Chapter Text
Friday afternoon, after school lets out and the grounds empty children into the streets and parks. Gintoki sits himself in the sandbox, digging his legs into the sinking grains, wondering how far down he can go. He continues to entertain himself doing so, burying himself about thighs deep before a boisterous voice breaks him out of his focus.
“Hey look, the adopted kid is tryna bury himself alive!”
Them. Kids in the next class: a round boy, finger pointed at him and bouncing with his laughter; a shorter boy clutching at the straps of his red backpack, snickering too; and a boy with his fingers circled around his eyes, ogling at him like he’s a spectacle to be ogled at.
Annoying idiots. He shakes his legs free from their confines, focus ruined and fun destroyed.
“What, don’t stop now, orphan.”
Gintoki turns to glare at them, though he doesn’t feel like fighting with anybody today. He would have left without confronting them, if another voice had not stolen his attention again.
“Shut up, fatty! You’re gonna cause another earthquake!”
Ah. This one is a familiar voice. Gintoki peers behind the idiots to find Hijikata running up to the sandbox. Hijikata stands right beside him, growling at the kids to go away.
“What are you gonna do, tell your brother?”
Hijikata clenches his jaw and tightens his fingers into a fist, and if Gintoki had not already burst forward to throw the first punch, he would have. The two other round on Gintoki to pull him off of the round boy, but Hijikata throws handfuls of sand down both of their underwear, sending them dancing away with jiggling legs. When Gintoki is finally done with the round boy, Hijikata throws another handful of sand in his face and yells at him to never show his face again.
Gintoki goes back to the sandbox, where he can still see the two holes he dug his legs up from.
“If you were gonna fight, why didn’t you do it earlier?” Hijikata crouches in front of the two holes, watching as Gintoki tries to dig them deeper again.
“Because it would be three against one.” He fits his legs into those holes once more.
“Since when did you care about number advantage?” Hijikata helps him pat the sand down around his hips.
“I don’t.” He grins, pulling the collar of Hijikata’s shirt down and dropping a fistful of sand down the gap.
“Hey!” the boy splutters, falling forward with the action and finding his nose stuck in the mound of sand by Gintoki’s hips.