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It's late in the afternoon when their odd group of friends meet up in an empty classroom. The sun is ever so slowly descending, the yellow and orange hues mixing into a vibrant radiance. 'Peaceful' is the word most would describe this kind of scenery taking place. Instead, Zenitsu finds himself in a situation with everything but.
"I- Yo- You want me to what!?"
"Don't be so overdramatic," Kanao says, voice as serene as the sunset outside. Everything about her is graceful and elegant. From the dignified way she holds a bamboo sword as the kendo club's pseudo leader to how she recites a formula from the top of her head. If only his crush wasn't as hard-headed as Tanjirou himself, he would've begged for her hand in marriage by now.
Okay, never mind, her kick to his shin was positively lethal and he did not want to experience any more of that.
"Zenitsu, focus," Now it's Nezuko who speaks up. She looks antsy, eyes flicking back to him and her phone, "I told Nii-chan I'd be home by 4:30, and-" She shows him the phone, the numbers '5:17 PM' blaring at his face.
Genya and Inosuke are sitting in random chairs, away from the three of them and more in their little world. Inosuke isn't speaking at all, too stubborn to lose a contest of silence with Aoi. Zenitsu likes to think he would've preferred bastard Inosuke. Seriously. When he's quiet and looking at the window with a snarky smile, he looks- he looks so much like a girl and it's disturbing, okay???
Kanao disrupts his inner monologue by smacking the blackboard three times. Their attention is focused on her now, and the writing on the board.
"Operation: Genzen"
Inosuke, for the first time in exactly 28 minutes, lets out the biggest holler he's ever heard.
When Tanjirou welcomes Nezuko back home, he immediately takes note of the exhausted aura radiating from her.
"Nezuko, you okay?"
She turns to him, bows spontaneously, and closes the door to her room in his face. Tanjirou blinks.
He doesn't know why he heard her mumble, "Kanao-chan's out of her goddamn mind," but decides then and there to cook her favorite dish for dinner. And maybe pack an extra lunch for tomorrow too.
"We're doing this? For real?" Genya scoffs, staring- glaring, actually- at his and Zenitsu's linked arms. Forced to by Kanao, who came by their houses and told them to, and he quotes: 'act like a couple'. They knew better than to go against her. "Where did she even get this idea?"
"That's what I'VE been saying!" Zenitsu groans, quick to agree. Kanao must have taken advice from Shinobu-senpai's friend. What's her name again? Mitsuru? Mitchan? Mitsuri?
And there's absolutely no way she thought of this on her own, right??
Besides the Kanao dilemma, he's still pretty scared of Genya in general. And could you blame him? This guy has a mohawk on his head! And he's Shinazugawa-sensei's younger brother! Why did he, of all people, have to play his 'new fake crush' in the first place? He just knew this week was going to be literal hell. What did he do in his past life to deserve this?
"Ah. Zenitsu? Genya?" Tanjirou comes up to them when they enter the school gates, a bit of confusion hidden in his deep red eyes. If Zenitsu concentrated on his hearing a bit more than usual, he would've heard the 'But I always greet him first...' on his mind.
"Morning, Tanjirou." Was Genya smiling or scowling? No one will ever know.
"Do me a favor and take off those earrings, why don't you?" He scolds with no spark in his tone. Tanjirou replies to this with a sheepish smile. Why is this guy so SO cute whywhywhy- "AAAAA, JUST GO! Tomioka-sensei's gonna have my neck."
The next few days go by like this.
Tanjirou would try and invite Zenitsu to their usual get togethers. Like, study sessions, for example. When they had time together after classes and club activities, they would coop up in the council room and review any troubling topics. Tanjirou would use this time to rest from all his responsibilities, while Zenitsu may or may not have done this with not so pure intentions.
It's completely justified, okay! Ever heard of the quote, 'All's fair in love and war'? And and, because of him, Tanjirou hasn't failed any classes! So, it's a win-win situation.
But here's the thing. Before they could meet up alone, Genya would swoop in last minute and steal Zenitsu away.
The same rule applies at this very second.
"There's an opening for the bakery down the street," Genya comments out of the blue.
They're right beside the door leading to the council room. Both were also very much aware of the incredulous looks they were getting.
Especially from one Tanjirou Kamado, who stood frozen a few inches away from them.
"Wanna come check, uh, it out?" Zenitsu stifles a laugh. It was incredibly amusing to see Genya, Shinazugawa-sensei's scary baby brother, be so utterly awkward. In a way, he could relate too, and that makes him less scary than before. Maybe just a tad.
