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Giyuu was having a good day. Keyword ‘was’.
It all started in the morning. When Giyuu was just sleeping in since he really didn’t have the energy to get up today, simply laying half awake for the past few hours.
The sun has been up for ages now, continuing its harsh rays directly over giyuu’s pillow, unless he lay in this one specific position where his head was curled away from the sun and shielded by his blanket. He was feeling a bit restless being in this one position for a while, yet he felt too tired to do anything about it.
A very loud voice shattered the serene silence Giyuu was in, a loud knocking practically vibrating his walls. Was this person trying to knock his wall down?
“Oii!!! Tomioka-san!!” An annoyingly familiar voice shouted out, way too early to be hearing his voice. Giyuu sighed heavily as Tengen continued his shouting,
“Wakey-wakey Tomioka! I have something to tell you!!”
Giyuu could distantly hear a matching sound of Rengoku laughing.
So with a deep breath, Giyuu sat up with his eyes closed, feeling his head spin at the sudden movement. Jesus… he was seeing static.
With a couple of breaths, Giyuu successfully got himself up, he fixed his yukata and refolded it on himself, so he wasn’t seeing those two with his bare chest out. His yukata was fairly baggy and somewhat hid any curves he had. Giyuu completely ignored his hair situation, already knowing that his hair was most definitely flattened from his prolonged lounging. So he didn’t bother tying it up or doing much with it.
When Giyuu finally opened the door, Giyuu was met with two beaming smiles, Tengen was quick to tease Giyuu’s appearance.
“You look like you’ve just rolled out of bed, Tomioka! It’s past midday!” He teased, though Giyuu knew Tengen enough that it was his way of calling him out in his own concern. Giyuu ignored it.
“I did” Giyuu responded bluntly, blinking when he was met with a spluttered laugh from Rengoku,
“Um.. Let’s get to the point then, right buddy!” He so helpfully steered, wanting to let Giyuu have a moment to properly wake up and not bother the dark-haired man for too long.
This conversation steering worked apparently, since Tengen gasped and suddenly changed topics, “Right! Tomioka, all the Hashira are having a sleepover at my house, a sort of party since we are all around today, it’s rare for all of us to be here and not on a mission!” He rambled, this was only confusing Giyuu more, he didn’t have any caffeine in him yet and he was rather exhausted today, something in his bones ached.
“…what?” Giyuu mumbled, eyebrows furrowing as he squinted at Tengen, this only made Tengen sigh as he slowed down,
“Sleepover, at my house, all the hashira are coming, you are too” he dumbed down, Giyuu blinked his disinterest.
But he nodded anyway, the two of them went out of their way to let him know, so he should probably join in, to be polite. The Uzui’s were always kind to him after all.
“I suppose so… what time will I go to your estate?” Giyuu answered, his voice was almost monotonous, his face stoic as ever.
Tengen beamed another smile at him either way, happy with his friend’s agreement, “whenever the sun starts setting, or literally whenever you can, we don’t mind!” Tengen nodded at him, Rengoku smiling at him all the same as the taller white-haired man.
Giyuu wasn’t sure what to do from here now, was he supposed to invite them in? Say goodbye and shut the door? Small talk?? He just resolved to staring at the two of them, as they spoke random details at him,
“I have bought alcohol so there’s no need to bring anything!” Tengen winked, smiling mischievously, as if he was planning to get wasted. Knowing him, Giyuu assumed he probably was.
“There will be food there as well! I have personally gone to buy some food, to save Tengen’s wives time and energy having to cook for us all!” Rengoku included, smiling his usual smile.
Goodness, these two were all smiles, huh? Giyuu had a flat expression, a complete contrast to the smiles and laughs of the other two. It was a rather funny image in Giyuu’s head now that he thought about it.
“I don’t have much to do anyway… i’ll get ready and stroll down later” he nodded, which seemed to be what the two were looking for, since they nodded and waved at him as they stepped back, calling out about having to pick up some food they ordered from a closeby restaurant.
Giyuu took that as a sign to wave them farewell and close the door. Sighing as he mentally prepared himself for the utter tomfoolery that would happen tonight.
