Inosuke
After roughly 10 minutes of being poked relentlessly, you finally caved in and got up to follow the male; your face never calming down. Following him, you suddenly found yourself outside with the boar-headed male and saw him tossing your sword towards you. Puzzled, you questioned him, "Inosuke? What are we doing with our swords? Don't tell that you want to spar with me now..." Your lips formed into a thin line as your blush now only became apparent on your cheeks rather than your entire face; still not over with what had just happened from earlier.
Inosuke cackled, "Ah! That would be a lot cooler wouldn't it, mouse?!" An irk mark quickly appeared on the side of your head, "Quit calling me a mouse already!" Never acknowledging your outburst, he merely pointed behind you. Turning your frame around, you were pleasantly surprised to see Tanjiro, but then remembered the incident from earlier. Your head fell with embarrassment as Tanjiro patted your shoulder and grabbed both yours and Inosuke's swords; your cheeks beginning to flare up again.
But now even more confused, "W-What? You toss me my sword and then let Tanjiro take both of ours? What are you planning, Inosuke?" Your face forming into a weird look, causing the male to yell at you and to not give him such a nasty look. Never moving from your spot and only watching the two males move towards the wood-chopping block, the two of them grabbed two large logs and placed them on opposing sides of the chopping block. Following your burgundy haired friends motion to come over to where they were, you now stood with the three males.
"You sit right here, (Y/N)chan," Tanjiro pointing to one of the shorter wood blocks and then placing one of your arms on the larger block before doing the same to Inosuke. Clicking the pieces together, you spoke your mind. "I'm assuming we're going to be doing some arm wrestling?" Tanjiro nodded excitedly, "Exactly! This is also because this was the only idea that Inosuke really liked..." You chuckled as Inosuke made an irritated grunt.
After laying down some rules, specifically some that permitted Inosuke from flinging you, Tanjiro finally let you both go at it under his supervision; being a little overprotective with what he had just uncovered from earlier. The very first few times you lost over and over again which fed Inosuke's ego while it only irritated you more and more, making you forget the fiasco with Zenitsu. "Don't you know how to be a good sport?" You hissed at the winning male. He merely cackled wildly with triumph, "To be a good sport?! It's not my fault that you're stupidly weak!" More irk marks appeared on your forehead as you placed your arm on the wooden block once more, "I'll make you take that back, you bumbling idiot!" Clasping his hand with your own once more, another arm wrestling match began once more.
And not wanting to lose again, you began putting in more power in your arm, making the game come to a standstill. Grunts of frustration were let out as you both yearned to beat the other; one was to prove that the other was weak and one was to prove to not underestimate the other. Strained veins began to pop from your skins and sweats were beginning to be broken; the drive to win was at an all-time high.
But even though the game had set both you and the arrogant male into an intense moment, Tanjiro merely sweat-dropped at how intense you both were being. In all honesty, you both resembled constipated individuals rather than competing ones to him. But he didn't want to ruin the intense, silence battle with his thoughts however.
Sucking in the air through your teeth, you began to overcome your opponents own arm and land a solid victory. Your first win threw Inosuke into a tantrum as you rubbed your victory into his face, greedily eating up his angered yelling. And with your first win finally obtained, more arm wrestling matches ensued.
~
After about an hour had passed and Tanjiro not seeing the need to supervise the both of you anymore, you claimed yet another victory in your arm wrestling match. The male shrilled wildly, now realizing how you both were now at an even score (which you had to tell him about). As you let the male have his tantrum about losing and not being victorious, you retrieved both of your swords and tossed Inosuke's own swords to him. With a questioning tilt of his head, but with evident excitement in his body, you explained yourself to him.
"This might not be the best idea, to be completely honest with you," you chuckled as you gripped your sword. "But, I know for a fact that this little game of arm wrestling has definitely gotten boring. And winning just another round wouldn't be satisfying for the either of us." Looking straight at him with now sudden confidence while pointing the edge of your fern green sword towards him, "So let's have a quick swords fight just to settle the score. You in?" The male stayed quiet for a second as his mask was beginning to glow with excitement and also amazement. "You fucking know it!" His frame jumping high into the air, slightly impressing you.
