Title: Banzai!
Summary: He wasn't sentimental, but there were some things you just kept and admired.
Word Count: 622
It didn't really seem like a big deal, the day his promotion went through and he went from lieutenant to captain, with the appropriate increase in pay…and paperwork, naturally. The fact was, he hadn't even told his family yet—hell, Okita hadn't even known until that morning when he'd seen Saitou, and Okita had an annoying habit of knowing everything.
So when he walked into the luncheonette and found Tokio there early (for a change), it didn't occur to him to mention it to her.
As it turned out, he wouldn't have needed to—she took one look at his uniform, immediately noticed the new insignia, and her face lit up.
"You were promoted!" she said, and he was startled that she not only could tell the difference, but that she was happy for him too.
"Uh, yeah," he said awkwardly.
"When?"
"Promotion went through yesterday," he replied, and Tokio's smile widened.
"Congratulations!"
"…Thanks…I guess."
His lack of enthusiasm in no way deflated hers; she insisted on paying for his meal for him, and they had a small argument over it until Shiori sighed and told him to just let Tokio pay for him, she was trying to be nice, damn it, and besides, Shiori wouldn't have taken any money from him anyway.
So he sighed and gave in, and Tokio beamed up at him and he decided that sometimes it was okay to let a woman pay for him.
He thought that was the end of it, but when she came in (late as usual) the next day, she immediately presented him with a card.
"It's a little late, but since you never mentioned you were going to be promoted…." She shrugged, then grinned up at him.
He had a moment where he was torn between embarrassment and pleasure. In the end, he settled on pleasure, but decided against picking her up and kissing the hell out of her.
Probably wouldn't go over too well.
"Thanks Tokio," he said, inclining his head.
"Read it," she urged, and she surprised him again, because as long as they'd been talking to each other and cultivating a friendship based on chopsticks and soba and an annoying nickname, he hadn't been expecting her to write very much in the card.
She took up almost the entirety of the inside.
Half of it was her asking him to stop calling her Chiisai, and to stop being so obnoxious all the time, because he was a captain now and since he'd moved on up the totem pole it was unseemly. The other half was sincere congratulations and her firm belief that he deserved the promotion and she was very happy for him.
The idea of kissing the hell out of her came back with a vengeance, and he was barely able to once again convince himself that it probably wasn't a good idea to spring that kind of thing on her like that.
He looked up at her (she was blushing, but looking pleased) and grinned.
"Thanks Chiisai," he said sincerely.
She wilted a little and sighed.
"You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?" she asked resignedly.
"Nope," he assured, tucking the card into his coat pocket carefully.
If he worked anywhere else, he'd have probably displayed the card on his desk. But since he shared an office with, among others, Okita, that wasn't an option. So instead, when he got home that evening, he set the card up on the bureau in his bedroom, propped up against the books his senpai had given him.
He wasn't sentimental or anything—far from it—but there were some things you just kept and admired, and a card from his Chiisai was one of those things.