A/N- Hey guys! Welcome! This is about the Sanemi story so ill make it quick! I have decided to start posting the story after I have finished it because I intend for it to be a short one unlike this! It should have fifteen or so chapters, more or less! I just want to make sure I like it first. If you want more updates on the progress of it make sure to follow me to see them, Ill be posting them on my announcements page, if you follow me you'll be notified of them! ;)
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The black-haired man hissed as the solution-soaked cloth burned his skin.
"Sorry, almost done." Y/n said, gently cleaning his scar, "If I can ask how long you have been covering this up, its looks really infected Iguro-San."
He didn't answer, only doing his best to avoid eye contact as he sat on a table in the butterfly estate, her short figure standing in front of him. After she had seen his scar, she didn't say anything, she just secretly led him through a back entrance into the medical area of Flower Hashiras estate. Luckily no one had saw them and before he knew it Y/n was insisting that he let her clean his wounds. After some squabbling, mainly the man refusing to even let her get a look of his face, he finally gave up and let her do what she wanted.
"Hissss."
"Since you were around eight, hmmmm. Your fifteen now so around..." She muttered to herself.
The boy hated this; he had gone through so many precautions to make sure no one saw his face. He didn't even let Ruka, Shinjuros wife, see it after many tries at negotiations. No one knew what laid under his mask but himself and Kaburamaru, and now this bratty kid knew.
He shot a small side glare at her, "You better not tell anyone about this, you got it?" He hissed.
She didn't answer, she only turned to grab a bottle full of medicine.
"I don't care who or what threatens you, if you tell anyone about this, even if Sensei asks you don't reply got it? I'll kill you."
Y/n just grabbed his face softly, tilting it in a way where she could better clean the wound.
Iguro huffed, 'Why the hell did that birdbrain even get her, she's not even a medic.'
"Iguro-San"
He sharply turned his gaze to her,
"Can you lift your hair up? I need to reapply the bandages." She smiled.
He complied after a few moments, lifting his hair up with his hands as Kaburamaru hissed at the closeness of the girl. They were indeed close, only a few inches apart but it seemed the girl was too engrossed in her activity of wrapping to notice. He flinched when her finger pushed a lose strand behind his ear.
"Sorry" She apologized half-heartedly.
"Your hands are cold."
She stopped wrapping his face and blinked owlishly at him before pressing one of her hands to her face, "No? I don't think so."
"They are."
"Perhaps..." She chuckled awkwardly as she continued to wrap his face again.
After a few more moments of silence Iguro tilted his head.
"Iguro-San don't do that." She fixed his head straight, "You might mess up how the bandages are wrapped."
"Are you not going to ask?" He curtly asked.
"Ask what?" she gave him a small look while he still avoided eye contact.
"Ask how I got..." He clenched his jaw; he hates his scar as much as he hated himself. He felt disgusting just having it as it was a reminder of who he was.
She was quiet and he froze as she reached past his shoulders to tie the bandages in place. He wanted to take back his statement from earlier when he said her hands where cold. As her body wrapped around his in a way like she was hugging him, he could feel the warmth radiating off her. Whether it was her kindness or just her body temperature he didn't know. Her long h/c hair tickled his cheeks, making him shiver when a strand poked at his exposed scar.
"It's none of my business how this happened to you Iguro-San, I'm just here to help you." He heard her chuckle softly, "It's like I tell my crows when they first come in, it doesn't matter who or what they were before they came into the Corps, but a Kagusai crow is what they are now. It may be overzealous for just a crow, but they seem to like it."
Kaburamaru started unwinding off his shoulder and he raised one of his eyebrows. He heard a small squeak behind his as Y/n almost lost her footing, grabbing onto Iguros shoulder for support.
"Kaburamaru! Be careful you scared me!" She said giggling.
He turned his head to realize the snake had moved off his neck and had slithered his way to coil around the girl's arm.
"Kaburamaru, don't do that come here." He narrowed his eyes; most people didn't like snakes. If there where ok with them they usually still didn't like touching them or letting the snake coil around them. Especially girls.
"Its fine Iguro-San, he just scared me that's all." Y/n patted his shoulder lightly, making him flinch again.
He wasn't so use to physical touch, especially from a girl. He had many girl relatives he just never felt any love or physical contact from them.
"Sorry, this is taking so long, I'm use to only bandaging crows and I'm trying to make it, so they don't fall off during training!" Apologizing, the girl leaned a bit further into him.
"Its fine." He muttered, still eyeing the snake who abandoned him for the girl's arm.
There were a few more minutes of silence.
"Does that feel comfortable Iguro-San?" She asked.
"Yes."
She tugged a piece of the bandage, "Does that hurt?"
"No."
"Ok! Good you're all patched- Kaburamaru don't do that! Ah! Now I need to start all over sorry Iguro-San!"
'Are you fucking serious' He deadbolted, "What happened?"
"Nothing! Nothing! It was my fault!"
"Kaburamaru, come here."
Feeling a slither on his neck he looked over, "I don't know what you did but stop it." He hissed.
