"Oi, brat, what are you doing?"

"I gotta make a family tree," Kagura says. She has a pot of soil in front of her and is pushing dirt over her drawing of a family. "By Monday. But I dunno if my tree will grow that fast."

"You sure that's how you make a family tree? What sort of fruits will it grow, huh?"

"Dunno. Mamis and Papis and stupid big brothers, maybe."

"Ah, that makes sense."

"How the hell does that make sense?!" Otose yells, throwing a rag at Gintoki's face. The damp cloth impacts with a loud thwap.

"Owww! The hell was that for?!"

"What sort of useless things are you teaching her?!"

"How am I supposed to know what a family tree is?!"

"Even if you don't know that, you should know something as basic as: 'families don't grow on trees'!"

"Shuddup! Do you wanna tell the brat about the birds and the bees? Hah?"

"Gin-chan?" Kagura lifts her head. "What about the birds and the bees?"

"Ah? Birds and bees are born in things that look like seeds," Gintoki says, avoiding the girl's eyes. He's sweating, Otose notes. Serves him right for being such an idiot.

"Oh," Kagura says. "Do they grow on trees?"

"Of course. Where do you see bird nests and beehives?"

"Oh," Kagura says. She gives the damp soil in the flowerpot a final pat-down. "Okay. I'm done."

"Aa, good job, just remember to water it, or else it won't grow-"

"That's not how you make a family tree!" Otose yells.

-x-

"Do you have a picture of your father?"

"Nope."

"You'll have to draw him, then," Otose says, and wonders how she ended up helping Kagura with her family tree. Gintoki is sitting to the side, watching with mild interest.

"Oi, brat," he says.

"Yeah?"

"Why's your dad got fangs?"

"Papi's always fighting," Kagura says. "So he gets fangs."

"Oh, okay."

Ah. Otose remembers now. Gintoki is utterly useless in school work. His math is awful, he can't speak formal, and his science probably consists mostly of: these are the vital organs. Hit here and they die fast, hit here and they die slow, hit these spots to incapacitate them and these spots to maximise pain.

Clearly, Otose needs to take matters into her own hands.

"Do you have pictures of your mother?" Otose asks Kagura.

Kagura shakes her head. "But Papi said I look like her."

"Great," Gintoki says. He lifts the polaroid camera Otose dug out of the storeroom. "Come here, brat, we'll just take a picture of you and edit it."

Kagura undoes her hair and lets it fall loose around her shoulders, smiling a strange, serene smile that Otose has never really seen on the child before. It's a moment before she realises that Kagura must be imitating her mother's smile.

The camera makes a valiant effort to blind the girl with its flash.

"Okay, good, now one more for you. Does your brother look like you, by any chance?" Gintoki asks, getting up to put Kagura's hair back into the two buns. Otose passes him a hairbrush that she's taken to keeping beneath the bar counter so that Gintoki doesn't run up the stairs every other morning because he's forgotten theirs.

He accepts it with a 'thanks', and begins gently untangling Kagura's hair.

"Yep!" Kagura says. "But he braids his hair."

"I can do that. Geez, why's your homework so troublesome, huh? Why do teachers need to know every little thing about your life? What if ya don't have a family? Are you supposed to just stick your picture there?"

"Stop complaining and take the damn picture already," Otose tells him, handing him the camera. He snaps another shot; Otose notes that, in this photo, Kagura beams the big wide smile she learnt from him.

She's fairly certain that it means something.

Gintoki goes back to Kagura's hair, undoing the buns and splitting it into three bunches for braids with an efficiency that suggests a sister in his family.

"Where did you learn to braid?" Otose asks.

"Had a friend with stupid long hair," Gintoki replies. "I used to braid flowers into his hair while he was asleep." He grins, sharp with a trace of nostalgia. "He never cut it. Wanted to be a samurai like our teacher, and he figured that all samurai like our teacher had long hair." The braid comes out neat and shiny, and Gintoki takes another picture.

"Next, grandparents."

Kagura looks up at him, confused. "What's that?"

"Your parents' parents."

"Papi and Mami had Papis and Mamis?"

"Aa, everyone has a Papi or a Mami."

"Even Gin-chan?"

"Sure."

"Even the old hag?"

"Yeah."

"Even the old hag's old hag?"

"Absolutely, though they'd be dead by now-"

Otose whacks Gintoki on the head for being an insensitive idiot. "Who are you calling an old hag?!"

"Hah? Do you have Alzheimer's, old lady? Who's the one with all the wrinkles, huh?"

"Who's the one with silver hair?"

"Leave my hair out of this! Anyway, you probably dye yours-"

"I do not!"

Otose is nearly blinded by a sudden flash of light. She looks up and is caught by another flash, right in the eyes.

"Oi, Kagura!" Gintoki yells. "The hell are you going?"

Kagura lowers the camera and grins, big and wide. "I need your pictures for the family tree," she says.

