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The room was dimly lit, the air crisp and cold like the dawn on the first day of winter. The quiet buzzing, or maybe it was ringing, was heard throughout the room, yet there seemed to be no source of the particular noise. The young boy laying in the hospital bed slowly awoke, eyes fluttering open, trying to adjust to the new light of the room.
He inhaled slowly, making a pained noise as he felt stabbing at his side, and winced. What had happened? He was… in a bed, one that wasn’t particularly comfortable he might add… this room seemed familiar.
The former must hashira looked around the room, not moving his head, trying to see what he could before he tried turning his head and risking more pain to flare up within his body. He really couldn’t see much, but he recognized his surroundings more, realizing where he was, and that place would be the Butterfly Mansion. What had he done to end up here?
He turned his head, looking to the side slowly, deeming the motion acceptable due to the lack of pain he felt just doing that. He looked down while turning his head, noticing someone out of the corner of his eyes. He shakily turned to face whoever the person was, and was greeted by the well-known mohawk who faced his gaze downward.
“Genya?” He spoke softly, voice raspy and throat hurting. That small noise was enough to snap the teen out of his staring contest with the floor. “Tokito-san,” He said, getting up from his seat. The older moved toward the bed bound one with makeshift crutches, standing next to his bedside and staring at him, out of shot and wonderment. The younger coughed as he tried to speak, Genya instinctively leaning down to hear what he had to say so the other didn’t need to strain his voice anymore.
“It’s Muichirou, to you,” The bed bound teen spoke, struggling to swallow what saliva had entered his mouth. The taller smiled sweetly at his correction, overjoyed by the fact that he hadn’t lost himself again like he had before. “Ok then, Muichirou.” Genya knew the shorter teen’s name, but always found it so informal and disrespectful to use since he is a hashira, or now, was a hashira.
The younger teen’s eyelids threaten to close on him, as even just talking was taking a lot of energy out of him. “What happened?” He spoke again in that broken raspy voice, it was unlike anything he has ever experienced really, the closest thing he can compare it to was that horrific scream of rage he let out when that demon attacked his home. “Well, first off…” The older one spoke, looking off into the distance as if he was in deep thought. “Well, you were out for a good month,” Muichirou’s heart dropped. A whole month? A whole month he was rendered useless? The look of sadness overtook the teen’s face, why hadn’t he been able to wake sooner?
Genya looked back at the smaller one, eyes widening at how saddened he become. “Wait- shit, maybe I should’ve started with the good news first…”
Muichirou’s heart practically sank to his feet now. Did they demote him to hire a new hashira? He wouldn’t doubt it, it would be the only logical decision to make in a situation like his… being asleep for a whole month, never knowing when he was going to wake up, if ever. “We defeated Muzan, Muichirou, we won.” Did… Did he hear Genya’s words right?
He looked back at the other, more attentively now, noticing the scar down this middle, spanning from his hairline, down to his neck and below that he’s guessing. “Can… Can you repeat that?” He asked, still not believing what was just relayed to him.
The taller smiled impossibly wider, eyes squinting a little as tears threatened to spill, “We won, we defeated the demons.” Now Muichirou was certain he heard that right. The smaller teen tried to push himself up, the sudden pain in his abdomen flaring up now, causing him to let out a dry and silent cry. He lowered himself back down as tears pricked the corners of his eyes, they actually won. Genya gently grabbed at his right arm, bringing their hands and fingers to intertwine with each other.
The taller one lowered himself down to sit on the bed, turning to see the misty eyed boy now crying quietly. “We actually did it,” Muichirou spoke, voice sounding even more broken with his sobbing, “We succeeded, we don’t need to fight anymore.” Genya nodded, sweetly looking down at the other teen.
“What… happened in the fight?” The younger asked curiously, the mohawked teen dawned a more serious expression on his face at the question. “Well for starters, you lost a hand,” He pointed to the bandaged up limb Muichirou had. “Second of all, we both got injured pretty badly, I was cut down my middle, and you were cut through your middle,” he explained a little more, which then explained the near-constant dull pain in his abdomen. “I was thankfully saved by my demonization for the most part, so I still needed stitches and had internal bleeding, though,” Genya explained further, then he pointed straight at the younger one.
