mysteries | ic; yeah the spirit's alive, i'm on the road coming home

[He was totally not imagining it -

- okay, he totally was, but that is far from the important point here.]

Don't waste the sake.

[ Some things never change.

Like Saitou being so.. Saitou, for one. As if to prove he won't waste it, Shinpachi's already taking another sip and this time actually swallowing it rather than using it involuntarily for comedic effect. ]

It's okay, you don't have to admit it.

I am admitting to nothing.

[shaking his head tbh

He takes a long sip, with no spitting or wastage here, because he knows exactly how much this sake cost and therefore has the utmost respect for it. Or respect for what it's done to his wallet. Whichever.]

[ If it helps a little, Shinpachi's a little more quiet these days.. call it maturity (dry laugh) or whatever, but he's seemed to gain a little bit more appreciation for the quiet moments.

Or maybe he just has a lot to think about.

Whichever he is, he seems content to just let it linger for a moment longer as they sip their sake before he speaks up again, shifting a little. ]

Ahh, it's been so hot this summer.. makes you wonder how long it's gonna last.

[ .. or maybe he just definitely did turn into an old man. ]

It won't last forever.

[Which is obvious, of course, but - but after everything, Saitou has found himself less and less inclined to dwell on how long anything will last.

It'll all end, eventually. Perhaps when is less important than the memory of it having happened at all.]

What do you plan to do with it?

Who knows.

[ It's been a little strange, after all. Not that Shinpachi isn't an independent kind of person to make his own decisions - that's exactly what he is - but.. well, he'd been with the Shinsengumi for so long, and then even fighting with the Seiheitai afterwards.. it felt like there was just always something to do ever since he started taking meals at Shieikan.

It had been odd to suddenly be left with that huge gaping void of nothing now samurai weren't really needed anymore. ]

Now stuff's a little calmer again.. travel around a little, maybe. I heard there's still some places where they actually teach kenjutsu, too. Maybe they're looking for teachers. Can't really imagine a guy like me doing anything else.

I wonder if your students will have any inkling of what they're in for.

[Look, it's a joke. Laugh with him. Except he never laughs when he jokes so maybe don't laugh with him.

But...that's really the problem with all of it, isn't it? Can't really imagine a guy like me doing anything else.

Saitou can't imagine himself doing much else, either. He built his life around the sword, around being a samurai, and now swords are banned and samurai are only a memory.

What does a man like him do now? Somehow, despite having years to think about it, he still doesn't have an answer that satisfies him.]

[ Shinpachi lets out a snort.

Did he actually get that joke. Did he realise Saitou was joking. Who knows, but perhaps some miracles still exist, even after the miracle times of the Shinsengumi have ended. ]

Well, there's no telling, yeah? If they've gone soft in this day and age, then it's up to me to kick some spine back into them. [ Aka yes, he still has no intentions of going easy.. you can take swords away from Shinpachi, but you can't fully take that spirit out of him, apparently. ]

They may always be soft, by our standards.

[But despite the words, and despite Saitou himself...it doesn't sound like criticism.

Because it isn't. It might even be a good thing, somehow; Saitou doesn't think that he himself is made for peaceful times, but there is something gratifying in knowing that others won't go through everything they did.]

[ He doesn't respond at first, but the answer that's hanging in the air might as well be a "yeah". It's not all that heavy, but there's still some weight to it, a certain kind of melancholy. Because this topic always tiptoes dangerously close to the elephant in the room. Said elephant being the empty space in this case. All the people that would usually be here drinking with them, but that haven't been here for already quite a while by now. ]

.. at least I'll still have one hardass to drink with, then. [ Shinpachi doesn't want to focus on that aspect of it too much, so he twists it around, making it about what is still here. Even if everyone else is gone, at least it's not like either of them is sitting here drinking by himself like some pathetic loser. ]

Edited 2015-03-20 21:26 (UTC)

[That gets a flicker of a smile. It's a quiet one, a sad one - Saitou doesn't have many others, these days especially.]

Or do you mean you'll still have someone to bring the drinks for you?

What, you mean you don't enjoy it?

[ Okay, maybe not buying the drinks necessarily, that's not what he indirectly means here. It's more just.. drinking together, being able to still sit here and talk with someone familiar. Someone who just understands. The way things were, the way things changed. The feeling of loss that the downfall of the Shinsengumi brought with itself.

He holds his empty sake cup out to Saitou again. Fill up, man. ]

[He will neither confirm nor deny; Saitou's never seen much point in saying the things that are blazingly obvious to everyone.

Shinpachi already knows.

He picks up the bottle and pours without a word.]

[ The pouring admits just as much as words would have, anyway. And Shinpachi knows - has known for a long time - that Saitou isn't a man of many words to begin with. It makes it a little more painfully obvious that his usual loud friends (Sano, Heisuke) are no longer here.

When the cup is full, he moves it back to his lips and takes a gulp big enough to practically empty it again in one go. Once the liquor has disappeared down his throat, he lets out a loud sigh. ]

ic; yeah the spirit's alive, i'm on the road coming home

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