Work Text:
“We’ll find them Mitsuri,” Gyomei tried to reassure the other to no avail. He patted the shorter slayer on the head.
“It’s been three hours!” The girl wailed, a bit dramatic maybe, but Mitsuri certainly though the situation called for it.
“They’re like, five. They couldn’t have gone that far.” Obanai snapped. Because really this was starting to be stupid.
“Umm… not to make the situation any worse but…” Tengen started, earning glares from multiple other pillars and a series’ of ‘now what’s’. Tengen ignored all of them. “Has anyone seen Giyu?”
The pillars looked around, as though by some way Tengen had simply missed the other somehow.
“Don’t tell me that idiot is lost as well.” Shinobu groaned.
“Oh this is ridiculous! We’re the worst babysitter’s ever!” Mitsuri wailed.
“Not as bad as Giyu, at least we didn’t go missing as well…”
They had one task, to keep an eye on three regressors. Between nine people you would think that wouldn’t be too hard of a job.
Zenitsu mostly clung to Tengen or Mitsuri, and was never far out of sight. Usually. Unless Tanjiro was regressed to, then he clung to the other little like a life line. And Tanjiro was an angel, hardly ever wandering off and far too small to do so anyways.
So what exactly went wrong?
“…”
“…”
“…”
“… I blame Inosuke.” Sanemi said, unhelpfully, arms crossed and looking for all the world like he didn’t want to be there.
“Don’t play favorites.” Shinobu chided softly, which did nothing but anger the wind pillar further.
“You think I would side with the two other fucking brats?!”
“Oi, watch what you call my kids.” Tengen said, frowning.
“Or what?”
“Sanemi, please don’t do this right now…” Gyomei sighed.
Above the obscene amount of cursing it was possible to just barely hear the youngest, trying to be heard.
“Umm… guys… Guys I think… hello?” Muichiro, who had been trying to talk the entire time, went on being ignored, watching as the sound and wind pillar threatened one another.
He had tried to gain each of their attention, but well…
Muichiro had given up, simply deciding that if he was going to be ignored then it would be fine if he left as well.
They’d find him eventually. Probably…
.
.
.
The youngest pillar ducked his head into the small space, pushing back a draped blanket and blinking. It was cozy back here, a large section the walk in closet set aside with a folded partitioner, giving the appearance of a false wall. Anyone who looked too quickly wouldn’t have noticed, what with all the other things in there. Muichiro had seen first hand how the others were panicking and guessed it would be awhile till anyone stopped to check here again.
He tried to tell the others. It didn’t seem to matter as much now. They’d figure it out if he had been able to.
“Can I join?” Muichiro asked softly.
Giyu blinked back up at him. In his lap and cradled in his arms were the three missing regressors, snuggled in a nest’s worth of blankets.
“Oh. Sure Muichiro.”
It was stupid really. Of course these three, or four now, couldn’t have gone far.
Still, he should probably tell Giyu about the chaos he was causing. Tanjiro would no doubt be upset, though now he just seemed sleepy, reaching out towards him with a soft ‘Muichi…’ the rest of his name lost behind the shield of the pacifier that was in his mouth. The Mist hashira smiled, settled himself to sit beside Giyu. He had to pull Tanjiro into his own lap just to make room.
It caused the mentally younger to smile and giggle, so it was all worth it even if he was slightly squished.
Inosuke was asleep, he could hear the other boy snoring softly. Zenitsu looked a moments away from nodding off again, babbling something that Muichiro couldn’t decipher.
Giyu’s arm wrapped around him, till Muichiro was laying back on the water pillar’s chest. It was cozy, enough that he could probably find himself small too if he left his mind to wander. But the weight in his lap kept him grounded, small scarred hands playing with his hair. It wasn’t often that he got to be Tanjiro’s caregiver. He wasn’t going to spoil the chance.
“There was a lot of noise outside,” Giyu said softly, hand brushing through Zenitsu’s hair when he started to whine. “Something going on?”
Muichiro shrugged. “It’ll be fine.”
Meanwhile with the other pillars: “Now how the heck did we lose Muichiro too?!?!”