This Bitch gives their stories Daddy Issues

Crimson Fans

So.

The story starts with Giyuu finding Tanjiro in the snow.  He is wearing beautiful womens clothes and running from a demon.

Said demon is severly injured and struggling to hunt him down.

Giyuu intervenes anyways obviously and approaches what he thinks is a young woman.

They speak for a while before Giyuu encourages her to come stay at a Wisteria house for the night because she is far from home and it is getting late.

She agrees surprisingly quickly and when he asks why she simply says,

"You smell honest."

Giyuu realizes this is more complicated than he thought when the supposed woman comes back from the baths in a male yukata with a clearly male figure.

"You're a man?"

"You didn't know?"

The man's name is Tanjiro and he reveals with minimal shame that he is a kagema.  A male sex worker.

Giyuu decides to skip over that and asks about the demon that was chasing him.
Apparently it attacked a yujo at his brothel, he heard the woman's screams and stepped in.  Apparently a well aimed toss of a teapot and a loud swear was enough to get the demon off his coworker an onto him, he had fought it off  for a moment and fled out the back way, hoping it followed.  It did.

They had another scuffle near the edge of town where Tanjiro managed to wound it quite well with the singular blade they're allowed to carry for self defense.  It's supposed to be dull.

His isn't.

They talk late into the night and at the end Giyuu asks if he'd like to come back with him, he explains he's high ranking in the organization he works for and has his own quarters at a secure base.

Tanjiro refuses to accept the deal without giving something in return for Giyuu.

They settle on housework.  Giyuu doesn't like letting the Kakushi clean the Brackish Estate because it used to be Urokodaki's and therefore has a lot of value to him.  But he decides he trusts Tanjiro enough not to throw something way without asking first or put anything out of place.

Tanjiro is diligent in his chores.  Everything is spotless and never out of place.  The randomest and blankest of papers are set aside neatly before Tanjiro dares to ask if they need to be put somewhere else much less thrown out.

Giyuu is quite pleased.  And even more pleased when Tanjiro asks if he could learn to fight with a katana after watching Giyuu train.

He takes to it rather well, Giyuu finds.

Of course, things can never go well because at some point Tegen has the nerve to stop by when he knows Tomioka isn't home.  Of course just to make fun of him when he is home.

Imagine the hulking mans surprise when his sliding open of the door is met with a house shoe thrown at his face.  He just barely manages to duck before turning to stare at the beautiful barefoot man holding a broom in one hand, another shoe in the other and glaring furiously at him.

"Knock will you?  You nearly scared the daylights out of me."

Giyuu comes home to Tanjiro having tea with a very touchy Tegen.  Obviously the only acceptable answer is violence.

After that is taken care of Tomioka is forced to explain how Tanjiro came to be living with him as Tegen nods along.  That is, before hushing Giyuu mid sentence and turning to Tanjiro.

"Come live with me!  The house is never empty, and I would never make you clean!"

"Tomioka doesn't make me do a thing.  And I'll have to turn you down."

Tegen stares on distraught as Tanjiro calmly sips his tea and Giyuu musters everything in him not to grin very, very, smugly.

After that, (out of pure spite obviously). Tegen tells everyone in earshot about Tomioka's new company and they all invite themselves over to visit.

Tanjiro is an incredible host, having told Giyuu he worked as a maiko whenever the tea house across town needed extra help.

This does not change that Giyuu does not take kindly to the other Hashira inviting themselves into his Estate.  Eventually he has a gate installed that stops absolutely no one to his dismay.

Tanjiro senses (or smells, rather) his upset and takes a habit of telling any intruding Hashira he's terribly busy at the moment and they'll have to come back later.

They figure that out pretty quickly.

Giyuu relents to having others trodding through his house at all hours and tries to focus on his training with Tanjiro.

Tanjiro is a quick learner and an even harsher critic.  Pushing himself to his limits and then beyond much to Giyuu's growing concern.

When Giyuu first offers him a hand katana to practice with indoors- as it's safer than a full one- Tanjiro takes to the weapon like a fish to water.

It must remind him of his old kagema blade.

It's when Giyuu buys him decorative silk fans.  He bought them purely because he they reminded him of the red haired man and he thought it might be a good wall hanging.  But it is then that things change.  Because Tanjiro does not hang them, he takes precious care of them, and he dances.

He dances so beautifully with so much life and grace.  And Giyuu wonders if this is why people empty their pockets to see expensive geisha or oiran.

And suddenly Giyuu has an idea.  Late one night watching Tanjiro dance idly.  It's one movement, one quick sweep if the fan.  But a switch flicks in his brain.

"Tanjiro?"

He wonders aloud.

"What if you were to encorperate sword fighting movements into your dances?"

That night Giyuu sends a crow down to the Swordsmith Village with a custom order.

Over the next two weeks Tanjiro takes Giyuu's advice, slices and strikes are weaved into his dances and they blend perfectly, suddenly every movement is fierce, every sweep is dangerous.  Every rustle of silk and bamboo is a threat.

After two weeks they arrive.

Giyuu presents them to Tanjiro over dinner.

Fans, beautifully crafted with cranes swimming in clouds and suns rising from flames, painted by hand onto stunning crimson silk.  They are are tipped and reinforced with shining steel, sharpened about the edge, Tanjiro runs his fingers along the blade wide eyed.

"Oh..."

Giyuu watches in awe as they change color, seeping from everywhere Tanjiro touches, it's crimson.  Not red like Rengoku's.  Crimson.  Deeper, brighter, a color he can't put into words.

"Is it supposed to do that?"

"Yes... I never thought yours would but yes, it is supposed to do that."