One week. That was how long Hijikata had been instructed (ordered) to rest for. He'd tried to argue against this because come on Kondo-san it's just a measly rib injury but to no avail. At least he got to catch up on paperwork, right?

He slammed his head on the desk with a loud bang. He hated paperwork. And it was only the first day. This was how he died, swamped in paperwork.

"Hijikata-kun, your brain is damaged enough from the mayonnaise, don't make it worse," Gintoki piped up from the floor, not even looking up from the copy of Jump he was reading.

Oh yeah, and irritated to death by a freeloader. The silver-haired man had just turned up, settled in and then not moved except to turn the page. It was actually nice to have company (not that Hijikata would ever admit it out loud) but it was still weird.

"Shuddap, my brain's better than yours. All those sweets have rotted it." Hijikata's voice was muffled by the fact that his face was still pressed into the desk but his words seemed to carry over easily enough.

Gintoki looked up with a scandalised gasp. "How dare you suggest that sweets, the love of my life, would ever harm me? Take that back!"

Tilting his head so that he could see Gintoki without having to sit up, Hijikata smirked. Here was his chance to finally tease the Yorozuya.

"I thought I was the love of your life? It's sad. I've been beaten by a mere food."

Gintoki blinked.

"Okay," he held up a finger, "first of all, sweets are not a food. They're an experience. It's not my fault you can't appreciate them." He put up a second finger. "Second, we've been dating for, like, a week, so don't get ahead of yourself."

Shooting him a glare, Hijikata finally sat up and picked up his pen, stabbing it onto the paper with a bit more force than necessary. He'd lost that battle. He carried on writing for a few more minutes, calmed by the sound of Gintoki turning a page every now and then. He'd just reached the end of the file when something occurred to him.

"Dating."

"Huh?" Gintoki looked up, brow furrowed in confusion.

"Is that what this is? Are we dating now?"

Gintoki's face smoothed into a blank expression and he closed the copy of Jump. Uh oh.

"Do you not want to?"

His voice sounded disinterested but Hijikata knew it was just a coping mechanism for whatever hurt he thought was coming his way.

"What? No! I do." He could feel himself turning red and he had to force himself to sit still. He'd never admitted it out loud before, but he was attracted to Gintoki and the idea of dating him had crossed his mind a few times before that first kiss.

Gintoki frowned again. "Then what?"

"I just-" Hijikata tried again. "We never did this formally."

Gintoki just stared at him, for long enough that Hijikata started to fidget. He was startled by sudden sound of Gintoki laughing.

"Oi-" Hijikata flushed with embarrassment.

"No-" Gintoki was struggling to speak through his laughter but he managed to briefly compose himself "-I should have known you'd want to do this properly."

He took one look at Hijikata's tomato-red face and exploded into another fit of giggles.

"I'm- I'm sorry! Just- Gimme a minute."

It took him a good few minutes to fully calm down, leaving Hijikata to sulk and glare at the papers scattered over his desk. He heard Gintoki get to his feet but refused to look up, equal parts embarrassed and annoyed. Sensing the silver-haired man leaning over him in front of the desk, he was less surprised when Gintoki placed his finger under Hijikata's chin and tilted it up so that they were looking at each other, but he still jolted. Hijikata couldn't help but be suddenly struck by how good-looking Gintoki was, with mirth sparkling in his eyes and a grin dancing over his lips.

"Hijikata Toshirou, would you like to go out with me?" Laughter still lined his voice, but it was quieter and deeper. More intimate.

Hijikata cleared his throat. "I would." If he didn't look flustered, the roughness of his voice was a dead giveaway.

"Good."

Gintoki leaned down, finger still on Hijikata's chin and gently exhaled once, his breath warm against the other man's lips. Then he closed the gap and their lips met. Unlike the first kiss, which had been somewhat desperate, or even the second kiss, which had been a quick peck, this one was soft and exploratory. Neither man was fighting for dominance; they were just kissing because it felt good. At some point, Gintoki moved his hand from underneath Hijikata's chin to cupping his cheek and the raven-haired man leaned back, bracing himself on his hands behind him so he didn't fall.

The kiss naturally ended when both men needed air, Gintoki straightening up but Hijikata staying where he was, looking up at his new boyfriend with slightly swollen lips and lightly panting.

"See?" Gintoki was also panting. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Hijikata gave a half-hearted glare. "Idiot." He made to lean forward again, but moved in a way that caused his wounded side to twinge and winced.

"Careful." Gintoki stepped round the desk and knelt behind Hijikata, supporting him by gently pushing him up. Once Hijikata was upright, Gintoki stayed behind him, resting his head on the other man's shoulder and wrapping his arms around his waist, avoiding the still-tender wound.

Hijikata huffed. "Don't make it worse."

"I wouldn't!"

"You would!"

Gintoki smirked. "I'd only hurt you if you told me to."

Hijikata frowned. "Why would I-"

It clicked.

"Pervert!"

Flushed, he jerked his shoulder upwards to try and dislodge the silver-haired man but it was no use. Feeling Gintoki shake with laughter behind him, Hijikata sighed and settled in to carry on working.

It was going to be an interesting week.

After that, Gintoki spent every day at the Shinsengumi barracks. He'd appear sometime around one in the afternoon, tease Hijikata for a bit and then settle in, lying on his stomach, knees bent so that his ankles crossed in the air behind him, with a copy of Jump or some other random manga and keep the Vice-Commander company. On the first two days, there had been quite a lot of teasing from Sougo, but all Gintoki had to was mention that Kagura might be out walking Sadaharu and he was gone, saying that he'd be happier annoying her anyway. Hijikata rolled his eyes. Not his problem anyway.

