Chapter Text
“I hate your stupid, ugly, ass, Boar-face!” You screamed, clawing at your hair as if to try and relieve some of the anger you had built up over the last few days of traveling with the wild pig man. It was simply too much — you could sympathize with him, knowing that him means of growing up were dire and he never had a human family to rely on, but this was simply too much! He had used your hakama pants as a towel when you two had gone into separate hot springs from a bath!
“I hate you more, you ugly hag! You’re just mad my muscles are bigger than your’s!” He shouted back with twice the rage. If there hadn’t been a boar mask in between your faces, there most likely would’ve been spittle landing on your face from his yelling.
The two of you had been delivered the same mission — a town a week’s travel away had been having very bad demon issues. The young, the old, middle-aged; they had all been getting abducted in the night and the sparse population of the village could simply no longer function. It wasn’t a few people that gone missing. It was a dozen. Upon receiving the request, you were confused as to why it was specific that you were to team up with another demon slayer (our pig man).
You kissed your teeth with a quick huff, turning away from him and clenching your fist. What’s the chance you would die if you got into a fist fight with him? Well, it was uncertain. He had those scary serrated Nichirins with him at all times, and he did fight like a wild animal. But both of you were demon slayers, so the fight would likely be prolonged and somewhat fatal. A sigh escaped your lips as your anger died down, promising yourself that if a fight were to happen, you wouldn’t be the one to initiate it. Non-confrontational, [Name]. You’re not an animal, you thought to yourself with a slight chuckle.
“What?!” You could hear the murderous intent ringing through his voice.
“Nothing.”
“Are you laughing? If you keep laughing, I’ll beat you to a pulp! I don’t hold back on women!” You rolled your eyes, seeing through the empty threat easily. He wouldn’t dare.
“Whatever. Just keep walking. If you start another argument we won’t see that village until after the demon’s ate all of them.”
“Shut up!” Despite how furious he was, that managed to quiet him. The two of you continued to walk, the stomps of his footsteps becoming background noise as the journey continued. It was nearing night time — luckily, the road you had chosen intercepted many other towns. At the very least, you could sleep in beds for a few of the nights.
As the sun began to set, the temperature began to drop alongside it. You glanced over at Inosuke, wondering if he ever got cold. Idiots don’t catch colds.
“Ahh… ahh… aH CHOO!” Inosuke sneezed on cue, wiping his nose with a bare arm after the sneeze. As much as he pretended that he was invincible, you knew that he would ignore it if he caught a cold, which could lead to other problems.
“Hey. Inosuke,” you slipped off your uniform, tossing the [f/c] patterned haori to him. He caught it with ease, tilting the large boar mask on his head in question. “Don’t get sick.”
“I don’t need your stupid jacket.”
“Just take it.”
“No! I don’t like wearing things!” He pushed the haori back into your arms, and you felt a vein bulge in your head. If you told him you were only giving it to him to help, he probably would’ve rejected it even more. You sighed and put the uniform back on, feeling it’s familiar warmth on your shoulders.
As the night drew on, you found out you would not reach your destination of the nearby town in time, so you two chose to settle in a nearby clearing. You sprinkled wisteria essential oil along the edges of the clearing, hopefully scaring away any demons close to the two of you. Inosuke has told you that you were a ‘scaredy cat’ for being afraid of the demons, but you had simply brushed him off with a roll of your eyes.
“It’s better than getting eaten.”
He was quiet after that.
You searched through your backpack, looking for the spices you had stashed away in preparation for this journey. Inosuke began looking for food and killed a rabbit nearby, bringing a plethora of poisonous or venomous plants and fungus back with him. Well, some were edible. Most of them weren’t.
You grabbed some brush and dried plants near the camp and ignited a flame, using a mini breathing technique to start a blue flame. You placed a makeshift cooking rack above the fire and skinned the rabbit, lathering the meat with spices and herbs alongside the mushrooms. Afterwards, you hung the uncooked food from the cooking rack and started to wait. The small flame probably would cook the items in five minutes or less. A short time to wait.
