Author's Note: Alright. I've got another Gintoki x Otae fanfic. Anyone out there writing some more? Come on people, show this pairing some more love. Onegai! ;) Anyway, I wrote this using the prompt, Drinking Game. I've made a list of prompts that I'm going to use to write short GinxOtae drabbles but as you can see I tend to write long fanfics. *hangs head in shame* I know I just got to have a little discipline and keep an eye on the word count. *sigh* But you know, once the writing bug is let loose, it just goes out there on its own and do it's thing. I can't really hold it back. Like what I'm doing now. LOL. By the way, the overall title of the fanfic, "I am Drinking the Stars!" came from a quote that Dom Perignon (a Benedictine monk from the 16th century who contributed a lot to the development of the wine industry) reportedly said the first time he sipped a bubbly champagne.

Gintama is copyrighted by Hideaki Sorachi. I make no claims of owning it.

For when the wine is in, the wit is out

Gintoki didn't know how he had gotten into this situation. Quite frankly, he was supposed to be doing an odd job somewhere with Shinpachi and Kagura. But here he was in front of Snack Sumairu.

"Ah Sakata-san, you're here," said Kikuya, Smile's owner, when he saw Gintoki hanging out by the entrance. "Come in, come in."

"Yo, tenchou. I didn't come here as a customer though," replied Gintoki hesitantly. If he got cajoled into coming in, his wallet might regret it. Although, his wallet surely had nothing to complain about especially if it was empty to begin with.

"That's alright. I was the one who called you here in the first place," Kikuya reassured him. "Besides, you're here to do a job, am I right?"

"Hai," Gintoki said. "About that odd job...what do you what me to do exactly?"

"That's why I'm asking you to come in. I'll tell you about it in my office," said Kikuya as he nudged Gintoki in the threshold. "Besides, I don't want you to be hanging out here, customers might get the wrong idea that our establishment is an immoral place, you know."

"What the hell do you mean by that, jiji. Do I look like a male hooker to you?" shouted Gintoki.

"No, no...that's not what I meant. People might think you're our customer and you're waiting for one of our girls to go with you to have a different kind of fun, you know. So that's bad for our image," Kikuya quickly explained to appease the white-haired samurai. "We are in the business of giving clean, fun and enjoyable companionship and entertainment."

"Don't you mean cleaning hapless customers out of their hard-earned money for a couple of drinks of Dom Peri," said Gintoki nonchalantly, but Kikuya was already out of earshot.

Inside the manager's office, Kikuya gave Gintoki the initial intro of the situation.

"It's about Otae-san," he started gravely.

"What?! What happened to Otae-san?" said Gintoki, quickly agitated. "Did anything happen to her? Did that gorilla stalker finally made his move and plucked the innocent but deadly flower out of the forbidden garden? That bastard! Wait until I tell this to Shinpachi. The poor kid forcibly robbed of his oneechan at such a young age. Unforgivable! That gorilla is unforgivable!"

"Ochitsuite, Sakata-san, ochitsuite," Kikuya said frantically. "There are customers outside. I don't want them to get alarmed, for god's sake. You're going to ruin my business if you don't calm down. It's nothing like that. Otae-san is fine!"

"Fine?" blinked Gintoki for a moment. "Heh...sorry, tenchou, I didn't mean to overreact. You know, Otae-san is one of my employees' precious oneechan and...um...you know...how it is...their family is practically my family and I tend to get overprotective about them. It's that connection that you can't really ignore."

Kikuya looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "Right, that connection eh?"

He smiled sheepishly, feeling majorly embarrassed. "So...what was the odd job again?" he asked in a small voice.

"No use telling you, so I would just have to show you," said Kikuya, heaving a very deep sigh. He led Gintoki to a big couch where Otae was happily sleeping.

"You see, she had a filthy rich customer earlier who ordered tons of Dom Perignon. The fellow is a pretty big spender. He kept ordering Dom Perignon, which, of course, brought in good business for the club, but the downside was he persuaded Otae-san into a drinking game," narrated Kikuya.

Gintoki looked at the almost beatific face of the young woman and thought, 'She's not happily sleeping. She's happily wasted.'

