#day five!

DAY 5: EASTERR!!!!!!!!!!! APRIL AND DONNIE!

Tony hasn’t always known flower meanings, but he hated roses. His mother had rose gardens and spent endless amounts of time there, avoiding any familial fight and pretending that her reality was the one that everyone else lived.

Rhodey likes flowers in the springtime. He pauses on their walk to Calculus to smell the daffodils, look at the flowers that are seemingly hanging on by a thread in the blustery winds.

“You always almost make us late,” Tony says. “And then I can’t find the good seat on the edge of the middle section.”

“You can live without that seat for one day,” Rhodey responds. “That seat hasn’t moved itself since this building was created. This daffodil has a limited time.”

“Fine,” Tony says. “But only because you’re an insufferable softie when it comes to flowers.”

two days left goodness gracious 

chapter 4 

uhh no warnings!!! just soft goodness wow

*

Their apartment was spacious and well furnished, but nothing had made it feel more like a home than having Neil live with him.

It’d only been a month or so after Neil’s permanent arrival when they were officially married. The whole ordeal was a little strange. They dressed nice enough for perhaps a press conference, Andrew wearing a black turtleneck sweater he knew Neil loved, and his nicest leather shoes. He’d dressed Neil, because of course he had: he looked trim and proper in a navy button down, but the elegance was ruined by the sappy look on his face.

“Makes me feel a little spontaneous.” Neil admitted, climbing out of the Maserati in a parking garage nearby the courthouse. “Like we’re running away to California together.”

Andrew had to roll his eyes at that: if they were running away, it’d be in the opposite trajectory to California. Neil knew this and smiled a little wider, linking their fingers together.

“Let’s get those tax benefits, yeah?” He nudged their shoulders together. Andrew shoved his hand into the back pocket of Neil’s slacks: his husband-to-be just laughed.

☆ 5 OF 100 DAYS OF PRODUCTIVITY

worked hard on save the dates, had a great lunch with my best friend, and got the great news that I'll be starting grad school in may! it was a wonderful day filled with love 💫

Day Five: Box of Happiness. Kamado Siblings have a heart to heart, and Tanjirou finds an old box of memories.

AO3 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | Contains Spoilers.

Nezuko had wanted his old checkered haori to wear, the one he couldn’t fit into anymore, and had ended up on more of a mission than he thought he would. It was no secret that out of all the young pillars, Inosuke and Tanjirou had the worst hoarding problems. For different reasons, however. Inosuke simply to keep, and Tanjirou wasn’t good at getting rid of things. He spotted the familiar black square of his haori, mixed in with a ton of other things, and set about trying to dig towards it. 

That’s when he’d found the box. 

The box had been hidden under a mountain of winter clothes, and an old set of Tanjirou’s slayer uniform from when he was sixteen. Tanjirou wasn’t sure how long it had been there. The sides were worn; a cheap, repurposed box he’d found and used rather than spend money on one. It was packed to the top, only just barely all contained. A knock had Tanjirou looked up.

“Brother, did you find any? I should have known it would take you some time since since you’re worse than a squirrel,” Nezuko teased, coming into his room. 

“What a mean thing to say to your big brother,” Tanjirou said, laughing. “And I did find it, by the way! I just found all this other stuff at the same time.”

Nezuko hummed, kneeling next to her brother. She brushed back a short strand of her hair behind her ear. She had kept it short now, her usual tie replaced with a butterfly pin. Under her eyes, she now dotted a bit of makeup in loving imitation of the Love Pillar. Nezuko took the top layer of paper out.

“These are all the letters you wrote when you were a teenager,” Nezuko observed. “Senjuro-kun, Uzui-san and his wives. Oh, look! You actually got a reply from Giyuu-san!”

Tanjirou laughed. “Turns out his poor old crow kept getting lost when he replied. Eventually he asked Sanemi’s to start doing it to save his crow the trouble.”

Nezuko ran her thumb over Urokodaki’s name on another letter. “Giyuu-san is the king of misunderstandings.”

