Aiko did not remember a time before when their house had been overrun by such a cleaning and cooking frenzy other than Giyuu’s birthdays. Even Genya and Senjuro seemed astonished by their speed.
Suki had entrenched herself in the kitchen for what seemed like the rest of existence while she had rushed around the house to get every single room spotless in preparation to receive the Hashira. Not because she was interested in them, she did not think they deserve their best efforts if they deserved efforts at all, excluding Mui and maybe Iguro, but because she wanted her haha to look good, to be admired by the rest, to get the recognition he deserved.
Senjuro had decided to help her, not really enjoying the thought of being locked in with a crazed Suki in the kitchen, better to avoid her when she was stressed and with knives close at hand. Genya, on the other hand, had decided to help Suki, or maybe just prevent her from destroying something, even though for the sound of it it looked like he was not helping at all.
Giyuu had never badmouthed anyone in front of any of them, when he did not have good things to say about someone he preferred to keep quiet than to criticize. They were far from stupid though and knew that the relationship their haha had with the rest of the Hashira was far from good. They noticed by the sheer amount of episodes he had after a Hashira meeting, it was not to say that every Hashira meeting ended up in an episode but they were prepared for one for a reason.
Genya and Senjuro had been accommodating enough to tell them all they knew about those Hashira everyone talked and respected so much. They knew Muichiro and they had learned to love him from afar and not blame him for his condition, there was nothing he could do to help his memory so they would not hold a grudge for that, the rest of them… that was another issue.
Iguro was tolerated, they knew full well that their relationship was not good at all but Obanai had yet to disrespect Giyuu in front of them so they respected him back. If he kept his attitude on check, they could take him in. Senjuro had described Mitsuri as a very touchy and caring person and he really liked her and trusted her, Suki was bound to hate her from the very beginning as it was but Aiko thought that she might be able to allow her presence and, even more, her touch if she was conscientious enough and knew when to stop which was not a common occurrence in between alphas; that was probably the one thing that troubled her the most about the whole ordeal: way too many alphas were going to invade their sacred little space.
They had heard about Rengoku a fair amount and neither Suki nor her liked him at all. The things they knew he had done to Senjuro were unforgivable to them so they were very much wary of him and his company even if Senjuro tried to play it down. ‘They are good’ and ‘I love my brother’ were not really doing any good, they could not believe a world out of it, they knew that Senjuro loved his family, that did not meant that they agreed with his feelings or that they desired to get mixed in and sucked into that dynamic in particular. To commanding scents and commanding voices they had their past and Aiko did not want to remember their past, she was lucky enough to be sheltered from it thanks to her own mind, she was not going to tumble down that wall anytime soon.
Genya had debriefed them on Himejima, they had no opinion formed about him yet but they thought that he had everything to be terrifying: tall, strong, big, alpha… There were not many other things they feared more than that and if Himejima was incredibly tall for Genya, who was literally a giant to them, they did not want to imagine how Himejima would actually look like. They gave him the benefit of the doubt though just because Genya had said that he was a very gentle soul… and probably because he was a monk.
Genya’s brother did not have a unanimous opinion thrusted upon him either. Much like Giyuu, Genya had the bad habit of painting himself in the worst light possible which made him an unreliable source. He did not tell them the whole story either and they were not in the habit of forcing people to trauma drop unto them so they did with what they knew what they could and what they knew was that Shinazugawa had protected his little siblings as much as he could and that he had never ever commanded them so they were incline to not hate him right of the bat.
About Uzui and Kocho they knew nearly nothing at all, he was an alpha mated to three betas, she was a beta and a physician. That was pretty much it, they did know that she had fucked up Genya’s medications but it was ‘out of good intentions’ so they would not judge her that quickly, she had a point against her but it was not as definitive as what she had decided to call ‘Rengoku’s special treatment’ which consisted on them giving him the cold shoulder in solidarity with their brother.
A squawk was heard from the other side of the door. Aiko was sure they had arrived and thankfully they had finished up perfectly on time. The mixture of scents was asphyxiating and terrifying, Aiko felt an overwhelming urge to vomit... or to run, she was not sure.
