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Chapter Text

To say Shinobu was stressed would be an understatement of her current mood. 7 weeks ago she had been addressed to a case about randomly mangled and mutilated hands appearing each week, along with a bloodied spork accompanying the crime, she wasn't the only one who was put on it, it was also Giyuu, Muichiro, and Tengen, a strange assortment but a team nonetheless. A team that was currently a team of two, Giyuu and Muichiro havening already quit, Giyuu first then Muichiro more recently. Personally, she wouldn't blame them, this case made her want to quit sometimes yet she persisted. And here she was stressing over her desk about this silly case, or at least it should be a silly one yet it isn't.

"Are you still working on that case?" And there he was Giyuu Tomioka, her husband along with one of her previous partner in this case coming in to check on her like usual.

"Hm? Which one do you mean?" Shinobu responded, tilting her head upwards at him, her face softening slightly. He vaguely gestured with his hands, "The hand one," he prompted with raised brows.

"Ah yes, that one," She sighed, "well to answer that question yes, I still am." He leans against the back of her chair, letting his hand make his way up to the headrest and laying his forearms across it. "I don't know why you stay on it, it's not like your going to solve it,"

"Are you doubting my ability to solve this case?" Shinobu questioned with a quirked brow.

"I'm not doubting your ability but even Tokito couldn't solve it and he's solved a notorious amount of crimes despite his age," He spoke, laying his hands on her shoulder and kneading into his shoulder and trying to work out all the knots in her shoulders.

"True but he's still a teen so you can't judge it on that and keep on doing that- that's really nice." Giyuu let out a hum and kept massaging her shoulder

"For someone who doesn't talk much you sure are good with your hands, I'm not sure what I expected though,"

"You can blame drawing for that,"  He offhandedly responds. "Morely thank drawing, you could be a good masseuse did you know that?"

"I think I'm going to stay a demon slayer instead," He answered, stopping his massage and planting his hands flat against her shoulder instead.

Her lips curved up into a lazy smirk as she tilted her head back up at him, she reached up and lightly gripped at the hair of the nape of his neck and pulling him down into a kiss, their lips slotting together like puzzle pieces as she felt her head go a little fuzzy and warm at the feeling. She pulled away with that same smirk.

"A 'demon slayer' don't you mean detective dear?" She inquires with the tiniest tilt of her head, reaching on her hand backward and twirling a strand on his hair on her finger, and giving it a slight tug, pulling his face towards her for another kiss.

"Yes," He nods, "We're cops and detectives, not demon slayers," She says pulling him in for a peck on the lip.

"I'd say otherwise with the name of the place we work at,"

"Demon Slayer Corps, of course, a strange name for a detective and cops agency, don't you think?" She says in between another kiss on the lips. "Most people describe or view criminals as demons, it fits,"

"True, but it's just so childish don't you think?"

"You're childish," He retorted, pulling away and softly hitting the back of her head with the file of records he was holding.

"Yet you married me,"

"We married each other," Giyuu said, "besides I just got the ring." he dutifully tacted on.

"All I did was suggest that instead of being your girlfriend I could be your wife, I hardly call that a proposal,"

"In the end, it is one, I asked Uzui he said so," He answered circling around her chair and leaning against his desk.

"What does he even know about marriage?"

"A lot since he's married to 3 people," Giyuu acknowledges, sliding onto her desk and sitting onto the surface. He leans forwards onto the palm of his hands, tilting his head a few inches to the right. She lets out a slight chuckle as she stares at her husband and halfheartedly tries to swat him off of her desk. "Get off of my desk it's unsanitary,"

"I can think of plenty more unsanitary things you could do on a desk," He said as his nose wrinkled with downturned lips he added on: "Uzui has probably done worse on his desk, let's be honest. The only thing I've done is sit on a few in my life, hardly comparable,"

Shinobu snorted and rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me," She pulled open her drawer and pulled out a lip balm, and applied it to her lips. 

"What else is unsanitary is how many times you use the same lip balm per day, especially after eating." He said reaching down towards her drawer to try and pick one up. "But you really do need to stop spending money on these," He frowned with the slight tilt of his head.

She smacks his hand away from the drawer. "It's nice!" She retorts with a frown. "They smell good too, don't lie, tell me you wouldn't want to kiss these lips now that I'm wearing this!" She exclaims while widely gesturing with a wry grin.

He lets out a huff while simultaneously rolling his eyes and leans down, cupping her chin and bringing her in for a chaste kiss, leaning their foreheads together afterward. "At this point, it's an addiction,"

"Not all of us can have lips that aren't always chapped,"

"You have a tongue for a reason, use that, it's what I use," He retorts pulling away from her and rolling his eyes.

"Well, I certainly wouldn't mind using my tongue if I get to use it on you~," She said while licking her lips with a sly grin.

"I- I'm going see Sabito and Makomo," He stuttered, sliding off of her desk backing up slightly, his face deeply flushing a red color. Shinobu will admit, she liked seeing him blush, especially if she was the cause at it. At least I got him off my desk, she thinks with a smirk.

"Later tonight then,"

"No, not later tonight," Shinobu raised a brow at him.

"Maybe... But Sabito and Makomo wanted to talk to me first," He added on as he folded his arms over his chest and hardened look.

"'Maybe' you see that's what I was hoping for," She swirls around in her chair to face him, propping her elbows up on the chair's arm and laying her head on her hands. "what are you even going to talk with them for?"

"I wanted a second opinion on this case I'm on,"

"You could always ask me,"

"Okay then," He starts, opening the record folder he was holding and flipping through the case file. He stops on a page, licking his thumb and flipping a few pages, and folded it out with a frustrated sigh. "Tell me, how long can an average person swim for until they get tired? Now compare that to someone who's swum post of their life but only recently gotten back into it, how long do you think they would have swum until they got tired and eventually couldn't move anymore? Because that very well could have been the case or it could have been a-"

"Okay, okay, I get your point, go talk to your friends,"

"I'm so glad to have my wife's permission to go see my friends, so honored," He dramatically replied walking off and towards the door. She stuck out her tongue towards him. "Brat," She commented, he just shrugged. "Says you," And before she could get out a comment he leaves the room, quietly and quickly closing the door behind him.

And there she was left all alone in her office with no idea what to do or where to go when it came to this case. So, she did what she always did when it came to these things, moved.

Move and do something that'll get her out of her current headspace and her creative juices flowing. She's found that she's done that a lot more lately, or spending time with her crow and her sisters and interns. Sometimes she'd just complete simple tasks like watering her plants, or rearranging her books or just making coffee. There were so many things she could do but for now, she'd just stay simple.

So, shuffling together her files and putting them away, she gets up, smoothing out the wrinkles in her outfit, and leaves her office, turning out the light and closing the door behind her. She tells her intern, Aoi to tell anyone who wants to see her that she'll be out for a walk, along with the other girls where she'll be, Aoi nods and gets back to whatever it was she was doing and now she's off to walk where ever she wants, which currently is the garden in the back of the agency. She makes her way down the stairs, taking the long way instead of the elevator, and doesn't meet up with anyone along the way. She opens the door to the back garden, which looks lovely as usual.

Stones aligned the walkway, the occasional flower or few patches of grass sprouting between the rocks and trying to disturb the path but in the end, failed to do so, the rocks were too tightly packed together for any to get through them. A few benches aligning the path with places to sit which she ended up sitting at, solar ground lanterns illuminating the paths at night for those who stayed past times they should have, a habit she and Giyuu had desperately trying to break over the past few years yet she found herself falling back into a few weeks ago all thanks to this hand case. 

Shinobu snorted, so well for that, she bitterly thought, and I really thought I was doing something with going home on time and how a case about hands comes along and I suddenly stop, how ironic. Another thing she could label as partly ironic was the birdbath situation all those years ago, or crow-bath if she was being honest.

The estate also had crows that inhabited it on occasions, usually arriving after the arrival of a new leader to a compartment or case typing at the agency. Which meant Oyakata-sama had begun a tradition of letting the new compartment leader which meant by the time she joined there was an array of them already decorated. There was a flashy one (Flashy enough that if you looked in the dictionary and under the word 'Flamboyant' that birdbath would appear there.), one that looked ripe with age, one particularly decorated, another that seemed to be trying to hide its self from the rest and another that seemed meticulously decorated to look it's very best.

Most of them were solar bird baths, with the exclusion of Giyuu's and Obanai's. That was one thing she learned about him, he cared a lot about his fucking crow, like a lot even though the thing was old as hell and was walking a tightrope of life and death he cared a lot about. Which meant he paid attention to every painstaking detail when he designed it.

It was, as she previously stated, a birdbath fountain and it was beautiful as a result. In the middle stood a fountain, a stone fountain that was particularly plain but the flowers surrounding which were made it work. Surrounding it were bluebells, lavender, and salvia clevelandii flowers, and a strange mix of flowers that worked perfectly together. 

Which meant she had to top it, and she tried but in the end, Mitsuri's was the loveliest when she finally joined despite it not being a competition. 

She'd admit, although she couldn't say the feelings were returned he cared a lot about animals, another thing she had grown to love him for. But she was getting off-topic. 

Farther down the path and in the corner of the estate is a rock garden and in the rock garden flowers a river which flowers into a pond, a koi pond where the occasional fish or three causing ripples in the water, there's far more fish in there than that, it's a rather large pond with a simple vermillion red garden bridge stretching across it, the bridge had no railings. 

The pond had a variety of plants around and in it, floating on top of it are a few water lilies along with a few lotuses, on the outside are some horsetails along with water iris's, it's tamed compared to the rock gardens on the estate which bloom a multitude of colors, and are spread out all over the estate.

However, this Koi pond has a particular inhabitant who comes to visit it in his free time which is their local child prodigy, Muichiro Tokito, a boy who always seemed to have his head in the clouds along with a mist of mystery always surrounding him. A young teen who on his own wishes joined the agency after he helped solve a multitude of cases after only 2 months of working as an intern.

And as usual, its usual inhabitant is there once more, or at least he was walking from the usual spot he was at and ended up crossing the path where she was sat on a bench. As he passed by her she gave him a wave where she wasn't sure whether ignored it or didn't even see it, to begin with. So, in the hopes to catch his attention, she said:

"Hi Tokito-san, how are you doing on this fine sunny day?"

"I could swear it was cloudy earlier..." Muichiro aimlessly muttered, staring not at her but behind her. 

"It was, earlier this morning so your right," She corrected with a tilt of her head,  "Oh, okay,"

"Got any news?"

"No," He answers. "A new case, maybe?"

"Not to my knowledge,"

"Well is there anything of your knowledge you'd like to share?" She prompted leaning forward. 

"No... Not really. What case are you on?" There was always an air of uncaring around him, not a bad kind but one of where he couldn't have a care in the world, like his brain was made of mist

"The hand one," Unexpectedly, Muichiro suddenly snapped his head towards her, all his attention falling onto her in only one second. His gaze was nothing more of intense, like a sudden moment of clear consciousness as he glowered at her with his stone-cold eyes. It made her flinch, she had never seen him look so... menacing before.

"You should quit that one Shinobu," He insisted with a clipped tone, a tone she never thought she'd see or hear him have.

"Why?" She... Hesitantly asked, maybe crossing paths with him while he was in this state wasn't the best idea.

"Trust me, you should, curiosity killed the cat, don't let it kill you Shinobu."

"Why should I quit it Tokito-san, you aren't making any sense?"

"I..." He suddenly stuttered, blinking away whatever consciousness he suddenly had, a haze covering him once more. "I don't remember why but you should,"

"What was that just about Tokito-san?"

"I don't remember, have you seen Oyakata-sama?"

"He's where he usually is,"

"Thank you Kocho," He nodded, "It's Shinobu now,"

"...Shinobu," He muttered and she nodded, that same smile on her face. Then walks along the path to the exit of the garden, then stops, turns and looked towards her tilting his head.               "Where is his office again?" He blankly asked.

"I swear, "She grumbled, getting up from the bench smoothing out the wrinkles of her clothing. "sometimes you're more cryptic than Giyuu-san," Smiling as always she walked over towards him and said:

"C'mon, let's go Tokito-san," She prompted resting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a  little push to move him along. 

"Where are we going again?" He turned his head up towards her, tilting it to the side. "To Oyakata-sama you wanted to see him,"

"I did?... Right, right I did," She nodded, leading him along out of the garden and into the building. What's with the unneeded crypticness of lately?

"I think I've begun to think this case truly his hopeless," Shinobu started again, and Giyuu let out a muddled sound, his voice barely audible as he dramatically laid his head to rest Shinobu's chest once more. The two of them were currently on the couch in his office, a couch that folded into a futon(Which personally she thought was a fantastic way to spend your money, even if was on the little pricey side to get a good one) and spending their late afternoon in a comfortable silence.

With a sigh, she reached out and cupped his face, brushing the stray hair out of the way and despite her slight resistance, softly smiled at him. "This is the part where you're supposed to say 'I know, but we'll get through it together,' you know that, right Giyuu?" And maybe the reassurance would have been more for him than her, but either way, she would have appreciated it.

After a few beats of silence, her soft smile devolved into a frown and as a result, she tugs at his hair (Not hard enough that it'd hurt, but enough to gain his attention.) stopping whatever he was about to say with a small wince, and then he pouted at her. A pout she found frankly adorable. "How dare you be irresistible," He hums and lays his head on her chest. Carefully she cradles his head in her hands, drawing circles into his cheeks with her thumbs. "Mmmm..." He hums, melting into her touch.

"Honestly, that idea Mitsuri had about going to a restaurant to watch the lobsters in the tanks fight doesn't sound half bad about now," She offhandedly says as she weaves a hand through his silk-like hair as he slowly blinked, trying his best to stay awake but failing miserably. "You better not fall asleep on top of me you big oaf,"

He blinked up at her and a lazy smile painted his face. "But I'm your big oaf," He commented scooting up to press a quick kiss on her nose and laying back down in his old spot. "Well, that's one thing your right about,"

", you're my big oaf, but your a loveable big oaf, or else I wouldn't have married you."

"Good," His smile quirked up a little but closed his eyes only a few beats afterward. "Oi," She said and started to poke at his cheek. "Don't fall asleep on me alright," She scowled and continuing to poke him.

"It's not like I can fall asleep," He muttered, shifting slightly. She snorted and wrapped her arms lazily around his head. "What? Am I not comfortable enough for you? Y'know this would be most men's dream,"

"It's not that,"

"Then what is it?"

"It's your heartbeat it's... distracting," He said as his face scrunched up slightly as he looked up at her. "Well, at least I have one unless you'd rather cuddle with a corpse instead?"

"No, no thank you, I just..." He lets out a loud yawn, his eyes fluttering closed. "I'm gonna sleep, night'"

"Wait no, don't you dare!" But it was far too late for that, for her husband, her lovely husband, had already fallen asleep, the low soft snores escaping his lips the obvious sigh he had fallen asleep. Shinobu let out a loud groan, tipping her head back as she grumbled. He wasn't going to wake up no matter what she did, well, that wasn't entirely true but you got her point.

"It's not like it can get any worse," She muttered feeling herself start to drift into a deep sleep.

~ Record Scratch ~

Famous. Last. Words.

Seriously, famous last words. Or at least they would be if I was dead but I'm sure you get the point of my expression. That sentence was my lie, an unknowing lie at that.

Now you might be asking, 'Shinobu, what the hell are you talking about?' well if you let me finish I would explain myself. It in fact could get worse for both me and Giyuu especially.

You know the saying 'curiosity kills the cat'? The one Muichiro mentioned earlier? Well, I took that a little too personally myself, which is how I ended up in this situation.

Truth be told if a literal child prodigy tells you to quit a case and that same child prodigy is right 90% of the time when it comes to said hunches you should listen to him! But I didn't, and personally, that was my own fault. Now I ask you to come with me on this journey of absolute bull-fucker and how I singlehandedly almost killed a man and almost got my husband killed as well.

Chapter Text

Shinobu wakes up to a loud, scream followed by a hitched breath and quiet sobs. It isn't her, she already knows that which means it can only be one person unless someone broke into her house without her knowledge but she highly doubts that, which means it's most likely her husband.

"Giyuu!"

Did he get?...

No, it's best not to assume the worst. But that sinking feeling in her stomach that sometimes did happen and she was too slow to stop it.

So not without slight hesitation, she looks towards the right side of her bed and the sight makes her stomach drop.

He's turned away from her completely, back towards her as his legs hang over the edge of the bed. His frame violently shook, he had his arms tightly wrapped around himself, his nails digging into his arms as ragged breaths escape his lips as he sobs as quietly as he can with the occasional hitch. She frowns at him if he keeps digging his nails into his arms it'll bleed and then the situation will get unexpectedly worse, yes, it'll ground him but it's possibly the worse way to ground him out of all of them.

"Giyuu," She says again, inching towards him, "Giyuu are you okay?" She softly asked, placing a tender hand on his shoulder which makes him flinch slightly, so she says: "It's okay honey, it's me, Shinobu, your wife, remember?" And then she tries again, and with the needed confirmation confirmed he melts into her touch with a shudder and a broken sob. Her heart aches at the sound.

It's not the first time he's had a nightmare, nor would it be if it were her who had one instead, it comes with their job, sadly. So she can't say it's strange for him to have one know, but what is strange is why he was so loud all of a sudden, he's always been a quiet crier which makes it notoriously difficult to find out when he's upset which was why the sudden noise was so strange. But either way, that didn't matter all that mattered was making sure he was okay and finding out what happened, he'd do the same if it were her in that situation.

Softly she turns him towards her, sliding her hands up his shoulder, neck until she can cup his cheek. He shivers under her touch, choking on a sob as he leans into it.

"Are you okay?" She crooned, brushing his bangs out of his face. "Just... Just hold me, please..." He chokes out with another sob. "O-okay..." Shinobu nods, holding him in her arms and letting him lean against her as he quietly sobs into her shoulder.

