Partners - Muitan Demon Slayer

Chapter 10

Tanjiro

He took his seat at his normal spot but he was a little surprised to see that Muichiro wasn't at his desk already. He suddenly felt very anxious, he had never answered his texts either. He fidgeted with his pencil and took a few glances at the door every few seconds.

Muichiro walked into the room a couple of minutes later and sat down. Tanjiro noticed that his cheeks were puffy and his eyes were red. Had he been crying? They made eye contact for a few seconds. Tanjiro flashed him a smile. Muichiro gave him a small smile then quickly looked away.

Maybe he was embarrassed that he was crying? He shouldn't be embarrassed about that, He wanted to help him feel better if he could. He was about to stand up to talk to Muichiro but the bell rang and the teacher stood up from her desk. The class went on as usual but Tanjiro's thoughts were still occupied by Muichiro. How could he cheer him up? Was today not a good time to tell him how he felt? He sighed and glanced behind him at Muichiro who had his head down. Was he crying?

Before he knew it, the class ended and everyone stood up and left the classroom. Tanjiro noticed Muichiro coming by his chair and he opened his mouth to say something to him, but Muichiro just walked by him without saying anything. He followed the rest of their classmates into the hall. Zenitsu and Inosuke stood in the hallway waiting for him.

"What's up? You seem a little sad," Zenitsu wasn't looking at Tanjiro. It looked like he was staring straight ahead at Muichiro as he walked away.

"Yeah, it looked like Muichiro just ignored you in the classroom," Inosuke added.

Zenitsu swatted as him and made a quiet 'shh' noise.

"What? I'm just saying." Inosuke shrugged.

"Will you shut up? You're so stupid sometimes, you know that?" Zenitsu shook his head then turned his attention to Tanjiro who had grew quiet.

"Can I tell you guys something? We might be a little late for second period though." Tanjiro glanced up at them. He was planning on coming out so he could get advice on Muichiro. None of them had any dating experience, and his friends were sort of dumb at times but maybe they would know how to him. They were questioning him a lot lately but he decided they were probably just concerned about his friendship with Muichiro. Especially since people were spreading rumors.

"I don't mind missing math." Zenitsu laughed then poked Inosuke on the shoulder. "You don't mind right?"

Inosuke shrugged. "Not really."

The three boys sat in the stairwell. Tanjiro sat in front of them and both of them watched as he tried to figure out his next words.

"This is really important, alright? No joking." He glanced at Inosuke who looked like he was about to protest but thought better of it. Zenitsu stiffled a laugh.

"Yeah, well I like guys."

They stared at him. Nobody said anything for a couple of minutes. Tanjiro braced himself for the worst but nothing bad came from them.

"Really?" Zenitsu's expression was hard to read.

"Um yeah.." Tanjiro stared at the floor.

"That's okay," Inosuke looked towards Zenitsu who nodded in aggreement.

"You guys don't mind?" He looked up at them.

"Mind what?" Zenitsu blinked. Inosuke looked just as confused.

"That I'm, you know, bi?" Tanjiro almost didn't believe that it was this easy.

"Uh, no I guess not. We've been friends for a while dude, I don't really care," Inosuke shrugged.

Oh. Tanjiro smiled a little, that went a lot better than he expected. He knew they acted like siblings but he thought they wouldn't accept him. "Then why did you guys act so weird when I was with Muichiro?"

Zenitsu spoke up this time, "Cause you effin' ditched us for him. Plus the rumors about you two on top of that. It was weird. Muichiro isn't someone you'd normally hang out with either."

"I did ditch you guys, didn't I? I'm so sorry I just wanted to be his friend and now I like him more than that. It's so stressful." He sighed.

"So you do like him? I knew it! How are you going to tell him?" Zenitsu leaned in now.

"I'm not sure, that's also why I wanted to talk to you guys about it," He admitted. Sure he was popular and most popular people had been on tons of dates, but he wasn't like them.

"Just walk up to him and say 'I have feelings for you, Muichiro' and then ask him out on a date," Zenitsu suggested. "I don't know, you know I always get rejected." He glanced over at Inosuke. "And he's not any better."

Tanjiro laughed a little. He liked that they were back together again arguing like siblings. He sort of missed eating lunch with them. He wondered how things would be if he got in a relationship with Muichiro. Would he want to meet his friends? He hoped so.

"Alright alright, I'll go with that." He looked at Inosuke. "What about you? Do you have any ideas?"

He thought about it, "You can get him a gift or something like that. He looked sad so maybe it would cheer him up."

Tanjiro smiled. "Thank you guys so much, if this goes well I'll introduce you to him and we can all hangout. It'll be like it was before, just with Muichiro."

Inosuke shrugged. "No need to thank us. We're your friends."

Zenitsu nodded. "Plus if you date him the girls will finally notice us." He pointed towards him and Inosuke.

Tanjiro laughed. "Of course. I'm going to class now so I'll text you later about how it went." He stood up and adjusted his backpack.

They nodded towards him and he left the stairwell. In the hallway, Tanjiro almost bumped into Muichiro. He looked like he was in a hurry and he wasn't paying attention to where he was going.

"Muichiro?"

Muichiro didn't say anything, he just kept walking. Tanjiro followed him and reached for his arm to stop him.

"Muichiro, what's wrong? Did something happen? Or someone..?" Muichiro avoided making eye contact with him but he moved around to look at his face. "You were crying this morning right? Let me help, I can help you." He frowned.

Muichiro's expression changed. He shook his head 'no.' He used his free hand to remove Tanjiro's grip on his arm. "I'm okay, I'm just going to the bathroom."

"Are you sure?" Tanjiro noticed that the bathrooms were the other way and he had his backpack with him. "Call me after school, okay?"

"Mhm." He turned away and wiped at his face. He just walked off without saying anything else to him.

The bell rang and Tanjiro stood in the middle of the hallway as the other students poured out. He watched as Muichiro turned down the hall and vanished.