Chapter Text
"Wah! Tasty! Gin-chan... why did you never cook this good at home?"
Gintoki glared towards Kagura as he stuffed himself with food.
"I don't have money to buy these kinds of raw stuff every day. Besides... with that black hole inside of you, we won't be able to survive much. Be grateful that you can eat... and this time it was a special service!"
"You really do cook well... Gin-san."
Gintoki's eyes shifted in another direction as he grabbed some more meat into his rice bowl. He turned towards Otae slightly as he muttered his thanks and was slightly grateful that the woman had not caught up with his other reasoning for cooking breakfast for the four of them. The thought of having some unidentified lumps of black matter for breakfast was not what he looked forward to eating after all. But yes, he wanted to at least return the favour to her for letting him stay the night.
"Gin-san..."
Gintoki looked up. "What?"
"—what happened yesterday?" asked Shinpachi as he shrugged.
"It suddenly rained. Your sister happened to pass by and picked me up. That's all..."
Shinpachi nodded.
"Oh... that's wh—"
Someone slammed their hands on the small table as they cried out. "I cannot believe it! You must have something up your sleeve! And I don't really think that your cooking was so good. Otae-san can't—!"
Kondo froze as he stuffed a piece of spiced shrimp into his mouth. Kagura, Shinpachi and Gin stared at him in surprise as Otae glared at him in annoyance. But before anyone could utter a word, the Shinsengumi commander cried aloud.
"Eh! This stuff is actually good! Can I have some rice ple—aaargh!"
Kondo fell as he was trampled by both Kagura and Otae.
"Gin-chan's cooking and its leftovers are MINE!"/"THIS IS NOT THE PLACE FOR YOU TO LOITER AROUND!" came the cries of anger as Gin and Shinpachi stared at them, not sure of what to do. Gin sighed as both of them continued stomping the life out of Kondo.
"Hey... you two. You guys are overreacting—", said Gintoki as he turned around in horror to see Sacchan about to pour some natto onto the meat. "—what are you doing?"
The kunoichi laughed dreamily.
"My natto and your cooking should make a very tasty combination... just like Gin-san and me. So—eiiyahh!"
Sarutobi Ayame cried as Gintoki kicked the natto away before it could even touch his meat.
"What kinda logic was that?-! Don't put weird stuff on my food—", cried Gin in exasperation as Sacchan moaned happily at being scolded. "—and I wasn't playing any games with you! You M-woman!"
Plates started to fly as both Kagura and Otae started to use an even greater force to drive Kondou out of the house. The same thing could be said with Gintoki, as he kept screaming at Sacchan to throw some sense into her. Shinpachi silently sipped on his tea while his two elders and Kagura continued rampaging around the house, forgetting altogether about their breakfast. He sighed.
×××
"Aaaaaaiiiiii! I ended up feeling more tired!" exclaimed Gintoki as he threw himself onto the couch.
Shinpachi shook his head at him as he continued tidying up the place. Kagura had gone out again to walk Sadaharu around, so it was only the two of them in the house.
"So what is it you had been doing yesterday; before you were caught in the rain? You went out so early, saying that we're not to accept any jobs for the day and left like that. Did you have something to do yesterday? Pachinko again?"
Gintoki flicked an eye towards him as he stopped reading from the week's Shonen Jump issue.
"Hnn? Ah, yesterday... was it? That's... nothing important. I'm not even in the mood for Pachinko. Really..." said Gin before going back to reading his Shonen Jump.
Shinpachi blinked. That was short. He expected Gin-san to say more than that but... somehow he felt that there was more to it than him going off to take a break out of the blue. But since Gin-san made no move to elaborate more on the subject, suppose it would be rude for him to press on the matter.
"Shinpachi? Something wrong?"
He blinked. Ah, he had not realised that he had been in a daze for a while! Gin-san must be wondering what was wrong with him.
"Ah... ah! Nothing! I was just daydreaming! Ah... err, should I go buy groceries or something... err, Gin-san, what would you want to get—I'll go buy—"
"Don't bother yourself," said Gin right away as he glanced outside the window. "—if you're talking about groceries, I can always do it myself later. The weather looked nice for me to go out in the evening anyway—"
Shinpachi blinked at him. "What nice weather? It's cloudy outside... it's the rainy season after all—what are you talking about—" he mumbled to himself as he turned towards the exit.
