This was supposed to be a simple mission.

It was supposed to.

WARNING: Mentions of blood and nightmares.

-linebreak-

Giyuu decided that day- that evening- he arrived with Tengen that he really should read over the mission statements more than once because this is the last place he wanted to be.

Well that was a lie, it'd be the third last place he wanted to be, first being with the Kibujitsu and second his home town which smelt of mold, dirty and rotting corpses depending on the area you were in but still, his point still stood. He didn't want to be here, let alone with Uzui of all people- he'd much rather it be Kyojuro but was that really a surprise? No, not really.

On the topic of the Sound Hashira, it turns out, Tengen is predictably very loud, it's fitting for the Sound Hashira, really he didn't expect any different. He's like Kyojuro when it comes to his loudness but times tenfold, he's also gotten used to Kyojuro's loudness he has not gotten used to Uzui's. 

It feels as if he screams every sentence and from the looks, he's getting from other people as they travel they feel the same way and he can't help but shrink into himself as people stare and whisper at them. This feels humiliating, however, this isn't the worst part. The worst part is that he knows this place, he couldn't forget it.

This is the place where he got captured- this is the town where he got captured on a mission that was supposed to be a simple one.

This mission is supposed to be a simple one as well.

He doesn't like this place, no matter how much Uzui raves about it to him, about how since it's evening and the sun's going down they'll hold festival-like actives that involve fire and dancing. No matter how mystical the other hashira makes it out to be, he still doesn't like this place and he never will.

Despite how much he despises this place, he'd rather be home than here, and he briefly remembers swearing before- in his old life- he'd never return to that place, that dump, that shit-hole where it was practically normal for a body to turn up at the dump in the morning, that place where his parents were ripped to shreds and never got a proper burial all thanks to what he is, the monster that he is, a demon. He doesn't want to be here, for once in his life he'd rather be home- but is that place really his home anymore?

Is his home this organization now despite how many people in it despise him? His Sensei, the man's practically become his father at this point considering he's taken care of him more than his own did- given the fact his never did since he died before he could really do anything with him that he'd end up remembering- and he both admired, and cared for the older man greatly. But then you had Kyojuro who just... Adopted him yesterday- ???- so does that mean since if his Sensei is his father- and he's sure he is since he called him son that one time - and Kyojuro he's adopted brother does that mean he's also his Sensei's son now or-

He's decided he's thought enough about it today and pushes away those thoughts, this is far too confusing for his own good and he hates it. 

Uzui's loud voice- too loud for his own good when he's standing right next to him- breaks him out of his thoughts, spurring him on towards the town center where it looks like there's a performance going on. It sounds amusing so without complaints, he wordlessly follows him deeper into the village. He needs something to get all of this off his mind.

Maybe this will work. 

Please work.

-linebreak-

Uzui wasn't a light sleeper, no not by any means, he couldn't be his hearing was far too good to be. There were a lot of things that were very good about him, fantastic even if he were to go as far as to describe it. His hair, eyes, fighting style, the way he fought, his ego was immensely large but the largeness of his ego is not the problem here. The problem is he was woken up, and that really was the last thing he wanted, he likes his sleep, but thanks to having incredibly good hearing he's grown accustomed to becoming a light sleeper because of that. All of this to say, he doesn't like his beauty sleep interrupted by just anyone, he doesn't mind it when his wives do it but when other people do it's nothing less than irritating.

You better have a damn good reason for this, Tengen bitterly thinks as he grumbles, sitting up and wiping the tiredness out of his eyes, you better be getting fucking murdered for waking up in the middle of the night.

A guttural noise escapes past his lips before he can stop it and the noises and shuffling come to a curt stop. He cursed wishing for the noises to continue so he could see where they were coming from and if they were even coming from the other Hashira from the other place. He paused, contemplating greatly on whether or not he should just go back to bed or not, then after a minute right as he's about to lie back down it starts up again. 

Uzui personally has to pause and raise a singular brow at the noise he hears, and listen more carefully and finds out that he's correct in what he heard:

Shuffling of the sheets and loud breathing that was once quiet becoming slightly louder and low- although not audible to the average human ear- whines.

