Archive of Our Own

It was one of those rare occasions where two Hashira needed to be dispatched on a mission. The rumors were that there was a demon that migrated between four villages seasonally and would exclusively eat children. The last group of demon slayers sent to deal with it never came back; their deaths were announced at the last Hashira meeting when the master had asked Giyuu and Tokito to work together to kill it.

As he was leaving the meeting to prepare, he had heard a couple of the other Hashira whisper among themselves. Uzui was laughing that between the two of them, nothing would get done. Kocho had bet they’d go the entire mission without saying anything. Rengoku had laughed but vouched for their skills and efficiency, saying they’d be done in no time. 

They hadn’t made it to their designated village until a few weeks later, at the turn of spring. It was still cold, but the days were slowly getting warmer, and the grass was starting to regain its vibrancy. Giyuu had arrived early, lest Kanzaburou accidentally lead him to the wrong place. 

Again.

He had never gone on a mission with Tokito, but he had heard he had recently become friends with Tanjirou after facing an upper moon together. Giyuu hopes this demon isn’t an upper moon.

With nothing else to do, he started investigating, but came up with no new information. Maybe he could get a plan together before Tokito arrived. 

The demon only ate children unless presented with demon slayers. It snatched children from their parents or siblings as soon as the sun was low enough for it to come out safely, so that it could catch any adults off guard and run off to enjoy its meal. It would happen at least once a week until the next season came, then it would move to the next village. 

When Tokito arrived, Giyuu offered him a meal before they started their patrol of the village at night. It was at the small restaurant when a plan came to him: the waitress had come over to take their order and had mistakenly referred to Tokitou as his little brother. 

Over their food, Giyuu asked, “Tokito-kun, would you be my brother?” The young boy looked up at him. Giyuu couldn’t discern the look on his face – definitely confusion, but maybe a little irritation, too? “I mean, I think we could bait the demon if you pretend to be my brother.”

“What will that do?”

“Well, we could pretend to be siblings out at night, and the demon might take interest in you.”

“Isn’t that dangerous for me?”

“But you’re a Hashira. You can defend yourself, can’t you?”

Tokito huffs at that. “Okay, but why do I have to be the younger brother?”

Giyuu can’t help but stare at him incredulously. Was he asking seriously or as a joke? Just looking at him, you could tell Tokito was incredibly young. It wasn’t helped by the way his uniform was extremely baggy. It swallowed him, making him look even smaller. He’s also shorter than Giyuu and has a much more youthful face. Sure, he had a few scars and a more muscular body than the average child, but they could say his scars were from playing carelessly and then drown him in more clothing that was too big for him to hide his physique. 

Giyuu doesn’t say this, though. Instead, rather dumbly, all he can force out is, “Because you’re younger than me.” Well, obviously, Tokito is younger. They both know that. Everyone knows that. But what if Tokito thinks their circumstances are like his and Rengoku's? He’s a year older than the flame pillar, but every so often, he gets mistaken for being the younger one. 

Thankfully, though, Tokito seems to accept. So, after their meal, they head to a local store to buy them yukatas to fit in. Giyuu’s was a simple black that wouldn’t clash with his haori – despite what the other Hashira may think, Giyuu does know that his haori stands out, but it’s not ugly – and his obi is maroon to match the red half of his haori. Tokito’s is white with light blue patterns that resemble mist paired with a black obi. He was particularly drawn to this yukata as they browsed the shop, so Giyuu picked it out for him. He seemed to like it. 

They left their things at the shop, promising to retrieve them later. Giyuu had originally told Tokito to leave his sword behind, but it had greatly upset him. As a compromise, he agreed to hold onto it for him in case they needed to fight. Now, he was trying to hide two swords in his haori, and it wasn’t going well. The locals were definitely giving him weird looks, and he just wanted to be done with the mission.

Tokito’s yukata was maybe a few sizes too big, but he looked comfortable. To try and look as sibling-like as possible, Giyuu had taken his hair out of its low ponytail and had brushed it as thoroughly as he could with his fingers. 

They walked around the village, straining to hear anything, maybe the sounds of a fight or someone in need. If the demon didn’t attack other kids tonight, Giyuu hoped it’d be stupid enough to go after Tokito so they could finish this mission sooner. 

It’s not that he held any kind of animosity toward Tokito; it’s just that he was hard to talk to. Maybe it was the difference in their ages or that they weren’t compatible personality-wise. Very, very awkwardly, Giyuu tried to strike up a conversation. “So, I heard you’ve been getting along with Tanjirou-kun.”

It was the right thing to say because talking about Tanjirou seemed to make him happy. Suddenly, Tokito was talking much more animatedly, and he was smiling. “He’s just so kind,” he sighs, “I really respect him. And Genya as well.”

“Oh? Who’s Genya?”

“Shinazugawa-san’s younger brother. They actually look very similar.” Tokito muses, “I think Genya is much nicer to be around, though. He doesn’t yell like Shinazugawa-san, and he likes to share his snacks.”

“What kind of snacks do you like, Tokito-kun?”

That makes him pause. “I think, for this mission at least, that you should call me Muichiro, instead. It’s natural for siblings to be close, right? And call each other by their given names.”

Giyuu nods, “So, Muichiro, just call me Giyuu.” Muichiro manages a small smile at him and nods. 

They still have yet to encounter anything of note on their walk. In fact, nothing happens that night, or the next, or the one after that. On the fourth night, they decide to split up, hoping that Muichiro being alone would entice the demon, but the only thing that happens is that Giyuu manages to intercept a thief. 

Nothing happens until the 6th night that they’re there, and it’s the last day of the week. Giyuu thinks that the demon must hunt to follow its schedule of at least one attack a week. Muichiro, however, thinks that it knows they’re demon slayers and is either trying to play it safe or has completely vacated the village. 

Giyuu ends up being right. 

They decided to patrol together again. They had slowly warmed up to each other over the week and could now hold short conversations that were no longer awkward. The brevity of their conversations could only be attributed to the fact that neither of them liked to talk very much. 

Kocho was wrong, Giyuu, remembering her sly comments before he left, thinks happily as he watches Muichiro skip about as he recounts his time with Tanjiro and his friends. He’s happy the kid has finally started to hang out with people his own age. Uzui, Shinazugawa, and Iguro in particular seemed like they would be bad influences on him. 

Suddenly, Giyuu’s hair starts to prickle, and he feels shivers run through his body as he gets the familiar yet overwhelming, unsettling feeling that they are being watched. He feels a tug on his sleeve and sees Muichiro clinging to his side. His back is hunched, and his hands are pulling Giyuu’s sleeve so that it partially covers his face. He must look scared, but Giyuu can see his eyes: they’re sharp with focus, and they dart around looking for anything out of place. 

Giyuu places a hand over the swords, but they keep walking. Hoping the demon can hear him, he says, “Muichiro, there’s no need to be scared. I will protect you.” He looks at the boy and flashes him what he hopes is a comforting smile. Muichiro’s responding nod stutters in a mock act of fear.

“Can we go home yet?” 

“Of course, let’s return now.” 

As Giyuu turns them around to pretend to head off in the direction of their fake home, he freezes. The road has been completely deserted at this time of night, the sun just barely set on the horizon behind the row of houses, except for a child. 

It looked like a human. The child had long, greasy black hair that obscured its face, pale greenish skin, and was wearing a tattered yukata. 

Giyuu’s hand shot out to push Muichiro behind him. 

The only thing wrong with this child's facade was the fact that its eyes were pitch black. 

It stepped forward once, toward them, and Giyuu stepped back, unsheathing his sword. He vaguely processed the feeling of Muichiro pulling his own sword loose from the Maroon obi. Then it lunged. 

Its speed was immense, maybe like that of the late Thunder Hashira that passed just before Iguro had taken her place. Maybe even faster. 

There was no way to defend the two of them other than Dead Calm. When Giyuu refocuses on the battle, he finds the ground sprayed in the demon’s blood, but he hadn’t managed to behead it, only cut it through the chest. 

The child stands in front of them again, where it had first been spotted, and its mouth splits open. It gapes at them, revealing rows of sharp teeth and a seemingly bottomless inside. Giyuu barely hears it call out its Blood Demon Art, as copies of it spring from the bloody ground. 

Ugh, cloning? Giyuu groans internally. He’s only fought a few demons with this kind of ability, but they were always annoying, even more so if they also had incredible speed like this one. 

He’s never fought alongside Muichiro before; they had never even sparred against each other the way he and Shinazugawa had. They stumbled around each other, adapting to the other’s breathing style and fighting techniques, but very slowly. 

The demon was incredibly difficult to behead, too. There were at least five clones of it now, and it ran at great speeds, easily evading them. 

The fight finally ended just before the sun rose, as Giyuu, at his wits' end, used Dead Calm again. He knew Kocho would scold him for using it twice in one battle. Maybe he could get away with it if he just didn’t tell her. The demon’s head rolled to the ground, and the two of them watched with bated breath to see if more clones would spring up. 