“You, on the other hand, need to rest up and heal properly, you’re practically being held together by stitches, and after that you’ll need to do rehabilitation therapy and most likely learn how to walk again.” Muichirou grimaced at the list of tasks he had to complete before he could live a normal life, or as near normal as it could get. “At least it’s better than being dead,” the younger blurted out in a tired voice, one that would more so match someone who had been working most of their golden years away, yet the body it came from was that of a 14-going-on-15 year old. Genya let out an airy chuckle at his statement, “Yeah, at least you’re alive.”
“I’m glad you’re alive and here, Muichirou,” the latter followed up with again. “You almost didn’t make it… your injuries seemed too severe for your body… I was worried to say the least.” The smaller didn’t speak a word, letting the other get out what he needed to say. “I visited you everyday in hopes you’d wake up, and you finally did, you finally woke up, I don’t need to worry.”
The room went silent after their conversation ceased, still in their positions from their previous encounter. Usually for other people, the silence would be awkward and the tension would be so thick you could cut it with a knife, yet for the two in the room, it was comfortable. Genya’s thumb rubbed the back of Muichirou’s hand comfortably, letting the younger teen get lost deeper within his drowsiness, as staying awake was a great struggle for him at this point.
“Genya?” The smaller one spoke, yawning after he spoke. The person in question moved his gaze to the one in the hospital bed and hummed. “Yes, Muichirou?” Now that Genya’s gaze was on him, he felt himself freeze up, and his tongue became heavy to the point he couldn’t speak properly. He didn’t know how to ask without his words, so he tried his best to gesture.
He gently pulled the older teen’s hand towards his face and laid his cheek against it, looking up at him almost helplessly. The older teen chuckled again and got the idea by his hand being brought upward. He had carefully laid himself down on what room the bed had, laying on his side to face the ex-hashira. “Now what?” Genya spoke, Muichiro was thinking for a moment as he didn’t think he’d get this far. He, as carefully as he could without causing him pain, pulled the arm over his body, resting his head against Genya’s chest.
“Tsuyuri-san and Kanzaki-san might get upset if they see us like this, Muichirou, you know that, something about breaking medical law,” He stared at the other, expecting a response of some sort but there was none, not in that moment. The older softly sighed and nestled his face in the other’s black and teal tipped hair and mumbled something to himself. Muichirou couldn’t make out the words, but he didn’t care.
Genya planted a small kiss on the crown of Muichirou’s head, mumbling an, “I love you,” which had the younger teen hum in response, settling his hand on the other’s side, by his abdomen and ribs, holding onto him. As the two gradually got sleepier, Muichirou wanted to have the final words before being taken into another dream, hopefully one that wasn’t as long as the one he was just in. He looked up at the other who rested his head on the top part of his pillow, feeling a pang of guilt in his heart.
“I’m sorry for making you worry for me,”
The soft pitter-patter of rain hitting against the windows lulled them to sleep, the rain always comforted Muichirou in a way, even if terrible memories were correlated with it. To him, in a way, it brought him back to the rainy days he and his family spent together inside, as usual they couldn’t work in those conditions.
To Genya, it was more of the smell. He loved the smell of rain, it was something he was very fond of. Remembering the way he would sneak his siblings out past their father so they could play in the mud and the rain, then getting gently scolded by their mother for leaving mud prints in the house, forcing them to all bathe.
For both of them, the moment was bittersweet, yet, they both completed each other’s half to together, form a whole. The crutches previously being use now laid on the floor, being forgotten as the hands that used them held tightly on another.
While the two slept, Kanao and Aoi did check up on them several times, Aoi growing ever more impatient for the moment Genya woke up so she could scold him on how he risked infection with the girl’s patient. At first when the two teen girls saw him, they thought Muichirou had died and he was grieving the loss of, what Genya puts it as, his “very close best friend,” though the two knew better. Even after checking to see if the younger had a pulse, which he did but it was weaker than usual for a human, they were still dumbfounded at the way the 16 year old acted. Kanao, to the best of her ability, tried to calm the other, giving an idea of asking Genya why he was snuggled up with, to their knowledge, a comatose patient.
As soon as the older teen woke up, he was bombarded by questions and quickly overwhelmed with the interrogation Aoi caused. He became embarrassed and flustered, being unable to answer in full other than singular words for simple sentences. This, however, wasn’t good enough for Aoi, to where she marched over to Kanao to complain, only to be stopped by the sight of Muichirou being awake.
Genya proceeded to get bombarded with scolds and questions while Muichirou watched the scene unfold. He tried to intervene with Aoi, though she was dead set; this was all Genya’s idea. Both Muichirou and Kanao giggled as the other teen was framed, this is definitely something they’d all remember, just making one memory at a time.