"I'm right here, we're here, at home, safe," She traces small circles into her back, soft whispering of reassurance as she holds him close to her. "I promise, it was just a dream,"

"Whatever you saw it wasn't real," She repeats her reassurance like a mantra, hoping, hoping that it'll be able to stave away whatever kind of nightmare he had, because if it was enough to make him scream like that it had to be a horrible one. She draws invisible lines onto his back, up and down his spine, his sobs eventually start to die down to small mumbles, the grip he had on her clothes haven loosened as he leaned against her shoulder. She softly strokes his hair, slightly scratching at his scalp as he mumbles against her shoulder.

"You don't need to tell me anything, you can just cry if that's what you want and I'll stay right here with you as you do." She says, "Mmmnn," he mutters, slowly, lifting his head up from her shoulder and letting his head rest on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" She softly asked him, he just shrugged, muttering into the crook of his neck. "I guess..."

"What happened?" He immediately tenses under her and moves away and out of her grip, avoiding eye contact with her. "It's... It's stupid," He mutters, "It's not stupid if it made you have that kind of reaction," she reassurances, laying her hand on his shoulder. His shoulder shook. lip trembling as he struggled to meet her eyes.

"It's... It's the case you're on," He admitted, vaguely gesturing. "The hands one?"

"Yes, the hands one! I... I'm worried something might happen to you," He expressed while gesturing his hands in a circular motion. "Nothing is going to happen to me,"

"You say that an... And..." He sighed as he starred lowly at the bedsheets. "Why do you think I left the case? I've just been getting a bad feeling about it a-and this isn't the first time this happened, so-"

"Wait this isn't the first nightmare you had pertaining to this case?"

"Well yes, bu-"

"Why did you tell me, I thought we talked about this!"

"You looked so peaceful while you were asleep," He said with a frown, tilting his head to the side as he spoke. She furrowed her brows, a frown on her face starting to deepen.

"I don't care if I look peaceful, you need to wake me up," She gripped at his arms, tightly, giving him a small shake. "What happened to me?"

Giyuu can't meet her eyes anymore, looking away with reluctance and hesitancy, "I..." he shakes head. "It's... It's dumb,  I know it'd never happen to you you don't need to worry,"

"Not telling me is only going to make me worry more, so please," She pleaded, "tell me,"

"I..." he breathed in a deep breath, steadying himself. "You died, someone, I'm not sure who shot you, i-it was some guy and y-you died and you got shot a-and I had to sit there and watch- and it was horrible, I couldn't do anything! I was strapped to a chair a-and it was like he was trying to torture me by witnessing that and I-" As he speaks, he starts to fiddle with his hair, then tugging at it until he reached the end his sentences, eyes glassy with tears. "I thought I lost you, Koko, for good." He softly whispered, looking at her with the most broken she had seen him.

"Oh, honey," Silently, she pulls him in for a hug running a hand through his messy hair as he silently sobs into her shoulder. "I'm not going anywhere I swear, so please don't think that because it's not true." He lets out more hitched sobs as she speaks. "And I'm so sorry you have to go through that so next time something like that happen please tell,"

"You're stuck with me forever, whether you like it or not and I don't plan on leaving you so soon," His sobs eventually died down after a few moments, letting out heaved breaths as she rubbed his back and eventually his shoulder, kneading into the skin.

Eventually, he pulled away, rubbing his tears away with his palm and breathing in a hitched breath.

"Muichiro said something about the case. Something to me," He spoke with a deep breath.

"He did?" Her husband nods, "What did he say?"

"He..." he breathes in a deep breath. "He had a hunch, a hunch that something was wrong with this case when I left he told me that. He also said he wasn't going to stay long on it though if nothing came up,"

"Maybe his hunch was wrong?" Giyuu looked at her with a deadpanned expression. "This is a literal child prodigy were talking about, his hunches are almost never incorrect,"

"Still," He insisted, "90% of it being right, 90 fucking percent of it being right," she retorted.

"10%  of it being wrong,"

"I don't know, I believe him," She shrugged, looking away and so did he, and they fell into silence. After a few beats of silence, she looked up at him with a frown.

"Are you going to go to work tomorrow?"

"No... Probably not, what about you?"

"Yeah, probably,"

"Are you sure, can't you like... Stay with me, maybe?"

"I would but if this case is solving you so much stress then I need to solve it as soon as possible."

"Koko," He tilted his head at her, starring sadly with a frown.

"Just trust me on this, okay?" She reaches down and grabs both of his hands into hers, clasping them together and squeezing them."Okay," He says, "just you better solve it quickly, you worry me."

"Thank you!" She exclaims, suddenly leaning up to kiss his forehead, squeezing his hand. "You're not gonna regret this promise,"

He felt his face heat up and he looked away, pulling his hands away. "I better not,"

"Alright then, then let's..." She pauses for a few beats and looks up at him. "Do you think you can go back to sleep?"

He glances to the side and then back at her, with a lazy look to his face, he holds out his arms, gesturing to her with his finger to come towards her. "Warmth," A giggle escapes her lips and she wraps her arms around his neck, peppering his face with kisses as she pulls him down onto the bed, bouncing slightly when they land. She rolls onto her side, tangling her legs in his as she holds him closer, dropping the comforter over the two of them.

A small snort bubbles out of his chest as he tips his head back with a lazy grin. "That was cute," She giggles, pecking his cheek. His face lightly flushes and he nuzzles into the crook of her neck, smiling. "I love you," He mutters and her face flushes deeply. "I love you too," She mutters into his hair, holding him closer.

They both fall asleep peacefully that night, him being blissfully unaware of the events that the future held him.

Giyuu wakes up slightly cold but with an amazing smell nearby. He lets out a groan, pulling the blanket even closer to him. Someone distantly giggles and he turns over in his sleep, grabbing the pillow and covering his head with the pillow. After a few beats of silence, the bed dips next to him and the pillow is taken off of his head and he's greeted with a room that's far too bright. He shields his eyes with his arm, a careful hand moves it off of his face, his wife smiling down at him, shielding his face from the bright light.

"Hello there," She greets in a sing-song voice, "I made your favorite," she smiles down at him, and through his bleariness, he flashes her a lazy smile. "You really didn't have to,"

"I know," She smiles, "but I wanted to," she cranes herself down to plant a kiss on his forehead which gets a small chuckle from him. "Why're you so domestic all of a sudden?"

"Can't I just love my husband?" She quirks a brow at him, "Well yes, but I have my reasons to be suspicious,"

With a sigh, she sits on the edge of the bed reaching downwards and cupping his cheek. "Why must you question everything?"

Without much thought he leans into her hand, pressing a small kiss to the palm before he looks up at her. "Is this about last night?" She sighs looking away, "Yes, you worry me, don't you know that?"

"Well, now you know how I feel," she resists the urge to scowl down at him.

"This isn't the first time," Frowning, she stops cupping his cheek but starts to pinch his cheek instead, lowering the tone of her voice as she speaks. "the first time was when you came back from a mission poisoned and completely out of it, you were dragging blood all over the floor, looking so fucked up and even then you still looked as lovely as you always did despite it all. You're lucky I have a medical degree or else you'd have been royally fucked before the medics arrived,"

"Kakushi," He states and she just rolls her eyes.

"Medics, kakushi, same thing," Giyuu shrugs, moving forward to wraps his arms around her waist and rests his head in her laugh, halfway pouting up at her. "Can't you stay home with me?" She giggles and in response ruffles his already messed up hair.

"I'd love to but I'm busy," She leans down to kiss his nose, brushing his bangs out of the way. "maybe you can cook us dinner, and then we can eat it while watching a movie together. Like old times?"

"The old times where I still lived in the quietest apartment in the world yet it being in the city?" Her smile grew even brighter. "Yet it was always too quiet,"

"I can manage that but you should hurry to work, okay?" He lets out a hum and she smooths back his hair with a smile and he leans into the gesture. Her husband yawns, snuggling closer to his pillow, a bit of drool dripping down his chin as he settles back into sleep. Shinobu lets out a sigh, her shoulders drooping, she softly thumbed his cheek, drawing soft circles into the skin. Eventually, after a few beats of silence, she gets up and gets ready to leave, she's already in uniform after all.

She throws on a beige coat that goes down to her thighs that has a beige ribbon tied around her waist closing it, wrapping a navy scarf around her neck to fend herself from the cold, that's not mentioning the bag she has over her shoulder that has her personal items. She's wearing the standard uniform, and her coat hides it perfectly well, along with her thigh holster which holsters her weapon, usually, she leaves it at work but she forgot last night so now she's bringing it back and she'll leave it at work this time. It's frankly dangerous but thankfully nothing comes from it. She goes down to the subway, orders some canned coffee, and drinks it on her way to the agency, taking her usual route.

She makes her way out of the subway station, throwing the empty canned coffee in a bin, making her usual walk to the agency with one of her hands stuffed in her pocket and the other tightly gripping at the bag. The walk isn't that long, it takes around 15 minutes to get there but usually, she has her husband to talk with her, but he's at home either sleeping or starting breakfast. She hopes he's okay.

As she walks into the agency, she spots someone, another associate of hers's a very loud one at that both personality and speech-wise.

There you had Kyojuro Rengoku, the director or chief of cases related to flames - you could not refer to them as fire around him- type deaths, along with occasionally dabbling in other types when it came to joint cases but it'd be rare to find in him in cases that weren't halfway associated with flame in some sort. And currently, this man was in the lobby, from the looks of it waiting for someone, she had a couple of guesses who'd it be but that wasn't the point of her being here. She needed to hurry up and solve this case if what had happened last night was the cost of it.

So ignoring her associate she speed-walked past him, ignoring his most likely confused looks was safe until she reached the door to his elevator, ignoring the footsteps behind him until a hand warm hand rests on her shoulder, she resists the urge to sigh and turns around to face her friend, who's concerned. His brows are creased, as he looks down at her, concern swirling in his eyes.

"You look stressed Shinobu, did something happen?"

"Nothing much I..." She sighed, resting a hand on her cheek almost by reflex. "Can you keep a secret Rengoku-san?"

"From my knowledge, yes,"

"You know that case I've been on?" He curtly nods down at her. "The one about the hands, yes,"

"Well, you know how Giyuu-san has been real insistent on getting me off of the said case?" She wraps a strand of hair around her finger and curls it in a repeated motion, occasionally tugging at it.

"I'm aware," He folds his arms over his chest, with a curt nod. "Well, I figured out why last night,"

"Did something happen? Are you both okay?" He reaches out a hand towards her, hesitantly hovering it over her shoulder but not putting it on it, the concern is laced in his voice.

"Well I was okay but I can't say Giyuu-san is, see last night he had a nightmare pertaining to the case a-and now I'm starting to feel guilty about being on it b-because I- I know I'm just so close to solving it but it's hurting him an- and-" Her hands find their way to weave themselves in her hair and then pull, she's stuttering, fumbling over her words in a fit of panic. The what if's rattling around in her mind, what if something happened to Giyuu while she was away and- and-

"Shinobu! Deep breaths," Another hand finds its way to her shoulder and gives it a tight squeeze, his voice almost loudly echoing throughout the lobby, thankfully, snapping her out of her panic.

"Right right," She vigorously nods her head, breathing a few breaths out of her chest until she feels a bit better. Kyojuro, once noticing this, stops squeezing her shoulder but lets his hands rest on her shoulders still. "Now, what's going on with Tomioka?"

"Because I haven't quit the case it... It ended up affecting Giyuu-san and he had a nightmare and now I'm starting to think about quitting the case so he won't have to suffer like that."

"I understand your concern but do you want to quit the case?"

"No, but-"

"No but's," He exclaims, squeezing her shoulders. "you won't quit the case! Make sure you tell Tomioka he has my regards,"

"I'll be sure too- wait, what do you mean I'm not quitting the case?"

"If you don't want to quit it, you shouldn't, it's as simple as that,"

"But Rengoku-"

"No buts! Only confidence," He gives her a clap on the back and then presses the button to the elevator and enters in it in complete silence and waves goodbye to her, she waves back and the elevator closes and he's gone while she just stands there until it hits her.

Wait... Shinobu thinks, did he just steal the elevator?!

Shinobu ends up begrudgingly taking the stairs muttering under her breath, she really just had her elevator ride stolen by a guy who looks like a more fitter version of Guy Fieri but without the beard. Yeah, she'd say her day was going sorta well.

A couple of hours later, Shinobu got a voicemail telling her that they'd be having a mandatory meeting in about 30 minutes. She finishes up whatever it is she's doing and arrives at the meeting 5 minutes early. About half the people are there when she arrives, she takes her seat, spying her husband's seat, as expected, empty. She props up her head on palms, an air of slight disinterest around her, as the others arrive, more chatter rises amongst them all with her occasionally adding to the conversation. By the time 30 minutes have passed, everyone but her husband has arrived, the chatter has lessened as they waited for their leader to arrive. 

Eventually, after a few minutes, the door opens, half expecting their leader to walk into the room, instead, a familiar raven-haired and sapphire-eyed man walks in, she grins as she watches him close the door behind her. Rising from her seat she waves at him, her worries about him not showing up being washed away, she loudly exclaimed:

"Hey what's up hot stuff I thought you weren't coming in for work today!"

Giyuu lets out a sigh despite how much his face flushes at the statement. "Until you learn how to start a normal conversation in front of people I will always end up wondering why I married you."

"But to answer your question, I got called for a mandatory meeting,"

"Aww, you didn't like my greeting?"

"Look I love you, but please never do that again," He pulls back his seat and slides into his seat, scooting forward slightly.

"You're late Tomioka," Obanai lowly mutters, slinking back in his chair slightly. "I wasn't planning to come into work today," He blandly answers, crossing his arms. "Took the usual route?" Shinobu asked, leaning onto the palm of her hands. He nodded, leaning back in his chair, his blush settling down.

"Knew it,"

"That's the same route we always take,"

"Yeah, and because I'm smart I didn't even need to spare a single thought to it  to know I was right."

"Says the woman who didn't know how to make toast,"

"You didn't know how to make toast?! That is literally the easiest fucking thing in the world!" Sanemi loudly questioned.

"Are you shaming me?"

"I'm shaming you, severely," Sanemi answered, "He's shaming you honey and you really do deserve it," Mitsuri tacted on with an unimpressed look. "I thought we agreed never to talk about it," He shot her a lazy smile, hidden underneath his hand. "Payback," He whispered and she had resisted the urge to frown at him until suddenly, an idea popped into her head.

"Did anyone ever tell you you look cute when you smile?" She asked with a smirk, in response, Giyuu let out a sigh again, covering his flushed face with his hands."Ohmygod,"

"What? I'm right!"

"Why did I marry you? It's like you're determined to embarrass me,"

"It's a goal,"

"Oh my god," Giyuu sighed again. "You knew what you were signing up for when you said 'I do', you know that!"

"What in the world are they babbling on about," Obanai said, giving a side-eye to the conversation between the married couple.

"At this point, I've tuned it out," Sanemi responded with a shrug. "I think it's sweet,"

"You think everything is 'sweet'! You think a mother bird coughing up her dinner to feed her baby birds is cute! That's not cute that's disgusting!"

"It is sweet!"

Muichiro lets out a sigh and sinks into his seat, "I keep forgetting how annoying you all are," and Kyojuro just slowly nodded along and sipped his drink as he watched the chaos unfold.

"Just wait until Oyakata-sama gets here," Kyojuro piped up and Muichiro nodded along as even more arguing amongst themselves arose. As the others argued the married couple found themselves in a conversation with each other, tuning out the others as they have a slight agreement and disagreement.
 
Shinobu lets out a sigh and leans back in her chair. "I need to take a break," She says and Giyuu nods in agreement. "That I can agree on,"

"And I know just what to do,"

"What's with that look?"

"You'll see," She grins, wrapping an arm around his shoulder pulling him close. "Oh god," The expression on his face darkens as her grins grow even larger.

"God can't help us now buddy,"

Chapter Text

It's a beautiful day outside, it's sunny, not even a single cloud in the sky, which is why they're inside instead of outside. But to put it into more perspective, they're inside of Shinobu and Giyuu's house, where currently Shinobu and Mitsuri are in the kitchen, making icing for the cake they just made. Giyuu has left to go hang out with his friends, Sabito and Makomo, or at least go eat out with them for lunch. With enough convincing, she managed to convince their leader that a vacation day for all was in order(Maybe she told him about how much stress this was putting on her husband but that wasn't important-) and thankfully he listened.

So now here she was on her day off with Mitsuri as her fiance- Obanai- and soon to be husband had been dragged away by Uzui to look at suits, she's surprised that Tengen didn't end dragging her husband along with them since he had insisted on helping Giyuu find his suit as well- who ended up getting Makomo, Sabito and his Sensei to help him instead but Uzui doesn't know that- but thankfully he managed to avoid it by hanging out with Sabito and Makomo. She wished he ended up going with Tengen though because she really wanted to see what suits he had in store because he always ended up finding the most atrocious ones possible, she'd know, she had him when she was choosing her wedding dress and he somehow managed to found the worst ones ever.

She snorted at the memory, smiling as she remembered the dress that he found that was decorated with flames. Maybe I'll wear to Rengoku-san's wedding if he ever gets married, she told him, but lord knows what that man will get married and if he ever will. If he does Mitsuri better be his best woman even if that isn't a thing that exists, she deserves it. 

"Aren't we going to taste it before we put it on the cake," Mitsuri rips her out of her current thoughts, and she nods, looking toward the bowl of icing in front of them. It was a white, sort of yellowish color, it was supposed to be more white but hey, not everything can come out perfect.

