Chapter Text
It was of great surprise that the first frost hadn’t resulted in a snow day for the campus. Sure, it wasn’t icy nor was it below 20 F, but Zenitsu had his fingers crossed all morning in hopes of seeing a cancellation email for his 9AM class. He grumbled when his inbox remained empty and he had to finish getting ready. Tanjiro poked his head out of the bathroom, toothbrush between his teeth. “No luck?”
“There’s got to be better ways to adult than going to math classes.” Zenitsu ripped a shirt from his dresser, then a pair of black pants so he didn’t need to think about how the colors matched. “Like, why do classes if you aren’t a math major?”
“The pythagorean theory actually comes up more than you’d expect in my courses,” Tanjiro replied, leaning back to spit into the sink.
“Aren’t you a criminal justice major?”
“Yup.”
Zenitsu rolled his eyes and finished changing in the center room while Tanjiro finished up. He swiped through his phone while he waited for his roommate to gather his textbooks, double check to make sure his homework was in place, then that he had no less than five pens in his side pocket just in case he lost one, someone needed to borrow one, or one stopped giving ink to his pages. Zenitsu huffed when he came across a post.
“You know, we could try starting a side hustle together. This girl made a million dollars selling her bath water.”
Tanjiro hoisted his backpack onto his shoulders. He took his set of dorm keys before peering over Zenitsu’s shoulder. “Oh. You weren’t kidding. Well, I don’t think that’d work for you.”
“You don’t think anyone would buy my bath water?”
Tanjiro paused. “Well… It would be hard to market. You aren’t a famous gaming streamer, so it’d be like…. ‘Sleep Deprived, Anxious Musical College Student Bath Water’, but since we don’t have a bathtub, it’d be like ‘Sleep Deprived, Anxious Musical College Student Tears’.”
“My exams make me cry enough that I’d never run out of supplies. You’d at least buy one, right?”
“I think I have your tear marks stained on my blanket and hoodie. Why would I pay for something I get for free?”
“Jee Tanjiro, why buy the cow?” Zenitsu rolled his eyes. He brushed past Tanjiro and headed out the door. He could hear Tanjiro closing the door behind him and soon they were side by side as they descended the stairs to the bottom floor. He had to admit, over the few weeks Tanjiro had lived with him, he’s only gotten calmer. His anxiety of lurking too close to his roommates or disturbing them at night was erased within two weeks of Tanjiro’s mothering at night to ensure he didn’t sneak off. Now he was used to Tanjiro sleeping beside him, or Tanjiro inviting him to dinner nightly, or Tanjiro fixing up little toys he found or bought cheap to entertain the kids with.
Hanako, Rokuta and Shigeru visited a few times during and after midterms. Each time there’d only be two of them and they’d stay for one to three nights before being whisked back to their home or dropped off at school for their mother to pick up. They weren’t so bad either. Zenitsu hit the jackpot this time, and he hoped Tanjiro was insane enough to agree to ask for each other to be roommates again once fall and spring semester ended and they had to move out.
Really, Tanjiro had no downsides. Zenitsu was expecting at some point to have to deal with girlfriends or rowdy bunches of students flooding their room, but Tanjiro never had friends over, nor did he comment on how Zenitsu preferred to lay in bed and watch shows or did his occasional exercise of choice: Just Dance.
He supposed Tanjiro wasn’t a very extraverted person. Fair enough. Fine enough. They didn’t really need anyone else anyways.
Zenitsu held the door for them, shivering when a blast of cold air slapped his face. He cringed, then froze. His cheek… felt wet?
“I GOT YOU NOW, GONPAICHIROU.”
“Oh dear god,” Tanjiro murmured as he peered outside the door, eyebrows knit with concern as he stared out onto the dorm lawn. It was the closest Zenitsu ever came to hearing him swear. Usually he’d whisper ‘fiddlesticks’ or ‘well this won’t do’. Zenitsu wiped his cheek with a huff, then looked down to see clumps of melting snow on his sleeve and shirt.
He looked out into the cold and spotted a middle schooler hopping back and forth on his feet, laughing maniacally. He wasn’t one of Tanjiro’s siblings, but he looked maybe Nezuko’s age, or at least dressed like it. It was freezing out, yet this idiot was in bright yellow shorts, a black tank top and knee length neon socks with shoes that clashed as well.
“Zenitsu.” Tanjiro placed a hand on his shoulder. He gulped. “You run toward the class halls. I’ll see you at lunch.”
“Eh? But, but your class is three doors away from mine?” Zenitsu sputtered. Tanjiro nodded sagely.
“You are right. Can you drop off my backpack?” Tanjiro shrugged off his pack and set it in Zenitsu’s hands. Zenitsu always considered gravity to be real, but he felt it the moment that forty pound bag was given to him and he lurched downward with a huff. “It’ll weigh me down.”
“Wait.” Zenitsu cried, this being a bit too dramatic for his liking. Tanjiro faced the light snow with hardened eyes. “What is going to happen to you?”
