Chapter Text
It was late at night in Yoshiwara. Gintoki had enough bottles to get his legs tangled as he walked.
Life was good, but sometimes he wanted to drink alone… the perfect place to that was Yoshiwara. Although he didn’t enjoy the girls selling themselves, but he liked the attention they gave him. Besides he wanted to keep an eye to help Tsukuyo sometimes. So why not combine business with pleasure?
Lately nothing much happened in their little lives. After such troublesome times, things were going well. Shinpachi and Kagura have been caring about the business, Gintoki felt behind sometimes, but the kids always made sure to include him. His friends also stayed the same, except for Katsura and Ikumatsu, who seemed to be marrying soon. Otae and Gorilla were also very close but she still beat the shit out of him. Sarutobi still follows him wherever he goes, but she keeps some distance from Yoshiwara most of the time. Hijikata still with his stupid V cut as Okita hunt his head.
One bottle or two, Gintoki sighs and empty his mind of those things. He didn’t care, he just wanted everyone to be safe. More than three or five bottles, he cleared his thoughts about everything he did… he felt that was the right thing to do. Everything was fine.
He was losing his alcohol tolerance through the years. I need to stop doing this… I swear Doraemon, I won’t lose to myself! He couldn’t keep it together anymore, supporting himself at the walls of the alley, he almost crumbled and fell, if it wasn't for a small hand that stopped his core to encounter the ground.
“You sure like to make people busy, right?”
Tsukuyo immediately put her small but strong arms around his waist and put his other arm on her shoulder.
“Y-You should see my puff puff action” he said among hiccups.
She just huffed. Saying nothing, she led him to the streets again.
“Oi oi… wh where do you… do you think you’re going with me?” He barely said it, closing his eyes and hiccuping
“You need to go home, enough drinking today” she said trying to drag him to the elevators on the other side of the town
“No! No!” He shout “Ka-ka gura…I mean, Gura-san…” he laugh “she said she would kill me, if I get home like this” He make his body heavy, planting his feet on the floor, preventing her to keep dragging him.
“Gintoki! C’mon!” She made a struggle to move him, that just kept standing without moving “why did you have to be so stubborn!?”
She gave up.
“So come to my house”
He, standing there playful just frowned and smiled
“You're gonna abuse me! HELP police!” He shout slurring “ah… you are the police here”
She sighed
“No. I’m not going to do anything with you. But if you don’t move now, I’m gonna kill you”
“I’m not scared of you” he said like a child. But as soon she raised her hand, he dogged
“C’mon!” She grabbed him.
They arrived at the tea house of Hinowa. Tsukuyo announced her entrance but everything was quiet, it was already late.
“Stop being so sluggish!” She muttered
“Y…you, y-you make me… come…h-h-here” he tried to answer but nothing understandable came out of his mouth
Tsukuyo then dragged him to her bedroom and left him on the corner while she prepared her futon. He laid down on the bare ground not waiting for her to finish.
“C’mon Gintoki! Don’t do that!” She bagged as she finished putting the duvets.She had to push him to the futon, using her force, as she was pushing a bag full of stones. With the difficulty she almost fell off into him, but she made it. He was already sleeping, but as soon as she turned her back to go away, she heard him moan softly, as he was in pain. She decided to stay just a few minutes to make sure everything was ok.
“Gintoki?” She tried to wake him to ask, but he was already sleeping.
She sat and stayed there staring, waiting for him to respond. Through this time, she halted to look at his pretty face. When will I have this opportunity again? His long eyelashes, his nose, his lips, his curly hair shining on the moonlight, his pale skin, masculine jawline… everything inebriated her. But as caught by her thoughts, she started to fall asleep too. She then laid down by his side, upside down, staring at his face till she couldn’t control her eyelids to close.
She couldn’t remember how long she slept, but as soon as she opened her eyes, he was looking at her, steadily.
