AN: I forgot that I had not updated this story here, so standby for 3 new chapters!

Flightless Wings

"The recent DJS, or Deferred Justice System, has been met with public outcry as a petition signed by more than 8,000 people protested the innocence of one of the most notorious criminals on its list.

Sakata Gintoki, one of the legendary leaders of the joui rebellion, has been supported by 8,677 signatures and vast public protests in the streets. This case is peculiar in that the Shiroyasha, as he came to be known during the Great War, was actually registered to have been executed for his crimes a decade ago. He was aided in his escape by his executioner, and lived on in Kabuki district since. Ketsuno Ana is on scene at one ongoing protest outside of the embassy for the Yellow Planet. Ketsuno Ana?"

"Good morning. I'm here with hundreds of people protesting for a fair retrial for the terrorist, Sakata Gintoki – it's clear this man has managed to touch many hearts in the years since his apparent, lawful death. You are one of these people, aren't you Tatsumi-san? Would you care to tell us a little more about this man?"

"I'd love to. I first met Sakata-san after mistaking him for a pyromaniac I had been chasing. He later helped me catch the real culprit. Initially, I thought he was definitely a dodgy person. But he's kinder than he looks, and though he's a bit of a weirdo, he has supported this town in many ways. He saved my boss by running into a house fire."

"A heroic deed, true. However, how do you feel about the murders he has committed in his life? Do you think it is just that he goes unpunished for his acts of terrorism?"

"I don't know much about the Sakata-san from the past; I can only speak for the man I know today. He is someone who will fight for something he believes in. I trust him."

"Thank you Tatsumi-san. I'm also here with Otose-san, Sakata-san's landlord. Do you feel any remorse for sheltering a terrorist?"

"I regret a lot of things but that is not one of them."

"Were you aware that he was a criminal?"

"I'd call him many names but I would never use the word criminal. I met him starving to death in front of my husband's grave. Of course I knew he was involved in the war some-how, many folk were in those days. He never told me himself but that much was obvious – he's not an inconspicuous person."

"For what reasons can you justify saving this man?"

"Each one of us have made mistakes. Gintoki is human just like the rest of us. He should be judged on his crimes of today putting politics aside, not for his so-called crimes during wartime. As far as I'm concerned, the only crime he needs punishment for is not paying his rent!"

"Thank you very much, Otose-san. Now, I'd also like to add something to this broadcast. I have, until now, reported this story objectively. However, I am also one of the thousands who have been helped by Sakata-san. I will stand beside all of these people here today, and beside Sakata-san to assure you that he is far from a threat to us. He is a person who would go out of his way to assist another, and I believe it would be unjust to criminalise such a person who only ever fought for peace. Therefore please, everyone at home, listen to your hearts. I have no doubt that we have all been helped in some way by Sakata Gintoki, so-"

"Thank you, Ketsuno Ana-san. We'll hear more from this report later in the day."

The video feed cut back to the newsroom and the conversation was swiftly changed. Shinpachi whistled, barely concealing a delighted grin as he pushed up his glasses.

"Do not let Gintoki see that news clip." Hijikata moaned, keeping a strict poker-face. "If he sees Ketsuno Ana gushing over him like that he'll be insufferable."

"The old woman got her ugly mug on the telly!" Kagura danced across the coffee table and the glass creaked ominously.

"This is good news." Shinpachi rubbed his eyes. "Really good news. We need to thank her. A hundred times. No, a thousand times. She put her job on the line for that report."

"She'll certainly be in trouble later." Hijikata nodded. He rose to his feet and adjusted his belt on his hips. "Good work, kids. Now, I've got to get to work." A knock at the door paused his footsteps, leaving just enough time for Kagura to scamper ahead of him. She came back almost immediately clutching a scrap of paper with a grin.

"What's that?" Hijikata tried to look over her shoulder as she ran past, holding the paper at arms length gleefully.

"Two suns come. 20 hands when the three holly will be third from the east." Kagura read. Her face screwed up and she read it again. "20 hands … third from the what?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Here, Mr Cop, make this make sense." She thrust the paper into his face. Kagura hadn't misread it. On first reading, the crumpled note was meaningless. His police training whirred into action, beginning to pick apart the code. "It must be from Soyo-chan."

"Two suns come, so in two days." He turned the paper over in his hands – it was an ordinary scrap of a notebook, nothing obscure. "20 hands must be the time, 20 hundred hours. The three holly represent the Shogun - Tokugawa's emblem is the three hollyhock. Third from the east must be the room or window he will be in."

