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“Tanjirou,” Zenitsu grunts when the redhead steps on his feet for the fifth time that day, despite already staring avidly down at their feet. “Look at me.”
Tanjirou lifts his head up, eyes blown wide in concentration, “Right!” He says, before immediately stepping on the blonde’s feet again. “Shit.”
Zenitsu reminds himself to get new shoes for tomorrow. His pair today is utterly wrecked.
The Kamado family has kindly offered their home for Zenitsu, his grandfather and Kaigaku to stay ahead of time for the celebrations to be done tomorrow. The occasion? It’s Tanjirou’s debut in high society tomorrow and Zenitsu’s been appointed--or rather appointed himself--to help his friend learn how to properly dance.
The redhead’s pretty rusty, since he’s well-known to skip his lessons like Inosuke to go on adventures out in the wilderness, where they’ll both come back battered and thoroughly roughened up by the forest.
Zenitsu would have liked to join them, but his grandfather never lets him even step out of their mansion, especially not with Kaigaku nearby. He’s usually pulled back forcefully by the guards or snatched up by a very irritated big brother.
So he’s ended up being far too sheltered for his own good, forced to take his lessons on time and having no leisure to frolic around like his friends.
But he has taken it upon himself to keep his only friends educated with the things he's learned. Teaching Inosuke table manners, which was still a work-in-progress, and teaching Tanjirou speech and dance. He admits that his room is a bit cramped for all the dancing they’ve been doing, but he’s too shy to come over Tanjirou’s room and make a fool of himself in front of Nezuko.
“Come on, take this seriously.” Zenitsu shakes Tanjirou back into his position. He fixes the redhead’s posture with a push of his fingers on the right places, a trick he’s learned from his grandfather. “You don’t want to keep stepping on Nezuko’s poor feet, do you?”
Tanjirou grumbles, “I guess.” He mutters pitifully before taking the lead once more, his steps slow and careful as he guides Zenitsu around. “But I’m just not feeling it here, you know?”
“What do you mean?” Zenitsu asks, nearly missing another step on his shoe, courtesy of Tanjirou.
Tanjirou groans, withdrawing from Zenitsu’s hold abruptly and spinning himself away. “I mean this atmosphere--” He flails his hands wildly before letting flop on his sides, turning to the blonde with a bored look. “--doesn’t feel magical.”
Zenitsu just kinds stands there with his hands hovering in the air as he listens to his friend, bringing it down with a clear of his throat. “Does it have to be?” He plops down on his bed, soothed by the loss of weight on his soles. Teaching the redhead a whole routine in one day was tiring. “Tanjirou, it’s just waltz.”
“And waltz-ing has to be done in a ballroom.” Tanjirou tuts, “This isn’t a ballroom.”
He’s making excuses again, Zenitsu thinks as he rolls his eyes. “The ballroom is closed, Tanjirou.” It really wasn’t, but Zenitsu just doesn’t want to deal with going upstairs and asking for the key. It was too late to ask for any favors from the servants, they need all the sleep they can get for tomorrow. “Grandfather would kill me for trespassing.”
“Then we’ll go somewhere else.” Tanjirou is quick to suggest, wearing a devilish grin.
Zenitsu wilts. As much as he’d like to partake in Tanjirou’s adventures out in the forest, it’s late, and he’d rather stay at home than get mauled by some unidentified animal outside. His hesitation seems to show, from the way Tanjirou huffs and reaches for him.
“Come on, Zenitsu.” Tanjirou whines, pulling him up from the bed. “I’ll get us permission from Kaigaku!!”
Now Tanjirou’s just talking crazy. “How?”
“A blood pact!!” At this point, Zenitsu doesn’t know if Tanjirou’s serious about his silly propositions or not.
“Please don’t!! You’re debuting tomorrow, we can’t have you walking around with bandages around your finger!!” Zenitsu exclaims, worried for his friend’s life.
He ends up letting himself be dragged out of the room by a very eager redhead.
Surprisingly, they do get permission from Kaigaku.
And Zenitsu’s too bitter to believe it, stomping on the ground and tugging on his brother’s sleeve in an attempt to pull off a small tantrum. “Why can’t I go with them before?!”
Kaigaku just shrugs, ignoring his question and instead just keeping his glare on the redhead beside him. “Just shut up and go.” He says, shrugging Zenitsu off.
Tanjirou just keeps beaming throughout the whole encounter, “Thank you!” He even has the nerve to holler at his back, before towing Zenitsu out the mansion.
“See Zenitsu?” Tanjirou spreads his arms wide open at the vast field of green and twirls around, chuckling to himself. “It’s magical.”
It really is, Zenitsu can attest to his words. It’s like the meadows he’s seen on paintings, with the night sky twinkling above them and the moon shining down everything, making the grass and trees look like they’re glowing. It really just makes you want to get up and dance around on the grass barefoot, feeling the way they bend from your feet.
