A/N: Ahaha. I'm a horrible, horrible person. Anyway, yep...we're approaching the end. Real soon, real soon.
I am really, really awestruck and happy that some people have told me that they find ZuraTae cute. Isn't it? It's a bit freakish, but DEFINITELY cute. Because Zura by himself is just so cute. I love Zura I love Zura. I named my phone Zura.
Chapter 7
He looked into her questioning, big brown eyes. And thought about how he had fought Kondo for her. How she had looked after him when he had been on the verge of death. How her large, sad eyes haunted him when she left them when Kyuubei had come to take her away.
Suddenly, he felt like blurting everything out.
I don't want you to marry him.
Gintoki took a deep breath. "Otae-chan..."
Tae tilted her head to one side. "Yes?"
"I..." Gintoki mentally cursed the portion of his brain responsible for speech. "I need to tell you-"
"Hey, you guys done?" Ikumatsu popped out of nowhere. "Let's - did I interrupt something?"
Gintoki's face was in his soup bowl. Tae grinned at her cheerfully. "Nope!"
"We better go. Oh, don't worry about those, I'll take care of them later." Ikumatsu hurried away.
Tae turned to Gintoki. "You were saying?"
Gintoki raised his head, his face dripping with lukewarm soup, and shook his head. "...nothing important. Let's go... We have to get the wedding favours into the van."
"Aa."
As Gintoki followed her to the storeroom, he did a mental shrug.
Guess I lost my chance.
But then again, it wasn't as if he even knew what he should have said anyway.
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The last two weeks before the wedding flew past, and Gintoki found himself wallowing at Snack Otose the night before the wedding.
The bar was empty. Both Tama and Catherine had left early to help with the wedding preparations at the dojo, and only Otose herself had remained to tend to whatever few customers came by, which currently encompassed one silver-haired natural perm-head alone.
"Baba, when I grow old, you won't have died yet, right?" Gintoki asked as he lounged around on one of the stools at the bar. "You seem healthy. Don't die before me."
"What are you talking about, you natural perm?"
"Nothing. Just that, you know, when Kagura and Shinpachi grow up...you won't ever close down the bar or anything like that, will you?"
"...Are you sick? Because if you are, make sure you pay the rent before you die."
That elicited a smirk from Gintoki. "Baba, I'm never going to pay the rent. Since you'd probably refuse to die till I do. That would suit me perfectly well."
"What's this melancholy mood?" Otose remarked. "Ah, I know. It's because of Otae-chan isn't it? Ah, I thought that was it."
"Don't talk rubbish in your old age, kusou baba."
"I don't, Gintoki." Uncharacteristically, Otose pulled out a bottle of sake and poured some into a cup. "Drink."
"No. You're going to put it on my tab anyway."
"Not tonight. Drink, you idiot perm head before I change my mind."
Gin downed the sake in the tiny cup in one swoop, before setting it down and resting his head in his palm. "Love and shit like that. Who the fuck would have any idea? Least of all, me."
Otose sighed. "Whatever in the world is going on in your head, my dear boy..."
"I mean, can a stupid questionnaire in a stupid woman's magazine really tell you whether you're in love anyway? That asshole Okita..." Gintoki grumbled on.
"Gintoki."
"Anh?"
"I think the very fact you're sitting here, sulking and grumbling, says a lot about how you feel about Otae-chan. Even an idiot like you shouldn't need some silly questionnaire." Otose started to clear the bar. "Pack up now. You don't want to be late for tomorrow. It's a big day."
Gintoki ignored her and stayed where he was, staring straight ahead but not seeing anything. "Baba. Will I lose her?"
"She's getting married, you idiot. Of course you are."
"...Right." Gintoki finally got off the stool. "Sorry baba." Within seconds, he was gone, leaving behind his empty sake cup and the Snack Otose's door curtains whipping gently in the night wind.
Otose shook her head and smiled wryly.
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Gintoki looked up to the outer walls of the dojo. He could hear many sounds inside - the merry giggling of Tae's girlfriends, the raucous laughter of the Jouishishi, the general hustle and bustile indicating that something important was taking place the next day.
Before he could knock or ring, the front entrance swung open. "Gin-san! You're finally here!" Shinpachi dragged him in. "Come on, everyone's drunk and you missed out on all the fun."
