Giyuu was pissed. There were not too many things that would really make him mad, but a child being abused was definitely at the top of his list.
He had talked with Senjuro for a long time in the afternoon, and finally, after a lot of reassurance from him that he would not get his father into trouble, he had permission to talk to Kyojuro and Oyakata-sama about what had happen in the Rengoku Residence. He had also come to know what the argument with his brother had been about and he had barely been able to stop himself from actually walking all the way to the Flame Estate to punch Kyojuro’s remaining owl-like eye into his stupid skull before scooping it out with a teaspoon.
He could not even begin to understand how they could be that stupid or cruel, or both. Shinjuro would never be his favorite person in the world, not even close, but at least he seemed to have the brains not to use his scent to force his son to do things. However, he had been abusing the poor child for years and both Kyojuro and Shinjuro had used their commanding voice as if Senjuro was not his own person and deserved respect for that alone. The poor child had never been able to own his own body.
Over his dead body would they take that child away from him.
Giyuu had spent a good part of the day trying to force himself not to include any insults in his letter to Kyojuro, he had stared at the paper for hours, not moving a single muscle, containing himself, taking his anger and pushing it in a little box somewhere deep in his being.
He had tried so very hard to be polite, he had thought of each word he used individually and had plastered them perfectly on the paper and he hated every single one of them. He owed nothing to Rengoku, quite the opposite, but he had to be courteous because Senjuro loved his family and it was Senjuro’s problem so he would be respectful of the child’s wishes like no one else seemed to have been. So once he finished the letter he read it again, as if to be sure. He was damn proud of his work.
“Rengoku-san,” he started, he could not force himself to write ‘dear’ or ‘esteemed’ or another lie like that.
“I am writing to inform you that I found your younger brother in the woods while coming home from a mission. He is in good health, he was found by a demon and got a few cuts and scrapes, but I have already treated them and they are healing nicely.
He did tell me about an argument he had with you and expressed that he does not want to go back to the Flame Estate for the time being, so I offered him the Water Estate as a temporary place to live. Do not worry, there are no alphas anywhere near the Water Estate, and even if there were, I would protect him from anyone.
However, I would like to have a serious conversation with you not only about your argument with him, but also about some things I found out while healing him that I think you should know about as his older brother.
I asked him to write a letter to you or your father so you might receive another letter soon.
If you so wish, we can meet somewhere near the Flame Estate to talk about all of this. I would suggest a private location as this is sensitive information.
Sincerely,
Tomioka Giyuu.”
Once the letter was sent, Giyuu went in search of his daughters and Senjuro. They were sitting near the pond, talking like lifelong friends and feeding the koi fish. They seemed happy there, safe and relaxed. Senjuro had accepted his offer of a bath and right at that moment his hair was drying in the wind.
Giyuu had taken his clothes and cleaned them himself, the child looked like he had never been helped with simple chores in his life and seemed terribly embarrassed that “the Water Hashira'' had washed his clothes, as if Giyuu would think less of himself because he had dipped his hands in soapy water. He thought less of himself for almost everything, but making life easier for his children was not one of those things.
The yukata was too big for him but he liked it anyway, he had admire it as if it were the most beautiful thing in earth and it was not even a very expensive yukata, Giyuu had never been the kind of person to spend money on nonsense but, from time to time, and for important occasions, he spent a little more than he was used to. One of the things he spent more money on than he normally would was clothing, or a special kind of clothing.
Giyuu walked over to where the kids were, not minding their conversation at all, and sat next to Suki who instantly shifted her weight onto his side. Senjuro looked at him as if he was waiting for an order and Aiko continued to play with the boy’s hair, captivated by the vivid red and yellow color, not even blinking at his sudden presence.
“Have you two given him a tour yet?” he asked, looking from Suki to Aiko.
“Yes, and we already told him the rules,” Suki replied, rubbing her cheek against his chest as if she were a kitten. Giyuu wrapped his arms around his daughter unconsciously.
There were not many rules in the Water Estate: cleaning up after oneself, doing your chores, not taking things that are not yours without permission, no snooping around in the Water Hashira’s library, and last but not least, NO GOING OUT WITHOUT PERMISSION.
They had never needed other rules, listening to each other and being respectful were unwritten rules that everyone knew.
“I’ll go out for a moment, do any of you need anything from town?” he asked, looking straight at the three kids shaking their heads.
