Tomioka's stay is a surprise to most but a pleasant one at best, during this stay, Tomioka makes a friend, Uzui and Kocho swing by and apologize, and Genya threatens a Hashira to talk.

-linebreak-

Tomioka was infamous for not only how horrifically bad he got along with other members of the corps, but also for his secretive and mysterious nature as well. Notorious for shutting down help whether it be on missions or medical, he was a person that didn't like to trifle so easily.

Yet here the man was, doing exactly the opposite of that, instead, letting himself be cared for, be helped, be comforted. Be hugged.

Tomioka hated being touched, he avoided contact unless absolutely necessary...

...Did he hate being touched? Did he actually want to be touched? Did he want to be hugged? Had they all been assuming wrong and just been hurting him the entire time?

The thought of them unintentionally hurting the other pillar based on assumptions brings tears to his eyes that spill almost immediately, he hugs Tomioka tighter and the man just lets out a noise of surprise. He doesn't push away though, not one bit.

Gyomei didn't expect his offer to work, not one bit but the results he gets are pleasing but worryingly so. This wasn't like Tomioka at all, perhaps it was the work of a demon blood art or maybe he was sick? Kocho mentioned he had a bad habit of overworking himself so was this just a symptom of the buildup of all these bad habits of his? How long had he been suffering from this and how blind had they been this entire time to it?

Oh, that just made him want to sob but he held it back in fear of scaring Tomioka or making him stop accepting the needed comfort he was being given.

"Are you feeling better Tomioka?" There was a small unidentifiable noise so he pushed it off for later.

"Are you hungry?"

"No," There was a sudden, not noticeable change to his pitch, it went a decimal quieter indicating that the man was lying. But why lie about something as meaningless as that? Gyomei's eyebrows furrowed, this was going to be harder than he originally thought.

"You should be, you just threw up, twice," All of the man's movements came to a sudden rigid stop leaving him in unnerving silence, not a single shuffle to be heard. "Tomioka, you need to eat,"

.

.

.

"I'm not hungry," Still the same slightly lowered pitch, another lie. "I know you're lying to me Tomioka," He heard a sudden twitch, the younger man gripping at the edge of his haori's sleeve, he was nervous. "It's reasonable to assume you would be, that's the treatment Kocho assigned you earlier today."

"I'm not going against Kocho's treatment," He said, doing his best to make his tone as firm as he could so he could end the conversation there. Tomioka abides, and this time he let him pull away. The Water Hashira turned away from him, moving the kakebuton over his lap as he busied himself with finding the placement of the tray. He grabbed it with careful hands and directed towards where Tomioka was.

"Here's the okayu that Rengoku and Himejima prepared for you," He only let go of the tray when he felt the other side be stable.

"...Thank you,"

"I pray you get well Tomioka," The latter let out a hum, the sounds of a wooden spoon clicking against the porcelain bowl signifying him finally eating, it took a few seconds before it was followed up by a constant clacking against the smooth china. 

Gyomei smiled to himself as he left the room, still a little confused on why Tomioka would lie about not being hungry but satisfied nonetheless that he had gotten him to eat. 

-linebreak-

Giyuu just wanted to go home.

While Himejima had a nice home, it was cozy, large- large enough you could get lost in it- and the man who owned it was all those things as well. He hadn't seen a single weapon since coming here except his own which was a statement considering Himejima was one of the strongest out of all of them meaning he had to have some semblance of training with weapons here. It was probably the training arena out back then he had concluded in his search. 

As he wandered through the halls of his mansion he learned many things, like how it seemed like there were other people frequenting the mansion. It was by accident he figured it out stumbling upon a spare room that held what looked like a package of bullets held in a papyrus box. Petrified, he rushed out of the room with haste, Giyuu would rather not stay long enough to encounter the person who it was for. Despite all that he ended up outside on the engawa, feet hanging over as he stared up at the sky and the approaching landscape in the distance.

Often, he finds himself alone with only his crow and nature as his friends, the quietness is both comforting and deafening. He enjoyed the old times he spent with Sabito, with Tsutako, times spent with laughter and comforting touches feeling as if nothing could go wrong. Now every touch will linger with a smidge of warmth and thoughts of 'what if's if he allows it to continue. He spends most of his days in silence, sometimes it's torturous sometimes it's comforting in other and sometimes he can't bear to be alone with his thoughts. Today, all he wants is the comfort silence brings him.

A small meow interrupts the peaceful silence he had once gained. 

Flinching at the sudden interruption he whips his head around to look for the source of the sound. His sapphire eyes do a sweep of the area only to see what he would describe as a white black and orange ball of fluff. Almost immediately he felt himself relax, his shoulders slumping as he breathed out a deep breath. 

