Demon Slayer: Love Is...[Book 1] || Tengen Uzui x OC

Chapter 15- Love is Patient

~3rd Person POV~ 

By the time of her 20th birthday, Mizuki was determined to put an end to these hallucinations. Clearly, they were getting rather out of hand. It wasn't right, and it certainly wasn't healthy. However, if she truly was hallucinating, Mizuki's imagination had done little to no justice to the beauty of the man she grew up with.

Even still, regardless of how wild her imagination got in the past, she was a grown woman now and had enough sense to know that imaginary Tengen should not have been able to touch anything in the real world. So, she could only watch in stunned silence as he knelt in front of her, reached his hand out, and picked up her sword from where it clattered to the ground moments prior. He examined it in the dim moonlight, and just as quickly as he knelt, he stood, flipped the sword so the blade was aimed at his person, and offered it back to its owner.

He only offered her a quaint smile. "You know, you should never drop your weapon. What if I was a demon?" he chided, "You don't intend to fight empty-handed do you?"

Mizuki barely had enough strength to take the blade from him with her shaking hands and nearly dropped it again from how sweaty her palms were becoming. Although her hallucinations had granted her the strange perception of hearing his voice when it was not there, the sound of his voice then was nothing compared to what she was hearing now. It was so close there was no mistaking it. He was not just a figment of her imagination anymore. No, he was real again.

Now, Mizuki wasn't the only one to be surprised here. Uzui was shocked as well, if not more so than Mizuki. And for all the right reasons.

He was not, however, surprised by the fact that the girl was there. No. The information about the possibility of that occurrence was already provided to him. In fact, he was expecting to run into her sooner or later. That didn't mean he was any more prepared to speak to her though.

Uzui, had been strongly overwhelmed by the heterochromia girl's behavior upon seeing him. Never before had he seen her so paralyzed by his presence. And the fact had sent him nearly over the moon with joy for he had dreaded a bad reaction upon the time of their reunion. Seeing that he could have such an effect on the usually confident girl gave him the confidence to keep talking. However, he decided to give her time to gather herself first.

When she finally was able to pull herself from her stupor, Mizuki squared her shoulders and put the blade back in its sheath, "You know I don't need one."

He chuckled.

Oh, what an enthralling sound of nature that had become, for the sound of his laughter was still sending shivers down her spine and brought her incomprehensible joy. His smile made her smile and his laughter made her want to laugh. When he wasn't laughing, she did not like to think aboutF. A sad and serious Tengen was unusual, strange, and devoid of all the joy he deserved to have in his life. And even though she had not realized when that happened or how Tengen's joy became hers, she had decided it did not matter the when or the how, she simply knew it made her happy and she wanted more.

His laughter was a reminder that he was truly alive. That their efforts to survive had not been for nothing. And it wasn't to say that Mizuki's family did not bring her joy. She loved her family and cherished every moment she had with them. Especially having the experiences to learn that time is of the essence and every passing second with your family must be taken advantage of to laugh and love...but never take it for granted. Lossing her parents had been a sheer reminder of that.

Her time with Uzui was no different. It was time she was not to waste, but as to not lose him in the sense that he could walk away out of disinterest or fear. Because losing him, someone that she had grown so close to, would also break her heart in ways that would not have been possible if she had never met him at all.