Unlike the past night, everyone had gathered around with smiles and happy faces. The sun had come up, and with it, all the tears they had shed, all the stress and pressure, had vanished. Muichiro stood by your side ever since you woke up, and wouldn't let go of your hand. It was the first time you had seen him smiling so much, since he was usually inexpressive even in moments of happiness. After just as few hours, when Aoi announced that you were awake to the other pillars that had been waiting impatiently, Mitsuri was the first to rush in there, being closely followed by Giyuu and Gyomei.

The room's door swung open, making a loud sound that startled you. Mitsuri's red and puffy eyes filled with tears when her eyes landed upon your weak form.

"WAAAAAH! [Y/N]!!" Mitsuri rushed to hug you, delicately and gently wrapping her arms around you.

She did her best to contain her excitement. She seriously feared she would harm you by even squeezing you a little. Your face changed from utter shock to a small smile, returning Mitsuri's hug with the little strength you were able to gather.

"I'm fine, Mitsuri. You don't need to worry—"

"NO!" she yelled, pulling you a little closer. You could feel the stream of hot tears hitting your back, and guessed that her face was probably equally flooded with them. "You... almost died! You almost...!"

Whenever she tried to complete any sentence, she choked on her own words. She just couldn't stop sobbing even though you were finally safe and she was holding you between her arms. She just couldn't let herself be happy when the paleness of your skin was painfully obvious. The machines, the IV connected to your arm, the obvious fragility of your body... she saw all that. And it hurt her, because you were almost dead. And her skin made contact with yours, it shivered feeling how cold it was. You almost died.

Your lips' corners curved downwards and your eyes became less expressive, knowing that she had probably spent the whole night trying to emotionally support the others even though she was sad herself. Feeling another presence in the room, your eyes shifted to meet Giyuu's troubled hues.

"I... I thought I'd lost you..." he whispered, his widened eyes fixed on you. He had lost a lot of people he cared for already. He couldn't afford to lose you too.

"I'm fine now, sorry for worrying you..." you told him, a single tear slid down your cheek out of the emotion of the moment.

"[Y/N]-san! You're awake!"

The girls —Naho, Kiyo and Sumi— dropped the trays there were holding for other patients at the very sight of your open eyes. They hurried inside the room too, their lips quivered as they were holding in their tears. Gyomei, who was behind them, smiled when he heard your sound.

"We thought you were gone!"

"We... we prayed! Himejima-san helped us pray for you"

They failed at keeping their tears in, quickly breaking down in loud sobs and trying to dry their tears the best way they could. You gave them a closed-eyes smile, extending the hand you weren't hugging Mitsuri with towards them so they could get close. You then gently patted their heads, silently thanking them for being worried about you.

"Shh... it's okay now. I'm here."

And even though it seemed like a happy moment, you were doing your best to ignore Muichiro's deadly glare towards everyone who was touching you. He had a dark and red aura around him worth of a true demon, but you just kept smiling through it and shielding the kids the best way you could. Mitsuri was too much into crying and hugging you to even notice the boy's anger. Seeing that you paid no attention to him, he looked away and pouted, something that he had never done before, and a rare sight to behold. You giggled a little, finding his reaction incredibly cute.

"[Y/N]..." you had heard your name being called once again, by a quiet, yet broken, voice. "Are you... okay?"

The black-to-pink female supported her head against the doorframe. Her tired eyes and weak smile showed how fatigued she felt, yet she did her best to hold herself to meet you. Your eyes didn't fail to notice the bandage on her arm, which she was loosely pressing on.

She came a little closer until she could take a seat next to your bed. The girls pried Mitsuri off you, aware that Kanao wasn't feeling great and needed to talk to you for a moment.

"Kanao, are you alright? You look tired! Did something happen while I was out?" you asked with a rushed and worried tone.

Kanao nodded slowly before answering, "You were losing a lot of blood... they were... out of your blood type... so I donated half a liter..." she answered, closing her eyes while showing her smile. Since she was feeling a little lightheaded, she couldn't properly formulate words without pausing. "How are you... feeling?"

"I-I'm fine..., thank you. You didn't have to do that for me, look at how you are now!" you exclaimed, furrowing your eyebrows in worry.

Kanao opened her eyes, and though they had no sign of tears, you could see the sorrow behind them.

"How could I not? I... wouldn't have been able to live... if you had died..."

She had felt it before you had gone to the mission. She had a bad feeling about letting you go there, and yet she didn't stop you, didn't warn you, didn't even asked you to be careful. If you had died, she would've blamed herself for your death until her own came.

Your eyes were filled to the brim with tears again, overwhelmed by how worried everyone was. You shook your head repeatedly, brushing the sadness away.

"ANYWAY! When I recover, y'all have to start getting your best wedding dresses. Oh, and start thinking about baby names too. I want eight. Exactly eight." you said, giggling.

