Here's another OkiKagu Month Day 25 Prompt (Dying) fic from me. Better late than October 1, I say.

Spoilers for the manga chapters 458 and 459. Be warned.

Also, I would like to thank the reviews who reviewed 'Red Strings', namely C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, Guest, sakura2723, and 8oujiRui. Thank you so much for your reviews!

To answer 8oujiRui's observation as to why I haven't been updating/writing more okikagu/okkagu fics, I'm a bit busy with real life + I don't want to bore you all with so many stories from me. I feel like I've been writing so much for the fandom and I feel like people are also getting bored with me posting new stories, so I'm currently taking it easy. I'll post a lot more by November, which will be during Kagura's birthday (November 3), so watch out for it.

Anyway, here's my fic idea for the prompt 'Dying'.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama. It belongs to Sorachi Hideaki.

Of Alliances and Promises

The final hour was at hand.

Sakata Gintoki, who was lying in the futon inside his room in the Yorozuya office, was dying.

He knew his time was up, yet he had so many things to do, yet so little time. He could hardly move in his sleeping mat, he could hardly sit up from the pain in his stomach, and no amount of medicine was enough to immunize the excruciating feeling of being punched in the gut several times. He had been told by Shinpachi that he was getting paler by the minute, and that the doctor was on his way…

… but the silver-haired samurai knew that no amount of physical examination can determine the sickness he had.

Truth be told, he had been… keeping it all in for some time. He didn't want to worry his kids, a.k.a. Shinpachi and Kagura, and they didn't have to know what was going on.

Looks like… the secret will be out soon. Coughing, he opened his eyes to see a teary-eyed Kagura staring down at him, snot dripping from her nose. The eyeglasses wearing human looked the same as well, though his snot was shorter and more watery than Kagura's. "Y-you two… I…" at this, he doubled over from the pain.

"W-what is it, Gin-chan!?" asked Kagura, grabbing his hand immediately. Gintoki grimaced at the feeling of snot in his hand, but during these times, it might be the last time he would be able to hold his daughter's hand. For now, he would have to keep a straight face while she held his hands with her snot-covered ones.

"C-call… those tax robbers for me… will you…?"

If they were surprised at his odd request, they didn't show it.

"I-I'll go call those stupid bastards!" with that, the female Amanto stood up and headed for the telephone located on Gintoki's work desk. Immediately, she punched in the numbers of the tax robbers' den and waited for someone to pick it up.

"This is the Shinsengumi—" before the person on the other line could continue (Kagura deduced it was the Shinpachi of the tax robbers who picked up the phone), she yelled.

"Oi, you stupid tax robbers, get over here and make it quick. Gin-chan is dying, and he wants you to come over! HURRY UP!"

"Wait, C-China-san!? W-what's wro—" before Yamazaki Sagaru could continue, another voice spoke up.

"Oi China, what are you—"

"Sadist, go here! Bring Mayora, Gorilla, and even Jimizaki here! Gin-chan is dying and he wants you all to be here!"

"He what?" even Okita Sougo gave out a tone of disbelief.

How was it possible that someone like the Yorozuya boss was dying?

… And probably at such a young age too, as he had no idea how old Sakata Gintoki is.

No one did anyway.

"Just come on over, we don't have much time!" and with that, the line from the Yorozuya went dead.

All four known members of the Shinsengumi then decided to drop by at the Yorozuya, all of them also clad in their casual wear. It had been a sudden decision, so Kondo Isao had left Nagakura Shinshichi, the captain of the 2nd division, in-charge for the day as all of them headed for Kabuki-cho. Because no one was at the door to receive them, they took it upon themselves to go inside instead. "China, where the hell are you? Don't waste our time by saying that you need us to be here when you're not here greeting me with, 'Welcome home, my master!'."

Right after he said this, a flurry of red appeared before him and he ducked before her right foot made contact with his face. The unfortunate soul who had gotten hit was Hijikata, and it made Okita smirk. "Are you blind, China? I'm right over here." He jumped up as she did a leg sweep, effectively knocking Kondo and Yamazaki off their feet this time while he narrowly avoided the attack.

