#but it was overrun with flowers and i wasn't close to any of the villagers but wolf link

[prosebushpatch]

So I decided to restart my animal crossing new leaf for the 3ds file completely but I didn't know that Tom Nook would OFFER TO BUY the entire town and let you carry over the money to the new town and it's hysterical because the mayor basically peaces out, cashes in on 30 million bells, changes entire identity, and accidentally becomes the mayor in a new town. There's a fanfic there but I'm too lazy to write it.

[searchingsomewhere]

Wolf and Flower, Part 1

Giyu Tomioka x OC

Giyu saves a young woman and their paths continue to cross until, fearing for her life and struggling with unfamiliar emotions, he asks her to work as his maid.

CW: Blood.

Giyu Tomioka wondered, as he darted through the shadows, how it came to be that he would save so many people.

Moonlight lit the snowy forest path below him like day, bright and unrelenting. The Water Hashira paused for only a moment to adjust the weight on his back before taking off again. He had to hurry. The woman he was carrying would bleed out if he wasn't careful.

The empty shack he was camping in was just ahead. Really, any shelter was fine, as long as he could get her out of the cold. Giyu glanced over his shoulder quickly before going inside and shutting the door.

The embers of his last fire were still warm. They staved off the cold just enough to keep the inside marginally more comfortable. He carefully laid the woman down on his pallet, pulling the blanket from her shivering body. She was around his age and clad in a tattered brown kimono. Long white hair framed a pained expression. She hissed in pain as he moved her around, her hands instinctively gripping her side. Blood darkened the fabric there, almost black in the low light.

"I have to remove your-" he began.

"Just do it," she begged, "Please. Just make the pain stop."

Giyu paid no heed to her anguished cries. He quickly began untying her kimono and peeled the cloth from her side. He kept her susoyoke in tact, adjusting it to keep her modest. Her wound was swollen red and puffy, just the beginnings of an infection. The small medical package Shinobu had given him was unfurled next to him as he worked. He pressed damp herbs into the cut.

"Fuck," she whimpered, her hand gripping his arm until her knuckles turned white.

"Emiko," he said suddenly, "that's your name right?"

No answer. Giyu looked down at her. Her body had gone limp, her hand resting in the crook of his arm.

---

She didn't die. Thankfully. Giyu sat back, eating his rations. The woman had regained consciousness at some point in the night, only to lose it again to a fever.

A small voice in his head asked him why he was putting in so much effort to save her. There was something in her face, he reasoned, that reminded him of the Kamado boy he had saved. Indomitable will, perhaps.

He had caught her luring in the demon he was hunting. It seemed her small village had gone unnoticed by the corps and was overrun with demons, so she started making traps. Since she couldn't kill them with blades, she trapped them until the dawn did the job for her. Of course, her luck had run out. Luckily just as he was passing through.

He watched her sleep. Long white lashes rested against her pale skin. If he remembered correctly, her eyes were a dark purple-blue.

The storm outside was raging on. The wind whipped around the small shack, but it's walls held strong. He had no idea what the weather would be the next morning. Which left him with the conundrum of what to do with her when she woke.

---

Emiko groggily opened her eyes. The ceiling above her spun and marbled. A dull cramp had started in her side, right where that wound was. She tried to sit up. Pain spidered up her side into her ribs and she sucked in a breath. Emiko turned her head.

The Hashira sat just on the other side of the fire. He was watching her silently. In the darkness of the previous night, she hadn't gotten a good look at him. His deep, blue eyes peered at her carefully, face completely devoid of any emotion. Dark hair was pulled back. He wore the typical corps uniform and a split patterned haori.

Emiko gritted her teeth and pushed herself into a sitting position. Her hair fell over her bare shoulder and she froze. Her gaze drifted downward. Thankfully, she still wore the susuyoke. Emiko quickly readjusted the garment to better cover herself. A black kimono fell into her lap. She looked up.

He was already walking out the door, gently closing it behind him.

Emiko quickly dressed herself. By the time he came back, she was sitting politely on her knees by the fire. When he closed the door, she bowed low, pressing her hands and forehead against the floor.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

He said nothing, only moved to grab his sword. He motioned for her to come along with one hand. Emiko hesitated, staring up at him with wide eyes. When he looked at her over his shoulder expectantly, she scrambled to her feet and followed him out of the shack.

Part 2