Tanjiro bowed his head. “I don’t know, but I swear I’ll make it back… I kinda have to make it to class anyways, I can’t have another absence.”
“Oh. Okay, well, good luck with that then.”
“I’ll avenge you, maybe,” Tanjiro replied before darting outside and to the left of the building. The middle schooler let out a cry like one would hear in a war film between native tribes, then chased after his roommate with vengeance. Zenitsu watched them disappear, weaving between students who parted as though this were a normal occurrence. Zenitsu knew he didn’t always walk with Tanjiro everywhere, but he had an inkling he was missing something he should have been privy to. Maybe Tanjiro did have some friends, weird ones at that, and was fairly popular. Or, Zenitsu thought as he gathered Tanjiro’s bag and strapped it on over his chest, more likely, Tanjiro was too weird to have many friends.
Zenitsu lugged their supplies to the hall and dropped Tanjiro’s stuff off in his class. The professor pointed out his usual spot so the student didn’t come in and make a ruckus looking for it, which Zenitsu was grateful for. He arrived at his class with two minutes to spare and sat down in the front to ensure he’d remain conscious during parabolas.
His teacher tried hard to make the material interesting, but Zenitsu’s mind wandered off to other topics. Could he sell his tears to pay off his tuition? Was Tanjiro about to burst through the windows, still being chased down by that middle schooler? Was Tanjiro going to be in one piece when they got lunch together?
Needless to say, when Zenitsu received his homework he decided he wouldn’t be able to complete it. It was a bunch of scribbles to him. Tanjiro had another class soon after his 9AM, so hunting him down to pester him about math would be fruitless in the long run. His other few friends, all music majors, would also be helpless when presented with the equations. He had one last choice.
He arrived at the tutoring center at 10:02. It was an entirely student-led organization established at the top of the main food area in a large space that went unnoticed by anyone who wasn’t actively seeking them out. He had heard of their skills through word of mouth, and frankly? They were a little intense. Most tutoring centers he saw in movies covered the basics: Math, reading comprehension, writing workshops, and perhaps some science. If you wanted tutoring for your specific major, like if you focussed on clarinet, you’d need to hunt down a top-tier senior willing to grace you with a sliver of time, or get berated by a professor at a very inconvenient time and receive next to no help in the end.
The tutoring center at their school was a little different. Composed of the smartest, or most capable, students, it was a well oiled machine. Anyone who sneaked out help within those walls received it, whether they wanted to or not. If you wanted help with an equation, they’d continue to pester you until you eventually passed the class with A’s. They wouldn’t let you go, and you could hardly use the excuse that they ‘didn’t cater to your major’. This is because every student who led a section in the center was a double major. He even heard of there being a triple major: one who did pre-med, nursing and biology. He didn’t believe this person actually existed, but if they did, they had to come from old money to be able to afford the absolute absurdity that was.
Zenitsu approached the front desk with sweaty palms which grew worse when he noticed who was working the front today. The girl gasped and leaned forward in her seat with a sweet smile. Don’t let it fool you, Zenitsu begged.
“Zenitsu Agatsuma! That’s it, right? It’s so good to see you again!” Mitsuri exclaimed, clapping her hands together once. “Do you have another paper for me to look through?”
Zenitsu unfortunately became acquainted with Mitsuri in his first week of school. She’s an Engllish Education major who happens to also major in animal science, and since she is always carrying around some sort of animal or cage, it’s very hard to forget. The day she came to correct Zenitsu’s paper, she had a tarantula crawling in her hair that she didn’t seem to notice as she gleaned over his words. “Mm, it’s missing something.”
“I figured, but I’m not sure what. Should I add another point to make my argument more compelling?”
She hummed like the tinkling of bells. “I think you need more hope in your tone. This piece is very depressing.”
“I’d… hope so?” Zenitsu drew shapes on the desk with his finger. “I mean, it’s about how we are destroying parks to get oil, so it’s not a happy topic.”
“But why didn’t you write about their conservation efforts instead?” She asked politely. Zenitsu furrowed his eyebrows.
“‘Cause… I didn’t?”
“Well, that’s where you will start then!” Mitsuri gushed, tossing the papers aside. “You are having a hard time because you chose the wrong topic!”
“I-I don’t really need to start all over! I only need a hundred more words!”
“A hundred more filler words,” She corrected brutally. She dug around underneath the table until she pulled out a notebook and pen which she then pushed over to him with a smile.
“On… paper?”
“Where else?”
Zenitsu shivered at the thought before holding a hand out. “No, I’m here to get help with some math homework… Is that tutor here today?”
Mitsuri hummed, tapping her chin as she thought through everyone in the center. After a minute, she shook her head. “Nope, I’m the only one here.” Why didn’t you say that to begin with, Zenitsu thought before turning to head out the door. “I’ll let him know you stopped by! You are rooming with Tanjiro, right?”
He stuttered in his steps. “You know Tanjiro?”
“Mm, not really.” With that, she began to hum to herself as she doodled a little note on a bright orange notepad. Zenitsu furrowed his brow, but continued on his way before she got the idea of making him write poems until the math tutor came back.