My Worth (Sakamoto Tatsuma)

Not Zura.

Takasugi stared at Tatsuma for a long while.

Tatsuma noticed him, and his scary frown turned upside down into a bright smile, despite his awful injuries.

"Are they okay?"
Tatsuma asked, sheathing his sword. By 'they', he meant Zura and Gintoki.

Takasugi scoffed at his stupid kindness. He'd just known them for a week, and he'd already gotten attached to them.
"Yeah. Don't worry."
Takasugi simply responded, and his eyes darted over to Tatsuma's shoulder injury.

"...Well, I think you should worry about yourself first. Your injury will get infected if you leave it out like that."

His eyes scanned all over Tatsuma. A leg injury. And his skin was ripped open... Ew.

"..You shouldn't be so selfless, Tatsuma."

"I'd do anything for my fr..."
Tatsuma stopped himself.
"I'd do anything for my comrades, y'know?"

He chuckled, and Takasugi clicked his tongue.

Tatsuma wrapped his arm around Takasugi, and the two staggered back to camp together.

He thought to himself -
It was too early for them to be friends.

He told himself they wouldn't reciprocate his feelings.
-------✽

They arrived at the camp after a 5 minute walk that felt like eternity because of the awkward silence.

Whenever Tatsuma tried to chat with Takasugi, he'd scoff, stare like him like he was a piece of sh*t and continue walking with a stoic face.

He was hard to talk to.

Zura noticed them walking over. He rushed over to Tatsuma, and yelled dramatically.
"Tatsuma! You shouldn't be so reckless on the battlefield!"
He winced just by looking at the bloody marks on Tatsuma's shoulder and leg.

Tatsuma simply let out an "Ahahaha!" while Zura tended to his injuries.

Gintoki watched from afar.
He wished his positivity would disappear, not because he thought it was annoying, but -
it was the fact that Tatsuma would get scarred one day. That positivity wouldn't come back once that day came.
Gintoki just knew. He knew it all too well.

Zura sighed.
"You should go get some rest, before the next wave of Amantos arrive."

"Alright, Zura!"

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura!"
Zura corrected him.

A few soldiers who had been helped by Tatsuma rushed over to thank him, saying that without him they would've been dead already, and that they had a family waiting for them at home.

Tatsuma simply laughed, saying that it wasn't a big deal.

Oddly, Katsura Kotarou didn't feel that irritated when Tatsuma called him Zura instead of Katsura.
He could let his guard down around him, laugh at Tatsuma's dumb jokes and puns, and he never really noticed how tense his shoulders were and how hard he was clenching his jaw, until he relaxed.

Maybe it was time for Zura to take a rest, too.

-------✽
It had been a month since Tatsuma's arrival. He'd been getting along well with the other soldiers.

And the three let him stick around more.

It had became the Four Heavenly Kings.
Shiroyasha, The Rampaging Noble, Leader of Kiheitai, and Dragon of Katsurahama.

Zura had went ahead and told Tatsuma about how he was classmates with Takasugi and Gintoki. And about their teacher Yoshida Shouyou who was captured by the Amanto.