Epilogue

"...yo. ...kuyo."

An echo resonates far away.

" ...ukuyo..."

Just answer, someone, she thinks vaguely. The voice is distracting her.

"Tsukuyo!"

The woman looks up from her musings as she becomes aware of piercing maroon-brown eyes.

"Gintoki?"

The samurai sighs deeper than strictly necessary to convey his exasperated patience.

"Geez, woman. What's got you dreaming so out of character unaware of your surroundings?"

The sun has already gone under. She has been sitting longer on the porch than she intended to. While looking around she notices that Hinowa and Seita have already gone inside together with Shinpachi and Kagura.

"You're leaving?" she guesses.

"-and that's why woman are always self-abso-" he breaks off his uninteresting monologue about who-gives-a-dump to answer her question.

"That's exactly what I have been trying to tell you. It's late. My two brats are sleepy so Hinowa-san offered us to stay the night."

"Oh."

He stands up from his spot on the ground. But he doesn't go inside like she figured he would do. Instead he just stands still. After a few minutes he gives her a look.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to patrol tonight?"

"I am about to," she responds slowly. "I wasn't supposed to be here this long. Why?"

Silence.

"Gintoki?" she asks as he doesn't make any indication to leave. No answer.

She tries to hit him on the head, which is hard because he is standing and she is still sitting. Almost she loses her balance on the edge of the porch but then - victory!

"Ngnn! Was that necessary?!" he groans annoyed reaching for his head.

"Gintoki - you aren't going inside?"

Silence. Until,

"Thirty packets of strawberry milk."

"Huh?"

"Thirty packets of strawberry milk," he repeats.

"What about it?"

"I'll keep you company on your patrol if you pay me thirty packets of strawberry milk."

The planet has turned upside down. Maybe a black hole has consumed every little bit of sense that ever existed on earth. Though honestly - it never had much sense to begin with.

He strolls lazily to the exit of the garden. Unconcerned he looks at her. Again.

"You coming or not?"

Slowly, while making sure the sweet addict doesn't see, a tiny smile appears on her face no matter how hard she tries to keep her expression under control. She stands up.

"Yeah, slowpoke. Coming," she says trying to keep her tone under control as well. They leave the garden.

"Listen who's talking," he mutters.

"That's the wrong way, Gintoki," she comments and she watches how he turns around while trying to look unaffected by his lack of orientation - which makes it even harder to keep her expression under control.

"You better not take too long patrolling! Beauty sleep is a necessary part of life for innocent attractive and good-looking men, you know!"

"Innocent," she deadpans, which he pretends not to hear as she wonders which patrolling route to take this time.

"Not that something mundane as 'sleep' exists in your private dictionary considering your even-busier-than-Gorilla-sensei-trying-to-come-up-with-a-good-conclusion-for-Gintama busy schedule. You should be grateful that Gin-san is taking time off his busy schedule, ungrateful woman!"

"Sleeping, schedule," she corrects, which he also pretends not to hear.

As she gestures to go left - which would be entirely unnecessary if he would let her walk up front - she makes a decision.

I guess it's been a while since I've taken the long route, she figures.

After a few minutes the samurai slows down at her pace.

"Tsukuyo?"

"Hmm?"

"I would have done it for ten."

Quietly she considers this. A few streets of comfortable silence later she answers.

"I would have gone to fifty."

This time she doesn't take the effort to hide her smile as he instantly starts to negotiate for more of his teeth-destroying addiction.

After all - wouldn't the nights on earth be dark if the moon never existed in the first place?

A/N: The timeline is set a few years after the conclusion of Gintama, so that explains the slight difference in characters. I wrote this epilogue because I just couldn't let it end like that. The woman really underestimates herself (in my story, at least). Oh, I have absolutely no idea how the ratings system works. So I'll just go with... K+? Correct me if necessary.

Furthermore... actually, that's all. Approving nod. Yup.

I hope you enjoyed it.