AN- Sorry to interrupt ;)

These are a series of one shots based on prompts I've had. Some will be GINHIJI (okay a lot will be GinHiji) and I'll summarise the ratings etc at the start of each one. Most importantly:

I TAKE PROMPTS. Give me your wildest imaginations (though I am not promising I'll do them all) :) Anyway, you may continue ...

Primero

Rated K+, GinHiji

Into Your Silver Core

"Yeah but why do I got to come with ya?" Hijikata complained, whacking Gintoki and sending his permy head jolting forward with an oft! In response, Gintoki glared grumpily.

"Because I'll only be two minutes! Can you hang on that long, your royal highness?!"

"You're not just after my wallet, are ya?!"

"Not unless you're offering." Gintoki sent a few stones skittering with a huff and a flick of his boot.

"Well I won't be; I didn't bring it." Hijikata blew smoke into Gintoki's face until he whined and scratched at the air, muttering curses. They finally rounded the corner to Gengai's and Gintoki adjusted his grip on the rice cooker in his hand. The old man saw them coming and gave an immediate groan, followed by the sight of his back as he tried to sneak inside his garage.

"Oi! Old man! Don't ignore me!"

Hijikata sighed heavily as Gintoki scampered away, growling insults and throwing a fit at the old man. He presented the item in his hands and Gengai eyed it like it was offending him. Whilst Gintoki stomped his feet in a tantrum, Hijikata once again wondered why he was casually dating this buffoon. His fingers played with a row of broken clocks, wires and batteries lining a desk near the entrance. Knowing Gintoki, 'two minutes' could end up two hours because he was that chatty. Not forgetting that he was a magnet for trouble.

They had been on their way to a bar; it was evening and the sun was dipping further from sight over the horizon, casting a sort of murky grey light from behind the cumulating clouds. It was safe to say there had been a fair bit of whining from both ends when Gintoki announced he wanted to stop off here first. It wasn't often they went out – Hijikata had better things to do and there was a large part of him that refused to admit he'd had sex with his idiot.

He could no longer put it down to a mistake though, because the perm-haired pest had done no more than grunt a few words into his neck and he'd practically dragged Gintoki home to make the mistake a second time. And the demon commander didn't repeat mistakes, especially not seven times. So this wasn't a mistake, unfortunately. He didn't know what it was, though.

"300 yen is enough for this pile of shit!" Gintoki broke Hijikata's train of thought with a yell and he found himself rolling his eyes. He'd have to fork out his wallet soon (yeah, he'd lied) and pay just to get them out of here faster.

"It's a pile of shit which is why it will take more than 300 yen to fix it!"

"You rip off old man."

Hijikata drowned out the noise again and started flicking a few switches on the dead equipment before him. There was a metal disfigurement on the table, opened up like a dead carcass with its insides spilled everywhere. He thumbed the buttons absent mindedly, until a sudden jolt ran though his fingers. Hijikata looked at his hands in surprise, feeling the buzz melt away slowly.

Shit, must have still been connected. He mused. That was close. Could'a electrocuted myself.

As it happened, something much, much worse began.

The buzzing fired up stronger and Hijikata couldn't tell if the deafening noise was inside his head or out; in seconds, his whole body was rattling with a numb sort of charge. There was an electric whine in his ear and he just caught Gintoki's cute fuddled brow looking over – ah, he said it was cute – when he vanished.

He literally felt himself vanish.

The sensation was so odd that he couldn't even panic. He glanced around himself and felt like he wasn't seeing anything, which was possibly an odder feeling than that of vanishing. Would he call this white? Or just blank? There was nothing around him – nothing at all.

He crashed into reality with a jolt, the foreign feelings evaporating into dust as the world settled back into focus. It wasn't the world he was expecting. Gone were Gintoki and Gengai - instead he was surrounded by a wide plain that had been desecrated by fires. It was charred black but the remnants of a village jutted out from the earth: wooden planks, collapsed houses and stone wells raised from the ground, shadows of what they were. Hijikata started as the smell of smoke assaulted him, strong and choking. He began to move, searching for clean air to breathe and to escape this village graveyard.