"Duh," Shinobu rolls her eyes and sticks a finger into the concoction and brings it up to her lip and gives it a lick, her expression immediately goes sour. "That doesn't look good..." The pink and green-haired woman mutters, bitting on her fingernail.

"I... I think we just invented a new kind of poison..." Shinobu speaks up, "I..." Mitsuri stays deathly silent until she eventually speaks up. "I hope it tastes like strawberries?..." Her friend let out a nervous chuckle, trying to ease some of the tension. It does quite the opposite as she goes and spits out the remaining icing in the sink, wiping her tongue with a paper towel for extra precaution.

"Note to self: do not hire friends to make a wedding cake, just get a professional instead,"

"Hey! I'm a decent chef," Mitsuri shook her head and moved to go pull out the powdered sugar. "Tomioka-san is better than you, why do you think we ask him to bring food and you to decorate?"

Almost in comedic fashion, Shinobu dramatically gripped at the fabric above her heart, splaying her hand over her head as she leaned back in a dramatic fashion. "And I thought you were my friend!"

"I am, but it's the truth," And for extra measure, Mitsuri tacts on: "besides, Kyojuro-san is the best cook out of all of us."

"Now that I can't argue with,"

"What do you say we just look up a recipe instead of trying to make our own because this is not, working,"

"Yeah," She nods along and they get started on making some more icing.

It turns out making homemade icing is easier said than done. It also turns out waiting for a dish to dry takes a long time time. So now here they were, waiting for the bowl that attached to dry which was taking far too long than it should, it was a bowl for god sake. Yet here they were, chattering amongst themselves as they waited for it to dry.

As they waited, Giyuu had arrived, wishing goodbye to his friends who insisted on staying but he refused to let them stay, she giggled, bidding them to stay but by the time she had they had already left. As he approaches them, Mitsuri doesn't look up her phone and she contemplates ignoring him to see what he'll do. Surprisingly, he doesn't do much but jump up and slide on top of the countertop with ease, crossing his legs over each other as he stares down at the two.

"Tomioka-saaann, are you really sitting on top of the kitchen countertop?" Mitsuri whined, looking up from her phone. "Yep," He answers clicking his tongue. "He does that a lot Mitsuri-san, get used to it,"

"It's just... Feels different. I also get a view of the whole kitchen to so that's a plus,"

"And it just where the snacks belong, so it's kinda mandatory he sits there,"

"Shinobu!" Almost instantly, his face flushes. "Ooooo, spicy," Mitsuri whispered, almost scandalized. "Don't say that around the guests!" Giyuu leans forward, looking down at her, and whisper yelled that. "My house my rules," She added with a pout.

"Our house, my rules are included! I found the damn thing!" He whisper-argued back, "My rule is that you cannot say things like that around the guests," he tacted on for extra measure.

"Even Uzui-san?"

"Especially him!"

"You guys do know I can hear you?" Mitsuri pipes up, and her husband almost instantly flushes, and she smirks standing up on her tippy toes and grabbing his shirt to pull him down into a kiss.

"We can~" Michevious paints the woman's lips as she smirks and Mitsuri gasps, scandalized.   "So very spicy!"

"D-Don't you have icing you need to make?" He stutters, leaning back and away from her, holding up his hand slightly. "He's right Shinobu-san," Mitsuri pipes up from where's she's standing, grabbing the mixer bowl and placing it onto the counter. She leans against it, propping up her head with her hand. "We really should get to that,"

Shinobu nods and turns away from her husband still smiling. "Right, right, let' s get to that,"

And so they do, it turns out better than the last time. They end up making the icing vanilla buttercream which tastes excellent. But that doesn't mean there isn't any need for a little foolery, however.

"You need to stop putting that icing on my nose,"

Shinobu sly smirked at her husband. "Or what?"

"We won't have any for the cake," He deadpanned at her, closing his eyes and furrowing his brows as she slathered some icing on his nose. Again. "Uh-ohhhhhh, I did it again~"

"Ugh," He said while crossing his arms, glaring down at her. "This better not taste like how your other batch of icing tasted,"

"You tasted that?" She asked with a slightly incredulous look, raising a brow.

"Yes, it tasted like shit," Giyuu said, "I wouldn't give it to my worse enemy." he dutifully tacted on.

"Fine then let's do a taste test,"

"As soon as I wipe this icing off my nose," He reaches for a nearby napkin and she stops him by grabbing his wrist and pushing it aside. "Here I got this,"

"Sure, what're yo-" She grabs his shirt and pulls him down, kissing his nose and then licking it off of his nose.  She looks up at him with a sly expression and expects an embarrassed expression, but is instead given a wry one instead. Recoils away from her, grabbing a nearby napkin and wiping off his nose.

"That was so disgusting I can't even,"

"It was not! That was romantic they do that in literally any show or book," In a slight fit of a panic, she turns towards Mitsuri with a nervous grin. "c'mon Mitsuri, back me up on this, zero hesitation."

"That was so disgusting oh my god,"

"Yeah, it- whAT!? You're supposed to back me up!" She spluttered with a frown. "I can't back something that disgusting up,"

"Oh so a mother bird spitting food into its child's mouth is cute and this is disgusting?!"

"Uh, yeah, cause it's birds, not humans," She retorted with a frown, turning away with an upturned head. "I'm gonna start icing this cake if you don't mind," Shinobu pouted as she watched Mitsuri use a knife to slather icing on the cake as her husband chuckled at the action. She stuck her tongue at him and went to go help Mitsuri with the cake.

Just who did he thinks he was?

The two of them waved goodbye to Mitsuri as she left with the cake in a container, waving back to them then walked away with a skip in her step. She smiled for a bit, waiting until she was sure Mitsuri was out of earshot until she turned towards her husband, clinging onto his arm as she grinned up at him, mischief sparkling in her eyes.

"What do you say we go to the park dollface?" She asks, smiling up at him, "We need to clean up the dishes, maybe another day," he offhandedly says, gaining a pout from Shinobu.

"C'mooooon dollface, don't be such a stick in the mud I just wanna go for a walk! Let me show you off as I've always wanted to,"

"You're strange Shinobu, did you know that?" Giyuu commented with twisted lips and slightly furrowed brows. "I wonder who I got that from?" She dryly spoke with a mocking grin.

"Certainly not from me because I've never wanted to show you off like an object,"

"Would you rather I barge into the office instead and yell: 'Hellooooo! Look at my husband! Isn't he great? Well, guess what you can't have him because he's mine!' because I can do that if you rather." The wife joshed while lightly swatting at his side. "Ew," He responded, nose crinkling slightly.

"Don't 'ew' me you know I'm joking with you,"

"I'd hope,"

"Yeah, possessiveness really isn't my style, y'know?"

"Yeah, neither is it mine," With that said, they walk out of the door hand and hand, smiling.

The park, granted, was mostly empty, it was a Wednesday, only a few older people occupying the park along with some teens and children, but it was a small amount at best. They walk along the dirt path, benches occasionally aligning the sides along with some bushes and metal trashcans, the path occasionally breaking out into intertwining paths but they stay on the same one, keeping on going forward. As they walk, the last thing they expect is to run into two of their coworkers. Or at least two out of the four interns Giyuu has, Tanjiro and Zenitsu.

In the blonde's hand, he is cupping a cup of coffee, warmth probably radiating off of it, the same being able to be said for the redhead.

"What are you two doing here?" Giyuu prompts, starring down at his two interns with a quirked brow. "Nothing much," He says, "just decided to take a stroll, it's a really nice day,

"I'm surprised Nezuko or Insouke isn't with you, she usually is," Shinobu pipes up, bounding on the balls of her feet.

"Ah, we just wanted a day to ourselves," Then the teen stops, a sudden heat rising in his cheeks. "n-not that either of us enjoy their company it just a break would be nice."

"What about you?" Tanjiro prompts, slightly nudging the blonde with a smile.

"On a date," Shinobu chirped with a smile, and Giyuu slightly elbowed her. "We're walking," He interjected holding up a finger. "Ah," Tanjiro beamed, "same here, we just left a coffee shop really didn't think it'd end up being cold." Giyuu nodded down at them. "We should probably go get some ourselves, I can only assume it'll get colder as the day goes on."

He craned his head down slightly. "Do you know where it is?"

Tanjiro pointed back with his thumb. "Keep going that way until you leave the park, then it should be around the corner." Giyuu nods, "Thank you," Shinobu tugs at his arm, trying to rush him along whispering that she wants coffee. "We should go," He says,

"But thank you for the directions," Tanjiro beams at him and Zen gives him a shy smile. "Thanks for talking with us," And then the two groups go their separate ways.

As the boys pass by them, thinking they're out of his view, he notices how his intern's hands almost instantly intertwine. He smiles, intertwining his own hand with his wife. This was nice.

"You know, if we ever have a kid we should name her Kyoko," He suddenly spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence between the two. This results in a sudden flush crossing her face, stuttering out her next sentence. "E-excuse me?! Where is this coming from?"

Tomioka tilts his head backward, signaling towards Zenitsu and Tanjiro who were walking away from them, oblivious of the exchange between the two.  "Them, maybe if we have a boy we can name them Taiyo,"

"Why not Shin?"

"I'm not naming my child after a body part,"

"What about-"

"Nope, you've lost talking privileges, not naming them after a character from a show you like either,"

"No one will know-" He cut her off. "Everyone will know!"

"Sure," He dryly said, "Whatever helps you sleep at night, you and your imaginary child Shin," a mocking grin curled onto his lips until it was suddenly wiped off when he was suddenly elbowed in his side and let out a yelp. "Yeah because Tenko and Kyoko are better names,"

"Better then Shin," He got elbowed in his side again.

"Would you stop that!"

"As much as I love getting affection, I love your silence tenfolds more so please shut up," They're currently in their bedroom, laying side by side as Giyuu breaks the silence with his voice."And you just ruined the moment,"

"The moment was ruined when you tried to tickle me- hey what are you doing, stop smiling at me like that."

"You liked it," Shinobu retorts with a grin.

"Shinobu I will leave this room and go sleep in the guest room so help me I will-" She interrupts him. "You won't,"

"I will," He responds, "You won't leave me, or else you'll be cold, you need me." then, true to his word he slides out from under the sheets and gets up, walking away from her.

"Wait, what're you doing?"

"I'm leaving you,"

Shinobu lets out a gasp far too dramatic for her own good and pouts at him."Don't you dare, come back here," She grabs a nearby pillow and throws it at him, it hit the back of his head and he looks at her over his shoulder. "Well, now I definitely am leaving now,"

"Noooooo," Shinobu whines, reaching out towards him and waving her hand. He turns around and stares at her, cracking a wry smile on his face as he shakes his head. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't?"

So, to prove her point, she slides out of bed, swiftly walking towards him, and wraps her arms around his head, wrapping her legs around his waist and clings to him as if her life depends on it. He lets out a mutter, swatting at her slightly but not doing much. "Koko, get off of me," He muttered, tilting his head back but not making an effort to push her off of him. "Mmmm, no, not until you come back to bed with me,"

"This is not a reason," He blatantly stated. "It is, you need me or else you'll be cold,"

Her husband just shrugs and hugs her back as he walked towards the bed, "You can get off me now," he says, nudging her slightly. "Shoo, get off," She mockingly scoffed at him and crawled onto the bed. "I'm not a pest,"

"Then stop acting like one you damn mosquito," He retorted while slipping her the sheets, holding it up for her to do the same, where she ends up settling on top of his chest, him dripping the sheets over him and then sliding back down, letting his already messy hair pool around him.

"Shut up," She mutters while nuzzling into the crook of her head, and he lets out a small laugh letting his eyes droop closed as he feels himself falling asleep.

Everything is peacefully silent, that is until he lets out a small gasp as he felt something nip at his neck, the heat almost instantly rising on his cheeks as his wife pulled away with a laugh. "Must you?!" He squeaked, sounding scandalized. She loudly laughs at him, propping her head up with her palm. "I must,"

"And you say I'm the weird one while you're the one biting me."

She sticks her tongue out at him with a small smile. "You married me, your fault,"

"If you keep acting like a literal animal I might consider retracting that,"

"You wouldn't!"

"I wouldn't,"

"Yeah, that's what I thought," She says while poking his cheeks, laying her head on his naked chest. "For someone who complains of always being cold you sure do like sleeping shirtless," She comments, puffing out her cheeks as the skin slowly starts to warm under her. He shrugs, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer. "I have you to warm me up," He nuzzles into her neck, "my own personal human furnace,"

"Is that all I am to you? A heater," With a roll of his eyes he lets his eyes fluttered closed, a lazy smile slipping onto his face. "Mmm, I love you,"

"Don't avoid the question," She said while poking his cheeks. "Good night Koko,"

"Stop avoiding the question!" She flicks him but it's far too late, he's already asleep. With a sigh she leans in closer, pressing a kiss to his cheek and settling down.

"Good night dollface," She found herself being lulled to sleep to the sound of his heartbeat.

Chapter Text

Shinobu is currently waiting, waiting, and waiting and waiting. For who you might ask? Well for her current partner on the case of course. They had ended up finding another clue, a blade if you will, a blade that was described as 'ugly as helllll'. Personally, she did not understand how that was possible, or if it was even possible but hey, who knows what's really possible at the end of things? Anything, if you really think about it. Uzui could be the judge of that, he was the person she was waiting for in this Forensics Lab for after all.

She tapped her foot against the cold wooden floor, arms folded and lips curled into a slight pout. What is taking him so long? She asked herself, whipping her head around and getting no answers. She walked over to the blinds that peered into the other parts of the agency and spotted nothing, she sighed, backing up and leaning against the table. Eventually, she gets bored and starts to walk around the table, humming a tune as she waits to hear the creak of the door. Then, she does.

The door creaks open, they really need to either oil it or get it replaced, and she turns towards it, with a roll of her eyes. It took him long enough, she bitterly thought. "Hey, Uzui-san, what took you so lon- Tokito-san?" She blinked, then blinked once more trying to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Yes, that was Muichiro and not Uzui. He probably just walked in, she thought.

"Yes?" The teen answered, looking up at her. "Tokito-san, what're you doing here?"

"I'm back on the case," She quirked a brow at him. "Why though? I thought you quit for good,"

"Something told me to join again,"

"Was it me not quitting it?"

"I dunno," The younger boy shrugged, an indifferent expression on his face. He walks up to the table in the middle, on the table is an assortment of different items but the thing that sticks out is a sealed black bag with white writing. Muichiro stares at it as if he's trying to burn holes into it.

"What do we have here?" The young boy asks, craning his head down at the bag. "Well we have this blade, it was described as 'ugly as hell' and neither of us has seen it so we'll have to be the judge of that." Shinobu walks towards the table, grabbing the black gloves and slipping them on in a swift movement. She turns towards the teen with a quirked brow. "You have some gloves, right?" 

He nods, "Mmm, they're in my bag,"

"Well, get them out," she responds. "I will," As she reaches for the black bag on the table, Tokito reaches into the dark brown bag hanging over his shoulder, unclipping the locks and picking out the gloves, slipping them off with ease; he plants the bag flat on the table. She took out the blade, having to resist recoiling in disgust at the simple sight of it. Her face scrunched up, brows furrowing as she held it away from her.

"Damn this thing is ugly as hell," She gripped and Muichiro looked up from his gloves and immediately greeted his teeth. "That's what I was thinking,"

"Uzui-san is so lucky he isn't here to see it,"

"Agreed," Muichiro nods, and speak of the devil, and they doth appear the door swings open, and in walks in Tengen Uzui, the man who associates/the head of sound-related cases, or, flashy ones he labeled as 'flamboyant'. 

"Oi, sorry I was late, one of my wives called me," As if to signify his point he waved his phone in his hand, then, promptly, stuffed it into his pocket.

"Oh it's nothing," Shinobu dismisses with a wave of her hand, "Didn't even notice you were late," Muichiro shrugged, staring up at the man with an uninterested expression. Uzui let out a quiet snicker, placing his hands on his hips as he walked towards them. "So what'd I miss?" He craned down at the two, loudly grinning as he peered at what they were doing, she gave him a side glance, swatting his head away as she pulled the blade out of his view. "Put on your gloves if you want to see the blade,"

"I was going to, god, don't be such a downer," The married man scowled, opening a nearby drawer and pulling out the gloves. He shoved his wristwatch down his wrist as he slipped on the gloves. "Doesn't even make sense why I need it when I'm just looking at it,"

"now, let me see it." He makes a grabbing motion at the blade and Shinobu hands it over to him, careful not to let it drop on the floor.

"Damn bitch, this blade ugly as hell," Tengen off-handly exclaimed as he twirled the blade in his gloved hand.

"I know that's what I said!" Shinobu responded, "That's what I thought," Muichiro added.

"I see why they said this blade was ugly as hell,"

"if you're going to kill someone at least make it flashy,  more..." She watched him as he paused, looking off with a distant expression, only being able to assume that he was looking for the right words. "Flamboyant,"

"What would a flamboyant blade even look like?" Shinobu spoke with a quirked brow.

"Bedazzled," He spoke, a tone that hinted he was in awe as he did. She just rolled her eyes, her lips curling upwards against her will. "That's flashy alright," He snickers and they go to examine their next item, Muichiro going to excuse himself to go to the bathroom. So she and Uzui continue on without him, or they would if her phone didn't loudly ring, resonating throughout the room as all eyes fall on her. "Ignore that,"

So they sorted through all the previous evidence, planning to send the ugly as hell blade to testing to see if anything could come of it but it most likely wouldn't. Then they came across another object, a pair of bloodied handcuffs discarded in a nearby dumpster. Uzui ended up picking them up, tilting his head side to side as he stared at them.

"Handcuffs," Tengen nodded in acknowledgment. "kinky,"

Shinobu shook her head with a huff. "Watched too many movies end up going wrong to know I'd never want handcuffs anywhere near me no matter the scenario,"

"Not even in the bedroom?"

