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Inosuke didn’t hate it when they were in between missions, but he sure as hell could be restless while he waited. There was an itch he couldn’t scratch, always bothering him, always somewhere he couldn't reach, somewhere hidden that would only go away when he was in the heat of battle. He enjoyed it very much, after all, the feeling of demons being laid to waste by his blades, seeing their bodies crumble and drift away like ash in the wind, never to bother or hurt anyone again. He had to show the world, his underlings included, that he was the strongest and he could protect all, including them, and he could do it all on his own without help.
So he thought.
Tanjirou was a righteous boy, who effectively used his head a little less literally than he did. At times, he’d use it physically, with a strong strike from one forehead to the other, but for most of their battles, it was what was inside that big head of his that really helped decide the outcome. He was always boasting about teamwork and getting along, always coming up with good ideas that Inosuke was both amazed by and incredibly frustrated at. Working alone had always been what he knew after all, but after meeting the two other Demon Slayers he had learned to call his colleagues, things had changed very quickly.
Although he still insisted on doing everything on his own, and when Tanjirou offered to be at his side, he let him. But only as an underling, as someone who would follow him as he trekked forward onto his grand stage. So that he could show him that he didn’t need help to be the strongest.
“But you like to train with me.” Tanjirou thought out loud, as the two of them sat on the engawa of the butterfly estate. The sun burned down on the grass before them, bringing down upon them a relentless heat, but the breeze that swept through the valley that clear summer day had managed to keep them cool. It was a perfect day for some sparring, was all Inosuke could think about, and it seemed that his Monjirou here couldn’t help but think it too. “In a way, that’s working together to become stronger, isn’t it?”
Inosuke gazed at him from behind the dead blue eyes of his boar’s mask.
“No. Defeating you in battle means that I have used you as a stepping stone to go upwards into greatness!”
“Hm.” Tanjirou nodded subtly, and when the breeze came by again, his earrings danced above his shoulders in a distracting motion. He tucked his fingers behind his ear to settle one, pinching the card between the pads of his thumb and forefinger and then looked up toward the sky. “Sure, but that’s not really how I see it.”
“Who cares how you see it!” Inosuke jabbed a finger against the other Slayer’s arm, then he sprung up onto his feet to walk out onto the grass. They were dressed in their infirmary attire, since they’d only recently recovered from their last onslaught of wounds, but he still felt free and flexible enough to move within the mint colored pants and shirt. So he stood his ground in the middle of the yard, pointing yet again to make sure the red-head knew just who he was challenging and he barked out his proposal, loud enough for all in the area to hear. “Spar with me! I’ll show you what it means to defeat you for greater power!”
No matter how loud he got or how imposing he knew he could be, Tanjirou never got mad at him or scowled or even turned him down. He knew that the Kamado boy would accept his invitation. It was as if he didn’t have the heart to refuse him. That was good, though; Inosuke needed obedient minions around him, who would drop anything for him. So, he was pleased to see the other Slayer place his feet on the ground and stand with his usual patient expression written on his features.
That face he always made at him...it pissed him off. But he also liked to see it, especially when it was directed toward him. It was a strange and conflicting emotion that buzzed in his mind, like a raging nest of bees, so...he drowned it out in the only way he knew how.
“Fight me!”
“Only for training purposes.” Tanjirou called out, as he took a stance and waited for his first move. Inosuke clicked his tongue and sneered at him from behind the mask. Ever since that day they’d met, the other slayer had always refused to fight him with the same intimidating passion he’d carried up until the moment he’d smashed their heads together. Ever since then, it had been nothing but smiling with his lips, smiling with his eyes, and a warm fuzzy feeling burying itself deep in his body that would make him feel strange. “It will probably do us some good to move around anyway.”
Damn it all, of course he would find a positive outlook to his inevitable defeat by his hands.
Inosuke huffed outwardly, then hunched over to ready himself.
Then the wind picked up, sounding windchimes in the distance, rustling the leaves in all the trees, brushing red hair across a fire like scar.
Inosuke knew how to be patient when it came to hunting his prey. In order to have a swift victory, one must wait for the opportune moment to strike and that moment was now, as Tanjirou closed one eye and broke his stance to raise a hand to his hair, pushing it back and out of the way.
In that split second, Inosuke pounced.