Mitsuri's eyes suddenly opened, all sorrow was washed away as if the rain had passed and only the rainbow remained. Giyuu's tense expression had melted into a more relaxed one, the ghost of a smile appearing on his features when he saw you acting the way he usually saw you act.

Mitsuri was about to open her mouth to speak, but you shut her before she was able to. "Don't even think about it. My first daughter's name will be Kanao"

Mitsuri pouted, crossing her arms and puffing her cheeks cutely. She really did want to suggest the first baby girl's name.

"Don't get mad! You get to name your future daughter however you want to, anyway."

Mitsuri shook her head, her lime green eyes shone in a different light and a huge grin adorned her face when you mentioned that.

"I'm naming my daughter after you, [Y/N]!" she answered, beaming with happiness. Her cheeks turned to a bright pink while the sole mention of that statement. "Now I just need to find who I'm going to marry. It could never happen though, at this rate..."

"Mmm... I think you're closer to your future husband than you may think."

Mitsuri blinked, oblivious of what you were implying.

"No way! Have you heard anyone confess their undying love for me?!"

"Nope, it's just a hunch" you answered, shrugging casually before jolting when a thought hit your head "If the first baby I have is male, I'm naming him after a god."

"What? Seriously?"

The door burst open again. You had no idea when it closed, but you did hear the impact of it opening suddenly with a very loud presence.

"Does that mean that you're naming him after me—? 'Cause I'll have you know, Tengen is the most flamboyant name in history, darling"

"Mornin' Tengen-sama!" you waved at him, while he was busy entering and getting his huge ego to pass through the door as well.

You weren't close to him before, but you had met with him a couple times and bumped into him during some missions in which he was willing to help. So you weren't acting shy around him for that reason. He was also a man anyone could feel comfortable around. He just had this incredibly pleasant presence that anyone would enjoy.

Behind him was the snake boy himself, Obanai. He came in quietly and sat on the other empty bed of the room, close to the love pillar.

He didn't care about you. He came in to check on Mitsuri, but obviously he wasn't going to say that.

Tengen winked at you before coming closer and ruffling your hair, which was already super messy.

"You seem healthier than I thought you were. I mean, weren't you dying just a few hours ago?"

"Somebody once told me I was a flamboyant person. And flamboyant people are literally immortal." you answered, grinning at him like he was at you.

"Does that mean you'll never get to bury me?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. Since his hair was down, it leaned to the side and framed his features perfectly.

"You're a god, you'll ascend to the heavens instead of dying"

Tengen's face was full bewilderment. He touched his chest, feeling his heart beat faster at how moved he was. He literally wanted to adopt you right then and there.

"This kid...! She gets me!" he muttered, smiling to himself with pride.

.

.

.

"So, are you naming our son after him?"

Everyone in the room literally stopped breathing when they heard Muichiro say that. They simultaneously —and creepily— turned their heads to look at him, questioning whether they had imagined it or not.

"No way..." Mitsuri began, putting two and two together. Her eyes widened in surprise, her voice raised involuntarily "NO WAY...!"

Tengen was almost equally as surprised as Mitsuri, but was much calmer about it. It took longer for Giyuu and Kanao to realize what she meant by "no way", but after their brains started processing those words, the color of their faces washed away, their mouths agape and eyes widened.

"DID MUICHIRO TOKITO HIMSELF JUST SAY "THEIR" SON?!"

They gasped. Everyone gasped. Even you gasped.

Muichiro nodded, shrugging it away. He didn't seem to mind declaring that, "I'm her boyfriend now"

"What...?"

"WHAAAAAAT?!"

"I think the lack of blood from the donation is making me hear things..." Kanao stated, confused by what Muichiro said.

"You're not the only one. I don't remember taking any drugs before coming here" Tengen said, blinking slowly while his mind tried to properly process everything.

Muichiro rolled his eyes in annoyance. He quickly intertwined your hands together and raised them for everyone to see; their perplexed eyes glued to that small action and your flushed face.

"Do I need to spell it out for your tiny brains to understand something so simple? She's the person I'll marry someday, so keep your hands off her, got it?"

Mitsuri screeched. Loudly.

"HOW? WHEN? WHAT DID I MISS???"

"I don't know, and I was here the whole time" the water pillar said, shifting his attention from the loud pink girl to the weak one with a red face, and then to how Muichiro was trying to be calm about it but his cheeks were red too, redder than yours, in fact. He was overheating so much that smoke was coming out of his head.

"Uh... weren't they a couple long ago? I thought Shinazugawa suggested him to get her pregnant or something..." Mitsuri quickly turned around to look at the snake pillar, clearly offended by the fact that he hadn't catch up with the love drama happening there. The whole Demon Slayer Corps knew about it.

