Chapter Text
It had been three days since Yoriichi Tamura arrived.
The butterfly mansion was quiet enough for the mind to recover after an intense mission; while Tanjiro was lucky enough to avoid being wounded, the same could not be said for the young man who was currently resting and recovering from a bruised rib. He was honestly thankful that it had not turned out to be broken like was feared but that didn’t stop the nightmares that Yoriichi would awake in sweats from.
For the moment, sleep proved peaceful.
Tanjiro threw a glance over to where Shinobu was making a note of his condition, something in the air spoke to the sun breather of anger but not one directed at the new guest.
He was well aware of the inner rage that the insect hashira always wanted to keep under wraps, it was her sister’s dying wish to see a world where humans and demons could get on. He sighed and mused to himself ‘If only her sister had met Tamayo...’
Shinobu placed her palm onto Yoriichi’s head and nodded to herself.
“Tanjiro. Could you do me a favour?”
He sat up straight, as if his spine had turned to steel “Of course”
“Tamura-san seems to be a bit warm, I’m concerned that he may have developed a temperature. I’ll get the girls to prepare fresh water for him to drink and a bucket of tepid water so any cloth can be placed onto exposed skin...” She opened the window closest to the bed before continuing “I would monitor him myself but I’ve been made aware that several critically wounded slayers are arriving at the estate shortly Tamura-san is at ease with you, so I would like to ask if you can look after him for me please?”
The crimson haired boy nodded “Yes, I’ll watch over him”
With a gentle smile and a scent suggesting gratitude, Shinobu left the room. It wasn’t long before the three butterfly girls dashed in quietly with water and bucket in tow. Tanjiro took the time to carefully nudge the older occupant awake.
“Yoriichi-san, I’ve been told to make sure you drink water regularly” He lowered his voice to a whisper.
The taller man winced as he tried to move, only for Tanjiro to bring the cup over. “You shouldn’t move. A bruised rib is not an injury that goes away overnight.”
Taking the cup gently, Yoriichi let the cool liquid slide down his throat before passing it back over to the sun breather. Dark circles spoke of how little decent sleep had had been able to get since the attack on the village, a scent that came off him told the younger man of great sorrow, heartbreak and pain.
“Look at you, watching over me. How old are you?”
“I am fifteen years old Yoriichi-san”
His maroon irises centred on the sun breather, his eyes flickering to the hanafuda earrings before returning their attention to the boy before him. “You’re still young, you shouldn’t have to be watching over someone like me. It should be the other way around, someone my age keeping an eye on you and not chasing after too many girls...”
Tanjiro chuckled at the last part, he supposed he was approaching that age when boys became men and girls became women. He had already noticed some changes though he longed to be a little taller.
“Do you have a lady waiting for you?”
“No. I… don’t really have anyone waiting for me I suppose”
Tanjiro blinked in surprise “Truly?”
“My earliest memories are of hunting for food through bins or scraps that people threw out, cold or rotten...” Yoriichi started “I didn’t have parents or a family as such, even the other children kept their distance from me. I guess my birthmark must have frightened them in some way. When I was old enough, I started to work so I could earn enough money to travel; I hid my birthmark under some bandages and claimed it was burn. I came to that village in hopes of finally settling down...”
He sighed mournfully as he reached up to the deep red mark that curled around his eye. Tanjiro couldn’t help but wonder how a special mark like that came to be. “I guess you and I have a similar mark” He spoke, gesturing to where the burn was deeper in colour than it had been once before.
Yoriichi tiled his head slightly “I hadn’t noticed it before...”
-
Dreams were said to be messages from the gods, manifestations of a person’s life or their hopes and wishes. This was what Yoriichi remembered hearing early on in his youth, though he was unsure as to how the visions that would plague his sleep were anything more than twisted nightmares.
He recalled a beautiful lady with long, deep red hair so dark in colour it was nearly black. This woman always wore a magenta kimono with a long yellow overcoat of some kind, but mostly he dreamt of how sick she was. His sleep painted an image of a stern, uncaring father who regularly beat him. That blue haori of his seems to create a sensation of feeling unnerved.
Then, there was another little boy much like himself.
This boy had a ponytail even in his young body, dark purple in colour. Those lavender eyes of his were always friendly, caring and protective on occasions. Often going out of his way to bring Yoriichi food, fly kites or play games. He wept often of a family that he was never granted, always forced to wonder if this was something that he was supposed to have been granted only to be discarded by the side of a road.
He was well aware of how people would normally treat him when his birthmark was on show; chasing him away with a broom, hitting him, throwing their waste in his direction like a curse yet by the side of the demon slayers he couldn’t help but feel cared for.
It was the first time in a long time he had felt this way.
He had seen the lady with her black and purple hair, no doubt she would have been shooed away with colours like that in the town he grew up in. He was surprised that Tanjiro never got any weird looks from some of the other occupants, then again he was always taken aback by how he had been so readily accepted despite the birthmark on his forehead.
The dreams were becoming more clearer as of late, another lady with a beautiful smile had begun to enter the dreamscape. Donning a yellow kimono with pink flowers on it and a snow white head wrap, her black hair and eyes helped her stand out against the forest background. He couldn’t make out the words she was speaking but he guessed it had something to do with the way she was holding her belly like she was expecting.
His eyes glanced over at the katana currently in its sheath.
For some reason, looking at it made him uneasy….