PREY {Tomioka x Tanjiro}

Chapter 14 - Moving Fast

((Idk what to say here um hi))
((here's your double upload cuz I didn't upload last week))
((ya welcome))

no one's P.O.V.

zenitsu chatted with nezuko, Tomioka, and tanjiro all the way back home. he suddenly realized that he hadn't asked inosuke when were they going out to eat.

walking inside the door to their house, nezuko went with zenitsu into the living room to find an asleep inosuke. zenitsu groaned. the boar was as hard to wake up like a rock. seriously, he could sleep through anything.

he himself had never tried waking inosuke up. he had always watched tanjiro, nezuko, and Tomioka try, until they had to bring out their swords and point them at his neck. then, as if some sort of sensor pulled at his mind. he woke up, immediately yelling "ARE YOU CHALLENGING ME?!"

despite gaining much bravery after their battle with muzan, in which he had been able to finally unlock the use of the rest of the thunder breaths, zenitsu was still scared of getting on inosuke's bad side: partially because he loved him, and partially because of, well, fear.

zenitsu sighed. before resorting to violence, he might as well try to shake him awake.

nezuko sat down, and picked up the kimono she had been making. it was a yellow, orange, and white one, embroidered with lightning bolts. she told zenitsu it was for him, wich pleased him.

zenitsu walked over to the boar lying down on space of floor between the couch and the sitting room's small table. he got onto his knees and reached out to touch inosuke's arm.

to zenitsu's great astonishment- also to the immense surprise of nezuko, who had experience in attempting to wake the boar up, and not succeeding- inosuke shot awake, even though zenitsu's fingers hadnt so much as brushed the muscles of his bicep.

zenitsu stared silently at inosuke, who stared silently back, looking startled; and nezuko stared at the both of them.

"eh? gonitsu, arent we supposed to be eating out?" he said gruffly, and got up. nezuko got that sparkle in her eye, the one that both Tomioka and tanjiro got when something 'spicy' was happening.

zenitsu going out with inosuke was definitely on that radar.

inosuke pulled zenitsu up roughly, and they were off through the hallways and into the night air. almost all of the ex-demon slayers, including almost all of the ex-hashira, had not been able to readjust to the normal sleeping patterns of humans, courtesy of sleeping all day and being up at night to kill demons, so there were still hoards of ex-demon slayers around, and all the shops were still open.

"w-where are we going?" asked zenitsu, still being dragged along by inosuke. "the creepy guy and sweet girl's bakery" he replied.

ah, kanroji-san and iguro-san's bakery zenitsu thought.

they made delicious sweets that would make your mouth water. zenitsu almost started drooling just thinking about it. they were truly amazing cooks.

to add onto it, they were just recently married, so iguro glared at any man who even glanced at her, wich wasn't very fun.

their bakery wasn't very far, so they reached there in almost no time. it was quite a big building- there were tables galore, it was probably the second biggest eating place around, next to aoi-san's buffet.

as they walked inside, they were hit with the scent of pure heaven being made in ovens. kanroji-san immediately waved to them. tanjiro, zenitsu, nezuko, tomioka, and inosuke were very regular customers there, and they helped out with the cooking most of the time, as well. iguro-san had platters on his shoulders, head, elbows, and hands; even his snake, kabaramu, had one on its head.

he was quickly and efficiently serving people, while other ex-demon slayers were taking orders. inosuke sat them down near the counter, where mitsuri-san was busy with other demon slayers, making delicious sweets that filled the air.

"ah, zenitsu-Kun, inosuke-Kun!" a voice that sounded much like a male's came from over the counter, but both inosuke and zenitsu knew better.

a tall woman, with tattoo's all over her, dying her body black; complete with dark, void-like eyes, and hair that reached the ground when let out, so it had to be stuffed into a very large bun on her head, popped out from behind the counter.

they should be used to this by now; nomu was always under the counter, fetching ingredients to be cooked, but zenitsu still jumped slightly- inosuke, though, laughed.

"You can't trick me again, puny minion!" He stated. Nomu smiled and turned to zenitsu. "I suppose you'll be wanting mochi? And you inosuke-kun, you'll want doriyaki?"

Zenitsu and inosuke nodded. Zenitsu was pleased that nomu knew them well enough to predict what they were going to order. Well, they had come to the bakery unusually often, so it was inevitable.

As nomu pranced off, zenitsu turned to inosuke. "Why did you invite me out? You know, that's really unlike you." Zenitsu prompted, raising an eyebrow at the femenine male sitting across from him.

Gonpachiro told me not to tell him, but who's he to order me around? Inosuke thought as he set his eyebrows.

"Kamaboko gonpachiro," inosuke started in his low, rough voice,"told me that..." Inosuke struggled to find the word Tanjiro had used for it.

"That...you...love..? Me" he said, uncertain if he had correctly remembered and repeated the word that Tanjiro had used.

Zenitsu gasped in horror. Tanjiro would never betray him like that! Why would he tell inosuke?!

Meanwhile, Tanjiro had not in fact told inosuke that zenitsu liked him. inosuke's arrogant subconscious had interpreted it that way, and given him that sentence to say instead of the original one.

"And, he told me that because, I told him that my stomach felt wierd around you, and I strangely don't want to yell at you, and I really want you to..." Inosuke went on to describe what he felt like around zenitsu, what he thought of zenitsu, and what he wanted zenitsu to do to him, with a completely innocent expression on his face; while zenitsu's mouth hung open like the gaping entrance to a cave.

Inosuke had no idea the impact of what he told zenitsu, and he also had no idea that he had just confessed his feelings to zenitsu.

((Call me an evil author but CLIFFHANGER 😈))