“Right.” Zenitsu mutters, distracted at the fantasy-like scenery before him. The fact that Tanjirou looks like he belongs in the meadows adds to the beauty. “How did you find this?”
“Inosuke and I usually take refuge here after all our climbing contests.”
Zenitsu squawks at the thought of even climbing something in the first place, yet the two idiots make it into a contest?! “Climbing contests?!”
Tanjirou nods excitedly, as if he wants to go and climb a tree now. “You should join sometime, Zenitsu!!”
“I’ll pass.” Zenitsu mutters, feeling a headache coming on. He'll probably end up falling not even a third up the tree.
He returns focus to their actual task at hand, going up to the redhead and placing his hands on his sturdy shoulders. “Anyway, shall we?”
Tanjirou removes his hands with a quick step back, “No!!” He shouts at him, startling the blonde. What was his problem now? “Let’s take it from the top.” The redhead says, stepping a couple more inches back.
Zenitsu tilts his head at him, confused, and Tanjirou replies with a joyful laugh. “Like this,” He bows down gracefully towards the blonde, moving forward to take one of his hands and giving it a polite kiss on the back. “My fair lady, would you like to dance?”
Zenitsu resists the urge to just up and leave so he can scream somewhere in peace. Instead, he chuckles nervously. “Tanjirou, I’m a guy.” He chides with no real anger.
Tanjirou just shrugs and replies with a cheeky grin. “My fair gentleman.”
Zenitsu, having no other choce than to play along, just laughs his embarrassment away. “Yes, I would love to, your highness.” He replies just as teasingly, laughing at the way Tanjirou pouts. He never really liked being reminded of his high status.
The pout goes away as fast as it came, and Tanjirou's hands slip on his waist, gripping his other hand tightly as they assumed position.
They begin their dance slowly. With Tanjirou still keeping watch of his feet from time to time but otherwise, his gaze is kept on Zenitsu’s, who’s starting to regret teaching the redhead that eye contact is a must. The moonlight makes his friend almost looks ethereal as they dance on the soft grass, and Zenitsu feels a little saddened at the thought that he’d never actually be able to dance with him tomorrow. Either his friend would have too many girls lining up to dance with him, or it'll be too risky of him to even suggest the notion of dancing with a man to the king-in-training.
Nevertheless, he’ll just have to savor this moment and keep it in his memory forever.
“You’re not stepping on any of my toes.” Zenitsu remarks, breaking the silence they were so engrossed in. It was dangerous to stare at those ruby eyes for too long. He might just end up falling too deep. Or deeper. “Have you secretly already mastered this dance?”
Tanjirou laughs, “Maybe.” He says as he guides Zenitsu into a twirl, much to the blonde’s surprise. “It’s all thanks to your kind and patient tutelage.”
“I literally just started teaching you today, but sure. You’re welcome.” Zenitsu replies, his heart humming at the praise.
They continue to dance under the moonlight for a while, with Zenitsu forgiving Tanjirou’s missteps on his feet easily due to the calm atmosphere.
Their dance comes to a halt when Tanjirou finally pulls away. He keeps one of Zenitsu’s hands in his own, however, cradling it to his chest as he does.
“Will you dance with me tomorrow as well?” Tanjirou asks, grinning down at him stupidly.
Zenitsu feels a pang in his heart and his fingers twitch unconsciously. “That’s indecent, Tanjirou.” He replies, forcing himself to sound light.
Tanjirou purses his lips, “It’s not.”
Always the oblivious boy, Zenitsu muses in his mind. “To the others, it is.”
“I, why,” Tanjirou sputters, cheeks puffing in a familiar pout. Zenitsu would find it cute if he wasn’t too busy feeling sorry for himself. “Why should I care about what others think?”
“It’s how things work around here, Tanjirou.”
“But I’ve already got your grandfather’s blessing!!”
Zenitsu closes his mouth shut, stopping whatever reply he had in mind. Blessing?
“For what? The dance?” He hesitantly asks, not knowing whether or not to pry about what exactly what Tanjirou has gotten permission for.
“For our engagement?” Tanjirou tilts his head, “It’s planned that I propose to you tomorrow in public out of formality but--”
Zenitsu screams, disturbing some of the crows in the woods.
Zenitsu comes running back into the mansion, wailing into Kaigaku’s unwilling arms. Tanjirou hovers above him, worried that he might have offended Zenitsu by telling him about the engagement beforehand. Kaigaku, in a rare bout of kindness, reassures the redhead.
“Oh trust me, he likes you.” He snickers as Zenitsu whines some more, begging for him to shut up. “Probably just doesn’t like the idea that he’ll be on bottom.”
Zenitsu gives him pathetic punches on the chest, to which Kaigaku just replies with patronizing pats on the head.
“Oh.” Tanjirou says, looking like he doesn’t quite get it. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you on top sometimes!”
Kaigaku wheezes, both from Tanjirou’s statement and the fact that Zenitsu looks like a living tomato.