The siblings pulled out more things between them. A bundle of shiny acorns courtesy of Inosuke; hair ties and clips from Kanroji; the letter Urokodaki had written defending both Kamado siblings when the first reached the Slayer Base; A smooth rock, speckled rock like the night sky from Muichiro that Nezuko had often kept with her in her box; A worn paper crane from Yushiro with a tiny drawing of both Kamado siblings; Rengoku’s sword guard. 

“Look! Genya’s tooth!”

“Brother...I don’t think Genya will be as happy to know you kept it as you think.”

“Yeah but, I’d still feel bad throwing it away. He doesn’t want it back but just getting rid of it might be cruel, too.”

Nezuko laughed. “Only you would think that.”

Nezuko pulled out a little box. A smooth, black box with gold painted peach blossom branches reaching out across the top. When she flipped it up, up popped a little brown sparrow. Tanjirou had completely forgotten about it. He’d seen it years ago in a little shop during a mission and had thought of Zenitsu. The little sparrow, the melody, it suited him perfectly. Only, every time he might have remembered to give it to him, a mission had come up, or Muzan was on the move. 

Nezuko frowned. “I thought maybe it would play.”

“It requires a little key. Hang on,” Tanjirou said. He rifled through the box until he touched a string. He pulled, and at the end was a thin, hollow little charm. He handed it to his sister. She fit it into the back of the box and turned it a few times. With a whirr, the little bird in the box began to spin, a sweet jingly tune following after it. 

Nezuko glanced at her brother, smirking softly to herself at the dreamy lidded expression on his face. “Sooo, how come you never gave this to Zenitsu?”

Tanjirou flushed hard, nearly falling over from where he was braced on his hand. “What makes you think it was for him?”

“I may not have been a bit of a space cadet as a demon, but I assure you I remember quite a bit!” Nezuko cranked the box up again. “But also there’s this tiny little note here that says ‘to Zenitsu, from Tanjirou’.”

Tanjirou pouted. “Maybe I shouldn’t have let you train with Muichirou in hindsight. You’ve gotten cheeky.”

Tanjirou started putting some of the things away into the box, not knowing what else to do with his hand. “It was supposed to be for his birthday, but I couldn’t fit that in the message.”

“Why didn’t you give it to him? This looks kind of old. If it’s been in this box this whole time, then it’s been more than a while.”

“There wasn’t much time to before. I kept getting caught up.”

“And now? Why not just give it to him? I’m sure he’d appreciate it. He’d be like, ‘Waah, Tanjirou this is so nice!’ You’re going to make me cry!”

“Nezuko,” Tanjirou laughed. “Just because you’re right doesn’t mean you should say it.” He bit his lip. “Do you think it’s really fine?”

Nezuko hid her smile behind her hand. “Why, Tanjirou, are you crushing on him?”

“Nezuko!”

“Wait. Did you just realize it?”

“Uhm.” Tanjirou ground his teeth together, hoping he wasn’t making his bad lying face. Nezuko gave him a flat look.

“Tanjirou. Really?” 

Tanjirou couldn’t help his groan. Nezuko was his sister, he couldn’t imagine things like this getting past her. But now he was worried she wasn’t the only one who might have realized. Oh no, did Zenitsu know? Tanjirou wasn’t sure if he was happy or not at that thought. 

“Cut me some slack! I’ve been very busy these last couple years. There was always something happening.”

“True, I’ll give you that. But it’s been a whole year, too, since you retired. What made you realize it?”

Tanjirou threw his arms out, falling back on the ground. “Everything! Nezuko, he’s so — I love how he looks when he and Ukogi sit out on the porch in a blanket together because they’re too weak to the cold! Or how he ties his hair up! Or how he keeps complaining about Inosuke not brushing his hair but he brushes it for him anyway. His hands. Nezuko, I love his fingers. And how he sounds when he whines! Ugh!!”

“Oh my god. You are so gone. You were always the sentimental type, but you’re down right romantic, Brother. I think Zenitsu rubbed off on you.” She shot him a sly grin, nudging him in the side. “But not in the way you want, huh?’ “Nezuko, you’re sixteen! I don’t want to hear those kinds of jokes from you!”

Nezuko stuck her tongue out. “So, what this is telling me is you’re going to be giving him this music box and confessing because you don’t have anymore excuses.”

