I don't own Peacemaker or any of it's characters, I only own Din Hinto.
Enjoy!
"Crap!" Sanosuke dropped his bamboo sword as he remembered that he had to meet Din. "I forgot about Din-chan!"
"Damn we're late!" Shinpachi whined as he too dropped his bamboo sword and ran towards the sliding door that would allow them to exit. "Hurry up Heisuke-kun!"
"I'm coming!" Heisuke yelled back as he got up and ran towards the sliding door.
"Din-chan!" Sanosuke yelled as he and the others ran outside towards the front gate. "Sorry we're late!"
"Hold it!" Shinpachi whispered as he grabbed Sanosuke's hamaka and pulled him behind a small tree that covered him.
"What?" Sanosuke asked.
"Something's going on," Shinpachi explained. "Souji-kun and Hijikata-sama are both out here talking to Din-chan."
"You think he knows that we asked her to come?" Heisuke asked, as he looked towards the other two.
"Only one way to find out." Shinpachi moved away from the tree and carefully tiptoed over towards the wall nearest the gates so that he could hear everything that was going on. Sanosuke and Heisuke followed after Shinpachi had made it without being caught and the three of them moved closer so they could hear everything that was being said.
"And here I thought you were dead," Din said as she looked towards the demon vice commander. "But here you are alive and kicking."
Hijikata turned his face away and looked towards Souji, his eyes placing the blame on him. Souji just looked back at his commander and giggled a bit and then looked away as if he knew it was his fault for what was happening.
"And you can't even say anything to me." Din shook her head and looked away.
"What the hell do you want me to say?" Hijikata hissed back as he looked towards Din.
He saw everything he used to look at over and over again, her different colored eyes, and his red ties holding her hair back, the same red ties he once used to hold his own hair back while he was training. There was something new about her which caught Hijikata's attention, and that was the scar crossing her face.
"Say something dammit!" Din yelled.
Nothing.
"I can't process this right now," Din hissed and turned away. She looked back towards Souji. "I'm going to go now, thank you for your business."
"But Din-chan—"
"Sorry Souji-kun." Din began to walk away when she felt someone grab her wrist. She looked back to see Hijikata looking back at her with a serious look on his face. "What?" She hissed.
"Come back into my room," Hijikata said, holding tightly to her wrist.
She could feel it, the seriousness in his grip and yet she could feel how uncertain he really was. His face told a different story, telling her that he knew what he was doing and things were going to turn out the way he wanted them to go. He knew what he was doing because he wouldn't let things go any other way.
"Why the hell should I?" Din hissed as she pulled her wrist away from Hijikata. "I should just walk away from you right now dammit! You're dead anyway!"
"Just come back with me," Hijikata demanded. "We shouldn't talk about it out here like this.
Din took a deep breath of air. "Why is it embarrassing for you? That you lied to me?"
"Please," Souji said, stepping into the conversation. "People around here can't see one of the Shinsengumi members being disrespected out in public."
"Dammit." Din looked away. "Hurry up and take me to your room."
Hijikata turned away from Din and walked back towards the Shinsengumi gates, and then back into the dojo. Everyone stood there, watching and not understanding save for Souji who walked back into the dojo with Hijikata and Din.
The trio waited until Hijikata, Din, and Souji had walked back into the dojo before they said anything for they feared being caught and getting into even more trouble. They waited in silence for a few moments to make sure that the three that had just gone in wouldn't come back out all of a sudden.
"What the hell just happened?" Sanosuke asked, as he looked at the other two, breaking the silence.
"I-I don't know…" Heisuke answered as he looked at Shinpachi who hadn't said a word since everything began. "Do you know anything?"
"No." Shinpachi shook his head. "But I've got a feeling that we've stumbled onto something that we weren't supposed to."
"Ya know what though?" Sanosuke asked, gaining both of the boy's attention. "I wanna know what's going on."
Shinpachi grinned. "I think we can find out what's going on."
"Should we go spy on them?" Heisuke asked.
