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The sun was high in the sky. It was a bright day, the birds were singing and the clouds look extra poofy. The night before was a good one, well not entirely good, there were still demons roaming about. But last night not a single slayer died! What joy, and plenty of demons were slain. So why one earth-
“Where’s Tomioka??”
Tomioka Giyuu, the water pillar, was late.
Well he wasn’t technically late, the meeting wasn’t going to start in another 15 minutes.
“Do you think he’s on a mission?” Mitsuri suggested, but the others weren’t buying it.
“Even if he was on a mission don’t you think he’ll be back by now?” quizzed a certain snake from the tree.
To be fair Mitsuri’s reasoning would be pretty understandable, they were pillars after all. They’re almost always busy on missions. But the last time they heard him being on a mission was two weeks ago and since he didn’t show up at the butterfly estate either, they pretty much assumed that he was perfectly fine after said mission.
The love pillar pouted, “Still, it’s not like him to be late,” she had a point.
While he wasn’t the earliest pillar, he certainly wasn’t the latest one either. Normally he would be standing in waiting around the garden as the other pillars chatted amongst themselves, sometimes Mitsuri or Kyojuro tried including him in their conversations but after a while of short answers they learn to just leave him alone.
“Doesn’t he know how rude it is to come late?” Shinobu grumbled. “He must be slacking off at this point,”
Some of the other pillars nodded in agreement, it’s been a while since they’ve even seen the water pillar. He was going on missions like the rest of them sure, but he always seemed to get less somehow. Shinobu swore he had less missions than he did a few years back, she barely even saw him around the demon slayer corps and much less outside of it.
“Don’t say things like that Shinobu-chan, at least give him the benefit of the doubt! Maybe he ran into a demon,” the love pillar tried again “It’s not like he’s purposely trying to be late”
“Doubt it,” Sanemi scoffed.
Mitsuri bowed her head dejectedly, so the others quickly tried changing the subject.
“Do you think he has a life outside the corps?”
Muichiro questioned from his spot on the ground, his gaze was still focused on the clouds but his body language implied that he was in fact listening. And Mitsuri’s eye glistens at the prospect, maybe he had a nice family! Or maybe a relative who was ill, oR maybe he could even have a s/o! Yes that would make sense on why he was late-
“HA! Him? As if, he barely has life inside the demon slayer corps-”
He was cut off when a pebble hit his face, enraged Sanemi looked around to find the culprit. Another pebble hit the back side of his head so he whipped around to face the glaring snake pillar dangling from the tree.
“WHY YOU LITTLE-”
“Pillars, Master Ubuyashiki has arrived”
Immediately the eight pillars kneeled before their master, and to Mitsuri’s dismay, Giyuu still hadn’t showed up yet.
“Good evening my children, what a wondrous day it is” He smiled softly as he gazed over all of the pillars. “It appears that one of the pillar isn’t present yet,”
“Yes, I’m afraid Tomioka won’t be joining todays meeting so it seems” It was almost baffling to see how Sanemi switched personalities in the presence of Ubuyashiki.
Oyakata-sama hummed in acknowledgement, the knowing look on his face made the pillars think there might a legitimate reason on why Giyuu was later then normal. “It is quite alright, he will be joining us nearing the end of our meeting,”
Low and behold he was right. Just as everyone finished giving their reports they heard footsteps approaching, but something sounded off. They were much too light to be Giyuu’s, and they were quick ones as well. As if they person making them was trying to keep up with someone,,,
“Master Ubuyashiki, I apologies for arriving late to the meeting.” Giyuu bowed, Sanemi and Obanai glared at the water pillar. How dare he come late to the meeting and expect to be forgiven so easily-
“Nonsense, there are no need for apologies my child. It was my request for you too bring Kiyoshi and Kimiko after all,”
Whowhatnow-
The pillars tried looking around for the two people Oyakata-sama mentioned but they spotted not one person in the garden besides Giyuu. It wasn’t until they heard Mitsuri gasp did they finally see a small portion of bushy black hair hiding behind Giyuu’s legs.
