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Genya’s on his way to the campus kissaten where he and Nezuko often meet up between classes to share a midday snack and get a little bit of studying in when he comes across some sort of scene outside the languages building. There’s a bit of a crowd starting to gather, people either standing about and theorising about what’s going on or recording videos on their phones. The moment he hears her, Genya swears and starts shoving his way through the spectators.
For as long as Genya has known her, Nezuko has always been a morally upright person; if there’s any sort of injustice happening she's right there in the trenches – protesting, marching, campaigning for petition signatures, chaining herself to construction machinery to prevent it from being used. The works. She fights for what she believes in and stands up for others, especially those who are less fortunate or can't defend themselves. Her older brother Tanjirō is much the same.
They're both especially protective of the people they care about. But while Tanjirō tries to talk things out first when someone insults or hurts one of his loved ones, Nezuko's methods are a bit more… hands-on.
“Say that again, asshole,” Nezuko says, her normally bright voice coming out as a growl, a shocking juxtaposition against her soft presentation. One of her hands is wrapped in the front of some guy’s shirt, pulling him off balance so she can glower at him at her own eye level. Given that he has at least a foot and a hundred pounds on her, it’s a rather impressive feat (though not surprising coming from her). It clearly unsettles the guy, his eyes wide and face pale in response to her threatening aura. “Go on, repeat your funny little ‘joke’.”
As Genya gets closer, he recognises the guy being held at Nezuko’s mercy – it’s the asshole international student from his communications class that likes to make snide comments to his buddy; mocking people’s accents when they speak English is one of his favorites. It’s not surprising that he would do or say something to set Nezuko off, though Genya wonders how they even ran into each other in the first place. The guy’s buddy is the only one trying to intervene; Nezuko doesn't even react as he tries to pry her hand off and his frustration at failing to do so is obvious.
“Hey!” Genya shouts once he makes his way to the front.
“Shinazugawa,” the American asshole says, sounding oddly relieved to see him. Honestly, Genya is surprised the guy even knows his name. “Come get this crazy bitch off me, she just started flipping out outta fucking nowhere, man.”
Back in high school, Genya would’ve beaten the fucker to a pulp for that derogatory comment. But he’s really been working on his temper the last few years, channeling it into workouts at the gym or target practice on the range. So while it does fucking piss him off to hear someone talk about Nezuko like that, he can set it aside for later and instead focus on making sure she doesn’t lose her last bit of control.
“Nezuko, c’mon,” Genya says, lifting her off the muscle-bound blond with ease. She’s well-familiar with the feeling of his arm encircling her at this point, so she doesn’t lash out at him. (The first couple of times he wasn't so lucky and got hit for his troubles – and Nezuko does not pull her blows. Especially when she's angry.)
The buddy, another Western international student, glares as he helps the blond douchebag regain his footing. “Not surprised you need a woman to protect you, ya pussy. Never would’ve guessed a scarred up, ghoulish fucker like you could score such a hot piece of ass, though. Even if she is a fucking psycho.”
Genya just barely holds Nezuko back, both of his arms wrapped around her waist now as she lunges forward. Her arms are outstretched, feet kicking in the air as she snarls, “I’ll show you fucking psycho, you piece of shit! You’re the ones who’re ugly, not Genya – you’re fucking rotten inside and out! Couldn’t even handle a woman when she stood up to you. You’re fucking pathetic!”
“You need to put a leash on your little attack dog, Shinazugawa! Next time I won’t be so nice!” the American yells, though he notably doesn’t make a move to get any closer as Genya scowls at the two of them and Nezuko starts to add threats to her insults.
Snorting a laugh at how ridiculous and cliché the idiot sounds, Genya turns away from the pair of foreigners to take Nezuko somewhere private so he can get her calmed down. Along the way, he notices a couple of professors have come out to see what the commotion was; he apologises profusely for the disturbance and assures them that she’s not usually like this. She's a calm and kind person, truly.
About halfway to his off-campus apartment Nezuko finally runs out of steam; she slumps against him, her arms wrapping around his shoulders and her legs around his waist. A blush heats Genya’s entire face and threatens to travel down his neck to his chest at the full-body contact. But he doesn’t even consider asking her to walk the rest of the way. Instead, he tightens his arms around her.
Eventually he does have to ask her to get down so he can fish his keys out of his pocket and let them into the loft he’s able to afford thanks to a combination of scholarships, rifle shooting competition winnings, and his part-time job at the range. It's been nice having an apartment all his own, if a bit strange at first; until now, he’d never had a room of his own, let alone an entire place to himself.
