A/N:
Hello!
I'm more than a week late (lol), but belated happy birthday to Takasugi Shinsuke and Shimura Shinpachi!
To the guest who reviewed, thanks for finding this story interesting despite the oddness and crackness of this (lol) I honestly don't know what got into my mind when I suddenly imagined this situation Takasugi and Seita are in.
To gintamalover, thank you for the fave ;A; and to all the others who are reading this, I appreciate it! I really hope to hear from all of you as well :)
...
"Setsuna?"
"W-why are you two talking about her?"
...
Hearing Seita speak her name tightened Takasugi's chest even more. He had to exert so much effort to keep his face straight and calm.
So, the kid knows who she is. Or does he really? What does this kid know? How much does he know?
"Ah! Seita, please put those on the bench first."
The woman's voice triggered him to slowly release a breath he was holding and look at the woman by his side. The tone of her voice and her face were relaxed, but her hands pressed tightly together showed otherwise. Following her gaze, he watched Seita do as he was told and placed the tray of tea and snacks on top of the bench nearest to them. Once he was done, Hinowa went to his side and smiled as she spoke, "You see...Tōgyō-san knew Setsuna too."
.
.
.
What is this woman thinking? Is she really going to tell him?
"He and his friends had occasionally visited Yoshiwara before..", she continued, causing him to furrow his brows and glare at her once she glanced at him.
He and his friends what? Occasionally? Where is she going with this?
He didn't like this.
He was starting to believe that she was going to make this revelation painfully slow just to further aggravate him, however, when he realized that she has been sending signals at him to support her in whatever it is that she's saying and speak as well, he relaxed his brows and sighed in relief.
Of course, she was not going to tell the kid.
With raised eyebrows, he observed her while she was telling some crap about "Tōgyō-san's friends", all the while asking him for help through her side glances. In response, he only ignored her and crossed his arms in anticipation of what kind of lies can this so-called mother say to her so-called child.
"But Tōgyō-san wasn't really friendly, so we only got to officially meet him later...and that's it."
Bullshit.
He didn't expect nothing less from the top courtesan of this place of lies and deceit.
The kid, on the other hand, seemed to believe her wholly, with him nodding at her every sentence as proof. At the end of her story, Seita warily peeked at him before he looked down and asked, "Then, does he know? About her? About me? About us?"
So, the kid does know about Setsuna being his biological mother. But that was probably the extent of his knowledge.
The dark-purple head swore that there was a flash of guilt in the dark-haired woman's face, before she placed one hand on the chestnut-haired boy's shoulder and tried to meet the boy's eyes, "Yes, he already knows, and...he understood." When a pair of olive eyes met azure ones, the owner of the latter pair patted the former's shoulder, as she gestured towards the tray on the bench, "Anyway, I see you've brought some dango too. That's so thoughtful of you, Seita."
"Of course, mom!", Seita beamed, as if he wasn't worried just a second ago – Takasugi noted.
"Tōgyō-san! Sit here and have some tea."
There were so many things that he still needs to process in this situation, that maybe a cup of tea might exactly just help him.
No.
No.
No.
This is only adding to the things he need to absorb.
Why is he here sitting next to this kid and drinking tea, which actually tastes decent, while he could pretty much feel Hinowa's stare – or glare, he wasn't really sure – somewhere from his sides again?
"Here, try this dango!"
After practically shoving the three-piece dango on a stick to his face, Takasugi had no choice but to take the stick from the kid, before reluctantly biting on the soft and chewy snack.
Too sweet.
He wasn't really fond of sweet things.
"It's yummy, isn't it? Gin-san likes dango!"
Oh fucking Gin-san.
...
"Boys, go ahead and choose one for each of ya. All my other best girls are already taken but I still have one more available. The last one's Isuzu, the one in blue. She's one of our best, so her rate's a lil higher, okay?", the owner of the store drawled, then paused to take a drag from the cigarette, before resuming, "Now the one in red's Kuri. Don't worry, Kuri might be a lil younger than Isuzu, but she's well-taught, y'know?"
The choice was obvious.
