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The sun beating down on the picnic table contrasted nicely against the cool breeze slinking through the trees’ leaves. Tanjiro twisted on the bench to stare up at the bright, blue sky, giggling to himself as a flock of birds fluttered from the power line they’d been perched atop. He quite liked this place they’d gone too. It was pretty and it smelled nice, and everyone in his family was so happy to be there that he couldn’t help but feel the same. He turned back to the table and reached for another piece of watermelon—but paused when he saw the visitor.
He only saw the top of his head first: black hair shaved into a line down his skull—practically standing on end with how spikey it was—and big, purple eyes widened to stare at the plate of diced watermelon. Tanjiro blinked at the boy, unable to stop himself from grinning at the sight of him, especially when his eyes flicked over to see Tanjiro too.
“Hello!” Tanjiro chirped when their gazes met, and the boy lifted himself slightly higher, head peering up more so Tanjiro could see his long nose and pinched mouth. “I’m Tanjiro! Who are you?”
“Genya,” the boy told him.
“It’s really nice to meet you!” Tanjiro said to Genya, who smiled a little bit. “I like your hair!”
Genya raised a hand to pat his pointy locks, eyes crossing and craning upwards to see them too, as if he’d forgotten that he had hair at all. He smoothed it down—it popped right back up—then looked at Tanjiro again. “Thanks. I like your eyes.”
“Thank you!”
“I like watermelon too,” Genya said, then pointed his hand at the plate full of fruit. “Can I have some please?”
“Mhmm!” Tanjiro scooted the plate towards him. Genya immediately took the biggest piece and shoved it into his mouth. “Do you want to sit with me? We can eat it together!”
Genya shook his head, and said around his mouthful of watermelon, “I’m not s’pposed to sit with strangers.”
“Oh, I’ll come down then!” Tanjiro decided and jumped off his bench. His sister, Nezuko, gave him a funny look when he did, but then Momma finished making her another sandwich so she let him be. Tanjiro skipped to Genya’s side and took a piece of watermelon for himself, content with the fruit instead of another sandwich of his own.
Genya was a bit smaller than him, he learned when he stood next to him, almost the same height as his little sister. He wore blue shorts and no shoes, and his soft purple sweater looked rather out of place in the spring weather, too cozy to be worn beneath the bright sun. Tanjiro frowned and pointed at the clothing.
“Aren’t you hot?” He asked. “My dad can keep that safe if you wanna take it off.”
Genya’s hands bundled around two fistfuls of his sweater immediately, a small pout overtaking the satisfied smile he’d given Tanjiro before. “No, I want it on,” he said sternly. “My mama gave it to me. It’s special.”
Tanjiro shrugged and took more watermelon. “Okay!” He responded, and Genya relaxed again, eating more of the fruit too.
They finished the plate quickly, standing there together and shoveling pieces into their mouths too fast to speak between. Tanjiro didn’t mind, though. He was busy trying to figure out what Genya smelled like anyway, inhaling deeply between each bite and practicing naming the different scents. Watermelon was definitely the first, gently sweet like sugar water, then…wet soil. There was something else too, something that pricked a little at Tanjiro’s nose. It almost smelled like Momma’s special cooking pan—cast iron she and Dad called it, the one dish Tanjiro wasn’t allowed to wash. Tanjiro shook his head. He didn’t believe that was quite right, but he decided he would figure it out later; for now, he was too busy wiping his sticky fingers off on a napkin and grinning at his new friend—because that’s what Tanjiro decided they were. Friends now. Tanjiro and Genya. Genya and Tanjiro. Best friends.
“Do you wanna go play?” Tanjiro asked his new friend after handing him a napkin of his own to use. Genya nodded immediately. His hair ruffled and flopped around at the movement, which Tanjiro thought was cute. He turned to the table and leaned over it, giving his dad a big grin. Dad smiled gently in return. “May I go play with my new friend?” He asked, very politely, like he had been taught.
“Yes, you may,” Dad told him, then reached out to pet his hair. “Be safe and have fun.”
“We will! Thank you!” Tanjiro spun back to Genya. “Let’s go ask your dad too!”
“No!” Genya shouted. Tanjiro froze. Genya’s eyes turned big, bigger than they’d been before, and his sugary, earthy smell began to twist with the iron pan scent, mingling into something like panic. He was scared? But why?
