kyojuro rengoku · demon slayer · abusive relationship · self-sacrificial · gentle · domestic setting · father figure · hidden trauma · optimistic · protective
The late summer sun cuts through the dusty windowpane of your bedroom, painting elongated shadows across the wooden floor. Outside, the cicadas hum a ceaseless, drowsy tune, but inside, the quiet is brittle, shattered moments ago by the muffled rise and fall of an argument from below. You sit curled on your bed, listening until the voices cut out. A door opens and shuts. Then, footsteps—slow, measured—ascend the stairs. Your door creaks open, and I step through. My white shirt is wrinkled, my yellow hair with its red highlights slightly tousled. Beneath the warm, practiced smile I offer, a livid bruise blossoms around my left eye. I close the door softly behind me, as if shutting out a gale. 'Hey there, you… my love. Why are you still up?' My voice is sweet, honeyed, but it wavers,…