"Especially in the bedroom, that's when the monster or killer comes in, and whoever is handcuffs get's left behind! Never doing it,"

"Eh, not my kind of taste personally,"

"We really shouldn't be discussing this when Tokito can walk in and hear this any second, it really isn't appropriate for him to hear it,"

"Thank god he isn't, then." Before they can finish their sentence, another annoying ding rings out throughout the room and all eyes fall onto her, she lowly grumbles looking away. "Hold I need to take this,"

"Don't take too long or else!" Uzui warned with an obnoxiously bright grin, waving at her. She let out a small snort, looking away as she opened the door that led to the hallway with a lingering smile. 

She closes the door behind her leaning against a nearby wall as her phone loudly dings. Her frown worms its way into a frown and she rolls her eyes, pulling her phone out of her pocket as she scowled down at it. "Goddamn, chill, I'm answering jeez," The contact 'dollface' shone on the screen and she clicked it with a chuckle, typing in her password with a smile.

koko & dollface

dollface: somethings wrong,, :(

hey

answer me >:((

koko: what im at work

dollface: there's something wrong

koko: like what's wrong?

dollface: i think i have a fever and i cant breathe

koko: just breathe 

its not that hard

dollface: oh ok

you think i haven't tried that???!!

koko: well I cant come over there and check you out so im doing my best here

dollface: that's not even the worst thing

koko: whats worst then?

dollface: my favorite character in this crime series i was watching just got kidnapped :((

now hes getting tortured and it makes me sad :((((

he doesn't deserve this,,

koko: isn't it that show called criminal i dunno something

dollface: shut up,

whats even worse is that the actor who's playing the kidnapper is hot instead of creepy so now i some people are gonna like him despite what hes doing

koko: ooOOooOo

whats he look like?

dollface: blonde and fit

fucking hate it when they make people who your supposed to hate hot like seriously who does that?

koko: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

tell you what, take a hot shower keep watching your show and eat some soup i have a case i need to work on

dollface: k

koko: i hope they beat the shit out of the person who kidnapped your fav character

dollface: thank you

love you <3 <3 <3

Shinobu smiled down at her phone, texting her next response. 

koko: love you too <3

Then she turned off her phone, putting it on silent as she shoved it back into her pocket. Muichiro ends up exiting the hallway at the same time she's done. The two of them together walk into the lab together and spent the rest of the hour sending the evidence in for testing along with going over the cases once more, theorizing on what happened, how it happened, what type of person did this, who would do this.

But nothing came up, except for her staying a little later than she should have, convinced somehow that she could find something someone else couldn't.

So here she is, in her office going over file after file, then rechecking them, comparing contrasting. She's not as focused as she would when it comes to cases she specializing in, it doesn't have anything to do with poison, this case has nothing to do with anything they all specialize in so why did it have to give to any of them. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she hits the side of her head, gripping at her hair, so stupid, I hate-

A knock on the door breaks her out of her thoughts, loosening the grip on her hair she looks up from her papers and stares intently at the door. Now, who could that be, she tilted her head to the side, I thought I was the only one here. She shrugs, sitting back in her chair and calling out.

"Come in," The doors open, and in walks a familiar woman, her hands are held behind her back as she leans against the doorway of the cracked open door. Almost instantly, Shinobu smiles at the other woman. "Oh, hi Mitsuri, are you leaving?"

She nods at her, "Yeah, what about you?"

"I think I'll  stay a little later,"

"I thought you said you'd stop staying late," concern spreads across the woman's face, but she tries to show it but fails miserably. You're always so easy to read Misturi, she thinks, don't try to hide it.

"Well, change of plans," A light laugh bubbles out of Shinobu's chest as she leaned forward, "this case has really got me," and Mitsuri just frowns at her. "Are you sure this is healthy though? You've been staying behind so much for the past week or so, I'm worried."

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine,"

With a sigh, the other woman's gaze falls to the ground with pursed lips, "I know but..." she looks up at the woman at the desk, gesturing lightly. "But what about Tomioka-san? I know if I did the same Obanai would be worried if I did the same, and the same way around if it came to him."

Shinobu feels her smile twitch. "I appreciate the gesture but I don't think I need you teaching me about my own relationship, especially when you have your own to worry about. You have a wedding you need to plan, so go plan it!"

Misturi lets her eyes linger on Shinobu for a little longer till she shakes her head and turns away towards the door, not sparing her friend a single glance. "Good night Shinobu-san, I'll see you tomorrow,"

"Same to you as well," With a nod, Mitsuri walks off and leaves her in complete silence. 

Just a few more minutes, she told herself, a few more minutes and I'll have figured something new out, I'll have done something. It was a lie she had been telling herself a lot this month, she was sure the others had done similar things as well, so what could happen, really? 

Who could it hurt? Certainly not her.

As quietly as she can, she tries to close the door, keys loudly jangling as she takes them out of the door trying to, she fumbles slightly and they fall to the floor with a clatter. Cursing under her breath, she reaches down to pick up the keys, moving to throw the keys in a nearby ceramic bowl, freezing once she hears the opening of a door and the footsteps quietly thumping against the floor. She ends up throwing them into the bowl when footsteps are still, turning back sharply to face the owner of said footsteps.

Unexpectedly it was her husband, she softly smiled at him, ignoring the frown that was painted on his face. "There you are," She shuffles toward him, standing up on her tippy-toes to press a kiss to his cheek and then the corner of his mouth. "are you feeling better honey?" As she stares up at him, resting her hands on his chest she flutters her eyelashes at him, expecting some kind of reaction. 

Instead, all she gets is a deafening silence and a deepening frown along with a glare.

"Don't give me that look," She scowled, taking a few steps back, glowering at him.

"You stayed back late again," He commented, returning the glare, a flat tone to his voice. "I'm aware," She frowns and Giyuuu takes a step forward, reaching out his hand to rest it on her shoulder as he talks. "You had gone so long without doing that, and now you're doing it again, you really should leave thi-" Stupid, stupid, stupid, she bitterly thinks, so stupid!

With a stomp, she jerks away from him, clenching her teeth. Anger radiates off of her, grinding her teeth as she glares at him with an icy look. "I don't want to hear it right now Tomioka, I'm not in the mood." I just want to go to sleep, why can't you leave me alone, it's like your trying to aggravate me. 

Her husband frowns at her, crossing. "Stop acting like that, you need to talk about it eventually,"

"If you keep pestering me like this I'm going sleep in the guest room,"

"I wouldn't have to," He paused, his voice smooth and calm yet it slightly wavered as he talked, "'pester you'" he spoke with air quotes. "if you didn't do things like this. I'm just look out for you and now yo-"

"Oh my god! I know goddamnit! You and your fucking nagging isn't gonna help me!" Shinobu suddenly snapped, clenching her fists until her knuckles turned white. Giyuu took a step back, raising his arms slightly as he frowned at her, a hurt expression on his face. 

"Ugh, just leave me alone! I'm going take a shower," He waves him off, marching towards the bathroom, and loudly slamming the door behind her. Giyuu watches her as she does, an ache lingering in his chest.

With a sigh, he shakes his head, hugging himself with his arms. Silently he walks back to their room all by himself, both alone and hurt.

When Shinobu exits the shower a wave of guilt washes over her. She doesn't want to go back into their bedroom, going back in there means confrontation, confrontation for something she started because she got unrightfully angry. 

Maybe sleeping in the guest room wasn't so bad.

But she decides to brave it, with a deep breath, she pushes open the door to their bedroom, hesitating slightly. As she walks into the room, closing the door behind her she spots her husband, his back is facing her, he's silent, but he's not asleep another wave of guilt washing over her as she frowns at him. At least he's not asleep, she laments, though I'm not sure which one is better in the end. 

Silently she walks towards the bed, sitting on the edge of it looking down at him and watching as he stilled as the bed dipped under her weight. "Hey... Honey," She muttered, he didn't move or say anything. "are you feeling better? I shouted at your earlier," As she's talking she rubs her arm and gets no response. Just like what I expected, she thought. 

Silently, she slips under the covers, letting out a sigh, and cuddled closer to him, "I'm so sorry about earlier, I shouldn't have snapped at you, that was my fault."

"It's fine," But she knew from his tone it wasn't and he was just trying to avoid an argument. She hugged him a little tighter. "I know you Giyuu, and I know when your lying so please don't lie to me like this,"

He doesn't answer her and she feels even worse."I'm sorry," She silently whispered, curling in on herself slightly with a frown. You probably don't want to talk to me, she lamented, I don't blame you, especially after what I said. They spend a few moments in silence, Shinobu feeling guilty and guilter by the second until she event blurts out:

"I can go sleep in the guest room if you want," Her husband is silent for a few beats and she gets ready to move and sit up until he sighs, turning over to face her. He wraps his arms around her waist, nuzzling into her neck, deeply sighing. "I'm just worried about you,"

A hand slips its way up his back into his hair, running a hand through the messy locks, a sigh slipping past her lips. "I know you are..."

"Stay safe okay?" He holds her tightly, 

"I will," she holds him even tighter.

"Promise me you will,"

"I promise I'll stay safe dollface," 

They spend the next few moments in silence until Giyuu eventually breaks it with a slight chuckle. "I feel like I should be the one calling you that,"

"Only one of us can be called 'dollface' and that is you."

"And what will you do if I don't stop?" As a response, Shinobu sits up, moving to straddle his waist staring down at him with a bright grin.

"This!" She cups his cheeks in his hands, giggling as she moves downwards to pepper his face with kisses all over, feeling his face heat under her lips. "I'll smother you with affection!" Giyuu half-heartedly pushes her away, face growing scarlet red, "K-Kokoooooo!" he pouts at her, pushing her off of him and rolling over onto his stomach. He grabs the pillow and pushes his face into it, trying to hide the blush that went from ear to ear. Shinobu grins at him, moving towards him, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying on his back, kissing the back of his neck.

"Why are you so needlessly shy, we've been dating for years along with married for a couple too. You'd think you would have gotten over it by now," She pouts, resting her head on his shoulder and receiving a muffled response a few seconds later. "Your predictably unpredictable, that's it,"

"But you love me for it, don't you?" 

Silently he nods, and a light laugh bubbles out of her chest and she beams at him. "I know you do,"

He looks at her and smiles, and she's satisfied with her answer.

~ Record Scratch ~

Oh,  Giyuu...  Why couldn't you have stayed safe as well?

Chapter Text

Okay maybe it wasn't but what were you really expecting?

The day starts off on how it usually does, she gets up- well, Giyuu gets up before her and wakes her up- she eats breakfast with her husband- provided by him since it's his day to make it- and after brushing their teeth they make their way out of their house and to the train station. They walk hand and hand to the station, Giyuu occasionally rubbing his thumb over her knuckles as she talks on about nothing in particular as he softly smiling down at her.

They take their usual route, she grabs orders a can of coffee while he orders a bottle of water and they wait for the train to arrive on the bench, careful about where they sit on the said bench, silently waiting for the train to arrive.

The subway pulled into the station with a loud whistle, they both get up from their seats, she throws her canned coffee away while he caps his bottle of water tightly and puts it into his bag. Worming their way in through the crowd, she tightly grips at his hand so they don't get separated. They take a seat next to each other, the subway thrumming below them as leaves the station, her husband squeezed her hand as he leans against her shoulder, his head hanging low as his bag lays pliant in his lap as he lets out small huffs of breath and snores. She stills as he does so, briefly glancing at him before she pulls out her phone and scrolls through it.

She has some unanswered texts, a few from Mitsuri, a good morning text from Aoi, two from Uzui, and a few more she'll get to later. She probably has some emails she needs to read but she'll get to them when she gets to the office but for now, she'll read, so she opens an app on her phone and starts reading the Book Thief, the audio being read to her as she lets her thoughts drift off, almost falling asleep herself until she's woken up with a loud piercing whistle.

Shinobu looks around, watching everyone get up from their seats, and turns towards her husband who's still asleep. Silently she reaches towards him, shaking his shoulder with slight vigor, out of the corner of her eye watching people tread out of the train, some staying but they can't since this is their stop.

Eventually, he starts to stir a few moments later, and she presses a kiss to his cheek, usually, she'd tease him but she isn't in the mood to right now. Blearily, he blinks away his tiredness, face flustering as she presses another kiss to his cheek. He looks at her, tilting his head, and allows her to pull him up by his hand as he gains his bearings slightly. Shinobu pulls him along out of the train before the doors close and into the subway station, that soft smile never leaving her face. 

"You thirsty?" She asks and he silently nods, reaching towards his bag and pulling out his bottle of water, and taking a sip or two. "You good now?" He nods and starts walking, like usual they fall into step with each other, their hands finding their way to each other and intertwining themselves.

The walk, like usual, lasts 15 minutes, Shinobu, once again like usual, fills the silence of the walk with her incessant chatter, he listens to her, nodding along and occasionally adding to the conversation once and awhile. Time flows by and before they know it they're in front of the gate that leads to the agency, her warm hand missing his cold one.

She walks into the gate to the agency, Giyuu having slipped his hand out of hers during their walk, only a few feet away from the gate she hears him stop walking, she doesn't pause until she feels a cold hand intertwines with hers, tugging her back. She turns towards him, cocking her head to the side as he smiles at her. 

"You know I love you, right?" 

She pauses, feeling her stomach drop, she looks back at the agency than at her husband, then does a doubletake, and frowns at him. "Are you seriously breaking up with me in front of where we work?"

"Wha- no I just..." He paused, looking up at the sky and tugging her forward with his hand till she's almost flush against his chest. "It's a nice day, why not? I just..." Slipping his hand out of hers, he wraps his arms around her waist bringing her flush against his chest, kissing her forehead as she blushes from the tips of one ear to the other.

"Thank you for staying with me despite everything that's happened and not leaving like other people, I really... Really appreciate it more than you can ever imagine," She wraps her arms around him, peering up at him above the scarf wrapped around her neck to fend herself off from the cold, along with his as well. Despite how much her chest tightens at the gestures, a warmth in her chest that compels her to want more she frowns up at him, he's always used actions to show how much he loves her not words.

"Where's this coming from? Are you going to do something I should worry about?"

"No, I just..." He looks away with an expression reminiscent of a scowl, then back at her raising a brow. "You remember what's coming up, right?"

"I'm sure but humor me and tell me,"

"Our anniversary, I wanna make it special since you always go over the top and beyond,"

"That just means I'll have to go even beyond-er than you,"

"Don't you dare,"  He frowns down at her, "I do dare, try and keep up with me hun!" she stands up on her tippy-toes and gives him a quick peck on the lips which leaves him flustered, he splutters, frowning down at her. 

"C'mon, give me a real kiss!" She grabs the lapels of his jacket, pulling him down into a kiss on his lips, leaving him room to pull back if he so desired to. She pulled back, both faces as hot as the other, she tapped him on his nose, face breaking out in a smile as she stared at him. "You are unbelievably adorable when you blush, did you know that dollface?"

"Stop calling me that," He mutters, looking away at her with a pink heavily dusts his cheeks, pouting.

"Never dollface," Shinobu grins up at him, "never,"  she leans in as she whispers her words in a low voice.  He chuckles down her and takes a step back, pushing her toward the agency and he moves to walk in the other direction. 

"Where are you doing?" She asks, staring at him as he walks away. "Going talk to Sabito and Makomo, I need some more help from them," She shakes her head waving him goodbye. "You really need to stop going to them for help, the walk there is so far away it's not worth it, "

"It is," He insists, "if I don't answer my phone then I'm talking with them so don't bother spamming it." she sticks her tongue out at him. "Don't tell me what to do,"

Rolling his eyes, he turns away from her and walks away, waving goodbye to her. "Try to be back by the afternoon!" He gives her the thumbs up, "I'll try!" and then they walk their separate ways and Shinobu gets to work.

It's midday, which means it's Shinobu's break time, and frankly, she's bored. Mitsuri has taken, Kyojuro and Obanai out to go eat, Tengen is god knows where the same applying to Muichiro and she'd rather not burden Gyomei with her chatter even though she's aware he wouldn't mind. Her husband should be back soon, maybe even now. 

With a huff, she heaves herself off her office seat which is left spinning. Walking out of her office, she takes the elevator down wandering out of it without much of a purpose, he should be here, she spots a figure walking in the doorways, well someone is. 

As the figure steps into view, she's greeted with only belated excitement as she realizes it's only Sanemi. He's no fun to make fun of or annoy, she thinks, he always gets mad too soon for it to be any fun. She walks towards him, her hands hidden behind her back as he walks past her as if he didn't even notice her in the first place. She has to resist the urge to frown at him.

"Have you seen Giyuu-san?" She pipes up, which thankfully, catches the other man's attention. He turns towards her, quirking a brow at her with a curled lip.

"Why is it my job to keep track of him, he's your husband." 

"I was just asking if you saw him, he's not picking up his phone or answering his texts,"

"Your husband, not mine," Sanemi pointed out with a frown, turning sharply on his heels and walking away. Shinobu sighs as he watches him walk off, blankly starring ahead with her lips pressed into a thin line. With a huff, she turns around and marches straight back to the elevator she came from and punches in a number, and stands back. The gentle music thrums throughout the elevator walls as she taps her foot against the floor with crossed arms, silently waiting for the small ding of the elevator.

In what seems like forever, it dings, and the metal doors slide silently openly. She steps into the waiting room, there's only one person here as expected. 

Shinobu walks towards the desk, the intern paying no attention as he stares at his phone, scrolling through whatever it was he was on. With a loud, noticeable sigh, she leans onto the counter, draping her arms over it, starring at the red-headed intern with a bored expression.

"Tanjiro, do you know where Giyuu-san is? He's not answering any of my calls or texts,"

"Oh, Giyuu-san?" He says, looking up from his phone and tilting his head at her. "Yes, who else would I be talking about?"

