he’s still awestruck , to be truthful. it’s the first time giyuu’s seen his long lost companion in years , so forgive him as battle worn hands pave over sabito’s face , ocean blues gazing over features to confirm this reality. ❛ ... you haven’t changed , sabito. ❜ / from watersbreath xoxo : )
@watersbreath : unscripted.
you haven’t changed. the words dripped clear and crystaline from pillar’s lips, so sweet with his delusion sabito wanted to cry. what common folk believed in demons was absolute, and they wouldn’t be swayed so long as they lived in crippling fear. demons … were heartless. demons no longer possessed a soul. nothing mattered more to demons than to kill, and maim, and eat. they were no longer capable of human emotions. be careful of a demon who cried, who sung an ancient tragedy befitting any grandiose act, for they remembered how to tug at heartstrings in a way that mocked kindness. yet — this pain felt nothing like the familiar gnawing hunger. it started in the base of his throat, a creeping heat like guilt hot and molten crawling along the back of his neck like the slow - drawn tip of a nichirin sword. the despair made it hard to breathe, like he would drown in the sadness should he not sever the emotion himself.
some time ago, when sabito could still remember what sunshine felt like, he had once been dawn incarnate. kindness and warmth emanated from cherry - hued youth with the strength of amaterasu. once he was taught that as a gifted young swordsman, he would harness that stoked fire within him to slay monsters which stalked their night, preying on all those he held dear. then, sabito had been brash, courageous, selfless, and in the end, that soft - hearted nature had been his undoing. had giyuu heard him that fateful night, barely limping away from vengeful hand demon with naught but his insignificant life ? the injures he’d suffered had been too severe to survive, he had almost succumbed to death when he was preyed upon by another. a coward, boy - demon had run through fujikasane’s wysteria forest before the transformation would kill him, and from the recesses of the shadows he’d watched his final sunrise. “ you haven’t changed ” felt like he’d spit in sabito’s face, however unintentional.
but that was it, wasn’t it ? giyuu meant it. he’d always been horrifically dense, so unabashedly honest. there was no undercurrent of hatred there. because it was giyuu, the acidic irony, and any thinly veiled malevolence was nowhere to be found. sabito couldn’t find it there, despite other slayers hurling insults like stones, utter vitriol and hatred burned into his very marrow. he didn’t know what he’d been expecting, why he expected to find the malice there. there was only peace, a calming wave to gently rock away all barriers fox - chosen had built through night after lonely night. grime, dirt, grit, lessons learnt through painstaking years away from his family felt cleansed and for a second — just one second — it was hard to believe they weren’t ten years old once more, out a little too long on their way back home. giyuu was the one who looked like he hadn’t changed, but sabito could tell by the touch of his hands alone how much he’d suffered. that was something humans couldn’t change about themselves.
he flinched, hissing something bestial he instinctively tried to quell, like a small child caught swearing and trying to amend it with something softer. giyuu was garbed in clothes he now feared, donning the only kind of weapon that could truly kill him, actually kill him this time. he should have been reeling back in fear. there was a truth there, in how demons cared for little save their own survival. he was more selfish than he’d been prior to his first death, and even now, the instinct to run away despite how sabito longed to remain by pillar’s side was near deafening. the burning heat in the back of his throat now stung his eyes, tears far harder to see with sclera darkened as they were. shaking hands rose to hold giyuu’s hands where they touched sabito, holding him there, unable to remember the last time anyone had touched him with anything but the intent to kill. like an apologetic puppy, he leant his face into giyuu’s hands, tears tracking down his cheeks when he closed his eyes in something akin to trust.
‘ liar. ’ fox - demon tried to bark, really snarl the accusation with all his pent up fury, but it came out a pitiful whimper. how could a pillar look at him with anything but disgust ? how could giyuu say something like that with a straight face ? touch him as if he wasn’t hideous ? ‘ liar. ’ words slipped out in trembling exhales, voice shaking.
‘ how could you say something like that ? ’