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BLLOOOUUUOUUGHGHGHHHIIIOOOGUUUGHHHHBBBRBBRRRRRBROROUUUOOOUUUUUGHHGHGBLLBLBLBLBLRRRBOOUOUOUUUUUUUUGH

[devalient]

Sanemi: I prevented a murder today.

Y/n: Oh cool! How'd you do that?

Sanemi, eyeing Giyuu: Self restraint.

[devalient]

Tired But Never of You (Part 5)

warning: cursing

Part 1 ~ Part 2  ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5

wordcount: 6.2k+

Sanemi watched you as you slept, wondering if he could trust you to be alone on your own when he heads out for a mission tomorrow. Then thinking that maybe you should have someone around your age to hang out with instead of being a loner and cooped up in the house all the time, he decided to send Sourai to ask Tengen’s wives if they were alright with you staying over at their home for a couple of days at the break of dawn. He lets you continue you slumber as he gets into his daily training, there was no point waking you up to train since you have lost your sight. You needed time to process things and he wasn’t sure if he’ll know how to deal with your breakdown if you had one. The whole thing was uneasy for him and he was sure that your calmness was just a facade. Sourai returned with the women’s replies when Sanemi was taking a break and Sanemi felt a large boulder was lifted off his shoulder when the women extended their welcome. Cutting his training short, he went to wake you up, wanting to bring you to their house before it was time for him to set off for his mission. He almost couldn’t bear to wake you up when he saw how peaceful you looked asleep.

“Y/n,” He poked you at your cheek lightly, “Y/n, it’s time to wake up.”

You groaned and turned the other way, shivering as you pulled the covers over your head. It was too early where everything was still dark and your body felt sore from the events the day before, you wanted more time to rest and to forget about the pain. And the best way to do that is to sleep in. Your tendency to get as much sleep as you can mostly came from your previous lifestyle, sleeping provided a temporary escape from reality for you. You didn’t need to bear with the hunger in your stomach, the constant throbbing pain all over your body or the tea dates you always had to attend with the other rich girls of the neighbourhood that fueled your anxiety further. Sanemi had been trying to break you out of this horrible habit, saying that you were just wasting your life away if you’re always huddled underneath the blankets, but you still couldn’t help it, it was one of the places where you truly felt that you were protected from the horrors of the world. You felt him peeling the covers from your head as he called your name again, caressing your head as he did so. You briefly wondered why he wasn’t in his usual state of bad temper when he’s trying to wake you up. He should be ripping away your pillow and futon by now. Lazily, you cracked an eye open, followed by the other and was greeted by darkness. Still wondering why Sanemi had woken you up before dawn, you held your hand out in front of your face, bringing it closer and frowning at it as you tried to spot the lines of your fingers in the dark. You felt Sanemi entangling your hand with his before he brought the back of your hand to his mouth, pressing a lingering kiss on it. Your breath hitched when the previous day’s events came flooding in your mind. A tear slid down your cheek and stained your futon.

He tried to cheer you up. “I’m bringing you to meet a few… acquaintances of mine today. They’re very nice people.”

“I don’t want to meet new people.” You sniffed, hugging your pillow tighter against your chest. “I just want to sleep.”

That can’t be good for your mind, especially if you’ll be left alone for a while. “Do it for me?” He pleaded. 

“You said you didn’t feel sympathetic towards me when you took me under your wing. Did you change your mind? Are you throwing me away somewhere and am never coming back?”

Sanemi looked at you, astounded by the words that came out of your mouth. How could you said that after what both of you have done last night? Before he could reply, you already stood up and was making your way to the bathroom for a shower. 

“Y/n, wait-”

“No, I understand. You don’t have to explain yourself.” You turned around to smile at him. “Truly I’m grateful that you took me in when I had nowhere to go, but I musn’t trouble you further. You’re a pillar and have a bright future ahead of you, you don’t need to have someone like me around to weight you down. I’ll be fine on my own, really. I’ll just pack up and go, I only have a few things so it will be quick. Oh, I hope you can bring me somewhere near a river, it’ll be easier-”

You gasped when you felt a pair of strong arms hugging you from behind.

Sanemi growled. “Listen to me carefully, because I’m not going to repeat myself. I’m… I can never throw you away. Never say shit like that ever again. So what if you’re blind? You’re important to me, it’s so easy to love you that it fucking scares me sometimes. I don’t want to let you go, don’t take this from me. Don’t do this to me y/n, do you know fucking hard it was to hear you said what you said? I fucking hate it when you mope around being scared of the world, I know why you like staying in bed, I know why you don’t like leaving the house. Leave your past behind y/n, stop letting it haunt you. Life is shit to everyone, but you’ll always have me to rely on if it’s too much.”

You held onto his arm, letting him bury his face into the crook of your neck as you felt warm tears staining your skin. “I promise I’ll be brave, please stop crying.” You told him softly, a hand reaching up to pat his head. “It must have been a nuisance holding all those emotions in, you poor thing. I’m sorry that I worried you, Nemi. I just thought it was better for me to go.”

“That thought is shit.”

“Yes, yes it was.”

~

You were practically hiding behind him the entire time Sanemi and the three strangers were greeting each other. While the ladies were kind towards the both of you, you could tell that Sanemi felt awkward during the entire exchange. You followed Sanemi out of the door as he was leaving with a hand hanging onto the back of his haori, wanting to see him off and to lessen the time you have to spend with those three strangers. He stopped in his footsteps and turned around to give you a quizzical look and saw that you held a hand over your stomach, an action of yours that he came to be familiar with whenever you felt frightened. He rubbed your stomach to ease your anxiousness, waiting for you to say whatever’s on your mind. 

“Stay safe.” You whispered to him. After giving you a pat on the head and a hasty promise that he’ll come back for you soon, he was off like the wind. You stood and listened for his disappearing footsteps and eventually decided to suck it up and go back inside the compound, a hand against the wall to guide yourself. 

The three women, whose names are Suma, Hina and Makio were certainly a busy lot and it didn’t take you long before you felt comfortable around them. While you thought Suma’s exaggerated thoughts and whines were hilarious and adorable and Makio’s aggressive side amusing, you prefer sticking with Hina for she was quiet and gentle. You wanted to make yourself useful in their home, not wanting to leach off them and offered to help, but they were insistent on letting you rest as Sanemi had explained to them that you ran into a demon not too long ago. So you ended up tagging along with Hina wherever she went, hoping she wouldn’t find your presence annoying. It was like having an older sister and you enjoyed her doting on you. With the ruckus that was always going on in the house, time certainty passed by quickly and you soon lost track of how many days Sanemi was gone. It was lovely staying with the girls and you enjoyed the girls’ talk you will have with them before bedtime. 

“The three of you share a husband?” You choked on your tea, coughing wildly as you tried to process the information. Hina patted your back as your tried to regain your composure. “You’re lying to me.” It’s not possible for wives to get along with each other. Hell, your stepmother always had something bad to say about your deceased mom, someone whom she has never even met. How are these three even able to live together in harmony?

“It’s true! Tengen-sama is just the best! He loves all of us the same!” Suma told you. While you were happy to hear that the three of them were treated well by their husband, you couldn’t help but feel nervous about their relationship. 

Hina seemed to be the one who noticed your concern and patted you on the head. “It’s true, y/n. We’re one big happy family.”

“You would see that when Tengen-sama comes back tomorrow.” Makio added. “Suma is always the noisiest when welcoming him home.”

“I am not! Makio, stop staying things that are untrue about me!”

“Shut up!”

The night ended with you and Hina trying to wrestle Makio away from Suma when Suma tried to place your futon next to hers so that she can cuddle you. Although you sleep in the same room as them, your futon was placed against the wall away from the girls. Makio insisted on that placement as Suma moves a lot in her sleep and she didn’t want her hurting you accidentally. Relieved that they had no ill intentions of isolating you, you gladly took the bed. Hours after you had fallen asleep, you stirred awake to the sound of something moving in the house. Was that the sound of beads? You laid still in your bed and listened carefully. After confirming that you could still hear Hina, Makio and Suma’s breathing near you, you grew alert and slid out of your futon to investigate on the noise. You didn’t want to wake Hina, Makio and Suma up just in case you misheard it and let them continue sleeping. Silently, you made your way to the kitchen as fast as possible, grabbing the kitchen knife as your weapon. You froze when you heard the door of the girls’ bedroom being slid open. 

Shit! Who the hell was this to be able to walk so silently? There was only one way to the kitchen, did you and the intruder somehow passed each other without noticing? You cursed inwardly as you rushed back to where you had came from, hoping that you weren’t too late to catch the intruder before he could do something to the girls. This isn’t some simple robbery. The three women were still sleeping in their futons when you returned to their room. You grew inceasingly puzzled at the scenario and lowered your weapon, you were sure that you definitely heard someone sliding the bedroom door open. The hair on the back of your neck stood up when you felt a presence looming over you from behind. Before you could react, the knife was knocked out of your hand and a bulging arm had enclosed itself around your neck, locking you in a chokehold. Your fingernails dug into the stanger’s flesh as you struggled to free yourself. 

“Run!” You tried to scream, feeling sick in your stomach when the figure behind you started to carry you out of the room. You frailed and kicked wildly and caught the man between his legs. He yelled in pain but still held onto you tightly. “Fuck off! Who the fuck are you? Get out of here!” You seethed, trying to scratch his face. 

“I can ask you the same thing! OW!” The man roared in pain when you sunk your teeth into his arm. He tried to pry you off him, but you wouldn’t let go and bit down on him harder. Suma, Hina and Makio should be awake by now, you can buy some more time for them to run away, hopefully the man was alone. Instead, you heard their hurried footsteps came rushing to your direction.  

“Y/n?”

“Tengen-sama!”

“Stop! Stop!”

You halted when you heard them calling the name of their husband and immediately stopped fighting. Shit, you attacked one of the owners of this house. You’ll be in trouble now and could only hope that it wouldn’t implicate Sanemi. 

Tengen, on the other hand, looked at the younger girl he had been holding up, recognising your name immediately when Hina called it. After seeing that you had calmed down and stopped moving, he let you down gently on the floor. 

“I’m sorry. I-I thought there was an intruder.” You whispered, trembling from head to toe. You could feel how tall the man was and was squeezing your eyes shut tightly, deathly afraid of him due to his size. From what you could tell, he has huge muscles too and it will definitely hurt when he hits you, and you deserved it for attacking your host. You wondered what Suma, Hina and Makio thought of you now for attacking their husband and thought it would be any time now they will lose their cherry selves and turn you out of the house. Your stomach was starting to hurt again and you hugged yourself, waiting for their verdict and wanting to be on your way back to Sanemi’s house again. 

Suma looked at your worriedly. “Did Tengen-sama hurt you somewhere, y/n? You looked pale.” You immediately shook your head frantically and hugged your stomach tighter, debating if you should just run away before your hosts turn you out. The seconds passed by slowly and you felt like you were being burned alive.

Makio gave you a quick lookover, “I don’t see any blood on her.” You thought you heard her sounding relived. 

“Huh? Suma, she bit me! I’m the one who’s hurt, see!” You heard the man exclaimed angrily and assumed that he showed his arm to her. You heard the girls gasped and it was then you realised you could taste blood in your mouth.

You immediately kneeled on the ground, shaking as your forehead touched the floor. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding, I will gladly take any punishments issued to me. Please don’t think badly of Shinazugawa-sama! I will take full responsibility for my actions. Please hit me until you anger diminishes! I will not make a sound and if Shinazugawa-sama asks, I will say I fell into a hole in the mountains!”

God, you haven’t felt this scared for a really long time. It felt like you were in your old home over again, where you had to beg to be punished to avoid more severe punishments.

“Y/n! What are you saying? Get up!” Hina was next to you in an instant, trying to pull you up. When she touched your arm, she felt how cold it was. 

“Please hit me until you are in a good mood again, Tengen-sama!” You shouted, resisting Hina’s pull. You yelped when you felt someone yanked you up and hit you on the head, hearing Hina yelling at Makio shortly after. Before you could explain that you made a noise because you were surprised, Makio had already started speaking.

“What kind of people do you think we are, y/n?” Makio asked you. You shook in your position as you could feel her glaring at you. “It was just a misunderstanding, we didn’t tell Tengen-sama what you look like, and we should have told you that you cannot hear him when he moves. It’s not your fault that you thought it was an intruder.”

“Yeah! Please stop asking to be punished! It’s scary to see you like this! You can’t be hit with your condition!” Suma starting crying, giving you a tight hug from the side. Still scared, you held your tears in but put on an emotionless look, bracing yourself for any impact. 

You heard some beads shook as Tengen squated down to speak to you, finally deducing that the noise came from him. “My apologies for startling you like that, y/n. I was shocked to see someone standing in our bedroom with a knife in her hand and reacted instinctively.” 

“It’s alright, I’m okay.” You tried to stop your voice from shaking. Tengen attacking and restraining you did make sense, you wouldn’t expect him stay calm if he sees someone standing near his wives with a knife over their heads.

“But that was quite flamboyant of you! Biting me in the arm until I bleed! Your canine teeth is especially sharp!” You blinked at the change of Tengen’s voice, uncertain on how you should react to his sudden enthusiasm. 

“Er… thanks?” 

“Why are you looking at the wall? Look at my arm! Be proud of your achievement!”

“Tengen-sama, y/n here can only see darkness.” Hina explained patiently. 

“Wow! No wonder you could hear me coming back home, a heightened sense of hearing!” Tengen said, waving a hand in front of you. You felt the heat radiating off his palms and resisted the urge to swat his hands away, settling for a frown instead. “Say y/n, did you happen to pass by me at the corridor?”

“I’m not sure, I went to get a knife from the kitchen, but I didn’t feel like I walked past anyone.”

