Everchanging

Maybe

!!TW!! Stalking, Obsession, Violence, Suffocation/Strangulation, CSA/SA, Blood/Injury, Hostage Situation, Suicide Ideation, Suicidal Thoughts, Vulgar/Sexual Language

"And then me and my mama went grocery shopping and she bought me a drink from the cafe!" Inosuke continued telling Genya literally everything he had done in the days his friend had been gone. Genya was starting to wonder if the boy had even taken a breath in between his sentences. "I think it was a matcha something. We should go sometime, they had juice and stuff like that! You would definitely like it, Genta! You wanna?"

"Huh? Okay, yeah. Sure, Inosuke." Genya laughed, shaking his head at the other boy's antics. This would be the first time Genya brought his friends over to his house, friends from school. It was something he had always dreamed of his whole life but Kyogo always crushed that dream for him. But here he was, walking with Inosuke, Tanjiro, and Nezuko so they could hang out at his house. He had offered for Zenitsu to come but the boy sadly declined, saying he had to stay after for homework help. Genya took notice that the blond boy seemed much more upset today, but he didn't call him on it. And Muichirou had a family reunion he needed to go to, but he promised to come some other time. Genya smiled at the idea of having his friends over more than once.

"I've always wondered what Mr. Shinazugawa's place looked like." Nezuko hummed, her hair swishing behind her. "I imagine that it looks like one of the seven rings of Hell."

"Anyone else wanna place their bets? We have one person for Hell." Genya played along, urging himself to ignore the flighty feeling in his chest. He chalked it up to nerves, but it felt like there were eyes watching him no matter how far he walked.

"I think it looks like a normal house?" Tanjiro cocked his head, being harassed by a loud Inosuke, who whined at his bet.

"You're being boring Monjiro! Guess something funny!" Inosuke kept looking behind them, he swore he had seen that lady walking behind them when they left school. He was about to say something when she turned the corner, it seemed that Inosuke was just being paranoid. He shrugged, going back to his torment to Tanjiro.

"Well, we've got longer so Tanjiro can change his bet." Genya tried to mediate the chaos. "We're taking the long way instead of the shortcut."

"Shortcut?" Nezuko questioned, she hadn't been around this part of town. Whenever they went through it, it was in a car so Nezuko didn't have the chance to get a feel for the streets and directions around here.

"Yeah, if we turned the corner back there then we could cut through a park and an alley. It's faster but I don't like going through alleys, so I usually just go this way." Genya shrugged, motioning to the corner they had just passed. It was the corner that the lady had turned down, Inosuke noticed.

"Do you have any neighbors?" He found himself asking, Genya nodded easily.

"It's an apartment complex so a bunch of people live there. But I like Ms. Tomi and Fuku." Genya smiled a bit as he thought of the old lady and her granddaughter. "They own a restaurant so sometimes they'll give me and Nemi leftovers."

The kids continued to chatter about neighbors and theories about Sanemi as they made their way closer to the house. By the time they had climbed the stairs and stood in front of the door, the feeling of eyes had abandoned Genya. He was thankful, he wanted to enjoy his time with his friends without his stupid brain ruining it for everyone.

So he rooted around in his pocket, fetching his key to unlock the door. He was confused to realize that the door was already unlocked, the key doing absolutely nothing. The last person to be at the house was Sanemi, when he left to pick his brother up from the hospital. So it was likely that he had forgotten to lock the door. Genya would just remind him when he got home later.