Author's note: Yohoho! Sorry there I updated super late than expected. Thank you guys for reviewing, favoriting, and following because they made me go 'they wanna read the rest so hurry up and finish the drafts! 3:( ' So first of all, I forgot to mention the concept of the story that is, each character would have their turns in taking care of Tomo so to my reader Jade, please rest assured because Sano, Souji and the rest will have their turn too later. Even I've already have one for Serizawa-san too! So please bear with me and if you have any suggestion, or comments please leave one because I'm open to any of them! So buckle up! Saito had returned with Tomo but something unexpected had happened!

Lo and behold!

"Hajime-kun?! What have you done?!" Souji practically exclaimed when he saw Saito was back with Tomo in his arms. There's nothing abnormal on them. Really. Except the fact that Tomo was soaking wet and there's water trickled down to the hallway and Saito's usual scarf had gone, wrapped around Tomo's body.

Apart from that, Souji probably was feigning the sudden high octave in his voice but not on his face because the next instant, the familiar expression that always overtook his face most of the time had appeared.

He was smirking again.

Even the gentle Gen-san assumed he was born smirking though.

"Tomo-chan, what did cucumber nii-chan had done to you?" Instead of rumbling around, Sano was already crouched down on her side wiping her wet hair and face with Saito's white scarf.

"Cucumber?"

Sano probably meant; as cool as cucumber.

Shinpachi and Heisuke also rushed to her side, asking all sorts of question, finally shifting the spotlight from the prodigious left-handed swordsman to the innocent-faced of the two years-old girl, picturing him as the bad man of the day.

"What have you done to deserve this?" Exaggeration took Heisuke over as he roughly rustling his hair.

"...Actually I-" Saito only managed to said two words before he was interjected.

"Hmm... I really didn't expect this from you, Hajime-kun..." Rubbing his chin slyly, Souji really had made him the criminal of abusing a child.

"...I was about-" It's already clear; they don't really care about what had happened so he kept on being ignored.

"No! No! Don't cry! Okay nii-chan will step back, okay?" Reluctantly, Shinpachi stepped back and hide behind the thin pillar of the hallway, which obviously had made a bad job in concealing his massive body. They really don't have clue whether he was making a fool out of himself or he was trying to joke around.

"At least try to close your eyes, Shinpat-san." Heisuke made the half-lidded eyes which was best described as the boring eyes.

Then she sneezed from under the scarf.

"Change her clothes quick! Or she'll caught a cold!"

In the next instant, Saito find himself carrying Tomo-chan in his arms with a bolt speed lightning, running to Kondo-san's room to get her cloth change, far away from the chatterbox captains.

And she was giggling again.

"Tomo-chan...do you like that?" He asked very quietly, watching amusedly her hair swayed by the fast rush of wind, unaware of the broken wooden on the floor when he was about to drift at the corner.

Saito Hajime, the Captain of The Third Division , the infamous swordsman which speak rather rarely, finally made a shrill voice when he was about to turn on the corner, "HOK!"

"HOK?!" Heisuke exclaimed before he bit his sleeve to contain his laugh from bursting.

"PFFTTT! Do you see that? Do you hear that?" As his finger pointed to the crime scene, Souji's face was madly stained crimson red.

"I-I'll pretend I didn't see anything..." Sano covered his face with his hands before a 'ppffttt' sound erupted.

"BHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Hahahaha... Haaa... Haa... Ahh... I can finally die in peace.." Shinpachi really seemed ready to die as he laid on the ground with hands on his chest.

Back to Saito,

"Ehem."

He had cleared his throat for the umpteenth time now, trying hard to fade away the blush on his cheeks and ears. He stood with his back facing the door of Kondo-san's room, waiting for Kondo-san's small flower to change her cloth.

When the blush finally ceased on his face, he whispered, "Let's forget it for now."

The door of the room slid open.

Saito couldn't contain his smile when he saw the talc powder on her face was accumulated into spots. Some on her right cheeks, some on her nose, she almost look like a clown to be short. A kids clown. But a cute one.

Saito knelt and start to rub the jasmine talc equally throughout her face as she closed her eyes. Sometimes, she was peeking on his face under her small opened eyes and when Saito's hands went to her eyes, they instantly went close. Pretending to not notice the small peeking eyes, he went back, trying to see if everything is okay on her but then he saw the sash on her simple child yukata was tied rather messily. Even so, it was considered...not bad when a two-years old girl who did the tying.