Suki's hand found hers and she gave it a squeeze. Aiko was sure that being touched, even by her own sister, was the last thing Suki wanted at that time, but Suki knew that that was exactly what Aiko needed so she gave it despite herself. Suki was like that, she always put her sister first and unless that their lives or safety depended on it, she would never shun her wants and needs.
Six alphas, that was six alphas too many for her.
“It is such a lovely place, Tomioka-san,” said a voice, as the group made a turn leaving the two groups facing each other. “Who are these beautiful children, Tomioka-san?” the same girl gasped and Aiko imitated the gasp, as if practicing it for the future in case it was useful. She had beautiful pink and green hair and Aiko did not take long to feel enticed by her.
She did not need too much thinking to pin some names to some faces: the mountain of a man had to be Himejima and the older and creepily happy version of Senjuro had to be his brother Kyojuro. If she had to guess, the rhinestone man was not Genya’s older brother which left her with only one white haired man to choose from; the amount of scaring gave him away anyway.
The alpha girl, the pink and green haired one, had to be Mitsuri and unless the redheaded kid was a Hashira, which she did not believe for a second, the rhinestone man had to be Tengen which left the kid to be Tanjiro. Since he was the one carrying a wooden box with, allegedly, his demon sister inside, she had little to no doubts that she was correct.
The only other girl of the party was the short butterfly-like one, she had to be Shinobu and from the two boys, the one with the boar head on had to be Inosuke and the burning yellow haired one had to be Zenitsu. If she was correct, she already had her favorites, even if she had to put aside the ones she personally knew.
“Aiko,” Giyuu said, introducing her rather brusquely. Aiko put up a hand with a smile, as if saying hello, “Suki,” he continued, her sister looked murderous, all the welcomingness that was poured unto them when they were made had attached itself to Aiko because if Suki was something it was not welcoming. “Senjuro and Genya,” he finished and both boys bowed respectfully to the Hashira. Aiko could have bowed too but Suki would neve bow in front of an alpha and she would not abandon her sister in that.
“They are so cute!” Mitsuri said, bouncing in her place.
“Ara ara, Tomioka-san, it looks like you have a fixation with collecting omegas,” she said. If any of them looked welcoming, apart from Suki, they did not look like that anymore.
Giyuu did not dignify her mean comment with an answer, he continued forward as if nobody had talked at all. If they knew that his relationship with the rest of the Hashira was not good they did not think that it was that bad. Giyuu had never blatantly ignored any of them, not even if it was the most trivial thing.
“Tomioka-san, do you know it is rude to ignore people when they talk to you?” she insisted, Suki’s teeth gnashed, she was physically stopping herself from being irremediably rude.
“Tomioka-san…” she started again but was cut off by Suki’s voice.
“The food will be served in the sitting room,” she said, not taking her eyes out of the young woman in front of her. “Iguro-san, your bedroom is ready if you wish for a change of clothing. Muichiro-san, yours is ready too,” she said, a little smile pulling at her mouth but it was soon ditched in favor of her chilling murderous look. “If you would be so kind we will show you the way to the sitting room, please do not feel obligated, we are not in the habit of forcing people to do things they do not want to do here,” she said, easily adding her backhanded comment looking straight into Shinobu’s purple eyes.
A soft cackle could be heard in the silent courtyard.
“Pardon me,” Mitsuri mumbled, her hands over her mouth to contain herself better.
Suki then turned around and Aiko followed suit, they walked to the door of the sitting room and opened the shoji doors to let them in as if nothing had happened at all. Their guests stepped inside the sitting room admiring their home as if it were the strangest vision in the world. Maybe they thought that the house would be just as barren as when she and Suki had arrived for the first time. Both Iguro and Tokito decided to change their clothes but they caught up with the group quite quickly.
The atmosphere was tense, so tense that Aiko could have cut it with the pretty katana her haha wore on his hip had she known how to wield it. Nobody spoke, neither the guests nor the inhabitants of the Water Estate and Giyuu did not seem very interested in breaking the silence... for a change.
The food had been already distributed but if any of them managed to eat anything it would be considered a feat.
“Please do not worry yourselves, Suki will not kill anybody,” she mumbled, looking at her own food.
