tengen goes easily over kamanue, not flinching at the sudden reaching out, letting himself be repositioned over the hole in hopes of better aiding the panicking demon. he doesn’t respond at kamanue’s rambling, there’d be no point. he’d heard enough earlier to understand now that these ramblings were all energy and anxiety induced, and a response to them wasn’t necessary.
he just stays kneeling over the demon, feeling the warmth of the sun beginning to spread along his lower back, a comfort on his half, but one he could only imagine as pure dread for a demon. not that he ever really… imagined anything on behalf of a demon. this was a time of many firsts.
the gaze is felt, and tengen’s eyes lower to meet his, expression flat. no, it’s softened. no pity or disgust that would have most likely been found earlier, but a neutral, gentle expression. he’s thinking, because they can’t stay here forever. even waiting for others to arrive seemed like too long a wait.
so he’d have to make do with what he had.
“you’re not gonna die here. come on, undo your uniform some and tuck yourself into it. cover as much as you can, i’ll get the rest.”
he’d figured out a plan, and hopefully this plan would result in as little damage done to kamanue as possible. it’s not like it mattered, he could just regenerate. but there’s still a part of him that would like to avoid as much damage as possible, perhaps it’s seeing these tears, perhaps it’s just the fact that he doesn’t want to disappoint oyakata-sama by letting this demon die–
either way, he’d get him back to the estate. tengen begins to unbutton the top of his uniform, stripping it off of his shoulders and chest. in any other circumstances, he’d show off, but of course that’s not acceptable here, and any flex or pose was purely accidental.
the uniform is held in both hands as he waits for kamanue to be situated, smoothing out the fabric while keeping himself in his set position guarding the hole.
this would be… tricky, but it was all they had now, and it was worth a shot.
the demon calms down only marginally as tengen remains there, more out of tiredness than feeling any safer than before. it'd be so easy for him to die here ; the thought saps all the fight from his limbs, and he slumps a little, sniffling weakly and wiping his face.
the bastard slayer looks calm and thoughtful for a moment, and the demon hiccups a little and calms slightly more, hands dropping limp in his lap. he's still shaking, but he feels the same now as he did in muzan's jaws; utterly helpless, trapped, hopeless. " to think - fucker bit me in half and i still walked out of there alive, only to - to - this! "
he snaps his head up when tengen actually speaks, distracted from his terror-fueled miserable wallowing by the other's voice. he's still crying, just silently now, and it takes a few moments for him to even process the command. " i can do that, " he confirms softly, fumbling to take his haori off.
" i wear long sleeves 'cause of this, " he mumbles, tugging aforementioned sleeves down over his hands, bundling himself up in his scaled haori and hugging himself tight underneath. such a little thing between him and certain death, such a flimsy thing - he shakes more, now, choking back another sob. it's enough to block out direct sunlight but this will probably still hurt, and he isn't looking forwards to it at all.
better than dying, he reminds himself, although he isn't sure about that. the idea of being left to another's mercy, possibly even left with parts of him being burned off as fast as they can regenerate, in a desperate bid to survive ... he swallows his pride and squeezes himself tighter. pride won't do him any good if he's dead.
" it's the burning that's the worst, " he tells tengen, muffled, even though he doubts the other is even listening or cares. it helps to just ... talk, focus on something other than his swirling thoughts. " i've only been caught a few times by the sun - obviously not a lot, since i'm still here. i don't think burning is even the right word. it’s worse than i can describe. " he wipes his face uselessly.
and then he's sobbing again, wishing he could just curl up and disappear rather than face this situation. " i just - i want to go home. i want to go home! why did i have to do any of this! demon slayer, demon, lower moon, i didn't want any of it! i didn't want any of it, and now i'm all alone - " his voice is steadily increasing in volume, rising to a near-wail. he could almost hear his brother affectionately calling him a crybaby, except he didn't remember what naoki sounded like, and surely his brother wouldn't love him anymore, not after all this.
that made him cry even harder than the fear of the sun did. at this rate, he'd drown them both.