"Tomo-chan, the talc," his thumb brushed her now scented cheek, "do you always wear it?"

She lifted her gaze from the hands fixing her sash to the azure eyes, then she nodded fervently with an enthusiastic emm.

"Kaa-san said," she sniffed, "girl should always stay clean...and...and..." She tilted her head, searching for her next word but to no avail.

The kind nii-chan provided the rest, "With good scent?"

"Emm!" This time, a genuine adorable smile decorated her face.

Saito was amused as well. They really don't say 'smile is contagious' for nothing.

"So, Tomo always stay clean and with good scent at home?" He asked.

It was a critical question for a two-years old like her who barely able to stay put in one place for a long time. She blinked her eyes few times in search for a thing to say but nothing came out except, "Hmmmm..." Her pupil rolled upward, as though she was thinking very hard to answer his question.

"Hmmmm..." Saito mimicked her hmm with her same tone, with the same length before she cracked into laughter; a hint where he could sense the answer is no.

"Em? Nii-chan, what is this?" She lifted her finger to his face, pointing to the area just below his right eye.

He picked it between his forefingers and thumb and he brought it to his eyes to take a look on it.

"Eyebrow?"

"Aii...buro?"

He made a grunt sound, or what they called as chuckle, although he seldom wear that expression, he thought his hidden expression slowly starting to surface whenever he was with this two-years old girl.

"Ahhhh! Tomo remember!" She suddenly exclaimed that made Saito backed off a little. The octave was way too high. "Nii-chan! Someone is missin' ya!"

He made a puzzle face, "Miss me?"

She nodded again, "Kaa-san said," she sniffed, "If your right aii...buro fell down, it means someone is missing ya! Like when Tomo's aii...buro fell down, the next day, Oto-san suddenly come to Tomo's house and eat together with Kaa-san!"

"So the one who missed Tomo so much is Oto-san?" He asked, wanting to play along with her hidden talkative side.

"Hm? It is?" She gazed all over Saito's face while blinking innocently.

The fact that she doesn't know the one who had missed her after those long talk, had made her cheeks red as Saito instinctively had pinched them without a second thought.

A punishment for being so cute.

"Hey HOK-kun, where's Tomo-chan?" The persistent Souji suddenly appeared at the hallway.

"I don't remember changing my name to something so unbeautiful as HOK." Saito said tersely, ignoring his earlier question.

"You're right. But you were screaming that unbeautiful HOK just now." Souji said smugly, mocking him back with his earlier address of HOK as unbeautiful.

"HOK-kun?" Suddenly Tomo-chan appeared from Saito's back with a confused face, her hands clutched on Saito's black yukata, slowly brightening the murderous air emanated from Saito.

"Tomo-chan! There you are!" Souji crouched down to face her, "Oh, did HOK-nii-chan helped you to dress?" He noticed her earlier yukata was changed and there was sweet scent of jasmine came from her.

She shook her head, one hand still clutched to Saito's black yukata, "Nope. Tomo did it."

As if on cue, suddenly Heisuke, Shinpachi and Sano appeared out of nowhere.

"Wahhh.. It's only been a half an hour since she arrived but she already on her second cloth of the day?" Shinpachi said as he sat near her.

Heisuke then replied, "Heh. Thank goodness it was Saito-san who was looking after her. I bet it's about every five minutes she'll get her cloth change if she's with you, Shinpat-san."

"If you'll excuse me." Saito tried to give himself some space from the bickering captains but everywhere he go, the voices of the captains were following him.

"Haha. She looks like a little duckling walking behind him like that." Sano commented.

"Tomo-chan, try to call him once." Souji whispered to Tomo.

"H-HOK-nii-chan."

Saito turned to his back in one swift movement, only to meet Souji which was shrugging his shoulder, mutely saying 'it's not me.'

Choosing to ignore them, he continued to make his way straight on the hallway, which was directing to the main gate of the compound. Although there's no more his fellow captains were following him, he noticed the small steps on his back every time he walked.

Tomo was following him from behind.

And when he stopped, she stopped too.

Then when he turned to her, she made a face that said, 'uh-oh, he caught me.'

