It hasn't been a month since Ushio found the Beast Spear, with Tora pinned in the cellar by it. So much has happened since then, but Ushio's had a rather quiet evening and as he winds down thoughts drift.

"Do you sleep, Tora?"

It was an innocent enough question, considering Ushio knew next to nothing about demons beyond they wanted to eat humans.

"Of course not, why would a demon as powerful as me sleep? I didn't even nod off when I was stuck with that spear in my shoulder for five hundred years."

His tone was dismissive although he had started to eye Ushio curiously.

"I bet you'd fall asleep like a baby if someone sang you a lullaby," Ushio muttered, then muffled a snicked with the back of his hand. Then his eyes grew far away. "...Dad said mom used to sing to me, when I was kicking her too hard in her belly. That she sang an old tune in a language he couldn't understand."

"Hnnn." Tora had probably meant to make the sound to dissuade Ushio, but it had a hint­ just a hint­ of a rumbling purr in it that Ushio took as permission to continue.

"Sometimes I think I can hear it, but there's no way, huh?"

"Of course not, when you've got such a tiny brain there's no way you could remember that," Tora jeered, smirking as Ushio bristled.

"I bet I do!"

"Then prove it, pea brain!"

"Fine!" There was a moment of almost peaceful silence where Ushio gathered his breath and thought. Eyes faded as memories thought long forgotten were sifted through, and his

lips moved soundlessly. Tora started edging towards the bed, eyes shifting between him and the spear wedged under his pillow. And then­

"Xiǎo yàn zi, chuān huā yī," The words were lilting, but his voice was untrained and a little harsh. Tora's long, flat ears twitched. "Nián nián chūn tiān lái zhè lǐ," Tora let out a wide

but silent yawn, ears flopping down to the floor. "Wǒ wèn yàn zi nǐ wèi shá lái," Ushio yawned out that last syllable, scrubbing the heel of his hand on a drooping eyelid. He didn't notice how Tora's breaths were already evening into a slow rhythm of sleep. "Yàn zi shuō zhè lǐ de chūn tiān zuì měi lì..."

Ushio himself fell asleep then, never noticing that Tora snored with him that night.

/

Coming down the to cellar was... somewhat of a routine now, if you could call it that. Tora had been gone for too long, an eternity for Ushio, and yet according to the calendar it

had been but two weeks. Every day he would go outside and inevitably be drawn to it and the dust inside, even now on a school day he couldn't resist the pull to go inside for a second before he 'came home'.

Asako and him were still figuring out what their Love meant. Did the each other the same way? Same amount? Were they pushed along by adrenaline and fear and the end? So far

it seemed they did have some kind of Love but. It wasn't the kind of affection Ushio knew he was supposed to have, not yet at least. Maybe with time.

Mayuko was getting on splendidly with his mother and often sat with him and mumbled little things about Tora he hadn't been around to witness. Little kindnesses and little

transgressions that were so Tora. It sounded almost like she'd loved him, but that was strange, because he felt almost the same way as she. So it was impossible, right? But he just

listened when she spoke, forgot to tell her around Tora's life as a human, and ate more hamburgers in the last half a month than he had in many months­ even when he was on the run.

It was nice to have his mother back, but. She was a complete stranger­ he had no real memory of Sumako's voice before they'd met not so long ago beyond a half remembered song he shouldn't have known, just chased after a shadow left on this place and his father. But it was easy to be drawn to her warmth, to empathize with her determination and her lack of direction now that Hakumen no Mono was gone. He liked that, the way he seemed to resemble her far more than his father in all ways. She was tactile too. It was weird to realize he craved touch now, something he'd never really missed before Tora. Tora who always sat on his head or exchanged blows or hovered his shoulder or dragged him around...

Sumako never questioned why he went to the cellar, but she would watch him go with knowing but weary eyes most days. It hurt. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt.

Today she wasn't watching, but it still hurt.

