Chapter Text
"We're having a baby!"
Tanjiro gasped. "Congratulations, Uzui-san! Who's pregnant?" He always liked hearing news of children, as any form of making a family larger was some sort of great feat in his eyes. Nezuko never got that obsession, but it was funny to see her brother so elated, a grin wider than a mountain and a big sparkle in his eye to match Tengen's equally excited demeanor.
"Suma! Haven't had luck with Hinatsuru just yet and Makio doesn't want to go through pregnancy, but we finally got our first baby, that's for sure!" Tengen laughed joyously, looking ready to start jumping around in his own burst of emotion. "I am going to be the flashiest father anyone has ever seen!"
Nezuko just remained smiling as she stood beside her brother. He gleefully talked about it with the tall man in front of them, while Inosuke asked odd questions and Zenitsu made small, sarcastic remarks. Tengen's voice was loud, it always was, but he wasn't yelling in his usual, self-praising, boisterous way. It was more like he was thanking something-- the sky, the earth, the gods. Like he was finally kneeling to one thing he found greater than himself, and that thing was a new life.
Tanjiro, of course, offered to help out whenever needed, saying that they all would be returning to his and Nezuko's childhood home eventually, but it'd be a far while away. Nezuko watched the way Tengen talked on and on about their plans for their first baby, how many rooms their house had and which one would be the nursery. His eyes looked... more colorful, like a part of his soul was complete.
Nezuko nodded and kept smiling, but she could feel the grin become tighter, wider, as if it was frozen in place because if she dared to loosen her face even slightly, it'd all fall completely. She didn't understand why that idea was there, or the small feeling of worry she felt. This was something to celebrate! Tengen had talked a few times about how much he wanted children, simply because he wanted to have a complete family, to right the wrongs his father had done, and to have creatures he could mold to be the most perfect little humans. He'd finally gotten what he wanted. How great, right?
He ended up staying over and having a meal with them all in the butterfly mansion. Aoi and Tanjiro helped make some things in the kitchen for everybody. Tengen had seated himself right next to Nezuko after patting her head, and after that, the feeling had went away. Nezuko wrote it off as her brain still being confused after such a short time of being human again. After turning back into a normal girl, Nezuko didn't keep the childlike state that came along with the confusing brain of a demon, but because of how long she was changed, everything was still new. She was having trouble adjusting to the usual feelings of humans. That must have been it.
Having Tengen sit near her during dinner reminded her of the first time she and Tanjiro were welcomed to their home after surviving the upper moon battle. Tengen said he didn't want "dingus and dungus" (Inosuke and Zenitsu) to join them but that his "two favorite kids in the world" surely could. Nezuko had gotten her hair played with that night, by all three of Tengen's wives. She'd eaten their food, had Tengen swing her around on his arm, and settled down as Hinatsuru read, with her feet in Tengen's lap and her head resting on Suma's. It was that night, she felt, that she had become attached to the family in a way she wouldn't expect from her prior introduction to Tengen as one of the men willing to let her die that day of the hashira meeting.
They didn't interact much while they ate their food or after that, as Tengen had only really come over to tell the news, but he did give her a big, strong hug before leaving.
The feelings from before must've been some odd reflex of hers, she figured. Clearly it didn't take much for them to fade away, right?
-----------------
Half way through Suma's pregnancy, Hinatsuru was finally knocked up as well. For that announcement, everyone-- including Sanemi and Giyuu of course-- were invited to the Uzui estate to have a dinner with the family. Suma wandered away mid-dinner to sleep (apparently, sleeping was one of her biggest pregnancy habits during this time) and Makio got a moment to talk about how she loved kids but hated the idea of a little human 'taking all the food she ate for nine months'. While Tengen talked about more renovations he wanted to do on the house to Giyuu, explaining how amazing he wanted their property to be for their kids, the feeling came back. The one from those months before. It dawned on Nezuko that there was a reason why, within those months, she hadn't talked a single bit with the Uzuis. It then became apparent that that may be how it was from then on.
