White Crane's Shadow

Hijikata is not sure when it began.

No, to be precise, he knows exactly when it began. It's more like he's unsure why in the world was he unable to resist it. Despite knowing the exact date, time and place, despite being fully aware when this has started, he has fallen into it like into the biggest pile of shit he could ever imagine. He has fallen hard and there was no turning back.

The worst part is that he knows he's still falling.

That day, that cursed, stupid day, it started with a new law that came from above, a law about unauthorised prostitution. It said that all freelance prostitutes had to stop working, or, if they wanted to keep selling themselves, they needed to have a paper that said which brothel they belonged to. If they didn't have the permit, they were to be arrested for a night or two, three maximum, and charged with a fee of 5000 yen.

It was a stupid thing, Hijikata thought back then. He still thinks so. However, it was still his job, no matter how shitty it might have gotten at the moment, and once the law has been publicly announced, he went through the whole stinking town and made sure it has been acknowledged.

He was walking through some godforsaken part of Kabuki-chou, and was in fact nearly done. The number of prostitutes arrested was not as big as he was initially worried, so, he was in a good mood overall. Well, at least until he saw a certain white-haired natural perm bastard. Gintoki was leaning on the wall, and since the sun had set a few moments before Hijikata entered that particular street, the permhead was standing in a shadow.

"Helloooo, Oogushi-kun," he said and it sounded like one word, as he waved at Hijikata, who, being called that stupid nickname, got angry immediately. "Shuddup," the cop growled. "What're you doing here, bastard, ah?"

"Just standing, can't I stand wherever the hell my Sugar Highness pleases?"

"What, you high on sugar?" Hijikata hissed; how did this idiot manage to tick him off just by standing near, he was not sure.

Gintoki laughed wholeheartedly and shifted a little; he was in his usual attire, just his bokken was missing… and something was off. Very off. "Seriously, what're ya doin' here?" Hijikata asked again.

The silvernette looked at him. "Work, duh. Waiting for my client."

They both fell into silence, as a thought appeared in Hijikata's mind and what he thought was just a chip of ice on the water surface turned out to be an iceberg about to sink his Titanic of mind. "Are you… selling? You are normally, casually doing the… that… job. You are, aren'tcha."

Gintoki giggled, he fucking giggled like a pubescent boy and answered: "And if I am, then what of it?"

Hijikata knew that this idiot does not belong to any brothel. He had to read up a list of brothels and their workers, and he would surely notice if there were listed Gintoki's – or Paako's –name. "If ya are, I gotta arrest ya," he said.

"Since when is prostitution against the law?" Gin asked calmly. Too calmly.

"Pro–" Hijikata choked on his spit. "S-Since the beginning of this week, they said it on TV and it was in every fucking newspaper, you twat."

"I can't get arrested. The clientele's been bad, the Yorozuya is not doing well and I need to get money for the kids," Gintoki said, picking his nose. Rolling whatever he found in there on his finger and flicking it away, he looked at Hijikata.

"How does this even work? I mean, you are a guy," Hijikata blurted out.

"Last time checked, hell yeah I am," Gintoki grinned. "Sometimes it's men, sometimes it's women, and I don't care as long as I get paid."

"Men? So you, like…"

"I what?"

Hijikata's face turned beet red, he was not sure why the hell he hadn't arrested that stupid perm yet. "B-Bpttom?" he stuttered and because he said it too quickly, he slurred that word and it came out incoherent.

"Hah? I can't understand the language of yer tribe, Oogushi-kun."

"Am not fucking Oogushi," Hijikata growled.

"Well, you can't exactly be fucking yourself, right? You can't stretch your own di-" Gintoki started, suppressing laughter, but Hijikata jumped to him and grabbed him by his throat, yelling: "SHUT UP, SHUT THE FUCK UP, IDIOT!" Gintoki's bored red eyes were staring at him as silence fell on the two. Then, Gintoki opened his mouth: "What didja ask 'bout?"

"Ah… D-Do you…" Hijikata stepped back nervously, letting go of the permhead. "You know…"

"Ah, Oogushi-kun wants to know how loose Gin-san's glorious ass is," Gintoki chuckled.

"You stupid-" Toshi started, but this time, it was Gintoki to interrupt him: "It depends on what the client wants."

"… There are actually guys who want to be held?" Hijikata asked while his brain was yelling at him, shut up, shut up, you don't want to know; this is heading the wrong direction, why did you even ask that, are you seriously leaving yet? Idiot! Get the hell out of there!

… Which he stubbornly ignored.

Gintoki nodded. "In the hands of a top who knows his way, they can experience pure bliss," he said and it was clearer than the brightest of days that he meant none other than himself. "Why do you ask, you wanna try?"

"What? No!" Hijikata shook his head fiercely (and his brain sighed, told you, but you just had to be an idiot and not listen to me, huh. Hope you're happy now.)

"Aw, come on, don't be such a bore," Gintoki said and he stepped closer to the vice-commander. Being creeped the hell out of his own skin, the cop stepped backwards. Gintoki followed him and it didn't take long until Hijikata found his back hitting a brick wall behind him. The perm-head stepped in and pinned the raven to the wall, and Hijikata would have punched him in the gut right away if Gintoki hadn't immediately grabbed the front of his pants in a very particular way. Suddenly, there were soft lips on his mouth, too, and a thought that it's not fair flew through his head before a total blackout. He couldn't breathe, something was slipping right through his fingers and he couldn't get a hold of it—

There were firm fingers kneading his quickly hardening length, and despite he did think it was gross in a way, it wasn't really… as gross as he thought it definitely should have been. The worst part, though, was that he was freaking unable to push the silvernette away.

