xae

You let out a sigh of defeat, coming to accept the fact that whatever happened the previous day was in fact, reality. Just as you were about to press onto his last message to give him a reply, a call comes through, his contact name displayed in bold letters. Just how impatient can this man be?, you think to yourself, clicking your tongue in annoyance before answering his call.

"Were you deliberately ignoring my messages? Or were you just waiting to hear me recite the message with my actual voice?", he snapped, irritation coating his words.

"Don't flatter yourself, if you hadn't been so impatient as to call, you would've gotten a response from me in that same minute.", you retorted.

"Don't try to act all smart right now, you had from the morning until the early evening to reply to one of my many messages."

"Can I not have a life? Must I be there at your beck and call every moment? If that's the case then I'm sorry my dear sir Scaramouche, I'll be sure to adhere to your every demand like a dog from now onwards."

You hear a grumble on the other end before his voice fills your head again, "Look I've got no time for your childish antics, we had an agreement yesterday and you will see through it with your utmost effort. The restaurant is the Sapphire Soirée and the reservation is under Kunikuzushi at 7."

"Childish?! You had better take your words back or your humongous ego will be the only thing you're eating dinner with-!", you shout angrily before he ended the call, leaving you scowling at your lock screen.

So, the Sapphire Soirée, hm? Didn't take him as one that dines at such fancy restaurants, you thought while noting the time, pushing yourself off the chair to start getting prepared to meet him later.

The restaurant exudes pure extravagance, with an atmosphere steeped luxury. It's floors and seats are draped with plush royal blue velvet, creating an atmosphere of opulence. Hanging above, golden chandeliers cast their warm, radiant glow, their intricate details shimmering in the light. The ceiling is decorated with delicate gold accents to match the chandelier's brilliance, adding onto the grandeur of the place.

You slowly make your way to the main counter, admiring the restaurant's magnificence as you do so.

"Hello, do you have a reservation or will you be needing a table tonight?", the employee asks with a cheery smile.

"Oh, I have a table under Scara- I mean under Kunikuzushi.", you correct yourself.

The worker checks the reservation list for a second before directing you to a private room. When they close the door behind you, the atmosphere immediately changes, now that it was just you and him alone. You take slow steps towards the empty seat directly facing him, unsure if coming down here was a good idea.

"Are you going to seat, or do you want me to help you with that?", Scaramouche asks with an eyebrow raised, to which you glare at him while sliding into the cushioned chair.

You both look at different parts of the room, unsure of how to start a conversation.

"You look nice?", you start off, stealing quick glances at his attire for the day. He is unimpressed at your words, perching his head on his palm as he looks at you and scoffs, "Are you asking me a question or are you complimenting me?"

You sigh heavily, calming yourself down before you start again making sure to emphasize the fact that it was a statement, "You look nice today."

"And won't you tell me something I don't already know?", Scaramouche taunts, the corner of his lips curling upwards. You frown at his smile, "You really are an egotistical, infuriating man." He snickers at your insult, reaching for the menu to start ordering.

Once the food arrives, you start to dig in, having not had eaten any lunch that day from waking up late. When a fork drops a piece of steak on your plate, you halt your actions to look up at Scaramouche cutting his food into thin slices before eating them.

He doesn't meet your gaze as he goes in for another piece, "What are you looking for? Eat up, you look starved."

You look back at the meat, gently poking it before bringing it to your mouth to eat it. "The meat was really nice, thanks Scaramouche." He hums at your thanks.

"Is there any place you'd like to go?", he asks, his eyes half-lidded as they look up, awaiting your response. A moment of silence passes through before you reply with a no.

"Need I remind you of the rules that came with this agreement? Here I am, patiently getting to know you yet you refuse to put in some effort of your own."

You sigh a little before giving in, "I guess I'm sightly interested in what the nearby amusement park has to offer?"

"See? Saying that from the start wouldn't have been so hard would it now?", he says, rolling his eyes at you.

You caught the eye roll and the two of you immediately start another bicker again.

The evening stretched out longer than you expected, as had this outing you went on with him. Your many conversations had their ups and downs — mostly your dry responses and his somewhat playful teasings, but they never felt forced upon you.

When you return to your seat, you realized that your dishes have all been cleared, save for a delectable looking dessert sits in front of you. You look at him, then the dessert, then back at him with squinted eyes. "What's this?"

"It's your dessert, quit staring and eat it before it melts."

"I didn't even mention what I liked.", you muttered under your breath but his choice wasn't wrong, in fact, he had managed to pick out your favourite flavour of dessert.

"You didn't have to, your keychain there answered that."

Attentive, are we?, you thought to yourself, a spoonful of the dessert already in your mouth. You take note of how he doesn't have a dessert himself, and before you knew it, your hand had scooped a generous amount of your confection, and held it right in front of his face.

"And what, pray tell, are you doing?", he asks, a frown plastered on his face as he looks at the sugary treat in repulsion.

"I'm not sure, but won't you just eat it?" You push the spoon closer to him.

"I'm not a fan of sweets, take it away from me.", he grimaces, he could tell from a glance that a lot of sugar went into the dessert.

You fake a sigh before teasing him, "Here I am, trying to improve our relationship, yet you refuse to put in some effort of your own."

He glowers at your words. How dare you use his own words against him? He clicks his tongue in annoyance before he reluctantly eats the dessert.

You prop your head on your other arm, giving him a bright smile as you watch his face contort from the sweetness of the treat. "How is it?"

Anger was evident on his flawless features when he looked up to meet your smile. "Disgustingly sweet."

Your smile stretches further across your face before laughter spills out from your lips at his incensed expression. Scaramouche glares at first, irritation flickering in his eyes, but then — perhaps against his better judgement — a small chuckle escapes him. The sound was soft, nearing reluctant, but soon his mirth overtook his irate mood.

You open your eyes at the sound of his laughter, the genuineness of his laughter and smile, paired with the warm glow that lit up the side of his face by the chandelier above made him look all the more beautiful.

"You should smile and laugh more, Scaramouche. It'll make you look more approachable to the people that want to get to know you.", you drawled, admiring his looks.

He then spoke in a low, soothing tone, "And after experiencing it first-hand, do you not want to get to know me more?"

You give him a half-hearted glare, surely he knew how you felt about this pact you both made.

"Anyways, calling me Scaramouche everytime feels as though there's a great distance between us. You can call me Kunikuzushi, or Kuni, for short instead."

"Kuni? Ku-ni.", you murmur under your breath, feeling how his name rolls off your tongue like silk.

As you were thinking of his name, you looked outside the window, the sky matched the description of a black velvet curtain at that time, with stars studded all over it. "It's getting fairly late, I'll get the bill so we can leave.", your eyes never leaving the window as you spoke.

"You're right that it's late, do you need a ride home?", he asks, concerned about your well-being.

"It's alright, I'll hail for a taxi. You can head home straight."

"Alright.", he concedes, standing to grab his coat. "Also, don't worry about the bill, I've paid it while you were away just now."

"Oh, how much was my part? I'll pay for it.", you inquired, to which he ignored, promptly walking out of the room towards the entrance of the restaurant.

You chase after him, and asked more forcefully, "Hey, how much was my part? I'd like to not be indebted to you again."

He turns back with an unreadable grin on his face. Then, he leans in, his voice dropping to something nearly intimate.

"If you want to pay me back so badly," he murmurs, "just make sure you get home safe, alright?"

