A/N: We kick off this chapter with a recap! In other words, I just pasted the last few lines of the last chapter. You know, keeping the continuity or whatever crap. Anyway, cliffies can only start off that way!

We are also actually nearing the end...it has been a great journey with you guys. Let's continue to make this little community thrive!

Chapter 6

"So? What is it?" Arms folded, Katsura glared at his childhood friend seated across from him in the small room, trying (and failing) to mask his irritation at having to put up with visitors early in the morning. "I'm surprised you're up at this hour. I didn't think you were physically able to wake up this early."

"Shut up." Gintoki glared back at him. "I...I need to talk to you. About ...you and Otae-chan."

Katsura looked at him, nonplussed. "What? You did manage to order the cake, didn't you? Exactly the way Tae wants it?"

"No, no, it's not about the cake, I..." Gintoki took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Do you love her?"

Katsura blinked. "Huh?"

"I mean..." Shit! I'm going to start spouting rubbish. "I...there's...because if you don't, and if you're getting married just for the sake of getting married, there's somebody else who-"

"Kotarou-san? Who's that?"

Gintoki froze. A woman? In his house...this early in the morning?

Katsura cleared his throat and visibly blushed. "Sorry... Gintoki. You've caught me at a bad time."

A quiet rage started to wash over Gintoki. "Katsura..." he growled. "You better don't mean that I've caught you doing something you shouldn't be doing. If you do anything to hurt Otae-"

"Ara, Gin-san?"

Gintoki turned into stone. For peeking out from behind the sliding door to Katsura's bedroom was none other than Tae herself. Also clad in a robe that was obviously too large for her.

Tae joined the two men and took her seat next to Katsura, who was still a pretty shade of pink. "What are you doing here so early, Gin-san?"

"That's MY line!" Gintoki de-stoned and pointed a trembling finger at the couple. "I...What are you doing here?"

Tae blushed. "Gin-san, don't ask questions when you know the answer. What else do you think we were doing?"

Katsura was now a brilliant tomato-red. "Tae..."

"Eh? Did you even wash your face before you went to open the door?" Tae leaned closer to her fiance and scrutinized him. "You still have sleep in your eyes..." She reached up and gently thumbed away sleep from Katsura's eye.

"Ah, sorry..." Katsura smiled sheepishly. "It's just that, the knocking was so noisy... and I didn't want it to wake you up."

"Oh!" Tae smiled sweetly. "Well, I wasn't sleeping anyway. I just pretended."

"Eh? So you knew I was..."

"Watching me sleep? Yep, pretty much!"

"Hee.." Katsura looked away. "That's embarrassing."

"No it's not." Tae kissed his cheek and got up. "I'm going to make breakfast. Gin-san, stay for breakfast okay?" She left the room, leaving Gintoki staring at his childhood friend, aghast.

The two men sat in silence, Katsura looking away, now back to a pretty shade of pink; Gintoki also looking away, a sickly shade of gray.

"Y-you..." Gintoki broke the silence. "You...already..."

Katsura stared at his friend, meeting his gaze levelly. "Yes, we did, Gintoki. I know we're not married yet, but we... well, I hope that answers your question. I do love her. And judging by how it went, she was fine with it. In fact, she was more than fine. She was positively-"

"Arghhhh!" Gintoki clamped his hands to his ears. "Shut up! Don't say things I don't want to hear!"

"Here's breakfast!" Tae reappeared, bearing a tray with plates of burnt tamagoyaki.

"Ahh...no thanks! I..I ate already!" How did she cook so fast!

"What, you think we'll let you off so easily?" Why is she talking like a loanshark now! "Eat...this!" Tae flung a shrivelled black lump of something straight into his-

Gintoki awoke with a start, breathing heavily, arms flung out to defend his face from the tamagoyaki attack. For a few moments he stayed in that ridiculous position before realising that, thankfully, he was still in his room, blankets and pillows strewn around, cold sweat breaking out all over his body.

"OI! When are you guys waking up!" Outside, Shinpachi had started banging and clattering around in his futile efforts to wake the other two Yorozuya members up.

"Shinpachi!" Gintoki dashed out of his room. "Tae- was your sister home this morning?"

Shinpachi gave him a you-are-clearly-insane Look. "Yes. Where else would she be?"

Gintoki heaved a sigh of relief. Then he froze again. "Did you notice what time she got back last night?"

Shinpachi now gave him a you-are-asking-stupid-questions Look. "I dunoe, whenever her shift ended I guess. I'm always asleep by the time Ane-ue gets home, how the hell should I know? And what's your problem anyway?"

Gintoki flushed. "N-nothing." He walked back to his room. "Let me know when breakfast is ready."

"Excuse me? What do you take me for, your maid? And it's YOUR turn to cook!"

"We swopped."

"Since when?"

"Since now."

Shinpachi opened his mouth to fight for his stand, but Gintoki had slammed his bedroom door shut.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Time flies aru," Kagura commented, as she, Gintoki and Shinpachi walked in downtown Edo, on yet another wedding errand. "It's only 2 more weeks to the wedding."

