up so suddenly like this...!" She chided in good humor as she turned, but then fell into easy conversation with the brunet as he walked her back to her seat. The way Heisuke was leaning over her imposingly as she sat put a sour feeling in the redhead's belly as he looked on peevishly. Neither of them spared any more looks towards Sanosuke, who stayed rooted to the ground, water bottle in hand being clenched to pieces in his strong grasp. There was something funny happening in his heart as he looked on. Chizuru had pursued her glossed lips a few times while Heisuke spoke loudly in her ear, and then started giggling-probably at some silly joke by the way his face twisted in exaggerated expressions just to egg her on. They got along easily, and even with him in the room, Chizuru's smile wasn't shy. She was comfortable. She was happy.

Is that what she wanted? Someone she could talk to about video games and LINE during the daytime?

Sanosuke grit his teeth and cursed them both. He could only overhear a little of their conversation.

"...come with me later today?" Heisuke's mouth moved widely making it easy to read lips, but the sound was easily washed out among the other students' chattering. The bell rang right as Chizuru started to reply, and the wave of excited noises in the room swelled as students moved to find their seats again, and the next teacher moved into the classroom.

Sanosuke felt himself rooted to the ground somehow. "Err…"

Ibuki was the first to shout aloud, "You lost or something, Harada-sensei?" A few classmates began to chortle as Sanosuke sheepishly apologized with a gentle smile as he moved out of the teacher's way and filed into the hall. Well, screw water. Maybe what he needed was just a small nap in the teacher's lounge until his next class.

Unfortunately, the minute he turned the corner he ran into another conflict-this time Hijikata-sensei and Kazama were bickering with each other in front of the student council room, when Hijikata's violet eyes immediately caught the movement out of the corner of his eye.

"You." He sneered openly, and Kazama's next insult trailed off as he pursued his lips, a flicker of interest flashing in his red eyes as he glanced between the two. "I've been meaning to search for you, Harada! We need to talk. Now." His voice left no room for objection, and just made the hollow throbbing in Sanosuke's head double along with a fast-paced heart.

Sanosuke frowned at the flips his stomach made out of reflex. There were a million things this could be about, not specifically Chizuru. But he wouldn't admit to anything upfront. Instead, he gave the raven a weak smile and scratched his head absently. "What's wrong now?"

Hijikata made a tch sound with his teeth and gestured to the stairway. "Just follow me." His eyes cut back to Kazama and he pointed a threatening finger towards the blond. "I'm not done with you either - stay put until I get back!"

Kazama had already begun to turn around, waving the other man off entirely as he slipped back inside of the student council.

Sanosuke bit his lip angrily. His patience was already wearing thin and the first-half of the day wasn't even over yet. What else was he about to face now?

hiii everyone sorry for the delay, i was moving from NJ to TX and thinking about how i wanted to add the next part of the drama for this story - it's already far longer than it was originally intended to be, but i don't want to drag things so i hope the pacing is okay. Thank you everyone for your lovely responses, i enjoy reading them so so so much! Take care everyone -SQ