“Interesting.” Tengen rests his chin on his hand. “Come on, let’s go test something out before bed. Suma, put out the light, please and y/n, I want you to throw hits if you feel something passed you by.”

You nodded and stood up, following Tengen’s footsteps out to the corridor. You heard Suma blow the candle out and was sure that the girls were watching you from the side as the bedroom door did not close. Tengen led you to the middle of the corridor and had you stand there. You tried to feel the change of the wind. Tried as you may, you couldn’t even hear the pillar’s breathing, but at one point you just had a feeling he was standing at your right and quickly shot your arm out and caught him by his uniform. You squeaked in surprise and quickly let go, backing away.

The girls’ claps and cheers echoed through the air, followed by Tengen’s chuckle. “One more trial, y/n. I want you to sneak past me, but I’ll play fair and cover my eyes. Let me know if you reached the end of the corridor.”

You were able to walk past him in less than two minutes, having to stand as still as a statue at one point when you felt him on your left. Although you couldn’t see him, but you felt that he had a cocky expression on his face when he thought he had successfully blocked your way to get to the end of the corridor. Since you hadn’t had the chance to feel the structure of he roof, you ended up having to crawl past him, almost bumping into his foot when he moved. 

“Great job, y/n! You’re like a shinobi, wow!” Suma cheered the loudest, coming over and squeezing the air out of you. You smiled and thanked her quietly as you returned the hug. Tengen gave you a pat on the head before tousling your hair, giving you the impression that he was like an older brother. “As an apology for startling you earlier, I will teach you a new technique y/n. It’s called Echolocation, like its name suggests, you analyse the sounds based on the reflections. Super useful to locate people and count the number of your enemies. What do you say? Do you want to learn it?”

“I’m honoured, but I don’t think you should waste time on someone like me, Tengen-sama.” Guessing the man had a confused look on him, you continued. “I can’t be a slayer anymore now that I’m blind.”

He tsked you and flicked you hard on the forehead, causing you to winced and rubbed at the sore spot. “What nonsense! The rock pillar himself is blind and yet he’s the strongest out of all of us! How un-flamboyant of you, y/n!”

“I’m more of a blend-in with the background kind of person.” You laughed nervously, clutching your stomach again. 

You winced when Tengen clapped. “Even better! If you can perfect the technique, you can easily ambush your enemies without breaking a sweat! Enough said! We’ll start tomorrow! Everyone off to bed!”

“But-”

“I said everyone off to bed!”

~

Sanemi was on his way to Tengen’s house, walking at a leisurely pace with Sourai perched on his shoulder. For once, he didn’t feel the need to hurry back to check on you after his missions and was happy with his decision of leaving you with Tengen’s wives. He hoped that you would come out of your shell and bond with them, briefly wondering who you will get along with the most. Maybe he should bring you to visit Shinobu and the girls at the Butterfly mansion soon, or maybe even Kanroji. He shuddered at the thought of meeting the pink and green hair girl and hoped that day would come later. She is always chatty and he didn’t really know how to deal with her. He had finished his mission the previous evening and had intended to come fetch you home, but figured it wouldn’t hurt for you to hang out with girls a little while longer. He had passed by a night market the night before and had intended to leave after buying dinner for himself. However, he stopped walking and watched a couple who were standing in front of a stall. The young woman was giggling as the man with her was comparing between two hair pins, trying to see which one suited her better. The old lady who was looking after the store waved for his attention and beckoned him over. Normally, Sanemi would have turned and left, but he thought that it would be a good idea to surprise you with something nice. Besides, wasn’t Tengen the one who said it’s nice to buy pretty gifts for his wives because he would get to see how happy they are?

And so, that was how Sanemi ended up with a pretty golden hair pin with pink, purple and white flowers engraved on it. He had realised in horror that he didn’t know what was your favourite colour while he was trying to get you a hairpin and it was the old woman who picked the pin out for him. Being colour blind himself, Sanemi couldn’t see the colours of the hairpin and had the old woman point out the colours on the hairpin to him, just so he can describe what it looks like to you later on. Even before Tengen’s house came into view, Sanemi could already hear the ruckus that was going on. He quickened his footsteps, wondering what was the fuss about. He knocked loudly on the front door and waited for someone to come and open the door for him, a foot tapping against the ground impatiently. When he heard no approaching footsteps and could no longer wait to find out what the noise was about, he let himself in by jumping over the walls. The noise seemed to came from the back garden and Sanemi’s eyes widened in anger when turned around the corner. 

Unlike Sanemi, Tengen seemed to love sleeping in just as much as you do and both of you ended up with his training session late morning. It has been a while since you have sparred and it did take you some time getting used to, and you mostly focused on defending yourself and dodging away from Tengen’s attacks instead of attacking him. Your temporary sensei did yell encouragements for you to try to attack him, but you weren’t confident that you could win in a battle of brawl against him. Over breakfast, Tengen had explained to you about how the technique he was going to teach you works and it took you a while before you found out that in order for you to use the technique to see where things were properly, you had to slam both of your feet hard to the ground. You almost cried in happiness the first time it worked and you were able to ‘see’ what Tengen, Hina, Suma and Makio’s house was like and where they were standing. However, the technique didn’t last very long and you had to keep finding openings to slam your feet to the ground as you practice fighting with Tengen. On a few occasions, Tengen had told you to watch your stamina, but you were too excited to be able to see the world again to care. You were about to dodge from Tengen’s punch when you suddenly felt your legs going weak and instead of jumping sideways, you cursed when you ended up faltering and didn’t mange to make it out of his range of attack. Your breath got knocked out of your stomach and your body flew upwards when Tengen’s fist collided with your stomach. You heard Suma screamed and Makio and Hina gasped in horror as you landed heavily on the ground. 

“Y/N!”

“Oh my god, check her legs! Is she bleeding?”

“Talk to us y/n, are you okay? Tengen-sama, you should have gone easy on her!”

“I thought she was able to dodge my attacks like she usually did! Bring her to the Butterfly mansion first!”

“TENGEN!” 

Several voices boomed from different directions at once, and you wondered why Makio had said to check your legs to see if you were bleeding. From where she was standing, did she somehow saw wrongly where Tengen had landed a blow on you? A punch from him wouldn’t lead to internal bleeding right? And was the Sanemi’s voice you heard? Before you knew it, you heard the familiar voice letting out a stream of cusses, followed by Tengen explaining himself as punches and hits were thrown. 

“I’m fine.” You wheezed and quickly tried to sit up to show that you were alright, just knocked out of breath. “It didn’t hurt, really. Stop! Stop!”

Sanemi was next to you in a flash, a hand rubbing your stomach to help soothe the pain. You smiled at him, “Hey, you’re back.” He paused and you could feel that he was widening his eyes at you, he likes doing that to show you that he was displeased or annoyed with you.  

“Don’t ‘Hey me’!” Sanemi blew up, yelling at your ear and causing you to cover them with your hands. “What the hell were you guys doing? You were supposed to rest, for god’s sake!”

“Sparring, as you may have seen. Tengen-sama was teaching me a new technique, I can see now!” You hurriedly explained yourself as you latched onto his arm, half afraid that he’ll go on a rampage and fight the sound pillar again. 

Sanemi must have given you a confused look and you heard Tengen started speaking. “I was trying to help her. Taught her how to use Echolocation so that she has a sense of where she is.”

“It was my fault. Tengen-sama warned me not to stomp my feet too hard and I didn’t listen. He was trying to help. I like everyone here, Hina, Suma and Makio are super nice to me!”

“Tengen-sama?” You thought you heard irritation in his tone. “You guys on first name basis now?”

“Isn’t that his last name?” You asked, puzzled. “I followed what the girls called him.”

Suma started giggling, “You’re so cute, y/n, why would we call our husband by his last name?”

“Oh my god,” You hid your face behind your hands and blushed furiously. Oh god, why did they address their husband so formally? “Why didn’t anyone correct me? This is embarrassing!”

“Small matter, how’s your stomach?” Tengen asked before sending a curious look at Makio. “Why did you say to check her legs earlier? I didn’t hit her there.”

“Oh, nothing. I just misunderstood something. Luckily I was wrong, I really thought something bad had happened to y/n.” Makio coughed.

“What was it?” Tengen pressed on, his curiosity growing. 

“We thought y/n was pregnant!” Suma blurted out, causing you to choke on your spit when you heard it. Sanemi patted your back as you coughed uncontrollably but he had a bewildered look on his face too. “We saw Shinazugawa-sama rubbed her belly before he left her with us, and she was always covering her stomach with her hands.”

“I’m not pre- pregnant.” You stuttered, wanting to dig a hole and hide yourself. “I just hug my stomach a lot when I get scared.”

You probably would have died of embarassement on the spot if Hina hadn’t changed the topic. She had walked off in the middle of the conversation to pick something up from the ground. “Shinazugawa-sama, did you drop this?” She asked, handing over something Sanemi had wrapped in his handkerchief. 

Tengen spotted part of the hairpin that poked out from the corner, a grin took over his face. “My, Sanemi, isn’t that a-”

“I’ll fucking kill you if you don’t shut your damn mouth!” Sanemi snarled at him before he could finish his sentence, but the sound pillar only laughed in response and slapped Sanemi on the back as Sanemi retrieved his possession politely back from Hina. Sanemi took a deep breath and refrained himself from turning around to punch the man.

“I was wondering why y/n has such a foul mouth, seems like she learned it from you. Anyways, that aside, I’m more interested to know why does a tough man like you carry something like that around?” Tengen began to tease him, clearly not intimidated. “But your hair seemed a bit too short to use that hairpin, I’m afraid.”

“I’ll kill you!” Sanemi raged, lauching a rock at Tengen but Tengen dodged it easily.

“Do you want to stay for lunch, Shinazugawa-sama?” asked Hina kindly. You smiled at her tone for she sounded used to the brash exchange between Sanemi and Tengen. What you wouldn’t give to be able to properly see them fight. 

“Of course he’ll stay for lunch! I don’t want y/n to go yet!” Suma pouted, hugging you and not wanting to let go. You laughed and held onto her, enjoying her affection. Sanemi took a look at you and nodded, taking up the invitation after seeing how happy you were under the women’s company.

Lunch somehow seemed more luxurious than usual when Tengen’s home and you honestly wished you can stay here forever and pig yourself out with Hina’s cooking. As you savoured the food, you made a mental promise to further develop the technique Tengen had taught you, hoping for the day where you can use echolocation 24 hours with just touching the ground to come sooner. With Tengen home, the house was much louder than usual and Sanemi found himself glancing at your direction ever so often, waiting to step in as soon as you flinched at the loud noises. Perhaps you didn’t notice it yourself, but he knew that loud noises added onto your anxiety because of your old household. But surprisingly you were enjoying yourself and seemed to take a liking to the noisy environment. He smiled lightly as he dug into his food, at eased with the decision to bring you here. When lunch was over, Tengen and his wives left the two of you alone as they cleaned up the table and went to fetch dessert. Much to Sanemi’s surprise, you came over and climbed into his lap. Before you settled, you gave him a hug and whispered ‘Welcome back.” at his ear, causing the man’s face to flush in red as he covered his face behind his hand. His hand automatically went behind your back when you settled down and you laid your head at his chest, keeping your eyes shut as you listened to his heartbeat. You also kept an ear out for the rest, ready to jump off Sanemi as soon as someone is heading back to the dining room. You felt Sanemi shifted as he pulled something out from his side pocket before handing it to you. Since you weren’t able to see, he had to bump it against your arm for your attention. You reached over, wondering what it was as you felt over the cloth. Had Sanemi given you a handkerchief? 

“Open it.” Sanemi tells you patiently, watching you as you slowly feel over the gift. You grinned when you felt that it was a hairpin. Sanemi took your other hand and used it to guide you to the flowers. “This is the biggest flower on the hairpin, it’s pink, the tinier ones are white and the tiniest are purple. The whole thing is gold.”

You gasped, “Not actually gold right? I don’t want to get knocked over the head and robbed.”

Sanemi grew silent and you poked him at his cheek. “I’ll pulverize anyone who even dares to try to knock you over the head.” He told you quietly. “No worries, it’s not real gold. Do you want something with real gold?”

“No!” You replied immediately. “I like anything you give me, thanks Nemi. No wait, I’ll love anything!” He froze when you pressed your lips against his cheek, feeling the spot burned after you pulled away. Your fingers danced over the flowers of the hairpin and you again wished that you could see what it looks like instead of relying on your imagination. “I’ll treasure this forever.”

Sanemi said nothing and took the hairpin out of your hand. Your hair was done up in a half up and half down manner today and he tenderly pushed it in between your hair, admiring how pretty it looks on you. He sent a quizzical look in your direction when you suddenly hopped off his lap and sat in the empty spot next to him, but before he could question you, Tengen slid the door open and came in with a tray of desserts. 

“Have you children been good in our absence?” Tengen teased. 

“Shut the hell up.” Sanemi’s reply was instant. 

All of you waited for Hina, Makio and Suma to return before you began eating your dessert. You had to resist the urge to shrieked in excitement when you found out that it was mochi. Hina laughed at your jovial expression and gave you more when she guessed that mochi was your favourite dessert. 

“Marry me, Hina!” You hugged her and almost start to cry in happiness. 

“Unfortunately she is already the wife of the God of Festivals,” Tengen interjected, pushing you away and hugging Hina against him. Hina titter when he started to pamper her with kisses. “As expected of my girl with her flamboyant cooking!” 

“Greedy pig.” You mumbled quietly as you ate another mochi, smirking as you know Tengen could hear you.

“Well this greedy pig still got Hinatsuru as his wife.” He stuck a tongue at you although you couldn’t see it. “Run home and be forever alone, loser.”

You were about to retort when you suddenly felt your bowl getting heavier. Before you could wonder what happened, Suma shrieked. “Y/n, Shinazugawa-sama gave you his mochi! How cute!” 

