Archive of Our Own ^beta

Kochou hummed as she walked back to the butterfly mansion. Her hand was resting comfortably on Tomioka’s arm as they walked. It was a rare moment of peace for the two, especially with the recent guests at the estate. However, as they entered the estate, the peace was immediately shattered. 

“Drink your medicine!” Aoi commanded, shoving the cup in Inosuke’s face as he ducked and dodged away from it. 

“No way! That stuff is disgusting!” 

“Drink it or I’ll pour it down the snout of your boar head! Then the whole thing will smell like medicine!”

“Get away from me!” Kochou giggled, amused at their bickering. She let go of Tomioka’s arm and approached the two. 

“Ah, Inosuke-Kun. Is the medicine too bitter for you? I can sweeten it for you if you’d like,” Kochou offered. She paused for a moment before adding, “I do that for all the children who don’t like the medicine.”

“I’m not a child!” Inosuke said, stomping his foot. 

“Of course not. Of course not,” Kochou said, before taking the cup from Aoi. 

“Now, will you take your medicine?” 

“Fine,” he huffed, drinking it with a pout. 

“Does he realize how childish he looks right now?” Aoi asked, shaking her head from the sidelines. She decided it was better to let Kochou deal with him. She was something of a master manipulator. Tomioka looked towards her. She had on an expression that bore a striking resemblance to the one he wore when dealing with some of Kochou’s antics. 

“You know,” Tomioka began, Aoi looking towards him. 

“I often have similar problems with Kochou. She can be quite… obtuse sometimes.” Aoi looked at him, confused before it dawned on her. 

“What! Inosuke and I are nothing like the two of you!” She protested, vehemently. 

“Ah, so… he’s the calm one?” Tomioka found that hard to believe, but the girl was certainly causing a fuss at the moment. 

“N-no. That’s not how I meant it. I mean that we’re not dating! He’s just not- and I’m not- and he wears a boars head!” Aoi was quite flustered, now, almost angry seeming. Her face was bright red and she was stumbling over her words. Maybe this is why Kochou said nobody liked him. He had clearly caused a negative effect on one of her assistants, with his own lack of awareness. Tomioka decided he wouldn’t bring up the boar headed boy again, as to not rile her up more. 

“P-please explain to me how I can deal with Inosuke!” Aoi asked, suddenly. She had decided, it was now or never to get Tomioka’s advice as Kochou could be a bit stubborn at times, not that she’d ever admit that out loud. 

“I use the silent treatment.” 

“The silent treatment?” Aoi echoed, confused. Tomioka was already quite untalkative and Kochou liked talking quite a lot. If anything, it sounded like she’d enjoy that even more. 

“Yes. Whenever she’s talking to me I’ll leave. Or, if we’re walking, I’ll walk just out of reach so she can’t hang onto my arm.” Tomioka thought back to the last time he had given Kochou the silent treatment. 

He was walking home, excited for his leftovers. He had thought about them all day. When he got home, he could hear someone shuffling around in his house. A demon? He was about to pull out his sword when he heard humming. 

“Kochou? Is that you?”

“Hello, Tomioka-San,” she called from the kitchen. 

“What are you doing in my house? And how did you get in?”

“I was waiting for you. I don’t see what the problem is. You visit the butterfly estate all the time.” Kochou completely ignored the second part of his question. She figured he would find out later, anyway. 

“Then, what are you doing in the kitchen?”

“Oh, I got hungry so I’m making myself a snack.” Tomioka didn’t like the sound of that. As he rounded the corner into the kitchen, he saw her munching on his cherished leftovers. 

“I found these leftovers. They’re not that good though,” Kochou said. At her words, Tomioka froze in his spot. He could only watch, slack-jawed, as she finished the rest of his “not that good” leftovers. Kochou looked at him. 

“Tomioka-San?” There was no response. 

“Are you alright, Tomioka-san?” She asked, approaching him. 

“My… my leftovers,” Tomioka mumbled.

