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"Let's go for a stroll, Inosuke," Tanjirou had said, without any trace of hesitation or doubt—in fact, he had been confident when the idea first came to him.
It only made sense: with both of them still looking for Uzui's wives, getting a better notion of their surroundings and a better picture of the situation they were in could give them an extra push into discovering more about their whereabouts. They had tried to bring Zenitsu along, but the blonde had been muttering the whole time about being the best oiran (was that even possible?) and hadn't even listened to them, so Tanjirou thought it was best to let him cool down for now.
For the moment, it was only the two of them roaming around the Red Light District with the excuse of running an errand. The sun had yet to set completely, the orange rays peeking over the horizon to reflect on them; even then, there was already a significant crowd walking about, some talking loudly due to the effect of the alcohol, regardless of how early it was.
The amount of people seemed to distract Inosuke, who kept lagging behind as gathering groups appeared in front of him. Not used to dealing with crowds, Inosuke had a hard time walking through them (at least not without being too aggressive about it, which Tanjirou had vehemently told him not to do). After the fourth time of this happening, Tanjirou tugged his spooked looking friend by his sleeve, away from yet another group of passersby.
"We need to stay close so we don't get separated," Tanjirou said to him. "I'd rather not draw too much attention to us."
Inosuke nodded, but just as he did, a drunk man walked past them in the opposite direction, and though Inosuke tried to sidestep him, the man still walked straight into his shoulder and stumbled away unperturbed by the collision. Inosuke himself lost his footing for a moment, but recovered easily enough. He attempted to whirl back, no doubt to pick a fight with the drunk man, but Tanjirou gave his kimono another tug to keep him from doing anything stupid.
When he turned an angry scowl towards Tanjirou, he pressed his index finger to his lips with an imploring look, and the shout that Inosuke was about to let out turned into a low growl in the back of his throat as he grinded his teeth together instead.
"I hate crowds," Inosuke spat out. "What do they think they're doing, going around and hitting people like a bunch of idiots?"
Inosuke stepped behind him, and seeing as he wasn't about to charge at random people, Tanjirou let him go, only for Inosuke to put both his hands around Tanjirou's bicep.
"I know, but just bear with it for now, okay?" Tanjirou said, though not unkindly. "It shouldn't take too long, I think."
Inosuke played with the fabric of Tanjirou's kimono between his thumbs but nodded, and Tanjirou smiled at his fidgeting.
"What are we even looking for?" Inosuke asked.
"Anything, I suppose." Tanjirou discreetly watched the houses and the people they saw, keeping an eye on anything that looked in any way suspicious. "It'd be better if we had Zenitsu here, so he could hear for any conversations that would tell us something important. Maybe I should've tried harder to convince him…"
Inosuke snorted. "Good luck making him listen to you," he said mockingly. "We'll just find out ourselves."
"Yeah, you have a point. At least you're here with me, Inosuke."
A small proud smile appeared at the corners of Inosuke's face, though he looked to the side so Tanjirou wouldn't see it. Tanjirou bit down on his lips to avoid letting out a giggle at the sight, sure that Inosuke wouldn't appreciate the laugh.
Tanjirou tried not to think of how pink Inosuke's lips looked with whatever they applied to it earlier, just in case the fluttering in his chest got any worse.
"J-Just tell me if you sense something that might be important, okay?" Tanjirou instructed, silently wincing at his own stutter.
"Yeah, sure."
They continued on in silence, though Tanjirou's thoughts were anything but. He kept tilting his head to the side, glancing at Inosuke from the corner of his eyes, only to find him deep in concentration, brows furrowed and bottom lip between his teeth in a way that couldn't be labeled anything other than charming.
Tanjirou snapped his head forward, resolutely staring straight ahead. This was in no way the time to be distracted, no matter how long Inosuke's eyelashes were, or how even more delicate his cheeks looked with the layer of powder on them. He was afraid he might actually start sounding like Zenitsu, and that was a scary thought.