"And risk our heads?" Sanosuke asked as he grabbed his throat, giving a demonstration of what he was talking about. "I say we just talk to Okita-san and see what he can tell us later."
"Yeah," Shinpachi agreed. "We've done enough to get under Hijikata-sama's skin today."
The trio settled everything at that and walked back into the dojo, not knowing what they had just heard and uncovered was a simple plan thought out by Souji. They were just as ignorant of it as Hijikata and Din.
Hijikata led Din through the Shinsengumi dojo getting stares along the way. Din ignored them as she followed Hijikata, trying to figure out everything that was going on. Hijikata on the other hand, was trying to figure out what exactly to tell Din but there was nothing he could tell her but the truth.
As they got closer and closer to Hijikata's room, Kondo stepped out and walked into the hallway only to run into the two who were walking down the hallway at the same time. The smile Kondo always had on his face crossed it once more as he saw Din, but faded as his eyes set on the look Hijikata had on his face.
"Din-chan?" Kondo asked as he looked towards the woman.
"Isami-kun?" Din asked as he looked at Kondo, almost as if she didn't recognize him. She shook her head as she stopped walking and gave a small smile even though Kondo could tell it was a lie.
"Isami-kun! Hi!" she said happily before she heard Hijikata give a small growl. She snorted. "Sorry Isami-kun the demon's calling me, I'll talk to you later okay?"
"Sure," Kondo said gently. He looked over towards Hijikata who was now standing in front of his open sliding door, looking back towards Din. He could see that Hijikata thought he would be able to fix what was going on or rather what had gone on but Kondo knew that this wouldn't be as easy as Hijikata thought.
Din broke away from Kondo and walked over to Hijikata who let her enter his room first. He looked back down the hallway, towards Kondo and towards all of the men who were wondering what was going on and looked away. He walked into his room and shut the door tightly behind himself, making sure that no one would be able to walk in on accident.
"Souji-kun!" Kondo called as he walked around the dojo. "Souji-kun where are you? Souji-kun!"
He knew that Souji was the last person to see Hijikata alone and he had to find out how Hijikata met up with Din again. He searched around until he walked into the backyard and found Souji feeding the pigs.
"Souji-kun!" Kondo called once more, causing the other man to look up with a smile on his face and Saizou in his arms.
"Yes Kondo-san?" Souji asked as he walked over towards him. "Is something wrong?"
"Din-chan's here," Kondo answered breathlessly. "How did they meet up?"
"Din-chan came by to deliver some bread from her store and when she came up, Hijikata-sama just happened to show up for our little walk," Souji answered with a small giggle. "It's a strange coincidence if you ask me, almost like it was supposed to happen."
"Souji-kun…" Kondo sighed as he shook his head back and forth. He knew what the unit captain had done, and how he had planned everything out. It couldn't have been a coincidence, those things just didn't happen and Kondo didn't believe in them. "Why Souji-kun?"
Souji sighed and turned his back to the older man. "Hijikata-sama has been daydreaming a lot lately hasn't he?"
"Yes."
"I just want him to see Din-chan before something happens either to him or her," Souji said, giving some kind of answer, no matter how indistinguishable it was. "It's been almost ten years since they've seen each other…"
"I know." Kondo looked away. "I just don't want them hurting each other."
Souji turned back around. "Me either. That's why I set this up."
Din watched as Hijikata walked across the room and shut the doors leading out into the backyard. He stood there, holding the lock in his hands with his head down for a while, not moving nor talking. Din took in a deep breath and blew it up, moving her hair slightly.
"Why didn't you just tell me that you were still alive?" Din asked as she crossed her arms. The melancholy tone in her voice caught his attention quickly.
"What made you think I had died?" he asked, still facing the closed doors.
"Your whole family died of Tuberculosis, and then you go to start the Shinsengumi with Isami? I figured if the Tuberculosis didn't get you then you would be killed and besides that, I hadn't heard anything from you for ten years what do you expect?!" she augured.
"Why didn't you just come here when we moved to Kyoto?" Hijikata asked as he turned around to face Din. "I would have been here."