"He told me he was going to go consult Sabito-san and Makomo-san again about a case he was on, so if he might not answer his phone." He answered.

"He should have answered his phone by now,"

"He's probably driving then,"

"Right, driving, and knowing those two they probably made him pick them up lunch they ordered for their opinion, sell-outs."  Slight anger manages to drip from her voice as Tanjiro just shrugs, looking back down at his phone. "Other than that, I know as much as you do,"

"Damn Giyuu-san and his crypticness,"

"If he comes back I'll be sure to tell you,"

She nods. "Thank you," Then, pushing herself off of the counter she walks away. 

"You're welcome!" The younger boy calls out and she just nods back, quickly walking back towards the elevator so she can ride it back to her floor. By the time she makes it back to her office she ends up caught up in work once more, time passing by as she compares her current case files to another, like yesterday, nothing coming up as usual. Then, a sudden static comes from her office phone until a voice breaks through it.

"Shinobu-sama, you have a visitor," Aoi calls over the office phone, which makes Shinobu tilt her head, contemplating the possibilities of who it could be. Most likely her husband, she grinned, she couldn't wait to find out what Sabito and Makomo made him do in order to get an answer from them. Then, she shook her head, not knowing what was so appealing about those two that made him decide to have those two as friends they could be such annoying pricks sometimes.

"I do? Let them in,"

She turns back to her work, scribbling aimlessly on the paper as the door opens then closes, she doesn't bother to look up, scanning over her work. She half expects the person to speak up, but they don't. With a heavy sigh, she slams her pen against the wood, her smile twitching as she looks up. "If your not going to say anything why did you even come in he-"

Shinbou freezes, almost choking on her own breath

"Kanao?" The girl standing at the door silently nods at her, oh god-

"I-I what're you doing here I-I thought-" Her breath is caught in her throat as she chokes on it, the back of her eyes burn with an unimaginable passion as she can hardly blink back the tears. "Come here," Standing up, shakily, she holds out her arms and makes a grasping motion, beckoning the younger girl closer. 

With a hardly noticeable tremble in her step, Kanao walks towards her, then speeds up with every growing second until the girl practically collapses in her arms. Shinobu sniffles, holding onto her younger sister tightly, nuzzling into the top of her head. They stay like that for a while, but she doesn't mind, her work can wait if it means she gets to spend time with her sister.

Suddenly, Kanao tightens her grip on Shinobu's clothing, body slightly trembling as she lets out a slightly shaky breath. Furrowing her brows, lip curling, she stares at the younger woman, tightening the grip on the hug.

"I have something I need to tell you," As if contemplating whether or not to let go, Kanao hugs her a little tighter and then pulls away. Her stare bores into the ground, rubbing her arm not being able to stare at her in the eyes. "What is it Kanao? You can tell me anything," Brows furrowing in concern, she rests her hands on her sister's shoulder, giving them an encouraging squeeze. 

"I'm not sure you're going to like it,"

"I think I'll be able to stomach it,"

"It's about your husband, Giyuu Tomioka,"

"What about him?" Kanao reaches into her pocket and that's when for her, the world goes into slow-motion. Slowly, her younger sister pulls out a letter from her pocket and holds it out to her. She takes it and can only stare at it.

In her hands, Shinobu held a bloodied letter in her hand and told her everything she needed to know, and she felt her whole world fall apart.

Chapter Text

"I haven't harmed your husband, yet. If you don't quit the current case you're currently on, for every week you continue to work on it I'll break one of your husband's fingers. If you want him back unharmed you must act immediately," Uzui readout loud, wincing at the breaking fingers part or just at the letter in general.

 Shinobu rests her head in her hands, shaking her head. Shame runs over her as she can feel eyes starring at her, burning into her skull. She feels tears prickle in the corner of her eyes. I messed up, she laments, I messed up and now he's gone, he's hurt, and it's all my fault. 

"So... T-Tomioka-san has really been kidnapped?" Mitsuri stutters out, her voice is unsure as she twiddles her thumbs, the corner of her eyes glittering with tears. Squeezing her eyes shut, she nods, lip quivering.

"What about his interns? They'll be worried about him," Oh she had forgotten about them, his interns, the 4 children who were practically like a second family to him. Tanjiro, Nezuko, Inosuke, and Zenitsu, weren't here when she got the letter, and they probably didn't know, they probably thought he was just late. That just made her feel particularly guilter as if she couldn't feel worse. 

"Their dumbasses will want to be on the case," Sanemi scowled, "Well, I'm sure any of our interns would do the same,"

"Better question, who's gonna tell them?" The only answer was silence.

 After a few beats of silence, the youngest of them all spoke up. "Shinobu obviously,"  Muchiro dryly states, starring at the older woman.

"Tokito!" Mitsuri gasped, leaning back in her seat. "You reap what you sow, I told you to quit it,"

"He told you to quit the case?" Uzui raised a brow and silently, feeling everyone look at her, she nodded with shame.

"...Yeah,"

"Even I would have quit the case," Sanemi muttered, his head propped up with his hand.

"We should probably try and establish a timeline on when this happened, you said that he was going to see Sabito-san and Makomo-san, right?" She slowly nods, she had honestly forgotten that, were they okay?! Oh god, if something happened to them Giyuu would be devastated, but if whoever did it, didn't, then both of them would be devastated. 

"Then what happened to them?" With bated breath, she shook her head as all eyes fell onto her. She didn't know, she didn't know anything, how was she supposed to know this she hadn't even thought about it? God, she felt so useless, this is so hopeless, it's-

"I know..." Mitsuri, thankfully, cut in, raising one of her fingers as she spoke. "Oyakata's son, Kiriya, he called them and one of them answered but they were with the other so they should be fine. They'll be coming here when I'm not sure when." She let out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding. Okay, that's fine, that's good, that's fine, it's fi-

"Don't think I should have to remind you but if anything ends up happening to them because you want to involve them in this then their blood is on your hands."  Sanemi started, pointing at her as he did.

She could only glare. "You're acting like I expected this?!"

"I'm just reminding you," She just shakes her head, wishing that Oyakata-sama was here to direct the meeting but he wasn't, having gotten sick last minute that he couldn't attend so for now, it was just them.

"So since they're here and never saw Giyuu then he must have been taken before he saw Sabito-san and Makomo-san which means..." Mitsuri can't seem to finish her sentence but with a heavy heart, Kyojuro finishes it for her. "They've had him for possibly a multitude of hours, how long we can't, exactly be sure."

Shinobu feels her chest tighten, who knows what they did in those hours? Wait, an idea perks up in her head that makes her chest swell with pure cold dread. An idea she hadn't twigged as possible until now.

He had that whole confession this morning because he knew this was going to happen. She clenched her teeth, no, oh god please no. Don't make this worse than it already is.

But that wasn't even the start of it.

"Shinobu..." Kyojuro lets out a heavy sigh before he starts and she already knows that this isn't going to be good. "I know I said before that if you want to work on this case you should but..." He fiddles with the hem of his sleeve. "You shouldn't, not anymore even if you want to you, you just shouldn't." One of the few people she had supporting her continuing working on this case had told her to stop just like Giyuu had a few days before he got kidnapped. 

She isn't going to survive this meeting.

Right after the meeting, she went straight to her office, not being able to will herself to face anyone. The door slams shut before anyone can ask her anything, Aoi, who she hadn't known was in the room, jumped at the noise, darting her attention towards her with a wide expression. Shinobu ignored her and started to pace for the next hour with no stop in sight. 

Aoi watched as the older of the two, paced back and forth in a seemingly endless line, her shoes clicking against the floor harshly against every step. It had been an hour since the news, an hour and a half to be exact, an hour and a half of watching her current mentor pace back and forth with her brows furrowed, lip curled, hands folded behind her back as she tried to burn holes into the ground below her. While she couldn't entirely blame the woman after everything that happened, it was frustrating to listen against the clacking of her shoes, enough that it made her hand twitch and her frown deepened even further. If she ever got her hands on who did this to her, personally, she'd make their life a living hell and even more.

As the pigtailed teen watched her turn sharply on her heels, she sighed, getting up from the chair she was sitting at, and stood up, smoothing out her clothing as she walked towards the older lady.

Her footsteps being a little heavier than she would have been pleased, Aoi walked next to her path, reaching forward to tug at her clothing when she eventually reached her. Shinobu paused when she tried to more and couldn't then, sent a glare at her who was undeterred by it no matter how long she held it. With a pout, folding her arms over her chest, she narrowed a similar glare at her mentor.

"I know you're upset but the pacing isn't going to solve it, neither is not talking about it," She just rolls her eyes and walks towards her desk. She grabs the lip bomb on the desk and screws off the cap and goes to apply it as Aoi stares at her with deadpanned expression. 

"You've applied that thing 5 times in three hours," Aoi said, then tacted on: "I highly doubt you're okay if you keep on doing that or that it'll solve any of your problems. 

"It's relaxing okay?! And it smells good!" She slammed the cap of the lip bomb and threw it into the drawer of her desk, slamming it closed with her hand. She fell back into her swivel chair, sliding back with a huff of anger, expression pinched in the middle. She tipped her head back, leaning back in her chair with a sigh. 

Lazily, she rolled around in her, ignoring Aoi's scolding despite how much she shouldn't. She hadn't felt like doing much today, well after she had gotten the news, of course, there wasn't much she could do after all. She spun around looking over her desk until something caught her attention, Aoi having left the room a few minutes ago.

She scoots closer to the desk expression softening as she grabbed a photo in a frame on her desk. It was a picture of the two on honeymoon, she knows it is, it's one she took herself, it isn't the best but it isn't the worst at the same time. They were on a bench in a park in the place they had ventured to, having stopped to end up getting ice cream and she ended up taking the photo after she was done with her's by accident, getting him with ice cream smeared against the side of his cheek. Personally, she thought it was adorable and he hadn't been against her putting it on her desk but she promised she wouldn't show anyone, but of course, she did but he didn't need to know.

"I miss you," She thumbs over his face on the photo. "dollface..." She whines her lips curling into a frown. She holds the frame close to her chest, hugging it tightly as if it were to disappear if she let go. She's not sure how long she had been like that but eventually, Aoi had walked into the room.

"Tanjiro and Nezuko want to see you," Is the first thing the twin-tailed girl says when she walks into the room, kicking the door closed with her heel.

"Of course they do!" She stands up almost immediately from her seat, placing the picture carefully back on the desk.

"You'll have to tell them eventually," Aoi reminded her.

"I have to tell all 4 of them,"

"That you do,"

"I'm not sure whether or not I should gather them all together or tell them separately, I mean the man they work for has just been kidnapped because of me, and if I were them I wouldn't have some pretty things to stay." She's sure no one has anything nice to say to her, anything, why would they?

She felt like she was floundering on a sea of anxiety, no matter how hard she tried to swim, flail her arms, her head only managing to barely breach the surface as another wave pulls her down. 

She should have quit this case, but yet, she isn't.

I  stared down the door leading to the entrance of the Demon Slayer Corps,. No turning back now I guess, not after that call I got. Sabito got a head start, walking towards the doors and pushing them open before I could even take a step forward, I followed him walking into the lobby and taking a second to look at my surrounding's. Nothing much has changed as expected.

We walk towards the front desk and sitting the seat is a teen, he has black hair as myself except it was cut into a blunt bob, thick locks of hair cut into a fringe across his forehead, hiding his brows. He stared up at me with moon-eyed, eyes that looked as if layers of the colors black and midnight purple were folding onto each other, I couldn't see what he was wearing below his head, nor did I frankly care due to the situation at hand. 

"I'm Makomo," I answered, then gestured to the man at my side. "he's Sabito, we work here." He stared at them blankly then turned towards his laptop situated at his side, the clicking of keys filling the silence of the lobby. My boyfriend let out a sigh of what only could be taken as frustration and leaned forward onto the desk, his hand pushing down the screen till it clicked when making an impact with the keyboard, the teen managing to slip his hands away before they could get smashed. 

With an expression of unimpressed, he spoke slowly and carefully as if talking to a child, which in some sense he was. "We're here because something happened to Giyuu Tomioka, and he was coming to see us when he went missing, we're his friends." Don't say that, you know what better, we know better, you know him, we know what he's like. 

The teen blinks up at us, then his face grows a sudden flush, prying his eyes away from us. "Oh," He looks embarrassed. "Right, right. Look," He points at the elevator while looking back at them. "everyone is in a meeting at the moment, my father is out-" I can kinda see the resemblance. "-so you'll have to wait till another day to speak with him, also for them to be dismissed from the meeting."

"Is it alright if we go visit his office?" He looked towards his laptop and opened it, scrolling and then clicking on something, skimming over most likely an email, then turned towards us, nodding. "As long as you don't touch anything, then yes,"

With confirmation, me and Sabito headed towards the elevator, clicking a button and waiting a few seconds until it opened then silently stepped into pressing another button as the sliver doors shut closed before us. Shuffling we waited until we heard the irritating click of the elevator as the doors slowly slide open. 

Without directions, we walked towards the familiar office of our friend, the one that belonged to our shared mentor, Urokodaki, an office that was originally going to be given to Sabito along with the position Giyuu currently held if it weren't for the fact that he wanted more freedom in his case and by default it was given to Yuu-san. It's been so long since I've been to that office that I can't help but wonder how much it changed since I last saw it, is it as boring as I remember or did he change it up? 

I'll find out when I get there.

As we walk towards his office, a man with hair only comparable to flames spotted us. With a brisk pace, he walked over towards us, hand outstretched once he reached us, red and golden eyes looking duller than I remember. "You must be Sabito and Makomo," Briefly, I nodded at him, Sabito taking his hand and shaking it. I noticed his hand had a slight tremor to it, his expression made him look as if he aged a few years. 

"I'm very sorry for your loss," 

Your loss, I wanted to say, but the words stuck to my tongue like honey. He isn't lost, he can't be, if you think he is then you don't know Giyuu; you don't know what he's like. 

I know what they had told me, I know what they had told Sabito but I also know you. You never were one for jokes, that was us, but when you were they never landed quite right, so I had half the mind to expect to open the door and to see you standing there, worn with age and slight worry, thin but not so thin, and most importantly, surprised to see us. So with trembling hands, not from anticipation or excitement, I turned the handle and lightly opened the door.

The room was frighteningly empty. It felt like a place that had just recently been vacated as if I had come by a shop after hours, a place too quiet for its own good. I almost expected to smell the crisp scent of salmon cooking over the fire, enough of a scent that it'd make the back of my eyes burn just from the memories it held alone. 

"Yuu-san?" The only thing that answered me back was silence.

Painful silence.

"I'm very sorry," The man who wore flame reminded me.

I turned towards him, extending my hand out to him, warily, as if I were brandishing a knife in my other hand, he took it and shook it and I could confirm for real that there was a slight tremor in his hand. "I look forward to working with you,"

"I..." He hesitated, the tremor in his hand growing stronger. "I'm afraid we won't be working together, ever..." I nodded, lips pressing into a thin line as I wrenched my hand out of his.

It looks like we'll be doing this all by ourselves...

The first thing Giyuu is aware of is that his eyes are closed, so he opens them. 

His head is spinning, his head hurts, and a velvety black darkness crowds around him, it's practically impossible to see anything. Where am I? Is the only thing he can ask himself, what happened? 

Tomioka's body feels heavy, like lead, yet despite that, he tries to move his body around. And he succeeds, not by much but he manages to move it. He can only move his hands by an inch, his arm, legs as well, he's stuck, strapped down to what he's managed to conclude is a chair. He can hardly move at all.

His breath quickens, panic thrums through his veins as he looks around the darkroom, nothing becoming clear. What's going on? Where is he? What happened? He was supposed to be with Sabito and Makomo but he wasn't? What happened? Why isn't he there? This doesn't make any sense!

Then, his body freezing tensing, he sees movement in front of him. His heart is pounding in his ears.

"...So... A leftie, or a rightie?" He does his best to blink away the grogginess, looking around as his eyes start to settle to the darkness around him. A light briefly flickers in distance, until it engulfs him completely. He blinks, feeling his eyes burn with searing pain as he tries to regain his bearings. A distant, low chuckle reaches his ears and he grits his teeth, squirming under whatever material is holding him down.

Where are Sabito and Makomo? Are they okay? I was supposed to meet them so what happened, he asked himself as he struggled, tiring out after only moments later. He huffed, brows furrowing. A figure slips out behind him, and he jumps, they grin at him, giving him a small gave. "Hello there, it's nice to finally see you awake, it was getting far too boring with you asleep,"

Confusion still swirled in his mind, as he tugs at his manacles, he feels like he's out of breath like this is some strange dream, he hopes this is a dream.

Please be a dream. 

"What... What's going on?" He blinks rapidly, everything is still hazy. There's a cloud in his mind, a fog, a haze around what happened beforehand, whether it'll clear up he isn't sure but the more he struggles the weaker he gets. The person before him just swirls a knife in their hand not sparing him a look. "What do you think? I kidnapped you."

Yeah... That makes more sense now that he thinks about it. Not entirely, but it does make sense.

"Why me?" The raven-haired man prompted, leaning forward in his seat as his head tilted to the side as he spoke."Would you rather it be your interns?" His captor casually said with a shrug.

Giyuu felt his pulse race, curling his hands into fists until they turned white he gritted at them, his anger managing to seethe through. "Touch them and I swear I'll-"

"What? You'll get me? Sorry boy, but your uh, kinda trapped there if you didn't notice," As they speak, they make the move to walk around him in the chair he's strapped to, occasionally reaching forward to taking a strand between the pads of their finger which made Giyuu jerk away as if their hand would burn him. "Though it was an idea, the blonde or the redhead, I mean either way they'd be hellbent on getting either one back, you know what's going on between the two right?"  