Tengen nodded in approval, “Hm-hm! Shinazugawa’s being flashy!” He caught the bowl Sanemi had aimed at his face easily. 

“Thanks Nemi,” You beamed at him. “Here, have one more before I eat the rest. Hina’s food is honestly the best, we have to eat as much as we can while we’re here.” 

Sanemi shot a warning glare at Tengen, demanding him to shut up silently as you held a mochi between your fingers at him. Then with a flustered look and under the Uzui family’s cheerful gaze, he leaned in and allowed you to feed him. Suma was about to squeal from excitement when Makio shoved a few mochi into her mouth to keep her quiet. Sanemi barely chewed through the mochi before swallowing it, badly wishing for this moment to be a private one between you two. 

“It’s yummy, right?” You smile at him. 

“Hm.” He grunted, looking the other way despite the fact that you couldn’t see his redden cheeks. 

“Tengen-sama! Makio’s bullying me! Did you see that? She shoved food in my mouth!” Suma yelled as soon as she was able to pry Makio’s hands off her mouth, a hand holding onto Tengen’s sleeve as she complained.. 

Suma’s horrified and aggrieved scream filled the house when Tengen made a face and looked away guiltily, “I didn’t see that, sorry.”

[devalient]

Tired But Never of You (Part 4)

warning: cursing

Part 1 ~ Part 2  ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5

wordcount: 6.5k+

It has been six months since you started your training with Sanemi and your speed and agility were the skills that you were the proudest of. Your level was still a few pars below Sanemi’s, but you were catching up quickly and it’ll probably take you a few more months before you would be as fast as him, much to your delight. However, in terms of battle, you were “just shit” according to him. You mentioned to him that you wanted to try out for the final selection during dinner one time and that was how you found out how he sees you in battle. Although Sanemi has his gentler side, when it comes to training sessions, he was simply the devil. No wonder he didn’t have any tsuguko under him, people were mostly too terrified to even come close to him, let alone apply for the position, and based on his personality, you doubted that he would even bother to scout for one. From what you gathered, that man only liked doing a handful of things - killing demons, hunting demons, playing with his pet beetle or any furry animals and eating ohagi. When he’s not out hunting or slaying demons, Sanemi is on patrol and if he travels too far to make it back home, he’ll stay out the night, but you can always be sure that he’ll return before you wake up the next morning. You are both a late sleeper and riser, which was something he hated because he liked to start training at the break of dawn and you often find your pillow and futon ripped away from you when he wakes you up for the training sessions. You mostly started your day fuming and quarreling with him but your swordsmanship skills somehow satisfied his standards when you fought with anger.

This morning, however, you were surprised to find yourself waking up naturally with the sunlight seeping in through the cracks of the windows. You blinked a couple of times before pinching yourself on the cheek, thinking you were in a dream. The only time Sanemi would let you sleep in is when he was out on a mission for a couple of days and would not be there to wake you up, but he didn’t mention that he was going on one to you the night before. Startled, you snapped your head to where he was sleeping and your mouth dropped open in shock to see his figure laying next to you. You slowly inched closer to him, half wondering if this was a new tactic he was using to test your fighting skills. Maybe he’ll pounce on you the moment you let your guard down. Half of the futon had been kicked off his upper body, exposing his chest and you saw that he was sweating and breathing heavily. 

“Nemi?” You whispered, a trembling hand reaching to touch his forehead. “I’m going to touch you now, please don’t twist my arm. This is not an attempted attack.” You almost laughed at what you said. Part of your training with Sanemi is to give each other surprise attacks and you were hoping that his reflexes wouldn’t work on you when he’s sleeping. Sanemi cracked his eyes open by an inch when he felt a cold hand touching his forehead.

“What?” He coughed and started to sit up, groaning when he felt a headache taking over. Curse that damn demon last night, Sanemi guessed that he must have caught a cold after slipping and falling into a river accidentally while he was out on his job. 

You frowned at him and laid on half of his body to force him to lay back down. “You’re having a fever, Shinazugawa-sama.”

“Ditch the formalities, y/n, you know I hate it. I have to patrol the perimeters today,” Sanemi told you shortly, but didn’t attempt to get up again, enjoying your fingers that were massaging his scalp to relieve his headache.

“I’ll tie you up if you don’t get some rest. I’ll take over for you, your only job for today is to sleep.”

“But-”

You interrupted him sternly, “No but’s. It’s not going to be dangerous, you’ve been exterminating all demons that wander into your territory all the time, I’ll be fine.” You waited for his reply but couldn’t hear anything. “If I run into a demon, I’ll just run and hide. You said it yourself that I’m pretty good in ambushing and hiding my presence.”

A few minutes passed after you said that and just as you thought Sanemi had fallen asleep, he started speaking again, “Fine. Maybe just go halfway and come back. Sourai!”

A crow came hopping into the room and you thought you saw it bowing at Sanemi in the dark. “Yes, master.”

Before Sanemi could give the crow his instructions, you spoke first. “Morning Sourai, would you mind getting some medicine for Shinazugawa-sama from the Butterfly estate? I believe he’s having a fever.” The crow looked over at Sanemi in response and after receiving a nod from the pillar, it bowed its head again and promptly flew off. You shook your head and chuckled at its departure, just like his master, the crow never takes orders from anyone other than the superior he acknowledges. 

“Where are you going?” Sanemi’s arm snaked around your waist and held you closer to him when you tried to leave his futon. “You don’t need to set out early if you’re only patrolling half the perimeter.”

“To cook porridge for the sickly.” You pushed his arm away and rolled out of bed, catching him sulking. “Suck it up, Nemi. You can’t have anything else other than that.”

“Fine. Be quick about it.” Sanemi huffed. He wanted you to cuddle him until Sourai returns with the medicine but couldn’t bring himself to say the words. Instead, he held your hand and kissed your wrist before turning over to face the other side. You laughed at his embarrassment and lightly kissed his cheek before you hurried over to the kitchen, blushing furiously yourself. Both of you liked the affection you showered each other with during your private time, but are always too embarrassed to keep it up for more than a few seconds. Sanemi had fallen asleep by the time you returned to his room and you quietly left the porridge and a huge jug of water near him before getting dressed. After a second thought, you took his nichirin sword along with you too. Just in case.

Durability was equally as important as speed in battles, something Sanemi has told you on more than one occasion. Of course, one wouldn’t survive without having useful brain cells too. That was another line he added after realising how crappy you were in fighting. It wasn’t because you weren’t able to pick up on wind breathing, you had memorised all nine forms from the get-go and were able to do them well, but never applied them during your fights and often resorted to spontaneous rhythms instead. On a couple of occasions when you focused hard on using the forms, your speed and agility will decrease immensely and your level was probably worse than an amateur. Sanemi was particularly exasperated over this and no matter how many punishments he gave out to correct you of your mistake, nothing ever changes. If you could barely able to apply the breathing style correctly, how the hell could he let you go to the final selection? Sometimes you wonder if you disappoint him by not applying the techniques.

Not heeding Sanemi’s request, you decided to finish patrolling the entire perimeter before heading home. If you run fast enough, you should be able to make it home in time to cook dinner and to check on him. You just hope that he wouldn’t come and search for you while feeling sick, hopefully Sourai would peck him every time he attempts to leave his bed. Time should be something blurry to him now that he’s running with a fever and hopefully he wouldn’t notice that you were gone a couple hours too long. By early evening, you have reached the end of Sanemi’s territory and took a ten minutes break by the lake, watching the sun set and letting the cool breeze cool you down. Okay, so you weren’t back in time to cook dinner, but if you ran all the way without stopping, you should be able to reach home in about an hour. Halfway through sprinting through the woods, you heard a woman wailing loudly for her lost child. You didn’t make your presence known and peeked at her from behind some bushes, shocked to see her covered in blood and scratches and her wooden hut almost completely ruined. Her husband came home just when you were about to show yourself. 

“Dear! Our baby! A monster took our baby!” sobbed the wife hysterically. “I left him in his crib for a few minutes to bring in more firewood and when I came back I saw it hovering over his crib and it took him!”

She must have fought against the demon to get her child back, judging by her appearance and the state of the house. The injury on her looked fresh and you were sure the demon was not far away and started your pursuit, knowing that if you head home to report this to Sanemi, the pillar might be too late to rescue the child. You could only hope the demon wasn’t hungry enough to devour the baby on its way to its hiding place, it could easily do so in just a couple of bites. You knew which direction to go because the woman kept screaming and pointing towards the west and soon saw the muddy trail the demon had left behind. 

You thought it was odd that the demon didn’t kill the mother and figured it was just because it feast solely on children. Sanemi did mention some demons have a preferred type of food they like to consume. It must be some new demon that had wandered into Sanemi’s terrority, otherwise, it would have been killed by the pillar already. When you caught a giggle coming not too far off, you began to slow your breathing to a stop to prevent it from hearing you, only taking in breaths from time to time. That was a technique you liked to use to conceal your presence, even Sanemi couldn’t hear you when you did that. You hopped from tree to tree to conceal your movements further and a chill ran down your spine when you saw the demon was cuddling the baby close to its chest, singing hoarsely to it to try to calm it down from crying. It was heavily overweight and the tattered kimono it had on looked like it was going to burst from holding all the demon’s flesh in. You couldn’t see its face for its long hair had covered it completely. The baby’s cry grew louder when the demon brought it closer to her face and you knew you had to do something quick. Silently, you slid down the tree and went behind the demon to ambush it, drawing out Sanemi’s blade and clutching it between your hands tightly. You’ve never slayed a demon before and were told that their necks can be tough to cut at times, hopefully this demon’s an exception. 

“You’re coming at me the wrong way.” 

Some dark liquid came flying out from the back of the demon’s head and caught you right in the eyes. You screamed in both shock and pain and vigorously tried to wipe the liquid off your eyes with your sleeves. Sniggering, the demon stood up straighter and the curtain of hair revealed its one eye and mouth. Then it made a 180 degrees turn and showed off the other side of its head, which had another eye and a nose. The baby in its arms screamed louder as you tried not to panic. You gripped the sword tightly in your hands, afraid that it’ll slip out of your clutch when moment you loosen your fingers. “Let that baby go and I’ll let you go.”

The demon laugh, its shrill laughter carried by the wind. “You think you’re in any position to threaten me, y/n?” Your eyes almost buldged out from your head and you freaked out internally. It should be impossible for it to know your name. “My, my, how you have grown. I wouldn’t have recognised you if you hadn’t have that same stupid scared look you wore on your face. Whatever happened to your elegant manners I’ve taught you to follow since you were a child? It’ll be a waste of my time if you hadn’t followed them, wouldn’t it? Also, are you impressed by my skills? That was a venomous spit that can make you go blind.”

Shit, and you caught two eyefuls of the venom, but that isn’t the worst issue at hand right now. “How- how-?” You trembled, coming to terms that the demon in front of you was your stepmother. You recognised the voice now. “Where’s your son?”

That was clearly the wrong question to ask. The demon glared at you and you heard it inch closer, causing you to back away. “The audacity.” You heard her hissed. “They took him to the red district as a slave after you wouldn’t give yourself up. Wanted to kill me too, but I got away. Oh yes, I did, but I couldn’t save my poor baby. All alone at a strange place, poor boy must be scared out of his wits. That’s why I need to become a stronger demon, y/n, he told me I need to eat humans, only then I can save my own baby. Now if you’ll excuse me.” As she spoke, the size of her mouth grew bigger and got closer to the baby’s head, preparing to eat it. 

‘Sixth form, Black Wind Mountain Mist.’

You forced yourself to move, but only aimed to slice off the top half of her head. You hadn’t dared to make any big movements because you didn’t want to hurt the baby accidentally. The attack caused the demon to scream in anguish and its hands went to its head in pain after dropping the baby. You dived forward and managed to catch it just seconds before the baby falls on the ground. You held the baby close to your nose and sniffed for blood, but could smell nothing and sighed in relief. You were at a disadvantage now and knew you have to leave quickly, you could try fending yourself against the demon with a child in hand and a pair of blind eyes, but didn’t want to risk accidentally leaving an open gap for the demon the snatch the baby back.

“How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! How dare you!” The demon screamed and kicked your face, causing you to fly towards the opposite direction. Your breath got knocked out of your body when your back crashed against the tree trunk. The demon extended its long arms towards you, aiming to wrap them around your neck, but you easily deflected and sliced them off when you felt the change of the wind. “Give the baby back to me, you useless wretch! Or I’ll eat you too!” The demon threatened. 

But you were off before the demon could finish her sentence, running as fast as you could and depending on your memory of what the forest is like. However, you felt that you were just running around in circles with the demon on your trail and it was difficult to pinpoint her exact location or tell where you were exactly when you have a screaming infant in a hand. There was no way you could hide either since the baby just wouldn’t stop crying and that would certainly give your location away. Honestly, the infant was giving you more anxiety than the demon because you were certain you weren’t holding him properly. You knew that you have to hold them by their necks and that they shouldn’t be shaken around too much in case they’ll get a head trauma. You have already been slowing down your speed in running to try to protect him from as much harm as possible, but you still couldn’t help but think that you were harming him in some way. Should you just stop and attempt to fight the demon instead? If you leave the baby on the ground unattended, what are the chances of him getting snatched and devoured straight away? Damn it, if only you have your sight, things would be a hell lot easier.

Suddenly you heard a caw from above you, “Go left!”

Without hesitation, you listened to Sourai’s instructions and ran in that direction, grateful that the crow has managed to find you. It could only mean two things, either Sanemi isn’t too far away or he sent Sourai to come and check on you, hopefully it’s the latter because you didn’t want him to catch you being chased by a demon. He’ll likely go beserk because you didn’t keep to your word of running and hiding. Sourai did a splendid job in guiding you out of the forest, shouting directions at you and warnings of any tree roots or holes you came across. You knew you were heading towards the open space in the middle of the forest when you felt the air become crisp. You could practically feel the demon’s arms around your neck and decided to use the first form of wind breathing to slow it down and to put some distance between yourself and it. The demon’s painful screech told you you hit your mark and you were growing more confident that you’ll be able to hold your own. 