"Oh... Shinpachi! If you're free, go help the old coot downstairs! Earlier, Granny had been asking about needing someone to help out. Last night they had more customers coming than usual, and the place really needed a cleanup. That coot and cat-eared trap wouldn't be able to finish the work just by themselves. Consider the pay they give as your pay for the month—"
Shinpachi mumbled his answer just loud enough for Gin to hear as he went out. Shinpachi sighed.
"But at the end, that 'paycheck' would end up being just some light lunch from Otose-san, isn't it? Since any money that I would end up getting would end up being used to pay for the shop's rent. But then again, why isn't Gin-san working there as well? Hai..."
Regardless, Shinpachi headed into Otose's snack shop to work part-time since he had nothing much to do anyway.
×××
Katsura perked up as he paused from doing his part-time promoter job.
"What do you mean, Shinpachi-dono? Is anything wrong with Gintoki?"
Shinpachi quickly waved his hands around and shook his hands at him as he explained.
"No—nothing, Katsura-san. It's just... Gin-san has been acting strangely yesterday, not accepting any job and going off to take a break. And if I had guessed correctly, he ended up getting caught in the rain and probably got really depressed before my sister took him home. Sis and Gin-san hadn't said anything, but I noticed that they hadn't fought much this morning like usual, so I could guess that what happened yesterday can't be as simple as they said it was. I just wondered if Gin-san had any problems or anything. He's been quite docile yesterday and today as well..."
Katsura cocked his head at him as he appeared concerned.
"Now, that's... interesting. That was so unlike him... but then again, he probably went off to have some adult fu—"
He immediately got hit by Shinpachi as Katsura crashed into a nearby dustbin.
"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? IF IT'S THAT SIMPLE I WOULDN'T—"
"I was just musing—", said Katsura as he rubbed his head. He slowly got up as something suddenly hit him. "Wait a minute... Shinpachi-dono, what date was it yesterday?"
Shinpachi stared at him, surprised at the sudden change, but told him the dates anyway. Katsura's face changed for a sec before smiling weakly. He blinked in confusion at this reaction. Was it something important—or something very significant for both Gin-san and Katsura-san? Both of them really did appear to know each other for a very long time after all...
"Shinpachi-dono..."
Shinpachi immediately perked up.
"—you don't need to worry too much. Well, that guy might still be under the weather these few days. But as long as you and Leader kept him company, he should be fine," Katsura said finally as he took his leave to continue with his work.
"B-but... Katsura-san, you hadn't told me what—"
Katsura waved his hand towards him. "Don't worry... everything would be alright!"
Shinpachi froze as he watched the man leave. And still, he did not get the answers that he wanted to find. He thought he could gather some more information after he managed to finish the work Otose-san gave him earlier, but it seemed that it was meaningless. He was still clueless about the problem.
And both Gin-san and Katsura-san said that 'it' was nothing to worry about. It was obvious that Katsura-san knew about what was bothering Gin-san. But what is it?
And why was he feeling so obligated to find out about this?
Without having any answer to all of the questions swarming in his head at the moment, Shinpachi decided to head back to Yorozuya. And as he came back, he again was left wondering to himself as he stared at Kagura and Sadaharu.
"Eh... Kagura-chan? Where's Gin-san?"
Kagura looked up as she let Sadaharu eat his dog food.
"Gin-chan? He went out. He said he wanted to go buy some groceries by himself."
Shinpachi turned around to see the cloudy sky outside.
"Right now? At this time and weather?"
Kagura shrugged.
"Beats me. Gin-chan said he just wanted to go out at this time. But don't worry... Gin-chan brought his umbrella along. Two of them, in fact! I thought he wanted to pick you up as well... but since you're already here, ah never mind..."
Shinpachi cocked his head at her.
"Two?"
×××
Half an hour after lights-off time...
"Ah... my bad, Oryou-chan... I forgot my umbrella. Silly me—", said the young lady aloud as both of the girls walked out of the shop and noticed the drizzling weather.
"What bad luck, Otae-cha—oh, but I think that should not be a problem now, then, dear..." said the other girl as Otae stared at her in confusion. Oryou nudged her towards the exit as the man appeared out from the shadows. The young lady sighed as she and Oryou walked out into the rain. Already Tae noticed the extra umbrella that Gintoki was holding.
So did Gintoki come here to pick her up to escort her home?
Otae waved towards her friend as they parted before turning towards Gintoki.
"So what's the extra special service for, Gin-san?" asked Tae as she smiled at him in amusement.
Gin just shrugged.
"I had been out buying groceries and noticed it started raining in the evening. I happened to notice that you didn't bring your umbrella along when we parted this morning, so I thought of returning you a favour—", he said as both of them started walking home.