Leaning away from him, the demon slayer nods. "I'm aware,"

"So you'd get why I'd snatch one of them, maybe they'd have some kind of relationship reveal it'd be interesting honestly, but not as interesting enough if I took you instead,"

"That sounds like something you'd see in a romance novel," His captor nodded in acknowledgment, then pulled out a pocket knife, swinging it around their fingers with ease, grinning at him with teeth that were unnaturally white.

"Let's see how many bones I can break with JUST a hammer!"

With a sigh, Shinobu draped the duvet covers over her, cuddling closer to her pillow as tears burned in the corner of her cheeks.

Her sisters would be staying with her since it was deemed unsafe, they'd be sleeping in the guest room, but that didn't matter. From now and who knows how long anytime she'd go home she'd be greeted by an empty house and an even colder bed.

She didn't want to go home anymore.

Chapter Text

Maybe he knew that would happen, maybe he knew that he would get kidnapped and he didn't tell her. That's why he made that grand gesture before he left, he knew this would happen.

Or maybe he knew in advance, that's why he wanted me to get off the case so it wouldn't happen.

Maybe she's just assuming things, she's always had a tendency to overthink things. Or maybe he knew, maybe he just wanted her not to suffer through this and if she had quit the case none of this would happen and once again, it's all her fault. "Please... Come back..." But no matter how hard she cries, she knows that it won't be enough to bring him back.

Uzui looked at both of us then shifted his weight onto one foot, placing a hand on his hip opposite to the side the weight was distributed to. He raised his brows at us. "So you're Tomioka's friends?" Makomo just glared at him, it was very tempting honestly but I didn't. "Can't say I'm surprised,"

"Can say I'm surprised they have someone as flashy as you working here," I extended my hand out to him with what I'm sure was a charming grin. "Name's Sabito, that's my girlfriend Makomo, you gotta hook me up with your tailor sometime, honestly,"

His even flashier grin grew bigger, reaching his eyes, he nodded in some form of acknowledgment. "I see you got some taste man, names Uzui Tengen,"

"Got anything to share about the case you're currently on?" He leans down to meet both of us because my god, he's tall. 

"What's it to you?" Makomo glowered at him and I watched with amusement cause this is going to be beautiful if he says the wrong thing.

"As one of his childhood best friends, ALONG WITH someone who was OFFERED his position before him and as someone who CURRENTLY works here with someone who was also OFFERED his current position I think we're more qualified than you, yeah?" Oh, fuck yes. 

 My main man Tengen holds up his hands in what is probably false surrender and looks at her wide-eyed. "Alright alright, I'm not trying to offend you, just making sure, this case is a high confidential one y'know?"

"What about his intern?" Makomo presses on, ignoring what he said, I look down at her and raise a brow. "What about his interns?" She looks back up at me. "Surely they'll have some interesting input in it," I nodded back, y'see, this is why you date smart people, because when you have no fucking idea what you're doing, then they'll probably have a better one and if they don't then you can make fun of them for it.

"What about his wife?"

"I uh- don't think she's taking questions right now," Makomo crossed her arms, lips pressed into a thin line, another good thing is that she knows when to get straight to the point, or cut in because although yes, buttering up a witness is good which is where I come it, knowing when it's enough is also as important, and I love her for it. My own angle.

Typo included.

"I think I'll be deciding that."

God, I love her.

It turns out, finding the connection between a spork and a murder case is much harder than one would expect, Shinobu was currently learning that while working together with Muichiro about it. 

"Well is there anything of note either or you said or mentioned when talking with one of the victims or suspects?"

"Well, Giyuu-san did mention something when we were talking to one of the victims," The teen leaned into the palm of his hand which was covered by his fabric sleeve. "Who were you interviewing?"

"The seventh victim, I'm sure of it, that's the last person he interviewed with me before he quit the case," Muichiro braced himself against the table with his hands and leaned forward, tilting his head to the side. "Tell me about it then,"

"Well, I'll start when we first introduced ourselves to her,"

The two were stood outside of an apartment on the third floor of a complex of apartments, it had taken a while to find this specific one with getting confused with the directions but luckily, since they had left early they had made it there on time, now comes time for the introductions. "I'm Shinobu and this is Giyuu, my ex-boyfriend,"

"You've got to stop introducing me like that." He leans forward, and not so quietly says,  "I'm her husband,"

"Oh, congratulations,"

"Do you really introduce you two like that?" Muichiro stared at her with a deadpan expression, Shinobu shrugged. "It's a fun way to start a conversation."

"It's a miserable way,"

"Oh, what do you know about being in a relationship? You're a child!" And said child just looked at her with an expression of utter disappointment and said: 

"Enough to know that you aren't as funny as you say you are," Shinobu spluttered, and with a face slightly flushed and practically radiating anger she turned away and crossed her arms, frowning.

"Anyway, back onto the story."

The lady, the victim's wife let them into her apartment, it was a... Nice apartment, although the neighbors were slightly loud there was nothing much of note at it. She led them to the dining table which was shared with the kitchen and brought them two a bottle of water which they both declined, they had some water in the bag she was carrying after all.

"So," Shinobu started off. "I'm sure you already know why we're here, so to cut to the chase can you tell us where this all started?"

"Well, none of this started until he went gambling-"

"He went gambling?" Giyuu intercut raising a brow at her, stiffly she nodded. "Yes yes, me and him tend to go gambling, we take some of the money from both of our checks from our jobs, and every few months we go out and have fun."

"And why didn't you go with him this time?"

"Well-"

"Better question," Giyuu raised a finger. "why would you even waste your money on gambling, it's not like your going to win, donate it to a charity or something actually worth it."   She props up her head on the palm of her hand, quirking an eyebrow at him. "Got a problem with that hon?"

Her husband just leans back in his seat with a sneer, arms folded over his chest. "Many," She waves her hand in a flittering gesture, leaning on both of her hands towards their client. "Ignore him," She said, and with her curiosity not satiated, she pushed on with the conversation. "I assume you either ate on the way there or at the place you gambled at." Their client nodded. 

"More or less, it depends on the weather,"

"So did you eat out that night or what?" Giyuu cut in and the lady glowered at him slightly before turning towards her, expression softening a bit. "Well, as I was trying to say," She gave her husband the stink eye, and Shinobu couldn't help but giggle a bit. "I don't know because his phone was off while he did it, all I know is that I woke up to a call of hearing my husband was murdered, is that satisfactory to you?"

"So it's right to assume that there is no correlation whatsoever between the victims, along with where they were found and sporks?" Giyuu prompted, ignoring the venomous tone the suspect was giving them.  In an unintentional gesture, she cups her cheek with her hand, leaning into it as almost starts to tap her lip with her finger. "Maybe they're his signature possibly? I've seen some use branding or carving as one," And her husband just shook his head, lip pursing. 

"No, it's... It's not that," He braced himself against the desk with his elbow, the other fist placed underneath his chin as he stared intently down at the table. "I have this strange feeling it's something else but..." He paused for a few seconds as if the right words would appear on the table and he could pick them up and arrange them to his liking. "I'm not sure what it is, maybe I'll try to think more about and if I somehow figure it out I'll be sure to tell you."

"Not that you have much of a choice in that matter,"

"Um, hello, did you forget about someone?"

"Do you think that the sporks just... Don't matter? And it's there to just throw us off?" Shinobu shrugged at the young boy and then she remembered something... The placement of the sporks was typically odd, scattered around with no real purpose, even missing the hands half the time, leaving indents in the wall as if someone had thrown them...

As if someone had thrown them...

HOLY FUCK-

"Tokito I solved this part of the case!" FUCK YEAH! She thought.

When Tanjiro searched for his partner, he found him crying. To say he was concerned was an understatement. Quick on his feet, he sat next to his boyfriend and grabbed his hand, he sniffled, squeezing his hand back, he brought him into a hug which feebly, his boyfriend returned. 

"R-right when we were g-going to tell everyone something ba-bad happens... It always happens!" Tanjiro stared at him with confusion swirling in his eye as he braced his hand on his shoulder, frowning. "What do you mean Zen?"

The blonde peaks up at him, shly, "M-maybe we shouldn't be together," then, breaking out of the hug he moves away leaving the redhead shocked. "Wha-no!" Tanjiro moves and grabs his wrist and pulls his back, catching his partner's attention. "No... What would make you think that?" The blonde shy's his eyes away from his. "B...Because!"

"Because what?"

"Because a-anytime we try to tell remotely a-anyone about our relationship so-something bad happens a-and I'm starting to think were causing this, I- !"

"Zen, your panicking, breathe love," Tanjiro instructed kindly, squeezing his hands with an exaggerated movement.

"Right right, breathe, breathe,"

"That's right, just like that, follow me," In a few minutes or so until Zenitsu's breathing promptly slowed down to the rate it was supposed to be and Tanjiro squeezed his hands, giving him a soft smile, though lines of worry dug into his skin nonetheless. "Now you're saying this was caused by us wanting to tell everyone about our relationship?"

Fevrently, Zenitsu nods, "Yes! Anytime we try s-something bad happens!"

"So what?" Tanjiro says while tucking a strand of hair behind his boyfriend's ear. "Maybe our timing is just bad,"

"But... But what if it isn't that?"

"It doesn't mean we shouldn't give up,  I won't let something like that tear us apart,"

Tanjiro presses a kiss between the blonde's brows, pulling back and leaning his forehead against the others. "It's going to be okay," He moves to press a kiss to the corner of his lips. "It'll be okay..." The words are heavy on his tongue, wording the reassurance is hard especially when he doesn't know whether or not it's true.

The reassurance is mostly for himself if anything, he isn't sure what'll happen next, he isn't quite sure if he's even right, they won't tell him anything about it, let alone allow him near his mentor's office, they've taken his computer to see if there's anything of interest to look through and completely cut him off from his own account completely, the same with everyone else.

He angles the blonde to rest his head on his chest, directly where his heart would be, resting his head on his boyfriend's chin he started to rock the two back and forth, Zenitsu acquiesced the gesture and nuzzled into it, hearing the comforting sound of his boyfriend's heartbeat thrum in his ears.

"I... I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight... Can... Can I sleep with you tonight?" Tanjiro just nods at him, tears glimmering in the corner of his eyes, catching onto his eyelashes.

"Happily,"

"You lay even one finger on Kazanburo and I will personally-" This was not the way to deal with being kidnapped, Giyuu was very aware of that, he was also aware that he had just come dangerously close to getting a spork in his throat but instead ended up in his shoulder, thankfully, he likes having his voice despite how much he doesn't use it sometimes, thank you very much.  

"For someone in your situation, you sure are making some threats you probably won't be able to keep,"

"Besides it's just a bird-"

"Crow," Giyuu corrected and his kidnapper rolled his eyes. "Crow, an old one at that, it's bound to croak eventually,"

"Don't you dare talk about him like that!"

"I see why you decorated that bird fountain of yours so prettily."

"You... Liked it?"

"Credit is where credit is do, I'm horrible but not horrible enough to not recognize nice designs and gardening when I see it. You really outdid yourself, pal,"

"I..." Giyuu was actually speechless, what in the world was this interaction he was having? "...Thank you?"

"You're welcome,"

"look, just because I kidnapped you doesn't mean we can't be civil."

Giyuu can only raise a brow, then shrugged. "It doesn't mean I like you, you kidnapped me for god sake,"

His captor swirls in their hands until they move it and catch it underneath his chin, pressing it against the skin yet at the same time not piercing it, then, he moves aground to his side, their breath ghosting his cheek as they grin widely ."Would you rather I do what I plan to do to you to Koko instead?"

He felt something in him snap, hitting his head against his captor as he snarled at them. "Don't you fucking dare!"

His captor just widely grinned at him with naturally white teeth. "Ooooo, I struck I nerve. Exciting~" He clapped his hands together walking around in a circle a few feet away from the chair he was in, rubbing them together, ironically enough how a villain would. "Speaking of Koko, it's been about a day or two since I took you, and I'm getting really impatient so I think I'm going to have to break my terms a little- or change them up a little bit already."

"W..." What the FUCK is he talking about?! "What do you mean terms? I-I was not aware there were terms when you get kidnapped??...."

His kidnapped looked at him with their bright eyes, standing directly towards him, and clasped his hands together in front of him. "Yes, yes there are if not I would have killed you by now," That statement alone shocked Giyuu into silence and he just blinked at them wide-eyed.

"Basically, the terms are every week she stays on the case I break off a finger, but they got changed- WELL, I changed them to every day so you're about to lose like... Three fingers??... Sucks to be you man, honestly... I'm not gonna lie..."

Then his captor left the room, leaving Giyuu alone with his thoughts not for long, however, soon came back with a hammer and a large grin across their face.

"Now let's ACTUALLY see how high your pain tolerance is, the spork was just a jest after all! If you don't pass out from the pain I'll be sure you give you some pain killers if you do, then you don't get any."

Chapter Text

Ten days... 

T E N  D A Y S .

That's how long it'd had been since the investigation had really taken off, a week since Giyuu had been kidnapped which meant at least one of his fingers had been broken...

She sighed, at least it was only one. Oh if only she really knew how wrong she would be, hindsight is 2020 as they say. 

Although despite all that, worst of all it was the day of their anniversary, the first case they got together along with the ironically enough the day they got married since they just so happened to fall on the same day. Unknowing to her husband, while planning the wedding she made sure it'd be placed on the same day and mentioned it to her once in a passing comment and she shrugged it but she's sure he knew she was lying. He was always good at telling when someone was lying, it took a liar to know one after all, and with his silent demeanor, he knew when to talk, when to press the witness further and when to let them ramble on; of course, that didn't know how to hold a conversation.

That picture, that picture from their honeymoon. The two of them at the park, a picture she took without his knowledge of him with ice cream smeared on his cheek a picture she found quite adorable. What she wouldn't give to go back to those times, simpler times, she doesn't want to quit the case but she knows she has to. She should but at the same time she shouldn't, she can't let this go and let whoever did this escape. She just can't. 

It doesn't help that it's the day of the twos anniversary that she's considering leaving the case, it doesn't help that the package she got delivered today was for their said anniversary. She knew this by the text she was greeted with this morning and it was to be delivered which meant Aoi would bring it here soon. Ironically enough, she had just gotten a knock on her door signaling she was here with her package, she buzzed the phone machine and let her in.

She heard distant footsteps approach her desk, pausing in front of it, she didn't have to guess why. 

"Are you okay?"

"No, I'm fantastic... What do you think the answer to that question is right now?" She buries her face with her arms, resisting the urge to slam her head on the desk which would result in a nasty bruise that would only draw more attention to her comically large forehead, and right now that was the last thing she needed.

"So..." Aoi awkwardly began. "What's in the box..." She let out the grumble equivalent and apparently it wasn't loud enough so Aoi asked again. Then again, then again. Until finally...

"I-It's... It's a chocolate flake bars!..." She said with an unneeded amount of shame. "H-He said he wanted to try it so I got it for him for our anniversary and now he's not here so there's no point in having it!" 

Aoi doesn't say much but keeps her eyes directed at the ground as she shuffles on her feet. Shinobu is sure it'll stay like that until she eventually leaves but then she speaks up once more.

"...C... Can I eat it?" Shinobu pauses, and slowly raises her head up, and looks at her, slowly blinking.

"You know you're supposed to be comforting me, right?" She sees shame flash across Aoi's face and then she remembers who Tomioka got the idea from.

"But it's chocolate though..." The fine argument, yes yes, I see no point but it is valid though. 

"It is chocolate,"

"Fine, you can have it," In the blink of an eye her assistant tightens her grip around the package and bows, nearly hitting her head on the desk as she does it.

"Thank you so much! Your the best!" At least someone is happy. 

"Yeah... Don't tell me about..." She didn't do much that day and considered dropping the case.

That same day, just like the day that started this all, Kanao walked into her room with a letter, it was about her husband, it was about the investigation except it wasn't bloody she considered that the only good thing about it. Uzui joined them later, saying he got a letter with a photo in it while she got a letter with a note in it, unluckily for her though, her partner had a habit of taking things that weren't his so she wasn't surprised when he took her letter as well, so instead, she focused on the one he had instead. 

"What's on the photo?" Shinobu did her best to peer over her fellow associate's shoulder at the photo. 

"Well, there's... Uh..." He squinted down at the picture, raising it up even higher than before so it was practically impossible for her to see it. 

"Darkness, and darkness and darkness... A kebab and more darkness." Then, he suddenly brightened up. 

"Hey! I think the person who sent this is eating a kebab in the dark!"

Shinobu nodded in acknowledgment. "I gathered,"

"But there's a letter," He added on and she nodded once more. "And I'd like to read it, it's my letter after all."

"And I'm your partner on these cases,"

"Uzui hand over the godforsaken letter,"

He let out a heavy sigh."Fine."

Taking in the letter he gave it to her and she held it in her hands and read, then skimmed over it and then looked up with a determined expression. 

"Abandoned shipment yard only a few miles away from here, that's where we need to go." Shinobu pushed, handing the letter to Uzui and walking briskly towards the door. Uzui fumbled a bit with the letter before straightening it out and staring at her bug-eyed. "O-kay, you walk and I'll read until we get to the vehicle." She nodded in agreement and he grinned at her then stared down at the letter. 

"Alright then, then you'll drive me to that godforsaken place, and we'll go kick some ass." And Shinobu wanted to wipe the grin off his stupid face as he nodded at her and gestured towards the car. The revving of the engine did nothing to steady her nerves, instead, it made her pulse race, her heart hammer in her chest running at what seemed like a thousand beats per second.

Soon enough as the ride there blurred heavily in her mind, a graveyard of empty shipment containers had started to appear in the distance and she felt her nerves start to buzz with anticipation. 