He turned, masking his mouth with his sleeve but a familiar glint of silver stopped him. Without thinking too much, he stumbled over towards it. Something familiar would be nice since he'd been ripped out of normality into some sort of other world. Just what had Gengai been fixing?!

"Gintoki?" He whispered, afraid of shattering this fragile existence. It was Gintoki, but Hijikata was quick to realise something was wrong. His boyfriend wasn't making an unnecessary racket, like expected. He was hovering before the remnants of an archway, maybe the entrance to a temple. He wasn't wearing his usual garish yukata adorned with a black under-shirt. From the back presented to him, Hijikata could make out the glint of armoured shin pads and a long, white yukata stained a murky red colour at the edges. It was the kind of stain that had stubbornly persisted after many washes and water couldn't get it out. Something told him not to call out. As Hijikata stealthily advanced without alerting Gintoki to his presence, the stranger tapped the wood with his fingers and mournfully watched it crumble.

"Shoyo." He said, the words barely audible but Hijikata knew. He'd heard the whispers of nightmares on a cold night under the moon. He'd felt the night tremors shake Gintoki and the only word he could keep uttering during these uncommon fits was Shoyo, Shoyo, Shoyo.

One more pace brought him five metres behind, but that was as far as he was apparently going to get as Gintoki swivelled in shock and a sword was glinting through the air before Hijikata could grasp his own katana in defence. The blade stopped a fingernail away from his throat, cold eyes pinning him to the spot.

"Who're you?" Gintoki grunted and despite the blade licking at his throat, Hijikata couldn't move. This was not his Gintoki. His eyes were dull, dead and lifeless, save for the spark of hostility forced to glint in his direction. Yeah, Gintoki's eyes were always dull but not like this. This was a look of utter and complete despair. The darkness under his eyes spelled weeks worth of sleepless nights, his skin seemed to hang off his cheek bones and everything was grey. His pallor, his dirtied clothes - they were all a dull, dull grey.

"Gin...toki?" The words left his mouth before he could bite them back. Confusion flashed across Gintoki's face and the sword edged away slightly but didn't remove itself.

"You … know me?"

"Maybe not ..." Hijikata admitted and kept his eyes on the stranger before him. His chest felt tighten; he'd never seen Gintoki look so defeated. He had also never been at the other end of his malice. No matter how brutal their argument had become, Gintoki had never given him this expression. The katana at his neck rattled again in impatience, calling for attention.

"Answer me or you'll lose your head."

"Who do you think you're talking to, asshole!" Hijikata immediately growled. Something about being with Gintoki sparked an innate irritation reaction programmed into him. The sword faltered. That cute befuddlement contorted Gintoki's face and the chest pain faded slightly. It wasn't Gintoki, but it still was at the same time. From the look of it, this was a younger Gintoki. How he'd got here, he had no idea. Maybe he'd passed out from being electrocuted and was having a very lucid dream.

Regardless of whether he knew this Gintoki or not, or even if this version would carry out his threats, Hijikata was not letting the guy threaten him – more so if he was just a brat. Gintoki's eyes flicked to Hijikata's sheathed katana and seemingly he came to a decision. The sword retracted and Gintoki stepped away.

"You'd better get out of here. Amanto troops are advancing this way."

"Don't tell me what to do."
"Hah?!" His mouth hung open; obviously he hadn't expected a stubborn stranger.

"What are you doing here?"

"Why are you...?" The samurai shook his head in disbelief but Hijikata raised an expecting eyebrow. "Stupid old man."

"I'm not old!"

"Stupid old man!"

"Don't say it twice! And don't dodge the question." Hijikata stepped forward as the younger Gintoki moved away from him. He was completely on his back foot now, the growling bad guy façade little more than a child's bravado.

