Chapter thirty:

"Hold you tight"

After parting ways with Kanao, you still had to walk for an hour to reach your destination. While walking, all you could do was daydream about Muichiro, and daydream about eating. Your stomach was so empty that it might've just began eating itself.

For once, you were proud of yourself. Passing the Final Selection with flying colors, slaying demons left and right as if you were born to do so, made you feel like the whole year of training with Muichiro wasn't wasted.

And most importantly, you made a friend. The only other people you knew and trusted were Muichiro, Shinobu, Mitsuri, and Giyuu; you got to meet and be friends with the last two during your last months of training, although it was obvious that Mitsuri already thought you two were friends. The girls at the Butterfly estate were nice too, but you hadn't seen them in a long while, so making a new friend, and a tsuguko nonetheless, made your heart flutter.

Passing through the woods, your sight was clouded by a thick layer of mist, which was so characteristic of your home. The mist estate was a couple steps away. It had been a somewhat dangerous week, considering the fact that the survival rate for the selection was so low. Your heart desired to see Muichiro's face again, to hear his monotone voice, to touch his long hair... it jolted and rejoiced just thinking about it.

When the mist cleared, your eyes shimmered. The huge estate looked so warm and familiar, as if it was waiting for your arrival. The rock path that lead to the entrance, the koi pond, the pot of daisies that welcomed you by the door..., they were all waiting for you too. And so, when your eyes lowered to beneath the entrance's arch, your heart skipped a beat.

Time froze. All around you seemed to lose its color, for all that mattered was the person there, whose eyes spoke poems of loneliness and sorrow, and yet meeting yours, became sweet words of tenderness and worry.

He looked at you, and you looked at him, and it was as if you had been away a million years.

"Tokito-sama, I'm home!" you exclaimed, smiling widely at him.

He stood there, staring. His eyes grew wide as realization hit him, he wasn't looking at a ghost or anything else. Shinobu's stories about how dangerous the selection had gotten and how high the chances of you dying were only to try to get a reaction of out him, which ended up making him worry even though he looked so serene.

He kept staring, almost in shock.

Until something in his mind finally snapped and his naturally stoic expression melted in pure relief. It was so unusual for him to react that way knowing how intense his training was, but he was truly scared of losing you.

"Tokito-sama...?"

He didn't listen.

Before you could take a step forward to check if he had forgotten about you, the weight of a person against you made you stumble and fall butt first into the rock path. You blinked several times, feeling ebony black hair tickling your nose and a pair of strong, yet soft arms circled around your neck.

He had tackled you into a hug. Tokito Muichiro, the mist pillar, the person who once stepped on your back and treated you like trash, was hugging you.

You knew that he had gotten softer, but you'd never received a hug from him before, so your cheeks set on fire and your arms trembled as they hesitantly hugged him back.

He took in your vanilla scent, which was now mixed with blueberries and dirt, as he buried his face in the crook of your neck. He missed you.

Even during the days in which Giyuu, Shinobu and Mitsuri had come to train you instead of him, he missed you, but then he knew you were safe and inside the house you shared, and at dawn he would return to make you breakfast before leaving for the next mission, so he saw you regularly; but a week without knowing how you were doing, without seeing your face ignite out of embarrassment, without hearing your screams in the middle of the night because of a spider, without your warm and comforting presence, was agony.

"Welcome back" he muttered, and the hold on you tightened.

He didn't want to let go of you. Not for an eternity, but he would feel at ease just embracing you for a couple more minutes. He needed to calm himself down.

Understanding what he meant, you melted deeper into the hug, as a small smile crept all the way to your lips and your hands caressed his hair soothingly.

He could make you your favorite food for dinner now that you were back, and make hot chocolate while watching the snow fall.

Now that you were back, he could finally feel at peace.