𝙄𝙉𝙊𝙏𝘼𝙉 ೂೃ | 𝐎𝐧𝐞-𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬 |

Met in a Maze of Snow

After hours and hours of typical work from delivering fresh bread to door to door has finally passed by, it struck midnight. The night was dim and cold, leaving the white snow on the ground to set itself as a pillow among the dead grass it covers.

Tanjiro has been walking for nearly fifteen minutes now. And once he was arrived to a lonely and familiar bus stop bench, he took the opportunity to take a quick breath.

So, he sat on the cold black bench, his body shivering from the touch. Seconds later for what felt like minutes passed, the night felt as if it was halting, which made Tanjiro take a look up at the dusk night glow from the horizon in all of his view he could see. The only star of the show was the milky moon, the beams which it held burned an astounding light. 

He knew that he could watch the snow fall like clouded rain for maybe hours, although his family would be worried. So that's when the idea of watching the snow as a family got cought up in Tanjiro troubled head.

He paused. What was that sudden sound?

*𝘾𝙧𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙝*

*𝘾𝙧𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙝*

*ᶜʳᵘⁿᶜʰ*

...

The soft sound of crunching snow startled the red-haired boy. He pricks his head to analyze the frozen world around him, it was incredibly silent.

And once he saw a dark figure behind a side of him, he freezes. Staring deep onto the... Woman's face?

And immediately Tanjiro began to soften, it was just another individual (possibly a sweet young girl) "Oh, uh– hello." He laughs. "Uh, do you want to sit down?"

"Nah, I'm fine." The person answered, tired and rudely, their voice painfully husky Tanjiro would've guessed that it was a man's voice.

"Oh, okay." Tanjiro smiled at the other.

....Silence stung their ears, the world of falling snow that caged then upon the bench they sat on becoming more of a cold park (oh so horrifyingly cold)

"Y'know what, move over." They spoke again. And Tanjiro gladly pursued the request, hopping until his hip met the other side of the bench.

And there the two sat. One taking a look at the white moon, while the other looking down at the white snow. The silence for them both comfortable. Usually sitting next to a stranger wasn't this warm or maybe that walking for several minutes warmed them up.

Tanjiro turned his head to the one buried in their hood, "How was your day today?"

"Huh?"

"How was your day?" He repeats.

The person didn't know how to respond so they sat in silence with that same annoyed expression.

Tanjiro began to loosen from all the questions. "Oh sorry, am I asking too much?" He nervously chuckled at himself.

"Obviously," The other one says, tipping their head to Tanjiro's direction.

"Oh,"

The person sighed heavily, reaching their head up so that the back can hit the head of the bench, eyes closed. Their women-like face showing frustration.

"So uh, had a hard day at work?"

The eyebrows of the person arched harder downward, looks like a nerve broke. Their eye still close they spoke, "No, I didn't. Matter of fact my job ended hours ago."

Tanjiro looked at the area around him, crunching his face as he knew what he was about to do was a curious habit of his, "Why are you here, exactly? This is a bus stop."

"Yeah, I know that." They lightly growled.

"Don't you want to go back home?"

"No..."

Tanjiro's eyes began to curl with questions running around his curious head, "Why?"

"Why are you so God damn nosey?!" They yelled as their attitude got more crabby each question, their eyes meeting Tanjiro's within a flash of time. He stares.

Their eyes are green... raw green. The green hues outward from the indigo of the night, as if they were pursuading Tanjiro to stare until his legs would buckle and crumble.

"Uh, I..." Tanjiro paused slightly with his words, his eyes now darted to the other's eyes of sea green. "I'm sorry," he hushes, looking down with tinted cheeks. Definitely from the cold.

The person huffs a puff of hot air into the crispy air, "Whatever."

Tanjiro thought for a moment, and then he thought again. A wonderful yet a strange idea has popped into his head once again, but of course, the strange part was the cause of him crinkling his nose. "Would you like to stay at my place? For a while?" He blurts.

The other sitting adjacently to him stared at him with a confused look, staring at Tanjiro up and down as if he knew what just came out of his trembling mouth.

"You said you didn't want to stay home and my family would be kind to let you stay for dinner. You can get a warm and comfortable." Kamado coughs a series of laughs after he rambled.

The other thought for a moment, pausing their next action to stare at the ground with an unreadable cast on their face.

Tanjiro feels like his body is on fire, he never felt this embarrassed on asking a complete stranger to dinner. Sure, he asks his neighbors, but this was someone who he doesn't seem to recognize that lives on his mountain district. That also catched him off guard.

They growl heavily, "Fuck."

"Why not."

A smile brightens Tanjiro's worried face. He then jolts as he has almost forgotten, "Oh yeah, I forgot to ask." He laughs. "What is your name?"

"Inosuke Hashibira!" The other said with a boastful blast from his tone of voice.

Tanjiro repeats the name in choir in his mind until he was beaten with only a couple sounds that could ring ear to ear. He lightly shakes his head.

"What a wonderful name," He smiles. "My name is Tanjiro Kamado. You might know me as the boy who helps a lot around here, also my family owns a bakery right down a couple blocks from here."

"Sounds boring." The Inosuke said.

Tanjiro coughed with a face of dumbfounded. "Right?" He says, a little offended. But, he rose from his seat on the bench and swirls his head towards Inosuke, "Okay, follow me!"

"You got it!" Inosuke agrees.