In the past, during the nights when Tanjiro had no missions or was ill and needed to be hospitalized, she would stay with Tengen and his wives. They gave her her own room, something she hadn't had for a while, and though they didn't decorate it with the same enthusiasm the rest of the house had, they'd given her more than enough stuffed animals to keep beside the futon, they'd given her a table, and they'd given her paper and things to draw with, even if she never did use them. In a sense, Tengen had given her what he's talking about giving to his oncoming kids, but now those stuffed animals that they gave her were back at her house with her brother and friends, not in the Uzui mansion. She wanted to ask herself what these thoughts meant, and why they even mattered, but she couldn't answer that either, they just kept coming.
The food was good. That was one thing she missed dearly. Nezuko always enjoyed warm and sweet food, the home cooking of her mother or the neighbors whose houses she'd stay at.
Later in her home life in the mountains, after her father's death rocked the security in the foundation of the family, she barely stayed anywhere that wasn't her house, even when she did make a new acquaintance. But before that all, she was known to sleep over at the house of the lady who gave her family free baked sweets, or at the cabin of the family with a baby far younger than her that liked having a little girl to play with their son. It takes a village to raise a child after all. Her village was taken away when the family started becoming enclosed, less friendly to others, all because of the mutual grieving. Then came the loss of that family. And now... well, she still had one right? She had Inosuke and Zenitsu and Tanjiro.... but... what about having someone older than her?
Nezuko looked up from her bowl to see Giyuu eyeing her from across the table, a look on his face she barely understood. It must've been something akin to asking what was wrong, but she realized that a little to late, so she shrugged and tried to smile at him.
There was still the quiet chatter around them. Inosuke had absolutely no dinner manners and Tanjiro had to be equally as loud to get him to listen. Tengen didn't seem to mind after a few minutes of dealing with it, so he went on telling tales to Sanemi and Giyuu, laughing loud and acting like the flashy man he was. Giyuu was barely paying attention, mostly relying on Sanemi to do the answering for him. Because he was busy looking at Nezuko. At some point he silently grabbed for her bowl and poured her more soup out of his, but he never actually said anything to her.
She knew Giyuu, even though the majority of their interactions were only a few minutes to an hour long, he was the one she remembered most vividly for some reason, and he's the one she talks to the most now. She knew he wasn't the best at picking up on things. Sanemi was constantly making jabs at him about it and Giyuu seemed aloof in conversation, so why now of all times did he seem acutely aware of the fact she was feeling something off? She didn't even know what it was! Giyuu looked at her like she was sad, like he felt sorry for her. Was there a reason to?
This all continued until the end of dinner, when everyone was ushered out and sent away with a farewell. They all started walking in the same direction, so the Kamado squad wasn't quite breaking away from Sanemi and Giyuu yet. Nezuko walked a little behind everyone. She didn't have a particular reason, but she simply didn't feel like joining in on any of the conversations, not even with Kanao. The dirt below her feet entertained her most, the little pebbles of crystals chipped off from the natural koi pond and the well, the rich soil mixed with rough red dirt. Nobody seemed to notice her waddling behind, or she thought so at first, but soon she was being joined by Giyuu.
"Is everything alright?" He asked.
"Huh? Yeah, why wouldn't it be."
"I noticed your demeanor changing during dinner."
He didn't elaborate further, didn't repeat the question. Nezuko wanted to say she had to will to explain her confused feelings without any more pushing, but she didn't, because she remained silent after that.
Before the two groups separated, Giyuu stopped her. Despite Sanemi urging him to hurry up, Giyuu stood silently in front of the younger girl, patting her shoulder twice before leaning down to give her some weird half-hug.
They walked away from each other, and neither one got the answers they wanted.
-----------------
Nezuko and the rest of the squad weren't invited for the actual birth of the first baby. She was more than fine with that. Suma needed a month minimum for bonding and Hinatsuru was of course expecting her own child in about four months.
But once both were born, after everything was settled, everyone met back up at the Uzui's. In between that there were some times when Nezuko and Tanjiro went to see Tomioka, who apparently now lived with Sanemi. And though she didn't want to be a bother, she did send letters to Tengen and the wives, even asking if they ever wanted her to come over. She only got written responses from Hinatsuru, and they were never asking for her presence, politely declining. Those days were what hurt the most out of the entire ordeal.
