"Aah? Dammit, it's raining," Gintoki sighed and scratched his head, overcome with disappointment as he looked down at the plastic bag in his hand. He had intended to head over to Hijikata's and dabble with sparklers, seeing as summer was about to end and they had lost out on chances to watch real fireworks together. He wasn't even sure if Hijikata had managed to catch any, and even if he had, he probably hadn't been able to enjoy himself while he was patrolling or keeping guard of some shogun.

Gintoki paced around the entrance of his house while swinging the plastic bag back and forth. He scratched his head again, "Sheesh!" he cried and went out with an umbrella.

---

There weren't many people about on the streets on a rainy evening; Hijikata happened to be one of them. He cursed at the rain for drenching his cigarettes, and backtracked to the convenience store to buy another pack. He had been receiving more crap than usual from Sougo, who was, after all, despite his sadism and twisted skill of swordsmanship that ranked top in their elite police force, still a kid who got overexcited at summer fesivals, and promptly abandoned tasks more obnoxiously than usual and also created twice the trouble. Hijikata hadn't even had time to settle down with a nice mayonnaise meal, so he could only turn to nicotine, nicotine, and more nicotine. The joyful cheers he had heard when the fireworks had gone up didn't make things any better either; even worse were the couples who leant against each other as they sat quietly on grass patches, thoughtfully admiring the transient bursts of lights. But the worst had to be those who waved their hand-held fireworks in blinding patterns and laughed as they pranced around a tight-knit circle. It had all somehow really annoyed him. He wanted to crush the lone box of sparklers that solemnly laid on the shelf as he walked past it on the way to the cashier, instead, he purchased it, and was left dumbfounded when he stepped out into the rain once again. "Shit."

"What, you need to take a shit? I think the washroom's just around the corner,"

Hijikata blinked at Gintoki, Gintoki blinked back, "Yo."

"...ah," Hijikata acknowledged him with caution.

"So, what you got? Mayo? Cigs? Condoms?" Gintoki grinned.

"You...oh, sorry," Hijikata stepped aside from the entrance to make way for another customer, "What are you doing here?" he asked without the intention of asking.

Gintoki held his translucent plastic bag up, "Want to play with me?"

"What...huh? Fireworks? How childish, besides, it's raining, you idiot," Hijikata put a cigarette to his mouth and lighted it.

"So says the moron who's lighting a ciagrette in the rain. This umbrella's big enough to shelter the both of us, so come on," Gintoki tilted the umbrella forward. "Not to mention that those fireworks you're holding are gonna get spoiled too."

Hijikata coughed, "T-these are for Kondo-san. He's been whining about it, something about missing out on the atmosphere and so on."

"Gorillas can't read atmosphere," Gintoki pulled Hijikata towards him and maintained a hold on his wrist.

"Oi, there are people around,"

"Play with me," Gintoki repeated his request.

"I get it, I get it, so let go already." Hijikata mumbled and quickly moved his hand away as Gintoki released his grip. "But it's raining,"

Gintoki shrugged and began to walk, Hijikata followed wordlessly.

"It's a bit of a damper, but lighting sparklers under a shelter is better than nothing," Gintoki stopped abruptly and made a turn into an empty alleyway. He began to crouch down and motioned for Hijikata to do the same.

"Are you an idiot? Here? At least find a proper shelter. There's no way we can start anything under that," Hijikata referred to the umbrella.

"It's too troublesome to look for an empty one, they're all taken up by dumbasses who were too dumb to bring their own umbrellas." Gintoki tugged on Hijikata's pants until he gave in and they were on the same eye-level again. "So, let's get started,"

"You just said that I was dumb, didn't you?" Hijikata glared at him, who responded with ignorance.

"I'd rather be caught dead than playing with fireworks in an alleyway with you," Hijikata grumbled but took out his lighter anyway, and lit a flame on the candle Gintoki provided, which was held within a container on the ground. "This isn't going to work," he looked up at the limited coverage the umbrella provided.

"Aw, be more optimistic, you can do whatever you put your heart to, you know, Oogushi-kun. It seems you still have a lot to learn," Gintoki opened his package and pulled a stick out, ready to ignite it.

"I don't want to hear that from someone who half-asses everything," Hijikata prepared his own sparkler. "And who's Oogushi-kun?"

"Don't say that, it's hurtful to all the Oogushi-kun's in the world you know, Oogushi-ku......ah!" Gintoki made a small exclamation as sparks appeared, crackling and flying out into rainwater, sizzling away rapidly. "And for the record, Gin-san doesn't half-ass everything. He doesn't half-ass relationships, he also definitely doesn't half-ass spending time with people with he cares about," He watched through typical half-lidded eyes as the miniature firework grew brighter and brighter, till it released its energy fully into a vibrant, erratic glow. "Especially when it comes to a certain just-die-from-high-cholestrol-and-lung-cancer-already idiot of a workaholic who's so far been unable to spend a single romantic summer evening with his supposed siginificant other."