"Otae-san, being the professional that she is, obliged wholeheartedly. But it turned out the customer can hold his drink really good. And I guess, Otae-san felt her pride being challenged so she went head-to-head with him. So the drinking game became a drinking match and a battle of wills. Neither one of them didn't want to back down. I tried to intervene to save Otae-san but she stopped me and said that the pride of Smile was at stake. The truth is, I was so moved by her courage that it reminded me of my younger self," Kikuya said with eyes welling with tears.

At this point, Gintoki was resisting the urge to go ballistic. He clenched his fists and willed himself to count to 10 backwards. "And then what happened?" he asked between gritted teeth.

"So..um..we kinda cheered her on a little bit. The other girls brought out pom poms and formed a cheering squad right there and then. We even put up an impromptu banner that said, "Otae-san, ganbatte!" and I gave out pins that said "Otae-san is the best!". We also did that for the rich customer, of course, but our loyalty remained with Otae-san. Tonight she became our guiding star...the Smile in Snack Sumairu..." Kikuya proclaimed with eyes shining brightly.

WHACK! and Kikuya hit the floor face first. "Teme! Why the hell did you cheer her on? Who in their right mind would encourage a young woman get plastered with alcohol using pom poms, cheerleaders, banners and pins? What's that? A sporting event? A fraternity-sorority party? You might as well force Dom Peri down her throat using a a funnel and rubber tube! Bakero!"

"Gomenasai, Sakata-san," repented Kikuya and kneeled in front of Gintoki. "We got so caught up with the whole spirit of things and the competitive atmosphere that we forgot that our representative was a delicate young woman like Otae-san. Please forgive me."

This time, it's Gintoki's turn to heave a very deep sigh. "So how many did she drink?"

Kikuya still in a prostrate position, hesitated for a minute, weighing his answer carefully lest he receives another smack from the naturally permed samurai. "Er...we lost count after the 20 bottles. Moshiwake gozaimasen!"

Gintoki rubbed his forehead vigorously. This situation was beginning to give him a serious headache. He felt like butting Kikuya's head just to make it go away. But he had to see this through. "So what happened in the end?"

"In the end, the rich customer went unconscious first, then Otae-san followed a few seconds later. So technically, our Otae-san won the match. It was a close but perfect win even if it was only a few seconds lead. You should have seen her, she was magnificent," Kikuya said with eyes shining brightly, forgetting himself in his euphoria.

WHACK! and he was back in a prostrate position. "Teme! Stop turning the whole event into an Olympic triumph! You shouldn't have encouraged her to do it. What if she turned into an alcoholic? It's bad enough that she can be a merciless woman in her normal and sober state. But fueled with alcohol, she may turn into a Godzilla leveling everything in her path!" screamed Gintoki.

He heard Otae stirred on the couch and for a quick second, he realized he said something that would have elicited a violent response from her. He turned around to see if an attack was imminent, but the young woman remained sleeping contentedly. He pulled Kikuya by the collar and brought him close to his face.

"You do know what I mean, right," he whispered earnestly. "If that happens, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, would be leveled to the ground and where would that leave us? Do you understand what I'm getting at, tenchou?"

Kikuya nodded profusely. "Yes I do. Honto ni gomenasai, Sakata-san."

Gintoki ran his fingers through his hair, this situation had become troublesome indeed. 'Tch...mendokuse.' But there was nothing he could do but accept the situation at hand and move on. "So what now?"

Kikuya quickly stood up and said rather formally, "Ah yes, that's where the odd job comes in, Sakata-san. As you can see, Otae-san has been out for a few hours now and is unable to continue working. So I'm giving her a day-off and sending her home. But in this state, she's not fit to go home by herself. That's why I called you here, Sakata-san. Would you kindly see to it that Otae-san gets home safe?"

Gintoki looked at the young woman and agreed that she was in no state to be walking in Kabukicho on her own. Some unsavory characters might take advantage of her and have their way with her. Like that gorilla stalker.

'That guy would probably see this as an opportunity to propose to her again and in her drunkenness, Otae-san would freely say 'yes' without her knowing about it. Or worse, she might wake up with him in bed the next morning...Unforgivable!...Huh? Wha...What the hell am I thinking all of a sudden...Keep your cool, Gintoki," he mentally slapped himself.