He couldn't contain a small smile, "Tomo-chan, don't you want to play with the nii-chan?"

She shook her head as she said, "Don't leave Tomo." with a sad face.

Although one might see the distant expression he often wear, never show anything but a composed face, but he couldn't keep one when he was with her. This little girl had taken a special spot in his heart.

"Tomo want to take a walk around here?" He asked, fetching her slippers just on the rock down the hallway and helped her to wear hers. He don't need to hear her answer when she joyfully hopped from the low rock onto the ground.

Saito took her hand in his and start to walk around the compound. And there's once when they suddenly came across an orange cat, she unraveled her hand from his and ran to the cat. He watched her unmoved, hand barely able to reach the cat's head. Confuse overwhelmed him when she stayed like that for few seconds and surprisingly, the cat was in alert stance too, as though preparing for a hit from-

Pap!

Instead of petting the cat lovingly like he had expected, she had hit the cat's head with her palm until it ran away through the small hole at the gate.

"Tomo-chan? Why are doing that?"

And she just smiled innocently in response and continue to search for the cat as she began to crawl on the ground but Saito was fast to pick her up from dirtying her cloth for the second time in the day. That was when they caught voices of men from the main gate.

There was Serizawa-san and his assistant, Niimi, Kondo-san and Hijikata.

She wriggled away from Saito's hold before her feet touched the ground. She was running straight to her father, Kondo.

Hijikata was startled when there's a small little girl clinging to his hakama and was peeking to the old jiji, Serizawa-san from behind him. Serizawa, Niimi and Kondo turned to the small shriek sound of slippers on Hijikata's side.

The Head Commander of the Roshigumi huffed smugly, looking to Tomo with his eyes narrowed, "So the voice I heard earlier is your brat, Hijikata?"

Hijikata knitted his brows in anguish in the mention of word of 'brat', "I'm sorry to disappoint you but apparently," At the meantime, Kondo-san crouched down to his little daughter who was clinging on someone else and had thought this someone else as is her father. She leaped straight to Kondo-san and buried her embarrassed face on his chest, "She's Kondo-san's daughter."

Serizawa hmphed, and disappear beyond the gate together with Niimi.

"Look at her, she's embarrassed." Kondo-san said to Hijikata as he teased his daughter in his arms, refusing to lift her face from his black haori. Hijikata patted Tomo's head with his big hand, a small smile arched on his face before he went back to his room.

Later at night

They were waiting for Kondo-san to prepare her daughter in kimono where he find it quite difficult in tying the small sash before Hijikata stepped into the room and lend him a hand. Just in few seconds, Tomo is ready to go out to the summer festival at the town. And that is when Souji entered the room and saw Hijikata fixing the sash on Tomo's kimono with a pair of expert hands.

He chuckled, "I knew it Hijikata-san is an expert when it comes to dressing and undressing woma-"

"Stop making assumptions will you?"

"Oto-san, let's go!" She pulled her father's hand to the outside of the room when they saw the captains were all waiting for her and Kondo-san. Late in the evening, the Commander had told them to take his daughter to the town and to keep her happy all the time because he, and Hijikata wouldn't be able to join them for he had something to take care of. Hijikata had insisted him to go but he just refused to go with them with saying, 'I'll go with her tomorrow.'

And now he was having a problem of letting her go without her noticing he wasn't there, especially when she was grabbing his hand so tightly with her small one.

This is where HOK-nii-chan come to rescue.

Kondo-san had secretly passed some money to Saito to buy her anything she wanted.

They had long leave the compound with Tomo walking with Saito, her hand in his while her other hand, as what she saw before was her father who was holding her hand, and not the onii-chan with the chestnut hair. Instantly she was threwn into panic.

"Nii-chan, Oto-san...where is Oto-san?" She asked the man who had taken his father's place on her left side with a sudden teary eyes. She stopped walking.

Saito knew this won't be easy to say that her father wasn't here, so he took her in his arms and ran as fast as he could, like in the afternoon where she had her first giggling when he ran from the well after washing her hands back to the hallway, resulting her whole body drenching when he accidentally poured the pail onto her.

His theory was proven to be true when she was giggling in joy as rush of wind hitting her face and her short brown hair was swaying along the rush of night breeze.

"Where could possibly Saito-san is right now?" Heisuke asked as his eyes wander wildly in the flood of people in the middle of the town.