He steps onto the curb, an arm raised to waive down the next taxi that comes. As the vehicle slows down to a stop, he turns to you, his expression unreadable as he opens the door with ease.

"See you tomorrow.", he says, his voice smooth, carrying an undertone of something unspoken.

"Yeah.. see you.", you hesitantly respond, slowly nodding along.

With that, you slip inside. Before Scaramouche steps back from the taxi, he tilts his head down to meet you with his eyes narrowed.

"Don't be late tomorrow, I'd hate to have to drag you down myself."

The door clicks shut after he closes it, and you're left to your own thoughts. Don't be late? Are we really heading for the amusement park tomorrow?, you think to yourself. As the taxi drives off, you catch a glimpse of Scaramouche standing there, watching as you drive off into the night.

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You snap out of your reverie when the driver comes to a halt, signalling that you've arrived at your destination. You step out of the taxi slowly, examining the surroundings as you do so. The house in front of you stands out amongst the others in the neighborhood, the bushes around it pruned to perfection. You turn around when you hear the soft revving of the taxi's engine, watching as it drives off, and a part of you thinks to chase it down and have the driver send you home.

You face the house once more, your heart pounding loudly in your chest from how nervous you are at having to face your parents with all too high expectations and the person you were soon to be wed to. Just as you were about to take your first steps into the front yard, the sound of someone's shoes caused you to stop your movements and look in the direction it came from. From a distance, you can make out a handsome man with indigo locks walking down the path, dressed to impress, and your mind immediately starts concocting a plan.

As the man was about to walk past you, you opened your mouth to speak.

"Hey, I'm sorry to have to ask this of you, but could you do me a favor?", you question with a smile, lightly tugging on his shirt to get his attention. When the man turns around and stares at you for seconds without a single response, you add on, "I'll pay you for it.".

That's how the two of you ended up standing before the front door with arms linked. You swear you can hear your heartbeat in your ears, and you glance at the male beside you and note that he resembles a porcelain, with a beautiful face that seemed to have little to no flaws at all. He notices your stare and turns his head to face you.

"Aren't you going to press the doorbell? They wouldn't know that we are out here through sheer intuition, would they?", he says with a voice as smooth as silk.

"Sorry, it's just- I have yet to ask for your name. It would be strange if I introduced you to my parents without knowing such a thing."

He chuckles at your words. "My name is Scaramouche, and don't worry, should you slip up while speaking, I'll be there to catch you.", he reassures, lightly tightening his arm against yours.

You give him a warm smile, greeting him by his name before your finger presses onto the doorbell. The door swings open, revealing your parents that stand dumbfounded at the sight of you with a man. "Hi mom, dad. This is Scaramouche, my boyfriend."

They usher you two in quickly, guiding you both to the dining room to sit down for lunch. Once you both sat, questions were fired immediately. You calmed them down as Scaramouche answered every one of them with ease, making up an entire life of you both, from the moment you met to the moment he asked you to date him.

"When did you meet each other?", your mother interrogates him, to which Scaramouche puts his hand on top of yours and intertwines them. "We met in highschool, we were what you could call highschool sweethearts.", he answers, turning to look at you with a smile.

"Why haven't you told us about your partner before?", your father speaks up, his voice stern as he looks from you to Scaramouche and back again.

"Sorry dad, I didn't think it would've been a good idea bringing him up as we had just got together at that point of time when the arrangement was made.", you reply with your head slightly tilted down to show some remorse, hoping that it made the lies you spewed more plausible.

Your head raises when you notice someone fidgeting in their seat awkwardly. "And you must be Xiao, I take it? Glad to finally meet you, and I apologize for not being able to fulfill my part of the marriage arrangement."

His gold irises look up to meet yours, and you feel as though they were piercing through your own person. "There's no reason for you to apologize, I'm glad that you brought your partner over today before the marriage went through.", he speaks, his tone low so as to not disrupt the conversation going on between your parents and Scaramouche.

A pang of guilt hits you hard after Xiao was done speaking. Although you didn't want this arranged marriage to go through, you never stopped to think about what the other party thought. You gave him a small smile, your eyes looking down towards the rim of your plate before your focus goes back to the others.

Before you knew it, your initial plan of staying for an hour turned into three. Xiao left quite some time ago, quietly saying his thanks and farewells to you and your parents after finishing his lunch.

As you washed and dried off the last plate, you turn around to find Scaramouche leaning against the table top, staring at you.

"Did you need something, Scaramouche?", you inquire, head tilting in slight confusion. He shakes his head, "I was just thinking about how wonderful your parents have been to me for the past few hours. It seemed as if they really liked me, wouldn't you agree?", he speaks his mind, eyes now trained on the two figures out in the living room.

You follow his eyes, looking at your parents conversing with one another happily and your eyebrows furrow at his words. "Even if they do like you, that isn't the real you, so I suggest you don't get too comfortable with their attitude around you now. You're just here to rid that marriage arrangement, and now that it has been done, you're not needed any longer.", you hadn't meant for your warning to come out laced with annoyance and a hint of anger, but it was too late.

He catches onto your warning, a small smile playing on his lips as he raises his hands in mock surrender, "Don't worry, we're nothing more than strangers that met on the street once we step out of this home. Speaking of which, I suppose it's time to leave, don't you think so?"

You continue to look at him, eyes scanning him from top to bottom after his words before letting out a small sigh. "Yeah, you're right about that. Let's go."

You stand at the doorway, hugging your parents goodbye and making sure that the door has been closed before turning around to meet Scaramouche at the sidewalk.

"Thanks for taking your time to help me with my situation today, Scaramouche. Here's the payment I promised previously.", you thank gratefully, fishing your wallet out to give him the money.

As you try to hand the cash over to him, he pushes it back to you. "I have no need for the money."

You raise an eyebrow at him, confused at his refusal but you slowly retract your hand to put your money back. "Alright, if you insist. Well, I have someplace else to be, so we'll stop this façade here. Thank you, once again.", you give him a small bow before walking off.

A hand grabs hold of your wrist before you could take a few steps. You stop in your tracks, your mouth opening to ask him what he wants but he beats you to it.

"Actually, could you do something for me this time?"

You perk up at his question, facing him with your eyebrows scrunched up. "Sure, what do you need me for?", you ask him, curious at what his request might be.

"Can you be my lover?"

You stare at him blankly before chuckling. "Sorry, I must've misheard because it sounded like you were asking me to be your partner.", you spoke out. His face remains neutral, and when he talks again, he confirms it. "That is because I was."

Now in disbelief, you raise your voice a little, "Are you insane? A few hours of being a fake couple and now you're asking to make it real? Mind you, I just got out of an arranged marriage. Anyways, if you can't already get what I am saying through your thick skull, the answer is no." You shake off his hand, ready to catch a cab and go back home to rest.

"What would your parents do if I were to tell them about us not being a real couple, I wonder? Do you suppose that the arrangement will be back on? Or maybe, you'll get to have another person as your soon-to-be partner? Isn't that exciting?". You can imagine the dark smile on his face while saying those words, and anger bubbles up from the depths of your stomach. "You wouldn't."

"Why wouldn't I? I have nothing to lose.", he replies quickly.

"Alright, fine. I understand that asking you to be my lover straightaway might've been too much. How about you date me for two weeks, hm? If I get you to fall in love with me by the end of that, you'll be my lover.", he offers.