“But, we gotta—”
“No,” Genya said again, though he spoke a little quieter now, bowing his head so Tanjiro had to crouch to keep seeing his eyes. His hands twisted around his sweater again too. Maybe that made him feel better. “We don’t need to ask him. My ma already said it’s okay.”
Tanjiro nodded. “Okay,” he agreed. He decided that, if his dad at least knew they were playing, that should be okay. And he believed Genya, that his ma had already given him permission. And he didn’t want to scare him anymore. So, he agreed. That made Genya pick up his head again, which, in turn, made Tanjiro smile again. He held out one of his hands, and Genya let go of his sweater to hold it. “Come on. I saw some ducks in a pond over there—we should go see them!”
Genya was all smiles once they ran off and started to play, which made Tanjiro even happier than before. They went first to the duck pond, like Tanjiro has suggested. There were lots of little duck families swimming about, moms with their tiny ducklings, quacking and cheeping and swishing through the water. Genya pointed out a goose deeper in the pond too, then immediately asked to go somewhere else. He didn’t like geese, he said as they turned and started walking away. He said they were mean. Apparently, he was chased by one once. They had scared him ever since. He apologized when they left.
Tanjiro didn’t mind running around somewhere else though. He was just glad that being away from the goose made his friend feel better, which he told him. That made Genya smile again, though his whole face turned red this time too. He looked like a tomato with his pokey hair. Genya turned even more red when Tanjiro giggled and told him this too, patting down his hair like earlier, as though embarrassed to be compared to the food. Tanjiro apologized himself when he realized this, but Genya told him it was okay and grabbed his hand, pulling him along to run into the small grove of green trees.
Genya lived in the city, Tanjiro learned when he asked if he knew how to climb trees. There weren’t many trees around where he lived, especially not ones he was allowed to touch, so he didn’t know. Tanjiro told him that was okay. He climbed a lot of trees where he lived, and he was perfectly happy to show Genya too. Genya was more nervous than Tanjiro, but he learned quickly anyway. His eyes pinched really small when he focused, Tanjiro noticed. It was cute, like he was trying to read instructions in the air. He grinned when he saw the narrowing of Genya’s brow, the intense clamping of teeth over his bottom lip as he decided where to grab next, where to shift his foot to better push up and where to duck to avoid being hit by a branch. He was doing remarkably well despite this being his first time, and Tanjiro’s cheeks began to tickle with warmth, though no sunlight pushed directly through the leaves above him. He wondered why. Maybe he was just a little tired from climbing? That could be it, he supposed. His heart started to beat a little faster too, so it would make sense.
He wasn’t quite certain, but he also ran out of time to really think about it. In his moment of distraction, Genya’s foot slipped. He let out a small, startled noise, then he was tumbling from the tree, crashing down to the dirt and grass below. Tanjiro panicked and immediately scrambled down to save him, though by the time he found himself on the ground, it was already too late. He dropped to his knees and helped Genya sit up from the ground, patting his hair and squeezing his shoulders and giving him an apologetic frown.
“Are you okay?” He demanded while Genya shifted to lean against the tree. He hissed sharply through his teeth as he moved, then bent his knee to cradle against his chest, wrapping his hands around the joint and peering at it with his narrowed eyes. Tanjiro looked too, and his heart fell like a stone. “You’re hurt!” He wailed, reaching out to grab Genya’s knee, right underneath where Genya’s hands held.
It didn’t look super deep, which was good, but Tanjiro’s stomach still hurt to see the scraped away skin and tender blood beneath. Mud spread over the wound and mixed with the oozing red, so Tanjiro grabbed as big of a leaf as he could find and wiped it away. Genya hissed again and twitched, but he didn’t complain as Tanjiro did his best to help. He even seemed to brighten up again when the leaf was cast aside, his wound not quite as dirty but still bleeding.
“It’s okay,” Genya said as Tanjiro continued to pout and worry. “I’m used to being hurt. This is nothing, really.”
“Do you fall a lot?” Tanjiro asked him—but then he realized. That smell, the wound…it smelled the same as that cast iron pan scent Tanjiro had caught before, just stronger and fresher now. So it wasn’t a special pan Tanjiro smelled on his friend, he was right!
It was blood.
“Sometimes,” Genya answered his silly question, not bothered by what Tanjiro had just discovered, nor the tight frown he gave him; Genya just stood up off the ground, brushing off his shorts and sweater and giving Tanjiro a big grin, like truly nothing was the matter. Maybe…maybe nothing was. Maybe…maybe the smell of blood was okay! If it was on Genya at least. Maybe it was just normal for him. Maybe the city was more dangerous than Tanjiro knew. Maybe geese were just really mean.
