A terrible ringing sounds through the room, interrupting his sleep. Dazed and drowsy, and not just a little grumpy, he slams his hand on the nightstand, and sluggishly wipes his hand across it until he finds his cell phone. He drags it over to his face to see what the hubbub was. An unknown number. Maybe it was a job offer? It was uncommon to get them so late at night, but people need shit done at all times of the day, so who was he to decline it? He hits answer on the last ring.

Sakamoto clears his throat before going through the standard greeting. "Hello, this is the Kaientai, Sakamoto Tatsuma speaking. How may we be of service?"

Static crackled a bit on the other end of the line, almost as if someone sighed into the receiver. "Oh, thank goodness it's you. I've been going through employee after employee trying to reach you, you know. You really should list your personal number on your business cards."

He sits up, suddenly alert. "Pardon me, but who is this?"

"Ha! Even after all that time spent together, you can't recognize my voice? For shame, Sakamoto."

The voice did sound familiar, he has to admit. He ponders a moment more, reaching into the depths of his memory, before falling upon a stunning revelation. "Mom?!"

"I'm not your mom, I'm Katsura."

"...Oh." Well that's something he's never going to live down.

"And didn't your mother disown you before the war? I remember you saying something about being a 'lazy incompetent who brought nothing but shame to the Sakamoto name' whilst in a drunken stupor."

He tries to laugh the best he could, but the effort proves to be weakened by his tiredness. "Heh, shut it, Zura. Now, do you mind telling me exactly why you woke me up?"

Katsura scoffs through the receiver. "Why in the world are you sleeping now? It's not even evening! Unless it is evening wherever you are in space, but outer space doesn't even have evening, does it? Are you docked on a planet? If you are, it could be evening, unless you're on one of those peculiar ones with six suns and only an evening once every thousand years- "

Sakamoto yawns and falls back onto the mattress. "Zuraaa, I had a really exhausting job today, and I would really like to go back to sleep, so can you please tell me why you called?" He whines.

"Oh, of course."

What followed was a long spiel of news and updates on life on Earth, how Edo has changed for the better and for the worse, how he met Oryou while undercover, (she offered him compliments on how cute his kimono was) all of which ultimately lead to a lengthy conversation about whether or not Takasugi dyes his hair, before the real reason for the conversation being initiated arose.

"...So, Sakamoto, now that we have all that backstory out of the way, I need to ask you a question. It's a bit personal."

He pondered for a moment, wondering if he was awake enough to offer a half-sentient answer to whatever Zura was asking for. Deeming himself fit, albeit still a bit drowsy, Sakamoto answers, "Alright, shoot." Haha, gun pun.

An inhale sounded over the line, gasping for air and in preparation for what must be said, before Katsura spoke with a speed that could rival a cat chasing a bird. "So I know about your old crush on Gintoki-"

His breath caught in his throat. No way.

"-and while it's a little weird that two of my very good friends might have the potential of being somewhat lovers, let me just say-"

He must be dreaming.

"-that I am fully supportive of whatever it is that you two choose to do, but anyway-"

No no no nonononononono!

"-I've got a bit of a proposition for you concerning that of which-"

Sakamoto springs up in shock and nearly screams into the receiver. "You knew?!"

The voice on the other end of the line stopped its hurried chatter at the sudden outburst, before replying with a curt, "About your crush? Sakamoto, it was hardly hidden."

"Did Takasugi know?!"

"...Probably? I'll say it again, you weren't all that inconspicuous about it. It was to the point that I'm not surprised that you're still head over heels for him."

"Head over heels?! Who said I still liked him? I don't like him! Ahahaha, you're so funny Zura, ever the jokester!" He's dreaming for sure. He must be laughing in his sleep. After all, they couldn't have possibly known. He's been hiding it so well! Gintoki hardly even knew- or did he? Fuck, he knew didn't he. He caught that little slip of a confession when he left all those years ago, didn't he. He must think that he's a disgusting man and he must be only acting like nothing had changed for the sake of toying with his fragile little heart. He's in a state between laughing and crying now. Oh, what an idiot he must be!

"Sakamoto, calm down. I'm trying to ask you something here."

"Ahahahaha! Shut up, dream Zura! Just let me end this nightmare!" The cackling continues, and Sakamoto is unsure if there's a massive hysteria behind it.

Then, as if the taught thread of Katsura's everlasting patience finally gave in and snapped, a bark of, "My god, will you shut your loud-ass mouth for a fragment of a second and listen to me!? I'm trying to help you both!" resounded through the line.

