I Found You [Shinazugawa Sanemi x Reader]

14

            I stood in front of Sanemi's estate for a while, I don't know why I'm so reluctant to go in and see him, given he is there. "(L/N)-san?" I turned around due to the sudden voice only to be met with a young Kakushi.

            "Sorry, are you here for Shinazugawa-san?" I nodded and a small smile came to his lips. "Great, I'll show you in, I have the mission report for him." I nodded once more and bit my tongue. "I'm glad you're awake and in good health now. Shinazugawa-san has been a mess since you were injured, he's been beating himself up. I'm sure he'll be glad to see you again."

            I looked down at my feet contemplating what to say, before I knew it we were in the back of the estate where a very worked-up Sanemi was beating on Giyuu. "Fucking hit back! Stop dodging!"

            The Kakushi looked over at me and gave me a weary smile. "See." I hummed and cleared my throat.

            "Thank you." He nodded and continued to look on at Sanemi and Giyuu train not wanting to get between them. With a deep breath, I stared straight at my lover relentlessly swinging at Giyuu with the wooden sword. "Nemi!"

            Time seemed to stop as all eyes turned to me, Sanemi dropped his wooden sword finally giving Giyuu a moment to breathe. "(Y/N)..." Disregarding the fact that a Kakushi and fellow Hashira were here he ran to me and wrapped his arms around me. "You're okay." His face was burrowed in my shoulder as he held me against him.

            "Of course I am, what'd I say?" He huffed and continued to hold me for a few more moments. By the time he let go Giyuu had put away the wooden swords and the Kakushi had offered him the report to give to Sanemi as he seemingly had other duties to attend to.

            "Dumbass." I smiled and gave him a quick kiss, which was happily reciprocated.

            "Whatever, you know you have a mission report to look over?" He turned to Giyuu, who stood there awkwardly with the report in his hands.

            "Give me that." He snatched the report from Giyuu and headed inside.

            "Wow, forgot about me fast didn't he." I smiled and turned toward Giyuu. "Good to see you're still doing okay." He nodded and fixed his uniform.

            "You too, good to see you healthy again." We nodded at each other as he went off and I went in after Sanemi.

            When I came in he was signing the report at the table, ohagi stacked in front of him. "So, how have you been since the battle?"

            He shrugged and pushed the paperwork aside. "Worried sick, I thought you fucking died you know," I mumbled a sorry as I sat across from him. "You hear about Genya?" I nodded.

            "Yeah, rumors spread fast around here, especially when you have nothing better to do than rest." He nodded slowly as I spoke, grabbing an ohagi. "So, is it true? Genya is your brother and a slayer?" He nodded angrily.

            "Yeah, I told him not to fucking be one but he is, and a fucking tsuguko at that. Pisses me off." I hummed and grab an ohagi myself.

            "Well, is there a reason you didn't want him to become a slayer?"

            "Too many to count," he took a deep breath and looked at me, "It's not safe, I've lost too much, and I don't want to lose him too... I nearly lost you." He glared down at the ohagi in his hand. "I've been so pissed, I didn't want to come and see you in case I lost my temper, I don't want to see him, I know I'll lash out at him."

            I nodded and grabbed Sanemi's empty hand. "You know, you're gonna hate hearing it, but you're losing him by pushing him away too. He's your brother, and he needs his older brother. And, trust me, you won't lose me, no matter how many times I look death in the eye I'm not gonna leave you."

            He begrudgingly nods and shoves the remains of his ohagi in his mouth. "But he shouldn't have put himself in harm's way like this."

            I sighed and looked up, "In a way, you're right. But you know, he probably wanted to get closer to you somehow. It sounds like you pushed him away when you joined the corps, as a kid you always need someone there to love and depend on. I don't think he had that outside of you, so this is what he saw as the only way to get closer to you, you know? I know I used to chase Kyojuro around after training and tried to get as close to him as possible. Although he was younger than me, he's always been that person I could love and depend on up to the moment he left. I would do anything if it meant we were closer." He nods again and squeezed my hand.

            "I guess you're right." He took in a shaky breath, he was getting emotional. "What do I do?" I sat for a moment, I don't know how to answer that. I mean I don't know the full extent of the relationship, I'm just making assumptions based on what little I do know and what I've heard.

            "Well, that's not my decision to make, Nemi. It's up to you and what you feel you should do. Though I think rebuilding your relationship could be in consideration." I smiled at him and he smiled back.

            "Yeah, I'll figure it out." He brought my hand up and kissed my knuckles. "I love you."

            My face heated up and I covered my smile, "I love you too. You have no idea how much I missed you."

            "I missed you too. How are your injuries?" I shrugged.

            "They're not so bad, pretty much all healed up now, just sore and kind of stiff. Shinobu and the girls forced me to rest and didn't let me train at all." He nodded and kept my hand up to his chin.

            "If you'd like, we can train tomorrow." I chuckled.

            "Do I get the Giyuu treatment?" He glared at me as I laughed, "Sure, only if I can sleep with you tonight."

            With another kiss on my knuckles, he nodded. We sat there talking for a while, eating ohagi and drinking tea. We haven't had the chance to do this in a while, we're always on missions, or most recently I was recovering and he was doing mission after mission to distract himself. It was nice to see a calm Sanemi again.

            I stared up at the night sky, laying in Sanemi's lap. "You know, I felt so worthless during the battle with upper 6." He looked down, mildly shocked at what I had said. "I let myself slip ever since Kyojuro passed, I didn't even notice until death stared me in the face. I couldn't do any damage to that bastard, instead, I allowed myself to get exhausted and poisoned. It felt horrible being unable to do anything, but it made me realize what I need to do so I can do better." I looked up at him smiling, "I'm happy I was able to survive, you do have some pretty comfortable thighs."

            He huffed as his ears turned pink, "You're such a dumbass." I laughed and looked back up at the sky. "I'm happy you got to survive too." I big smile crossed my face as Sanemi rubbed my back.

Word Count:1266