“What do you want to do now?” Tanjiro asked as he stood as well. He decided he didn’t need to bother Genya about what he smelled like. If he wanted to tell Tanjiro, that was okay, but he had to believe that everything was alright otherwise. Genya seemed happy, so surely it was all okay. Maybe his friend really was fine.
He certainly seemed chipper enough, giggling and pointing further into the patch of trees. “Let’s go look for animals!” He said, then grabbed Tanjiro’s hand and started leading him into the thicket. Tanjiro followed happily along, already laughing again and forgetting his momentary fright.
They found a couple of birds and rabbits and squirrels during their adventure. Lots of babies with them too. It was spring, Tanjiro pointed out when Genya found another nest full of chirping babies. All the moms and their new babies show up during spring. He saw a lot of deer with their kids where he lived. Genya told him all he ever saw were pigeons and sometimes gophers, but that there were a couple nice ladies in his house that just bought a new kitten. She was small and brown and named Buffy, he said. Tanjiro didn’t know any kittens himself, but there was a man in the town they lived above with an old hound dog named Copper. Genya laughed and said that was a silly name for an animal. Tanjiro did too and said so was Buffy. They both laughed more at that.
They quit laughing when Genya found a black beetle, though. He went all wide in the eyes again, though not with the same panic as before; rather, his grin grew even bigger and he crouched down, slowly stretching out his hands to cup around the beetle. Tanjiro held his breath as he moved—so slow and practiced that Tanjiro guessed he did this a lot. He gasped when Genya lunged suddenly forward, grabbing onto the beetle and holding it fast. He twisted to lift it up for Tanjiro to see, so Tanjiro sat down to do so.
“He looks silly,” Tanjiro said, and Genya nodded excitedly.
“He’s a dung beetle!” He declared. Tanjiro wrinkled his nose, giggling quietly at the grossness.
“Do you like bugs?” He asked.
Genya shook his head no with the same fervor as he had done for yes. “I don’t—or I didn’t. They used to scare me. But my big brother really likes them, so I like them too. He taught me how to catch a whole bunch of beetles, so I try to catch as many as I can for him. I find pink-spotted ladybeetles the most. That’s what he says they’re called. I just thought they were funny ladybugs.”
“That’s really cool!” Tanjiro told him. “My momma knows a lot about plants—maybe she would like the bugs too!”
“Do you have lots of bugs where you live?” Genya asked.
“Lots and lots,” Tanjiro said. “Lots of animals too. There's a whole bunch of them in our forest.”
“You have a whole forest?!” Genya exclaimed. He lurched forwards so suddenly he nearly dropped the dung beetle, though he kept hold of it in the end.
“Not the whole forest,” Tanjiro told him, though he also got excited at the idea. He did love his forest a lot, and would love if the entire thing could be his to live in forever and ever. “We live super high up on a mountain with a whole lot of bugs and animals with us!”
“That sounds so cool.”
“It is!” Tanjiro chirped. “You should come visit us! You can take a plane, and then we can pick you up in our car! That’s how we got here!”
But Genya faded at the suggestion, his smile drooping and smell souring all at once. He slouched in place and even let the beetle go, turning away from Tanjiro to set it on an old log and watch it scurry away.
“We don’t really leave home,” Genya told him. He spoke so quietly that Tanjiro had to shift forwards just to hear him. He scooted up to Genya’s side and bumped his shoulder lightly, but Genya didn’t look at him. He kept talking. “We’re only up here to visit my aunt, and she’s not that nice.”
Tanjiro frowned. Had he been wrong to ignore his strange scent from before? These changing moods Genya had—it worried Tanjiro. He didn’t like the idea of his friend being so sad and frightened about his own family, that wasn’t right. Tanjiro’s whole family was so nice and loving, and he never felt scared of them. He always felt safe, and he certainly never smelled any blood.
“I’m sorry she’s mean,” Tanjiro said, because Genya was silent, and seemed like he needed comfort. He glanced at Tanjiro when he spoke, so Tanjiro smiled at him. That definitely seemed to help. Feeling braver and a little warmer, Tanjiro decided to reach out too. He wrapped his arms slowly around Genya’s shoulders, then squeezed him tightly. Genya sighed and slumped. His forehead landed against Tanjiro’s arm, then his hands lifted to fist in the fabric of his shirt. It wasn’t as soft as Genya’s purple sweater, but he held tight to it anyway.
