I don't own PMK or any of it's characters, I only own Din and Setsuna.

Weekly update, nothing really other then that. This is the last chapter of the first series of manga, and the start of the second. Here is where the real drama will start! Hahaha!

Enjoy!

Tetsunosuke ran as fast as he could towards the room where his brother was always working. His feet slid on the ground, as he tried to stop causing him to catch his balance once more. Gaining his stamina back, he ran into the room, panting from his sprint.

"Tatsu-nii!" Tetsunosuke yelled, catching his attention.

"What?" Tatsunosuke answered with a heavy sigh.

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier!" Tetsunosuke moved his head back and forth. "I shouldn't have said something like that about someone you like so much. Please Tatsu-nii, go talk to Din-chan!"

"Tetsu-kun." Tatsunosuke blinked. "It's okay really, everything's fine."

"No!" Tetsunosuke hissed. "Go talk to Din-chan! I know she likes you and it's not fair for the two of you not to talk to each other!"

The elder Ichimura blushed. "She…likes me?"

Tatsunosuke put his pen down and stood up. He walked over towards his smaller counter part and smiled, telling him that everything really was okay now. Tetsunosuke smiled back at him, while Tatsunosuke walked away from him and over to Hijikata's room. There he stood and took in a large breath before he knocked.

"Enter!" Hijikata hissed.

Tatsunosuke opened the door and bowed. "Hijikata-sama, do you know where Din-chan is? I have something I need to speak to her about."

Hijikata shrugged. "Beats me, she left a while ago."

Tatsunosuke twitched. "Thank you sir."

The dark red head closed the door and sighed. He could only think of one more place Din could have gone without being in the dojo. Hoping that she would be there, he slipped out of the Shinsengumi and ran down to the docks.

He was running as fast as he could while taking a few breaks between his sprints. As the sun began to set, he finally made it down to the docks, and ran passed the spot where the two had shared an accidental kiss, and to an open spot where the land and water met before it slipped down to a cliff. There he saw Din sitting down, looking out towards the water.

"Din-chan," he whispered.

Hearing the small whisper, Din turned around to see Tatsunosuke standing above her, panting from his run. The feeling inside of Tatsunosuke's stomach came over him once more but this time, it told him to do something. For the first time since it began, he listened to the strange feeling in his stomach and ran towards Din.

"Tatsu-kun—"

He tackled her, wrapping his arms around her as the two of them hit the floor. He just couldn't hold back any more, he was now lying down on top of her as she placed her weight on her hands and pushed herself up.

"Tatsu-kun!" she said in surprise. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry," he said, looking her in the eyes. "I didn't mean to push you away Din-chan, please forgive me."

"What about Tetsu-kun?"

"He's fine. It's just that he—"

Din placed her finger over his mouth, cutting him off and causing him to blush. "I think I understand Tatsu-kun. I'm happy you're talking to me once more, I missed being with you."

Tatsunosuke pulled away from her. "I never wanted to stop talking to you."

Din sat up. "I didn't want to talk to you at all because I was worried that Tetsu-kun was going to walk in and get upset. I thought it was the same way with you."

Tatsunosuke blinked. "I guess I did that too."

"I missed you Tatsu-kun."

He blushed a bit. "I missed you too…Din-chan."

Din moved her right hand into her kimono and pulled a small white box out. "I guess I can give this to you now."

She handed the small box to Tatsunosuke, who blushed and took the box. He sat there for a moment, and grabbed the top of the box, not sure of what to do next. Looking up towards Din who smiled back at him, he lifted the top of the box to reveal a small, sliver chain inside with an old coin attached to it.

"I've been meaning to give it to you," Din said as Tatsunosuke lifted the chain outside of the box. "The coin is the lucky coin I got from your father. We went to go and pray at a temple but I didn't have enough money to pray so your father gave me two coins; one for my prayer and one for Setsuna-chan. I made my wish, this is Setsuna-chan's coin."

Tatsunosuke looked at the coin. "Din-chan…I don't know if—"

"Take it." Din smiled. "My wish was for Setsuna-chan to come home and she's never going to use it so I want you to have it. It's just something that I hope will remind you of your father."

Tatsunosuke placed the coin in his hand and closed his fist over it. Din moved, and laid down against the grass as he sat up and watched the water hit the dock over and over again while the coin stayed in his hand.

"Thank you Din-chan," Tatsunosuke said with a sigh. "I don't have many things that belonged to my father or mother."

"Your father," Din began, closing her eyes, "helped me a great deal. I would have died if he hadn't done for me what he did. I just feel stupid for not noticing that you are his son. I mean you look just like that good looking devil and I didn't notice at first."

Good looking? Tatsunosuke blushed. He hadn't been called that before and the strange feeling came back to his stomach.

"Tatsu-kun?"

Tatsunosuke shook his head and came back into reality. "Yes?"

"In two years, I'm leaving," Din said as the wind blew. "I'm going somewhere else in Japan, a place where I'm guaranteed food and a home. When I leave, I want you and Tetsu-kun to come with me."

He blinked. "Din-chan I—"

"You don't have to make a choice right now." Din opened her eyes slightly. "It's two years away. I want you to come because something is going to happen within the Shinsengumi and I don't want to lose either of you. Just think about it."