When he hears no response from you, he starts to make his way towards the front door. Each sound his leather shoes makes as it meets the concrete ground echoes through your mind, as if it was a ticking time bomb. "Fine! I accept your proposal, but, I'll only give you five days. At the end of it, if I don't fall for you, you had better leave me alone forever.", you say through gritted teeth and clenched fists.

He hums while walking back to you, "I was hoping for more days but seeing that you're so difficult to compromise with, I'll take what I have been given." He looks at your infuriated expression, and a rush of satisfaction runs through him. He gives you a cunning smile with his eyes slightly narrowed, "Mind giving me your number so that I can text you the location of the restaurant for tomorrow night?"

You reluctantly type it in his phone, still glaring him down when he starts to take his leave. Your frown deepens when he twists his torso to look at you again. "Quit frowning, it isn't a good look on you. Also, I'm adding one last regulation — you have to put in effort on your end for the next five days as well, no refusals."

Your nails dig into your palms as you watch his silhouette disappear down the path. You walk the opposite way, standing near the curb of the path with your arm stretched out to get the attention of an oncoming taxi. Just these five days, get through the next five days and your life will be back to normal, you reassure yourself as you enter the taxi.

"Where to?", the driver asks gruffly.

"42nd street.", you reply.

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A/N - 42nd street is where you stay because writing "home" is much too cringy.

You walk into the kitchen and lo and behold, Scaramouche is standing there in all his glory in his pyjamas with a cute apron tied around his waist. You walk behind him before giving him a hug from the back.

"Up so early? What are you doing?", you ask, looking over at the scene displayed on the marbled table as you place your chin on his shoulder.

"I'm making tres leches, and I always wake up early. But you, awake at this hour? Astounding.", he remarks, keeping up his mixing of the batter and paying no attention to you.

"It's Christmas, scara. Can I not catch a break from all your snide remarks for once?", you laugh.

"Perhaps for your New Year's resolution, you had better change yourself for the better. Maybe then I'll tone down on the insults."

"Oh? But you love me for the way I am, no?", you tease, turning your head to give him a kiss.

He doesn't respond to your teasing, but what he does is turn his head to kiss you back, and that action alone tells you what his answer is already.

"Whatever, there's apple crumble in the microwave for you by the way, I know you love eating those", he says.

Your heart flutters and a smile spreads across your face when you hear him say he made your favorite dessert. You tighten the hug for a little while, thanking him for his hard work before your hand reaches for the cupboard to pour some Zinfandel to pair with your apple crumble.

The tender slices of the sweet-tart apple, caramel notes of brown sugar paired with cinnamon tastes like heaven on your tongue and you can't stop yourself from stuffing another bite in your mouth. You reach for the glass of wine, swirling it a little before taking a sip. The wine's ripe berry undertones mingle with the sweetness of the desert, creating the perfect balance.

Scaramouche turns to look at your contended expression and feels his heart swell with love and pride.

"Don't drink too much wine so early on, you'll develop health issues faster than you expect.", he comments before getting back to pouring the batter into a pan and putting it into the oven.

"Scara, try this. It's so good.", you insist, scooping a part of the crumble to feed it to him.

Before he can protest, you shove it into his mouth and you see his expression change from annoyance to cringing out at the sweetness of the dessert.

"Isn't it absolutely delectable? All the desserts you make for me are always delicious, I only wish that I could do the same for you, scara", you say as you scoop another mouthful of the dessert to eat.

"If you'd like, you can help me finish the tres leches when it's baked. It'll be like you made it.", he suggested.

✧ ｡ .: * ♡

"Now, pour some of the condensed milk mixture over the whole cake, and make sure that you pour it over the holes that I've made in the cake.", he directs, standing beside you to ensure that you were doing everything correctly.

You carefully pour a layer over the entire cake just as he says, making sure that you let the cake absorbs the mixture before you pour another layer over it. Your mouth is already watering seeing the cake turn moist from the amount of liquid it is holding.

"Time for the icing, take some of it from the bowl and gently spread it over the cake."

You look over at the bowl of icing and with the spatula in it, you scoop a dallop of icing and spread it evenly over the dessert. The icing on the cake looks just like the snow outside, soft and perfect.

"Now, you can add whatever toppings you'd like.", he says.

"The treat seems sweet enough as is, I think I'll add some dark chocolate so that you can also enjoy it with me.", you say as you unwrap some dark chocolate from the fridge.

With one hand holding the dark chocolate, the other raises the box grater on top of the cake. You found yourself struggling to grate the chocolate as the grater kept moving above the cake. Every attempt to grate the chocolate down the jagged surface resulted in uneven curls that fluttered onto the cake and stubborn chunks that clung onto the grater's teeth. Frustrated, you sigh in defeat.

Scaramouche watches you struggle the entire time, thinking that you look stupidly adorable for how you chose dark chocolate as the topping as that was the only chocolate that he could tolerate, and for how you tried to grate the chocolate despite never having tried a grater before.

"You're doing it wrong.", is all he says before he goes behind you, hands on your own, guiding you to put the grater down on a cutting board to grate the chocolate, producing perfect looking curls that can easily be scattered on top of the cake. "This is how it should be done."

You can hardly pay attention to what he is saying, in fact, you don't think you hear what he said at all. All you could focus on was the warmth that was transmitted from his hand to your own. You loved it, the warmth of his hand on yours, and the closeness of the both of you. It creates a warmth that spreads throughout your entire being, and you hope that it will continue to warm you until the year ends.

"Hey, earth to you? Are you there? The tres leches is done.", he quips, snapping his fingers to get your attention.

"Oh, sorry. But, oh, the tres leches looks absolutely delicious, scara. Let me take a few pictures and then we can try it.", you say as you whip out your phone to take a few shots of it from different angles.

Scaramouche watches you take out two forks when you finish, handing one to him and signalling to him to eat some of the cake.

You dig into the cake first, stuffing a large portion straight into your mouth. The flavours of the cake and the dark chocolate creates a symphony on your tongue, and you smile in delight.

He helps himself to a small piece of the dessert, however, making sure that he gets all the elements of it in the one piece. He can't deny that the bitterness of the dark chocolate really helps to balance out the sweetness from the moist cake, something that he tethers over constantly.

He loves you, for how you're willing to pick something bitter to top the cake despite your sweet tooth. He loves the thought of it so much that he hooks an arm over you to pull you close for a kiss on the cheek.

"So, was your wish fulfilled?", he asks, arm still hooked over your shoulders to keep you close.

"If you enjoyed it, then I'd say it's a success.", you , turning over to him to give him a sweet smile.

When Scaramouche hears the jingle of the bell hung at the top of the entrance, he sighs internally. After all, another customer just means another bouquet to arrange and wrap up for.

Scaramouche has never liked flowers.

He walks out to the counter and opts to put on the friendliest smile he could muster to see the customer already squatting down to check out the types of flowers they could choose from.

"Welcome, may I be of any assistance to you?", he questions.

The customer turns their head and gives Scaramouche a little nod to acknowledge him before bringing their attention back to the fresh flowers in front of them. Scaramouche's smile pulls into a thin line at the lack of response.

Just as he was about to turn around and click his tongue in annoyance, the customer stops him in his tracks when they finally open their mouth to ask, "If the bouquet was to be given to a love interest, what flowers would you recommend?"

He turns his head to the customer once more, a smile resurfacing upon his features. His favourite question. He replies with ease, "I'd recommend roses, baby breath and some lavender."

Classy, inexpensive and easy for him to wrap it up.