Sakamoto Tatsuma was the one who insisted in going to this red-light district called Yoshiwara and most importantly, the one who will pay for tonight. No, they didn't threaten him, nope. They just 'reminded' him that he's the one with money so it's only natural that he'll pay. Besides, he was the one who wanted to go here in the first place, so fuck him and his money. Anyway, the point is, he's a perm-head bastard and it would be so satisfying to watch him get broke tonight.
Now, Takasugi should have seen it coming.
Of course, the other perm-head bastard just had to pick the same as him.
"Oi shorty, don't embarrass yourself. Your midget and emo ass would be too boring for miss-one-of-the-best over here. Besides, my color has always been blue, so I should go with the girl in blue. Don't ruin my character and go stick with newbie girl in red."
Multiple veins popped out from a dark purple-head, while listening to that ridiculous comment courtesy of the talking silver mop of hair. Thus, he felt smug when his next words caused multiple veins to pop out from a silver-head, as well.
"You moron, what the hell are you talking about? You'd be dreaming if you seriously believe she'd like your pathetic perm."
The owner of the curly light locks defended his trademark look against the owner of those straight dark strands, "Ha?! My hair is great, you jerk! It makes me stand out from other shounen main characters. Or what? You wanna go? I'll beat your ass until you grow taller, shorty."
The shorter teen didn't allow himself to be looked down at by the taller teen, as he took on the challenge, "Bring it on, you stupid perm. I'll have the pleasure of taking out your misery called hair."
"Oh you little fuc – "
Gintoki was about to haul the other's yukata when the girl in blue, Isuzu, cleared her throat, then declared her choice.
"I prefer the shorter guy, the one without the perm."
The two women then giggled among themselves, much to Gintoki dramatically freezing in place, and much to Takasugi's annoyance at the girl in blue's sassy remark, but the worst giggle – more like cackle – came from the loudest person in their group.
"Aha..AHAHAHA! This woman's honest, I like her!"
...
Takasugi simply wanted to see if Sakamoto Tatsuma would still guffaw ridiculously when he's flat broke. Knowing the idiot that he is, he already guessed that said idiot would probably still do. Nevertheless, he still wanted to see him penniless. That was his only intention, so when the girl called Isuzu began her work and started talking to him, while she poured him drinks, he just stayed silent and answered her questions with death stares.
He will never admit this to anyone, but he sort of regretted this.
He just wanted to be alone. There was a shamisen in the corner of the room begging to be played – alone. But this woman's annoying presence just won't allow that.
Couldn't she sense from all his glares that he wanted her gone?
Maybe she did, but because of her pride as being one of this shop's 'best', she probably believed that she can seduce anyone. Well, she could just dream on, because he was not the type to be tempted by her artificial smile, which was definitely going to crack anytime soon. And alas, the last straw was when he rejected the drink she offered.
"What's wrong with you? You're not really gonna talk? Won't even tell me your damn name, huh?"
That fake smile she had was now replaced with a scowl that looked even more awful with her thick make-up. Her true colors were now revealed, as she resumed her crass rant, "That messy haired guy was right, you are fucking boring. Should I have picked him instead? Ha! But he looks like a bum."
Her previously creased eyebrows raised, as if she just realized something, "Oh, the other messy-haired guy! He's the one with money, right?" When he still ignored her, she clicked her tongue distastefully and stomped off, "Go and mop around here all you want. I'll be with your richer perm-head friend outside."
As soon as the door closed, he smirked at himself – proud at how he just hit three birds with one stone. First, the obnoxious woman was gone. Next, the brown perm-head would probably suffer from that woman – he deserved that. Finally, he can now play the shamisen in peace.
Once he held the shamisen, he started by plucking the strings to check if it is in tune, and to his delight, it was. Slowly, he let his fingers play a song he knew at heart, and let the melody fill his ears and ease his mind and soul of all worry.
Halfway through the song, though, his alone time ended too soon than he had wanted. The door was slid open, revealing a girl in red.
Clutching the shamisen close to him, he could only blink while the said girl closed the doors then did the proper greetings by courtesans. She knelt down and lowered her head to the ground, as she spoke with a gentle voice.
"My name is Kuri, and I will be the courtesan who'll be serving you tonight. Please enjoy your time in Yoshiwara, sir."