~BRAVE~ (Tanjiro X Reader)

Short series (3/3)

I started bursting out laughing and whipped a fake tear from my eye. "That's funny. But I'm not dealing with that." I sat down on the couch and grabbed one of the books from the stacks and began to flip through It.

"I'll do it. I had to help with all of my siblings." Tanjiro suggested putting his own stack of books down.

🌸

I woke up that next morning with soreness. We had all fallen asleep at the library and the staff didn't want to bother us because we had swords. I knew that immediately when we walked in here. Tanjiro didn't lend me his haori this time. He had fallen asleep before I did. He must've been tired. He is the type to get more tired reading than working. I was the opposite.

I stood up from the sofa and stretched. I've decided. I'm going to go out on a run. It's been forever since I have. I've always been pretty active to do so.

I quickly got ready and started my jog. I wasn't familiar with my surroundings so I just jogged through the city. It was small so it wasn't hard to get by. But I stopped when one store piqued my interest.

"Kabuki masks?" I questioned aloud. The vendor noticed my interest right away.

"Yes dear! Carved straight from my hand. Are you interested?" the old man held his hands together greedily.

I stared at them, contemplating whether it was a good idea. "Hmmm. Yesssssss. But- do you have anything smaller?"

"Smaller?" The man put a hand up to his chin. "I only have one mask for a kid. Maybe two."

"Can I see them please?" I rested my hands on the stand.

"Why of course! Give me one moment." The man went underneath the desk and came back up but not without bumping his head on it. He held onto two separate masks. One a pig and one a boar.

I obviously bought the latter. I had stopped running completely and started to skip happily. I knew the baby would like it.

When I got back, the boys were up and we're looking around in a panic. "Did something happen? Where's Inosuke?" I looked at Tanjiro and grabbed him by the rim of his Haori.

"(Y/n)..." He said softly. Almost in relief. "Inosuke is with Zenitsu. He's feeding him..." Tanjiro grabbed my hands from his haori and held them in his own."What's this?" He grabbed the masks from my hand and looked at it before laughing.

"I thought it would be cute!" I huffed. I took the mask back and headed to the baby. "Inosuke! Look!" I proudly presented the small masks to the boy and his eyes seemed to glow. He shoved the bowl of mashed up cooked carrots away from himself and into Zenitsu's chest. His tiny chubby arms reached for it when I was twenty feet away. Baby nonsense came gurgling out of his mouth. He wanted it. And he wanted it baaaad. I softly handed it to the boy because it was wooden. But light enough for him to lift up. He placed it on his face and I tied the strings on the back of his head. "There." I said. "That's the Inosuke we know! Isn't it?" I turned towards the other two. Zenitsu was trying to clean up the carrot mess on his uniform and Tanjiro was tending to his sister. She was crawling out fo her wooden box and went strait to the baby boy. Looks like we know who will be taking care of him today.

"Are you guys ready for another day with nothing but absolute reading?" Tanjiro turned around from patting his sister on the back. All of us groaned in frustration. Even the baby.

🌸

I stared at Tanjiro reading peacefully. He looked so invested with what he was reading it was like he wasn't even blinking. Oop- no. There he goes blinking. A bit of drool started to pool out of my mouth with how much I was getting exhausted. My hand laid flat on the arm rest of the sofa. My head rested on top of it. It was almost eight at night. Inosuke clapped his hands together trying to get my attention but screamed when he couldn't. He hadn't taken off his mask all day. That makes me wonder. Had Inosuke even taken his mask off to wash it?

Just the thought made me want to gag and I sat up abruptly. The sound of the seat caused a disruption in the beautiful silence and everyone looked my way. I wiped the drool from my mouth quickly as red rose to my cheeks. Inosuke's baby fist slammed into the couch in anger at my lack of attention. Then he fell back into the couch in a fit of giggles. What is with kids?

I coughed due to the awkward silence and stood up. "I'm gonna put these back." I waved the finished books in the air. After all of these books about fungi and such there was nothing about side effects like this. As I placed the books into their respective places, a fumble and a few yells of surprise were exchanged between the group of teens. I went to turn around to see what was up but Nezuko jumped to cover my eyes. "What the hell?" I asked

"D-don't look! Inosuke for heavens- Put some clothes on!" Zenitsu's shaky voice was registered through.

"Where the hell are they then? Huh? I don't see them anywhere!" Ahhhhhh there he is. He's back. I can't tell if that was a good thing. "What the hell is this thing? It looks cool." Tanjiro took the small mask from the strong boy's hands and threw his pair of pants at his face. It fell onto the floor soon after and Inosuke picked it up, gripping it tightly. Giving the burgundy haired boy the death stare. "Wanna die?"

"(Y/n) bought this for you when you were.... smaller."

"Does he have clothes on yet? He's back to normal right?" I asked nervously. I really didn't want to see anything I don't need to. Poor Nezuko must've seen the whole thing.

Inosuke swiftly tugged on his pants but snatched his baby mask from his friend. "Mine." He stated.

"Yes he has clothed himself. Well, about as much as he's willing anyway..." Zenitsu tugged on Nezuko's grip on my eyes and took her hand in his. I turned to see just the normal classic Inosuke. Was I relieved? Or disappointed? He stared at me, and then at the masks. The boy turned around to look for something.

"Now that that's over with I guess we don't need these books anymore right?" Tanjiro approached me from behind. He grabbed onto my shoulder to get my attention.

"I guess not. That was a whole 48 hours wasted huh?" I laughed.

"Would this be considered as a vacation?" He asked. My face fell flat and I turned around fully, gripping him by both of his shoulders.

"Tanjiro." I squeezed his haori tightly. "All the time we aren't involved with the Corps. Is vacation.

Inosuke came back hurriedly to show off his new sense of fashion. He had found one sort of rope and tied the baby boar mask to his hip as an accessory. It looked good.

"Alright then guys! Let's hurry up and put this away so that we can get to headquarters. We need to make a full report. And we've already Lost so much time..." Zenitsu started to cry. I feel bad for him. Although, I think he's scored some points in Nezuko's book. They were playing with the baby earlier today.

I eyed the mask on his hip and smiled. This will be a memory that I will never forget.
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Original release date: August 25 2020