Warm-up fic since it's been sooooo loooong since I wrote one. Not sure if I still have it 'cause the plot went down the drain halfway into the story.

For rinrinsamurai of Tumblr, because the 'golden sukonbu' term came from her and her phone auto corrected a certain word to 'public sector', causing both of us to laugh hysterically whenever we mention it.

Anyway, enjoy!

Of Public Sector and Golden Sukonbu

He should have known that the moment that he laid eyes and picked a fight with a certain female Yato, he was doomed to always get himself into trouble.

Or, in this case, him always getting into trouble because of her.

"What the fuck is going on here?!"

As much as he wanted to respond to the very words that the boss of the Yorozuya had uttered, he knew he had nothing to say in his defense. Even he had no idea what had occurred moments ago, as it was only sinking in right now.

All he remembered was that China had provoked him awake from a much-needed nap he was taking on one of the park benches. Irritated that she woke him up just when he was falling asleep, the policeman snatched the box of her beloved snack from her hand and hid it inside the pocket of his coat, just to piss her off.

What he did not expect was her tackling him to the ground, demanding the return of her box of sukonbu, and her suddenly shoving a hand down his pants to frisk him.

All because of a 108-yen snack box.

He had been too shock to even utter a word of protest as she began touching him in a similar he did whenever he was feeling lonely… or, more often than not, whenever he had a rather vivid dream that involved her, and he had to relieve himself in the quickest and most satisfying way possible. At twenty-four, and at his prime, it wasn't that difficult for his mind to conjure images of them in the most compromising positions that end up in gratification for both.

Or, in his case, gratification for him that always left him wanting more.

It got awkward when her hand brushed past his length, over his boxers, as he felt himself slowly turning hard, despite the fact that she was screaming at him to 'gimme back my sukonbu, you jerk!', and that this was happening in broad daylight. No doubt, Okita knew that if this continued, a part of his body would into stone… if it wasn't for the next scene that occurred.

If he hadn't been part of this ridiculous scenario involving China feeling him up, he would've laughed at the unnaturally high-pitch scream that came out of the Yorozuya boss' lips.

However, he was on the ground, on his back even, and had an inkling that no matter how good his explanation was, he knew that Shiroyasha would somehow blame him for it.

After all, Sakata Gintoki had caught his own ward feeling up 'that nasty tax robber', and he knew just how it all played in the eyes of the older man: sadistic policeman had managed to convince his 'innocent ward' (he snorted at that) to shove her hand down said policeman's pants in order to 'frame her'.

Then again, he never understood how the mind of his fellow men, surrogate fathers at that, worked.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" asked the permed silver-haired samurai for the second time.

China was the first to recover, and he felt the withdrawal of her hand from under his pants as she stood up and turned her back on him to face the wrath of her guardian head-on.

"N-nothing, Gin-chan! Sadist was being a jerk as usual, and stole my sukonbu! I was trying to get it back—"

"Don't you lie to me, young lady!" the policeman finally stood up after managing to somehow calm himself down, but not before turning around and fixing his pants to check if there was a visible bulge (he found none, as his erection died immediately upon hearing the scream). Glad that his body was cooperating, he then turned to face the now-enraged samurai glaring at both of them.

"I'm not lying!" insisted the vermillion-haired girl. "I told you, he stole my sukonbu—"

"Oh? Is that what you call it nowadays? Sukonbu?"

If only it hadn't been his lunch break, he would have arrest Takasugi Shinsuke right then and there, though it did not stop him from wanting to punch the smug look on the man's face.

The holier-than-thou look from his one eye that was flashing at both him and China, however, had not stopped him from rolling his crimson-colored eyes.

The guy had the gall to give them a condescending look when he was actually the worst of them all.

"Leader, I didn't realize that you sympathized with the police. I feel so betrayed…!"

Yet another guy he wanted to arrest, but couldn't.

He didn't want to bother trying to apprehend Katsura Kotarou right now… not when they were the ones getting scrutinized, and all because China couldn't take a joke.

Was the girl even paying attention? Hell, he actually placed the box inside the coat, yet she went ahead and started feeling him up under his pants.

A howl of laughter suddenly broke the tension that permeated the air. "Maybe she was looking for the Golden Sukonbu, Kintoki!"

Okita Sougo could hardly believe his luck.

Four men, all of them connected to the Yorozuya boss one way or the other, stood before both of them, as if to judge them. While the White Demon looked both shocked and angry, Takasugi still as smug as ever, and Katsura neutral yet curious, the permed sunglasses-wearing guy had somehow found the situation hilarious and had a big grin on his face.

Said sunglasses-wearing guy also seemed to have no clue that what he had just said was inappropriate and ill-timed, as a vein popped on the side of China's guardian's forehead.

It nearly surprised Okita when the tallest of the four casually slung an arm at the still-fuming silver-haired sadist and continued, "You know girls her age! They're naturally curious about those! Aha, ahahahahaha!"

