show you the way shadows colonize snow [ closed ]
WHO: Katsura and Gintoki
WHAT: After the fight with Kojiro, Katsura waits for death or an old comrade, whichever comes first.
WHERE: the docks
WHEN: middle of the night
He'd bled before, been closer to death than this (not many times really, just once) but as long as he didn't have to create a new level for worst thing survived, he knew he would be alright. At least that was what he'd told Elizabeth, sent away as a decoy with faint reassurances wound around the steel threading his voice.
He wasn't so sure. Death was an old friend so familiar you stopped sensing its approach. He hoped if it came this time, slowly stealing in and creeping up his limbs, he'd look as if he were asleep. Smiling. For Elizabeth's sake.
Well he really hoped he wouldn't die at all. So long as Gintoki would come in time.
Thank whatever gods were still listening for instant curry.
He lay in the shadow of one of the ships on the dock, a coil of rope by his feet and his sword still in hand. Kojiro still stalked around out there somewhere, sword as naked as the hunger for blood in the man's eyes. A beautiful death, Kojiro had promised and he would have laughed at the irony if it didn't hurt a little to breathe. He'd believed in that once, believed in it still but now he'd learned maybe it was important to have a meaningful one instead. With a purpose completed and more saved than his own honor. Lives. The future.
He hadn't done enough yet and he'd be damned if he took a beautiful death on someone else's terms. So he lay there. Held on.
And waited.