He makes quick work of the bouquet, ensuring that it has been wrapped neatly before ringing them up and sending them off with a smile.

When the bell rings again and he is greeted with the sight of you, he lets out a sigh to try and hide the small smile that forms on his face.

"Morning, Kuni. How are you doing today?", you ask, giving him such a sweet smile that even the beauty of the flowers combined can't compare.

Scaramouche has never liked flowers, but, he supposed that he would tolerate it for you.

"My day was going fine until you came.", he answers, narrowing his eyes when they meet yours.

"Oh? Did my presence make your day?", you teased while making your way through the store to get to him.

"You wish.", he retorts.

"Whatever you say, Kuni. Anyways, what are your top picks for this week?", you ask as you lean on the counter.

"For you? Nothing. Don't expect a bouquet."

You turn around after hearing those words, about to argue back before a bouquet appears in front of you. It was made out of all your favourites - the large white peonies dominate the bouquet with their soft, full blooms, slightly hidden by the small yet vibrant pink carnations. Long feathery ferns bring about texture and balance, completing the arrangement with a bright and delicate touch.

You look back at him, surprise evident in your eyes before it turns into a mischievous glint when you see the tip of his ears turning red.

"Oh, what's this now? I thought you said you weren't giving me anything?", you teased.

"Fine, don't have it then. I'll give it to the next customer for free.", he grumbles, retracting his arm back.

"Come on now Kuni, I never said I didn't want it.", you reply, hastily taking the bouquet from him before it disappeared under the counter. You held it close to yourself, a smile adorning your face as you admire the arrangement he made for you.

Warmth wraps around his heart like a blanket when he sees your expression towards the flowers, and he thinks that there is definitely no one else in this world who could make his heart beat just like you.

"Well, aren't you going to pay up? Surely you don't think that my service comes for free.", he asks with a small huff.

You look up at him, flashing him a bright smile before leaning over the counter to give him a kiss. "Thank you, Kuni. I really loved the flowers this time."

He takes a look at you for a few seconds, admiring your features before he pulls you close to him.

"Are you kidding? I think you owe me more than just one kiss, darling.", he says.

"Hmm, would ten more suffice?", you ask.

Today was no different, you looked stunning, he thinks wholeheartedly as you stroll out of your shared room in nothing but a short, seemingly translucent, white nightgown. Your wings were showing through the thin fabric, but they were closed, pressed up against your back. You yawned, arms stretching up towards to ceiling to relieve your aching muscles after your nap. Opening your eyes, you strolled up towards Armin to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"I only just got up and you're staring already, love?", you questioned with a lighthearted laugh. Armin grabs ahold of your hand and presses a kiss on the back of it before smiling back at you. "Can't help it, you're just so mesmerizing."

Your eyes widen a little at his compliment. Although he showers you in a constant stream of compliments everyday, you seemed to never be able to get used to it. No one had ever shown you such unwavering amounts of love and admiration in all your years.

"Always you and those incredibly poetic statements of yours, Arlert.", you mutter under your breath while looking away from him to hide the small blush forming on your face. He looks at you and tries to stifle the small laugh he wants to let out at your embarrassed expression. "Please let me love on you, sweetheart. Please don't shy away from me.", he says as he pulls you to him so that you're now sitting on his lap whilst facing him.

He intertwines his hand with yours and his lips meets the skin on your neck. He gently presses his lips on your skin before moving onto another location to do the same. You shut your eyes, your other hand creeping up the back of his neck to push him further into yourself - to make him deepen his attack on your neck. He digs into the meal you allow him to have, occasionally sucking on your soft skin to create some love marks, the pleasure going straight down to your core and making you moan at the same time.

Armin's breath hitches when you start to writhe above him from the pleasure. "W-Wait stop-", he chokes out, his hands flying up to hold your waist to restrict your movements. You slowly open your eyes to meet a flushed Armin. "If you keep that up, I'll..", he tries to reason but his voice trails off when your hand ghosts above the obvious tent on his pants. You give him a small smile before pressing down on the bulge, causing him to wince and buck up into your hand.

"Please- please don't do that."

"Alright. I'll stop then.", you say before proceeding to get off his lap. He tightens the hold on your waist, not allowing you to leave the position you were in. "Hm? What's wrong, 'min? Didn't you ask me to stop?", you ask mockingly.

"You know that wasn't what I meant..", he replied slowly. You hum at his words before your hands go back down to the waistband of his pants to tug it down, revealing his throbbing erection. You waste no time, your hand expertly wrapping around it and moving up and down from its base. Armin's hold on your waist goes slack and he closes his eyes from the pleasure of your slow strokes.

After awhile, he starts to move on his own, desperately chasing after his own high. "Mn- m' close-!", he says. However, just as he was about to move once more, you took your hand off, stripping him of the high he so wanted. You flash him an innocent smile when he opens his eyes to look at you in a puzzled manner.

"Why'd you stop?", he asks between pants.

"I just felt bored, sorry love", you reply nonchalantly.

Armin looks at you as if you were joking but when you continue to smile innocently he starts to beg. "Please, please baby, need it so badly."

His pleas fall on deaf ears, though, for you just turn away from him to take in the sight of the night sky from the window. Well, since talking it out with you wasn't working, he supposed that he'll just have to take things into his own hands.

One of his hands goes down to grip onto the end of your nightgown to pull it up while the other works on peeling your undergarment off you. Once your undergarment was off, Armin immediately stuffed two of his fingers into you, causing you to gasp at the sudden intrusion. His fingers kept up the assault, their speed and your moans gradually increasing in tandem. He knew exactly where to prod, the area that made your eyes roll back from just how good it felt. Soon enough, you were at the crest of your wave of pleasure.

"Armin, 'min, there-! Right there!"

"Yeah, sweetheart? You close?", he says in a honeyed tone.

You nodded furiously while you continued to pathetically get off from just two of his fingers. He pulls off your nightgown and starts to caress your wings. You arch your back into him, the feeling of his fingers constantly massaging the spot that drives you crazy, paired with the slow loving strokes he gives your wings was becoming too much for you. It brought tears to your eyes. Your moans get higher in pitch as your climax draws near. Suddenly, your climax dissipated. You crack open your eyes to see Armin looking and playing around with your arousal that lingered on his two fingers.

"Armin, why..", you whined.

"Sorry angel, wanted you to feel how I felt when you stripped me of my euphoria. But don't worry, I'll make it up to you next time", he says as he gives you an apologetic kiss.

He rolls his hips up against your core and you moan from the friction. You watch Armin for a second before your hand goes to cup his face to pull him into a deep kiss. He meets you halfway, his tongue delving into the cavern of your mouth to explore every part of it. You lift yourself up to try to descend onto his shaft but just as his tip passes through your entrance, he grips onto your hips to stop you. "Please 'min, let me put it in.. need you so badly", you whisper against his lips.

"That's dirty. How can I refuse my sweet angel since you asked so nicely.", he sighs.

He thrusts up while pulling your hips down at the same time, completely sheathing himself inside your dripping wet cunt in one go. A scream tears out from your throat from the sudden stretch and Armin silences you with a kiss. "Love, unless you desire for others to hear what we are currently doing, I believe that you should try to keep your volume down a little, hm?", he recommends. Your walls tighten at his words and he groans, the thought of your neighbours listening on to both your sinful actions causing you to get even more turned on. "You'd like that wouldn't you? Seeing as how you got tighter just from those words.. you dirty, dirty angel.", he smirks as he lifts you up, leaving only the tip in before pushing you down onto him once more.

