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After a couple of gruelling months, Tomioka Giyuu found himself having an entire day to do nothing. Usually he would have stayed inside his estate, unbothered and lonely, but to his irritation he didn't want to.
Lately, Giyuu had inadvertently come to spend his time with a certain Pillar. In the beginning, he had resisted talking to her, but over time he had grown accustomed to her company and enjoyed talking with her.
Shinobu was everything he wasn't: social, approachable, warm and deserving to be a Hashira. They both had lost people dear to them, and understood each other despite their divergent personalities.
She had always encouraged him to make friends with other Pillars, which so far had resulted in a disaster: Obanai Iguro literally hissing at his attempt to talk with him and Shinazugawa cracking his knuckles when watching him approach.
However, not all was lost on friendship front for him. Because there was this sunshine of a boy- Kamado Tanjirou who had become an important part of his life. Although a bit too enthusiastic for his liking, he was fond of that boy and his demon sister, whose life he had spared years ago, and made a bet that had changed everything.
He ought to check on Tanjirou.
Yes, he finally had a reason to visit the Butterfly Mansion, and not because he wanted to.
With this thought in mind, he picked up his sword and made his way towards the said mansion where Tanjirou, and certain someone, would be found.
When he reached the entrance of the mansion, he was surprised to see Tokito Muichiro, the Mist Pillar, standing at the entrance.
The kid was a prodigy who become a Hashira at the age of 14. He rarely interacted during the Hashira meeting and was more engrossed in clouds than anything else. He also suffered from bouts of memory loss.
However, Giyuu noticed the boy had changed after meeting Tanjirou, and had grown more social (at least whenever the Kamado boy was around).
Giyuu reached closer to Muichiro, who gave a quick glance at his approaching footsteps, just as Aoi opened the gates.
“Tokito-sama, you are here. Oh Tomioka-sama, are you also here for the storytelling session?”
Storytelling what?
“Oh!” Aoi realised with a sheepish expression that Giyuu knew nothing about this small ritual they had started at the Butterfly Mansion.
“Please enter.” She bowed slightly towards both Hashira.
“We were together at the Final Selection,” Muichiro spoke for the first time in a while.
“Huh?”
“You don't need to bow for me.” Aoi was flabbergasted by his response.
Giyuu watched this minor exchange with an inscrutable expression.
When they reached the room where all those here for the storytelling session were gathered, he could hear the noises.
When the door was opened, he saw Tanjirou, Inosuke and a visibly terrified Zenitsu sitting on one side, along with none other than Kanroji. He also noticed Kanao and Butterfly triplets sitting towards the other side. They all were sitting in a semi circle.
“Tokito-kun, finally, you are here—” Shinobu paused, looking to the side.
“Tomioka-san?”
“Kochou” He offered a curt nod to everyone else.
Before Shinobu could ask him anything else, Tanjirou's jovial voice beat her to it.
“Giyuu-san, please join us. Muichiro-kun, you also sit here.”
Giyuu took a seat next to Shinobu. She watched him sit with silent amusement.
“How did you know about these sessions?” She looked at Giyuu with a warm smile.
“I don't.” He answered in a deadpan voice and looked towards Aoi.
“I told Tomioka-san about this." The girl answered, her tone embarassed.
“Oh. So why were you here then?"
“I—” Giyuu paused. He was getting increasingly uncomfortable with her scrutinising gaze in front of everyone.
“Was it health-related? Did you need any medicine? I hope everything is fine. I can give you a check-up.”
Giyuu scrambled for words when he watched Shinobu stand up, probably to guide him to the infirmary wing.
Despite her intelligence, Shinobu was particularly dense when it came to these things.
“Shinobu-chan, don't you see, Tomioka-san wanted to spend time with you.”
Kanroji's boisterous declaration led to a pin-drop silence.
They both looked at each other, dumbfounded.
Aoi trying to salvage the situation from becoming more awkward, hastily jumped in to bring everyone's attention to the original purpose of gathering.
“Shinobu-sama, should we begin?”
The storytelling session started with Shinobu's horror stories, and Giyuu had half a mind to comment that she started this gathering only because she loved ghost stories, and needed an audience for them.
However, he gotta give it to her that her stories were pretty scary given everyone, including the boar-headed kid, otherwise unruly and wild, looked terrified. Zenitsu was literally cowering behind Tanjirou.