Making his way through the shed with unseeing eyes, his automatically trudged over to the cellar and made his way down. He mouthed the words of that half remembered song as he went, sometimes his vocal cords working for a word or two, sometimes not. Blinking when his feet touched stone instead of wood, he looked up and balked.

"You­!" Ushio swallowed his loud voice, before staring hard at Tora. Like if he looked away he would be gone. Like if he looked away, it would be some cruel jerk.

"You called me back," Tora huffed while scratching the fur over his ribs idly with a claw. "Your annoying voice kept yowling that stupid tune here until I wasn't dead anymore. They said it 'upset the balance'. Pfft, more like you annoyed them enough with you bawling t­"

Ushio was upon Tora then, eyes blazing and hands gripping too tight on Tora's arms. It was absolutely demonic, that face, one only ever seen before at the more prominent moments of the Beast Spear's anger in Ushio's body. But the spear was no more, and the intense focus made Tora stop breathing and quietly observe Ushio.

"You left," And it sounded like Ushio was accusing him of all the wretchedness in the world even as his eyes welled with tears that would put Ghibli to shame. "You left­" Me he didn't say. You left me.

"I came back!" Tora hissed, white eyes locked with Ushio's gray eyes. I came back from the dead, the judgement I deserved after two thousand years of pursuing justice. I came

back for you. "And I didn't take damn near as long as your mother did, so be grateful instead of stupid, you idiot!"

"Who's stupid, dumbass?! Don't talk about my mom like that!" And it was a screech Tora knew very well, the kind he'd normally find himself running away from as the beast spear

tried to thunk him between the ears. But it wasn't nearly so threatening with a crying boy who was loosening his grip ever so slowly who didn't have his weapon any longer.

Sitting up suddenly, he had to stead Ushio against his chest with a hand when he threatened to fall onto the unforgiving stones. Ugh, his fur was getting damp and gross. But Ushio's hands were now clutching at his chest fur like a lifeline and he hadn't the heart to make him stop. Or maybe he did have the heart that made him stop? Stupid sayings. Anyway­

"...Do you know what the song you sang means?" Tora asked gruffly after a few moments of prolonged silence. Ushio shook his head, not lifting it from Tora's chest. "It's a silly

song about a swallow, and a woman who wonders why she stays. You completely forgot the second half where she's begged to stay. Stubborn idiot."

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"Hrgh." Ushio muttered through half a mouthful of fur, before leaning back and sticking out his tongue. "Begging is stupid, the bird will stay if she wants too, and leave if she

doesn't."

"You begged for me to come back." And it's neutral, the way he says it. Oddly free of scorn or amusement.

"I didn't beg," He hissed, before gathering himself. In a quieter tone he adds, "I hoped, maybe, but I wouldn't make someone stay if they didn't want to. You had a choice."

"Tell that to the ones who sent me back," Tora grumbles before standing up, hoisting Ushio off of him in the same motion. "Get up, get up, that Mayuko owes me hamburgers. And

your mom owes me that thing called Hamburger steak for making me put up with you for so long. I wonder what it tastes like?"

"She doesn't owe you shit," Ushio huffed, even as he leaned against Tora's side. "So... I heard you were human once."

"That's an old story, and I wasn't human nearly so long as I was a demon. Wasn't much good at it either."

"Because you couldn't protect her?" The woman he'd so obviously loved something terrible.

"Her, or him." He'd loved them both equally after all. "They're fine now anyway, off in the cycle of reincarnation and all that. Who knows where they went. Let's go, I'm freaking

hungry. I'm not using my human form unless your mother makes me, so don't even ask!"

Tora looped an arm around Ushio and up they went, out of the cellar, out the storage room, into the light. They hardly noticed the way they managed to keep pressed together even as Tora dropped Ushio back onto his feet.

A small sparrow watched them leave from the edge of the roof, beady eyes focused of the two predators drifting away. A soft trill escaped her beak, and then she took flight in the same direction they tread.