"Hah? The hell do you need my picture for-"

"You're family," Kagura says, examining the developing picture. "Gin-chan and granny and Tama and cat-lady… Ah! Tama! Smile!"

Gintoki stares at Kagura, eyes wide, face wiped clean in a moment of perfect shock.

He's such an idiot, Otose thinks. Thinking that he could take in a child and not be considered family.

He's such a stupid, stupid fool.

-x-

Kagura's fifth birthday is noise and mess and screaming from Gintoki's apartment, and a silver-permed idiot running past the bar at irregular intervals screaming over his shoulder - "Brat! Don't you dare eat the other ingredients before I get back!"

At around seven, Gintoki starts yelling down to the bar: "Oi! Old hag! Tama! Catherine! Get the hell up here before the brat eats this cake as wellllaaaagggghhhhhhhh!"

Otose glances out the bar door. "So should we go up or not?"

"Who knows?" Catherine says, wiping off another counter. Gintoki told them to shut the bar by six so they could go up for cake, and Otose had decided to indulge - "for the brat," she'd said, "and because there'll be free food."

It's already an hour late, though - as far as Otose can tell, Kagura has spent the day methodically eating through all of Gintoki's ingredients before he could finish the cake. Shutting her in the cupboard, his room, and in the bar have all failed miserably in light of Kagura's tremendous strength.

"The hell are you doing down there?!" Gintoki shouts. "Get up here now!"

Otose sighs and puts down her cigarette. "Guess that's our cue."

The cake Gintoki made isn't bad, actually. It's covered in smooth pink frosting, layered relatively nicely, and has sukonbu stuck onto the top layer to form the number 5.

He's also got it on a silver tray, and is dancing around trying to keep it out of Kagura's reach. "Oi, brat! The old hag's finally here. Wait for another three minutes, dammit, you've already eaten three cakes worth of ingredients anyway!"

After Kagura's settled enough for them to sing happy birthday and Gintoki has wrestled about half the cake out of her control - "Brat! You've had enough cake today!" - Gintoki collapses onto the sofa with a groan and a slice of cake.

"Why are you sitting here, Gintoki? Only old people sit down and watch parties," Otose says, from where she's standing beside the couch.

"Shut up, I was standing all day. It's damn hard to bake a cake with that black hole around. And anyway, doesn't that mean that you should be sitting down, old hag?"

"Respect your elders, punk."

"Oi, oi, I'm showing concern here. Arthritis must be setting in, no normal person would take so long getting up here for the party."

"I was just wondering if you were going to run screaming from the house again." Like he did at least four times today.

"Brat kept eating the ingredients," Gintoki says, not rising to the bait. "Had to bring the icing to the supermarket with me so she wouldn't finish it off."

"You left her in the house alone?!"

"I asked Tama to watch her! Geez, old lady, what sort of person do you think I am?"

Otose just smiles and watches Kagura, still shovelling cake into her mouth, kick Catherine in the head. "So. The brat's birthday, huh?"

"Aa? Oi, oi, is Alzheimer's really setting in, old lady? I told you about this last week, didn't I?"

"Shut up, punk," Otose says, smacking his head. "You went through a lot of trouble setting up a birthday party for her."

"Hah? It's no big deal," Gintoki says, shrugging and resting his feet on the table. "Brat's never had a party before, and I didn't have a job today, anyway."

"Hm," Otose hums. "So? When's your birthday?"

"Adults don't have birthdays," Gintoki says idly. Tama is chugging down gasoline like it's beer; she'd better not throw up later.

"You're not an adult yet, brat," Otose says. "And everyone's got a birthday."

Gintoki shrugs. "It's over, anyway. You don't need to do anything for me, old hag, just cut the month's rent."

"Who said I was giving you anything? I just want to know when it'll be legal for you to drink."

"Hah? I drink anyway."

"Illegally."

"You don't complain, though."

"Shut up. Just tell me, stupid brat."

Gintoki sighs. "Tenth October," he says, sounding resigned.

Otose hums and tries the cake. It's not bad.

"I'll give you a month off your rent at Christmas," she tells him.

"They celebrate Christmas here?"

"No, but I do."

"Huh." Gintoki watches Catherine pour half a glass of sake onto Kagura's head; "Oi, don't waste the sake, dammit!"

"Thanks, old lady" he says eventually, and Otose just smiles.

"No problem," she says, and settles down beside Gintoki to watch the party.

-x-

"Gintoki."

"Yeah?"

"Relax."

"Aa? What are you talking about? I'm completely relaxed. Are you blind, old hag?"

Otose sighs. He's been wound tight these past few days, hand always reaching for where his sword should be, shoulders hiked up a little higher, a little more defensive. He turns faster and watches more, hands curling into loose fists by his sides.

