Comfort {Tanjiro x Giyuu} -NOT ORIGINAL-

Chapter 6

Tanjiro's POV

I've gotta admit......feeling the sun on my face, again felt really nice.......I spent nearly five days indoors, cooped up in the infirmary, ill while trying to maintain what little peace there was between Inosuke and Zenitsu. Although, they were worrying about me that whole time so thankfully, it wasn't as bad as usual.

My nostrils soon filled with an ocean scent that only became stronger, as I walked. And as much as I didn't want to admit, I was actually a little disappointed. It smelt salty and nowhere near as sweet as last time. Tomioka was either upset or just as ill as I was. Neither option sounded appealing in any way, shape, or form.

At some point, I found myself standing about 5 feet away from him. He had been waiting for me when I arrived. How? I had no idea. Though, later I had remembered that he could smell my scent now, too. Pretty weird feeling. Anyway, we quickly figured out that we understandably, couldn't look each other in the eye for more than a moment, let alone talk out our problems. Looking back on it, at that moment, neither of us could find the right words to describe what we were feeling. Eventually, though, he did find the words to invite me inside for a cup of tea. And I agreed.

Obviously, we were silent once again. That is, until I couldn't take it anymore, "I-"

"I apologize," Tomioka mumbled suddenly. I stared at him for a few moments, "F-For what?"

"All of this. I didn't mean to make your birthday even more stressful........" he answered before sneezing into a handkerchief. Why was he apologizing? "Tomioka........I should be the one apologizing......I shouldn't have run off, the way I did.........That was so incredibly rude of me. I'm sorry if that came across as me being upset with you, at all. I guess I was just.......overwhelmed. Both physically and emotionally......"

He nodded and we sat in silence once again.

As we sat, I glanced at him every so often. And I hadn't noticed it before but he had dark circles under his eyes and his nose was bright red from blowing his nose so much. His voice even sounded slightly hoarse. Definitely from coughing. ".......H-How're you feeling?" He met my gaze for a moment before turning his attention back to his cup of tea, "As well as you feel, I suppose.......You look like you've been up all night vomiting and coughing." I blinked. He was right. "Y-Yeah but how did-.......?" Then it clicked, ".......you went through the same thing, didn't you?"

"Of course not," he answered. Then he looked at me and I couldn't help the smile that formed on my lips as I repeated, "Of course not." There was a hint of sarcasm in his salty-sweet ocean scent.