All That Glitters is not Gold, it Might Just Be Silver... and that Shouldn't be a Bad Thing
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Tae opened the gates to find Gintoki hunched over on the side.
"What kind of honour are you gracing me with... visiting me at this time of the hour, Gin-san?" she asked as Gintoki lifted his head to see her.
"Cut that fancy talk. Do you mind if I take a nap at your place?"
Tae blinked at him in confusion. "Sure, but—!" she started to say as Gintoki invited himself into the house. "Gin-san! Why couldn't you just sleep at your own place?"
Gintoki barely gave her a glance as he took off his boots and set them aside. "I wish I could but the place still stank like shit right now so I didn't feel like staying there any longer..."
Tae followed him inside as she looked at him worriedly. Gin did look like a mess and he seemed drained of energy as well.
"Was that issue with the others still unresolved? Can't you do anything to fix it?"
Gintoki just gave her a blank look. "Nah, we got it solved at last. Old man Gengai managed to somehow figure out how to separate all those other people's souls from that mess of sh^t and return everyone into their proper bodies." He let out a very long sigh. "Of course, before we managed to figure all that out Mayo and I had to deal with all those walking sh^t piles for hours—argh! I don't wanna think about any sh^t anymore! I had enough of my own sh^t to worry about other people's sh^t!"
He shrugged at Tae. "Honestly! If something like this had to happen again some other time I wish Gengai would just leave out people whose existence was so insignificant that their souls would easily pop out and be stuck onto their sh^t for no reason from 'helping out' with anything! It would've made everyone's life a lot better actually."
Gintoki started running his hands over his hair out of frustration. "To think that all of this trouble would've been easily solved if there wasn't someone who ended up becoming a literal p^op joining the party!"
Tae just shrugged at him. "Well, it wasn't as if we anticipated something ridiculous like that to happen afterwards but at least now everything got back to how it was before."
Gintoki just nodded. "Yeah. I'm just annoyed that everyone kept blaming me and Mayo for all this mess when it was that old man's invention and that P^op Madao that made things all complicated."
"Yes, yes, you are right... Gin-san..." Tae coaxed him before grabbing Gintoki by the shoulders and started steering him towards the back of the house. "How about you get yourself freshen up first before you take your precious nap?"
Gintoki turned his head towards her just as they reached the bathroom. "What do you mean, Otae-san? I didn't come here to—did I smell bad? Are you telling me to wash up because I still stank of p^op?"
He started to lift his arm to smell himself and the rest of his body parts as Tae threw a towel onto Gintoki's face, chuckling a little.
"No. I just want you to cool your head for a while and forget about all of the troubles." She shrugged. "And a short bath before taking your nap doesn't sound bad anyway."
Gintoki grabbed the towel from his head before pulling it over to his face, as he barely covered his face that has already started to grow warm because of her.
"Alright, fine! I'll just enjoy my bath since you insist that I do it."
xxx
Tae brought over a pot of tea into the room as Gintoki already made himself comfortable with a pillow he grabbed from Shinpachi's room.
"Would you like some tea, Gin-san?" she asked as Gintoki barely batted an eye towards her.
"Why are you bothering to do so much, Otae-san? I did say that I only came here... just to... some nap..." said Gintoki as he started to doze off.
Tae just watched him breathe slowly as she started to reach out and patted Gintoki's head gently. The man had looked so soft, sleeping like this with his curly hair lying about all over his face messily. Looking at such a sight, you just can't help yourself to want to run your fingers over those soft curls and brush them aside to reveal the handsome sleeping face that lies underneath those curls. (Please don't tell this to his face, Otae-chan wouldn't be able to face Gintoki again if he knew that she thought of him as a handsome guy. Curly hairs or close-knitted brows or the lack thereof!)
"What're you doing...?" Gintoki asked in a slurred voice as he kept his eyes shut.
Tae just smiled at him. "Don't mind me. I'm just patting Dozaemon-san's head and running my hand over his fur to help him sleep."
Gintoki chuckled softly. "Heeh...? I guess that's fine then. For now, I'll just be Dozaemon-san for the rest of the day..."
xxx
Tae glanced over to check his face as Gintoki had finally fallen into a deep sleep. He stopped answering the random comments Tae said to him as the two of them spend the idle time together alone by themselves.
She sighed as she thought back about the things that happened in the last few days. Honestly, she still couldn't quite believe that the overly muscular cat that she found on the road the other day was really Gin-san's other half.
Yet, on the other hand, it made a lot of sense. On why she couldn't ignore Dozaemon by himself and took him home to her place. On why she couldn't help being concerned over that really big cat.
She sighed...
It's because it was the same case for her whenever anything happens to Gintoki. She couldn't avert her eyes away from him, she couldn't stop worrying about him... she wouldn't feel at ease if she hadn't seen him around safe and sound.
It's ridiculous the more she thinks about it. And it's not as if she liked cats that much but...
If the said cat was Gin-san, maybe she wouldn't mind having a cat as a pet.
Tae gasped as she caught herself caressing Gintoki's cheek without thinking. Luckily, she didn't make a loud sound so she hadn't disturbed Gintoki's sleep.
Her heart started to beat fast. Did she... like Gintoki? As in not just a simple like, but like as in really like. Then again, would that really be such a bad thing for her?