Just then, Shimura Shinpachi came out, glaring at all of them. "Now's not the time to fight! Gin-san is dying, and you're all just standing there?!"

"Yeah, yeah." With that, Okita Sougo easily removed his slippers and walked right in, absently patting Sadaharu on the head, who was resting on the couch. He made his way inside the office, past the work desk, and finally…

The sight of the legendary Shiroyasha in pain and gasping for relief, any type of relief for that matter, was a sight to behold. The landlady, her two assistants (one of them the android whom Sougo knew from the omiai in a manga chapter), were currently in the room, as well as anego, who was trying not to cry.

"Y-yo, Souichirou-kun. Perfect timing!" Gintoki managed to gasp out

"Boss, it's Sougo." Okita deadpanned.

"Yeah, whatever. Where are the rest of you?! HURRY UP, I'M GONNA EXPIRE ANY MINUTE!" just as he said those words, in came the three members of the Shinsengumi. While Hijikata sported a bruise on his face, the two others only had a sore bottom from the impact of falling on their asses. Behind them, Kagura and Shinpachi looked very grim.

"Now that everyone's here… my last will and testament." He cleared his throat, ignoring the gasps from the Yorozuya members.

"What are we doing here anyway? We have nothing to do with this." Hijikata said, looking quite bored.

Kondo Isao reacted quickly upon seeing the angry looks on the others' faces. "Now, now, Toshi. We shouldn't ignore a dying man's request." He said in an attempt to pacify both the anger and the boredom that everyone was experiencing. "Give him this opportunity to speak."

"Thanks for that, gorilla."

"No pro— who're you calling gorilla?!" his tirade was ignored as Gintoki took in deep breaths in order to calm both his heart and the pain in the gut that was distracting him from a speech he had been preparing ever since he knew of his condition.

The silver-haired samurai spoke, and everyone was silenced. "To prevent a Yorozuya succession crisis, I have decided to push for something that I would have never thought of in my entire life." At this, the tears began flowing once more from the Yorozuya side (save for Tama, who was poker-faced the entire time) as the man who started it all was leaving his legacy behind and passing it on to the younger ones. It was difficult to put all of his hopes in the shoulders of his young ones, but he had no choice.

It was either this, or die trying to kill one another just because he couldn't decide over it.

"… The tax robbers and the Yorozuya… will have an alliance… through…" he swallowed. "… Marriage."

"... Gin-chan, you're out of your mind."

"Boss, you're really whacked."

Right after the announcement, Gintoki had asked both Kagura and Sougo to sit on either side of him, and before they knew it, he took each of their hands, sandwiched it using his own palms, and said in a serious tone, "I'll leave it up to you two to get married and form an alliance."

Immediately, the two broke free from him, staring at each other in aghast.

"I'm not marrying him/her!" came their angry tones.

"Yeah! Why not me and Otae-san?!" said Kondo, who was promptly punched in the face by the said woman.

"Gin-san, maybe you should consider... they're still young." at this, Gintoki snorted.

"She's 23, he's 27. Heard from the gorilla that Souichirou-kun here needs to get married to an Amanto just to prove that human and Amanto relations are a-okay in Edo." Gintoki said, absent-mindedly picking his nose. "Get married to my daughter, problem solved."

"No thanks." Sougo said. "I don't want her for a wife."

"Same here, you jerk! I'd rather sleep next to a hugging pillow of my favorite anime character for the rest of my life than be married to you!"

On and on they went with their arguments, forgetting the fact that Sakata Gintoki was ill and had been doing his best to secure the succession of the Yorozuya, to no avail. Irritated, the silver-haired samurai scratched the back of his head, grabbed the heads of the two younger adults, and smacked it against one another. A small bump then formed on their respective foreheads upon impact, and it took all of Kagura's willpower not to kill her father figure right then and there.

"What the hell, Gin-chan!?"

