Chapter Text
Kamado Tanjiro and his sister are well-known in the Corps. Or, more like infamous. They are notoriously difficult to handle.
To start, Tanjiro himself is headstrong and stubborn, ready to throw himself into danger for anyone who asks. He will disregard orders for the sake of justice. Admirable, but dangerous nonetheless. And, depending on who you ask, he’s a little annoying. For as kind and generous as he is, there are certain things that he refuses to compromise on.
The Wind Hashira, Shinazugawa Sanemi, and the Serpent Hashira, Iguro Obanai, have experienced the worst of it. They’re experiencing it right now, in fact.
All they’re doing is sparring, a normal part of Hashira training, and maybe throwing around some shit talk, which is normal for these two, especially. Kamado Tanjiro just happened to be walking by with his sister and saw (smelled) them. Well, if you asked Tanjiro, he would have told you that he was just stopping by to check in on Giyuu!
And then there’s Kamado Nezuko. She’s a demon. There’s more to her, though, like how she tends to do whatever she wants, and how she can be as stubborn as her brother. Like when she gave Yushiro, Tamayo’s… assistance of sorts, head pats despite his very clear dislike of her. Or that time she literally set the Sound Hashira on fire. That was especially concerning. Sure, she wasn’t speaking at the time, but there was definitely no indication that her intentions were to be helpful. A little warning would’ve been nice, y’know?
So, Sanemi and Obanai are sparring. To be specific, they’re currently sparring with Tomioka Giyuu, who is taking the brunt of their shit talk. To be fair, he’s taking it like a champ. No matter what they yell at him, he refuses to react. Granted, that’s because he doesn’t know what they’re talking about when they say he ‘thinks he’s better than them,’ so he instead chooses to remain silent.
They’re going at each other with wooden practice swords and all their might. It’s basically an even match. It started with Sanemi and Obanai coming across Giyuu just outside of his estate. They were planning on ignoring him, but he saw them and invited them inside for tea, which they declined. Then, he offered to spar, and how could they turn down such a tempting offer? Now, they can beat him up without consequence.
At least, that’s what they would be doing if he wasn’t so damn good at his job. He’s graceful and swift, elegant and deadly. Sanemi tries his hardest not to admire it (or get distracted by the way Giyuu’s pale skin makes his blue eyes stand out), but he can’t deny the mastery Giyuu has over water breathing. Using a sword just seems to come so easy to him.
Compared to wind breathing, water breathing is better suited for defense, which works wonderfully against the harsh onslaught of Sanemi’s attacks. Not only that, but the swiftness of Giyuu’s moves counters Obanai’s serpent breathing easily, as he’s able to parry the weird, slithery way Obanai strikes.
As most sparring sessions go, tensions start to build and build until Sanemi can’t take it anymore and starts trying to goad Giyuu into doing something out of character. Whether it’s to get him to make a mistake, yell, or hit back with the intent to kill, Sanemi is trying his hardest to make Giyuu angry, to get him to show emotion, but nothing is fucking working.
No matter what he throws at Giyuu or how hard he runs at him, the man just won’t react. “God, you arrogant prick! You think you’re too good to respond to me, huh?!” Sanemi growls as he rushes Giyuu again. The way this prick doesn’t feel it necessary to respond only angers him further. His silence does nothing but goad them on.
“What’s wrong, Tomioka?” Obanai hisses, his voice unnaturally placating and sweet. “Are you too high and might to deign us with a response?” When he strikes this time, Giyuu only raises his sword to block, forgoing any breathing technique. “Or maybe you’re just sooo much better that we don’t even deserve your effort!”
Giyuu is really just confused. He never understands what they mean when they get like this. He invited them to spar because he had heard it was something they enjoyed doing, so he thought it’d be a good time for them to bond. He hears his sword crack as he raises it up again to block a hit from Sanemi.
He isn’t talking because he’s not much of a talker to begin with, but also because he’s trying his best to concentrate. Sanemi and Obanai are both incredibly talented fighters, so he needs to concentrate as much as possible to track their movements and defend himself against their attacks. It’s really hard, but he’s having fun.
As he goes to attack Obanai, their swords meet, and the force of the impact splinters them. Obanai lets his broken sword fall to the ground. “Well then. Maybe we’ll just have to finish the job with our fists!”