"I didn't want too!" Din yelled. "You think I want to see all of these old faces and not see yours? Why didn't you come to see me? You knew my families store and everything! Hell the Shinsengumi gets bread from my store all of the time! You'd think you would come at least once and see me!"
"Damn." Hijikata hissed. He couldn't have gone to the bread store ever because he knew if he did he would see her and he didn't want too. There was a reason why he did everything and never went to see her but he couldn't tell her, hell he could barely admit to the reason himself. He knew that if he saw her, and spoke to her he would fall back in love with her, just like he did ten years ago and there wasn't any room for him to fall in love.
"We're not getting anywhere Hijikata!" Din yelled as her arms fell down by her sides in small fists.
"Where the hell would you want this to go?" Hijikata hissed as he glared back towards Din.
"I want to know why!" Din answered. "Why didn't you say anything to me when the Shinsengumi moved? Why dammit? You moved to Kyoto where I've been living for years now! "
Hijikata couldn't answer even though he couldn't feel the words sitting on the edge of his tongue, dying to be said. He had been holding back this reason for ten years, not speaking about it to anyone but when he opened his mouth, his default emotion showed once more.
"You would be a weakness."
"A weakness?" Din raised an eyebrow as she looked towards the demon. She covered her mouth, and Hijikata thought that she was going to cry but instead she laughed. She snickered a bit but it soon changed to an out loud laugh. "Weakness!" She said through her laugh.
Hijikata hissed, and rolled his eyes, causing Din's laugh to disappear as she looked over towards him with a small smile on her face.
"Oh you're serious," Din said as she leaned back on the wall behind her.
This was an issue Hijikata and Din always had in their relationship may it be romantic or not. They could both be cold and sarcastic towards one another in an argument because it was their way of defending themselves from getting hurt which they knew the other could do if they tried hard enough.
"But anyway," Din continued, "you thought I would be a weakness. To who you or the Shinsengumi? You knew that I wouldn't be able to join so you must be saying that I would be a weakness for you."
"You would have," Hijikata answered. "Not only would I have to deal with men who couldn't handle themselves but I would have to give you special attention that I wouldn't and don't have."
"I didn't want special attention!" Din yelled. "I just wanted to have you dammit!"
Hijikata shook his head and looked away. "Why are you bothering with this?" He asked, dismissing their pervious conversation topic.
"Huh." Din crossed her arms. "If you weren't dead, I wanted to find out your reason for not letting me fall in love."
"What?" Hijikata asked in shock.
"I couldn't fall in love after you left," Din answered as she sighed. "I thought you had died and I figured I would get over you and I thought I had until the day I got engaged."
Engaged. Hijikata thought. For some reason it hurt him somewhere to find out that Din had been with another man, and that the idea that she was in love with the other man pushed her enough to say yes to marrying him. It was his own fault for not taking her when he had the chance but he had never thought of another man taking her.
"I was going to…" Din took a deep breath in and got ready to explain, "sleep with him the night he proposed but I couldn't. His touches were just so full of love and commitment and mine weren't. That night was the first night in years that I thought about you."
"Did you marry?"
"No." Din shook her head. "I broke the engagement that night and he understood. He and I are close though, he told me that he would wait until I was ready and I thought I would never be ready because I would never be over you due to the fact that you were dead but here you are alive."
"You can't blame this on me and your assumptions." Hijikata turned away and rubbed temples. It was in this moment that Din reached down into her kimono top and pulled something out and gently tossed it on top of Hijikata's desk, landing on white papers without making a noise.
"You should have told me that you were alive or something!" Din argued, getting back into the fight. "Not a letter or a single visit or anything!"
"I'm not hard to find." Hijikata snapped back.
"I guess you're right then." Din pushed herself off of the wall and walked over towards the sliding door that would allow her entrance to the main hallway. "I think I've gotten what I wanted so I'm leaving now."
"Fine." Hijikata sighed.
"I'll be gone for a while but I'll come right back for you…" Din began, causing Hijikata to look back up at her only to see her back towards him. "I'm not going to leave you. Just wait for me, and I'll be back. I love you."