Otae stole a glance at him before laughing softly by herself.
"You took quite a long time just to buy that little amount of groceries... what did you do the rest of the time? I found it hard to believe that you've spent so long a time at the supermarket for that. And who in their right mind took two pairs of umbrellas with them? Isn't one enough?"
Gintoki did not give a reply as he looked elsewhere.
"I can do whatever I want by myself! Do you have a problem with that? At least you won't have to go home soaking wet."
Another giggle slipped by as Gintoki turned towards her in annoyance.
"Cut it out... you! What's so funny?"
"Nothing..." said Otae again as she continued laughing.
Both of them kept walking the rest of the journey home in silence as the people around Kabuki-cho started to lessen. Shops here and there save for the 24-hour store, had already closed down for the night. As they were nearing the district where Otae's house was, Gintoki suddenly cleared his throat.
"Ne... Otae-chan, actually... the reason I came tonight was not only to repay you for last night."
Otae looked up as Gintoki rubbed his nose in embarrassment.
"Actually... yesterday, it wasn't the rain that made me depressed that much. If it's true, I'd be like that every time it rained. Just that yesterday... well, I suppose you could call it an anniversary. So I went out to clear my head for a while. I'm not even planning to have a drink or anything. Just a short walk. But when the rain fell and I got caught in it, well... lots of thoughts that I want to push away came back inside my head, you know. By that time, even when I want to go for a drink... I couldn't do it."
"Eh? An anniversary? Why would something like that get you down?"
Gintoki shrugged.
"Because it's not the kind of anniversary that reminds you of good memories."
"Oh! I'm sorry—"
"You don't have to be sorry," Gintoki immediately interjected, before sighing. "Most of the time, I could just brush the bad memories away. It's what I'm good at doing anyway. It's just that... at times, it could be unbearable. "
Otae looked up at him again, feeling concerned. Gintoki chuckled softly.
"What am I doing? I should've gotten over it already. Fatalism... is not gonna do anyone any good."
He sighed again. "No amount of moping would do anyone any good, I know that. But sometimes my mind went back towards the past and recalled all the lives that I couldn't protect. My friends... comrades... the person whom I most wanted to save. The rain just made those memories fresh again and hurt me inside."
A small hand slipped by and held on to his own as Gintoki turned towards Otae in surprise.
"There's nothing you could do to change the past, is there? But there are always things you can do in the present to make up for the past. Surely it won't be so depressing anymore."
Gintoki smiled.
"Yeah... I suppose you're right. Anyway... what I meant to say is—"
Otae cocked her head towards him.
"Thank you. Although it's hard to admit it... but you being by my side yesterday did make me feel better. I thank you for that."
Otae sighed.
"I thought that was why you came here... and you took such a long time to explain. You really are a silly man!"
"Don't you dare tease me..."
"But still, it's good..." Otae said as she closed her umbrella. "The rain has ended after all."
Gintoki blinked as he also closed his umbrella and looked up to the sky. The stars glittered brightly, now that the clouds that were hiding them from view were no more.
"Yeah... I guess."
Otae shook her head.
"No... I meant the 'rain' inside Gin-san's heart," said Otae again, smiling.
Gintoki turned to look at her curiously as he grinned.
"Oh? Since when had you been sneaking on reading up my old Shonen Jump magazines?"
"Ah? That's a secret! And I liked that manga anyway. The way Kurosaki-san wanted to save Rukia-san was both heroic and sweet. It kind of reminded me a bit about someone I knew..."
Gintoki laughed again.
"Okay... I lost to you today. You've been abnormally cheeky today."
"Hehe... and oh, Gin-san? I also had something else to tell you."
Gin raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"
"Come closer... I don't want to say it out loud!"
Gintoki frowned as he leaned closer towards her.
As fast as lightning, Otae reached up and kissed him lightly on the lips. Gintoki pulled away quickly in surprise.
"Hey! That's cheating! You caught me off guard!"
"Well, you caught me off guard also yesterday! That's your punishment!"
"But you didn't seem to dislike it! Who was it later that pull—okay, you win on that as well. I guess I'll always lose on things like this..." said Gintoki as their eyes met again. Both of them immediately looked away in embarrassment as silence suddenly filled the night.
Otae glanced around to find the alley still deserted.
"A-Anyway, Gin-san... would you still escort me home? It's not that far still..."
The man laughed.
"Of course, I am. I'm everyone's Gin-san! I'll always be able to be of service—"
"Well, right now... you're MY Gin-san."
"Can't argue with that... can I?" said Gintoki as both of them silently walked home together.