Plus there's the added benefit of being able to have Nezuko over without needing to worry about annoying roommates or nosy siblings.
Inside, Genya putters around the tiny kitchen making some of the latest tea Sanemi sent him while Nezuko sits down on the weathered old hand-me-down loveseat in the living room, setting her little leather backpack down next to the beat-up coffee table. Once it's ready he joins her, handing her her favorite mug, a handmade piece he picked up from a local ceramic artist at the street market; he bought it with her in mind, the pink glaze reminding him of her eyes. She accepts it with a smile, quiet compared to the eye-crinkling one she usually gives him.
There are a few minutes of silence, broken only by the sounds of them sipping, before Genya speaks. “Are you okay?”
“What d’you mean?” Nezuko asks, fidgeting, which is so unlike her.
“Nezuko,” he says, turning towards her, “this is the third time this month I’ve had to stop you from beating the shit out of someone. You weren’t even this bad in high school.”
“I know…” she mumbles, avoiding his gaze.
After hesitating for the briefest moment, Genya places a hand on top of hers. “Is something wrong? Anything I can do to help?”
Nezuko shakes her head, long strands of hair escaping her loose bun. “No, nothing’s wrong. It’s just…”
“Just what?”
She leans forward to set her tea on the coffee table and then shifts until she’s facing him fully, her legs crossed beneath her in agura. With a deep breath she finally meets his eyes. “It’s just that I keep hearing people make rude comments about you and I just get so. mad. because they don’t even know you; they’re just passing judgment based on how you look or the way you behave in class – neither of which are representations of who you are as a person.”
Tension he hadn’t even realised he was holding leaves Genya’s shoulders; he was worried that it was something serious. “Nez,” he says with a quiet laugh, “people have been doing that for years. It’s never bothered you this much before.”
She looks away again, down at where her fingers pick at a loose thread on the blanket hanging over the back of the sofa. “Yeah, well…”
Getting a burst of courage, he grabs her hand and twines their fingers together. A blush still heats his cheeks, though nowhere near as it would've been just a few years ago. “C’mon, what’s so different now? What’s got you feeling so protective of me that you’re flying off the handle worse than when Kaigaku turned his bullying onto Senjuro?”
China rose eyes search his face as Nezuko looks at him. Apparently she finds what she was looking for, her spine straightening and her shoulders squaring as if she’s come to a decision.
Next thing Genya knows, there are soft lips pressed against his. Her scent – smoky yet sweet, like the binchōtan charcoal her family used to burn before they became bakers, with hints of warm bread and something spicy that's wholly Nezuko – fills his nose as he takes in a sharp breath, caught off-guard. It's overwhelming but intoxicating. And so much better than he's ever dared to imagine in all these years that he's been pathetically pining after his best friend's little sister.
Before his brain can catch up enough for him to respond she pulls back, eyes downcast. He must've been taking too long, too caught up in the fact that this was finally happening, and now she thinks he was rejecting her.
Not giving himself a chance to overthink it, Genya places his hand on her cheek to regain her attention. The moment their eyes meet he pulls her back in. A tiny noise falls from Nezuko's lips as he feels a tingling sensation start up where they meet and zing through the rest of his body – up to the top of his head, down the length of his spine, all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes. Kissing someone has never felt like this.
His hand slides into her thick, silky hair to cradle the base of her skull as he gently pries her mouth open and licks his way inside. Small, strong hands grip his shoulders tight as she straddles him, powerful thighs bracketing his hips. Full, supple breasts press against his chest as Nezuko leans into him, and he groans at the thought of getting his hands and mouth on them. Taking advantage of the way her shirt has ridden up, Genya palms her stomach, enjoying the smoothness of her skin and the solid muscles he can feel beneath the healthy layer of fat as it twitches at his touch.
After a while they pull apart. Genya opens eyes he hadn’t realised he’d shut and takes note of a splash of reddish-brown freckles dotted over her cheeks and nose that he’d somehow never noticed before. Suddenly he’s filled with the urge to kiss every single one of them.
“Wow,” he breathes out, feeling like he’s weightless and sitting on a cloud in a way he never has before after such a brief makeout session. Hell, he’s never even felt this way after the handful of times he’s had sex.