In a nervous tick he licks his lips, unsure whether he should let this continue or just go back to sleep, he ends up choosing the latter. Very, very quietly, he lays back down against the sheets turning onto his side. The noises stop and he feels himself falling back to sleep. The last dregs of sleep leave him once the noises start up again and grow unbearably louder. It's like he's hearing some kind of animal get tortured, whines and sobs coming one after another, sounds he'd rather not hear but his hearing has cursed him to be forced to listen to it.

He hates it, hates hearing it, and wants to tune it out but he can't.

It's all he can focus on, cutting through his thoughts and demanding all his attention. 

The only way to stop it is to either wait for it to stop or stop it himself. So not so tearfully, he sits up with a sigh and the noises stop. He turns towards the side of his bed and grabs the matches in the drawer and lights one of them. There's a lamp on the drawer next to his futon, with careful hands he opens it, lightening the middle and then closing it, blowing out the match with a singular breath. He places it on the drawer grabbing the lamp by the handle and turning towards his right sitting up fully. 

Tomioka's futon laid only a few feet away from him yet the lamp they were given wasn't particularly that bright so, discarding the blanket that now pooled around his waist to the end of the futon he scooted closer to the edge and held the lamp outwards, stretching his arm not too far but far enough it'd give him enough light to see what was happening with the other man only to see a lump under a blanket which made him raise a singular brow at the sight. His confusion only growing as he watched as the lump under the blanket started to shrink down in size.

While some people might call him dumb, he wasn't, he was fully aware that due to Tomioka being a demon he could shrink down in size, along with growing to his original size as well, if he could grow larger than that, he wasn't particularly sure but he was aware of the former at least. However, he wasn't exactly aware of what spurred this on which meant, of course, he had to investigate.  

With the lump still shrinking he ventures closer to it, shuffling on his knees closer to it, lamp guiding his way. He stopped next to it as the lump ceased its movements, placing the lamp down next to the head of the bed with a small 'thump'.  With careful fingers, he lifted up the blanket and peered downwards not exactly sure what he'd see but he had some semblance of an idea. 

Underneath the blanket was a teary-eyed demon, staring up at him with wide eyes, glassy, as his frame trembles. Well, that certainly wasn't what I was expected, is the only thing he can think while in some reality he was. 

He was half his size once more -about 2'10" and a half- whether it is intentional or not, it had already been done. The smaller one let out a sniffle, breaking him out of his thoughts, starting to scoot away as fast as he can and Tengen reaches out for him and only gets a claw in return.

His hand drips of a scarlet liquid as the demon tries to get its getaway, he can only wince at the slight ringing pain in his hands the scowl.

"Come here!" He chases after him, the room albeit not being very big so eventually, he catches up to him and grabs him roughly at the hem of his haori pulling him so he could meet him at his height, shaking him a little rougher than needed. "What was that for? I thought you changed!" He demands and as a response, all he gets is a struggle, a flailing of limbs as he can almost hear the clustered thoughts coming from the other man's head, clustered unorganized sounds that sound like chaos, screaming.

He does his best to block them out but they only make his aggravation grow. 

In the end, Uzui suspects he should have suspected this would happen because it takes a few seconds for his brain to catch up with him but by the time that happens, Giyuu's already slipped out of his haori, tripping over his yukata and stumbling out of the room into their shared place living room. The Sound Hashira curse under his breath and haphazardly throws the multi-patterned haori onto the demon's bed, chasing after him quick on his feet and throwing the door open, and rushing into the living room that doubled as a kitchen.

"Stop running!" He called out. Their neighbors can probably hear the noise and he doesn't feel like explaining this mess or dealing with noise complaints. Why he's chasing after his roommate in the middle of the night, this is not an easy thing to explain or lie about, what the hell would you even say?

'Oh yeah, we were just playing tag in the middle of the night, no worries.' What the fuck kind of explanation was that?

"G-get away!" And coming up with an explanation for why he and his roommate were screaming would be even harder especially when he didn't know what was happening either. He chased the demon from the living room to the kitchen, the demon for a distressed one dodged him, ducking between his legs and swiveling around avoided him despite how much he tripped over his yukata with every few steps. But eventually, eventually, after trial after error, he finally managed to corner him, grabbing him by his shoulder, his large hand able to wrap around the arm with ease, gripping the other and holding him out as he lifted him up off the floor, out of arms reach. 