He was just about to snap back with a crying retort when he fully understood Katsura's exclamation. He instantly quieted. "...Help? What could we need help with?" Did this mean Gintoki was in trouble?

A sigh crackled from the receiver. "Thank you for finally listening to me. Now listen, Sakamoto, you remember Gintoki's kids, or, well, employees, right?"

Oh yeah, the glasses one and the hyper one. "Mmh, Shinpachi and Kagura, right? What about them?"

"They, uh," Katsura's hesitance could easily be heard over the phone. "They… left."

Oh. Oh. "...And?"

"And Gintoki's all distraught about it. He really cared for them, as you probably know. He…" The sound of clothes being ruffled signs the other's fidgeting. "...He hasn't really left his house much, and when I did see him out and about, he seemed… empty. Completely out of character, in fact, all morose and quiet, with dark circles under his eyes and his clothes rumpled as if he slept in them... A bit like how he was after the battle of Hanahazama actually, do you remember that?"

Oh boy, he does.

It was early on in their war time, just a week or two after he arrived on the warfront. A third of their men fell victim to the Amanto, the majority being from Gintoki's squad. It was a silly mistake, sending him in first, they thought his troops could handle the front lines better than any of theirs combined, after all, they had the Shiroyasha on their side. But in the heat of battle, or so it is assumed, no one had really seen it happen, the men were overwhelmed much faster than they anticipated. By the time the rest of the army arrived, bodies littered the ground in shreds and pieces, and the meager leftovers of the faction stood between a figure in dirty white crumpled on the ground and an Amanto general, with swords brandished and trembling.

At that moment, their hearts stopped, but their legs ran toward , screaming in a mixture of battle cries and unrestrained terror, straight towards the group, their cries drawing attention from the general, who, surprised at the small number of them, yanked his sword from the chest of one of Gintoki's defendants, who had sacrificed himself for his leader's sake, and called for his men to charge.

The battle lasted all of 6 hours, but felt like days and minutes at the same time, and somehow, someway, the human race prevailed. Alas, it was not a victory, as the men cried for those fallen and sobbed for those who barely lived.

When the fighting was over and done, Katsura, Takasugi, and Sakamoto himself immediately went to find the remains of a white haori, and the body that hopefully came with it.

They found him on the ground, unconscious, closer to the enemy's side, dirty, breathless and covered in footprints and shoe marks, having been stomped on by retreating Amanto soldiers, but nonetheless clinging to life. The group didn't know whether to cry in joy or anguish.

Days later, he opened his eyes, and the camp cheered. But when the men came to see him in the sick bay, he did not seem to be awake, eyes only moving in horizontal lines across the room, looking but not seeing. They passed it off as him being in a daze after just waking up.

And true, the stupor only lasted a short while, but in the minutes he was unaware, the men found it to be a bit fun to play around and urge a couple woozy smiles out of him, (the first time they saw it, they were shocked to see that the leader even had a smile in him) much to Katsura's dismain.

Sakamoto remembers one of the men saying he giggled like a high schooler, and he is hit with the repulsive sadness that Gintoki was the exact age to be one.

After Gintoki came to his senses and proved not to have any brain damage by a soldier-turned-nurse, he called for Katsura, only to have the rest of the foursome arrive. "What happened," he asked them, "My second-in-command hasn't come in to report. Are my men alright?"

His questions were met with silence.

"...Are they?"

Not a word left their mouths. Katsura looked like he wanted to cry.

Gintoki's breath hitched, and with a trembling voice, he asked, "...Zura? They're okay, aren't they? Just a couple scratches and bruises while I was out, right?" they felt the hysteria grow in his voice. "I protected them, didn't I?" His arm snatched out to grab the collar of the person nearest him, but he was left with an empty fist and a furious and panicked scream of "At least some of them lived, right?"

Sniffling was heard from Katsura's corner of the room, and Sakamoto swears it was coming from his too. Only Takasugi could muster up the strength to lay a hand on Gintoki's shoulder and shake his head. That is, until he risked a glance to the other's face and nearly collapsed with sobs.

Gintoki did not cry. Nor did he wail, sob, or bemoan. He dropped his arm, just sat there, on the rusty old cot with a sheet stained by previous users' blood on his lap, and closed up entirely.

The three witnessed him do so, watched the ruby iris' of his now terrified eyes dull and his broad and strong shoulders slump as if now the body could not even support them anymore. When he next lifted his head, Sakamoto did not see Gintoki, nor did he see the Shiroyasha. He, as well as Takasugi and Katsura, saw a man, no, a boy, no, a doll wearing Gintoki's clothing, with a face emotionless but at the same time eternally despairing. Katsura could not stand it, seeing his best friend and comrade like that terrified him, and bolted from the room. Takasugi and Sakamoto followed not soon after, in the exact same fashion.

