Disclaimer: I don't own it. Never will.

This is the last chapter of the One Shot series, and that makes it my first completed story! YAY! Sorry it's so short though oO;. Anyways, I'm thinking of doing a sequal to build Kowasu and Peter's personalities up more… then again, I may just start a different one. I threw some Sword Fighting in here for no reason. Whoo! Anyways, enjoy!

Chapter Seven
Tetsu's Surprise Party

"Tetsunosuke-kun!"

Tetsu turned. He'd returned from shopping with Shinpachi for a while ago, and he was wondering exactly why the Vice Commander hadn't wanted to smash his head in for neglecting his page duties. No, the Vice Commander had said something about; "Damn mutt, pissing all over the floor!" The funny thing was, Tetsu didn't remember peeing on his floor at all – mutt was his name with Hijikata got really angry.

But, night was falling, and Okita had appeared from out of no where. "Okita-san!"

"Konban wa, Tetsu-kun!"

"Konban wa…"

"Hey, come with me, okay? Okay?"

Tetsu really didn't have a choice, seeing as Okita grabbed his wrist with his only free hand – Saizo occupied his other – and dragged him to the dojo that he'd cleaned earlier that day.

Okita paused momentarily, his gaze turning around the area. Good, he thought, Everybody's in place.

"Come on inside, Tetsu-kun!"

Again, Tetsu was dragged. They stopped at the door way. Tetsu looked at Okita for a moment. It was dark, with no candles lit, but he could just make the outlines of a fair amount of people. In fact, the moment Okita lit the first candle, everybody jumped up and shouted: "SURPRISE PUPPY BOY!" Causing Tetsu to fall backwards, and look up with surprise. The only people not to yell surprise were Saya, who as planned had simply jumped up with her hands outstretched, Susumu, who had been arguing with Peter and hadn't jumped up at all, and Tatsunosuke, who was sulking in a corner.

"W-What is this?" Tetsu asked, looking around at everybody who wore trademark happy faces, ignoring Susumu's shouting:

("FOR GOD SAKES PETER, I DIDN'T MEAN TO STEP IN THE DOG SHIT!"

But you still did, didn't you?

"JUST LAY OFF! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!"

That's it. No intelligent thoughts for a week.

"Ah… PRETTY BUTTERFLY!" The Butterfly was in fact a trick of the light, that Susumu decided was pretty, and there for, was a Butterfly. Peter had made good on his word.)

"It's for your Birthday, Tetsu-kun." Okita said, grinning. "Did you think we'd forget?"

"Well… actually… yeah."

"You should be happy, even Hijikata-san got you a present!"

"He did?"

"Yep!"

"Well uh… Thank you everybody!" Tetsu said, feeling extremely embarrassed.

It didn't take very long for the festivities to get under way. It appeared that Okita had set up a table on the back wall of the Dojo and had stacked it with the lollies from earlier, as well as the comic trio's meals. In fact, the meals were actually pretty decent, which meant of course that Hajime had helped them after all.

Games didn't exist at the party. People just mingled and did what they liked until present time, until:

"Souji, this is a special occasion, is it not?" Hajime asked, tapping Souji on the shoulder.

"Yep!" Souji said, grinning.

"How about a contest then?"

"A contest?"

"Yes, against all the unit captains and the commanders. I'm sure everybody would like to watch."

"Yay!" Souji stated, grinning, and skipping away to ask Hijikata. Hajime watched as Hijikata's stature slumped a bit, but he agreed none the less. It was then that Hajime went to find Tetsu.

"Tetsunosuke-kun."

Tetsu, who had been in the middle of conversing with Saya, jumped and scrambled to hold onto the closest thing – which happened to be Saya – before looking at the 3rd Unit Captain. "W-W-You scared me, Saito-san!"

"Indeed. But I believe it should be the woman who falls into their lovers arms." Both Tetsu and Saya blushed. "In any case, come and learn something. We have decided to put all the commanders against one another to see who comes out on top."

"Cool!" Tetsu announced, "Come on, Saya!"