“Can we cook donburi today?” Suki asked as he walked away.
“It is Senjuro’s favorite,” Aiko added.
“Yes, we can,” Giyuu answered, not even turning to them, his uniform buttoned perfectly, his haori in position and his nichirin sword at his hip.
There was one store in particular that he had in mind, Senjuro would be going into heat in less than a week and he desperately needed something to wear that would not drag on the floor behind him. Not that Giyuu minded at all, but the happiness of having something new would soon get old and he would not feel comfortable anymore.
The yukata he had in mind were a little bit more expensive than normal because they were specially made for omegas in heat. For years and years the Water Hashira had bought their clothes in that particular store and Giyuu could not imagine himself going through heat with anything other than his favorite clothes, he had bought some for his daughters and he better get some for Senjuro because no one else would do it for him.
That same night Kaname brought him two letters, one for Senjuro and the other one for himself. Giyuu took both of them and gave Rengoku’s crow something to eat while he read the response to his letter. He had the faint hope that Senjuro was actually overreacting and that Kyojuro had not done what Senjuro claimed he had done, but the answer told a different story, Giyuu was going to throttle him in the next Hashira meeting.
“Dear Tomioka-san,
First and foremost, I want to thank you for helping my little brother. I am glad you took care of his wounds, but I would like Shinobu to have a look at him, just to be sure.
There is no need to burden you with taking care of my little brother, he should not have run away, let alone being at night, he knows the danger that lurks in the dark and he is young and fragile. As you must know, he is an omega and he should not be away from his family for a long period of time.
I did had an argument with him about that, exactly, and I still think that he should not put himself in unnecessary danger, I hope you understand where I am coming from, after all we have seen I do not want my little brother to go out and end up… anyway, I should have been more patient with him since I know he is a very sensitive person; I will talk to him about it when he gets back home.
I think you are talking about my father at the end of the letter. I found out about it only recently and we are trying to resolve it as a family. Our father has been better these last few weeks but there is still a long way to go. I will ask you to let us work it out in private like we have been doing lately, I would never let anyone hurt my little brother. I love him more than anything and the only thing I want is for him to be happy.
If you could, I would like to meet you and Senjuro as soon as possible so that he can come back home where we can talk and clear everything up. If you are busy, we could meet at the next Hashira meeting in two days and from there I could take Senjuro home.
Once again, thank you for taking care of him.
Sincerely,
Rengoku Kyojuro.”
Bullshit, he called it bullshit. For the first time in a long time, he wished he were a little bit like Shinazugawa, who would punch a hole in a wall or turn his knuckles bloody without any regrets. Or a little bit like Sabito, who would not give a damn and would scream the truth at the top of his lungs for the world to know, who would not stand idly by in the face of injustice. But he was not Shinazugawa, let alone Sabito, he would never be able to be Sabito, so he just sat there, emotionless, with all his anger bubbling deep inside him.
Once he was able to drop the stupid letter, he took Senjuro’s and walk over to the child who was laughing for the first time since he arrived at the Water Estate with a handful of the long yukata so as not to drag the excess fabric through the dirt.
“Senjuro, could you come over for a second?” he called. Senjuro’s smile faded and he walked towards Giyuu at a fast pace. “You have a letter,” he said, offering him the sealed letter with what Giyuu hoped would be understood as an encouraging look. “If you want, I can be there for you when you open it, as support, or you can read it on your own.”
“Have you read it, Tomioka-san?” he asked. Giyuu seemed quite horrified.
“No, it is yours,” he replied, “and I do not need to know its contents, it was written for you and for you alone. Since I do not like when people snoop over my stuff I do not snoop over other people’s stuff,” he added. “I would advise you, however, not to make a hasty decision over the contents of one letter or the heat of the moment. Your brother also sent me a letter and I will see him at a Hashira meeting in two days. You can take all that time to decide what you want, or you can choose to leave that decision to a future you and decide on this letter in two weeks, a month, or a year. The doors of my house are open to you for as long as you wish to stay.”
“May we read it together?” Senjuro asked, he was not sure what he was scared of, it was not Tomioka-san, he oozed trust from every pore of his body, it was the situation, the years of being the one his father always yelled at, and that letter that, Senjuro was quite sure, contained a scolding.
