A Split in The River of Time

Part 3: The (fairly) simple things

(I'm releasing 3 parts in total today alone, because I have a lot of content to pump out :D any feedback is wonderful to hear my friends. Thank you for reading.)
(Tomioka is also a bit more social in this chapter, mostly because hes been surronded by the hustle and bustle of the hospital along with Kocho's nagging for days, if not weeks.)

A shuffling at the door woke Shinobu from her sleep. A wonderful sleep in fact, she thought as her eyes fixated on the door she was facing. Mitsuri stood with a face full of blush with Aoi in tow, shaking her head. Shinobu began to lean up but felt a tug at her waist, preventing her from sitting fully up. She nearly fully turned around, but the memory of the previous nights pushed the way into her brain, causing her face to heat up as she carefully climbed out from under Giyuu's arm, and out into the hallway with the women.

"I was starting to wonder where the armless Hashira was yesterday. But truly? He's your type? Plus he was in recovery just two days ago, and he's already in your bed? He's so annoying. Always arguing that he doesn't need medicine and that it tastes bad. You choose him?" Aoi said, questioningly and not-so quietly judging the pillar as she ranted. Shinobu smiled at the young girl, fighting the blush on her face as she leaned to whisper in her ear.
"Aoi. If you judge my preferences in men or when I have those men in bed with me, I may just have to tell that sweet little Inosuke how you feel about him." She smiled sweetly after. Aoi's face contorted from confusion to one of fear and horror as she realized that she was not good at hiding her feelings as she thought she was,  and she quickly ran off.
"You suck!" she shouted down the hallway at the pillar.
"What was that about?" Mitsuri questioned, scanning the woman as Kocho turned to face her.
"Nothing. Just giving a little advice to my dear Aoi." she dropped the fake smile in favor of a softer one, pleased to see Mitsuri.
"Did you need something Mitsuri?" she said, confused as to why the love pillar was here.
"You invited me over yesterday, because you wanted to learn how to cook Salmon daikon." Shinobu picked her brain, and quickly remembered the letter she had sent.
"Can you give me a moment to change, Mitsuri-chan?" Mitsuri looked at the woman again, she was wearing loose pajamas that were sliding down on one side.
"You two are this close huh?" she motioned to the door.
"NONONONONO! This was a bad coincidence, see two nights ago Tomioka had been too injured to get to the medical wing and therefor his bed, so he ended up sleeping in here and he just decided to stay and-" as the woman continued, Mitsuri understood the overarching point that they weren't together, just cuddled and slept in the same bed for two nights in a row... for a reason.
"Alright... well get your clothes and I'll be in the kitchen. Oh! I remember, I had a question for you. Is there any reason you wanted to learn to cook salmon? You usually only want to learn about sweets." Shinobu hesitated for a moment,
"Just wanted to expand my own abilities, Mitsuri," She said with a smile. The pink haired woman nodded slowly before making her way back down the hallway. Shinobu cracked open the door and stared at the corner of the room at her bed, the light from her window now shining through to land on top of a still sleeping Tomioka. She grabbed her clothes and then walked out of her room. 

Sorry Tomioka, I know you sleep heavy but no way am I risking that. She walked to the bathroom a little bit down the hall and changed, before heading to the kitchen with Mitsuri. As Mitsuri cooked, Shinobu watched almost unwaveringly. Occasionally, she would trail off on odd thoughts before Mitsuri would fish her attention back. 

I wonder if Tomioka-san has woken up by now? . . . Why am I thinking of Tomioka? She shook her head, resuming focus on Mitsuri. Mitsuri almost bounced as she cooked, and soon enough she was done and invited Shinobu to taste. Kocho of course agreed, and grabbed a fork to poke the salmon before she put it in her mouth.
"It's amazing Mitsuri-chan!" she proclaimed. The pink-haired woman removed her apron and passed it to the shorter of the two, with Shinobu promptly putting it on. She walked to the counter and began to cook just like Mitsuri had, with gentle guidance from the island that the older woman sat at. Midway through the cooking, a sudden giggle erupts from behind Shinobu.
"Yes Mitsuri?" She turned towards the giggling woman.
"Shinobu, you missed an entire step." Shinobu looked towards the counter, looking at the salmon sitting in front of her. She pondered for a second and remembered that she forgot the entire part of seasoning the salmon.
"Didn't know you could mess something up, being the perfectionist you are!" Mitsuri broke out into full out laughter, continuing.
"You thinking about Tomioka or something over there, Shinobu? He is fairly handsome. I think he's cute." Upon hearing the last part, Something irked the woman. Letting the intrusive thoughts win for a moment, she grabbed an egg from the tray and quickly chucked it at Mitsuri. The egg soared and landed with surprising accuracy, the throwing knife training working out well. The pink haired woman let out a shocked gasp as she wiped the egg off of her shirt, complaining that the yolk was seeping down her shirt.
"My uniform isn't buttoned all the way, do you know how hard this will be to get out!" she said, scrambling to get the egg off of her. Shinobu chucked to herself as Mitsuri lifted her egg covered hands and shook them in the other woman's direction, some yolk landing directly in Kocho's purple hair.
"Are you serious? I'm going to-" suddenly a large person walked into the kitchen behind her, shoving her forwards.