When she was going to ask if he was ok, he suddenly moved onto her and his lips met hers. She first felt scared, but then reciprocated the upside down gentle kiss, closing her eyes too. His lips moved slowly, as his hot air exhaled through his nose with that scent of alcohol. He didn’t seem to know what was driving him, but she surpassed the surprise and closed her eyes and just followed the flow of that moment.
…
The next morning he woke up with a headache and cottonmouth, but he remembered another taste in his mouth aside from the alcohol.
He couldn’t remember clearly, but he knew he saw her laying with him. It was a dream? Well, he was at her house. Maybe. Not again, he thought. Another bad taste prank about laying down with a friend… but this time he remembered everything that happened.
As soon as he descended the stairs he met Hinowa and Seita all happy, having their breakfast.
Well, if something happened last night, she will avoid me.
“Hey! Gin-san! Have a seat!” Hinowa greeted and invited him “I made ozoni for your hangover”
“Oh… well, thank you…” he felt a little weird, he never had to sleep in their house like that because of drinking “Where’s Tsukuyo?”
“She just went to meet Hyakkas, she needed to reports from the last night”
“Hm…” I knew it
“She lost the rest of the night to bring you home… because you were SO drunk…she’s really considerate, right?” Hinowa said smiling on the attempt that Gintoki recognize hers friend good did
“Hinowa-san, did I ever tell you that you have this passive aggressive way that I don’t understand?”
Hinowa smiled
While eating, Gintoki started to worry about the fact that Tsukuyo wasn’t there, she was avoiding him… maybe?
But as soon as he stepped out Hinowas tea shop, he faced Tsukuyo getting home
“Oh! There you are, sleep beauty” she joked
Now, Gintoki was the scared one. He didn’t expect that reaction from her
“Oh.. well… look… the grumpy woman” he tried to joke confidently but end up tripping
She frowned and smirked
“Are you ok? The hangover is pretty bad I bet” she said unpretentiously while keeping walking to enter home
“Tsukuyo” he called her name as a attempt to stop her immediately
She then stood back to him
“Did something happen last night?” He asked
Tsukuyo turned to face to him.
“Yeah…” she paused. “you snorted like a pig. Don’t ever sleep in my house again” she smiled and then entered her house.
Well, if she’s acting like this, nothing happened then. I was really dreaming.
Gintoki then felt his heart race a bit. Dreaming about Tsukuyo like that, so real, was something slightly unexpected but not new.
…
He arrived home with a nagging doubt. He knew he drank too much, but he could remember that. Although he was more inclined to believe in Tsukuyo's reaction.
When in Yorozuya, he searched for the sink to drink the biggest amount of water that he could.
“Drunk again?” Kagura asked beside his desk while he went to the kitchen
“You should really stop drinking Gin-san” Shinpachi said, sighting with the broom on his hands.
After drinking a huge amount of water, Gintoki went to the living room
“Yeah… maybe I should…” he consider “I starting to not be able to differentiate reality from dream”
“Huh?” Shinpachi answers confused
“Forget it”
After some months, he let that event slip away his head. He was sure that was just a weird dream.
“Get up Gin-chan, we have work to do today… the old ladies want you to solve the panties robbery problem” Kagura said in a serious tone.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah… the payment is already set”
“Can we just turn Shinpachi to them and say he is the thief? He’s a virgin and Otaku, everyone will believe “
“Can’t you just shut up?!” Shinpachi answer
The three friends went out to solve the problem. They needed to observe the neighbors to see anything suspicious. Gintoki took that time to investigate, asking for anyone who had information, while he could escape and leave the boring stuff to his friends.
They were close to the gates of the red light district. After some information, he started to follow a very suspicious man that corresponded to the composite sketch. The man went to Yoshiwara.
Gintoki followed him but he started to dissolve his presence in the crowd. Doing the best he could to keep following, he went to the rooftops, then got bumped into someone he knew very well, smoking on the roof.
“What are you doing here!?
“Shut it! He will escape!” Gintoki took her arm to get down on the rooftop
Continue…