No
Way
“Go on, it’s okay” they heard Giyuu softly coaxed the person standing behind him.
Their jaws all drop open involuntarily when a small boy shuffled out meekly. His bushy raven locks were tied back into a small pony tail —his hair was too short so it just looks like a small ball of fluff —and his big blue eyes that nearly popped off his face made him look even smaller.
He looked nervous as he fiddled with his small hands. Giyuu placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder trying to calm him down, with a few more glances to Oyakata-sama to the pillars then back at Giyuu the boy finally spoke up.
“H-hello Master Ubuyashiki,” his voice was so smol they could barely hear it. And it took Mitsuri every fibre in her being to stop herself from squealing, she had no idea who this child was but bOI WAS HE CUTE.
“Hello to you as well my child,” the pillars all pried their eyes off of the small child when they heard their master laugh, “Kiyoshi, if i’m not mistaken, you’ve grown well it seems.”
He looked around as if expecting another person, “Where is your sister?”
Sister?!!?!?!
“She spotted Tanjiro and his friends on our way here, I believe they’re still playing chase” Oyakata-sama laughed once again and nodded in understanding.
“Of course, she will be joining us in a few minutes I presume?”
Giyuu opened his mouth to speak again, but he was cut of by a-
“OI SLOW DOWN”
It was then a small girl, who looks frighteningly similar to the boy and Giyuu, ran full speed into the garden. Her bright blue eyes met Sanemi’s first, and he had to do a double take cause he swore she looked just like Giyuu, just smaller.
She immediately burst into a fit of giggles the moment she entered the garden, the sleeves on her water-lily patterned yukata was much too big so they envelope her arms as she swings them in the air happily. Seconds behind her, three boys — whom the pillars instantly recognise— crashed at the entrance falling in a heap.
Giyuu quickly picked up the giggling toddler and as he held her securely in his arms his lips curved gently into a smile, as if the pillars weren’t shocked enough. The look on his face was so soft Shinobu thought she was hallucinating.
“How can you guys call yourself slayers when you let a girl out run you!” She said cheekily as she wiggled in Giyuu’s arms to face the three boys laying on the ground.
“FIGHT ME TINY HAN-HAN BAORI THEN I’LL PROVE TO YOU MY STRENGTH”
“That’s enough,” before things could escalate further Giyuu placed his hand firmly on top of Inosuke’s head, stopping him from declaring war on his daughter. “Go home, the three of you. You can continue playing later”
As Tanjiro profusely apologised for interrupting the meeting and forced Inosuke into a bow by holding him by the back of his head, Muichiro met the small girl’s blue eyes. They were wide with curiosity, he however wasn’t in the mood so he stuck his tongue out at her.
To which she responded by doing the same.
“Hey, none of that,” Giyuu lightly scolded, pinching the girl’s nose as a gentle punishment.
She whined in protest, and at this point all the pillars who’s mouths weren’t open since the beginning definitely were now. Questions were running through the pillar’s heads at the speed of light, never had they been this clueless about something happening right in front of them.
Their confusion was only broken when Oyakata-sama laughed again, the twins at his side
had been narrating all that was happening since the little girl ran into the garden. “Ah, here is Kimiko I presume?”
“Yesh! I’m Kimiko,” the girl, Kimiko apparently, chirped as she wiggled out of Giyuu’s arms. The moment her feet touched the ground, she skipped over and grabbed the boy’s hand.
“It’s nice to meet you!”
“It’s nice to see you again my child,” Oyakata-sama said softly. “How joyous it is to see that you and brother grown so well,”
It wasn’t hard to tell that the two children were twins, they were practically identical. The only key difference was their personality it seems, Kimiko was bouncing on the heels of her feet while Kiyoshi — or at least Misturi thinks his name was Kiyoshi— glanced around the garden nervously, and when he met the stern gaze of the wind pillar he immediately shrunk back into Giyuu.