Giyuu finally speaks, “Ah, no, thank you.”
Obanai feels like a vein in his head is about to burst. Sanemi is just as furious. “Hah?! What’s wrong, Tomioka? You too much of a little bitch to finish the job?” Fine, he’ll give Tomioka a reason to fight. He’s lunging at Giyuu again, but just as his sword is about to make contact with his neck, it’s grabbed by a feminine hand. As clawed fingers wrap around the wooden blade, the sword gives way and is crushed.
“Nezuko!” Tanjiro shouts. “Be careful! You’ll hurt your hand.” Tanjiro stands at the entrance gate to Giyuu’s estate while Nezuko stands in front of Giyuu. She throws the splinters to the ground and raises her arms, shielding him from Sanemi and Obanai.
Now Obanai is ticked off. Fuck, why is the damn demon girl here? She couldn’t have shown up at a worse time. Obanai’s fingers itch for his sword, lying out of reach on the engawa of the estate. He talks himself out of it: The Master has already approved of her existence. I’ll get in trouble if I attack her. Kanroji is also fond of her (though he can’t possibly imagine why).
Tanjiro stomps up to them, standing next to his sister and acting as some sort of guard dog for Giyuu. Sanemi is getting more and more irritated by the second. For real? Can Tomioka not fend for himself? Does he seriously need two kids to protect him? One of whom is a demon, by the way!
Giyuu looks shocked at their arrival, though. From where he stands behind the Kamados, Sanemi can see the way his eyebrows are raised, his eyes the slightest bit wider, and his mouth just barely parted. It’s the biggest reaction he’s ever seen out of Giyuu.
“Shinazugawa, you can’t call Giyuu-san such mean names!” The kid scolds him. The kid scolds him. Him. The fucking Wind Hashira, Shinazugawa Sanemi.
Sanemi has never wanted to stab a child more in his life. Between the Kamado brats, he would gladly let the demon girl live if it meant he could kick Tanjiro’s face in. It may be dishonourable, but fuck, would it be satisfying.
Giyuu, however, looks exasperated at the two kids. “Tanjiro, you need to be more respectful to your seniors,” he implores the young boy.
Tanjiro staunchly objects, adamantly shaking his head. “No! I have no respect for Shinazugawa,” he says cheerfully, like a freak. “He stabbed Nezuko after all!” Nezuko nods along to her brother’s words.
“Yes, stab!” She shouts in agreement. Whether she was agreeing that she was stabbed, or to stab, none of the Hashira could tell.
“Please,” Giyuu sighs heavily, placing a hand on Nezuko’s shoulder. “There’s no need for you two to get so worked up. We were just sparring. It’s a normal part of Hashira training.”
They still refuse to back down. They act like Giyuu’s guard dogs despite the fact that he is, first of all, older than them; second of all, they’re senior in the Demon Slayer Corps; and third of all, stronger than both of them, and definitely strong enough to defend himself from Sanemi and Obanai.
He just doesn’t understand why they have such a strong desire to defend him. He tries talking them out of their defensive positions. “Tanjiro, Nezuko, regardless of how you feel, I can still defend myself. As I said, we were just sparring. With fake swords.”
Tanjiro looks at him with his big, sad puppy eyes. “But Giyuu-san, there was no reason for him to call you names like that.”
Obanai scoffs. “Kid, you’re lucky we didn’t call him worse shit.” That drags Tanjiro’s attention back to the two Hashira. Giyuu’s pretty sure Nezuko is growling at them. Great, Obanai has just undone all the progress he had made in distracting the siblings. If they attack him, he can’t say Giyuu didn’t try to do anything.
“Tanjiro,” Giyuu tries again, “how about you and Nezuko go inside first. I’ll be with you after I send Shinazugawa and Iguro off.”
Sanemi has been simmering in his anger, though. Why the fuck is some snot-nosed brat defending the Water Hashira? Why is he being so disrespectful to his seniors? Why the fuck does Giyuu feel the need to protect Sanemi from a child? He can defend himself.
The demon girl looks just about ready to attack. Sanemi wishes she would, so he’d have an excuse to kill her and her stubborn older brother. “Fuck off, kid. Let the adults handle things.” He steps forward to shove Tanjiro to the side.