But then there she was, walking up to the mansion mid-day with Kanao holding one hand as she carried a basket full of jam and food offerings and Zenitsu holding her other. They were about to see the babies. She guessed that Sanemi and Giyuu had already arrived before them. Somehow that made it all feel a bit more comfortable.
Tanjiro was the one to knock on the door and it didn't take long for Sanemi to come welcome them in. He was still a bit of a sour man. Well, not sour, more spicy. His temperament was more dry than tart and raging. Still, he smiled at Nezuko specifically when they all entered.
"They're all over here," he pointed.
"Are the babies cute?" Aoi asked from her place on the other side of Kanao.
"I guess." He slid open the shoji door for them.
At a table sat Giyuu, Tengen, and the wives. In Suma's and Hinatsuru's arms, there were two babies, one few-month old and a new little bundle. Nezuko was always good with kids; babies, toddlers, children, and while some part of her instantly felt excited to see them, another made her eyes narrow, almost like she didn't want to see what they would look like. She didn't want to see how much they looked like their parents.
Makio greeted them as soon as everyone walked in, being the only one to get up and give Nezuko and Tanjiro a hug. Nezuko didn't want to make it weird and stay in her arms for too long, but she couldn't help but press her face to Makio's shoulder. "I missed my favorite girl in the world," Makio cheerfully said as she clenched her eyes shut and squeezed Nezuko hard enough to hurt.
"You have your own kids here!" Suma whined. Nezuko was always fond of Suma, but she really didn't like her in that moment.
"Right, sorry," Makio laughed.
Nezuko hated this jealously, she hated this sadness that welled up in her. Why was everyone able to act so normal about it? Suma corrected Makio and she just... apologized, like it was all to be expected. And it was. But Nezuko hated it.
Third favorite girl in the world, apparently. Not the first.
So, that's what this was. That's why she was feeling this way.
"So they're both girls?" Tanjiro asked as he sat down beside Giyuu. Nezuko didn't make a move to sit down until everyone else had, barely squeezing in at the end of the table. She already felt zoned out enough to have the chatter sound distorted to her ears, like background noise to the silent screaming in her own mind.
"Oh, yes, yes! Lookie!" Suma held up the baby in her arms, pointing to where it had just barely started to grown hair. "This is Ayane. She has my hair color!"
"What about the other one?"
"White hair." Hinatsuru happily cooed. She was staring down at her child the whole time. Once hearing Tanjiro's voice, the baby peeked its head out from behind its soft purple blanket, wide eyes looking at all the new faces and figures in the room. It made eye contact with Nezuko, and she couldn't help but smile at it. The baby girl looked so sweet, little white hairs wisping around the head, probably having grown earlier and fuller than Suma's kid because of how much hair Hinatsuru had in her genes, eyes much like Hinatsuru's own as well.
Nezuko inhaled before looking away.
Tanjiro asked the most questions, which was more than alright to Nezuko because it meant nobody noticed that she wasn't talking. Tengen would chime in often with the biggest, happiest grin on his lips. He looked truly older than when Nezuko had first met him, hair having grown a little longer, the tiniest bit of stubble on his chin. In a way, it was like he was a totally different person from before, no longer wearing slicked back ponytails and carrying himself with the charming arrogance of a handsome young man. He was still quite young of course, but it had all changed, he'd matured. It almost made her feel better about it all, like she wasn't losing the Tengen she was most familiar with, just one she could have had later on.
Giyuu was talking more than usual. He was still quiet and didn't speak with the loudest voice, but he was especially interested when it came to how Tengen planned on raising his children. Nezuko focused on Giyuu a lot. Sanemi seemed to be doing the same. Briefly, she wandered if Sanemi and Giyuu were over their silly rivalry with each other. They would still bicker, but something about it seemed vastly different than she remembered. The two of them looked so happy, mostly when talking together. Of course, it had been just over a whole year in total since the end of the demons, so they'd had time to heal. Nezuko did too... yet she still dared to think in such an immature, childish way. She didn't know what was wrong with her.