“Of course, have a seat,” Giyuu replied, he was uncomfortable. Was he doing it right or was he pushing the child too hard? Perhaps Senjuro needed space, or more attention, or another kind of attention that he did not know about.
Senjuro swallowed hard and opened the letter by his side.
“Senjuro,
What the hell were you thinking going out at night like that? You could have been lost in the woods, you could have been bitten, you could be dead! Thank the heavens Tomioka-san was there to protect you, but have you ever stopped to think what would have happened if he had not? Does your life matter so little to you?
Look, we need to talk about everything that happened, so come back home, we will get through it like we always do, but you can not run away from your problems, Sen, you abandoned all your duties just like you said you would not. That is not a mature solution and you know it so if you want to be treated like an adult, start acting like one.
Tomioka-san has no responsibility to keep you occupied and you should not bother him more than we already have. Come home and we will go over everything that happened yesterday, you know you can talk to me, I am here and I always will be.
I love you, Sen, come on, it was an argument, we can grow out of it.
I will be waiting for you.
Love,
Kyo.”
Senjuro was crying all over again and Giyuu wanted to punch Rengoku in the face once more.
“He ordered me to go home,” Senjuro said.
And Giyuu tried, he tried very, very hard because Senjuro loved his family but he was NOT going to let that ass and his father hurt that child again. He knelt in front of Senjuro and took the letter from his hands, folded it and placed it neatly next to him. Giyuu took Senjuro’s trembling hands in his, gave them a little squeeze and made an effort to look him right in the eyes.
“We are not asking for permission, are we?” he asked. “Senjuro, I offered you my home because I wanted to, it has nothing to do with your brother, I owe him nothing, I did it from the bottom of my heart, you are not bothering me and my daughters love you, the offer is still there for you to take. If you want to go back to the Flame Estate I will take you myself, if you want to sit and talk with your brother but you do not want to go to your family’s estate, we will do that and if you want I can stay close so you do not have to fear that they will take you against your will, if you need a few more days to think about it, you have it. Think of you and what you need. I do not doubt your brother loves you and I do not doubt you both miss each other madly but if you are not ready he is going to have to understand and if he loves you as much as I think he does, he will be there when you feel ready.”
And Senjuro hugged him, he wrapped his arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder and Giyuu hugged him back, awkwardly, because it was Giyuu and any kind of physical contact was awkward to him.
Giyuu did not bother writing any answer and he did not asked Senjuro about that issue again, he let the child play with his daughters, he allowed him to get his head completely out of the matter, and if it had helped, he would have made him forget everything but Giyuu knew that memory loss did not solved anything but created more problems and more pain if that was possible.
They had been taking care of his wounds, Senjuro could not believe how much better it looked already, only two days later and his wound seemed to be two or three weeks old. He was not stupid, though, Giyuu was sure the boy would guess that his presence had something to do with his early recovery just as it had as much to do with the survival of his brother.
The morning of the Hashira meeting Giyuu took Senjuro aside, as much as Giyuu wanted to spare him the trouble, Kyojuro would ask about his baby brother and he needed to know if Senjuro wanted to go with him or not, so he did the mature thing to do: he asked and he listened.
But Senjuro was mature enough, he had written another letter to his brother so he gave it to Giyuu, he knew that he could trust him, he would not open his letter and he would not read it. Nevertheless, he also told Giyuu his decision in case his brother wanted to bother him and because Senjuro wanted him to know it from his own mouth.
“I made a temporary decision, I hope that is good enough,” he said, doubtful as ever. “I will stay until my next heat comes and goes, after that I will decide if I still want to live here or if I prefer to go back home. If you change your mind, Tomioka-san, please let me know, I would not like to impose and stay in your house longer than I am welcome,” he explained, polite and apprehensive.
“It is perfectly acceptable to make temporary decisions and please consider this a home too, I stand by my offer and I will continue to stand by it no matter how long it takes you to heal, and even once you are healed, you will always have a place here as long as it is also my home,” Giyuu replied.
After breakfast, Giyuu repeated what their duties were for the day, the three of them would cook themself some lunch, they would sweep their respective rooms like they did every day, and they had to clean the kitchen once they were done with it. Senjuro was amazed that three people only had those chores in a whole day when the house was always perfectly clean, but it did make a big difference that all of them were used to cleaning up after themselves, it helped keep the house in good shape.
Right after that he fixed them in place with a single look.