"That's the most useful thing you've ever done." Kagura tapped his shoulder and then danced off with the paper.

"The day after tomorrow at 8 o'clock, the Shogun will be in the third room from the east." Hijikata repeated, mostly for himself. Shinpachi chewed his lip nervously. "Get me in touch with that terrorist."

Power play, that's all this was.

Hijikata sat drumming his fingers in what was suspiciously close to an interrogation room. Though larger and cleaner than any interrogation room he'd ever had the experience of, it was clear that the intention was the same: a bare room, plain painted walls, one desk and two chairs – seated opposite, of course. There was even a bright, white desk lamp, just to punctuate the effect. It definitely did not ring with the friendliness that his last minute invitation had possessed. He assumed that Kristen's assistant had sent the summoning which brought him to the ambassador's office. Of course, it could also be that the General of SparrowHawk and the man who had incarcerated Gintoki genuinely liked to end his letters with, 'kind regards' and 'I look forward to meeting with you soon' written in pretty, looped handwriting. Hijikata scoffed loudly into the empty room. He had almost turned down the invitation with a similarly patronising reply. He'd written it, too. Instead, the letter had been ripped up. There's no way he could act as recklessly as usual when Kristen had the key to Gintoki's cell.

He wasn't used to acting this responsibly.

In any case, this whole situation had been framed to make Hijikata feel intimidated. The so-friendly-it-was-threatening last minute 'invitation', the hostile room set up and now he had clocked 30 minutes in this room waiting for the man of the moment to make his entrance. The grandfather clock in one corner of the room (the only attempt at décor there was) kept ticking on, literally ticking, and Hijikata wondered if Kristen had made an actual list of things to irritate him and was implementing them one by one. Power play in action. He wouldn't be surprised if Kristen was giggling outside the door, wondering how long would be most effective to drive him insane.

Upon that thought, the door swung open so hard that it nearly clanged from its hinges. The force it hit the wall with bounced it right back to closing again so that the huge monster that had just entered didn't need to bother with the gesture. Hijikata tried to hide the fact that he jumped out of his skin. At this point, he was making a bitter and ever-growing list of things to hate this alien creep for. Hijikata made a point to ignore ceremony and stay seated at his arrival. He didn't need to suck up to this man and play the fool – they both knew the situation.

"Vice commander of the Shinsengumi." Kristen threw the opposite standing chair back and dropped into it - it creaked in agony under his massive stature. He made the statement rhetorically, not as a greeting.

"General of the anti-terrorist organisation SparrowHawk." Hijikata threw back, his blood already at boiling point. Kondo had been petrified about this meeting – and he had every right to believe this encounter wouldn't be all smiles and pleasantries. Hijikata would not make this meeting easy for Kristen. He didn't like to play political games, but it was becoming apparent that the general did.

"Okay, let's get down to it. Unfortunately I have another meeting in twenty minutes so this'll have to be brief. I came to discuss with you your relationship with the Shiroyasha, as I'm sure you're aware."

"Oh, did you."

"Your eyes are just as I'd heard." Kristen had the audacity to chuckle, the slash of bared grey skin on his chest bubbling grossly as he did. "It's like looking at wildfire."

"Is that funny?"

"Is it not? Alright. Let's not skip around the subject. There's plenty of evidence - CCTV, written documents, eyewitness account, you name it – to show that you and the Shiroyasha are in some sort of relationship." Hijikata kept his mouth firmly shut. "And also that the Shinsengumi have been working with him for many years." He left the conversation there, waiting for Hijikata to respond. He'd be waiting for a long time. The wildfire was burning as bright as the light-bulb melting the table, and it didn't avert eye contact for one second. Kristen eventually sighed and his tone dropped down an octave.

"I can see this won't be done diplomatically. But I knew that anyway. Hijikata, what sort of a relationship did you and the Shiroyasha have?"

He shrugged and slouched further into his seat. "No comment." Hijikata was sure he saw the ambassador's eye twitch in irritation, but it was well hidden.

"Enough with the smart comments. Just to remind you, I hold his life in my palms right now. So, fill me in. I'm curious. Are you gay?" He leaned across the table to sneer at the vice-commander. Hijikata couldn't help but stiffen his folded arms. "The stoic, violent demon commander ... Is the Shiroyasha your lover? Come on, tell me. This isn't an interview. You're not being recorded. I just want to know, as a friend."

"You're no fucking friend of mine."