Since Giyuu was up, he might as well make himself a coffee, take this as a sign to take a bath. After he was nice and clean, he would take extra care to dry his hair, since he wanted to leave them open. He wanted his scalp time to breathe after having to be tied up for hours, sometimes even days for missions. His hair was reaching his mid back by now, Tsutako’s hair was down to her waist. Giyuu kind of wanted his hair to reach that length, only out of curiosity as to how he would look.
His hair was drying into loose black curls, thick and surprisingly healthy looking. He followed his older sister's hair care routine to a T. She loved his hair after all and Giyuu couldn’t find it in himself to just abandon her efforts.
Giyuu opened up his wardrobe, his hair fully dry now. He took out a long dark blue patterned yukata. It was a bit more colourful than the usual male yukata’s but he rather liked the different shades of blue, the thin silver accents and the rather fancy pattern. Plus this was the Uzui household, everything in there is ‘flashy’ apparently.
So Giyuu shrugged it on, going through the motions of folding it over his chest, tying the ribbon around the waist. It ended at his ankles and had a v-shaped cut into the collar, it naturally lay that way when he folded it.
Giyuu could feel a pressure in his lower abdomen, a very recognisable pressure that sent a few alarm bells ringing in his head. How long had it been since he last suffered?
Ah yes, way too long ago. He unfortunately had forgotten that was a thing that could happen. Giyuu was suspicious all of a sudden, but not too worried. His last few periods had been surprisingly manageable, no agonising pain and suffering. May he even say, normal?
So when Giyuu was faced with the telltale pressure and that uncomfortable feeling? He responded by taking a few strips of the cotton pads he had stored away, and wrapped them into a spare pair of underwear, stuffing it in an inner pocket. Bless male clothing and having pockets.
Giyuu decided against eating something, not wanting to ruin his appetite for whatever food Rengoku and Tengen were ordering.
It was still rather early when Giyuu was fully ready. The sun was a few hours away from setting, so Giyuu had time to waste…
He spent that time meditating on his wooden floor. Curtains drawn to have a dark room to himself where he would mentally prepare for chaos and potential suffering that this night would hold.
Giyuu was finally making the stroll down to the Uzui residence. A light breeze through the air, blowing through his hair in an almost annoying manner. But he digresses, the house is in view at this point and Giyuu is starting to feel a bit nervous.
Was he somehow too early? Or maybe too late? He was starting to regret everything as he walked up to Tengen’s door.
He somehow feels his knocking before he realises what he was doing. A very happy Tengen opened the door to smile at Giyuu, “Tomioka! You actually came! Come in come in!” He ushered, a happy sort of bewilderment on his face. Tomioka could already hear a couple peoples voices chattering together as he stood in the hallway, watching Tengen shut his front door.
Tengen turned to face him again, smiles and compliments, “You look flashy with that yukata! I’m rather surprised you have that!” He teased, an arm slung over his shoulder and already leading Giyuu to where everyone else was. Giyuu huffed as he side eyed Tengen, who only snickered as he deposited Giyuu onto a couch.
Giyuu blinked as he looked at his new surroundings, Mitsuri and Obanai were sitting on the floor, Mitsuri was chattering animatedly at Shinobu. Obanai was simply sitting next to Mitsuri and listening in, his eyes on the pink and green haired girl. Gyomei and Muichiro were already here as well, who were sitting on a coach as Muichiro blankly stared at the others around him.
When Muichiro caught Giyuu’s gaze, the two of them tilted their heads at each other, matching blank expressions as the two of them noted each other’s presence.
Rengoku appeared out of nowhere to greet him. A loud voice next to his ear, “Tomioka-san! You look very nice today!” Giyuu felt his heart stutter in surprise at the jumpscare, but his face and body showed no such reaction.
“Ah, thank you Rengoku-san” Giyuu nodded politely, a stoic expression on his face as Rengoku beamed a smile at him.
One of Tengen’s wives came up to him as well, appearing from somewhere behind Rengoku and crouching down to meet Giyuu’s eye level, “Tomioka-san! Hi!” Her voice was kind and friendly, Suma if Giyuu’s memory was right. “Would you like anything to drink? We have a lot of beer on hand but we can whip up something else as well!”