Armin continues his relentless abuse on your poor hole, wet squelching noises echoing throughout the enclosed living room. Every time he lifts you up and pushes you back in, you feel him get even deeper within you. Suddenly, you feel a familiar rush of ecstasy quickly approaching, and you grasp onto him, digging your nails into his back and dragging them across his skin which earned you a heavy groan from him.

" 'min baby, need to-", you start but he hushes you.

"Shh.. You need your release, sweet? Don't worry, I won't take it away this time."

One of his hands travels down south, and his thumb goes on to circle your clit, drawing circles around your sensitive nub, causing you to scream as your high comes crashing down on you.

He groans at the way your tight walls spasm around his cock, practically sucking him in whenever he tries to pull out. "Did I make you feel good baby?" He waits for an answer, but you were too dazed from your release to come up with one so you opted to nod. His cock throbs in excitement when he sees your acknowledgement.

Both his hands go back up to stroke your wings, to hear your angelical moans when he brushes past the sensitive parts of it. "Angel, can I use your body now?", Armin asks. Your eyes fly open to look into his own and you watch him wait for your consent. You pull him in for a deep kiss before whispering against his lips, "My entire being belongs to you, Armin."

He changes your position almost immediately. Before your head can even comprehend what had happened, you're now on your hands and knees with him at the back. Armin pushes himself into you and you let out a sharp gasp when you feel his cock go deeper into you than before. He draws out of you, and you try to catch your breath but when he shoves himself back in, all that leaves your throat is a piercing scream as you throw your head back.

Just when you thought that he couldn't possibly go any deeper, he grabs ahold of your wings for support and forces more of himself in. Oh god, you thought, as he keeps up his ruthless pace that has you seeing stars. Tears start to form in the corner of your eyes, although, you were unsure if it was due to the pain or pleasure of having Armin tug on your delicate wings and be that far in you.

You cried out loud whenever his tip touched your cervix, almost threatening to pierce through it. "S-Slow down-!", you struggle to get out but he was too far gone, trying to attain the high he had been longing for as fast as possible.

You arch your back when his nails dig into your soft feathers. "That hurts, 'min it hurts-!", you shout as the pain shoots up your body. "Ah- Sorry, sorry!", he apologises as he peppers kisses onto the areas that he injured, his frenzied thrusts slowing down.

Although his pace has reduced, his now slow and deep thrusts allowed you to feel every single inch of his cock, causing your mind to melt and your eyes to roll back. You feel your abdomen contract, the need to cum arising rapidly. You could tell that Armin was near his release as well, from the way his movements began to feel sloppy and uncoordinated.

One of his hands travelled down your body, resting against the bulge under your womb caused by his dick. "Does it feel good, lovely? Are you close already?", he asks as he puts a little pressure on the area and you swear that you might have just come if not for the little self restraint that you miraculously had left within your being.

"Yes," you moan. "Yes- yes, yes. So good, you're making me feel so good, Armin.".

Armin's dick throbs once more, if you call out his name in that tone again he'll actually cum.

Desperate to get you to your euphoria once more, he presses down on the bulge, hard. You let out a silent scream, the corners of your vision turning white as you cum around his cock. Your walls flutter around his length, and he buries himself deep in you, letting his warm seed fill you up. The feeling of his warmth coating your insides sends a shiver running down your spine.

Your limbs lose their feelings and you fall onto the soft couch, feeling exhaustion take over you. Armin gently pulls out of you and takes some time to admire the sight of his semen slowly dripping out of your hole.

You groaned due to the pain coming from the deep gash in your stomach. You looked down to see your clothing soaked in your blood, causing it to cling onto your skin uncomfortably.

You probably should have removed your clothing when the blood hadn't had the chance to dry up yet.

You took a deep breath in, before starting to peel off the clothing around the wound.

"Haah.. I can't.. do it.", you said to yourself as your hands tried to work as delicately as they could around the corners of the fabric. However, it was clearly a bad idea when you saw your skin get pulled up together with the fabric.

You looked up from the wall you had been laying on and sighed. Were you just going to die here, from this pathetic injury?

Suddenly, you heard some voices from around the corner. Then, two figures came into view. It was Muichiro and Shinobu. Once Muichiro saw you in your state, he hurriedly rushed to your side.

"What happened? Why are you bleeding so much?", he asked. You opened your mouth, wanting to reply but it only resulted in a violent fit of bloody coughs.

"You're in a horrible state. We'll need to stitch up that big gash at your stomach right here or I worry that your organs may spill out.", Shinobu spoke sternly, her hands digging through the medical supplies she carried for a pair of scissors, needle, and some thread.

You winced at the cold metal of the scissors coming into contact with your sensitive skin and shut your eyes. Shinobu was quick with her work, snipping off the fabric surrounding the wounded area with a high degree of accuracy.

"I'll need to peel off the dried fabric stuck onto the wound since I didn't carry any saline solution on me, please bear with the pain for a while.", she said, her eyes focusing on getting the fabric off your injury.

You yelped in pain when she tugged on a corner of the fabric.

"Wait-! Please.. Give me some time to prepare..", you spoke, watching her hands go near the piece of fabric once more.

"We don't have all day to wait, do you have a death wish?", Shinobu said, a hint of annoyance surfacing at your ridiculous request.

"No.. Just-Just give me some time to prepare myself for the pain..", you replied, your words slurring a little from the blood and spit that kept coming out from the corners of your mouth.

Muichiro held onto your hand tightly, giving you an encouraging look. He then tore some of the fabric from the sleeves of his uniform and bundled it up, before holding it out in front of you.

"Here, you can bite on this to muffle your screams. You can grab my arm as a way to deal with the pain as well.", he said, reassuring you that you can get through this.

You bit onto the bundle of fabric and held onto his arm as he moved you into a position that gave Shinobu more space to do what she had to.

"I'm removing it now."

You shut your eyes tightly when you felt her hands tug at the fabric again, bearing yourself for the pain. Shinobu peeled the fabric off, and you bit down on the gag as a burning sensation started to form at the location of the injury. Your nails dug deeply into Muichiro's arm and you were sure there were going to be red crescent marks littered on his arm later when you hear him slightly hiss in pain.

The searing pain at your stomach seemed to be burning you from the inside and you wanted nothing more than to just end everything right there and then. It also didn't help that you weren't given a break either when you suddenly felt the cold point of the needle sinking under the burning skin.

You bit onto the gag once more, the hot and cold sensation being too much for you. You grasped onto Muichiro's arm even harder. By this time, you must've broken through his skin already. You'll apologize later, if you're even still conscious by then.

When Shinobu finally finished stitching you up, you were completely spent. Your head was spinning terribly and you wanted to throw up from the amount of pain you had just endured.

Muichiro gently removed your hands that were still holding onto his arm and proceeded to remove the cloth from your mouth as well.

"It's alright, she's done with the procedure.", he spoke softly as he wiped off the blood and spit from your mouth.

You let out a sigh of relief as your eyes started to become as heavy as lead.

"Thank you, mui.", you said before you closed your eyes, giving into the exhaustion.

Muichiro slowly opened his eyes, spending some time to take in the surroundings of your shared room before his eyes landed on the empty space next to him. It was still early so where could you have gone?

He groaned, reluctantly dragging himself out of bed to find out where you had disappeared off to.

