You groaned, your head falling in your hands. The past week had been exhausting. To make up for the time you missed for the vacation, plus missing more days after being stranded on another planet, you'd been taking the longest shifts you could with the shortest breaks. For some reason, everyone needed a surgery yesterday and today.
Your foot was asleep from staying in one place for six hours.
Your head hurt from your even more frequent headaches.
You'd barely eaten the past three days.
You'd gotten about 6 hours of sleep in the past three days.
You'd done about 700 pages of paperwork in the past three days.
You'd just been wanting to go rest at home for the past three days.
You hadn't even seen or talked to anyone at home for two days. There was a quick break, where you went home, but you'd just slept for three hours and been paged back.
You heard people come inside the break room, but you stayed in the position you were in, too tired and in too much pain to care to look up.
"Sensei." It was a nurse, and they were whispering. "Yamamoto sensei ordered that you go on a break. If you stay here for one more full day, you won't be allowed to come in for the rest of the week."
"Alright," you mumbled. "Lemme just sleep here, quick."
"Sensei," the nurse repeated, a bit more pleading.
You shouldn't get them into trouble. You picked up your head slowly, but either way it still hurt like a bitch when you got up. You shook your foot, which was starting to become less numb, and went to pick up your bag, taking out change while you walked through the hallway.
You quietly asked the receptionist, who was busy typing on their computer, if you could use the phone at the front desk. Once getting clearance, you called Yorozuya's number. Immediately Gintoki answered.
"Hello?"
"Hi hon"-
"Quick, Y/N, the food is almost ready." He lowered his voice. "I need to be ready to grab some."
"Oh. Yeah, okay, I'll be quick, just wanted to let you know I'm coming home."
"That's great... you don't want me to grab some for you, do you? It'll be tricky getting anything for myself."
"It's best you come later Y/N-san!" Shinpachi yelled from Gintoki's line.
"Shut u- what are you doing Shinpachi?! It's not ready! Y/N, I have to go now, see you at home."
"Yeah, see you... ah, he ended the call."
You put the receiver down, and thanked the receptionist quickly, before leaving, having your change ready to use on the bus.
You'd dropped some of your change, earning a look from the driver and some people around you. Quickly apologizing, you picked it up and put it inside, moving to go sit on a seat and catch up on thirty minutes of sleep.
The world hates you today though.
Before you could grab a pole to gain your balance, the bus jolted forwards, causing you to trip forwards and grab onto the pole in desperation, panting heavily. "The hell," you muttered under your breath, getting frustrated by every small inconvenience.
You looked around, to see there was one seat available. You went to go take a seat, sighing in relief as you pulled your bag on your lap, resting your head back. Your neck cracked, making you smile in content at the released tension.
"Hey, you woman!" You jumped up, to see a person up in your face, eyebrows furrowed, spit spraying. You winced, about to yell at him for interrupting your well earned sleep. He stepped back though, and gestured at an older man in front of you, knees wobbling.
"Oh, oh no, sorry!" You bowed as much as you could in the crowded space, and stood up for the older man to sit down. "I'm really sorry," you said again, bowing your head. The elder shook his head, telling you to not worry about it.
The other man though. He got on your nerves.
"People these days don't know how to be polite, I tell you," he scoffed, and spoke quite loudly. "So lazy they won't even get up for the backbone of our society. That the way you want to be treated huh?!"
Some people, kind people, tried to calm the man down, and he grumbled incoherently, until you heard him say, "This is why we used to lock women up in our homes, all they're good for is housework anyways."
Your jaw clenched, but did you really want to deal with him today? Did you really want to start a fight in a bus today? Did you really want to waste the energy you were saving up to walk home from the bus stop today?
Kind of, cause this guy was pissing you off.
But you stayed calm, somehow, and took a deep breath before moving away, letting the crowd on the bus separate you from the annoying person.
When you got to your stop, you sighed in relief, pushing through the people who were crowding the bus. Rubbing at your eyes, you walked home, ignoring salespeople and scammers, walking faster when you saw catcallers, putting your guard up when you walked through the part of the neighborhood where the lights were broken.
Today was such a normal day.
Maybe that's why it sucked so bad.
You almost cried from relief when you saw Otose's snack bar. "Y/N-san?" You looked up the stairs to see Catherine and Otose looking down at you. "Are you coming up to eat?"
"Ah, yeah, I'm coming up," you said, dragging yourself up the stairs, clinging to the railing. "Probably not going to eat though."
"Did you already have dinner?" Otose asked. "What type of crappy hospital food have you been living off of the past few days. You should eat something proper."
"It's not horrible. And my coworkers bring their homemade leftovers sometimes, so I've been taking those," you smiled lightheartedly. "No need to nag."