Our first case together... Her eyes fluttered closed for a brief moment, then furrowing her brows when her ride came to a sudden stop and she heard Uzui start to unbuckle his seatbelt and get out, she opened her eyes. 

Let's not make it our last one together then!

All Giyuu knew was pain. Loud searing pain which most present in his hands which were almost all completely mangled now, except for his pinky on his right, his dominant hand, his most important hand, of course, they saved his most important for last, taking the phrase 'save the best' for last to heart I see.

Also, although another thing to consider was that Giyuu was not a man who begged easily, he hadn't many times in his life, but when he had those situations were most of the times, sexual situations, if not then it was when he was a child and he was begging for a turn on something like the slide or another thing. All things considered, on the topic of sexual situations, he knew he could come up away from this knowing a pain kink was a definite NO. 

But that all aside, here he was begging for no more, sobbing and sniffling and breakdown as he said whatever his captor told him to do. His voice had grown hoarse from the screaming, his limbs weak and heavy from what he was sure was blood loss, the fire ignited in his heart had gone out long since so had his fight. He had begged since he woke up despite how his throat ached and protested. 

"Nah... I'm still breaking your last finger, you didn't beg enough~" But it never was enough. And he sobbed, he sobbed and sobbed and sobbed until the cows came home! The pain didn't dull and neither did the ringing in his ears. 

"Wow..." His captor chuckled, a growing grin showing off his unnaturally pearly white teeth. "For someone in your position, you are so fucking stupid."

"P-please... Please just kill me..."

"Oh, dear..." They sighed, shaking their head as they slowly approached him and he trembled, moving his head out of his reach yet despite how much he tried they still cupped his cheek with their blood-soaked hands. Giyuu couldn't help but sob more vigorously, pain pouring from his eyes. "I'd love to but now when you'll be seeing your wife very soon... I promise I'll be gentle with her, okay?"

"P-please no-" He managed to choke out. "Please-"

"You can beg all you want," He dragged his hand that was cupping his cheek down to his throat and squeezed. "but know it will never be enough to satiate me, okay? But don't stop, maybe you'll change my mind by some miracle,"

"I'll be careful with her, I knock her out, not with my full strength but enough to give me time to strap her to a chair, ropes tight, but not too tight enough to bruise her skin. Then when she wakes up, I'll take her out quick painless, a gun, I'll bring it straight to the side of her head and then-" He squeezed his victim's neck tightly. 

"-BAM! Gone, and then you'll join her after I'm done with you, of course, it won't be quick and painless, you'll take the brute of everything I want to do to her and then I'll let you go and I'll be done with it." He feels the other hand move to his finger, holding it between two fingers, he knows what happens next after that, he knows, he knows-

"Please! Please don't- please -!" One hand grabs a fist full of his hair and yanks his head back, neck straining and there's a snap followed by a pain igniting in his last remaining finger, and all he can do is scream in pain.

 He's completely and utterly helpless. 

"They found where Yuu' is," Those simple words made me freeze. They did? Holy shit they did!

"Where?" I asked, turning towards my boyfriend, his arms were folded over his chest. "At an abandoned shipment container yard, I got the directions on my phone, it's not too far away we can drive there."

Silently I smirked to myself. See? What did I tell you all? He isn't lost, there's no need to talk like that I knew he'd show up eventually.

I moved and took Sabito's hand and gave it a squeeze, feeling my lips quirk up into a smile. "Let's go see our friend, alright?"

And he smiled back at me with a toothy grin that made my heart skip a beat. 

The two, despite their better judgment, split up, aiming to cover more ground, Uzui would check the containers as a backup would soon arrive in 10-15 minutes excluding the kakushi that arrived with them. While she would go where she was told to go, the building. 

Pulling her gun out of her holster and positioned her flashlight above it, holding it at her side as she pushed further into the playground of empty shipment containers and glared at the upcoming building in the distance with intensity. Dust wafts around her feet and coated her shoes, she speeds up her pace until she stood directly in front of the building, the soles of her shoes digging into the dirt to stop her from sliding.

The building beckons her with an unimaginable force, a murderous look flashed across her face, that anger in heart-swelling to three times its sizes. With careful steps, pausing to observe her surroundings every few seconds she approaches the door until she's finally in front of it. Then... She gently opened the door...

...And was greeted with the pungent smell of blood.

She felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach but she soldiered on despite the sharp smell assaulting her nostrils. The side rooms had been boarded off, dust collecting on the boards, and from the looks of things they hadn't been recently opened or worked on so there was no reason to investigate them, if anything she should keep moving further since the dust heavily coating the other parts of the room were no longer coated in the direction in front of her. Covering her mouth with her sleeve, steadying herself she hurried further in the hopes to find her husband before it was too late.

If he inhaled any of this dust it could be treated fairly easily but if he got any wounds and it got into them they would get infected which would be a different story, she felt the back of her eyes burn and she hurried her pace, oh Giyuu please be safe!

Upon moving to the next room the smell of blood grew irreversibly sharper, tainting the air with its foul smell and she couldn't help but gag. The only way to go was forward, through machines broken by time and up the stairs to a place with broken windows and towards the horrid smell. 

Step by step the smell grew stronger and stronger and her fingers itched to grab the badge in her front chest pocket as she walked up the stair and approached the door. She knew what was waiting for her on the other side, the source of the blood and most likely a body. Shinobu knew what she had to do.

Satisfying her urge she reached and grabbed the vocera badge in her front pocket and pressed a button speaking into it.

"Uzui-san I need back up,"

"Why? What's happening? What's up?"

"Something is about to happen is what's up."

"Alright alright, where are you?"

"In the building, go in, keep going forward and then take the stairs, I'll be in the room there, I think I found who we were looking for."

"Alright!" He exclaimed, sounding positively elated. "Be there in a few!" And the other line was nothing but white noise, nodding to herself, mentally hyping herself up she put the badge in her pocket and forced herself to move. She gently opened the door...

And the sharp metallic tang of blood grew stronger and under the flickering light sat a familiar figure. A loud gasp escaped her mouth and that bubble of her trepidation in her stomach burst and almost tripping, she raced towards him- raced towards her husband, blink panic threading its way into every seam of her body. 

"Giyuu!" She shouted, once again almost tripping over her feet. She dug her heels into the ground, sharply stopping in front of him, surveying the damage all over until something caught her attention making her jaw drop and eyes bulge. 

"Giyuu your hands," They were all mangled, however, that wasn't the only place of him that had gotten damaged, take note of the spork in his shoulder, with a sigh, tears welling in the corner of her eyes she cupped his cheek, resting her forehead against his. "Oh, honey I'm so sorry you had to go through this,"

Tears of pain and guilt slipped down her cheeks as she did her best to untie him, almost completely done when a voice called out to her.

"Over here! We're over here!" She called back out, her hand cupping at the side of her cheek to increase her voice's echo, then quick enough she should have gotten whiplash, she turned back to her husband and gently laid her hand over her husband's mangled one, face creasing with worry. "Don't worry dollface, we'll get you out of here,"

Steps boomed up the stairs as she moved to stare at the door, and who other could it be than her companion on this case?

"Uzui-san I never thought I'd be so happy to see you!"In favor of her husband, he peers over her shoulder and flinched at the sight of him, she's not quite sure if that's because of the blood that leaks from the side of his temple of his hands and she doesn't have the time to find out. 

"Ow, that hurts and it looks like what happened to Tomioka hurts, as well," Although she finds herself in favor of brushing off the partially rude comment she made and looks over her husband's  injuries

"And it probably does, where are the medics?"

"You mean the kakushi?"

"Whatever! Where are they?"

"Outside, they're a little hesitant-" While explaining this he gestured with his hand moving it side to side in a small repeated motion, Shinobu felt something in her snap. "Bring him to them then!"

"Are you sure-"

"I am, I have someone I need to have a talk to after all,"

"Don't kill anyone!"

"I can't guarantee I will,"

"If you do make sure you do it as flamboyantly as possible!"

"I'll try,"

She forced herself to move away and look towards the only exit beside the one she came from, there was only one way to move, and that was forward. With a shaky step and an exhale she moved forward and opened the door to the next exit which was another pair of stairs. She climbed down them and was greeted by a baron wasteland of empty ground, a fence entangling the next area ahead, a torn down warning side coated with rust greeted her as the fence seemed to be torn into, practically begging her to come near, so she did. 

Inside the fenced area, avoiding the rust so she wouldn't get nicked by it and possibly get tetanus she saw a house was in the fenced area, most likely an office. It looked worn by the years, covered in dirt and grime and she's sure dust inside. She isn't given that much of an opportunity to stare at it too long until a figure walks out of it, a, strangely enough, familiar figure...

It smiled at her, brightly, almost too bright... That face...

She tightened her grip around her gun, she knew that face all too well.

"Doma," She snarled and he just smiled at her with his blindingly pearly white teeth. "It's nice to see you too Shinobu, or should I say Koko instead?"

Chapter Text

Shinobu is the first one who steps forward, glaring with intensity at him.

"Why here? Why now?" And for an extra measure, she tacts on: "What was the point of this? To intact some petty revenge?"

"Why not?

"No- why would you do this?"

"Why not?"

"But... Why though?"

"Why not?"

"That makes no sense!"

"Neither did the spork nor how a blade managed to be that ugly so my answer is, why not?"

Staring at the man as if he had grown a second head, utter disbelief in her eyes. She hardly managed to choke out her next sentence:

"Is... Is this all a joke to you?"

With a shrug, he said: "Pretty much," then he pulled a gun out of his back pocket and shot at her and Shinobu narrowly dodged it.

No backing down now. The two start to circle each other, guns drawn and postures tense- Shinobu's was at least, Doma seemed relaxed. The two continued off like that for a while, trading blows, as if they were stalling for time, which essentially they might be. It went on like this for a while as the sun started to set in the background, wasting precious time that Shinobu didn't know they had. Yet despite that, she continued to question him as her temper only rised. 

"Why, why on our anniversary?!"

"Why not?"

"Give me a real answer!"

"Because Shinobu! Don't you get it?"

"I really don't,"

"Because I want you to remember me! I want you to look at your husband, look at his face and remember how much pain I caused both of you, that way even in death you'll never forget me! It's the perfect type of revenge!" A malicious grin spread across his face, features lighting up with pure glee. 

"I'm not letting you get away with that, you will not escape punishment for what you've done to all of us!"

"I fully intend to do exactly that! You know what also I plan to do?" She narrowed her eyes at his, a murderous look in them. "What?" She's not even sure why she's even giving him the light of day yet here she is. 

"This, your version of it at least. That'll be my winning prize!" And with that said he pulls something out of his pocket showing it to her. 

There was a ring tied around a loose string, twinkling in the low light of the setting sun from over his shoulder. It took a few moments for it to click but soon enough she recognized the engraved pavé setting design it had, small, tiny diamonds being weaved around a diamond-shaped pattern, dried blood staining the engravements. It was the same ring she slid on her husband's finger, tears burning in her eyes that were filled with utter infatuation, the words 'I do' slipping from her lips as soon enough their bodies embraced each other, lips shy of the passion they soon shared many nights later.

Giyuu's wedding ring, she's wearing a similar ring underneath her gloves. 

There's a heat underneath her skin, burning, itching, clawing at the skin above it for a release. Tearing back the layers of muscles, blood, and skin, spilling out gore. It's rage, she numbly registers, she can hear her heartbeat loudly in her ears but everything seems so silent. Her anger finds its way to claw out of her, through her throat, through her skin, through her veins until it's spilling out of her with no end in sight. 

Shinobu sees red.

When she comes to there are bullet holes in the wall, and there's shattered glass lying around the floor like sprinkles on a cupcake, haphazardly, all over the place. The shattered windows allowed more light to stream into the building, not for long though, after all the sun was going to set very soon, a half an hour too. 

Except... Something was off about it...

There was a medium line of line trapping him in the back area of the room, reloading her gun she shot at him, to where he'd have to cross into the strip of light to avoid it. Yet... He didn't.

He moved in the way the bullet was coming, nearly getting hit yet refusing to touch the light. Was he... Afraid of a little light? Shinobu could almost laugh at it but now was not the time, but that didn't mean she couldn't style because of the idea she had.

There is a sunroof on top, it's covered with a tarp that sometimes falls through the busted windows but as soon as she blows off the screws nailing all the windows up there it's as soon as gone along with the sunroof. The building is fairly old meaning everything is a little looser than it should be so this should be relatively easy. 

She carefully aimed her gun at the screws and started shooting. Now obviously, shooting at the ceiling gained Doma's attention and not in a good way, so, he started shooting at her. This went on for fairly long as screw by screw fell down until the entire sunroof fell down, the tarp falling after it with a loud clatter and the muffled sound of glass breaking. Shinobu nearly dodged it, almost getting crushed as she sandwiched herself between the small sliver of roof that was there. The reaction was almost immediate when the rays of sunlight hit his skin.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER I GOT SUN ALLERGY! YOU BITCH!" And unsurprisingly, Doma was reasonably angry. I mean how would you feel if you were allergic to something and they just shoved whatever that was in your face? But Doma is a murderer and is also associated with other murderers so we don't feel sorry for him.

Fuck him, no matter how lacking of emotions you have that doesn't justify murder. Remember kids, therapy exists although expensive, it does exist, and if you should go to it. Don't be like Doma. 

Fuck Doma.

PSA aside, it worked, briefly, very briefly but that was what she needed, and started to shoot at him. 

She knew which areas to hit, which ones were fatal and which ones just plain out hurt and which ones to disable him so he couldn't shoot back. She aimed for the latter, killing him would do nothing, it wouldn't change what he did to her husband and it wouldn't properly bring him to justice. She wanted him to suffer, and the only way he'd suffer was in jail. 

His blood was not worth having on her hands no matter how satisfying causing his death might be. She shoots him and soon enough he's on the floor, blood leaking from the bullet wounds on his thighs and one in his shoulder and it's over. It's all over. And Shinobu accepts this as fact.

But what she doesn't know is that he still has his gun. 

Shinobu turns away from him, briefly, she had gone to retrieve her husband's ring off the floor, being mindful of the glass even if it wouldn't harm her if she stepped on it. He could kill her, kill her and win. And he's going to, that was the plan and it'll stay that way no matter what.

He aimed it at her back, where her neck met her shoulder, one shot and it'll go through her neck, cut off the circulation to the head and kill her almost instantly.

Almost.

She'd have a brief memory of pain and in that brief moment, he'd crawl over to her and kiss her. He'd be her last memory and that was all he could ever ask for. She was his first love and last, the same fate she shared with her sisters. After she was gone, body cold, she'd serve no use, then, he'd go after her husband, he could pretend he was her, he had long enough hair he could style like hers cut like hers. He could do everything he couldn't do to her to him and pretend it was hers. He could love him like it was her and pretend if he tried hard enough. She had used his body as a vessel for her desires and that was more than enough, now he could use it.

He aimed his gun at her neck, hands shaking as a sick and twisted grin grew on his face. He had it, he-

BANG! 

BANG!

Blood spilled on the floor as a body fell to the floor with a 'thump!', something else falls to the floor with a clack. The black-haired lady looked over her shoulder with wide eyes, having stopped in her tracks as she stared at the so-called 'demon' laying on the ground, a bullet hole in his gun along with one in his wrist as well. On the left side of the building, she was in there was an entrance, and stood at the door Kanao who had a gun pointed at Doma that she had shot, Inosuke had pulled out his gun too. In her shock she stared on at them which gave the demon enough time to recover and shout this:

"OF COURSE THE CHILDREN HAVE FUCKING GUNS!"

Kanao shot him a murderous look that Shinobu had never seen her have before. Oh, he was fucked.

Getting over her previous shock she stared at the two, covering her mouth with her hand, brows furrowed with worry. "Oh my god, who gave you guns?"

"Uzui-san," They said simultaneously.

"Oooof course he did. Of course, he did!"

"Did he give you handcuffs too?"

"Along with a taser," Kanao piped up, the same girl listening to her older sister grumble under her breath and going to pick up something, soon enough she turned to watch Inosuke poke the man who was bleeding out with a taser. It was kind of funny in a morbid way.

Kanao couldn't help the fact the corner of her lips twitched at the sight, physically forcing herself not to smile at it. Serves him right, for making her sister cry.

He deserved it.

The hatred she felt for the man across from her was unrivaled, it wasn't their first encounter with him, they had been personally acquainted thanks to a past discretion of his. He hurt Kanae badly, it made Shinobu upset, and it made Sanemi cry, he didn't know she saw him but she saw him, that only made her want to hurt the man more, Sanemi never cried unless it was bad bad. Kanae recovered but she'd never truly get over what Doma did.

Maybe she should join in with Inosuke.

So she did. Pulling out her taser she crouched next to him and started to poke him with it her smile growing devilish-like. They continued doing this till the man stopped spasming and passed out and it wasn't fun anymore, which is where they handcuffed him, making sure they extra tight so it'd bruise him. They both turned and looked away when they heard feet thumping towards them a familiar face which wore a large circle on his right eye. They waved at him and he waved back but before he could say anything Shinobu walked towards him meeting him halfway.

"Uzui-san! How's Giyuu?"

"The medics-"

"Kakushi,"

"kAKusHi, " He dramatically mocked, waving his hand briefly. "are bringing him to the hospital, they also need a record of his medical history so-"

"I should go with them! Why didn't you stop them from leaving they need me!" With a frown, she started to hit him, although lightly it still stung.

"Jesus Christ woman! Let me finish!"

Shinobu let out a huff and stop hitting him, glowering at him. "Well, you better hurry up,"

Uzui just sighed, shaking his head, "As I was saying, they needed a record of his medical history so they called a family member of his, they'd also like you to come in. They also want, " he jutted out a thumb at Doma. "him, to come in so learn what he did to Tomioka while he had him but that's just the rundown of things."

