Chapter 1: Marry Me
"Kagura," Gin looked at Kagura inside Yorozuya, "Marry me." She just looked at him for about a minute. Was he kidding? Kagura went up to him and looked him deep into the eyes like a little child.
"Marry? I thought you liked Ketsuno Ana?" she said calmly.
"Kagura, we've been going out for a year nfow. I'm almost 23, and you're 20 now. We're at marrying age. I love you." He kissed her softly on the cheek.
"Gin, I love you too… But we earn a teeny bit of money as it is."
"I'll get more customers."
"My family hasn't met you yet."
"Then let them meet me."
"Okita was in love with me, he'll be pissed." They stayed silent for a moment. Gin knew that when she first started going out with him, Okita was furious. He was in love with Kagura too, but the woman in question had fallen deeply in love with Gintoki. Okita gave up without many sour feelings, but was expecting the relationship to be a small one. Now that Gin had proposed…
"Please, Kagura," he took her hand and kissed it softly, "I'll talk to him, but please marry me." She looked surprised for a moment, and then smiled with tears in her eyes.
"I will." She sobbed, still smiling.
"Kagura…!" Gin grasped her tightly in his arms, "Thank you…!" Kagura looked at his face, and could have sworn she saw a tear roll down his cheek. The cute girl went on her tiptoes and licked his tears away.
"Let's start a family together. You lost yours prematurely, right?" she hugged him softly, "I'll show you what a family is. A mother, a father, a child or two…"
"Children…"
"Is that bad?"
"I was thinking maybe you didn't want to."
"Why?"
"You seemed to not like little kids."
"Only the little brats who got on my nerves."
"Our kids could be like that, you know." He looked at her dully.
"If they have your smarts and my wits, there'll be no problem!"
"Yeah… Right… But sometimes we can be pretty dumb…"
"True." She laughed, and he joined her. They weren't afraid of what would happen next. They just knew that they'd be together. They were happy.
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"Kaede? Hi, it's Kagura. I'm sorry I haven't contacted you in a while… Long-distance is expensive."
"Onee-chan!" the girl perked over the phone, "How are you?!" Let me explain. Kaede is Kagura's little sister by two years. She's usually a calm, beautiful girl, but has a snippy temper. She has a bit of a cute side like her sister, and has long beautiful black hair.
"I'm doing well, really well. Actually… How are you, mama and papa?"
"Papa's energetic, but Mama's sickness…" Kaede said sadly.
"It's still bad?"
"Yeah."
"And there's no cure yet… Damn it…!" Kagura clenched at her hand tightly, "What's the life expectancy?"
"Honestly…" Kaede sobbed a bit, "Three weeks or less."
"No way…!" she fell to the ground.
"I know…" the sister gritted her teeth.
"Kaede, what I need you to do is very important," she cooed the younger, "I need you to try and get mom and dad and you to come here for a week or so."
"What?! Sis, you know it's expensive! Why don't you just come home!"
"…Kaede… I'm not going home. Maybe ever."
"Why?!" Kagura took in a deep breath to prepare herself. She would be the first one to know what was happening.
"I'm marrying Gin, my boss at Yorozuya."
"…What?!" she snapped, "Is he forcing you because he's your boss?!"
"No Kaede, we've been going out for a year now. There's no way he's forcing me. I love him very much." Kagura heard her sister on the phone clenching her lips over and over, "Please, Kaede. I'll never ask you for another favor. I want mother and father to see this moment, and you too! I'll schedule the wedding for two weeks from now. Please come." Kagura smiled sadly and hung up the phone.
"Onee-chan, you dummy…" Kaede cried, "Leaving your family for a guy…?"
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"Yo!" Gin tossed a soda to an unknowing Okita who still caught it anyway, "How's it going on the planet of sadists, King of Sadists?"
"Nice name," Okita said, his face not changing as he took a sip out of the can, "What's up today?"
"Well… I wanted to invite you."
"To what?"
"…My wedding."
"…With who?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"Kagura."
