stolen time

Ch51

His eyes became wide as he headed towards the back of the estate, with the sound growing louder and louder with each step. turning around the corner a soothing breeze blew past him as his sight met with the view of ayame.

He stood there captivated by the beautiful view before him, mainly on the lovely owner of the song. Standing quietly with a smile watching her play with closed eyes sitting by the edge of the engawa.silently admiring her as she looked as if she were shining in his gaze, without noticing that his intense stares warranted her attention.

halfway through the song her eyelids split open, unveiling the vermillion hues of her irises. allowing her to gaze towards her side to meet eyes with kyojuro. The sides of her mouth tugged up into a smile before closing her eyes once more, kyojuro slowly made his way over and once he was within reach he noticed she wasn't the only one there.

Upon closer inspection he noticed senjuro sleeping peacefully with his head layed upon her lap, his eyes narrowed into a kind smile, as he pulled his sword from his waist setting it down on the engawa before sitting beside her. With his arms crossed he shut his eyes to embrace the sound of her song to its fullest.

The song was calming yet it was packed with a fiery feeling, a song truly fitting for the rengoku estate.

Rr

And before long he felt himself drifting off into a deep sleep, as his body tilted and his head landed upon the shoulder of ayame, her playing came to a soft halt she chuckled. Setting her shinobue down she patted the two brothers with each hand on one of their heads. Meanwhile outside the room behind her stood someone who didn't make the best of impressions, as he witnessed the view of his two sons finding peace within the demon whom he despised caring for them gently.

His brows knitted together and with a scoff he walked over dropping his haori onto senjuro covering him before stomping away without a second glance.

Ayame watched as he left with wide eyes before grinning, "I guess he isn't always such a foul tempered father" she looked back towards the outside letting them rest.

After about 30 minutes kyojuro woke up.

"My, did you have a good rest?"

Ayame whispered while kyojuro blinked his groggy eyes open, he looked up to his side realizing he was leaning on ayame. He shot back up straight with a nervous smile.

"Yes thank you!"

Nr

The sound of the flute eventually came to a soft halt initiating the end of her songs, her eyes fluttered open with the shinobue dropping down from her lips looking towards the side where kyojuro sat she smiled.

"How was it? Did you enjoy the song?"

With a fire in his eyes and a wide smile he cheerfully answered in a loud voice.

"Yes! It was lovely!"

Ayame lifted her pointer finger to her mouth signaling kyojuro to quiet down with a closed eye smile making him realize senjuro was still asleep, they looked towards senjuro as he slightly shuffled from the loud noise, but it wasn't enough to wake him since he quickly went back to sleep.

Ayame smiled patting his head while kyojuro stood up gently walking past ayame and covering senjuro with his haori before sitting back down.

Cr

"So how was the meeting?"

"Oh right! It was to address a situation with one of the corps members, and since your position is still confidential oyakata sama didn't summon you"

She hummed in response allowing kyojuro to continue with a summary of the meeting.

"The boy's name was kamado tanjiro! And he had been going around doing missions with a demon sister"

Ayame covered her mouth with the tips of her fingers in surprise as she proceeded to ask.

"Ara, so what happened to them?"

Kyojuro folded his arms looking towards his front.

"Oyakata sama allowed them to continue together, most of us agreed since we have met you before hand and aren't as against it while shinazugawa san was still adamant about it, it was reasonable since his sister never ate a human before and although she retained her human emotion, but unlike you it doesn't seem she has fully retained all logic and the possibility of her progressing more into a demon is still possible"

"That's true, even if there are demons who retained their human emotions there has never been one amongst us that have never consumed a single human as far as I'm aware"

She let out a audible exhale through her nose with a worried expression.

"That reminds me that a month has almost passed since..."

Kyojuro looked towards ayame as she froze still avoiding his gaze with a sweat drop, "damn it I thought he had forgotten about that" and by that she meant his monthly routine of feeding her blood, and since she didn't want to wake up senjuro she had to fight the urge to run away so instead she tried to change the topic.

"Aha now that I think about it my katana is taking quite a while to be forged"

"Do not try to change the topic!, especially since you're starting to move around a bit during the day"

"Hai..."

She dropped her head in defeat.

Rolling up his sleeve he extended his buff arm in front of her, patting her hands on top of it she looked down at the small mark that was left from last time.

"Isn't there a better way of doing this?

"Hmm, I could ask kocho san to draw some in a blood transfusion bag"

"Please do that way I don't have to bite you every month"

Kyojuro chuckled.

"I do not mind but until I do you'll just have to make do with this"

She sighed before biting him with a pout.