Those words. He knew them, he had memorized them when he was younger, hoping that those words would keep Din waiting for him and they had but not in the way he wanted them too. He turned away, gripping his fists and said the only thing he could.
"Hurry up and get out."
Din opened the door and stepped out, closing the door tightly behind herself. She didn't bother to look at the men who were looking at her in wonder but instead she walked down the hallway, towards the entrance.
"Vindictive wrench," Hijikata hissed as he slammed his fist into the nearby wall.
Din walked down the hallway, thinking to herself about everything that had just happened. It wasn't until she slammed into another person did she come back into reality did she see that she had slammed into Tatsunosuke, causing all of his paperwork to scatter on the floor.
"Sorry!" Din said as she bent down and began to pick up the papers.
"It's alright I wasn't watching where I was going either," Tatsunosuke confessed as he too picked up the papers.
Din gathered a small pile of papers and looked towards the person she had bumped into so that she could hand them over to him only to see that it was Tatsunosuke. She smiled gently and stood up with him.
"Sorry Tatsunosuke," Din apologized once more as she bowed down.
"It's alright Hinto-san," Tatsunosuke said with a slight laugh as he tried to balance all of his papers.
"Please call me Din-chan! You make me sound so old!" Din laughed as she placed the few papers she had onto Tatsunosuke's pile of papers. "But hey Tatsunosuke-san?"
"Tatsu-kun please." He smiled.
"Okay Tatsu-kun, do you happen to know where Isami Kondo is? I would like to speak to him."
"Uh." Tatsunosuke looked to the side, trying to remember where he had seen Kondo last. He remembered walking by the backyard and seeing him there. "He's in the backyard I think. Do you need me to show you where it is?"
"Nah." Din moved her right hand back and forth. "This place looks like it's built like the old place so I should know my way around. Thanks though."
"No problem. I guess I'll see you around then." Tatsunosuke began to walk away as Din smiled, saying good-bye to him in her own way.
That kid looks so damn familiar. Din thought as she walked through the hallways and towards the spot where she had seen the backyard before. I can't figure it out…but his face looks so much like Ichimura-san's. Could he be Ichimura-san's son? No…I thought the both of the small ones died with their parents. It couldn't be.
Din walked around until she found a small door, which she stepped out of and found herself in the backyard. She walked past the small pigpen, hearing the small animals inside snort and run around. She stepped around, only to find Souji standing against the brown pigpen, and holding one in his arms.
"Souji-kun," Din stepped over towards him, "do you know where Isami-kun is? I need to talk to him."
"You just missed him," Souji answered with a smile. "He left to go and see if Hijikata-sama was okay, and talk to the both of you."
"Crap." Din walked over to the pigpen and stood beside Souji. She leaned against the brown structure and slid down, holding herself up with her knees.
It grew quiet between the two as they both looked towards the small pond sitting in the middle of the backyard. They could hear the frogs in it, and they could hear the crickets nearby chirping over and over.
Souji giggled. "I heard some of what you were talking about."
"You did?" Din answered with a slight laugh. She was happy that he broke the silence between them, she didn't like that awkward silence between them because silence, to her, often met the other person was thinking of something to say against her.
"I didn't know…that you felt that way." Souji sighed as he too slid down the pigpen, kneeling beside Din. "If I knew…I would have done something earlier."
"Did something?" Din repeated as she looked towards the mauve haired boy. "Did you do this on purpose?"
"I think I had too." Souji looked upwards towards the night sky. "Summer is just beginning again, and everything feels just like that summer ten years ago and I know Hijikata-sama feels the same way. I just thought that you should be here now."
"Oh." Din sighed loudly.
"So," Souji said happily, "I heard that you got engaged while we were gone."
"I did." Din reached back with her right hand and found a small brown sack she kept tied to her waist. She opened it and pulled out a small sliver ring. "This is it."
Souji held his hand out flat, and Din placed the small ring in his hand. He closed it, and brought up to his face so he could look at it. It was plain; nothing really special about it and the only thing on it were the initials RSxDH.