"Get away!" The demon hashira chocked out, thrashing to his best ability to loosen Uzui's grip which only made it tighten. 

"No! I don't understand, what's going on, Tomioka, I-" A thrash, and the corner of his elbow was kicked by a leg with far much more force than necessary. 

"Please don't hurt me Shinazugawa!" He has to briefly pause, his body has to catch up with his mind while his body takes repeated hits as he tries to process the information. The only thing he and Shinazguawa have in common is their hair color and that they're both Hashira and that they both went on missions with him, he's currently doing his. Shinagawa went on his mission before but does that?... "Wha- I'm not him, I'm Uzui! Tomioka you're not making any sense," I have a situation on my hands I'll think about it later, maybe. 

"I-I," His voice hitches on a breath and he starts to thrash again. "get away from me!" He kicks, scratches, and does his best to shove the bigger man away, managing to get a few scratches and scrapes here and there small beads of blood sprouting from a few of said scrapes which is when Uzui's decided he's had enough.

"Tomioka, no-" Not without hesitation, he reaches and tight grabs a Tomioka's wrists in a bruising grip- he really didn't mean to leave bruises, that wasn't his intention but here he was leaving them- and pins them above him, the other hand moving to his stomach and pushing it down as he gritted his teeth. "Tomioka, listen- look at me Right Now."

"N-no..." The demon weakly says, turning away with his eyes filling with tears, catching on the occasional eyelash as he breathes heavy labored breaths. 

"Look at me, I am not Shinazugawa, I am Tengen Uzui, it's me. I am the Sound Hashira, not the Wind one." The demon shakes his head,  struggling to try to escape his grip, but he just tightening and he heard the bones in the wrist click against each other.

"Look. At. Me. Giyuu. Tomioka." It's not a choice, it's a demand and just like he would do with the Upper Ranks, Giyuu can't help but comply in hear what'll happen if he doesn't.

Giyuu looks up at the figure above him, not being able to see through his blurring vision and his eyes not having adjusted to the dark. His mind is roaring at him to leave, escape as fast as he can but another voices whispers to give up. 

Just give in, give in give in give in give in give in giVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN GIVE IN G I V E  I N .

"Look at you, laid out so perfectly for me, look at me, won't you? I promise this won't hurt,"

Liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar-

"I said look at me!"

NO. no no no no nnonononononoononononnoonnoonon ono non no no no non no 

no non no nononononono no no no no

.

.

.

NO.

EVERYTHING HE SAYS IS A LIE HE'S JUST GOING TO KILL YOU.

HE'S TRIED IT BEFORE HE'LL TRY IT AGAIN. KILL HIM KILL HIM. RIP HIS THROAT OUT  LIKE HE TRIED TO SLICE YOURS OFF.

Stop pretending I don't exist I can help you out it's eventual you'll have to accept me.

NO NO NNO NO NO NO NO NO NO NONONO NO NONO

I DONT WANT THIS I DONT WANT ANY OF THIS HELP HELP HELP HELP H El p M E           -

GET AWAY GET AWAY JUST LEAVE ME ALONE I HATE YOU I MADE A PROMISE YOU WONT GET FREE YOU WONT ILL STOP YOU LEAVE ME ALONE I PROMISED TO GET RID OF YOU I PROMISE-

IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP I DONT WANT THIS I DONT WANT THIS I DONT WANT THIS I DONT WANT THIS I DONT WANT THIS I WANNA GO HOME I WANT TO GO HOME PLEASE DONT DO THIS-

"Tomioka! Listen to me it's me Tengen Uzui! Your not where ever you think you are you're at a inn with me!"

WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT-

Is that the truth or a lie? I can't tell.

"I don't know what's going on or what your body is doing but you're really freaking me out-"

NOT AGAIN.

CALM DOWN P L E A S E

 "I ain't gonna hurt ya buddy, so can you stop this?"

IT'S SAFE SAFE SAFE SAFE SAFE SAFE SAFE SAFE SAFe safe safe safe safe safe safe safe

IT'S NOT SHINAZGAWA ITS UZUI. It's not him.

It's safe it's safe with him safe safe safe.

Safe. Calm down.

Safe.

"Uzui?... Is that really you?" The demon asked him tentatively, silently gauging the other man for his reaction.

