"Always so cool and mysterious like that..."

"He's so scary..."

"You know, Kawaji-kyuuchou speaks so highly of him..."

"They say he's the best officer on the force..."

Saitou smiled, pulling his policeman's cap lower over his eyes as he did. Their praises were not lost on him, not to his highly sensitive ears, which could pick out a whisper from the furthest corner of a room.

(Hahahahhahahahahaha)

He slid out a cigarette and lit it with one of the new instant matches the Dutch had brought in their last shipment. Truly an ingenious invention, and it made his job easier. After all, he would have to finish the cigarette before he got home...

"Hajime!!" a sweet voice called from behind him.

Saitou almost swallowed the cigarette butt he was about to dispose off. Had he already gotten so close to home? But the house wasn't until down the street yet. And it was already well into the evening, what was Tokio doing in the streets?

"Hajime!" Tokio called again.

Panicking, Saitou swallowed the cigarette butt and tossed a mint into his mouth before turning around. His face was plastered into a perfect smile, his eyes closed and his cheeks puffed up in a perfect grin as he greeted his wife.

"Tokio, what a pleasant surprise," he said in a polite voice, dripping honey. "Why are you out so late in the evening?"

"I was worried for you," Tokio replied. She was a beautiful, petite woman, dressed in a red yukata, her long black hair framing a gentle face with deep, penetrating eyes. "Being out so late at night, really, I know the force expects a lot from you, being their best officer and all, but to keep you from home like that..."

She brushed his cap back a bit as she pushed a strand of hair that was out of place from his face. As if on impulse, she quickly straightened out his slightly ruffled uniform. "How do you expect to be a model officer if you don't keep your uniform in shape? Honestly..."

"Uh, sorry, hon, but we were chasing a criminal tonight..."

"I don't want to hear it!" she retorted. "You have to be able to keep your form no matter what you're doing! You can't be a bishounen otherwise!"

Saitou sighed.

"Now hurry up and get back home. The dinner I prepared is getting cold, so I'll have to reheat it first. While I am doing that, be sure to change out of those clothes and into something more comfortable. My gosh, you've been sweating in your shirt again..."

(I only started sweating when you shouted out like that...)

"... and I don't want you to catch cold or anything..."

"Yes, dear," Saitou replied meekly.

(If this weak, hen-pecked, submissive shell of a man seems to you to be the complete opposite of the Saitou Hajime you saw at work just this evening, well... YOU'RE COMPLETELY CORRECT!)

A few minutes later, Saitou sat at the table with his wife. No longer dressed in his uniform, he now sported a soft white yukata, and his long hair was tied back with a white sash across his head. The wife always got mad at him when his hair dipped into the soup, so...

"How do you like the soup this evening?" Tokio sweetly asked.

"It's magnificent, as usual," Saitou said after his sip, nodding his head in recognition of his wife's culinary prowess. Setting the empty bowl aside, Saitou shifted slightly in his sitting position to get some of the pickled daikon to go with his rice. Elegantly, he used his chopsticks to pick some up as his wife watched on.

"You're so cute when you eat your vegetables, dear," she said with a teasing grin. "Would you like some sake?"

(Dressed like a tourist in a hotspring, this ridiculous sash on my head... and begging for sake! It seems harsh, but...)

"Please do," Saitou replied, profferring his sake cup. "You know that sake always makes me feel like cuddling," he finished with a smile.

(... the truth is...)

"Finish your vegetables first, or I won't let you cuddle," his wife replied, a bit mischievously.

"Oh please! Don't kid me like that, you know I can't live without your cuddling!" Saitou bowed his head down, touching it to his hands on the floor.

(That psycho attitude of mine is all just for show!)

"Oh, come on, you know I was just kidding," Tokio said with a wink.

"Ah, hahahha," Saitou laughed, as his wife laughed with him. He continued to pick at the pickled daikon.

(Yes, it's true, the way I act in the world is all for show!)

Saitou finished his daikon and raised his rice bowl to his mouth.

"Do you want some more, dear?" Tokio asked.

"Yes, please." Saitou raised his bowl to hand it to his wife.

(I've fooled them all these, years, even little Oukita-kun back in the Shinsen-gumi. They all thought I was such a ferocious, vicious killer, almost impossible to anticipate because I always kept my feelings tightly hidden behind a mask of evil. But I hid my emotions more than anyone could have imagined! All this time, I'd been actually hiding my weak, craving emotions so that no one would guess that I'm really just a hen-pecked wimp!)

"There you go, dear," Tokio smiled.

"Thank you, hon," Saitou smiled back.

(I even got that idiotic Himura Battousai fooled! The Battousai always thought I was just another cold, psychotic Shinsen-gumi killer. All these years he's been holding the terror of our fights in his mind, never once imagining that I'm just every bit as much hen-pecked as he is! Would that he would probably be laughing his head off if he ever guessed that I am every bit as subservient to my woman as he is with his
raccoon-girl. And that chicken boy, it's so nice to take out my frustrations on him, he almost reminds me of Oukita-kun back when he was still new in the Shinsen-gumi...All those slayings, all those powerful
derogatory remarks that leave my enemies quaking in their boots... Hah, even that moron Usui thought I was so scary. The truth is that I'm just a complete fake! The psychotic me is just a cover for the
submissive me, a facade which has served me well all these years, a facade which I have cultivated and perfected until everyone thinks that it is the real me!

It is only here at home where I can let my guard down and let the real me come out. It's only with Tokio that I can show my true self, a person who is sweet and caring and kind and loves to cuddle... A person who
belongs only to my dear Tokio. And so I hide my false personality from her, just as I hide my real personality from everyone else, because I'm sure she would hate me then, and I couldn't bear the thought of her leaving me. I would just be devastated. I sometimes feel guilty fooling Tokio like this, but it's alright, deception has been part of me ever since I was a child. I give her my complete love and devotion, something which I will never give to another. I only show her the real me, and she adores it, so much
that I must keep my other fake self from her.But that's not a problem. I've fooled the Shinsen-gumi, I've fooled old Oukita-kun, I've fooled the Battousai, I've fooled the Chicken-boy, I've fooled Kawaji-kun, no one can discover me! That's because although I've always been a kind person at heart, I've always been the best at what I do! I'm so cool that no one will ever discover the real me! Besides, it gives me such a great,
sadistic pleasure in fooling everyone, in being able to play to their ears all the time, telling them this and that when in truth I'm think something else, being able to bask in the fear, praise and respect others afford me when I put on my mask. No one can quite deceive other people like me! HAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!)

"Hajime, what are you doing posing like that with your chest puffed out, your mouth wide open and your chopsticks in the air? You look like a complete moron."

"Gah!!" Saitou's face dropped.

{He's so cute, puffing himself like that, thinking he's fooled me and everyone else into believing that he's someone else,} Tokio thought, {I put up with it, keeping my perfect housewife's mask on, because that's
what makes him so interesting, and that's why I love him...}

And so it was that Mibiru's wolf, one of the most feared of Bakumatsu's Shinsen-gumi, was nothing more than a sheep to the shepherd Tokio.




==== BLAH, BLAH, BLAH ====

I do think this is the first evershort story I have ever written as a real fanfic. Hmmm, feels refreshing
writing something short for a change!

The idea for this fic sort of just popped out while I was watching my Kareshi Kanojo. Why should be obvious enough, if you've seen Kare Kano.

Forgive me for anything untoward I have written, anything wrong, any major grammar errors, any mistakes
in terms of continuity; I'm having fun with Saitou here and I'm sure no one will get mad at me in this list if I make any gruesome errors.