"Blue spider lily?!"
The flower was wilted, dry, clearly dehydrated for a long time. But that color. That unmistakable sky blue, that shape of the petals curving backward like tiny flames…
Tamayo would have recognized them with her eyes closed.
She had seen them thousands of times. In books, in illustrations, in her own dreams.
The flower Muzan had spent centuries searching for without finding! The missing piece! The key to everything!
"You want it?"
Marcus's voice rang out, a smile hidden between the words.
"..."
Tamayo opened her mouth but said nothing.
Instead, her hand rose without her permission, trembling, reaching toward the petals.
Of course she wanted it!
With that flower, her research—stalled for years—could make a leap. Finding the way to reverse demonization, to eliminate the weakness to sunlight, perhaps even... the way to kill Muzan once and for all!
And just as her fingers were about to touch the petals, Marcus moved, dodging her.
?
Tamayo blinked in bewilderment and looked at him without understanding, her eyes full of longing, almost pleading.
"You don't take it with your hands." Marcus's smile twisted into something dangerous. "Tamayo."
No "Miss." No formalities. Just her name, bare, said like that, point-blank—and it made her heart pound.
And being as intelligent as she was, she understood instantly what he meant. The flower was between his lips. And if she couldn't take it with her hands…
The blush exploded across her face.
Neck, cheeks, ears, everything. Tomato red in half a second.
The pink haze enveloped her, the sweet scent clouded her mind, and in front of her, drawing closer slowly, Marcus's face.
Those golden pupils watching her with a desire he didn't bother to disguise.
And the flower... That flower she had dreamed of for centuries, right there, one kiss away.
'For the blue spider lily…'
Repeating that to herself, convincing herself, she closed her eyes and pressed her lips together, trembling.
And waited.
One second… Two… Three…
The warmth she expected on her lips never came. Instead, something light touched her lips. A thin stem. Placed between her lips with a soft puff of warm breath.
!
Her eyes flew open.
And there he was, centimeters away. So close she could see herself reflected in those demonic eyes. But he hadn't kissed her… He had placed the flower on her lips.
"This is the first and last time," he told her softly, with an edge underneath that cut. "The next time you close your eyes like that in my arms... I won't be such a gentleman."
"..."
Tamayo stood motionless. The flower between her lips, her pulse hammering like a war drum, and her head a complete mess.
He hadn't taken advantage…
He could have. She had given him permission without saying a word… but he didn't.
All that flirting, all those shameless lines, all those "accidental" touches... and when he had the moment in his hands, when anyone else would have crossed the line without thinking…
He respected her.
Lowering her gaze, Tamayo removed the flower from her lips with trembling fingers and pressed it against her chest.
This man...
Her heart was beating so hard she could feel it in her throat, in her temples, in her fingertips. She didn't dare look at him.
In several centuries of existence, it was the first time a man had made her feel like this… So exposed, so lost.
Not knowing what to do with her own hands.
Smiling softly, Marcus stepped back, opening the distance.
When that suffocating presence pulled away, Tamayo could breathe again. But along with the relief came something unexpected: a small pang of emptiness.
As if something warm that had been wrapping around her had withdrawn too soon.
But she crushed that feeling as fast as she could and desperately searched for a change of topic. "Wh-Where did you get it?"
"Do you know Yoriichi Tsugikuni?"
Marcus leaned against the lab table on the other side, crossing his arms, slipping back into that relaxed attitude of his.
"Tsugikuni Yoriichi?!" Tamayo's head shot up.
"The one and only." Marcus nodded. "Yoriichi's family and Tanjiro's had been friends for generations, and this flower grew in front of the grave of Yoriichi's wife."
"..."
Tamayo was stunned.
And then she started feeling so many things at once that she didn't know which one to settle on.
The urge to laugh, to cry. The urge to mock. Muzan. Herself. Everything.
Muzan...
That madman, in order to find the Blue Spider Lily, had committed so many abominable atrocities, had killed so many people...
And the answer had always been in the one place he didn't dare go near. The grave of Yoriichi's wife. The man he feared most.
How ridiculous. How pathetically ridiculous.
But she couldn't judge him, could she? Because she had done the same thing. Years searching, years researching, years going in circles... and never, not once, had it occurred to her to look there.
"It's normal that you never found it."
Marcus's voice pulled her out of her spiral. She looked at him and found those golden eyes that seemed to read her every last thought.
And they effectively did. With those new pupils, any change in her expression, no matter how slight, was like a neon sign to Marcus.
"The flower only blooms a few days a year. And on top of that, it only opens during the day." He shrugged. "Demons... naturally would have a very hard time finding it."
Last year, while he was still training on Mount Sagiri, he had gotten from Tanjiro the address of where he'd lived and the dates when the family would go to clean the graves. With that information, he'd made a lightning trip, picked the flower, and kept it.