"Where do you get all those copies of Jump from anyway? Aren't you dirt poor?"

"Wow, Hijikata-kun. Hit a man where it hurts, why don't you?"

Hijikata raised an eyebrow.

"Oh fine!" Gintoki threw his hands into in the air in frustration. "They're old ones. The new one doesn't come out until next week and I need something to fill my time with."

Hijikata glared down at him. "Ungrateful. You get my company."

The quiet snicker from the floor didn't improve his mood.

"Oh it's on now, Yorozuya!"

Hijikata grabbed a pillow from the futon next to him and hurled it at Gintoki, breaking out into a smug smile when he saw it hit its target.

"Ow!" The silver-haired samurai let out a screech. "That was my face!"

"Serves you right for insulting me."

"Oh, two can play at that game, Vice-Commander!"

20 minutes and a lot of pillows (and a quick check that Hijikata's wound hadn't reopened) later, both men were lying side by side on the floor of Hijikata's room, staring at the ceiling while they tried to catch their breath.

Gintoki was the first to break the silence.

"Well," he panted, "I think I won that."

"Only because I collapsed and thought my stitches had reopened!"

"Pff, details."

"I'll prove you wrong next time." Hijikata was not sulking. Not at all.

Gintoki chuckled. "The Shinsengumi versus the Yorozuya. Bring it."

They fell into companionable silence for a few minutes. Just as the silver-haired man made to get up, Hijikata cleared his throat.

"Not that I'm complaining, but don't you have any jobs to do?"

Gintoki shrugged. "Only tomorrow."

"Are you not gonna…" He trailed off.

A smirk crossed the other man's face.

"Are you going to miss me, Hijikata-kuuun?"

"No!" Hijikata huffed. "It'll just be weird not seeing your stupid face."

The smirk stayed on Gintoki's face. "Of course. I'll come see you if you're so desperate for my excellent company." He grabbed his manga and darted out of the door. "See you tomorrow!"

"Oi! I'm not-"

He was gone. Hijikata sighed heavily and sat up, ignoring all of the pillows scattered around the room in favour of going back to his desk. Might as well catch up on that work he was supposed to be doing.

The next day, kneeling at his desk, Hijikata found himself glancing at the clock every few minutes. It hadn't been so bad in the early afternoon, because he knew that Gintoki would be late. But it was past 10 o'clock in the evening now. Where was he? Their job couldn't possibly have taken this long.

Could it?

He was on the verge of getting up to look for him himself when the sound of shuffling steps filtered through from outside. A few moments later, Gintoki appeared in the doorway, looking weary but otherwise fine.

Hijikata forced himself to act normal. He already got plenty of stick for being surprisingly needy and affectionate.

"Hey. I was wondering where you were."

Gintoki shrugged and stumbled into the room. "Around."

Hijikata followed his movements curiously.

"Are you... alright?"

The silver-haired samurai attempted to answer but tripped over his own feet and landed on the floor with a thump, his head not far from Hijikata's leg.

"M' just tired. We had to run all over the city lookin' for some dumb animal."

Hijikata smiled in relief, looking down fondly. "You lazy idiot."

The noise that came out of Gintoki was something close to a whine as he wriggled along the tatami mats and bumped his head into the raven-haired man's thigh. Hijikata briefly tensed but relaxed as Gintoki kept nuzzling his leg.

"Wasn't a cat you were looking for, was it? It seems to have rubbed off on you."

"I'm tiiiiiiired, indulge me, Hijikata-kun."

Gintoki's eyes were closed but he kept moving forward until his head was firmly settled on Hijikata's lap, clearly happy with where he had chosen to rest. Hijikata's hands awkwardly hovered in the air for a minute as his brain tried to catch up. This was as domestically intimate as they'd gotten, with the next closest being the odd chaste kiss or a brief hug. This was different. More serious in a way.

After a fierce internal debate, Hijikata gently rested his hand in the other man's silver hair and tentatively ran his fingers through it, lightly brushing his scalp as he did so. Gintoki went very still for a second before curling towards him even more and humming in approval.

"Is the Demon Vice-Commander of the Shinsengumi petting me?"

"I don't know, are you purring?" Hijikata retorted sharply, his face uncomfortably warm.

"Shhh, m'not." This was followed with a contradictory hum deep in the back of his throat.

Hijikata could feel himself smiling, but he wasn't sure why. Maybe this warmth fluttering around inside him was this "love" thing that everyone kept going on about. That he'd forgotten about. It wasn't so bad, really. If every day was like this, then maybe he could be happy. Yeah. That sounded good.

With one last fond glance at Gintoki, Hijikata returned to his work, still softly stroking the head in his lap.

It didn't take long for Hijikata to begin to feel tired himself. He leaned down, gently nudging Gintoki out of the doze he had fallen into.

"Gintoki. I need to get up."

The silver-haired man shifted slightly and looked up blearily.

"Mmm. Stay."

He lifted himself up slightly, only to fall heavily against Hijikata's shoulder, knocking him down onto the nearby futon.

"Ah, Yoro-"

"M'not moving."

Hijikata sighed at the ceiling.

"At least let me take my jacket off?"

With his jacket removed, Hijikata lay back down, one hand automatically coming to rest in Gintoki's hair as he curled into his chest, head resting just over Hijikata's heart. Gintoki smiled sleepily and his eyes slid shut, quickly falling asleep again. Hijikata found falling asleep more difficult. The angle he was lying down at was strange and the weight against his chest was foreign and made it more difficult to breathe. But gradually, he felt a comforting warmth settle over him, right down to his bones, and he could feel himself teetering on the edge of sleep.

If this was what being in love was like, he really didn't mind it at all.