“y/n!”

You swore you could burst out in tears of happiness when you heard Sanemi yelling your name. He was running towards you from the other direction and his eyes widened when he saw the ugly demon chasing after you with its arms stretched. After the attack, you made a hasty decision to throw Sanemi’s nichirin sword at him in hopes that he would catch it and slice off the demon’s head. You have no idea if it had generated since you were blinded and didn’t want to risk getting too close to it again. To stay out of Sanemi’s way, you dived and hide behind a nearby boulder, holding the baby tightly against your chest. Sanemi caught his sword in mid air and just as he was about to go after it to finish it off, the demon’s head fell off its shoulders and its body crumbled onto the ground. Leaving it to turn to dust, Sanemi approached you. When you heard him coming over, you panicked and wanted to distract his attention away from your eyes. Your eyes felt like they were on fire or were being gauged out of their sockets and whenever you produced tears, the pain intensified. You thrust the crying child into his arms before he could protest. Having to have cared for his younger siblings when they were babies before, Sanemi automatically started to coax the baby. You listened in wonder as his crying ceased.

“He’s asleep.” Sanemi told you, moving to show you the sleeping baby. He thought you would squeal about how adorable the baby is, but was taken aback when he heard your unfriendly tone.

“Return the kid to his parents first, I’m sick of hearing him cry.” You told Sanemi before promptly standing up and making your way to the nearby pond, trying to hold yourself together. Maybe the demon was lying about the venom, it should be impossible that its mere spit would blind you. Judging by how inexperienced it was in both combat and hunting its victims, your stepmother may be relatively new to the demon world. It shouldn’t be possible for her to develop her blood demon art… right?

Sanemi grabbed your arm before you could get far. He was frowning at you and tried to get a good look at your face. “What’s wrong with you?”

You tried shaking your arm off, not liking his tone at all. “Nothing! Just go and give the baby back already.”

Sanemi’s grip tighten instead. “What are those black stains on your sleeves?”

“It’s the demon’s stuff. I don’t know for sure.” A second’s delay of your journey to the nearest water source is a second more closer for the demon’s words of blinding you to come true. “I said let me go!” You aimed a kick at his foot. Not anticipating your attack, Sanemi didn’t dodge in time and got struck by your kick, causing him to let you go in surprise. You bit your tongue to stop yourself from yelping in pain, feeling certain that you must have kicked a nearby rock instead of him. Not waiting to explain your situation to him, you ran further into the forest for a pond. You have to hurry now.

“Tch.” Sanemi swore he would hit you on the head if you hadn’t gotten away. Deciding to return the baby to his parents first, he went the other way. He cooed and pat the baby’s chest rhythmically when the baby had woken up halfway. ‘Such a feeble being.’ He thought as the baby played with his fingers and eventually held onto his pinky tightly. He paused, letting the foreign and yet familiar feeling overwhelm him. The moment was lost when he heard a woman wailing and a man shouting threats at a nonexistent demon not too far away. “You’re lucky y/n saved you, you know. That must be your parents.” Sanemi told the baby, letting him suck on his finger as he made his way towards the baby’s parents. 

Sourai, on the other hand, had followed you, knowing that his master would send him to search for you once he had handed the baby over, might as well do the job first and report back to him later. He perched himself on a tree branch and watched you as you washed your eyes and got rid of the remaining spit from your face. However, the gentle repetitive movements soon turned into furious and then desperate ones that resulted in you driving violent blows to the sides of your head. The crow was alarmed and flew closer to you to check on you. You shrieked when you felt something tickled your hand but calmed down once you heard it was Sourai. 

“What’s the matter?” The crow asked you gently. You were taken aback by his tone, for you never heard him spoke in that manner before. Desperate for comfort, you reached for the crow and hugged him, sobbing into his feathers. 

“Sourai, I can’t see! I really can’t see anything! Everything’s black.”

“Are you sure it’s not because you’re looking at my feathers and wiping your tears with them?”

“Sourai! I’m not kidding! I’m fucking blind!”

“Sorry,” You felt the crow’s wing mimicking a pat on your head. “I didn’t see your confrontation with the demon, only saw it chasing after you and you getting lost in the woods.” Sourai paused and spoke quietly. “You already lost your sight then, haven’t you?”

“Mh-hm.” You hicupped. “I still want to see, Sourai. I’m still so young, I can’t be blind. If I can’t see anything, I wouldn’t be able to train for the final selection and Sanemi wouldn’t want me as his tsugoku if I applied for it.”

“There is the rock pillar who’s blind. Maybe you can be like him.” Sourai told you, finally having enough of the close approximation and hopping out of your embrace. But that only made your wail louder. “Don’t panic. I’ll fly to the Insect pillar and see if she has a cure. Can you tell me the gist of your condition?”

“My eyes burned when the demon’s black spit landed in them. Even now they’re still burning, but it doesn’t hurt as much as before. Tears make the pain worse.” You wondered if it was because you were getting used to the pain and wished you were able to shut your eyes quicker. Maybe you wouldn’t be in this pathetic state if you just reacted faster.

Sourai nodded even though you couldn’t see him, “Master will be coming soon, don’t go anywhere.” 

“Wait! Don’t tell him anything, Sourai! Please!” 

You heard the flapping of his wings that indicated that he flew off. He’ll probably report to Sanemi about your whereabouts before setting off to find Shinobu. Hopefully she has a cure to get your sight back. You took off your shoes and dipped your feet into the cooling water, getting lost in your thoughts. If your stepmother was just a new demon or was new to her demon art, is it possible for the venom to only last a couple of hours or days? If she blinded her victims before eating them, she herself wouldn’t know if the venom would wear off. 

“That was pretty reckless of you.” The hair on the back of your neck stood up when you heard Sanemi speak from behind you. You listened closely as he sat down on the empty spot next to you. Sanemi noticed your tensed shoulders and thought you were bracing yourself for a lecture from him. Deciding to take it easy on you, he patted your head instead. “Maybe I should have let you go to the final selection a long time ago..”

You snapped your head up in his direction, momentarily forgetting to hide your eyes. You just hoped your eyeballs didn’t change colour to indicate you’ve lost your vision. “I killed it? But I threw your sword at you for you to finish the job.”

“The demon’s head fell off before I could do anything. You used the first form and killed it.” Sanemi paused. “Good jon, y/n.”

However, you gave a deep sigh and laid on the ground instead, keeping your eyes open and making Sanemi think that you were looking at the sky. If you weren’t blinded, you would have been over the moon to hear Sanemi giving you the green light to attend the final selection. “I’ll consider it, thanks Sensei.”

“Consider it?” Sanemi echoed after your words. He was finding it difficult to comprehend the way you acted. Weren’t you the one who was always eager to get his approval to go to the final selection? It was your first time encountering a demon after all, perhaps you were still in a state of shock and was still trying to process things. He’ll let it slide for now and give you a few days to calm down before asking you again. “Come on, let’s go home.” He held a hand out to you for you to help you on your feet, but his smile faltered when you stood up by yourself. On the way to Sanemi’s house, you could barely concentrate on the conversation he was trying to make with you, for you were too busy listening for his footsteps and to keep up with his strides. Not to mention you have to notice the change of the wind to avoid walking into trees or bushes. Avoiding the roots and holes in the forest was the most difficult part and you have to be careful to walk behind Sanemi without him growing suspicious. However, he would always slow down and walk next to you when he noticed you were falling behind, fueling your anxiety further. 

Sanemi left you to go freshen up and take a shower once you were home. While waiting in the corridors for you to be done, Sourai came back with a pouch attached to his leg. The crow was spotted by Sanemi first and he had no choice but to land next to his master. 

“Another medicine from Kochou?” Sanemi asked. “I told you I don’t need more, Sourai. My fever’s gone.”

Sourai hopped away from Sanemi’s outstretched hand. “It’s not for you, master.” 

“For y/n? I didn’t smell any blood on her.” Sanemi frowned. He caught the look on the crow’s face and his frown grew deeper. “Sourai.” He called the crow’s name sternly. Giving in, the crow told Sanemi everything he knew and let Sanemi untie the pouch from his foot when he was dismissed by the pillar. 

Back in the room you and Sanemi shared, you were staring hard at a candle, trying to see if you could spot the tiniest of a flame. However, everything was still pitch black for you. “Sourai, should be back from Shinobu’s by now…” You mumbled, wondering what’s taking the crow so long. 

You sat up straighter when you heard the door being slid open, followed by Sanemi’s footsteps. “Hi, Nemi. How’s your fever?” You acted everything was normal and smiled in the direction where you last heard him walking. Little did you know Sanemi had purposely walked louder for you to hear and he changed his position after leading you to believe he was on your left.

“Gone.” He said gruffly as he approached you. “Why are you so close to the candle? Are you cold?”

“A little bit.” You lied. You squeaked when he hoisted you into his lap, feeling his warmth embracing you. You were blushing hard and thought you probably wouldn’t notice if the candle burned you right now. Sanemi wrapped his arms around your waist and rested his chin on your shoulder. You leaned into him to enjoy the affection.

“Better?”

“Yea-yeah.” You tried not to stutter. 

“Comfy?”

You hid your face behind your hands and quietly answered him, “Yes.”

“Good.” He hummed. “Means you can tell me what happened between you and the demon.” Sanemi felt your body stiffen and held onto you tighter when you shifted in your position. You groaned, realising that you had fallen into his trap and that there was no escaping from him.

“I was coming back when I heard the mother crying about losing her baby to the demon, so I decided to track the demon down. I tried ambushing it from its behind, but I think it has eyes on the back of its head as well. The demon recognised me and it took me a while to realise it was my stepmother. While she was talking about how she wanted to get stronger and to rescue her son from the red district, I snatched the baby and just started running, but I couldn’t go very fast because I was holding the child.” You paused. “Did you manage to find his parents? I didn’t hurt him right?”

“He was fine, just tired and scared from the whole thing.” Sanemi told you. “You weren’t hurt from the fight?”

“Well, you don’t see any scratches or blood on me, do you?” You chuckled but swore you could feel his warning glare at the back of your head.

“The truth, y/n.” You remained quiet after he said that and it frustrated him further. “Do I need to strip you down and check?”

You gasped and slapped his arm. “Fuck no, you stupid perv, get away from me!” 

Sanemi was reaching to undo the button starting at the bottom of your shirt. He wasn’t actually going to do it, but you didn’t know that he gets flustered easily. “Don’t make my hands wander, y/n.”

You squealed and held onto his hands tightly to stop them from moving. “Ok fine! There may be some bruises on my face and back! The demon kicked me in the face and I collided against a tree. Wait, wait, wait, I told you about my bruises!” Your breath hitch in your throat when Sanemi tugs roughly at the last button of your shirt. 

“You know there’s one particular thing that I hate the most, right y/n? Mind telling me what it is?”

“Demons?” You literally couldn’t think of any other answers. 

“Liars. And right now, y/n, you’re one big fucking liar yourself.” He didn’t allow you room to interrupt. “I caught Sourai when he came back from Kocho’s, mind telling me what the medicine’s for? Or do I have to force it out of you again?”

You whimpered, feeling your hand turning clammy. “The demon spat some venom that burned my eyes. She said that it will blind me.” You bit your lip nervously and trembled in his hold. “Don’t blame Sourai, I told him not to tell you anything.”

Sanemi was trying to contain his rage. “Why the fuck would you hide something this crucial from me? Do you not trust me or something?”

“It’s not that!” You started crying. “I wanted for you to consider my application as your tsuguko when I apply! I- I just didn’t want to let you down after all the training you’ve given me. I’m sorry! I’m sorry for wasting your time! I’m sorry if I disappointed you and caused you trouble! I’m sorry!”

Sanemi carefully wiped away the tears that slid down your cheek. “Hey, calm down. You’re never a waste of time or a disappointment. Not to me.”

“But you always said that I’m shit in fighting.”

“Only cause I’m a strict teacher and you don’t apply what you were taught, but when you fought against the demon earlier, you used wind breathing and killed it, didn’t you? That’s a great start.” He smiled at you even though you couldn’t see it.

"To what? Everything fell apart before something could begin." You replied bitterly. "I won't be like the rock pillar, I can never become an actual slayer."

"Don't be pessimistic, let's see what Kochou has for you first."

You wanted to feel better after hearing his words, but couldn't even bring yourself to force a smile.

Sanemi reached for the pouch Shinobu had given to you and poured the content into his hand. There was a piece of paper with a short note on it. He squinted his eyes and brought the paper closer to the candle to read it properly. Kocho has given you some pain-relief cream for your eyes, but unfortunately has no cure for the venom. He figured that would be the case and tossed the paper aside. You heard him popping something open and wondered what he was doing, but before you could ask, Sanemi started to smear something cooling around your eyes and the pain you felt was gradually lifted. He even dabbed some of the cream on the spot of your face where the demon had kicked you. As a deep sigh slipped past your lips, you relaxed and took note about how effective the cream was to pain. Sanemi carefully checked your limbs for any bruises, but could spot nothing. 

“Which part of your back feels painful?” He asks you, his cheeks flushing red. You pointed to your lower back and reached over for the container, thinking he’ll let you attend to you wound yourself. “I’ll do your back for you, just go lie down.” 

“Pardon?” You said dumbfounded, thinking you misheard him.

“You’re not deaf, y/n, you heard me.” Sanemi glared at you, not wanting to repeat his words. 

You hesitated before agreeing. “You can’t look, okay? Turn back around only when I call you.”

