Author's Note: Hello, minna. I'm back to Fanfiction-ing to mess with your minds...erm...scratch that...what I meant was to give you another torture...gah!...another Gintoki x Otae STORY. Yes, ANOTHER STORY for this pairing. I know, I know, I haven't updated "I am Drinking the Stars" yet. So sorry about that. But oh wait, I think I have the new chapter of that already typed on my computer and getting ready to go...maybe I should upload that now. *fu-fu-fu* ;-) Anyway, enough of my fooling around. Thank you very much for supporting this pairing. And for taking the time to read my stories. I really, really appreciate it. (((GLOMPS)))

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

The Trouble With Character Polls

'Who the hell was that?' he thought out loud as the people who looked vaguely familiar ran past him. There was the woman with the pony tail and the man with the silver hair, he thought he saw both of them before but their faces were unrecognizable.

He gave up trying to remember and chalked it up to the evening sake he just had and shook his head vigorously. "That sake packs a punch. It made my eyes play tricks on me."

"Ara, that was strange," he heard a female voice said. He blinked and saw Otae looking in the direction he was looking earlier when those people ran by.

"Yo, Otae-san," he called her attention as the young woman stood there with a bewildered look on her face.

"Oh hi, Gin-san," she said. "Did you see that? I think I saw a person that looks just like you and wearing the same clothes like you with a woman who had the same hairstyle as me ran by while holding hands and giggling. And then, there was a real gorilla running after them with an onion stalk stuck on his back. And another guy with a scar..."

"Ah those people. Don't mind them. They're probably some cosplayers from an anime convention who are just out and about having a good time. They do that you know. They parade around downtown with their costumes on, scaring the hell out of the locals," he said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"I see," she said thoughtfully. "That's really weird."

For a minute or two there was an awkward silence between them until Gintoki decided to speak first. He was afraid Otae would pursue the subject further. He wasn't in the mood to deal with ugly cosplayers.

"Um, you're on your way home early," he asked casually, looking away and scratching his head.

"Yes, it's a slow night at Snack Sumairu, so the manager allowed us to go home early tonight," she said, smiling.

"Well it's not payday yet so all the middle-aged salary men have no money to go drinking Dom Peri and pinching your bony ass...UGH!" It was too late when he realized the words that came out of his mouth. Otae had already given him an elbow on the stomach. He felt like throwing up all the food he ate that day.

"I mean, yeah, you should go home early during a slow night so you can have your full 8 hours of beauty sleep," he choked.

"What about you? You seemed to have just come out of a bar," Otae remarked, choosing to ignore Gintoki's last ditch effort to make amends.

"No, I just had a few drinks in this restaurant. You know, unwinding after a hard day's work," he replied.

"A hard day's work huh? I wonder what's so hard about NOT working all day?" she said, thoroughly perplexed.

"Hey! I resent that," he said defensively. "I'll have you know that I work hard to keep my business going and yes, every day takes a toll on me. So I need a little reward for myself."

"Is that so? I wonder when you're going to reward Shin-chan and Kagura-chan for their hard day's work?" she quipped while looking at Gintoki with an eyebrow raised.

"Um...er...that's..." he stammered and then sighed. "There's no winning an argument with you." He felt his head reeling. The damn sake did him in again.

"Ara, who said we're arguing? I was just making a comment," Otae replied playfully. "Well it's a good thing you're not too drunk yet," she said.

"Of course, I know how to hold my liquor, unlike some people I know," he snickered quietly. Otae shot him a killer glance but turned to go. She was in no mood to hurt people tonight. It was cold yet the image of the shining moon up in the sky was so beautiful. She would really hate ruining it with blood and violence.

"Um, you want me to walk you home?" Gintoki asked suddenly like it was the most natural thing to say next. After a few seconds, he realized what he just said and it dawned on him that it was completely out of his character. And he knew that Otae knows it, too.