Hijikata grimaced, the guilt that Gintoki had intentionally planted in him having rode over the the death curse. "Oi, we're going to burn ourselves," he shifted around the cramp area, not knowing whether he should put his sparkler out prematurely, or more importantly, how he should go about pacifying this 'significant other' .

"Then get burned," Gintoki replied, not moving even as the firework made its way up, nearer and nearer to his hand.

"I understand, my bad, alright? Stop sulking," Hijikata apologised quickly with half of his face hidden behind the arm resting on his knee. Gintoki quickly flung his stick aside when the sparks got too near for him to bear the heat. "Hey, I said that I'm sorry, will you say something?" Hijikata did the same and extinguished his sparkler, glancing towards Gintoki, who was already taking out a second stick. He frowned and caught Gintoki's hand before he could light it, "What's with the pettiness?" That wasn't what he wanted to say, he was only afraid that he might had upset Gintoki more than he knew of and was thus troubled by the unusual silent treatment, but was, again, hopeless at expressing himself when it came to situations that involved something other than yelling at subordinates and blatant idiocy. Gintoki slowly looked away with his head downwards. Hijikata was appalled when he snorted.

"Stu-pid. Don't you know Gin-san? Like I'd get all sad over something like that," he smiled teasingly at Hijikata and lightly shook his arm free from his grip, then returned to admiring the firework. Hijikata stared at him, who stared back, "You don't wanna play anymore? No way, we have to go through the entire pack!" Gintoki offered his sparklers to Hijikata, "I don't know, but maybe you'd like to save your own for the Shinsengumi guys? Haha, keep 'em away from Okita-kun though."

Hijikata brushed off the joke the idiot had played on him with exasperated relief, then grunted and accepted the offer. It was true that Kondo had whined about it once. He wasn't exactly doubtful that the rowdy bunch would mind either, though he wondered as to how he should go about sharing them, because he didn't share, and he wasn't titled a demon for nothing. "A spakler-sharing demon," he unintenionally muttered aloud. The sparklers seemed to crackle in amusement.

"Ain't bad, is it?" Gintoki replied absent-mindedly.

"Shut up,"

Gintoki shrugged and inched closer towards Hijikata, "It's cold," he said simply.

"Huh?" Hijikata glanced at him, suspicious, but didnt move away. "The rain's not letting up," he sighed as they put out their second sparklers.

"Well, I don't mind," Gintoki reached for the package, raising his eyebrows when Hijikata stiffened from the movement. "You might as well enjoy this," Gintoki smirked and pressed himself even harder against Hijikata, who abruptly leaned into his face, only to end up frozen. Gintoki blinked at him, wide-eyed, sighed a soundless laugh, then brought himself forward to finish what Hijikata had intended to do, sealing all the satisfaction they needed from each other by kissing him gently on the lips.

---

Hijikata gazed hopelessly at the endless onslaught of rain that poured down on the two of them trapped under a single, old umbrella. It had been almost an hour since, and Gintoki was snuggled in a dazy doze on his shoulder with an idiotic smile on his idiotic face. Not only did he want to commit seppuku when they attracted odd, evil-looking onlookers (he swore that there had been a flash of Sougo somewhere), how was he going to explain the scald on his hand, minor as it was, to Kondo-san? The stupid perm who hadn't been cautious of the sparkler when they were k-k-kissing, who had been saved the burn when it was snatched away by him at the last moment, was, by a slim margin, an origin of more trouble and frustration than the entire Shinsengumi. "Really now," He sighed, "Let's just watch a proper fireworks display next year."

A/N: I've not played with sparklers since.......heck, I was too much of a chicken too play with them properly anyway (I so wanna try it now though). So don't be too harsh on me if all of these don't actually make any sense xD

Thank you very much for reading, seriously (^^) It'd be very kind of you to leave a review~ I'd like to know what the precious readers think of my stuff, mm.

Though I don't actually make out who's seme/uke, and I'd rather not go into that since it can get really confusing with these two (also, I'm inexperienced, very inexperienced, with skinship) , it seems that Gintoki is beating Oogushi-kun in this battle for the top. But to be honest, I'm a HijiGin fan. Ahahaha...I like my ukes manly, and aggressive (in non-violent terms). Well, both of them are terribly manly. Hmm...I'm fine with GinHiji too anyhow, as long as they're together, you know. One of the best things about BL fandom - have your pick ;)