She thought back about all the times she's been with Gintoki and all the things she knew about the man from the very first day she met him. Aside from the fact that Gintoki was a broke-ass man with an unstable income and job; when it comes to seeing him as a life partner... Gintoki wasn't really such a bad guy. Even when he's not the most hardworking, responsible or even disciplined guy compared to other people; that person... once he put his mind into doing something, he would see to it to the very end. No one else that she could think of who could be as protective of his loved ones as Gintoki had been; and no one else she knows of could protect his loved ones the way Gintoki would do.
Since when, has she been feeling this way for this man? For one, she didn't really feel like she was truly head over heel over this man. At least, not the way she used to feel for that certain other person*. Tae thought about the other women who had been around Gintoki besides her, who she knew must have harboured a certain level of affection towards him. Compared to those women—Tsukuyo-san, Sacchan—she didn't feel like her feelings towards Gintoki was the same as their feelings for him. To her, Gintoki was just a comfortable presence beside her. And it was really reassuring to have Gintoki around especially when she had to deal with Kondou-san's stalking.
That said, regardless of whatever feelings she had for this man in front of her... it's not as if she knew for sure what kinds of thoughts Gintoki had about her. What was she... to Gintoki? To him, was she just Shinpachi's older sister, a friend... or—? There's no way she would ever know for sure.
Or could she?
Tae turned her attention towards the sleeping Gintoki again and her thoughts went back towards Dozaemon. Even if the one who said the words to her was Dozaemon, in the end, because half of Gintoki's soul had revived the dead cat and gave it a different form... those words that had been said to her for the past few days—those words should still contain part of Gin's true feelings, right?
"If people were to find out that a young, unmarried lady brought a dirty stray home, who knows what they'd say?"
"If I stayed with you, I'd end up dragging your name through the mud."
When she asked Dozaemon to continue staying with her, that big cat had refused her saying that he didn't want people to badmouth her. Even when she insist that such things wouldn't bother much, that big cat refused to change his mind. If she were to look back at those reasons while thinking it as coming from Gintoki himself, what would those words really mean actually? Was the reason he never tried to actively pursue her as a love interest was because he didn't want people to badmouth her for being with someone like him?
Does Gintoki... like her as a woman?
Tae thought back about the time when she said that Gintoki was her boyfriend to convince Kondou to stop bothering her. Back then, even when he was aware that she was only using him to get that gorilla off her back... Gintoki never said anything about it and played along with her. And while Gin could be quite a pervert and often teased her a lot about her chest, Gin-san has always treated her with respect. Yet, as for whether or not Gin had liked her the way she liked him...
"Dump that loser and go out with me."
Tae felt her cheeks getting warm again as she recalled Hijikata's words to her when he used to be inside Gin's body. If she was to be very honest to herself, that time, she did feel quite pleased to hear that. Even when that was really Hijikata who was saying those words and not really Gin-san.
Because Gin-san wouldn't say things like that to her normally, right? Or would he?
She couldn't forget that panic reaction from Gin-san while inside Hijikata's body afterwards. Before, it had been weird to see 'Hijikata' getting riled up over 'Gintoki' asking her out but once she realized that it was actually Gin—panicking over the fact that Hijikata had used his body to flirt with her...
I mean, all these times Gintoki had acted as if he wasn't really interested in Tae... so wouldn't it be very awkward for them if it was revealed that he DID feel attracted to her after all?
"Forget about that rotten cat and rotten gorilla and LET'S PARTY all night with me."
Now that she was fully aware of everything, it seemed most likely that Gin had said those words to her to get back at Hijikata for trying to flirt with her. Yet she had to also wonder, if ever for a moment that Gin would seriously want to ask her out.
Was it just because he was inside Hijikata's body at that time that he could say those words to her? Or was it BECAUSE he was inside Hijikata's body that he could say those words without worrying about being rejected by her? Because he wouldn't want anything that they already have between them to change should anything went wrong?
Tae turned to stare at Gintoki's sleeping form again, fondly. She crept closer to him before placing a soft kiss on his cheek.
What a silly cat. Why did you have to make things get so complicated?
She sighed. "Then again, isn't that all the more reason why I love you so much?"
"Gin-san?"
xxx
"Big sis! I'm back!"
Tae got out to greet her brother as she quickly placed a finger on her lips.
"Shh... don't make too much noise. The cat is still sleeping," she said softly enough that it was almost a whisper.
"We got a cat... now?" gasped Shinpachi as Tae didn't give him any reply to his question. Instead, she welcomed Kagura inside as the younger girl tried to coax Sadaharu to get inside the house.
"You're here too, Kagura-chan?"
"Yeah," Shinpachi replied instead as he stepped inside the house, "though we might need to go outside again to find Gin-san—"
"Tama-chan had cleaned the office squicky clean now but Gin-chan already left by then so Shinpachi insist that I come here until we managed to get him back home," added Kagura as Tae smiled.
"I'm sure Gin-san would be happy to hear that his place is now liveable again but I don't think you'll have to rush on trying to look for him..."
Kagura stared at Tae in confusion as she cocked her head at her. "Why is that, Boss-sis?"
Shinpachi opened the sliding door for the room Tae had come out from as he got the answer right away.
"Because the cat we're looking for was already here..."
Shinpachi turned his glance towards Tae as Kagura sprinted towards him to take a look at the room inside. Tae just shrugged at her brother before smiling.
"Well, where else would a stray cat go but to places that it was familiar with?"
Shinpachi snorted at her.
"Indeed."
A/N: Hehe. There's no way I'd stop thinking about Gintae pairing wwww
* I'm referring to Obi Hajime, if that wasn't subtle enough hint.