Work Text:
“Inosuke! You told me I could choose what we play this time!,” cried an irritated voice from above him that caused the young boy to look up.
The harsh rays of the summer evening caused the blue haired boy to squint as his eyes were met with those familiar blue, already looking at him in a disapproving glare he was used to.
Inosuke snorted as he stuck out his tongue, concentrating on his cool sand tunnel he had been working on before replying, “I said we could play any cool games you chose. Playing wedding is for girls and boring!”
The raven haired girl stomped her foot at the boy’s attitude as her temper began to flare, “You said you’d play any game I chose! Are you a liar?”
This had caught the boy's attention immediately, standing up from his sitting position with his green eyes set in a glare, face covered in sand.
“ Are you insulting the king of the mountain,” griped the boy, his temper flaring just as quickly as the girls.
“I never did that! I only know the king of the liars,” retorted the girl as she faced away the boy in disgust, her twin tails bopping with her movements.
“My mommy said that's what a bad person is! And I'm not a bad person, I’m an awesome person!”
“Oh yeah,” taunted the raven haired girl.
“Yeah,” called out the irritated boy, fists clenched and glaring up at the older girl. Though almost the same height, the girl won him by a few centimeters.
“Then you have to play what I want to play, like you promised ,” said the girl with a smirk knowing fully well that she had played inosuke like a fiddle, very aware of his competitive nature.
“Fine,” the boy spit out, “I’ll play your stupid game, but in one condition! I get to be the dragon!”
The girl’s face visibly dropped, “But we’re playing bride and groom! The bride can’t marry a dragon!”
Inosuke shrugged as he picked his nose with a huge grin, “Then let’s play princess and dragons! Take it or leave it.”
The girl pursed her lips before sighing and agreed reluctantly as she took out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped the boy's face clean, a natural instinct at this point before smiling at him brightly. Insouke hummed silently as he let himself be cleaned by those familiar hands.
To say that the nine year old boy had been used to this pampering would be an understatement. He has known the older girl (only by a year ) for as long as he can remember. The Kanzaki family had moved next door to the small Hashibira family (inosuke and his single mother) a few years prior.
Kotcha had wanted to make the new neighbors comfortable and welcomed and had cooked them some delicious pastries. The kanzaki family was so grateful and kind, and finding out kotcha was a single mother they had always offered to babysit inosuke whenever she needed to go to work.
This had proved to work out as little aoi had always had a hard time making new friends, something about her bossy attitude running all the other kids away but it had seemed to entertain the equally as difficult inosuke effectively causing the kids to be attached at the hip.
When aoi had begun to go to school it was a shit show to say the least. Inosuke was confused where Aoi was going, and why he couldn’t go with her. Aoi’s mother would always diffuse the situation by feeding little inosuke tempura and promises of picking up the girl at school together.
And that had begun their daily routine of picking the raven haired girl every single day at one in the evening. The girl’s eyes never failed to sparkle at finding insouke and her mother waiting for her and she’d run all the way to meet them only to hold hands all the way home.
Eventually inosuke would also start school, the same one as aoi! They never had any classes together, as to aoi being a year older, but they would spend their rest time together to play together and with their new friends!
“Ok my minions,” started the blue haired boy to his friends that he had gathered shortly after, “We’re going to play princess and dragons, I as your king, have already taken the role as dragon. We need to fill the other positions!”
There was silence before a hand was raised in the air by a timid yellow haired boy, bushy eyebrows knitted together in confusion.
Inosuke nodded to the boy to ask the question, “Yes monitsu?”
“It’s zenitsu,” gruffed out the boy in irritation before continuing, “Isn’t the game called prince saves the princess?”
Before he could reply, the redhead standing next to him nodded with his lips pursed, “I think you’re right zenitsu.”
“Quiet minions! The game is called princess and dragons because I said so!”
“Ah, I see,” replied the blonde as he nodded his head before exclaiming, “I think nezuko-chan should be the princess! She would make the cutest princess! Don’t you think so, brother in law?”
The red haired boy pulled his younger sister to his other side as he sported a rather irritated look, “Zenitsu I told you I’m not your brother in law! Nezuko is too young to be married! But she would be the prettiest princess.”