"That's alright. I know my way home," she chuckled, trying not to show that she was visibly taken off guard. She felt flustered for a moment but realized those words came from Gintoki. Flattery was quickly replaced by suspicion then quickly replaced by amusement. She resisted the urge to laugh. 'Maybe he's just afraid to walk by himself and needed me to protect him,' she thought.

On the other hand, Gintoki felt a growing discomfort. He was beginning to think it was a bad idea to ask something like that of Otae. She is a perfectly capable young woman, after all. She could definitely take care of herself. So why did he had to voice his worry. He mentally scolded himself and struggled to regain his composure.

"Baka! What I meant was I'll walk with you, we're going in the same direction anyway," he said, not waiting for Otae to reply. He went a little ahead of her, trying so hard to act normal and uncaring.

"Oh...alright then," Otae said, a bit puzzled about his change of demeanor. She felt a tinge of disappointment but dismissed it. She knew Gintoki wouldn't do something out of his nature and it was not in his nature to be walking a girl home. 'He is definitely scared to walk alone,' she concluded.

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Gintoki stole a glance in her direction. She looked a bit pensive and he wondered what she was thinking. 'Maybe I should say something that would make her laugh,' he said to himself. 'Nah, I'm not good at that. Maybe say something silly. Nah, I'm not good at that either. Hmm...I could make fun of her. Yeah, that one I'm good at. Wait, that would just give me pain. Nah, that's never a good idea.'

"Um, Gin-san, omedetou," said Otae without looking at him.

"Huh? What was that for?" he asked, stopping to face her.

"Ah, that's for being the number 1 most popular character in Gintama," she said. "You've become so popular these days ne."

"Oh that! Thanks," he said, his pride welling up. "Of course, I should be Number 1, I'm the main character after all. I mean, it would be too shameful to not be the popular one when you're the main character. Look at Bleach, Ichigo has been surpassed quite a few times by another supporting character. That's bad for the series."

Otae smiled and nodded in agreement. But Gintoki felt that pensiveness in her eyes again.

"How about you? What rank are you?" he dared to ask.

Otae sighed. She didn't want to discuss the character poll with Gintoki but she was the one who mentioned it first. So there was the risk that he'd ask about her ranking in their conversation. She now regretted having to congratulate him for it just for the sake of making casual conversation.

"I'm 16th and I'm even surpassed by two gorillas," she said rather shamefully. "I can't believe that two gorillas are more popular than I am. Seriously, I am a bit mad about it. I did plan to get rid of those gorillas and take their spot. And then take it up to the source, the mangaka himself...but...argh!" She let her frustration out into the darkness. Her eyes glistening in the moonlight.

"Ma...ma...don't worry about it. It's just some silly character poll, you know," Gintoki tried to console her. "It's nothing to be serious about. The rankings change everyday. I mean, hell, my spot as Number 1 is not really assured. It might go to Sougo next time if he ever do something really cool like successfully getting rid of Hijikata for real. Yeah, you know, people like those sort of violent things. Hehe."

"I guess, you're right. I shouldn't be thinking about it anymore," said Otae. She walked ahead of him without another word and Gintoki was relieved. 'So that's what's on her mind,' he thought.

"Um, that Tsukuyo girl is in the top ten," Otae said it loud enough for him to hear. "She's really cute. I heard you know her well."

"Oh, her. Yeah, we did some work for the Yoshiwara and helped them out a bit," he said casually but carefully.

"It seems that she is a really good shinobi. Shin-chan said she is really skillful and strong," Otae said.

"You could say that again," he said, remembering Tsukuyo's supplex and fist on his jaw. But Otae didn't hear any of it.

"I heard that you saved her from her really bad sensei," she said.

"Oh, that. I just happened to be there and I couldn't stand by and watch things go down like that," he said. He was beginning to wonder where this conversation was heading. 'Why is Otae so interested in Tsukuyo?' he thought.

"Ah..." Otae agreed still without looking at him. "You always protect what's in front of you."

