Disclaimer: I don't own Gintama.

Everything else is written before the first chapter. Too lazy to write them again.

Author's notes: First of all, thank you all who bothered to review, so much. You made my day. I replied to every one of them personally (except the anonymous ones, but I'm really grateful for those too), but there was a question I think I should give an answer to.

Strawwwberrylollipop told me that I should write more about what Otose was thinking. Thank you for your opinion, I really appreciate it, but unfortunately, I won't be able to follow it. First, it wouldn't fit my writing style, and second, I must confess, I'm a little afraid of going too ooc with that. So you'll just have to bare with me not telling Otose what to think.

To be honest, I'm kind of amazed that I managed to finish the second chapter. And sooner than I thought, too. So, without further ado, here it is.

Chapter 2

It took Gintoki a week before he could stand up again without feeling dizzy and ten days until he could stay out of bed for longer than just a trip to the bathroom. At times, his fever had risen so high that Otose was afraid he was going to die even though she had just saved him. To make matters worse, he couldn't sleep properly either, being haunted by nightmares that made him stir around and woke him up in every few hours, leaving him panting and with an even higher fever.

However, while he was awake, Otose found herself wondering, what on earth was this man she had picked up from the graveyard thinking. He kept joking around and making silly comments even when he wasn't feeling well enough to sit up and when his fever went down for a while, he asked for the newest Shounen Jump or strawberry milk. But even though he acted like a complete idiot, she found herself laughing at his jokes. It didn't look as if he was taking anything seriously, not even his own nightmares. The only time he had been serious was when he asked about that man who had tried to rob the bar.

She hadn't seen him after the incident, but having asked around a little, heard that after searching for a well paid job for a few days and failing to get one, he had wanted to commit suicide. Apparently the thing he was afraid of most, was being unsuccessful. Luckily, there was some young boy around, who had beaten some sense into him. The boy said that he was a samurai too, but was now working as a shop assistant, trying to pay off his father's debts. After the man heard that, he did his best to let go of his warrior past and got rid of his sword, which was already broken. Then he abandoned his pride, which had been destroyed after he had tried to rob an old lady anyway, and got a low paying job at some factory. He wasn't exactly happy, but it was still better than leaving his wife and unborn child alone.

When Gintoki was finally well enough, Otose really did make him work for her. She found that he made an excellent security guard and did a good job at making people pay off their tabs before leaving. He also made a great drinking buddy, but his lack of money made him leech off other people so he obviously couldn't drink as much as he wanted. But during daytime, she often caught him sitting, staring off into space, looking bored. And even though he said he enjoyed the kind of life where he didn't really have to do anything, she still made him look for a real job, saying that she didn't actually need a security guard in her bar. Gintoki protested at first, but went job hunting after a while.

He was both hired and fired three times in one week. First, it was a pet shop where all he had to do was feed the fish and keep the shop clean. On the third day, while the owner was out buying food for the animals and he was out on a lunch break, he somehow had managed to leave every cage lock open, letting the animals roam free. The aftermath of that little mishap was catastrophic. Other than a destroyed shop and those three mice that had gone missing, there was also a missing cat and somehow a very happy crocodile. He was fired after he couldn't explain why all the cages had been open.

Then he was hired into a loading job at the docks. He did a good job for a couple of hours, being able to lift heavy weights all by himself, but disappeared in the evening. He was later found sleeping in one of the barrels. When they woke him up, he only said that he didn't give crap about some cargo and that it was cold outside and the barrel was a great place to take a nice long afternoon nap.

After he got fired from his third, a simple delivery job where he had to drive around the city and get people their ordered food, he was sitting again behind the counter, his forehead against the cold wood and hands covering his head.

"So, what did you do this time?"

"It wasn't my fault this time. Or none of the times, actually," he said, his voice muffled through the counter. "Okay, maybe the second time was a little. But still..."

"What did you do then?"

"I said it wasn't my fault. No one told me that the food wouldn't survive through a car crash."

"You crashed a car?"

"The car crashed me. I was just casually driving my scooter. By the way, you know how hard it is to drive a scooter through all this damn snow? Well anyway, suddenly, out of nowhere this huge truck came. I just barely managed to get away in the last second but both the scooter and the takeout did not. Funny thing is, they didn't fire me 'cause I crashed the scooter but 'cause I didn't get the customer his damn takeout. Gotta say, at least they've got their priorities right."

"So, what're you gonna do now?"