He went towards the couch and gently nudged Tae. "Otae-san, it's Gin. Hora, wake up and let's get you home."

Otae made an annoyed whimper and let loose her fist. "Go away, gorilla!" she shouted. Gintoki dodged the blow just in time, thanking his quick reflexes. "Hey that's dangerous! Gorilla ja nai. Gin da! Come on, Otae-san. I just want you to sit up. Can you do that?"

"Gin-san teba," murmured Tae in irritation. 'She sounded like a child refusing to wake up early on a school day,' he thought as he pulled her up gently into a sitting position. He then turned his back to her and squatted while he pulled both her arms up. He draped them over his shoulders and in one big heave, he was able to carry her on his back. "Yosh, now we're ready to go home."

Kikuya opened the office door for them. "Thank you, Sakata-san for helping out. Please take good care of our golden star alright."

Gintoki walked towards the door but before he went out, he turned to Kikuya and said with a very serious face, yes the face that sent Amantos scurrying for their lives during the war, "Tenchou, I'd like you to promise me that this won't happen again."

"Ha..hai," said Kikuya rather shamefully and in fear. He knew he should have been more responsible and not let the young woman do that match despite her insistence. Moreover, one look at the serious face of the odd-jobs samurai had sent shivers down his spine. Yes, definitely there won't be a next time and he'll make sure of it.

The early evening air was cold. But surprisingly, Gintoki didn't feel it. He actually felt warm all over. Otae was sprawled on his back, her body pressed comfortably to his. She had one arm loosely around his neck, and her head laid on one of his shoulders.

Suddenly, he realized this was the first time he had been this close to her. It was like his body was in a heightened state of awareness. Every nerve endings on his skin felt warm - no, not warm - hot like when one slowly submerged into a smoking hot spring. The sensation was instantly painful yet gratifyingly pleasurable after.

'Ochitsuite, Gintoki. There's nothing to be excited about. It's just Otae-san...Huh? Who said I was excited...I'm not getting excited...zenzen,' he thought, mentally slapping himself for the second time.

Otae shifted a little and he shifted with her on reflex to keep her from falling off. He steadied his hands under her legs.

"Gin-san...where...are we going?" she asked in a sleepy, thick voice that caught him off guard.

"I'm taking you home," he said, thinking that she was probably sobering up from her drunken state. After a few long minutes, Otae whispered, her lips almost touching his ear, "Sorry to bother you."

"Nothing to it," Gintoki whispered back, while feeling a dual wave of hot and cold down his spine. He waited for the next reply but was met only with silence. Otae had gone back to sleep and it looked as if she won't be waking up anytime soon.

But that meant, he was left with himself and his body's heightened awareness. And that gave him a feeling of both unbridled excitement and unease. "Yabe! This is not good," he said to himself. "I must think logically."

It was too late, though. When he felt her soft, warm breath so close it slightly tickled his neck, he tried not to gulp audibly.

'Shit! I need a cold shower really bad,' he mused almost desperately.

Omake Omake Wannabe

Oshiite Tinpachi-sensei

Tinpachi-sensei: "Yo, today's lesson will be the fanfic author's glossary of Japanese words in the story. *Kagura-san raises her hand* "Yes, Kagura-chan."

Kagura-san: "Why does she have to do that sensei when the people who read anime/manga fanfics are already well-versed in some of these words. It's not like she used difficult words ne, Gigai-gurl-san?"

Gigai-gurl: "So desu yo ne, Kagura-chan. It's not like our readers are not already familiar with the words I used. In fact, those words are the most popular ones and you can find them in every anime or manga out there ne. Tinpachi-sensei is just being urusai and mendokuse. -(notice the wrong usage of mendokuse here)"

Tinpachi-sensei: "Oi, may I remind you that we are also here to educate other fanfic readers who may happen to like Gintama and are reading English translations of the manga or watching the English dub *everyone's gasp of surprise and horror in the background* of the anime. So not everyone who may have found your fanfic here can appreciate the Japanese language that way."

Katsura-san: "That's why I disapprove of mingling Japanese words with a foreign language. It's just unnatural. It's like putting multicolored sprinkles on a chocolate muffin while the actual, unadulterated choco muffin is enough. You should have written this fanfic in either all Japanese language or in all English language."