They didn’t relax until the whole body had finally turned to ash.

“I thought water breathing only had 10 forms,” Muichiro hummed as they walked back to retrieve their things from the inn they’d been staying at. 

Giyuu nods, “Yes, but I created one more.”

Rather shockingly, Muichiro takes an interest in it as Giyuu finds himself answering the kid’s questions. He ends up telling him everything he could about how this form worked and how it was achieved. 

“You have to slow down your heart? Isn’t that bad for you?”

“Maybe, that’s why I try to use it once in a battle, and only if it’s absolutely necessary.”

“But you used it twice today.”

“Because I wanted to finish the fight.”

“Would Kocho get mad at you if you use it more than once?”

Giyuu debates whether telling him the truth or lying would be more beneficial. “Yes,” he decides. 

They finish their walk in silence. Once they’ve changed back into their uniforms, they start heading back to their master’s mansion to inform them of their victory. 

It’s about midday when it starts to rain. It’s fine, at first, just a small drizzle. Then it gets heavier, and heavier, and heavier. Then, they’re running to the nearest Wisteria House for shelter. 

Spring showers, Giyuu thinks solemnly. It’s freezing. As soon as they enter the Wisteria house, he makes a beeline for the baths and strips himself of his wet uniform. As he soaks in the large tub, waiting to see if Muichiro would join him, the exhaustion finally hits. 

They hadn’t slept properly for a whole week, he realizes. They had only taken short naps during the day between uselessly trying to wring more information out of the locals and walking through the village at night. 

It’s only after he caught himself falling asleep in the bath that he decided to finally get up. That, and the water was starting to feel too cold. He notes that Muichiro hasn’t bathed yet either. He’d better tell him to, so he doesn’t get sick. He hopes he has at least changed out of his wet clothes. It’d also do us well to sleep, Giyuu muses to himself as he dresses himself in the casual yukata he had been provided with. 

To his dismay, he finds Muichiro sitting in his wet uniform on the engawa of the house. 

“Muichiro, you must bathe. You’ll get sick otherwise.” Giyuu barely registers that he’s started to fuss over the boy in his exhausted haze. All he can think about is that the kid needs to get dry. He finds himself helping the boy out of his soaked uniform, undoing most of the buttons for him (and Muichiro just lets him) before ushering him into the baths. 

He lets Muichiro soak for as long as he wants as he hands off their uniforms to the grandmother running the house to dry. He sends off Muichiro’s crow, Ginko, a rather snooty little thing that huffs at him for giving her orders, to inform the master of their success. He would have sent Kanzaburou if he weren’t worried about his old bird getting lost and sick in the heavy rain. 

He finds himself timidly asking for a comb from one of the staff. Carefully, he works through the knots in his hair. He watches himself in the mirror, and as he starts to look more and more like his sister, he finds himself overwhelmed with grief again and has to pause briefly to collect himself before he finishes. He debates with himself for a little while before he finally settles on separating his hair into three sections and braiding it delicately. He hasn’t braided anyone’s hair for more than a decade, now, so his movements are slow and clumsy. He finds himself enjoying the process, regardless. 

Maybe it’s because he’s been acting like Muichiro’s older sibling, but he’s caught himself reminiscing about the ways his older sister would take care of him. More than once, he finds himself feeling rather bittersweet when he realizes he’s done something for Muichiro that his sister had done for him, like brushing his hair or tenderly fixing his yukata or helping him roll up his long sleeves before a meal. 

He’s pushed out of his thoughts when he realizes Muichiro has been in the bath for more than half an hour, so he goes to check on him, only to find him dozing off in the now cold water. It’s endearing, really. Muichiro’s face when he sleeps is peaceful and light, very different from the far-off and dazed looks he would get when he was awake. Giyuu gently wakes the boy and helps him towel off and get dressed. 

Eventually, they managed to stumble their way into the futons that had already been prepared by the staff. The moment Giyuu closes his eyes, he falls asleep immediately. 

–

The rain only gets worse throughout the night. It’s thundering now. It’s loud and startling, and it jolts Muichiro awake in a panic. He tries to process his situation as quickly as possible, his heart hammering away in his chest. It feels so difficult to breathe.

He doesn’t like the rain. It made his mother deathly ill; it killed his father.

Slowly, he starts to remember where he is: a Wisteria House with Giyuu after completing a mission together. He glances around the room until his eyes finally land on the man’s sleeping form. He’s lying on his side, his silhouette moving slowly and consistently with his breathing. 

As another roar of thunder rings through his ears, he finds himself pulling his blanket up to his chin in an effort to comfort himself. When he had fallen asleep, it was barely light out, with most of the day’s sunlight being blocked out by the dark storm clouds. He hates waking up in the dark. When he does, he always wakes up anxious and can’t help but feel like something is lurking outside. 

He must be sick, he thinks bitterly. Muichiro is shivering. No matter how much he wraps himself in his blanket, he finds himself freezing, but the next moment, he feels like warmth is suffocating his being. He hates being sick, too. His throat hurts, he can barely open his eyes, he can’t breathe, and nothing feels right.

He must not be thinking right, either, because one moment he’s trying to soothe himself as he feels all these emotions fighting to take precedence in his brain – he’s cold, he’s hot, he’s scared of the sudden flashes of lightning and overbearing noise of thunder, he scared of the dark – the next, he’s shuffling as quietly as possible toward Giyuu with his own blanket is still thrown over his shoulders because he’s so fucking cold. 

As carefully as he can manage without waking Giyuu up, he slips under his blanket and lays one of the man’s arms over him. The comfort is immediate. Giyuu is so warm, aided by the fact that there are two blankets over them now, and his arm over Muichiro’s torso is such a grounding weight on him. It feels like Giyuu’s closeness alone drowns out the noise of the storm and his mind. 

He nuzzles closer into Giyuu’s chest, and the man, in his sleep, pulls him closer. Ah, this is so nice, it's all Muichiro’s exhausted and sickly mind can conjure before he’s falling asleep again. 

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he finds himself being reminded of his brother.

– 

When Giyuu wakes up, it’s hot and humid. 

The rain has finally stopped, but he finds himself feeling suffocated by the oppressive heat and humidity. The heat, he finds, is caused by two things: the two thick blankets draped over him, he remembers having only one the night before, and Muichiro, who had crawled into his bed in the middle of the night. 

Muichiro, he finds, is burning up. 

Giyuu tries to put the back of his hand to his forehead to gauge just how feverish Muichiro is, but finds himself jerking back at how hot he is. 

This is bad, he thinks. 

He rushes out of the bed, making sure to keep Muichiro swaddled in the two blankets, and rushes to find his crow. He distantly notes how light-headed he felt as he stood up suddenly, and the rather severe dizziness he had just experienced. Those were the consequences of using Dead Calm too much; Kocho had once told him what it was, ortho-something hypo-something, and that it was caused by low blood pressure. Despite the glaring medical concerns, he resolved not to tell Kocho. 

Kanzaburou, of course, is nowhere to be found, so he asks the staff for medicine for a fever. He finds a wooden basin and fills it with cool water. He takes a towel, soaks it in the water, and wrings it out. After folding it into a neat rectangle, he places it on Muichiro’s head to cool him down. He finds another towel to dab away his sweat. Sometime later, he finds a basket with medicine and a long ribbon to tie his sleeves back.

The day passes like this: Giyuu fussing over Muichiro and taking care of him. This, too, reminds him of his sister. He changes out the cloth on his forehead, dabs away his sweat, and forces the boy to eat so that he can take his medicine. Most of all, he watches the boy rest. 

When he comes back after a brief bath, he finds Muichiro awake. When he sees Giyuu, he pouts. No one has ever made this face at Giyuu (except for his sister when she teased him). 

“Muichiro, is something wrong?” he asks as he comes to settle by Muichiro’s (his, really) futon. 

“Your hair. It was pretty before. Put it back.”

That last comment makes Giyuu giggle; Muichiro is clearly delirious from his fever and the medication. “There’s no need to, though,” he tries to reason. Muichiro pouts, and his eyes start to tear up. 

“Please, please, please!” He begs, his voice hoarse. “Please put it back! I liked it!” There’s not much Giyuu can do when the kid is about to cry, so he relents. He combs his hair carefully and braids it again, letting his muscle memory guide him. When he’s finished, Muichiro has completely calmed down. He’s never seen him act like this. 

Once night is firmly upon them, Giyuu slips under the covers with Muichiro (though, only to appease the boy’s whining), and they fall asleep. They do this again for another day before Muichiro’s fever breaks. He’s still having trouble breathing, he’s coughing a little, and he sniffles every so often, but he’s no longer burning up. 

