911 / Mr. Lonely 《 、IntoTan 、 》

「Chapter IV」

    After exchanging contact information the two gradually started to grow closer, each day tanjiro would wake up to a good morning message, with his name spelt almost correctly but not quite, and Inosuke received goodnight messages just when he would start to eat dinner.
   It was weird to see how different their routines were considering how close they lived and the fact their time zones were the same. Even with the differences, the two managed to text constantly.

   "Big brother?" Nezuko asked only never earn a reply.
  "Tanjiro, Sweetheart." His mother paused before putting a plate down, "No phones at the dinner table, you know the rule." She snatched the phone up and he mumbled a response.

  "Eat up, then you can have it back." She ruffled her sons hair and set the phone near the kitchen sink. 
  "Mom!! Tell tanjiro he's too obsessed with his phone! He doesn't even pay attention on his walks anymore. It's unhealthy."
  "Nezuko you don't pay attention either! The other day you ran into a traffic pole!" He shot back.
   The other children were busy arguing with each other. And soon enough the whole dinner table was a battle feild for peas and mashed potatoes.
  "Mom!!" Rokuta whined
  "Stop stop!" Kid shouted over her children, clear annoyance spread across her face.
  "Can we please have just one nice meal? That's all I wanted." She signed in disbelief as she looked at her children who had only just stopped throwing food at each other.
A couple of sorry's were mumbled and tanjiro had gotten up to start cleaning the mess only for his mother to shake her head. "I'll clean it." She moved him out of the way and sent the rest of the kids to their respective rooms.

  "I can help ma." He went and grabbed a wet towel and began to wipe down the table, moving the plates and  setting them down in the sink.
  "Oh what would I do without you tanjiro." She smiled and also began to clean.
  "Sorry for starting the fight. I shouldn't be doing that stuff anymore." He started the sink and scrubbed some plates underneath the water.
  "You weren't the one who started throwing the food. And it's perfectly fine. You're still a kid. You're my kid." She smiled at him and she wiped down the high-chair.
  "I could've prevented it though."

She shook her head again "I'm more interested in what Nezuko was talking about, you get some secret girlfriend? You know I can help with those things!"
  He blinked "Girlfriend? No no- He's just my friend."
  Kie stopped "Really? You've never been this happy or obsessed I should say- over a friend, or anything else for that matter."
  "Mom, he's just different from everyone else. Special. actually he's pretty rude and loud most of the time- Ah but not to me! He isn't a bully for anything."  He rambled on until his other moved over and pat his shoulder.
  "You should invite him over sometimes soon then, I'd like to meet this friend of yours." she smiles before looking at the clean dishes, "Go ahead and run a bath upstairs then try to sleep, you have school tomorrow. I can clean up the rest."

  He nodded "g-night mom! Love you!" He started to walk off, "You forgetting something?" She chuckled.
  Tanjiro blinked shaking his head and then patting his pockets, "Oh! Can I have my phone back?"
She handed it to him and he said goodnight again and the dashed up the stairs.
 

After doing as his mom instructed he took out his phone and scrolled through his text messages, he began to type but felt an overwhelming sense of laziness and just decided to call instead.

  It took a moment but the receipt picked up and mumbled something.
"Huh?"
"Monjiro!" Inosuke shouted into his phone making tanjiro instinctively flinch.
  "Hi Inosuke." He mumbled recovering from the loud noise.
  "Watcha calling for? Ain't it your bedtime?" Inosuke quieted down a bit but tanjiro was more focused on the background noises.
  "Are you outride?" The Kamado boy asked.
  "Er, yeah? How can you tell? You still stalking me?"

"No, I never was!" Tanjiro collapsed onto his bed holding his phone firmly in place.
  "Either way it's not important, what's your reason for calling?" Hashibira asked.

"Do i need one? I'm just bored and super tired."
  "Sounds like a you problem mountain boy." The other seemed to have opened a drink while saying this.
  "I can hang up if you'd like." Tanjiro mumbled.
  "No! No,- ah urhm- how was your day? I didn't show up at school today so I didn't get to ask earlier did I?"

"You weren't- and you didn't. It was fine. What about yours?" For some odd reason he knew the answer that was coming next, and the answer was actually just dodging the question.
  "Ah I never asked, whats your favorite drink?" Inosuke asked.

  Kamado never understood why hashibira constantly avoided or completely ignored questions. Each time he tried to push for an answer he was met with a brick wall and some half-assed excuse for needing to leave. It'd be better not to pressure him this time.

"I like milk."
"Just plain milk?"
"And I like green tea."
"These are boring responses."
"Also water."

Inosuke laughed and took a drink from something, probably a soda-can.
  "Well what's your favorite beverages?" Tanjiro asked back.  For a moment he though he might've accidentally hung up but Inosuke slowly mustered out a reply. "Not sure. I just know I hate sparkling water."
Tanjiro giggled and replied "Same here. Like what's the point?"

"Do people think its fancy just because it's got bubbles or somethin'?" Inosuke mumbled into his phone.
"That's what I think. Or maybe it's because it's expensive so they think drinking it is somehow- more worthwhile?"

The conversation branches off into something else and the two talked for nearly two hours before there was an interruption on inosukes end.

"Oi! Boy' you get back over here and clean this up!" A voice shouted in the background.

  "Ah. I gotta go. Old mans yelling at me." Inosuke mumbled.
  "Goodnight tontaro."
  "Goodnight Inosuke."
The phone call ended and tanjiros feelings if happiness slowly began to dwindle as he laid their thinking about nothing and then again thinking about everything.
  He closed his eyes and let himself be slowly claimed by the peaceful status that is sleep.

  He smiled as inosukes voice played through his head. What tanjiro dubbed as friendship was just his way to cover up something much more.