"Why would I tell you?" He pouted, bottom lip protruding outwards ever so slightly. God, he hadn't changed.

"Because I asked, you damn brat-"
"I'm not a brat."

"Then I'm not an old man." Hijikata waited. Red eyes frowned, then looked away and that previous sadness crept back once more. He hated that look. It was misplaced on someone who hid what he felt so well.

"This was where I used to live, before it was burned to the ground."

"Mmm." Hijikata looked around at the barren land. It had probably been turned to cinders a few years ago, not recently. Something had brought Gintoki back here. "It's … nice." Gintoki shot him a scathing glare, but Hijikata easily deflected it.

"Someone I know … was killed two days ago. I just came back to return something of his."

Shoyo.

Hijikata pondered on what to say. He thought about saying nothing at all but the dead, red eyes beside him were burning holes of vengeful hatred into the ground and he couldn't leave him be. There was so much raw pain in young Gintoki. It must have been breaking him from the inside out and from his complexion, he wasn't too many steps away from destroying himself.

"A not-so wise man once told me," he began, leaving a suitable pause to catch Gintoki's attention. "That it's always darkest just before dawn. But don't close your eyes, because those who turn their eyes away from the darkness won't be able to see the light shining on them tomorrow." Turning his head, he found that Gintoki was gazing at him with slight dismay. A red burn hit his face. "Or something ..." He mumbled. Then, the young Gintoki did something unusual.

He laughed.

It started off as a small chuckle, whilst a smile began to lighten his face. It lasted less than ten seconds, but that was enough to alleviate his expression a little when it ended. For Hijikata, it ended too soon.

"I'll remember that." Gintoki sighed and looked up at the darkening sky as rain clouds began to circle. At that moment, the buzzing from earlier began to spark up in Hijikata's veins. His whole existence seemed to flicker like the image of an old television and Hijikata knew he was going back or waking up or whatever the hell it was. Young Gintoki wasn't watching him, admiring the clouded sky with substantially more relaxed composure than when they first met. Hijikata was going to call out to him, but everything wiped out. A second later, he jolted back to Gengai's garage.

"Hijikata?!" Gintoki, his Gintoki, was above him with a worried expression. Seconds of confusion dragged by until Hijikata realised he was back and he was on the floor. The buzzing had gone. "Hijikata, oi, can you hear me?!" His eyes sharpened into focus.

"Shu'rup." He complained, sitting upright with several grunts. Gintoki offered a hand on his back but it wasn't necessary.

"You got yourself electrocuted, you damn moron! Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with things when you don't know what they are?"

"She also told me to marry a good wife from a wealthy family. You're neither a woman, nor rich. And you ain't good." The furrowed brow on Gintoki's expression eased away and Hijikata swore he smiled a little, possibly in relief. He erased this instantly and burst into the usual bout of insults but all Hijikata could think of was he was back.

"We're not married, fool. And I make the perfect wife. My baking is superb."

This was his Gintoki.

"C'mere." Hijikata muttered, pulling Gintoki mid-rant into a strong embrace. The words melted out of Gintoki into an unintelligible slur. Hijikata held him to his chest and nuzzled his face into his neck to breathe him in. One hand softly patted the head of curls. He'd been through a lot, his Gintoki. He'd never said anything but the demons were there.

"Old man," Gintoki whispered, frozen. "Can you call an ambulance?"

"'m fine."

"Oh. Okay." His tone said that he didn't believe him and the rustle of hands suggested he was silently gesturing to Gengai. Hijikata held on for a moment longer, then began to pull away. Gintoki let him and that oh so adorable furrow of his brow was back. "Did you hit your head? Not at birth, like now?"

"Maybe." He shrugged.

"Since you're in a good mood … wanna go at it? YAHK!-"

The bruise Gintoki had lasted a week; the unimpressed glares from Hijikata lasted a week and a half; the pout remained on Gintoki's face for two weeks.