"Ah." They stopped at the intersection. "Okay, you two take care of the shopping list. I'll go get the wedding favours."

"See you at the dojo later!" Kagura waved as she and Shinpachi continued to walk towards the big hypermarket a street away. Gintoki turned to the opposite direction.

"Gin-san!"

Gintoki turned and registered Tae and Ikumatsu walking towards him. Tae was waving cheerily as Ikumatsu smiled at him from beside her.

"You're on your way to pick up the favours right?" Tae asked as they caught up with Gintoki.

"Yeah. What are you doing out here?"

"We had to do a final fitting so I got Ikumatsu-dono to come along," Tae winked at Ikumatsu who smiled back sheepishly. "Anyway, why don't we all go together?"

"Sorry, Tae..." Ikumatsu inclined her head apologetically. "I kind of have to get back to the shop. It's going to be the dinner crowd soon...tell you what, why don't you guys come by for a quick dinner? It's on the way, and I can even drive you back with our delivery van. I'll be closing early today. That way you don't have to carry the wedding favours all the way back."

"Sounds like a plan," Tae clasped her hands happily. "We'll see you in a hour or so then, Ikumatsu-san!"

Ikumatsu bowed in greeting and hurried away.

As Tae and Gintoki made their way towards the shop, she hummed idly.

"...stop humming that song, nobody listens to B'z anymore."

Tae punched him without missing a note. Eyes watering, Gintoki admitted defeat as he clutched his head in pain. "Alright, alright, Miss Bride-to-Be. Feel free to hum the shittiest B'z song you can think of."

As they continued walking towards the shop, Gintoki stole a glance at Tae, who was still happily humming what was, in Gintoki's opinion, an incredibly irritating song. But he couldn't help but smile as he watched her out of the corner of his eye.

Tae suddenly turned towards him. "Mm? What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Startled, Gintoki flushed. "Um..." A billion excuses ran through his head. "Here we are."

"Oh right!" Tae eagerly entered the shop. Gintoki sighed and smiled wryly before following her in.

"Hello!" Tae called out. "It's Shimura Tae...I'm here to collect my order. I think it's under the name of Katsura?"

"Ah yes!" The shopowner, a plump, amiable old lady, bustled out. "You're the bride-to-be? Congratulations!" She turned to Gintoki, standing behind Tae. "And you must be the groom. You look such a beautiful couple."

"Oh no, he's just the hired help," Tae commented cheerfully.

Gintoki tried to ignore a pang somewhere deep in his gut. "She says so, but she doesn't pay me," Gintoki deadpanned. He staggered back as Tae gave him a neat punch in his gut.

The old lady laughed. "Well, please do excuse me for that mistake. But you do look wonderful together, if you don't mind me saying."

"We do mind you saying, actually-"

Tae held up a threatening fist, and Gintoki shut up.

As he watched Tae and the shopowner ramble on about payment and orders, Gintoki briefly wondered how it would feel like to tell the shopowner that yes, he was indeed, the groom-to-be.

Then he shook his head, as if to clear it.

Get a grip, Gintoki. She's marrying Zura. In two weeks.

In two weeks, it would all be over.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ittadakimasu!"

"Ittadakimasu."

"Wow, Ikumatsu-dono's shop is really doing well, isn't it?" Tae commented, as she picked out her fishcakes to plop them into Gintoki's bowl.

"Yeah." Gintoki was busy fishing out the beansprouts in his, proceeding to dump them into Tae's bowl.

Tae shook her head. "You should eat them, Gin-san. You already have such a terrible diet."

"They taste like crap." Gintoki deadpanned and continued to slurp his noodles at an inhuman speed.

"Ne, Gin-san..." Tae suddenly spoke up, deserting her ramen bowl and gazing at him seriously. "You will find a nice girl and settle down one day, won't you?"

Gintoki choked. Tae pushed a glass of water towards him, shaking his head as he continued to cough and choke.

"What nice girl?" Gintoki asked, after he had finished coughing. "The girls in Kabuki-cho are seriously crazy. I value my life - okay, okay!" he held up his hands to defend himself from Tae's threatening fists.

As Tae glared at him, Gintoki could not help but smile.

"...what?"

"Nah...it's just..." Gintoki pushed his empty bowl away and rested his cheek on his palm, "I know this sounds crazy, but I'll miss all the beating up. You won't beat Zura up too much, will you?"

I don't want him to take my place.

Tae smirked. "Of course not. Unlike you, Kotarou-san is actually a fantastic person." Tae stopped and stared at Gintoki, whose expression had somewhat turned melancholy. "Gin-san? Are you okay?"

Gintoki wondered. Was he?

I feel like...what do I feel, anyway?

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 had left them to follow the Yagyuu household.

Suddenly, he felt like blurting everything out.

I don't want you to marry him.

Gintoki took a deep breath.

tbc

A/N: Well. I thought I should give Gintoki a chance. That is, outside of a dream, that eventually ended up becoming a tamagoyaki nightmare. Will he finally tell Tae what he's thinking? Does he even KNOW what he's thinking?

Do I?

Thanks for the support as always guys!