"I don't know... I should pro'bly find a new job or something... Ahh, how annoying. I don't wanna do anything anymore. It's such a..."

His whining was interrupted by some loud commotion on the street. There was a quiet yelp and some laughing. Gintoki stopped immediately and sprang to attention. He opened the shoji and the two of them peeked outside.

They saw a group of aggressive-looking men standing in a circle, surrounding something little. Three of the five men were carrying swords which were, without a doubt, illegal. The other two looked like they just weren't trusted with a sword. They had the appearance of a closet and probably also the intelligence to match. The three swords were pointed towards the thing they were laughing at. It turned out to be a little girl lying on the snowy street, hands covering her head, sobbing silently. She looked way too young to be walking around alone without her parents.

"What'cha doin' 'ere li'l girl?"

"Think she doesn't kno' it's our place. We no need yer kinda useless dirty li'l rats 'ere, " another said, and raised his foot with the intention of giving the girl a beating, his companions cheering him on.

But his foot never made the target, because the next thing he saw was a quick flash of red and silver, followed by a little longer flash of the blue sky, ending with the black scenery of the cold ground.

"Aniki!" yelled the gang members, shocked to see their boss flying through the sky and hitting the ground hard with his face and a lazy-looking silver-haired man standing over him.

"Bastard," hissed one of them and pointed his sword towards the man. "How dare you oppose the Anti-Foreigner faction and do this to our Aniki?"

He charged but as his sword almost made contact, he was no longer the one holding it. The back of his head was hit with the hilt of his own sword and he fell down next to his boss, both unconscious. His sword was jammed into the ground next to him.

"You call yourself an Anti-Foreigner faction?" Gintoki looked at the crying girl, hands still covering her head. "Shouldn't you guys be beating up Amanto instead of innocent little girls then?" he asked, picking his nose.

"Ya sonova bitch. Ya makin' fun of us?" said the third man with a sword. He tried to look threatening but after seeing two of his comrades so easily beaten, failed miserably. He motioned the closets behind him to attack on his mark. "This li'l rat 'ere ain't innocent. She keeps goin' 'round askin' weird questions."

"That so? Then let me teach her what kinda questions should never be asked from strangers."

"This district belongs to us. Go find yer own!"

"Aw, man, this is bad. I think I might be going blind then 'cause I can't see your name on it."

"Then ya really are goin' blind." He waved his hand and the closets behind him attacked simultaneously. Gintoki sidestepped one of them easily and dodged a blow from the other, breaking through to the last guy with a sword. He slashed at Gintoki, but missed and then he already had an arm wrapped around his throat, cutting off his flow of oxygen. Gintoki turned to the closets who were slowly starting to understand that they had just lost.

"Listen here. Never get in my sight again. The next time I see you anywhere at all, you'll die," he said calmly, clearly enjoying the dumb faces that were staring at him, unable to do anything to help their comrade. "Now take your stupid gang and get the fuck outta here before I change my mind about not killing you right away."

He let go of the guy and he fell to his knees, coughing. Gintoki watched the closets pick up their three fallen gang members, two still unconscious, and run away. The few spectators on the street quickly got back to their own business after Gintoki sent them a glare. Then he walked up to the girl who was still lying on the street, sobbing.

"Hey, are you hurt?" he asked softly. When she didn't give an answer, he continued, "It's okay now, those thugs are gone." The girl still didn't react. "They looked pretty damn pathetic while running away, too. You should've seen them."

The girl slowly looked up to Gintoki with tears in her terrified eyes. She was shivering.

"It's freezing out here," He pointed at Otose who was standing smoking at the door. "See that old hag over there? She has a nice warm place and I bet if you asked nicely she'd also give you a cup of tea. So wipe that snot off your face and get in there already."

To that, the girl suddenly started screaming, huge tears dripping from her eyes, and hugged Gintoki, clinging to his feet, almost making him lose his balance.

"Whoa, hey, stop it, brat. You're getting snot on my clothes. It'll be troublesome to wash it out later," he said and tried to get her off his feet. She refused to let go, making walking an impossible option for Gintoki. He turned to Otose who was clearly amused seeing Gintoki have trouble with a small child. "C'mon, damn old hag, stop giggling like a schoolgirl on her first date and help me out here a little."

"Your kid, you deal with it," said Otose and disappeared into the bar.

"No, waaait! It's definitely not my brat! You're coming back, right? Please say you're coming back! I don't know how to treat children! Hey! Please come back! Pleaaase! Someone, get me out of here! I hate snotty little brats! Heeey!"