"Ah."
"Ah?"
"Ah."
"No 'I'm gonna kill you!' or shooting of bazookas?"
"Nah. Not in the mood."
"I thought you thought you still had a chance with her."
"I love her still, that's true, but she loves you more, and I don't wanna make her cry. Besides, getting one of the strongest clans in the universe angry doesn't exactly sound good to me."
"So… Will you come?"
"Why not."
"Really?"
"Sure."
"Okita… Thanks. I know this'll mean the world to Kagura."
"She'd probably be fine if I didn't go and gave her sukonbu for a present."
"OK… I won't doubt that too much…"
"I guess I know her almost as well as you do." Okita smiled genuinely as he walked away. Gin laughed softly with one hand on his chin and waved goodbye with the other.
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"Gin, welcome home!" Kagura smiled and hugged him tight.
"Hey, baby." He put on a Casanova look.
"Baby?"
"You don't like it?"
"Kagura-chan is better~" Kagura snuggled against his chest.
"I guess so…"
"But I love you calling me just 'Kagura' the best." She nodded.
"Kagura."
"Gin."
"We're like newlyweds…" he coughed in disgust.
"What's so bad about that?! We almost are!!!" she punched him playfully.
"I'm kidding, sorry!" he laughed.
"Oh, Gin, by the way…"
"Hm?"
"You might wanna be careful."
"Why?"
"Um… Well… You know I have a sister, right?"
"Eh?" Gin asked, but before she could answer BOOM! The door burst into splinters and in came a foot on Gin's face.
"You pervert!!!" a tough girl yelled at him, her long black hair tied into a ponytail.
"Ah, Kaede, welcome." Kagura said calmly, as if it happened every day.
"Kagura…" Gin pulled the girl's foot out of his face, "Could you continue what you were saying?"
"Oh. Right. I have a sister who's coming here. She's part of the Yato clan like me, and her name's Kaede. By the way, she's pretty violent."
"Something like you?!" he yelled.
"Ah! Gin, you can see the resemblance?!" Kagura smiled happily. Gin slapped his palm to his forehead.
"She looks almost exactly like you except with black hair, more serious eyes, and a deeper voice."
"Only a little deeper."
"She has bigger boobs, though."
"I'm not that small!" Kagura yelled, like she was about to cry.
"I know Kagura, I know…" Gin hugged her softly and stroked her head, "You're pretty like you are."
"Gin…" she purred like a cat.
"Do I not exist, or what?!" the girl reminded them of her presence.
"Kaede, welcome!" Kagura ran over as fast as she could to her little sister and grabbed on.
"Onee-chan…"
"Where's mom and dad?!"
"They're taking the terminal down tomorrow. Dad's preparing the wheelchair for her."
"It's gotten that bad, huh…?"
"Kagura, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing…" she smiled nervously.
"Anyway…" Kaede looked over at the groom-to-be, "I'll NEVER accept you Kagura's fiancée!!!"
"Why?"
"You're a cheap perm with a cheap door."
"This perm is real, and besides, that door was pretty common…"
"Shut up! All doors shouldn't break like that!"
"You wanna try?"
"Kaede, don't be rude to Gin." Kagura scolded her sister.
"But big sis! Can't you see he's just using you?! Just 'cause you work here, he thinks he can get all-" But before Kaede could finish, Gin pinned his fist against the wall, right next to her head.
"Listen, you can say all the crap you want about my perm, my door, or my money, I don't care. But you just insulted Kagura, saying she fell for me 'cause I'm paying her?! Your sister isn't a prostitute. I love her so much, I'd die for her. No, I'd go to the depths of hell for her. And besides, you should see our salary. Most of the time she doesn't get money."
"Why you…!!!"
"Kaede, he's kidding. We haven't even done that yet."
"Yet?! But when you get married, you'll be at his mercy!"
"Kaede." Kagura stopped her.
"…I'm just worried… Choosing a guy over your family with a mother who's dying…!" Kaede gritted her teeth.