He felt a light slap on his shoulder, "Iguro-San be nice!"
He huffed and made sure his friend obediently sat still just like him.
"Igruo-San you're creating your own breathing style, aren't you?"
"Yea..."
"While I'm doing this why don't you tell me about that?"
He mentally sighed, he wasn't big on talking but he couldn't refuse. Sensei had had a long talk with him and Kyojuro earlier about how, "Even if she lets you use the wrong honorifics you should still treat her nicely!" Even though he had ignored that talk earlier and was rude to her, he had decided to comply with it now, after all how could he refuse this request? She was up there with Ubuyashiki-Sama. He started explaining everything about it, the forms, how he held his sword, the exercises he did, and even explained how he had a different blade for his specific breathing style. He left nothing out, even to go as far as to tell her how he maneuvered his body in some ways. The girl listened to him quietly, occasionally asking small questions, overall, she just smiled and nodded. Even when she had finished bandaging him, she stood standing in front of him, not interrupting. When he finished that's when she finally spoke,
"Ok Iguro-San I'm finished, I'm going to give you some medication you have to put on your wound, ok? Make sure to use it before every wrapping, no expectations."
"Aren't you basically stealing from the staff here?"
She smiled sheepishly, "I'll give them some money later and I'm sure Kanae-Chan wouldn't mind anyways..." She yawned and turned to grab his medicine on the table behind her.
He hummed and pretended to listen as she explained the procedure to him, after his eyes wandered around the room a bit, he finally had the mind to look at the girl for the first time. The whole time he had been trying to avoid eye contact, so he didn't get a good look at her. Her skin seemed a bit paler than the last time he saw her, and her eyes looked duller. When he was this close to her face, he could see eyebags that were covered up by makeup. Her mood seemed off too earlier, she seemed less jumpy and more emboldened. It was in a bad way though, like she was forcing herself to get along with the day.
"Are you sleeping?" He interrupted her.
"Huh?" She looked at him.
"You have eyebags."
"Oh Iguro-San." She smiled awkwardly, "I'm just tired from all the work I've been doing for the new estate that's being built for me."
"You should sleep more. You can't look after other animals especially if you don't look after yourself."
The man didn't know why he was saying this, he guessed you could say a felt a tinge of pity to the girl. He saw the damage that had been done to her home and some of the crows that had dwelled there.
"I guess you should know?" She smiled at Kaburamaru who hissed happily in return, not use to this much attention from others, she petted him, "Who's a good snake, hm? Now, keep protecting your human, ok? Make sure he redoes his bandages and takes care of himself, yes?"
Kaburamaru nodded and Iguro narrowed his eyes.
"You're a hypocrite..." He said pointing sharply at her.
Her e/c eyes widened, "Huh?"
"You're telling me to take care of myself when you won't take of you, therefore you're a hypocrite."
"Iguro-San, I do take care of myself. I eat, I sleep, I do chores."
"Not well."
She just tilted her head at him.
"I haven't seen you for almost a week, right? Even in that time you've gotten skinner and you have eyebags that say you haven't been sleeping a wink, I should know I had them."
"I'm busy I don't have time to take care of- "
"That's a shitty excuse. What you think because all those crows died you deserve too? Grow up."
The black-haired male heard his slithery friend hiss in disagreement as the girl's e/c orbs widened in disbelief and heartbreak. She started moving her mouth like she wanted to say something, but nothing came out.
"You think they'd want you to die? You think they'd be happy? Sensei told me you've remember every slayer and crow's name; I think that's enough for them. Also, what was it? Genkei? You think he'd be happy that the person who practically raised him started to wither away pathetically. Tch. No, he wouldn't, no crow would." He looked at Kaburamaru, "I know that if I died, I wouldn't want Kaburamaru to follow me, I'd want him to live a long happy snake ass life."
He decided to stop when he heard her start crying, he glanced over in her direction away from Kaburamaru. She had her face in her hands,
"You don't understand Iguro-San, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have left them alone, I should've skipped the Hashira meeting and declined master's request to come down."
"But you didn't, and you couldn't have been able to protect them anyways your weak."
"I know that!" She sobbed pathetically, "And now Oniichan hates me because of it."
Obanai scoffed, "So what? Your brother doesn't dictate your life, leave the loser behind."
"He's all I have left Iguro-San..."
"So what?" He clenched his fist, "All I had left was my bitch of a cousin and she hated me, so I left her ass behind. I'm fine now, aren't I? I've created my own fucking breathing forms for god's sake."
"I'm not like you though..."
"And how's that?"
"For God sakes Iguro! I'm weak, just like you said! I can barely lift a sword!" She yelled clenching her fists.
"Then train! Stop whining about it and go out!"
"I can't!"
"And why is that huh!? As far as I see you're a fully functional person! You have no scars no callouses, what are you afraid of hurting your oh so fair complexion?" he sneered.
"Obanai Iguro." A stern voice said interrupting the both of them, the male snapped his head in the direction of the voice while the girl just bolted out of the room.
"What do you think you're doing?" Shinjuro said, voice shaking with absolute rage.
"Sensei..."