Noticing his timid boy grabbing onto the sleeve of his haori, Giyuu knelt down to ruffle their hair. “You and Miko can go play, don’t leave the garden okay? Papa will be done in a minute,”
Obanai and Sanemi had to shake their heads, hearing Giyuu refer himself to “papa” felt like someone slapped them across the face. Mitsuri on the other hand couldn’t keep quiet, she was doing the small internal screaming thing, the children were so cute. She couldn’t help but flush.
As Kimiko ran off with her brother in tow, Giyuu took his place besides Himejima. It felt uncomfortable to have so many eyes following him so instead he switched his focus on his two children.
“Now, with all the pillars present, let’s continue the meeting shall we?”
−○❖○❧ •❁※❁• ☙○❖○−
All the pillar bowed as Oyakata-sama exited, the meeting was over. Good. Now they could finally yell at the water pillar. Sanemi whipped his head to face the man at the end of the line, only to see that the two children had tackled him and are currently attacking him. With kisses.
“We missed youuu”
Both children chorused. Kimiko was on his back while Kiyoshi was snuggled comfortably in Giyuu’s arms. Even when kneeling down Kimiko’s legs were off the ground as she clung to him, she didn’t seem to mind though, she had a blast hanging off his shoulders.
And what that a chuckle the pillar heard???
Low and behold it was, Shinobu could barely see it because his hair was covering a portion of his face, but it was there’s a smile alright. Maybe if he looked at the clouds they would be cubes instead, Mui thought. Not like that would be any weirder than the Tomioka Giyuu smiling and having children, twins no less.
Some how in a single motion, Giyuu manage to scoop up both children and set them in front of him. Kiyoshi, however, met with Sanemi’s eyes again and he would’ve ran to hide behind Giyuu again if it weren’t for Kimiko’s hand holding his.
“Kimiko, Kiyoshi. Introduce yourselves to the pillars, they haven’t met you before,” Giyuu gave them a little nudge foward, Kimiko didn’t need the encouragement however.
“Hello!!” The sleeve of her yukata flapped wildly as her waved to them “My name’s Tomioka Kimiko! And this is my brother”
She tugged on her brother’s hand motioning him to continue for her, “Uhm…Hi” The young boy said softly, his eyes flickering from the ground to the pillars and back again. “My name’s Tomioka Kimi- nono w-wait,”
His face flushed red from embarrassment so he resolved to hiding it behind his tiny hands, they didn’t do much considering that his hands were…well tiny.
Mitsuri couldn’t help but coo at the small boy, he was soo cute. Kyojuro and Uzui were laughing their heads off, but quietly—since they felt somewhat bad, in their defence it was pretty funny. Even Kimiko thought so, currently giggling at her bother’s misery. Oh she’s never going to let him live this down.
Meanwhile, Giyuu was the only one not finding amusement in the mistake — well maybe a little, but his baby was upset and that’s more important at the moment. He squeezed the young boy’s shoulders, trying to reassure him.
After a few minutes of Giyuu whispering encouragement Kiyoshi tried again, “H-hi My name’s Tomioka Kiyoshi. not kimiko” he said the last part quietly but the pillars heard him just fine.
“Yayyy” Kimiko cheered and clapped for her brother. It was more teasing then actual praise, and he knew it too. So he reached out to pinch her cheek in revenge, luckily for Kimiko she was quick enough to catch his hand and held it instead.
“We’re three!” Kimiko proudly announced, holding up a two fingers instead. Noticing her mistake, Kiyoshi nudged her then pointed at her fingers before lifting up three fingers of his own. She puffed her cheeks and her eyebrows furrowed, she swore that was right, looking at her fingers again.
“We’re two!” She decided, still holding up her two fingers. Her brother sighed and shook his head, “We’re three Kimiko”
Mitsuri and Kyojuro had matching puffed up cheeks, they really wanted to laugh but they didn’t want to upset the twins.
Don’t laugh don’t laugh
Mitsuri reminded herself.
