Pinky Promise {InoTan} (hiatus)

8

Yes yes, I know the whole coma situation isn't realistic- bear with me for this, I know nothing on the subject.

Also side note- I never meant for this to be a long story like my others- really I'm planning for maybe ten chapters total? Maybe up to fifteen if I can't wrap it up quickly.

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For the next few days, Inosuke continued trying to decide his standpoint on holding hands with Tanjiro. His visits had become more brief, however, because Aoi said Tanjiro needed to be monitored more closely as he was 'showing signs of activity'. Whatever that meant, it must be a good thing. Zenitsu perked up and got excited when Inosuke told him about it, so the younger one had no reason to believe otherwise.

The nights became restless and long, with slowly passing hours being spent staring up at the ceiling, or at the door, waiting for any news of change in Tanjiro's condition. Nezuko was happy too, often speaking about her brother when she poked her head into either of the boys' rooms. Inosuke himself didn't understand what was going on too well, just that his friend might be waking up soon, after over a month of being asleep. With his limited patience, Inosuke found all the waiting to be very boring. He'd gotten bored of the little pastimes he'd developed, like harassing Zenitsu, or stealing from the kitchen, or chasing squirrels across the yard. The fluffy animals had stopped jumping the fence after a while, and ceased to appear in the gardens.

One fateful morning, which Inosuke was spending by walking around the grounds of the Butterfly Mansion, he noticed a kakushi sprinting across the veranda with some medical supplies in hand. Maybe half-n-half haori guy's arm started bleeding again, he figured. What was his name..Tom..ikea? He glanced over at Zenitsu's window. I wonder how Zenchu doesn't get bored. He hasn't even gotten out of bed except to use the bathroom. Huffing loudly, Inosuke started to follow in the direction the kakushi had run. He had nothing more interesting to do, after all.

Stepping up onto the low porch, Inosuke padded off towards the open door leading inside. The medic had flung it open in a rush, hastily entering and forgetting to close it behind her. He crept along the hallway, and on his way to Giyuu's room, he almost missed the commotion in Tanjiro's. Almost.

He paused outside the door, glancing inside at the group of doctors clustered around Tanjiro's bed. Aoi wasn't there yet. He could pick up only snippets of the chatter, quiet "how are you feeling"s and "does anything hurt"s breaking through the noise. Inosuke squinted. Why're they asking Danjudo that stuff if he's asleep? He sidled in through the crack in the door, leaning far to the side trying to get a look at what was going on. Despite his efforts, he simply couldn't see through the crowd. Huffing annoyedly, he dropped to the floor and crawled through them. Upon reaching the edge of the bed, he popped his head up over the side of the mattress.

Tanjiro was sitting— sitting, not laying down— propped up against some pillows. He had a look of mixed confusion, concern, and dulled pain, but some of that lifted when he noticed Inosuke's boar mask peeking up at him. "Hey, Inosuke.." he smiled slightly, his voice hoarse.

The boy blinked. He stayed crouched there for a second before taking the address as an invitation to jump onto the bed. Springing up and almost knocking down a kakushi as he did so, Inosuke pounced up onto the sheets, immediately getting comfortable sitting cross-legged in front of Tanjiro. "Why does your voice sound like that?" He asked.

While this was happening, the doctors were in a state of confusion, wondering who let the strange child in.

"It's what happens when.. when people sleep for a while.. Speaking of which- how long have I been out-?"

"One moon cycle," Inosuke informed him matter-of-factly.

"A month??" Tanjiro exclaimed, then promptly proceeded to cough, as he had strained his sore throat. "Is everyone okay?"

The doctors looked around amongst themselves. "For the most part?" They decided that was a fair answer.

"Mostly?" Tanjiro wilted.

"Half n' half haori guy lost an arm, Neminemi lost a few fingers, Monechu broke his legs.." Inosuke counted off the injuries on his fingers. When he saw how that seemed to make Tanjiro sad, he reached over and poked his chest to get his attention back. "That was the demon king guy, though. You didn't do anything bad to us," he stated.