The warm contact of their lips has ceased and Gintoki whispered: "How about that? You need to pay me if you want more, though," he ran his tongue over Hijikata's lower jaw and before he stepped back, he gave the dick in his hand one last squeeze, a bit harder this time, and watched the cop shudder.

"Good evening – oh, you have a client for tonight already?" a female voice came from the main street and it didn't take Hijikata even two heartbeats to grab the distracted Gintoki's arm and slam that guy into the ground, good and hard, because that was what he fucking deserved for messing with Hijikata.

"No, miss, he's being arrested," he said and thanked god the movement he did had no painful effect on his hard-on. "For unauthorised prostitution," and under his breath, only for Gintoki to hear, he added "And for sexual harassment of a police officer."

"Ah… Do you think you could let him off? At least for tonight?" A good sum of yen waved in front of Hijikata's face. He narrowed his eyes and looked up at the woman; she was not really young, could have been between thirty and forty, but seemed to be the type who liked to feel younger. "Miss… Are you trying to bribe a police officer? Are you trying to bribe me, their vice-commander?" he growled and got up, dragging the suddenly unresisting Gintoki along. Cuffs clicked and bound Gintoki's wrists behind his back, and the bastard didn't say a word of protest. "There's not a single person in Kabuki who would be able to bribe me," he said, looking directly at the woman – assumingly Gintoki's customer. She hadn't hesitated a split second as she chimed: "And would you accept the money for spending a night with me?"

Hijikata's face went snow-pale, then red, as blood rushed into his head. "H-Have you no shame?" he barked and turned away, his grip on Gintoki's collar so strong his knuckles turned white. Angrily, he dragged the perm-headed idiot along as if that was all that mattered at the moment, hauled him away from that woman. He… he cowardly ran away. He knew he did, but he was absolutely unprepared for a lady of that kind. If anything, he would have expected some kind of old, sweaty, fat geezer; that would seem fit for Gintoki, yeah, he wanted to say that… he wanted to be prickly, mean even. Because… Hijikata noticed some things the time they crossed swords. Well, to be more precise, the time when Hijikata's sword was cut in half by that perm-head on that roof. Gintoki was an oddball, an idiot, yeah, a reckless bastard and kinda a douche, but above all that, Hijikata was struck by how beautiful Gintoki seemed. It was devastating for him to catch himself thinking that, of course, and it took him a long time to accept his own thoughts. But in the end, he… dealt with it somehow. That's why, when he found out Gin was selling, it pissed him off all the way to hell.

Looking back, he made sure that woman was not following them, then took a step to the side and shoved Gintoki into a wall in some dark alley. There was a strong smell of garbage, but he was not going to stay in there long anyway. "What the hell was," he breathed in and out, attempting to calm down, "that?" he waved his arm in the air more or less the way they came from.

"Ah?" Gintoki finally said something. "She was one of my regulars… more or less. Thanks though, you really saved me there, Oogushi-kun."

"Whatd'ya mean, saved? You're under arrest, bastard!"

"Ah… that lady, she wanted a baby. I didn't want that to happen, I was afraid she might hold me responsible afterwards… So, thanks. Now, could you let me go?"

"Say what?" Hijikata couldn't believe his own ears.

"I need to get a customer, otherwise the kids won't have anything to eat tomorrow," the silvernette explained briefly.

"I bet that's 'cause you spent all your money on pachinko," Hijikata frowned, because that was all he was able to think of, he had no other things to say in stock. If he said some of the stuff that was pacing in his mind back and forth, he would have surely regretted it afterwards.

"Nah. I had to pay back some people. I have even paid the rent I owed Otose, yanno," he yawned and clinked the cuffs. "Now I just have to earn us some food money. Come on, get these off me."

That was something Toshi found rather hard to believe. "You are clean of all of your debts?"

Gintoki squinted. "Well, no, but I have to feed the kids and myself if I want to pay the people I still owe."

"True." There was a pause, as Hijikata was unsure of what to say next.

"Say, Hijikata," Gintoki said and actually got the vice-commander's full attention because he didn't use that stupid nickname for once, "Don't you want to try it? I'm pretty good and I really need the money."

"A-Actually—"

"Come on. I'm not going to tell anyone. And you look like you could use some release. When was the last time you've gotten any?" Gintoki's voice was quiet, suave, persuasive, alluring somehow.

"H—" Toshi almost blurted it out, how much. As much as he wanted to convince himself he was not interested, he knew he was failing miserably.

"I'll give you half the price for the first time, and then you can decide… if you become a regular or not." He said it as if he knew the vice-commander would want to come to him again if he agreed to it; a grin flashed across Gintoki's face and Hijikata – he wanted to punch that perm-headed idiot so much at the moment…!

"Half… the price? How much's that?" he asked instead, both his stomach and throat clenching simultaneously.

"That would be 6000 yen," Gintoki said, his face expressionless.

"M-Make it 4500 and we've got a deal," Hijikata said. Not like he was that tight-fisted, it was just…

"Ah? Stingy Oogushi!" Gintoki reacted immediately.

"Shuddup, bastard," Hijikata punched him lightly in the gut. "I-I don't have more on me now."

Gintoki's lips formed a silent oh. "Okay then," he said. "Get these things off me and we can go."

A heavy stone settled in Hijikata's gut as he reached for his keys.