He'd been carrying it with him ever since.
Tamayo lowered her gaze to the withered flower. "So that's why it's..."
"Dehydrated—it's been stored for a long time," Marcus finished. "Whether it's still usable or not, that's for you to figure out. And if it turns out it doesn't work, no big deal."
"In about two and a half months, another one will bloom. When the time comes, I'll go and bring you a fresh one."
Tamayo's fingers trembled around the flower.
"How is it that you seem to..." She looked at him, searching for something in his face that would explain who he really was. "...know everything?"
Marcus smiled mysteriously. "I don't necessarily know more than you. But like I said before…"
He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "If you're curious, I'd be more than happy for us to get to know each other on a deeper level."
The blush Tamayo had barely managed to tame came rushing back to her face, and she turned around so fast she nearly smacked into the shelf.
"Wh-Who... would want to get to know you on a deeper level? Don't be ridiculous."
And she began examining the flower with exaggerated concentration, her back to him.
Marcus didn't push it. He let the silence settle and turned toward the corner of the lab.
There was Nezuko. Sitting on the floor cross-legged, head tilted, watching the two of them full of curiosity. She'd been sitting there quietly the entire time, observing the back and forth.
Marcus gestured to her with his hand, calling her over.
Nezuko ran to him with quick little steps and he scooped her up in one pull.
She, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, buried her little face in the crook of his neck and started nuzzling back and forth, sniffing him.
Marcus adjusted her in his arm and turned to Tamayo.
"I won't bother you anymore. When you're done organizing all this, go get some rest. Ideas flow better with a rested mind."
With that, he left the lab for good and closed the door behind him softly.
Leaving Tamayo alone in the laboratory, holding a flower with a distant gaze.
Her heart was still beating far too fast.
She tried to focus. On the flower. On the research.
But her mind kept going somewhere else—to a smile, to golden eyes, to a warm breath that had brushed her lips without touching them.
She shook her head. 'Focus!'
But the curve of her lips wouldn't come down. No matter how hard she tried, it simply wouldn't come down.
…
The research took her a full day and night.
And Marcus kept his word. He didn't go bother her a single time during all of it.
When she finally dragged herself upstairs to her room, rubbing her temples, half dead from exhaustion, something caught her attention.
A hole.
Literally. There was a fist-sized hole right above the headboard of her bed.
She walked over with a frown, intrigued, and just as she was about to examine it—
Knock - Knock - Knock!
"Come in," she murmured in a tired voice.
The door opened and Marcus walked in with a porcelain cup in his hand. It had a lid, but even so, an aroma was escaping that... that made her swallow involuntarily.
"No need to look at the hole, I made it." He set the cup on the nightstand and pointed at the opening with his thumb. "It doesn't let light through, only air. My Breathing Technique filters in a little through there and should help you sleep more peacefully."
What he didn't say was that the hole had another function—which was to smell Tamayo's scent…
"..."
Tamayo stared at the hole, then at Marcus, then at the hole again.
She didn't know what to say.
This man always did things that caught her completely off guard.
But Marcus didn't linger. He was already at the door. "Drink it before you sleep."
When she picked up the cup and lifted the lid, Tamayo's eyes went wide.
Fresh blood.
A generous amount, still warm, with an aroma that hit her and put every nerve in her body on alert.
She recognized it instantly. This scent was unmistakable—it was Marcus's blood.
Her hand trembled as she fought to suppress the desire that was about to shatter her rationality. "M-Marcus-kun, this..."
Marcus paused at the door and glanced at her over his shoulder. "If you have to drink blood anyway, I'd rather it be mine."
"..."
"Relax, I'm perfectly healthy. The one who has a hard time is me, every time I see you."
"Pfft~"
Tamayo couldn't help but laugh.
What an insufferable man. How was she supposed to drink it like this, with him watching her, after saying something like that~?
She brought a hand to her forehead, shaking her head with feigned resignation, but her eyes drifted back to the cup.
To that dark red, thick liquid that smelled spectacular.
She raised the cup to her lips and took a small sip.
!
The flavor exploded on her tongue and coursed through her entire body like an intoxicating current.
Completely unlike any blood she had ever tasted.
Her cheeks flushed a deep crimson, her eyes went glassy, and a thin thread of blood slipped down the corner of her lips.
'WHAT A FLAVOR…!'
She took another sip. And another. Unable to stop.
"..."
Marcus watched her from the doorway. Those red cheeks, those watery eyes, those blood-stained lips drinking from his cup with that expression of…
Swallowing hard, he turned around and closed the door.
Because if he stayed one more second watching, the one who wasn't going to be a gentleman was him.
___
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