"But I imagine Gintoki is, right? A fucking friend, I mean. You're round his apartment a lot." He pushed further and smiled broadly. "Is that what you do when you go round? Is that what you like, a bit of a bad boy? A criminal." Hijikata was red hot and not just with embarrassment. Anger burned through his blood and Kristen was going to lose all his 42 shark-like teeth in a minute. The only thing holding him back was that rope again – he wondered if it would ever go away. Kristen was right when he said he could influence Gintoki's fate. He'd done enough to prove that so far. Could he get away with removing just a couple of teeth? Just a few? The Yellow Planet amanto grew teeth back anyway.

"You look angry." All his control was beginning to pool at his feet and Hijikata was trying his best to picture Kondo with him, calming him. "I didn't mean to cause any offence. I mean, I'm not against gays. I don't get it myself but I'm sure PTSD takes all kinds of sadistic forms." Hijikata was on his feet, his chair scattering back and murder in his eyes. "Why don't I get one of my men to find out? What it feels like, I mean."

Hijikata's fist went cold and froze solid to his side.

Kristen's voice had dropped to a whisper but the words were just as potent. "I'm sure at least one of them would be willing to give it a go." No. "Maybe the Shiroyasha is just that good. Maybe they'll be lining up for it."

No.

Hijikata saw it, his worst nightmares clawing at his brain leaving burning scars in their wake. Every night, the little time he had slept, Gintoki had hands on his throat. There were burning irons at his temples, and worse, worse, he watched his head dip underwater and never surface. His imagination was far too real, far too clear. Now, the image had warped. Gintoki was on his back, his arms were pinned. There were hands on him … He despaired. Even his imagination of the expression on Gintoki's face left him winded.

"You touch a hair on his head and I'll-" His empty threat was interrupted by Kristen's hearty, loud bellow of a laugh.

"You make it sound like we haven't already?"

Hold it together. Kondo told him.

I can't. Strangers were plugging Gintoki's yells with their fingers. Running their thumbs along his tongue. I can't do it any more.

He's winning like this, you can't let him win. Kondo pushed further.

He has Gintoki, he's already won.

Kristen smiled warmly at him. "Are we ready to talk now?" He didn't wait for a response and Hijikata wasn't even capable of giving one at that moment. "I'll give you ten minutes of contact with the Shiroyasha, without guards, without cameras … after those then minutes, you will give me the location of Katsura Kotarou. I don't care how you get it, but that's what you'll do. You understand?"

"What have you done to him?"

"He's a tight-lipped individual," Kristen shrugged, already standing to leave as though the matter had been solved. "So we had to keep hitting."

Kristen was in the door way when Hijikata stopped him. "If I get you that information, you'll leave him alone?"

"That's the deal."

"If you're lying, I don't care what happens to me – I'll kill you."

"I don't doubt you'd try. I'll consider my offer accepted if you turn up at the prison tomorrow for your ten minute meeting. If not, I can't guarantee how far we'll go for that information. I mean, he's a dead man anyway."

When Hijikata stumbled back into the shinsengumi barracks, Kondo felt like he should be calling for a tin foil blanket and a warm drink. There was no blood in Hijikata's pallor. Kondo had to hold onto him to get him to stop.

"What happened, Tosshi?" He kept his voice low and gentle, like his voice could shatter him.

"I'm meeting him tomorrow … a-at the prison."

"The ambassador?"

"N-no, Gintoki."

"Why would he let you do that? What's going on, Tosshi? Hey?"

"I … need to be alone." Hijikata shrugged Kondo's hand from his shoulder and walked to his room with the stride of a man making his way towards the chopping block. Kondo watched after him with pained eyes. He remembered the Hijikata of only a year ago … so much had changed. He hadn't shown even a hint of himself from before the incident. The thin shell of Hijikata Toshiro disappeared around the corner and Kondo closed his eyes, trying to remember the young rebel he once knew.

When Hijikata opened his eyes, he was back in Gintoki's bed. He didn't remember the long walk over to the apartment, but there he was. He breathed deeply to dispel his nightmares with the soft, familiar scent of Gintoki's sheets. An earthy deep sent, speckled with escapee sugar granules from every late night snack Gintoki had dragged into bed with them.

Hijikata turned over and tried to roll back time. Gintoki sat upright, stuffing his cheeks like a hamster with leftover doughnuts in the dead of night. Hijikata chided him for the second time for waking him up. Fingers patted his head, leaving a trace of white dust in their wake. He had long since washed them out. Then, the drowsy memory of hands tampering with his hair, making Vs into Ws and plaiting with a ridiculous amount of skill that left many questions unanswered. Hot fingers on his cheek, a thigh sitting across his hip, messy lips, breathy laughter … strange men holding him down.

