Chapter 8: Run Back to Her

"Toushi…!" Otae called out his name in labor, lifting her hand up, as if to reach him. And she did.

"Otae!!!" Toushi barged in, ignoring the nurses telling him not to enter.

"Toushi…?!" she looked at him. They stood there, breathless for a moment, but…

"YOU IDIOT!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE PREGNANT?!" he yelled at her.

"YOU'RE THE IDIOT!!! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WANTED TO SEPARATE!!!" she yelled back perfectly fine, even in labor.

"Wow… Amazingly, this is helping the baby come. Please, continue fighting. Let it AAAALL out." Mitsuki nodded, very truthfully.

"IT'S OUR CHILD, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO TAKE ON THE BURDEN ALONE!!!"

"YOU NEEDED TO FOCUS ON YOUR WORK!!!"

"YOU'RE HOLDING OUR F**KING KID AND DYING, FOR GOD'S SAKES!!! I THINK THIS IS PRETTY URGENT!!!"

"YOU'RE ONLY WORRIED ABOUT ME BECAUSE I LOOK LIKE MITSUBA!!!" she screamed.

"…Otae…?"

"I know…! You're in love with her, not me…! I look exactly like her, so…!" the woman sobbed.

"…Otae. You're right. I did love her, but after she died, I loved her for what she had done with me. I knew she was dead. I met you later at your restaurant, and I started to feel attracted to you because of you. Sure, you do look a little like her, but I love Otae Shimura now even more than I did Mitsuba Okita!!!"

"Toushi…!" she cried, happy that she was something important to him.

"Almost there, Otae!!! Keep it coming!!!" Mitsuki urged her.

"Come on, Otae!!! We'll make it through this together!!!" he squeezed her hand. She screamed, and soft murmurs were heard. The baby was so lazy he didn't even feel like crying!

"Congratulations, Otae-san. You've given birth to a beautiful baby boy."

"A boy…!" she smiled as Mitsuki took the baby to a nurse for washing. She came back to talk,

"Hijikata-san, she's still in critical condition. You'll need to administer emergency medicine to her, once every day, along with good meals and emotional support."

"Every day, OK." He nodded.

"But Toushi, your job-" she whispered.

"If I have to, I'll quit. You're the most important thing in my life. I can't leave you behind." He tightened his grip around her again.

"Toushi…"

"I'll prepare a meal right away. She needs to eat, soon." Mitsuki stood up and went to the kitchen with some cooking ingredients, taken along in case of starvation emergencies. "In the mean time, try and give her this." She tossed him a bottle of purple liquid.

"All right." He nodded and took out the eye dropper. He took a few drops and slipped it into her mouth, panting from stress on the body. But she couldn't swallow it. She coughed and coughed, the liquid wouldn't go down. "…I'll do it like this." Toushirou squeezed an entire dropper full into his mouth, then leaned over and kissed her on the lips, his beautiful brown hair drooping over her forehead. With this kind of encouragement, she swallowed it down. Who wouldn't? After all, their lips hadn't touched each other in almost a year. Their eyes hadn't looked at each other, either. His head rose, and the two looked at each other deeply.

"…Every day, every day I wanted to see you…!" Toushi hugged her, her body lying in the bed. She wrapped her arms around him, stroking her fingers through his hair.

"I was so scared Toushi…! I missed you so much…!" she sobbed, happy that she had lived, and happy that she was in Toushi's arms.

"Here, your baby." Mitsuki brought the boy in a little bundle.

"He's so beautiful…" she cried softly and took him into her arms.

"You did well, Otae. He's amazing."

"He has your eyes." She giggled.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"He has my hair, I think." She smiled.

"And your mouth."

"What should his name be?" he smiled.

"Well…" she looked into his eyes, "We should use hiragana from our name."

"TA-E SHI-MU-RA."

"TOU-SHI-RO-U HI-JI-KA-TA."

"How about…" she put her finger to her lip, "Shirou?"

"I dunno… It doesn't sound strong enough…"

"What do you have in mind?"

"…Himura?"

"Mm-mm… How about…" she smiled, "Takarou?"

"Takarou…"

"Is it good?" she looked up to him.

"…Yeah. It's perfect for him."

"So… His name is Takarou Hijikata."

