A/N: Two chapters were uploaded today, so you may have missed one. I'm trying to get this story caught up to what I'm writing, so there may be some days when I upload two chapters, but I'll refrain from more so not to overwhelm anybody. Enjoy, and if you have the time, drop me a review to let me know what you think. :)
Morning had long set in by the time Kamui finally woke up. He faded into the real world, covered in sweat. Panting, and drained of the energy that sleeping should have replenished. The world swayed a greeting to him, and sitting up made him lightheaded. Reduced to falling back into the bed, the man spread his arms across the mattress, still peculiarly alone. Ame must not have come back. Just as he was wondering why, the woman herself came through the door, already dressed and as steely as usual. Upon entering, she caught sight of him and her brow furrowed. He stared back for a moment. Didn't say a word as the door closed behind her. Then he smiled. Equally quiet and ignoring the look, Ame walked to his bedside and pulled his drawer open.
The gun was gone. He must have known she would want it back. A single glance back at the man showed that he was still watching her. Knew exactly what she was looking for and had no intention of letting her have it back. With a heavy sigh, Ame rolled her eyes at the man. His grin slowly faded away as she eased over to him and placed her palm across his forehead. Checked his temperature without a word.
Not as bad as the previous night. As the man curiously stared up at her, Ame pulled her hand away.
"Where's my gun?" No hint of compassion hung in her voice, yet Kamui was unfazed by her tone. He casually shrugged and kicked one leg up.
"Why do you need it?"
Ame was in no mood for his games. She started to snap back at him, but the door to their room was pushed open with no warning, cutting her off before she could begin.
"Oi, idiots, you have visitors." Scratching his head, Abuto lazily stared at the scene he'd interrupted. Ame glared back at him, hardly swayed from whatever she had been about to say.
"Visitors?"
"The dumb ass' sister and the Yorozuya for you. Say's he's got something for you; he's outside." Turning to fully face the man, Ame crossed her arms. What could he possibly have for her? Money for his tab maybe? Had she left something? Instead of asking Abuto, the woman hesitantly crossed the room and pulled on her combat boots. Glanced back at Kamui once more as she passed the older man in the doorway. "And can't you at least wait for him to feel better before you bite his head off?"
"I'm fine," Kamui insisted, and though he was smiling, Abuto shot him an unconvinced look from the doorway.
"You haven't even had breakfast."
"I'm not really hungry..." Murmuring under his breath, Kamui turned over in his sheets and stared at the red skin of his arm. Still peeling. It looked terrible. He didn't know how Ame even let him grab her with his arms like that...
"You idiot, you need to eat to get better!" Abuto barked back at him, and Ame turned to glower up at him.
"Can't you at least wait for him to feel better before biting his head off?" Her narrowed eyes earned an inscrutable contortion of his face.
"You should make him eat something." As he murmured back to the woman, Ame pushed her palm into his shoulder, still as could be.
"Tag." Before Abuto could process her actions, Ame sprinted from the doorway and left him to his new responsibility. Almost laughed when he whipped around, slack-jawed.
"O- Oi!" The woman was long gone. She'd left him to force food down Kamui's throat, and though the captain wasn't paying attention any more, Abuto knew it was going to be far more trouble than it should have. He turned back to the room and released a long, tasked sigh.
"What's this?" Accepting an envelope from the silver haired samurai, Ame turned it over in her hands.
"Dunno, that's your business." Dead crimson eyes peered back at the woman and she ignored the look as her thumb slid under the edge of the paper. "All she said was that you'd want to see it, so you'd pay me."
Irked at the last bit, Ame raised a brow to the man. She pulled the letter out of the envelope and leaned onto the ship beside Gintoki, silently drinking in the words. The ocean beyond the dock roared with a wave that slapped the shore, and salt mist pricked at her cheeks. It was short, sweet and to the point. The handwriting was unmistakable. Ohara Iori. She had returned to leave a letter with Gintoki. Had seen them leave the Yorozuya and knew he'd know where to find her.
"Did she-" Turning to glance over her surroundings, Ame swept over the street, buildings, rooftops, and any other place people could have been hiding. Laying in wait to try to take the ship. Take her. "Did you lead her here?!"
Slightly taken aback, Gintoki leaned up and frowned at the woman.
"Uh... No?"
Shooting a glare up at the man, Ame turned back to face him.
