I don't know, something has always captivated me about the relationship between Gin and Toshirou—they met as enemies, fought as friends, and left as brothers.

Also, I can't thank you guys enough for all the reviews and thoughts and love you've been giving this story. Seriously. You guys are great.

Hot. Hot. Hot. Gin was surrounded by fire on all sides, standing on a building in a city of fire. Yoshiwara. He heard cries of the townspeople. He saw members of the Hyakka running dousing courtesan's flames until their own flames immolated them and they crumpled to the ground. Gintoki could do nothing, bleeding out but woundless, held to the ground by some unknown force as the flames grew hotter and rose higher, howling as if proud of its destruction. It sounded like Housen. Something occurred to Gin, slower than it should have, that this hadn't happened. That he had eventually defeated Housen. That this hard light of fire in the dark city had been vanquished when the ceiling retracted. No, this hadn't happened—

Gin snapped to wakefulness a moment later, still feeling the burns across his skin and ash in his mouth. He was lying on his side on the floor, this time not moving. His wrists were chained with a few feet of slack. He shivered for a moment before glancing around to find Hijikata. The Shinsengumi vice chief was sitting up against the wall a few feet away from him by the door. His wrists also chained, just staring back at him, throughly unamused. Instinctually, his attention drifted back around the room as he tried to make sense of his new surroundings. Just as he was getting used to the vault… They seemed to be in an office near the front of the bank, through the reinforced door window, he could just make out the top of a rhino's ear. The amanto must have brought them out as proof of life and were keeping them close as a threat. Gin curled up his fist in anger, then thumped his fist against the floor when he realized how badly his hand was shaking and that the cut between his fingers was still lazily dripping blood.

"Kagura-chan and Shinpachi-kun?" Gin's voice was rough, desperate, and not fully coherent.

"They're safe, and getting us out of here, hopefully. They were released as part of negotiations," Hijikata said, noting Gin's condition cautiously.

"Oh," Gin said, a blissful, exhausted smile touching his face, he seemed to melt further into the floor. Hijikata didn't like it one bit.

"Are you back with me for good?" Hijikata asked, carefully sardonic. "You keep falling asleep. What, do you have narcolepsy?"

"Tch, idiot." Gintoki slurred, knowing his insults wouldn't be packing a punch with him lying on the floor like he was. He rested his throbbing forehead against the cool floor, despite the pull of an old cut across his face, trying to ease the blazing heat between his eyes.

"Hey, stop falling asleep," the black haired man snapped.

"Stop boring me," Gintoki shivered. "Aah, it's pretty hot in here, isn't it?" He said a little dreamily.

Hijikata had been ready to snap back like they always had when he noticed the growing unfocused look in his rival's eyes and the paper-thin joking façade he was giving. Hijikata's disposition turned thoughtful. Gin had seemed like maybe he'd recovered somewhat but… "The room's a normal temperature. But I'm not surprised your fever's come back, Glasses said you were only going to get worse, didn't he?"

Gintoki panted quietly for a moment before speaking. "It's hotter than that sauna in here…"

Hijikata stiffened. While competing in the sauna, they'd been on the brink of passing out—well Gintoki had been, he would have been fine staying there another hour.

"We need to get you out of here." He said finally, trying to quell the growing sense of urgency for Gin's well-being.

Gin gathered his strength and slowly worked himself to his hands and knees. Hijikata moved forward as much as he could against the handcuffs, hooking an arm under his armpit and helping him sit back against the wall. Once, they were done, Gin had to lean his head back, breathing heavily and panting until the black spots and nausea faded. The rollercoaster of emotions he'd been feeling for the last several hours seemed to have passed, leaving him with bone-deep exhaustion.

"Your kids weren't able to tell me very much about what's going on. You get sick if you don't eat?" Hijikata asked doubtfully. This man across from him had likely been as parentless as the rest of them, then he was the infamous Shiroyasha, while the Joui were chronically low on supplies. And he knew from the old landlady that Gintoki had been a penniless wanderer long after that. With this crippling condition, how did he survive, much less rise to become a rebel hero of war?

Gin studied his friend's face, understanding the tacit meaning. "As a stupid kid, hypoglycemia wasn't a problem very often," he sighed out of his nose, trying to expel the dizziness and nervousness that came with his thoughts, "it only got bad after the war. I made a decision that ended with me getting caught by the government and sent to the Ikeda Clan."

Hijikata turned his body to face the ex-Joui patriot in curiosity. Gin was typically as secretive about his pre-Edo life as Sougo and himself. "That's the clan we fought with the Yaemon, right?"

Gin nodded vaguely. "Only back then, him and Asaemon were young kids and their father was the Yaemon. I was there for almost two weeks, and eventually the Yaemon pardoned and freed me. He was forced to commit seppuku for it and that's why I owe my head to Asaemon." He jerked slightly as he realized he had just gotten off topic, rattling on as the memories hit him. He cleared his throat, suddenly aware of the demonic vice chief's full and rapt attention.

