Now just to clarify a few things about Hijikata, he was one of the most sincerely awkward people to have ever graced the world. He was horrible at making small talk and his social life was less than thriving. With that said, he did have his moments of profound advice giving, however unfortunate that it is, tonight was not going to be one of them.
He set the two identical black mugs down, steam wafting from both cups. "Sorry, I am out of tea, how..how do you want the coffee?" he asked. Kagura quirked her eyebrow at him, her expression one of utter confusion. "Why are you being so polite mayora, you know I hate that." Regardless, she poured half the cream in the cup on the tray and shoveled in massive teaspoons full of sugar into her coffee, turning the rich black substance to a creamy beige as she stirred.
Hijikata lowered his cup after taking a sip, not knowing how to go about this, it was pretty obvious what she was here for. Wasn't it? He wondered of what to say, and if he was even gauging the situation correctly, what if she wasn't here to talk about Sougo and whatever messed up shit they have gotten into now, what if she just came by to visit him. Looking at the girl quickly and looking away just as quickly, 'Fat chance.' Kagura was not one of those formal type people, he knows, he has known her for years.
"So how have you been?" she asked, after she set down her spoon. "I just got back last week you know, Papi and aniki are over at my house, and I just really, really need to get away from them." she chortled, her voice breaking a little. Hijikata reached for his mug only to withdraw his hand at the last second, "They are here already?" he asked disbelievingly.
"Yeah, the weddings tomorrow, sheesh mayora, you are getting old, you are as bad as Gin-chan!" She placed her cup back on the table and looked around the house, obviously remembering it from childhood, when she did come over to play with Sougo. He nearly snorted as he remembered the time he caught the two of them playing in high school, a game completely different then what they did in childhood. It was one of those desperate moments in when he really missed Mitsuba.
"Oh yeah, sorry, its been a long day." he said, silenced by his own thoughts. She sat perfectly poised, and he sipped his coffee in awkward silence. Until he decided to break it, "What are you doing?"
"Well I have been working in this telecommunication firm in Shibuya, its kind of boring but the money is good and the job is really easy, plus I don't have to depend on Gin-chan that much anymore so that's a relief." she answered with a smile. "No I meant, why are you marrying that guy, do you even know him?" he asked, his voice more brusque than he intended it to be.
Kagura's expression hardened, clearly not here to discuss anything like this. "Mayora! I didn't expect you to ask me this at least." Hijikata set his cup down, determined to not pick it up again or fidget around the situation, 'god damn kids these days.' he thought, really a lot more troublesome than when he was one, which was a loooooong time ago. "China, he began, a childhood relic of sorts, it began one day when she was little and spoke in her native accent, of course that accent had long since dissipated. Have you thought that maybe, whatever you had a fight about, really doesn't matter and that you two should forget about it and begin anew?" the suggestion sounded stiff and awkward even to his own ears but he couldn't reel those words back in now.
"Hell no!" she screamed, he raised both his hands in a defensive posture before putting a finger to his lips indicating for her to be quiet. "No, I won't be quiet!" she screamed again and got up from her seat, "He thinks he can say whatever the hell he wants and I am gonna be okay with it? Hell no I won't, in my life I had never known anyone more difficult and frustrating, it's his fault that I am doing this! His fault that I even agreed to it." she finished, her eye welling up with unshed tears. "So you are doing this to teach him a lesson?" Hijikata asked incredulously. Kagura didn't respond only looking away, and that's when Hijikata realized he had caught her. "That's really fucking stupid, you are gonna ruin your life because Sougo's an asshat, which should be common knowledge to everyone by now." He got up and paced around, while Kagura stood in silence.
"Look, I am not telling you should forgive him, for whatever the hell he did now," he paused to take a large inhale of breath, the years of smoking catching up to him. "But you shouldn't ruin your life for it by marrying someone you don't even know, let alone like." Kagura stared at him like this was one of the things she didn't want to hear, "I wish he were different," she said her voice just above a whisper, "if he wasn't such a dick then we wouldn't have fights like this." Hijikata was quite frustrated with the situation because both parties were stubborn as hell, he opened a drawer in the desk he was standing next to and took out a cigarette from the carton and lit it, taking in an inhale, he released the smoke into the open air and gazed with glazed eyes at the smoke wafting through the air, "if he was different, then you wouldn't love him."
The room felt heavier and lighter with those words said, like some inevitable unanimous decision was taken. Like some, fucked up truth was realized and it was a rather plain truth. Plain enough to see for anybody who had known the two of them, and Hijikata knew them both damn well, they used to screw around in his guest room, and he let them date in secret when all else said no to their open relationship. It was a situation he never saw himself in, helping these two shit stains get together that is, but that's the nature of life, you will go to places you never thought you would go to.
He looked at the girl's sitting figure on his couch, she was contemplating something and he was pretty sure what it was, but he said what he needed to, and he knows that it would get through to her through the night, and she will make the right call tomorrow because out of the two of them, Kagura, surprisingly was the smarter one. He grabbed the keys on the coffee table and looked at her, "come on, I'll drive you home."
After driving the uncharacteristically quiet girl home, he received a phone call from a very familiar number, because he was driving he couldn't pick it up but he pulled over just in time to see it flash the voicemail sign. Connecting it to voicemail, he received information he wasn't very surprised with.
Sighing, he drove all the way to the police station and walked in. The officers, some of them familiar and others not, stood by until he got to the officer by the side and who he knew for a while, with a deep inhale, he grit out, "where is he?" Itou Kamotarou looked up from his file and got up wordlessly and took Hijikata to the prison cells. He arrived in front of the one in which a very drunk Okita Sougo sat, slumping slightly.
And at that moment, Hijikata wondered which would be better homicide or suicide.
AN: This was more Kagura and Hijikata centric, I just wanted to highlight the AU-ness of their relationship. I personally think their little spats, as few as in canon, are really adorable. Thank you for reading, if it's not too much trouble then can you please leave a review?
Thanks again!