"Yeah, we can- we can go." is the least expected sentence that hurt to say out loud. He knows this was a plan to possibly let dense Tanjirou realize his feelings, but could he really not hang out with him at all? Not even once?
Kanao's warning echoes in his mind. 'Don't even think about it.' It makes him shudder.
Zenitsu catches a glance at Tanjirou when they pass by him on the way to the gates again.
He's pouting.
"I think this might just be worth it."
"You're losing your mind."
Zenitsu, whether unintentional or not, was starting to warm up to Genya. They were two unsociable guys forced to hang out with each other for weeks, getting along was simply a given. Or at least that's what he thinks. He really hoped Genya didn't think of him as some bug disturbing his daily life.
"So, which is it?" Aoi asks, her head deep into the grave amount of papers on the desk. It's scattered on the whiteboard, and even on the floor everywhere, just like his sanity. He shoots her a raised eyebrow and she sighs, "Kamado or Shinazugawa?"
"What!?!?!?!" He gawks, sending another pile, ones of Uzui-sensei's art class budgets, flying. "Why are you asking that so shamelessly!? I swear, you've been with Inosuke way too much these da-"
"Just answer the question already!" She cuts in, and holyshit was that a blush on her face.
Zenitsu twirls the strand of stray hair landing on his face, blushing bashfully. "Y-You already know who..." Aoi looks disgraced, a special expression reserved only for the likes of him.
Then the door, quite literally, bursts open. Tanjirou, with his eyes blown wide, stands there. His hand is gripping on the sliding door with way too much force that he could hear the way it was straining. For your information, he does NOT want to be the door, he doesn't at all!
"I'm sorry!" The boy bows, a perfect 90-degree angle, and hurriedly comes over to hand a basket of pastries. "For you! This! Hard work! THANK YOU!" Burgundy eyes catch his honeydew ones for a split second before eventually turning to sprint out as quick as he can.
Zenitsu can only gape at the now closed door. It was as if a whirlwind knocked over the interior of the room and left behind a small gift as compensation. Judging from the mess inside, that absurd possibility doesn't actually seem too far off.
Aoi shatters the newfound silence with a bite of a bright yellow macaroon. "God, you two are perfect for each other." She mutters, so softly that anyone without hyper hearing wouldn't catch it. Thankfully, he did have hyper hearing, and yes, he did hear her.
In normal Zenitsu fashion, he scrambles about the chances of the Tanjirou Kamado being jealous for approximately 15 minutes before getting kicked out.
"And don't come back!" are the last words he gets before he haphazardly stomps to- wait, wait, where was he going?
Opened glass windows... training mats on the wooden floor... sounds of bamboo swords clashing against each other...
Did his feet lead him to-
"Zenitsu?" Tanjirou tilts his head. Oh, good he's back to normal. He's dressed in his kendo club uniform, a green and black checkered abomination of a keikogi. Did he order that online? Or did he have to ask Nezuko- or god forbid, Mrs. Kie Kamado- to have it custom-made? What is up with this guy and checkered clothing? Wait, no, don't focus on THAT of all things!
"What are you doing here?" Kanao sounds like hell herself, wide eyes locked onto his form. Her heartbeat moved erratically as if she was silently saying 'But our plan, Zenitsu!! What about our plan!!' and he almost goes over to state that hey look, any plan is bound to be ruined if I was in any way involved.
He settles for a wobbly, "Uh, why are you here?" instead. Which was stupid because of course she would be helping out in kendo practices, she's good at everything!
"Kanao's helping me practice for the tournament next month!" The bright ray of sunshine in his life smiles and he feels like melting away. Kanao spectates this interaction, unimpressed in the slightest. Thankfully, Tanjirou was unbelievably clueless, question marks might as well have popped out of nowhere. "By the way, can we talk a bit?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure." What.
That's how he finds himself sitting under the shade of a cacophony of falling autumn leaves. It's especially beautiful around this time, and he can't help but appreciate the autumn season's calming atmosphere. It's just too bad that December was coming up in a few days.
"It's been so long since we met up like this..." Tanjirou appears before him, holding up two cans of what seemed like juice. He offers one of the two before taking a sip of his own, taking his place next to him in sound silence.
"It's only been two weeks, Tanjirou." Zenitsu desperately tries to keep the satisfied grin from slipping out. Although he's certain he could smell the sheer happiness radiating off of him.
"I know that." Tanjirou frowns, hard head leaning onto his shoulder and holyfuckinghell he's leaning !!!! on his shoulder !!!! "It's just- you and Genya have been so close lately..."
