Samurai's Blossom - A Hakuouki Fanfic [HAITUS]

Chapter 5 - Friendship

Sara pov:

"Looks like that's the last of the medicine boxes," Harada san said as he shoved a woven box into the storage shelves.

"Yup, that's the last one," I agreed with a satisfied nod while looking around the infirmary that we had just finished setting up along with Heisuke – being the same age as me, he insisted on dropping the formal Todou san title I usually referred to him with. "This place looks really well organized now. Thank you for helping, Harada san, Heisuke. Ah, and please give my thanks to the men who cleaned up this room too."

Harada san and Heisuke were a great help in setting up the infirmary, all the more because they were strong and had amazing stamina and took care of lifting the heavy stuff and keeping things away in the higher shelves that I could access only with a stool. Now that the infirmary was ready to put to use, I plopped down on the floor with a slightly tired sigh to take a breather. Heisuke joined me but Harada san stayed standing with a hand on his hip and watched me with a raised brow.

"Tired already?" he teased. "Although, I guess it's not surprising considering the injury you have in your shoulder."

I twitched at his words and smiled awkwardly. Goodness, I had forgotten all about the wound on my shoulder that was supposed to still be healing! Thankfully, Harada san had insisted in doing most of the work – I was curious as to why but I understood now that he had mentioned the most important thing that I had stupidly forgotten about – thank goodness he hadn't given me the chance to make it obvious that my wound was healed. I had to make sure I remembered that I was 'still healing' for the next week at least.

"I am a little tired but I don't feel too strained because you guys helped so much," I said, smiling.

"And I'm famished!" he replied. "I'm sure lunch is ready so let's go eat, hmm?"

"That sounds good," Heisuke replied and was already rushing out the door to the dining room to meet up with the others.

Chuckling, Harada san and I followed him out and down the hallways to the dining room. The other Shinsengumi members were gathered there already with low height tables of food placed in front of them. Two seats were empty and Harada san and I took our respective seats with me between him and Kondo san.

"Are you done setting up the infirmary?" Kondo san asked as we ate.

"Yes, Kondo san. Harada san and Heisuke did most of the work though," I answered, sending the two of them an apologetic but thankful smile.

"It's obvious we wouldn't make you work hard when you're hurt!" responded Harada san with his mouth full. "Besides, it's a man's responsibility to protect and take care of women and children so you should leave all the tough work to us guys."

"That's a very admirable ideology, Harada san."

"Oi oi! You're trying to get in her good books first, aren't you?! That's unfair, Sano!" Nagakura san hollered while pointing his chopsticks accusingly at Harada san. "All of us are just as admirable!"

I raised a brow noticing him steal a piece of yakizana fish from Heisuke's table after that which stirred a quarrel between them. Heisuke was yelling at Nagakura san for what he had done though the latter merely said that he should be eating more because he was older and bigger in build. Heisuke retaliated by saying that he should be eating more because he was still growing. With that, he tried to steal food from Nagakura san's plate but it didn't work because he was easily pushed away and ended up losing some more of his yakizana. While Harada san, Okita san and Kondo san laughed at the bickering, Hijikata san looked annoyed, Saito san looked like he didn't care about what was happening and Sannan san looked like he'd rather skip this ruckus. Chizuru was looking at the fighting pair and me, laughing awkwardly, and not quite sure what to do about the whole situation, though probably didn't find this to be anything new.