“No,” interrupted Inosuke with a dull face, “Aoi’s the princess, that position has already been filled.”
“Hah,” replied the blonde in irritation, “aoi-chan is pretty, but why do you get to decide who the princess is?”
The green eyed boy rolled his eyes as he said straightforwardly, “because the prettiest girl is always the princess, duh. Monitsu I didn’t know you were this dumb.”
Before the older boy could start his usual wrestling match with the younger, tanjiro grabbed zenitsu by the back of his shirt, “Of course, aoi is very pretty to be the princess. Good job, inosuke.”
Was the red haired annoyed that his little sister wasn’t called the prettiest girl to be the princess, sure he was. That didn’t mean that inosuke had meant what he said in a bad way. He knew his friend had a crush on the twin tailed girl and in his eyes she was the prettiest, so he let him be.
A small hand was raised that had effectively quieted down the other boys. A small quiet girl with a side ponytail, aoi’s first school friend, never really had much to say so that had surprised all the boys.
“Yes , quiet minion?”
The purple eyed girl let her hand down as she quietly stated, “I think Zenitsu should be the horse.”
“What?!”
“Great idea minion!” “You are so creative, kanao!”
“I wanted to be the prince,” the yellow haired boy blubbered, “Why are you all so mean to me?”
“Boss, I want to be a knight,” came a soft voice from the pink eyed girl holding her brother's hand, smiling in anticipation.
“Okay,'' Inosuke continued in satisfaction, “I’m the awesome and strong dragon, aoi’s the princess, zanzo is the horse, neziko will be a knight, koroko will be… the princess’s friend. Now that just leaves tontaro …”
“... it’s tanjiro!”
The green eyed boy ignored his agitated friend as he tried to come up with a role for him. A troll? No, that didn’t seem right. The beggar that the dragon kills? Maybe, but that would be an easy kill… hmm…
“That’s easy, tanjiro will be the prince,” piped up the honey eyed boy as a chorus of agreements came to that agreement.
“Me,” questioned the red haired boy in confusion, “I don’t think I’m cut out to be a prince…”
“You’re the best fit for the roll,” exclaimed his younger sister in excitement.
“Nezuko is right, You’re the perfect prince,” kanao timedly added with her cheeks slightly tinted red.
“Geez , thank you kanao,” replied the red eyed boy with his own face flaming red as his hair, “Okay! I'll be the prince.”
“Blah blah blah! Monjiro will be the lame prince. Ok, everyone has their rolls! Let's play!”
What had once been the local park had transformed into the battlefield. The jungle gym had become princess’s tower with the dangerous and cool dragon protecting its property and keeping the princess locked up. There remained the beautiful princess and her handmaiden, waiting to be rescued.
Then came in a handsome prince and his knight friend riding on a yellow stallion at full force!
“Don’t worry princess! I’ll save you,” proclaimed the daring prince as he got off his noble steed and got out his sword (a stick he had found not too far off by the water fountain) and faced his opponent.
“I've come to rescue the princess and slay you beast!”
A loud cackle was heard before the beast roared out, “Not if I kill you first!”
And so the fight began as the prince lunged out with his sword swinging high tow which the dragon evaded. The dragon then began to spewl his fire breathing (sand) all around him successfully keeping the prince away from the tower.
The prince retreated to his friends sadly, “It is impossible to get past the dragon! How will I ever save the princess?”
“Hmm” begun the knight as she rubbed her chin in thought before signaling her horse and the prince to come closer, “I have an idea..”
The princess and her maiden watched in sorrow as the prince seemed to give up on the rescue mission, “It seems like we won't be rescued in time for a juice break,” sighed the princess to the hand maiden who could only nod in agreement.
“I am the greatest and most powerful dragon,”boasted the dragon, “No one will take the princess!”
All seemed dire to the two girls until they saw the prince and the knight and steed running at full force once more!
“Back again for another beating! Of course the great dragon will put you in your place!”
The trio came closer and the long haired knight screamed, “Now!”
Rather than facing the prince as the dragon had once thought, the knight and steed came at full force, successfully bringing the dragon down and having the prince be able to reach the tower!