"Do not get in trouble," he said, giving a specially attentive look at the two girls. “And whatever you do…”
“Do not get out of the Water Estate or you will get lost,” the two girls replied at the same time.
“I love you all,” he said, kissing their foreheads goodbye, and then he was gone, heading straight for the Ubuyashiki Estate.
Giyuu got there last, as usual, and tried to keep to himself, but he could not. As soon as he stepped in, Rengoku approached him looking around as if he was able to hide Senjuro somehow. His ever-present smile got swapped right off his face and he frowned.
“Tomioka, where is my brother?” he asked. Giyuu was one hundred percent sure that he did not mean to scream for everyone to know, it was just his way of talking, even if it gave him a long-lasting headache, almost as bad as the ones Kocho gave him.
“He did not want to come,” he replied. Giyuu took the letter from his pocket and offered it to Rengoku. “For you,” he said.
“Thank you,” he said, taking the letter from him, “but I think I was quite clear in the letter, Senjuro needs to come home,” he added.
“He did not want to,” Giyuu replied.
“It does not matter, Tomioka, he is a child and MY brother, if I say he needs to come home, you bring him to me.” Rengoku was angry like Giyuu had never seen before, but Giyuu was angry too and his emotions were threateningly close to spilling out, but he kept the lid on and forced himself to swallow everything back inside.
“The Master of the Mansion has arrived,” Hinaki and Nichika said at the same time, effectively silencing the Hashira.
The meeting went on as it usually did, each and every one of them gave a briefing of their missions, all except Rengoku who had not been cleared for work just yet and had to settle for training his tsuguko.
“Is there anything you wish to tell me, my children?” Oyakata-sama asked. That was the moment when everything went out the window.
“Yes, Master,” Rengoku said. “My brother has been staying in the Water Estate and Tomioka does not want to bring him back.”
Suddenly, all eyes were on Giyuu but he did not yield to the pressure, he let him talk and let them wonder, he did nothing wrong and he stood by his decision… and The Master knew it.
“Giyuu?” Oyakata-sama asked, the ever-present smile of his was still on his face.
“I found Rengoku Senjuro in the woods, lost, scared and injured. A demon was on him but I was able to protect Senjuro. I took him in and healed his wounds. He explained to me that he had an argument with his brother and that he did not want to go back to the Flame Estate, so I offered him a room at the Water Estate until he felt ready. As soon as I found out that the boy I had at home was Rengoku’s little brother, I sent him a letter explaining the circumstances of my encounter with Senjuro, among other things. I understand that Rengoku wants his brother with him but I can not force him to go back home if he does not want to,” Giyuu deadpanned.
“It does not matter if he wants to or if he does not want to, he is fourteen years old, you can not just take him away from his family,” Rengoku said, standing up in a fit of anger.
Giyuu was surprised by himself, was that bubbling anger what had driven Sabito’s life? Was that what he had felt that time he had punched him in the face when he had wished for his own death in front of his friend? Giyuu understood at that second, Sabito had never put a lid on his emotions like he had, Sabito let the waves crash against anything they came in contact with while Giyuu spent his energy trying to maintain a serene surface, but what Sabito had perhaps not discovered, or what Giyuu never understood about himself until that very moment, was that water could be very turbulent beneath the apparently calm surface.
“I asked you to do this in private, but if you want to have this conversation in front of everyone, so be it,” he said, the Hashira looked even more astonished than a second before. Angry Kyojuro was not something normal, Giyuu standing up for himself instead of letting mean words wash over him was completely new. “It has nothing to do with taking someone from nowhere, from where I see it, he took himself away from the two of you, from you and your father. That child came to me black and blue and that was not done by the demon. You have been living with them for a whole month, so where were you when your father was beating him bloody? I will NOT force Senjuro to go back there to be hurt once more, and that is not even the worst thing you two did to that poor child.”
"Tomioka..." Rengoku tried to interrupt his tirade, but could not.
“No, you are listening to me now, so you will listen to it all. You lock him up, when he is in heat you lock him up during the day and only let him out late at night when you are all sleeping so he can clean the house and cook your food, he is not your personal maid, he is your brother,” Giyuu kept going.
“That is for his own safety,” Rengoku excused himself.
“His safety my ass, it is because you are not even capable of dealing with your own dirty laundry; you, who can not clean up your own messes; you, who can not seem to cook a simple meal for him. ‘For his safety’, are you not able to protect him then? Why is Senjuro not able to protect himself then? If we really have to address that issue.”