“Hmm. What did you say, Tomioka-San?” Kochou asked, straining to hear him. Instead of responding, Tomioka just turned and walked away. Kochou blinked, confused, before putting down her plate and following after him. As she approached him, she reached out her hand to grab his arm to stop him, only to grab at thin air. He had increased his pace. A vein popped out of Kochou’s forehead in annoyance. Not this again. Then, she increased her pace as well. She reached out again, only for him to speed up again. It was almost like a game, as he ducked and dodged her advances. Soon, he was sprinting with her close on his tail. Suddenly, she stopped following him. Had he lost her? No, she was just finding another way to catch up to him. And true to his words, she appeared in front of him from the corner. 

“Ah, Tomioka-San. Caught you.” She reached out, sure she would be able to grab his arm, except she forgot one thing. He was a lot stronger than her. With one tug, his arm was out of her hand and he was off in the other direction. 

“You can’t keep this up forever!” Kochou called after him. Tomioka knew that was true, but he also knew that the same was true for her as well. The only difference that he didn’t have any other responsibilities to deal with while she had all of the butterfly mansion. True to that, she gave up about 5 minutes later. 

“You’ll have to talk to me at some point, Tomioka-San,” Kochou said before leaping away. Unfortunately, that time was the next day. Tomioka was walking down the street when he saw her. He was going to turn and walk the other way before she saw him, but then he noticed she was carrying a lot of bags. She stumbled as she tried to raise her bags high enough for them to not drag on the ground. Tomioka pulled a frown but walked over and grabbed most of her bags anyway.

“Oh, Tomioka-San! Thank you.” Tomioka didn’t say anything and instead walked on. 

“I’m not keeping you from anything, am I? If so, I’ll ask one of my helpers to carry them.” There was no answer. So, he was still mad at her. Well, that just wouldn’t do. 

“Tomioka-San? Yoohoo? To-mi-o-ka-San?” Kochou said, dragging every syllable of his name. Tomioka picked up his pace a little. She followed after him, poking his cheek. Perhaps he had grabbed too many of her bags. 

“It wasn’t my fault. The lock was already broken when I got there!” Lock? Tomioka never used that as he had nothing to steal. He hadn’t even noticed. No, what she had done was much worse. 

“You ate my leftovers,” Tomioka mumbled. He hadn’t meant it to come out, but it was too late now. Kochou had definitely heard him. She looked at him, confused for a moment if he was actually being serious. She giggled. 

“This is about the food? Only you would be so petty as to get upset over something that small. You should have labeled it if you hadn’t wanted me to eat it.” If Tomioka had been speaking to her, he would have told her that the food she ate was in HIS house and therefore he shouldn’t need a note. Besides, she had plenty of food in her own house. 

“Maybe it wasn’t my food. But, I was hungry. Would you have just let me go hungry?” He thought about it for a moment. Yes. Yes, he would have. 

“I can get you more food if that’s what you want. I’ll get you anything you like,” Kochou offered, only for Tomioka to still not answer. 

“Fine. If you don’t want to talk to me, I won’t talk to you,” Kochou huffed. She shut her mouth and her face turned into a sort of pout, as she directed her gaze away from him. However, her silence didn’t last long, as unlike Tomioka, she quite enjoyed talking.

“I don’t see why your upset. Your leftovers weren’t even that good.” At that, Tomioka’s hands tightened on her bags. Kochou took notice. 

“This is because I didn’t like the taste of the food? There’s nothing I can do about my tastebuds, Tomioka-San.” Tomioka just ignored her.

“How do you think I feel when you say my medicine is bitter?” Kochou asked. Tomioka gave her a look. 

“Fine, so maybe it’s a little different. But, are you really going to stay mad at me for that?” Shinobu asked, walking next to him and peering at his face. Tomioka turned his cheek so he was looking away from her. He had given up on walking away from her, but that didn’t mean he had to look at her. Kochou let out a huff of annoyance.

“I give. I’m sorry for eating your food and then calling it bad, are you happy now?” 

“What about my lock?”

