~BRAVE~ (Tanjiro X Reader)

Leaving

"Please forgive us!" Tanjiro said "You are completely right!" He's so loud... out of nowhere, Tanjiro grabs the back of Zenistu's robe and grips on Inosukes forearm and rushes us inside the hotel. I follow behind in curiosity as to why he had to rush. At least they were quiet.

"Two rooms please." I ask the lady at the counter. She examines my group and looks at me with concern before grabbing two keys. My smile grew as I thought of the warm bed I would get to sleep in.

"Breakfast starts at seven and ends at nine." The receptionists hands me the keys.

"Thank you." I say while looking at the keys for the room numbers. I hand Zenitsu the other key and the boys go off to find they're room as I enter mine. "It's so small" I mumble to myself. Setting my sword down on the side of the bed, I flop on the bed and hug my pillow. How I missed this. It hadn't been even five minutes when I heard a knock on my door.

"Excuse me...(y/n)?" I hear the soft boys voice from the other side. I force myself off of the bed and go to the door. "H-hi... do you mind if I come in?" He asks. I nod my head slowly as he enters, taking off the box on his back. "There's someone I think you should meet if we're gonna be traveling together."

"You mean the girl in the box?" I ask. He had mentioned it earlier. His gaze shifted to the side remembering his past comment.

"Yeah..." the clawing that came from the box that was now sitting on Tanjiro's lap made me jump a bit.

"Who is she?" I asked, as he set the box down on the floor. The door opened with an eager girl coming from the box. Her eyes were pink but held a cat look to them. The bow in her hair matched her eyes as well as her kimono. She was quite cute actually.

She crawls onto the floor of the room and grows in size, startling me a bit. I step back and the back of my knees hit the bed and I fall to a sit. She cocks her head to the side a bit in confusion as to who I was and where she was. But when she looks behind herself and see Tanjiro, she lays back onto the floor with her head in his lap. "She's my sister." He smiles softly, placing his hand on her head as she closes her eyes in content. Then he turns his attention back to me. "She was turned demon by the one I set to kill." The seriousness in his voice set me back. I didn't expect the softness he expressed not so long ago to turn into something more intimidating. I stay quiet as he explains their situation. My eyes grow wider with every sentence. It's like I'm listening to a book.

"You're so inspiring..." I mutter out. Realizing I said that aloud, I cover my mouth with my hand and a slight pink rushes to my cheeks in embarrassment. All Tanjiro does is chuckle. His book of a life is so interesting. I wonder where else it will take him. "Although this is really interesting, I feel like you didn't come here to tell me your life story."

His own eyes widen as if he forgot what he came here for. "Your right. Sorry..." he scratches the back of his head. "Would you mind helping Nezuko bathe? It's been a long while since we've been at a wisteria house or even a shelter in general and we both smell pretty bad and I can't help her out with that you kn-" I accidentally interrupted Tanjiro with my fit of giggles.

"Yes of course! You should have mentioned that from the start. But let's make a deal okay?" I stand up from the bed and get down to the boys level on the floor. "Once we set off on our next mission, which should be pretty soon, you tell me more about you? Your life seems pretty interesting and I'm eager to hear more about it." My smile grows wider in excitement.

Tanjiro leans back a bit and smiles with me. "Deal!"

                                            🌸

Nezuko had slept with me that night. I didn't want her to get ideas from the boys about having a more masculine personality, so I let her stay with me. Honestly it feels like a sleepover. We had grown closer as peers and became friends quickly due to her constant cuddling and messing with my hair. The way she got mad when my hair messed up made me laugh. When she heard me laughing, she giggled a bit herself under her muzzle.

We had skipped breakfast and immediately started to head to headquarters to wait for our next mission. I wanted an explanation as to why we were placed into groups. If we're all trained the same way, then there should be no problems with 'results'.

We walked out of the village into the snow, but the pathway was clear to see. Nezuko has already been placed into her box but not before I snuck a pillow in there for her from the hotel. Tanjiro and Inosuke were arguing ahead while Zenitsu and I walked side by side further back. We ruined the virgin snow surface as we walked. My foot sinking deeper at some parts but then rising up once again. Children from the village were playing in the hills of snow even though they probably see it every day. Two kids caught my attention though.

A little boy and a girl were laying next to each other in the snow with a drawn heart surrounding them. They reminded me of that sad demon.

"Zenitsu." I begin

"AHH! (Y/n) don't scare me like that! Give me a warning next time..." he grabs a fist full of his uniform at his chest like I gave him a heart attack. Disregarding his comment, I continue.

"Have you ever been in love?" I ask. Still looking at the two kids laughing and chatting up a storm.

This question caught Zenitsu by surprise. He looked down and smiled sadly. "I thought I was." He began. This grabbed my attention as I averted my eyes on him. "But she stole the money that I had broken my back for to run away with some other guy." He said sadly.

My heart broke seeing him in this state of pain remembering those moments. I regret my decision. To get his mind off of those sad times, I grab a fist full of snow and stop to look at it contemplating if I should continue with my choices.

"(Y/n)?" Zenitsu called out confused. He stopped walking, waiting for me to continue. Within the blink of an eye, his face was covered in clumped together snow. His face plastered with surprise.

I yelped as his face changed from one of surprise to one of anger. Running away slowly due to the snow, I laugh and catch up to Tanjiro and Inosuke passing them in a slow hurry trying to avoid Zenitsu's rage. I was only a couple meters away from where I was previously when Zenitsu had tripped over his own two feet causing him to face plant into the snow.

The sudden thud caught the other two boy's attention and they looked back to see Zenitsu on the floor. Inosuke immediately started to laugh at the ridiculousness and soon after, Tanjiro and I were laughing too. Zenitsu looked up from the snow with a pout, but he smiled nonetheless.
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Release date: April 5 2020