Then Kanroji started telling one of the stories from her “impromptu” dates with Obanai. There was one particular incident where the stall owner made a face when Mitsuri ordered a fifth bowl of ramen, and Iguro looked at him with such a stern expression that the owner not only brought her order at a lightening pace but also gave her two more bowls for free.
Tanjirou rambled about a folktale about a mountain deity from his mother. Zenitsu, though still jealous of Iguro and reeling from the shock of Shinobu's horror story, sputtered something about his grandpa's punishment during his training days, and how a bolt of lightning changed his hair colour from black to blonde.
Inosuke gloatingly talked about hunting a small bear in his childhood and then challenged Giyuu, Muichiro and Tanjiro to fight; he was royally ignored.
Aoi talked about a prank the butterfly triplets played on Sanemi when Kanae was alive.
Apparently, Sanemi had made an innocuous observation about everyone in Butterfly estate having a Butterfly pin, and the triplets had decided to make him wear one also. Sanemi had tried to scare them away with his characteristic scowl but Kanae's interest proved too strong to make Sanemi resist.
Everyone in the room swore to never let Sanemi know about this story but not before everyone had a good laugh about it, even Tomioka was amused imagining the abrasive Wind Pillar looking like a flustered mess with his hair tied up in a butterfly pin.
To everyone's surprise, it was Kanao who spoke up next. Shinobu's heart warmed when Kanao didn't use the coin to decide about her participation. In her meek voice, she talked about one time she was gifted a dango by someone she saved during one of her missions.
Tanjirou gave her a thumbs up for her attempt.
Muichiro looked at Aoi and dwelled upon how Aoi bandaged his wound on the first day of Final Selection. Shinobu exchanged a look with Mitsuri while Aoi's blush was hardly hidden from anyone.
Everyone then turned towards Giyuu.
“What?” He looked mortified.
"Come on, Tomioka-san, you don't think you can join our storytelling gathering and not tell us a story.”
Her sentence was followed by a long span of silence.
After some time, Shinobu finally decided to stop teasing; she knew Giyuu was not good at socialising. So, she decided to wrap up the gathering to free him from the turmoil.
“Alright, everyone—”
“It was one month after Kochou became a Hashira,” Giyuu's quiet voice cut the silence. Everyone turned to look at him with surprise. He was not looking at anyone, though.
Shinobu's heart gave a soft tug.
“I had just returned from the mission when I saw Shinobu standing in the middle of the road.”
Shinobu's expression of pleasant surprise soon turned into horror when she realised which story Giyuu was narrating.
“I went to check on her. The moment I reached, I saw a small puppy sitting in front of her. "
Giyuu then turned towards her, ”The moment she saw me, she latched onto me and pushed me ahead to scare the dog away.”
And then he delivered in his characteristic deadpan voice, “The thing was, I am also scared of the dogs.”
He delivered the last sentence in such a deadpan voice that the entire room burst into laughter while Shinobu's face had gone a shade less than blood red.
“Then wh-who scared the dog away?" Mitsuri managed to ask amid a fit of giggles.
“No one; the dog ran away.” The laughter roared once again in the room. Even Kanao managed to let out a few quiet giggles.
The image of two terrifying Hashira being scared of a puppy struck everyone for another round of laughter; this time even Shinobu joined the chorus.
Watching her laugh so heartily, Giyuu was momentarily stunned.
Mitsuri noticed, of course.
“So Tomioka-san's idea of stories includes time spent with Shinobu-chan.”
Both turned to each other once again, cheeks coloured and eyes widened, which led to another round of laughter.
After everyone else left for their respective work, Giyuu joined Shinobu in her courtyard with a cup of tea.
“I didn't know you would tell that story.” Shinobu teased him, but there was no bite.
“I have very little to tell besides my time spent with you in the name of stories."
”I see.” She was slightly surprised by his honesty.
"Kanroji was right.” Giyuu cleared his throat.
“Hmm?” Shinobu raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him
“I was here today because I wanted to spend time with you.”
Shinobu's cheeks warmed at his straightforwardness. But she managed to say,
“You are always welcome to join our storytelling sessions!”
At this, a small smile appeared on his face, making Shinobu's breath hitch,
“I will.”