Taekook💜💚soulmates

Now, he has a calendar for it; luckily, the hashira are such strong, powerful vampires they only need blood every two or three weeks.

Still, since they are nine, Tanjirou finds himself feeding vampires a few times each week. He has to drink and eat more now, but the Pillars bring him extra food (sometimes expensive) and sweets to make up for it.

The odd thing is, there are a few slayers and kakushi who are vampires too and don't need anything else but the blood that's provided to them in a bag. Tanjirou has no idea why the Pillars are so opposed to it suddenly.

He tries to ask Tomioka once, but the water hashira gets too flustered he can't answer Tanjirou's question.

One of the good things about it is that they don't drink too much from him, and after a while, it's not that painful. Tanjirou refuses to tell anyone about this, but after those sharp teeth sink into his skin, there's a wave of warm pleasure that follows the pain right after.

Even thinking about it makes Tanjirou blush to the tip of his ears.

Rengoku likes to nuzzle against his cheek after he drinks from him; it always makes Tanjirou giggle.

Kanroji brings him a tray full of food right away; Tanjirou eats a few of them to please her even though he assures there's no need for it.

Spending that much time with them has made Tanjirou's sleeping habits change a bit; he doesn't mind, mostly because Nezuko is also awake during the night and his missions require him to fight at night too.

He finds out something interesting a few months later, thanks to Tokito, who likes to talk to him about all kinds of stuff after drinking his blood while they cuddle. Turns out Oyakata-sama already knows about their arrangement because they also asked him to give them his permission.

Despite Tanjirou constantly giving them blood, all the hashira like to spend time with him when they're not drinking from him. They bring him nice clothes for him and Nezuko, also rare and expensive hairpins that Tanjirou is able to put on now because he's growing out his hair.

Iguro surprises him one day by getting on one knee in front of him before letting him know he is leaving on an important mission that night. A bit confused, Tanjirou wishes him good luck and strokes his cheek shyly.

The others start doing that too but they ask for goodbye kisses as well.

It's the same when they come back, although some of them, mostly Uzui, lift him up and press a lot of kisses to his cheeks.

They do enjoy biting him on the neck, but Shinazugawa asks him to let him drink from his shoulder every now and then.

Even though the marks disappear almost instantly, Tanjirou has noticed that they enjoy seeing them on him; he catches Kocho watching as the mark she left on his neck slowly fades.

Maybe it's due to their connection, but Tanjirou has noticed that they seem to know exactly where he is now. Himejima has no problem finding him in the butterfly estate after he comes back from a mission.

Sometimes they travel with him after Ubuyashiki assigns Tanjirou a mission; the redhead knows it's because they have become very protective of him, but since they don't do that every single time he doesn't mind them keeping him company, besides, he learns a lot from them that way.

Even though they have a lot of self-control, Tanjirou has noticed they tend to lose it whenever a demon mentions something about wanting a taste of Tanjirou's sweet blood.

It has happened a couple of times already, but the one Tanjirou remembers the most is when a female demon actually tried to bite the human's arm, prompting Tomioka to growl and leave his katana behind.

His eyes glowed red before throwing himself at the demon and giving her a good fight, almost tearing her into pieces until he grabbed his katana to actually finish the job.

Tanjirou has noticed that their protective nature also appears when he's in the butterfly estate, but mostly when there are other slayers around. Shinazugawa often growls at them whenever they accidentally bump into the redhead or grab him by the arm with "a bit too much force" according to him.

Perhaps that's why the slayers seem to be afraid of getting too close to him now.

After a few weeks, they get a little bit more intense, not only when they're drinking from him but all the time. They like to touch him a lot; Tanjirou had no idea they were so physically affectionate until now, but he's happy to give them what they want.

Although sometimes he gets flustered, especially when Rengoku pulls him into his strong arms and keeps kissing him all over the face as one of his hands finds his waist and the other the back of his head. Tanjirou likes it when he grabs him by the hair and pulls a bit when he gets a bit desperate.

Reminding himself that his first attempt to ask one of them directly didn't go that well, Tanjirou decides to go to Aoi for answers.

Although she doesn't seem that happy to talk about it.

"You mean about them acting like idiots when you're talking to other slayers?" She rolls her eyes as she keeps folding sheets; her expression softens a bit when she notices Tanjirou helping her with the blankets. "Vampires are usually very possessive, especially with the people they're in love with."

