#<< thats the tag u gotta block if you dont wanna read my ff

[kondo-hijikata]

from Mizu’s 30 Day OTP Challenge: Sleeping in

Early Rise (slightly nsfw, nothing explicit)

Rims of dark lashes cracked like the breaking of dawn. As if synonymous in nature, the soft amber glow stretching along the horizon mirrored irises slowly meeting the darkness of the bedroom—and then it was morning.

Long before his involvement with the Shinsengumi, when he’d been known by his father’s last name instead of the current one, Saito had become an early riser. His parents had been strict and inflexible, and as the first rays of the sun began to embrace the earth, Saito was on his feet for the morning chores. Then followed stretching, then breakfast, then rigorous training; each day of his childhood adhered to a carefully structured schedule, meant to build responsibility and character.

In the end, his parents’ old fashioned insistence paid off for everyone…except the Tokugawa regime, but their demise was no fault of Saito’s; in fact, it was through their stubbornness to not abandon the sword in favor of modern weaponry where he learned his first hard lesson about the dangers of inflexibility.

Despite that, it was true that some tendencies in thought and action refused to die, no matter how many years passed since they were first acquired. Saito possessed several of these penchants, had been criticized for keeping them and sometimes deemed too rigid and out of date in the new era.

“Ten years has passed since our last meeting and since then, I have sought peace. I will not finish now what was started so long ago, that I will not.”

“Now how long, in the Meiji era…how long can you hold onto your precious sense of justice?”

“A domesticated dog wagging his tail for the Meiji and barking about Aku Soku Zan. I’m evil? Evil is the weakness in the current government and for that, I will destroy it.”

“Ah, Fujita! You always arrive at the office so early, even when it’s slow here…”

But really, what more could have been expected from an ex-manslayer turned wanderer, a blinded man who’d admitted defeat to himself but no one else for the sake of his cheap pride, a megalomaniac hellbent on vengeance and attaining endless power, and a police chief who had never seen war?

Despite whatever attributes they might have had in common, the commitment to his beliefs was what kept Saito vastly different—and the more he was unlike those named, the better. He found amusement in the irony that out of all the aforementioned, he’d been the one considered most resistant to change, when Saito had dealt with change better than any.

Instead of letting go of his ideals or living a lie because of a painful past, instead of working to destroy the government that had obliterated everything he’d fought to protect in the war or trading habits that kept him sane for a small bit of luxury in return, Saito adjusted himself and adapted. As the times changed, so had he and his expectations, but never, never had he surrendered his moral compass in the process.

That was the difference. And the result of that difference was a police officer armed with both the justice of Aku Soku Zan and a sword, working in the new age to protect the country he had a hand in raising at all costs—even if he’d been on the losing side of the war.

If that wasn’t adaptability, Saito reckoned the definition warranted a rewrite. Then again, gaining the approval of people who mattered very little in the long run hadn’t ever been of importance to him.

Saito swallowed, staring up at the ceiling while he stretched his legs. Yes, the times made their demands: new government, new job, a spouse. But human nature was human nature, and denying one of their true self was only walking a lifelong road of misery. His face fell to the side on that musing and through the darkness, he looked at Sano, curled up and facing him, breathing softly as he slept.

The answer to everything was learning how to work with societal demands and play along just enough to satisfy them without letting go of what mattered most. Somewhere in Tokyo, a woman sharing Saito’s last name might have awoken just as early, opening her eyes to another woman pressed against her as she thought the same.

Fully conscious now, Saito’s lips parted in a yawn and he stirred, allowing his body another blissful mini-stretch before sitting up. The cover puddled in his lap as he moved his face side to side to get the muscles in his neck moving.

It was time to get the old morning routine kicked off with a smoke, some hot tea, and a warm up. By the hour Saito cooked rice and put natto and miso soup on the table, the lazy thing at his side might just be crawling out of bed. Though, that still would be relatively early. Perhaps, Saito would be eating alone once more.

Softly huffing through his nose at the thought, he pushed the blanket away and slid his feet off the futon—when a hand suddenly flung up to grab blindly at the sleeve of his black undershirt. The unexpected contact triggered his defenses and Saito’s left hand clenched, while simultaneously recognizing it was no threat at all. His chin hit his shoulder as he looked over it.

“’Ey…” Sano growled into the pillow, his voice deep and cracking from disuse. His fist tightened on Saito’s sleeve. “Today’s your day off, remember?”

Saito cleared his throat, too proud to have his own words mangled in the way Sano’s were. “I’m aware,” he replied quietly and then placed the soles of his feet back on the mattress. “Though I’m not sure why you are. Or why you’re even awake now.”

“Hn?” Sano’s eyes opened then and there was a flash of white as he grinned before his mouth opened in a large yawn. His pointer finger unraveled from his fist and he poked Saito’s arm with it. “I know everything about you.”

A brow twitched. “You know nothing.”

“I know enough,” Sano countered through half-lidded eyes and without ever losing his lopsided smile. “Every day, you wake up and look at the ceiling, then do that little stretch thing ya do.” Saito’s chin raised as his shirt was pulled until the fabric stretched, coaxing him to lie back down. He resisted. “Then, you get up and—” Another yawn. “—smoke. Drink tea. Stretch properly and practice your form. And then…here’s my favorite part…you make breakfast.”

Sano nosed the pillow. “See? I can write a friggin’ biography about your typical day, though it’d be so damn boring that no one would read it.”