"Uh, you could say that we have the same interests." Yeah, like Kanao scaring the crap out of them for one. Another was their combined need to get his stupid crush into Tanjirou's head already.
"Do you... like Genya? In that way?"
There's a lull after the sudden confrontation. Zenitsu obviously wanted to say no, in fact, we planned this so you would somehow catch feelings for someone like me and gahh this is so dumb.
But Tanjirou lifts his head to look at his face better and he freezes.
Freezes at how his favorite sound slowly dipped into the throes of despair. It felt so-so suffocating, like he had somehow betrayed him.
"No, wait, you don't have to tell me." He shakes his head, looking downwards. He can't see his expression to figure out whether or not he was lying, but he does know that his words don't quite reach his heartbeat. "You both are great together, Zenitsu!"
WHAT??? No, it wasn't supposed to work out this way! Tanjirou was supposed to 'get his shit together' and realize his feelings! Even Nezuko-chan guaranteed it!
"It's getting late, I should probably get back to kendo," Tanjirou stands up too swiftly, patting his keikogi down for any hints of dirt, "and you should go get Genya to walk you home."
"Wait, Tan-"
"Zenitsu?" A shout of his name from the last person he wanted to see calls out to him. The large figure is running up close, panting as he finally reaches them, "It's sundown and Kanao told me to get you-...Ah."
Tanjirou eyes Zenitsu, then Genya, then to the tiny space between them.
"Ah, sorry for hogging him, Genya, you can have him now."
With that, Tanjirou excuses himself and leaves the two of them alone.
When Inosuke asks what's wrong, you know something serious is happening.
(It's not that he's stupid or anything, in fact he's smarter than what most people take him for. He just doesn't bother until it disturbs him personally.)
"Gonpachirou." Inosuke grumbles, stabbing the bento prepared for him by Hisa-san with brutal strength, "Something's up with you and Monitsu, I can feel it."
Tanjirou puts down his chopsticks and waves him off with a too standoffish smile. "Don't worry about it, nothing bad happened."
"You're doing that ugly face." Inosuke points out bluntly, "You're lying."
As bad as he wanted to say that he wasn't lying, Tanjirou knew his expression would reveal it all anyway. So, he slumps down on his chair and gives up the fight he couldn't win.
"I don't know..." He starts, smelling the pathetic scent seeping off of him, "I like Zenitsu, he's one of my closest friends, but I haven't- I don't feel good around him. Not when he's hanging out with Genya all the time, which I thought was fine!.. but, there's this feeling I can't place whenever I see them happy together. I don't think I should be thinking this way."
Inosuke rubs his chin contemplatively then snaps his fingers, "You don't like your mate being taken away from you."
Tanjirou could physically feel himself choke. He lifts a fist, punching his chest in an attempt to clear his lungs. "What do you mean by that?"
Inosuke explains, as if he was an expert on the topic. "Kenitsu is your mate." Tanjirou chokes again but nods for him to keep going, "Someone's courting him, and you don't want that."
It's honestly weird to see Inosuke making sense (kind of), but Tanjirou takes the knowledge in nonetheless. He's a little lost on the 'Zenitsu being his mate' part though.
"And how is Zenitsu my mate?"
"Duh, you love him." Inosuke states like it was a known fact among everyone. It leaves him speechless. He's in love with Zenitsu. The admission makes him feel light-headed.
When the first day of December hits, every single thing becomes more festive. There are garlands wrapped around the window grilles, ornaments hung around boards, and banners everywhere. Maybe he's being too much of a grinch but weren't these too tacky?
"Where did they even get these..." Zenitsu murmurs, inspecting the decorations intently. Even he, the council president, didn't know where they came from. He groans, realization hitting him in the head, "Probably that freak flamboyant teacher again."
As he reaches the entrance of his classroom, he doesn't notice the tiny mistletoe hanging on the door frame until Nezuko points at it.
And then he hears a heavy yet gentle melody from behind him and he realizes that his whole day has gone to flames the moment he stepped through the door.
"Huh?"
"WHAT!?"
He and Genya looked appalled more than anything.
Hey, they might have gotten closer but that didn't mean he wanted his first kiss to be with him! He wanted it to be with a burgundy-haired boy with a large scar on his forehead wearing hanafuda earrings that shouldn't be allowed in school but gets a free pass because of his fucking smile.
Oh, and if he wasn't obvious enough, he wanted his first kiss to be with Tanjirou Kamado, thank you very much!