When Giyuu slowly faded himself out of the conversation, he looked over at Nezuko, eyes scanning her face and lips slowly breaking out into a gentle smile. He was asking her that silent question, but she didn't know how to answer.
"Tomioka-san, do you want to hold her?" Hinatsuru asked. Before they all knew it, the baby was being handed to Giyuu. Sanemi boxed his own arms around Giyuu's one arm like he was worried he'd drop her, which made Giyuu glare over at him, but then he was holding her to his body and looking down gently, sweetly.
"She's so cute. I've found myself having a lot softer of a side towards kids lately," he quietly said.
"Guess your motherly instincts are kicking in," Sanemi joked. Giyuu looked to Inosuke who punched Sanemi's shoulder for him. Those two had been bonding more as well. It was always funny seeing how Inosuke got excited whenever Giyuu asked him to do something.
Seeing all those mini-interactions made everything seem a little brighter. Nezuko was reminded just how many people were in the room with her, and that she wasn't just in there with the Uzui's, forced to see their new lives come about right before her eyes while she remained stagnant.
The rest of the day was spent with much leisure. A lot of baby-holding, and even Nezuko herself got to try. Something in her wanted to cry as soon as Suma's heavy little kid was placed in her arms. Two things came crashing in a once. First, she thought about her siblings and the fact that she was already so sick and tired of holding little kids, of being the one cradling them. She used to love being motherly to her younger brothers and sister-- she never needed a baby doll when she had them-- but now, she wasn't so fond of that idea. And, most of all, the jealousy had finally subsided to make room for something like tragic wanting.
She couldn't blame these little humans for everything. It wasn't their fault, and it wasn't Tengen's fault for wanting to start a family. Nezuko just wanted. She wanted to be in the babies position. She wanted to be the one everyone cooed about and held.
What happened to her? Was she just cuter as a demon?
-----------------
The final pull at what was already a fresh wound was two months after that visit. She'd sent five different letters over the time, one of them went along with a blanket she made for one of the babies. That was the only one they responded to, even if she felt the others were more important, more heartfelt when it came to her words, more eager when it came to describing her current life as if they'd care that much. The response didn't talk much about what was going on with them, nor did it respond to anything she'd said specifically, and it wasn't accompanied with little drawn hearts or a special little sweet message. It was mostly just to thank her for the gift, and to say something about why they weren't responding much.
"you're a very sweet girl and we love you, but we have a lot of responsibilities and projects going on right now. Sometimes we forget you send us so many letters."
'so many letters.'
Surely they meant something with that. She could read it within the too-formal strokes of ink on the stupid piece of paper: she was just annoying to them now. And they forgot; they forgot her often. She was fine with them taking a long time to respond, but for that to be all she got, some final piece of everything snapped-- no, shattered, like a light bulb that overheats so much it explodes.
So, that was it for them, huh?
-----------------
October wasn't fun this time. She was curled up in her room on day one, tucked under a blanket as she thought about how much of a nice time the Uzui's must be having with their children.
There were leaves outside, and Tanjiro had been raking piles of them just like how he used to for her to jump in, but even looking out the window made her feel the cold. She could usually handle temperamental weather, but lately it just seemed to much. There wasn't much point in going out in it.
She found that lately, a lot of things didn't feel 'worth it'. Sitting next to Inosuke as he tried to steal her food and got into fights with Zenitsu wasn't funny anymore, nor was she as patient. Writing letters back and forth with Kanao and Aoi didn't feel easy anymore, as her hands were always tired, talking about anything but the one thing she was obsessing over was too hard, and she could just tell Kanao was getting tired of her too. Maybe everyone was, actually. Before that, they were even discussing whether all the remaining butterfly family should come live with them. But... what was the point? Of anything?
Nezuko thought about it as she gripped the blanket in her fist, tight: there wasn't anyone she really felt could look after her. They could only be with her. Zenitsu couldn't really comfort her the way she needed, no amount of sweet words and hugs would fix this detached lack of... of something different, and Inosuke saw her as the more mature one, so lord knows he'd be no good. And Tanjiro, sweet Tanjiro, had taken care of her for enough of his life, he didn't need any more time put in.
But...