"The first match," Ryoma announced, he'd surprisingly been let off the hook this time, considering it was puppy boys Birthday. And the moment he'd mentioned that he'd known Tetsu's Father, reluctantly letting him in, but in the end, they'd stripped him of his gun and swords. "Is between Nagakura Shinpachi and Harada Sanosuke!"

"Get ready to lose, Shinpachi!" Sanosuke announced, grinning from ear to ear. Shinpachi gulped. He'd never once beaten Sanosuke in competition when he was wielding a spear. Still, he was going to try.

Shinpachi moved off, dashing in a zigzag like pattern toward the taller man. Sanosuke retaliated a bit to late, and Shinpachi managed to get behind Harada, hitting him in the back with his wooden sword. No good. All Sanosuke did was take the blow, and although Shinpachi was sure it was painful, Sano didn't get all those scars for nothing. Unfortunately, this put Shinpachi in Sanosuke's range of attack.

"Shit." He muttered, narrowly missing being hit over by the end of the padded spear, and he only narrowly made it past attack range.

"Givin' up already, Shinpachi?"

"Not on your life!" Shinpachi spat, glaring at Sano. How the hell am I supposed to beat him? He asked himself. Normal moves wouldn't work against Sano, he knew that, in fact, even forming a stance was probably pointless. "Damn…"

"My turn!" Sanosuke stated, dashing towards Shinpachi, who only had a split second to dodge. He did so by leaning backwards, just far enough, but lost some of the ends of his fringe in the process. Sanosuke didn't stop there. His attacks were so fast, that in the end, a direct blow to the gut caused Shinpachi to double over. Sanosuke advanced onto the next round.

In the end, Sanosuke cut down Todou, but it didn't take Sanosuke long to be cut down by a blow from behind by Souji.

Now it was Souji VS Hajime, and everybody knew it could go either way. Both stood, not moving. There was obvious tension in the air, and a few Shinsengumi members forgot to breathe. In the end, Souji decided to start off. He launched himself full speed at Hajime, connecting swords with an almighty CLANG. Hajime fended him off, and both men jumped back a considerable distance, sizing each other up.

"I sense something dark around you, Souji."

"Your mind games won't work with me, Hajime."

Damn. Hajime thought. He'd have to use a different mind to defeat him, and calling on Kowasu would be considered cheating. No, he'd fight fair and square.

This time, Hajime moved in a zigzag pattern towards Souji. Souji readied for the blow, but it didn't come, instead, using a sweeping motion, Hajime's foot tripped Okita – who landed on his face, his wooden sword landed three feet away. The entire hall erupted with laughter, including Okita.

"How original!" Okita said, standing. "Wow, that was amazing, Hajime!"

Hajime cut down Yamanami without any problems, considering he didn't put up much of a fight at all. He basically forfeited to Hajime – who was sorely disappointed.

"No fair."

Hajime blinked. He was getting ready to face Hijikata. The voice came from inside the small wooden doll.

"I want to try too."

"You want to try?" Hajime asked, blinking.

"Yeah. I want to try."

"Well you can't."

"God you're a prick."

Hajime and Hijikata faced off. Hajime was determined to win – the medium always vanquished the demon after all. It was Hijikata who made the first move, making an upwards striking motion at Hajime, which he narrowly avoided, but the air made a small cut in his robe. They connected swords, sizing one another up, before jumping back to considerable lengths.

"You are indeed a demon, Vice Commander."

"I'll take that as a complement."

Hajime moved this time, attempting the same manoeuvre that he used on Souji, but the Vice Commander saw right through it, jumping out of the way and bringing his sword down to connect with Hajime's shoulder. Hajime yelped, bouncing backwards.

"No fair, Hijikata-san!" Souji called from the sidelines, "You're not supposed to hurt people!"

Not surprisingly, Hijikata was disqualified.

Now it was only Hajime and Kondo. With his handicap, Hajime was pretty easy to beat, and Kondo walked away victorious. Not surprisingly though, Ryoma was etchy to allow Kondo near him, especially when he was sure that he'd arrest him.

"Your winner," He stated, eyeing Kondo, "Kondo Isami!"

"Was that fun to watch, Tetsu-kun, Saya?" Okita asked, sitting down next to Tetsu and Saya. They both nodded – Saya slower than Tetsu. Truthfully, she'd been terrified and covered her eyes through most of the fighting, but she didn't want to appear afraid in front of Tetsu.

