Merry Christmas, Gonpachiro | Inotan story | Completed

What is...

Inosuke POV
I slowly crept through the halls. Gonpachiro's house was kinda creepy... BUT LORD INOSUKE DOESN'T GET SCARED! Earlier before the Hashira's had left after visiting, the sunflower boy had told me to meet him down by the Christmas tree.
I crept slowly through the halls. When I was halfway to the living room I saw the door of Gonpachiro's room. I had no idea what I was doing, but for some reason I, LORD INOSUKE, found myself at the peasent's room slowly opening the door. I tip-toed quietly to where Jamjirou was sleeping.

He looked peaceful, as if all of his bad memories had left him. For a number of reasons I hadn't identified yet, it made me feel all warm and fluffy and bleh.
I realised I was being creepy so I crept my way back out the peasant's room and to my surprise, Minetsu was sitting around the tree.

Zinetsu's POV
I smiled smugly at Inosuke, "soooo, you came huh?~".
I think, you know, where this about to go! "Yah cuz you told me to come".
I slapped my face, he's so dense.
"Come sit with me Inosuke" I pat a spot next to me. "That's lord to you peasant" He said, grinning as he sat.
How does Tanjirou even stand this jerk? "Anyways, so I noticed something." I stated. Inosuke looked confused, poor little dude. "Um... What?" Time to break the news to him. "Let's face it man, you know nothing about love." I almost pity this fool, and Tanjirou for being his future husband.

"Yeah no shit Pinzetsu, I was raised by boars." I stared at him stupidly. Did Inosuke, of all people, just ADMIT A FAULT OF HIS OWN!?.
"Um... Yes! So I've taken it upon myself to teach" I proudly crossed my arms. "Yeah yeah, but first-" I looked back to Inosuke. "Tell me why I feel so weird lately. Whenever I'm near Gonpachiro I get... A fuzzy, warm feeling".

Normally I'd take this opportunity to piss him off, but for some reason I felt bad. Did he really not get that amount of love that he doesn't know how it feels? "When I see him happy I get all happy too, it even makes me feel hot sometimes. Not even warm but really hot!"

I sat there listening to Inosuke talk about Tanjirou for half an hour. Not once did I tell him to stop though. Keeping in feelings can be really hard, so at that moment he just needed to get everything off his chest. He talked about his feelings when Tanjirou was close, he talked about the accidents that Tanjirou distracted him to cause, everything.

"Wow, Inosuke. I never thought you would have such an attention span, and to Tanjirou of all people!" I was genuinely impressed. "What it sounds like to me... Is love". Inosuke stared at me blankly.

"Hah?" Inosuke was probably confused.

"Let me explain. You love other people different to how you love your family. Your family are the people who raise you and you can rely on them, so a friendly connection is made.
When you have feelings for someone, for example the fuzziness and warmth, you want to be around them all the time and tend to get more nervous when you are with them. From the stuff you just told me, this checks all the boxes for love."

Inosuke looked down, and to my most SHOCKED shock! I heard his voice waver. "Then how am I supposed to tell him all this at the expense of getting shot down or rejected when he tells me he doesn't get the same feeling". He continued to stare into his lap.

"Inosuke... That's the hard part. Love is amazing and it comes at the expense of the other person possibly not feeling the same things for you- Well then I hate love! All I've ever known is rejection so why would I even try!" I looked up to see Inosuke's teary eyes.
I suddenly felt really bad, explaining love wasn't as easy as I thought it would be...

We both looked up to the Christmas tree, admiring the shining ornaments. "You know, I actually do like Nezuko Chan" I started, not breaking my stare from the tree. I could tell he didn't either, "Everyone thinks I'm messing around so I can settle down but I actually do like her. Having said that, she tends to always run away from me. I feel shunned every second of the day" I finally met my gaze to Inosuke.

He slowly looked down to me too. "It doesn't matter, I still like her. Even if I feel a constant pain in my heart, I can learn to get over her". Inosuke almost looked sympathetic, and for some reason he snickered. "So I can tell humans have a power called getting over it". He wasn't wrong.

Inosuke and I talked nearly all night. I told him everything I knew, from confessions to dating. He picked up surprisingly soon. We soon realised that the first light of the morning had started peaking through the window. We looked outside and then to ourselves. We were about to get up and go to our rooms when we heard a creak from the hall. Seconds later Tanjirou came out yawning and rubbing his eye. "I-Inosuke? Zinetsu?! Why are you guys up so early?" He chuckled. We looked at each other and smiled. "You have no idea." Inosuke grinned.

2 hours later, 6AM
Nezuko's POV.

I loved being able to talk again. I loved being ridden of claws, fangs and hungry eyes. But this came with a curse. The curse that I had to talk about stuff that I didn't want to hear. I would have to answer questions I preferred un-answered. "Um, big brother?" I knocked on my brother's door before inviting myself in, "I have to tell you something."

I guess my brother had predicted something was wrong from my voice. "Is everything alright Nezuko?" Tanjirou asked.
"Well you see, I got up to go get a cup of water..." I started.

It all came rushing back, Inosuke's confession, Zinetsu's true feelings. That night I had over heard the two talking about how Inosuke loved
Brother, and how Zinetsu really did have feelings for me.
I took a deep breath in, don't worry Inosuke, I'll let you tell my brother yourself!

"Brother, I overheard Zinetsu say that he really did like me. And every time I ran away it hurt him. I feel really bad now, l-like I'm the b-bad guy... So what d-do I do?" Tears had formed in my eyes.
My brother looked shocked, but soon replaced his frown with a soft smile. He pulled me into a tight hug and cradled me for a while.

"Well, does he make you smile?" He started, "does he make you feel better when your sad? Does he care about you? Does he give you freedom?". I checked everything off, he did it all. "Y-yeah, he does" I sniffled. "Then he's perfect, it depends on how you feel about him Nezuko. Don't force yourself, you'll end up hurting him and yourself".

Brother was so wise, he must've lived for at least a hundred years to know all of this...