Written for
fc_smorgasbord Series: Gintama
Characters: Gintoki, Katsura (both kids)
Table:
101 Ways to Die, Progress table
herePrompt: #1, Fire
Rating: K+ (just a nightmare)
Lenght: 592 words
Summary: Set in their childhood. Gintoki has a horrible dream and Zura tries to comfort him.
Warnings: none
Notes: Nothing much to say, really. As always, comments, suggestions & co. very welcome =)
In the middle of the night, Katsura woke up, rubbing his eyes with his hands. He could have sworn that he’d just heard a sound. There - now he was sure he could hear it. It was as a scream, so loud and high-pitched that he wondered why nobody else was awake. Quietly, he stood up, his small feet barely making a sound on the wooden floor boards. He could see Takasugi lying on his back with his eyes open, pointing angrily in the direction of the scream and quietly mouthing ‘Shut the idiot up will you’.
Katsura frowned briefly at such impoliteness, then decided against giving his friend a little kick in the stomach. Instead, he headed off in the direction of where the noise was coming from. He found Gintoki on his futon, hands frantically tugging at his blanket, screaming like he was being burnt alive.
Gently, Katsura put a hand on the young kid’s shoulder, shaking him a little. “Gintoki” he whispered, “Gintoki, wake up.” His friend’s eyes suddenly snapped open, wide with terror, a horrified expression distorting his face. It took him a few seconds to realize where he was.
“Zura…” his voice was still shaky.
“It’s not Zura, it’s Katsura. What happened? Was it a bad dream?”
“Yeah.” Gintoki swallowed, tried to steady his voice, but the words still came out in croaked whispers. “I…I dreamt of Shoyou-sensei. We were at school - him, you, Takasugi, me and all the others. He was lecturing on some of this boring Chinese stuff he is always going on about, but suddenly, everybody was up on their feet and running from something I couldn’t even see. I tried to get up too, but I was so slow and…and…” at this point, his voice trailed off and became a quiet whimper instead.
“Shhhh.” Still not sure what he could do, Katsura awkwardly patted him on the shoulder. “What happened then?”
Clutching his blanket firmly, Gintoki went on.
“S-suddenly…there were flames. Fire was just everywhere. And everything was so hot, I felt like my skin would come off. B-but Shoyou-sensei…you know, he was standing in the middle of the inferno and the entire time, h-he was saying nothing, but just looking at me in this weird sad way and when I tried to reach out and grab him, he had c-caught fire and everything was burning, everything, his hair and his face melting and just burning, burning, burning…” Gintoki sat up and covered his eyes with his hands, as if he was forcibly trying to erase the images from his mind.
Not wanting to show just how shaken he was by Gintoki’s story, Katsura reached out and pulled the white-haired kid closer, until his head rested on his shoulder. It took a while for Gintoki’s tears to subside but eventually, he became quiet.
“It was all just a dream, right, Zura?” Katsura was too caught up in his own thoughts and fears to respond to his newly-acquired and already-hated nickname.
“Of course it was. There’s no way something like that would actually happen, right? Just go back to sleep and forget about it.”
“But I want you to stay here and be there if I dream something bad again…” Katsura sighed. Then he pushed Gintoki down, tugging the blanket over him like a mother looking after her youngest. Finally, he grabbed hold of Gintoki’s pale and sweaty hand.
“I’ll stay here, I promise. Now sleep. And just forget about it. I’m sure Sensei will stay with us for a long time still to come…”