SUGAR CONTENT; gintama oneshots

the prince - gintoki sakata

fantasy au!

The Kingdom of Sugarcane was currently without a ruler. It's king had passed away from an incurable disease with his last instruction for his son to take his place. Only, his son, the prince, had been missing for over fifteen years, with no sign of him being found anytime soon. That was where (Y/N) came in - a dedicated knight who promised the royal advisors that she would return with the prince by the end of the year.

It was currently mid-December and (Y/N) was sitting dejected in a pub far away from her home kingdom, the hopelessness of the situation hitting her at last. She had been searching for months, through neighboring kingdoms and enemy regions alike, asking about the silver haired prince that must be about eighteen about now. Her search had bore no fruit, which led to her present predicament - drowning herself in the pub's homemade ice-cream. 

While she spooned another scoop of strawberry flavored ice-cream in to her mouth, her head propped up lifelessly on her other hand, (Y/N) hoped the royal advisors wouldn't be too mad when she returned. Mid bite, someone took the seat next to her at the bar, ordering a double scoop of strawberry ice-cream.

She watched the scene play out in front of her aimlessly, as the bartender joked with the new customer about him not being able to afford a double scoop, to the customer reassuring he had just made a fortune gambling at the town center. However, when the bartender turned his back to get the frozen treat, the customer turned to (Y/N) with a slightly worried expression on his face.

"This may sound like I'm trying to scam you or something...but I forgot my sack of money."

(Y/N) looked at him in a deadpan, spoon still in her mouth, before she unlatched her own satchel and brought out enough copper coins to cover this as well. 

"Thanks! I owe you one," he said, "I'm Gintoki by the way."

Gintoki...Gintoki...where had she heard that name before? Huh, now that she got a good look at him, his hair was silver and naturally curly, just like how the lost prince was depicted in his portraits. If she remembered correctly, the name of the lost prince had something to do with his silver hair, the 'gin' coming before a...

She sat up straight in her seat, looking as though she had seen a ghost, causing him to tilt his head at her odd actions. (Y/N) couldn't help but blurt out, "Gintoki? Like the Prince of the Sugarcane Kingdom Gintoki?"

"That's my name, but I've never heard of that prince guy," Gintoki said. The bartender returned with his double scoop of ice cream, setting the glass cup on the bar along with a silver spoon, prompting the silver haired man to begin digging in immediately. In no time, he had pink stained around his mouth and even on the front of his tunic.

Unable to help herself, (Y/N) brought out her handkerchief and began absentmindedly wiping away the mess from his face, which Gintoki didn't seem to mind at all. While she did so, she asked, "Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

"Go ahead," Gintoki invited, "You paid for my dessert after all."

She nodded slowly, "Where were you born?"

"I don't know. I was taken in my my teacher when I was five though. He said he found me on a  battlefield, surviving off what I could find on fallen soldiers." He explained, not seeming to bothered by it. "Shoyo thinks I'm from somewhere up North."

The Sugarcane Kingdom was, in fact, North of here. Certainly, that couldn't be a coincidence. But, she had to get more evidence before she potentially dragged the wrong person all the way back to her kingdom without a ruler.

"Do you have anything from before you were taken in by this teacher of yours?" (Y/N) continued, hoping he still had the ring with the Kingdom's insignia.

"I had this ring, but I sold it a while back so I could a cooler set of armor and look better than Takasugi. The armor didn't last long though, because Sakamoto wanted to try it on and then we all began fighting over it. Long story short, it ended up at the bottom of the ocean." Gintoki told his story like selling the ring that could very well be his only connection to his real family was nothing.

At this point in time, (Y/N) didn't want him to be the prince, because this guy was all over the place. She didn't even want to imagine what would happen if he got access to their kingdom's riches, let alone the treasure vault. Even so, she had a mission to fulfil and her duty as a knight would not allow her to back down from this.

"Final question, have you ever heard of the lost prince of the Sugarcane Kingdom?"

"Isn't that the one that just lost its King?" Gintoki asked. "Zura mentioned it the other day. He said he was going to pretend to be the missing prince so he could become the King of the country. Doubt he'll get very far."

(Y/N) lost all the color in her face. She didn't want to admit this, but the royal advisors could be lacking in the smart department at times. Frantically, she asked the bartender for a newspaper and was handed one with the headline: 'Missing Prince of the Sugarcane Kingdom Found.'

There was a picture on the front page of a man with long, dark hair being crowned King while the royal advisors looked on. Gintoki leaned over her shoulder and pointed the end of his spoon at the man being crowned, saying, "That's Zura right there."

All her effort...was for nothing?

A hand patting her back broke her out of her trance, as Gintoki attempted to reassure her. "Don't worry about it. It's not like the real prince wants to return there."

His tone made it sound like he knew more than he let on, so (Y/N) couldn't help but ask in a meek voice, "You knew?"

"Knew what?" He said with a wink and a cheesy grin, adding, "While you're in town, what do you say we go out sometime?"

"Alright. Yeah, let's go out sometime." (Y/N) accepted.

Maybe nothing was too far. She had certainly found something.