The morning of their third day at the Wisteria House is pleasant – Giyuu is half asleep, basking in the warmth of the sun and Muichiro – until it isn’t. Ginko returns and promptly screams at them to hurry to attend a Hashira meeting. Startled awake, Giyuu sits up too fast, and his vision goes black for a moment. He steadies himself with a hand and ignores the way Muichiro looks at him. 

They prepare to depart, returning to their corps uniforms. They’re about to leave the house, bidding farewell to the staff, when Kanzaburou finally shows up. He lands ungracefully right on Giyuu’s face and yells at him that Ubuyashiki is calling for him. Giyuu just tucks the bird onto his shoulder and starts walking off with Muichiro.

“Is your crow okay?” he asks between sniffles.

“Yes, he’s just very old.” 

Muichiro nods. “You braided your hair again.” 

“You asked me to.”

“I did?”

Giyuu hums, “Yes. When you were sick, I took it down to shower and you told me to, “Put it back.”’ Muichiro flushes at his delirious request. “You were upset when I didn’t do it, so I braided it today, too. Just in case.”

“It’s fine,” the kid spits out, “I don’t care.” He starts walking ahead of Giyuu, keen on getting away from his embarrassment. Even Giyuu can tell that he was flustered, especially since his face was bright red. 

He smiles to himself and walks faster to catch up with Muichiro.

–

They are the last to arrive, Muichiro notes. Even the master is waiting for them. He watched Giyuu ignore the glares and disappointed looks from the other Hashira and kneel before the Master. “Please forgive our tardiness.” Muichiro quickly follows suit, kneeling next to Giyuu (maybe a little too closely). 

The Master smiles kindly at them, “No need to fret, we have yet to begin.”

They settle into seiza, and the meeting officially begins. Giyuu is very good at ignoring people, he realizes. Most of the Hashira are giving his braid a curious look, but he keeps his eyes either on the master or the ground. 

With the silence, Muichiro becomes too aware of his sniffles and the volume of his coughing. He tries his best to keep quiet, but to no avail; Kocho descends on him as soon as the meeting is over.

Her doctorly fussing is already enough of a headache, but as long as he’s able to avoid a lecture, he’ll be okay. This was the mindset of most of the Hashira. Kocho’s lectures were long and boring. She tended to repeat the same points multiple times and, worst of all, she would get distracted and start lecturing them on a different bad habit they needed to fix. 

“You’ve been sniffling and coughing this whole meeting, Tokito-kun. What’s wrong?” Her voice is sickly sweet as she starts looking him over, giving him an impromptu check-up. 

“He had a fever for two days,” Giyuu answers her. 

Please, Giyuu, Muichiro begs silently, don’t do this to me.

“How could you get so sick?” Kocho fusses as she presses the back of her hand to his forehead.

“I don’t know,” he mumbles, hoping Giyuu would keep quiet so she’d leave him alone quicker. 

Alas, Giyuu hates him. 

“He sat in his wet uniform in the rain for about an hour and fell asleep in a cold bath.”

Why? He glares at him as harshly as he could manage.

Just as Kocho looks like she’s about to start a long-winded lecture about taking care of himself (Muichiro does not miss the way the other Hashira look upon him with pity), he points at Giyuu and, very uncharacteristically, yells, “He used Dead Calm twice! In one night!” 

How childish, he cringes, but it’s worth the shocked and betrayed look Giyuu has on his face. 

“Tomioka-san,” Kocho’s voice is tight, as is her smile, as she looks at him with barely contained anger, “we’ve talked about this before, haven’t we?”

Giyuu’s eyes dart around. “I have to go,” he mumbles as he tries to make a quick escape. Muichiro has to hold in a laugh as he watches Giyuu stumble from the dizziness he’s been suffering from, thanks to overworking his heart. 

Muichiro is still not safe, though. Once Kocho is done scolding Giyuu, who looks like a kicked puppy (and might be pouting), she turns her attention to Muichiro. “And you, young man,” she starts before her lecture kicks off. 

Now that both of them have been thoroughly scolded, she smiles and gives them both an infuriating pat on the head. Muichiro is silently seething inside; how dare Giyuu subject him to her anger?

“I hope it was worth it,” he hisses at Giyuu. 

“Only briefly,” Giyuu mutters. 

“That was wonderfully entertaining!” Uzui’s too-loud voice booms through Muichiro’s already tired ears. “Since when were you two so chummy?”

Neither of them grace him with an answer, but Rengoku yells, “Their mission must have gone well!”

“I’ll say,” Iguro snickers, “Tomioka looks like a pampered princess.”

Giyuu looks like he wants to sink into the ground. “Muichiro begged me to do it.” Since when was this man so brazen?!

Muichiro bristles. “I did not! I was delirious and feverish.” He crosses his arms and makes it a point to turn away from Giyuu.

“Yes, you did.” Giyuu’s smooth and calm voice is now grating and irritating as he uses it to slander Muichiro. “When I didn’t do my hair, you were pouting and telling me to ‘put it back.’ You were about to cry.”

The other Hashira were howling at this point (it was mostly Tengen as the others either snickered quietly or cooed over Muichiro). Muichiro was bright red; he could feel heat bloom across his face and travel down his neck. He was just about ready to attack Giyuu. 

“My, my, you two are acting like brothers, now,” Kocho giggled. 

Kanroji nodded vigorously, “It’s so cute! Is it because of your mission?! Did you two bond?!”

“I don’t think I’ve heard Tomioka-san talk this much ever!” Rengoku smiles widely at Giyuu. 

“Indeed! This calls for a celebration!” Uzui is quick to announce.

“You just want an excuse to drink copious amounts of alcohol,” Iguro rolls his eyes, but he quickly changes his tune when Uzui says he’d pay for everyone. 

Kocho smiles and clasps her hands together. “That sounds like a wonderful idea! I’ll make sure that Tomioka-san joins us,” she says just as she catches Giyuu by the scruff of his haori – he was definitely trying to sneak off. “Now, now, Tomioka-san, you can’t leave just yet. You see, I need to give you a check-up and some medicine since you thought it would be a good idea to use Dead Calm twice. I also believe you were intent on keeping that from me, yes? In that case, I'd best remind you of the consequences and dangers of doing such a thing.” 

Muichiro watches as Kocho drags Giyuu away; the man has a resigned look on his face and glares at Muichiro as he is pulled out of the garden. Muichiro just shrugs at him. 

–

To everyone’s shock, Kocho does manage to drag Tomioka to dinner, and Sanemi finds himself in a predicament: he’s sat across from Tokito and Tomioka. He really doesn’t want to look at either of them, but especially not Tomioka. As they sit across from him, he’s loath to see just how similar their facial expressions are: blank and stoic. The only difference is that Tokito is a kid with a lot of baggage, and Tomioka is a prideful bastard who thinks himself too high and mighty to deign the rest of the Hashira with his presence.

He downed his small glass of rice wine. 

That’s why their morning meeting with the master was so weird. He had never heard Tomioka speak like that. That was the closest he had ever come to bickering with anyone, and with Tokito of all people. What was just as jarring was Tokito fighting back. The kid had yelled, goddamnit! He can barely hear the two of them when they talk to the master, but today? Their voices had been ringing in his head all day! It was so fucking annoying. 

He drank another glass.

Now, here he is, sitting across from the two of them, noticing even more weird things about them. 

To start, Tomioka had braided his hair again. In fact, Sanemi thinks he’s combed it. Likely for the first time in years. What had he said this morning? That Tokito pouted until he had done his hair? He had to be lying. This didn’t sound like either of them. Maybe they’ve been replaced by demons? At least then Sanemi would have a good excuse for killing Tomioka. 

Looking at his braid, it was well done. Sanemi had his own limited experience doing his younger siblings’ hair, but their hair had not nearly been as long as Tomioka’s. His braid was as neat as it could possibly be. Because he had brushed his hair, his bangs framed his face quite nicely, actually. His black hair was so dark, it made his pale skin (he wasn’t anemic, right?) look almost white. Then there were his eyes. 

Fuck, his eyes.

They were the deepest blue Sanemi has ever seen. The few times he had seen the ocean, he was infuriated to have been reminded of Tomioka’s blue, blue eyes. Blue eyes that were staring right at him. 

He was quickly pulled out of his thoughts when he suddenly made eye contact with Tomioka. “Is there something on my face?” He asked, tilting his head like a dog. His voice was so irritating. It was calm, smooth, and level. And monotone. That was the worst part. God, could this man show some emotion? Was he really a human?

“Shinazugawa-san.” And then there’s this brat. “You’ve been staring at Giyuu for a long time now.”

“No, I wasn’t!” He snapped. “Fuck off.”

“Shinazugawa, there is no need to curse at the child,” Himejima chastises him. He’s lucky he respects him.

Kanroji squeals again, “Wait! I’ve noticed Tomioka-san and Tokito-kun have been calling each other by their given names! Ah, you’re just like brothers!”

Sanemi finishes another glass. 

