"It's not so bad," Gintoki said, trying to reassure his partner. "At least we get to meet interesting people."
They were sitting on a park bench across the street from the court house, enjoying their lunch while watching a crowd of people march back and forth before the steps of the building, shouting and waving their signs at annoyed government employees. It was an Animal Rights group today, yammering on about dead polar bears and global warming. So far no fights had broken out, but this particular group had been known to get a little rowdy, so they were just sort of keeping an eye out.
Hasegawa sighed, "Easy for you to say. None of them will even look twice at me." He frowned, his face otherwise expressionless behind his dark shades. "Women don't go for old men with receding hair lines and fading dreams."
Gintoki bit into his sandwich. "At least you don't have naturally permed hair. Women hate guys with naturally permed hair." He licked his fingers carefully. Kagura always used too much jelly, so it soaked through the bread and stained his fingers purple.
His eyes strayed once again to the raven-haired picketer, face twisted into an angry glare, arms pumping the sign he held aloft as he marched. It was a hot day, and Gintoki kept waiting for him to stop and do something about that long hair of his, but he hadn't yet. He seemed like the type who would gladly suffer in silence, simply for the sake of suffering in silence.
"Why don't you ask him out?"
"Eh?" Gintoki took another bite of his sandwich.
Hasegawa cleared his throat. "You've been looking at that guy since this morning. I mean… you're into dudes, right?"
Gintoki chewed and swallowed, picked up his little canister of strawberry milk. "What makes you think that?"
Hasegawa started to say something, but then seemed to change his mind.
"What?" Gintoki frowned. The milk was hot.
Hasegawa scratched his head. "Well, I was going to say because I'd never seen you with a girl, but then I thought that might seem rude." He frowned. "It is, isn't it. But then you've never seen me with a girl either. Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, everybody knows about the Vice-Captain and… Gin? Are you listening to me?" He waved his hand in front of his partner's face, but Gintoki only blinked.
The raven-haired picketer was staring back at him.