"Present time?"

"You got me Presents?"

"Of course! MINASAN! Present time!"

The group gathered without a second thought, the people who'd been told by Souji about his Birthday equally excited to see what everybody else got him, the few that'd been told by other members only cared about getting their moneys worth, and the other presentless members just sat around and watched.

Of course, Tatsunosuke went first, emerging from his sulking corner putting the pile of presents – which was just about as high as Tetsu was when he was sitting down – in front of his younger Brother. Most of it was clothes, but he got a few new tools for page duties, as well as a book to help with his reading. He then received his Spear, Teddy Bear, and Dream Catcher from Sanosuke, Heisuke and Shinpachi. (Hijikata looked just about ready to rip the 10th Unit Captain's head off.) Then it was Suzu's turn, who had been hiding out in the corner opposite to Tatsu, and he also handed over the clothes he'd brought to Tetsu. Saya handed Tetsu her doll afterwards, along with Akesato and Yamanami. Susumu, reluctantly came over – even though Peter was still refusing to work, and clumsily handed over the wig – which looked just like Tetsu's hair in the first place. Finally, Hajime handed Tetsu a sheet of paper.

"What's this?" Tetsu asked, looking at it, and then at the finger print that appeared to be written in stale blood.

"A soul deed. Give me your hand."

"Huh?" Tetsu asked, but he didn't have a choice. Hajime grabbed his hand, used his nail to dig just under the surface of the skin but enough to draw blood, and planted his finger on the paper.

"OW!" Tetsu stated, pulling his finger away from Hajime's hand and sticking it in his mouth. "Vhat vurt!"

Hajime then handed Tetsu the Wooden Doll. "Happy Birthday."

"Huh?" He blinked. Looking at it, but threw it over the other side of the room when it spoke.

"WHEN THE HELL DO I GET MY SAKE! HAJIME!"

Kowasu emerged from the doll, and half the Shinsengumi screamed. Hajime simply grinned. "It's over on the table, but first, meet your new master. Ichimura Tetsunosuke."

"Yeah, yeah, that's nice… SAKE HERE I COME!"

Everybody sweat-dropped.

"Oi! Dragon Boy!" Ryoma stated, bounding in his direction and holding out a box. "Happy Birthday!"

The box – to Tatsu's dismay – contained a gun. When Tatsu saw it, he dragged Ryoma out of the room by his dreads, and kicked the shit out of him.

Last but not least, it was Souji and Hijikata's turn. Souji carried the puppy quite happily, while Hijikata had been made to hold Saizo.

"Happy Birthday, Tetsu-kun!"

"It's a… It's a PUPPY!"

Tetsu was obviously overjoyed at the dog he'd received, which he called Menchi – Shinpachi's suggestion – grinning.

"He's your responsibility, Ichimura." Hijikata said seriously. Standing over his page. "You have to train this mutt to guard the Shinsengumi headquarters at night time, and you have to train it to be obedient. But, first of all, TOILET TRAIN IT! IT PISSED ALL OVER MY FLOOR!"

The entire room fell silent.

The party contined without much fuss. Ryoma, Kowasu and Sanosuke all got drunk without a second thought, Ryoma sporting more than one bandage. Susumu continued to chase the Butterfly. Hijikata was terrorised by Souji. Shinpachi and Heisuke interrogated Hajime about their dead relatives. And Saya, Tetsu and Suzu all played cards – Suzu completely forgetting about his mission objective.

Tetsu looked out of the small crack he'd left open of his cupboard door. The end of his Birthday was pretty good after all. Menchi had chosen to lie on Tatsu's stomach, while Kowasu had insisted on sharing the cupboard with Tetsu. It had been a good Birthday after all. Considering it was well after midnight, Tetsu curled up into a ball and fell asleep.

Yes, he thought before drifting off, It has been a good Birthday after all…

Well, that's it! Invitations is now a finished story, HORRAY! Sorry it was so short, but you know, one shot series that follow a story-line shouldn't really go on for that long, you know? It's different when their random stories. Anyways, thank you for reading, and please review!