♪───Ｏ（≧∇≦）Ｏ────♪
"What do snakes eat?" You ask.
"..."
"Is he vegan?" You guess.
"..."
"Is he vegetarian?"
"..."
"Is he John Cena? Duh DUH Duh DUHH! DUH Duh DUH DUHHH!"
Iguro tilts his head ever so slightly: "Who the hell is that?"
"He speaks!"
The Serpent Pillar rolls his eyes.
You were in Sanemi's kitchen, checking on the food when Iguro had suddenly walked in to glare at you.
You just wanted to check on the pozole.
Why he gotta stare at you like that?
Why he built like that?
"Is there anything I can help you with, Iguro?" You raise an eyebrow at the brunette, "You can take a picture, it lasts longer."
"You know you're weak, right?" Iguro suddenly speaks, "You have no business being in the Demon Sl-"
Yeahhhh you're not taking this from him.
"-No. You do not get to start that. Not today," You narrow your eyes at him, "Today is Uzui's day. You want to degrade me? Fine. You want to ruin my self esteem? Fine. But you'll have to do that another day because today is a good day. Today is Uzui's party. Today, we all want to have a good time. Giyuu is also going to be here. If you really can't hold your tongue, then just go outside for a bit to regain yourself."
You douse the fire. The pozole was done.
"Today is a good day, Iguro. Let's pretend that you don't hate my guts for Uzui's sake," You request, "I'm not singling you out, by the way. When Sanemi gets back, I'll be telling him the same thing too."
At first, Iguro wasn't so sure he liked you.
But now, he's lost all respect for you.
At least, that's what he's telling himself.
Women in the Demon Slayer Corps were weak in his eyes (except for Mitsuri and Shinobu). He thought of you to be in the same caliber as those weak women.
And maybe you were?
You didn't exactly stand up for yourself, in fact you invited him to continue another time. But you immediately stopped him for Uzui's sake. Why bother? Uzui wasn't even here yet.
You were too confusing.
Iguro decides to ask what's been on his mind.
"You're wearing Shinazugawa's yukata. He mentioned before in the past that, that yukata was for special occasions," Iguro tilts his head, "Are you sure you two aren't secret lovers?"
"WHY WOULD YOU-"
——
Sanemi returned!
You two were cleaning out the bowls he had bought. He washed them and you dried them. They were white, glass bowls with blue designs.
As Little Ms. Fortune says: "Fancyyyy!"
"This is so fancy!" You inspect the bowl in awe as you dried it, "I thought you were going to buy like... plastic bowls."
"Plastic-why would I buy plastic?" Sanemi furrows his small eyebrows together as he washes another bowl.
"Because! This shit's expensive!"
"Well, I wasn't going to get cheap bowls!"
"Men! You're all the same!"
Sanemi stutters before snatching the bowls from your hands, "If you're going to be like that, then-"
"-Okay-okay-okay!" You laugh, "I'm sorry. I uh, I wanted to talk to you about something, though."
Sanemi tenses up, "What is it?"
"Giyuu, Tanjiro, Genya, you know, certain people will be here tonight," You lower your voice, "I really want this party to go well for Uzui. So if you feel the need to-to yell at someone, or if you feel like you're gonna lose your cool. Just go outside for a minute or two. Take a deep breath. And then come back inside."
Sanemi frowns.
"I know you and Iguro are less likely to bite your tongue, so I told him something too," You explain, "Or if you don't want to go outside, you can like, send me a signal and I can figure something out from there."
"Fine," Sanemi snaps, "You're lucky it's Uzui's party, I would have never invited Tomioka."
"I know."
"He pisses me off."
"I know."
"Are you really going on a date with him once you heal?"
You hold back a laugh at that notion; your cheeks noticeably darken in embarrassment.
"It's not like that. During our mission together, I had to pretend to be his wife. And I made a joke about it saying like, 'wow you won't even take me on a date first?' And he took it literally so..."
"So you're going on a pretend date because he doesn't know what sarcasm is." Sanemi shakes his head, "Fucking Tomioka."
You lightly nudge his arm, "Be nice."
"Whatever."
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
"I'll get it," You carefully put the bowl down and dry your hands on the towel.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Jesus, someone's impatient.
You quickly make your way to the door and fix the sleeves to the yukata before sliding the door open.
The beautiful boys: Kyojuro, Tanjiro, presumably Nezuko in the box on his back, Inosuke, and Zenitsu all greet you from the other side.
Kyojuro was wearing a black yukata (maybe it was a kimono, you didn't really know the difference), with grey flower designs. A few flowers were red, though.
Tanjiro was wearing a light green yukata with random squares in different hues of green. Zenitsu was wearing a white yukata with yellow triangles in design.
Inosuke, surprisingly, didn't have his boar's hide on. His yukata was shorter than the others, and the chest area was open. It was light blue with darker blue stripes.
Pretty gorls.
"Sup, my doods," You grin.
"Are those new clothes, (Y/n)?" Zenitsu makes an L with his thumb and index finger and puts it under his chin, "They look kind of... big."
"Oh, well, I stole this from Sanemi," You move out of the door way, "How y'all doing? I haven't seen you in forever!"
