Author's Note: I wanted to write a short story / ficlet about Heisuke in response to a request on tumblr, but I also wanted to write something for the March 2017 Challenge Word "Spirit" (tumblr, fic-writer-appreciation). Due to lack of time, I decided to do both at once. (I don't usually combine things, sumimasen!)

I hope you enjoy the story, Anon! Thank you for the request and feel free to come back to my inbox with another request or suggestion if you'd like! :)

Heisuke & The Spirit of the Shinsengumi

Heisuke brightened noticeably when he saw the one and only girl in the Shinsengumi compound standing at the entrance to the kitchen area. He'd been wondering who would be helping him get everything together, since Hijikata-san had sent Sano-san on an errand and Shinpachi-san hadn't been inclined to substitute.

"Hey Chizuru! Are you making dinner with me today? That's great!"

Chizuru straightened visibly at Heisuke's warm welcome. She'd been living with the Shinsengumi for several months now, but there were still a few among the commanders and captains who frowned when they saw her out of her room without an escort. Heisuke definitely wasn't one of them—he thought Chizuru made a terrific addition to the Shinsengumi for many reasons, including her cooking. Hajime-kun had already spoken to Heisuke once about not asking Chizuru to help with so many meals, but Heisuke didn't really understand why; Chizuru truly seemed to enjoy making their food taste better.

"Yes, Heisuke-kun. Inoue-san told me that you would probably be on your own today—for cooking dinner, I mean."

The brown-eyed girl slipped into the kitchen rather shyly, and then seemed to catch Heisuke's enthusiasm and smiled in response to his broad grin. Her eyes twinkled slightly when she eyed the large pot of water that Heisuke had set to boil. Heisuke regarded her warily for a moment. He had a feeling that she was remembering a recent cooking… difficulty… he'd had recently.

"Um, I thought I'd better get the rice started," he said tentatively.

"Perhaps we should make slightly smaller rice balls than you did two days ago," Chizuru told him, confirming his suspicions.

Heisuke sighed. It would be a while before he lived that one down.

"I know. But it seemed like such a great idea at the time. I still don't really know where it went wrong! I mean, why bother making three little bitty things when you can go so much faster if you just make one big one?" Heisuke crossed his arms defensively. "Besides," he added, when Chizuru opened her mouth to reply, "Shinpat-san appreciated it! He said that it was more in keeping with the spirit of the Shinsengumi to have big balls!"

Chizuru made a small choking sound and blushed. Heisuke turned bright red and smacked his forehead.

"Augh! I can't believe I said that! Just… just ignore that, okay Chizuru-chan? I mean, you were there—you know what Shinpachi-san said, right? About how the Shinsengumi had to be larger-than-life and so much better than everyone else in order to keep things under control in Kyoto, and so we ought to have food that was, you know, appropriate to our duties?"

The girl nodded and managed not to laugh out loud, which Heisuke appreciated. Chizuru was good about things like that. She seemed to take him seriously, most of the time, which was very soothing after all the teasing that he took from the others—not to mention Hijikata-san's regular reprimands.

"I remember, Heisuke-kun," Chizuru assured him. Only the tiniest tremor in her voice betrayed her amusement at Heisuke's rendition of Nagakura's deliberately exaggerated comments. "Perhaps we can come up with a way to make a meal that represents the spirit of the Shinsengumi without the, ah, objects crumbling into bits."

Heisuke's lips twitched. He rarely stayed upset for long and it had been funny: Shinpat-san making his speech about how large food was only appropriate to the large fighting spirits of the Shinsengumi captains, only to have the giant rice ball in his hand dissolve into sticky grains around his fingers. Mind you, looked at from a certain point of view, it wasn't exactly a great omen. Still… Heisuke finally laughed out loud, and Chizuru smiled back at him, relieved that he seemed less annoyed about the incident now.

"Okay, Chizuru, what do you suggest? I am at your command!"

Chizuru considered.

"Well, perhaps if we made two onigiri instead of three or one? That way they would still be bigger than usual but less, um, fragile."

Heisuke stared at her and then turned away, embarrassed but snickering uncontrollably. The image of presenting Shinpat-san and Sano-san with two large rice balls, along with a strategically-placed ornamental vegetable, appealed to him and horrified him at the same time. Then he thought of Hijikata-san's inevitable reaction to the same presentation and immediately stopped laughing.

"I think we'll just make dinner as usual, Chizuru-chan," he said carefully. "Besides, who says that bigger is always better, right?"

"Right!"

Heisuke couldn't help but smile at Chizuru's firm response. After all, both he and Chizuru were on the smaller side, and he figured that they had plenty of Shinsengumi spirit.

[END]