.

.

"Yo chijou!" Yato said. He slammed down a bottle of sake. "Let's trash talk that stupid bitch Edo side chick who totally dumped Kazuma!"

"You mean that half-wit illiterate who ignored my Kazuma?" Bishamon grabbed a glass. "Yes, Yatogami, I would also like to 'trash talk' her."

xXx

.

"Yo, remember when Kazuma got so shit-faced, he face-planted in the courtyard when he was trying to impress her?"

Bishamon laughed. "He was so embarrassed," Bishamon said. "My poor chouki. He never was very good at physical activity."

"Stupid bitch totally didn't appreciate him!"

"I agree," Bishamon said. "Only a thick-headed fool would ignore something so precious."

"Can you two at least wait until I'm not here before you dissect all my memories?" Kazuma asked. Bishamon and Yato ignored him.

xXx

.

"Yo Kazuma was a cute kid, right?" Yato said.

"He was indeed," Bishamon said. Yato rested his chin on his hands.

"He told me, you know, how you always tried to include him. Even though he was a little nail and he couldn't draw a borderline. He said you were always kind to him. You felt bad for him, didn't you?"

"Well as you know, he was quite lonely in his human life," Bishamon said. "I didn't want his afterlife to be lonely too."

"Just his luck he'd end up a little nail," Yato said, and he and Bishamon laughed, thinking of poor Kiyotsugu becoming a dumb little nail.

"He was always so eager to please though." Bishamon looked up, remembering. "Even when it was just the two of us. He was a sweet child yearning for affection. I regret I could not properly give it to him."

That night, she slipped into bed long after Kazuma did; curling on her side, she pressed up against his back and held him. He stirred and she hugged him, brushing a kiss against the nape of his neck before falling asleep holding him.

xXx

.

If one were to ask Bishamon to pick a single memory that could encapsulate her Kazuma, she would pick out a simple scene of him studying by candlelight, hunched over the table and painting careful brushstrokes onto a scroll.

One memory by itself didn't particularly mean anything, but when Bishamon searched through his days, it seemed as though he spent the majority of his time studying. But then other things would emerge. The quiet way he would look out the window, watching the others sparring in the courtyard. The shuffling gait and downcast eyes, how he'd hug his scrolls to his chest as he walked. He was bookish and shy and subsequently ostracized, and she understood that he had been terribly lonely.

She spooned him from behind, dropping soft kisses along his back and shoulderblades, letting her arm rest heavily across his waist and tracing absent circles with her fingertips. She grazed the hem of his shirt, smiling at the soft skin below his navel.

He was drifting to sleep when she asked, "Kazuma. Did I make you feel lonely?"

Kazuma shifted. Quietly they rearranged themselves so that she was lying on his chest, pulling up the covers and folding up against each other. "Sometimes," he said, honestly. She felt his lips graze her forehead. "But not anymore."

She pressed closer to him, and she felt his hand gently stroke her scalp, his fingers carding through her hair.

xXx

.

"Veena?"

"Hm?"

She shifted against Kazuma's chest, feeling his hand stroking her hair, thoughtfully.

"You said you loved me, but before all this you offered to find that servant girl for me," Kazuma said. Bishamon nodded.

"I did," Bishamon said. Kazuma pulled her close.

"But why would you do that if you said you loved me?"

"Because I wanted to make you happy," Bishamon said. She glanced up at Kazuma, who had blinked, surprised. Bishamon smiled.

"But...but Veena, wouldn't that hurt you? Having those feelings for me, and then having to share me?"

"Well I do that already with the Yatogami," Bishamon said. She touched the center of his chest lightly.

Kazuma's eyes grew wet and glassy. "Veena-"

"Hush. I am fine. You needn't worry about me." She shifted close, her leg draping around his hip as she curled up into his shoulder. "The Yatogami is important to you, and when he named you, he made you family. So in a way, Yato is my family too."

"Really?" Kazuma said. Bishamon nodded.

"Yes." She kissed his cheek. "Which is why you needn't worry."

She brushed a few errant strands of hair from his face and smiled.