Obanai leaves the kid in the kitchen to help Fuyoko clean up. He might have volunteered too, but just the sight of food, any kind of food – made his stomach flip and his gut convulse. Damn those rolls.
So, with a quick goodnight to the masters of the house, he finds himself dragging his feet back to the bedroom set up for him.
It's specious enough that he doesn't find himself – suffocating? Obanai isn't quite sure, but he does know that he is still capable of breathing in here, and with the wall long windows decorating one side of his room, he knew that darkness was too far away to touch him.
Now that exhaustion from days of fighting for his life and exhaustion from weeks of mental strain had begun to sink in, he didn't have the strength anymore to keep his dirties memories perfectly locked up in their tiny little boxes at the back corner of his subconsciousness, so this; this would do for now. He would move to a better room tomorrow. One better protected. But for now, this is what he needed.
The Yamauras' knew him too well.
Sighing, he sits himself carefully by the low table; picking up writing his letter from where he'd stopped previously and immerses himself back in the details of his designated mission as well as his unexpected one.
When Obanai done, he puts the sealed letter carefully by the lamp, and starts to take off his outer clothes. He's tired, he knows that, so sleep was the best option for refueling his depleting resources. Still-
As Iguro begins to lie down on his already made futon; he contemplates for a second if he should check in on the kid. He'd probably come back from the kitchen by now, and – he... the snake pillar frowns; mouth turning down at the corners under the clean white bandages.
The brat hadn't been alone ever since the massacre. Was it wise to just leave him alone? Just like that?
Shaking his head with a bit more vigor than ultimately necessary, the pillar scowls in contempt as he starts unwrapping the white cloth hiding his face. 'I don't need to keep worrying about the kid,' he tells himself; tone scolding as if he needed to remind himself of his own place in this little equation he was writing. 'He has the Yamauras' now. They'll check in on him if needed. He's not my business anymore.'
Lying down; fingers still gripping at the white fabric, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, holds it – then lets it out in one fell swoop.
The brat was fine.
And Obanai most have truly been tired; exhaustion, pain and stress catching up to him all at once because before he knows it, he's out like a light.
Obanai's eyes snap open.
Darkness greet his gaze and cold sweat dripples down his forehead to splatter soundlessly on his pillow.
He breaths.
Something had woken him up. He didn't know what. Kaburamaru had chosen to leave his side sometime during dinner, so it couldn't be him. Still, he was sure something had woken him up. Long honed skills did not lie. So, what was it?
It couldn't be danger. No, if it was he would already be up and reaching for his sword. Fighting demons for as long as he had, for as long as they all had, these types of instincts, they danced across their skin like a sixth sense.
This was different. This wasn't the same. So what was it?
His nerves are firing in all directions, his brows are furrowed in suspended anticipation and his lips feel too chapped and gnawed through with anxiety.
Closing his eyes; sweat trickling down them as a physical representation of emotions he can't fully decipher yet, Iguro takes a deep breath and holds it.
This... this all feels too familiar. He'd felt like this before. More than once he was sure of it. This gnawing ripples of skin tearing worry. He...
Obanai's eyes snap open again; now wide with poorly hidden worry.
He was up on his feet before he could even think, and out the door before the air held in his lungs could fully escape. In two seconds flat he was standing at the threshold of the kid's room; door swung open and light casting shadows over the figure on the ground.
Oh
Whimpering.
He couldn't fully make out the body on the futon, but he could clearly hear him. The kid was whimpering and trashing around where he lay. He was clearly having a nightmare. Ridiculous. This – this was what had bothered him?
Shaking his head, he turns back around and leaves as silently as he came. What the hell was wrong with him? Yes, these were his instincts. Obanai always reacted on instincts. It was as if his subconscious compensated for understanding the things he himself couldn't fully grasp yet, but-
He – the last time he'd woken up in cold sweat like this; mind screaming at him to get up, was when Mitsuri-san had been burning up with fever and he'd somehow managed to sooth away her nightmares, but... It wasn't the same. Hell, the time before that had been Rengoku; the idiot having been missing for days, not checking in.
Obanai hadn't been able to sleep a wink until he finally decided to just go look for him himself. To this day, Shinobu teases him about it. But he would have never taken it back – how he reacted, never. The idiot had needed backup. And the snake pillar had arrived just at the nick of time. God knew what would have happened if he hadn't arrived when he did.
Obanai wasn't sure he was willing to contemplate a world without the flame pillar in it just yet. Thankfully, it wouldn't happen. Not with how powerful the man had gotten as of late. Iguro himself was most likely to go long before Rengoku so much as got a scar on his stupid ridiculous face.
Shaking his head, he lets his forehead rest against his door.
Because that wasn't what was burning him inside right now, was it.
The question was, why had he woken up on behalf of the kid? Had it been a coincidence? Or instinct to protect?
A coincidence, he decides; standing in front of his own doors, eyes narrowed but ears still peeled for any sound that may reach him from the other room.
The kid needed to deal with his own issues. It was only natural to have nightmares. He'd suffered a lot through the past couple of weeks. He'd lost his whole family. He just needed time. There was nothing Obanai could do to fix that. Nothing he wanted to do to fix that. Mitsuri-san was different. She'd been sick, and – and she was his friend. His family. And, Rengoku had needed him too, so-
But – but then why couldn't he take the final step into his own room?
Growling in frustration, he threw his arms up in the air; grimacing slightly from the pain that briefly flares up from his ribs, as he; with resigned steps moves silently back over to the room next door.
Obanai should have known he'd eventually be infected by those two idiotic bleeding hearts in his life. That's the only reason why he was currently sneaking into the room of the brat he was literally about to abandon in less than two days.
God, he was pathetic.
"Brat," he hisses; sliding down on the floor next to the futon. "Brat wake up. It's just a nightmare."
Nothing.
Of course it could never be that easy.
He's just about to reach out to shake the kid awake; not liking the paleness of his skin nor the silent tears leaking down his cheeks when-
"Please, please don't! I... Please! Don't do this, please. Gramps! Don't! Kai - No, stop! Please!" A sob, and then the kid curls into himself; curls into a tight ball very reminiscent off that day and Obanai - Obanai can't take it anymore.
Without thinking, he reaches out and places one solid hand on the kid's shoulder. He can hear me. He told me that he can hear important words, even in his sleep.' is the only thought that passes through his head before he opens his mouth and breaths out the only words he can say with any level of certainty.
"I am Iguro Obanai. The snake pillar of the demon slayer corps and I am not weak. I will protect you Zenitsu Agatsuma. There is no need to be afraid. So sleep."
He can't promise much, but he can promise this. While he is here, while he's still around, he will protect this brat. Whether that is from a foe or from his own nightmares, it didn't really matter. He would do it all the same, and-
It looks to have worked, because in a matter of moments, the whimpering ceases, the tears stop and the kid uncurls himself just the tiniest bit and stops shaking. His breath evens out and his face relaxes.
Obanai observes him for a minute; hand still resting on one shoulder, but when the kid doesn't move any further; nightmares momentarily halted, he stands back up again; eyes briefly glancing over Kaburamaru's unmoving form, meeting his red gaze.
Ah, so this is where he was.
Iguro turns away and leaves.
