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rumors goes around from mouth to mouth, from a glimpse to one clear truth. but whether it was true or not, people loves to talk about rumors. this time it was from an accidental encounter in one strange night. let’s call him A-san, A-san is a ronin under katsura kotaro, famously known as a jouishishi actively hiding in the kabuki-cho. so this is how the rumor start, in their safe house somewhere that obviously hidden; the men of samurai sat down in circle with A-san in the middle of the table. A-san start the conversation, followed by his comrades B-san, C-san and D-san.
“last night I saw shiroyasha-dono aiding vice-chief of shinsengumi to his house.” A-san started.
B-san confirmed his suspicion, “I saw it too last week, they’re all buddy-buddy in the middle of the street after midnight.”
“ah! I saw that demon vice-chief get out of shiroyasha-dono’s house in the morning like two days ago.” C-san added.
A-san nodded, “it seems like they’re very close.”
“they often drinking together!” D-san exclaimed.
“they’re watching movies together last saturday!”
“do you think shiroyasha-dono now aiding the shinsengumi instead of katsura-sama?”
“what if he is? we will lose our ace!”
“does katsura-sama know about this?”
after some further discussions, they decided not to tell their boss until they can confirm the truth from the said ‘rumor’. to check it out themselves, an activity that involving watching from afar is necessary. in the other words, they plans to go on carefully stalking the shiroyasha from afar.
it was their regularly meetings in between their activities, hijikata was on his way in his patrol and gintoki is currently jobless. their usual place was a hidden alley in the middle of kabuki-cho, where it always dark and undisclosed; a perfect place to kiss or make out. if you’re such horndogs, yes. it was essential for hijikata to keep his mouth on something, if gintoki wanted him to quit smoking then he should keep his mouth occupied on something. in the other word, they’re just can’t go on without each other even it was just a senseless banter.
but not today, after a long job in the bakufu office for an official business, he was gintoki deprived. why would he started a fight with him if he could just attack the man in the alley? which gintoki would gladly attacked him back with their mouth attached very wildly into each other. after they finished ravishing each other, hijikata resting his head on gintoki’s shoulder. very close to his ear, he whispered, “you’re being watched.”
he replied casually, “I know.”
“one of your stalker?”
“nah. I think this one is your favorite target, hijikata-kun.”
“jouishishi?”
“mm. it doesn’t matter. I’ll deal with their boss later.”
“katsura?”
gintoki sighed then nodded slightly with hijikata’s head still on his shoulder, “want to catch him while on it?” he asked.
“my hands are full right now, maybe next time. after all, he will get away from the prison pretty quickly too, what a waste of my precious time.”
“yeah, runaway kotaro he is.”
“then, see you tonight?”
“mm, wanna stay the night? I’ll send the kids to shinpachi’s.”
“sure.”
“did you take the picture A-san?” B-san asked A-san that was busy holding a long ranged camera hidden by the trash can and took a lot of pictures in secrecy.
“we’ve got some, these are… very, convincing evidences.” A-san answered very proudly.
after they confirmed the closeness of their targets, they decided to tell their leader about it. with the evidences they’ve gathered, the said rumor is now proven as the truth. that in fact, the shiroyasha, their trump card, is in a very close relationship with the bakufu official. sakata gintoki, their leader’s comrade from the war is in the romantic relationship with a shinsengumi.
“katsura-san.” A-san started, followed through with his fellow comrades, they sat down in circle with a very serious face.
“it seemed like shiroyasha-dono is in consensual relationship with the vice-chief of shinsengumi.” B-san added.
“ridiculous! what are you guys saying? gintoki is in a relationship with our enemy? that is ridiculous!” katsura disprove, what an actual fuck was his squad having? what kind of drug were they on? there is no way his friend will have such relationship with a bakufu dog like shinsengumi!
“but it’s true, we stalked him for few days and—” A-san tried again, this time his face was very stern, their leader have to believe them, this is a very serious problem!
“we have evidences, katsura-san.” B-san said. he reached for his kimono pocket, then let out the photos and give them to their leader.
“this was yesterday, they’re coming out from the back alley with flushed faces and swollen lips.” C-san said, describing the first photo.
“they could’ve been fighting in the alley!” katsura fought, still couldn’t believe this bullshit his squad are spurting.
“this was both of them walking to the yorozuya last night, hands in hands.” D-san added, describing the second photo.
“that was gintoki catching the vice-chief for us.” katsura scoffed, very confidently. more likely in denial, though.
“this was them kissing in front of yorozuya’s house.”