Tanjiro was always talking with Giyuu. They'd mutually trade presents like trinkets or homemade things, some of which Nezuko helped make. Tanjiro always updated them on Giyuu's life, like how he was teaching kids in the close-by town some swordsmanship, or that he missed everyone... and though Nezuko's thoughts had her wanting to refute the last statement a bit, she couldn't. Because Giyuu seemed like he'd genuinely miss them, maybe even her.
So even though it did take all month of misery to figure it out, she finally thought of one thing that might help her a bit. She could go to Giyuu.
-----------------
"Nezuko?" Giyuu looked down at her from the doorway. She couldn't tell if he just looked shorter without sandals on or if she'd gotten taller recently, but suddenly he looked a lot less like an intimidating, mysterious demon slayer and more like an old friend. He had on a light blue jinbei set. It would be the first time Nezuko had ever seen him without the demon slayer uniform-- he'd even worn it when going over to Tengen's the past couple of times. He looked so comfortable in casual wear, and extra sunny with a new gleam in his eyes. How long had it taken him to feel better about everything that had happened to him? Was there something in the water him and everyone else had been drinking?
"Who's there?" Sanemi called from some far off room.
Giyuu didn't answer back. He stared down at Nezuko for a few more minutes before stepping to the side and allowing her to come in without any words shared.
Nezuko felt something burning in the back of her throat when Giyuu smiled at her entrance. She hadn't been to their house more than twice, and each time she never got to explore much, so it wasn't all too familiar, but Giyuu's gentle, welcoming actions almost made it feel like it was routine for her to be there. It was a warmth in the middle of a sea of ice.
He brought her to the main living room. "Are you alright? Is there something you need?"
And suddenly... she couldn't handle it anymore. All the grief from the past few months and the need she had deep in her soul that she couldn't express started bubbling to the surface and came through in tears and a small, hushed sob. It was the first thing she'd directly done to communicate with him for a long time.
She ended up leaning forward subconsciously and crashed right into Giyuu, who tried to catch her by the shoulder and keep himself from stumbling back. Her eyes were closed, so she didn't get to see his reaction, but she guessed it was probably surprised and a little weirded out. She hated that she would probably make Giyuu feel uncomfortable. She was well aware how strange it was to show up at a random man's house just to start crying once you walked in, but there was nothing else to do really. She couldn't just ask to go on a walk, maybe to paint or play a game together. She wasn't close enough with them to "hang out", and that made her deeply, deeply forlorn.
"What happened?" Giyuu worriedly asked. After a few seconds, his arm wound a little tighter around her back, still cautious and uncertain, but it made her press her face further into his shirt as she started sobbing loudly.
She heard hurried footsteps enter the room and Sanemi ask what was wrong. She could feel Giyuu shrug. Giyuu slowly started walking the two of them over to the couch and let her sit down on it as he stepped back to look at her face. She felt far too embarrassed to look up. And it seemed the two of them didn't quite know what to do when she didn't, so it was silent and still in the room as Nezuko rubbed at her eyes and stared down at the cushions.
When she finally managed to cool her crying she sniffled out, "I just missed you."
"Oh," Giyuu said, but it didn't sound as annoyed as she expected. "Well, we missed you too."
"Did you have to come like... one hour away from dinner? Do you expect food or something?"
"Sanemi!" Nezuko looked up in time to see Giyuu elbow him in the ribs.
Nezuko shook her head. "You don't need to feed me, I just... I don't know." She'd be surprised about how fast she was able to stable her voice from crying, but she'd learned that trick long ago when she realized her little siblings got more upset when she noticed she was emotional too. "I feel like I have nobody."
That sentence alone seemed to alight something in Giyuu's face. He quickly took a seat on the couch next to her, and Sanemi moved to do the same. Giyuu put a hand on the man's arm, giving him some cue of a look, but Sanemi scoffed at him and sat down anyways. "I'll keep quiet," Sanemi mumbled irritably.
"I think I know what this is about," Giyuu told her.
"I know you do."
His hand hovered over his lap after he raised it a few inches. He finally rested the hand on Nezuko's shoulder when she scooted closer to him. "I'm so sorry, Nezuko."