Shinpachi shrugged his shoulder before he brought his hands to the back of his head, "Who knows? It's not fair that Saito, snatching away Tomo-chan from the rest of us this one full day." He commented while pouting slightly.

All of a sudden, as they walked in the crowds, there stood a figure they recognize and they were searching the most.

Saito.

"Saito! Where have you been? How's Tomo-" Shinpachi halted when he saw Tomo was already fall asleep on Saito's shoulder.

And then he saw stains of tears on her cheeks.

"She was... crying?" Sano who arrived after Shinpachi inquired before he softly wiped away her cheek glistened with tears.

Saito nodded, "Yes. Probably she was shocked for seeing so many people around without Kondo-san on her side. I'll go back to the HQ now."

The rest just nodded their head then let him go back to the HQ with their eyes following him. And not after Sano saw a letter on the ground where Saito had stood before. He picked it up.

To my dear son,

Hajime

"Eh? Is this-" Heisuke who peeked on the letter in Sano's hand trailed off.

"Yeah. Probably..." Without reading the content, he read the last line of the letter which was actually a signature from the writer. It's said; Your Mother.

"This is a letter from Saito's mother." Sano said as he rolled back the letter into a scroll.

"Should we go back and hand him this?" Heisuke asked.

"Nah." Sano started to walk, leaving Shinpachi and Heisuke behind with the scroll in his hand. He glanced back to the dumbstruck captains, "Wanna bet? Let's see whether he'll come back here and retrieve this or he'll just let this pass. C'mon, Heisuke! Be a man will you!" Sano said when he saw Heisuke quickly shook his head.

Heisuke huffed roughly, "No! You and Shinpat-san always manipulate facts that eventually I have to pay for everything. Just like last time!" Remembering how last time they had a bet and Heisuke was deemed to lost when Sano actually 'forgot' to mention another terms in their bets, resulting in his pocket-money deserted for few weeks. And he'd rather die in shame than living with his ribs almost popped out from the skin.

Shinpachi slung his hand over Sano's shoulder, exposing his evil face to Sano, "Hey Sano. Should we tell them that?"

Sano eyes suddenly glinted diabolically, "You mean, that?"

"Yes. That." Shinpachi nodded with his evil mask still on.

"ARGHHHHHH! You driving me crazy! What is this that that that?!"

"You mean," Sano purposely repeated, "THAT one?"

Heisuke almost bumped into a woman in front him when he suddenly fell on his knees, a white spirit ghost was seeping out from his spiritless body, "Enough already...both of you... I-I give up okay..."

Shinpachi and Sano earned themselves a hi-five.

Sano was watching Shinpachi helping the spiritless Heisuke into his feet when he surmised,

I wonder... what kind of family is Saito from?

Kondo-san was waiting for them to return although he thought it was too early for them to return when the festival isn't even start yet. When he was about to turn back into the warm confine of his room, he saw a figure walking towards him from afar.

"Saito?"

He went to him and the first thing he saw was Tomo. She was snuggling comfortably in his arms before he realized she already asleep with her head resting peacefully on his shoulder.

"She's asleep already?" He took Tomo from Saito into his arms, gently patting her head when she stirred slightly, "Did she have anyhing from the festival? Did she eat anything?"

Saito shook his head as he answered, "No. She refused to have anything but he keep on calling for you, Kondo-san. Before I realize it, she's already asleep when-" He shoved his hand into his yukata to check for the letter he got from a lady which claimed someone had told her to pass it to him but the letter wasn't there.

Cold sweat ran down his temple.

Even before Kondo-san could ask, Saito had disappeared into the darkness of the alley.

Later, late in the midnight

As though someone was controlling his body, he had done writing a reply to his mother. He put down the brush on the ink stone and re-read everything again.

The fact that his clan had exiled him for being a left-handed swordsman had hit him right in the core. That might not be the exact reason but he was accused of 'murdering' one of his clansmen when he had won a duel, resulting him leaving his home in search for someone - or a place who can accept his special ability and then he found himself ended in Shieikan Hall where no one ever criticized him for his left-handedness.

They had accepted him being who he is.

He had found the place where he belongs to.

"Nii-chan! Someone is missin' ya!"

End of day 1

Any suggestion who's next?