Pinky Promise {InoTan} (hiatus)

6

When Aoi came back to boot Inosuke from Tanjiro's room, she found him sprawled messily across the end of the bed, quite obviously pretending to be asleep. His occasional snickers gave him away. She sighed, walking over and tapping the crown of his head. "Time to get out," she said. "You've been in here long enough."

Inosuke groaned. He pushed himself up, returning to sitting with his legs crossed. "Why?" He questioned, crossing his arms.

"Because you both need rest." She directed him to the door. "Now go back to your room."

He paused, then slowly reached behind him and gripped the blankets as if to assert that he wasn't going anywhere.

Aoi huffed. "And we thought Agatsuma was clingy.." she muttered as she turned her back.

"Hey!! I'm nothing like that guy!"

"I'll believe it when I see it," Aoi pressed. In a rush to prove himself to be better than Zenitsu, Inosuke jumped off the bed and ran out of the room and down the hallway. Aoi followed him out, but stayed in the door. "And get some rest!" she called after him.

Grumpily, Inosuke returned to his room. He faceplanted onto his bed, seizing handfuls of blankets to pull over himself. With the way he'd yanked on them, they didn't even fully cover his body, but he didn't have the energy or the will to fix them. He figured someone would bring him food in a bit, so until then, he would sleep.

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And sleep he did. The cycle of eating, checking on Tanjiro- who was still peacefully comatose-, and sleeping, became Inosuke's life for every day of a whole month. It helped that he couldn't do much else without hurting himself more than he already was. It made him antsy and impatient to be stuck practically immobile for so long, but the doctors never gave up on making sure he took his medicine, got new bandages, had his healing wounds seen to, and that he sat pretty and quiet through the ordeal. Zenitsu was worse about it than he was, still retaining an aversion for bad tasting medicine. The two boys didn't see much of each other during their stay- mainly due to Zenitsu's legs still being broken, but he didn't get along with Inosuke very well anyways. Sometimes the younger would pop his head into the older's room to steal an apple or something, but that was pretty much it.

"Get out of my room, you dumb boar!!" Zenitsu shrieked. "Quit stealing my stuff!"

Inosuke chuckled underneath his mask. He wandered over to the small bedside table, standing still for a moment before snatching a pair of tangerines and bolting out the door. Behind him, Zenitsu groaned heavily, muttering curses under his breath before laying himself back down.

Fumbling with the orange fruits, Inosuke tried to peel one of them like he'd seen Aoi do. Unfortunately, he couldn't figure out where to start, and just ended up just lifting his mask to take a bite of the thing like it was an apple. Everyone should do it like this, he praised himself. This way is quicker.

Tucking the other tangerine into his pocket, Inosuke continued to munch on his snack as he made his way to Tanjiro's room. He'd hide in there for a few hours, if no one told him to leave. Even then, he would probably refuse and sit in a corner while they did whatever they had to do. Maybe, just maybe, he was getting clingy.

Inosuke slid the door open with one foot, shutting it behind him with his heel once he'd gone inside. Flopping onto the end of the bed, like he usually did, Inosuke brought out the second tangerine and, reaching out, placed it on Tanjiro's stomach.

Aoi told him one time that he should try talking to Tanjiro, that sometimes, people in comas could still hear it when people talked to them. Inosuke, of course, dismissed the idea as being dumb. However, he did make a point to bring his friend something each time he visited. It was never anything special, usually just something he snatched or picked up somewhere, like a handful of acorns, a pebble, a leaf, anything. After setting down his tribute, he returned to laying face-down on his belly. "Chinetsu would be the one to hear while he's asleep," Inosuke grumbled into the sheets. "Panshiro would be able to smell stuff, probably. Ouchie doesn't know anything."

Inosuke didn't know what compelled him to spend so much time in Tanjiro's room. He never even did anything when he was there, only laying down some more and wondering when he'd wake up. Maybe it was that something about being near him made Inosuke feel safe.

At first, Aoi had been concerned that Inosuke's usually wild and energetic nature would be a disruption, but she was surprised to find that he acted a lot tamer when he was around the sleeping boy. So, she was alright now with his near-constant visits, as long as he didn't get in the way of the doctors.

Lifting his face out of the covers, Inosuke fixed his mask. I'm bored. Everyone's saying that there aren't any more demons.. So I guess that means I can't cut up a bunch of stuff with my swords anymore. Inosuke glanced at Tanjiro. What're we supposed to do now, since there's no demons to fight?

He let that thought sit in his head for a bit. Eventually, he turned over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, throwing his arms out to either side of him. Are we even gonna get new swords..? He wondered.

He must've been laying like that for at least an hour. At some point he fell asleep, and from there, drifted in and out of consciousness for a while. It was only after the third time that Inosuke realized he was cold. It was early February after all, and the hospital-provided clothing wasn't the best at keeping the person wearing it warm. He considered stealing a blanket off of Tanjiro, but a twinge in his heart let him know he'd regret it after, so he got up to go find one himself.

He returned a few minutes later with a big blanket, which he'd gotten from his room. Curling back up how he had been before, he yanked the pillowy sheet of fabric over him and disappeared under it completely. With an extra dramatic sigh of boredom, Inosuke closed his droopy eyes again. "Just wake up already, Tonchiro."

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Sorry if this chapter reads weirdly- it's really just meant to be a bridge into the next one, so I have something to build plot off of.

Have a great rest of your day/night you beautiful, lovely demons!