“As of yet,” replied her sister seated at the other side of Giyuu. Surprisingly, it was Obanai the one to laugh at Suki’s snide remark.
“What have you four been up to today, without supervision?” Iguro asked.
“Suki and Genya took care of the food and we took care of the cleaning,” Aiko said with a triumphant smile, “we already have dinner going,” she added pridefully.
“You did not have to do all of this,” Giyuu said, his voice so soft that if anyone else had been talking in the room he would not have been heard.
“We know, but Genya and Senjuro knew a lot of their favorite dishes and we had the ingredients and the time,” Suki replied, “or I thought that I had the time until Genya ruined my ohagi… twice,” she complained.
“Any permanent wound?” Giyuu asked Genya with his blank, default face.
“Thankfully I was able to snatch all the knives before she could get to them, all my fingers are still attached to my hands,” he replied with that smile that had won them all over.
“Barely, you barely managed to escape,” she replied, it almost seemed as if she was encouraging him to try again and see the consequences for himself.
“Have you finished your homework,” Giyuu said and the smiles of the four kids were swapped out of their faces as if Giyuu had given a slap to each of them.
Three pairs of eyes were looking at Suki intently, under the pressure the young girl left her food on the table carefully and plastered a fake smile on her plump face, readying herself to find a way out of their homework at any cost.
“Haha,” she started saying.
“Do not lie to me, Suki,” Giyuu’s tone left no room for arguing and her smile disappeared again.
“Akari and Sumoki got into a fight, again,” Aiko said, as if trying to excuse them all.
“She did turn my arms to shreds,” Senjuro added.
“In my recollection of events I was not the one who brought the kittens home,” Giyuu replied, silence descended upon them for a moment before Giyuu decided to talk again. “As soon as we finished eating you all will get to your homework, no excuses,” he said.
“Yes, haha,” Suki, Aiko and Senjuro said unanimously.
“Yes, Giyuu,” Genya said at the same time.
The faces of their guests showed different degrees of surprise: at what time had they all become so close to Tomioka? None of the Hashira had the honor to call him by his given name and some of them knew him since he was sixteen. Never, not even once, had it ever occurred to them that someone could be so close to Tomioka that they would call him by name or say 'haha' like the three youngest did.
Muichiro, Iguro and Mitsuri were the only unaffected ones, Sanemi would have been too had his own brother not called him ‘Giyuu’ as if they were long time friends. Not even the Kamado brat and his gaggle of pals had that honor and Tomioka had even laid his own life for them. But no, Kamado did not have that honor and something told Sanemi that there was something else about the relationship with Kamado that they were all missing, he had pretty much run away from him that same morning in the Ubuyashiki Estate. It felt somewhat cathartic that Kamado was receiving Tomioka's cold shoulder just like they all always did.
“Haha?” Rengoku asked, flabbergasted and more than a little angry.
“Yes, haha” Suki replied, framing Giyuu with her hands as if any of them needed clarification about who they were referring to.
“Senjuro, you have a mother of your own,” he said, his tone left nothing up to question but Senjuro was not the same person that had abandoned the Flame Estate some months ago, he was gentle and caring but it was also a person with his own opinions and he had the right to voice them.
“I know,” he replied, “and I love my mother, but I did not know her,” he added. The atmosphere became cold once more, the Rengoku brothers could let it be or they could engage in an argument and an argument would blow it all out of proportion.
“You are being terribly disrespectful towards her memory,” Kyojuro said, chastising his younger brother.
“I do not think so, I like to believe that mother would have wanted the best for me and that she would be happy that I found someone good who is willing to love me the way she would have loved me had she had the chance, the way neither you nor father did,” Senjuro replied. From the quiet child that would lie to avoid conflict there was little to nothing left. He still tried to avoid conflict, he did not like fighting or arguing but when it had to be done, it had to be done and he would not lie to make others happy at his expense.
“Anyway… at least we did not bring a dog this time,” Aiko cut in, easily changing the topic back to something lighter.
“It would be impossible to hide a dog, they hate haha, it would attack on the first three seconds of being home,” Suki replied. “Not that we had not tried, we are talking from experience,” she added.