Tears pricked the girl's eyes again, but they didn't fall heavily, and they left without sound. "I don't know what to do. It's so stupid... I do have people, but I don't have--"
"It's okay, I know. It's not stupid, you're only a teenager, of course you need a different kind of support. You need someone to make you feel young again, to take care of you," Giyuu said. He took a breath as he looked back in Sanemi's direction. "Spend time with us." He said it with absolute sureness, with simplicity. "I know it must hurt to have everything that happened happen to you, and I can't give you back the family you want, but you came here for a reason didn't you? We can be there for you."
Nezuko found herself looking at the floor. Suddenly, her little idea to force Giyuu into some position of "parent" didn't make her feel that good. Because she really was focing it in a way, or she thought so at least. Giyuu was just a young man, and so was Tengen. So was Sanemi! How could she expect them to act like some kind of mentor after the war as if they didn't have their own lives to figure out?
"I can't fill the role that Tengen and his wives could, as I don't think I can see myself being that close to a parent right now, but I'll be a big brother, like Tanjiro but older. I'll give you some of the love you still miss out on."
"But..."
"It's what you deserve, I promise. I promise you're not... a burden. Or anything else. You're just a girl, and I chose to be involved in your health and safety when I went against slayer code years ago. You and your brother have changed my life."
"And it'll still be like a family!" Sanemi spoke up. "You can come to our house any time. We can both try to uhh.. try to act like caregivers, you know? We're not completely lost in that field."
Nezuko gave them both a once-over before she breathed a sigh of relief. She wanted to take it back and run back home, to say a quick 'nevermind, enjoy your lives please!' and leave them alone, but they didn't look all that troubled from her egregious needs.
"You're just a child," Giyuu said sorrowfully, "we understand needing someone older in your life at this point." He patted her back, leaving his hand there as Sanemi finally stood up and looked them both over.
"I'm going to go finish making dinner. Make sure to eat whatever you need, kid," he said before leaving.
Neuko allowed herself to fall sideways into Giyuu before wrapping her arms around him. He hugged her too, holding her head as if he'd ever learned how to properly comfort a child. Part of it was intuitive, Nezuko guessed. He could be good at this. Maybe he could make it all better.
"I think we should go play in the leaves before snow covers them," Giyuu spoke softly, like he'd taken Nezuko's day-old thoughts right from her head. Didn't sound too bad now. "We'll always have time and space for you."
-----------------
So begun the semi-consistent presence of Sanemi and Giyuu in Nezuko's life. Nezuko stayed the night at the Shinazugawa-Tomioka house. But after that, the two came back with her to the Kamado house. Tanjiro was elated to find out Nezuko hadn't just run off (no, she hadn't told him where she was going when she left) and to see the two ex-hashira at his door. They didn't really explain all of what happened to the curious boy, just that Nezuko would want to visit them more, that they all could if they wanted. It'd be healthier for them as well as the growing teenagers.
Nezuko took notice of Giyuu and Sanemi's habits together early on. She'd already been suspicious of them the second they huddled over the Uzui baby together like a sweet married couple and made googly eyes as their noses brushed, but when they shared a futon at the Kamado house and offered to cook breakfast for everyone there, dancing around each other in the kitchen and hugging each other from behind, Nezuko knew for sure. She never had to verbally address it. She hoped nobody would. The last thing she wanted was to make either of her new-old-friends uncomfortable. Inosuke wasn't on the same radar though, and ever the bold young man, he asked many o' questions. Giyuu didn't seem too upset about it at all, a little flushed at most. Tanjiro giggled as he explained that the couple had already told him at some point at the Uzui's, so he was just waiting for the reveal to everyone else.
It was after their time at the Kamado's that Sanemi and Giyuu invited Nezuko and the rest of them back to their house again. Tanjiro had a lot of duties to do, so he chose not to go and Nezuko ended up being the only one to come, much to Zenitsu's displeasure. Giyuu was more than happy to bring her home. He had a few things to work on, and hopefully she'd be enriched enough to get out of her depression.
