"-That's why I said I relate,

I said we relate, it's so fun to relate!"

Kagura was drifting in a stubborn, restless sleep that was more of a flurry of dreams that doubled as memories than anything. She dreamt that Papi had left, but returned as a giant white dragon like the one from Spirited Away. He carried her away from her home planet, and they cruised the galaxy together. It was beautiful, and it was all she ever wanted was to go with him and explore. She was filled with pure joy, but only for a moment. He did a 360 spin and she fell off his back, plummeting to earth like a meteor. When she crashed into the surface, she flattened all the buildings for miles around her and turned the entire city to dust. Kagura could only wander, coughing and calling out. The silence was deafening, and she felt as alone as she did back home. In the end she found the tallest piece of rubble she could find and perched on it, keeping a lookout for anything familiar. The smoke was so thick it shrouded the sun and choked her throat. After being there for what felt like hours, she began to breakdown. She couldn't help but hold back tears until they overflowed. Dust coated her wet cheeks, and she felt like a dirty, horrible person.

"I destroy everything," she cried, burying her face in her arm. A voice seemed to cling to the wind, soft and breathless, and she seemed to remember the words it said…

"Don't worry, child. We all do."

She knew that voice, that was Gin-chan, sounding sad but honest. Kagura didn't think that Gin-chan could sound like that, between his constant complaining and yelling or silliness there was barely time for his serious side. It was impossible to imagine him sad or crying. She looked up in surprise and she was no longer in the middle of all the destruction, but in her closet. It seemed like a dream within a dream before she realised it must be a memory. Red eyes were looking at her through a crack in the door, and she'd forgotten seeing that expression until she saw it again. His face was pulled taught like he was grinding his teeth and his hair was a scattered mess like he just woke up. The only light was coming from the street behind him, but his eyes glowed like they had a backlight. His bare arm pushed the door back a bit more before he pushed his finger on her forehead, the tiniest bit of pressure enough for her to plop back down on the mat. He grabbed the blanket and hiked it up to her chin before tucking it around her body. She felt like a bug in a tight cocoon and the fear from the nightmare was gone as quickly as it had come, replaced instead with the comfort of his soft touch and gaze. His hand was warm on her shoulder and she giggled when he rubbed a rough, scared knuckle on her chin. Her eyes began to droop, but she tried to focus on him, not wanting to go back to where she was before. "What if I do it again?"

"Then that was the way it was meant to be. Just try your best to fix it. Sometimes you can't, but that's okay too. Go back to sleep."

She remembered falling back asleep in her dreamed dream, and that was where it seemed to end with his eyes like coals watching her and the smallest smile ghosting his lips. Kagura stirred, stretching her legs and relishing in the feeling of her knees popping. Shinpachi was a warm presence beside her and when she yawned and wiped the gunk from her eyes, she felt him stir but not awaken. She blinked, her eyes having to adjust to the darkness of night and when they did she nearly jumped out of her skin. Red eyes were watching her from the opposite couch and his silver hair seemed to glow, but the rest of him was just a frame in the dark. She blinked a few times before recognizing it was really him and not an image from her sleepy brain. It wasn't until her eyes adjusted that she could read his face. His expression was the same from her dream; sad, a teensy bit scared, and looking like he'd rather not be awake.

"Gin-chan?" She asked, wanting him to say something so she would know she wasn't really dreaming. "Why are you sitting in the dark?"

He blinked slowly, oddly cat-like, and his lips moved like he wanted to say words, but his throat didn't want to. She could smell the liquor on him from across the table, but he didn't look entirely wasted like the glimpses she'd had of him the last few days. If anything, his eyes were alert and seemed to stare right into her.

"You were having that dream again," he said instead. She didn't know how he knew, but she nodded anyway.

"You told me not to worry." She saw him shake his head and didn't know if he was trying to deny it or was surprised she remembered at all. She had to say it, it was the only thing that she'd been thinking about, and before she could think it over she said it. "I'm- we're worried about you."

Gin didn't respond like she expected him to. He didn't scoff and say they needn't bother, he didn't brush it off and say she was too young, or walk away like she didn't say it at all. He only stared more, his gaze becoming hard to keep, and asked calmly "why?"

She gaped, wondering what he could mean and what she should say. Because she was scared that he couldn't trust them with the things that worried him, or worried that they might do something that would accidently cause that to happen again? Worried because instead of being around them he would rather drink until passing out? Worried that maybe she can't do anything, but worried more that Gin didn't know that it didn't matter, that they would stick around anyways? She went with the biggest fear of all, hoping it would drown out the rest of them.

"We don't want you to push us away," and it sounded stupid and childish to her own ears. Shinpachi was moving beside her now, their voices seeming to draw him out of sleep. "We want you to be able to rely on us."

Gintoki continued to stare until she thought maybe she'd said something wrong and began to squirm. "You listening, Shinpachi?"

He sat straighter, now at full attention. "Yes."

Gins eyes bore into them, "Don't you ever touch me if I'm like that. You saw what I did. And if I do ever come at you like that, you protect yourselves. You kill me if you have to, understand?"

It would never come to that, they both knew it. They nodded anyways.

Gintoki leaned back slightly like he was satisfied. He almost looked like a sad balloon animal deflating, the words leaving him empty. The intensity in his eyes was gone and she could see that he didn't quite know what else to tell them.

"And no more cheap space meat, alright? I barfed up a perfectly digested parfait."

Shinpachi and Kagura, ever the hive mind, jumped over the coffee table in the dark and tackled him back into the sofa. He stunk like he'd been dunked in a barrel of liquor and they could feel the days old sweat of his skin drenched into his clothes. They definitely breathed through their mouths, but his chest was as comforting as always and he held them like family and they were never letting go.