Nezuko nods in agreement, shyer than he's ever seen her before. Her smile is soft as she leans back slightly, her arms draped over his shoulders. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while,” she admits, sounding just as affected.
The blush on Genya’s cheeks deepens, heating them as his heart skips a beat. “Really?” he stutters out. “I had no idea.”
One of her hands starts toying with his hair; he leans into the touch, humming. “Mm, a few years at least.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” he says, sitting up straight from where he had started to lean back against the arm of the sofa, alert now. “Are you saying we could've gotten together back in high school?”
Laughing, Nezuko shakes her head. “I didn't really start having feelings for you until that winter break right before you graduated. You had given me that antique wooden box for oseibo, the one with the beautiful cherry blossom tree carvings. It had been months since I told you about how I was trying to figure out a way to store and organise all my sewing supplies so they weren't just taking up all the room on my desk. I was surprised you had remembered.”
Her eyes are tender as she recounts that December nearly two years ago.
Genya was so nervous that day. He had never given someone a gift so personal before, usually sticking to the standard fare of food or sweets. But for some reason he had decided to stop in the antique store when he was in the city one day and the moment he saw the accordion-style box he knew it was just what she needed. After all that she had done for him – helping him gain confidence in his academic abilities and encouraging him to apply to the programs he was interested in, even if he thought it was a long shot – he wanted to show her his gratitude. Plus, he thought that maybe he could gather his courage and admit his feelings for you; a foolish notion, given how nervous he was around girls back then.
“I’d never received such a thoughtful gift before. And it made me realise that nobody makes me feel truly seen and heard the way that you do,” she finishes.
His eyes dart over her, taking the information in. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“You were leaving for university soon,” Nezuko answers with a shrug. “You deserved to have the full experience. No way was I going to somehow ruin that by saddling you with my feelings.”
“Yeah but–” He pauses, brow furrowing. “It’s been a year and a half since you started here and you still didn’t say anything.”
“Genya,” she laughs, “you were gone a whole year before that. Somehow in that time you had grown even taller, broader, and hotter. Plus you had gained more confidence in yourself, making you even more attractive. I figured you had all kinds of people throwing themselves at you, people who were older and experienced and had never walked around with bread in their mouths for half the day. And as far as I knew, I was just your best friend’s little sister, nothing more. How could I possibly compete?”
Lifting his hand, Genya cups her cheek. “There was never any contest,” he murmurs, his thumb caressing the downy skin of her cheekbone. “Why do you think none of my relationships have ever lasted? None of them could ever compare to you and they knew it.”
A blush lights up her cheeks. “You’re just saying that.”
“Have you ever known me to mince my words?”
She huffs a laugh, biting down a grin as she places a hand over his. “True…”
“How about you?” he asks, curious more than anything. “You haven’t exactly been celibate either.”
Her cheek grows hotter beneath his palm as it turns a deeper shade of red and, he has to say, it’s a refreshing change of pace not being the one blushing for once. “I might have been trying to get over you,” Nezuko mumbles, eyes downcast. “Didn’t work; every time I just wondered what it would be like with you, how you would do things differently.”
So much for not blushing. “You– you did?”
Looking up through her long lashes, she bites the corner of her bottom lip and nods. “I’ve thought about you a lot, and not just when I’ve been with other people.”
He groans, cock twitching where it’s trapped between their thighs. “Fuck…” Genya mutters. Face hotter than ever, blush spreading over his chest and down the back of his neck, he wraps his arms around her and hides in the junction between her neck and shoulder.
“Too much?” she asks with a quiet laugh, fingertips massaging the back of his head as she cards through his hair. It’s soothing, helping him cool down as he melts into her.
He nods, hugging her tighter.
Nezuko hums, the sound contemplative. “How’d you ever have sex when you react like this to a little bit of teasing?”
“‘s only like this with you,” he admits, mumbling his confession into her skin. It's petal-soft beneath his lips, tempting him.
Her hand pauses in its ministrations. “Should I be flattered or–?”
Huffing, he lifts his head to give her a dry look. “What do you think?”
“Just checking,” she says, eyes sparkling with mischief as she resumes her petting.
He rolls his eyes, though his upturned lips likely ruin the effect. “You’re a menace.”
A sweet smile on her even sweeter lips, she replies, “Your menace.”
Melting at Nezuko calling herself his, Genya tugs her into a soft, lingering kiss. Once it comes to a natural end, he leans their foreheads together and just breathes her in. Content for the first time that he can remember.