Gintoki stopped walking and looked at her steadily. Her ponytail and kimono swayed in the night breeze. She walked with a quiet dignity and he just noticed it.

Otae felt that Gintoki wasn't near and decided to stop and turn around. She saw Gintoki gazing at her intently. When Gintoki became aware that she was looking at him. He felt embarrassed and tried to do something else. He looked away and pretended to pick his nose.

"You're disgusting," he heard Otae said and she continued walking. He heaved a sigh of relief and walked on.

"I also heard that you get to feel Tsukuyo's boob twice," Otae said nonchalantly.

"What? That was...I didn't..." he stammered. "That wasn't on purpose. On one occasion, a spider landed on my hand. And the other, I was holding out my hand without really looking where it landed."

"Hmm," Otae nodded and looked at him slyly. "A spider huh? And not having control over your own hand? Yeah right."

"Well I admit...it was a bit squishy and soft," he said looking at his hand. "AGH!" Otae just gave him a quick flying kick on the face.

"I don't care how squishy and soft it was you perverted samurai. You're really hopeless."

"Hey! What was that for?" He shouted, picking himself up. "You're the one who brought it up. Besides, I can't help these things, I'm a man. Men do those kinds of things. Geesh..."

Otae looked at him intently and he thought she would murder him. But instead she set her kimono straight and continued walking.

"You two would make a good couple," she said inaudibly.

"What was that?" Gintoki asked.

Otae didn't answer but Gintoki persisted. "Oi, if you got something to say, say it out loud, will you?"

"I said, you two would make a good couple," she said clearly.

"You mean me and Tsukuyo?" he asked, still confused from the kick he received.

"No you and Kondo-gorilla," Otae sounded irritated. "Yes, you and her. You're number 1 and she's number 9. You're both popular so what else is there? I mean, she has her own story arc, she's in one whole volume of the manga. She gets to be a damsel in distress and you, the main character, gets to save her, Isn't that a good formula for the series. She's strong, intelligent, she has big breasts, she's popular with the readers, she can actually be the heroine of Gintama, right? As for me I'm just a side character. I'm a comedic relief. The requisite flat chested tsundere who's even less popular than two gorillas!"

Otae knew she wasn't making any sense but she was already too caught up with her frustration about the character poll and of the knowledge that a certain girl had received Gintoki's attention. She knew she shouldn't really care. She shouldn't concern herself about Gintoki's involvement with other women. But there it was, she just blurted out her irritation. And she didn't even know why she was saying those things but she felt she had to let it all out regardless of the consequences.

"Is that what this is all about?" asked Gintoki, trying to wrap his head around her logic. Try as he might he just couldn't understand why she was acting this way all of a sudden. "The character poll? I told you it's not something you should take seriously. Who knows, the mangaka himself may have just padded the result or completely made the whole thing up."

She said some ridiculous things that made him extremely annoyed at her. And when he was annoyed, his bitter sarcasm usually followed. "But I'll tell you this, if you really want to become popular, maybe you should stop being a pain in the ass once in a while and be good at cooking tamagoyaki for once and maybe show more of your feminine side. Hey I know, how about getting a boob job done to get rid of your flat chest, and perhaps some..."

Gintoki stopped in the middle of his rant when he saw Otae looking at him, unsmiling. He felt a tinge of guilt and shame for what he said.

"Ah sou..." she said, her voice even and devoid of emotion. "Maybe you're right. You're the popular main character, after all."

Both of them didn't notice that they were already by the gate of the Kudokan dojo. Otae walked towards the gate and opened it without a word.

"Hey about all that I said...I didn't mean..." Gintoki said, trying to sound apologetic.

"Well thank you for walking me home, Sakata-san. That was nice of you. Good night," said Otae with a big smile on her face as she bowed her head reverently.

"Oi did you hear me..." asked Gintoki. But Otae already closed the door silently behind her.

To be continued...