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“Genya! Dinner!”
With a slight slump and groan, Genya gets out of his bed from doomscrolling when he should be studying for his history exam. He joins his brother and former chemistry teacher (Sanemi’s partner.) for dinner, Mr. Iguro was the LAST person he would have thought Sanemi would have ended up with. Don’t get me wrong, they’re a nice couple, menacing, but nice.
“You look like a zombie. Make sure you shower to liven up after this.” Sanemi places down Genya’s plate and then sits down himself. “Mhm.” And with that their little family begins to eat. While he and Sanemi have impressive amounts of servings on their plates, Obanai has a smaller portion. Mostly because Sanemi knows he doesn’t like to eat much.
Dinners are mostly quiet. It’s been a minute since Sanemi could talk about something he and Genya could relate to. The thing is he doesn’t really know what to talk to Genya about. Sure he knows the basic things, grades, friends and whatever is going on with his little club but other than that he has no clue how to talk to this boy. We wants to talk, but fear that Genya will shut himself off like he did in the past come waving over him.
And so, dinner is silent once again.
“Thanks for dinner…I’m stuffed.” Genya lets out a pleased sigh. Nothing beats Sanemi’s cooking, except maybe moms. “Yeah, now clear these dishes and go take that shower.” Sanemi begins to clear the table alongside Obanai who is putting the leftovers of dinner in different containers for them to eat at a later time. Genya begins to wash the dishes while humming a low tune. A hair falls in front of his face. No biggie. He’ll just blow it off to the side.
It comes back.
And again.
And again.
Okay this is getting annoying.
Genya finally finishes and heads to the bathroom, he looks himself up and down and notices…
His hair. It’s gotten longer. His sides need a bit of a shave, his mohawk could use a trim as well. He reaches for the clippers and just like when every time his hair reaches a long length, he shaves. Everything’s looking good so far. The clippers go for his hair-
WAIT.
He should shower first.
”You have him second period! Is there anything you notice about him?!”
”Nnnnnooo…nothing I can really say.”
Sanemi groans in frustration. How hard is it to find out ONE thing his brother likes. He’s never seen the kid stick to one interest for too long. And just talking about school will make Sanemi seem too fixated on his brother’s school life. “You’re overthinking this Sanemi. He’s a 16 year old boy for gods sakes. Just talk to him about want any kid his age is probably into.”
A look of confusion is planted on Sanemi’s face, a stupid one at that. Iguro HATES this face with a passion. “You dingbat! Talk to him about boys or girls! Or cars! Hell, talk to him about guns!” Obanai can only shake his head. Sanemi is so smart yet so dumb.
”Yeahhh…but wouldn’t it be awkward to talk about his love life with me?”
Christ.
”Okay, listen.” Obanai walks over and wraps two arms around Sanemi’s neck. “Just ask if he’s got his eye on anyone. Remember, he’s your brother. Not your son.” Sanemi breaths a sigh of relief, Obanai always knows how to knock some actual sense into him. One of the many things that draws him to this man.
”Right. Yes, you’re right. I’ll prepare dinner with him tomorrow and talk one on one. It’s just been hard to talk to him since…you know.” Obanai nods. He understands full heartedly what the Shinazugawa’s have been through. It’s not easy. Their mother lives miles away raising the rest of their siblings alone, and their father…rotting in hell, hopefully. “It’s alright. I love you.”
Sanemi chuckles, he gives Obanai a small peck on his temple. “I love you mor-“
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK.
Obanai let’s go of Sanemi and they dash to the bathroom where Genya’s bloodcurdling scream was heard. “What the fucks going on here-“
Genya turns around, tears half streaming down his face and…his Mohawk missing. Leaving only a buzz cutted mess. “Don't look at me! Oh god!” Genya reaches to caress the phantom of his hair. Now a patchy bald mess.
”It’s…not that bad.” Is all either Sanemi and Obanai could muster up to say.