Giyuu glanced at the others around him, the majority of them didn't drink, though surprisingly Mitsuri had a beer on the counter for herself. Since there was one other person with a drink, Giyuu decided that it was okay for him to ask for the same.
“Just a beer is okay, anything is fine” Giyuu responded in a polite tone, nodding his head gratefully at Suma. Suma returned his nod with a bigger smile as she straightened up and walked away, probably to retrieve a drink for himself.
Rengoku was about to say something to Giyuu again, until a knocking could be heard. A very Tengen sounding screech followed by a crash could be heard, a distressed call for Rengoku could be heard coming from another room.
Rengoku excused himself to answer the door for Tengen. Giyuu assumed it was sanemi, since only he had yet to arrive.
Finally, everyone was seated somewhere in the living room, preferred drinks in hand and chatting, catching up.
Giyuu found himself listening in with Shinobu and Gyomei. Shinobu was recalling some sort of drama to Gyomei, something that happened at the butterfly mansion. Giyuu had to say, it was rather funny listening to the story.
Giyuu swallowed the last bitter mouthful of his beer and stood up, catching Shinobu’s attention. She just stared up at Giyuu curiously, to which Giyuu held the empty bottle up, which seemed to be answer enough.
Shinobu continued talking to Gyomei, who was petting a snoozing Muichiro’s head.
Giyuu sighed in the empty kitchen, muffled talking and music playing in the other room. The moment alone was very appreciated.
As Giyuu chose another beer and moved to open it, he thought about the cotton pads in his pocket. He wasn’t feeling anything and that got him a bit worried. Either this was foreshadowing to utter anguish or this week also would be manageable. Giyuu hated the fact that he didn’t know.
Giyuu walked back into the living room with a new beer in hand and sat back down with Shonobu, listening in to her again. He was filling in the gaps of the story in his head, slowly making sense of what he had missed.
After a few games with the rest of the Hashira, people were starting to get ready for bed. Tengen succeeded in his goal to get wasted and he was busy following his wives around like a duckling.
The wives in question were doing a general clean up, simply taking things to throw away. Giyuu knew they would clean up properly the next day.
Giyuu was feeling tipsy, his vision of the world spinning slightly but he wasn’t stumbling everywhere. Giyuu could feel a delayed voice in his head that urged him to find a bathroom.
Giyuu stood up to listen to that voice. Making his way on uneven legs to where Giyuu knew the bathroom was.
After going to the bathroom, Giyuu found no spots of blood in his underwear and this knowledge filled Giyuu with a sense of impatience, he just wanted this over and done with already.
With a sigh, Giyuu went back to where everyone else was, people were standing up and helping Tengen’s wives to push the couches back against the walls. The hashira was rolling out futons and setting up pillows and blankets.
Giyuu stepped forward and helped out quietly, his movements were slightly sluggish but he completed his bed eventually. Eventually, everyone was in bed and falling asleep, Tengen basically passed out first, with Rengoku and Sanemi following after, until everyone was asleep including Giyuu, the alcohol made it much easier to fall asleep.
Giyuu suddenly woke up with a burning pain in his upper thighs and abdomen. He felt so painfully sober and the sensation was hard to ignore. Giyuu was slowly waking up until he couldn’t get back to sleep.
The black haired man felt a sense of urgency. A loud blaring in his head that told him to make his way to a bathroom as soon as he could.
Giyuu stepped past the sleeping forms, hunched over slightly as he made quick but silent movements toward the bathroom, locking himself in.
The pain had doubled by this point, if that was even possible. Giyuu was scrunched up to form as much of a fetal position as he could while he bled over the toilet.
Giyuu had a pounding headache and he could feel cold sweat over his body. His body was simultaneously burning inside and freezing outside, an agonising feeling. Giyuu felt like his body was crumbling unwillingly and he had no control over it. Hot tears pricking at his eyes as he breathed the best he could.