You were in the kitchen, apron wrapped around your figure snugly. You had just preheated the oven and was about to start adding the ingredients in a mixing bowl when suddenly, a pair of arms snaked around your waist. You froze, not expecting anyone to come from behind to hug you, before relaxing as Muichiro started to speak.

"It's early. Come back to bed.", he said, his face nuzzling into the crook of your neck.

You smiled at his words before combing through his hair gently.

"I'd love to-"

"Alright, then come.", he replied instantaneously, beginning to drag you back to your shared room.

"But I have to finish your cake, Mui.", you sighed, your hands dropping down to remove his arms from your waist. After your words registered in his head, he looked up to see all the ingredients laid out on the table.

"Can I help?", he asked.

You squinted your eyes at him, questioning yourself if you had ever seen him help out in the kitchen. You don't think you've ever seen him in the kitchen before at all. You thought about telling him that you've got it all under control but after looking at him, you realized you didn't have the heart to do so.

"You.. you could mix the dry ingredients together?", you said slowly, still unsure about whether or not he could even handle such a simple task.

You watched as he went over to the dry ingredients, picking them up before looking at the recipe and starting to follow what was written on it. It seems like he's actually alright in the kitchen?

You sighed in relief before switching your attention to the wet ingredients. Carefully, you mixed the softened butter, sugar and eggs together.

While you were mixing, something that sounded like a soft explosion happened beside you. You turned your head and to your surprise, there was muichiro, covered in flour.

"Ah..", his voice trailed off as he looked at your expression.

"What happened?!", you shouted as you rushed over to his side to save the remaining flour.

"I may have used too much strength to open it.", he said, eyes following you apologetically.

You couldn't tell if this situation was adorable or utterly ridiculous.

"Ahah.. Its alright, Mui.", you reassured him with a laugh as you measured the remaining flour and poured it into the bowl.

"Do you... think you could help me sift it without any problems this time?", you asked him as you handed him the sifter. Muichiro nodded, taking the item from your hand and starting to sift the dry ingredients, once again creating a mess. You laughed it off, untying your apron.

"I think this would be of much more use to you than me.", you said with a small smile as you proceeded to tie it around muichiro's waist instead.

He looked at the apron and gave you a sheepish smile before placing a small kiss on your cheek. You watched him continue sifting as if nothing happened. You slowly felt your own cheeks begin to grow warm as your thoughts wandered back to the kiss he gave you. You shook your head to get rid of those thoughts, trying your best to focus on the task at hand once more.

After you combined muichiro's dry ingredients with your wet ingredients, you poured the batter into the cake pan and placed it in the oven. While waiting for the cake to bake, the both of you started to make the icing for the cake. Thankfully, it wasn't quite as messy as the cake making.

When the alarm sounded, you took out the cake from the pan and the both of you started to ice it to the best of your abilities.

Although the icing was messy, with some areas that were not as thoroughly covered as others, the love and effort that you and muichiro put into it was evident on the cake itself. You walked over to the drawer, fishing out the candles and placed a few of them onto the cake. You took out a lighter and started to light the candles up before turning all the lights off.

"Happy birthday Mui! Why don't you make a wish and blow out the candles?", you said happily, slowly pushing the cake towards him. He looked at the cake and closed his eyes before blowing out the candles.

"So, what did you wish for?", you teased as you reached over to intertwine your hand with his.

"I wished that we would be together forever.", muichiro replied nonchalantly, looking up at you.

You didn't quite know what you were expecting, but you definitely did not expect for him to actually answer your teasing question with complete honesty. You used your other hand to cover your face as much as possible, feeling embarrassed at his words again.

"You weren't supposed to tell me your wish, mui... but I wish to stay with you forever too."

One day late but happy birthday to mui and yui 🩵

"Muichiro!"

Upon hearing his name come out from your lips, his attention was completely captured by you.

"Come join me in the sea!", you shouted while motioning him to join you with a smile on your face.

If Muichiro didn't understand the meaning of the word "Ethereal" in the beginning, he does now. "Ethereal" is how you look to him right now as you stand in the sea. Has he ever told you about how beautiful you look to him? He doesn't bother remembering because he will tell you about it later, again and again until it permanently gets stuck in his head.

"Ethereal" is how you seem to him right now as you laugh when the waves crash against the rocks nearby, causing some water droplets to fall on you. He wishes he was experienced in the music area when he hears your laughter. Oh, how he would turn your laughter into a melodious piece and play it for the world to marvel at.

"Ethereal" is how you appear to him right now as the sun aligns itself behind you to give you a magnificent glow, making you almost seem like a deity to him.

"Mui?", you questioned, snapping him out of his train of thoughts.

"Coming, coming.", he replied with a soft smile.

He got up from the sandy surface and started making his way towards you. When you saw him approaching, you stretched out your hand for him to grab onto. He looked at your outstretched hand and smiled before taking it. After he grabbed onto your hand, you pulled him towards yourself. This action was not expected by him and caused him to lose his balance and fall forward, onto you.

The two of you suddenly found yourselves in an awkward position, with you sitting on the shallow bed of the sea and him right in front of you with his arms and legs caging you between him. Your faces were so close to each other's, close enough to steal a kiss. Noting this, you moved forward, placing a quick kiss on his lips before leaning back to see his expression. His face turned a light shade of red as he took some time to register all the events that had just occurred.

"You're so adorable Mui.. you're just so so adorable", you muttered, your voice filled with nothing but overflowing love and adoration for the boy in front of you.

He turned a shade darker at your professions of love towards him. He could never get used to you saying things like that. He shifted in his position and suddenly, scooped you up into his arms. Now it was your turn to be shocked at his actions. He carried you and spun you around as you clung onto him tightly.

"And have I ever told you how beautiful you are? How much I want to have this view of you etched in my mind?", he asked as he looked down at you in his arms. You gazed up at him, your eyes meeting his own as you basked in his compliments. He tilted his head down and placed a gentle kiss on your forehead before gently spinning you in his arms once more.

You both settled on the beach after you were done playing in the sea, your eyes watching the sun set. It's orange and yellow hues created a tranquil atmosphere that enveloped the two of you, making you feel as if the world only consisted of you and him alone.

You turned your head to look at him only to find him already staring at you with half lidded eyes. His eyes held so much fondness and affection for you that you can't even describe it in words. You extended your hands out to caress his cheeks before hooking your arms around his neck and pulling him towards you.

The soft laps of the waves played in the back of your mind as you looked at him and just for a moment, you found that everything was perfect.

"Hey mui, you know I love you, right?", you whispered softly, your lips barely brushing against his own.

"I hear you say that everyday.", he whispered back with a smile before capturing your lips in a kiss.

To note : This upper moon is not any of the upper moons that are currently in the show right now. I merely made one up on a whim and I apologize if this is a little disappointing. I would also like to apologize if this was too long hahah.

The two of you dashed through the woods, trying to get to the location as fast as possible before anyone else gets killed. During the whole journey, muichiro kept trying to apologize.

"Hey, I wanted to say sorry, for everything, really.", he slightly shouted whilst running.

You don't respond and you weren't planning to. Perhaps you were just afraid that you might say something you didn't intend to but you ultimately decided to blame it on the fact that you didn't want to bite onto your own tongue instead.

"I'm sorry, really sorry."

There he goes again. Is that all he ever does? Spew out apologies like a broken recorder?

"Would you just shut it? God, your voice is starting to tick me off.", you finally replied, exasperated by his stubbornness to earn your forgiveness.