"Otae…" he smiled to his girlfriend, "I know this is sudden, but…" Toushi took her hand, " I want to be with you forever…Will you marry me, Otae Shimura?" She looked at him silently, pleasantly surprised. That entire year of suffering seemed like nothing now.

"…Yes!" she whispered and hugged him, "Once I get better, of course…!"

"So Toushi… You're getting married." Kondo arrived from behind. Kondo had been in love with Otae even longer than Toushirou, and took it pretty hard when the couple started going out. But because she was happy, he didn't start a fight or anything.

"Kondo-san…"

"Didn't you say you were going to separate?"

"…I did, but… I can't leave the one I love- Not to mention my son… Alone. I won't let Otae raise our kid on her own."

"Toushi…" she held his hand.

"I don't care if I have to quit… I'm sorry." He bowed.

"…You fool." He smirked, "I knew you'd run back to her."

"Kondo-san…?"

"You can visit her two weeks of the month. When you two are apart, you start to wilt. You need to be together a lot." He turned away to leave.

"…Thank you!"

"No problem. Take good care of them, you hear?"

"Yes sir."

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"Gin, Gin, how did it go?!" Kagura leaped up, even though her body was tired.

"He made it in time. He's there with Otae. Apparently," Gin took off his helmet, "They had a baby boy."

"Wow!" She smiled. "I wonder what our baby will be…"

"Well, the boy Takarou has Hijikata's eyes, and Otae's hair and mouth."

"Sounds cute."

"Speaking of which… Your hair color came from your mom's side, right?"

"Mm. And Kaede's came from my dad."

"How is Kaede doing, anyway?"

"Well…"

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"Hey, Okita!" Kaede ran up to Okita at HQ.

"Ah, yo Kaede." He smiled.

"Have you ever seen Okita act like that?" Yamazaki asked one of his friends.

"Nah. Never." One shook their head.

"You think those two are an item?"

"Maybe." Yamazaki nodded and picked up his badminton racket.

"Okita, here." She thrust a box covered in a bandana to him.

"What's this?" he opened the box, when his eyes went wide, seeing what was in it. It was a beautiful bento with tons of things in it. It was designed so beautifully, he couldn't tell Kaede made it.

"I worked really hard and messed up a lot, so…" she swifted her head away, "Enjoy."

"Come eat it with me."

"Eh?"

"Well, I guess we'll take a bite too~" the perverted cadets reached for one of her sushi.

"TOUCH IT AND DIE." He glared furiously at them, and they whimpered off, "Let's eat under that tree, FAR AWAY from headquarters." He snapped back into character.

"Is it good?" Kaede smiled to him, taking a bite.

"You're eating it too."

"I know, but…" she blushed, "It was made for you, so… I want to know how you think."

"…All right." He told her, "I'll tell you. Just close your eyes."

"Like this?" her eyelashes flittered closed. She looked beautiful.

"Yeah." He looked at her, coming closer to her face. He softly placed his lips to hers, and her eyes flashed open, but then she closed them again. He gently held his hands around her arms, then hugged her.

"Okita-kun…" she sighed blushing, hiding her eyes away. He lifted her chin with his hand, and kissed her again. It wasn't intense, it was just fluffy and sweet, "Do you love me…?" she asked.

"…If I said yes, what would you say?"

"I'd say that I love you too." Okita hugged Kaede softly to his chest, wrapping his arms around her, "You love me more than Kagura, right?"

"I do."

"And you don't see me as her, right?"

"I don't."

"Then it's OK for me to love you, right…?"

"It is." He took his hand and stroked her hair, and their lips reached each other again.

I HAVE AN OBSESSION WITH FLUFF. IT'S LIKE HEROIN. XD By the way, someone reviewed that the Shinsengumi was so perverted. YES. YES THEY ARE. They're guys always separated from girls, so I wouldn't be surprised. And by the way, the ones who were peeping were the older ones, not Yamazaki. Wow, I suck at saying this beforehand. Oh, and by the way… There's going to be two babies in a row. SOOOO REPETITIVE. But you know, Kagura got pregnant like, 3 months after Otae, so she's going to have her baby soon after. Enough explanations! I even had to ask my mom how long it takes in pregnany (it's 8 months)!