Arriving was the easy part, as was setting up a futon for her in a room across from theirs, but then it was time to decide what they should do. Nezuko was a teenager, newly one of course, but a teenager nonetheless. Fourteen year olds were tricky, because they'd either be into whatever fun little activity you planned, or they'd scoff and hold themselves in higher regard then a measly task. Giyuu didn't want to bore Nezuko, he wanted to... well, to give her a good, loving life, something a big-- or bigger brother would do.
"Well, do you want to come make some food with me?" Giyuu asked her. He could hear Sanemi chuckle quietly at the suggestion. Giyuu glared at him. "Or, if that sounds boring, we're also working on harvesting from the greenhouse. and I can take you shooping later, too."
Nezuko considered her options before smiling up at Giyuu. "I wouldn't mind the greenhouse, but I can help you with dinner tonight so I can do both."
Sanemi took her outside and gaver her a bowl to put all the potatoes in. He spent about ten damn minutes looking for another pair of gloves for her, ending up with some old ones left in the shed who knows how many years ago. As they worked under the medium-warm early autumn day, Giyuu was more than happy to take breaks from making lunch and snacks just to walk out and watch them. He wasn't exactly expecting Sanemi to be the first one of the two of them to actually spend a good chunk of time with Nezuko, but he wasn't angry about it. Watching his boyfriend smile like that, like he always did when he was taking care of someone, made the house reset itself. Yes, there was some things that lingered from all the loss, from Sanemi's loss most of all, and Giyuu's, and Nezuko's. But seeing Sanemi and Nezuko work in the sun side by side seemed to ease that pain that had locked itself in the wood of the floors and the supports of the walls. Nezuko was helping them too.
That day, after working, Giyuu gave Nezuko some treats and took her out shopping. There was a clothing store nearby, with fancy little kimonos and western style dresses, things that looked they they belonged on dolls. Giyuu bought anything that suited the girl's fancy, as well as whatever trinkets they could pick out from the rest of the shops.
A routine came about at some point within the several next times that Nezuko came over. Kanao and Aoi had given Giyuu one of Shinobu's unfinished insect pinning boards, as they had enough to decorate the mansion anyway. He wasn't fond of the hobby at first, but when he and Nezuko started adding dried flowers to it as well, it started becoming something even more sentimental. She'd come over to help look for their next pins, then they'd spend a few minutes or an hour arranging it all. When the one cork board was taken up, Giyuu got another, and it continued on until half of the whole wall in the room was taken up.
Giyuu was never much of a cooker with his sister, or Sabito and Urokodaki, but Sanemi was adamant that he had to learn at some point. He'd been getting better even before Nezuko arrived, but Nezuko's old family recipes and insight from when she'd help her mother seemed to help inspire him even more. Numerous nights were spent with all three of them in the slightly cold kitchen, carefully kneading dough or stirring a soup, listening to the crackle of the stone furnace and turning cooking book pages. Nezuko had taken the lead sometimes, and other times it was Giyuu or Sanemi who knew what best to do, but each time there was a presence of warmth in their chests. Even when it snowed and heat barely made it to that room, the act of sharing meals and cooking could only bond them all.
Nezuko wasn't the only one of the teenagers that Giyuu ended up helping in this motherly-fatherly-brotherly way. Inosuke had latched on hard, and the butterfly girls all needed someone, but Nezuko was special in a different way. She was the one who admitted most out of all of them just how important Giyuu was for her, how much spending time learning things with Sanemi and him actually helped. Giyuu tried to sweeten his relationship with all the kids, but the Kamados were his most special bond of them all. They had been since he'd decided to choose the optimistic side when finding them all those years ago.
When Nezuko was becoming an adult, she didn't stop coming over any less. Giyuu didn't know how to handle the sweet fact. Even though she was showing clear signs of becoming more mature and self-sufficient than she had been before, she didn't just leave them. She still helped Sanemi with outside work, and helped Giyuu clean. She still brought flower and plant samples for their collections and would have the monthly tea-time with the butterfly girls. While her and the Kamados lived in their shared home, expanding it so it properly fit their adult selves for years to come, she never forgot about her not-father, not-brother, and whatever else Giyuu counted as. She needed to keep him around after all, to thank him for helping her when she needed it most.