Take Your Hands Off My Neck and Hold On To the Ghost Of My Body

Know It's For The Better

The fireplace flickered brightly, flames reaching up towards the sky.

Muichiro sat with the others, huddled by the fire. It was dark now. Cold and dark.

The silence in the room was awkward, as the six of them took in their near death experience.

" I miss how it was before." Sumi mumbled. Everyone seemed to nod in agreement. Demons were better then zombies. Much better.

"So... Did you have like a girlfriend or something before all this?" Senjuro asked suddenly, trying to lighten the mood. It wasn't a very good attempt. The tears in his eyes made his voice wobble as he spoke.

Muichiro looked at the ground, thinking of fireworks, and purple eyes, and new years eve.

"Something like that."

...........................................................................

The next couple of hours consisted of just questions. Talking about their lives before the apocalypse.

They had known each other before, but they hadn't really known each other.

Senjuro and the girls had tried to pry information out of Muichiro about his 'Secret girlfriend', but he'd kept his mouth shut.

Eventually, he dismissed himself from the group, taking a seat at the window and gazing at the sky

He searched for the sight of the moon to comfort him, but it must have been a new moon. That or the menacing clouds of smoke were blocking it.

Only a few stars were visible, small tiny dots of light against the endless black of the night.

Muichiro wondered if Genya could see the stars, wherever he was. If he was even alive.

...........................................................................

When Muichiro woke up, it was just Senjuro.

"The girls went to find some water." Senjuro told him, before he could ask.

Muichiro nodded, couldn't argue with that. Running from zombies gets you thirsty.

His sat down by the empty fireplace, kicked at the charred sticks.

A large bandage wrapped around Senjuro's leg caught his attention. That hadn't been there before.

"I didn't know you got injured yesterday."

Senjuro stiffed, pulling his leg close to himself.

"It's just a scratch, from the zombies nails." He replied quickly.

Muichiro looked him up and down. Senjuro had been quick to defend himself from a seemingly normal question. It was likely he was just still shaken up from almost dying, but Muichiro was still suspicious.

"What me to take a look?"

Senjuro seemed to lean further away.

"Why?"

"To make sure it's not infected. Or probably get Aoi to look. Isn't she a nurse or something?"

Senjuro shook his head.

"It's fine, It's only a little scratch."

"That bandage is covering like half your leg, and you haven't tied it very well by the way."

Senjuro looked down, staring at the loose bandages, most of it just laying on his leg.

He bit his nails nervously, pools of tears forming in his eyes.

Muichiro was already connecting the dots in his brain, as he leaned forward, pulling the bandages off gently. It only took a single pull and they slid off his leg, pooling on the ground.

Nothing, not even his mental preparations could warn him about the sight underneath.

A massive chunk of skin had been torn off the boy's leg, leaving a deep, bloody gash. The outside of the wound was turning sickening colours of green and black, like rotting meat.

"I'm scared." Senjuro choked out. "I don't wanna become one of those things."

Muichiro held his breath.

By the looks of the bite, Senjuro would only have a couple hours, a day at most, before he was fully turned.

Muichiro only really had two options here.

Lie or tell the truth.

He thought for a moment, fighting with himself.

The poor kid had been through enough, a lie would give him the tiniest bit of comfort.... but he deserved to know.

"Where's your gun."

Muichiro spoke softly, looking down at the floor.

Senjuro sniffled quietly, tears slipping down his cheeks.

"My bag."

Muichiro stood up, slowly walking to the bag and rummaging around inside, pulling out a pistol.

He couldn't bring himself to look a Senjuro as he flicked the safety off and loaded it.

The smaller boy's sobs were the only sound in the room.

"You want to leave the others a note?"

Muichiro couldn't tell if he nodded or not, but he must have, because there was a shuffle of paper as Senjuro grabbed the paper and scribbled out a note for Aoi and the butterfly girls.

As he finished, Muichiro tried to swallow the guilt washing over him.

He looked Senjuro in the eye as he raised the gun, both hands gripping it tightly.

Senjuro looked so scared. His eyes red and puffy from crying, face still wet from tears. His lip quivered as he stared down the cold dark barrel of the gun.

"I'm sorry." Was all Muichiro could manage to whisper.

He looked away as he pulled the trigger, the crack of the gun echoing through the silence.

Hopefully heaven would be kinder than this earth.

Blood splattered across his face, and he let the gun fall to the floor.

"I'm really sorry."

................................................................

Muichiro had left without taking anything with him.

None of it was his to take.

He couldn't bear the thought of having to face the girls, so he'd left Senjuro's note on the door for them, so they would know before they opened it.

No matter how hard he tried, the blood wouldn't go away. He could still feel it on his face.

Now he was alone again, in the same position as before.

It was his fault.

He was the one who had decided to go to that store, it was his fault Senjuro had been bitten.

It was Muichiro's fault he was dead.

He wondered if Kyojuro was hating him from heaven. Cursing him for killing his brother. The one person he cared for. He remembered Tanjiro saying something about when the Flame Hashira had died, asking the boy to make sure his brother would be alright.

I'm sorry Rengoku. He thought to himself. I'm sorry to both of you.

Hopefully they could hear him from the afterlife. They didn't have to forgive him, just know how sorry he was.

Notes:

HAHA MOTHERFUCKERS I CAN WRITE BETTER ROMANCE NOW.
So like...My romance writing was shit cause I was sadly very very single and cupioromantic, BUT I GOTS MYSELF A GF. So now I understands the romance, buckle up losers.