“Thank you for being nice to me,” Genya whispered inside of the hug. Tanjiro squeezed him tighter and closed his eyes.
“You don’t need to say thank you,” he murmured, sniffling as he started to cry. He just couldn’t help it, not with how sad Genya seemed and smelled. “I’m just being your friend.”
Tanjiro got to hug Genya for a couple of minutes, but it eventually stopped. They got up after that, returning to their explorations, though Tanjiro noticed Genya was a little slower now. He didn’t seem upset any more, just quieter, but Tanjiro let him be quiet. As long as he wasn’t sad, that was okay. The sun was beginning to lower in the sky anyways, so they decided to head back to the picnic tables. They didn’t go to Tanjiro’s table, though; they went further, and stopped at a different, older table, filled only with a really big man, a small woman, and an even smaller boy with white hair. Genya stopped walking before the big man and smaller boy noticed them, but the woman stood up, quickly making her way over to the two of them. Genya turned to Tanjiro.
“That’s my mama,” he said, very quick and somber. “She’s super pretty and nice, you can say hi to her. My big brother’s over there too,” he pointed at the white haired boy, who had shifted to peek over his shoulder at them. “He’s also super nice and kinda pretty, I guess, but you can’t say hi because he’s with my dad, and my dad will get angry if you go over there.”
“Why will he get angry?” Tanjiro asked, but then Genya’s mama was there, so he didn’t get an answer.
“Hi, baby,” Tanjiro heard her say before she bent and scooped Genya into a hug. Genya giggled and returned it happily, but he pulled away to point at Tanjiro.
“This is my friend, ma,” he told her, and she turned, smiling gently at Tanjiro too. Her face was very kind and very pretty, just like Genya had said, but her scent didn’t match. She smelled sad and tired and also a little bloody, just like Genya. Tanjiro didn’t like it, but he smiled anyway and bowed his head. “His name is Tanjiro and he’s really nice. He lives in a forest and knows a dog named Cooper.”
“Copper,” Tanjiro said.
Genya giggled. “Right. It’s silly.”
“It is very nice to meet you, Tanjiro,” Genya’s mama said. Her voice was soft like her face, and she reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind Tanjiro’s ear, which made him very warm. “I hope you boys had a lot of fun.”
“We did!” Tanjiro agreed, as did Genya with an excited nod.
“Well, I am so glad,” Genya’s mama said, before turning back to address Genya. She squeezed his shoulders slightly in both her hands and nodded backwards, towards his dad and big brother. Her scent soured a little, curling up in the same way Genya’s had earlier. Something like fear. “We’ve gotta go now, okay, sweetheart?” She said quietly, and Genya frowned. “It’s time to say goodbye to your friend.”
“But, I—!”
His mama shook her head, and Genya sighed, giving up. He turned to see Tanjiro. His eyes were red and watery and he bit his bottom lip. Tanjiro smiled at him, but his eyes hurt too, and he wanted to cry again. He didn’t want to say goodbye. He really didn’t want Genya to go, to smell even more scared and bloody. He didn’t like it.
But, he decided, he needed to. It would be best to listen to his mama. She seemed scared, but really nice, and Tanjiro trusted her. So, he opened his arms for another hug. Genya gave one to him right away.
“My forest is called Berkshire,” Tanjiro told him, “if you can visit me. We can climb trees again, and I’ll show you the deer, and Copper too.”
“My city is called LA if you wanna visit too,” Genya replied. “It’s really big and loud, but we can have fun.” He sniffled and squeezed Tanjiro tighter, but let go quickly afterwards, wiping his eyes with his sleeve and stepping back towards his mama. She petted his shoulders before standing and giving Tanjiro a goodbye smile.
“It was so good to meet you, Tanjiro,” she said, but then they both of them were turning and walking away, moving to meet up with Genya’s big brother—staring at and waving a small farewell to Tanjiro—and his dad—glaring at Genya like he was going to be in trouble. Tanjiro really hoped not. Surely his dad knew Genya was so nice and good. He wouldn’t get him in trouble just for having fun, would he? Tanjiro took in a deep breath, trying to smell how Genya felt, to smell if he was more afraid than before, but he could only catch an odd whiff of cedar and wool. That was strange—that’s what his room smelled of: the old cedar planks of the walls, the wool of his quilt and favorite sweater that he’d worn to bed, the petrichor of the nighttime rain outside—
Oh. Right.