Hijikata stumbled drunkenly on his feet to find his discarded jacket and wandered into the living room, back into the light.

"How did you get in again, you thieving copper?" said Kagura. When Hijikata glanced up, his eyes met with Katsura's and not hers. The long haired man nodded gracefully, enough so that his blonde wig shifted further down his forehead. Movement from the other side of the room attracted his attention next. "We'd just sent Shinpachi to fetch you." Kagura's legs popped out from under the opposite sofa.

"And some curry."

"He's not coming back with curry." Her figure wiggled backwards until she could squeeze her head back out. "I can't find our business card."

"You don't have any." Hijikata frowned – he didn't know what time it was but it was definitely too early for him to be computing this. The blonde wig was adjusted back into position.

"That will be why I can't find any." She plonked herself onto the sofa and faced Katsura with a bored expression – it was obvious whose face she was imitating. "We have a customer, Tosshi, sit down."

"I don't work here."

"Oi, oi, little master. Do you think this life is a joke, eh? First you turn up late and now you refuse to work. Sit yourself down."

"But I-"

"Sit." It was with her own voice that she scolded him. Hijikata did so, cursing. "What can I do for ya, mister?" Katsura reached into his kimono and pulled out a pink handkerchief.

"I've lost my pet cat, Joy-chan."

"That sounds terrible," Kagura cooed, "What does the little fella look like?"

"Like this," Katsura produced a hand-drawn picture of a fat circle with two shaded ears.

"What the fuck is that meant to be?" Hijikata frowned, hoping that squinting would bring to light what the lines were meant to show. Kagura whacked him harshly over the head.

"Of course it's a cat, Tosshi! Don't be rude to our customer."

"Do you think you can find him?" Katsura feigned a sob.

"Nothing in this world is free, mister."

"I can give you this," he pulled a half-eaten sausage from his sleeve.

"Deal!" Kagura snatched the sausage from Katsura and catapulted herself over the sofa, through the doorway and away.

"So cheap!" Hijikata shouted after her. After it was clear that she had gone (from the distant sounds of explosions as Sadaharu chased after her), Hijikata ran a hand through his bed hair in an attempt to tame it down. A flick of dark hair still obscured his eye line. "Go ahead then, what are you here for?"

"I needed to discuss something with you without them here." Katsura removed the wig carefully and stuffed the pink handkerchief back into his kimono. "It's me, Katsura."

"I knew that, you fool. How on earth didn't we capture you?" With a sigh, Hijikata stood up and brushed down his jacket. "Drink?"

Once they had re-settled with tea, Hijikata took a glance out of the window at the setting horizon. It was still light, and it would be for quite some time, but darkness was gradually creeping in. He warmed his cool fingers on the cup in his hands and closed his eyes. Never would he have imagined there would come a time where he'd sit and drink tea with Katsura Kotarou.

"How far are you willing to go for Gintoki?" The question finally came; his eyes remained closed.

"Stupid question," Hijikata grumbled, blowing the steam from his cup into swirls. "M'not answering."

"We need a back-up plan, in case none of this works." He heard Katsura rest his cup down on the table softly. "You know that even despite all this effort, he could still be hanged in less than a month." Hijikata didn't want to open his eyes and see the expression Katsura was showing him.

"I'm guessing you have a plan."

"I'd be surprised if you hadn't thought of one yourself." Then you should be shocked, thought Hijikata. Despairingly, he couldn't find a way out for them. There were no plans. Well, none plausible. What sort of plan could there be that didn't require them using swords and throwing the rest of their lives away?

"Do you know of Tsukuyo-san?" The woman that was intensely in love with Gintoki? Yeah, he knew her.

"I imagine she's rallying troops."

"Only for the instance that we need to break him out of there." He didn't mention how likely he believed that to be. "Regardless, how are things on your end?"

"We're meeting the Shogun soon."

"How soon?" Katsura pushed.

"As if I'd tell a terrorist that." He sniffed. It was partly a joke, and he appreciated that Katsura also seemed to understand that. "I do need one thing from you." Katsura didn't respond, instead raising one eyebrow delicately as he sipped his tea. Hijikata took that as a nudge to continue. He forced away the two discerning, red eyes in his head, hid the twinge of guilt in his gut … "I need to know where you'll be in three days."