He couldn’t move, only shivering in pain as Giyuu rested his elbows over his knees, trying to keep himself scrunched to try to ease the pain. No position helped and Giyuu felt the same amount of pain, if not he could feel it worsening.
Giyuu sluggishly set in a cotton pad over his underwear, he hadn’t bled into his underwear, luckily. He got up just in time.
Giyuu gathered all his will and cleaned himself up as quick as he could, not giving the pain a chance to crumble him. He felt like someone was slowly amputating him with a dull, rusty chainsaw.
This sheer will Giyuu had all but vanished the second he stepped out of the bathroom. Giyuu felt like the devil was clawing his way out of his stomach.
His legs felt weak all of a sudden and they failed to hold up his strength, Giyuu felt incredibly dizzy as his vision turned to static, the dark hallway flooding into complete black. Giyuu could feel the ground underneath him before he could see it. Giyuu knew that he was now sitting in the middle of the hallway, legs weak and aching like no one's business.
Giyuu took deep breaths as he pulled himself up, his abdomen simulating the feeling of absolute murder while he got up.
Giyuu could only focus on the ringing of pure pain and suffering and the singular goal of getting to the cupboard where he knew Tengen had painkillers.
He pushed through the unfiltered agony, pushed himself to walk into the kitchen. Giyuu opened the cupboard and saw his end goal in view, but they were too high for him to reach. Giyuu couldn’t keep himself up for much longer, he knew his resolve was crumbling faster than he could find the small stool. That dumb piece of wood was somewhere in this room, it was just a matter of what would happen first.
Giyuu succumbed to the pain once more before he found the stool. Giyuu held onto the back rest of a chair as his legs lost feeling, only leaving the scalding hot pain of cramps.
Giyuu’s vision was static once again and pophe could feel himself hit something. When his vision returned to him, he was panting and laying unmoving on the cold floor.
Giyuu needed to keep moving, as much as the cold was soothing his overheating skin. He couldn’t wake up anyone to help him, so he needed to pull himself together enough to take some painkillers, he could lay down after that and move once the painkillers kickstarted.
With that quickly drawn up plan. Giyuu pushed himself up, ignoring the sudden pounding and spinning of his head. Giyuu looked around again for the stool, already feeling his body protest in pain.
Giyuu leaned over the counter, elbows pressing heavily on the cold surface as his head leaned against it. He took deep breaths as he willed himself to not collapse again.
Giyuu gave up, tears were steadily dripping down his cheeks as he quickly slid into the bathroom, sitting on the floor and leaning his head over the toilet bowl. This position usually somehow eased his nausea.
Giyuu could distantly feel his legs shaking in pain, but his blurry vision and scalding pain was distracting him. Giyuu wanted his suffering to end, for existence to stop at this very moment. Maybe someone to save him from his suffering? All he wanted was a couple painkillers, he could handle the rest from there.
Giyuu sat there and began gathering his will again, preparing himself to get up once more, even though his legs felt like they were amputating themselves. He needed to get up, no one was awake to even help, despite the noise he made whenever he collapsed, Giyuu was surprised that he didn’t wake anyone.
“Tomioka-san?” A soft spoken voice called out. Giyuu blinked away his tears enough to clear his vision, looking up to see a hazy figure of dark purple locks and a light purple yukata. Shinobu was lacking her usual calm, smiling expression, it was instead frowning in concern at him. This woman was Giyuu’s doctor, he could ask her for help.
Giyuu swallowed wetly and whispered out in a shaking, weak voice.
“S-shinobu… my cramps are… k-killing me” he managed to get out, he couldn’t voice out anything more, the pain prohibited him to do so anyway.
Shinobu seemed to understand though, an understanding look on her face as she nodded, and walked away.
She left the door to the bathroom agar as she walked into the nearby kitchen, the sound of the tap running and a few crinkling noises could be heard.
Giyuu panted and pushed himself up, slowly managing to keep himself upright with the wall.
He trailed the wall as he shuffled into the kitchen, finding refuge in leaning against the counter as he watched Shinobu hand over a glass of water, cloudy with a dissolved medicine inside as well as a red pill. Giyuu took both gratefully, swallowing the pill with the cloudy water, downing the rest of the glass as well.
