Between Earth and Water|| Demon Slayer

Chapter. 05

"There you are!" Giyu lightly waved at Rengoku as he walked into the restaurant. Rengoku threw his arm around his shoulders, as he always did. The friendliness was nice, but Giyu didn't appreciate someone so loud and energetic hanging onto him every time they interacted.

"Can you get off of me please..." Giyu mumbled. Rengoku chuckled and let go, but not before ruffling his hair a bit. 

"I just brushed my hair..." He groaned.

"Sorry! You know I get excited to see you guys." Rengoku laughed. Giyu sighed and fixed his hair, redoing the ponytail and adjusting his bangs yet again.

"Yeah... it's more than obvious." Giyu replied quietly. 

He looked around, taking in the sight of everyone together for once. Sanemi and Tengen were arguing, but when weren't they? It seemed like a harmless argument, which was better than usual. Obanai was listening to Mitsuri talk his ear off, also normal. Giyu quietly took notice of the empty chair next to Obanai as he looked around. Their relationship had been getting better recently, and he'd feel comfortable sitting there. Shinobu had her face buried in a book, occasionally glancing up at him and trying to get his attention. Of course she was, she made her crush on him very obvious. It would be nice if Giyu was interested, but he only saw her as a colleague. Gyomei was talking quietly with Muichiro, and they seemed to be talking to someone else too.

Giyu had to keep his gasp quiet as Muichiro leaned back, revealing who he was talking to. It was the same girl. The girl with long black hair, with the face framing bangs and deep green eyes. She had her elbows on the table, resting her cheek against her hand while she listened to Muichiro talk. Now that he wasn't drunk and half asleep, her beauty smacked him across the face.

"T-that's the new Hashira?" Giyu whispered to Rengoku, not taking his eyes off her for a moment.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. That's Yamuza. Tanaka, Yamuza I believe." Rengoku replied. "Doesn't speak much, but she seems kind." Kind was an understatement after the interaction Giyu had last night.

"Yamuza... okay." Giyu mumbled, going to sit down at his seat by Obanai.

"I was worried you wouldn't come." Obanai said without looking over at Giyu. 

"Yeah... I wasn't planning on it." Giyu replied quietly.

"Of course you weren't. What changed your mind?"

Giyu was trying to find the words to explain the events of last night without sounding like he was losing his mind. He couldn't take his eyes off Yamuza, getting nervous the more he looked at her. It wasn't until she glanced over at him and tilted her head to the side that he looked away, feeling his cheeks slightly heat up. Damn, that head tilt did something to him.

"N-not sure... just didn't have anything better to do I guess." Giyu mumbled. He looked up slightly, pretending to drink water as he looked over at Yamuza again. She wasn't looking at him anymore, which made him sigh in relief.

The feeling of relief was quickly replaced with one of nerves and frustration, realization washing over him. He wanted Yamuza to look in his direction, to be overwhelmed with that sharply gentle gaze for whatever reason. For that, he hated himself.

This was going to be a long lunch.