He looked away from Din and back at the coin once more. He didn't know what to think; his mind was blank about the whole thing. He kept thinking that he would think about it later but it was a big choice to make and a part of him thought that he had to make the choice now.

"Where are you going?" he asked finally.

"A place in Japan where no one can touch us," Din answered. "It's just a simple place but don't worry, it's more then two years away. By the way," Din reached back into her kimono, "I found this when I was going through some of my things that survived the fire."

She handed Tatsunosuke a small picture. He took it and looked at it to see that it was of a young Din, his father, mother, him and Tetsunosuke. They were standing in front of his old house, Tetsunosuke in his mother's hands and him standing in front of his father, looking slightly irritated.

"I don't remember this…," he said as he studied the picture.

"You were twelve." Din sighed. "I have another picture just like it, I thought you might want that one."

He looked at it, the only real picture he had of his family and found himself wanting the picture. It was just a simple thing but it embodied how he and Tetsunosuke once lived, and how his parents looked.

"I'll take it." He turned to her and bowed. "I can't thank you enough."

"Just smile." She turned to him and smiled. "Your smile is payment enough. I love to see you happy."

Tatsunosuke blushed once more but a smile managed to cross his face. Din laughed as he smiled, causing his smile to grow more until he found himself laughing as well, for no apparent reason.

The two of them sat there, talking and laughing until the sun finally set, and Din had to get home to make dinner. They walked home, catching up on things they had missed when they weren't speaking to one another and gossiping about people around the Shinsengumi. Nothing too much but a lot to both of them.

Meanwhile in Hijikata's room, Kondo sat down with Yamanami. Hijikata didn't pay much attention to the two until Kondo spoke.

"How do you feel about this Toshi-kun?" Kondo asked. "With Din-chan and Tatsu-kun I mean."

"I don't really care." Hijikata took a puff off of his pipe. "There's nothing I can do even if I wanted to."

"Speaking of her, I've made up with Hinto-san," Yamanami announced randomly. "We've talked things over and we're getting along as well as we're going to."

"Good." Kondo smiled. "Everyone is getting back to their normal selves! Hopefully now all of the gossip and bad talk will stop."

"Gossip?" Hijikata raised his right eyebrow.

"You haven't heard any of it?" Yamanami asked in surprise. "There are a lot of rumors going around the training halls about all kinds of things. You and Hinto-san being together now and Tatsu-kun trying to break you up, Tetsu-kun breaking his brother's relationship up, and that Hinto-san is going out with you and Tatsu-kun."

"Wow…" Hijikata blinked.

"Let's just hope that things will get better between everyone from here on end." Kondo nodded his head. "I don't think any of us wants something more to happen. Sannan, to make sure nothing else happens, have you found those papers on Setsuna-chan yet?"

Yamanami shook his head. "I can't find them. Tatsu-kun is always there in the filing room but now that he's talking to Hinto-san once more I'll have more of a chance of getting in there and looking for it."

"We can't let Tatsu-kun or Din find those papers." Hijikata hissed, taking another puff. "If either one of them finds that stupid piece of paper then Din's gonna take off again."

Yamanami looked at Hijikata. "You don't want her to leave?"

"No why would I?" Hijikata closed his eyes.

"Because," Yamanami moved his right hand over and over again, "you hate her don't you?"

"That doesn't mean I don't want her around." Hijikata let out a puff of smoke. "As far as I care she can stay as long as she wants. She can even date someone here I don't care."

"Really?" Kondo asked, moving in towards the demon. "Come now Toshi-kun! I remember back when we were younger and you two had just met and she had gone somewhere else with another boy! You were so jealous!"

"I remember that!" Yamanami raised his right hand with his index finger upwards. "It was that Shikamura boy from down near the river! Even I remember you being jealous about that."

"We were screwing back then." Hijikata grinned. "That's why I was angry."

"But it was when you had first met!" Kondo covered his mouth while Yamanami's dropped to the floor.

"It was three months of us knowing each other that we first had sex." Hijikata shrugged. "I just told you six because Din didn't want you to think that she was easy."

"Oh!" Kondo laughed. "I never would have thought something like that of her! She's one of my best friends!"

"Getting back to the subject," Hijikata took the pipe out of his mouth, "you know as well as I do that I'm going to get a bit jealous."

"Naturally," Kondo interjected.

"Just don't let Din know anything. If she finds out then I'll never hear the end of it."

Kondo smiled. "It won't leave this room."

Later on that same night, Din was sitting in Hijikata's room, looking outside towards the backyard while he sat in the back finishing off his rice from that night's dinner. She sighed, and he knew something was up.

"Are you talking to Tatsu-kun now?" Hijikata asked, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," she answered.

"Then what's wrong?"

Din leaned her against the wall. "I don't feel useful. There's no point in me being here anymore."

Hijikata put his food down. "What are you talking about?"

"Anyone can cook a bowl of rice. I can't do anything. I couldn't find Setsuna-chan and now she's gone and…," she sighed once more, "I can't even give anyone children. The one thing I really want to do."