He was just thinking about Inosuke's eyes when the person in question stopped in his tracks, forcing Tanjirou to do the same.
"What are you—"
Inosuke stepped closer, voice dropping to a whisper. "There's someone watching us."
"What?" Tanjirou's instinct was to whip his head back to take a look, but he stopped himself at the last moment, remembering that he couldn't let whoever it was know they noticed the attention. He stayed in place, with Inosuke pressed close to his back.
"Behind us," Inosuke said. "I don't know what direction, because of these goddamn itchy clothes…"
"Right, okay." Tanjirou thought for a moment, face brightening up as an idea came to him. "Okay, here's what we'll do: I'm going to hug you—"
"Huh?!" Inosuke yelled, getting a few heads to turn in their direction. Tanjirou frantically shushed him.
"Listen, considering the kind of place we're in, that'll be less suspicious than just standing around awkwardly. If I hug you, I can look over your shoulder without alerting who's watching us."
"Fine, then hurry it up!"
Permission given, Tanjirou turned and hugged Inosuke to his chest, keeping his eyes half open as to not look too obvious.
"Do you see them?" Inosuke asked in a fervent whisper.
"Not yet, give me a moment," Tanjirou replied in the same tone.
His eyes roamed the thickening crowd, and after a minute of careful watching, it was easy to spot their watcher—or watchers, plural. Three men sat side by side on the porch of one of the tea houses, a bottle of sake between them, though their eyes weren't on the bottle, or even on their cups. Instead, their gazes were on Inosuke's back; not as someone who watched a threat, and more like someone judging a piece of meat. They evaluated the entirety of Inosuke's body, looking like they never got tired of it, as they did it again, even if there wasn't much to look at from that angle.
And yet, their eyes wouldn't leave Inosuke, and they laughed loudly as one of them whispered something to the others. Tanjirou couldn't tell if he felt better or worse that he couldn't hear them from this distance.
Of course, this kind of attitude was to be expected in a place like this, but it didn't fail to make Tanjirou's skin crawl. And then, when they finally noticed Tanjirou staring at them, they winked at him and whistled. Tanjirou held Inosuke tighter, like it was enough to keep him away from men like that.
"Oi, what's wrong? Did you find them?" Inosuke asked, tugging at the back of Tanjirou's kimono.
"Nothing's wrong," Tanjirou said stiffly.
"Your heart is beating like crazy though."
Tanjirou snapped back, putting some distance between them—enough so their chests wouldn't be touching. Tanjirou opened his mouth to reassure Inosuke that they weren't in any sort of danger, but as he glanced back to the three men, he met eyes with one of them, who smirked and made an obscene gesture to the pair.
Tanjirou balled his hand into a fist, while the other clasped Inosuke's to quite abruptly pull him away in a not-quite-run out of there. The rough treatment wasn't exempt from complaints, but at least Inosuke followed after him despite slapping his back incessantly in an attempt to get an answer out of Tanjirou.
He only stopped when they were at a section barely inhabited at this time of the day, and except for a few passing servants, it was only the two of them there. Inosuke was fully scowling at him now.
"The hell is wrong with you? If it's an enemy then I'm going back to beat them up," Inosuke said, not hesitating to walk in the opposite direction to do just that.
Thankfully, Tanjirou was still holding his hand and he refused to let go, pulling Inosuke back with great effort.
"It's fine, it's nothing like that, so calm down!"
Inosuke pointed an accusing finger at him. "You're the one who needs to calm down first, then!"
"Me?"
"Yeah!" Inosuke jabbed a finger at the wrinkles in Tanjirou's forehead. "You look like you just swallowed a lemon, what's up with that, huh?"
Tanjirou slapped a hand to his forehead and forced himself to relax the muscles in his face. "It was really nothing. Just some guys being creepy, and it got on my nerves."
Inosuke gave him an annoyed look. "That's it?"
