This was supposed to be a fic for Soyo's birthday last July 16, but my work-life balance was a mess for the past few months that I have been unable to write a proper fic.

This was also supposed to be a one shot, but I figured it would be more fun to break it into chapters that would delve into two characters's viewpoints per chapter, as I think the fic would make more sense as I go along.

Lastly, the rating will go up as we proceed, because reasons.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama.

Of Hot Spring and Typhoons

Chapter 1

She disliked summer.

One minute, it would be hot and humid; the next minute, there would be a sudden downpour but the humidity would still remain, and she would be drenched both from the rains and the sweat.

More often than not, Tokugawa Soyo would be caught unaware of the weather changes, and would always find herself scrambling for shelter, either on the sides of the buildings that had high roofs or at tea shops where she could relax and wait for the rains to let up. Thankfully, a lot of the owners of the shops she went to knew her from her days as the princess of Edo, and would let her wait for as long as she wanted despite the two-hour limit imposed on most customers to give way to the incoming customers who also wanted to use the opportunity to go to restaurants to eat and relax.

This time around, on the day she barely had any money on her, the guerilla rains made its way to the city, and she was forced to stop by under the roof of a restaurant that she frequented in. After gaining the restaurant owner's permission to stay on the side of the restaurant's doors, she leaned against the wall, hoping that the rains would stop immediately. Dead tired on her feet and exhausted from her part-time job, all Soyo wanted was to go home and relax and think about nothing else and—

"Brat."

Inwardly, she groaned upon hearing the familiar voice that she had always been tolerating for the past few years.

And for the past few years, she had never failed to be cordial towards that person.

Until now.

The mask was slipping, but she knew she had to play her role as 'that guy's little sister's best friend' who acted as if she was perfectly okay with him being around.

"Kamui-san." She lifted the sides of her mouth in an attempt to smile, and knew that it was as insincere as it could get. Lately, she couldn't even be bothered being polite to her best friend's older brother, and she suspected it was because of the stress from both her part-time jobs and with dealing with the man himself. "What a surprise."

Both knew it was no surprise, however; Soyo was well-aware of the fact that while said male Amanto claimed to have no interest in weaklings like her, he always went out of his way to make fun of her status as a disgraced noble who now worked like, in his words, 'a dirty commoner'.

What made this more irritating was the fact that whenever he was on Earth either visiting Kagura (something that was forced unto him by Abuto-san so that the two estranged siblings would get along, as she had later learned) or just wanting to mess around and annoy people, he would actually find the time to look for her just so he could taunt and make fun of her.

While she could stand the insults most of the time, some of the words he would say actually end up hurting her, and, to her horror and shame, she would actually cry over it. His words hurting her had bothered her more than she would care to admit, and while she wanted to call him out for it, Soyo had an inkling that it would not end well.

If he knew just how much his words affected her and hurt her, he would definitely make it worse.

"No umbrella? That's the sixth time this month." He remarked, all the while shaking his head and exaggerating a sigh. "Then again, you probably can't afford an umbrella with your meager wages."

She kept her gaze downwards, not wanting to retort about what he said about her supposedly 'meager wages'.

Someone like him would never understand what 'priorities' meant.

"You didn't even go inside to eat." at one point in time, he managed to harass her while she was eating alone inside the very restaurant she was seeking shelter from. Once he figured out that the restaurant was a favorite of hers, he would make it a point to eat there to see if she would drop by; when she did, he would then not leave her alone until she had paid for her meal and made an excuse to leave.

"… I'm not that hungry." It was half-true anyway. "Don't you have somewhere else to go, Kamui-san?"

Leave me alone.

"Nah. Nothing worth going to. This place got boring real fast when everything got peaceful." He shrugged. "I'm only here for the food… and of course, you."

Any other woman would have probably been flattered and happy at the fact that a handsome Amanto had noticed her and would go out of his way to visit, but not her.

All she wanted was for him to ignore her, for him to go on his way and not bother her anymore; yet, such a simple request went unfulfilled. Fate must have had a grand time playing with her life; Kamui had been annoying her for months, yet it felt like years.

And frankly, she was getting tired of the constant insults he hurled at her, and no matter how much she tried to ignore him, he always found a way to piss her off.

Soyo considered wishing for a meteor to suddenly materialize and make a direct hit at the annoying man beside her, but upon realizing that she might get caught in the explosion, she decided that just about anyone or anything would do just for an excuse to walk away from him.

So long as she can get away from this man, she would grab the next available opportunity presented to her.

As soon as he began speaking again, she tuned him out and took a look at her surroundings.

Just my luck.

At the corner of her eye, she spotted a man holding an umbrella; despite his face being obscured by the umbrella he was holding, the man was wearing the Shinsengumi uniform, and a captain level at that. For once, her prayers had been answered and, despite the heavy rains, she made a run for it at the man's direction, ignoring her best friend's brother's angry remarks, demanding her to come back.

As soon as she grabbed the man's arm and lifted it to get the umbrella out of the way, she yelled out the person's name loud enough for the annoying Yato to hear, who was now scrambling to get his own umbrella from the rack in an attempt to follow her.

"Okita-san! Just the guy I was looking for!" inwardly, she sighed in relief at the sight of the First Division Captain of the Shinsengumi, as he would help her out for the nth time this month in warding off the former space pirate.

Or, more accurately, he was simply at the right place and at the right time for her to run to for help whenever she felt the urge to break that guy's nose.

"Princess? What's wrong?" her best friend's rival asked, clearly confused with the situation, as he had referred to her by her former title.

