"Y/N-chan?" You looked up at Kagura after taking a sip from your drink, and nodded. "Are you and Gin-chan still fighting?"
"Kagura! You can't ask her that!" Shinpachi scolded Kagura.
"What? Y/N-chan said I could ask her anything."
You bit your lip. "Yeah, she's right Shinpachi, it's fine." As you sighed, looking down at your hands, Kagura stuck her tongue out at Shinpachi. He went to go yell at her more, but was immediately shut up by the sharp pinch on his thigh once you looked up at them again.
"We're still fighting, kinda." You pressed your lips together. "Sorry about that."
"Ow, ow, ow, Kagura let go!" Shinpachi hissed before turning to you. "No, it's fine Y/N-san. We understand that this stuff happens. We're sorry about intruding your home all the time."
"What are you talking about?" You asked, a bit surprised he still considered it that. "This is your home too, okay guys? You're allowed to stay here whenever you want because it's your place to live. You're not intruding anywhere."
Shinpachi and Kagura smiled, glancing at each other, before nodding.
You and Gintoki cared too much about family.
Whatever problem the two of you may have, it was sure to be solved.
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"You..." Gintoki paused before continuing, trying to make everything he said concise. "You already went to the hospital?"
"Yeah," you answered slowly. "Sorry I didn't tell you before hand, but I just didn't want to worry you. You get that right? You're like that too."
Gintoki kissed his teeth. "Sure. But I thought we'd had this talk before? About telling each other things from now on? What happened to that?"
"I... C'mon Gin, it was just this one time."
"But you haven't been feeling well for a while."
"Gintoki, we just went over this! Don't start an argument again, you just said you'd listen."
"I am listening!" Gintoki insisted. "You're not compromising! I've asked you a bunch of times, if you were feeling well, and you lied to me every time! You knew you were unwell, lied to my face about it and went to go fix it by yourself. I get you're a doctor, and I'm not. I can't really do anything about it but knowing about my wife's health is important to me!"
"I'm not..." You bit your lip, stopping yourself. Gintoki had a sharp tongue, he didn't really have a filter, especially during arguments. You had to be the one to balance it out. "Gin. I really, really just didn't want to worry you."
"That's not going to change the fact that you already did. I mean... you know the feeling right? Seeing you passed out on the floor freaked me out." Gintoki licked his lips, before sighing and looking away. "I'm going to get some water. You want some?"
You shook your head, despite the fact that you did kind of want some.
"Thanks for worrying."
"Kagura-chan?"
Kagura, Shinpachi and Gintoki turned around and quickly hushed you. Once they realized it was you, Gintoki looked away, back at whatever they were staring at and Shinpachi looked at you, confused. Kagura smiled brightly.
Of course, this was her plan.
What was she trying to do? Connect you and Gintoki by having you work together again?
"I should go back," you muttered.
Kagura shook her head, "No time for that now."
There was a noise coming from the place that the three were stalking, and Gintoki ran ahead. Shinpachi called out but he went ahead to look inside the home. You noticed someone walk, sneaking up on Gintoki. You quickly shoved Shinpachi and Kagura down, hiding them.
You kind of wish you didn't, when you stifled a laugh after watching Gintoki get kancho'd by a grown man.
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"Sorry. I'm sorry I did that. It was such a suspicious looking ass, I..."
As Gintoki complained under his breath, you smiled. "Don't worry about it. He's already used to having a stick up his ass all the time."
"Why am I in the middle of you two?" Shinpachi mumbled. Sighing.
"Still, you shouldn't have been peeking into another person's house."
"Sorry about that," Shinpachi apologized. "But we were looking for someone. Mr.Preist, did you see a man with a scary demon mask walking around?"
"Demon? It sounds strange," he commented. "Are you saying you're momotaro, the demon slayer?"
"I'm not interested in some petty demon," Gintoki sighed. "My target is his boss. Unless he has a lot of treasure, then that's a different story."
"Treasure... the only treasure this demon owns is those children over there."
Gintoki and Shinpachi jumped back at the demon mask that dawned his face now.
"Y-Y-Y-You! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Gintoki yelled.
You assumed this was the demon man they were looking for. The more you looked at the mask, the less scary it got. Maybe it was because you knew what was under.
"What were you doing? I know you followed me from the fighting arena."
Shinpachi spluttered for a second before collecting his words. "Then you are...?!"
He took off his mask again. "I'm known as Doshin Kidomaru, a fighter in rengokukan."
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"Y/N-chan! Want to come play with us?" Kagura asked you, before racing ahead with the other kids.
