G is for Gifts. [OPEN]

[alastinglight]

Characters: Takasugi, all the people he's giving gifts to, and whoever wants in!
Location: All over the place. Feel free to choose where Takasugi meets you - I'll have him drop in on you. :3
Rating: G for now!
Time: December 24, during the day down to early evening or so
Description: He doesn't celebrate Christmas, but he knows it's important for

Comments

[Late morning? | City Streets]

[silvershamurai]

Christmas Eve. The season of giving. The season of joy. The season of empty pockets and crying parents and old men with bowel problems dressed as Santa, wishing the kid sitting on their knee would stop fidgeting for one second.

Gintoki pulled his kimono tighter around him, eyebrows knitting together half from annoyance, half from the cold. He couldn't wait until the day was over, and he could retreat back to his apartment with people he could honestly enjoy the company of tolerate. Until then, hanging around the Yorozuya office would have to suffice, assuming he wouldn't slip on the ice and put himself in a coma. But stuff like that only ever happened in anime.

...wait a minute.

[alastinglight]

Oh, this was lucky! He had been wondering how to approach Gintoki at that very moment, and here the man was.

(Excellent timing, muns.)

"Gintoki?"

Takasugi sped up just enough to approach the man, but slowed the moment he was a respectable distance away.

[silvershamurai]

Looking up, Gintoki spotted Takasugi making his way to him and he gives the boy a nod when he's close enough.

"Hey. Running an errand?"

[alastinglight]

"I was looking for you, actually."

A swift smile, a nervous scratch behind his ear and shuffle of his feet.

"Uh. Got a minute?"

[silvershamurai]

"Sure." Gintoki figures it's something of relative importance if it couldn't wait until the gathering in the evening.

"What's up?"

[alastinglight]

"There's something I have to show you." Takasugi turned away, gesturing back the way he came with a jerk of his head. "It's not too far. Come with?"

Play it cool, kid!

[silvershamurai]

Huh. Well.

"Is it a topless, well-endowed chick? I could get behind that." He wasn't going to go into what that could have possibly meant. "Lead the way."

[alastinglight]

That made Takasugi's eyebrow twitch. He turned away with a scoff, and started walking.

"It's nothing like that, sorry."

He'd like to think he picked out wholesome gifts, okay?

[silvershamurai]

He laughed lightly to himself before following Takasugi down the street, arms folded casually behind his head.

"So what is it, then? Gin-san isn't too good with guessing games. He always loses when he plays Guess Who."

[alastinglight]

"You're acting like a little kid," Takasugi astutely noted, turning just long enough to lift an eyebrow in Gintoki's direction. "It isn't far."

Just a few more streets.

[silvershamurai]

"But I man up when the occasion calls for it. That's what being the protagonist is about."

Gintoki goes silent for another few paces before he spoke again.

"This couldn't wait until tonight?"

[alastinglight]

A bit of a flinch - man, was he that obvious? - before rather calmly returning that statement with:

"No, not really. It's better to see it in good light."

And Gintoki would see why just a minute later. Takasugi had parked his gift right up against a building wall: a Deathpa, which was pretty much like a Vespa only with a tiny skull on the front hub. White, the same color, he believed, as Gintoki's bike.

"I had some money left over from my missions, and it's Christmas and that's a big thing here, so..."

[silvershamurai]

"Geez, with the way you're talking about it, I can only think it's some topless--"

And then Gintoki stopped short when he saw the bike. That damn kid. He didn't have to be so damn thoughtful. His gaze lowered slightly, suddenly sheepish. Geez, way to go and embarrass a full grown man out of something like happiness, Takasugi.

"You... didn't have to."

[alastinglight]

"Of course I did," Takasugi returned, blinking right back up at Gintoki. "You're like a brother to me."

It was as simple as that.

[silvershamurai]

Still, a Deathpa's really extravagant, isn't it? On the other hand, he couldn't have not accepted it... Gintoki reached up to scratch his head, mumbling his thanks. Strange that he could spend hours expressing his dislike of something, yet have a harder time conveying what should have come naturally.

He really did mean it though.

[alastinglight]

And Takasugi knew it. Gintoki had not changed all that much, in that aspect. The boy stood back for a moment, smiling, watching the other man before speaking.

"I should leave you to that. Let you get acquainted with your bike and all."