“Hold up,” Uzui stopped her, “Little Genya here called you by your name, did he not?” he asked, his eyes went from Genya to Giyuu and back a good couple of times.
“He is a brother to my children, he can call me as he pleases,” Giyuu replied in all seriousness, his face as blank as ever.
“May I call you by your name?” he asked immediately after.
“No,” Tomioka simply said, unfazed, and Obanai could not hold his laughter at Uzui’s disappointed face.
“I never thought that I would laugh at something that came out of Tomioka’s mouth but that was so well timed,” he said from behind his bandages. “You had it coming, Uzui.” he could not contain himself, Tengen had served himself in a golden platter to be roasted.
“How many pets do you have?” Mitsuri asked the two little girls, deciding to bring the ongoing conversation to less stinging topics and make it less weird, it had been weird enough with all of them there to begin with.
“Oh, not that many, right now we only have our cats, Sumoki and Akari, but we used to have some rabbits back when we came to live here,” Aiko said.
“Rabbits and foxes do not mesh well together, if you know what I mean,” Suki added.
“And the koi fish,” Muichiro said, “they should be safe and sound, haha never allow you two to stick your hands into their care,” he added. All the eyes were suddenly in Muichiro who had no idea why was he being looked at.
“Yes, Mui, the koi fish are still perfectly healthy,” Giyuu replied. “Tanjiro, if your sister wants to get out of her box, she is allowed in all the areas you are allowed,” he said, changing the topic rather quickly. They all knew what they had to do, make it normal, do not let Mui know that he had forgotten about them for a year and a half, do not let Mui feel bad for something he could not control.
“I have some Konpeito for her, she used to like them a lot,” Senjuro added, looking straight at Tanjiro with the shiniest smile they had seen of him ever. He looked so happy and so bright that Tanjiro did not know what to do for a second but to stay looking right at him.
“I would love to meet her, Senjuro talks about her a lot and if someone is a friend to my brother she is also my friend,” Aiko said, waiting for Tanjiro to open Nezuko’s box.
“Do you call him ‘brother’?” Mitsuri asked, eyes misty with emotion.
“Of course, they are all my brothers, Muichiro, Senjuro and Genya,” she replied in all seriousness, “which is amazing on its own because then I am the youngest of them all and I can get spoiled,” she added.
“Younger siblings, they are all the same,” Sanemi said, to everyone’s surprise.
“Right? They are impossible,” Suki agreed.
“Middle children are the flashier,” Tengen contributed, raising a fist in the air.
“Thankfully I do not have one of those.” Suki’s quick reply came swiftly until she looked to her side, to Genya. “Oh no, you are one of those,” she said, horrified.
“We can hardly say that Uzui-san is the typical middle child,” Mitsuri said, “I am a middle child myself,” she added.
“Yes… middle children are strange,” Senjuro contributed, laughing a little at Mitsuri’s surprised face but she also laughed about it, it was all in good fun.
“And let’s not talk about the only child species, they are the freakiest,” Sanemi added, looking straight into Obanai’s eyes.
“I am an only child!” Inosuke complained.
“And you are proving him correct,” Suki replied, actually pulling a laugh out of most of them, somehow they shared one experience and the groups were not divided in omegas, betas and alphas but in roasting the rest.
“I do not know what you all mean, having older siblings is not all it is cracked up to be,” Senjuro said on a whim, he could not put his hands in front of his mouth fast enough to avoid the words slipping out.
“Yes, just look at Nezuko-chan, all scrunched up in a box all day,” Aiko said quickly, turning the conversation as fast as possible.
“It is for her protection,” Tanjiro insisted, having already understood what Aiko was up to and playing into it.
“Yes, tell that to her poor back, not even I treat Aiko that badly and I have threatened her pet’s life a good couple of times,” Suki replied, if they thought that the threat comment was a joke, they were wrong but she was not going to clarify.
“I like your daughters, Tomioka, they are very flashy,” Tengen said, Aiko smiled at the statement, Suki looked at him rather unimpressed by it, maybe she was considering if being ‘flashy’ was a compliment or not.
“What is that homework that you have to do about? Maybe we can help,” Mitsuri said, totally engrossed in the relationship dynamics.