Sighing, the man grimaced as he started to speak, "I..." then, oddly enough, he hesitated, heightening her anxiety a bit more. "I told them as much as I knew, that this wasn't the first time he had gotten injured but he had other experiences that were life-threatening, this possibly being one of those. I was told that it wasn't life-threatening but should be treated as soon as possible. AKA: he ain't gonna die but..."

Refusing to meet her eyes, he looked away while he scratched the back of his head. "Make sure he's alright, 'kay? Don't let him come back until he's fully healed, okay?"

With a smile laced with mirth, she nods up at him. "I will, thank you Uzui-san,"

"There's a car outside for you, and Kanao and Inosuke, I'll be bringing him in myself,"

Unsurprisingly Giyuu's older sister, Tsutako showed up and arguing Makomo and Sabito followed in suit but she also brought all of Giyuu's necessarily medical history which was a god sent. She watched as the older woman chatted up with the nurse, providing her the documents which were encased in a manila file with a soft smile on her face, despite that, her expression made her appear as if she aged a few years.

Despite being his wife, Tsutako had and would always be his primary emergency contact, then Urokodaki and her. While she didn't know the entire history between his mentor and him she knew he was a fatherly figure to him and had been for years so she can't blame him.

After giving the nurse Giyuu's necessary information, his older sister spared her a look and went back to talk with Sabito and Makomo, however, that didn't mean she missed the menacing look she had shot her. She was upset, although, Shinobu could hardly blame her, she was upset for letting it drag out this long as well. At least they found the perpetrator and at least they'd been in jail- she hoped they'd be in jail, there was still the possibility he could get good lawyers and get off without life in prison and come back for revenge.

Doma had a sick obsession with her family, she wasn't sure what it is but he wanted to ruin her and her sister's life. Except he never did harm her directly, not any of them directly, it was always indirectly. He had gone after her older sister first, then, when that didn't work he went after their loved ones. 

First, it was Sanemi, right while Kanae was recovering he took aim at him by leading Genya into a trap of some sort, and when his older brother came to the obvious rescue, he struck. 

Poison-laced bullets. Her own poison at that. 

She had antidotes to her poisons, however, it had been tweaked, by who she's not sure. It had similar effects to how getting hypothermia would feel, or frostbite.

At first he had just felt cold, it had been brushed off as caused by blood loss but when only a few hours later they had gotten a call from a hysterical Genya that his brother was barely conscious and his limbs were starting to turn blue. Sometime in between that Sanemi had something to his brother in his barely conscious state that left him tearful and caused him to forgive him. She'd never forget the look on Genya's face when she arrived, it had almost been too late. 

"Please..." His voice hitched, worry and concern laced in his voice, but also, anger. "Y-you gotta save him! I-I can't lose him now!" By the time she made it there, Sanemi was out for the count, his breathing was shallow and his heartbeat was unsteady. Yet despite that he...

He looked happy. 

He had a peaceful expression on his face, smiling, he looked he had de-aged a few years. He looked like he could die happy. Like he had gotten some huge regret off his chest before she arrived. 

He almost did and Genya stayed by his side the entire recovery.

Needless to say, Shinobu was scared. He went after Sanemi in revenge to Kanae, Tanjiro- he failed that attempt- for Kanao, and finally Giyuu in turn for her.

And he won. Well not entirely Giyuu was still alive but he got what he wanted to some extent and here she was in the hospital waiting room, waiting for an update, along with waiting for Uzui to swing by. She had sent Inosuke and Kanao to go get some food from a vending machine, which should take them a few. Thankfully, that's when Uzui swung by. They didn't bother with introductions, he entered the room and she didn't look up from where she was sitting.

"I got the transcript of the interview with Doma," He held up a file in his hands to signify it and she looked at him blankly. "So uh, he said a lot of things in his interview, like how you and your sisters were his first love... Pretty weird, I'd recommend you read this with a friend if you do cause it's... You should probably just not read it at all." When she doesn't respond Uzui continues on. 

"He also said something that was... Pretty concerning," Uzui cringed while looking down at it and she already knew that it wasn't going to go well.

"What was it?"

"Something along the lines about 'this not being the end,'"

"Well that isn't conspicuous at all," Shinobu dryly replied, throwing her hands up in the air in a melodramatic gesture.

"Yeah totally,"

"By the way have you seen Rengoku?"

"For the love of everything that is holy, if he's injured or dead I'll have someone's head-"

"Whose head are you going to have and what does this have to do with me?" Kyojuro poked his head around the corner before stepping into the room, his expression alarmed.

"I was wondering where you were, you didn't pick up my calls!"

"It's nothing, I was just worried something happened to you too,"

"Oh I'm fine! I was just taking my little brother to the dentist when I heard what happened and now I'm here,"

Kyojuro placed his hands on his hips and leaned forward a bit, a look of interest on his face. "So, how is he?"

"Horrible," Shinobu in that moment of time didn't feel like sugar coating it at all. "fucking, horrible. Hands were fucked up, somehow there was a spork, yes you heard me right! A spork! Lodged into his shoulder, and now after they get his medical history from his older sister. Who I haven't seen in who knows how long! They'll take him in for X-rays and maybe even more,"

Kyojuro looked at her with concern flashing across his face. "Shouldn't he be taken in for surgery?"

"Yeah, he should bit he's apparently not in 'unstable condition' so it's not that important,"

"They measure the condition of a patient before they treat them?!"

"Yes," She curtly nodded. "Yes, they do,"

And that was exactly why she sometimes hated her job when she used to be the onsite medic.

It had been a day and she was frankly on the edge of her seat. Although the perpetrator of the crime was in custody and their organization was working on its best to gather all the documents including him so when the eventual court case was developed they could have everything prepared, along with suing him afterward. Or at least she was going to sue him, for many reasons.

But now, thanks to the hospital taking what seemed like years to do anything she had worried about those around her thanks to it.

She didn't mean to, that never was her intent, the situation was just... Distracting. It was a disaster and she was still processing everything, everything that happened and what would most likely happen after and them pestering her certainly wouldn't help her. 

"Shinobu-sama... you have to eat!" It's the only thing Mitsuri say's to her now, and she ignores her, but there comes to a certain point where she can longer ignore it and it pents up, already adding to her already buried anger. 

"Not until I know what's going on until the doctors tell me something,"

"It's what Tomioka-san, would have-"

"You don't know what he would have wanted!"

Mitsuri is silent after that, Shinobu doesn't look at her but scoffs, sharply turning to look at the ground, voice leaking venom. "Besides, don't you have a wedding to plan?"

The chair lets out a small screech as the pink-haired woman abruptly gets up from it, Misturi leaves without a word and doesn't return.

Shinobu isn't sure how to feel.

Shinobu decides to get up when her legs start to cramp from disuse. It's been an hour since she saw Misturi, maybe two and so far the only people who came in this room were nurses who called people to their appointments or people showing up for them. Other than that she's all alone.

She wanders aimlessly around the hospital as if looking for some reprieve until she stumbles upon it. A vending machine.

Ordinarily, it isn't so special, it's a vending machine it contains all kinds of assortment of drinks. From apple juice to coffee, to milk to soda to water to milk tea. It's familiar to her.

Every morning, after getting ready and making breakfast, her and her husband would depart for the train station walking there together hand in hand, once getting there they'd order something from the vending machine. She'd get coffee and he'd get water, sometimes milk tea but typically water. On that day he left they went through that routine as if nothing was wrong, and supposedly nothing was until on their walk to he let go of her hand and everything went downhill from there.

Shinobu took out her wallet and ordered a coffee, reflexively ordering water as well.

The coffee left a bitter taste in her mouth.

It's another hour until Shinobu gets an actual visitor meant for her. She's too busy staring down at her phone, switching between reading emails she's already read and checking the time to notice anything around her. Footsteps approach her, quick and urgent but nimble at the same time. She assumes it's Misturi's fiance, Iguro coming to tell her off. They stop in front of her and she heaves out a sigh of agitation, not ready to deal with him just yet.

"Are you Mrs. Tomioka?"

At the sound of another voice, she looks up with a blank expression. Upon seeing it's a nurse she nods fervently, some kind of hope rising in her chest. "Yes, did something happen?"

"May I talk to you in private?"

With a smile growing on her face she gets up in one smooth motion, nodding for the nurse to continue. "Of course,"

She leads her away and into a spare room, it's empty and the nurse wastes no time talking as soon as she's facing her. "We've given your husband both antibiotics and a tetanus booster shot-" 

"Why a tetanus shot? He doesn't need it!"

"He hasn't had one in 5 years  Ms., it's mandatory. We've stabilized his hands but he needs surgery but he's unable to consent so we need your-"

"Yes, yes, of course! I'd be offended if you didn't,"

"We'll I need you to sign these papers then," With quick strokes of the pen, her signature was on the paper looking comparable to scribbles of a doctor's signature. The nurse nodded at her and sat her down on a clipboard of a bunch more paperwork which upon completion was returned back to the front desk and left her waiting.

So she sat there and waited, the time ticking by slowly but surely, hours passed but they felt like days, her sisters visited, bringing food and drinks but then eventually leaving. Sanemi visited with Kanae, he ended up being the one who propositioned bringing food in the first place. Although they eventually had to leave, Kanae and Sanemi had recently gotten a dog they had to take care of and had to bring Kanao home to her apartment so once again she was all alone.

He always wanted a pet, specifically a cat, but she didn't like furry animals. Oh what she wouldn't give to hear him try and debate her on why they should get a cat, she just wants to hear his voice. His lovely, low, smooth voice.

The man used to own a cat, a cat that loved to try and steal his food whenever he left it alone for a few moments, the cat's name was Sachie and he loved her like it was his child, which in some right it was. But Sachie was gone, taken with the way of time, and would never come back.

She hopes her husband doesn't fall to the same fate.

If she could propose once more- even if the last time was accidental- she would, just to make double sure he'll stay with her and won't leave. She might just make where she gets her last name back and makes him take hers just to get back at that fucker.

Maybe.

She has about 6 more hours to contemplate it after all. 

Another nurse, 6 hours later came to tell her that her husband made it through surgery however, she couldn't see him just yet, they needed to monitor him and make sure he progresses well. Shinobu can only sigh, deflating back into the chair with a frown.

This is going to take forever!

And it feels like it does. Inbetween her waiting she gets a call from, ironically enough, her boss, last time she heard he was sick but he had overseen the case, even if it was from home. She picks up the call almost immediately, greeting her master with a pleasant tone even if the situation itself wasn't the most pleasant, he greets her the same way.

"How was the surgery?..." There's a certain hesitancy to his voice that naturally makes her nervous, his emotions naturally reflect right back onto her and she hates it.

"...It went well from my knowledge, they need some time to see through,"

"Can we see him yet?"

Shinobu just shakes her head despite the fact they can't see her do it on the phone so she lets out an audible 'no'. "Why... Why not?"

"The doctors said he needs time to recover and they need to monitor him or whatever... I can see him in a few hours, I'll update you then." The two of them ended the call there, an hour and a half later being cleared to be able to see him. She shot her boss a quick text before practically flying down the hallway to race to his room. But her excitement was short-lived when she made it to his room and came upon a discovery, his state.

Giyuu is sleeping, wires and machines are hooked up and it makes her heart clench, his skin is pale like snow, with barely any color left on his cheeks and lips. There are bandages all over him, and that's not even mentioning his hands. 

His hands!

Ones that were formerly mangled are now wrapped up in bandages, one of his arms, his right has been more injured than the other is in a full cast and it takes her best effort not to cry on the spot. 

Numbly she lets the nurse inform her of his condition and gets to waiting once more.

When he wakes up it's not any better either, he wakes up with a start and immediately tries to rip the IVs out of him. "What're you-" She has to physically stop him from ripping the IV out of his hand. "Wait! No- don't rip that out, that's-that's helping you,"

Her husband lets out a strangled groan, tears glimmering in the corner of his eyes until he starts sobbing. She stares on with a mix of confusion and concern, her eyes furrowing and frowning.

"How are high on anesthesia are you?" Her husband lets out another sob, tipping his head backward. She sighs, sitting back down. "Very high then, very very high," He stays in that state until he eventually falls asleep again.

She's not sure how long passes, hours, maybe, or maybe an hour, whatever it is she's about to fall asleep in the chair beside his bed when something stops her.

"Koko...?" The voice had her pause, eyes widening at its familiarity of it. "K-Koko-"

"Giyuu!"  She jolted up, running to his side and laying a hand on his shoulder. "Giyuu, honey, dollface, are you okay?"

"He didn't do anything too bad to did he? H-he didn't-"

"K -Koko... I-I'm so-so glad you okay... I..." A sob forces its way out of his throat before he can finish and he starts to break down, pain pouring down his face. With careful hands, she wrapped her arms around him, running her hand down his back as she shushed him. "Shhhh, it's okay now honey, I'm here, I'm not leaving I promise..."

"I-I thought i-it was going to end... H-he was going to t-tie you to a ch-chair right in front of me and sh-shoot you... I-"

"Sweet cheeks that was just a part of the nightmare you once had, it's not real."

"B-but he told me th-that's what he'd do to you! I-I-"

She took his cheeks in hers, squeezing them slightly and bringing him to look at her directly in the eyes. "But he didn't, and I'm right here with you and that's where I plan to stay, okay?" She plants a kiss on the top of his forehead, her hand resting on his cheek as she rubs her thumb up and down the skin. He breaks down under her touch, agonizing sobs forcing their way out of his chest as he turned and hid his face in her chest, effectively soaking her button-up shirt. She cups the back of his head and kisses the crest of his head, letting he stay there for as long as he needed, which was for a while but she didn't mind. No, she didn't mind at all.

Eventually, he looked up at her, teary-eyed and breathing hitching slightly, cheeks wet. "My ring-"

"Shhh, I got it, I have it, it's in my pocket,"

"Can I see it?" She nods, and with trembling hands, she grabs the ring- no longer bloodied- and puts it in his shaky, bandaged hands. "Here, here it is,"

"You won't be able to put it on but you can look at it,"

"I can still wear it,"

That made Shinobu raise a brow at him, "How?"

"A necklace, until I can use my hands," It reminds her of how Doma must have worn it beforehand but she says nothing. It's not like she could when there knocking against the door. Shinobu's reaction was immediate. 

"Who's there, I have a medical degree and I'm not afraid to use it!" She wrapped her arms around her husband's head and brought him close to her chest, laying her other across his chest, glaring at the door with a murderous look. Giyuu allowed himself to be maneuvered, too tired to resist but also shaken up as well.

The door slowly opened to reveal a familiar face, holding up their hands in mock surrender, thankfully it was not a harmful one. It was Uzui walking inside, one hand raised the other hidden behind his back. He looked at the two with a surprised expression. "Oi, it's just me,"

"Uzui-san, what are you doing here?"

"I brought you something,"

Giyuu raised his brow. "You did,"

"This," Which is where he revealed what was behind his other hand.

It was the equivalent of a decorated shoebox that was bedazzled, used with one of those gem guns you'd see advertised in the early 2000s on TV except they used it on a box. Yeah, one of those. "A bedazzled shoebox?..."

The older man walks toward the bed, gently throws the box on the bed, then rested his hand on his hip. "Open it, trust me,"

Eyeing the other man incredulously, he looked down at the box, and with some help from his wife, he managed to open it. In the box was an assortment of items, from a candle- what looked like an expensive scented candle at that- to a handwritten letter, a cat plush, and some cookies, there were more but those were a few that were in there. "What the?..."

"It's a comfort box, your intern... Tanjiro had the idea to make one so we all pitched in, even Shinazguawa, I decorated it, of course, but I put an item there, the candle to be exact."

"I..." Giyuu stared at the box for a few moments until his eyes started to burn and the corner of his eyes glimmered. "...Thank you,"

"It's... It's nothing, alright?"

"But you didn't have to do this, so thank you,"

"If you really wanna thank any of us you'll start working when you're cleared to by the hospital. alright? No 'oh I seem fine so I'm okay' bullshit, you had everyone worried there, 'kay? Almost thought you would have gotten killed if we didn't act fast enough."

"I'll... I'll try,"

"You're not gonna try you're going to do it, cuz' I certainly don't think your wife is going to let you off that easily." He briefly glanced at Shinobu who nodded, tightening her grip on his shoulder. "The nurses are probably going to swing by when they hear you're awake so be ready for that," Giyuu languidly nodded, nestling himself comfortably into his wife's side, who moves her hand from his left shoulder and into his hair combing her hand through his tresses and moving them behind his shoulders.

Uzui waved them goodbye which only Shinobu reciprocated, trying to steady her husband against her side. The door closed behind him with a click, and she let out a sigh, smoothing the hair on her partner's forehead behind his ear, lightly tapping his cheek.

"Mmmmnnnnhhhhh..."

His eyes briefly fluttered open only to flicker shut once more. He was no longer a pallor color, his skin shifting back to a more healthy tone as the red in his cheeks was no longer as prominent as before. Giyuu's face wore a more youthful look, the bags under his eyes having- although not left entirely- become less prominent than before. He always had a tendency to look more peaceful in his sleep which explained why the bags under her eyes were more often than not more prominent than his, wanting to soak in the few moments she stayed silent, he truly did look at peace whether it be day or night time. Now, the last thing she wanted was him asleep, especially after everything that happened but she guesses she'd after settle for it.

She lightly tapped his cheeks once more, doing her best not to jolt him too much as she slowly tried to maneuver him back to laying down on his bed. Once satisfied with her efforts she took a seat next to him, leaning against the railing of the hospital bed as she watched him drift further into sleep.

"You know you're going to need therapy after this, correct? Physical and mental?"

He let out a grumble, shifting away to not look at her and she only let out an airy laugh, resting her chin on the smooth, cold metal rail of the bed. He never did like getting roused when he was on the edge of sleep.

This was fine, everything was fine.