Kagura rested her head on Gintoki's oak-wood desk, lazily pulling a strip of sukonbu from her box and nibbling on the end of it. The other two in the Yorozuya couldn't help but stare at the typically energetic girl, who had now developed a sloth-like state.
"Kagura," Gintoki started, approaching the girl steadily just to ensure she wouldn't snap. Her eyes shifted upwards ever so slightly, only to return to a dreamy daze. "I'd ask if something's wrong but I think your ruined mascara speaks for itself." he said, smoothly sliding himself onto the corner of the desk and propping his hands comfortably onto the edges.
"It's gotta be boy troubles, Gin-san. She went on a date with Okita-san today." Shinpachi mentioned, keeping his distance but his worried expression was apparent to them all. She merely sighed, her mute face broken by her peers' involvement. They had only just returned from a job and had stumbled upon Kagura looking rather...dead.
"How'd you know about the date we were supposed to have today? W-we were going to go view the cherry blossoms b-but..." her voice began to crack, causing her to break out into uncontrollable sobs.
"He broke up with me!" she cried, wiping snot on Gintoki's kimono as she roughly clutched onto it. Gintoki, overwhelmed, attempted at giving her a comforting hug. He gritted his teeth, allowing the girl to let it out for a few moments before he fastened his grip on the hilt of his sword.
"That little...I'm going to go fi-speak to Souichirou-kun!" Gintoki said, spite lingering in his tone but fading away as soon as he came to a realization that he shouldn't assume it's his fault. Besides, he hadn't heard the full story from her or him yet or much of the story at all.
Gintoki patted her on the head and gently pulled her off of him, allowing her to slide from his kimono and sink into the chair. She was still rubbing at her eyes, attempting to keep the tears from slipping down her face and spilling elsewhere, but thankfully her loud crying had settled down so he could finally get the chance to speak.
"So what happened?" Gintoki asked, tip-toeing around the question of, "Why did he break up with you?" Asking so would hopefully lighten her up and wouldn't be as harsh hitting as getting straight to the point.
Kagura muffled her sobs, ever so slightly recovering from the damage Sougo had caused to her heart an hour or so beforehand. She didn't know how to respond at first, regaining her composure as she saw in their eyes how much they cared about her well-being.
"Well, I was waiting on the bridge, our set meeting place. As he approached, he told me, 'Hold on, let's break up.' then he walked away!" she muttered, before bursting into tears yet again.
Gintoki and Shinpachi merely stared at each other awkwardly, unsure of how to handle the situation. They'd never dealt with a girl who had a broken heart, so frankly, this was new territory for all of them. Kagura didn't lift her head up, allowing the tears to tumble onto her cheongsam. Both felt sad for her, yet they had no idea what to do. Okay, maybe Gintoki had sort of an idea...
Kagura twirled the chair around to face the wall, as to block her profuse crying but to no avail. Her sobs echoed across the walls, reverberating into everyone's ears and taunting them to deal with her problem. At this rate, she'd be crying for a whole week and none of them wanted that. They especially didn't want to have to deal with Otose's constant complaints.
"Now now Kagura, it's okay. Papa Gin will deal with the boy." he reassured, resting his hand on his sword and tightening his grip as he quickened his pace towards the door. Shinpachi stared dumbfounded at Gintoki, who was resorting to violence to solve the problem. Not unlike him, of course, but he'd rather not hear of the fierce battle between the two strong opponents. Everyone knew that if the two were to duke it out seriously, that the outcome wouldn't be good. Of course, the same could be said for Kagura and Okita as well.
"W-wait, Gin-san! This won't sol-"
"Hey danna."
Shinpachi was cut off as Gintoki stared mutely at the guest on their front doorstep, on their porch, having no qualms about doing so. He merely kept his signature deadpanned face, as if nothing had ever happened.
"Is China there?" he asked, peering over Gintoki's shoulder for a split second before Gintoki stepped inside his line of view. Sougo raised an eyebrow, curious as to why the silver-haired man garnered a daunting expression. They could hear muffled sobs in the background, piquing his interest. He couldn't see what was going on though, as Gintoki refused to budge.
