Gintama; Takasugi X Reader (part 2) [Save Me]

Chapter 26 {Y/N}

     I jolt up straight when I realize where I am. My eyes unable to move away from the sight before me. The familiar sight, of the white bookshelf.

Tell me I'm dreaming. Hallucinating maybe. Tell me that this is not...

The beat of my heart rapidly pounds as I take in the nostalgic room. It can't be.

Before I manage to calm down, the door of my room slides open. My breath catches in my throat at who is currently standing outside.

Shinsuke stares at me as if I'm from a dream. The room suddenly seems so small as the distance between us is slowly closing away as he stumbles to me.

I find myself unable move. Strings wrap around my arms and legs pulling still to the ground. And everything else blurs as the sight of him becomes my main focus. I remain still even when I feel his arms around my body, embracing me tight.

     "Y/N." His weak and relieved tone makes me choke. "You're alive."

His hot breath against the crook of my neck, but still I can't move. My chest begins to ache when his heat combines with mine. My mind screaming to me that this is real. His body, his warmth.

Him.

And I'm here, with him.

Tears immediately gather in my eyes but I don't mind them. My hands unconsciously lift up behind him, but stop half way.

Apart from the fact that we meet, even after all of the dreadful events that's passed, there's one part of me that hesitates to disappear into him.

One thought that whispers loudest in my heart.

Where were you when I needed you most?

When that coward did all of those things to me, where could he be found? After all of the terrible nights I've been through, where was he found?

Nowhere.

But I don't blame him. I can't. Because everyone thought I was dead. Yet so, the thought tears through my chest and gnaws at this very moment. The moment that I'd give anything away to have.

My hands drop back to the side. I gently close my eyes as warm tears wet my cheeks. He takes my breath away when his grip tightens around my back.

I cannot breathe. Not because of his grip, but the weight of everything that happened so far. I want to scream at the very thought that things can never be the same between us again.

Never.

I abruptly step back, causing him to release me and take all the warmth away. He looks at me questioningly before his gaze softens when he sees my face. The familiar olive-green orb that bores into my soul. I want to caress his cheeks and lose my hands in his dark hair. But instead I clench them tight at my side.

Now is not the time to let him overwhelm me.

I still have too many things left to do.

I force myself to tear my gaze from his and walk to the window. Ignoring the wrenching of my heart, I look out to the early morning sky in the horizon. The sun is still a faint light for the late dawn. It must be cold outside, considering the misty clouds passing right below us.

The silence painfully stretches and words can't seem to line up. It's been so long, yet now with the reality that he's really here makes my thoughts crumble together.

     "Wh-" Shinsuke abruptly stops as if choosing the wrong word. "How?" he asks, breathless. "I thought you were..."

I wring my hands together, and will lips to part. "Yes, it goes for everyone." Everyone but Senya.