Swordsmen rely on their blades and strength, Otose supposes, and being unarmed in a room full of potential enemies must be wearing him thin. Gintoki hides it alarmingly well; Otose only notices because she knows him, because she's seen the same things in Jirochou, because she's seen thousands of soldiers fresh from war in her bar before, all defensive, all watching, all wary.

Gintoki hides it alarmingly well, but Otose has seen this before.

"Here," she says, and pushes a box across the table. "It's poor quality, but it'll work for now."

Gintoki blinks at her, reaching out to take it. "Hah? Why're you giving me this, I told you my birthday was over-" He looks into the box and stops short, and Otose watches the barely-present tension in his shoulders drain away.

Then he grins, a smile spreading across his face slow and sharp as a drawn blade. It's not the smile he has for Kagura - this one is sharper, a little fiercer, a little more relieved, and he never smiles at Kagura with anything this sharp, as if he's afraid that it'll cut her.

"Thanks, old lady," he says, and Otose can tell that he means it. He reaches in and lifts out the bokuto, swings it across the air in a few practice strikes, testing its weight. "This is good."

Gintoki runs a finger across the smooth, rounded edges of the wooden sword, tracing his fingertip across polished wood.

Otose smiles. "You're welcome," she says. She blows out a breath of cigarette smoke. "Go get another one soon. Knowing you, this one won't last very long."

"Aa," Gintoki says, examining wood. "I ordered one in the mail; should have pretty strong wood, since the planet exports wood. Geez, if nothing had happened I'd have gotten one from Lake Toya."

"On Earth?" Otose asks, mildly surprised.

"Yeah. Bokutos from that place are made of diamond or something. Our dojo had some - damned things never broke."

Every once in awhile he does that. He'll say "our dojo" or "our teacher", or "all of us", but never specifies who they are. Otose isn't sure if he even notices when it slips out; whenever it happens, his eyes are dull and dead and she can't read what goes on beneath them, but he looks like he's very far away.

It's like he's used to being in a specific group of people, has gotten so used to sharing things with them - his memories, his teacher, his past - that he doesn't question it anymore, just refers to himself as a part of their group. Sometimes Otose wonders who they are.

Sometimes Otose wonders if they're all dead, and she never asks.

Instead she says, "Hard to believe that things on Earth were that good."

"You'd better believe it, it had the best damn chocolate parfaits in the galaxy. Damned Amanto, blowing up universal treasures like that," he huffs, sliding his new bokuto into his obi. Otose notices that he doesn't have to retie it to accommodate the bokuto, which means that he's tied it to accommodate a blade ever since his sword was taken away, which is-

-to be expected, Otose supposes. A soldier won't change his habits so quickly. Still, it makes something in her chest twist - he won't even be eighteen for another year.

She hums and glances up at the clock. "Bar's closing," she says, "help me close up."

Gintoki heaves himself off the bar seat, still grinning slow and lazy, shoulders relaxed. He has one hand resting on his new bokuto's polished hilt.

He's completely relaxed now that he's got something like a sword. It makes Otose ache for him, a dull, hollow ache - too young to be a soldier, too young to be so old - but she takes a drag from her cigarette and pretends she hasn't noticed.

-x-

A/N:

This is the only story I'm working on at the moment, I told AoiKishi - you'll have to wait a week or two, I said.

I already have the next three chapters planned out, I thought. How hard could this possibly be?

And then the plot bunnies attacked and I updated every story but this. Uggghhh guys I'm so sorry but you have to understand that this is probably the typical update time for me. I hope you'll stick with me even if I take forever to update T.T

This chapter is: 1. pretty short and 2. pretty uneventful. Sorry it's kinda slow, I needed to set things up for the coming chapters. Here's hoping you'll bear with it till more things come in!

Now, two big things to settle:

1. Shinpachi was supposed to appear in this chapter. I promised people he would. But he did not fit into the chapter. I am so sorry to everyone I told he would because he clearly did not. He is going to appear eventually, I have planned his appearance, but his appearance will probably occur only in a chapter or two. My bad. XP

2. guest! Guest! Holy crap I never saw it before but on every one of my fics there is at least one review by a guest going by 'Guest' or 'A Guest'! Are you the same person? I only noticed this after the review on Cyclical Motion - it seems like at least some of these reviews are by the same person! If you are the same person, thank you so much dude you've reviewed on like all of my Gintama fics and made my day who knows how many times.

If you aren't, if you're a bunch of different people and I just happen to have one person reviewing as Guest in every Gintama story I post, THANK YOU ANYWAY! YOUR REVIEWS MADE MY DAY!

To everyone who reviewed: I can't respond via PM to guests (I am so eternally grateful to you anyway) but I try to PM all the account users who review. If I haven't responded, I either forgot (I'm so sorry if I did guys) or I am planning to (in which case I am sorry for the awful response time), and either way your reviews MADE MY DAY and motivated me to write more; don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Don't ever believe otherwise.

Wow this note got real long. Thanks for reading, guys, and God bless! Have amazing days or nights! :)