The cat looked up at him with wet big doe eyes, cocking its head to the side as it blinked up at him, he blinked down back at it. "...Hey..." He reached a handout but paused as he saw the hair on the back of the cat stand up. Very, very slowly he reached out and brought his fingers underneath the cat's chin and started to scratch gently at the fur. "Did you want to be alone too?"

The cat purrs, whether it be a purr of confirmation of a purr of pleasure, he could be none the wiser. Giyuu can't help but resist chuckling down at it smoothing out the fur as he moved his hand over its head, combing back the fur. He nods in agreement, gently smiling down at it.

"Do they not understand you wanna be left alone too?" The cat only purrs and he chuckles in agreement. "Yeah, I understand how you feel about that, they don't leave me alone either."  It lets out a low meow, rubbing against his hand. 

There's a loud shout that makes them both jump, he watches as the cat skitters away and he silently bids it goodbye with a silent wave and makes his way to the source of the noise. Slipping on his zori's he walks towards the front porch unassumingly, not expecting much really. Maybe he expected the person that had the bullets but with one look at them, he knew it wasn't that person.

As he approached the three, Himejima who was talking to Kocho and Uzui, and the Sound Hashira was holding something in his hands, something that was unsurprisingly flashy. He started to hear bits and pieces of their conversations as he got closer. They had been talking about the weather, a boring topic that he didn't care much about. As his footsteps sounded underneath the grass both Himejima and Uzui turned their head, Kocho following in their suit. 

"Oh hi there Tomioka-san!"

"Yo!" He joined the three in the little circle that they had formed, his arms resting by his side monetarily until Uzui shoved something into his chest. "Got this from your house, for tonight or whatever." Giyuu just looked down instead of saying anything. 

What he held in his hands was a navy blue yukata, with pictures of the sun and moon colored in gold imprinted onto them, there's a silver obi wrapped around it, with white tabi's underneath it. He had never worn it, he had never wanted it, but he couldn't bear to throw it away either. 

"It was... A gift..."

"A gift?" Kocho prompted, and with her head tilted to the side as she stared up at him with raised brows. Giyuu stared down at his hands while he talked, staring at the velvety blue fabric. "My Sensei got it for me when I became a Hashira,"

"Well that was very nice of him,"

"He's a nice man,"

"He's a man with good taste as well," Giyuu nodded and with that they all went inside, Giyuu taking the time to put away the clothing before returning to the designated dining room.

By the time he gets there, he sees two extra guests he hadn't expected to see, Uzui and Kocho sitting at the dining table. Himejima and Uzui apparently heard him as their heads turned toward him once he entered the room, the Sound Hashira breaking out into a wide grin as he waved him over. 

As soon as he got seated, after joining Himejima in prayer before eating he started eating, with an haste unknown to him making the two, with eth exception of Himejima stare. 

"Well someone's hungry!" Uzui whole-heartedly chuckled as he stared at the other man with a broad grin. He watched as Giyuu paused in his ministrations, not before swallowing his meal. Breaking away his gaze from the other hashira he nervously stared down at his food, hovering his chopsticks over his meal before frowning, not bothering to take another bite.

.

.

.

"Uzui isn't meaning offense by that statement," Himejima, despite his blindness, noticing the apparent distress it was causing the man quickly said.

Although the older man couldn't see it, Tomioka's shoulder's visibly relaxed, as he blinked a few times in surprise at the sudden interjection. "Oh..." He nodded, "Okay," then continued to rather quickly eat his food, ignoring the exchange of looks that happened between them, Kocho let out a sigh and took a more gentle approach. 

"Hey... Tomioka-san you shouldn't eat that fast you know, it's not healthy,"

As Giyuu raised a brow at her, Uzui simply turned to look at her confused. Wasn't she doing exactly what Himejima said not to do? "Well, not only can you choke but digestively it's bad for you, it can have many harmful effects on your body aside, like the production of insulin."

"Yeah... Don't know what insulin is but Kocho knows what she's talking about," Kocho simply stared at the man blankly. "didn't your parents teach you better?" Uzui pointed out, pointing at the man with his chopsticks and Kocho stared aghast at the action.

Giyuu simply shrugged. 

"You don't know?" In disbelief, Uzui pressed further.

"I don't remember,"

They briefly shared a look of bewilderment and slight concern, as Giyuu continued eating, with haste. 

"Well... Er- not remembering things aside we came here to apologize- or Uzui-san came here to apologize at least." The Water Hashira came to a sudden halt, gulping down whatever was in his mouth and laying his chopsticks down on the plate they were designated to. 

"...Apologize?"