"Hey!" She said, looking at the raven haired man. 
"ah. Tomioka-san." She said, none to happy about his rude behavior. Soon, a small white object flew past her vision and straight into that pitch black hair. The egg splattered and slowly slid down until it eventually fell out of his hair, the damage already been done. Shinobu's eyes widened as she realized Giyuu was turning around with a cup of water, which he promptly 'spilled' on her. 
"Oh no, Kocho! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there. That egg must have messed up my senses." She sat in silence absolutely infuriated. 
"That wasn't me, Tomioka." The woman calmly said. The anger in her voice was obvious even through the smile she was wearing.
"Oh" He said, confused and slightly frightened by the mistake he just made. The water hashira dropped his cup and quickly ran from the room, leaving Kocho soaked and Mitsuri all but doubled over in stifled laughter. 

"Sorry, Tomioka..." Mitsuri said hesitantly, apologizing to somebody who was definitely in a completely different part of the mansion at this point. She was sorry he couldn't get his water in peace, but it was still extremely funny. 
"This wasn't exactly what I had planned Mitsuri-san, but I thank you nonetheless." Shinobu said, taking off her Haori and patting the rest of her demon slayer uniform off.
"It's quite alright, Shinobu. Even we should have some fun sometimes, right?"

"I am glad you had fun because I'm personally just dripping with excitement." Mitsuri leaned in to whisper
"Also, I know exactly why you cuddle him. He's got a very nice body" she giggled. Shinobu blushed and nodded as the pink-haired girl turned and walked out the door and down a hallway, and Shinobu began to make her way back to her bathroom to shower.

"T-Tomioka-san!?!?!?" Shinobu said, wide eyed as she walked into her room in basically only a towel.
"Oh, you're back." Giyuu turned around, his hair now wet and in only his underwear. His bandages had been soaked and ruined from what she assumed was a shower that he had to take because of a certain chicken product.
"Tomioka-san, why are you in my room?" although seeing you shirtless isn't something to complain about. Shinobu shook her head madly to wipe the weird thought from her mind as Giyuu answered.
"My bandages, they are messed up and I was hoping you could replace them?" He really was completely dense. A woman was standing in front of him half naked and he was keeping his composure to ask about bandages?
"Well I can indeed help with that, but as you can probably tell, I am currently only in my underwear." She looked at him, clutching her towel. She was fighting down the blush in her face, but there was no stopping and her face quickly was completely enveloped in red.
"...So? I am also currently in my underwear? I don't know what that has to do with my bandages, however." Shinobu's jaw metaphorically dropped. 

Is he really THIS unaware??

"Really...?" She sighed heavily.
"Turn around and I will rewrap your wounds. If I see you peek once, I will take your other arm off." He did as instructed and she walked towards a cabinet, opening it. She tied her towel around her shoulders so she could use both hands, and grabbed a roll of bandages.
"Seriously, Tomioka. If you didn't need to be so active and try to reopen your wounds, you wouldn't need these to be replaced so soon!" she muttered to him. 

"But you are the one who told me I could do rehabilitation? And the only reason they are wet is because of an egg thrown by your friend." She nearly slapped him. She wanted to slap him. Standing on a chair to be able to better wrap the top of his shoulder, She started to wrap his wounds, her hands began lingering on the stitches of where his arm used to be and where she felt the scarring on his body.
"Kocho?" Giyuu said. She had been feeling his back for an extremely odd amount of time at this point.

"Nothing, Tomioka. Such a fearsome and powerful pillar, and you can't rewrap your own wounds?" she teased, though she sounded quiet. She admired the shape of his body, as her hands gently glided across his skin.

Shinobu, after telling Tomioka to get out now that his bandages were wrapped, put on some clothes finally. She slid into a uniform and her haori over that, but she left her sword in her room as she was off for the week due to an influx of demon attacks and therefor an influx of injured slayers.  She put her butterfly clip in her hair and walked out to the courtyard expecting to find Giyuu practicing, but he wasn't there. She checked the kitchen, her room, the other courtyard, the room Tanjiro and the others were recovering in, all over the butterfly estate as a matter of fact, but Tomioka was gone.