Gintama is owned by Hideaki Sorachi.

Enjoy!

Silences make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts.
~Margaret Lee Runbeck

I.

The class session for the day had come to a close.

Katsura did not linger around the school room on that particular day. He glanced at Sensei with a hint of sadness in his expression and he tucked his notebook away before leaving the room.

Running through the grassy plain that the school sat on, he called out to his friend. He was slightly annoyed at having to search for him after he stormed out of the classroom again, but he continued to search for him. After all, if he didn't find him, probably no one else would.

Several minutes later, he found the boy huddled on the ground under a tree. He immediately noticed the long-haired boy's presence and began to speak.

"So you're here to bring me back? Well, I'm not going."

He sat in front of the silver-haired boy and sighed.

"You don't have to. School is done for the day."

"Oh."

Katsura smiled and began to fidget with a twig he found nearby. Meanwhile, Gintoki relaxed himself, his body slumping against the tree. He folded his arms and a disgusted expression marked his face.

"Zura, why did he have to yell at me? Sensei is so mean."

"It's not Zura. It's Katsura. And he didn't yell at you. You know you're not allowed to fall asleep in class."

"I... I don't even care anymore. What's the point of all of this? I mean, if we're all going to-"

"Shh."

"Huh? You shh."

"No, just be quiet for a minute. You'll know."

"Fine," he grumbled.

Life isn't always fair. We're often forced into doing things we don't want to. But it's okay.

II.

"Eeehh. That stings!"

Katsura sighed. Gintoki, seated on a log nearby a stream, felt his wounds burning as his friend cleaned them and treated them. He had been roughed up again, this time by a few of his classmates.

"Hold still."

"Are you trying to kill me?"

"If I was trying to kill you, I'd leave it to get infected. Honestly, why can't you just ignore those guys?"

He turned to Katsura and glared at him. "It's a man's duty to protect his honor."

"You're not acting like much of a man."

Infuriated, the silver-haired teenager grabbed his friend's kimono and tugged at it. "You jerk. How dare you insult me-"

Suddenly, he felt a strong burst of pain from the various wounds on his body. He tried to continue his ranting, but could only pause as he sweated and panted.

"Kyaaah. You asshole."

Katsura placed his hand around the hand that was gripping his kimono. After he gently loosened his grip, he smiled and lay the other man on the ground. Gintoki did not protest to this, as he was in too much pain to even care at this point.

He looked over to Katsura, who was seated at his side with that same smile on his face.

"Zura, how can I just ignore those guys? Why is it any of their business what I-"

"Shh."

"Hmph. Whatever."

If you allow other people to influence your emotions, they usually end up winning.

III.

The war had just come to an end.

The battlefield, now painted haphazardly with the blood and bodies of comrades and enemies alike, now rest in an uneasy silence. A thin haze of smoke covered the field as the sun rose over the horizon. Not a single living person could be seen on this plain of destruction.

Several kilometers away, a young man carried the corpse of one of his comrades, his sensei, to be exact. He kept telling himself with every labored step that this burden was light, that everything would be okay, but the pain that burned through his legs and the heaviness in his heart convinced him otherwise. His exhausted body finally gave way; soon after, he fell to the ground with the man's body blanketing him.

Weary from the fighting, Katsura wobbled about the battlefield in search of his comrade. As their group had just lost the battle, he considered it a good omen that they had survived, and he deduced that it would be a good idea for everyone to leave as soon as possible. Sakamoto and Takasugi had already secured a safe exit path, and all that remained was for the man to find the Shiroyasha and exit safely together with him. He continued to wander about the vast ravaged expanse searching for his friend.

When he almost fainted from exhaustion, he finally found the man. At first, he almost completely missed him, as the only telling characteristic he noticed was his silver hair peeking out from underneath Sensei's body. But, as soon as he noticed both of them, he rushed over as if his level of energy never held any weight.

He pulled Sensei's body off of Gintoki and started to shake him.

"Gintoki, Gintoki, are you okay?"

