AN: Just so you all know, this was written entirely on my phone. So please pardon the slight typos and maybe the segmented feel to the whole thing. And it's also my first Gintama fic. Maaan, I just love these two!

Permheads Aren't Cursed to be Single Forever

There's nothing between them.

Nothing.

No feelings, no love, no nothing. No romantic little conversations, no shy glances from across the room, no palpable sexual tension.

No... No, none of that is true.

The minute he laid eyes on her as he wandered through the streets of Yoshiwara was his undoing. Gintoki couldn't help but admit that he was utterly, hopelessly, stubbornly in love with the utterly hopeless, stubborn Tsukuyo.

He spents weeks- no, months trying to convince himself that these feeligs will lead to nothing. She had given up her womanhood the minute the blade touched her once-unblemished face. She was solely dedicated to Hinowa and to Yoshiwara. There was no room for him in her life...

But then why was his mind screaming at him to try anyway? Why had he allowed himself to put his walls down all for the sake of a woman? Why couldn't he rid himself of the memory of his name on her lips, the scent of her perfume, the way she succumbed to sleep and laid on his bare chest?

Torn between hesitation and reckless bravado, he headed towards her as she sat on a bench outside a popular tobacco shop, pipe casually perched on her lips. There's no point denying it any longer, so he might as well come clean with everything now.

The faint smell of tobacco and a hint of sweet perfume hits his senses as he approached her. And as usual, upon seeing his lazy stride, she responded with a steely gaze and a nonchalant exhale of smoke.

He ever so hesitantly reached out a hand to her, and, seeing her almost anticipate his touch while pretending not to, he took her hand in his and ran his thumb over her knuckles.

"I wanted to see you." He found himself blurting out earnestly, a blush blooming on his face as he tightened his grip, eyes pointedly avoiding hers.

"Hm? Ya need something?" She replied, barely concealing the telltale pinkness on her cheeks. It was weird, looking up at him against the bright sun, her hand firmly nestled in his palm.

"Tsukuyo."

"What?"

"Maybe... Maybe it's time we stopped pretending there's nothing between us." Gintoki swallowed audibly as he tried to force his face to take on it's usual lazy form. He failed.

"What are you talking about? What kinda greeting is that?!" Tsukuyo's blush intensified as she, right at that moment, realized that she was now standing in the middle of a crowded street with Sakata Gintoki holding her hand. But it seemed as if there was no force on earth strong enough to make her snatch her hand away.

"You know what I mean. Maybe it's time we just went ahead and became honest, you know? We've been at this for months, and people are bound to figure out what's going on between us."

"You disappear for a month without so much as a phone call, and this is the first thing that comes outta yer mouth? That's rich." She irritatedly blew smoke in his general direction, hoping the gesture will let off the steam that's building up in her face.

"Tsch. This isn't some shoujo manga where I waltz in and try to sweep you of into the sunset or anything, alright? I'm trying to handle this like an adult, you know? And FYI, I left you a message after we... Y'know, last time. I said I needed time to think, and I did. Now I'm saying we gotta admit eventually that there's something between us."

"Hah. Tell me then, what's going on between us?" Her haughtiness would have been convicing had she been trying to convince someone else. But this is Gintoki, and he knows her so well that it almost scares her.

"You know what it is. Don't act dumb." His exasperation was evident, but seeing as she's putting up one hell of a tsundere front, he chose to indulge her and put it into words.

"We've been seeing each other for months, I mean, before I disappeared and tried to convince myself that none of this meant anything. But those visits and little picnics and dinners... I wasn't here on a job. And you sure as hell didn't bill me for your time."

She started to retort, but he cut her off. "I'm not telling you to bill me though, if that's what you're thinking! I could barely afford the gas to drive my bike all the way here. And even more than all those times we spent together, there was that one-"

"Gintoki, don't-" she warned.

"Even more than that, we've already gotten-"

"Don't say it!" Her voice was louder, a little more desperate.

"We've-"

"Not out loud, you stupi-"

"We've already slept together-"

"That one time!" She practically screamed as she dug her nails into his palm. He winced at the pain but refused to let go.

"One night but four times," He whispered with a sly wink.

"It was just-"

"It wasn't just sex to me. It never would have been." The sincerity in his voice was evident, and the intensity of his scarlet gaze was almost enough to make her believe him.

