TITLE: Sakura Dance: In All Lifetime, I Will Find You

PAIRING: Gintoki Sakata X Tae Shimura

GENRE: Romance/ Comedy

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gintama. Sorachi ''Gorilla-sensei'' Hideaki owns this awesome story. (ง ͠ ͠° ل͜ °)ง

NOTE: Apologies in advance. Grammatical errors and OOCness ahead.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate them! I'm happy that there are people who can see the beauty of GinTae. T_T
Let's keep supporting this couple, even if nothing's gonna be canon at the end of the series.

Here's chapter 2, hope you enjoy! T_T

Ginpachi was used to seeing flying blackboard eraser, or desk, or sometimes knives first thing in the morning once he entered 3-Z classroom. But today, the atmosphere in the room was unusually tamer. Once his students heard the sound of the sliding door open and saw him stepped inside, they stood up from their desks and greeted him. He put down his class record on the teacher's table in front of the class, and began the roll call immediately.

"Kagura"

"Hai~"

"Shimura Shinpachi."

"Hai!"

"Kondo."

"Hai."

The tone of the President of the Student Council, Kondo Isao, was a lot less cheerful than before.

"Okita"

"Haa~iii…"

"Hijikata."

"Ah."

"Shimura Tae."

"…"

"Shimura Tae."

Kagura raised her hand. "Sensei, Anego is not here today. She's already tired of seeing the Gorilla's face every day!"

"Kagura, don't batter Isao-kun's feelings for breakfast," he deadpanned.

There were mixed reactions from the students, most of them suppressed their laughter with their eyes glued to Kondo, also known as the "Gorilla". In normal circumstances, the remark would elicit a ridiculous reaction from the Gorilla, but since he seemed so down because, well, Shimura Tae wasn't around, he chose to rest his head on his desk and shut himself off from the world. Hijikata and Okita would later console their best friend, throwing non-sense advices─one would think what they offered were more of a mockery than a comfort.

While the class was picking on Kondo, Shimura, the other younger Shimura with spectacles, the cherry boy Shimura Shinpachi, moved up from his chair and approached Ginpachi. "Sensei, Aneue wants to apologize for her absence today. When I left her this morning, she isn't feeling well. She said, if her condition gets better, she'll take the half-day classes, and she wants me to give this to you," the bespectacled boy handed him a folded brown paper.

Ginpachi put the letter to the side, opened his textbooks to the page for today's lesson, grabbed the chalk, and started babbling about nucleus and its organization. It was another normal Tuesday for the Silver Head with his snot-looking students, but somehow, he could see the world with black vignettes. In all honesty, he wasn't in the mood for classes today since his skull felt as if it was splitting into two. He wasn't able to sleep last night because of a very weird dream.

A really weird dream.

The Teacher unknowingly broke the chalkboard when he felt something suddenly kick his guts. As much as he could, he calmly finished his lecture on the board, and excused himself for bathroom break right after. As soon as he egressed the room, something struck his stomach once more and this time, he didn't suppress the pain his face was about to express. He leaned on the wall for support when his knees buckled sweat trickled down his face.

"Gintoki?"

He peered at the one who called his name. It was Tsukuyo-sensei, the blonde beauty with cool scars across her face. He could see her walking towards him. "Something wrong? Ya' don't look good."

Indeed, his condition wasn't good, but he'd rather not say it. "All is well. Aren't you going to your class? Your students are waiting for you."

Tsukuyo proceeded to dab a handkerchief she pulled out of nowhere on his forehead. "Ya' should go to clinic. Want me ta' accompany you?"

"No, thanks," he rubbed his palm against his forehead. Somehow, it seemed like his headache had worsen.

The next thing that registered to his sense was a whistle that echoed along the hallway followed by a familiar baritone voice with a teasing tone. "What's the two lovebirds doing here early in the morning? Flirting in broad daylight?"

Entered another idiot that would worsen his already worse condition. The sandy-haired, hemorrhoid, JUMP lover teacher, Hattori-sensei, stopped in front of them, with a smirk on his face. "Mind your classes before your crotches, huh?"

Ginpachi groaned in distress. "Cut it out, you idiots. You aren't helping. You two better go to your respective rooms."

