Blossoming Fissure | Tanjirou Kamado

34. Danse Macabre

The idea is simple and probably childish, but they're kids anyway, so it shouldn't really surprise Aoi.

Uzui, who probably knows all there is to know about party traditions, calls it "dance with the birthday girl." Pretty obvious, really, there's no mystery to it, which is a pity.

It was late into the night when someone below them switched on the radio, and they were close enough to the ceiling that the music was perfectly clear to them.

Some American song muffled the never ending buzzing of the district, loud and cheerful with colourful instruments that opposed everything a Japanese song would be on such occasion. Inosuke, who had no appreciation for proper things whatsoever, found it surprisingly nice and started to swing to the rhythm of the song like some wild animal.

"Hey," Zenitsu, as a city boy, seemed to recognize the song instantly. "That's not how you do it."

But Inosuke made a sound, scurried away from his cold hands and ran to grab Aya, swinging her around with him to escape Zenitsu's tidiness (and probably to tease him, too).

"Inosuke, put me down!" But her laughing said otherwise, desperately trying to keep up with the boy's fast pacing. Zenitsu looked positively disgusted at the messiness of it all and ran after them, but Inosuke just picked up the pace to hear his complaining.

Music taking root on their bones and shaking their hips and feet until Aya started to look a little bit green and not because of her hair tips.

"You're making me dizzy, I'm gonna throw up!" She warned, as they both escaped Zenitsu with a spin.

"Oh, no, you don't!" He let go of her hands and sent her into Tanjirou's direction with a "you take her!" The boy caught the girl swiftly and joined in, as expected as it could be with the sight of the glass beside him.

"Now you dance, Monitsu!" And Aoi knew it was teasing because Inosuke had been calling them by their name for a while now. Her deduction was proven true when she heard Zenitsu's complaining, as Inosuke grabbed both his hands tight and swung his friend around like a ragdoll and not in the softer way he had Aya.

"I hate you so, so much!" Zenitsu exclaimed at some point, but his red cheeks were not those of anger. And it's not like he had drunk a lot, either.

'Ugh,' the bitterness of the beer couldn't be compared to the one on her chest when she saw the stupidly clumsy moves of Tanjirou and Aya trying to dance without falling in the process, 'teenage love.'

He handled her carefully, minding where he stepped on despite his moves being clumsy and touch lingering for a moment too long in key points like her wrists or shoulders. Saying he was smitten would be an understanding. And oh, Aya, Aoi tried to imitate the cheesy narrator of a romance novel, she smiled so much, strongly holding onto him with the confidence that she wouldn't fall if she did.

She sipped, a bitter, little thing that burned her throat differently compared to the way tears did. Truly, she thinks, they make the perfect couple.

When would he confess? Aoi wondered, because it would surely have to come soon. Perhaps on some mission assigned to both, where no one else could hear them. Aya wouldn't be able to escape even if she wanted to because it would be just the two of them, trapped and together.

The day had been a mess and she knew it.

"Of course that weirdo wouldn't want to take me," Aoi curses out loud, entertaining herself with the wisteria and the mortar. Aya's sleep potion was starting to run out. "Why would he want to take a low rank, coward of a demon slayer with him? The 'tsugukos' are better, stronger for sure, although one doesn't know how to do anything by herself and the other loses her marbles whenever she sees a cat."