I'm a Shinkumi fan all the way, but I think that one-sided Tetsy x Ojou is just too cute. I want to break in with a more plot-driven story, but this is just me trying to examine a little bit of their relationship dynamics.
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Wasabi and Chocolate
by
Sorceress Pluto
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He swore this year would be the end. She had never given him chocolates before and showed no sign of changing. It was so easy to embrace this constant sign of neglect, the forgotten Valentine's Day symbolizing the hopelessness of his love. His heart needed the physical sign to confirm what his brain was already trying to tell him - she would never turn to him and speak his name in those adorably goofy tones. The beam that greeted 'Shinohara-san' and Kujo-sensei' could never be attached to plain old Tetsu.
So he was giving up, abandoning the anger that had always covered up jealousy and pain. Perhaps that hostess Shizuka-chan would push away the hurt, replace the beatings of Ojou's daily fighting practices with something mroe tender. But it just wouldn't be the same.
Though he and Minoru always fought about who would be at the receiving end of Ojou's latest frustration, Tetsu treasured those moments when it was just him and her and the dirt of the practice yard. Of course it was most him on the dirt and Ojou standing over him, helping him up with that strong calloused hand only to knock him right back down again.
Those times she wasn't pounding him into the ground he loved nothing more than to watch her, the joy in her eyes at her student's successes and the fire as she took on senators, rival yakuza groups, school chairmen. She had even stood up for him, marching in on graduation that day so many years ago. Standing behind her in the face of teachers who didn't care about trash or trouble students, he felt strengthened by the power of her conviction. She didn't just brush him off or put him down like the rest. Yes, she had advocated for him, became angry on his behalf. That was more than any 'Shinohara-san' or 'Kujo-sensei' could claim. He was family and that meant more than anything.
Still, he couldn't help feeling the bubble of joy as she handed him a crudely wrapped package, a vaguely recognizable scent wafting from between the folds of paper. In the safety of his room he opened the lime green chocolates. No, not mint - wasabi. Even without tasting it (something that for all his devotion he was hesitant to do), he could not give up his love this Valentine's Day.