As he does, the girl’s growling gets louder, and Giyuu is starting to get irritated. “Shinazugawa, please—”
The moment Sanemi’s hand makes contact with Tanjiro’s shoulder, ready to shove him to the side, Tanjiro grabs onto his wrist and pulls Sanemi to the ground with him. They land in a heap of limbs and it just about sets Sanemi off.
“Hey, Kamado!” Obanai yells as he watches it unfold in front of his eyes, while Giyuu seems at a loss for words.
Obanai’s yelling every expletive he knows under the sun at Tanjiro, threatening to him and his demon sister kicked out. Sanemi is ready to hit the kid, but Nezuko steps in and grabs his hand, momentarily distracting him long enough for Tanjiro to wind back and headbutt Sanemi. He falls back to the ground with bloody pouring from his nose.
How could these two brats disrespect a Hashira like this? Obanai is fuming. He’s moves to pull Sanemi off of Tanjiro, he doesn’t get very far when Sanemi starts fighting against him, determined to yell at the kids.
Somewhere in the midst of the chaos, Tanjiro starts yelling back. Some dumb shit about how he doesn’t acknowldge Sanemi as a Hashira, how he shouldn’t be a Hashira because of his aggression, or something along those lines. Sanemi doesn’t know; he tuned the kid out the moment he started yelling. Nezuko stands to the side, just echoing her brother’s words.
“Oi, you brat!” Obanai tries to grabs Tanjiro to remove him from Sanemi. “You should respect Shinazugawa! He’s your superior— Ow!” Tanjiro suddenly swings his head back, knocking Obanai in the nose. “Fuck— Get off of him!”
“He started it!”
“The fuck I did—”
Suddenly, Giyuu yells.
“Tanjiro, Nezuko! Behave!” He grabs the two of them by their collars and pulls the kids off of Sanemi before he forces them to their knees in front of him. They sit back on their heels, hands fisted in their laps, and heads down, eyes fixed to the floor, it takes Sanemi to process the look of shame on their faces, but he’s too distracted to register any sense of satisfaction.
When he and Obanai get a good look at Giyuu’s face, he looks furious. His eyebrows are drawn together tightly, face contorted into a light scowl, but it’s still more emotion than they had ever seen from him. He’s louder than they’ve ever heard him be, too.
“Shame on you,” he scolds the siblings. “Nezuko, you are not allowed to hurt humans, you know that, right? That also means you shouldn’t be an accomplice, either! I thought you had more sense than this,” he huffs, pinching the bridge of his nose. God, he feels a headache coming on.
“And you, Kamado Tanjiro—” The boy squeaks at the sound of his full name— “You are a demon slayer. You have passed the Final Selection to become an official Corps member. Why the hell are you treating Shinazugawa and Iguro with such disrespect? I know you don’t like them because of how they treated to Nezuko, but they’re Hashira! How else were they supposed to react?!”
Sanemi feels… a reaction to seeing Giyuu like this. It’s difficult to describe and he doesn’t know how to explain it. He just knows that he likes what he’s seeing: Giyuu showing emotion, being angry, scolding the Kamados. He looks like their mother, he thinks to himself, amused. He’s definitely acting like it.
Maybe he’d make a good mother, his mind whispers, and he barely refrains from punching himself. He’s definitely making a face based on the way Obanai is looking at him with concern and thinly veiled unease.
“But Giyuu-san, they were calling you—”
“Tanjiro,” Giyuu interrupts him, a little bit softer. He kneels in front of him and holds his cheek. “I really appreciate that you’re worried about me, but we’re adults. We were sparring and things were getting intense. I can handle being called names. I don’t mind it, really. You don’t need to get so worked up over someone like me.”
His words give Sanemi pause. Someone like me. What does that mean? But he pushes his thoughts away in favor of watching Giyuu look at the siblings with fondness, despite lecturing them.
Giyuu sighs and stands back up. “You two head inside first; I’m going to see my guests off. We’ll finish this conversation later.”
The two kids run inside, and Giyuu turns to the other two Hashira, bowing deeply in apology. “Please forgive them, they were out of line.”
To be frank, Obanai doesn’t know how to handle this kind of behavior from Tomioka Giyuu. He’s a little put-off, sure, but he also thinks he likes that Giyuu scolded the Kamados on his behalf, feeling gratified that their behavior did not go unpunished. “It better not happen again,” he settles on hissing.