Kimiko took it upon herself to find out every pillar’s names and say hi to them, and poor Kiyoshi — who just wanted to take a nap in his papa’s arms— was dragged along with her.
One by one, she and Kiyoshi walked up to a pillar and asked for their names. The first was Obanai, because he was at the end of the line, immediately they took notice to Kabukamaru. Who was just as curious as the twins, the snake slid off of Iguro’s shoulders slightly and hissed at them softly. Delighted Kimiko hissed back while sticking her tongue out, which surprised Obanai but thankfully for him, his bandages covered the small smile he had on.
Moving to the next pillar-
oh oh
Kiyoshi was terrified, because next to the snake pillar was the wind pillar. Sanemi glared down at the two young children in front of him.
He didn’t mean to be glaring
It was just how he reacted, the two reminded him of his younger siblings. For a split second he thought he saw a young Genya standing in place where Kiyoshi was.
Shaking his head, the vision of Genya disappeared and it was just the twins standing in front of him again. He scoffed but bent down slightly — Giyuu was watching closely incase
something were to happen.
“Cute kid Tomioka,” he said offhandedly while pinching Kiyoshi’s cheek. Who was startled at how gentle it was, even Kimiko pinched him harder then this.
They quickly moved to the next pillars which were the butterfly, sound and mist pillar. Who all gave the twins head pats or ruffled their bushy locks of raven hair, save Muichiro who just stuck his tongue out at Kimiko again. She would have done it right back but she knew her dad would pinch her nose again, so she changed her mind she did it anyways.
“Nice ribbon you’re wearing, very flamboyant!”
Uzui remarked. It was true, Kimiko was indeed wearing a red ribbon in her hair. Her mommy had tied it in for her this morning, she didn’t have much hair just yet so it was just tied into a small ponytail like her brother. Both however look more like fluff from a rabbit’s tail.
Last were the flame, love and stone pillar. Mitsuri immediately scooped them into her arms, she was waiting all this time to squish their chubby cheeks.
“oooo look at youuu, you’re so cute and you are tooo” she cooed as the twin took turns getting their cheeks smushed by the love pillar.
As it was Kiyoshi’s turn, Kimiko took interest in her bright pink and green hair. “You have very pretty hair miss love pillar,”
“Oh? Thank you very much~” she chirped while putting her hands together. “Who did your hair? It look very pretty too,”
Without skipping a beat she proudly said, “My mommy did it! She did Kiyoshi’s hair too!” pointing her her brother’s and her own hair with vigour.
Immediately everyone’s heads turn to Giyuu, it completely went over their heads that he must have a wife as well. What they were expecting was him just standing there deadpan look and all, but just like everything else that was happening today — they were proven wrong.
Between the twins excitement by the mere mention of their mother to Giyuu’s obviously fond look and relaxed shoulders, it was easy for the pillars to guess that who ever married Giyuu was loved beyond belief. And who ever this women is, Mitsuri wanted to meet her.
“YOU HAVE A WIFE?! AND TWO CHILDREN AND NEVER BOTHERED TO MENTION IT?! NOT ONCE,”
‘Finally someone said it,’ Shinobu thought.
Sanemi’s screaming, no matter how much it voiced the pillar’s thoughts, scared the two children. Whom immediately ran to hide behind their dad.
Kneeling down, he gladly welcomed them into his waiting arms. “Please don’t shout, Kimiko and Kiyoshi get startled easily” he said patting their small heads. To that, Uzui smacked Sanemi upside his head which only angered the wind pillar further.
“Tomioka~ Did you not bother telling us you have children? Or are you just that forgetful,”
Giyuu resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Shinobu’s prodding.
“No one asked,”
It was her turn to resist the urge to smack him as the water pillar shrugged, but the twins were snugly tucking into his side so she’ll save that for another day.
“So sorry for Shinzugawa’s outburst little ones, he won’t scare you again,”
Kyojuro tried to reason with them, but Kiyoshi could see the wind pillar trying to throw punches at Tengen — which Kyojuro was actively trying to hide from their field of view — and it didn’t really give him high hopes that he wasn’t going to yell again.
