I want nothing to do with you. (tengen uzui x reader)

A painful call out (9)

When you arrive at the regular meeting place a short time later, you find Tanjiro and Inosuke in the midst of an argument. Well, more like Inosuke yelling in Tanjiro's face.

"I told you! There's a demon at my house alright?!"

"Really?" Tanjiro asks with a tone of disbelief.

"I'm telling you it looked like this!" Inosuke starts gesturing wildly.

"Like what?" You ask. They jump and glance at you.

"This!" He starts to wiggle his fingers strangely.

Inosuke had seen the demon? This was the best news you'd heard all mission, "Ok, well, why don't you describe it in detail. I want to make sure I give Uzui accurate information."

"That won't be necessary."

You all turned to look at Tengen, who had appeared next to you, sitting to face the street.

"Wow, was the check in that fast?" You ask.

"Zenitsu didn't show up."

"He didn't show up? What do you mean?" Tanjiro asks, the slight smile that lived on his face falling to pure worry.

What concerned you more was the blank gaze on Tengen's face, "I feel bad about putting you all through this. It seems I was so desperate to rescue my wives in time I made some poor decisions regarding the mission."

"The hell? What's going on?" you grab his shoulder. Zenitsu couldn't be gone, that couldn't be right, Uzui hadn't even told you. He brushes you off and continues to look down, with his thousand-yard stare.

"As it stands, Zenitsu is missing. There's been no contact since last night." he rises, looking down at you before glancing back to the boys, "you all should leave now. You two are ranked too low, and you're supposed to be on time off, healing from that previous mission. If the demon here turns out to be upper rank, you two at the least will be dead weight. If you vanish from here, they'll just assume that you're dead."

"And then what will you do? Find this demon and your wives on your own?"

"Exactly."

"Please Mr. Uzui! We can help!" Tanjiro cried, looking to you for help.

"Don't be ashamed," Tengen responds, "Life is all about survival, so take this chance and get out."

He's gone before anyone can get another word in.

"I'll go talk to him, don't worry," you say looking over your shoulder, "although as much as it might pain you, consider his offer. It would be unfortunate to lose the two of you. I'm sorry about your friend." With that, your off, chasing your comrade. You wonder if you should plan your apology to Aoi now or on the trip back home.

He's fast that's for sure, but you were more than determined to keep up, eventually able to chase him back to the lodging you were staying in.
"So, what was that?" You demanded as you followed him inside, fuming.
"I thought I told you to get out of here."
"And I thought we'd just begun to see eye to eye, but here we are." You approached him, trying to make eye contact to get some sort of read on him, but he sits, gathering the letters that were scattered, tucking them away.
"You didn't even tell me Zenitsu wasn't responding. You told me quite literally nothing. How am I supposed to be of help when you refuse to take any?"
"The moment I realized he was gone was the moment I realized how foolish I've been. You're right, I dragged people into this who didn't ask for it."
"You're such a bastard, that's practically how every mission assignment is. If I really didn't want to come along, I wouldn't have, plain and simple."
"You say that," he responds, standing and meeting your gaze, face like stone, "but I know the whole reason you're here is because I made you, if I hadn't used those kids, you wouldn't have come."
"This is my job, Uzui. I'm sure none of us want to leave at all to fight these god forsaken demons but it's necessary-"
It's as if he doesn't hear you, continuing with, "I forced you to be here. I practically held those girls' hostage. I demanded people to come with me or else. You told me that much, threatened me constantly because of it. I've admitted it, you're right. Now get the hell out of here pipsqueak."
"No fucking way."
There is silence as he gazes down at you, the space between you practically nonexistent. His face was unreadable, like his mind was somewhere else. 
"Fine. But you're not coming with me." He sighs, before shouldering past you to the door.
"Gods what is your problem, why are you trying so hard to do this loner bullshit? I thought I told you, I'm done arguing with you." you reached out and grabbed his arm, the rage in you bubbling out. You hated this kind of stuff, when people treated you like you didn't know what you were doing. You'd thought, finally, you were beginning to understand this man. But it was obvious that three days together wasn't going to form anything more than a headache.
There's a quiet that adds more tension, and Uzui stops halfway out the door, before turning and looking at you with cold eyes. "Oh, I'm doing the loner bullshit? What about you? You don't talk to any of the other Hashiras. You actually go out of your way to not talk to anyone."
"Well, that's a personal choice." You say, letting go and backing up slightly. Why bring this up now?
He laughs dryly, before closing the distance you'd made, "Oh a personal choice? Then what about that time at the crowd? Was that a personal choice too?"
"W-what?" You stumbled over your words, flushing a bit.
"You know exactly what I mean, when you leaned against me, anxious from the crowd."
"I don't know what you're talking about." You looked away.
Tengen stopped completely in front of you, grabbing the front of your clothing, and pulling you up suddenly to face him. "I don't believe you."
"What the hell is your problem?!" You struggled, but his grip was like iron.
"Look me in the eyes right now and tell me 'Tengen I wasn't anxious.' Or 'Tengen I didn't need help back in the crowd.' I'll even take, 'Tengen, I'm not lying to you.'"
"You're being-"
"Say it pipsqueak, or I'm leaving you behind. And don't lie to me I can smell bullshit from a mile away." His gaze was impossible to meet and the heat on your face making this even harder.
"I-well..." you wanted to force it out, to at least say something. But both pride and denial fought back inside of you, both not wanting to admit he was right or that something was wrong with you. Not wanting to admit that you had needed someone, and hadn't asked, just like you'd accused him. Your agreement from the night before echoed in your head. This should be easy, but you just couldn't bring yourself to admit it.
"That's what I thought."
With that, Uzui set you down, releasing you from his iron grip, "I've done plenty of these missions on my own before, I can do it now. So, stay here and don't get in the way." He takes a few steps before looking over his shoulder," Oh and don't be a hypocrite the next time you want to try to boss me around."