“You didn’t even notice that,” Kochou protested, although secretly she was more than pleased that he was talking to her again. 

“But, now it’s broken.” 

“Alright. Alright. I’m sorry about the lock too.”

“Thank you,” Tomioka responded, satisfied with her answer. 

“Oh, you’re always so rigid, Tomioka-San. No wonder no one likes you.” Kochou jabbed at him. 

“You seem to like me.”

“Maybe not after this fiasco. Honestly, the silent treatment. Are you a child?” Tomioka merely hummed in response. He would agree if the silent treatment hadn’t worked on her every single time. 

“Will this really make Inosuke easier to deal with?” Aoi asked, wondering about what sort of fights the two of them got into. Tomioka nodded. 

“And, if worst comes to worst, spray him with water.” 

“With water! Shinobu-San isn’t a cat!” This time, it was more of a protest on behalf of Shinibu’s part than anything. She thought it might work well on Inosuke, though. 

“This is generally a last resort measure for when she won’t leave me alone or get out of my house.” Aoi nodded, wondering how Inosuke would react to being sprayed with water. Probably, loudly. 

“What are you two talking about over here?” Kochou asked, coming over to them. 

“The weather,” Tomioka responded. Aoi looked at him, before agreeing.

“Yes, the weather.”

“Oh, how boring. Well, Inosuke-kun and I are about to go in for dinner. If you two aren’t busy, you can join us as well.” Thus, the four of them ate dinner together. For the most part, Inosuke spent it shoving food down his face, so he wasn’t really a bother. This allowed Aoi to direct her attention to observing Kochou and Tomioka. The two sat across from each other, so there wasn’t much in the way of physical contact, except for Kochou leaning over and wiping a smudge of off his cheek once. Their conversation was mostly one-sided. Tomioka wasn’t pulling the silent treatment right now, was he? But then, he’d say a word or two, and Kochou would respond, delighted to hear his thoughts. They really were a good couple, Aoi thought. She looked over to Inosuke, who was still shoving food in his face. She wondered if she could have that type of relationship. Of course, not with the boat headed weirdo though.

Later that night, Kochou and Giyuu were the only ones still awake. She was sitting at her desk, working on recipes for poison antidotes, while Tomioka sat next to her, reading a book. Kochou put down her pen. 

“I can’t believe you called me obtuse.” Tomioka looked up. 

“You heard that?” 

“I did. How could you say something like that?” Tomioka was about to apologize when she continued.

“When you’re clearly the one who’s more obtuse.” Oh.

“I mean, you don’t really understand social cues or how people are feeling. And you always say the wrong thing to the wrong people. And just look at how angular your hair is.” Kochou said, pointing at his hair. Tomioka huffed.

“Ah, but it was so cute how you were giving Aoi love advice. You were like a father, navigating his child through love.” 

“I’m not… fatherly.” 

“Oh, but you are. Even if your advice was a bit… incorrect. And rude. You two even have the same hair and eye color. You really could be her father.” Tomioka, a father? It was making him panic at the thought of having a child. Especially when it was someone that old. What should he do when she goes through her rebellious phase? Oh no, what if she’s already in it right now? Kochou noticed his slightly pained expression and smiled. 

“I’m only joking, Tomioka-San.” Right, of course she was. What ridiculousness was going through his head?

“Tanjirou-kun and Nezuko-kun are already your children.” Water sprayed from his mouth, while Kochou laughed in the background. T-two children?! 

The next day, Inosuke sat down for lunch after training all morning. His stomach was rumbling as he waited for his food. Then, he realized something. That girl hadn’t brought him his medicine yet.  How was he going to heal as fast as possible without it? Bah! He didn’t need it. All he needed was more exercise and some hearty meals to keep him going. He’d be healed up in no time without the stupid medicine. But still… it didn’t taste that bad. And it had helped him recover a lot faster the other times he had been forced to take it. Thus, it was decided he would take his medicine. If only, to get the maximum benefit so he could go out again as soon as possible. Now, he just had to find that girl...