Zenitsu wants to kneel on the ground and bawl. Genya eyes the mistletoe as if it was a demon who murdered his entire family. They would've left by now if it weren't for the entire class staring at them like a damn movie screening.
"Tenkachirou's gonna be pissed at this!" Inosuke cackles from the back and his neck snapped to his bent over figure, nearly stomping over to interrogate him.
Except that never happens when Tanjirou comes waltzing in and grabbing his wrist.
(While also excusing himself and Zenitsu stiffly before they leave the room. Christ, this guy would probably apologize to someone he had to kill.)
He doesn't know where Tanjirou's leading him to, but he figures it's somewhere private. Also, he had other more crucial things to worry about. For example: what the fuck is going on?
"Uh, Tanjirou?" Zenitsu croaks, a futile attempt to break the tense air around them. It didn't help that other students were peering at them with poorly disguised gazes.
Tanjirou halts when they reach the hallway leading to the student council room and teacher's lounge. He isn't facing at him, opting to study the wall instead, which was great and not at all awkward!
"Tanjirouuuu." He whines, poking his shoulder repeatedly. "You dragged me around the school and now you can't even face me."
He doesn't get an actual solid answer, but he's been listening to his heartbeat ever since they left. It's beating much faster than usual, pumping with nervousness and... frustration?
"If you keep this up, I'm going to leave you. I'm going to go back, I swear!" He says (like a liar), but it's enough for Tanjirou to look at him directly in the eye.
"Zenitsu." His tone is dangerously low, and it makes his skin flush hotly.
"Y-Yes?"
Tanjirou's firm hands are latched onto his shoulders, a very determined fire sparked in his dark red pupils. Zenitsu doesn't do anything to stop him, nothing but a small "eep" emerging from his mouth at the gesture. His mind, normally at an all-time high whenever they would step into each other's personal boundaries, drew a blank.
But then Tanjirou deflates instantly, smoke could practically appear out of his ears in thin air. It takes a second for Zenitsu to register that the former's features were reaching exceedingly new levels of red.
"TANJIROU!???" Zenitsu snaps out of his trance, palms landing on the sides of reddened face (which seemed to glow brighter at this). "I should have known you had a fever this entire time! Look at you, you're even more hard-headed than usual!"
"No! I don't have a fever!" Tanjirou counters, but it doesn't do much against Zenitsu, who crosses his arms as if to say are you really sure?
Without any option left, he cries out in a fit of honest desperation.
"PLEASE CONSIDER DATING ME BEFORE YOU DATE GENYA!"
From the other side of the wall, a sudden fist roughly breaks through it. It's scarred and bruised from the impact, but shows no sign of weakness.
"What the hell is THIS!?" Zenitsu, who was stuck in utter shock while unfortunately colliding into said fist, screams at the top of his lungs. He knew that fist anywhere. It's that same one who dangled his brother outside the window when he got a failing grade in his subject. The brute of a math teacher, Sanemi Shinazugawa himself.
"Shinazugawa, this is NOT flamboyant! Who's going to pay for destruction of school property this time!?" He hears Uzui complain from the other side.
"HAH???" Apparently for the first time ever, Sanemi recognizes the large hole on the wall with the exact size of his fist.
Zenitsu feels like throwing up when Tanjirou kneels and examines the hole. "Don't do that, you idiot!"
"But I want to know why Shinazugawa-sensei did it!" Tanjirou puffs out his cheeks, eagerly spying through it.
"Wha-? WAIT, NO, YOU HAVE A CONFESSION TO EXPLAIN-"
They both jump when Sanemi exits the lounge, seething with unabashed anger. Zenitsu holds on the sleeve of Tanjirou's crouching form, ready to bolt even if it meant carrying his crush (or boyfriend???) like a sack of rice.
"You!" Sanemi marches over, ever present glare fixated on the visibly shaking Zenitsu. "Are you dating Genya!?"
"N-NO!?!?" He yells in response, and he doesn't miss the way the burgundy-haired boy stares at him in surprise.
"Then why did he-" Sanemi points to the still-on-the-ground Tanjirou, "-say you two were going to?"
"That's wrong!" Zenitsu continues to blabber, explaining Kanao and co.'s convoluted plan to Sanemi (and Tanjirou, who was listening to every word).
Sanemi doesn't seem too pleased at the hurried summary, but lets up when Giyuu calls him over. "Fucking brats..." He mutters as he goes back inside.
"So... you liked me the entire time?" Tanjirou teases with a smirk, now off the ground and holding onto his trembling hand. Zenitsu nods, heart shamefully fluttering when his hand is held even tighter at the confirmation.