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Sanemi Shinazugawa didn't know what to make of Giyuu Tomioka. After the incident with the sparring match, and Giyuu getting hypothermia, they weren't… really… enemies, anymore. And according to Tomioka, they never had been.
"I never hated you, where did you get that from?" Giyuu said, looking at Sanemi with those wide, ocean blue eyes of his.
Now Sanemi was abso-fucking-lutely confused. Because for one, he couldn't get the feeling of Tomioka''s body on his out of his mind. And two, he couldn't get over the fact that Tomioka didn't hate him. And apparently, all of that "I'm not like the rest of you" shit was because he didn't think he was deserving of being a Hashira?
He created a new Water Breathing form, and he thought he didn't deserve to be a Hashira. Sanemi could smell the bullshit. Tomioka deserved to be a Hashira just as much as he did. And now that he knew that the Water Hashira didn't think he was better than anyone else, Sanemi didn't really have any reason to resent him.
"I never thought that I was better than any of you." he whispered quietly, staring up at the ceiling. "I thought you were all better than me."
That had been a rude awakening for Sanemi.
Because when they'd had that conversation, Tomioka had looked like he was on the verge of tears. Well. Not Tomioka now, since apparently he preferred it when he was called Giyuu by the Wind pillar.
It would take some adjusting, but Sanemi would try to follow his request. It was simple, after all.
And now, Sanemi had all of these confusing ass emotions about Giyuu, and he didn't know how to deal with them, so he channelled them into anger. Not really, if he was being honest, he was just harder on his students when it came to training than he usually was.
So much so that his students started to notice.
"Is Mr. Shinazugawa okay? He's been making us work extra hard, and when he does that it's usually because something's up." whispered one of his students, a girl with purple hair named Chiharu, who was actually a rather good student in Sanemi's mind.
She was dedicated, kind, and passionate.
Another student, a boy with short black hair that faded into a soft pink, whose name was Ahasi, shrugged. "I don't know. But we can't complain, or else he'll make us work ten times harder."
"I suppose you're right," Chiharu said with a sigh. "let's just get back to training, then."
They weren't wrong.
Sanemi was a strict teacher, and complaints were not tolerated in the slightest. They were met with punishments of conditioning, or actual training with Sanemi himself, which no student wanted, because fighting Sanemi was a terrible experience if you didn't have a similar skill level to him.
Like Giyuu.
But he hadn't sparred with Giyuu since that snowy day at the Water Estate.
And it was still winter, of course, but the Wind Estate had indoor training grounds, so that was where he trained his students.
But he was afraid of something happening to Giyuu again, so he hadn't suggested a spar since.
What the fuck had gotten into him?
Since when did he actually care about Giyuu fucking Tomioka's well being?
Apparently, since the first snow that kept them locked together in the Water Estate for a couple days.
❅
Sanemi's feelings, coupled with his confusion as to why they were there, were becoming more and more noticeable by the day. Kochou clearly knew, but she was polite enough to have said nothing. So far.
Kanroji likely knew as well, because whenever Sanemi and Giyuu were even in each other's vicinity, she began smiling and sometimes giggling like an idiot until Kochou told her to shut up.
Iguro had noticed as well, and has actually asked the Wind pillar about it.
They are best friends after all. And best friends told each other these sorts of things.
❅
"Sanemi." Iguro said, tapping the man on the shoulder. "We have to talk about Tomioka."
The Wind pillar flinched at the name. Of course. He'd known this conversation was coming, he'd seen it coming from a mile away.
Sanemi let out a sigh. "I know."
Iguro released a breath. "Good, at least you're not brushing me off or yelling at me. Now talk."
So Sanemi talked. And when he was done, his best friend let out a low whistle of surprise. Sanemi didn't know why, because he didn't understand what he was feeling. But apparently Iguro did.
"You like him." said the Hashira in front of him. "I may go even as far as to say you love him."
The white haired man froze.
"No. That's not possible. I don't love Giyuu Tomioka." he said confidently.
"Whatever you say, my friend, whatever you say."
Sanemi sat down on a stone wall and put his head in his hands. "What the fuck am I gonna do about it then? Sit down and talk about it? That's not exactly my strong suit."
Iguro shrugged. "I'm afraid you're going to have to."