“Oh!” The red-head gasped in surprise as the wild boar came barreling toward him, with a fist swinging low to land where he knew it would hurt. He managed to move quick enough to block most of his force, but the blow still knocked Tanjirou back a few steps, back until Inosuke had him moving completely. “That was a little unfair, don’t you think?” He asked him this between each swipe of his hands to push his fists away. With a grunt, Inosuke grabbed onto his wrist instead, surprising him, and rolled his body to the side, bringing his legs up to hook around the other boy’s neck and bringing him down into the dirt.
Even while Inosuke cackled in pride for his swift take down, Tanjirou rose back up calmly and faced him with a smile. Though now, that grin of his had an edge to it, with his eyebrows furrowed and determination alight in his deep cherry red eyes. It was an expression that drove a sharp knife of adrenaline and excitement through Inosuke. It scratched the itch that he’d always had to deal with, because even though the other Slayer wasn’t angry at him like he’d been that day they met, he’d now become just as fierce and that was just as good, if not, better .
“Alright...I’ll be serious now.” Tanjirou informed him, even as the breeze made a second attempt at distracting him.
Though still, his red eyes locked onto the large blue ones of his boar mask without wavering.
Inosuke couldn’t help the giddy chuckle that bubbled up in his throat and then, without warning, he came forward quickly to start again.
The rest of their sparring match went on for a while. How long exactly, he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t keeping track of where the sun was placing itself as time went on. He was too distracted by their battle, the passionate strides against each other and the way his Slayer partner would on occasion, effortlessly avoid even his most flexible attacks. He thought that perhaps he’d gotten too predictable for the red-head over their time knowing each other, so he tried changing things up on the fly, and just as he expected, Tanjirou was thrown for a loop, even getting pushed back against the bamboo fence with nowhere to go. He tried to cage him in, but the other boy was quick on his feet, quick to come up with one of his many successful plans, and he used the fence as leverage to get above him.
Next thing he knew, they were rolling across the dirt and when they came to a stop, Tanjirou was on top of him, holding his arms down by the wrists and his boar mask had slipped part ways off.
“Are...are you done?” Tanjirou asked him, between heavy breaths and the boar beneath him squirmed. Inosuke could see him better now that part of his face had been exposed, so the finer details of his face were more clear, the red flush in his cheeks from exertion and his stray hairs hanging in his face. It made him feel strange, made him want to get away so he could cool off and hide his face. “It’s getting pretty windy out. We should head inside.”
Tanjirou continued to hold him down by the wrists as he spoke and suddenly, Inosuke was very aware of where the rest of him was. On top of his waist with his shins pressing down on his thighs. His face now getting closer by the second, with a curious lift of his brow, reminding him that his mask was still part ways off.
“You okay, Inosuke?”
“Get off me.” Inosuke was so hot. The wind had picked up even stronger and the battle was over, but his skin felt like it was burning .
“Oh, right.” For some reason, the other boy’s expression turned bashful as he slid off of him and reached up to fix his messy hair. It had gotten all over the place throughout their sparring, but not just because of the wind. Though he didn’t know why he cared so much about how it looked, his hair was fine as it was. Then again...Inosuke wasn’t really the type to care much about his own hair, as it was a complete frazzled mess when he finally sat up and missed catching the mask in time before it slipped all the way off.
For some reason, every time he takes the damn thing off, Tanjirou forgets how to form words.
It wasn’t that bad before, but recently...it’s been rather noticeable.
“Oh, crap!”
A feminine voice from behind called out in distress and both he and Tanjirou looked back to find Aoi, who’d come running from inside the manor with a basket in hand to grab the laundry as it flapped violently on the lines. She cursed again as she reached for the sheets, saving some, but unfortunately losing some others in the unexpected gust of wind that swept through the Mansion grounds. The sheets took to the sky, carried relentlessly around by invisible hands and it only took one look from Tanjirou for Inosuke to understand what they’d be doing next.
Placing his mask back on to shield his face from his own whip-like hair, Inosuke stood up and took this as an opportunity to become stronger. He needed to be fast after all, or else the sheets would be lost.
He and Tanjirou both sprinted away from each other, counting three runaways and locking in on two. Inosuke went for the one that had gained more distance, putting together that the wind may take it much further and at greater speeds than the rest if he doesn’t get it now. It was just some stupid white sheet that could easily be replaced, but he knew that if he didn’t help somehow, then Tanjirou would probably get disappointed in him and Aoi...well that pigtailed girl may skip out on giving him extras for his meal that evening too. All the more inspiration to work harder, run faster, jump higher onto the tree at the very edge of the garden and reach for what luckily got caught on a branch just before it managed to escape the grounds.