"Uh, um," you cleared your throat. "No, go ahead Kagura, it's fine. Get along with kids your own age."
She nodded, and skipped after the other kids. You went to go take a seat, on the other side of Shinpachi. "Um, Y/N-san, I could move over for you"-
"No. Stay where you are."
You heard Gintoki grumble a bit.
Kidomaru came and gave everyone tea, which you all thanked him for. Well, you and Shinpachi did because you were decent human beings.
"Oi, oi, are you sure?" Gintoki asked. "Giving us tea? We could be the peach boy, Momotaro, who got rid of the demon."
"Are you sure?" Kidomaru asked in retaliation. "You're having tea with a bloody demon."
"It's hard to believe that someone who takes care of so many children could be a demon." You hummed in agreement.
"Who are all these children?" Shinpachi asked, politely.
"They're all my children," Kidomaru answered.
"Oh my! You must have been really wild when you were young!" Gintoki joked. You let out a small chuckle. Small, fairly quiet, was barely a laugh, you wanted to tell Gintoki after he gave you a look.
"No," Kidomaru spoke seriously. "They were all abandoned children." He had a baby in his arms, and held the kid closer to his chest.
"Orphans? Don't tell me you're doing that kind of thing to take care of them?" Gintoki asked.
"Do I look like a worthy human being? A saint covered in blood? Once, now and forever, I am just a killer. I've always been strong... and everybody called me 'killer'. I was sent to jail and I waited for my head to roll. But someone had their eye on me, and paid to get me out. You can probably guess the rest. If you guys are trying to destroy the Rengokukan... take my advice. Don't."
"Are you suggesting we'll end up as meat for the demon?" Gintoki asked. "Well, it might be interesting."
"A demon doesn't strike unless someone touches his treasure. But he'll do anything to protect his children."
A kid came running up to Shinpachi and snatched the glasses off his face. You grinned as Shinpachi ran after the kid, laughing. The baby went crawling to Gintoki, and he let out a heartfelt chuckle. "There's no way a demon would say something like that." He picked the kid up and held them. "You look like a good father to me."
Kidomaru continued talking, but Gintoki made faces at the baby, to make them laugh. He looked over at you and gestured you over. "Gin, you know"-
"You don't have to carry 'em, just come closer and see."
As Gintoki continued his conversation with Kidomaru, you moved closer to Gintoki. You had to go so close that your arms touched, so the baby would pay attention to you. It sort of just stared at you. You returned it's blank stare.
Gintoki then lifted up the baby, smiling at it. That made them giggle more.
"You're good with kids," you mumbled to yourself, not really intending for him to answer. Gintoki turned his head to look at you.
"Isn't that one of the reasons you married me?"
You shrugged your shoulders, huffing. "It was just a reason to convince mom it was a good idea."
"Oh yeah, that was when you kept in touch with her."
"Mhm, yeah."
"What do you think about kids?" Gintoki asked, scratching his neck as he leaned back on his chair.
You grimaced. "I don't really like them."
Gintoki raised his eyebrows. "Really?"
"Do you?"
Gintoki took a deep breath before sighing loudly. "Yeah, I do. Well I don't hate them. And I'm good with them apparently. I don't really care much right now. You think it matters?"
"I mean we don't really know how long we'll be together anyways," you shrugged, looking away. "It doesn't really matter if either of us want kids or not."
Gintoki pressed his lips together, leaning further back on his chair. "Yeah."
"So... are those kids alone now?"
"No, they'll have someone else take care of them, I think," Gintoki mumbled, as he fell back on your futon. He opened his eyes suddenly. "You want me to sleep on the couch today?"
"No, of course not, you worked hard, I'm proud of you." Gintoki covered his mouth but you could hear little snickers from him. "What're you laughing for?"
He uncovered his mouth to reveal a grin. "Never thought I'd hear you say anything nice so easily. During a fight too."
You raised your brows. "Are we still fighting? I'm not mad anymore, you know."
"Me neither," he sighed, reaching his arm out to pull you down next to him. You faced each other, as he swung his arm around you. He sighed again, looking up at the ceiling. He scratched the back of his head. He looked like he wanted to say something. But he also didn't want to, you were sure.
You moved your hand up to cup his face. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you I wasn't feeling well. I'll tell you from now on, okay? I'll try to tell you more. Even if it'll worry you."
Gintoki moved closer to you, so his face was in the crook of your neck, and his arm held you tighter. "I love you," he whispered.
You moved your arm up to hug him as well. Rubbing his back you whispered back.
"Thank you."