Fuck, when had they become so close?

As food is brought to their table, he watches Tomioka roll up Tokito’s sleeves. Since when did he care about anyone but himself? Why was the movement so natural? He was doting on Tokito like he was his mom or something. Other than rolling up Tokito’s absurdly baggy sleeves, he’s been periodically handing the kid tissues and adding more food to his plate. Sanemi even catches him wiping Tokito’s mouth! Who is this man?

And Tokito. He has a very similar blank stare, but Sanemi had always felt bad for the kid. Especially with how forgetful he could be (though he has heard rumors that his memory had been improving ever since his mission with that Kamado brat). Sanemi just couldn’t help but worry about his well-being when he was off on missions alone. 

But that kid had a mouth on him. 

“Shinazugawa-san, you seem to like Giyuu’s face a lot. You keep looking at him.”

Sanemi was going to have an aneurysm. The kid was really talkative all of a sudden. 

He almost couldn’t believe his eyes as he watched Tokito tug at Tomioka’s arm and curl around it protectively. “You don’t deserve his face.”

What the fuck is happening?

Uzui is laughing at him unabashedly (at least Kocho has the decency to try and hide her laughter, even though it was still really obvious). “Hey, kid, are you okay? You’ve been really weird with Tomioka since you two had your mission.”

“It seems more like a vacation now,” Obanai snarks.

Tokito just sticks his tongue out at them (it’s moments like this that remind Sanemi that Tokito is actually a 14-year-old). “I just think that Giyuu deserves better than someone like Shinazugawa.”

“What the fuck are you trying to say?” Sanemi is seething. No, he wouldn’t want to be with anyone like fucking Tomioka, but for this brat to imply that it was Sanemi who was beneath Tomioka? As if.

Tokito sticks his nose up at him. Maybe they actually are related, Sanemi thinks to himself, and being a stuck-up piece of shit is hereditary. “Well,” he starts, “you only talk to him to curse at him.”

“'Cause he pisses me off.”

“But he’s never actually done anything to deserve it, has he?”

“Just look at him.”

Tokito glares at him fiercely. “You don’t even know him.”

“Yeah, and I don’t want to.”

Tomioka, who’s stuck in the middle of their spat, is trying his hardest to get Tokito to relent and calm down. “Please, Muichiro, there’s no need for this. It doesn’t bother me, really,” he tries to placate the boy. 

Tokito is still unhappy with Sanemi, clearly upset that he lost the argument (because he did lose), and relents, turning back to Tomioka. Then he demands that the man feed him. What the fuck is happening right now? Sanemi can feel the respect he had for Tokito slowly drain from him; what little respect he had for Tomioka has completely fizzled out by now, too. 

Upsettingly, Kocho seems to find great pleasure in his growing dislike of the two of them being friendly. “Tokito-kun, I didn’t know you were so possessive of Tomioka-san. Why is that?”

The kid shrugs. “I just think he doesn’t need to be around someone like Shinazugawa.” Sanemi seethes. “He’s also quite hopeless, don’t you think?” Tomioka makes a confused sound and looks at the boy as if what he said was completely false (Tokito is right, and Sanemi will agree with him on this).

Kocho is amused and agrees with Tokito wholeheartedly, and Tomioka can do nothing but sit back and take it.

Sanemi finished another glass. He’ll need more if he wants to get through this dinner sitting across from the most insufferable pair to ever exist. 

—

He does make it through that dinner, thankfully, and pushes the duo to the back of his mind. He already hates Tomioka, but, with Tokito defending his honor, the brat is starting to grate on his nerves too. It would be best to avoid them in general. 

The universe seems to hate him because, after managing to last a couple of months without seeing either of them, he ends up stuck at the butterfly mansion with the two of them. 

In the same room. 

His reason for being there is embarrassing (he knows Kocho laughs every time she thinks about it). As he was fighting a demon, he tripped over a large tree root and sprained his ankle. If only that were all. Instead, he decided to take on two more missions before his Kasugai crow snitched on him to the Kakushi and had him escorted to the Butterfly Mansion. Now, he’s been ordered by the master himself to take a whole month of bed rest. Even after that, he knows he will be receiving light and easy missions for the next month or so. 

He’s managed to make it through the first two and a half weeks with little issue, and he’s about to start his rehabilitation training with the girls. 

Then, Tomioka showed up.

From what Sanemi could gather, he had a rather nasty run-in with a lower moon. Sanemi scoffs to himself, Is this guy so useless that a lower moon managed to damage him so much? Really, his injuries weren’t that bad. Sure, he’s got a couple of nasty cuts, but just look at Sanemi; he’ll survive. He also has a few broken ribs and some bad bruises, but they’ve all endured worse (Rengoku lost an eye and was punched through his gut, and he’s taking on more missions than anyone else). 

There’s little information Sanemi can wrangle out of Kocho or her butterfly girls as to why Tomioka needs so much attention. After maybe an hour of angrily yelling for them to tell him anything, Kocho just tells him, “Mental evaluations, Shinazugawa-san. Leave the girls alone.”

He stops asking after that. 

Muichiro shows up, too, for a general check-up. Supposedly, he’s one of the easiest patients to treat because he’ll go along with whatever his crow tells him. On the other hand, Tomioka is one of the most difficult. 

The two of them were put in the same room, and Sanemi watched with a strange mix of fascination and horror as the girls barred the windows.

“What the fuck is happening?”

Aoi sighs as she locks the last window, as another girl on the outside fixes iron bars in front. “Tomioka-sama is prone to running away before completing treatment. He’s done it so much, and it usually only worsens his injuries, that we’ve decided that this is the best course of action.”

“Great, but why is he in here with me?”

“He might stick around for you. I hear he wants to befriend you.”

Sanemi glowers. “Who the fuck said that?”

“Tanjiro.”

He really hates that kid. 

Tomioka sleeps for most of the day, and he’s barely lucid as one of the younger girls feeds him his medicine. It’s the day after that Tokito arrives. His check-up is swift, but he decides to stick around for Tomioka. 

Sanemi does not want this, being stuck in the same room as this insufferable duo, but he’s able to ignore them for the most part. 

He does find that the girls were right to be worried about Tomioka fleeing the Mansion because he wakes up early one morning to a scuffle. The sun is barely peaking above the horizon, and he sees Tomioka attempting to just walk out the door, fully dressed in his uniform, with Tokito barely able to hold him back. 

“They said-” the kids grunts as he struggles- “you need to stay! You’re injured!”

“I’m fine!”

Sanemi thinks of just ignoring them, but as time passes, their yelling just gets louder and louder. “Shut the fuck up!” He yells once he’s had enough. He only gets angrier when they ignore him. 

He finally gets out of bed, walking carefully and slowly to where the other Hashira are, and picks them both up with ease, carrying Tomioka under one arm and throwing Tokito over his other shoulder. That shuts them up. Sanemi glares down at Tomioka. “You’re such a bad patient that they put bars on the fucking windows! If you don’t comply, they’re going to tell Oyakata-sama, and he will have you sitting out for twice as long.”

Setting Tomioka on his (as in Sanemi’s) bed and dropping Tokito onto the floor (the boy’s a Hashira, he can handle it), he promptly starts stripping him. He puts his ugly haori to the side, but only after promising he’d fold it properly later. Tokito was swift to pick up Tomioka’s discarded pajamas and bring them over to help Tomioka change. 

“Go tell one of Kocho’s minions he’s awake,” Sanemi instructs Tokito. He doesn’t look happy to be leaving Tomioka behind with him, but he goes anyway. He turns back to Tomioka, attempting to leave the bed, and grumbles, “Why are you so eager to leave? You know you’ll only get in trouble with Kocho and the master.”

Tomioka at least looks a little guilty, sitting cross-legged in front of Sanemi with his back to him. “I hate hospitals.” Sanemi can barely hear what he mumbles. He’s surprised when he finds himself feeling pity for the man. Tomioka has changed back into his pajamas by now, so Sanemi goes about combing through his hair with his fingers, like he had done for his younger sisters at one point. 

They sit there, on Sanemi’s bed, in silence. He can tell Tomioka is starting to doze off because his head is bobbing and he jolts occasionally. To remedy the uncomfortable position, he turns Tomioka around (he’s completely ignoring that he has his least favorite Hashira on his lap) so that he can rest his head on Sanemi’s shoulder, and he continues slowly working through the knots in his hair. 

It’s soothing, the monotonous task. Something seems to have possessed Sanemi for him to be acting so sweetly toward Tomioka Giyuu of all people. Maybe it was his confession to hating hospitals, and the way he looks like he wants to bolt and run out of this room as fast as possible. Sanemi knows they all have less-than-savory pasts; maybe Tomioka’s was doctor-related. It would explain why he’s always avoiding Kocho and the Butterfly Mansion. 