With that, he delivered another forceful tug and Saito finally gave in. “Oh?” he asked indifferently as he lowered back down to the bed, but his mouth hinted at an upward twitch. “What else is there that you think you know?”

“I know that sometimes you work too hard…that you don’t sleep enough…”

“Interesting observation from the mouth of someone who hardly ever works and then sleeps too much...”

Ignoring the light-hearted gibe, Sano tossed the cover back over Saito and then shuffled closer. His movements were lazy as he slid his arm across Saito’s chest, then settled in and laid his head on his shoulder. “I know you like when I do this.” He nuzzled the black shirt and then slipped his foot between Saito’s ankles to entwine their legs. “…Feel free to tell me if I’m wrong.”

Saito’s lips barely parted and he inhaled before he spoke, but chose to reply only by pulling Sano closer with the arm he’d lain over. His hand fell on the far side of Sano’s bare chest, ring and pinky fingers landing where the top of the wraps had been yesterday. He drummed his digits softly.

“Hnnn…what else…” Sano’s fingertips tapped against Saito’s other bicep and ran down to the hand resting at his side, pausing there as if to consider if he should take it, before letting them trail over his thigh. “Oh, now I know you like this for sure.”

Saito’s larger hand covered the back of Sano’s as it began moving and he leaned his face to the side. His cheek pressed to Sano’s forehead and he looked out into the space of the room beginning to gently lighten from the rising sun. Over a breath, he purred, “Is there a point in trying to prove all this?”

“Well, you don’t live with a shifty ass cop for months without picking up a few tricks.”

“Explain…”

Sano smiled against his chest. “I’m trying to make it so appealing that you wouldn’t even possibly consider leaving bed anytime soon…ya know, social engineerin' and all that…” He lifted his face to push his nose against Saito’s jaw and then drawled in a low tone, “So? Is it working?”

Upon drawing a quick breath, Saito’s hand shot up from covering Sano’s and he tossed himself to the side. The movement was fast, shoving Sano on his back as Saito’s knees hit the futon to straddle him. Bracing his palms above Sano’s shoulders to keep from crushing him, Saito’s tongue poked out to wet his lips and he maintained eye contact. “Commendable,” he commented with a growl, then lowered to his forearm and traced his thumb across Sano’s mouth. “But I think you can try harder.”

Sano’s lips opened slightly and a soft smirk pulled into his cheeks. “At the risk of fucking up your routine, huh?”

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Saito said, sliding his hand behind Sano’s head. “I’m very adaptable.”

The kiss that followed reinforced that fact.

~

It was the combination of light and heat that roused Saito again, his eyes squeezing and turning from the window before they fluttered open. He blinked several times and shifted slightly as dead weight pinned his right side down. Sano was halfway on him again with his head on his chest, the difference from before being that Saito’s shirt had been flung somewhere across the room instead of covering him.

Lifting his head off the pillow, his nose pressed into Sano’s hair, and then Saito laid back again with a deep exhale. Both his internal clock and the growling of his stomach indicated it was likely late in the morning.

A small groan left Sano and his hand clasped into a light fist over Saito’s chest as he stirred. Picking his chin up, he looked at Saito with sleepy eyes.

They silently regarded each other for several moments before Sano cocked his head to the side. “So.” His voice was once again rough. “When, ugh—” He cleared his throat, sniffled, and tried again with another lazy grin. “When’s breakfast?”

Saito pursed his lips. “I’m not sure.” Raising a hand, he stroked it through Sano’s thick hair. “You seemed intent on dismantling my routine, so...”

Displeasure crossed Sano’s features and he pouted. “Well, I didn’t mean—”

“Lucky for you, however,” Saito continued with intentional apathy in his tone, “I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction of completely destroying it. Twenty minutes. Of course…” His brows raised. “…if you were to help, the time would be cut down to fifteen.”

Sano smiled. “Well…what are waitin’ for? Seize the day—ay—ay—ayyy—”

The yawn that had interrupted his reply had Saito softly scoffing. “Your self-image doesn’t matter to you at all, does it?” He shifted out from underneath, freeing himself to stand and then holding his hand out.

“Hey!” Sano took it and stumbled to his feet. “I thought you knew me better than that! Maybe you’re the guy who’s not doin’ his homework, hmm?” He squinted and leaned in, just to receive a yukata thrown in his face.

“Put that on,” Saito instructed as he donned his own. “I’m fully aware that you’d rather walk around my house naked and indecent. That’s the only relevant fact at the moment.”

“Oh, sorry, Mister I’m so prim and proper and always perfect,” Sano playfully retorted and began fumbling with the garment to put it on correctly.

Saito ran a hand through his hair to neaten any locks that had sprung out of place (there were none), and then walked to the door. After he slid it open, he peered over his shoulder and smiled with his eyes at Sano.

“Always,” Saito called as he left the bedroom. Once he was out of Sano’s sight, he allowed himself a deep yawn that stretched his mouth much too wide and then gently scratched his groin.

And that was all it was, the answer to everything in life: learn how to work with societal demands, play along just enough, stay true to one’s real nature, and never let go of what mattered most…

Aku Soku Zan, Aku Soku Zanza.

…even if one of those things was the person across the table, shoving rice and natto into his mouth in the most unflattering way possible.

Saito’s parents would have never stood for that. But the times changed and so had he. With no complaints, he closed his eyes and smiled softly while sipping his tea without a sound.