Shinobu Kocho sighed, she supposed she was used to this by now. This quiet. A mission with Tomioka Giyu was almost always this quiet, but at least it was a nice quiet, almost a calm. Assignments with Muichiro were silent, but it was a serious silence, weapons cleaning and strategy discussions in the free time. Her past missions with Kanroji and Rengoku were a tad bit too... loud. She always prefered to hear her own thoughts over the yelling of others. She looked away from the fire for a second and looked at her fellow pillar, sitting on the other end of the fallen tree they used for seating. She didn't know what it was that made these missions with specifically Tomioka so 'almost calm'. So enjoyable. Was it the absolute silence that freed her mind? "No, I don't think that's it." Shinobu thought. Perhaps then, the security of a comrade who took first watch every night with no complaints? "Hmm, not that either." She sighed again, letting her head lay in the palm of her hand. "Is it because I feel... normal?" Shinobu shocked herself with her own thoughts. "That is true to a degree..."
Shinobu stared deep at Giyu, examining features she had seen a hundred times before. Every time she poked his back or cheeks, she felt... happy. No thoughts or fears of defense or of demons. No wondering if she would survive the night. She stared deeper and wondered. "What we would be in another life? Childhood friends? Shopkeepers and villagers?" A surprisingly happy thought crossed her mind. "Lovers?" She mentally smacked herself for even thinking of it. It was a nice thought, a comforting thought, but not a realistic one. She doubted he found her constant teasing attractive, she reasoned. She just wasn't attractive to him, perhaps. There was no rule against dating or even wedding fellow slayers, surely, he would have shown interest like Obanai did with Kanroji. She thought she saw him out the corner of her eyes a few times, looking at her with eyes not belonging to just a comrade, dare-she-say friend. Whenever she helped a civilian, he would let out the shadow of a smile. On rarer occasions when she tinkered away diligently with her vails of poisons and antidotes, he would look for minutes with curiosity and intrigue. On even rarer occasions if she needed to bend over to retrieve something from the ground, he would look at-. Shinobu stopped her mind. If he were interested, surely, she would know. Shinobu sighed once again, and decided to try her hand at conversation once more.
"Thank you for the assistance earlier Tomioka-San" she said, his ears perking up slightly at the call of his name. "With the Mantis-Demon I mean. I wasn't expecting it to be so resistant to my poison, I owe you a save now" she said, adding a smile to the end, a clear message of friendship in her voice. "Mmm" was his response, not even looking at her. Her smile stayed, accompanied by a visible vein of annoyance appearing on her forehead. She let out a forced laugh and stood up, going to take a seat next to him. "You don't have many friends, do you Tomioka-San?"
"Of course I do" he looked up, his eyes meeting hers. There was a long moment of silence, a comfortable silence, unlike the awkward stagnancy that usually lingered. Tomioka couldn't explain it, this feeling he got looking at Shinobu. His assignments with Gyomei were pleasant, the stone Hashira tried to hold conversations with him, and most were knowledgeable, unlike the ones held with the sound and wind Hashiras. But the insect was different. They may be less enjoyable or harder to accomplish, but there was one thing that set her apart. Memory. She had burned every poke, every nudge, every comment and criticism into his mind. He always found himself snapping back into focus when her name was spoke, and he found assignments with her were his favorites, if he had such a thing. He would subconsciously let the shadow of a smile loose when he saw her aid a civilian, he would find genuine interest in her poisons and more so, antidotes. He even caught and later scorned himself for taking inappropriate glances when she bent over. "I don't mean to be rude of course, I don't mind being your friend, Tomioka-San" Shinobu said, the very tip of her pinky finger touching his own.
"Shinobu-San-" Giyu was interrupted as he and Shinobu shot up immediately and drew their blades just in time, a flurry of needle thin spikes flew towards the two before being masterfully deflected by the water and insect pillar. "My my." Shinobu flicked her blade, a pile of the spikes being thrown to the ground. "What a way to spoil the moment, wouldn't you agree Tomioka-San?" Shinobu asked, to no response. Footsteps came to ear, soft despite the odd weight put to them. "My, my, you're a quiet one, just like Tomioka-San here" she laughed as the offended water Hashira turned and looked to give her a sharp glare, a sudden jolt of pain shooting through his shoulder as he did so. He looked to the shoulder and his lower neck and winced. He had been stung by at least 5 of the needles.