His internal musing is interrupted when Tokito returns, promising that someone will be there to check on Tomioka in a few minutes. He glares at Sanemi and shakes his head, as if to say he doesn’t approve of… whatever is happening. What is this kid’s goddamn problem? Despite that, he softens when he notices that Tomioka is asleep – and on Sanemi of all people. He trudges over to Sanemi’s bed and curls up at the foot.

“What are you, some kind of dog?” Sanemi goads him, but Tokito doesn’t respond. Instead, the boy sighs and crawls toward the two men. He moves to curl around Tomioka’s side, laying his head on his thigh and pressing his face into Tomioka’s stomach. 

Sanemi truly wonders what happened on their mission that made the two of them so close. Was it Tokito’s fever? He also wonders how Tokito’s position could be comfortable, but by that point, the boy was asleep, and he didn’t want to disturb their already limited rest. 

He doesn’t know how much time passes, with Tomioka’s thighs straddling his own, his breath softly grazing his neck from where his head rests on Sanemi’s shoulder. Tokito eventually squirms into a more comfortable position, flipping on his side so that his back is to them, and he’s brought his knees to his chest to sleep in a fetal position. It can’t have been long, but eventually, the door to the room opens and, to Sanemi’s great dismay, Kocho walks in. 

She’s shocked at the scene, Sanemi can tell by the way her eyes widen, and she brings a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp. Then it morphs into what might as well have been delight. She’s sent into a fit of giggles as Sanemi steadily grows redder, heat rising up his neck and spreading across his face. 

“Oh my goodness,” she gasps once she’s finally collected herself, “don’t you look like a happy little family. I should have one of my girls sketch this domestic little scene, but I’m afraid they’re all quite busy. I’ll simply have to commit it to memory so that I can tell the other Hashira about it. Oh, Master will be delighted, don’t you think?”

She rambles on, and all Sanemi can force out is, “Please don’t.”

“I’m grateful you at least managed to keep Tomioka-san from leaving.”

Sanemi scoffs, “He tried.”

“And this one,” she pokes at Tokito, but he doesn’t move. “Why hasn’t he returned to his post yet?”

“I think he’s grown rather fond of Tomioka.”

Tomioka, his mind whispers to him, feels like he belongs on my lap. Sanemi flushes again at his thoughts, and he tries his best to snuff them out. Kocho notices his redness and brings the back of her hand to his forehead. 

“Are you feeling feverish, Shinazugawa-san? Perhaps you need to rest a little longer.”

“No!” His outburst wakes Tomioka with a start. The two of them watch – Kocho with anticipation and Sanemi with horror – as he sits up in Sanemi’s lap, slowly taking in the room and his surroundings. When he finally registers that he was taking a nap in Sanemi’s lap, he practically leaps off of him. 

Sanemi is not excited for the next time the Hashira meet because he knows Kocho is going to relay this whole experience to them. God, he can already imagine how insufferable Tengen and Obanai are going to be. Rengoku and Kanroji won’t be any more tolerable, either. 

Tomioka perches himself back on his own bed, pointedly looking away from Sanemi, as Kocho continues to laugh at them. It was genuine, though, so Sanemi can’t be too mad at her for that. Gods know they hardly have any time to find joy in their line of work. 

His check-up is fine, and he leaves to start his rehabilitation training while Kocho starts Tomioka’s. He spares one last glance into the room as he leaves and makes eye contact with Tomioka. His face is flushed; Sanemi can’t help but liken the look on his face to that of a flustered young girl meeting a boy she fancies. 

Huh.

—

It is by pure coincidence that Kanzaburou has led him to this Wisteria House. Now that winter has fallen on the country, it is much colder, and Giyuu finds himself struggling to stay out for as long as he usually does. That’s alright, they’re due for another Hashira meeting soon, so he can patrol the nearby area while seeking shelter at this house since it’s much closer to the master’s mansion than his own. 

This one is much smaller than most of the other houses he’s been in, and the owner informed him that they were much more limited on space. There were only two additional guest rooms, and both are currently occupied. He’d have to share with someone. 

He knocks on the first door he comes across, and a rather irate Shinazugawa opens it. When he realizes it’s Giyuu standing in front of him, he shuts the door in his face before he can say anything. All he can do is stand there stunned for a few moments before he decides to try knocking again. 

It’s been a few months since he last saw Shinazugawa. It was at the Butterfly Mansion, he remembers. He also remembers being startled awake after falling asleep in Shinazugawa’s lap and Kocho’s incessant teasing. Just the memories make him flush, and the embarrassment makes him cringe so hard he thinks he might die. Since Shinazugawa let him sit on his lap long enough to fall asleep, he must not hate him, right?

The door finally opens. “Listen, Tomioka,” Shinazugawa spits out his name like it’s a curse, “I already have to deal with the misty-eyed brat and his gang of trouble makers, I don’t want to deal with you either!”

The door to the other guest room down the hall slides open at Shinazugawa’s shouting, and Giyuu is shocked when he comes face-to-face with Muichiro, Tanjiro, and a few other kids. The two boys light up and run to greet him. 

“Giyuu-san!” Tanjiro bounces around him.

“Giyuu,” Muichiro beams. 

“Ah, hello…” Giyuu doesn’t know what to do. He’s not accustomed to all this attention. He looks to Shinazugawa for help, just in case the man is feeling particularly charitable today. 

He isn’t.

“They’re your brats,” he says, “you can stay with them.” Then he slams the door again. 

Tanjiro pouts, “He’s quite mean! We just finished a mission with him and Muichiro-kun, and decided to stay here while we recuperate.”

“He took a whole room to himself while we have to squish into one room,” the yellow one – Zenitsu, maybe? – cries. 

“I hate the idea, but if you’re staying here, too, then you’ll have to share a room with Shinazugawa,” Muichiro says, knocking on the door again. 

Giyuu can only sigh. “I know you aren’t particularly fond of him, Muichiro, but you have to be polite and respectful. He’s older than you, and he’s your senior.” Giyuu chastises him softly, but Muichiro ignores him. 

Kids must be very difficult to raise well, Giyuu thinks as he reminds himself to pray to his sister again, maybe later in the evening. 

Shinazugawa’s door bursts open to yell at them, but before either of them can say anything, Giyuu feels multiple pairs of hands on his back as he’s shoved into Shinazugawa’s room. The two of them fall to the floor with Shinazugawa cushioning most of Giyuu’s fall (he’s hit his knees, though), and the kids close the door on them. 

“Giyuu needs to stay with you tonight, Shinazugawa-san!” Tanjiro’s voice calls through the screen doors. 

“There’s no more space in our room!” This voice is unfamiliar. It’s a little gruff and deeper, but it’s not the boar boy, Inosuke. 

“We’ll see you at dinner,” Muichiro’s voice is calm as if he hadn’t just pushed Giyuu into Shinazugawa. 

Shinazugawa growls underneath him, “Those damn brats!”

“Who else is here?” Giyuu sits up to look back at the door. He only remembers seeing Tanjiro, Muichiro, and Zenitsu. Logically, Nezuko would be there too, as well as Inosuke. Who was that last voice?

“They’re your fucking kids! You should know.”

“There’s one more voice, though. I don’t know him.”

Shinazugawa sighs and closes his eyes. “The other kid is Genya.”

“Just Genya? What’s his family name?” Sounds familiar.

“Tch.” Shinazugawa avoids his eyes. “Shinazugawa Genya.” 

“Oh, isn’t he your brother?”

“No, I don’t have a brother.”

“But you have the same family name.”

“Don’t piss me off.”

Giyuu refrains from saying anything else, lest he anger Shinazugawa even more. Then he notices they’re still on the ground. He’s on Shinazugawa’s lap again, he realizes. He can feel heat slowly spread across his face, starting at his cheeks, as he’s reminded of their time at the Butterfly Mansion.

Their first interaction there had left Giyuu with a lot of… conflicting feelings. He had always thought Shinazugawa was attractive. He had a naturally handsome face and a strong body. His scars had been a little off-putting and scary at first, but the feeling had eventually given way to what Giyuu can only describe as heat. He was also incredibly skilled in combat, both with and without a blade, and Giyuu thinks that would make any woman he ended up with swoon. But he had never thought of Shinazugawa in such a way. 

Not until the Butterfly Mansion. 

They didn’t see much of each other after that first day (more accurately, the third day), because Shinazugawa was doing his rehabilitation training. When he wasn’t, Kocho was making Giyuu sit through “mental evaluations,” whatever those were good for. 

But he thought about that moment often. Even when his mind was still bleary with sleep, he could feel the weight and warmth of Shinazugawa’s hand on the small of his back. He could tell it was bigger than his own, and for some reason, the thought made him giddy. When he looked at Shinazugawa, the man was looking at him differently than he usually did. His gaze was much softer, kinder. His eyes were wide, but he was calm, for once. Even as Shinazugawa was leaving for his training, he looked at Giyuu kindly. 

Much unlike now. 