"You aren't helping, Iguro!" Sanemi groaned, lifting his head up just enough so he could stare at his best friend.
"I can ask Kanroji to make you some hot cocoa and some ohagi or something so you can talk about it over some food." suggested the Serpent pillar. That… wasn't a bad idea.
And Sanemi loved ohagi.
❅
"OPEN UP, GIYUU!" Sanemi was about to say "Tomioka", but he remembered what Giyuu preferred and stuck to his given name instead. It always felt strange to use when he said it, but strangely right, in a way. He had a moderate amount of warm ohagi in his pocket (in Sanemi's favourite flavour, red bean), and had two packets of hot cocoa powder with them for when, and if Giyuu let him come in.
There was almost a minute without an answer, and Sanemi was about to leave when he heard the familiar voice of the Water Hashira coming from inside the estate.
"Shinazugawa? Is that you?" Giyuu's voice was soft, as it was always. But today, it sounded even softer, like he had just woken up from a nap, or something.
"Yeah, it is. Open up." Sanemi pressed.
When Giyuu opened the wooden sliding door, Sanemi found that he was right. Giyuu looked like he'd just been sleeping, his normally tied up hair flowing over his shoulders and nearly past his hips.
He looked… soft.
And really, really looked good with his hair down.
Fuck. Sanemi was so screwed.
"I brought food." Sanemi said stiffly, pulling the warm bag of ohagi out of his pocket. "So we can talk and eat."
Giyuu looked at him blankly, as he always did. "Why do we have to talk?"
"You can't possibly not know."
"I don't."
"Then I'll tell you once I'm inside. It's fucking cold out here."
❅
"You brought me ohagi and hot cocoa. Did you make these?" Giyuu asked softly, holding the warm mug in between his pale hands. Sanemi knew that he'd been cold too, there was no fire running in the Water Estate, and no other heating, meaning that he was just sitting in the freezing cold.
So when Sanemi had entered, the first thing he'd done was light a fire by the couches, the same place where the Wind pillar had held Giyuu and kept him warm and god he wanted to do that again—
Wait. What? Why was he…
Sanemi shook the thoughts off, refusing to deal with those feelings until the conversation went that way.
"Made them? No. Kanroji did. Iguro asked for me." Sanemi explained, sipping his own drink. He glanced over at Giyuu, but he couldn't see his face from the side as his long curtain of hair was covering it.
"Oh. That's nice. I like her cooking." mused the Water pillar, who inched closer to the fire. "And… what did you want to talk to me about, Shinazugawa?"
Sanemi let out a long sigh.
"Just call me Sanemi."
"Yeah?"
The Wind Hashira nodded. "Just… don't be weird about it, asshole."
"How can I be weird about it when the weirdest thing I know is beside me?" Giyuu teased, making Sanemi flush with frustration.
"Ugh, you're the worst. And, you're gonna make me regret giving you hot cocoa."
"Don't take it away, I'm sorry." Giyuu pleaded, turning to face Sanemi, eyes wide and pleading. Sanemi couldn't refuse him when he was like this.
"I… well. I wanted to talk about what happened a few weeks ago."
"Where I almost died?"
"Yes, that."
"Where you held me and didn't try to kill me?"
Sanemi grumbled at the reminder, but nodded. "Yes, that time."
"Okay. Yes, I remember." Giyuu said plainly, taking a sip of his cocoa. He grabbed an ohagi and took a bite, then hummed happily. "It's good."
"We need to talk about it." Sanemi decided.
"What's there to talk about?"
"We literally cuddled on a couch for two days, we need to talk about it."
"Oh. Yeah, we did."
"Right."
"Is there something wrong with that? I liked it."
Sanemi blushed and turned away. Giyuu… liked it? That made Sanemi insanely flustered.
"Shit… fuck, really?" Sanemi asked, shocked.
"Yeah." Giyuu took another sip of his hot cocoa. "I liked it. Can you do it again?"
"What?" Sanemi asked. "Again?"
"Yeah. Please?"
Sanemi tackled Giyuu to the couch and kissed him. They had mostly skipped talking, but this was fine as well.
And then, the hot cocoa and ohagi was forgotten, and all either man could think about was the feeling of their lips on the others.