"What...?"

"Weren't you all talking about their babies' names? I thought she was pregnant already"

"I—" Mitsuri began, but she paused out of not knowing what to say to that "They're so young! How could Shinazugawa-san suggest that?"

"Wait, wasn't Oyakata-sama a little older than him when he had his first son...?" Giyuu wondered, tilting his head slightly.

"Yeah! But they're still so young...! I... I can't believe they're having children before me" Mitsuri said, even though she obviously knew that they were just having a hypothetical discussing and you two weren't having kids until you got older.

Tengen smirked, raising his hand as if he was volunteering for something. "There's a quick way to fix that—"

You let out a loud gasp by his words, panicking internally.

"TENGEN-SAMA, WATCH YOUR WORDS, YOU HAVE THREE KUNOICHI WIVES!"

Tengen's eyes widened greatly, dramatically, as he realized what you were saying.

"Right, good call, [Y/N]..."

And then there was Obanai's deadly glare and murderous aura towards Tengen, similar to that Muichiro had when Mitsuri was hugging you.

"What the hell were you implying, Uzui?"

And out of that, a loud discussion began between them, all chatting amongst each other. And for you, it was pure bliss. Everything that could've gone right, went right.

"Guys..."

The honeyed voice of the insect pillar, now sounding worn-out, made everyone shut up and stare at her. She was, after all, the person who had spent the whole night performing miracles to save your life.

"Can you please go out for a moment? I need to check [Y/N]'s vitals"

"Oh! Right, of course!"

Tengen was the first one to get up from his seat, being closely followed by everyone else in the room except for Muichiro and, obviously, you.

"Well, see you later, queen!" Tengen kissed your cheek before leaving, smiling widely at you.

"Bye-bye, [Y/N]-chan! I'll come visit tomorrow too!" Mitsuri exclaimed cheerfully, hugging you quickly, and then grabbing Obanai's hand to drag him with her. She wanted to bake a "congratulations in your recovery" type of cake, and she needed him to help her.

"Goodbye" the snake pillar said, before being dragged away.

"Goodbye, [Y/N]. Please be safe." Gyomei said, and along with the girls, helped Kanao stand up steadily.

The pink-lilac eyed girl did the same thing as Tengen, but instead of kissing your cheek, she kissed your forehead and gave you a gentle smile.

"See you later, [Y/N]..."

And with that, they were all out of the room. As they passed through the door, Shinobu leaned to the side to make enough room for all of them to go away. She was extremely tired, since she had stayed up all night taking care of you and making sure you were safe. The large dark circles beneath her weary eyes, combined with her slumped posture and how forced her smile was, made it clear that she was tired. But Shinobu was also great at hiding her feelings, so they didn't notice her fatigue. And despite that, the water pillar stopped just before passing through the door, his celurean eyes fixed on her smiling self. She couldn't fool him, he knew her enough to know how tired she was.

"Are you okay?" he asked, almost in a whisper, since he didn't want you to hear their conversation, because you'd probably feel guilty if you knew that.

Shinobu's eyes opened slowly, a little bit saddened and surprised that he noticed that. Her forced smile disappear for a second, her whole façade dropped instantly, shoulders sinking.

"No. I'm not okay."

He could only give her a reassuring look, even if it seemed as if his expression didn't change, she noticed the slight change on his features and knew that he was trying to give her a little strength.

"Stop making that expression, it's disgusting" she mocked him, covering her mouth, though her eyes seemed a little happier than before.

He sighed, knowing that she was going to say that. But he was okay with that, because after her hand moved away, she was wearing a small smile with kind half-lidded eyes.

"Thank you, Tomioka-san. I mean it."

He nodded firmly, before finally crossing the door.

Shinobu closed her eyes and exhaled her anxiety, walking inside. She found it cute that you and Muichiro were talking freely with each other, holding hands as if they were glued together. It eased her heart.

But then she had to go back to reality, where not everything was happiness and sunshines, where people didn't have fairy-tale endings, where people suffered. She knew she needed to pull herself together, for you. You turned to look at her tired form, showing her a wide smile. Muichiro, too, seemed to have a little gratefulness in his eyes. That didn't her Shinobu. She felt as if she was going to burst into tears or collapse at any moment, but she smiled at you nonetheless. She faked her act, like she always had. The only difference being that the smile she formed was weak and trembling, and she was fighting the lump on her throat to be able to speak.

"[Y/N]..." she began, her eyes turned red by the sole mention of your name "I... I'm so sorry"

Tears began welling up on her eyes, but she swallowed them. She needed to. Worried for her, you frowned and tilted your head in wonder.

"Shinobu-san? Is something wrong?"

Shinobu's smile disappeared completely, being replaced with a sour expression of sadness. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, holding herself together, before even being able to speak.

"You're dying"