more tourabu au because tenrou and subaru are an absolute delight as well as fushimi’s army of adorable knife murder children.
fushimi is definitely being difficult as a master, mostly because he’s treating them like others without proper care, and when some of knives end up badly damaged it’s the first time he realizes that he’s high key mimicking niki parenting attitude when he looks at pretty much crumbling bodies of damaged ones, and then subaru’s terrified, oh so familiar gaze sets that final nail to this coffin. it honestly makes him try to become better for them and that’s what makes him actually notice his knives and swords having their own personalities and undying loyalty and affection for him despite everything. Tenrou to the rescue trying to mend this bridge for them all while playing matchmaker for fushimi and munakata, while fushimi plays accidental matchmaker for tenrou and subaru. munakata and knife squad are just playing together and enjoying the mess.
I can imagine Fushimi not really realizing that the knives and Subaru are their own ‘people,’ like to him they’re just tools and if he admits they have personalities that will just be too much of a pain to deal with. Imagine in this AU that this is like part of the Blue power, that it makes sword boys (and the occasional knife children) basically. Fushimi doesn’t care for the fact that all his knives are suddenly loud and annoying and he didn’t ask for the sword in the first place so he treats Subaru very perfunctorily, as if he’s talking to a robot. When he’s fighting he doesn’t think about the condition of their bodies but that’s also because Fushimi doesn’t think about the condition of his own — now that he’s left Homra Fushimi has convinced himself that he can do everything by himself and he sees his weapons as just extensions of himself, tools the way he is, and there’s no need to be concerned about their injuries when he isn’t concerned about his own. Imagine it all comes to a head one day during a fight with a really strong Strain, Fushimi gets badly hurt himself but imagine all his knives and Subaru are terribly injured too and maybe even one knife breaks saving Fushimi from a deadly attack. Fushimi finds himself just staring at this little knife as it asks if it did good before breaking into pieces and its body changes from human to a shattered knife. Fushimi hears someone suck in a breath and looks up to see Subaru staring at him with wide haunted eyes and suddenly Fushimi sees what he hasn’t allowed himself to notice before, how injured and pale all his weapons have become.
That’s when Munakata steps in, imagine him taking Fushimi to the infirmary while Tenrou tends to Subaru and the knives. Fushimi is initially all defensive, claiming he didn’t ask to have to take care of anyone and Munakata didn’t tell him about this when he first lured Fushimi away. Munakata admits he was remiss in not letting Fushimi know but he trusted — and still trusts — that Fushimi can handle it. Fushimi mutters that he’s not cut out for dealing with other people, how is he supposed to fight freely if he has to worry about his own weapons. Munakata says that is something Fushimi will have to discover the answer for himself — but he is not the only one with worries, nodding towards the door. Fushimi looks up and imagine Tenrou standing there a bit sheepishly, looking like a substitute kindergarten teacher as he ushers in a few bandaged knives. The knives all swarm Fushimi, crying and worrying, and Tenrou says they wouldn’t relax until they saw for themselves that he’s okay.
After this Fushimi starts tentatively mending fences with his weapons, imagine the knives pretty much forgive him instantly but Subaru is still standoffish. Munakata is very supportive though, imagine he spends more time with Fushimi discussing ways to build trust and how to balance his duty battling with care for his weapons. Tenrou is very active in helping as well, imagine he is totally trying to play matchmaker with Fushimi and Munakata too because he knows how Munakata feels about Fushimi and isn’t this a good chance for them to have lots of close conversations (with Tenrou conveniently showing up to babysit the knives to get them out of the way).
Meanwhile Tenrou is also having a lot of one on one time with Subaru too, to talk about how to learn to trust your master again. On Munakata’s advice Fushimi reluctantly goes to Tenrou for help on how to work in tandem with Subaru and when the three of them are together he definitely notices that Tenrou is just like his master, doting on Subaru like Munakata dotes on Fushimi. When Fushimi and Subaru are finally able to fight properly together again Munakata and Tenrou are both so pleased, Subaru running to Tenrou to tell Tenrou all about how well he did. Munakata walks up to Fushimi smiling and hoping for Fushimi to have the same enthusiasm for him, Fushimi clicks his tongue and is like too bad but he does mumble that maybe Munakata’s advice helped a little. The knives are all very excited though and swarming around Munakata and Fushimi, Munakata has to admit that their children are certainly adorable (and Fushimi is like what are you calling ‘our children’).