"That's it."
Inosuke blew a raspberry in irritation, then promptly threw himself to the ground to sit on the dirt, unbothered by how that would likely get his kimono dirty.
"You're so goddamn weird," Inosuke complained, sitting back on the palm of his hands.
"Sorry."
"I hate this stupid mission," Inosuke grumbled to himself, absentmindedly scratching at his own neck. Tanjirou followed the motion, just as distracted, but gasped when he saw the red marks there.
"Inosuke, your neck!"
"Huh?"
Tanjirou kneeled behind him and batted his hand away, frowning at the scratching marks marring his skin.
"Were you scratching at it the entire time?"
"These clothes are itchy and too hot and it makes my skin feel weird," Inosuke explained with a grumble.
"You should've told me it was this bad…" Tanjirou gently touched a fingertip to the worst of the scratches, but Inosuke didn't as much as flinch.
Perking up as an idea struck him, Tanjirouut undid the ribbon atop his own head, letting his bags fall over his forehead.
"This won't do much, but it'll help a little bit," Tanjirou said, reaching for Inosuke's hair to tie it up in a delicate ponytail, twisting the ribbon into a perfect bow. "I can't do anything about the clothes, but this way at least you'll get more wind on your neck, so it won't be as hot."
Inosuke twisted his head this and that way, trying to get a look at the ribbon, but when that failed, he settled for patting it and squeezing the base of the ponytail. His fingers lingered on the velvety bow, and he looked at Tanjirou out of the corner of his eyes, not fully turning to face him.
"...Thanks," he said in a quiet voice.
They probably made quite the weird sight, with Inosuke looking down at his lap in a rare show of bashfulness, while Tanjirou watched him at a loss for words. Not because he couldn't think of anything to say, but because anything he had to say would surely be some sort of term of endearment that Tanjirou was too embarrassed to say out loud.
All the while, the last rays of sunset cast its glow on Inosuke's pale skin, making him glow almost ethereally: on his cheeks, on his now exposed legs, on the irritated skin of his neck. Unable to stop himself, Tanjirou pressed his thumb to the fine cuts again, dragging it across the expanse of Inosuke's neck; this time, he shivered under the touch.
"Does it hurt…?" Tanjirou asked.
"Hm? Oh, not really, I guess."
"You guess?" He chuckled.
Gently, with only a fingertip, a touch as delicate as the pale skin under his hands, Tanjirou dragged the edge of Inosuke's kimono downwards, exposing more of the nape of his neck. He stared down at it contemplatively, but it wasn't long before he touched it again, this time with his lips. He got a brief taste of salt, and Inosuke's natural scent hidden under all the cologne they had forced him to wear.
When he pulled away, Inosuke was watching him over his shoulder, a puzzled look on his face (but not irritation or anger, Tanjirou noticed).
"What are you doing?"
That was a good question, what was he doing? Tanjirou wasn't quite sure, either. But looking at Inosuke, he felt like he might understand: it felt cleansing to do something like this, like he was washing the gazes of vulgar men off of Inosuke's skin.
He wondered if Inosuke would think him selfish, for wanting to be the only one on his skin.
"I don't know."
"You're a terrible liar."
Tanjirou chuckled, fingers tracing the edges of Inosuke's kimono. "I really am."
Inosuke watched him with a sort of quietness to him that was so unusual, but that Tanjirou didn't mind in the least. When he didn't say anything, nor did he look away, Tanjirou took a chance, and leaned in to kiss the corner of his mouth, all while Inosuke watched.
Still close to him, Tanjirou whispered, just for the two of them: "Is this fine?"
Inosuke hummed, licked his bottom lip and frowned. "Dunno. Do it again."
Tanjirou laughed fondly. "It'll be a problem if we take too long to go back, Inosuke."
Inosuke took a fistful of Tanjirou's kimono and yanked him forward. "I don't care."
Tanjirou smiled into the next kiss.