Kimiko on the other hand was already skipping over to Mitsuri and Shonibu, she wanted to see if they could teach her how to braid hair. To braid mommy’s hair of course, but maybe she’ll try some hairstyles on her dad if he would let her (He would).
“Kiyoshi,” said toddler met his father’s eyes, which were a mirror image of his own. “Are you sure you don’t want to play with Kimiko?”
He thought about it for a minute, on one hand they were teaching her how to braid hair and he really wanted to braid his mommy’s hair and make her happy, but on the other hand,,, he could sleep soundly in his papa’s arms. Safe and sound.
After about a minute he made his decision and shook his head, choosing to latch on to his fathers haori for a nice nap and cuddles. He could ask Kimiko how to braid hair later anyways, now was nap time.
−○❖○❧ •❁※❁• ☙○❖○−
“Sooo, how was the meeting?”
(Y/N) asked her husband, who was getting a new hair style — curtesy of their little girl.
“It went fine,” he said eating another piece of salmon, Giyuu wouldn’t mind just staying in this moment for the rest of his life.
His beloved (Y/N) was sitting a few paces away with their son in her arms, they were singing a nursery rhyme she had made up on the fly. Her hair was in a bit of a mess considering the fact that Kimiko had just learned how to braid hair — speaking of their little princess.
She was happily using the techniques Mitsuri showed her that morning to braid Giyuu’s hair, all the while singing with her brother and mother. He could already feel the tangles forming in his hair but it was fine, as long as little Kimiko was happy. Besides it gave him even more excuse to let (Y/N) brush them out later.
“Tada! All done, you look so pretty papa!” Kimiko beamed, proud of her work. “Doesn’t he mommy?”
She looked up from Kiyoshi to see what kind of mess Kimiko manage to tie Giyuu’s hair into, oh dear —
“It looks lovely dear,”
Giyuu knew, from the moment she started giggling, that his hair was indeed a mess. There were probably ribbons of all sorts of colours thrown in randomly, and with the amount of lose hair he could feel there was bound to be fly aways.
“Come on sit down Kimiko you haven’t finished your daikon yet, little miss” (Y/N) chirped and she pinched Kimiko’s nose softly.
Setting down Kiyoshi as well she stood up to sit next to Giyuu.
“Don’t you look pretty yuu~” She teased running her fingers through his messy locks.
“Is it that bad,” Giyuu whispered as to not alert their little stylist.
“Uhmm,” (Y/N) grinned sheepishly, her head tilting as her eyes searched his hair and face.
Only to furrow her eyebrows when she noticed all the rice grains sticking to his handsome face, scoffing, she rolled eyes without malice as she picked up the napkin on the table.
“You’re so messy Giyuu,” she said smiling. “I swear I have to clean your face more then our twins,”
The water pillar pouted and tried to move away from her but to that she responded by plopping down on his lap. It’s been years since he first met her but she still managed to make his heart race just as fast.
His blue eyes followed her face, committing every detail he could to memory. It was easy to assume that the twins were an exact replica of him but he would say otherwise. The bushy raven locks and blue eyes might overpower their other features but their cheeks, their nose, their faces, just everything about them was all (Y/N).
Every time he looked at his precious twins all he saw in them was his beloved wife, (Y/N). He won’t ever say it out loud but one of the reasons why he loved making them so happy was because they got their mother’s smile, the one he fell in love with in the first place.
He was brought back to earth when he felt a kiss on the corner of his mouth.
“There all done,” she sang happily with her hand on his cheeks. Unsatisfied he leaned in to steal an actual kiss on the lips. (Y/N) felt him smile into the kiss, causing her to giggle and pull away. He watch with gleaming eyes as she continued to laugh with a pretty blush spreading across her face, in the corner of his eye he could see Kiyoshi cheering his sister on as she shoves all the vegetables in her mouth to get it over with quicker.
God he loved them all so much.