“Is it done yet?”
“No,” you breathed, restraining yourself from punching him. Lucky for him, you were pretty tired.
“Is it done now?”
“No.”
A short pause came from his constant chatter, to which you gave a sigh of relief.
“What about now?”
“No!” Your outburst of anger made the flame underneath the food curl upwards, the food becoming cooked. Another sigh, but this time, it was of defeat. “Yeah. It’s done.” Inosuke hastily reached for the rabbit over the open flame, which you hastily knocked his hand over and not over the fire.
“You could burn yourself.” You let the fire die down and blew a soft breath over the food.
“I don’t want your nasty lungs over my food.” Man, if he’s good at anything, it’s ticking you off.
“Fine! Blow it yourself! Don’t take the whole rabbit, you selfish boar.”
“Well, I deserve the entire rabbit, ‘cause I’m the one that caught it! I did all the work here!”
“First of all, I’m not even going to tell you what you’re saying is wrong because if I start I won’t stop. Second of all, I’m not going to give you the whole rabbit. What am I gonna eat then, huh? Third of all, please just calm down for a moment. You don’t always need to fight everybody.”
“Yes, I do!” Sudden rage came over him and he launched himself at you, grabbing your wrists and pinning you down.
“What’s wrong with you?!” You delivered a two-legged kick at his stomach and you heard a pained grunt from him. His grip on your wrists didn’t soften and you kicked again, once again to no avail. Deciding that kicks weren’t working for you, you grabbed his waist between your legs and forcefully propelled his body in a way so you were sitting on top of him. Using his momentary surprise, you yanked your hands from him and used them to pin down his wrists the way he did to you.
“Inosuke, do you think I’m your enemy?” You breathed out, his heavy huffing starting to slow as your hands started to slacken. Suddenly, he was hyper aware of the compromising position you two were in — he was no fool. Despite being raised by a boar, he knew what usually happens in position. He felt your thighs on his waist, the way you were craned over him. Had he not been wearing that mask, you would’ve seen his tomato-red face. He grunted and shoved you to the side, letting you fall on the dirt.
“The food’s gonna get cold,” he grabbed the rabbit from the cooling fire and ripped off a leg, handing it to you. You took it gingerly, wondering if this could be counted as an apology.
He lifted up his mask a little and tore into the meat of the rabbit. He chewed thoughtfully for a second before continuing to eat.
“It’s good.” You wiped your mouth with a hand after eating your own portion and looking up at him, surprise evident on your face. “What?” He sneered, turning back to the small fire and grabbing a mushroom to shove into his mouth. You shook your head, looking down at the bones of the hare.
“Nothing. Thank you.” It was surprising that the sudden outburst from him had retreated as quickly as it started, as it seemed like it was a build up of many other things within the short time you two had been traveling together. It had been no more than two days and one night, enough to make you sick of it. If you were being honest, you wished very sincerely that it had been anybody besides Inosuke that would’ve accompanied you on this mission. He was feral. Completely wild. You didn’t know much of him — besides the fact that you almost mistook him for a demon the first time the two of you met.
After the two of you had finished eating, you extinguished the fire and lit a small lamp that had been hanging from your backpack. You set up a tent and went inside, letting Inosuke do whatever he needed to do. In the middle of the night, you had heard chattering from him. Obviously, it was his teeth clattering from the chill in the air. Your lantern had long been out since then and you weren’t in the mood to relight it.
Begrudgingly, you crawled out of your tent and grabbed your folded haori, fumbling in the darkness. Once you had made it to the place you thought was around him, you draped your uniform over his shivering body with a yawn.
“Sleep tight, Inosuke,” you grumbled as you sauntered back to your tent, going inside of it and draping the blanket on you once again. Aah, it was so warm in there. Unbeknownst to you, Inosuke had been awake since you came out of your tent, hearing your soft footsteps against the ground. His body had been absolutely rigid, the sound of your steps showing that it was you and not some demon.
Inosuke, unwillingly, felt a fine heat spread over his face. He knew that the heat wasn’t just from your haori.