guardian | gintoki x reader

c h a p t e r o n e

        "Just what are you hoping to gain?"  He asked in that deep voice of his, puffing out a smoke from his lips.  She didn't answer, she didn't want to.  Only because she didn't know the answer herself.  Even she would question herself that everyday.  "I'll be waiting," he said while getting up from his seat.  He looked over at her with that beautiful jade colored eye of his.  He put on his signature smirk then walked away.  She watched as his dark purple hair had swayed in the wind, making him look like the same man from long ago.  But she knew that inside, it wasn't him.  Someone she knew she could never have back.  He was as broken as the rest.

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        As [Name] opened the door to her apartment room, she gently closed it behind her and made her way over to her bed.  She let out a sigh as she sat down.  She raised her head and turned it to where her nightstand was.  Stretching her arm out to grab a photo frame sitting on there, she examined the picture through the glass.  Running her fingers across it, she put on a smile and traced her fingers over to where it had shown Gintoki and Shinsuke; who were pushing each other away with grumpy faces.  She was standing in between them with a disappointed Kotaro and a laughing Tatsuma. 
        [Name] placed it back and grabbed another one, but this time it was different.  Her sensei's eyes closed with a open mouth smile from laughing, a younger version of Shinsuke looking away just like Gintoki (with his finger up his nose), and a two other smiling children, her and Kotaro.
        Those were the good times when they were kids.  When Shouyou-sensei was still around.

        "Oi," a younger [Name] had called out to a purple headed boy.  "If you want to join our dojo, you know you can, right?  There's no need to be shy."  She said with a smile which caused his cheeks to turn pink.  "I'm not shy! I'm just observing," which is what he would say. 
        "[Name]-chan," she would hear.  Shouyou-sensei would pop up behind her and rub her head, which had caused to mess up her hair.  "Don't tease the poor boy, alright? Be nice to him."
        "What's 'nice'?"  She asked sarcastically.
        Sigh, "[Name]."
        "Yeah, yeah."

        "Uwah! Shouyou-sensei!"  She cried while running towards him with her hands on top of her head.  "Gintoki purposely dropped a huge rock on my head from on top of a tree I was under!"  She wailed with a pouty face and rubbed her injury with tears on the side of her eyes.  "Gintoki,"  Shouyou said in a sing song voice with a dark aura surrounding him while popping his knuckles.  "I-I didn't mean to, I swear!"  He sweat dropped rapidly with his hands held up in defense. 
        "O-O-Oi! Shinsuke, help me out here!"
        "I didn't see anything."  He said in defense with his back facing them.
     Kotaro let out a sigh and shook his head.  "If you haven't have done that to [Name]-san, then none of this would have happened, Gintoki."
        "It was a joke! I swear!" 
        "So I guess that answers everything, right, Gintoki?"  Shouyou-sensei asked with a smirk and had came closer to him.
        On the same day, she had slept peacefully that night with no loud snoring from a certain lazy samurai.

        Hearing the raindrops against her window made herself feel at ease.  She loved the rain.  She always thought that it suited her.  She remembered the nights when she was afraid of the thunder as a child but loved to see the lightning streaks; it was just so beautiful in her eyes. But not only that—she also remembered the times when she would sneak in Gintoki's futon on rainy days even when it was thundering loudly.  She hated thunder.  She still does.  Not that it would scare her—no.  It felt like hearing her own emotions outside her body.  Gintoki would stroke her hair and whispered sweet things into her ear saying that the sun will rise soon and everything will be okay.  She trusted his words deeply, and in the end, he was always right no matter the situation.

        [Name] knew that getting herself in this mess with Shinsuke was probably going to bite her in the ass someday.  And that day was coming sooner than she would expect it.

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What I like and (hate) about photographs is that they capture a moment that's gone forever, impossible to reproduce.  You want to go back to the old days and have them back but you know you can't.