Hakuouki in its entirety belongs to IDEA Factory/ Yone Kazuki-sensei; Kawa belongs to me.
*edit: short, chapter is short. bear with me, ne? otherwise, enjoy!
***edit: "Roshin" - slang for rogue samurai.. again, bear with me, that's how i translated the term when doing reference. also, beats saying rogue samurai. ^^;
She scowled slightly at the blood that washed off their clothes, crossing her arms.
The sight of blood never irked her; but so long as it wasn't her brother's or Souji's that had been spilled, she remained unaffected.
"We barged into the lodge those roshin ran into, but the front desk clerk stopped us!" Shinpachi explained in a rather annoyed tone.
"'He stopped you'?" Sannan-san repeated.
He nodded, "yeah; he kept askin', 'who ordered you to do this? Go get the local police.'"
Toshi opened his eyes. "So that's how you lost the roshin." He surmised.
Shinpachi scoffed in his own annoyance again, scrubbing angrily at his clothes in the bucket. "Tch, what're the people of Kyoto thinkin', defending roshin?" He wondered aloud.
"We lack any funding or patrons, and the imperial nationalists –especially the Choshu ronin, are said to grease people's fingers." Sannan-san spoke up again.
Kawa huffed. "And that, kiddies, is how the world works. Don't they realize that even though we're not concrete just yet, we're trying to help them? The only person we'd aim our sword at isn't an innocent bystander, but one of those damn roshin." She grated, looking at her katana propped against the post and focusing her eyes on the blue fabric of the hilt.
Souji raised a brow at her words, smirking a little. "Well aren't you a damn-good philosopher." He teased gently, lifting a hand to ruffle her hair.
She blushed slightly and punted his hand off gently, pouting. "Shut up," she grumbled.
He smiled cheekily, tucking a few strands of hair behind her left ear absently, earning another flash of pink to appear in her cheeks; he looked over at his friend that had remained quiet the whole time and huffed quietly. "Neh, for someone who's just drawn another person's blood, you seem pretty calm about this, Hajime-kun."
The stoic man continued to scrub the blood off his yukata.
"Saitou, after having crossed blades with them, what do you think?" Toshi stepped in before the brunette could goad an answer, looking to his old friend.
Saitou undid the ties that kept his sleeves from getting wet aimlessly. "They were all lacking in skill with using a sword; but, given that our numbers were limited, I'm concerned about what'll happen should the enemy surround us." He said.
Kawa scowled at the thought.
"But it would take time and money to recruit new men and train them." Toshi muttered rather grimly, tapping his chin, before looking at the men –plus his sister—gathered. "For now, don't go out alone. Getting yourself killed won't do any good." He instructed.
Shinpachi checked on the once-stained clothes, "at any rate, there just isn't enough stuff we can do." He mused before thinking of something, looking at Sannan-san. "Hey, what happened with getting in with the Aizu Domain?"
The aforementioned bespectacled man looked a bit crestfallen. "We'll be sending an official petition to the Lord of Aizu for permission to remain in Kyoto soon." He informed, folding his arms.
"So there's a chance we'll get to stay in the capital?" Kawa wondered of him, lifting a brow.
"I can't say for sure; depending on their response, there's a possibility we'll have to leave Kyoto." Sannan-san replied. "Really though, our fate does rest on Serizawa-san's connections and course of action." He glanced at his fellow vice-commander at seeing his frown deepen at the mention of that man. "Just tell yourself that we're only using him." He advised.
Toshi scoffed as Kawa snorted aloud, "I can't make myself be that emotionally detached from this!" He protested. "You can say that's what pisses me off, but I swear that someday I'll outwit that man and lift Kondou-san to power." He stated, taking on a determined look that made his sister smile gently when seeing it cross her brother's face.
:::::::x|x::::::
A loud grunt of exertion sounded.
Eyes shooting open, she listened again for the noise, staying in bed rather than hopping to her feet and checking it out, closing her eyes to listen better.
The faint swinging of a blade on the air was something she could hear, another grunt escaping the wielder.
Quietly shuffling out of the sheets and to her feet, she gathered the lapels of her light-blue robe to herself and moving to the door of her room that opened to the closed-in courtyard of the compound.
Her gray eyes peered out into the night; the same grunt was heard again.
She closed the door a little, moving onto the porch and nearing the source of the noise; her feet came to a halt as she passed by a bush, gray eyes finding the source at last.
