Chapter Text
Mitsuri had just finished her mission report, and a letter for Obanai, when she decided to take a break. She had always loved expensive cosmetics but her line of work never gave her an opportunity to experiment much. Yet she kept buying all these expensive cosmetics because she always hoped one day she will have the chance...
One day when this all ends...So, will Shinobu...
Yeah, even Shinobu— her friend and only other female Hashira, someone she deeply cherished and admired. That is why when she was gifted the particular rouge lip stain among other things by the grateful merchant she knew it was made for Shinobu.
Thinking about this gift, however, led Mitsuri dwell on events that followed the morning she handed it to her friend.
Uzui's date suggestion had made her happy for her friend. Shinobu could get any man she wanted, Mitsuri had thought at that time and hoped her gift helped her in her chances. But Tomioka's behaviour had proven to be the highlight of that day.
The way he stood near her, the way his eyes took a colour she had never seen them do before, the way he asked, no demanded, Shinobu join him on a mission? All very, very strange. She had never seen that cute, awkward man display such streak of possessive anger...
Anger, so that is what it was?
"I hope my gift didn't turn things awkward between them." Mitsuri looked at the other items laying on her table. However, after some time, her mind bubbled with a giddy anticipation.
"I hope Shinobu-chan had the opportunity to use my gift."
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"So, you are leaving 'Hiro?" Uzui looked at his friend who was packing up his stuff.
"Yes, duty calls." Takehiro's voice was solemn.
"By the way, I saw Kochou-san in the fair, you did not tell me she was already with someone? "
Huh?
Uzui's surprise was instant. "But Kochou isn't with anyone?"
"Really, so you are telling me that the ferocious man who stood next to her is not her partner?"
"What are you talking about? She is on a mission with another collea—"
Tomioka.
Oh yes, that is who Hiro must have seen her with.
Uzui's eyes widened with a dawning realisation. But Takehiro wasn't paying him any attention.
"Only colleague? Are you sure they were just colleagues? The kind of look that man gave me when I went to talk to her would have burned a lesser man to ashes." He scoffed.
Before Uzui could so much so hold back his smile and probe him further, he raised his hands in a dismissive gesture.
"Nevermind though. She looked in perfect harmony with him. I am glad I didn't do anything to make things awkward."
Uzui's amusement increased. But he didn't want to make his friend suffer anymore.
"Better luck next time, my friend." Uzui patted his shoulder in a comforting manner. His friend smiled in return and then took his leave.
Uzui chuckled internally.
So, Tomioka was indeed riled up on that day.
"Well good that I didn't do anything to make things more awkward."
At no point in time could any of the three imagine that their shenanigans had made things go beyond awkward...
"Let us test the quality, shall we?"
With her wrist in his grip, he took a step forward.
Instinctively, Shinobu found herself taking a step back.
Surrounded by swirls of silk, the flame from the lanterns cast dancing shadows around them. The moonlight peeking through the windows weaved a scintillating spell within the night's embrace of the unfolding scene.
The moment a feather-light kiss landed on her pulse-point, she melted. Her knees almost caved in and she took few more desperate steps back for her free hand to finally steady her against the wall.
He had wrecked her soul with a single touch.
Giyuu took just a moment to look at her before stepping forward again while her wrist firmly held in his grasp.
He could see the faint red mark over the point where her pulse betrayed her racing heart in his grip.
The way he stood in front of her, his shadow completely engulfing her, the unbidden heat in his gaze, made her back press even more against the wall. She hoped to create some distance between them but to no avail as the man's presence remained unyielding.
Finally, she gathered the courage to speak.
"T-Tomioka-san, wh-what are you-u doing?" Her voice came out in a whisper.
He didn't answer with his words, instead he brought her hand close to his lips again and placed another kiss, this time on her palm,
"T-Tomioka-san.."
"Still not enough. Let us test another spot."
Without giving her time to catch her breath, he closed the remaining distance between them.
Watching her lips quiver to string together another weak protest, he planted a kiss near the point where her jugular vein met her jaw.
