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When Tanjirou wakes up it's still early in the morning; his arm is all wrapped in bandages and his back hurts when he moves. And yet he doesn't care too much about any of those things. He jumps out of the bed, ignoring the pain and trying to ignore the memory of his dream. It was terrible, like he was there again... the morning he found his family dead, but this time it changed... His pups were there too.
Tanjirou looks down at his flat belly and touches it lightly; it's a ridiculous nightmare, he's not pregnant... He doesn't even have a mate yet.
"Tanjirou, go back to bed, please," Naho startles him as she walks into the room. "Aoi is going to get mad if she doesn't find you here."
"Please..." The omega mumbles, desperate. "I just... I had a nightmare, I need to walk around the estate for a bit to forget about it."
There must be something in his expression because the girl sighs, but nods at him.
"Thank you!" The omega smiles, right before rushing outside. The first thing he does is to check on Nezuko; once he makes sure she's peacefully sleeping inside her box he goes outside.
As usual, there are many people moving around; kakushi dealing with stubborn slayers, young alphas, omegas and betas training... It's comforting to have something to distract himself with.
However, Tanjirou still feels like he's in danger, his nightmare shook him in such away his inner omega is not entirely relaxed; he wants an alpha, but not just any alpha...
When he notices Himejima sitting on the ground at the other side of the backyard, a wave of warmth suddenly spreads all over him; his inner omega is almost begging him to get closer to the alpha. Carefully, Tanjirou starts walking towards him; he just wants to be in his presence, that's all, besides, he's clearly busy training a couple of slayers.
Tanjirou had no idea the Pillars used the butterfly estate to train young ones too...
"Tanjirou," Himejima's deep voice makes him look back only to realize he's been caught, probably because of his scent. "You smell distressed, come here."
Feeling the other slayers' eyes on him, the omega finally kneels in front of the alpha. Himejima's big hands cup his face; his fingertips start touching his face lightly until one of his thumbs makes contact with his forehead, he places it in the middle of his brows.
"You are distressed, what happened?"
"I had a nightmare," Tanjirou mumbles in a whisper, feeling suddenly ridiculous to bother a hashira just because of that. "But... It's fine. I'll go back to my room now..."
"Sit on my lap, Tanjirou."
His inner omega is desperate to comply, but Tanjirou stops himself from doing it, he doesn't want to interrupt...
"I'm fine, Himejima-san," he insists. "I know you're busy–"
"I can do both things at the same time, Tanjirou. Come here..."
The invitation is too tempting to turn down so the omega sits on the alpha's lap and melts into the safety of his huge arms. He feels so much better already.
"What else do you need?" Himejima asks like he can read his mind; Tanjirou knows he'd be such a good mate if he decided to take an omega. "You still don't smell completely happy. I want you to be happy."
Blushing, because he knows they have an audience now, Tanjirou looks up at the alpha.
"Could you scent me, please?" He feels like he should explain, but Tanjirou is desperate, he just wants to feel the stone hashira's scent surrounding him. "It's not like–"
"Of course, Tanjirou. But I'd like you to scent me too."
The omega relaxes as soon as Himejima nuzzles him on the neck, but it's even better after Tanjirou scents him back; it feels like they're connected.
For the first time, Tanjirou feels like he's completely–
"You're safe now," the alpha mumbles next to his cheek. "Nothing will happen to you as long as I'm here. You can sleep now."
Tanjirou nods, pressing his cheek against the alpha's broad chest. He doesn't close his eyes because he doesn't mean to sleep on his lap, he just wants to be there for a while... However, he feels himself relaxing completely...
***
"So if I become a hashira will I have a pretty omega sleeping on my lap at all times too?"
"Maybe, but not THAT one, that one is taken already..."
"It's not fair..."
Trying not to roll her eyes, Aoi turns around knowing already that this is about Tanjirou somehow because it always is.
Well, at least he's resting... He looks really peaceful while he sleeps on Himejima's lap; the alpha doesn't seem to mind, actually, it looks like he's enjoying it.
The slayers he's been training though, they don't look really happy about the situation; some of them are clearly jealous of the stone hashira, although they try not to show it.
The real problem starts when the other Pillars arrive to the estate; they have some sort of way of knowing where exactly Tanjirou is all the time so it doesn't take too long for them to spot him on Himejima's lap.
Although they don't quite like it; Kocho tries to convince the stone hashira to leave Tanjirou back in his room, Rengoku volunteers to carry the omega himself, Uzui looks like he wants just to find a way to steal the boy while Tokito mumbles something about sharing...
Shinazugawa is holding himself back from outright growling.
However, Aoi realizes that although they're arguing, they're trying to be quiet while they do it. Tanjirou hasn't woken up yet; he must've been really tired because even though the Pillars are not making too much noise, their scents give them away.
Still, Himejima refuses every single one of them; he says something about Tanjirou wanting to feel safe and him promising nothing would happen to him if he was there.
"But we're not going to hurt him!" Kanroji pouts, desperate.
"I promised him I'd be here for him."
When Tanjirou moves a little bit, Himejima rises from the ground and walks away from the others to find a quiet spot.
Aoi has never seen him acting like that before; she wonders how much of it is due to his sense of duty and how much is due to his own possessiveness.
Then she realizes the others are looking like kicked puppies and she sighs, rubbing her temples... She never thought that omega would be the cause of most of her troubles.