"You don't sound very sure of yourself!" Alarm was raising in her throat, burning as the man glanced over the street as she had. Moments passed, and both of them stood perfectly still. Simply stared at the road as if they expected tens of people to spring from behind boxes and charge, swords in hand. When nothing happened, Ame glanced back down at the letter again and read through once more for good measure. Meet over drinks like old times to discuss a personal debt. The boy was involved. She couldn't let this get out. The last Ame could do was tell Kamui, especially in the state that he was in. He didn't need any stress. He only needed to focus on getting better. Likewise, Abuto wouldn't exactly take to it kindly. She needed to handle it herself.
When Gintoki heard the flick of a lighter, he looked over and found the corner of the letter being set aflame. Ame held it upright as fire crawled up it's edges and engulfed the papers. Black crept up to consume every pristine particle and when no more than a single part remained, Ame released the paper and let it blow away; still flaming and spitting ashes in it's trail. dug into the pocket of her cargo pants and produced a wallet. Pulled out a few bills and begrudgingly forked them over to the man, scowling to herself. Deadpan, Gintoki accepted the money and leaned back against the ship.
He'd caught a glimpse of what had been written there. Didn't hint at knowing or otherwise bring it back up. The woman muttered for him to wait one second. Needed a moment to write a response of her own. It was going to be a one word letter, but those three syllables would hold enough weight to break the paper.
Accepted.
Iori would be waiting for Gintoki's return at the Yorozuya.
As the silver haired samurai awaited Ame's response, a large mass of familiar men clad in black came into sight. He watched with mild curiosity as the Shinsengumi, lead by none other than Hijikata, walked down the dock and right up to the Harusame ship and his side. The vice commander wasted no time in sparking a cigarette and spitting a skipped greeting.
"One complaint about a suspicious ship and this is what we find. You bastard, of course you'd be involved."
Gawking at the unusually large amount of officers, Gintoki shook his head.
"Nope. I'm not. I'm just gonna sit right here." Nervously chuckling, Gintoki disengaged and turned back to the hatch. Just his luck that he'd get pulled into something like this. As he was minding his own business, the officers spread out and started examining the ship, leaving him nearly face to face with Hijikata.
"Boss, what are you doing here?" Sougo appeared from the crowd and walked up to Gintoki, deadpan. Before Gintoki could attempt an answer, footsteps resonated through the hatch and a familiar brunette stepped into view.
"Pirates, cops, Japan just keeps getting better." She shoved a folded sheet of paper towards Gintoki and he pocketed it without a second thought. That probably didn't make him look uninvolved to the onlookers. A wide grin was flashed towards Hijikata, as if pleading for an innocent verdict. "Why don't you all turn around and take off? Before the crew notices you."
"Look lady, if anyone is turning tail and taking off it's you. What's this ship doing here?" Hijikata stepped forward to address Ame himself, and the woman crossed her arms. Behind her, a certain redhead approached.
"Nothing, it's parked, what does it look like?"
"You know that's not what I meant!"
Smirking back at the raven haired man, Ame raised her jaw.
"This ship is full of grown Yato men, unlike this girl beside me." Smugly eying the officers that paused at her words, the woman cracked another smirk as Kagura laughed beside her.
"That's right, aru!"
Blood drained from the face of the men in front of her, and Ame leaned back. Just waited for them to say anything to piss her off.
"A ship full of Yato? What the- Lady, you need to come in for questioning." Or protective custody, Hijikata wasn't sure. Maybe a mental evaluation.
"I'm not going anywhere, the Captain of this ship is stronger than all of you combined and you wouldn't want to piss him off. And I'm no pushover either."
Pushing past Hijikata, Sougo eyed the woman standing in the hatch.
"So what, are you the Captain's main squeeze or something?"
"Sougo!" Hijikata's scolding tone was ignored. Switching his eyes between the officers and Ame, Gintoki started to ease along the side of the ship to escape. He wasn't getting wrapped up in this. No way. A Shinsengumi/Yato brawl was not in his day-planner.
"Something like that." Calmly murmuring back to the teenager, Ame crossed her arms. Not like Kamui had been doing any squeezing lately. Without warning, a broad shouldered, ashy haired man appeared at her side. She turned to peer up at him, thankful that he'd shown up. Assumed that Kamui was safely in bed and they could play off the fact that their captain was so strong he couldn't be bothered with coming out.
"What's the issue here?" Planting himself in the doorway, Abuto disinterestedly waited for an answer. When Hijikata stepped forward, the men seemed to gather themselves behind him.