He slowly sat up and started to dust himself off.

"...Zura."

Katsura looked at the body, and back to Gintoki.

"Gintoki, he's not coming back, you know."

After having stared at Katsura for several minutes, he stood up, held his arm to his forehead, and sighed. With a slight quiver in his voice, he replied, "Yeah, I know."

Katsura knew his friend all too well, though. He knew this time that Gintoki was hiding his feelings from him, based on the way he had his back turned to him and his arm over his forehead. Even though he had also lost someone important to him, he felt the pain from this loss intensify just by watching his comrade. He approached his friend and placed his hand on his shoulder.

He felt the weight of his cold, bloodstained hand on his shoulder and slightly tilted his head in that direction. While moving his arm away from his face, he fell into the other man's arms, buried his face into his side as he embraced him, and began to sob. "We failed, Zura. We failed as samurai and most importantly as human beings. If I couldn't protect one person, how can I live on this planet anymore? How could I-"

"Shh."

"I... I.. can't even..."

"Shhhhhhh."

Gin paused, looking up to his comrade's face; the tears that also flowed from the other man's eyes led his gaze back down to his side.

You're not alone.

IV.

A magical day in the life of Gintoki had arrived.

A grand celebration of the wedding to his wife had only begun. Filled with dancing, music, food, and revelry, the atmosphere burst with excitement.

After about an hour into the party, Gin found himself sitting alone at the table with his best man, who had just finished conversing with one of the other guests. He shouted his name over the noise of the festive crowd and successfully grabbed his attention.

"Hey Zura."

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura. Are you enjoying yourself?"

Gin warmly smiled at Katsura. "It's been a wonderful day. Thank you very much."

He nodded and smirked in response. The two spent several minutes listening to music before Katsura finally took note of the anxious expression on Gin's face.

"Are you okay?"

He continued to fix his gaze toward the rest of the revelers. "Zura, we're in our late thirties now, and I'm finally married. I didn't even think about anything like this. Like, how I'd be spending the rest of my life, you know?"

"Gintoki-"

"It's silly, really. Ten years ago, hell, fifteen years ago we were only thinking of survival in this corrupted world, and now I've grown way too comfortable with life, it seems. How weak we've become. How-"

"Shh."

The silver-haired newlywed looked at his best man.

The beauty of life rests in its uncertainty.

He smiled and nodded in acknowledgment.

V.

Several sheets of sunlight and a warm breeze flowed in through the windows; the curtains flapped gently with the passing wind. Gintoki awakened to find his friend in no better of a condition than he was the previous day.

He stared vacantly at the other man's body. The ashen and emaciated Katsura, who was connected to all sorts of machines, remained motionless except for the pronounced rising and falling of his chest as he breathed. He had been asleep for the past two days, and the doctor had concluded he didn't have much longer to live.

The strong man who had fought through the war, who had helped Gintoki fight his own war, now lay fighting his own war on a hospital bed and unfortunately losing.

So many years had passed and he still found a hospital to be the last place he wanted to waste his time at. He decided to stay by his friend's side. After all, if he didn't, no one else probably would.

He sat in a nearby chair reading a magazine as he waited for something that would possibly never happen, or at least something in his mind that he hoped would never happen. Suddenly, he heard the rustling of sheets from the nearby bed. He glanced over to see that his friend had awakened.

"...Zura?"

"It's... not Zura. Katsura," he weakly replied.

"Right," he whispered as he grabbed his hand.

Exhausted from that small exchange, he spent several minutes staring at the ceiling silently. He turned his head to Gin, who was looking out the window at the children playing outside.

"Gintoki..."

He turned his head to the man. "Now what is it?"

"It's... not fair. There... was so much I had.. left to do." He paused for several minutes, with tears and muffled sobs filling the void where his words had trailed. "And I... don't want to leave... you-"

"Shh."

He glanced at him, returning an expression as if he understood, in response.

I'm going to miss you, but I'll manage.

I'll... miss you too...

Thank you for everything, Katsura.