Inosuke squints at you as he walks in, "It's only been two days."
"Whatever," You wave his comment off dismissively, "You guys look so pretty!"
The boys get flustered as they walk in as well, but Inosuke gets kind of defensive.
"I am not pretty! I am manly!" The boar child shouts.
"You can be pretty and manly, Inosuke," You smile as you close the door.
"Oh..." Inosuke grins wide and puts his hands on his hips, "Then, fuck yeah, I'm pretty!"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
"My flame, is Uzui here?" Kyojuro asks.
"No, I imagine he will be fashionably late," You hum.
"I see, my father was also invited, but..." Kyojuro's smile falters just a bit.
Uzui knows Shinjuro well enough to want to invite him? Well, it was kind of implied, but maybe Uzui worked with Shinjuro before Kyojuro became the Flame Pillar.
"I see! Well, Sanemi would sure be glad to have one less mouth to feed!" You try to make light of the situation, "Is Sekido here too?"
You hear soft knocking from Zenitsu. You didn't even notice that Zenitsu had a box on his back too.
"Awesome! Well, come on, I'll show you guys where we-"
Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Oh! Uh, Tanjiro, go use your cool nose and smell out where the people are!" You point towards the door, "I gotta do the deed!"
Tanjiro smiles, "Yeah, of course!"
You turn around and walk to the door. Tanjiro's English is getting a lot better. You're really proud of him.
You slide the door open and greet the newcomer with a smile.
"Hey! I-oh! Gerik! I haven't-WAH!"
Man, when you woke up this morning, you did not expect to see Gerik (even though you knew he was invited), and you certainly did not expect Gerik to try and poke your eyes out.
Life is wild like that.
"Gerik!" You put your hand on your chest to feel your erratic heartbeat, "What the hell-"
"-YOU SERIOUSLY LOST THE KAMA?!" Gerik storms in and slams the door behind him.
Gerik was wearing a grey yukata with a dull yellow lining at the collar. His mask was pushed over his forehead so you can see him glaring at you.
Oh yeah.
You kind of forgot that you lost your kama. So, all sword-smiths were weird about that, then? Good to know.
"-WH-IT WASN'T MY FAULT! DEATH WAS APPROACHING!!"
"EXCUSES!!!"
"NO!!! IT'S NOT!!!!" Man, what the hell, "I FELL OFF A CLIFF AND I GOT IMPALED THE SAME NIGHT!!! NOT ONLY THAT, I PERMANENTLY DAMAGED MY ANKLE!!!! GIVE ME A-"
Gerik walks forward and suddenly pulls you into a hug. You feel like Gerik had suddenly gained bipolar since you've last seen him.
"I know. I'm sorry. I'm just frustrated that you're getting hurt all the time, but I know that's not an excuse for yelling at you like that," Gerik sighs.
"You're just a kid, for crying out loud. I haven't heard from you in months and I suddenly get an invitation to a party you're throwing and a request from you for a new weapon. I was... worried," He admits, "I know it's not exactly... professional to keep in contact with you when it's irrelevant to your weapon, but I don't really care for professionalism."
Huh.
You relax and reciprocate the hug.
"I'm sorry I didn't try to contact you sooner. And I know what you mean, I'm frustrated, too," You pat the poor sword-smith on the back, "But near death experiences come with the job, dude. So you can't stay frustrated about it foreeeeever."
Gerik pulls away and eyes your left collar, "Your shoulder... can you still move it?"
You wince, "Not without strain."
"And your ankle? Which-"
"-The right one," You rub your arm, "I sprained it but I wasn't really um, letting it rest, so it got fucked up."
"How-you also fell off a cliff? How are you-"
"-Ah-haha! It really has been forever, huh?" You hide your grin behind your hand, "Um, I'll tell you the details later when I can, but I got kidnapped by Upper Moon Three, well he's not an Upper Moon anymore, but yeah. I got kidnapped and that was the main reason for my sprained ankle. But after I was set free, I got sent to this mission and I almost fell off a cliff and former Upper Moon Three was the one to save me."
"..."
"..."
"You know how it is-Are you crying?!"
Gerik sighs heavily and wipes the tears away, "You can't make me care about you so easily and then put your life in danger like that. It's not fair."
Oh...
"I-I didn't realize that you um-that you cared that much," Guilt eats away at you, "I'm sorry. I-I really didn't have any control over any of this, though-"
"-I know. I'm not mad at you, I'm not upset with you," Gerik smiles and ruffles your hair, "Just keep in touch, and try to be more careful. I... well, my wife, she wants to meet you one of these days. So you have to stay in one piece, got it?"
You tried to fix your hair half-assed, "Me? Damn, what did you tell her?"
"You'll just have to find out when you meet her, huh?"
"Alright, alright," You laugh, "It's nice to see you again, Gerik. Let's get going, though. I don't want anyone to get worried about us for taking so long."
Gerik nods, "Right, lead the way."
"By the way, remember Nezuko?"
"Uh, the demon girl, right?"
"Yeah! There's another demon with us today. He's kind of a douche, but you'll like him."
"If I had 10¥ for each time I met a "friendly demon", I'd have 20¥. Which is not a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice."
Did Gerik just meme at you without even realizing?!