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Lately, Zenitsu had noticed something peculiar about Tanjirou's behavior. Whenever he was around, the older Kamado's heart rate would noticeably increase, and it would spike even higher if Zenitsu made physical contact with him. It was clear to Zenitsu that Tanjirou had developed a crush on him.
Zenitsu knew that it was obvious Tanjirou had a crush on him. This would've been great, if Tanjirou was a beautiful girl, namely his sister. Although, he did feel flattered as Tanjirou was the first one to ever feel about him this way. But unfortunately, he was straight and couldn't return the burgundy haired boy's feelings.
Even if he did like guys he'd always considered Tanjirou as an older brother or friend. Zenitsu decided to just act oblivious to his feelings and hopefully wait for Tanjirou's crush to die out.
In the meantime, it started to get difficult to ignore the longing stares he would get.
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After finishing their current mission, they stayed at a random inn.
"Sorry we've ran out of clean futons so we only have two." The owner of the inn tells the trio.
The wisteria houses' service would never have allowed that to happen, Zenitsu thought finding himself missing the monste-old lady.
"That's alright we can share, we're only staying for one night anyways"
Zenitsu felt Tanjirou's eyes on him and his quickening heartbeat. "Zeni-"
"Inosuke! Let's share a futon" he interrupted Tanjirou knowing that he was about to say the same thing to him.
"Hahhh? Why should I do that?"
"There's not enough futons"
"I know that"
"Then what's wrong?"
"This futon is all mine!"
"Can't you share for just one night?"
"No!"
"Okay then how about you share with Tanjirou instead?"
"I already said this futon is all mine!"
"I'll give you half of my dinner so let's share!"
This seemed to cause Inosuke to cave.
"Deal!"
"Yes!" Zenitsu celebrated.
Tanjirou sounded confused and a little hurt.
Zenitsu knowing how weird it was to choose to sleep with Inosuke quickly racked his brain for a believable reason. "No hard feelings Tanjiro, but you're too loud!"
"???"
"You snore when you sleep."
Tanjirou was sure he stopped doing that when he mastered concentration breathing constant.
"Oh" Tanjiro said raising his hand to his mouth and blushing.
"Hah I'm the best person to sleep with!" Inosuke yells.
"Sure whatever" Zenitsu says.
Zenitsu does have sensitive hearing after all. Tanjirou glooms, kicking the dirt lightly.
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Later that night....
Zenitsu is lying in bed unable to sleep due to Inosuke's constant thrashing about. Inosuke already kicked him a few times in the rib and he knows it's going to leave bruises in the morning. He tries to hug the boy to restrain his limbs but that only seems to make him thrash about even more.
Zenitsu decides to just move into Tanjirou's futon. The guys already asleep so there's no harm in climbing into it now. Zenitsu moves in and sleeps on his side, facing Tanjirou's back. He finds himself basking in the warmth emitting from the burgundy haired boy. The kind heartbeat of his sounds stronger at this distance and it helps lull him to sleep like a lullaby.
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The next morning, Zenitsu wakes up first to find them in a compromising position. He feels his heart beat fast and his face heating up. Before he has the chance to question what happened Inosuke woke up and noticed where Zenitsu was.
"Monitsu! Why did you change futons!" Inosuke shouted, sounding offended.
"You move too much in your sleep, you punched my face and kicked my ribs 5 times!" He glares at the other boy.
"You should bear with it wimp!"
"I can't when I'm trying to sleep!"
Tanjirou wakes up from the commotion and releases Zenitsu. "Hey guys quiet down, the landlady is here with our breakfast," Tanjiro says.
"Food!!!" Inosuke screams excitedly.
They all sit at the table and eat their breakfast. Tanjirou wasn't sure why hut he felt that he had his first good night's sleep in a while.
They decide to stay another night at the inn. Tanjirou is laying there waiting for him with hopeful eyes but he pretends not to see and enters Inosuke's futon, ignoring the heartbeat of disappointment he hears.
He realises he should've of learned his lesson from the previous night, rubbing his cheek that got smacked. Begrudgingly he gets out and climbs into Tanjirou's futon. Tanjirou is comfortable to sleep with. He feels arms wrap around him but he's too tired to care.