“He is weak, he is an omega,” he intervened again.
“Dare you to say that to Iguro and Muichiro’s faces,” Giyuu snarled.
“You know what I mean, Tomioka, omegas in heat can not protect themselves. Right, Iguro?” he asked.
“I can not,” Iguro confessed grudgingly.
“I can,” Muichiro said, looking rather amused by the argument for a change.
"What?" There was more than one voice asking that question, all except Giyuu, Oyakata-sama, and Muichiro himself.
“Well, I did not knew that or I would have…” Rengoku was at a loss of words for the first time in a long long time.
“You would have… what? You do not know, nor do you consider him a person of his own with his own free will,” Giyuu replied.
“Of course I consider him his own person!” Rengoku felt insulted and hurt.
"Then why are you and your father using your commanding voice on him?" Giyuu attacked again, the Hashira were looking from one to the other engrossed in the conversation. “Or would you care to explain me why you thought that using your scent on him was the right thing to do”
All eyes were on Rengoku at that moment, accusing and horrified, and Kyojuro had the decency to look as ashamed as he felt.
“I lost my temper and I want to apologize to him for that,” he said honestly.
“But you do expect me to trust you and force Senjuro to leave the safety he found in the Water State, where there is not even an alpha, to return there. And you say you care about your brother’s safety? You, who were not even able to send his clothes even when you knew he would stay with me for at least three days? You who all but commanded him to go back by letter? Yes, he showed me the letter where YOU made him feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in MY home so he would go back to where he was being abused.”
Silence covered everyone in the courtyard of the Ubuyashiki Estate, Giyuu's nails had cut deep waning moon shapes on his palms and by that time the blood was pooling on his fingers and dripping onto the ground.
“No, I will not force Senjuro to do anything, I will train him until he is able to defend himself as you seem incapable of doing and if you want to see your brother, you will send him a letter actually asking him to meet up and if he does not want to you will have to suck it up. If you ever dare to use your commanding voice or your scent on him, that will be the last time you ever see him, but that will be the least of your problems because I will take it personally. Do you have any idea of the damage you two have been doing? The irreparable damage you could have caused? the irreparable damage that you already caused?”
“Yes, I do,” Rengoku replied, head hanging low.
“No, you do not because if you had you would not have done it, you do not because I was the one who took care of it. Senjuro actually blushed because I prepared his favorite food, he was embarrassed when I cleaned his clothes, he cried tears of happiness when I gave him an old yukata of mine because he had nothing to wear except his dirty old hakama,” Giyuu had become a sea storm, he could not be stopped, he had passed the point of no return a long time ago, they would have to wait for the storm to pass, the waves would crash against whatever was in their way, they would break and kill with abandon, with devastating force, just like any other natural disaster. What was happening at that moment was exactly that, a natural disaster.
“The only thing you ever complimented him on was house chores as if he did not have any other appealing quality, but that was the important one to you, was it not? Did you even realize that he was gone before you found out that breakfast was not ready to eat on the table? Because you sure did complain about him ‘abandoning’ his duties. He, a fourteen-year-old child, who had been turned into a servant since he was five. How stupid can you be? A self-centered idiot, that is the only thing I got pretty clear.”
Rengoku did not dare to look him in the eye, but Giyuu had no problem staring him down. He had two options in the beginning, he could have had an episode, go mute again or he could explode and when it came to his children getting hurt in any way, he had never been able to go mute.
“The only thing he wanted was his older brother’s attention who had all but forgotten about the little boy who had worshiped him his whole life, all because he had a tsuguko and two other demon slayers to train. Did you even stop to think how that affected Senjuro? The amount of work you were imposing on him? No, you did not because you never had to put in the work to keep your house running smoothly, well now is your chance. Maybe you can harden your hands by picking up a broom for once in your damn life and you could try to hold your head high when your father belittles you for not passing down Flame Breathing, or when the neighbors look down on you for your old clothes, or maybe you could try to do everything your body screams against like you forced him to do every time that you used your commanding voice on him, or bend down in front of your father, exposing your neck to look insignificant because you are in pain and in fear of your own family as you force him to do when you used your scent on him. Maybe then, instead of a scolding and an order, you would write an apology.” And with that Giyuu was done.