"Shut up, brats! My last will and testament was supposed to be taken seriously! Fine, if you don't want to marry, let's force that marriage meeting between Tama and that tax robber Shinpachi!" he ignored the protests that came from Yamazaki, who was slowly turning as red as Kagura's outfit. "No one gets to be the head of the Yorozuya, and I-" before he could continue, he suddenly slumped back onto his futon and began shaking violently.

"G-Gin-chan! NO!" Kagura screamed, tears running down her face once more. "D-d-d-don't leave us!"

She got no reply as Gintoki began clutching his stomach as he yelled quite loudly. All signs of anger from his face faded as he now braced himself for his doom.

"Kagura, promise me you won't let the Yorozuya name end just because you're being selfish...!" Sakata Gintoki yelled in between his painful moments.

"But I-" at this, she shook her head and grabbed the hand of the sandy-haired Shinsengumi member. "FINE! WE'LL GET MARRIED!"

"Actually-" before Sougo could finish his sentence, the Yorozuya boss suddenly tensed up and laid stiff on his futon on his side.

"SHIT! GIN-CHAN!" All members of the Yorozuya suddenly pushed all members of the police force aside to surround Sakata Gintoki and check up on his.

"U-uuhhh..." came the moan of pain.

"Yes, Gin-san!? WHAT IS IT?!" Shinpachi shrieked, hope blooming in his chest at the sight of his mentor in his last moments.

"Y-You all better leave 'cause I-"

Before he could complete his sentence, a huge bomb had suddenly dropped down on all of them.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu u!

Several hours after the bomb had been dropped, all of the occupants in the room learned from the green-haired android that Sakata Gintoki was not actually suffering from any life-threatening disease, but had been suffering from a severe form of constipation. The root cause of all of this was when he had consumed too much parfaits on an empty stomach for the past several days, which made him unable to pass gas. When it did, it resulted in the dropping of a very stinky bomb, which had caused a majority of them to faint for a good half an hour. This had angered a lot of them, but most of all, Kagura, who couldn't believe that Gintoki would dare do such (even if it really wasn't a prank, as the man really believed he was going to die). Quietly, she slipped away from the Yorozuya, brought her umbrella along, and headed over to the park for a bit of fresh air.

"Where're you going?"

She looked back to see Okita Sougo looking at her with a deadpan expression on his face. "Upset?"

"Obviously." she huffed.

"Pot calling kettle black." he told her

"I am not a pot, you idiot!" she dashed back at him to give him a punch on the face but his stern look had made her stop in her tracks. "... Why are you looking at me like that..."

"... You finally realize how it feels when you did that prank years ago?"

"Look who's hung up on that incident." she shot back sarcastically.

"Point is, you finally understood how I felt when you did that... but maybe not. sometimes you're so dumb, I can't believe I even married you." with that, he turned to walk away, only to have his arm grabbed by the female Amanto. "What now-" before he could even react, she had pressed her lips against his, and pulled back before he could kiss her back.

"... Fine. Now shut up about that thing I did years ago." she mumbled. At his nod, she sighed.

"... And I think we have to tell them about... you know." she gestured at her left ring finger that sported no ring, as she feared the reaction of her Yorozuya family when they find out she secretly married a member of the tax robbers. Now that Gintoki had pushed for the marriage, however...

"I was supposed to tell him about it, but danna suddenly laid stiff in the futon and I got interrupted." he shrugged. "Still think it's a good time to tell them?"

She grinned at him. "Of course. What better way to send him to an early grave than to tell him that we've been married for the past *five years* and that he's gonna be a grandfather soon?"

Okita Sougo flashed the trademark smirk that she had always loved. "I'm fine with that if you are."

Kagura's grin turned into a smirk that mirrored his own. "Why of course."

Needless to say, Sakata Gintoki had been rushed to Edo General Hospital that night because of a sudden rise in his blood pressure after the announcement.

Quick fic I wrote on a whim. I hope it was at least tolerable... orz

Anyway, I still hope you'll drop me a review to tell me what you think of it! :D