Wisteria Eyed

56

"Ah, the craftsmanship on this is quite beautiful. I've never seen a pocket watch with such a beautiful design except in books."

I could hear Shinobu's voice from the outside of my room after I came back from visiting Tanjiro and Inosuke. And unfortunately, it wasn't just her aura that I could feel inside the room.

"I know right? Miyasha gifted this to us for New Year's! It also has our names carved inside the lid — in Japanese, at that! Japanese! And you can even attach it to your belt with this chain, here."

"What is going on here?" I asked as soon as I entered, "What are you doing here, Aniki? And this early in the morning at that. Again, if I might add."

I noticed how Hitoshi was sprawled on my bed like the sloth he was, while Shinobu and Hiroshi were standing near the window and talking... with the said pocketwatch in the taller Hashira's hand.

"We came here to visit you, Imouto-chan~" Hitoshi sat up instantly, giving me an innocent grin as he continued, "You don't have to go to Rengoku's today, right? So, would you like to come to our Estate today?"

"And what if I had to go visit Oyakata-sama today?" I couldn't help but want to tease him as he looked at me with his adorably excited expression, "Then what would you do?"

"We can wait for you then," Hiroshi replied, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled, "Shinobu won't mind if we stay a bit longer, right, Shinobu?"

"Of course, Kinomiya-san~" Shinobu gave her familiar closed-eye smile to us, "I enjoy your company quite a lot, if I do say so myself~"

"You don't have to push yourself to appease these two idiots of mine, Shinobu-san."

Shinobu let out a laugh as the twins protested in reply, starting another banter in return. I also didn't hesitate to sass them back at full capacity since this was the third time this week that these two headaches of mine visited me — and this early in the morning, at that.

Again, it wasn't technically an issue for me, considering how it kinda worked with my hectic schedule too since I bounced in between the Rengoku Estate and the Headquarters from one day to the other.
That, of course, didn't mean I would tell them that outright.

Telling them outright would mean giving them implied permission to show up every morning like this and annoy me.

"You two should apologize to Shinobu-san for showing up this early every morning and disrupting her schedule," I pointed out to the twins after Shinobu left the room, my focus now shifting half on packing my satchel and half onto the twins looming over me as I packed, "Since God knows how much you must have troubled her."

"Nah, I don't think she minded," Hiroshi denied confidently, "If she did, then she wouldn't have let us enter at all, trust me."

"Why, talking from experience?"

"Not us, but she did lock Uzui out that one time when he teased her a little too much," Hitoshi replied with a grin.

Now, the imagery of that made me snort before devolving into full-belly laughter as I connected it with his horrified expression the last time when I had threatened to snitch on him to Shinobu.

"Th-That makes a lot of sense," I laughed again, "God, you guys are unbelievable."

"What?" Hiroshi gave me an amused look, "We didn't do anything. We are very well-behaved, let me tell you that. You can ask anyone in the Corps — even Shinobu downstairs, actually."

"You three sound quite close," I pointed out as I noticed how Hiroshi hadn't added any honorifics to her name, "I didn't know you were that good of friends with Shinobu-san."