So thank you everyone for all the support, it means a lot, and I am having a lot of fun writing this story. Once again, I would like to confirm that this is strictly AU so a lot of things are different, I am taking full advantage of my creative license. But please if you have any questions or comments, leave them as a review and I will get back to you.
After the miniature mental breakdown Hijikata experienced, he sat back down and drew a cigarette to his lips from his pants pocket and lit it carefully, his mind somewhere far away. Kagura stared at him expectantly, while Sougo played with her hair, the open affection making him sick to his stomach.
"So what now?" He asked, while dipping the cigarette in the ashtray, to rid it of the dropping ash.
"What are you deaf? Now we elope." Sougo said with a scoff. Hijikata glared at him and snuffed the cigarette on the ashtray. "I know that jackass, but where the hell are you gonna go?"
Kagura's eyes lit up as she took her cranberry red smart phone from her coat pocket and pulled up an article. She handed her phone to Hijikata and sat back.
Gripping the phone in his right hand, he squinted to read the small letters on the phone. "It's a small village in Nagano, they do traditional weddings and stuff, it's not that far, like three hours." Kagura said, the merriment obvious in her voice.
Hijikata handed the phone back to her and she placed it back in her pocket, with a sigh he got up and stretched, "Fine, but you are driving." He told Sougo, with a glare.
"Can't, remember, I'm drunk." He said smugly, absolutely thriving from the torture Hijikata was going through.
"Guess you ain't eloping then." He said with an evil tilt to his lips. Two can play at that game. He grabbed the coat from his bedside chair and his wallet from the table next to it. As he exited the room, the other two followed behind him closely, all the way to where the car was parked. Yawning, he got in the drivers side and started it up.
Sougo got on in the passenger's side whilst Kagura went to sit in the back, situating herself in the middle to get comfortable. "It's densely populated and really nice, Soyo-chan told me so." Kagura said as she flipped through something on her phone.
"Let's just hope your dad and brother doesn't find you missing before morning." Hijikata muttered under his breath. Before he started the car, he took out his own phone and sent a personal text of his own, pausing he asked Kagura for the exact address.
"There isn't any exact address, it's called Otari though, why?" Hijikata only shook his head and sent the text anyways. He breathed a small sigh preparing for the long road ahead.
They drove through a lot of natural sights and rest stops, switching drivers once they were in Saitama. Sougo, who was 'drunk' before was now driving the car, Hijikata switched places with a well caffeinated Kagura who sat at the passengers seat while he dozed off in the back.
The smooth road and the heat of the car making it easier to fall asleep. His last thoughts dwelled on how the hell he was going to make this work and why he had even agreed to it in the first place. He could have just said no and kicked them out in the cold morning, but somehow didn't. And now he was in a huge mess, which was going to go the shit to hell once day set in properly.
The small hushed voices added as background music lulling him to a dream-like half sleep state, it took him back to a couple of years into the past when he almost pulled a stunt like this with a girl whose parents just didn't think he was right for their daughter. And they were right, he wasn't, but in a clichéd sense of self entitlement, he showed up to her house one night with nothing but a black bag and he hurriedly told her to pack her own before whisking her away from her life.
It was a long winded story, and of course hearts got broken and people died, as is usual with situations like this, but he could admit it to himself now that everything was worth it in the end, because they at least had a few precious years together, and those memories were reminder enough for him. He awoke when the car jolted to a break and the unforgiving sunlight streamed straight on his pale face.
Cracking one icy blue eye open, he glared at the driver who only looked on innocently, he got up from his laying position and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "We are here." Kagura chimed, smiling at him. His expression automatically softening, maybe it was worth something.
He looked around the mountainous region with sleepy eyes, the surrounding trees acting as a nice back drop to it and the morning sun burned bright in the sky as they got out of the car. Hijikata stretched his joints and looked around the small clearing they were in, the place was a far cry from the city he had grown accustomed to. Such a rural setting, he hadn't seen since he was a kid.