"Well yes, for what happened early today he wants to apologize... Don't you Uzui-san?" Not so subtly she elbows harshly still wearing that same sickly sweet smile on her face. Uzui rubs his arm and scowls down at her before turning towards him with an annoyed but vaguely guilty look. "Yeah..." He scratched the back of his neck oddly bashful for a moment. "Sorry for like, scaring your ass to whatever when I tried bringing you here. Didn't mean to, my bad,"

Kocho nudged him once more, her brows furrowing at him once more, he already knew that out of sight he was going to get a tongue-lashing from her when they were alone. With a huff, he looked back at Tomioka, awaiting his response.

. 

.

.

"Okay..." Giyuu said and continued eating once more. 

"What?! 'Okay'? 'Okay'?! Are you actually kidding me? Do you accept my apology or what?! Or are you too good to accept it, huh?"

"Uzui-san!"

"Now, now. There is no need to fight, if Tomioka doesn't accept your apology I'm sure he has his reasons,"

"Your apology is meaningless,"

"Wha-?"

"Excuse me?! Ex-fucking-cuse me?! What do you mean it's meaningless?! I took time out of my day to apologize to you because you were mad at me for scaring you whatever I did and I-"

"I'm not mad at you,"

"...You're not?" Uzui repeated, his voice holding such belief that you'd think the ordeal was bigger than it actually was.

"Your apology is meaningless if I'm not mad nor want it,"

"So you're not mad at me is what you're basically saying?" Tomioka looked up from his food to hold the other man's gaze with a firm stare. "I'm not mad at you, Uzui,"

Tomioka's voice remained firm and steady, the pitch didn't lower or raise. He was telling the honest to God truth.

It was at that moment, noticing the change he hadn't noticed before, that Himejima deiced to pay more attention to when he lied to gauge the situations when they came along. He'd be watching. 

-linebreak-

By the time everyone is asleep Tomioka has found himself unable to do exactly that. It's not particularly new to him, sometimes he can't sleep, sometimes he doesn't want to it's an endless cycle of things. But now it's both of them, he doesn't want to nor can sleep and he's relatively okay with it. This is how Giyuu finds himself sitting out on the engawa, the moon as his own witness as he watches the glimmering stars above. 

He's... Alone. For the first time that day, he's alone!

There's a giddy feeling that rises in his chest at the prospect of being alone when he's being so crowded around today. When it usually comes to social interactions they drain him so fast and so easily.

He sighed, wrapping his arms around himself. He's always been better alone, done things better when he was alone. But life never liked him, so when the sound of footsteps resonated from behind him. He sighed, just one day, that's all he asked for, all he wanted. When the footsteps stopped at his side he looked up, expecting Himejima but was surprised when it wasn't. Instead, it was a teen with what looked like a black mohawk, his body adorned with scars and his features sharp in the dark light.

It looked like there was a gun strapped to his waist, a shotgun at that, it means that the room he found earlier with the bullets belonged to him. He must have come back for them.

Ah.

Is he about to get shot?

He stares at the teen, bracing himself in case he does decide to shoot him, anticipating the worst. But it never does come, even if he deserves it. 

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.

.

Neither of them bother to say anything as if they're having some cliche conversation with their eyes when it's quite the opposite, maybe he's trying to figure out why he was here? He watched as the teen's face twisted as he placed a hand on the holder of where his shotgun was. "You're a Hashira too, right? That Water one?"

Yes, he was 'that Water one', so he nodded. "Tell me about the Wind Hashira," There was something off about his tone but he couldn't quite put a name to it. "Tell you about Shinzaguawa?" The teen froze but then his expression got angrier. "Tell me about him, now,"

Giyuu shook his head, the boy only got angrier. "That cat," He raised a brow at the teen, tilting his head an inch to the side and urging the boy to go on. "if you don't tell me everything he gets it." Giyuu recoils at the statement, eye wide, and his mouth agape as he stares at him. Would he really?... 

Then he realized it with one good look at the teen's face. The boy seemed particularly unmoored while making the threat but a threat is still a threat even when he knows the teen before him is lying out of his mouth. He hardly has anything comparable to a silver tongue. 

With a sigh, he opens his mouth and tells him all he can about Shinazugawa. He had a hunch on why he wanted that information, the two looked far too similar to each other for it not to be a coincidence. They had similar violent tendencies too. 

Giyuu doesn't get that much sleep that night but by the time morning arrives the boy is gone and the cat is drinking from a bowl of milk Himejima set out. Speaking of which, the man doesn't let him leave without breakfast, even if it means he has to physically pick him up and put him at the table so he'll eat.

The meal is good, he tells him such and after changing into the more casual clothing Uzui and Kocho had delivered, he takes his leftover clothes with him and leaves, with to many questions on his mind than beforehand, but the prominent one being:

Why had Himejima chosen to comfort him instead of punishing him instead?

A/N: Genya was not really going to hurt the cat, he's very good friends with the cat and named it the cat name is Haru.