“I won’t look! I’m not a pervert!” Sanemi yelled at you, his face becoming as red as a tomato. You heard him shift in his position and went to lie down in your futon. Self-conscious, you pulled the blanket over yourself and stripped off your top. Then you laid down on your stomach for a whole five minutes before deciding to call Sanemi over. Sanemi didn’t question why you were hidden under the blanket and pulled it off you once he came closer. You felt goosebumps all over your skin and was thankful that you had the brains to hide your entire head underneath your pillow, hands gripping against the corners tightly and feeling your entire body growing hot under his gaze. You barely even felt him putting the cream on you. Sanemi, on the other hand, was glad that you didn’t attempt to make small talk with him while he was doing your back, knowing well that he will keep stuttering and give his nervousness away. Dark purple and blue bruises were around the lower half of your spine and he wondered how much pain you were in as you didn’t loosen your tight grip on your pillow. He tried to be as gentle as possible, but it didn’t seem to help. Under the candlelight, he could see the long red scars that were left on your back after your father’s whips and lightly traced his fingers along them. You shifted in your futon and tried to hold in your giggle. 

“You’re ticklish?” He asked you.

“A bit.” You admitted, giggling slightly. “What were you touching? I don’t think I got injured there, Sanemi.”

“Nothing, just your scars. It must have hurt.” He said sympathetically. 

“I didn’t get whipped on my back that often, you should see the ones on my stomach. Those were horrible, I can’t even look at myself in front of the mirror without covering them up. Oh wait,” You laughed, “It’s not like I’ll get to see them ever again.”

“Can I see them?” He asked you, his voice almost inaudible.

“They don’t look like yours though, head’s up.” You said, but were already turning around to lay on your side. You couldn’t lie on your back cause the bruises were starting to hurt and you didn’t want to put pressure on them. You continued to hug the pillow and covered your face and chest with it, only exposing the skin of your stomach to him. Bumpy, red scars covered almost the whole of your stomach, causing Sanemi’s eyes to widen when he sees them. He had always thought your scars would look like his faded ones. You curled yourself up in a fetal position to block his view a few seconds later, not wanting him to look at them anymore. Even though you may have physically healed, but the ghosts of pain still lingered whenever you touched or thought of them. 

“Why are you hiding?”

“I don’t want you to look at them. At least yours are cool.”

“I don’t think they’re ugly.”

You gasped when he laid down next to you and pulled you into his embrace, relaxing into him when he started stroking your hair. “You mean it?”

“When have I ever lied to you, y/n?”

“Never.”

When Sanemi felt your skin turning cold, he pulled the blanket over the both of you and made you hug your pillow against your chest, chuckling when he saw how red your face was as he brushed a few strands of hair out of your face. You were glad that you had something sandwiched between the both of you and weren’t touching each other directly. You felt that his gaze was on you and tried to hide your face into your pillow again, but before you could move, you felt his fingers under your chin and lifting your face up. Warm lips covered yours and you grabbed his hand that was touching your cheek, returning the gesture with a blush. Both of you barely exchanged words for the rest of the night, feeling each other’s hands wandering all over your exposed skins and enjoying each other’s warmth until sleep lured you in. You had your back pressed against Sanemi’s front as your conscious started fading and felt him pressed a kiss on your temple.

“Sleep dreams, y/n. You have me.”

[devalient]

Everyone alive has a long line of ancestors who got laid at least once.

[devalient]

Tired But Never of You (Part 3)

warning: cursing, harassment

Part 1 ~ Part 2  ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5

wordcount: 4.7k+

It has been almost two months since you have last seen Sanemi and since you came to the Butterfly estate. Turns out he had a handful of missions lined up for him and he didn’t feel comfortable leaving you at his home by yourself since you were heavily injured. After Shinobu had examined you, you were ordered to rest in bed for at least two months because of the broken bone in your foot. Your fingers healed much faster and you liked being in the kitchen helping Aoi to prepare food whenever Shinobu herself was out on a mission. Although Shinobu had been treating you kindly, you had a feeling that her words shouldn’t be disobeyed, at least not directly under her nose, unless you wanted a good telling off. Aoi had stubbornly refused your help at first as it was her job to make sure you got your rest, but after promising that you would just sit in the kitchen chopping, cutting or baking, she eventually gave in, threatening to glue you onto the stool you were on if you broke your promise.  

“You’re in a happier mood today, y/n. Why?” Aoi observed as the both of you hustled in the kitchen preparing dinner. 

“Sanemi’s mission ends today and he promised that he’ll come see me!” You beamed. The excitement you felt urged you to cut the carrots into thin slices faster, as if the man you had been eager to see will appear the second you were done with your kitchen chores. 

Aoi frowned, “I don’t know why you’re so excited. Aren’t you scared of him? He’s always angry and can be quite aggressive and violent if you ask me.”

“Is he?” You were surprised by Aoi’s impression towards Sanemi, thinking that he would at least treat his acquaintances politely. “I’m sure he’s nice deep down.”

“Not to many.” Aoi huffed, putting out the fire under the stove once she thought the soup was done cooking. Aoi looked like she wanted to say something more, but when she caught a glimpse of your hopeful eyes, she decided otherwise. “I’m going out to do the laundry now, will you be alright by yourself?”

“No problem! Don’t mind me, I can practically run with the walking stick now.” You grinned. 

“I rather you not.” Aoi took off her apron and left the kitchen. “Yell for me if you fall.”

“Sure, sure!”

~

It was early evening when the demon slayer arrived at the Butterfly estate and his not so subtle grumbling alerted you of his presence. You were in the middle of a card game with the younger girls and their loud laughter could definitely be heard miles away. Excited, you sprang onto your foot and immediately lost your footing, toppling backwards. Naho, Sumi and Kiyo screamed and rushed over to grab your hands to prevent you from from crashing onto the ground. However, you found their reactions amusing and started laughing instead. 

“It’s not funny, y/n!” Naho whined.

“You could have fallen down and gotten a concussion!” Sumi continued.

“And Kochou-sama will scold us!” Kiya cried.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” You tried to stop laughing and wiped a tear away from your eyes, allowing the girls to pull you upright. “I was just so excited!”

“Shinazugawa-sama is here already?” asked Naho. “You better go then, y/n. Have fun catching up with him!”

“Bye girls! I’ll see you later.” You left them to the game and bid your farewell, almost starting to sprint into a run down the corridor where you last heard Sanemi’s footsteps. As you turned around at a corner, you bumped into a hard chest and a pair of arms steadied you as you clutched your nose in pain. 

“Sorry.” A quiet apology came, prompting you to look upwards. You grinned at Sanemi who had a bashful look on his face. “How’s your leg?”

“Almost all healed! How were your missions? When’s your next one?” You were anxious to know if he’ll get a break from his job so that you can spend some time with him. Although it has only been two months, but it felt like it’s been an eternity since you last saw him. Sanemi had kept his word and came to see you as soon as he was done slaying the last demon he had been hunting, you could tell that because parts of his uniform still has scratches and dirt.

“I got a break for about ten days.” He told you. “Your hair’s longer.” You felt your cheeks heat up when his hand took a piece of your hair to marvel its silkiness. You smiled but said nothing. Your father cut it off accidentally before Sanemi came to your house to stay for the night. He had actually been aiming his sword at your face, and you dodged in time and part of your hair got cut off instead. In the dark, the man slipped on your blood and fell. You saw your chance and went for his sword, using it to stab him repeatedly until he stopped screaming and moving. Aoi had cut it when you came to stay at the Butterfly estate and it had just grown past your shoulders.

“I heard there’s a festival tonight, do you want to go?” You invited him. “There’s plenty of food and games there.” You hope he would not find merry places too noisy for his liking and were eager to show off your aiming skills to impress him. You’ve always been an accurate aimer and wanted to get rid his the image of your pathetic self that was probably etched in his head.

Sanemi took a look at your bandaged foot and shook his head. “With your foot like that? Forget it, blind fucks will just keep bumping into it.”

“Oh.” You lowered your head and stared at the cast, half wondering what you could suggest the two of you to do together. You need to hurry and come up with a plan, otherwise, he might leave for his home. 

“How about we go to a restaurant nearby? I passed one on the way here and smelled tempura.” Sanemi suggested before looking meekly at your foot again. “I can carry you there if it’s too far to walk for you.”

What you wouldn’t give to be in his arms again, but the thought of any strangers seeing you being carried by a vicious-looking man might send out the wrong message, and you sadly had to reject his offer. Sanemi huffed in annoyance and turned on his heels, barking a quick order for the both of you to start your journey. You trailed after him and thought he looked surprised to see you keeping up with his quick strides with ease. The journey to the restaurant Sanemi was bringing you to was in an uncomfortable silence, you had been looking forward to seeing him again, but weren’t sure how to start a conversation with him fuming. Just like Aoi had said, Sanemi sure loses his temper a lot and you didn’t want to upset him further by saying something wrong.

“How were your missions?”

“Fine.”

“How many demons did you slay?”

“I don’t know, maybe twenty.”

“I heard you’re the wind pillar, that’s so cool! Maybe I can watch you practice some time?”

“If that’s what you want.”

You almost sighed in annoyance, wondering what did you even like about Sanemi in the first place. He was just simply too difficult to converse with! You thought you were decent in striking up a conversation with anyone back when you were living with your family, but people must have only spoken to you because of your family’s status. Irritated, you decided to let the conversation die and return to the Butterfly estate after you and Sanemi had had your dinner. If this was the scenario after not seeing him in two months, you’re moving on to find others who are friendlier. You had heard Sanemi’s swordsmanship skills were phenomenal and is one of the best in the demon slayer organisation and had been waiting for a chance to request him to be your master. Maybe you have to settle to asking Shinobu or anyone she recommended.

Sanemi, on the other hand, was enjoying the silence as the both of you walked in the general direction of the restaurant. He has never been a chatterbox and was tired from his insufficient rest in between his missions. Although he knew he shouldn’t, but he had taken you on the longer route just so he could spend more time with you. When he had seen you at the Butterfly estate, your hair wasn’t the first thing he noticed. Your posture was less elegant as there was a slight slouch and you definitely lost the quiet and gentle voice you used to speak before. There were more emotions in your tone now and more expressions on your face instead of the same robotic smile you had put on. He liked this version of you much more and wondered if he’ll hear you swear as much as him soon. So far he had only heard you swore once, and he found it oddly amusing at that time to see a proper lady from a high class family acting like that.

The owner of the restaurant was quick to usher both of you to the nearest table after spotting the cast on your foot. You ordered the cheapest item off the menu, which was something that bothered him because it was just a bowl of rice and tempura mushrooms. Whatever, he’ll pretend to not like the shrimp tempura he had ordered and switch with you later. While waiting for the food to arrive, both of you still hadn’t spoken. You were trying to look busy by typing the ribbon around your waist over and over again while Sanemi watched you with a hand propped under his chin lazily. He wondered if the wounds on your stomach had left deep scars behind after they were healed. The one across your left eye certainly left its mark. You hungrilly dug into your meal when it arrived, relieved to have something to do and practically shoving your face into your bowl of rice to hide your awkwardness. While you did that, you didn’t notice that Sanemi had switched your tempura bowls and squeaked in surprise when you tasted shrimp in your next bite. Stunned, you looked up at Sanemi, only to see him devouring what you had ordered as quickly as he could.

“Shinazugawa-sama,” You called him quietly. “I’m allergic to shrimp.” 

Sanemi’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets and he glanced down at the empty mushroom bowl. “Shit.” A couple who sat nearby sent him distasteful looks for his inappropriate language.

You threw your head back and laughed, “I’m kidding. Were you that hungry till you couldn’t tell that you ate mushrooms? You mistook my bowl.”

Sanemi refused to admit that he switched your bowls on purpose and continued eating the rest of his rice. “They all looked the same being covered in tempura.”

You smiled and pushed the shrimp bowl to the centre of the table. “Come on, we’ll share. I don’t eat much anyway.” Not that you could eat a lot if you tried, back then, you were only allowed a couple of bites of the food that you cooked. Meat was strictly off the table for you and overtime you learned to get by with a small appetite. Aoi has been trying to make you eat more by increasing your portion bit by bit every week, telling you that the more you eat, the faster you’ll heal. You ended up only eating two shrimps and had to force Sanemi to finish the rest, making him wonder what other sorts of mistreatment you had been subjected to while you were supposed to be under your parents’ care. 

“Is the food good?” you asked him as he took his last bite and he nodded in reply. Noticing that he was in a better mood now, you were about to ask him what he likes to eat. Just then, a loud crash came from the door, following by terrified screams and threatening yells. You turned to see what was going on, but before you could, a huge arm had wrapped itself around your neck and hauled you up to your feet roughly. Your nails dug into the man’s skin as you choked for air. 

Sanemi’s reaction was quick and barely a second passed when the two men standing behind the man holding you collapsed. Before Sanemi’s foot could come down on the back of the man’s head, he was forced to stop when he saw the man holding the tip of his dagger against your head. “What the fuck do you want with her? Let her go.” He growled. 

His murderous look didn’t seem like it had an effect on the man and made you wonder what the man looked like himself. “She has been sold to Tokito House, we’re just here to claim her and bring her to where she belongs now.” 

Your breath hitched in your throat and your eyes widened in fear. Your stepmother and brother must have proceeded with their plan to sell you to the entertainment district after they had regained their consciousness, you didn’t think they’ll follow through their words since you practically disappeared on them. How did these men even find you? 

“You got the wrong girl.” Sanemi told him, keeping his eyes on the man’s knife. “Let her go before I paralyze you.”

“Afraid not.” As if to show off his victory, the man took a scroll out from his belt and rolled it open with his free hand, Sanemi cursed inwardly when he saw it was a lifelike painting of you that he had seen in your house before. He should have destroyed that before he left the house with you. “Her mother also said that she would be with a man with white hair and a face full of ugly scars. What do you think, darling?” You froze in shock when the man lowered his head and took a deep sniff at your hair. “Ready to go to your new home? You’ve been quite the treasure to hunt.”