“Hey! This is cheating,” screamed the green eyed dragon that had been sat on by the knight and her noble steed as they cheered on the prince who had gotten to the princess.
“Princess, i've come to save you,” the prince proclaimed in a proud voice before shyly meeting the handmaid's purple gaze, “and of course the handmaiden as well! … so let's go!”
Before making another move, there was a sudden booing coming from the steed, “NO! You’re doing it wrong! You’re supposed to kiss the princess first!”
“What,” the scandalized question came from several voices from all the children, especially the dragon that was still being used as a stool.
“I don’t really think it’s necessary-”
“I’m not too sure-”
“The prince gives the princess a kiss, it's in the story,” the blonde continued, bored out of his mind,“that's what princes and princesses do.”
“C’mon” piped up the pink eyed knight, “The prince and princess kiss and then get married! Happily ever after right?”
“Of course, you’re so smart,” exclaimed the blonde as he affectionately patted the younger girl’s hair.
“HAH! What about the dragon,” finally came the roar from the blue haired boy that had finally got tired of their stupid chatter.
“What about him?”
“Everyone knows that the dragon’s and princesses go together,” the boy fumed, “That’s why the princess can’t marry the prince!”
The blonde boy raised a furry eyebrow, “That’s not how the story goes, you dumb dragon.”
“Who cares about the stupid story,” fumed inosuke, finally getting tired of the game, “Aoi won’t marry tontaro! Never! Over my dead body!”
“Ohhhh,” grinned the blonde boy, ready to annoy his friend, “I get it now, you like aoi.”
“Zenitsu-” tanjiro started scolding his friend knowing fully well he was just trying to start a fight with their temperamental friend.
Insouke clicked his tongue in annoyance, “Shut up.”
“Inosuke and aoi sitting in a tree,” the blonde began to sing mockingly, “K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”
This had caused not only inosuke to turn a shade of pink, but also aoi had flecks of red covering her own as her signature frown resided at her friends' fighting.
“Stop making fun of me! I’m not her boyfriend!”
“Then why does it matter if tanjiro kisses aoi,” The blonde continued with a smirk as he witnessed the blue haired boy’s hands tighten into fists and he began to shake from anger, “maybe tanjiro would want to be aoi’s boyfrien-”
“Zenitsu , enough,” Tanjiro cut off the blonde boy’s taunts, as he desperately tried to keep the peace. “Let's play something else! Inosuke, you can pick.”
Before Aoi could even blink, the green eyed boy had already started dragging her as he muttered to the group, “Aoi’s mom said to get back home early for snacks, we’re leaving first.”
The way home had been more quiet than usual, the energetic boy seeming to be in his own little world as they made their way to their neighborhood.
The weird silence lasted a painfully long time before the boy had muttered, “Do you like him?”
“Who,” the raven girl replied, confused in what kind of random question was that?
The green eyed boy’s cheeks flared a scarlet hue as he pouted, “... you didn’t say no to kissing him…”
Oh.
“Tanjiro,” she quirked her head to the side as she pondered what he was asking, “I do like him, but only as a friend.”
That had made Inosuke feel a little better before his eyes glared at her once more, “Then why were you going to marry him?”
The twin tailed girl raised her eyebrows briefly as she chuckled, “Because the princess always marries the prince.”
“That’s a stupid rule,” The boy grumbled, “Everyone knows that the princess and dragon belong together!”
The blue eyed girl giggled at the boy’s ridiculous statement, “Princesses can’t marry dragons silly.”
The blue haired boy’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration before breaking into a huge grin, “Okay, then I'll be a dragon prince! I’m cooler than your average prince! And stronger! So don’t marry anyone else, okay?”
The raven haired girl’s eyes widened for a second before beaming, “Okay.”
The boy stuck out his other hand that wasn’t already encasing hers, “Pinky promise?”
The girl contently interlocked her pinky with his own, “Promise.”
They walked peacefully all the way home, their hands and promises forever intertwined.
Who could have ever guessed that they had kept their promise twelve years later. As the man down at the altar watched his beautiful princess make her way to him, as it always had been and always will be.
Because princesses and dragons always go together.