After telling him the single rule, which was to not cut the other, your fighting began. Screeching metal and light sparks erupted from your blades just like your first encounter, but the emotion of fear and the need to protect was gone. The only emotion now was to beat the other fighter. Both of you jumped from going offensive to suddenly defensive as blows were either blocked or dodged; this fighting match was far better than the last one.
Kicking it up a gear as Inosuke began to cackle once more, believing that he was going to win, you began moving unexpectedly in order to try and confuse the male with what you would do next; suddenly striking to his left to his right. Now not being able to predict your moves, he suddenly pushed into an offensive mode, letting an opening become easily apparent. With a small opening that existed between his arms, you flipped your body and kicked his common boar-head off, stunning him. And within that single second of being stunned, you had the edge of your sword resting right at his throat. You had won.
You smiled cheekily as the male only looked at you with astonishment. "Looks like I won, Inosuke. Feel better?" The males upper lip fluttered upward as irk marks appeared all over his skin. "Oh dear..." You whispered under your breath.
For a few short minutes you had to deal with Inosuke's constant yells of anger. "Inosuke! We can always have another match!" You tried to bargain. "Then let's have another one! Right now, mouse!" You quickly denied his request and told him that doing so could possibly push his body too far. It was clear that he was having none of it. Sighing with defeat, you watched as the male sit on the ground, cross-legged, and began to grumble. Crossing your own arms, "You know Inosuke, as much of a pain the ass that you are, you're getting better." The fuming male cocked eyebrow at you, "Your moving a lot faster than you did before. And I bet, once you finally recover, you'll be able to beat me again."
"Of course I'll be able to beat a small fish like you once I'm better! You're nothing compared to me!" He yelled as he pointed at you.
"Even though I just beat you?" You dead-panned.
Inosuke sputtered a little bit, not knowing how to respond. His grumbling began once more. Running a hand through your hair as you exhaled a sigh at the sight of a grumbling, feral Inosuke, "Don't let my comment make you think that I look down on you, Inosuke." Catching his attention once more but not looking at him, "I actually find you pretty amazing with how flexible you are and admire your fiery spirit when you fight. It's actually really thrilling to see." You chuckled as you kicked the ground now, now getting a little awkward, "I guess that's just the long way of saying that I respect you as an individual." Your own (e/c) eyes locked eyes with his own emerald eyes for a moment before you turned around to go back inside. "Well, that's all that I really have to say. I'll also save some of my fried tempura for you, since I think you deserve it." And you were gone.
Leaving the male with his own thoughts, you had completely confused him. Your sudden praise and clarification with what you had meant was really throwing the boys brain through multiple loops. His feelings were all jumbled up with happiness, confusion, pride, and some of his usual rage. To know that you respected him as an individual did make him feel funny and slightly proud (but also angered since you didn't see him as someone better than you). Your words of affirmation really did mess with his emotions and brain, making him think a little too much than he would like to do.
And trying not to make himself think too much, he brought himself to his final decision: he respected you too.
But not as some wimpy loser.
Not as some useless mouse.
But as an individual too.
A/N
Hello! The four mini-chapter's dedicated to Inosuke and Zenitsu have now finally been done!
Like I said in the previous chapter, I wanted you to earn Inosuke's respect before any romantic feelings made themselves apparent. So if this chapter was kinda boring for you, I'm really sorry about that :(.
But! The story will begin to finally progress which I'm really pumped about! I really like how I'm setting up the story in my b r a i n :p.
And just a little random thing: I watched the most recent episode of MHA/BNHA and HOT DAMN did that episode make me get so HYPED MY GUY LIKE SAFG,BDSL,A
aNYWAYS,
That's all that I really have to say, lol. I hope I continue to write more chapters that fit your tastes and I hope that you all have a wonderful whateverthetimeisforyourightnow!