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Tomioka Giyuu wasn't known for being the warmest person. He had a cold personality, and he wasn't approachable whatsoever. He avoided everyone like the plague, and didn't bother seeking help when he needed it.
He considered himself to be the weakest Hashira, so why would he need help?
Everyone else (at least the other Hashira) seemed to agree, as they just left Giyuu alone to his own devices. They all hated him. At least that was what Giyuu took out from each of his actions. But nobody hated him more than Sanemi Shinazugawa.
Sanemi was constantly fighting with Giyuu, never letting Giyuu even come closer without yelling at him. In another time, Giyuu tried to become friends with the Wind Hashira. He'd failed miserably, simply because he didn't have the social skills to do it. His only friend had been Sabito, and Sabito had been the one to become friends with him, not the other way around.
In another time, Giyuu hated feeling lonely.
Now, he felt nothing. He just felt emptiness; even though sometimes, the feeling of loneliness and sadness simmered below the surface, he never actually let it come to the light. It was easier to shove everything down then to let himself feel it. He knew it wasn't the most healthy way of living, but it made him feel better.
"TOMIOKA! COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!" called a voice from outside the Water Estate. It was Sanemi, of course. Even though he hated Giyuu, he still took pleasure in fighting with the Water Hashira. They were evenely matched, and never really were able to beat each other.
Giyuu sighed, standing up from the futon he was napping on, grabbing a hair tie from the cabinet on the wall. He tied up his dark blue hair into a long ponytail, then grabbed his tattered haori and put it on over his uniform.
He would probably be cold, it was nearing the winter months, and snow was already coating the ground in a thin coating of white powder, but he was going to go out anyways, because fighting with Sanemi sometimes relieved his stress.
And it gave him a chance to talk to Sanemi, even if it was a hostile environment.
He liked Sanemi, and he would love to be friends with Sanemi, but the Wind Hashira didn't share his sentiments.
"Coming." Giyuu said quietly. When he got to the door, he opened it to see Sanemi, dressed in his normal outfit, but his shirt was buttoned up. That was rather strange, he never buttoned up his shirt. Maybe he had it buttoned because it was cold.
Sanemi grumbled as Giyuu came out expressionless.
"Are you even excited to spar?" Sanemi asked, glaring at Giyuu.
"Yes." Giyuu answered, adjusting his bangs with his free hand that wasn't holding his haori closed to keep out the cold. It was far too cold to be out sparring, but again, he was going to do it anyways. It was probably self destructive behaviour, but Giyuu was prone to that anyways.
Tanjiro often told him that he shouldn't do things like that, but Giyuu wasn't the best at taking criticism. He wasn't against criticism, he often took it too seriously and changed everything about himself, except when it came to changing his personality. He didn't know how to do that, simply because he was so used to acting how he did. How was he supposed to change now? He was twenty-one, and wasn't much use to anyone in the Demon Slayer Corps; not really.
"Whatever. Let's go." Sanemi said, trudging towards the training area just outside the Water Estate. It was a nice traning area, mostly because Giyuu never trained in this area. He often did his training in the communal training grounds.
Giyuu sighed, pulling his haori tighter around his body. It was so cold. The snow seeped through his shoes, making his body even more cold.
How was Sanemi not complaining about being cold? It was ridiculously cold!
"How are you not cold, Shinazugawa?" Giyuu asked softly, looking down at his feet which were submerged in the thin sheet of snow covering the ground.
"I am cold. I'm going to spar with you to warm up." Sanemi explained, grabbing a practice sword from the rack.
That made sense.
Physical activity was known to warm you up faster. And if Sanemi was cold, sparring with someone would theoretically warm you up.
And he'd chose to spar with Giyuu out of all people. It made the Water Hashira warm, for some reason, to know that Sanemi had so many options but he'd chose Giyuu. The man that he hated but also couldn't stay away from. They would always be together somehow, but it was often just Sanemi insulting Giyuu.
"Okay." Giyuu said, not knowing what else to say to the other Hashira.
"Would you stop saying 'okay'? It's like you can only have one word answers. It's freaky." Sanemi muttered, getting into position with his practice blade.
"I'm sorry." Giyuu almost said "okay" but he refrained from doing so as Sanemi just told him off for only answering his questions or comments with singular word answers. The problem was that Giyuu really didn't know how to talk to people. He didn't know how to give good answers. It was difficult.
"Good. Let's fight."
❅
Midway through their fight, snow began falling from the sky in tiny flecks of white dust. Giyuu ignored it's presence, because it wasn't that annoying, but when the temperature started dropping and the accumulation snow started to pick up, he knew that he had to head inside. But of course, he didn't want to leave Sanemi and disappear from their sparring session. It would only add to the hatred that the Wind Hashira had for Giyuu.
So he would just bear the feeling of the cold, even though he literally couldn't feel his fingers or his toes.
If he didn't get inside, he was likely going to end up with a minor case of frostbite. That would be embarrassing for him.
So he kept fighting.
Eventually, Sanemi noticed his shivering. Great.
"Are you— shivering?" asked the other Hashira, raising an eyebrow. "It's not even—" Sanemi shivered as well. "—that cold."
Giyuu didn't fight him. But he did say, "You're cold as well."
"Thanks for stating the obvious." Sanemi snorted, pausing in his movements to catch his breath. Puffs of air exited from his mouth, proving that it really was that cold. Giyuu glanced at his fingers, and they looked like they were about to freeze off. "We should—" Another shiver. "—go inside."
Giyuu nodded in agreement, dropping his practice sword to head to the closest door of the Water Estate. He was sure that frostbite was in his near future if he didn't get to a door fast.
Suddenly, his head was swimming, and his breathing was ragged and the world was loopy.
And then he hit something soft.