'That guy can't fucking care less about the tension in the air. He just says whatever the hell he wants.' Okita thought to himself as he watched Sakata Gintoki turn a darker shade of angry red. As soon as he saw the man making a move to grab the wooden weaponry by his hip, he knew he had to act fast.

Unfortunately, China had beat him to it.

And again, unfortunately for him, she just had to say the wrong words at the wrong time.

"I did nothing wrong, Gin-chan! I was trying to get my sukonbu back, and I would've been successful if you hadn't interrupted me—"

"You mean you'd rather get it back by shoving your hand down his… his…"

"—his balls—" piped in the guy wearing a red coat.

"—instead of buying a new box?!" bellowed the naturally-permed man.

At this point, it was obvious that China was fuming because the former Joui member was not listening to her at all. "I told you, he grabbed it from me—"

"Is that what they call it nowadays?" intoned the one-eyed man among their group, taking a puff from his kiseru. "Geez. Kids these days sure like to have a lot of fun. And in public, no less."

Okita had a lot to say about that, but kept his mouth shut, choosing to be an observer for the meantime, and waiting for a chance to strike.

"It can't be helped. Leader would, no doubt, be in the curiosity stage right now, and would probably do experiments." Katsura nodded his head vigorously in agreement. "What I didn't expect was her trying it out in public, for all to see, and to sympathize with the police!"

Who the hell knew the terrorist Katsura could be so dramatic?

"If both people are adventurous about those kinds of things, then it's only natural for them to experiment in public!" again, he found the laughter that came out of the man's mouth irritating, but he chose to remain calm and don a poker face, despite the fact that parfait-loving samurai was still looking like he was ready to strike.

Another puff. "—And besides, they need work on their foreplay—"

The captain of the First Division of the Shinsengumi would have let all of their insults passed, if it hadn't been for that one guy who had gotten very personal with his words. Add to that, China was also slowly turning red, and he was slightly uncomfortable with the scenario of her bursting into tears, all because that one guy couldn't keep his mouth shut.

With that, Okita shook his head, put on the most sadistic grin he could muster, and said out loud,

"—said the guy who I caught two months ago under the row of cherry blossoms trees in Ueno having drunken, amateur public se—"

Never had he seen anyone turn red from embarrassment almost immediately, and he had yet to complete his sentence.

Not surprisingly, for the second time that day, the silver-haired boss of the Yorozuya had let out a high pitch shriek, his face turning from an angry red into an embarrassing pink. In an instant, Sakata Gintoki turned around and began leading his posse away from them.

"Well, would you look at the time! You kids have fun!" ignoring the questions from his other friends who were either not red in the face nor did any sort of screaming, the boss had suddenly led them away from where he and China stood, clearly embarrassed at the fact that his big secret was about to be announced in public, no less.

"Good riddance." He said under his breath.

With them now gone, he knew that he could finally catch on some sleep, even for just half an hour. Sougo was about to make a beeline for the bench that he was at earlier when China grabbed hold of the sleeve of his coat.

"What now?" he asked in an irritated voice, clearly not in the mood to indulge her anymore.

"… What did you do to make Gin-chan run off like that?" she asked, clearly confused about the sudden exit of her guardian, who went from angry to ashamed in a split second.

He did not have the heart to tell her the truth: that he had been the sole police officer to have witnessed her guardian engaged in a lewd public act that he still had a hard time erasing from his memory and his retinas. The young man had only let the boss off the hook because he knew that by ignoring the incident, he wouldn't need to file any paperwork, and that he didn't have to make any arrests during the busy cherry blossom viewing season.

(Besides, at that time, he was there to have fun, eat, and drink a little, not arrest some exhibitionist banging a fellow exhibitionist under the cherry blossoms.)

Another thing that motivated him not to push through with the arrest was the knowledge of the boss being so indebted to him.

In hindsight, it had been worth seeing parts that he did not want to see with his own eyes that belonged to people he knew, and in public at that.

The blackmail material that he kept close up his sleeve had been somewhat worth it.

"Adults doing stupid things and getting caught." Upon seeing her alarmed look, he continued, "He learned his lesson, and he wasn't charged with doing things he shouldn't be doing in public."

"Oh good." She sighed in relief. "Gin-chan can sometimes get wild and me and Shinpachi always have to clean up after his mess."

Sougo resisted the urge not to groan in disgust as the image of that night made its way to his mind; instead, he shivered in disgust.

Even if China had managed to piss him off today, he would never want for her to witness that scene from three months ago.

"If you say so. Now if you'll excuse me, China—"

"My sukonbu." She held out her hand.

He gave out an exasperated sigh. "I told you, the box is empty." Sougo retrieved the empty box from his coat's inner pocket and handed it to her. "There, happy? Now will you leave me alone?"

Her eyes turned serious at once. "… No."

"… No."

