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When it comes to letting down one's walls, it is and always would be a gamble.
The darkest and most secret parts of people are something that are shared with those who they consider safe. Who they can trust to bare their soul and hope they don't use it to break them. However a gamble can go either way; the gambler can either win something for putting themselves out there, gain something precious for lasting in the long run and be rewarded for pressing their luck the way that they have.
Or they can lose it all within a blink of an eye; for to be so open, so unguarded is when that person is at their weakest. If the other should refuse to care for them in such a state...well the harm could be outright detrimental.
Demons rarely are allowed the luxury of being soft and weak for each other.
Either they were strong and able to climb up in the ranks with their skills and hunger for flesh or they were too weak and better off dead at either the hands of slayers or of their own kind. Even those in the Upper Ranks of the Twelve Kizuki weren't invincible. Death came for all and any who were foolish to show their weakness to the wrong person. No one was exempt from pain, no one got a free pass from being hurt if being soft ended in them emotionally and mentally scarred.
In all his time as a demon, Akaza has always been one to look down on weakness. Never one to falter he has always taken pride in the fact he was a strong demon even if he has not yet risen higher than his spot as the third Upper Moon. He was content as long as he was serving his Master and bringing down the demon slayers as intended as his need to grow stronger was kept at bay. There was all the time in the world to rise to the top of the Kizuki.
However...as the sun rose over the dense forest, as he found himself sliding through the doors that day while gripping the sword, after seeing such a strong, potential a opponent who could have been a strong demon, when he was punished by his master...something inside him was shaken.
He couldn't really remember the time between leaving the destroyed nichirin sword and re entering the Infinity Fortress. It was honestly like a blur to him considering his insides were slowly knitting back together...it was such a sorry state. He felt...vulnerable.
Like at any moment someone was going to attack him and take the chance to kill him. Yet as he opens the nearest door into a room was when he felt eyes on his back. His own widen before he looked over.
"Akaza-san..."
Six red eyes gleam from the darkness as the kanji for Upper Rank One especially seem to gleam brightly. Slowly the demon-the second most powerful one in existence-walked forwards almost like he was gliding across the floor until he was towering over the trembling demon.
That feeling...that weakness...before someone so powerful made him want to vomit. He stared up at him tempted to snarl, to swipe at the other demon to make him go away...yet instead he looked down at the floor unable to meet his eyes. So what if he hated being weak? Compared to Kokushibo he was still weak..still unable to reach his level...still..still...
Kokushibo says nothing for a moment...then slowly he pulled off his haori and very gently placed it on the other's shoulders. Then he nudged the other demon inside as he turned his head to try and make sure no one else saw. All the younger demon could do was move forwards while his brows furrowed. What..what was happening? Why..why was Kokushibo doing this?
Was this pity?! Was Upper Rank One pitying him for returning in this sorry state? It was almost enough to make him throw it back at the other. However another part of him had far too much respect to do that as Kokushibo closed the doors behind him slowly.
"..Akaza-san...you seem...unsettled."
What an understatement...he wanted to snap at him, be sarcastic like how he was with Douma. To be angry and to scream, to fight, to rip into something. Anything to make him feel better as he was riddled with this damned...this damned weak feeling! Like somehow the world around him had been turned upside down and he had just lost a potential chance to add to their ranks...
Something stung the demon's eyes and immediately he tried to push it all down.
"I...am simply tired, Kokushibo-dono..." he murmured as the warmth of the haori around him seemed to slowly seep into him.
Ha...warmth. What a strange sensation. Especially when it seemed to slip into his muscles like the soft caress of a hand rubbing his back and arm. He turned his head to look back at his superior and almost smacked his face into the other's chest.
Kokushibo stared down at him, as still as an oak and twice as firm as Akaza takes a slight step back, "You...tired? I never...thought...I would see...the day..." He rumbled as his eyes slowly narrowed down at him and he gets down to his eye level, "You aren't...yourself..."
Take a fucking hint...I don't want you to see me like this, to see me so weak, so open, so...fuck.
Could it get any worse than realizing that his superior was concerned about him? Why? Was he discerning a weakness? Was he going to use it later against him? It was so unnerving as he pressed his lips into a thin line, closing his eyes as he looked down. This warmth...it brought back the ghost sensation of the heat that radiated off of Kyojuro when he had chased him across the battlefield.
Why was he thinking of that now? Of his failed attempt to add to their ranks? The continued frustration that ate away at him slowly like a parasite feeding on his insides and making it's way outwards. It made it especially frustrating with his superior here...standing over him...!
He is dragged from his thoughts when a hand gently tilted his face up with fingers under his chin, making him freeze with every single emotions out in the open. Those six eyes seem to bore right into his soul; the worst feeling in the world in his opinion. It was bad enough he had been beaten, punished and almost killed...did his superior have to rub it in his face?
Kokushibo tilted his head at the other before his eyes seem to change, growing half lidded.
"...Next time you will be better, Akaza."
He froze where he stands feeling those words seep into his being as he swallowed thickly. What...what was Kokushibo saying? He expected him to say something, mock him, pity him not...not say that. Before he can speak up he is cut off when a kiss is pressed to his forehead. It left him stunned where he stands eyes widening slowly as he swallowed thickly.
"Rest...and grow stronger...than I one day..." Kokushibo then calmly patted his head of pink hair as the younger demon looked at the ground to hide how his cheeks of darkened, too stunned to stop the other demon from leaving the room...and his haori around the other.
Akaza couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. He just stands there before he slowly kneels on the ground wrapped in the haori of his superior...a superior he respected very much even if at times he viewed him as an opponent for the top...a powerful demon who just...
Unconsciously he pulled the haori a little more around himself. He knows he'll have to return this to the other when he saw him again but for right now he just...felt safer with it on.
It...made him feel less vulnerable.