Gigai-gurl: Zura-jiji why are you here? I didn't plan on including you in this omake!"

Katsura-san: "Wahaha! That's the power of a Joi leader. He can appear anywhere he wishes and impose his will on any fanfiction. Wahahaha! By the way, Zura-jiji janai. Katsura-jiji da. Ugh! *receives a flying eraser on his face"

Tinpachi-sensei: "Teme! Why do you have to interrupt an important discussion here. And Zura-jiji is a good name for you just like an elephant."

Shinpachi: "Sensei, that's Zojirushi, you know, the rice cooker."

Tinpachi-sensei: "Shut up, Shinpachi. You only get to say one line in this omake so don't utter another word. So, GG-san are you listening?"

Gigai-gurl: "Urusai, baba-jiji. And why are you abbreviating my name to GG?!"

Tinpachi-sensei: "Baba-jiji? There's no such word in the Japanese language, aho. I can't be an old woman and an old man at the same time! And what's this? You keep typing my name as Tinpachi-sensei? What's up with that? Are you trying to be original using other people's already established characters huh? Oh I know, you can't write the kanji for Gin or even Kin for that matter and so you made it Tin so it would be easy for you to write it in kana eh." *receives a flying eraser on his face* ACK!

Gigai-gurl: "Don't push your luck, sensei. I'm still the author of this fanfiction. You should be grateful I'm not writing about a crack yaoi pairing fanfic about you. How would you like to be in an S&M fic with gorilla-san? *evil grin* Oh how about a boy-on-boy action with Ue-sama."*more evil grin*

Tinpachi-sensei: "Eh?! Not with gorilla-san, give me a break! Now Ue-sama...the great shogun huh...hmm...I guess I could accept that...I've seen his *beep* *beep* after all...ARGH!" *receives an 80s trapper keeper on his face*

Gigai-gurl: "Don't go on saying perverted stuffs on this omake, bakero! You have no respect for the rating system of this website. They can suspend my account you know!"

Tinpachi-sensei: *trying to get up* "Sumimasen. But please try to include a glossary of the Japanese words that you used in the fanfiction. It's better safe than sorry, right."

Gigai-gurl: *sigh* "I guess I should. But that means I have to go through my whole fanfic to list down every Japanese words. Well it's not going to be comprehensive but I'll try to share what I know in the hope that it would be of some help to our readers. Alright, here goes..." *writes on the blackboard*

GLOSSARY

sumairu - smile, usually words of foreign origin are written in katakana and are based on the pronunciation.

tenchou - manager, like what Tessai calls Urahara-san ne. Don't tell me you forgot about Bleach. XD

jiji - old man or short for the word "oyaji" (dad) which is often also used in Japan to refer to middle-aged men who are not relatives, usually in an unflattering way. Did you here that? Zura-jiji! Ahem, Jiji is also an ethnic and linguistic group in Tanzania. Useless trivia, I know.

ochitsuite - a verb and Te form of ochitsukimasu - to become calm. The use of Te form can be a command or a request (-te with kudasai)

oneechan - older sister the same with Shinpachi's aneue. *Shinpachi strikes a pose at the mention of his name*

ganbatte - a verb and Te form of ganbarimasu - to do one's best. "Otae-san, do your best!"

hai - yes. iie - no.

(Shinpachi: "Isn't that so common now?" Tinpachi-sensei: "Oi, Shinpachi, don't say another word. You'll destroy GG-san's train of thought." Gigai-gurl: "GG janai. Gigai-gurl da!" Tinpachi-sensei: "Hai, hai. I wonder when we'll get rid of that line. It's getting really old." TWAP! *receives a tattered Jump comic on his face.)

teme - Japanese slang for You...er, "You Bastard!" I mean. XD In Corsican and Romanian, it means fear. In Italian and Spanish, its means third person singular. Hey more useless trivia never hurt anybody.

bakero, baka, aho - mean stupid, dumbass, idiot. Do I really need to include these? I mean, y'all know what these words mean, right? Hmm...well in the Philippine language 'baka' means cow. So calling someone a stupid cow is just being redundant? Hmm...ponder on this. I must.

gomenasai - a formal way of saying, "I'm sorry."