She shouldn't have been surprised, but when she saw sadist's face slowly turning livid upon hearing her response, Kagura knew she had to stand her ground and explain everything as fast as possible instead of fleeing for the safety of the Yorozuya. She was no coward (a Yato was not a coward), but whenever he got serious, the female Amanto actual felt scared.

"Hear me out, will you!" she gave the sleeve of his coat another tug. "D-don't ignore me!"

Another sigh escaped his lips, and she nearly gave herself a pat on the back upon seeing him turn around to face her.

This was it.

"What now?"

She nearly lost all of her courage when his eyes met hers, but forced herself to speak out and tell him what she had wanted to say earlier.

If only she hadn't provoked him awake and had simply roused him from his sleep and asked the question she was dying to ask, the fiasco with Gin-chan wouldn't have happened.

"I-I was wondering if want to sleep with me…!"

The young woman nearly kicked herself upon realizing how wrong it sounded, as she meant to ask him if he wanted to sleep somewhere else, and quickly amended herself. "I-I mean, y-y-you wanna s-sleep—"

She had noticed him looking more tired than usual for the past few days, and whether she liked it or not, she was concerned for him, as she knew that if her rival was not in top condition at all times like she was, it wouldn't be fun if ever they got themselves into a duel.

Yeah right, you're concerned about him, said the nasty little voice in her head, the same one who had not been able to leave her alone when puberty had hit her, and had forced her to see her own rival in a different light.

She would rather die than admit the fact that Okita Sougo was a handsome man who was very pleasing to her eyes.

So pleasing that she almost always find herself staring at him whenever they passed by one another in town, only for her to punish herself by picking a fight with him that would almost always end with them destroying public property in order to stop her thoughts from heading towards a certain direction that she did not want to dwell upon just yet.

It had been a struggle, but she had, midway through her babbling, managed to state her reasonn why she had awaken him earlier, that it wasn't because she wanted to annoy him, but because she wanted to ask him if he wanted to take a nap somewhere more comfortable and not under the sun.

With her.

"If it's Kagura-chan, I know you can do it!" were the parting words of her best friend, who then flashed her a thumbs-up, as if to encourage her. "Make your move and show him what you've got!"

It had been a bold move, asking him to nap with her, and while she had second thoughts earlier, she wasn't going to back down anytime soon.

"B-besides… s-sleeping under the sun would give you sunburns and—"

"… And where do you propose I should sleep?" he asked in a rather bored tone. At this, she felt deflated, as it seemed as if he wasn't interested in her suggestion, but knew that she had no other choice but to push through with her earlier idea.

"U-uhh… I, uhh… h-how about under the trees?!"

Upon realizing that they would actually have to walk around the park and look for a nice spot that wasn't already occupied by a couple, Kagura frantically tried to think up of a way to make it up to him for her rather idiotic suggestion and for forgetting the fact that it would take at least ten minutes for them to be able to find a spot for a nap, as the areas that had more grass and trees in it were far away from where they stood.

As she stood there to contemplate on her next move, she barely managed to register the fact that he had grabbed her hand and was already tugging her towards the bench where he was napping earlier. Before she could ask him what he was doing, the policeman had nearly shoved her to sit down on the wooden structure, and had lay his head on her lap.

Kagura nearly jumped out of her skin from the gesture, but forced herself to calm down her beating heart upon hearing him snore softly, a sign that he had quickly fallen asleep. As not to wake him up, she opened her umbrella, and laid it against her shoulder.

"You're really exhausted, huh…" before she could even stop herself, she brushed his bangs back from his forehead, watching it fall back again against his brow.

Sighing, she leaned back against the bench, wondering what she had gotten herself to this time around, though at the same time, she knew that she should try and take advantage of this situation she was in.

After all, it wasn't everyday she got sadist to lie down on her lap to take a nap.

Soyo-chan's idea worked out in the end, huh, she thought as she slowly fell asleep under the cool late-spring breeze.

Little did the two know that upon waking up thirty minutes later, they be accosted by a certain natural sadist in the form of an Edo princess who would then demand both of them to 'spill the beans about the true nature of their relationship'.

Kagura should have known that Soyo had a hand in setting them up (there was nothing more fearsome than a cunning sadist), but if she had to be honest, she wasn't that upset with the turn of events.

… Though it did not stop her from having thoughts of revenge towards her rather persuasive and manipulative best friend.

Just you wait, Soyo-chan. And with that, the female Yato began planning her next course of action.

Tokugawa Soyo wouldn't know what hit her.

It's been nearly half a year since I last wrote a fic; life called, wanting me to take it seriously, then I moved to Tokyo (I've lived in Yokohama for the past two years). Moving was a breeze, though it's still taking a bit of getting used to (still can't believe I don't need an extra hour just to get to Tokyo), and work has been crazy lately.

I hope that things would settle down and that I can write more fics soon.

Till next time!