"...If everyone is drinking and partying before the wedding what's the point of having it?"
"Stop being a wet blanket Gin-san. Anyway, the dojo is big and we're just in the house. The wedding's going to be in the main dojo hall and Ane-ue's sealed it off to make sure nobody can mess it up."
Wordlessly, Gintoki let himself be dragged into the raucous and joyous mood permeating the house.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
As Shinpachi peacefully snored away, Gintoki lay awake on the futon next to him, staring blankly at the ceiling.
She's getting married tomorrow.
What was he doing here?
She's getting married tomorrow.
Sick of lying awake, he threw off the covers and silently slid open the doors, stepping into the garden. Tae had insisted on him and Kagura staying the night, ignoring all protests and claiming that they would not make it in time for the ceremony if they went back home.
He strolled off until he found a nice looking cherry tree, and settled himself in the corridor, resting his back on one of the pillars. Looking up at the moon, crescent-shaped but giving off a strong light that bathed everything in a soft white glow, Gintoki sat, a lone figure in the twilight .
xxxxxxxxx
Tae tossed and turned. She couldn't sleep.
"Ugh, I'll go and get a drink," she thought, and tossed the covers off.
Just then she noticed a silhouette outside her doors leading to the garden, leaning against a pillar in the corridor outside her room. Squinting in the dark, Tae realised it was Gintoki from the distinct, unruly shape right about where the silhouette's head was.
Tae inched closer to the door. The silhouette was softly murmuring to himself.
"...could have done a lot better than Zura. Nothing against him, but he's Zura. With a monster for a pet whom he thinks is cute and who thinks he looks cool in that ridiculous rap ghetto getup. Damn I should just kill him."
Tae's eyebrow twitched.
"I know, what does a guy like me know about love and all that crap. Honestly speaking, I still don't know shit. Am I in love or not, does my heart beat fast around you, do I get jealous when I see you with other guys - You know what? I haven't a fucking idea."
"That's because you're an idiot," Tae mumbled to herself.
"What I do know is, thinking about you and Zura getting married fucking sucks. And no matter how much I drink to forget it, when I wake up with a splitting hangover, I just remember it all over again, and every single time it just fucking sucks." Gintoki laughed softly but mockingly to himself.
Tae suddenly became conscious of how difficult breathing had suddenly become.
"Maybe I should have said something earlier, but I guess there's really no point. What could I have said anyway? I couldn't have asked you to accept me. I'm always going to be like this. I'm always going to be a slacker who never pays his rent, who doesn't have any ambition, who doesn't care about anything, who scratches his ass and balls in public...You know, I thought about changing to become somebody more worthy of you."
Tae felt something prickle behind her eyelids.
"But if I did that, I would hate you for it."
Tae bit her lip.
"And I never want to hate you. Even if this world ends, even if Hijikata realised he was gay and started dating Okita - I never want to hate you."
Tae vaguely realised that her cheeks were wet.
"And now it's too late anyway...Look at me, the great Shiroyasha. I don't have the courage to fight for something I don't want to lose. Ahh...I really don't deserve such an uncute she-devil."
"Asshole," Tae muttered, as she fiercely rubbed her sleeve across her face.
"I'm sorry, Otae-chan."
In your life you will meet a person unlike any other, whom you will never get bored talking to. You could tell them things and they will never judge you. This person is your soulmate and you meet him or her only once in your lifetime.
Never let this person go.
Tae slid open the door. "Gin-s-"
No one was there.
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Gin opened his eyes.
Somehow he had fallen asleep in spite of himself and the torturous thoughts playing out in his mind. It was apparently a lot easier to fall asleep in your own bed, no matter how depressed you were.
Gin rolled out of his futon and stretched. The apartment was quiet. It was quiet every morning, given how late Kagura slept in, but today, the quiet weighed him down with loneliness.
Gin slid open his bedroom door, rubbing sleep from his tired eyes. And gaped.
Curled up on the sofa was the one and only-
"Otae...?"
tbc
A/N: Ahahahahahaha. It's ending soon, it's ending soon. At this juncture I'm not sure but it's either the last chapter next, or the second last...and then I'm bidding farewell to GinTae and going full speed ahead for my beloved OTP.