He was being glared at again, as it seems Shinazugawa has also finally caught on to the position they’re in. Before Giyuu can begin to move off him, his hands are at his waist. He looks down to see Shinazugawa’s scarred hands around him, holding him tightly, and his thumbs are almost touching. He’s only just starting to process what’s happening when he feels the pressure around his middle increase. Then, he’s being thrown off of Shinazugawa. 

His back hits the floor with a thud, and he lies there, staring at the ceiling, to collect himself. With a glance in Shinazugawa’s direction, he can see that he is also very flustered. He has his back to Giyuu, but he can see he’s flushed from the tips of his ears all the way down the back of his neck. 

Is his chest red, too? The thought crosses his mind before he can stop it. 

As Shinazugawa storms out of the room, Giyuu brings two of his hands to his face. He takes a deep breath before sitting up and heading to the baths. 

He wasn’t kicked out of the room, so he’s definitely allowed to sleep there, right?

– 

Dinner is strange. The old lady who runs the house is looking at them with great fondness, and Giyuu could only hazard a guess as to why.

He sits next to Shinazugawa at the head of the table. To his right, Muichiro chats with Tanjiro. Nezuko was falling asleep on Tanjiro’s lap, and Zenitsu fussed over her. Next to Shinazugawa is his younger brother (though he may claim he has no brother, Shinazugawa cannot deny that they share a rather striking resemblance), who looks exhausted from defending his food from Inosuke. 

We must look like some sort of family, Giyuu muses, though he doubts Shinazugawa would willingly spend enough time with him to start one. Despite all the noise, Giyuu finds himself at peace. 

It’s halfway through the meal when Kanzaburou comes crashing in through the window. Shinazugawa and Muichiro’s crows are much more graceful. He hears Shinazugawa curse next to him, “Fuck, is that thing even alive?”

“Hashira meeting! Hashira meeting! Today!” Kanzaburou caws out. 

Shinazugawa’s crow, Sorai, if Giyuu recalls correctly, huffs, “No, grandpa, it’s tomorrow!” Kanzaburou only responds with a tilt of his head, likely not really taking in what he’s being told. 

Giyuu takes out a bag of seeds from his pocket and pours some out onto his hand for Kanzaburou to peck at. “Is there anything else?” The crow does not respond. “You didn’t forget anything?” Kanzaburou keeps eating. He sets the seeds down on the tatami mats and goes back to eating. 

“Jeez, is that what all of your crow’s messages sound like?” Giyuu nods, and Shinazugawa regards him for a second before returning to his food. “That explains a lot. Why don’t you retire him?”

“He always refuses.”

“I don’t think there’s much of a choice. He might die before we see the end of this war.”

“I’d like him to. He makes me worry a lot, but he was my master’s crow. They’re both quite stubborn. He simply won’t allow me to take a new crow.”

Ginko groans next to Muichiro.” You must, you must! He needs to rest! He can barely remember his orders!”

“Even we worry about him,” Sorai nods. “The master lets him do as he pleases, though. We cannot argue with the master.”

Giyuu looks at his crow, who has taken to pecking at Genya. The poor kid doesn’t know what to do. “I wish he would listen.” Kanzaburou makes himself very comfortable in Genya’s hair, and the kid has decided it would be better to just let the crow do as he pleases. 

Thankfully, Inosuke is too absorbed in his own food to bother trying to eat the crows. 

“Giyuu-san!” He looks up at Tanjiro, who smiles brightly. “Muichiro-kun said you can braid hair! Could you help me do Nezuko’s? I’m not very good at it.”

With a small nod, Giyuu accepts a small toddler-sized Nezuko into his lap. She smiles at him and says, “Like Mitsuri nee-san, please!” He smiles and separates her hair into three large sections as carefully and neatly as possible without a brush. 

Shinazugawa scoffs next to him. “Come on, kid,” he poked Nezuko’s cheek harshly, “he hasn’t finished eating yet.”

Giyuu glances up in time to see mischief flash in Muichiro’s eyes. Oh no.

“Why don’t you feed him then, Shinazugawa? His hands are busy.” Giyuu wishes he would refrain from picking fights with Shinazugawa.

The two of them glare at each other for a second. Their staring contest is interrupted by Tanjiro. “Oh, in that case, I can do it! I just finished eating!” He moves to sit between Muichiro and Giyuu, but before he can pick up Giyuu’s half-eaten bowl of rice, Shinazugawa snatches it away. 

“Don’t even think about, brat,” he growls. Carefully, he picks up a bit of rice with his chopsticks and brings it to Giyuu’s mouth. 

Am I dreaming?

The situation is so absurd that it distracts him from doing Nezuko’s hair in favor of staring at Shinazugawa. She doesn’t appreciate this, and she takes one of his hands and starts gnawing on it in protest. It’s not hard at all – there wasn’t any strength behind it, so it was painless – but the sudden feeling of teeth startles him. 

He looks frantically between Nezuko and Shinazugawa, confused and slightly overwhelmed by having his attention demanded by two people. Eventually, he hesitantly eats the rice off the chopsticks (they may have been Shinazugawa’s, but he’s too flustered at the moment to think about it), then he goes back to braiding Nezuko’s hair. 

Even after he’s done braiding her hair, he is dragged into a conversation with Tanjiro and Muichiro. He barely notices that Shinazugawa is still feeding him, even after he has the free hands to do it himself. 

Neither of them seems to mind, though. 

He’s relieved, watching Muichiro get along with kids his age (maybe a little older). During Hashira meetings, he used to get worried that the kid was lonely or that he couldn’t make friends because of his job and status. Giyuu knows from experience: despite attending the same Final Selection and being the same age, Murata is very stiff around him and is very intimidated by the fact that Giyuu is a Hashira. Tanjiro has always been very kind, though, and uncaring of Giyuu’s status when it came to being friendly. 

Muichiro is also quite fond of Genya. Giyuu isn’t the most adept when it comes to social interactions, but he could see that Muichiro smiled around Genya even more than when he was with Tanjiro. He even called him “Gen,” a nickname that had Shinazugawa scowling. 

When it came time to go to bed, Nezuko and Muichiro had basically begged Giyuu to tuck them in. It reminded Giyuu of their first mission together all those months ago that had kick-started their familial relationship. Especially when Muichiro had a fever; at the time, he hadn’t wanted Giyuu to leave his side, and Giyuu refused to. 

Insouke didn’t appreciate the apparent favoritism he was showing Nezuko and Muichiro; he demanded that he be tucked in as well. So, he brought the blanket up to the boy’s chin and stroked his hair out of his face as he said good night, just as he had done with Nezuko and Muichiro. This consequently led Tanjiro to request the same treatment and push Giyuu to do the same for the remaining two kids. Zenitsu had been shy but grateful, leaning into Giyuu’s touch, while Genya was awkward and very flushed (Giyuu was concerned he had come down with a sudden fever). 

When he was finally able to return to his room, Shinazugawa was sitting cross-legged on their shared futon (most of the futons had been taken by the kids). “You took forever. Why?” He was blunt as ever. “I thought you were only putting the demon girl and Tokito-kun to bed.”

“First,” Giyuu scolded, “the girl’s name is Nezuko, and it would do you well to use it, unless you want to anger Tanjiro.” At Shinazugawa’s scoff, he adds, “I would also greatly appreciate it if you called her properly,” though he doubted his feelings would do much to convince Shinazugawa. “Second, I ended up tucking in all of them, because Inosuke didn’t want to be left out. Then, Tanjiro asked for it to, but he also said it would be unfair to leave out Zenistu and Genya.”

“That brat is grown; he doesn’t need anyone to tuck him in. If he wants to be a grown-up so damn bad, so be it, but he needs to act like a damn adult then.” Giyuu could surmise that he was referring to Genya, but the way Shinazugawa talked so harshly about his own brother, even denying his existence, pained him. He thinks about how he’d feel if Tsutako or Sabito had ever denied their relationship. Maybe it would have broken him more than their deaths.

“Shinazugawa, you shouldn’t talk about your brother like that,” he said as he sat down across from him, hands loosely curled into fists just above his knees. 

“Huh?” Shinazugawa glared at him. “I don’t have a fucking brother.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Who the fuck are you to tell me what I mean?”

“Shinazugawa, family is precious, especially in our line of work. Most of us are here because we are all that’s left. You shouldn’t take him for granted.”

Shinazugawa continues to glare at him, but Giyuu holds his gaze, refusing to back down. “Shinazugawa, if either of you dies, you’ll regret your words-”

Giyuu is cut off by Shinazugawa, who throws him to the ground in a fit of rage. “Shut the fuck up,” he growls. “You don’t know what you’re fucking talking about, you son of a bitch. How could you possibly know what I’m feeling? What I’m going through?”

Shinazugawa is pinning him to the ground by his wrists, holding each in a firm grasp next to his head, and his knees are bracketing Giyuu’s thighs. Another precarious position, Giyuu thinks humorlessly, but he doesn’t say it. 