"It's nice." Souji handed it back towards Din and she slipped it back into her small, brown sack.
"I know." Din stood up and brushed the dirt off of her body. "I'd better go before Hijikata finds me out here and bites my head off. I'll talk to Isami-kun later. I'll see you around okay Souji-kun?"
"Okay." Souji smiled. "It was nice seeing you again."
"You too." Din smiled back. "Come by my place anytime."
Souji watched Din walk away with a smile on his face but as soon as she was out of sight his smile faded and his face became emotionless. He looked down at Saizou who looked back up at him and snorted.
She used to call him Toshi-chan. Souji thought. This is going to be harder then I thought.
Tetsunosuke walked by Hijikata's room, going towards the kitchen and hoping to get something to eat before dinner was served. He walked along the wooden floors, trying to be quiet so that the demon wouldn't hear him and demand him to do another chore.
"All she ever does is cause trouble!" Hijikata yelled.
The hair on the back of Tetsunosuke's neck stood up just as it always did when his master yelled. He shuttered.
Damn he's got a scary yelling voice. Tetsunosuke thought. I wonder what they're talking about. The only she in this place is Ayumu-san, is she in trouble?
The curiousness in Tetsunosuke kicked in. He wanted, no rather needed to know now. He looked around to see that he was in the hallway alone.
I'll have something to tell the others if I listen! Tetsunosuke thought. Then I can rub it in the trio's faces that I know something they don't! The red head grinned.
He walked towards the sliding door that belonged to his master and saw that it had been left open just a bit, most likely because of Kondo's carelessness in his hurry to talk to Hijikata and Din. Tetsunosuke looked in and saw Hijikata sitting down in front of Kondo with his pipe burning away, causing white clouds to float around the room.
Damn that smells! Tetsunosuke thought as he covered his nose. He shook his head, figuring that he should get back to the matter at hand, and began to listen.
"All that vindictive wrench ever does is cause problems for me," Hijikata hissed as he took a long puff off of his pipe.
"Well," Kondo began as he sighed. "A part of me thinks that you've brought this on yourself for always avoiding her whenever she came over to deliver something before."
"You know why I did," Hijikata hissed in his own defense. "I can't have her coming around here all the time and falling back in love with me."
Love? Tetsunosuke blinked.
"I think she had a right to see you, and to know the truth," Kondo said only to receive a glare from the demon sitting in front of him.
Hijikata grunted. "Whose side are you on?"
"No one's Toshi-kun," Kondo answered. "I'm just happy now that she can move on and possibly marry the man she was engaged to before."
Hijikata twitched and raised an eyebrow. "How did you know she was engaged?"
Kondo laughed a bit and scratched the back of his head, knowing that he had been caught. "Souji-kun and I heard some of what you were talking about." Kondo stopped laughing, and became serious once more. "But how do you feel about that?"
"Huh." Hijikata looked away. "She can do whatever the hell she wants too; I don't have any attachment to her anymore. All the feelings I had for her are in the past now."
"She kept the red ties you gave her."
"I don't care," Hijikata hissed. "Everything that happened between us in the past is gone and I hoped never to see her again and I still do."
"Toshi-kun." Kondo sighed.
"I'm going out for a walk." Hijikata stood up and opened the sliding doors, which lead out to the backyard. "Don't tell anyone I'm gone. I'll be back for dinner."
Kondo smiled. The present seemed to overlap the past as Kondo watched Hijikata walk out of the back door so he wouldn't be seen by anyone else. Hijikata used to do the same thing when the Shinsengumi was growing ten years ago, back when he would leave so that he could go and see Din.
"Right." Kondo nodded his head.
As Hijikata sunk out of his room and began to walk into the backyard, leaving Kondo behind, and giving the signal to Tetsunosuke to stand up. He looked around to make sure no one had caught him in the act. No one was around. He walked away just as quietly as he had before and made it into the kitchen where he sighed.
Now to go and tell the others! Tetsunosuke thought as he began to run towards the main sleeping room where the trio often stayed, knowing that no one would convict him of any wrong doing now.
R&R please!