"We need to speak with the captain of this ship."
"I'm the Captain." A distinctly tense voice rang out behind the three in the doorway. Stunned, they turned to find Kamui dragging himself to the door. He stumbled towards them, talking all the while, as his men looked on. "You humans have some nerve bringing so few people to confront me and my men-" Excitement buzzed through the a gathering crowd behind Kamui as his men looked on. They cheered for their Captain. Knew he would make them proud. But the moment he reached the slope of the door, his weight failed to stop. Instead of stalking over to the Shinsengumi leader, Kamui lurched forward and landed on his face with a resonating smack.
Wide eyed and long mugged, Ame and Abuto stared down at the man. He didn't move. Behind them, every single Yato that had been watching fell deathly silent, and the officers, as well as the members of the Yorozuya watched on with mixed expressions.
"Don't pay this drunk any attention," Moving and thinking quickly, Ame nearly jumped to a crouch beside Kamui. She could feel everybody's eyes on her as she pulled at his arm to get him up and his skin peeled under her grasp. "Uh, Captain-"
Kamui started to correct her but her palm clamped over his mouth as she looked up at Abuto. With wide eyes, the man stared back. He needed to get with the program. They couldn't parade Kamui around with the title of captain if he wasn't even up to walking.
"Captain," She sneered up at the man and he cleared his throat.
"Oh- Oh, uh, yeah?"
"This drunk idiot is pretending to be you again. Uh- what should I do with him?"
"I'm the Captain!" Kamui insisted, turning his head away from Ame's hand. Gawking down at the man, she fought to muffle his voice as Kagura joined her at his side to assist.
"Uh- Get him back on the ship, I'll, uh... Deal with him later."
"I'm the Captain!" Kamui yelled out again, only to have Kagura shove her hand into his face with far more force than was necessary. The real captain waved his arms in an attempt at escape, but his sister had him beat. With every angle he tried to push, she was blocking his path. One of his arms shot out past her and the hand over his face mercilessly slammed him back into the ground. If Ame didn't know any better she'd have thought the girl was hurting him. The sight left her so stunned and on the edge of defensiveness that she almost blanked. Didn't know what to do. Then she regained herself and pushed her white lie further.
"Don't be ridiculous, our Captain would never be so drunk he couldn't even walk, right?"
"Right!" Kagura peered back at Ame as they simultaneously jerked the man to his feet.
"Oi, lady, you're letting this old man squeeze you?"
"Huh?" Turning to the sandy haired captain, Ame abandoned her half of Kamui's weight, yet he was easily caught by Kagura.
"You're the Captain's squeeze right?"
"Sougo, that's enough!" Hijikata cut in as soon as he saw where the conversation was headed, but it was too late.
"Old man?" Abuto mumbled back, scratching the back of his head. He wasn't expecting Ame to latch onto his side, tense as he had ever seen her and furthering the shit she had already gotten them into, but that was exactly what she did. Abandoned Kamui to his sister and dug her claws into Abuto's back as she wrapped an arm around him. Blankly gawking down at the woman, he froze. Kamui wasn't going to like this. "Oi, wha-" Before Abuto could object, Ame pinched him under his cape. That bitch. He jerked at the pain and glared down at her.
"Th- That's right-" Innocently glancing back up at the man, Ame forced an unconvincing grin. "Uh, yeah, he may be an old man but-" The men of the Shinsengumi were watching through oddly squinted eyes. Abuto pinched the woman back and she squeaked, then cut her eyes towards him.
"I'm not old."
"I'm the captain! That's my human!" Over Abuto's shoulder, Ame caught sight of Kamui putting up too little of a fight to get back, only to be shoved further away by his sister. He charged the scene in the doorway, and Ame almost flinched away from Abuto, but before he could reach, Kagura latched onto his arm and swung him around in a full circle. He was launched back across the ship into the depths of darkness and out of sight. Objecting all the way.
"Be quiet drunk!" Kagura's overly enthusiastic addition to their facade did nothing to alleviate the situation.
"I'm not drunk!" The clamor faded into the background as Kagura chased after her brother and drew him further away; leaving Ame and Abuto pinching each other behind their backs and fumbling through their Captain charade to shake off the Shinsengumi. It was no easy feat, but several long minutes later, Ame's hospital treatment bought them time and a pass. She and Abuto clamored away, shoving the other at the shoulder and butting heads.