With that he left, uninterrupted. What were you supposed to do? Stop him? Get him to talk to you? Yeah right.

You sank to your knees, your stomach filled with knots, your chest filled with regrets. You began to blame yourself for getting too involved, for getting too close to these people. You were a little more relaxed around them, and that was your first mistake. What hurt most was the fact it was so obvious you'd needed help. You could handle the embarrassment, but feeling weak twisted your mind in a way you didn't like. It made a sort of hole in your chest, a deep sinking feeling that you couldn't get rid of.
It continued to fester, until it consumed you.

You sat unmoving for a long time, in the dark unlit room, shadows from the sun slowly sinking as the orange light began to soak your skin. Maybe it'd be safest to stay here. Maybe Uzui was right, all you would do was be in the way. Maybe The Master had made a mistake with you, making you a Hashira was just a fluke.

Gods you were so tired.

No. You thought. Uzui can think what he wants to think about me, but I'm still responsible for what happens on this mission. I am strong, and I am capable of assisting.

Pushing aside the pity, the shame you felt you searched for it, the deep rage you held. Pushing the feeling forward, your breath gets a bit hotter, your chest rising and falling irregularly. You stood, pushing through the hurt, the guilt, and you found the annoyance, the anger, and the blazing hot fury that would fuel you through the night. Everything else can wait some other time when there wasn't a demon on the loose, and an infuriating colleague to prove wrong.

Walking out the door, into the ominous crowd of the Entertainment District you listened for the demon's noise. Pushing past people, this time with a bit more agility, you ran East once more pausing every once in a while, to focus on where it could be.
Was it really East? What if it was South? You couldn't focus, with all the people around. Your chest was tightening- shit, no this wasn't going to happen again. Running towards the nearest alley, you climbed quickly to the rooftops. By no means would you be as graceful as Uzui, but at least you'd be far from the crowd. Pausing, you thought. Yes North-East, that's where you'd heard it from the night before. Running harder than you had in quite some time, you made your way, before hearing a scream followed by crashing from inside the Ogimoto House. Shit, was the demon on the loose in the there? What about Inosuke? Were you too late?

You hardened your resolve, thinking back to the promise you had made in the Butterfly Mansion.

"I apologize in advance!" You called down, grabbing the roof and flying into a room feet first. The landing was slightly fumbled, and the door was busted now, but details.

Luckily the space was empty, and it wasn't hard to follow the screams of a lady, running down flights of stairs, turning several corners, until you ran down the loudest corridor following the voices of three women.

Growing closer you heard one say, "Who cares about work when there's a monster boar going around destroying all the ceilings and floors?!"

"Wha?"

Wait. Monster boar?

"Are you sure you got enough sleep last night?"

"Come see I'll show you!"

If the monster boar was who you thought-

Turning to face down the hall, you finally saw the three women all screaming in fear as none other than a boar headed kid slammed up from the floor below.

You groaned, "God damn it Inosuke."