The Runaway

The Baka Trio

It was a groggy morning for everyone in the Shinsengumi headquarters.

That was the first thing Heisuke noticed when he woke up.

It had rained the night terribly hard the night before. Sheets of water had relentlessly pounded against the old place to the point where one would think that the entire structure would just topple down in them in the middle of the night. It wasn't too hard to imagine either.

The headquarters was a very old building, you know.

Members of the Shinsengumi would often find old, broken up parts in the wood that held the place up; the woodwork definitely needed to be worked on. It often creaked when everything was real quite and Heisuke sat alone. This had lead the poor boy on to believe that the place was indeed, haunted. Upon telling his good friends Shimpachi and Sanosuke, he immediately get laughed at like he was a stupid little kid.

Needless to say, he never particularly liked being alone in building- especially on cold, quite mornings like this one.

So, like the spontaneous, young man that he is, Heisuke stormed into Sanosuke's room.

"Oi! Sano-san, wake up!" he yelled as he yanked the older samurai's covers off.

Sanosuke calmly rolled over and looked at the kid incredulously and rubbed at his tired eyes.

"What is it, Heisuke?"

Heisuke grinned broadly at his redheaded friend.

"We should totally go do something!"

Seriously? The kid can't even wake himself up at the correct time, and yet, he wants to wake he and, most likely Shimpachi, at this hour on such a god forsaken morning? Surely, he must have hit himself upside the damn head.

Sanosuke let out a defeated sigh and propped himself up with his elbow. His face seemed to always have some kind of smile. Whether it be a happy smile or a scary one that would make you want to run for the hills.

He gets all kinds of attention from lots of girls with that smile and way of speaking of his.

Tons of cute girls had eyes for that man. They would always run up to him and begin conversing with Sanosuke. Their eyes would be all wide and sparkly as the made eye contact with him, a large smile painted across their faces.

Once Heisuke had asked him why girls acted that way around him,and, all he did was exchange knowing glances with Shinpachi and the two of them chuckled.

"Lemme tell ya something, kid." Shinpachi would say between laughter, clamping a heavy hand onto the young man's broad shoulder "It all depends on how well you do them between the tatami sheets!"

Heisuke's face would turn completely red at that.

"Ah, Shut up! Pervert..."

"You're eighteen...you should really figure these things out if you ever want to nail your wife, or anyone, at that matter~"

"Shinpachiii!!"

So, needless to say, Heisuke obviously wasn't too well with the ladies.

Heisuke turned his attention back to Sanosuke.

"yeah?" He asked the young boy with a bemused expression

.

Heisuke smiled at Sanosuke and pointed towards the door.

"I said: Let's go somewhere!"

All Sano really could tell the kid is:

"Fine...But YOU'RE waking up Shinpachi..

After what seemed like forever, Heisuke had managed to awaken the sleeping drunk. While the process was quite unconventional, banging pots and pans, right next to his head, seemed to have done the trick. Although...Heisuke was sure that Shinpachi took his time with dressing himself was to get back at him for giving him such a headache..

Much later, the trio had made it to the market place of Kyoto.

It was extremely quiet outside, despite the fact that there were several people in the area. People milled about the area like dead men walking, making the most softest noises they could possibly muster.

Heisuke turned to his older companions and started up a debate whether or not Shinpachi would ever get a girlfriend.

They were in the middle of a slight argument when a soft, slow, flash of orange slipped by him.

Her turned completely silent as he stared at the girl who had crossed his path.

For what seemed like forever, the two of them seemed to have had their eyes locked on each other until the girl gave him a slight glare and turned away to catch up with her family.

"Oi! Pipsqueak!" Shinpachi said, grabbing.the boy's attention.

"you know...girls don't like it when you stare at them like some crazy person."

Heisuke felt his face heat up and grew as pink as a cherry tree in full bloom.

Why'd Sano have to go and say that? He didn't mean to stare and he surely didn't have any ulterior motives by it. If the two of those baka start anything that's going to embarrass him now OR in the future, he'll be sure to give them hell.

"That girl.." He mumbled quietly as the past events raced through his mind.

The girl...The man...The father...

It became clear to Heisuke that the pretty redheaded girl that he had just made eye contact with was in fact, the girl from a week ago.

"She's the one...She's the one!" He exclaimed to his companions.

Shinpachi and Sanosuke exchanged glances and busted into wild laughter.

"Eh?"

"Geez, kid!" Shinpachi snorted "You just saw her!"

"Love at first sight, huh?"

Heisuke internally groaned.

"You idiots...."