Gintoki gave him a scrutinizing gaze, examining him from head to toe. He had no idea why the sandy haired individual had the audacity to show up at his door, but from what he could tell, it seemed as if Sougo was acting like nothing happened at all.
"You...you think I'm going to just let it slide? You broke that poor girl's heart!" he said, draw his wooden sword and pointing it squarely on his chest, not letting the boy past it. Sougo appeared as confused as ever, backing away from the challenge. He was only wearing his hakama, clearly not doing his officer duties today.
"Oi, what did I do?" he asked sincerely, his hand rested behind his back but not lingering at all towards his own sword. Both parties were confused, having furrowed their eyebrows. Gintoki couldn't tell if he was playing tricks on him or not at first, but the tone of his voice was gradually giving it all away.
"You're serious? You don't know what happened?" Gintoki questioned, letting the sword and his arm fall lazily to his side. Sougo shook his head, pulling out what he had behind his back.
"It was supposed to be a surprise, but I couldn't find her on the bridge where I told her to wait." he said, holding up a bouquet of pink daffodils with a quaint little bow and ribbon wrapping it all together. Gintoki's eyes widened, thinking that the two sides of the story didn't mesh together at all.
His gaze wavered between the two, wondering just how this all ended up coming into fruition.
"So you're telling me, you didn't break up with her?" he motioned his thumb towards the sobbing girl behind the chair, who had still not realized that the very same guy she'd thought had broken up with her was right at their door.
"I said, "hold on, let's break up" as in breaking up our party. I went to get these." he waved the flowers in his face, causing the puzzle pieces to fit into place. Both Gintoki and Shinpachi facepalmed, knowing that this was all one big misunderstanding.
As they all knew, Okita is a police officer, who had been doing so for so much of his life that he had gotten used to using different ways of communicating that he'd typically use while on a mission. Of course, he had to use this way of speaking at the worst time, at the one person he shouldn't have.
"You idiot, don't say that to a girl you're dating! They'll get the wrong impression!" Gintoki spat, moving out of the way to let the boy in. "Geez, police officers these days, causing all sorts of problems." he sighed, sitting himself down in the blue chair along with Shinpachi.
"Go apologize to her." Gintoki said, but Sougo still clearly didn't get it. So, he told him the truth if it weren't obvious enough.
"'Breaking up' in dating terms means you'll no longer be together intimately. Therefore, she thought you were through with her." he explained, realization finally dawning on the naive police officer. This was his first time dating after all, so he was very inexperienced.
The boy inched closer to Kagura, who still was weeping from the heartbreak. Sougo couldn't help but feel bad, but was also smirking because he didn't know she'd miss him this much. At least something good came out of it, at least for him.
"Oi, China," he started, resting his hand on the top of the chair and spinning it around to face him.
"What do you want?" she snapped, but even then he could hear the hurt in her voice. Feeling slightly guilty, he handed the flowers to the girl, who began to wonder why he was giving them to her.
"I didn't break up with you," he said, causing her to raise her eyebrows. "you idiot." he smiled, allowing her to stop crying and get up from the chair.
"You're the idiot!" she said, almost whacking him with the bouquet but restraining herself from damaging the poor flowers. Sougo handed her some tissues, allowing her to let out all of the pent up snot and wipe away her sticky tears.
"I thought you broke up with me." she admitted, causing him to flick her forehead. It didn't faze her, rather it caught her attention.
"If I wanted to break up with you, then I'd tell you a lot better than that. Come on, let's go see the cherry blossoms." he insisted, grabbing onto her hand and walking straight out of the Yorozuya house.
"He's grown a lot more soft." Shinpachi mentioned, Gintoki agreeing along with him.
"Well, that's what being young and in love does to you. Not that I'd know." he said, a faint smile appearing on his face as he thought about the two finally finding happiness.