Chapter 7
Shinobu and Giyuu talk and Giyuu reveals part of the reason he doesn't like the rain, of course, not the entire one.
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With her shoulders heavier than yesterday, the conversation they had at the back of her mind, Shinobu finds their resident hashira patient in one of the public rooms with a fireplace, curled up in a pile of cushions with a thick blanket wrapped around his shoulders, a large mug of tea in his hands. The curtains covering the window are shut tightly, yet the thumping of the rain against the roof makes it obvious it hasn't settled. She moves to open the curtains, briefly greeting him which he returns with a curt nod.
Just as she grips at the curtains she hears a voice whisper to which she pays no attention until the voice grows louder. "Don't open it..." It sounds irritated, laced with slight dregs of fatigue sewn into it. She turns to the only source she knows it can come from, Giyuu Tomioka.
"Why not?" She asks, her interests suddenly piqued as she smooths her fingers lightly across the fabric of the curtain.
"Have you seen the situation were in Kocho? Look around," She hummed, eyes closed but following the sound of his voice and looked in his direction. "Why don't you like the rain, hmm? You're the water hashira, it's quite ironic for you not to like it,"
"I'm the water hashira, not the rain one, " He huffs with a slight pout that manages a slight laugh out of her.
"The rain just makes me tired,"
She hums once more, moving to take a place next to him on the hard wooden floor, asking him to go on, snatching a cushion from the pile he lays on while she does so.
"Not the good kind of tired either,"
"I don't think I follow, please elaborate would you?" And strangely, he does.
"The kind of tired you feel when your bones ache, and you just don't want to get out of bed,"
"I believe that's just called fatigue,"
He shrugs, indifferent about the matter but something tells her there's more to it. It's not her place to pry especially with the state he's in right now.
Shinobu moves closer to him, laying her hand on his forehead, it's burning under her hand yet he seems completely unaffected, so they were right in their assumptions of the fever being on and off. "I'm fine Kocho," Tomioka claims, yet despite his claim, she feels him lean closer into her touch. She scoffs at him but doesn't pull her hand away.
"I could probably fry an egg on your forehead. That's how high your fever is right now."
He takes a sip of his drink, smacking his lips with a sigh of relief. He briefly glances at her, the bags under his eyes proudly showing off his exhaustion. "...It's a demon blood art, right?" She hums while faintly nodding, now moving her hand away, treading closer so she can sit directly next to him. "You're lucky that boy was so insistent about me checking earlier than anticipated, caught it just in the nick of time." She follows her statement with a hollow humorless laugh that isn't meant to fool anyone.
His hands start to thrum against the side of the mug restlessly, he takes a loud sip of his drink as he starts being unable to meet her eyes, if this were anyone else, Shinobu would have the gall to say he's anxious or nervous.
"I didn't say anything weird, right?..." With hesitation, she isn't sure if he noticed it or not, she shook her head, tipping her head up at the ceiling. "Nope, not at all, and if you did I'd surely make fun of you for it." It's a lie, she wouldn't make fun of him for it, not when he's at his lowest point, not when she was worried he was going to die, not when she thought she had failed him and their organization as a whole. Some would say she's heartless but she wasn't, not entirely.
Not at all, some information is just best hidden from others, for their sakes at least. Which is why she assumed the conversation like so many other times ended when he stayed silent, but apparently she had assumed wrongly.
"Was I going to die?"
"You didn't and that's all that mattered," It's an open-ended question but she's sure he knows the answer from the silence that follows.
Deafening silence.
"I really don't wanna die," Almost immediately she tenses, the pure vulnerability of that statement sends her on edge, for the two years she's worked with him he's never been one to really share sentimental things like that. Unsure of what to do, she lets out a light airy chuckle, the best she can force, and looks back at him with a wry smile. "I'm sure no one really wants to die Tomioka-san..."
He doesn't answer.
"Tomioka-san?..."
She looks at him and he looks frazzled, the thrumming against the side of the mug has increased as his shoulders hunched, it makes the bags under his eyes even more prominent than before.
"No... It's not that..." He shakes his head and continues to speak, only able to eye the ground. "I have so much left to do and I thought I'd have enough time to finish them- I need to finish them." He grips even tighter at his mug, fingernails briefly scratching at the side and he looks at her with fearful eyes.
Lowered inhibitions, easily distressed, and dazed eyes.
He isn't fully there, not focused on the outcome, and only aware of the present. Heavy side-effects of his fever along with his medicine, he's in a far too vulnerable state for her to talk to him unless she wants to hear something she isn't meant to. This is her chance to finally learn something about him, he probably won't remember it so who cares in the end? This could be her chance.
But should she? This isn't exactly right but this is her chance to finally learn something about him!
What should she do?
It only took her a few moments to decide her actions and then, Shinobu opened her mouth and started to speak.
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