Disclaimer: I own nothing. It's a sad life, but whatcha gonna do. Gintama and it's wonderful characters belong to the even more wonderful Hideaki Sorachi.

Rating: T is probably the closest one.

Genre: A simple story about friendship.

Pairings: None at all, unless you have a wild imagination. Like really, really wild. Like Flying-In-The-Sky-Free-Like-A-Bird kind of wild.

Not All Problems Can Be Solved With Chocolate

Four men walked down a road. Well, three of them were walking. One was lying on a stretcher they were carrying. The faint moonlight was just bright enough to reveal the exhaustion on their faces. They were quiet.

x

Red eyes flickered open in the dark. He woke with a start, sitting up, only to realise it was a huge mistake. His vision blurred and his side suddenly burned up with horrible pain. He slowly lied back down and held his breath waiting for the pain to subside and the room to stop spinning.

"You really shouldn't be moving, Gintoki," a familiar voice came through the darkness, stating the obvious.

"Zura..?" he said when he could finally breathe again. "Is that you..? What the hell?"

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura!" said the man as he sat down beside him and looked him over with his dark brown eyes filled with concern. He put his cool hand on Gintoki's forehead, checking his temperature. "You're lucky you don't have a fever. The medic said that you were going to die so we laughed at him and brought you into this warehouse, away from the troops and the noise so that you could rest. The medic was new here."

"You're not afraid of an ambush?"

"Takasugi and Sakamoto are guarding outside. Well, they were playing cards and drinking, saying that the winner gets to cut up the loser when I left them, but I'd like to see anyone try to sneak up on them."

The red-eyed man sighed and carefully shifted himself into a more comfortable position.

"You should stop being so reckless," Katsura continued his preaching.

"You're the one to talk," snorted Gintoki. "I remember seeing a familiar wig just before the explosion. Why did you come?"

"It's not a wig, it's Katsura and I'm not above letting a friend die alone in enemy territory."

"You're not above most things. Well, most things except maybe Takasugi."

"I'm also not above hitting an injured man."

"Anyway, how did you manage to get away from the explosion?" Gintoki asked, changing the subject.

"You'd already taken care of most of the enemies by the time I got there so no one tried to stop me from jumping into a nearby locker."

"A locker? You're really something to fit into a locker, Zura."

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura," he said, but ignored the other half of the sentence. "Honestly, charging in all by yourself. We had really hard time dragging you out from under all that debris, you know. It's amazing you're still more or less in one piece."

"Is he alive?" he only asked.

Katsura looked at him with a serious expression. "He was when we left the camp," he said. "But he was also on the verge of killing himself for being the cause of nearly mortal injuries of the great war hero, Shiroyasha. We told him that if he did kill himself, he'd only make your injuries meaningless, so I think he reconsidered in the end." He paused for a second. "Despite the explosion, we still got a lot of supplies out of the wreck, though, so I guess your injuries wouldn't be completely meaningless anyway."

"So we won the battle?"

"Yeah, it seems that it all worked out in our favour in the end."

Gintoki just sighed again and stared blankly at the ceiling, trying not to make any unnecessary movements.

"If you're hungry, I could get you something," said Katsura after a minute of silence.

Gintoki sniffed at the air. "Smells like soba. Was it you who did the cooking?"

"Normally it'd be your turn, but seeing as you are now, I guess we'll have to rearrange our cooking habits for a while," said Katsura. "Well, there are only some cold leftovers left since we already ate the most of it."

"You got the ingredients from the ship?"

"Yeah. As I said, we got quite the loot. We even found some chocolate." Seeing Gintoki's eyes lighting up, he added quickly: "But you're not getting any until you've eaten some proper food."

"Aw, c'mon. What are you, my mother? Chocolate is proper food."

"Well you're not getting any. And it's not mother, it's Katsura," he said, stood up, and disappeared from Gintoki's sight for a while. He came back with a bowl of still steaming soba.

"Leftovers, my ass," he mumbled quietly enough so that Katsura wouldn't hear him. He slowly tried to sit up and was halfway there when sharp pain shot through his side making him wince.

"Careful," warned Katsura and helped him sit up. Then he gave him the bowl. He watched as Gintoki ate holding the chopsticks awkwardly with his bandaged right hand, ready to support him in case he started to sway. For a while, only loud slurping sound could be heard. When the bowl was empty, Katsura took it back and set it on the floor just in time, as Gintoki suddenly clutched his side and curled up, gritting his teeth in pain.

"H-hey, easy now," he said anxiously, supporting him from his shoulders. "Come on, you need to lie back down." Gently, but firmly, he pushed Gintoki back down and covered him with a blanket. His face was deathly pale and his breathing too fast and shallow. "Sorry," he said. "We managed to save most from the food storage but the ship's infirmary had taken too much damage, so we are still lacking medical supplies. The medic already gave you all the painkillers he could spare, but I think if we asked, we could get some more."

"Don't be stupid, Zura," Gintoki said as he worked on calming his breathing. "There are others who need them too. I'll manage somehow."

"If you say so," said Katsura, doubt in his voice. As Gintoki finally got his breathing under control again, Katsura took out a chocolate bar from god-knows-where and handed it to him.

"Oi, oi, does it look like I'm a child in need for a reward for being good?" he said, but took it anyway.

"Yeah, it does," Katsura smiled.

Gintoki only grunted, already eating the chocolate. Suddenly, there was a loud crash and a "Come back here, you damn idiot," outside, followed by just as loud "Ahahahaha."

They exchanged a glance.

"Sounds like Sakamoto lost the game."

"Or cheated."

"That actually sounds just as likely."

Until Gintoki finished his chocolate, they stayed silent, listening to the many interesting insults and the idiotic laughter that echoed outside.

"You actually shouldn't even be alive, much less awake and talking," said Katsura, breaking the silence. "It'll take quite some time until you can join the battle again. Go back to sleep. I'll tell those two idiots to shut up."

"Yeah," answered Gintoki, yawning sleepily.

Katsura got up and walked to the door, making plans on how to shut the two idiots up.

"Zura," mumbled Gintoki, half asleep. Katsura stopped at the door and looked back. "Thanks."

He smiled and said quietly: "I've told you a million times. It's not Zura, it's Katsura," to the already sleeping Gintoki.

Author's notes: Well then, this is the very first fanfiction I've ever written. Actually, this is also the first more or less decent thing I've written in a long time. So if there's anyone out there who has bothered to read it and, even better, wants to review, then please, don't kill me right away. I may or may not try harder next time. Also, English is not my first language, so if there are any mistakes that have slipped through, I'm terribly sorry.