Mitsuri had always wanted children, all the way since she was a little kid herself her dreams had always been being a parent, giving birth, raising them, a whole bunch of kids with a person who loved her. That was her dream, as simple as that, a loving family. No fancy clothes, no big houses, she needed none of those, they needed love and strength to push forward when things gave a turn for the worst, to keep going together, supporting one another in times of hardship.
But push came to shove and she found out that she would never be able to be pregnant and give birth because she had the bad luck to be born an alpha and alphas were not supposed to be pregnant… alphas were also not supposed to be women either if she was to believe society, and she had, for many many years.
She was not entirely sure in which turn she had become a demon slayer but she did not regret it, she either found someone who loved her for who she was or was protecting other happy families around the country and, for that time, that was enough. At that moment, with Suki and Aiko in front of her, she had the possibility of living some of those experiences, even if she was not their parent, Tomioka was fulfilling that role rather well for the two girls, but she could take a part on it if they all deemed her trustworthy.
“About everything,” Suki complained, “I am behind on history, calligraphy, grammar, dialectic and rhetoric… and I should put a little bit of thought into biology because I am lagging behind too lately,” she added.
“I am behind on biology and history and I am awfully behind on geometry, arithmetic and algebra too,” Aiko replied, placing a pained expression on her face at the mere thought of the amount of work that was waiting for her.
“I am behind in math… all of it, and biology,” Senjuro added.
“And I have to do math too and calligraphy,” Genya finished up.
“I have not given you homework this week, Genya,” Giyuu said. His head seemed to turn in slow motion towards the oldest of the kids; Genya looked so guilty that there was nothing to do but to own up to it. “You are more than a week behind, are you not?” Giyuu added, there was no judgment attached to it, just a ‘you better not lie to me’ sort of look.
“Ten days,” he mumbled, guiltily.
“You have time until your heat ends, you know I do not like you to have homework during heat but you call this on yourself,” Giyuu replied.
“Yes, Giyuu, I will finish up on time,” Genya promised.
“How many things are you teaching to these poor kids?” Uzui asked, horrified at their curriculum, Zenitsu seemed just as affronted by it as him.
“Everything I know,” Giyuu replied innocently.
“What does he mean?” Inosuke asked Tanjiro as quietly as he could, which was not really much.
“What does he mean by what?” Tanjiro asked back, not really sure about what his friend was talking about.
“All those weird words they said, what do they mean?” Inosuke insisted.
“I do not know them all, history is about things that happened in the past, biology is about nature… somewhat, and math is about numbers, I think,” Tanjiro summarized rather vaguely.
“Math is a conjunction of many things…” Suki tried to explain.
“A con… what?” Inosuke asked, already lost.
“A group of many things,” Suki replied, choosing her wording carefully, “like numbers, shapes, symbols and all the things you can do with them and the correct way of doing that,” she said. “Biology is about every living being in the world and how their bodies work, it is super interesting, you would not believe some of the things about fungus that Genya is learning,” she added, somewhere between morbid curiosity and revulsion.
“History, as Kamado-san said, is about things that happened in the past, so we can learn from it and not repeat the same mistakes,” Senjuro added.
“And calligraphy, grammar, dialectic and rhetoric are about the language we speak, the right way to speak and write, how to make an argument stand, how to convince people of things,” Aiko finished up.
“I do not know how to write or read,” Inosuke said.
“Well, you would learn in a second, I am sure,” Aiko replied, not wishing to make him feel self-conscious.
“Do you not teach anything to those kids?” Giyuu asked Rengoku. Anyone who actually knew him like his children did would say that he was genuinely concerned, someone who did not, would have thought that he was just as uninterested as always.
“I teach them to fight,” Rengoku replied.
“Are we going to ignore that Tomioka-san is teaching children to talk?” Kocho cut in.
“The fact that he does not want to talk with you does not mean that he does not talk and for the little of you that I have seen… I can see why,” Suki replied, not missing a beat.
“However he is doing it, we can not deny he is doing it right,” Uzui said, laughing as if lunch were a show he was there to enjoy.
“They are themselves, that is what is important,” Giyuu replied. And on that note, lunch was finished.