"T-Tomioka..." This time her voice came out, haggard, broken.
Yet he was unrelenting.
"I am still not satisfied with the results."
These words were followed by another tender kiss near her jaw.
"Giyuu—" His name tumbled out of her mouth like a plea.
Hearing her call his first name led a ghost of a smile appear on his face. She could feel the curve of his mouth near her throat.
However, instead of stopping, it emboldened him.
His lips trailed a provocative path upwards from the point where her jugular vein throbbed in her ears, and stopped to place another soft kiss on the point just below her earlobe.
By this moment, Shinobu's brain had effectively short-circuited.
His proximity, his gaze, his breathe near the hollow of her ear-shell, the places where he touched her like one elicited prayer, everything was making her head spin. It felt like her body was on fire.
In a desperate attempt to steady herself, she clutched one of the swaying curtains and like fabric made of starlight, unfurled it between the two like a thin, sacred barrier.
She held onto it as if it was a line that needed to be established before they both, or at least one of them, does something reckless.
Her face, which looked as red as the stain on his lip, turned away from him as she refused to meet the storm in his eyes.
Giyu looked at her for a moment, and stepped a bit more closer, if it was even possible to do so.
His gaze travelled from the mark on her wrist to one near her jugular vein to the one near her ear lobe before she had made a feeble attempt to stop things from escalating any further, and they gleamed a rich shade of red.
Pushed to the extreme ends of her wit by his consuming presence, she brought curtain upto her eyes.
He took another look at the marks, like a craftsman admiring his handwork, before a phantom touch followed to encircle her waist. By this point the stain on his lips was ruined.
"Kanroji did not lie, it leaves a tempting after-colour." He murmured near her ear.
Shinobu swallowed hard, her face flushed, unable to form any coherent words, or thoughts.
Her reaction instead of deterring him stirred his primal instincts even more. Without pulling the thin barrier down, he brought his face at level with hers.
"Let us do a final test."
He did not pull the fabric away, instead his fingers curled around hers where she held the edge while his gaze didn't move from her. It felt like he was doing his bit in keeping this silken, translucent barrier between them before he lost it altogether.
Without completely removing it, he lowered the edge of curtain. He brought it to the level of her lips, took one moment to look at her whole face, and then without any prompt, kissed her.
Shinobu's grip faltered as the touch of his lips and soft of the fabric left a burning sensation in her mouth.
A muffled groan escaped her as Giyuu's other hand wrapped itself more tightly around her waist.
As the fabric started slipping between the two like the last modicum of restraint, he took it as his cue to free her.
Some of the colour had seeped through and spread across her lips, the particular part of the curtain itself covered in a giant red mark.
He took one sweeping look at her,
"Indeed the stain is of rich quality, you should buy it more."
Satisfied by her stunned silence, he straightened himself and turned his back towards the door.
"Good night, Shinobu." He spoke her name like a sacred oath between them and left, leaving Shinobu standing against the wall with the last bits of her sanity!
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She doesn't know how many moments passed, but she couldn't move.
The way he had looked at her, touched her like she was something holy, and then stepped back as if afraid of losing last bits of restraint between them.
Her heart fluttered like a bird held in a fist.
Everything replayed like a dream in her mind.
He had not yet clawed his name on her soul but he had left a physical evidence of his claim on it. She was covered in red marks, his marks.
The last thought jolted her out of her stupor and she rushed towards the mirror.
The marks were imprinted upon her like poetry.
She pulled out a piece of cloth with the intention of wiping them off.
Then something shifted inside her chest.
His lips are also ruined.
She looked at herself again in the mirror, and then reached out for the box of stain on the table top..
The red was smeared all across her lips, she took the wipe and instead of removing it completely, dabbed the corners clean. Then she took the brush and applied a fresh layer of blood-like rouge on her lips.
Taking one final look at her flushed face, she left her room with determined steps.
After a moment, she stopped near another room. She didn't need to knock, the door was open.