Tanjiro opened his eyes slowly, blinking to see his dark room. Sure enough, the rain came down heavily outside his window, pounding on the old house like with a firm intent to break inside. Was it angry, Tanjiro wondered, that they were to leave this place? A small part of him—a part he refused to admit out loud—certainly was. He didn’t want to leave his home, even though he understood it was the most important decision they could make. It could save his father’s life. They had to take the chance. Even if it really, really sucked.
Besides, he was no stranger to leaving behind things he desperately wanted to keep, now was he? That dream had proven the idea as fact. He turned over in his bed, shifting beneath his cozy covers to gaze across the now packed space that had been his room for so long, and tried to envision the day to come, the change about to fall upon him.
The boxes were piled high in almost every corner, labelled with his name and other vague categories: wall stuff, closet, dresser, shelves, etc. His whole life, shoved into cardboard packaging to travel across the entire country. He hoped, at the very least, that he had packed properly enough to not be a burden to the movers. There was so much for them to handle through the house, he didn’t want to be a problem. Maybe he could offer his help, with loading into the truck here and even unloading into their new house in LA when they arrived.
LA.
Tanjiro shifted in bed again, back towards the wall, and pulled his covers up to his chin.
He hadn’t dreamt of his friend in a while now, though he still occasionally thought of him.
Alright, no, occasionally was not quite the right word. Frequently would be more accurate. Obsessively, if he was having a particularly sentimental day.
The point was that any time he saw a beetle or climbed a tree or smelled the metallic twang of blood, Tanjiro thought of him. Genya. He had never learned his last name, and kicked himself for years over the fact, but that didn’t stop his adoration for the boy from continuously waxing. He was the most interesting person Tanjiro had ever met. He seemed to understand Tanjiro in a way no one else had before or since. Tanjiro could only hope the same could be said of him—not that he expected Genya to think of him as well, of course! Honestly, he had no reason to expect Genya to remember him at all. They had barely known each other. A couple hours in one day that both of them happened to be on vacation—well, not vacation for Genya, not with how his aunt sounded, but still. Tanjiro hoped he had been a small reprieve in his life, a break from whatever troubled him at home, even if he didn’t think Genya would remember and appreciate said reprieve. Tanjiro was just…a little odd, he supposed, and Genya had captured his attention entirely.
And now Tanjiro was set to move to the same city he lived in, that very next day. He had once tried to send Genya a letter, but—as the Postman kindly informed him those years ago—the entire city of LA was not specific enough to accurately deliver a letter to a boy without a last name. Tanjiro had argued that there couldn’t be so many black-haired Genyas to make it impossible, but it was a fruitless fight. He hadn’t been able to contact Genya even once since they’d become friends that day, and despite all his optimism at the chance of reunion, he realistically knew it was a slim fate that would bring them together again.
Regardless—or maybe because of—Tanjiro still let his daydreams wander when he thought of his old friend. Had he stayed shorter than Tanjiro, he wondered, or matched him in height? Or had he outgrown him? Was his hair still cut the same way? Did it still stand on end like he’d been electrocuted, or had it softened in the passing years? Did he still have that sweater, even if he couldn’t fit into it anymore? Did he still like the color purple? Did Buffy grow up? Did his brother teach him about more beetles? Did he still love watermelon? Was he still frightened of his father? Did he still smell of blood?
Oh, how Tanjiro wished to know the answer to every single one of those questions. His heart ached at the memory of his friend, and he sorely wanted to have that feeling rectified. Years since he dreamt of their meeting. Years since they’d known each other. Years and years, and still Tanjiro felt as though he was standing on that soft grass under that setting sky watching a cowering boy crawl into a car beneath his father’s crushing grip. It hurt. He did not like it. He did not like any of this.
But, again still, he closed his eyes and let himself dream. Maybe he could conjure up a different ending for them. Maybe, at least for tonight, he could imagine the perfect fantasy, the ideal toss of fate where he finds Genya again, and his awful father is gone, and Tanjiro’s father’s new doctor saves his life, and they get to be together again, to be friends and to be with each other and to be…to be. Yes, that would be nice. To be with Genya again. To see his friend again.