Tomioka looked at the demon responsible, a towering beast covered in small chimneys where the spikes had to have been shot from. He looked at the beast's eye, and he saw it. "LOWER RANK 5". No wonder he had been struck, he took a clump of his kimono and with a grunt, ripped the quills out of his shoulder, blood and a strange black substance being sucked away as he did. It was poison. "Master will be enthralled that I was able to kill not one, but two Hashira!" it let out in a raspy voice with a pained laugh. "He will welcome me to his high ranks and praise me so! Muzan-Sama, watch me! Watch m-!" the demon was interrupted as Shinobu sliced its leg, a vile purple spreading across the wound before festering and decaying away.
The battle took only an instant, a momentary distraction from Giyu allowed Shinobu to pierce her blade into the demon's back with acupuncture-like precision, enough to strike a vital spot to both slow and distract the beast. "How dare you harm the body Muzan-Sama gave me! How dare you defile-!" the former Lower Rank 5 spoke its last words as Tomioka fell onto its body, hard and fast, a flurry of water following as its head hit the floor. The body, like the rest, fell and disintegrated to nothingness shortly after as the two pillars sheathed their swords.
"Well done Tomioka-San, another ranked demon slain, and a powerful one at that." She looked to him. "Did the quills dig deep?" she looked as he pulled his kimono down past his shoulder to inspect the wound. "No. I'm fin-" he let out a cough, saturated with blood. His breathing technique slowed, but could not neutralize the poison. He felt a tug at his arm as he was thrust on to his back, his head beating with poisoned blood. "A blood demon art with poison, how troublesome" Shinobu said, reaching for a vail of diluted Wysteria in her back pocket. "I can extract the poison and inject a makeshift cure if you'd like me to?" She spoke as if she were asking permission. She didn't wait for a response before pulling a simple hand pump out of a sleeve hidden amongst her equipment and gently applying it to the wound.
She began to pump with a firm pace, a vile black liquid that bubbled at the touch of air began to pool in the pocket of the hand pump. "Such revolting poison." she commented, storing the pump and reaching for a fresh one to apply the antidote with. She paused. Her hand went to a different pocket, and another before reaching into a different sleeve to no avail. It returned to her side, defeated. She had no more clean pumps, and the antidote was too thick to apply by needle. Despite the poison being extracted, the water pillar was in visible distress. He would be at best case be out for a few days, at worst... no.
She wouldn't think of it. She popped the cork, placed the vial to her lips and drank without swallowing, her tongue and lips coated in the diluted antidote. She leaned his head to the side, and got to work. Giyu's eyes closed softly, his breathing easing as the antidote was pushed into his veins. She made light work of her process, first her tongue would locate the damaged area, then her lips would secure, and lastly she would suck and release, then suck again and release, slowly pumping the antidote through his veins. Then on to the next, for four more wounds until the vail was empty and the area returned to Giyu's natural skin color.
She sat over him, one hand on his jawline to push his head back and give easy access to his neck, she looked at the battlefield of puncture wounds and the soft shade of lavender wisteria left on Giyu. Her eyes focused on 5 exact spots where a dark purple lipstick resided. Her lipstick resided. Shinobu wasn't the most emotional of people, but as she saw the feast of intimacy before her, her usually calm and collected demeanor shattered and gave way as she blushed a light, then dark shade of pink. Giyu pushed against her small, almost gentle hand to look at her in the eyes and spoke in a gentle voice; "Thank you... Kocho."
Any sense of reason left her as, without saying a word, Shinobu returned to his neck, soft yet hungry. "Oh?~ It looks like you have more wounds Tamioka-San~" Shinobu said, returning to his neck. "No I don't, I counted-" Giyu jumped as a finger shushed him. "Shh. Let the doctor do her work, Giyu" he shuttered as he heard his name said by Shinobu. Giyu relaxed as the surprisingly nimble tongue of the insect Hashira made its mark deeper on his neck, the once soft purple being replaced by a soft brown. Shinobu left the area where the original 5 marks were located and headed further down, the entirety of the water pillar's arm now pulled out of his uniform, an easy target for Shinobu's "treatment".