Despite the fact that you’ve been taught to never panic or show any other emotions aside from smiling, you panicked and screamed loudly in fear. Your scream was deafening and even caused Sanemi to cover his ears, the man holding you had loosened his grip slightly and you saw it as a window of opportunity to slip away from him and snatch the dagger out of his hand. The man could barely react when you stabbed him repeatedly at his side and chest and Sanemi had to kick the dagger out of your grip when you wouldn’t stop stabbing him even after a pool of blood had formed underneath his collapsed body. Ignoring the pain in your foot, you shoot off into the dark, needing to find a place to hide. You didn’t know how far you were able to run but stopped when you came across a river, suddenly feeling an overwhelming urge to hurl your guts out. You splashed the cold water into your face repeatedly to try to calm yourself down.

Sanemi slammed some money over the counter and went after you, not caring about the owner of the restaurant who was yelling after him to demand him to clean up the mess you made. You weren’t far off and he caught you on your knees, heaving loudly and retching. “Don’t come any closer!” You held a hand up and stopped him from approaching. “I- I can’t. I can’t brea-” You splashed more water on your face and hair, trying desperately to wash away the skin the man had touched you earlier. The cold was making you aware of your surroundings, but you only grew tenser when you realised the brothel would send more of these men after you until they brought you back. You can’t go back to the Butterfly estate anymore either and risk them infiltrating it. The water splashes weren’t having an effect on you now and you plunged your head into the river and squeezed your eyes shut. You thought the water would be the perfect cover to muffle your screams and started to scream in it until you run out of breath.

Sanemi kept his distance and watched you closely, but he got worried when you didn’t come up for air after two minutes and rushed over to pull you out of the water. “You idiot! Are you trying to drown yourself?” He scolded you. 

“Shinazugawa-sama, they sold me to the red district! I don’t have anywhere to go, they’ll come for me until they get me!” You sobbed. “I even killed one of them, they’ll do something worse than killing me if they caught me!”

“I told you that I won’t let you be sold to the red district, you have my word.” Sanemi told you firmly, taking off his haori and starting to dry your hair with it. 

“But you’re not always here!”

He paused and it took him a while before he responded. “We’ll worry about that later. Let’s get back to the Butterfly estate and have your foot checked first, you ran on it.” Sanemi tried to distract you. “They’ll have to get through me before they can even come close to you next time, I was too careless earlier. I thought they were just normal bandits. And from what I can see, you took care of yourself pretty well, screaming and stabbing with that speed of yours is pretty lethal.” He thought your speed was remarkable, maybe he could test how fast you actually are once your broken foot has completely healed. “Did you study medicine from Kocho during your spare time or something? I noticed you aimed for the weak points.”

“I just looked through her books when I was bored.” You sniffed, clearly not noticing that he was impressed. “You promise?”

“Promise.”

Aside from being shaken up, Aoi said you were fine and didn’t need to be kept under observation. Sanemi had gone back to the restaurant when she was examining your foot to retrieve your clutch. The restaurant owner and his workers were still trying to get rid of the giant stain of red at the entrance of the restaurant and did not notice him at all. Keeping the incident from the younger girls and putting a smile on your face, you bid goodbye to the members of the Butterfly estate while feeling disheartened to not be able to say your gratitude and farewell properly to Shinobu or Kanao. Sanemi insisted on carrying the small bag that you kept your clothes in while you walked. You didn’t have much, only two outfits, three if you included the one you had on right now and all of them were gifts from the Butterfly estate. It was three hours before a large wooden house came into view, Sanemi had pointed it out when it was within your sight and you were stunned at how gigantic it was. It also made you wonder if Sanemi had anyone living with him. Sanemi gently scooped you up in his arms and made a jump across the walls to get into his home, landing quietly on the ground of a barren garden. 

“Sorry,” He apologised when he noticed the startled look you had on your face. “The gates are usually locked from the inside.” You glanced at the direction of the main doors and saw that the handles had been chained up. After settling you down in a room in the center of his house, Sanemi left to check on his pet beetle. He had left three weeks' worth of food for it and hoped that it did not somehow grow an enormous appetite in his absence and died of hunger. It was still in its tank when he looked at it, and there was a quarter of an old carrot left. Deciding it would be something interesting for you to see, Sanemi carried the beetle tank to the room you were in, cutting up an apple and feeding the slices to the beetle as he waited for you to finish cleaning up. He made a face at the beetle as it scurried over for the fresh food, calling the insect spoiled in his head. When you stepped out of the bathroom, he quickly scooped the beetle up and held it in between his palms, eager to show it to you. 

You had a towel over your hair and was busy drying it when you saw him approaching you with his hands together. “I have a surprise for you, do you want to see?” asked Sanemi. 

Thinking that it was a sweet or a snack, you nodded enthusiastically and your face turned as pale as a ghost when you saw Sanemi had been holding an insect in his hands. You yelped and swatted his hands away, thinking that he was going to throw the insect on you as you coiled away in fear. 

“What the hell, y/n!” Sanemi snapped at you before hurriedly searched for the insect in the dark. 

“What the hell back to you, Shinazugawa-sama!” You yelled. “Don’t throw insects at me!”

“That was my pet, you idiot!”

“You keep INSECTS as pets?” You screeched and went to where you had left your bag. Sanemi watched as you picked it up and made your way to the door, puzzled. 

“Oi, where are you going?”

“I’m leaving.”

He was in front of you in a flash, blocking your exit. “I told you I wasn’t throwing it on you.”

“I can’t live in a house where someone keeps insects as pets.” You shivered, already feeling the tiny legs of the creepy crawlies all over your legs and arms. “I can deal with blood and gore but bugs are where I draw the line. Goodbye, Shinazugawa-sama, it was nice knowing you.”

Sanemi only responded by sliding the door shut after him. You moved to slide it open, but his arm held it shut firmly. “First off, I only kept one insect as a pet, that was a  Japanese rhinoceros beetle you just slapped out of my hands by the way. If you go out right now and sleep out in the open, you might just find a gigantic bug on your chest or face when you wake up.” He leaned closer to you, taking pleasure in your terrified expression. “I assure you the bugs in this area are huge, y/n.”

“You’re lying.” You tried not to stutter. 

“Am I?” Sanemi grinned, suddenly letting go of the door handle and allowing you to open it. “Why don’t you stay the night outside and prove me wrong then?”

“I-” You glanced over his shoulder and out at the open air, just in time to see something huge flying past the corridor. “I think I will pass on the offer.”

“Wise choice.” Sanemi hummed, shutting the door behind him. “Now hurry up and look for the beetle before it gets away.”

“I don’t want to look for it! I hope it does crawl away!”

“Then I’ll bring you out tomorrow night to catch more. How does three beetles sound?”

“Like blackmail.”

“Is it working?”

“...yes.” You huffed and started your search from the other side of the room, hoping and praying that the beetle will appear at Sanemi’s side. “Shinazugawa-sama?”

“Hm?” You heard shuffling from behind you as he responded. 

“You’re the wind hashira, and I was wondering if you could teach me how to wield a sword?” You glanced at him and saw that he had stopped moving. “Or recommend someone who can teach me?”

“You want to hunt demons?” he asked you and you couldn’t tell what he was thinking based on his neutral tone. 

“I’m not sure yet, but I want to know basic self-defense at the very least. Just in case I have to defend myself against anything… or anyone.” You trailed off, not wanting to admit that the incident earlier had freaked you out. 

“We can work on the self-defense part.” Much to your surprise, Sanemi agreed to your request. “But give it a serious thought about becoming a demon slayer, y/n. It’s not a happy business, people die all the time.”

“I will! Thank you, sensei!” You beamed at him.

He turned to glance at you and you noticed his eyes narrowed, causing you to freeze in your position. “What is it?” You barely dared to breathe. 

“It’s behind you.” Sanemi whispered and slowly inched over. “Don’t move or you’ll scare it away.”

“It’s scaring me into moving at any second now.” You trembled and covered your ears with your hands, afraid that the beetle might suddenly think your ears looked comfortable enough to burrow itself in. Trying to do away with your entomophobia, you squeezed your eyes shut and whined, “Sensei, hurry up and catch it!”

You felt Sanemi was close by through the warmth that radiated off his body. You didn’t know what he was waiting for as he remained crouched in front of you for at least two good minutes. Sanemi, on the other hand, was in no rush to catch the beetle and had been studying your features in a close distance, taking his time to notice your sharp cheekbones and long eyelashes. The candle and put itself out when the wind blew at it and you squeaked in fright at the thought that Sanemi had not caught the beetle in time. Forgetting that he was right in front of you and thinking that the beetle will move ten times quicker now that the room was enveloped in darkness, you launched yourself forward to get further away from the spot the insect was and knocked him over with you landing on top of him. Sanemi grunted when he fell. 

“Did you get the bug?” You weren’t sure if you wanted to hear his answer. If he had said no, you swear you would feel the beetle crawl on you, but if he said yes, you were in close approximate with the insect and that made you feel like death is the better option.

“No.” came his curt reply and you immediately start to grab at his clothes and pulling it over your head. He never bothered to button up his uniform and you always thought that it was odd, but now it was rather convenient as you have a place to keep your head safe. Sanemi wrestle his uniform away from you and his fingers brushed over your neck in the dark, causing you to shriek as you mistaken his touch for the beetle.

“I’m going to kill you!” You yelled. “The damn beetle is crawling up my fucking neck! Holy shit!”

“That was my fingers! Calm the fuck down!” He roared back just as loudly as you did. 

You felt your cheeks turning hot. “Why were you touching my neck?!”

“Stop, stop!” Sanemi managed to find your arms in the dark and held them together in one hand to stop you from moving. 

“What is it?” You whispered quietly in fear, thinking that he heard something. A demon? Or the people from the brothel?

Sanemi reached for his face where he felt something had landed on previously and caught the beetle as it tried to crawl into his hair. “I got the beetle.”

“Ew!” You struggled to get away. “Throw it back to the tank!”

“Not until you kiss it goodnight.” He teased, holding the beetle as far away from you as possible as you said that. He had noticed that you were deathly afraid of bugs and made a mental note to hide his beetle tank as far away from where both of you sleep as possible. 

“Hell no! Kiss it yourself!” You raged, thinking that the beetle in right in front of you. “I’ll kill you, I swear to god!”

“Is that how you speak to your superior, y/n?” He asked you quietly and you felt his breath tickled your ear. “Whatever happened to Shinazugawa-sama? Or Sensei?”

“You’re really asking to get stabbed, aren’t you, you little shit?”

[devalient]

Tired But Never Of You (Part 2)

warning: cursing, torture

Part 1 ~ Part 2  ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5

wordcount: 2.8k+

In your unconscious state, you couldn’t tell the difference between day or night, but you could always hear the muffled conversation between two people. You only recognised the first voice that belonged to the man who helped you with your wounds. The other was a girl’s and from what you could gather, she was the one who had been giving you baths and checking your wounds. The man fed you your medicine and as much water or porridge you can swallow.

You were sure days have passed as you began to come to your senses fully, turning your head away from the sunlight that poured into the room. Groggily, you rubbed your eyes and saw a figure was leaning against the wall near you. The man had his head hung low and sat with his arms crossed in front of his chest. You thought you have heard the girl call his name before and racked your brain trying to remember what it sounded like, “Shina…gawa?”

Upon hearing his name coming from you, it immediately snapped Sanemi out of the short nap he was taking. You almost cowered from the pair of wide purple eyes that were staring at you before deciding that he looked more comical than scary. Your giggle died as soon as you felt a stab of pain coming from your stomach, a painful reminder that you shouldn’t be pulling your muscles by laughing. 

“Before you freak out, I wasn’t the one who changed you. A female coworker of mine did.” Sanemi mumbled. He came closer to you and brushed the loose hair away from your face. “You’ve been out for twelve days.”

“Twelve? Holy-” Before you could finished your exclamation, a series of coughs took over. Sanemi reached for the jug of water that he had fetched earlier that morning, a hand went underneath your neck to help you sit up better. Although you were well enough to hold the glass on your own, but one of his hands remained at the bottom of the glass supporting it. 

“Thanks.” You wiped the trickle of water that slid down your chin with the hem of your sleeve. “Have you been here all this while? I’m sure you’ve been busy with your job.” Your ears are beginning to tint red, not only were you a terrible host to him, you were under his care for days. You wanted to dig a hole and bury yourself alive.

“Not every day, I did leave a friend of mine to keep an eye on you while I was gone.” Sanemi cleared his throat. “And erm… I’m Sanemi Shinazugawa.”

Well his last name is certainly a handful. You’ve always struggle to remember people by their names, and instantly wished that you have a paper to write his name down with. “It’s an honour, Shinazugawa-sama. My names y/n l/n.” You introduced yourself with a smile. “My sincere gratitude to you and your companion, I’m all better under your care.”

“Yeah about that… I’ve been around this house.” Sanemi reached for something he had placed on the table and brought the item to you. “You weren’t kidnapped, were you? This is your home and the corpse of the man that day, is this him?” He passed a picture to you and you recognised that it was the same one that was hung on the wall of the fancy living room your parents would bring their guests to. It was painted not too long ago and you remember how much your feet and back hurt for standing still the entire day. A famous painter had come to your town and your father had paid a hefty sum for a family portrait. You hadn’t dared move or let your smile drop an inch during the entirety of it as your stepmother had promised you a beating if you did, ironically when her son left the painting session halfway to take a nap, no one said a word. You were instructed to call for him once the painter had finished painting your parents, only to earn a sharp slap across the face when you woke him up. Thankfully the artist had the common sense to not include the obvious five fingers mark across your face.