"It meant something to me," he clarified, "I know it sounds like a load of crap, especially coming from a guy like me. But I'm not the kind of guy who works with false pretenses. I've never been this close to anyone... In this way. I've never been in love before you."

"In... Love?" She was repeating his words as if she were in a daze. The realization of his words took a little too long to register. Love wasn't something that people take seriously in Yoshiwara. It was a word bandied around to fool women into doing a man's bidding.

Love, to a woman like Tsukuyo, felt like a trap. But why did she feel like diving in headfirst?

"I'm in love with you. Like I said before, I don't mind being yours alone."

"Wha-"

"Can't we just come clean with it? You obviously feel somethig for me. All this denial is getting us nowhere!"

"No I don't! How dare you insinuate that I-"

Without letting her finish, he tugged on her hand to pull her closer and pressed his lips against hers. This is in public, and he didn't care who could see them. In fact, let them all see. Let them know that the Shiroyasha is madly, stupidly, intensely in love with the famed Courtesan of Death.

Tsukuyo's world seemed to implode and the only thing she could feel was the softness of his lips and his large hand against the small of her back.

"I know you feel something for me, Tsukuyo." He whispered breathlessly into her ear as soon as their mouths parted.

The way her name rolled off his tongue reminded her of that one night when all he could say was her name. Right after that first kiss, as she bared herself to him, in the throes of passion, and after each time they made love, it was her name on his lips the whole time. There was no way she could resist him.

"Gintoki..." Her face an odd mixture of shock and desire.

"God, don't say it like that..." Apparently, she had the same effect on him. "When you have that look on you face, I might not be able to help myself."

"I'm... I don't... What do you want me to say?"

"That's easy," he replied with a casual shrug as he took a step back, "Let's keep at it. We can go on cheesy dates, do stuff couples do. Make out every once in a while... Do some naked wrestling. Have mind-blowing, earth-shattering, breath-taking sex."

That last statement intensified Tsukuyo's blush. "Tch. How can you be so calm about this? You make it sound like all that couple stuff is so easy. What's the catch?"

"I'm a catch!"

"You know what I mean, permhead." She said as she rolled her eyes.

"Let's just say you can get a better looking, richer, more refined guy with a better hairstyle. You could get yourself a nobleman if you wanted to. I ain't gonna deny that. But you know from experience just what I'm willing to do for you. I'd go through all that again if it means I get to be with you. You'll probably get a headache from putting up with the shit I pull. My chronic lack of funds, my pachinko habit, the JUMP addiction. But in the end, I'll give you all of me. No holding back, no bullshit. All of it." At this, Gintoki took a deep breath and continued, "So how about it? You wanna give this a shot before we're too old to hop into bed together?"

For the first time since they started talking, Tsukuyo managed a slight smile, "You can be so crass. And that's a lot coming from me."

"So it's a yes, then? You'll finally break the singledom spell my natural perm brought me?"

"Hah. What gives ya that impression?"

"Well, you're smiling. That's always a pretty good sign. You haven't thrown a kunai at me, despite me getting the jump on you and kissing you. Plus, there's the fact that you haven't let go of my hand."

Tsukuyo looked down at their hands and suddenly snatched hers away. But in doing so, she couldn't help the widening grin on her face.

Who the hell was she kidding, she thought to herself. Of course it's a frickin' yes. It was a yes the minute Gintoki nearly died trying to save Yoshiwara.

"Yeah, yeah." She said finally, casually waving her now free hand in an attempt to look nonchalant, "Might as well give it a shot... So what now?"

Gintoki shrugged and started walking, "I passed by this love hot-"

*thwack* a kunai promptly embedded itself at the back of his head, him stop dead in his tracks.

"I mean, a lovely dango shop. I passed one by earlier. Nice place. Shall we?"

Tsukuyo walked up to him and pulled out the bloody kunai. "Yeah, let's."

Gintoki took in the sight of Tsukuyo's elegant form walking ahead of him. He knew in the back of his (slightly bleeding) mind that he'd be seeing more and more of this in the years to come. This is just the beginning, and there are bound to be moments when he'd be praying to whichever deity for mercy when this woman's ire would find him. But despite all this, he knew he'd never regret this one moment when everything went right.

And for the first time in his twenty-something odd years of existence, he felt absolute contentment.