She shook her head. "I'll explain later! Come on!" immediately, she grabbed Okita Sougo's right wrist and began dragging him away from the restaurant. She did not dare look back to see if they were being followed, as dread had settled down the pit of her stomach, and her priority was to put as much distance between them as possible.

That man… did wonders to her sanity, and, if it was even possible, she wanted him as far away from her.

Even better if their paths would cease to cross.

If continuous staring could bore holes into someone's body, Okita Sougo knew he would have dropped dead the moment the former princess of Edo began dragging him away.

As much as he wanted no part in whatever the hell it was that was between Tokugawa Soyo and that guy, he had no choice in the matter, especially since he had become an unwilling accomplice (multiple times even) whenever he made a mistake of being at the wrong place and at the wrong time. More often than not, he was used as an excuse by the princess (old habits die hard) to get away from 'that annoying jerk', earning him a death glare, with matching killing intent, from said annoying jerk, who could do nothing but watch them leave.

While it annoyed him that he was getting caught up in some weird love-comedy situation, the policeman understood why it was happening.

Hell, as much as it pained him to admit, he and the former Harusame Seventh Division captain were in the same situation when it came to romance and the women they were involved in.

"Thank goodness you were there when I needed someone to help me out. I was just about to punch him in the face."

Okita shook his head, wondering why and how it was even possible for Tokugawa, the shameless matchmaker, to be so painfully naïve when it came to her own love life, when she did everything and anything just so he and China would 'accidentally' have interactions with one another.

That, or orchestrate the most bizarre situation one could come up with just so China and him would be forced in a situation that neither of them wanted to be in.

… And yet, oddly enough, Tokugawa Soyo's plans worked… though the recent one had left both him and China embarrassed beyond belief and until now, three months after, they were still both unable to look at one another in the eye. The discomfort had not abated at all, and lately, everyone around them was beginning to notice that they took extra care to avoid one another.

In his case, he changed his patrolling schedule from nightshift to late morning, as he knew China never went out at those hours during the height of summer.

"But anyway, now that you're here…" without warning, she hit him in the arm, making him yelp. "What's with you and Kagura-chan lately?! You guys have been avoiding one another!"

The former noblewoman was such a gossip, and as much as he wanted to tell her to not stick her nose into other people's affairs, it would be impossible to do so.

If there was anyone in Edo who wanted to know every little interaction between him and China, it would be her... and why she wanted him and China to get together, he had no idea, nor did he want to know. Knowing Soyo, she would probably have a bizarre reason behind the matchmaking.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He deadpanned, hoping that his tone would convince her to not pursue the matter anymore.

Until now, even he was unable to process that… incident between them.

"Hmph, fine." She clicked her tongue.

In an attempt to divert the attention away from him, he proceeded to ask her a question before she could press further. "So what's with you running away from China's brother lately?"

To his surprise, the former noblewoman's face went from calm to annoyed, and the policeman wondered if it had been a good idea to bring up that topic. While he had an inkling that Tokugawa Soyo disliked that guy, he never understood the reason for it until now.

Until she started a barrage of insults towards the man who was currently out of earshot and called him every foul word that existed in the Japanese dictionary.

Until she began insulting him from the pettiest things possible to the more serious ones, especially since, Okita found out, China's brother had found the younger girl's current situation 'hilarious'.

Until she looked like she was about to cry as she spoke harshly of her best friend's older sibling who took it upon himself to insult her every time he was on Earth, and had nearly done so.

Okita could only listen and inwardly cringe at the anecdotes that she relayed to him, especially since it was hard to believe that an adult would find satisfaction doing rather petty things.

… Then his brain reminded him that the once mentally-stunted Amanto was probably experiencing his own twisted version of 'springtime of youth' and was likely to have a misguided notion that the best way to woo and court a woman was through insults.

For all the former princess' high degree of sadism, she was still a woman who was currently struggling with reality, as she had been forced to contend with her current situation. While she was not living in poverty, she was still adjusting and learning through the ropes of being part of the common folk, which meant working to earn her keep and making sure that what she was earning would be enough to last throughout the month. While all of them wanted to pitch in and help her, she had firmly told them to all let her stand on her own two feet and 'deal with it' by herself.

She was getting the hang of it, that, he knew, but for a former noblewoman to suddenly learn everything all at once in such a short period of time, it was a difficult feat to both execute and follow through.

It took the two of them twenty minutes to get to her rented apartment, and upon making sure that she was well on her way to her unit, Okita slowly made his way back to the Shinsegumi compound, all the while thinking if there was something he could do with the princess' situation. As her former bodyguard, as much as he wanted to help lessen her stress (it was obvious that she was stressing over everything), he fancied having no holes forming on any part of his body.

No doubt, China's brother might try and hurt him, kill him even, if he so much as dare to try and approach Soyo… which was why he was still alive and walking whenever it was the other way around, with the princess doing the approach.

As much as he wanted to let China know that her best friend may need her support in dealing with her current situation, it was still difficult for him to come into terms with that incident, despite the three-month gap… and if he had to be blunt about it, it always got very awkward whenever they would accidentally meet.

Sorry, princess, but for now, you gotta deal with this on your own.

There was no way he would let himself see China face to face.

… Not now anyway.

He needed more time to compose himself and to have a proper conversation with her.

Honestly, this was supposed to be a cute and fluffy fic, but a friend gave me an idea on how to make the rating shoot up from PG-13 to M [for this site anyway] so yeah, goodbye cute and fluff, we're gonna have some slightly sexual moments.

Anyway, I hope I can get the new chapter up soon. Hope you enjoyed this!