“It won’t,” Giyuu assures him. “I’m not sure why they were so hostile today, but I apologise all the same.”
“Yeah, sure,” Sanemi grumbles. “It’s nothing we can’t handle. Stand up already.”
Giyuu obliges, straightening to meet their eyes. “Is there any other way I could ask for forgiveness? This doesn’t feel adequate.”
Sanemi shakes his head. “No, it’s whatever. Just make sure they don’t act like this again. It’ll get them in trouble.”
Giyuu nods and guide them to the gate. “I— um… I had fun,” he says. He’s awkward, Sanemi notes to himself with vague hints of fondness that he tries to strangle and snuff out. “I hope you wouldn’t mind sparring with me again. It was very insightful.”
Obanai waves him off. “Maybe, we’ll see.” After a moment of contemplation, he adds, “I enjoyed it too. You are very skilled, Tomioka.”
“You too, Iguro.”
“It wasn’t too bad,” Sanemi mutters through gritted teeth. “Maybe one day.”
Giyuu studies him for a second, tilting his head as he regards Sanemi. Then, his features soften. It’s so subtle that it would be basically impossible for someone to detect, but not Sanemi. Sanemi has been studying Giyuu’s facial expression as closely as he could, always searching for a twitch that betrayed his emotions. This was especially the case when he was looking to get a rise out of Giyuu, trying to make him angry. No, seriously, this was only because he was trying to see if anything he was saying was getting to him! Honestly!
To Obanai, Giyuu looks as he usually does, but to Sanemi, his face has brightened significantly. Sanemi feels blown away. This is probably the closest they’ll ever get to seeing Giyuu smile, and Sanemi really doesn’t know how to feel about it.
Part of him thinks, Oh, so he can show some fucking emotions, while another part of him freaks out because, Fuck, has he always been so… good-looking? Well, no, not that Sanemi thinks Giyuu is good-looking—Or, no, it’s more like he’s never thought of him like that, you see? Like, sure, Giyuu has always been attractive, but not that Sanemi is attracted to him—
Sanemi thinks Giyuu looks good right now. That’s all there is to it. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s just that the way his expression lightens just kinda brightens his whole face, right? And, you know, Giyuu is just an objectively attractive man to begin with— but, no, not that Sanemi thinks he’s attractive—
Obanai starts dragging Sanemi away from the house as Giyuu heads backs inside. “You’re so fucking useless,” he hears Obanai mutter. What could’ve possibly compelled him to say that? “You were standing there, just staring at him for three minutes. Get a grip.” Oh.
When his brain finally catches up to his body, Sanemi says, “That was unexpected, wasn’t it? Tomioka yelling.”
“Yeah,” Obanai nods. “I didn’t think he had it in him to yell at his own kids.”
Sanemi scoffs. “At least they fucking listened to him, those disrespectful brats. The fuck did they attack me for?”
The walk further and further away from the water estate, but there’s something that Sanemi just can’t get off his mind. “Tomioka…”
Obanai sends him a questioning look. “What about him? Does this have something to do with why you were staring at him so intensely just now?”
Sanemi is quick to shake his head. “No! Or, actually, maybe. I’m not sure. He left one hell of an impact on me, man.”
“I’ll say, I’ve never seen him react to anything.”
“Yeah, but it’s not just that.” Sanemi pauses for a second, running his thoughts through his head until he can articulate words tactfully enough to explain himself. Obanai lets him.
And they keep walking until they’re at a fork in the road. Down one road is Sanemi’s territory, and down another is Obanai’s. They split up here, but Sanemi is still unusually quiet. Obanai is starting to get concerned, stopping to check on him.
“What are you thinking about, Shinazugawa?”
“I think… Wasn’t Tomioka a little attractive just now?” Obanai bristles. “When he was yelling?”
When Sanemi turns to look at Obanai, he’s already walking toward his territory, almost sprinting to get away from Sanemi. “You’re fucked in the head, Shinazugawa!” Obanai yells at him without turning back.
“Says you, you son of a bitch!” Sanemi yells in return. What the fuck was his problem? He asked Sanemi what he was thinking, so he just said it!
Then, it hits Sanemi. What the fuck did I just say about Tomioka?