He keeps quiet before opening his mouth again.

"...Sorry."

Tsk. Could he stop that annoying habit?

"Stop apologizing or I won't even think about listening to you anymore.", you said as you ran faster, leaving him behind.

The two of you made it to the assigned village within an hour. Immediately, the smell of iron flooded your senses, causing you to cringe. You may have been too late to save some people but you refuse to let anyone else get injured.

"This way", muichiro said, as he rushed towards the west of the village. You followed behind him quietly.

It didn't take a lot of effort to find the demon. Or rather, it didn't put any effort in to hide itself. It was blatantly squatting there, tearing a human apart. The deafening crunch of human bones made you close your eyes in disgust.

Muichiro wasted no time, quickly unsheathing his sword to get an attack in on the demon before it could do so first. However, before his sword came into contact with the demon's neck, it vanished.

You instinctively jumped back, sensing something behind you.

The demon could be seen standing at where you once were, it's hand sticking out to where your neck was a few seconds ago.

You shuddered, had you not been any quicker to jump away, you may have just died right there.

You were just about to unsheathe your own weapon when you felt something warm trickling down your neck. You touched it and looked at the dark red liquid smeared on your hand.

You didn't feel any contact but yet you still got injured? How fast was this demon exactly?

Now that it was facing towards you, you could finally make out it's features. The demon was wearing a kimono that perfectly hugged it's petite figure and in it's right hand was a crystallized parasol. Before you could assess it even more, she looked up and scowled at you with such ferocity that it made your hairs stand on end.

Upper Five, huh.

You drew your weapon. It wasn't a normal sword like muichiro's, but a rapier instead.

When you first started training, you were able to use a normal sword as well. As time passed however, you found that having a rapier as a weapon suited you and your breathing style better. Like Shinobu, you also used wisteria poison to help fasten your killing process since trying to cut off the demon's head may take a few slashes from your weapon to effectively do so.

You gripped onto your rapier tightly, running towards the demon, and in one swift moment, you thrusted your sword straight at her neck, only for your attack to be parried by her parasol.

She swung the parasol, causing numerous crystallized shards to cover a large area of the ground. You jumped away, sustaining a few cuts on your arms and legs in the process.

Suddenly, she appeared under you in an instant, parasol closed and ready to pierce through whatever was in its way. You quickly bent backwards, the tip of the parasol scraping pass your chin. Muichiro was positioned behind her, ready to lop her head off before she disappeared once more.

"You're so annoying, can't you just stay still?", you grumbled in frustration as you wiped off the blood from your latest injury.

Muichiro looked at you in concern, some parts of your uniform were starting to turn darker from the injuries you received.

"Hey, are you alright? I'll protect you.", he said gently as he stood in front of you.

"Thanks, Muichiro, but do you think that I'm so weak as to need your protection?", you spoke, eyes boring holes into the back of his head.

"Just focus on protecting yourself.", you said as you pushed him aside.

The demon said nothing, only eyeing the two of you as if choosing who she should attack next. As if on cue, she launched at muichiro, who wasn't on guard at that time and landed a hit on his leg. You watched in shock as the demon's parasol pierced through his flesh. He yelled in pain and swung his sword down at the demon, severing the arm carrying the parasol.

You sprung into action, gathering your thoughts as you hit the demon with a flurry of quick thrusts, tearing tendons in their arms and legs before finishing with a shot to their neck. This time, it successfully went through the demons neck. You held your weapon tightly, anxiously waiting for your poison to take effect. As each second passed you grew more paranoid.

Your poison was not... working?

You immediately tried pulling your weapon out from its neck after coming to that realization. However, it was as if the demon already knew what you were planning to do next and quickly tried to merge with your sword still stuck in her neck. Your hand was still gripping onto the handle of your weapon, trying to tug it out despite it proving to be ineffective a few seconds ago. You watched in terror as the demon's left hand curled up to form a fist and before you knew it, pain bloomed from your stomach as you crashed onto a tree trunk.

The pain in your back was excruciating. You definitely broke many bones from the impact, you thought to yourself as you coughed up large amounts of blood. Your vision was blurry and your ears rang. You looked up to see the demon walk towards you. Every cell in your body was telling you to move, run, to do something rather than just lying on the trunk awaiting your demise. You tried to move but hissed in pain when you tried turning your torso.

The demon was now in front of you. Her arm had regenerated and another parasol grew from her palm. She aimed the tip at your head, preparing to deliver the final blow as you brought your hands up to form a pathetic defense.

However, the final blow never came.

You slowly opened your eyes and saw drops of blood fall onto your clothes. You turned your head up and gasped in horror. There was muichiro, standing in front of you, with the crystallized tip of the parasol stabbing through his stomach.

The demon twisted the parasol before pulling out and muichiro's limp body fell on you. You held his body close, eyes still wide open from what had occurred.

"Muichiro..? Mui- Wake up!", you pleaded as you tried to apply pressure onto his wound with your trembling hands.

Suddenly, you heard something drop. You followed the sound, and saw an eyeball. Then, another eyeball fell. You glanced at the demon, only to be met with the sight of her kneeling down, desperately trying to hold her face together with her hands. You wondered what was happening before something clicked in your head.

Your poison. It was working now.

Adrenaline took over all your senses, your heartbeat and breathing increasing rapidly as you quickly crawled over to grab muichiro's sword that was left at the side when he fell limp. You ignored the searing pain in your stomach and stumbled over to the demon.

Her skin was now melting from her face and it doesn't seem to be getting better for the demon anytime soon. You hold the sword at her neck, your hand visibly shaking due to the adrenaline rush. You pushed the sword through her neck, cutting through it in one clean swipe. Her head fell, turning into ashes before it even made contact with the ground. Her body laid on the ground lifelessly, slowly turning into ashes as well.

You collapsed a few seconds later, your legs finally giving out as the adrenaline began to settle down. You made your way back to muichiro's unconscious body.

"Mui..? Mui, why did you stand in front of me? Why couldn't you just protect yourself instead?", you asked teary-eyed as you cradled him, gently caressing and brushing stray hairs away from his face.

"Oh mui, please be alright... Please, I don't want to lose you..", you mumbled softly before closing your eyes and falling into a deep slumber.

Sunlight filtered into your room through the small cracks between the blinds, causing you to stir from your sleep. You looked at your surroundings groggily, trying to figure out where you were before coming to the conclusion that you were at the Butterfly Mansion.

How long had you been out for? And most importantly, how was muichiro doing?

You thought about paying him a visit before your eyes landed upon your hand intertwined with someone else's. You stared at your hand, before looking at the other hand connected with yours. You turned your head around and saw muichiro lying behind you, sleeping peacefully. Your eyes widened in surprise as you turned in the bed to face him properly. Your hand reached out, gently caressing his face.

"Should I maybe be unconscious more often?", muichiro spoke with a soft laugh as his eyelids fluttered open.

"Muichiro! Why are you even here- Aren't your injuries much worse than mine?", you replied quickly, a little embarrassed that he caught you in the act.

"I woke up a few days ago but you hadn't yet, so I decided to come here to wait for you.", he said.

"You shouldn't have recklessly taken that hit. You could've died if it pierced through your vital organs!", you said with a frown as you felt yourself getting angry again.

"I'm sorry, I just couldn't bear seeing you get anymore injured than you were.", he said, voice trailing off weakly as he looked away from you.

You kept quiet, unsure of how to respond to his sincere apology.