"But my time in prison affected my body and my hypoglycemia became much worse. Hasn't improved since." He said with finality.

Despite what Gintoki and Sougo might say, Hijikata wasn't an idiot. He knew what that meant. Starvation, probably beatings, horrible conditions. Trying to survive while knowing you're destined to die. Weakening in the throes of episodes so severe it scars and causes permanent damage. It certainly put a morbid spin on the silver-head's unbecoming addiction to sweets. Hijikata shook those dark thoughts from his head. He fished his carton of cigarettes out of his pocket, picking out the penultimate cigarette with an annoyed sigh. He lit it and brought it to his lips awkwardly because his hands only had a foot of chain between them.

Finally, he spoke. "Makes sense."

Gin's eyes, which had been tensely trained on the Shinsengumi looked forward. "The kids don't get to find out. No one does. I'm not even sure why I told a mayo-freak like you." His eyes closed again, and after a second, his breathing slowed, strained but less painful sounding than before.

Hijikata didn't quite know what to say but he did know that it was important to keep Gin talking, so he continued on conversationally. "You sure know how to find trouble. Your sensei you mentioned in front of the barracks that time, how did you meet him?"

"Trouble always finds me. And my sensei did too." Gin's face got tense for a moment, as he had just eaten something unpleasant. "But I'm not giving you another shitty story without one in return. Come on, we have nothing better to do until the kids, gorilla, and sadists save our asses." Gin's red eyes roved over to look at the other man, challenging him. "So, how about you?"

Damn, Toshiro thought to himself, that stupid freak knows exactly what I'm doing, trying to keep him talking and he's still imposing on me like this. Does this man really have no shame? I'm the talk show host, you don't ask Stephen Colbert questions about his personal life! But still…he's got me cornered.

Hijikata sweat slightly, looking over at the silver haired man who looked like shit but even that couldn't keep the smug, creepy look off his face as he did a little wave. He's really got me. He just said something deep, really deep, about being imprisoned and tortured, I can't say something like 'when I was younger, eating strawberries gave me the shits' or 'I used to be afraid of hermit crabs!' Maybe if I say something like 'when I was still an otaku I bid on a ram's head caravel ship to go on an adventure to be King of the Pirates.' No, that's even worse, damn it, I'll just have to walk into his trap. THIS IS HIJIKATA SIGNING OFF…

Hijikata steeled himself. He couldn't remember the last time he'd reflected about his past with anyone except for a few weighted words exchanged with Kondo once in a very long time. "I have an older brother," he finally says.

This quirks Gin's eyebrow, surprise written across his face.

"He's a foolish brother but he was the only one to give a shit up until I met Kondo. I guess I owe a lot to him," Toshiro goes to rub the back of his hair but the action is cut short by the handcuffs. "Che. He's blind, but I still write to him once a month. That guy could never read them, of course, but it doesn't matter what I write anyway, that was never the point."

Gin's face quirked again, and the glazed look on his face which had to been appearing and disappearing cleared more than it had in a while. "Your brother, he's gone, isn't he?"

Hijikata looked over at him in shock. He'd been careful to talk about him in present tense, not leave anything to imply that the letters he'd left for him over these last years had been at a grave. He swallowed, his throat suddenly feeling tight and dry.

"Your face gave it away. You were trying to convince yourself he's someone you haven't lost," Gin said, settling down the wall a bit. "Believe me, I've been there." He grimaced and pitched forward, clutching his chest. "Agh, my chest is beating like a cherry boy buying his first porn mag." His eyes scrunched up in pain, as did his fist, clenched in the folds of his clothes. Eventually the intensity on the heart palpitations began to fade, and he relaxed his clenched grip on his chest. "Toshiro, I don't know how much longer we can keep this up." Gin said finally.

Hijikata clenched his teeth, trying to abate the useless anger that kept trying to rise up. "I just need to get to my sword." His head suddenly jerked up, picking up something Gin couldn't. "But we may not have to," he said, slowly, registering the screams and clanging of swords and rumble of heavy bodies hitting the floor.

Gin gave a small smile as he heard bricks give way on the outside of the building from what must have been a cannon. "Those kids did it."

"About time, I'll buy you a strawberry shake once we get out of this, as long as you don't make this rescue complicated by passing out again." Hijikata said.

Then, the glass and steel door keeping them trapped inside, doubled like it had been punched in the gut, bricks that used to be a wall raining down sending dust in the air. A small purple shoe stepped onto the pile of bricks, a figure holding an umbrella over her shoulder and the nastiest smile ever seen on a twelve year old girl. Next to her was a psychotic young man with a matching grin, bazooka aimed at them, and a furious young man in glasses wielding Gin's bokuto. Behind them, fending off dozens of rhino amanto, were Kondo and Katsura, in a temporary truce.

"We're here to bust you asshats out," Kagura declared.

I just really needed to slow this down and give Hijikata and Gin as much time talking as they needed, hope you like it, please review! Climatic second to last chapter next!