“Yeah. That’s my father.” You pointed to the fat man who was seated next to an almost equally plump woman and then to the boy next to you. “Stepmother. Half-brother.”

You gasped and snapped your head towards Sanemi, almost reaching forward to grab his uniform. “Where’s his body? I was going to bury it! And you said I was out for twelve days? My stepmother and brother will be back either this evening or tomorrow!”

“I’ve buried him in the nearby cemetery.” Sanemi told you, standing up and tucking his sword safely at his belt. “I better be off then, I wouldn’t want your family to misunderstand us.” You tilted your head curiously and let a frown appear on your face, whatever did he mean by that? But the white hair man already has his back turned to you and was walking towards the door. “You- you know! How an unmarried man and woman shouldn’t be together alone in the same house. I don’t know! Anyways I’m leaving, thanks for the hospitality and take care.”

“Wait Don’t-!” You extend your hand towards him and wanted to pull him back and beg him to take you with him, but in the blink of an eye, he was out of your sight. “-go…”

Not long after Sanemi left, your stepmother and brother arrived home. Having lived in this household for so many years, you’ve developed the ability to pick up the slightest noises. To you, noise was generally a bad and uncomfortable thing and you always have an ear out for them. You were out waiting for the duo by the doors ten minutes before you could see them. There were plenty of bags and boxes on the cart that was tied to the back of the carriage and you knew your stepmother and brother had a good shopping trip. Hopefully, they would be distracted enough by their new belongings to notice your lie. 

You put on your signature smile once they were close enough, “Welcome home mother and brother!”

The carriage halted just as the horse was about to go through the gate and you wondered the reason for the abrupt stop. You looked up and were a second away from revealing your fear when you saw your stepmother’s head poking out of the carriage window. She may be plump, but for some reason, her neck remained long and thin and was the only remaining feature of her once outstanding beauty. Needless to say, you were terrified of her when you were a child for the woman resembled more of a snake than a human to you. Thinking that perhaps she didn’t hear you greeting her the first time, you opened your mouth and prepared to greet her once more, only to be silenced with a heavy sting across your cheek. 

“How dare you, you filthy girl! Living under the same roof with a stranger! A man of all people! The shame! For the last few days! Do you know about the stories the villagers have been spreading about you? Lord Sato stormed off and went back to the city with his gifts and horses! I couldn’t even look at anyone in the eyes properly!”

You hadn’t dared move as you listened to her accusation and as the woman grew angrier, she stepped out of the carriage and dragged you off into the house by the ear. You whimpered and trailed after her, trying to stay as silent as you could. Crying, screaming in pain, or even attempting to explain yourself would only fuel her anger further. You had a lot of questions too, how did the villagers know about Sanemi? Did he tell them? He didn’t seem like the kind to stop for a small chat with strangers and you doubted any of the villagers were bold enough to approach him after they caught sight of his scarred face and spine-chilling glare. Did the villagers say anything about your father? Has anyone noticed that the man had been missing for days? Also, who the hell was Lord Sato? Some capital pig that she had chosen to wed you off with? At that moment you were delighted to know the nasty rumours had chased your potential husband away. Dying old and alone was better than being married into a household that’s equally nasty or worse than the one you were born in. 

 Your stepmother shoved you harshly into your room and you took notice that the room was clean of blood. That was odd, you haven’t been in here ever since your father whipped you. Sanemi or his companion must have cleaned it while you were unconscious. You bit down nervously on your tongue when you reaslied they must have came across the devices placed in the room - a wooden table in the middle of the room with four chains at the corner, whips and a couple of rusty hand clamps. The urge to vomit suddenly intensified when your next thoughts came, if Sanemi and his companion had seen these things there was no way they couldn’t tell all of them were made to torture someone. They were fighters themselves, they should know what these are. Before your grandmother passed, she had always told you stories of heroes defending the weak against the demons that feast on human flesh. All of them wore black uniforms with the word ‘exterminate’ on their backs and the crest painted in front of your house’s door was to let them know that they would always have a place and a meal from this household. You thought these people were valiant and selfless, putting themselves in the front line to protect others from getting killed and continued the tradition even after your grandmother had passed. Your parents hated it and thought it was a waste of money. And now… even after seeing all this, Sanemi still abandoned you and left you behind. Did he see you as someone to be protected only against monsters?

A kick to your stomach caused an agonising scream to rip through your throat. Your stumbled backwards and steadied yourself against the table, a hand gripping onto your stomach tightly as you catch your breath. With the amount of pain you felt, you swore you saw stars, but this wasn’t the time for your to collapse, you have to defend yourself somehow. First you must keep your stomach protected, you had just had them stitch shut and couldn’t risk have them split open once more as you were certain your stepmother wouldn’t be generous enough to hire a doctor to tend to your wounds. 

“Why did you cover your stomach like that?” whispered your stepmother dangerously as she came closer to you. “You ungraceful girl! Did you sleep with that man?” You were knocked down on the floor when she pounced on you, feeling the air being kicked out of your stomach as she began to stomp on it with her foot. “Sleeping around with a stranger before you were married! Did you know how much more you were worth as a virgin?! Now marrying you off to Lord Sato is out of the question! Stop covering your stomach and stay still! I’ll step on you until that bastard child is no more! That’ll teach you to sleep around!”

“There is another way to make money off her, mother.” came your brother’s uninterested voice from the door. “We can just sell her to the red district. Get rid of the filthy stain she left on the family name for good.”

“Yes, yes. That’s a great idea!” Your stepmother beamed, suddenly filled with joy again. “But as her mother, I still need to teach her a lesson about sleeping around. Hold her still, I want to put these hand clamps on her.”

“Where are you going?” your brother sent a kick across your face to keep you from standing up. “Mommy said she was going to give you pretty decorations across your fingers.”

“Please.” You panted, hot tears streaming down your face. “I didn’t sleep with anyo- one I swear.” Your stepmother ignored you and placed your fingers between the gaps of the device. Without waiting for you to brace yourself, she immediately screwed it tightly. You buried your face underneath your shoulder and held in your scream. Your stepmother continued to tighten it, but you still didn’t make a sound. 

“Aww, it sounded like she had gotten used to these things.” your brother tutted. “I’ve been itching to train these few days, it has been a while since I went to master’s dojo. You wouldn’t want your brother to be a weakling do you, nee-san?” Before you could fathom what your brother meant by that, you heard a loud snap coming from your foot. Your brain registered the excruciating pain before the fact that your brother snap your bone in half. This time you weren’t able to hold in the scream and cried for help. 

“SANEMI! HELP ME! SA-NE-MI!”

“Oh! She’s calling that bastard’s name, ma!” said your brother eagerly as he grabbed your hair harshly, forcefully pulling your head upwards before slamming it down on the floor repeatedly as he egged you on. “Yes, nee-san! Scream for him! Let’s see if he’ll come to help you! Scream louder! Beg, nee-san! Beg!”

“What the fuck are you doing, you little shit?” 

Your brother froze when a voice spoke into his ear. Your stepmother, on the other hand, gasped and dropped your hands when she saw a dangerous stranger had come into her home without permission. It took a second for your brother to register someone was next to him and Sanemi grabbed onto your brother’s arm and gave a squeeze, using enough force to get him to loosen his grip from your hair. Once he let go, Sanemi started to twist your brother’s arm, causing the younger boy to yell out in pain and bringing his fist continuously onto Sanemi’s chest, but Sanemi barely felt his attacks. “Let me go! Who the hell are you? You’re going to break off my arm!”

“Don’t be silly, that’ll be against the rule of conduct.” Sanemi grinned menacingly before abruptly delivering a harsher twist onto your brother’s hand. Screams filled it air, from both your brother and your stepmother, when your brother’s bones were twisted out from his flesh. Upon witnessing the horrible scenario of blood and gore, your stepmother’s eyes rolled to the back of her head and she promptly fainted. 

“Tch, old hag passed out before she could be taught a lesson.” Sanemi looked down at her slumped figure in disgust. “Shut the fuck up, you’re giving me a fucking headache.” He snarled at your brother before delivering a blow to the back of his head, knocking him out instantly.  

Sanemi quickly attended to you after that and released your fingers from the hand clamps. “It must have hurt a lot.” He whispered to you. “I’m here now, it’s okay.”

“You left me here.” You whimpered, clutching onto him like a lifeline. “I- I wanted to go with you. You can’t leave me here, they said they are going to sell me to the red district after this. Please, please! I’ll do anything! I don’t want to go!”

You thought you saw his eyes narrow in anger, but he was quick to revert back to his gentler side. “Calm down y/n, I’ll make sure they won’t get to do that to you.”

“You’ll let me come with you right?” you asked hopefully. Anywhere is better than this living hell. “You can take anything you like, I know where my parents keep their money! There is also a room full of priceless artifacts! Will make you a good sum of money if you sell them- also my stepmother’s jewelries-”

“y/n,” Sanemi stopped you from talking by placing a hand across your mouth. “You’ll be under my protection from now on, you don’t have to worry about money.”

“You can even take the horses! Father was really proud of them, said they’re the best-bred horses in the country! I’m sure you travel a lot on your job-”

“y/n,” Sanemi called your name softly, placing a hand on your cheek and making you look at him. “You don’t have to worry about anything with me, I would never mistreat you like they did. I’m not bringing you with me out of pity, don’t feel like you need to compensate me. You don’t owe me anything. Just focus on healing for now, can you do that?”

You felt overwhelmed with relief and reassurance and could say nothing but nod. 

“Alright then,” Sanemi cleared his throat and picked you up carefully, his voice turning gruff again. “Let’s leave these bastards behind to die or something.”

[devalient]

So I've read the Encanto script and I want to share some of my favourite lines

She's happy, she trips, she's pissed 😂😂

"We find the very handsome Mariano"

I wish we got to hear Félix call her those cute nicknames!! :( HE CALLS HER PEPITA

And the "Iike a goddamn angel" jskkkdlldl

Yikes-

Casually smashing a boulder to underscore her toughness

HER NEW EDGY PLANTS

Adkkdkd Bruno-

[devalient]

Maze Runner incorrect quotes

~

Y/n , tending to Thomas's wounds: How would you rate your pain?

Thomas : Zero stars. Would NOT recommend.

•

•

Minho : While me and Thomas are gone, Y/n , you’re in charge.

Y/n : Yes!!!

Minho , whispering: Newt , you’re secretly in charge.

Newt : Obviously.

•

•

Y/n : Do you ever want to talk about your emotions, Newt?

Newt : … No.

Thomas: I do!

Y/n : I know, thomas .

Thomas: I’m sad!

Y/n: I know, thomas.

•

•

Y/n :  I only ever see you awake, do you ever shut down or stop running?

Minho: Oh, I’m always running

Minho : The question is from what

•

•

Y/n : *Screams*

Minho : *Screams louder to establish dominance*

Thomas : Should we do something?

Newt : No, I want to see who wins.

•

•

Thomas : We either die free, or die trying!

Newt : Are those the only choices?

•

•

Newt : Thomas , I'm sad.

Thomas : *Holds out arms for a hug* It’s going to be okay.

Y/n: Minho, I'm sad.

Minho, nodding: mood.

•

•

Y/n : Tonight, one of you will betray us.

Gally : Is it me, y/n ?

Y/n : No, it’s not you.

Thomas: Is it me, y/n ?

Y/n : It’s not you either.

Teresa: Is it me, y/n?

Y/n:

Y/n, mockingly: Is IT mE Y/n ?

•

•

Y/n : When's the last time you slept?

Thomas : Uh... a few days ago, I think.

Y/n : A few- how many?!

Thomas : Uh... *Starts counting on fingers* I need more fingers...

Y/n : What you need is sleep!

•

•

Y/n : I still have no idea how I’m attracted to you...

Minho : Yeah, well, you’re stuck with me, and no take backs, honey.

•

•

Newt : y/n and I have the kind of easy chemistry where we finish each other's-

Thomas: Sentences?

Newt : Don't interrupt me.

•

•

Thomas : Three words. Say them, and I'm yours.

Newt : Three words.

Thomas :

•

•

Y/n : Do you think I’m dumb?

Minho : Oh, so this is what we’re doing today.

Minho : Who are we fighting?

•

•

Thomas : Hi-

Gally : Leave before there's a terrible misunderstanding between my foot and your ass.

•

•

Y/n : What's wrong with you?

Thomas : Off the top of my head, I'd say low self-esteem, a lack of paternal affection, and a genetic predisposition for anxiety and depression.

-incorrect quotes-

[devalient]

Star-crossed

If you would like it as a print you can purchase it at my store <3 

[devalient]

Onii-chan and Rengoku brothers

[devalient]

Saw this today on Twitter and it made me laugh so I had to share. Truth was spoken!  

[devalient]

You know it's bad when the best doctor in the group calls for backup.

[devalient]

If I didn’t know the context of this scene I’d say the three of them were the cause of this destruction

[devalient]

Tired But Never Of You (Part 1)

warning: slight cursing, blood, death

Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3  ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5

wordcount: 3.5k+

The nights may seem long but it was nothing compared to your longing desire to escape from your home. You’ve always been the first to rise and the last to fall ever since you could remember, bending over backward and breaking your back for the ones who reside in the house along with you. The only occasions where you were allowed to leave the house were a few - to run errands or to get groceries. To others, you were blissful as you were born in a family where you do not have to worry about losing the clothing on your body or the roof over your head. Hell, you were one of the few girls in your village who knew how to read and write. In the days where money is scarce and one may just freeze to death during the winter if they do not have enough firewood piled up, education is considered an unnecessary luxury. 