Tanjirou's face feels so hot suddenly, he gets distracted and almost ruins all the blankets he had carefully folded.

"W-What do you mean?"

"Are you telling me you have no idea why they suddenly started drinking from you after getting to know you better?"

"I-I thought they got tired of drinking blood from a bag," Tanjirou mumbles, heart beating fast inside his chest.

"Then why they refuse to drink from anyone else but you?" Aoi asks, as if she's trying to help him understand something important.

"I don't... know."

Aoi takes a deep breath before putting a hand on Tanjirou's shoulder.

"They fell in love with you. That's why they started craving your blood. Vampires get addicted to the blood of the one they're in love with. And in this case, that's you."

"But that means..." Tanjirou stammers, feeling the blush on his cheeks spread down his neck. "All of them?"

"Yeah," she nods, looking back at him with pity. "Good luck with that."

Tanjirou can tell Aoi is telling the truth, although it's still very hard to believe something like that.

He needs to talk to them as soon as possible.

***

It's not that easy for Tanjirou to talk about it; he gets so flustered just thinking of what Aoi said to even try to bring it up in a conversation with one of the hashira.

But he has started to notice a few things about them. He has seen the intense look in their eyes whenever Tanjirou is talking to them; there's such a fond expression on their faces, he could easily mistake for adoration if he's not careful. Because that's impossible, right? They just can't adore a low ranking slayer that once was a simple charcoal seller.

What could be so special about someone like Tanjirou?

And yet they worry every time he comes back from a mission injured and none of them were there to stop it. Kocho patches him up herself whenever that happens and the other Pillars try to help as much as they can.

They take care of him when he gets sick and don't even think about drinking his blood when he's weak or tired.

They're always there for him when he misses his family.

Sometimes he thinks they're just grateful for what Tanjirou does for them.

"Shinazugawa-san..."

"What is it?" The wind hashira grabs his chin (he's very careful actually). "Are you hurt? Did anyone say something about you?"

Maybe he's the wrong hashira to talk about something like that, he'll probably get mad at how ridiculous the idea of loving Tanjirou is to him.

"I'm... hungry."

"Alright, I'll be back. Stay here."

He doesn't say where he's going, but he brings homemade ohagi for Tanjirou to eat and a nice cup of hot tea.

"Thank you, Shinazugawa-san."

The Pillar doesn't say anything, but Tanjirou believes he sees him blushing for a moment.

His other attempts don't go well either. But after a while, he gathers enough courage to ask Himejima about it.

Tanjirou is comfortably sitting in the stone hashira's lap in the backyard. It's a warm summer night.

"Himejima-san?"

"Yes, Tanjirou?" There's a fond smile tugging the corners of his lips up when he leans to press his chin lightly against the human's head.

"Why do you... I mean, all of you, like to drink my blood?"

"Does it bother you?" A concerned frown appears upon Himejima's face. "We can stop if you want."

"No," Tanjirou blushes, biting his bottom lip before continuing: "I don't mind it. I'm just... curious."

"Well," he smiles again, fangs showing for a moment. "I mean of course we need blood to stay strong and keep our abilities, but drinking from you is special to all of us because it also makes us feel closer to you. Drinking blood directly from someone creates a connection. Haven't you felt it?"

"I have," Tanjirou says. Although he hadn't actually thought about it until that very moment.

Maybe that's why he knows how they feel before they even get the opportunity to speak sometimes.

Himejima cups Tanjirou's face with one hand and gives him a kiss on the cheek, making the human feel warm and fuzzy inside. It makes him really happy.

"We like to feel close to you because we're in love with you, Tanjirou."

His face turns completely red at those words, even though Aoi had told him about that before.

"I'd like to start dating... all of you."

"The others will be happy when I let them know about your decision," Himejima says. "Perhaps we should call a meeting, so you can tell them yourself."

"I'd like that."

***

The other Pillars are not that happy when they find out Himejima kissed Tanjirou on the lips first but they feel better when the redhead promises to kiss them all too.

After the initial chaos of deciding (or fighting over) who goes first, Tanjirou ends up with his lips pink and a bit swollen from all the kisses; his hair is also a mess because most of them like to grab it when they're kissing him.

He knows dating nine vampires is not going to be easy, but Tanjirou is happy to be with the ones he loves.

***