Days later, they returned to check on him, and he had not moved from the spot. Dark lines marred the skin under his eyes, his hair looked to have not been touched since he woke those days ago, Day-old rations sat to the side of him, uneaten. When they asked why his eyes were puffy, he did not reply. Only later, from a nurse, they found out that he never acknowledged that he cried.

For weeks, he remained like that. Even after he was well enough to leave the infirmary, even after they packed up camp and moved, even after countless provocations by the entire army, he remained sealed up in his own thoughts. Of course, battles threaded through that timespan, and many he fought in. He was the Shiroyasha, after all.

He was given his sword, and he held up fine for the most part, albeit quieter and a bit more secluded, which was great for morale, but out there, on the field, he was weak. Not physically, of course, but his mind was fragile enough to stop him from moving as soon as he saw a comrade fall to the might of an Amanto, no matter what was coming for him. He would just stand there, frozen in fright, until someone whisked him off the battlefield or kicked him down to lay as a pseudo corpse. Most of the time it was the latter, them being in the middle of a war and unable to spare any time, and, either way, he very much so looked the part.

They tried everything to snap him out of it. Katsura method of trying to coax him out with comforting words clashed with Takasugi's sudden explosions of ferocity, him screaming "This is not the friend I loved, Gintoki! This is not the student Sensei loved!" Katsura has to drag him away before he can cause further damage.

Sakamoto, though, feels as if he did nothing. He just stood there, watching, as this previously seeming unstoppable force stopped in its tracks and hid away. He wanted to help, he truly did, but every time he got close enough to him to see in his tired eyes, he could not help but turn and run. He was not wanted, he felt, he was not nearly close enough to this person to even consider being the one to pull him out of his slump.

He, as well as Katsura and Takasugi, begrudgingly let him be, for there was nothing for them to do except face the failure.

Days later, somehow, some way, Sakata Gintoki suddenly came back, eyes hardened and lips taught, with only the explanation of "I've moped around enough, there are more things to protect now." It was if the Gintoki they had seen just hours before had never existed.

And, whilst staring at his back as he strode further into camp, Sakamoto believed he felt the first pang of both lament and love for this man, who was so strong and so breakable all the same.

Sakamoto reemerges from his memories to words falling out his mouth without him knowing. "Yes, of course. How could I forget. He's like that again?"

"Unfortunately, yes, Sakamoto." Katsura says. "Now do you understand how worried I am?" He lets out something of a breath. "Truth is, I'm terrified. We don't know what broke him out of the spell in the first place, and I'm scared so say he might never come out of this one… Or-" He gulps, "He… might try something awful."

Sakamoto dismisses the statement immediately. "No way, he wouldn't."

"You haven't seen him, Sakamoto! You haven't heard how scratchy his voice is, you haven't seen how hollow his cheeks are, you haven't had to poke and prod just to get a reaction out of him!" Katsura gasps, sounding on the verge of a panic, "You are our absolute last resort, he hasn't seen you in so long, maybe you of all people can snap him out of it."

This is an astounding amount of pressure. "Zura-"

"Please, Sakamoto."

He's not sure he can do it. "Zura, I-"

"You never got confirmation of his feelings, did you? Now's your chance!" Katsura sounds utterly desperate.

What if he messes up? "Zu-"

"He wants you to come back, Sakamoto."

And the decision is made.

He ends the call before he can reply or have second thoughts, shoves his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, and marches out of the room.

He comes to a door half a ways down the hall and bangs on it with a heavy fist. It opens to reveal a very sleepy Mutsu, whose expression turns to resentment at the sight of him.

"I was sleeping, you idiot-"

He cuts her off. "You're in charge for a while, I'm leaving."

She rubs at her eye, "Wanderlust again? Alright, we've got no big negotiations coming up anyway. Keep your cellphone on."

"You're not going to stop me?"

"Why bother, you'd sneak out anyway. It's actually a bit strange for you to tell me that you're leaving." Mutsu yawns. "So, can I go back to bed now?"

"Yeah, thanks!" He calls back to her, spinning on his heel and already walking down the corridor.

She closes the door behind her, but after a moment, slams it back open again. "Wait, do you have any idea where you're going?"

Sakamoto slaps a smile on his face and turns to face her. "Oh, nowhere special.

"I'm just gonna go pay someone a much-needed visit."