"I'm not nagging," Otose grumbled. The three of you walked inside together, taking off your shoes at the front. "Have you still been feeling light headed?"
"That's why I'm going to sleep," you answered, taking Catherine's shoes and putting them neatly next to yours because the girl wouldn't do that herself. "Try to be quiet please. I'd like to go to sleep without hearing you and Gin argue."
Otose rolled her eyes, and slid open the door to the eating room. The table was pretty messy, Kagura was chewing food, everyone was standing up, the air felt dramatic.
Oh. This was episode 25.
Maybe the day was so normal because author-chan couldn't think of anything interesting? That was probably the case.
"Hey Katsura-san," you bowed your head at him, and Elizabeth, acknowledging her as well. "Uh, Gin, I'm just going to sleep now. Have fun with... this."
"Mhm," Gintoki smiled mischievously at Kagura and Katsura, obviously too hung up on whatever Death Note parody was going on.
You rubbed at your eyelids, which felt quite heavy, "Alright, have fun, I guess."
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When you went to your mirror, you had no recollection of what you'd been doing the past few minutes. Had it been more than that? You sighed, stumbling down to the ground, trying to keep your eyes open to stop yourself from making a loud noise.
You rested your head somewhere, you don't know where, and let your eyes shut.
Finally, you could rest.
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"Oi, oi, oi, oi! Y/N!"
You rubbed at your eyes, still heavy from sleep, before you opened them. The place where you slept felt more comfortable than before. You turned over, mumbling in content. It was the futon, probably.
"Hey, c'mon, wake up." you felt someone shake you. Judging on the voice near you and just the familiarity of the person, you were sure it was Gintoki. "Y/N," he said, more urgently.
"I'm up, I'm up," You groaned, keeping your eyes closed. You reached up to feel for Gintoki's face, smiling reassuringly. "But I'm kinda tired Gin. Mind letting me go back to sleep?"
"So tired you slept in the bathroom?"
Your eyes shot open at Otose's voice, and you lifted your head up to see Otose at the door. The more you paid attention, you heard Shinpachi and Kagura yelling - panicking- in the living room.
"They want to call the hospital," Otose grumbled. "I'm not letting them."
"Which is stupid," Gintoki argued, sitting up straight. "You're not well, you should go"-
"All I need is rest Gin, don't overdramatize it," you sighed.
Gintoki's jaw clenched. "I'm not overdramatizing anything, you're sweeping it under the rug like you always do, Y/N, you have to go"-
"Gintoki. You heard her. Let her rest," Otose interrupted, glaring at Gintoki. She looked back at Shinpachi and Kagura, who were listening in. "You heard her too. Go on. Scram."
When the two kids tried to argue back, Otose grated her teeth, sliding the door to your shared room with Gintoki closed. That didn't do much to hide the three's loud voices arguing.
Gintoki stood up, moving to help you up, but you swatted his hand. "Gin-chan, just let me sleep."
"You're not feeling well Y/N, you know that, I know that, let's just get you checked, it's not that big of a deal," he insisted.
"Exactly, it's not a big deal. I'm the medical professional here, I think I'd know if I have to go to the hospital or not."
Gintoki chuckled dryly, no humour behind it. "Come on Y/N, you're joking right? Stop being so stubborn, let's just go see why you haven't been feeling well!"
"It's just iron deficiency. I left my pills here, so I haven't taken them in a few days and I got a bit dizzy. That's it Gintoki, stop pestering me about it."
Gintoki's voice went quieter. "You're taking pills for it?"
"Yeah, something wrong with that?" You snapped.
"No, of course not," Gintoki scoffed, teeth grating. You were pretty sure he picked that up from Otose. "I'm just kind of annoyed you didn't tell me about it."
"What is it, do I have to tell you about every part of my day?" you asked, finally sitting up properly, peeling the futon off. "You didn't sound very interested today."
Gintoki's eyes widened a bit in surprise. He was very expressive. "Okay, look I'm sorry about that, but it's not something I do often, right? It was really just today."
"Yeah, I just don't get why it had to be today of all days, that you didn't care about what I was up to."
"Hey look, I care," Gintoki insisted. "It's just that I don't have a sensor telling me, 'Oh no Gin-chan, Y/N isn't having a good day today!' I need you to tell me, I can't just piece everything together for myself Y/N."
You went quiet at that. He was right. He was usually always right. It was annoying.
You looked up at the ceiling, falling back on the futon. "You want to hear about the past few weeks then? I mean, I don't want to bother you."
Gintoki slapped the back of your head lightly, making you laugh lightly. "Of course. C'mon let's get into bed first."
"You're breath stinks, brush your teeth first."
"First step towards honesty, and it's in the wrong direction."