ᯓᡣ𐭩 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐊𝐈 - 𝒾𝑔𝓊𝓇𝑜 𝑜𝒷𝒶𝓃𝒶𝒾

⊹ ࣪ ˖ 12

—MERAKI

𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲—and i'd give up forever to touch you
'cause i know that you feel me somehow
you're the closest to heaven that i'll ever be
and i don't wanna go home right

(; iris)

„𝐀𝐀𝐀𝐇! 𝐈𝐆𝐔𝐑𝐎-𝐒𝐀𝐍!" i called out from afar, with a hint of joy in my voice. well. my few days of 'holiday' had just ended, and i had to get back to my duties. To going on missions, to training and... such. to boot, i found out that i was to go on patrol with our dear, sweet (ironically), pillar of snakes. "good to see you!" i smiled broadly, standing finally, next to him.

he looked at me and sighed quietly. "you too." he replied quietly and began to simply walk ahead. but... but he spoke to me so cooler than usual? strange.

"hey, iguro-san! are you okay?" i asked, keeping pace with him. he didn't even look at me.
     
"let's focus on work." excuse me? let's focus on work?
       
"no." i burbled, stopping and making him do the same. "what's the matter? you're even more unpleasant than usual."

he looked at me and sighed loudly. in addition, he took his hand from me, which i grabbed for him to stop. "everything is fine." he looked into my eyes, with that stupid, cold look of his.

"it's not, i can see it's not."  i rolled my eyes, slowly getting irritated.

"and what, would you like to hear from me that i missed you or something?" he snorted, with obvious irony in his voice.

"you? would you miss me?" haha. hilarious. "i'd sooner believe in unicorns than that." i burbled and moved forward. i wanted to be nice, but he has some of his dorky mood changes.

he didn't answer me any more, so we spent the rest of our journey in silence. we were supposed to look into some village where the residents had recently complained about noises at night. yes, a village again - but at least a different one this time. it didn't look like we were going to fight anyone. what we heard was just people's guesses, but no one knew anything else. i was humming under my breath some song that akito and i had listened to on loop two days ago at night. i smiled at the memory. i love that kid.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ earlier, on the mission with tokitou ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

╰┈➤ serpent hashira's pov.

i looked wearily at the pillar of mist who had come at the agreed time to the place where we were to start our 'mission'. was there actually a mission? of course not. when he was about to speak, I immediately interrupted him and spoke first. "where were you going from?" i snorted. he was tired. was he training? with yami? "i'm asking where you came from." i repeated, a little more sharply as he glared those turquoise irises of his at me, saying nothing. "what, did you forget?" i rolled my eyes.

he muttered something quietly under his breath, but finally spoke up. "i was with tanji-san." i laughed bitterly.

"that's right. you were with yami." i'm not going to play with some san. just yami.

"i was. so what?" he muttered, looking at me uncomprehendingly.

"what's between you two?" i muttered, figuring i'd hurry up. i didn't want to stand here with this kid.

"what's between us?" he giggled. "nothing, we're friends."

i snorted. friends?

"and that's why i keep seeing you with her?"

"well, that's what friends do? they meet up, for example."

and the irony in his voice! ugh, god.

"mhm." i muttered.

"and what did you think? that me and yami, something?" he giggled, smiling mischievously.

"you're just a kid to her."

he glared at me, smiling wider.

"but i'm the one she spends time with, i'm the one her brother adores, she hugs me and..." he stopped, as i looked at him coolly. "oh!"

what, did something dazzle him?

"huh?" i poked my gaze at him.

"you're jealous! you like yami!" he said loudly. i immediately blocked his mouth with my hand.

"shut up, you dumb kid!"

this was the moment when i was reminded of how annoying he can be. "stay away from her. i won't say it twice." i burbled.

he looked at me, amused. "what if i don't?" i momentarily poked my gaze into him. since when did his temper become so sharp?

"it won't be nice." i rolled my eyes.

he laughed quietly.

"tanji-san is my best friend. i treat her like an older sister, not an optional love."
i muttered something quietly to myself.

"and may it stay that way. you're lucky."

he smiled stupidly.

"when are you going to tell her?" he spoke up after a while, looking at me interested.

i snorted quietly. "none of your business."

he smiled. "then what, you're going to scare every boy like that, or better! person who looks behind her?"

i looked at him. "and anyone looks behind her?"

he snorted. "look at her and answer for yourself. how could anyone not look behind her?"

i sighed. well.... he was right. yami was beautiful. on top of that she was intelligent, confident and.... she had an aura about her that you couldn't help but notice. she could be loving and sweet one minute and then start arguing moments later. but all this and much more made her special. special in my eyes. she was the first and only girl i looked at like that. i don't even know when. it just happened. but i noticed her always. ever since she joined the corps, my gaze has been running towards her on its own. but.... i, when she wanted to 'make friends', i acted cool and pushed her away, afraid of such a relationship, afraid of messing things up. so, i preferred to admire her in silence and keep her safe when she didn't even know it.

i pulled myself together and looked at him, a little softer. and a little confused. "i'll tell her." i muttered.

he nodded. i think he wanted to smile and say something, but held back. he just he looked at me appreciatively.

"a..." i paused for a moment. "do you think... she might like me?"

he snorted under his breath, amused. "you won't be disappointed." he muttered evasively. "then... what about this mission?" i smiled.

"what mission?" i purposely pretended to confuse him.

"well we... we were supposed to go on a..."

"i was just passing through here."

he looked at me puzzled and clearly confused. i smiled broadly under my breath. he probably wanted to deny it and continue convinced that we were supposed to go on a mission together, but he only scratched his head. well. let him think about it. he will activate the last grey cells.

or he'll kill them so that he forgets the way to his own residence.

|| ✮⋆˙ hiiii, sorry for my absence. it's the fault of school and the amount of studying. I did manage to write something though - have a good evening, day, night to you. my (days) lately have been really good and full of love, i wish all of you the same.