❅
"Tomioka. Tomioka! Wake up." Sanemi's voice was softer than normal. Giyuu wasn't good at reading emotions, but he could almost hear… concern in the Wind Hashira's voice. What was Sanemi concerned about? Certainly not Giyuu. There was no way that he was worried about Giyuu.
Giyuu groaned, turning his head to bury back into whatever warmth surrounded him. So warm. He enjoyed the warmth very much. He liked it. A lot. It was cozy and comfortable and he never wanted to leave.
"Ew— stop pushing into me!" yelled Sanemi.
Wait.
Was Giyuu nuzzling into Sanemi? Was that where the warmth was coming from? Sanemi was… holding him? No, that couldn't be right. Sanemi was probably sitting beside him and had a blanket over Giyuu. Yes, that was what was happening.
"But 'm cold." Giyuu whispered. Shivers lingered, and it felt like ice was covering his body. Maybe it was. Had he gotten frostbite and fainted? Or was that hypothermia.
Sanemi snorted a laugh. "Of fucking course you're cold, idiot, you passed out due to hypothermia. Why aren't your clothes warmer?"
Giyuu honestly didn't know. He could ask for a warmer uniform for the winter months to go under his special haori, as many of the other Hashira did, but he was honestly too lazy to do that. Too tired. Too cold.
"What are you doing?" Giyuu asked, eyes refusing to open on purpose so he wouldn't get confirmation on whether or not he was being held by Sanemi.
"To warm you up, I'm sharing body heat and wrapping you in a blanket. Don't you dare make it weird, Tomioka." Sanemi grunted, and Giyuu felt the warmth of the Wind Hashira's hand on his back through the blanket.
"Why do you never call me Giyuu?" asked the Water Hashira, straying off topic.
"Why do you always call me Shinazuagawa?" Sanemi countered.
"Because you'd get mad at me if I called you Sanemi."
"Exactly. So why would I call you Giyuu?"
"Because I want you to." Giyuu murmured. He never liked it when people he worked (at least people at the same level as him), called him "Mr.", "sir", or Tomioka. It felt too professional, and Giyuu didn't feel like he was good enough to deserve such politeness.
Sanemi was silent for a moment.
"Giyuu." he whispered, testing the name on his tongue. "Huh."
Giyuu finally took this moment to crack one of his ocean blue eyes that more resembled a void than anything else, and realized that he really was being held by Sanemi. Sanemi was holding him— making sure that he didn't freeze to death. Giyuu sighed. Freezing to death didn't sound like the worst way to go. In fact, he had fainted, so he probably wouldn't have even felt the pain.
"Why are you doing this for me?" Giyuu asked, finally getting back onto the topic of him almost dying of cold.
"Obviously I didn't want you to die." Sanemi muttered.
Wait, Sanemi… had wanted him to live? Nobody forced him to help?
Giyuu was confused.
"Shinobu didn't force you to?" he confirmed.
"Nope."
"Tanjiro didn't make you?"
"No again."
"So… you just did it by yourself?"
"Yes."
Why would Sanemi do that? Again, he despised Giyuu. And due to that fact, Giyuu immediately tried to move off of Sanemi, worried that he was imposing.
"Don't move. You need the heat or you'll freeze again." Sanemi ordered, wrapping a second arm around Giyuu, pulling him onto his chest.
Giyuu let out a undignified squeak, surprised at Sanemi's movements.
"I'm fine." Giyuu insisted.
"You're still shivering."
"No 'm not."
Sanemi raised an eyebrow at him.
"Okay, maybe I am." Giyuu blinked up at Sanemi with his wide blue eyes.
"So stay here." Sanemi said, adjusting Giyuu against his chest so he was facing the fire. Giyuu was now sitting in his lap. It was rather comfortable, if Giyuu was being perfectly honest.
When his mind processed, eventually, what was happening and his face heated up to the best of its ability while he was still cold. The blush probably wasn't visible, as his face was flushed from the cold, but if he wasn't cold, his blush would have been very noticeable.
"Okay. I'll stay." Giyuu whispered. And then he asked, "…can I fall asleep?"
Sanemi sighed, but nodded.
"Yeah. You can fall asleep."
Giyuu buried his face into Sanemi's chest and murmured, "…thank you."
"It's nothing."
It wasn't really nothing.
Not really.
❅
The snow didn't stop.
In fact, it snowed so much that Giyuu and Sanemi couldn't exit the Water Estate without tripping into the snow. So they stayed inside, sitting by the fire, training in an indoor training room, and eating.
Turns out, Sanemi was a rather good cook. Giyuu enjoyed his cooking.
Giyuu also just liked to eat food. It was something that comforted him. So as he warmed up from his near death experience, he ate the ramen that Sanemi made him in front of the fire, humming to himself.
He looked back to find Sanemi looking at him with softer eyes than usual.
Giyuu didn't really know what to say to the Wind Hashira. Was he supposed to look at him in return? Compliment him? Thank him? No, Sanemi wasn't doing this because he liked Giyuu. He was doing this because everyone else would kill him if he let Giyuu die. Yes, that was the reason.
But Giyuu wanted to thank him anyways.
"Thanks… for the ramen."
"Don't think about it. I'm just keeping you alive." Sanemi's voice didn't have the usual bite to it either. What was going on? Was Giyuu delirious because of the cold?
That was it.
He was sure that was it.
But that night, when he rested in Sanemi's arms yet again, staying warm, he wasn't sure if the Wind Hashira hated him as much as he thought.
Maybe he had a shot at something more.
And as the warmth of Sanemi's body spread through him, he knew that he really did.
He had a chance at becoming friends (or maybe more, but Giyuu didn't realize that yet) with Sanemi.
And for the first time, Giyuu truly felt warm.