What makes history (Hijikata x OC)

Concubines

You can watch the first part of this video if you want to know more about the rumours :D

Geta were more difficult to navigate to than cord sandals. But I, who abhorred any type of shoes, was now progressing at a proper pace – for a woman – under my veiled hat. The idea was strictly genial; noblewomen sometimes travelled incognito, using those large hats prolonged by a veil. The cloth was opaque enough to hide my face from the public, but didn't prevent me from seeing, albeit my vision was greatly impaired. It also kept mosquitoes and nasties away. The smell of fish stalls, through, wasn't dulled.

My brand-new kimono felt so amazing that I feared tearing it at every step.

"Careful!"

Kondō's hand shot up to guide me away a particular nasty channel, filled with waste from the day. I smiled; hidden behind the veil, the strings tied at my chin pulled at my skin. Even though kimonos were restrictive, and those geta less than comfortable to me – I had no doubt anyone else, born in Japan, could master it – I wasn't a damsel in distress. But Kondō was having a field day treating me like one; his joyful mood was communicative.

As Hijikata had pointed out, people would believe that he escorted his concubines to dinner. Concubines, yes, plural. For Sanan walked by my side, his green kimono untopped by the traditional Hakama, a similar veiled hat upon his head.

"I have to admit, Frances-kun, that you have the strangest ideas," the spectacled man mused by my side. I pushed the veil away, just a moment, to try and catch his gaze. Behind the cloth, I spotted a pair of twinkling grey eyes.

"Tell me you are not enjoying it."

"Being dressed as a woman wasn't on my list of indispensable experiences," his musical voice retorted. "But there are perks to being the Oni's concubine."

"You are not!" Hijikata growled, two steps forward.

Both Sanan and I chuckled under our disguise. It would have been unfair to keep the scientist at the compound when he'd worked so hard on Okita's cure. Any success, or failure, would be shared. If I could hide under a veil, why not him? After all, he wore a kimono under his hakama. Tonight, though, he'd tied up a woman's obi around his waist. The idea, a joke, at first, had actually created quite a commotion.

"I can be Hijikata-kun's concubine," Sanan quipped mischievously, causing the Commander to blush.

"Tch. Kondō can have both of you," he retorted hotly. "You can bore him to death with talks of mathematics."

I knew to what he was referring; visibly, Fukuchō had not been pleased at my attempt to characterise him with a logarithm curve. Then, his last words alighted a bulb in my brain, and I turned to Kondō with disbelief.

"Wait, you can have two?", I asked innocently. This time, it was the Captain's turn to blush. Sanan's awkward cough and Hijikata's stubborn silence had answered the question.

Right. Monogamy, here I come.

So there we were, two of Kondō's concubines, passing a gate that looked like a temple's with a sour Hijikata-san by our side. Houses, painted red, lined up the street. Laughter rose from the establishements, lanterns literring the way. The smells were different, much more elaborate than whatever came out of our kitchen at the compound. I was already salivating, wondering what traditional dish was about to greet my palate.

Whispers greeted our passage; some of them were about us. Others, about the beauty of our Oni Vice commander, and the Maiko he'd tried to steal last year. Or his supposed mistresses seomwhere in Kyōto...