"Yes, it is me," He lets out a heavy breath he wasn't aware he was holding, just what the fuck was that? What was happening to his body why was it disfiguring itself like that? "Trust me, Shinazugawa would never be able to look this flamboyant," Then the Sound Hashira lets out an awkward chuckle as he says flamboyant, trying to ease the horrid tension that's grown, but he ends up immediately regretting at he sees large tears spill from the demon's eyes. Loosening his grip on his wrist, panic rushes through his veins as he moves his hands away almost instantly, unsure where to put them. If Hinatsuru, Makio, or Suma were here, then he'd know what to do, they always knew what to do when he never did.

He wasn't prepared for him, he wasn't. 

Suddenly, before he knew it, the smaller one clung to him, burying his face in his shirt as heavy, gut-wrenching sobs shook his frame. "Wh- ? Oh shit... Oh shit, are you- ?" A great termor overtook the demon's frame as he tightened his grip. "Hey- what's going on? Hey- Hey. You can... talk to me?" Carefully, he places a hand on the back of his head, smoothing back the inky locks, he repeats the pattern slowly and meticulously. "Tomioka? What's... What's up?"

A sob escapes his lips as he hits his head against his chest. "You don't gotta talk about it if you don't wanna," He reassured as the demon trembled under his hand. His wives never made him talk about things he didn't want to talk about. The nightmares he had on the occasions, dreams of failures, death, and forsaking his family and teammates. Demons tearing him limb from limb, or his wife's limb from limb or his family, something he'd wake up in a frenzied daze from. Ironic enough, here he was trying to console a demon who had attacked him earlier.

It was a strange world.

Giyuu's sobs started to reside as he managed to let out somewhat coherent words. "What was that about Tomioka?" Although he was the sound hashira, he was never the best at trying to understand sobs. "Here..."

"What about here?"

"H-he was here... in my room, Shi- Shinazugawa, g-gonna kill me again," He let out a thick sob, breath hiccuping as Tengen stroked the demon's hair as he trembled and wept.

Uzui sucked in a tight breath, as he stared down at him, tilting his head to the side with a grimace. "You're alright Tomioka, he ain't here,"

"He was here,"

"In your dream, he's all the way back at his mansion now, he's not gonna get you." And just for extra reassurance, he adds: "You got my word, y'know?" Tengen has no idea if that's going to help or what he's doing but he's trying and that should at least count. Although the demon seems to like Rengoku who's a man who never goes back on his word and tries his best to never let it happen despite how impossible it seemed so it should at least be some help in the end.

Slowly but surely, the sobs dissolve into slow huffs of breaths as the demon falls asleep. Carefully, he continues to run his hand through his thick jet locks, a petrified expression on his face. Eventually, the demon falls into a slightly peaceful sleep with the occasional hitch here and there, and once Uzui views it as safe, he carefully carries the demon back to where they were resting. Laying him carefully on his futon so he can move the water hashira's closer just in case he wakes up with a start again. He moves Tomioka to his respected futon, covering him with the blanket, and lays down on his own with the blanket wrapped up to his waist, turning off the lamp next to him, he ended up wrapping up his hand beforehand.

Sleep is hard that night, thoughts constantly plaguing him along with concerns. What he saw he can't unsee, what happened to his body. What sounded like the cracking of bones shifting and reshaping, vigilant eyes boring into his as cracks grew along the skin, the skin stretching to its limit shapes poked their way through the skin as sounds of pure agony reached his ears begging him to let go and get away making him almost do. He's not quite sure he's ever seen it up close before or wants to if that's what he sounds like. And as he stares up the ceiling, only one thought that crosses his mind is:

What the fuck did Sanemi do on that mission to warrant that?

Then he remembers something that Kyojuro mentioned at that secret meeting they had all those weeks ago, something they all just briefly skipped over.

"Those four months... They did unspeakable things to him, those demons did acts that I will never be able to forgive them for. They battered him around like some kind of toy, treated him like his life meant nothing, and tortured him for months, which I cannot forgive..."

He tentatively glanced down at the demon's small curled-up form, his fatigue-ridden mind slowly putting things together and then combining him with what he just saw. With a heavy sigh, he stared up at the ceiling mind swirling in even more questions. 

Is this what you meant Kyojuro? He sighs again letting his eyes droop closed. Is this what you meant?

A/N: uh oh spagettio