When Otose showed no sign of coming to his aid, he looked down at the still crying girl who clearly had no intention of letting go. He sighed and with one swift movement, twisted himself out of her grip and picked her up. Then he went to the bar, mumbling something about how everyone abandoned him and that humankind should never be trusted, carrying the girl who was now clinging to his neck, face buried into his kimono.

x

Although they tried everything from offering sweets as bribe to gentle force, it still took an hour to the girl to calm down enough before she could be removed from around Gintoki's neck. Now she was sitting on a bar chair, one hand still squeezing Gintoki's sleeve, other holding a steaming teacup, with a pile of candy in front of her. Gintoki, sitting next to her, made subtle attempts to steal her candy in every once in a while.

"Can you tell us your name?" asked Otose for the fifth time. She didn't like pestering people like that, but they hadn't got a word out of her yet, and it was impossible to help her if she didn't say what was wrong.

The girl looked down and whispered something.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't hear what you said."

"She said her name was Mai," said Gintoki. "Geez, granny, first you have Alzheimer's, now you're deaf too? Just how many health problems do you have?" He tried to snitch a candy but only received a slap against his hand from Otose. "Oww... I didn't know you were so violent, granny. Well, at least you don't have muscle atrophy, that's for sure. You didn't have to hit so hard, y'know. That hurt!" he whined, rubbing his hand. Mai smiled.

Otose glimpsed at her and then at Gintoki, who had also noticed her smile. "Then stop trying to steal candy from children, you perm-headed bastard."

"It's not like she's eating them anyway! I just don't like wasting food!"

"Candy isn't even proper food!"

"That's why she's not eating any!"

"Now you're contradicting yourself!"

"Why does everyone just assume that brats like candy anyway, huh? Not all children want to be unhealthy, y'know!"

"But you're plenty unhealthy for any child out there! A grown man shouldn't eat so many sweets!"

Mai started giggling. They stopped their argument.

"Mai-chan, right?" asked Otose.

She nodded.

"Can you tell me how old you are?"

She put down her cup and raised her free hand.

"Five?"

She shook her head, raised her hand again, showing all five fingers, then made a fist and raised one more finger.

"Six, huh? You're quite the big girl then, aren't you?"

She nodded proudly.

"But Mai-chan, why were you alone? Where are your parents?"

Mai winced, grabbed Gintoki's sleeve with both of her hands and hid her face. Both Gintoki and Otose sighed. They still hadn't got anything out of her. Well, at least they now know her name.

"C'mon, Mai-chan," said Gintoki, a little annoyed. He tried to detach himself from her surprisingly strong grip. "Let go of my sleeve, I need to take a piss. Ah!"

"What's wrong?" asked Otose.

"She's asleep."

"What? No way."

"She fell asleep," repeated Gintoki. "On my sleeve. While being interrogated... Well that's annoying. Why'd she have to choose me? Man, I hate snotty little brats."

There was a moment of silence in the bar. Then Otose spoke.

"I understand why you didn't want to kill that man from back then. He hadn't really done anything that couldn't be fixed. Besides, I guess you know pretty well what he'd been through. But there was probably nothing good in these thugs. Your skills are pretty good, right? Why didn't you just take them out?"

"That's because... Well," he scratched his head, "I don't really like killing."

Otose nodded. She would've been happy with that.

"And," Gintoki breathed in slowly, "If I had killed them, I'd have to face the same fate myself." He breathed out again and said, smiling that sad smile again, "If I didn't, I'd really be contradicting myself."

This time, the silence in the bar was longer. Now it was Gintoki who broke it.

"We should put her somewhere before you open up," he suggested.

Otose was happy she could drop the topic. It was hard seeing a young man smiling that kind of smile. She ordered him to bring Mai to her room saying that she'd watch over her this night. Gintoki agreed readily.

Author's notes: I went to a Green Day concert a few days ago. Billie Joe wrapped himself into the flag and fell asleep on stage while a giant pink bunny jumped around him and flipped us off. It was adorable.

Anyway, this chapter was a little lighter in mood. At least I think it was a little lighter. But don't worry, I'll get back to darker stuff in the next chapter. I think. I probably will.

Also, it seems that this story will have... some chapters. I got my future more or less cleared out (at least I won't be sitting home for the rest of my life) so I should have the time to write.

My love for reviews has not changed, so it doesn't matter if it's critical or not, don't be afraid to drop me one.

I have a feeling like I forgot something important but I'm too sleepy to figure out what it was.