Hijikata got up and walked over towards her, standing in front of her and causing her to look up at him. They looked at one another for a few moments, and then Hijikata moved to sit down next to her, his back to the wall.

"Souji-kun would be jealous if you had kids." Hijikata sighed. "He's even jealous that Tetsu-kun likes you so much."

"Souji-kun is like my little brother." Din brought her knees to her chest. "There were times where I wondered if he was ever going to get older mentally. When you brought him home from the first time he killed someone, it took me weeks to get him to talk to me once more. But when he did he acted like nothing was different."

Hijikata looked away, and then thought of something he had been meaning to ask her ever since she had said it to him.

"What did you mean by that I feel like home to you?" he finally asked. "And that you knew in your heart that I hadn't died yet?"

"You feel like home because you make me happy," Din explained. "There's something about you that still makes me feel exactly the way I felt when I first met you. You make me happy and even though you're a pain in the ass, talking to you still makes my heart skip a beat."

"How do I still make you feel that way?"

She smiled a bit. "Because I still love you and I always will."

Hijikata looked away. "What about the other one?"

"There's supposed to be this feeling when people you love get hurt or die and during those ten years we didn't see each other, and those seven I was told you were dead I never felt it once." Din closed her eyes. "It's like a sixth sense I've been told."

"Did you feel anything with Setsuna-chan?"

Din opened her eyes once more. "I remember a time three years ago when I had a horrible stomach ache for an hour. When I sat down and thought about it, I didn't want to acknowledge it. But now I see what it was. Tatsu-kun seems to have that sixth sense about his little brother but it always helps him. Now let me ask you something, what did you mean by "how can I mean that much to you"?"

Hijikata now looked outside. "You told me that you hated me and then you tell me you love me. How can someone who tells you that everything's over still mean something to you? How can you tell someone that you'll always love them?"

"Won't you always love me?" she asked, blinking.

The two became silent. Din sat there waiting for an answer, while Hijikata tried to think of something that would get him out of this mess without getting them into another fight. He couldn't think of anything. She looked up at him and saw him thinking about his answer and slightly smiled.

Idiot. She thought.

Gently she leaned over onto his shoulder, resting her head on it softly. He looked at her the minute the two touched, then sighed and looked back towards the backyard, enjoying the feeling of having someone close to him.

Tetsunosuke ran through the halls of the Shinsengumi the next morning, looking for his older brother who hadn't come to bed the night before. He ran into Tatsunosuke's work room to find him asleep on his papers.

"Tatsu-nii!" he called, waking his brother. "Did you forget what today was?"

"No." Tatsunosuke rubbed his eyes. "Happy birthday Tetsu-kun."

"I'm gonna go tell everyone else!" Tetsunosuke turned around.

"Don't forget about your chores!" the elder called out.

"Not on my birthday!" Tetsunosuke yelled as he ran off to go and brag to the trio and anyone else he could get to listen.

Sixteen years old. Tatsunosuke thought as he listened to his younger brother run away. He's getting old.

Tetsunosuke ran into the kitchen where Din stood cooking and tugged on her kimono. She placed the lid on what she was working on and turned to him.

"Happy birthday," Din said with a smile. "What do you want me to make you for dinner? I'll make anything you want."

"Uh," Tetsunosuke blinked, "I don't know. Just make me a stew then."

"Sure." Din nodded.

"Um, Din-chan…" Tetsunosuke began. "I came in here to say that I'm sorry for what happened between you and Tatsu-nii. It was all my fault."

Din laughed gently and bent down towards him. "Don't worry about anything. Everything's better now Tetsu-kun, but thank you for apologizing."

Tetsunosuke smiled. "It was nothing really. Now please excuse me, I have to go talk to someone."

He ran off, leaving Din alone who smiled as he ran. In the short time she had been in the Shinsengumi she had noticed Tetsunosuke's growing. He was becoming a man, brave, responsible, and dropping his childhood habits. It was amazing.

Tetsunosuke ran over to the trio who jumped on him and began hitting him each sixteen times, and laughed every time they did it. Tetsunosuke yelled and screamed but loved every minute of it. The rest of the day was spent in a good mood and when night fell, Tetsunosuke was allowed to eat in Hijikata's room with Tatsunosuke, Din, Hijikata, Kondo, Souji, the trio, and Yamanami.

"You're finally sixteen!" Shinpachi said as he hit the small red head once more. "Does that mean that Tatsu-kun will let you date a girl now?"

"What?" Tatsunosuke twitched.

"No!" Tetsunosuke laughed. He took a large bite of his food and smiled. "This is great Din-chan!"

"Thank you." Din smiled. "I'm happy you like it."

"Hey," Tetsunosuke looked towards Hijikata, "can I start training with everyone else now? I'm practically an adult!"

"No," Hijikata answered, causing Tetsunosuke to twitch. "A brat is always a brat."

The night was calm on the outside while on the inside of the Shinsengumi, laughter and loud bangs could be heard into the early morning. That night was the night where everyone got a long for the first time in a long time without awkward moment or a slight snipping at someone. After everything that had happened, everyone was happy and the peace seemed to want to stay forever.

R&R please!