Somehow, his pain persisted bitterly. Determined to make him absolutely suffer until the bitter end.
Giyuu’s hands shook as he clasped them together tightly, his hunched form was very clearly displaying the utter pain he was in, it was obvious from the sympathetic frown she wore.
Giyuu, like a man possessed, straightened up and walked straight back into the bathroom. He could hear Shinobu doing something, but that thought was overrun by ringing in his ears. Giyuu sat hunched over the toilet once more, his brain was silent as his body moved on instinct, he didn’t know what he was doing, why he was here again.
He suddenly understood when he started throwing up, his control over his body was surrendered completely as he all but sobbed over the toilet, continuing to get sick.
After a good moment, Giyuu was silently washing his mouth out with water, drying his wet face and cleaning his tears. The pain persisted.
Giyuu walked back out to see Shinobu already handing him another cloudy cup of water and a familiar pill. He took it from her and downed both.
Shinobu then handed over a hot, towel covered lump. When Giyuu took it, he realised it was a bean bag that Shinobu so helpfully heated up for him.
Shinobu led Giyuu to sit down on a chair, already moving again to prepare a small slice of bread and butter. As his doctor, Shinobu knew that Giyuu shouldn’t take medication with an empty stomach. Giyuu trusted Shinobu’s decisions.
“I woke up to a few thuds,” Shinobu spoke quietly, voice gentle, “what happened, Tomioka?” She finished, curious of his symptoms.
Giyuu knew that this was his cue to tell her of his agony, so he decided to take the chance to complain.
“That was me collapsing, that happened twice on the way to the kitchen, I was trying to get painkillers but I couldn't find the stool, I gave up..” Shinobu was glancing at him wide eyed, urging him to continue, which he did.
“I was shaking in pain and I had really bad cold sweat, I threw up just there from the pain” Giyuu reported, Shinobu only nodded her head as she handed over a slice of bread, butter was generously spread over it. Giyuu silently nibbled at the bread as Shinobu thought over something.
“You should get back to sleep soon, Tomioka” she gently pressed, Shinobu was looking over Giyuu’s sickly pale skin.
Giyuu finished up his slice of bread, the warm bean bag pressed to his abdomen. He nodded silently and stood up and shuffled past Shinobu.
Giyuu was aware that his posture was awful at that moment, that it was very obvious that he was in pain, but he really couldn’t find the energy to care, the painkillers had yet to kick in and it was making life unbearable right now.
Shinobu wasn’t too far behind him, already blowing out lights after them. Shinobu was really his knight in shining armour right now.
Shinobu caught up to him and led him into the living room, she let go of Giyuu’s sleeve to lift up his blanket. He grumbled his complaints quietly but still moved to lay down, fetal position with the now hot bean bag over his abdomen. Shinobu laid the blanket over him, leaving his shoulders out to avoid overheating.
The young woman then shuffled away to her futon, blankets shuffling as she got comfortable once more.
Giyuu eventually managed to slip away to the sweet release of sleep, the pain still stabbing into him until the very end, like a train wreck of past karma had come back to destroy him via monthly agony.
He hadn’t had something this painful for a good while now. He sort of missed the previous minimal cramping. The mercy of a dreamless sleep hit him at last.
The next morning, Giyuu felt his brain force awake when he heard the birds chirping their morning songs. Giyuu sighed and sat up, a dull pain poking into his gut now, it was bearable compared to the twisting knife stabbing into him from last night.
Giyuu stood up and shuffled away to the bathroom, locking himself inside the dimly lit room. The light outside was still a light blue shade, quite literally the ass crack of dawn.
Giyuu sighed as he changed out his cotton pad to a clean one, washing out the old one until it was clean enough to roll up and put away. Giyuu would clean them properly when he was home again.
Giyuu wrung out the last of the moisture, rolling it up and stuffing it into an inner pocket of his yukata. Giyuu found a brush on one of the shelves in the bathroom. Shrugging, he brushed through his hair.
Giyuu noted that he looked rather pale. He definitely looked sick. Giyuu felt the calling of his futon, where the still warm bean bag was.