"Will you forgive me..?", he asked meekly as he looked back at you.

You pondered for a moment before sighing.

"I will, if you promise to not do something so brash ever again."

Upon hearing this, his eyes lit up.

"Would you.. consider being my lover again?", he asked hesitantly, holding his breath as he waited anxiously for your answer.

"I.. believe my heart had already started beating for you once more when you protected me from that fatal attack.", you replied, looking up at him with a small smile.

He smiled in absolute joy as he hugged you close to him.

"I missed you so much.", he said, happiness evident in his tone.

You slowly wrapped your arms around his back , returning the affection he was giving you.

"I.. missed you too."

At every hashira meeting, you would always try to pretend as if muichiro was never there even though you could feel his gaze boring holes in your side. All the other hashiras could tell that something had transpired between the two of you. You used to sit next to him all the time but now, you sat as far away as you could from him and whenever the meeting ended, you left for your estate immediately, not wanting to entertain the possibility of you and him talking.

However, you would be lying if you said you didn't care about him one bit. Sometimes you just couldn't help but steal a glance at him. You have definitely noticed some changes - he looked more disheveled every passing day and now looked as if he was in his own world the whole time.

Hell, there was even a time when he didn't respond when the master called his name.

Ever since that, all the other hashiras started to get more concerned about muichiro.

On the other hand, although you felt a little guilty for leaving him in such a state, you mostly couldn't care less since it was his fault to begin with.

You and the other hashiras bowed down, bidding the master farewell. Another meeting had just ended and you stood up, preparing to leave before you heard someone speak.

"Tokito, would you like to come over to the Butterfly Mansion for a check-up?", Shinobu asked sweetly.

You turned around, his name catching your attention and you saw him still in bowing position, looking down at the ground. You wondered if he was truly alright.

Suddenly, he turned towards your direction as if he could feel your presence staring down at him. Both your eyes met but your head snapped to the opposite direction, breaking the contact immediately. You quickly walked off, not wanting to stay there any longer.

You were just making some tea when a knock came from your door. You set the teapot down and went to open it. As soon as you looked at the person who knocked on your door, you instantly tried to shut the door. However, he quickly slid his shoe between your door to stop it from closing. Muichiro then held the door frame and started to open the door. You looked at him dumbfoundedly as he barged into your home.

"What do you think you're doing?", you questioned.

"We need to talk... please."

Talk? He wants to talk? What's there to talk about?

"No.", you replied sternly, looking up at him.

His eyes were slightly puffy, hinting that he had just cried before appearing at your door. His hair was unkempt and he looked extremely exhausted.

"Please, please.. let me explain.", he said, his words getting softer and softer every single time.

The anger and betrayal you felt from that day started to bubble up within the depths of your stomach, slowly building up as the conversation kept going.

"Did you not hear what I said? Are you deaf?", you said with a laugh of disbelief.

"She was just there for training. Please trust me on this. I would never lie to you.", he continued, outright ignoring you. You rolled your eyes, looking away from him to try and tame your anger that was threatening to spill out.

"Get. Out.", you said through your teeth. He looked at you, clearly hurt by your words. You glared back at him, the fire burning brightly in your eyes slightly flickering. You tried to ignore how your heart ached at the sight of him suffering. If only you could act out what your heart truly desired, to hug him and kiss him once more.

"What are you doing? I said get out! Get out! GET OUT!", you shouted, your voice cracking between your words as you pointed towards the door. Tears were forming in your eyes as the emotions you tried to control started to rise up to the surface.

"I..", he started off, about to take another step towards you when he looked at you and stopped. Something in your eyes was just telling him, pleading him to leave, to give you some time to make your decision on whether or not you want to hear his reasons. He closed his eyes and started to turn around and head for your door.

He stood outside, taking one last glance at you to which you returned. You then slowly closed your door and sat against it, trying to take in all that had happened. Your heart was pounding loudly against your ribcage and so many emotions were swirling around your head. Unable to handle everything at that moment, you began to cry. Tears started falling down from your face as you tried to get all the emotions out of your system.

You'll need to have a clearer headspace if you choose to listen to his words next time.

A few days later, a letter from the master was presented to you by your crow. You and another hashira were to head over to a village to kill a ranked demon. You got prepared and opened your door, praying to all gods that the other hashira wasn't him.

However, you found a pair of teal eyes looking straight into yours the moment your door was opened. Your heart sunk.

"Hey, I-"

You stared at the calendar sitting in front of you and sighed as you crossed out yet another day. Muichiro's birthday was 3 weeks away and you have yet to buy a gift for him. No gift simply looked perfect enough as a reciprocation of your love and appreciation to have him in your life.

You decided to head out to the city near your estate to try your luck in finding the perfect gift for him again.

The city was bustling with activity even though it was getting late. The streets were filled with stalls selling everything you could possibly imagine. You looked around before picking a direction to start your search for a gift.

Should you get him some clothes as a gift? No way. Even if you do, you doubt that he would ever wear it.

'How about food? Everybody loves food for gifts', you smiled in thought before shaking your head. You have only ever seen him eat one thing only and that was his favourite food that his brother used to cook for him everyday when they were still living in the mountains, and anyways, buying food as a gift doesn't really convey the same kind of message that you were trying to tell him.

You continued to stroll past the stalls, uninterested at what they had to offer until you heard a melody. You turned around and started walking back, trying to follow the soft melody that was now stuck in your head. Sure enough, the melody came from a small box sitting on top a table. You picked the box up and examined it before coming to the conclusion that this was indeed, a music box.

"Would you like that music box dear?", the old lady tending the stall asked.

"Ah.. sorry, I was just looking around", you apologized as you put the box down.

"Don't worry, there are plenty other music boxes with unique melodies here. I'll show them to you.", she said before starting to wind all the music boxes she had so that you could hear the music.

As her fingers started to wind the fifth box, the music that was produced made your eyes widen due to the familiarity of the sound. How lucky could you be that this music box contained this sweet melody? You immediately paid her for the music box and thanked her for helping you find the perfect gift.

The next day, Muichiro woke up to find note and a small box that was wrapped with a blue ribbon sitting on his desk.

He picked up the note and recognised your handwriting instantaneously.

'Dearest Muichiro,

Happy early birthday! I know that there is still 3 weeks till your birthday but I got too excited and failed to stop myself from giving you the gift that I, found was absolutely perfect for your special day!

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the gift! I love you so much.'

He read the note, a small smile gracing his lips before setting it down and picking up the wrapped up box. He pulled on the ribbon and removed the lid off the box to reveal the music box you had bought.

The music box looked incredibly elegant. It had extremely detailed designs all around it. He looked at it in curiosity before deciding to wind and open the box.

The music that came out from it caused muichiro to freeze on the spot. This was the song that his mother used to sing to him and his brother whenever they had a hard time trying to fall asleep when they were little.

Before he knew it, tears were rolling down his face as he recalled the memories of his mother stroking his hair lovingly while singing the song to him as he laid on her lap, unable to fall asleep due to the thunderstorm that day. His heart throbbed when he thought about his mother.

His mother who had the kindest eyes and loveliest voice.

His mother that would always make time to play with him and his brother.

His mother that loved him so much.

He held the music box close to him, its melody enveloping him in a warm embrace. He decided that he will write back to you later, to thank you for this gift.

That night, he slept peacefully with a smile on his face, the tune from the music box playing softly in his room. He will definitely treasure this gift forever until the end of time.