He turned back to the rest of the estate with a wild grin on his face, hidden behind grey fur and pink snout but quite apparent in the way he cheered for himself and skipped back over to where Aoi stood holding onto what she managed to save with brute strength. He helped her stuff the one he’d caught into the basket and as she placed a hand over it, he turned to find Tanjirou returning with one as well.
“The last one is this way.” He ran back in the direction he came and Inosuke followed without hesitating. “It’s really high up.” Said the red-head, over the howling wind that grazed passed their ears. The gust had slowed by then, but not enough to drop the sheet, but fortunately, it seemed that Tanjirou had hatched another one of his stupid, brilliant plans as he abruptly spun around and held out his hands in a basket formation in front of him.
He didn’t even have to ask.
Inosuke stepped into his palms and let the boy lift him into the air with all his strength. He went higher than what he could normally jump on his own, which was exhilarating to say the least, as he reached his hand out and snagged the large white sheet from the clutches of the violent summer breeze. He was so distracted by how triumphant he felt for being able to catch the damn thing that he didn’t even realize gravity had begun to pull him back down rather quickly. Throwing his arms up, with the sheet clutched between his fingers, Inosuke howled in victory, all the way down, until suddenly, he was being caught himself, in the arms of Tanjirou Kamado, who’s expression twisted in discomfort as he fought to keep his knees steady.
Oh.
“...thanks guys.” Aoi pulled the cloth from his weakened grasp, seemingly noticing nothing about what was going on in Inosuke’s mind. “You didn’t have to do that but, I appreciate it.”
“It’s no problem.” Tanjirou grinned at her and that was all Inosuke could see from behind his mask. Smiling Tanjirou. Tanjirou who’d thrown him in the air and then caught him with hardly a single stumble. Who still held onto him, like he was nothing. For some reason that pissed him off but it also made him stupidly happy.
“You guys should be resting.” Aoi’s voice was heard again but now it was further away. Inosuke could see, with the tiny sliver of spacial awareness he used at all times, that she was in the doorway to the mansion, now scolding them before closing the door. “Get inside!”
The wind blew against his mask and Inosuke’s hands sprung up to hold it down, lest it get swept away too. He wouldn’t mind running to catch it–it would be fun actually–but for some reason, he really didn’t want Tanjirou to see his face now.
“Good job, Inosuke. See what happens when you work as a team?” Tanjirou asked him this with amusement in his tone, as he finally set him down on the ground and took his hands back to rest them casually at his sides. “I couldn’t have gotten that last one without you and it was the same the other way around for you.”
He was right. God damn it he was right. This was like their first mission together, fighting on that disgusting mountain up against the cunning web weaving spider family. He’d gotten him to work together then too...and it succeeded .. Not to mention, he liked it. Working side by side with Tanjirou made him feel like smiling too, made him feel all fuzzy inside, like he can't stand still and can only see fireflies and radiance settle around the other boy’s head and shoulders.
Ah he has the urge to smash their faces together. It’s an aggressive and violent response to the way his heart palpitated in Tanjirou’s presence, but it’s what he wanted to do, so he’d do it. Before the red haired Slayer could walk back to the building without him, Inosuke tore his mask off and barked his name over the sound of the bracing winds. Cherry eyes peered back at him curiously, as his hand then reached out to snag the mint colored fabric of his shirt and pull him back toward him. He then did as he felt the impulse to–smashed his nose, forehead and mouth into his own–and despite feeling the trickle of blood from his forehead, he was pleased to see the same crimson red substance leak from the other boy’s nostril.
He looked cute like that, red faced and bleeding.
Inosuke licked his lips and put the mask back on, before he could crack under the pressure of his own making and do it again. And as Tanjirou, for some reason, placed his fingers against his lips in what looked like curiosity and wonder, he spun around and left the scene to get inside like they were told.
Inosuke had an itch that was rather difficult to scratch unless he was out on the field and destroying demons with the serrated edge of his swords...but that battle he’d taken on that day and that brief moment in the sky, with awaiting, strong arms below him, he didn’t feel a single irritance to distract his mind from the calm. Just warmth and pride and contentment.
He and Tanjirou should do this again sometime, he thinks.
Yeah and....maybe he could carry him some more too.