Giyuu quickly finished up and was shuffling his way back to the living room. Everyone was asleep as made a beeline for his futon, sighing quietly as he made himself comfortable under the blanket.
Giyuu felt himself get lulled back into dark sleep, which he gave into rather quickly.
The next time he woke up, it was to quiet chattering, Mitsuri was up and quietly talking to Tengen, Giyuu wasn’t surprised. Giyuu stretched out and yawned, Mitsuri gasped and quietly greeted,
“Oh! Good morning Tomioka!” She whispered out, Giyuu assumed that it was still early from the volume of Mitsuri’s voice.
Giyuu hummed in response, not finding the energy to open his mouth just yet.
Giyuu heard Tengen snicker quietly, why was that man up already? He was incredibly drunk last night, was he not hungover?
Giyuu pulled the blanket back over himself, the warm bean bag pushed into his abdomen as his body curled into itself. He pushed his face into the pillow and focused on his breathing, a dull ache pushing against his stomach.
Giyuu hoped that Shinobu would be kind enough to sneak him another painkiller later in the morning, whenever everyone decides to get up.
Giyuu didn’t fall back asleep, instead he lay there with his eyes closed, quietly listening to Mitsuri chatter about the most recent letter she got from her mother, the pink and green haired woman was reciting some drama, something to do with an aunt.
Giyuu could hear people starting to get up, soft footsteps sneaking past his head. It sounded like Obanai. Giyuu could also hear affirming sounds coming from one of Tengen’s wives, who was responding to Mitsuri’s story with her own.
Giyuu accidentally fell back asleep after that.
Giyuu woke up to a louder noise, though it was muffled from the kitchen. There was barely anyone in the living room now. Giyuu opened his eyes and looked around, he saw Shinazugawa lounging and listening to Rengoku, who was talking between bites of food, a plate in his lap.
Giyuu stretched out and slowly sat up, blinking away the remaining sleep as he worked through the headache he was developing. The dull ache in his abdomen persisted.
Eventually, Giyuu stood up on his two feet, shuffling away to join whoever was in the kitchen.
Giyuu poked his head around the kitchen doorway, seeing mostly everyone in the kitchen and preparing food. He spotted Shinobu, the shorter woman looked back at him and nodded, already preparing some medicine quietly.
Giyuu leaned back against a counter as he listened to Tengen’s wives talk, everyone else was sleepily eating whatever was given to them.
Giyuu felt no appetite, only wanting a hot coffee at that moment. A desire that he didn’t voice.
Shinobu stopped beside him and left a glass of cloudy water next to him, pushing a pill into his palm and smiling at him.
“Good morning, Tomioka-san” Shinobu had her usual smile back on her face.
Giyuu mumbled a similar greeting, turning around as he put the pill onto his tongue and swallowed down the bitter liquid. He paused to breathe through his nausea from the taste, making sure he was alright and schooling his experience once more, before turning back around.
Giyuu tuned back in, listening to the sound of women’s voices, one of which was talking again beside him.
“Would you like anything to eat?” Shinobu asked, blinking up at him, Giyuu shook his head at her, muttering out a response,
“No thanks, just coffee…” Shinobu nodded silently. Her smiling expression was unreadable as she listened to the main conversation once more.
A few hours later, everyone was fed and rounding up conversations. Giyuu himself has found himself forced into a hug by Makio, which was followed by Suma and Hina joining as well. The women were wishing him farewells and the such, Giyuu awkwardly patting Makio’s back.
Eventually, he was finally set free, he quickly bowed his appreciation to the Uzui’s for hosting, before he waved farewell and slowly strolled down the road, following the familiar path back to his estate.
Giyuu was going to lay the rest of the day away, of course changing into a more comfortable yukata beforehand. Giyuu would laze around like a cat for today, he will send a letter to the Master regarding his condition later. All he wanted right now was to decompress in the silence of his house.
Despite his silent complaints, Giyuu was happy he was invited, that Tengen and Rengoku thought about him and went out of their way to invite him. However, his moment of possession those early hours of the morning completely ruined it for him.