"Are you happy with me?"

Chizuru blinked thrice in surprise, pausing as she took a moment to register what she heard. She carefully put down her needlework and looked at her husband with a furrowed brow. They had been sitting in comfortable silence under a tree to enjoy shade from the bright sun, Chizuru sewing a new kimono while Hijikate wrote haiku in his book.

His voice and face were uneasy, guilty, sad, all emotions she was accustomed to seeing him express and comforting him over. She gave a slow but wide smile and scooted closer to him, wrapping her hands around his arm and resting her chin on his shoulder. Relaxing in response to her embrace, he stroked her cheek with his fingertips

"Where did this come from?" She asked, wanting to giggle at the silliness of the query.

He bit his lip."Before I...left you at Sendai...I told you I couldn't make you happy...and you said...you didn't need to be happy."

She actually did giggle now."You're silly. Why would bring this up now, after all this time?"

All those months in Ezo he could have brought this up, but only now, a month after they had begun their life together, he was doing this.

"Of course I'm happy," she said, pressing her forehead to his."I stayed by your side because you make me happy. You should know that by now. I'm not going anywhere and you said that you'd never let me go."

"I know, but..." He sighed."We have to be in hiding most of the time, I may not have much time left, I always worry that I'm asking too much of you."

"And I always worry that I don't do enough for you." She hugged his arm tighter with a sigh."I'm a Demon, I'm not supposed to intervene in history, and technically neither should you anymore."

He snorted."Better not start calling me by that stupid title Kazama gave me."

She shook her head."Not while I'm still getting used to calling you...Toshizo-san."

Her utterance of his given name, albeit with an honorific, made him chuckle and grin.

"Wherever we go, we go together," she said quietly."Whatever we do, we do together." She moved her face closer to his, and their lips met. His other arm wrapped around her body to tug her even closer. After a moment, she pulled away and whispered against his lips."I love you.", then kissed him again, this time with more passion.

Chizuru decided that, if any silly questions like this ever came up again, she would kiss him into silence just like today.