Hi! Author here!

I'm really sorry for taking so long to update! I've been really busy these days and I barely have been having time to sleep haha-

Anyways, since today is saturday, I finally had enough hours of sleep to be able to write again!

I hope you guys have a good day/night, and please enjoy the chapter!

Also, don't be like me and sleep properly, eat properly, and all in all, take care of your healths!

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Y/N is… very confused.

“Y/N, let me carry that for you!” Zenitsu approached her in the morning.

“…but that's my sword- I literally need it for training-”

“Y/N, if there's anything you need, don't hesitate to tell us!”

“?? Thank you… Tanjiro. Why are you telling me this, though?”

He just smiled at her and left with a friendly wave.

“Is there anything in specific you want to eat? B-but it's not like I will make it for you!” Things didn't stop being weird even after she finished training, as Aoi suddenly approached her to ask this.

'What the- why is everyone acting so strangely?! What's going on?!'

The chance of an answer appeared later, as she saw Naho, Kiyo and Sumi walking down in the corridor and immediately ran up to them to ask :

“Girls, did anything happen? Why is everyone being, uh- nicer(?) than usual?”

They only traded glances between themselves, responding while nervously sweat dropping :

“Nothing!”

“Nothing happened!”

“Yeah! It's definitely not because of what you said yesterday while you were drunk!”

“Naho!!” The other two exclaimed together, Naho only slapped her hands against her mouth with a shocked expression after she noticed her mistake.

“DRUNK? AND WHAT DID I SAY???” After Y/N blacked out, she completely forgot about what happened yesterday.

“N-nothing-”

“Don't pretend like you guys don't know! What did I say?! Please tell me!”

“W-we have a lot of work to do, so bye!!”

“W-wait!!” And they escaped. Just like that.

'I don't remember shit about yesterday, but from what I can tell, I got drunk, and judging by the way everyone is acting, I probably said something weird.'

“Ugh- What the hell did I say?! I already say a lot of shit while sober, I can't even imagine what I could have said while drunk!! AAARGH!!” Y/N started to panic by herself in the middle of the corridor, she will never trust older women again! (she will)

“Y/N!” A female voice interrupted her crisis, the girl only looked exasperatedly to where the voice was coming from, unsure if it heard her screaming by herself.

“Kanao?” Y/N said with a smile, attempting to act natural.

“Remember the other day, when we went out together?” Kanao seemed to be slowly getting more used to talk freely with Y/N these days, she can even look in her eyes while she speaks!

“Sure! How could I forget? Being with you is always fun for me!”

A slight pink dusted Kanao's cheeks after she said that, the girl proceeding to say with a shaky smile : “S-since you seemed to like seeing flowers, I thought we could plant ones together? I even already got the seedlings-”

In response, Y/N only stared blankly at her, her eyes slowly starting to fill with tears. “Y-Y/N? Are you okay? Why are you crying?”

In response, Y/N covered her face with her hands, saying with a strained voice. “What should I do- Kanao is so adorable that I started crying-”

Y/N crying over girls is starting to turn into a normal occurrence, as you can see.

Kanao's face immediately exploded in red. “Y-you! You scared me! You made me think you were hurt!”

“I'm sorry! Te-hee!” Y/N immediately perked up, you could even see the sparkles around her face as Kanao took her hand and started to guide her to the garden, still with a completely red face.

“Where do you think it would be a nice place to plant them?” Y/N asked.

“There.” Kanao pointed to a spot under a tree. “It needs a place with a shade, and a moist and well-drained soil.”

“Oooh! You know so much!” Y/N hugged her arm, nuzzling against her.

Though Y/N liked flowers, she didn't have THAT much of an interest in them, but if it was for Kanao, she could've gone to learn about all the flowers in the world without complaining a single time.

As the girls finished planting it, they were crouching in front of the small seedlings. “Wow… I wonder what kind of flower is it…”

“It's a hellebore.”

“Helle- Helleb- Bo-”

Kanao only chuckled at her difficulty at pronouncing it, saying : “They are also known as Lenten roses.”

“Wow! I'm so excited to see them bloom!”

“They will bloom in the winter.”

“Win…ter?”

Kanao only nodded in response. “When the time come, let's see them together, okay? So promise me you will do your best to stay until then.”

Y/N's smile dropped, she stopped looking at Kanao to look at the two plants in front of her instead, saying : “The thing that I said yesterday… is all of this related to that too?”

Kanao's eyes widened in response, as she sadly frowned while looking down. “Yes… It is. I thought that having something to look forward in the future would help you to feel better, I'm sorry.”

“I see…”

'But I won't be there in the winter anymore.'

“I'm really excited to see them! They must be beautiful!”

Kanao sighed in relief as she noticed Y/N didn't look mad, flashing a gentle smile at her. “I'm going to bring some water for them, can you wait for me a bit?”

