#frcstie

     ❝I don’t know... What is today’s date?❞ He seemd to have completely disregarded the second half of Sanemi’s statement, and the fact that the Wind Hashira was as red as a tomato. ❝I don’t know what you’re referring to—❞

he should have known that things don’t work out for people like him. people like him don’t get happy. it’s the only thing that crosses his mind when he gets home — he had moved tsumugi into a bigger place so they could live together with enough space to raise a baby about a year ago, but he never thought he’d actually be able to call the place home. there’s blood everywhere / he doesn’t have to see it to know that much. there’s enough of it for him ( although unnoticed by others ) to smell it before he even got to the porch and it’s then that he knows that nothing good could come from this. it’s 3 something in the morning and he walks home to a disaster / walks into the house without having to unlock the door because whoever was here before him left it opened. that detail, however, gets glossed over by the fact that his wife is laying in a puddle of her own blood on the couch. as if that wasn’t bad enough, she was lying there as if she’d just fallen asleep like she had many, many times before. despite the blood, she looks so peaceful. red paints the couch, the surrounding floor / it’s on the walls and even the ceiling / it colors the furniture, sprayed about as if there was some sort of struggle and she looks like she’d just fallen asleep on the couch and forgot to wake up. her clothes are torn and ruined, but she looks so peaceful. she’s dead and he knows it. she — tsumugi — tsumugi had been attacked in the comfort of her own home and died. she died alone, probably scared out of her mind, probably.... where’s megumi? shit, where’s megumi? usually, the baby would be awake around now, up and crying because he’s hungry, or he can’t sleep, or he had a bad dream, or something, but there’s no screaming child. it’s just dead silent in the house / no crying / no fridge humming / no ac going / just still air that sets over him, her, and the entire house as he goes from the front door to the couch, bee-lining for his wife. late wife. for his dead wife. for the love of his life and mother of his child. she’s gone and he wasn’t around to do anything about it. while she was fighting for her life, he was halfway across tokyo, working on some assignment so he could get paid and buy her that new fridge she’d been talking about for the past few days. she couldn’t have been home for no longer than two, maybe three hours. did she die instantly? was she moved from somewhere else to the couch, laid down like a doll and left there as a note to him to remind him that he wasn’t allowed to be happy? did she drag herself to the couch on her own? did she bleed out there while waiting for him to come home? toji’s already too far removed from his senses to think to check. he’s too busy crouching in front of her, not caring how much of her blood got on him, halfway pulling her lifeless body into his arms and he holds the now dead tsumugi as if everything was fine. he doesn’t cry. no matter how much he wants to / no matter how badly his heart hurts, he doesn’t cry. he wants to, but the tears never come. why does he not deserve happiness, again? what had he done to deserve this? why couldn’t it have been him? why didn’t they come and kill him, instead? tsumugi was innocent / deserved better / deserved a life / happiness / a future. why’s she the one laying in his arms with blood all over the place, in his arms? she’s not cold yet, but she will be in a few more hours. why’s she the one dead here? why did tsumugi have to die? he knows who’d done it. it doesn’t take a genius to know that this was the zen’in clan’s way of telling him that although he was free, he wasn’t free. why does it matter, though? it wasn’t like they ever liked or even cared about anything he did. they didn’t care when he left / but he’s not allowed to be happy. he’s not allowed a family. where’s megumi? eventually, toji moves from where he is, moving from the crouch to sit down in front of the couch, facing the still open door. he brings tsumugi with him, settling her in his lap as if she wasn’t dead when he knows the truth. he reaches for her phone, blood covered and slid underneath the table, too far out of reach from her and how she was originally placed to even call for help if she even wanted to, takes it after some reaching and flips it open. the brightness from the screen almost blinds him but he doesn’t let that stop him. after scrolling through her contacts, he calls the one person he knows usually keeps their kid when he and tsumugi are busy. when she picks up, he speaks, using every bit of dwindling restraint to hold back everything he was feeling. “ yua? ” toji? it’s late. “ i know, where’s megumi? ” he’s here, is something wrong? it’s 3 a.m. and he’s sitting on the floor, in a pool of his dead wife’s blood with her on top of him, so things weren’t exactly right. it’s three in the morning and he came home to a dead wife and no six month old son. his wife is dead and he’s praying to god — any god, all the gods — that yua has his kid and toji doesn’t even believe in gods. “ sorry, can you keep him for the next few days? i’ll explain in the morning. ” click.

And yet he didn’t attack. Crouched where he was, the shinobi looked upon the sickly man, battling with himself 

At once; the fight leaves Tengen’s body as he falls to the ground with one knee, arm resting on top of his bend leg as he dips his head low. “My sincerest apology, Oyakata-sama. I let my emotions get the better of me, it will not happen again. I will accept any punishment you deem fit for this act, nothing is too much if it means obtaining your forgiveness.”

Moving silently, she would come to sit at her sister’s side. Anxiety gnawing away at her gut, leaving her ill. How it threatened to consume her entire being as she felt her heart tremble. ‘ The days are coming. Nee-san... We both know what has to be done to rid him from the world. ‘

he grabs on to reki’s arm -     hand going to hold his with a simper   addressing the girl  who’d gotten to close .    “  you know we have to go .”            HE.   GLARES       AT        THE       GIRL        -   pushing on for them to exit the classroom .      and  only then does he sigh in relief .