Moshiwake gozaimasen. - Japanese expression of apology meaning, "I am very sorry." If you feel you've really caused an inconvenience to the other person, you could say, "Gomeiwaku o okakeshite, moshiwake gozaimasen or "I am very sorry for your trouble."

Honto ni gomenasai. - another Japanese expression of apology meaning, "I am really sorry."

mendokuse - from mendokusai - "troublesome or bothersome" Remember Shikamura from Naruto? Yeah that guy who always say it every chance he gets.

(Tinpachi-sensei: "Oi, this is a GINTAMA fanfic. If you keep mentioning other series you might as well head on over to that community. Geesh." Gigai-gurl: "Urusai baba-jiji! I'm trying to explain things here ok!")

Mendou describes many things you dont want to do. Kusai means stinky. So adding kusai just makes it worse. It applies to things to be done and not to people. Or you could just go by, "Pain in the ass!"

hora - means "look!" or "there!"

(Katsura-san: "That's too short a definition! Why are you being stingy with your words huh?" Gigai-gurl: "That's what I've read in my pink dictionary. But me, stingy with words? WTH are you talking about? Can't you see this omake is getting longer because of this whole glossary thing! For god's sake, it's enough for a new chapter!)

ja nai - negative of desu, meaning "not." Nai is the equivalent of arimasen - "there is not."

da - meaning "is" or "be" and its polite form is desu. *Katsura-san opens his mouth. Gigai-gurl shoots him a murderous glance. Katsura-san leaves quietly. And never comes back.*

teba - this one is tricky. I haven't encountered this one in Japanese formal speech so I haven't heard any explanation of it other than it being used as an anime expression. It is a suffix like a "hey!" to get the listener's attention. Sorry but I'm not too sure of the meaning really.

zenzen - adjective that means entirely. It should be used with a negative verb to mean "never" or "not at all" like Zenzen wakarimasen or "I don't understand it at all." So I should have written - "zenzen I'm not getting excited." But anyway, you get the picture. XD

yabe - is a kind of a derivative of Yabai, its original meaning is "inconvenient" and "dangerous". But young people also say yabai when they are impressed and surprised at something. Isn't it better to use "sugoi" or "kakkoi"? I'm not including these words in the glossary alright. Their meanings are easy to find. ;)

oshiite - verb means "show me" It's the TE form of oshiemasu meaning "teach; instruct; tell; show."

sensei - teacher

ne - means "isn't it?" "aren't you?" "don't you think?" Said with a rising intonation, it means you are expecting the hearer to agree with what you just said. Said lightly, it adds to the friendliness of one's speech. It's a common practice in informal speech, particularly of women.

urusai - is an adjective meaning "is noisy" or "is annoying". Although, some fansubbers translate it as "Shut up!"

baba - short for "obaasan" which means elderly woman or grandmother

omake - means extra or bonus. According to wikipedia, for the past 50 years omake of small character figurines and toys have been giveaways that come with softdrinks and candy and often the omake is more desired than the product being sold.

zojirushi - means "elephant" and it's also a brand name for rice cookers. My family uses one of these at home and it cooks fluffy rice perfectly. Yum!

-sama - polite equivalent of the honorific -san

Gigai-gurl: "WOOHOO! I'm done! *throws the chalk on the ground triumphantly* I think I'm not going to include any more Japanese words in my fanfic especially if Tinpachi-babajiji would make me include a glossary every single time.

Tinpachi-sensei: I said I can't be a babajiji! Are you listening? Anyway, thank you for providing such a detailed list. I'm sure people would be thankful for your hard work. If any of the readers out there knows more or finds out that any word was defined incorrectly, please CRITICIZE and RIDICULE the fanfic author openly in the review section. You could even send her a flame letter, saying how inadequate and a complete failure she is...ARGH! *receives a double helicopter kick on his face*

Gigai-gurl: "Don't go encouraging people to send me bad reviews, teme! You were supposed to be teaching these things and not make me take your place. Anyway, this is the end of the omake. You can now go on your way. *Otae-san approaches and whispers something* I can't mention that yet *Gigai-gurl whispers back* what if I end up not writing it?" *Otae-san nods in understanding* "Yosh, mina! Ja ne. Bye-bye." (^_~)