”Does it really look okay…”
The two burst into laughter. “You’re joking…” Genya stares himself down in the mirror, Sanemi can’t keep his laughter in. Iguro joins in but he attempts to keep his snickers to himself. “How am I supposed to go to school like this- IT ISNT FUNNY.”
“No you’re right- you’re so right.” Sanemi says letting out all his laughter, he needs to act like an adult. He can’t help Genya looks ridiculous. “Sit down, what happened.” They take a seat on the bathroom floor, Genya’s hair scattered everywhere. He hides his face in his hands and begins to explain that while he was trying to trim his hair, the machine got a better of him and shaved off a good chunk of his hair. In an attempt to make it look decent, he had shaved his whole hair off.
”Everyone’s going to make fun of me!” Iguro sit down besides Genya and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “No, no…it’s nice Genya. I think it looks nice!” If God was testing him, now was the time.
”Then why was ‘nemi laughing…”
”SANEMI DON’T KNOW WHAT HES DOING ANYWAY”
Sanemi has given up and just decided to die on the floor. Of laughter of course.
“Listen Genya, just go to school as normal. If you act as if nothings wrong, people will follow along.” Genya pets his head, it feels so..naked. After sweeping away his pride and joy, he showers once again (just to get remaining hair off him) he goes to bed SND prays for the best tomorrow.
”I got no sleep last night…” Zenitsu complained as his head hit the table. Inosuke was scarfing down breakfast. As per usual. Tanjiro chuckled, the mornings always looked like this. Zenitsu complained. Inosuke eating.
”Well maybe you shouldn’t have stayed up playing games.” Aoi chimed in. Besides her Kanao was reading a new book. “I was NOT! I was studying! You know how grueling Mr. Shinazugawa’s test are.” Aoi snickered, maybe for him. For her they were like talking a stroll around the park. If Zenitsu actually payed attention to the lesson being taught and not dozing off, they wouldn’t be so bad.
”I’m more so worried about Mr. Goto’s exam…” Tanjiro signed and turned his attention to the doorway. No Genya. He was usually early and the first one to greet him at his friend groups table they usually hung out at.
”Jeez Sunitsu…you’re overthinking this WAYYY too hard.”
”YOU SHOULD BE THE ONE WHOS WORRIED. YOU SCORE STRAIGHT 0’s ON EVERY DAMM QUIZ.”
”NOT TRUE! I SCORED BETTER THAN YOU AND MOHAWK THAT ONE TIME.”
”Talking about Genya, where is he.”
”Hey guys.”
…
Genya took a seat and began to eat his breakfast he had picked up from the school store. All eyes were on him. Even Inosuke stopped eating. “Crazy weather last night.”
”Genya.” Tanjiro began, “Anything you wanna share with the group?”
”Hm…No?”
”Okay..”
…
”YOU’RE BALD.”
”FUCK I KNOW ZENITSU.”
Genya’s face turned bright red, he put his book bag over his head as Zenitsu and Inosuke roared into laughter. EVEN KANAO, KANAO TSUYURI, WAS GIGGLING. Coming to school was a mistake, he’s going to get ripped on all day. “Guys! Stop it!” Tanjiro pulled on Zenistu and Inosukes collars and threw them out of the cafeteria. Kanao and Aoi followed. Tanjiro returned and took a seat next to Genya.
”It’s really not that bad…”
”You’re just saying that..”
Tanjiro shook his head and removed the book bag from on top of Genyas head and...admired. Though he was tempted to giggle a bit. He held it in. Naturally, Tanjiro would play around with Genyas hair. But now…
”You look more like your younger brother.”
”Sanemi said that too.”
Small chuckles escaped the two boys, Tanjiro ran his hand through the boys head. “It’s still a bit patchy, if you’d like, I could come over and smooth it out for you?” Tanjiro? Over at his house? He’s come before, just with the other two buttheads. But now..
It would just be Tanjiro.
”I’d like that.”
“Great! I’ll text you the details.”
Maybe this haircut wasn’t so bad after all. He should have more accidents.