"Kagura? What's going on?" Gin spoke softly, wanting to know what happened.
"My mother's a bit sick…" she told him.
"It's none of your business, outsider." Kaede looked at him with hateful eyes.
"Kaede!" Kagura pleaded to her sister, but Gin patted her on the back.
"I'm really sorry I don't understand. I only want to help Kagura and her family, because soon I won't be an outsider. I want to get to know her family."
"Then where's your family?!" she yelled, "Does Onee-chan know your family?!"
"…My parents died during the war against the amanto. My mom got sick when my father died in battle, and when I was 17, she died. I have no siblings."
"Ah-!" Kaede stepped back.
"I'll talk about it later with him. Kaede, do you want to stay in my room with me?"
"You're going to stay in your old room?" Gintoki exclaimed. By old room, Gin means her private room. She had stayed there for quite a while, when one night, when they had started dating…
"Gin-chan…? Are you awake…?" Kagura whispered nervously.
"Yeah. I am." He looked up at her. She was in her pink pajamas and her hair was down. Honestly, she might have more more sex appeal if she left her hair down all the time, Gin smirked in his head.
"Can… I sleep in your bed with you tonight…?"
"Wait… What?!" he jumped up at the thought.
"Nononono!" she blushed along with him and shook her hands, "I just… Feel lonely…" she looked down sadly, and Gin saw a teardrop fall from her eye.
"Kagura…!" Gin knew something had happened, but he didn't want to ask. He knew it was too hard for her to reveal. He quickly hugged her tight in his arms, making her feel safe and warm.
"I'm sorry…"
"About what…?" he whispered in her ear.
"I'm troubling you…"
"It's fine," he smiled, "I feel more at ease when I know you're by my side." Kagura kissed him on the lips and they sunk into bed, falling asleep in each other's arms.
Surprisingly, this kind of temptation hadn't taken Gin in. They both loved each other so much that they were fine being by each other, even if it wasn't complete "together-ness".
"Fine." The girl gave up, walked out the destroyed door, and lugged her medium-sized suitcase back inside.
"Kagura, can we talk a little?" Gin asked his fiancée. She nodded and followed him into their bedroom.
"It's about my mother right?" she sighed as she sat down on the soft futon on the floor, "It's simple. My mother came to earth as one of the last Yato clansmen, and then met my father, another Yato. They married, had me and Kaede, but mother, because she had been in the Earth's sunlight too long, got a disease. It's like skin cancer, but it kills you from the inside out."
"Kagura…"
"Remember that one time when I said I was lonely? When I started to sleep in the same bed as you? That was because I called Kaede and the disease had started to take it's toll on my mom."
"I'm so sorry Kagura…" he hugged her tight to his chest.
"It's fine… But that's why Kaede's acting a bit snippy right now."
"I got it. I won't intrude."
"Sorry." She kissed him softly on the lips, and he then nuzzled her on the ear, "Why don't we go out for lunch together tomorrow?"
"Kagura, we can't, remember? We have a job for someone."
"Oh yeah. What's the job?"
"The Shinsengumi hired us to destroy the infestations in their headquarters. There are monster mud wasps in places all around there, and we need to get rid of them before they hatch."
"Ah, that's rare. The Shinsengumi hiring us for a job. Especially," Kagura pulled her knees to her chest, "Since the second battle against the Amanto is starting to boil."
"True. Although they're human, they side with the Shogunate, and that means with the Amanto."
"It's too bad. Otae Onee-sama is very sad. She's Toushirou Hijikata's girlfriend."
"Yeah."
"Let's go to bed. I'm getting depressed." Kagura walked over to the door to go into her old room, "Good night, Gin-chan."
"You sure you don't wanna stay in here?" he asked like a puppy.
"You gonna be lonely?" she giggled and kissed him once more, "It's just for a few nights. Please?"
"I know." He kissed her back, "I'll be lonely, but I'll deal." He said part-sarcasticly.
"Good night."
"Good night."