The two weren't able to do anything when he started walking to the direction of the washroom. He could hear Hattori rambling, "that guy's really not getting a girlfriend" and the likes, as he forced himself to walk further. Everything was blurry to him. His head was spinning, it was as if there were ripples on the ground, and if he ever stepped on those, the ripples would swallow him whole. Ginpachi tried to focus his eyes on one thing, on the thing that was in front of him. Through his foggy perspective, he could discern a brown-haired woman in ponytail, wearing a pink kimono sprinkled with cherry blossom petals. The woman was smiling at him, as if she was inviting him to come close to her. When his vision came into clear focus, he saw a face reminiscent of someone he knew.

Why was 3-Z's Class President, Shimura Tae, in kimono?

When the woman in ponytail stepped near him, the next thing he saw was the white ceiling of the school, and the last sound he heard were familiar voices of a man and a woman calling his name. After those, it was all black.

"Gin-san."

He opened his eyes. The nostalgic feeling of spring, and cherry blossom petals gracefully flying in the wind like butterflies welcomed him. The sky was clear there was nothing there except for those pink buds. He could peacefully sleep all day in this condition, plus there was some cushion that he felt too comfortable with to get up and check what it was below his silver head. It felt like sleeping on someone's lap.

Someone's lap? His throat itched and he coughed, out of the blue.

With his dead fish eyes, he rose and checked on what or who it was that's been supporting his precious head. He found a girl… no… a woman. The strands of her ponytail were following the tender blows of the wind.

"Is everything alright, Gin-san?" She asked him with a smile.

For some reason, he knew who she was. "Yeah. Otae."

"Something seems bothering you," she stood from the ground and dusted off her pink kimono.

He blinked for several times when Otae held out a hand to him. Just staring at it earned him a smile, not an ordinary happy one, but a smile with murderous intent, and a yank he didn't anticipate.

"Oi, give me a break! Where are you taking me?!" He questioned in panic when he almost tripped. She was dragging him to who-knows where with that carefree beam of her, he wondered where did her notorious smile earlier go.

"Maybe this would free you from worrying, Gin-san. You miss your home, 'ne?"

His brows furrowed in confusion. "Ha? What are you talking about?"

She didn't respond this time. She just continued running like she was running after something very important. And yet in an abrupt shift of moments, the Silver Head was taken aback when she, still with the same expression on her face, pushed him into a green, grassy slope by the river only to be caught by two pairs of hands at the end of his fall. His heart throbbed, he thought it was going to explode by the sight of two heads-orange and black-that nuzzled up against him.

"Gin-chan!", "Gin-san!" were what he overheard.

He couldn't be mistaken. He knew those voices too well. "Shinpachi, Kagura?"

And the familiar warmth, those hands that wrapped around them, protecting one another. It was too much for Gintoki, these feelings he couldn't name. Did he deserve this? The gods were kind this time and seemed to heed someone's prayer. He had a quick view of the cherry blossoms. The Silver Head turned his gaze above the riverbank to search for Otae. She was standing straight, waving at them, and he had to rub his eyes to prove that what he saw was just a trick.

The corners of his eyes were already red from rubbing, yet the illusion didn't fadeshe was still slowly disappearing with the tiny lights. Shinpachi, Kagura and Gintoki rushed to Otae's spot, and when they arrived, there was no one there anymore.

The spring ended too soon.

"Otae!"

Ginpachi was jolted awake. He thought he was having a heart attack from inhaling and exhaling so deeply, he could feel the muscles contracting the air passage in his chest. His head throbbing, brows furrowed tight with pain. When his breathing became steady, he looked around the white room that appeared to be the school clinic. He was resting on one of the beds the white curtain was down for privacy. The silver head Teacher drew the curtain open and was about to clear his space when he noticed another presence across his spot.

On the other side of the room was a student in her school uniform, staring directly at him with tears on her cheeks. The sunset made her form glow in golden orange that it seemed she was amalgamating with the wind. As if, she was leaving for another world, as if she was fading.

As if…

"Gin-san?"

He knew what would transpire next, yet he didn't control himself. If someone entered the clinic and saw them with this kind of arrangement, he honestly won't care. He just wanted to hug Tae.

"Sensei?"

"Hmm?" When was the last time he heard her voice?

And when was the last time her fist landed on his face?

"How dare you touch your student, bakayaro?!"

Well, this was a hundred times better than her abused tamagoyaki.

銀魂
To be continued