“it’s a weird position, we could see everyone is kissing in a photos like this!”
the room started to sound crowded, A-san, B-san, and D-san talking very loudly, they started yelling and fighting on their evidence to their leader. meanwhile katsura still deny their evidences, refusing to believe whatever this is his squad is saying.
the door suddenly slammed open, hard, everyone suddenly stopped talking and room grow silent. the shiroyasha, sakata gintoki standing tall on the doorway. the fellow joui comrade was in fact very scared by the appearance. because they well know that with a wooden sword on his belt, the shiroyasha could kill them for stalking him and his private life. they are very much, damned. “oi, idiots.” gintoki called out.
katsura excitedly greeted his dear friend, “oh! gintoki! my fellow comrades just tell me that you’re in a relationship with hijikata toshirou! that is ridiculous, right! tell me about it!”
“that is true, though. not like I’m hiding it or something, so I will tell you outright before you terrorize me or my boyfriend.”
“what! but you’re a joui, gintoki! what are you thinking, dating our enemy?!”
“ your enemy, and I’m not a joui anymore. I’m a normal civilian, dating a normal policemen, that is completely normal.” gintoki pointed. which, is a truth, since gintoki is not the part of joui anymore, he’s free to date anyone. and it’s not like he hate—
“what completely normal about it! I won’t even say anything about you both being guys but it is hijikata toshirou, a demonic vice-chief of shinsengumi! a bakufu dog! you hate the bakufu dogs!” katsura fought back.
“doesn’t mean I won’t date them...”
“gintoki—”
gintoki closed his ears with both of his fingers childishly, “gya gya gya, gya gya gya, so noisy. it’s none of your problem who I date, besides, it’s not like I want to break up with him just because you hated him.”
“as a friend, I will tell you a lot about it!”
“as a friend I will tell you, zura, I love him.”
katsura said nothing, he silently stared at gintoki as the later do the same.
love?????? LOVE????? the shiroyasha?????? in love????? with a bakufu dog?????? katsura started to feel dizzy, he might need to sit down after this. what a world he lived in… an old friend of his, the white demon, who sliced the enemy without mercy… in love? his friend that once fought the bakufu with him… in love with a bakufu dog???? damn, it sent him shiver down on his spine. his face must be green by now…
gintoki sighed at him, then he stared down sternly at his joui squad, enough to make them scared. “if I found you or your men mess around with my relationship, I won’t help you out anymore, zura. I keep on my words, remember that.”
katsura scoffed loudly, “it’s not zura, it’s katsura! but it doesn’t mean you’ll hear enough of my complains, gintoki. he’s a bakufu dog after all. just because you’re all buddy with him it won’t mean I will stop my joui activities.”
“sure, sure. do whatever you want. bye.” gintoki waved on his back, walking off the safe house casually.
rumor. started by one, continued by two, then spread around by four. the end of the rumor is when the truth came out.
and sometimes, it’s better not to know the truth. sometimes, the best is just to ignore the rumor… especially when the party involved is stronger than you.
B-san, a jouishishi.
extra!
a peaceful weekend, it was. hijikata was leaning on gintoki’s shoulder as the white permed samurai seriously reading his jump magazine, the TV was on the news as hijikata was in between watching and nodding off. quiet, peaceful quality time between the two of them. the kids are outside, kagura was waking sadaharu off and shinpachi was doing his fanboying activities.
until some disturbance really slammed on their face. at first gintoki thought it must be kagura, her habit of causing chaos wherever and whenever wasn’t curable anyways. but the one who slammed his door wasn’t her at all, it was in fact, katsura kotaro, came in hurry without notice at all, slammed his doors and screamed his name loudly as it was really an urgent matter, “GINTOKI!!!!”
hijikata instantly opened his eyes wide, looking at the loud voice’s owner… and gintoki actually ignored the voice owner. “what the fuck—”
“what?”
“we need your help.”
“nah.”
“it is urgent! we need you as our back up.”
“hmm, no. I’m on a home date right now, busy.” he said, continuing his jump magazine and then bring that head of his boyfriend back into his shoulder. which hijikata was quite confused, is this appropriate? for a shinsengumi demonic chief to be all affectionate with his boyfriend in front of his enemy?
“what?! gintoki! how could you do this to me?! how could you do this to us?!”
gintoki looked at him ridiculously but then ignored him, he asked hijikata instead, “hey, do you want to arrest him? for terrorism and… house breaking?”
“should I? it’s my day off but I can do that… but I’m quite comfortable here.”
“right?” gintoki lazily said, snuggling even closer to his boyfriend and hijikata hugged him back.
they’re being a disgusting PDA couple! katsura was disgusted, how dare they?! in front of him?! a bakufu enemy?! how dare gintoki! he ignored his dear friend for a bakufu dog?! how dare—
“should I make a phone call though? sougo will be glad to play with your friend, so just he won’t disturb us again?” hijikata let out his flip phone from his kimono pocket, when he opened his phone katsura was long gone.