(WHY IS 'neminemi' SO FLUFFING CUTE- )

Tanjiro mustered a small smile, appreciating the caring gesture. Some people might have said Inosuke was just being considerate, but being empathetic at all was unusual for him. So whenever he could, he savored those little sweet moments.

Sitting back and tucking his hands between his legs, Inosuke frowned at the doctors still surrounding them. They obviously didn't want to interrupt, but simultaneously needed to make sure Tanjiro was doing okay. A few had disappeared, their spur-of-the-moment excitement having faded and allowed them to return to whatever they'd been doing before running in. One of them edged closer, slowly reaching for a stethoscope while keeping his eyes trained on Inosuke. The boar head child had bitten him once when he tried to tend to him during the battle against Muzan, and he didn't want a repeat of the incident.

Inosuke growled at him when he tried to check Tanjiro's heartbeat. Everyone else had dispersed at this point, acknowledging that only one doctor was necessary here.

"Inosuke." Tanjiro checked him. "He's only trying to help."

"Yeah, it's not like I'm going to try to murder either of you with a damn stethoscope," the medic muttered, stepping back and setting the tool down when he was done. After he did a few more simple tests, he wandered back over to the door. "I'll uh- let Miss Aoi know that you're awake," he said, "if she hasn't heard already." Turning to Inosuke he squinted at him skeptically. "No.. biting.." he instructed, pointing at him with a finger as he left.

Inosuke huffed, crossing his arms. "I'll bite if I want to.." he growled.

"That's not a very nice thing to do, Inosuke," Tanjiro sighed quietly as he relaxed into the pillows set up behind him. His eyes unfocused slightly as he glanced out the window. "It's.. February then, right?"

Inosuke shrugged. "It's cold."

"Yeah." Tanjiro brought his gaze back inside, looking around the alarmingly bright room. The sun was positioned just right so that it shone right through the windowpanes, lighting up the entire space. Apparently it was irritating Inosuke, because he quickly leaned over and tugged the curtains closed. "How's Kanao?" Tanjiro asked. Inosuke hadn't mentioned her earlier.

"She's fine. Her eyes look funny." Inosuke let himself fall onto his back, stretching his arms up for a moment before throwing them out to either side of him. He heard Tanjiro hum quietly to himself. Perhaps he was wishing he could get up and make sure everyone was alright on his own. Inosuke sighed. He couldn't help with that. The most he could do was to sit there and make sure Tanjiro didn't get lonely.

The two went quiet for a bit, sharing the comfortable silence. Just as Inosuke was about to fall asleep, a little noise, almost undetectable, made him turn his head. He blinked, sitting up and tilting his head. Tanjiro was crying.

Inosuke was drawing a blank. Wasn't there a 'right thing to do' in this situation? He obviously had no idea what that was, but he didn't want Tanjiro to cry anymore. Seeing him sad made Inosuke feel upset, too. He usually does the hug thing with Nekoko when he's droopy, Inosuke thought. Figuring it couldn't be that hard, he sidled up the mattress and sat down next to Tanjiro. He paused for a second, wondering what the best way to do it was while he tugged off his boar head. He dropped that onto the ground underneath them. Eventually he decided it didn't really matter how, and just pulled Tanjiro into a delicate embrace. (Being careful to not cause him any harm, of course.)

Inosuke hugged his arms around Tanjiro's torso, adopting a somewhat blank expression as he tried to figure out how he felt about this. Handholding was one thing- this was an entirely different situation. They were roughly the same height, so he just rest his head on the still-tearful boy's shoulder.

When Tanjiro calmed himself enough to realize he was being held, he returned the embrace with his good arm and smiled softly. "Thanks, Inosuke."

Inosuke only grunted quietly in response, but refused to let go.

That was okay, though. Tanjiro was more than happy to stay the way they were.

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:)