“I had a sister,” he says instead. He didn’t want to air out his pain like this, but Tanjiro had once told him that sharing similar stories with others could make it easier to connect with them. “If she ever said that she didn’t consider me her brother, after everything we’ve been through, I don’t know if I would have the strength to live. I think I’d-” Giyuu chokes on his words; he hates to admit to these feelings, and, thankfully, Shinazugawa understands what he’s trying to say. 

“Fuck,” he hisses, as he releases Giyuu’s wrists, sitting back on his haunches. Shinazugawa watches Giyuu sit up, and he moves off of him. They both sit in seiza across from each other, awkwardly avoiding eye contact. Giyuu can only imagine what he’s thinking at his rather grim admission. 

He feels Shinazugawa’s calloused palm come to rest on his cheek. Just as he looks up to meet Shinazugawa’s gaze, which is so incredibly soft, he feels a rough thumb sweep across his cheek, wiping away a tear. 

Giyuu hasn’t cried in a very long time, he realizes. He’s spent years hardening himself and blocking out his emotions, but they’re all starting to come out now. In front of Shinazugawa of all people. 

It’s messy and awkward – their limbs don’t know what to do – as Shinazugawa brings Giyuu into his lap once again. It was a clumsy attempt to comfort him on Shinazugawa’s part as Giyuu’s silent tears turn into harsh hiccups, but it works. He finds his head tucked into the crook of Shinazugawa’s neck, with his hand running up and down Giyuu’s back, burning wherever it touches. He’s wetting Shinazugawa’s clothes with his tears, and he doesn’t want to ruin his pajamas, but he can’t find the strength to move. 

He hears Shinazugawa sniffle, distantly. 

When he’s calmed down, he leans back to look at Shinazugawa and finds his eyes red-rimmed and his cheeks damp. He brings his hands up to cup his face and wipe away the remaining wetness. “Sorry,” he mutters, “I’ve made this awkward.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Shinazugawa grumbles. “I didn’t- I wasn’t thinking of what my words meant to you. Or Genya.” That last part comes out so softly, Giyuu almost doesn’t catch it. He imagines the brothers’ relationship will only improve from here. He hopes it does. 

“You should apologize to Genya.”

“I will. I didn’t think about what I was saying. I don’t mean it.”

“Then why say it?”

“I just-” Shinazugawa groans and buries his face in Giyuu’s chest, dislodging his hands from his face. So, he moves them to his hair. “I want him to quit.”

“The Corps?”

“Yes.”

“Shinazugawa, why are you a demon slayer?”

“To kill demons,” he scoffs with a wet voice. 

“But why?”

When Shinazugawa doesn’t deign to give him an answer, Giyuu gives his own. “A demon killed my sister.” He feels Shinazugawa’s arms tighten around him. “No one believed me. I fight for her. For peace.”

Shinazugawa is still silent. He accepts that he may never receive an answer. Anyone could tell him that it is impossible to force Shinazugawa into doing something he didn’t want. “My mom,” he says eventually, “she was turned into a demon and killed my siblings. Genya is all I have left.” His voice is shaking, and Giyuu can feel it as his arms tighten even more, so does his body. “I don’t want him to die like this. He should live long and happy.”

Sobs wrack through Shinazugawa, and all Giyuu can do is hold him. He strokes his hair, hoping to comfort him. His sister had done that for him whenever he was scared or sad. “That was his mom, too. I imagine he wants to avenge her.”

“Fuck, maybe.”

He lifts Shinazugawa’s face. “You can protect him, you know? On the battlefield. We are no longer powerless, Sanemi.”

“Yeah.”

They stare at each other for God knows how long. It’s comforting, Giyuu thinks, to have Sanemi hold him. Like that time at the Butterfly Mansion. Only this time, Kocho isn’t there to startle them apart. 

But Muichiro is. 

The door slams open, and they both jump. Muichiro is standing there, in the hall, with his sword drawn. He’s glaring at Sanemi and gripping the frame of the shoji door so hard the wood fractures. 

Slowly moving to grip the sword with both hands, he raises it at the two of them. “What are you doing to Giyuu?” He seethes. 

What is happening?

“Muichiro, you can’t-”

“I do not approve of you, Shinazugawa Sanemi.” He prepares to attack. Sanemi holds Giyuu closer, and Giyuu reciprocates, utterly terrified of the look on Muichiro’s face. He doesn’t think he’s directed a look like this at a demon. They’re both scared of this child. “You are not worthy of my brother!”

He lunges, but makes it nowhere as Tanjiro holds him back. “Muichiro-kun, please! Calm down!” His words do little to calm the boy, and he struggles to hold him back. 

“What’s happening?” Genya walks up from behind, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Carefully, he takes the sword from Muichiro’s grip, and it’s so comical the way he starts kicking and clawing at Genya, who is holding the sword above his head like a bully, but Muichiro is ultimately unable to escape Tanjiro’s grip. “What’s gotten into you?”

Then he notices Sanemi and Giyuu. His face goes bright red. “Sorry for interrupting!” He yells, pulling Tanjiro and Muichiro away from the room and slamming the door shut again. 

Giyuu can hear Muichiro struggling against Tanjiro, but he quiets eventually. As the adrenaline slowly dissipates from his system, Giyuu and Sanemi relax their grip on each other. 

“Wow,” he breathes. 

“I’m going to tell on him to Oyakata-sama. Pulling a sword on me is against Corps rules.”

“You could, but then you’d have to explain why he was so worked up. You’d have to explain this." Giyuu gestures to their position. 

Sanemi sighs, flopping them over onto their sides, cushioned by the futon, and ignores Giyuu’s surprised yelp. “Maybe, but Kocho is bound to let it slip that we were like this at the Butterfly Mansion, too. Might as well get to it before her.”

Giyuu frowns. The teasing would be difficult if she said anything, but admitting that they were holding each other willingly opened an entirely different can of worms. Hell, even the master might start teasing them. 

Sanemi stares up at Giyuu. Neither of them says anything for a while, basking in the calming stillness of the night. Sanemi is clutching bunches of Giyuu’s yukata in his fists. “You know, you’re not so bad.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Kinda nice, actually.”

Giyuu brings a hand to Sanemi’s cheek once more, leaning in just slightly. “Is that all?”

“No,” Sanemi breathes against Giyuu’s lips. 

They’re so close. 

“I think you’re very handsome.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Kinda nice, too,” Giyuu echoes his words as he leans in to kiss Sanemi. 

They spend hours kissing, overtaken by the euphoric feeling of loving each other. They don’t say much, just taking in each other’s company. When they wake up tangled in each other in the morning, Sanemi kisses Giyuu again. 

“You should apologize to Genya,” Giyuu says as he puts on his haori. 

“I told you last night, I will.”

“Good,” Giyuu says and rewards him with another kiss. 

–

Breakfast is an awkward affair. Sanemi is dodging glares from Muichiro, Genya is avoiding eye contact with both of them, and Zenitsu is weirdly quiet. Even Inosuke is concerned.

“What’s wrong with you, Monitsu? You’re being too quiet.”

“That’s not my name,” is all he gets in return. 

“Now, now, Inosuke, I’m sure Zenitsu is just tired from all the missions we’ve been doing,” Tanjiro comes to Zenitsu’s defense.

Giyuu is finishing up his soup when Sanemi puts a few more chunks of fish on his plate. “You need it more than me,” he says when Giyuu looks at him. Giyuu appreciates it, really, but he thinks that he has a rather healthy appetite. Iguro is the worst at eating consistently, or at least that’s what he hears from Kanroji.

Muichiro growls next to him. “You should take mine,” he says, dumping about half of his fish onto Giyuu’s plate.

“Hey, wait,” Giyuu frowns at him. 

“Oi!” Sanemi yells at the same time. 

“I’m already full,” he says to both of them. “I don’t need anymore.” They both pout as Giyuu hands his plate to Inosuke to finish. 

Giyuu’s time with the kids (or his kids, as Sanemi says) doesn’t last much longer, because soon, the crows are urging them to leave for the master’s mansion. The three Hashira take their time as they walk, stopping at a nearby town for lunch. 

Disaster strikes when they arrive at the mansion, though. 

And by disaster, Giyuu means Kocho. 

As soon as she spots the three of them entering together, she coos very loudly, drawing the attention of the other Hashira. Giyuu immediately resigns himself to his inevitable fate, taking in a deep breath while Sanemi and Muichiro eye her cautiously. 

“My, my. Don’t you three look like a little family!” Her voice is as sickly sweet as ever, and her smile tells Giyuu that she will be as insufferable as she possibly could. Why? Simply for the sake of her entertainment. “It reminds me of the time you spent at the Butterfly Mansion.”