Okita Souji thrust the blade of his katana forward, completely focused on his invisible enemy he'd just skewered, yanking the sword back and going for another hit, grunting again.
She sat down on the edge of the porch, letting her legs dangle over the lip, watching him twist this way and that in the half moon's light.
This continued on for another ten minutes or more before she decided to make herself known.
His arm recoiled back to his side again. "I think you've stabbed the air enough times." Her voice carried to him calmly, stopping him from striking his invisible enemy.
His green eyes looked at the porch yards away from where he was to see the younger Hijikata sibling sitting on the edge, her lanky legs dangling over the wooden lip, watching him with curious amusement.
Souji smirked gently, the muscles in his body relaxing as he decided to call it quits for the night, returning his katana to the black scabbard at his left hip, panting slightly. "What're you doing up so late?" He returned, walking over to sit with her on the porch, uttering a quiet groan when he sat down, tired muscles creaking, his longer legs dangling over the lip next to hers.
Kawa looked even more beautiful in the moonlight, he realized; of course she'd let her hair down for bed, her black hair draped almost to mid-back, slightly-tousled bangs framing her face in a lovely way; one glance at her curved body covered up with the blue sleeping robe and he noted that she had allowed a slightly-modest amount of cleavage to show, evidently making that familiar something on his lower regions tighten at seeing her current state.
She smiled wryly and rubbed the back of her neck. "I heard you practicing." She explained simply, her voice quiet so as to not disturb anyone else who was sleeping.
He nodded, seeing her eyes lift up to the moon half-full in the night sky overhead. "So was it a good show?" He wondered, half teasing and half curious.
She nodded back and her eyes darkened slightly, something that caught his attention. "Souji, why were you practicing so late? I'm not going to scold you, I… I just wanna know." She asked, keeping her gaze fixed on the moon.
Souji blinked at her sudden question, looking at the silent courtyard before them and his green eyes tightened. "That man, he's the reason I'm practicing. I wanna get stronger so I can rip him to shreds for all the bullshit he's done and said… For threatening Kondou-san, and you." He saw her look at him in slight surprise out of the corner of his eye; his eyes furrowed into a scowl at a certain bush. "I know I didn't say it that night he almost hurt you, but the mere idea that an overgrown old fuck like him would slap the woman I love makes me want to kill him. What he did to Kondou-san was bad enough, but I hate that he insults you and that night he tried to slap you…" His voice had trailed off, a soft growl reverberating from somewhere inside his chest as he explained to her his reasons.
"Souji," Kawa murmured in slight awe, looking down at the grass as his words replayed in her head; she huffed quietly, a wry smile forming on her full lips. "'The woman you love', huh?" She mused.
He looked at her and his eyes softened as he saw blush staining her cheeks pink, nodding. "Damn straight." He replied.
She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder; he blinked in brief confusion before he slid his arm around her waist, squeezing gently as she nuzzled her cheek into his shoulder. "I love you too." She murmured.
His green eyes widened slightly before he smiled fondly, his arm around her waist pulling her closer as he kissed the top of her head, his nose in her black hair. "No matter what, I swear that I'll protect you, Kawa. I won't let anyone hurt you." His arm squeezed again, stiffened a little as he briefly saw the image of that man's face in his head when he promised to make sure noone hurt his princess.
Kawa nodded, pressing her cheek into his upper arm. "I'll hold you to that, then, Souji." She mused softly.
Souji smiled again, hearing her sigh quietly as she closed her eyes.
They sat there for a long time.
He blinked when he noticed that she'd fallen asleep, looking down at her even as sleep beckoned him, at the peaceful expression that adorned her face, strands of black hair in her view, noting that she was snoring a little; he smirked gently, shaking his head a little in patience and inwardly sighing.
Sleep, princess, yer gonna need it, he thought, shifting in his seat to get up, making sure she was still comfortably sleeping against him; his arms lifted her up so he could carry her bridal-style to her room.
Lightly moving the door open and close with his foot, Souji carried her to the futon and set her down amidst the sheets, watching her shiver a little before she pulled the blankets over her body, curling into a ball; he smiled softly at how cute she looked, shuffling to sit down against the wall near her futon, slipping his swords from the sash at his waist and propping them up next to hers.
He folded his arms over his chest and watched her sleep for another several minutes before he too drifted to sleep, closing his eyes.
review please; thanks~ ;')