Saitou/Chizuru for Sam

[cannotcrossdress]

Years of cooking (and cleaning, nursing, bathing, etc...) for the Shinsengumi had done Chizuru a great service she learned, as she continued into adulthood. Compared to the fist-fights she had to break up between Harada and Heisuke, the tantrums of Hijikata, and the pranks of Okita...having a child was a cakewalk!

She knew she had little to worry about regarding the actual childbirth. While she'd never really taken her ability to heal for granted, per se, she was especially grateful that it would mean she could be worry-free about the baby growing up motherless as she had. If not for her healing, then for the protection she rested in with the baby's father.

...which was the biggest challenge of all, when it came to the pregnancy and the rearing of their child once she came. It was enough that she couldn't walk two steps without Saitou nearly scooping her up to make sure she reached her destination safely, but once the baby was born and she was bed-ridden for a day or two, the father hovered over her, asking twice, if not three times, that he was doing things properly.

At first it became endearing, but quickly Chizuru put her foot down and taught Saitou proper--not because he was doing anything incorrectly, only because formal instruction on anything was the only way to get the man to stop second-guessing himself on anything that didn't pertain to blades.

Of course, it all started over again when Chiharu started to walk...then said her first words...

Chizuru lay in bed that morning, recalling the years that felt like forever ago. It was just a few years now, though how long has it been since they first crossed paths? The sun started to peek over the horizon, a warm stream of light leaking into their bedroom.

She rolled over in the futon they now shared, pressing up against his back and spooning him. She pressed her lips into the back of Saitou's neck, nuzzling up into the warmth of their bed. "Good morning."

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[cannotcrossdress]

Chizuru didn't need verbal acknowledgement to slide herself closer into the shape of Saitou's body, fitting into his arms with a familiar ease. It was a combination of touch, taste, smell...she could close her eyes and feel the cool winter moon of years ago beaming down on them, blessing their union and lighting the path that would lead them to the rest of their lives. Perhaps it was the nature of their memories that made her so sentimental, or the absence of the familiar that had defined so much of their young lives.

They only had themselves to serve as catalysts to the past, and though they cherished the events that drew their fates together, there was an unspoken understanding that they couldn't look back. Not with yearning, though fondness was acceptable. They had built a life together, with nothing but themselves to serve as the foundation.

It'd felt like so long since they'd taken a moment to examine themselves and enjoy the moment like this. They'd long hung up the mantle of being a page and a captain, and along with their country, their roles had evolved. To protector and protected, rasetsu and donor, companions, spouses, parents--

--lovers through it all.

A shaky exhale betrayed her emotions, though she'd long given up keeping them to herself with him. Her eyes opened slightly, pulling back to breathe and stare back at him. It was moments like this that needed to be seared into their memory, as they were all too often short-lived.

[iaijutsu]

He should probably have known better - it wasn't like he didn't catch himself staring, every now and then - staring while he wondered how he'd been so lucky; a word he didn't like to use, because "luck" had too often struck him as an excuse to ignore the logical consequences of one's own actions.

But he really couldn't think of anything he'd done to deserve her other than luck. She'd kept prying and kept looking for what was in the depths of his heart, no matter how many times he'd given her plenty of reason to stop; she'd stayed with him when if any of a hundred little things had gone even a bit differently, they might never have made it this far.

Saitou didn't know what else there was to call that, if not luck.

But no matter how many times he'd stopped and stared and found himself lost in his own thoughts about what she meant to him - thoughts that were nothing but flattering to her - he could never help but second-guess himself whenever she did the same, and the hand behind her neck moved forward again to cup her cheek.

"Is anything wrong?"

[cannotcrossdress]

Smiling comfortably, Chizuru shook her head. "Are you on-edge because it's so quiet?" It was unusual, for Chiharu to not be out of bed and all up in their business by now, but Chizuru wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"I can't remember the last time we had a peaceful moment alone like this." Her hands pried beneath the fabric that clothed him, indulging herself in the heat of his body. She looked up to him and, with what little strength she had - negligible in comparison to his - she pulled him close against her, offering a reminder of what should be familiar, but perhaps not recently visited. "Who knows when we'll get one like it again." There was no hiding the suggestion in her tone, and why should she? When these occasions were so rare.

[iaijutsu]

A smile came to his face in turn - faint, but unmistakable - as he slipped one arm around her waist, pulling her tightly against him (and sneaking in a gentle squeeze of her rear, as long as he was there). "It has been a long time."

His other hand brushed her bangs from her face, traveled down to her neck, to slide along her shoulder, beneath the fabric of her own clothing. He leaned in close, his breath hot on her ear as he whispered. "We should make the most of it."