Uzui is obviously intrigued. He always seems to enjoy Kocho’s stories of Giyuu’s misery the most. “Oh? Do tell, Madam Shinobu.” That last bit was just to butter her up and make sure she actually tells the story. 

Kocho sighs, resting her cheek against her hand and closing her eyes, as if reminiscing about a fond memory. “The last time I saw these three, they were all cuddled up together on a single bed! They could hardly fit.”

Giyuu makes sure not to look in Iguro’s direction. He’s sure the glare he was receiving would certainly kill him if he did. Sanemi sputters next to him and tries to deny it. 

There’s no point, Giyuu thinks, she’ll use whatever you say against us.

Kocho covers her mouth in faux shock. “What do you mean, Shinazugawa-san? Are you saying I didn’t walk in on you holding Tomioka-san in your lap? Goodness, you know, Tokito-kun was very troubled when you left at the end of the month, too. I think he missed you.”

Muichiro is adamantly shaking his head next to Giyuu while Sanemi only becomes redder and reaches for his sword. “Sanemi,” GIyuu warns, putting a hand over his. Somewhere in the distance, he hears Kanroji fawn over their ‘sudden romance,’ while Uzui and Rengoku whoop and holler. 

“Oh, so he’s ‘Sanemi’ to you now, Tomioka-san?” Giyuu realizes his mistake far too late. “You two are using first names, now? And without any honorifics? My, how scandalous!” 

“You also better not be thinking of pulling your sword out, Shinazugawa!” Uzui goads him. 

“Yeah, Shinazugawa,” Muichiro huffs, “it’s against Corps rules.”

Sanemi turns to look at Muichiro with an uncanny smoothness. “What did you say, brat? So now you're considering Corps rules?”

That catches Kocho’s interest. “Oh dear, you two haven’t been fighting, have you?”

“It was nothing,” Muichiro brushes off her concerns, but Sanemi won’t let it go. Giyuu can’t stop him before he starts incriminating them. 

“You pulled a sword on me last night! You were intent on attacking me!”

Something flashes in Muichiro’s eyes, like at last night’s dinner, when he suggested Sanemi feed Giyuu. Giyuu can do nothing but stand there and wait for the Hashira’s reactions. “You attacked Giyuu last night.”

Oh no. Giyuu mourns his sanity internally because now he’s making Sanemi explain what happened. 

“Jeez, Shinazugawa, I knew you two didn’t get along, but there’s no need for such drastic measures!” Rengoku’s voice booms through the garden. 

“I did not attack him!” Sanemi growls back. “Last night we-” He cuts himself off once he realizes what he almost said and goes beet red. It’s too late, however, because now the other Hashira are simply going to twist his words to fit whatever narrative they please. 

Most of them follow the same pattern, though. 

“Shinazugawa, you dog!” Uzui shouts. “Poor Tomioka, his innocence!” 

“That’s not what I meant! And we didn’t do anything!”

“Are you sure? You guys were so loud, Tanjiro and I could hear you from our room.”

“You brat!”

“In front of the kids?!” Uzui sounds scandalized, but he looks delighted. 

“I already told you! We didn’t do anything like that!”

“Are you sure?” Iguro crowds Sanemi. “Just last month, you were complaining about Tomioka’s dead eyes, and he’s calling you by your first name.”

“We were arguing last night!”

“Is that what you’re calling it?” Rengoku pats Giyuu’s back firmly. “I hope you used protection!”

Giyuu hopes the ground opens up and swallows him whole. He pleads silently with Muichiro to clear up the mess he’s caused. 

“They really were just arguing.” Yes! Thank you! “But when they got quiet, Agatsuma said they were having a ‘heart-to-heart.’ When I actually checked on them, Shinazugawa was holding Giyuu in his lap. Again.” Muichiro! Why?! This had to be payback for the last meeting when Giyuu got him scolded by Kocho. But he also got scolded in the end after Muichiro ratted him out!

“Again?” Kanroji sounds absolutely delighted. 

Giyuu makes the mistake of making eye contact with Kocho. She looks elated. “Hey, Tomioka-san, do I need to tell you about the birds and the bees?” Giyuu shakes his head. 

“They definitely kissed once I left,” Muichiro hums. This kid!

“What the fuck makes you think that?!” Sanemi grabs him by his collar as Himejima and Rengoku scold him for manhandling the kid. 

“Agatsuma heard you guys.”

The master arrives to pure chaos. His daughters and Lady Amane are also at a loss, looking upon their esteemed and dignified Hashira, who are now chasing each other around the garden, being the loudest they’ve ever been. 

Giyuu is ashamed, to say the least. He’s never been the most accepting of his status, sure, but he would never devolve to such childish behaviors. 

When he looks at the master, though, a bright smile has crossed his face. He hears him tell Lady Amane, “We should let them play. Heaven knows they haven’t been able to.”

Sanemi gets his sword confiscated for the duration of the meeting, though, for attacking Muichiro and almost attacking Kocho. Muichiro snickers at him, but is quickly shut up when his sword gets taken away, too, for attacking Sanemi the night before. They both settle on either of Giyuu’s sides and pout, thoroughly humiliated after being punished like children. 

Iguro is also made to hand in his sword; he had lunged at Giyuu after finding out he and Sanemi had kissed. 

When the master is finally told why his Hashira are such a mess this morning, his serene smile widens and he gets up to rest in front of Giyuu and Sanemi, shocking even his family. He brings their hands together in his and beams at them. “You have my blessing!” He exclaims, and GIyuu feels like he’ll pass out with how quickly blood is rushing to his face.

“Oyakata-sama, please! Don’t fret over us,” Sanemi worries over the master. He’s thoroughly ignored. 

“When are you planning on marrying?” The master asks instead. 

The meeting was not productive in the slightest. 

—

They do get married. It’s about a year after that meeting and only a month after finally defeating Muzan, but they don’t want to waste any more time. 

Giyuu thinks back on it fondly, smiling softly to himself as he cleans the mess on their living room floor. “Please,” Sanemi takes the dirty plates from his arms, “let me. Hey, brats! Stop kissing and come help me!” Muichiro enters looking annoyed, while Genya is completely flushed, but they start helping Sanemi. 

“God,” Sanemi groans, “Mitsuri and Kyojuro eat way too much.”

“Yeah, but I think Obanai-san balances it out, don’t you think?” Sanemi nods with a small smile and ruffles Genya’s hair. 

“What about Inosuke?” Muichiro asks, and the brothers deflate at the mention of his name. 

“Don’t even get me started.”

“Nemi, please let me help.” Giyuu tries to pick up what he can, but Sanemi is on him immediately, fussing and taking things from him. 

“No, you can rest.” With that, he sends Giyuu to their room. 

Giyuu’s a little dejected, he’ll admit. He wasn’t even the one who suffered the worst injuries, anyway! Mitsuri and Tengen are missing just as many hands as he is, and, not to mention, Obanai is now completely blind. Then there’s Shinobu. She can’t walk anymore after receiving a brutal back injury from Upper 2 (Giyuu thinks she’s the happiest out of all of them, though, living peacefully with her little nurses). 

Still, Sanemi’s care for him warms his heart. 

He’s drifting off to sleep slowly when Sanemi finally enters the bedroom. He plops down onto their futon with a sigh. “We need to go to the market tomorrow. Mitsuri, Rengoku, and the pig boy have demolished our stock. Fuck, and I bought twice as much as last time!”

Giyuu giggles, and it’s soft and sleepy. It makes Sanemi look at him fondly. “I think we should just go to a restaurant next time. We’ll just have to warn them of their impossible appetite.”

“Sure,” Sanemi smiles at him. 

The shoji doors are forced open. “Muichiro!” He hears Genya scold, but the boy is standing there, pretending to be innocent. 

“Tuck me in, please?”

Sanemi scowls, “Aren’t you 16? Tuck yourself in.”

Giyuu gets up anyway. “I’ll be right back, my love,” he says and kisses Sanemi’s forehead before walking off to tuck in the boys. It softens Sanemi enough that he lets him go, but Giyuu knows that, no matter how much he and Muichiro fight and argue, they do care for each other. And, Sanemi would never deprive Muichiro of getting tucked in by Giyuu. 

“Genya was thinking of buying Mitsuri a new tea set as a wedding gift,” Muichiro muses. “What should we get Obanai?”

Giyuu hums as he thinks. “Perhaps some sake. Tanjiro has recently befriended a family that makes very nice sake. They live near Urokodaki-sensei.”

“We can visit him and pick up the gift,” Muichiro agrees. 

When he returns to Sanemi, he’s gathered in his arms and revels in the feeling of being held. Everything has been wonderfully peaceful. Mitsuri and Obanai are finally getting married in a few months, Gyomei is turning 29 years old soon after, and the master has invited the former Hashira to celebrate the second anniversary of a demon-free world. 

Giyuu buries himself deeper into Sanemi’s warmth, and his husband responds in kind by holding him tighter. 

Nee-san, I have a family now.