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Zenitsu realises that he hasn't flirted with a girl in awhile. This was mostly out of consideration for Tanjirou. But he changed his mind and decided it was the best way to let the other boy down indirectly.
So at night he approaches the cute Nezuko, sitting outside and staring at the moon.
"Nezuko chan!"
Nezuko turns her head to him.
"The constellations are beautiful aren't they?"
"mpfh" Nezuko responds. Zenitsu is unsure if she could actually understand him but he is happy with the response anyways.
Zenitsu notices the heartbeat of the person behind him, it wasn't going to stop him from continuing.
He gives Nezuko a sweet smile and says "Nezuko, you're more beautiful." he hears a heart breaking as expected. What he didn't expect was the pain that came with it, the sound was too overbearing, there was a depth to it that he felt he could drown in. The pain almost felt as if it were his own.
He was struggling to breathe until the person behind him ran far enough for the effect to weaken.
Nezuko places her hands on his shoulders worried for him.
"Mmp?"
"I'm okay Nezuko"
Okay no more flirting with Nezuko until that crush is gone.
He can't bear having to feel that pain every time he flirts with Nezuko. Well just once should do the trick though, now that Tanjirou has been reminded of who Zenitsu loves, it should be easy for him to give up right?
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He was completely wrong.
The next few months he finds the heartbeat becoming sweeter in a sense. This was bad.... It meant that what was once a crush was slowly developing to become something more. This freaked Zenitsu out, hasn't it grown to a full-blown love?
This was a bad situation, Tanjirou would only end up getting more hurt in the end. Just why was Tanjirou allowing his feelings to grow. Zenitsu stopped that train of thought and sighed. Zenitsu couldn't really ask that, love wasn't something you could control
Zenitsu had to do something now to fix this. He had a few ideas in mind:
A) Annoy Tanjirou
B) Set Tanjirou up with someone else
C) act indifferent
D) Admit he knows about his feelings and reject him
He ordered them from the easiest to the hardest to do
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Plan A) Annoy Tanjirou
"Tanjirou! My legs hurt can you carry me?" Zenitsu whined, sounding as needy as he could possibly muster.
Zenitsu knew the audacity he had to ask of this after he had done nothing to help with the mission that day. The demon was easily killed by Inosuke and Tanjiro while he had fainted at first sight. His legs also felt perfectly fine and he was sure that Tanjirou could tell he was lying.
That's why it surprised him what Tanjirou said next.
"Sure let me move Nezuko's box to my front first" Tanjirou calmly said but Zenitsu could hear the excitement in his heart.
"Nvm Tanjirou" he deadpans placing his hands over Tanjirou's shoulders to stop him from moving Nezuko's box.
"Eh! Why?"
"My legs are feeling better already"
"Oh I see...."
Don't sound so dejected!
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On another day...
Zenitsu woke up and found himself with multiple broken bones which left him in tears. After calming down from the shock, he realised it could be of use to Plan A. Zenitsu planned to pester the hell out of Tanjirou to do things for him.
"Tanjirou can you peel this apple for me?"
"Can you feed me?"
"Can you tie my robe?"
To all that Tanjirou simply responded, "sure I will Zenitsu."
Even after the bones in his arms had recovered and Tanjirou knew, Zenitsu still kept pestering Tanjirou with basic tasks.
Tanjirou did every single task without a single complaint. Tanjirou's kindness really runs extremely deep no matter what he requested, the boy agreed to do it with a smile.
I guess that's a big brother with a lot of siblings for you.
"Tanjirou, recently haven't I been a bit of a bother?"
"You mean with you asking for help with a lot of things?"
"It's fine, I'm used to it"
"It reminds me of when I lived with my family." Tanjirou said with a smile, his eyes on the other hand went blank.
Zenitsu began to feel bad, he brought back some unpleasant memories for Tanjirou.
Tanjirou likely smelling the negative emotions paused to say, "no I didn't mean anything bad by it, in fact I'd like you to keep asking me for help like this, I'm always willing to help you!"
Zenitsu decided to stop anyways.
It was fine, Zenitsu still had one more phase planned out for Plan A.