As she stepped inside, she saw him standing near the window, looking thoughtfully at the moon.
His face, with smudged lip-stain still unwiped, was illuminated by the moonlight.
She walked towards where he stood, her every step thickening the air with anticipation.
He did not stir (lol, now he wants to show he has self-control!).
"Giyuu."
On hearing his name, he finally looked at her, and for a moment forgot to breathe.
Her hair was splayed across her shoulders, her eyes carrying an expression he had never seen on her face. Her one side illuminated by the candle near the table and the another by the showering moonlight seeping through the pane, she looked like a woman who walked out of a painting.
His gaze travelled to her lips, ruined and prepped anew, and darkened. The sight coiled something inside him equally devastating and tempting.
She didn't miss the heat in his eyes, or the slight trembling of his jaw, but she herself was walking like she was under a spell.
Rising on her toes, her soft palm rested on his cheek, like one raises hands for prayer. A warm smile appeared on her face and an uncharacteristic vulnerability in her eyes as she pointed at the ruined stain across his lips,
"Let me fix this for you."
Without missing another beat, her lips crashed against his.
Tanjirou did not know what had changed but something did. It had been three days since Giyuu and Shinobu returned from their mission and everyone in the estate, including him, had noticed a shift, especially in Giyuu. He looked, well, content.
Zenitsu watched the intimidating Water Pillar talk to the beautiful Insect Pillar and his mood immediately turned sour. But why did he feel so angry today? These two always talk to each other, so what has changed? Oh yeah, their voices sounded different, they sounded more intimate.
Aoi was looking at her master talking to the Water Pillar.
"When Shinobu-sama was preparing to leave, she looked tense, but now she looks peaceful, I wonder what has changed?" She tried to push the thought away as it wasn't her business, turning her steps towards the lounge where the Butterfly triplets were playing with Nezuko's hair.
Inosuke was going insane in trying to understand why did the space around him tingled and made him so fuzzy. As he looked at the mis-matched Haori guy talking to scary bug lady, the tingling in the air intensified.
"What the hell is this feeling?" He raised his wooden sword in anger and crashed his head into nearby wisteria tree.
Kanao watched the entire scene with a serene expression, taking out her coin to decide whether she should stay or leave. Her gaze flicked momentarily to Shinobu and Giyuu standing side by side next to Inosuke as Shinobu reprimanded him and Giyuu watched her with a strange fondness. Something rose in her chest and her smile became even more mysterious.
But it wasn't just the inhabitants of the Butterfly estate that noticed the change...
A couple of weeks later, Hashira, except for Muichiro and Kyoujuro who were out on their respective missions, had gathered for a brief meeting at Ubuyashiki mansion.
Everything went smoothly. Kagaya sought some important updates, although when his eyes found Shinobu and Giyuu, his smile warmed a little more than usual.
This time, after the meeting, no seductive shades or probable dates were mentioned yet everyone noticed.
Sanemi and Obanai were visibly confused watching Shinobu and Giyuu enter together, standing much closer, before the start of the meeting. They were even more flabbergasted at the end of the meeting when they noticed Giyuu listening to Shinobu talk with a smile on his face.
Watching the two talk, she didn't let the excitement get best of her words but Mitsuri was beaming, "Looks like my gift came handy after all!"
Uzui watched both of them exist together in complete harmony and wondered what had happened. Suddenly he was reminded of his friend's words. It seemed like a final piece of puzzle had just fit into place.
"Interesting." He smiled, bemused. Somehow this was the only word he could use when it came to these two.
Gyoumei watched them with a thoughtful silence but didn't say anything, instead he raised his prayer beads, and muttered few prayers.
Seemingly oblivious to curious glances (and frowns) around them, the two Hashira continued walking towards the exit with Shinobu talking and Giyuu listening to her with his characteristic calm.
Yet everyone around them had felt it, and realised something had permanently transformed between the two, something pleasant,
something like being the only witnesses to the poem that had unraveled in the colour rouge many days ago...