You’ve been conditioned about how fortunate and lucky you were to never have to worry about money, but all the wealth that your family holds has nothing to do with you unless it was to benefit themselves. Whatever gorgeous yukata that you own does not actually belong to you although they were made for you to wear, merely something to present to the outside world about how well you were treated as a child of your family. Although you may be left alone to shop, you can be sure you were followed by a pair of hawk eyes, not for your protection, but to report your every move once the spy returns to the residence. To avoid another beating, you’d force the brightest smile you can manage, the sweetest words and the most elegant posture. That damn smile… you were convinced on a couple of occasions when you caught your reflection in the water or a passing window that everything wasn’t a facade.

Life has always been a dull repetition and it was often you found yourself living in the same loop. You had given up on making friends with the other girls from rich families, deciding their obsession with household power and status didn’t matter to you. Plus, they seemed to love lying for the slightest bit of attention and you were tired of the never-ending rumours that sprout from their vile tongues. You enjoyed being alone with no one to bother you, life was a lot easier and better lived that way. 

There were a few occasional incidents that made your life interesting when warriors who bore the same black uniform and hidden swords underneath their belts came knocking on your door, usually requesting to be let in to stay for the night. There were an occasionate few who were wounded and had blood dripping off their clothes and onto the wooden floor they passed to get to their designated rooms. You were dying to ask who they were and what they do for a living, but couldn’t risk it due to the number one rule your family strictly follows - children should be seen and not heard. You would have scoffed if you dared, you were already 19 yourself, but you suppose that as long as you were living under your parents’ roof, you weren’t spared from the rule. 

You have sent your stepmother and her son off that late afternoon. They spared you no words or waves as they set off in their carriage pulled by horses, happily chatting about their eagerness to visit the capital and what products they will buy from the crowded city. You shook your head and lock the doors after yourself, muttering that you’ll be surprised if they had responded with a word of gratitude to you for getting them ready for the trip. More than usual, you weren’t looking forward to their return. Last night when they thought you were asleep, the family of three had a row deciding which man to pick to wed you off. No doubt it will be someone who’s of the riches, they didn’t care about his personality or his looks. You were just another tool for them to increase their wealth, which was probably a major reason why you were still alive. 

It has been a while since anyone of those black uniforms came knocking, and you wondered if they missed your house because of the faded paint of a wisteria crest on your door. Thinking you had better repaint it since no one was at home for another two hours, you hurriedly went to the shed to get what you need. It would be great if one of those people you’ve been wondering about showed up, you were alone with no one to watch it, it would have been a great opportunity to speak to your heart’s content. 

But alas, the hope diminished and died as the sun went down. Your sharp ears picked up on your father’s horse’s heavy hooves and you rushed to put everything away before greeting your father. The man had clearly had a horrible day himself, you recognised the look on his family immediately. Who wouldn’t when it resembled thunder and lightning?

“There better be a hot dinner waiting for me on the table right now.” Your father snapped as he slid down the horse and threw the lead ropes at your direction. You would have caught it instead of letting the leather slap your face if you hadn’t froze at what he said.

Shit! There wasn’t even rice cooking at the moment, let alone a table of food!

Hearing only silence, your father turned back to look at you. You could have sworn that you could see the blood shoot up to his head when he saw the fearful look on your face. Then he caught sight of the fresh black paint on the front doors, and the crest told him exactly what you have been up to in his absence. 

“I’ll see you in the room, y/n.” He spoke calmly and continued to walk in with his hands behind his back. You almost considered to fled on his horse, but a whistle from him would have easily called the horse to return to its original owner. With trembling hands and tears welling up in your eyes, you shut and locked the wooden doors behind you, hoping and praying for God to send someone to rescue you if there was one.

To many, the bright stars that dotted the sky served as a beautiful reminder that humans were born but only a handful of humans had the patience and knowledge to study them. A dark figure that had been traveling across the woods for what seemed like a lifetime was not one of them. He was about to give up and make do by sleeping on the forest ground when he caught sight of a lit-up lantern opposite the river. Jumping across the river was easy, he could have easily done that in his sleep. He made it to the front of the house and was impressed by his luck to be able to locate a house with the infamous wisteria crest. Good, that way he didn’t need to convince anyone to let him stay, or say anything in that matter. They’ll let him in once they see his uniform. 

Much to his surprise, a young woman with a bright lantern came to the door after he had politely knocked on it three times. She had kept her head lowered and seemed satisfied to be staring at his feet. He was astounded, to say the least for the house was huge and he hadn’t expected anyone to come to him in a moment’s notice and was prepared to shout for the hosts. Sanemi grew uncomfortable when he saw the girl’s eyes looking at his body. He must have been a sight to look at, with his visible scars and a couple of bloody cuts here and there, but he wasn’t planning to frighten her with his appearance and be turned out into the night.

Instead of slamming the door on him like he thought she would, the girl pulled the door wider after sending a polite smile his way, “Welcome. You could have a bath first and attend to your wounds if you like.”

Sanemi almost forgot to blinked and ended up staring wide-eyed at the girl. She tilted her head to a side, wondering if she had said anything wrong or offended him. It snapped him out of his shock and he nodded solemnly at her, “That would be great, er… thank you.”

“Pleasure. You would have to wait a while for your supper I’m afraid, I am occupied with something and haven’t started cooking.”

As she led him through the corridor with him walking behind her, Sanemi couldn’t help but notice she was limping badly at one foot and there were parts of her yukata that were ripped. Under the guide of the dim light, he certainly couldn’t tell if the red patches on her clothes were part of the yukata’s design. His eyes trailed upwards and he saw that one of her braids was significantly shorter than the other. It looked like it had been chopped off carelessly. 

“Okay.” He replied to her gruffly, suddenly growing alert to his surroundings. Had the girl just been attacked? It couldn’t have been a demon, she would have been screaming and running for her life and it would have come for him once it caught a sniff of his blood. 

It was a while before he was ready for dinner and he had hoped for something warm and something sweet to fill his belly. He had wanted to request for ohagi from the girl earlier, but felt like he would be overstepping his boundaries. Besides, it would take hours before it could be done. He paced while he waited in the guest bedroom, waiting impatiently for the girl to let him know food was ready, but another half an hour passed and it was clear that no one was coming. Clinging onto his earlier suspicion, Sanemi slid the door open and left the room, opting to look around the parameter to make sure nothing was wrong. 

While exploring the house, he found it odd that there seemed to be no one else beside you in the house. It would be weird if this giant house only has you as a resident and it ws aunlikely a girl your age is left alone. Sanemi had almost walked past the kitchen in the dark and had to double back to make sure he hadn’t just hallucinated the cooking stoves and appliances that were placed in there. He tensed, things were getting more and more suspicious, and just where in the hell was his host?

Sanemi was exasperated, he couldn’t have followed a ghost and waltzed into an abandoned building, could he? Screw Tengen and his shitty ghost stories. 

Just as he was about to let a yell rip through the house, a loud clang from a short distance away caught his attention. Sanemi ran to the source and soon found himself staring at a shadow of a figure that was busy hauling an obese body into a hole dug in the earth, grunting and cursing as she did so. “For fuck sake, even a damn pig isn’t this heavy.”

For a few moments, he could do nothing but stare, seemingly finding it difficult to understand the fact that his host was trying to bury a corpse. When his senses came back, he was next to her in an instant, a hand shoving her roughly away from the body she had been pulling and tugging at. The girl shrieked in pain as she was thrown a few feet away, her body landing and rolling a few times on the ground once she had made contact with the ground. Tears welled up her eyes and she began to wail loudly, feeling excruciating pain exploding all over at once. 

A finger under the man’s nose told Sanemi that he hadn’t been breathing for quite some time now and the deep stab wounds in his chest and face told him there was no way the man could be revived. He couldn’t even tell what the man looked like originally because his face was badly disfigured. The girl was still sobbing on the ground and it irked Sanemi on how much noise she was making. He reached for the lantern she had left on the ground and stormed towards her, stepping on her back to stop her from crawling away. He had barely used a tenth of his strength when the girl started screaming in pain, prompting him to remove his foot from her in a flash.

“Why did you kill that man? You’re not one of the people living here, are you?” he asked her, his voice commanding so much authority and tone that dared her to lie. 

“I- I am, I swear I a-am! Please let me go!”

“Answer my question first, why did you kill him? Who’s he? What do you have against him?”

“He-he-” You couldn’t finish your words and started bawling once more, burying your head underneath your arms. 

Sanemi held the lantern over your head and all the menace in his face vanished when he saw how much of a sorry state you were in. The light was enough for all the black and purple bruises and cuts on your arms to be visible.

“Shit, what happened? Were you kidnapped by that pig? How long have you been here?” 

Sanemi was quick to pick you up in his arms and the world was a blur as he took you back to the guest bedroom you had given him for the night. If he thought you looked terrible with your wounds earlier, you looked even worse under the lights that he had lit up in his room earlier. The top of your yukata was white whereas the bottom half was red. And instead of that original colour, Sanemi was looking at the version that was stained red. He could even see some of the blood had turned brown due to time. It sickened him when he looked at the bottom half of your yukata properly, he could tell there were huge patches of blood that wasn’t supposed to be there. 

You hiccupped, gripping the fabric of your yukata tightly in your hands. “He- he was going to kill me I think, I had- had to.”

“That’s enough.” The man shushed you, using one of his feet to open the bathroom door.

Without a word, he sat you down on the stool you had left there for him and started tending to your wounds. Unlike earlier, he never once clicked his tongue or showed his annoyance when you winced and gasped. Mostly, you covered your face with a towel and screamed into it when you couldn’t take the pain anymore. Your leg had shot forward and almost kicked him in the face once, but he easily dodged it and continued his work. At one point, you winced a bit too hard and grabbed the wet towel out of his hands and threw it against the wall to demand him silently to stop. You had expected him to lose his temper, but he stood up and retrieved the towel after giving you a pat on the head. Feeling like you were the worst person in the world, you hadn’t moved since and tried your best to distract yourself by watching what he was doing. He was patient and blew on the wounds on your leg when it was starting to hurt a little bit too much, cleaning it with water and wrapping it medicine and bandage right after. He did your face next, retying your remaining hair behind your head before he got to work. Unlike your stepmother who used to tug harshly at them when she had to do your hair when you were a child, all you could feel was his soft hands. You were convinced he was massaging your scalp and had to force yourself to straighten up when you were subconsciously starting to lean towards him.

You tried to hold your tears in as the man kneeled in front of you and started to clean the blood off your face, but you couldn’t help the constant stinging of your nose and at last squeezed your eyes shut. Your father had always been careful not to whip your face when he was in a rage, only hitting the areas where your clothes would hide your wounds. You didn’t know what came over him this time as he was hitting you everywhere he could reach. You tried hard not to make a face or a sniffle, and wished you could cover your face to hide your tears from him. Warm, callous hands wiped your tears away tenderly each time they rolled down, but you never heard a word of complaint from him. 

Finally, he was done and his face reminded you of a beetroot for what he said next, “Erm,” He was adamant in looking at the wall next to him, “You can do the rest of your body right? Is it any worse than your limbs?”

Your stomach was in the worst state compared to the rest of your body, but there was no way you would let him know that. Instead, you forced a smile and nodded. “There’s some leftover lunch and desserts in the kitchen. I’m sure you’re starving so please help yourself even though they are cold. I can manage on my own from here.”

It was embarrassing to be such a shitty host, but it can’t be helped given your circumstances. 

And he was out of the bathroom like the wind. You chuckled in amusement, only to hiss in pain when you felt your wound started to tear. Slowly, you started to undress yourself, trying to move as little as possible as your brain raced to think of a believable story to tell your stepmother and her son about your father’s disappearance. It would be at least two weeks before they’ll be back, and you wondered if you should move your father’s corpse deeper into the woods instead of burying him in your back garden. As you continued to submerge yourself into the consequences of getting caught as your father’s killer, you failed to notice the amount of blood that was coming out of the wounds of your stomach, and that the blood wasn’t stopping. Your hear felt dizzy and you lowered yourself onto the floor to avoid yourself from falling off the chair and risk giving yourself a concussion, then suddenly deciding the floor seemed like a good place to take a short nap to regain your energy, you laid down and shut your eyes. You’ve had quite the day, it’s ok to get a little sleep before the next sunrise, right?

Instead of heading towards the kitchen like his host had expected him to, Sanemi was just on the other side of the door. When he no longer heard movement or noise coming from the bathroom, he called for you, “Oi, are you still alive?”

There wasn’t an answer or the soft chuckle he had heard earlier from you, and that immediately sent a panic-stricken Sanemi to burst through the door. Indecent or not, he had to check on your to make sure you were alive. He swore he had almost gotten a heart attack when he spotted you laying on the floor, and the throbbing of his heart got worse when he saw the amount of bloody bandages that you had thrown into the rubbish bin. He darted to where you laid and was momentarily relieved to see the rise and fall of your chest. Seeing that you had lost consciousness and that he couldn’t just leave a wounded person on the floor, Sanemi picked up the towel he had left on the sink earlier and continued dressing your wounds, carefully propping you up against his front. Delaying the inevitable, he started on the wounds on your back, but it didn’t take him long to finish up. Sighing, he began to work on your stomach while quietly cussing about how he was not a fucking doctor and that he hoped that he was doing it right. At the crack of dawn, he will fetch Shinobu over, the Butterfly estate is always treating the injured. Better not move you and risk having your wounds tearing further. He thought it was lucky that your chest was still covered by fabric, otherwise, he wouldn’t know how to explain himself without being labelled as a pervert. Oh, and Shinobu can definitely change you when she’s here tomorrow. And you were also so much easier to care for when you out like light, he no longer had to endure the aching look you wore on your face and how you tried to hold your tears in and act brave. It both angered and saddened him immensely. 

[devalient]

Humans are slowly losing the ability to understand sarcasm and satire, in general, because of the increase in text based communication.

[devalient]

Inosuke: so when i was a piglet-

Tanjiro: *confused*

Zenitsu: you mean a baby?

Inosuke: *completely ignores* so when I was a piglet