Shinobu took her time examining the false damage, all along Giyu's shoulder, then arm, then finally his hand. She took one of his fingers in her mouth for only a second before biting lightly, just enough to keep his hand under her control. Shinobu smiled with his middle finger clenched between her teeth before letting it go into her hands, placing it gently onto her breast. "Oh?~ I think I sustained some damage in that last bout as well. Can you check for me, Giyu?" she said his name more carefree, more natural, more confident. It made his skin crawl with invisible delight hearing it, he wanted that name to come from those lips again. Tomioka Giyu wanted more.
He placed his forehead against Shinobu's and waited for permission. She responded immediately by undoing the top button of her uniform, allowing him a tantalizingly small view of her collar bone. Through inexperienced fingers, he unbuttoned the rest until, just like his arm, the upper body of the insect Hashira was exposed to the cold night air. He looked at her again, his vision spoke words he didn't say, and she nodded. He went lower until his face was planted on her collar bone, eyes at chin level, Giyu's own chin resting softly on top of Shinobu's breasts.
Giyu was inexperienced to say the least, his first act being to softly peck at Shinobu's collar bone all the way up to her ear. Once there, Giyu whispered into her ear "Kocho", earning a shiver from the woman. Shinobu let a hint of a moan out before stifling it, taking a hand off the water pillar's hair and leaning back further to grant him easier access so that Giyu could continue his "treatment". He wanted to hear Shinobu's voice more. The water pillar judged that the spot on the insect pillar's neck that correlated to his own was- "Ah!" … Right there.
Shinobu released Giyu's hair to clasp a hand over her mouth, but to no use, her voice had been revealed to him, and he craved more. The water pillar's blue eyes met the purple eyes of the insect pillar, and there, between the dying fire and evaporated corpse of a demon, they made their vows known to themselves and the Gods.
...
Shinobu awoke from her sleep. The first thing that came to her mind was her clothing, or lack therefore of. Her usual uniform she slept in was nowhere near her sleeping bag, instead being a few meters away, lying on the log... and the ground... and somehow in a tree? She chuckled for a moment, she remembered how they got there, how could she possibly forget?
Next to her lay the empty sleeping back of Tomio- "Giyu" Shinobu said aloud, interrupting her own thoughts. She would have to get used to the name. She looked around for him, she knew that they couldn't both fall asleep, they were still working, a lapse in judgement could turn one of the best nights of their lives to the worst. Footsteps approached before a familiar kimono was wrapped around Shinobu's shoulders. She reached out and grabbed the hand, pulling the owner down to her level.
Giyu embraced Shinobu lovingly. He noticed the unusual damage to both their bodies. Shinobu was the owner of almost a dozen new hickeys, her usual pale skin now battered by signs of affection. Despite being fully dressed, Tomioka could feel his own body, and knew the abuse it took last night. His hickeys more than doubled Shinobu's own in both number and intensity, scratches adorned his chest and back, some almost deep enough to draw blood, and the familiar shade of purple belonging to the insect Hashira herself littered his body, from neck to... other places.
"Do you think you could fetch my clothes for me?" Shinobu asked him, taking a hand to drag him down into her sleeping bag. Giyu embraced Shinobu lovingly. He noticed the unusual damage to both their bodies. Shinobu was the owner of almost a dozen new hickeys, her usual pale skin now battered by signs of affection. Despite being fully dressed, Tomioka could feel his own body, and knew the abuse it took last night. His hickeys more than doubled Shinobu's own in both number and intensity, scratches adorned his chest and back, some almost deep enough to draw blood, and the familiar shade of purple belonging to the insect Hashira herself littered his body, from neck to... other places.
Shinobu kissed his forehead lightly and sat up, her body barely covered by Giyu's Kimono. He looked away out of habit, but a small pair of hands guided his eyes forwards and let him look to his heart's content, this time in the light of day. "I have nothing to hide, my love" she said sitting up "Although I would like my clothes back" Shinobu finished, re-wrapping herself in his kimono. Giyu didn't speak, much to Shinobu's annoyance. She put her forehead against his and whispered in his ear a simple demand. "I'd like to hear your voice more outside of our private time, Giyu" she said with a small laugh.
Giyu looked into her eyes again and the feelings of peace overtook him again. He gave his response simply by taking her hand and whispering back.
"Of course my wife"
A/N: Lemme know if y'all enjoyed. Kinda want to write an extension to the …, give me an excuse to. Thanks for reading!