They spent the rest of the morning searching for a place to stay and for a priest to perform the marriage ritual, it wasn't exactly easy considering the amount of time they had on their hands, but the people were nice. By the afternoon, they had rented themselves a small house, previously belonging to an eccentric couple who lived abroad, it was placed in a base of the mountains, just a little outside of town and well, it was cheap.
Hijikata walked through the engawa with cigarette clenched between his teeth and his phone in his hand. So far, no one had contacted him, he didn't know whether it was a good thing or not. On one hand, it was probably because no one suspected him of helping the two idiots, but on the other it could be that no one really cared. Putting his phone away in his pocket, he walked in the small furnished living room and saw the young couple already seated in the chabudai with open takeout packets.
Kagura gestured him over and moved to make some room, surprising him. The girl's first love was food, she forgets whatever little manners she has when she is around it, so her being this considerate was definitely disturbing, so much, that even Sougo openly gaped a little.
She was obviously enjoying the elopement idea more than anyone else in the room.
Pressing the butt of the cigarette on a small ashtray he brought from his car, he took a container of food for himself, earning a glare from Sougo. "What?" he asked boredly. Sougo said nothing, probably bidding his time for revenge before turning back to his own container.
"I can't find anyone who can do the ceremony." Kagura said frustratedly, placing her phone on the tables surface and digging at her food with the chopstick. "maybe we came in off season." She grumbled after shoving some of the fried fish into her mouth.
"We are eloping, it doesn't need a season." Sougo said, looking at her with an annoyed expression. The tension of marriage was already getting to them. Hijikata snorted and dug away at his own food.
"I know what we can do!" Kagura said looking up excitedly from her food. "Maybe we can just do the ceremony here and do all the legal stuff once everything calms down." She looked expectantly from Hijikata to Sougo. "Isn't that what you were planning from the beginning?" Hijikata asked with a confused expression.
"Well no, I was hoping we could do the legal and traditional ceremony together, but it looks like that won't be happening, but I don't care, the legal thing can wait." She said, throwing her empty container back in the plastic bag on the side.
Sougo nodded, and looked to Hijikata, "So prepare the stuff."
He narrowed his eyes and threw his own container in the bag before turning back and openly glaring at him. "Why should I? You are the one getting married."
"Yeah but you brought us here, and you are the legal guardian here, we are just misguided kids compared to you."
"Don't act so innocent, you piece of shit!" Hijikata snapped, getting up to pace on the engawa, how was he going to make this work, he didn't know anybody here or anything about organizing a marriage. Grumbling to himself and massaging his temples, he took his phone out again, hoping google would help.
It only provided more confusion. His own wedding wasn't this complicated, they just left to city hall, signed a few papers and left to the countryside until her family calmed down a little. Now that he thought about it, things would have turned out more smoothly if he didn't heed to his idiot not best friend's idea, the moron always got him in more trouble than he needed. Like now.
Except the trouble cam in the form of said moron's god-daughter, who was marrying his undeserving brother-in-law.
There was a soft rapping on the paper doors leading outside. Hijikata put his phone back in his pocket and walked over, asking who it was, after getting no response aside from a few hushed whispers and a girlish giggle, he rolled his eyes and walked away, probably one of the towns people, but why were they here.
Walking back, he prepared himself, in case it was robbers or some dumbass trying to break in, he slid the door open with force that left the frame shaking. He was only met with the dead fish eyes of an asshole he knew all too well.
The "father" of the bride had arrived.
Trailing his eyes to the three people in the back, a pretty blonde woman, and two kids, a boy and girl who took too much after each respective parents, waved halfheartedly at the dark-haired man at the door.
Well, fuck.
AN: Yeah I kinda left it hanging here a little for obvious reasons, prepare for some GinHiji bromance in the next chapter and Kagura being super cute.
Did y'all really think i wasn't gonna include Gintsu?