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25: Home is Where Your Friends Take the Remote and Tell You to Stop Whining

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Toshiro Hijikata doesn't wake up on Christmas morning because he is already awake. He's been up the whole night. He drags himself back to the station where he gets a face full of snow-badminton, thanks to Yamizaki.

"Yamazaki!" Hijikata roars. "Stop messing around and get to work."

"Yes sir." Yamazaki scrambles to put away the badminton racket and busy himself elsewhere. Then he pauses. "Kondo left a message and said he forgot a fruitcake here and wanted you to deliver it to Otae's."

"Can't he do anything himself?" Hijikata grumbles.

"Merry Christmas, Hijikata," Yamazaki shouts before running away.

"Do I look like I need to have a Merry Christmas?" Hijikata asks with a face that would scare small children and Shinpachi. Then he stomps off to take the fruit cake over to Otae's dojo.

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The dojo is still a mess, with boards replaced haphazardly. There are plenty of students, and they mill about laughing and chatting and stuffing their faces. Figures, Hijikata thinks darkly, any place where these slacker hang out wouldn't be fixed yet. Now if this were Shinsengumi Headquarters, it'd be fixed by now or else.

"Merry Christmas, Toshi!" Kondo drapes an arm around Hijikata's shoulders. "Thanks for letting Sougo help me last night. We were able to almost finish repairing the dojo, Kyuubei and Sougo made an ice skating rink, and then we made breakfast. Would you like some pancakes and sausage?"

"I think I'll pass," Hijikata says, remembering his last meal at this place.

Kondo laughs. "Don't worry Toshi. Kyuubei helped me make them. They're a big hit since she had the wonderful idea to make them shaped like the Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon."

The can hear Shinpachi throwing a fit about the "inappropriateness" of the breakfast. "Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon pancakes and sausage?" Hijikata asks. "That sounds almost…obscene." But it also sounds delicious. "Do you have extra mayo?"

Kondo laughs again. "You better hurry if you want any, Toshi."

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"But Kyuubei, where will we ice skate?" Otae asks.

"Don't worry Tae-chan, I filled up a pool last night, and once it freezes completely, we can go ice skating in your yard."

"But Kyuubei, we don't have a pool."

"I used the one Sakamoto parked in your yard."

"Kyuubei, that's a spaceship, not a pool."

"It has a deck, and pools have decks, so that means it's a pool," Kyuubei insists.

Otae looks up at the immense ship covered in ice. There is a now a frozen "pool" on the deck, and long thick icicles hang down the sides. Gintoki and Kagura are already mountain climbing up one of the sides. "I guess you are right, Kyuu-chan. It is a pool."

Sakamoto doesn't complain too much when he sees what's become of his spaceship.

Sometimes it's hard to be the ones left behind. But as long as she has all her friends at her side, Otae thinks she can manage.

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THE END