“Sure! I will wait for you for as long as you want!” Y/N said while smiling happily at her, which she only responded by nodding and running away with a red face.

Y/N only sadly hummed Yoriichi's lullaby as she waited for Kanao to come back, looking at the flowers she would never be able to see grow.

But then, the shadow of something hovered over her, she looked up to see that there was something looking down on her, she could even feel the hairs from the back of her neck starting to stand up in fear.

“GYAAAAAAAH! A GHOST!!” She shrieked before looking down while covering her head.

After some seconds, she noticed that the 'ghost' wasn't attacking, so she once again looked up to see…

“GYAAAAAAAH! IT'S GIYUU!” She covered her head again by reflex, squeezing her eyes shut before suddenly shooting them open again from realization.

'wait- its giyuu?!”

She once again looked up, seeing the water hashira leaving with a gloomy aura. “Wait- I'm sorry! Come back-”

Y/N ran up to him, grabbing his sleeve. “I- Uh- Can I help you in something? I didn't mean to call you a ghost, it's just that you took me by surprise-”

“….”

'So- So awkward!'

When Y/N first read the manga, she thought that Giyuu would be the typical 'hurr durr I'm emo friendship is bad' type of character, but when she read further and discovered that he was actually just a sweet person with communication problems, she liked him way more.

“I'm….lost.”

But even if she likes him as a character, it's still hard to interact with someone so stoic!

“I can help you! Where do you need to go?”

“….”

Y/N could feel herself starting to nervously sweat at his lack of answer.

“I- I saw you at the trial before! You didn't say anything, but I hope you're fine with Daki and all-” She ended up trying to bring any common topic she could find.

“… I'm different from them. I brought Tanjiro and his sister here, so naturally, I didn't deserve to have a say in your trial, that's why I didn't say anything.”

'W-what do I do now?! I didn't expect such an honest answer!'

“B-but, even so, you still have your opinion, don't you? If you're fine with telling me, I would be happy to hear it!”

“… I've been proved wrong about the demons before, so… I suppose I'm fine with Daki.”

“Wow! Is that so? Damn, I wish Sanemi would think the same as you-”

“He's a bit hard on his words, but I think he's a good person… even though he doesn't seem to like me so much…”

'He- He's so nice! I think I'm going to cry!'

“Haha! Don't worry, he hates my guts too! We could even make a club or something!” Y/N responded.

More silence.

“Uh- Didn't you say that you were lost? Can't you tell me where do you need to go now? I will guide you there! Though it doesn't look like it, I'm very reliable!"

“….” He only stared at her, Y/N could feel herself starting to tear up from awkwardness.

She can't blame him for not knowing how to communicate, he's been through a lot.

“Y/N! I'm back!” Kanao happily ran up to her, but froze when she saw Giyuu, politely bowing since well, he's still supposed to be their superior, Y/N was the only one that seemed not to know how to show respect.

“I can find the way by myself, you can finish whatever you were up to.”  Giyuu coldly said, as he turned to leave.

“Wait!” She doesn't know when they will meet again, she can't lose this opportunity!

She exasperatedly looked around her pockets, searching for something that she could use. “Here!” with a happy smile, she dropped a green apple flavored candy in his hand. “Let's be friends!”

She didn't even notice that she was acting like one of those nice old ladies that gives candy to kids, she only did so because offering food always works in making friends! With Inosuke, at least.

He didn't respond to her, only storing the candy in his pocket and turning to leave.

Though he didn't directly respond to her, you could still say that she made some progress, since he even accepted the candy and all.

“Come on, Kanao, let's go water the seedlings! I want to give a name to them!” Y/N happily said, taking Kanao's hand and guiding her back to the spot they were before.

                         『••✎••』

“Flowers… flowers… Oh, here it is!” Y/N was currently in the small library room the butterfly mansion has.

She finally managed to find a flower dictionary, opening it to look at the flower Kanao said.

“Lenten roses, Lenten roses…” Y/N whispered to herself as she looked around the pages. “Oh, here is it!”

“Wow… so pretty….” The girl looked at the illustration of the flower, she was even a bit mesmerized by it.

Droplets started to splash on the page, Y/N couldn't help but let out tears. 'This… this is so unfair… I really wanted to see them with Kanao…'

More tears started to seep out from her eyes. 'It's not fair… it's not fair…'

“Y/N? Why are you crying?” Kiyo, who was supposed to dust the books, entered the library only to see the girl like this.

“Oh!” She exasperatedly closed the book in response, putting it back in its place. “I- I was just reading a really sad story! I'm sorry for worrying you!” She said, leaving the room while cleaning her face with her sleeve.

After she left, Kiyo only went to where Y/N was standing, searching for the book she was reading. “It's too high for me to reach….” She commented with a frown, staring up at the shelf.

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[ Helleborus ]

Simbolizes serenity, tranquility and peace.

On the other hand, it can represent a scandal or anxiety.