Tanjirou frowned. “What if —”

“Nope.”

“Nezuko, I just don’t want —”

“Uh, uh.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Rejected.”

“I help you behead Muzan and turn you back into a human and this is the thanks I get?”

“You’ll thank me when you give it to him. Trust me.” She placed the music box on her brother’s chest and laid down next to him on the floor. They curled close like the old times and listening to the wind outside the window. After a moment of silence, Nezuko finally spoke again.

“If it will make you feel better, I also have a crush. There’s this girl who I got to partner with on a mission.”

Tanjirou smiled, knocking the back of his knuckles against her temple gently. She beamed back. They laid there a few hours more, talking about their crushes, about the slayers and former pillars and the silly things they’d caught them doing, and on and on. Tanjirou rarely left his estate these days, and the little trinkets and stories his sister brought back filled him with an overflowing happiness. She made him so proud.

-

Tanjirou found Zenitsu out on the porch later that night. It wasn’t unusual for him to be out there some nights. Zenitsu had gotten better control of his super hearing as the years had gone by, but the overload could still take a toll on him now and again. The soft lull of the night had a way of winding him down. Quietly, softly, Tanjirou dropped down next to him.

Zenitsu shot him a grin. “I see Nezuko-chan dropped by for a visit after her latest mission. We even got to share more than two sweets before Inosuke came and ate most of it. Honestly, that pig-brain.”

They shared a look before laughing, heads bent close together. “So, she have any new stories to tell?”

“Mm. She’s been trying all sorts of foods and things. She brought back a bunch of souvenirs, too. Actually.” The music box was heavy inside Tanjirou’s sleeve. “Actually, she wanted one of my old haoris, and we ended up finding a bunch of old stuff I saved.”

“That’s not surprising. You’re worse than a squirrel during winter.”

“Hey! Both of you are so mean today.” Tanjirou reached into his sleeve. He bit his lip, nervously curling his toes in his slippers. Zenitsu must have heard the erratic beat of his heart the way his brows seemed to furrow in that concerning way they did. “So you don’t want to know what I found in there?”

“I’m pretty sure you still have Genya’s tooth.”

“How do you —” Tanjirou gaped. 

“I was joking. Tanjirou, really?? Throw it out already! I really hope you don’t have it on you right now. I swear I will scream if you do. Do you hear me? I’ll scream!”

“No! No, no, it’s not Genya’s tooth!” 

“It’s not someone else’s tooth is it?? Did you get a weird hobby behind my back?! Tanjirouuuu,” Zenitsu moaned, getting ready to scramble back.

“It’s no one’s tooth!” He shoved the music box into Zenitsu’s hands, cheeks ballooning up. “See? Not a tooth!”

Zenitsu blinked, running his fingers along the smooth surface. He traced the branches, and the gold trimming detailing the box. He flicked at the key still stuck in the back. He turned it a few times, thumb at the mouth of the box. “How long have you had this?”

“I think I originally bought it for your eighteenth birthday. I can’t be too sure. But you’ll be twenty-eight soon, so better late than never, right?” 

Zenitsu gaped. “Wait, this is for me?” He stuttered, turning the box in his hands, like he could find evidence of someone else’s name or intention carved into the wood. “Really? Are you sure? This definitely looks like a present for someone else! Nezuko-chan maybe? Kanao-chan? Kanroji-san?”

“Open it and see for yourself.”

He did. Inside, the little sparrow spun slowly in place, almost chirping along to the sweet tune meandering out of the box. His eyes flicked to the messy, but lovingly inscribed characters. His eyes went soft.  “This song…”

“It’s nice right? It’s not an exact melody, but it kind of reminded me of that song you used to play on Oyakata-sama’s shamisen. And look! Doesn’t that look like Ukogi?” 

“Tanjirou.” Zenitsu closed the box. He set it down on the porch, his bangs shadowing his eyes. Nervously, Tanjirou called his name.

With unmatched speed, Zenitsu grabbed Tanjirou by the front of his yukata. Zenitsu had really bulked up over the years, all three of them had. Tanjirou could see the way his bicep flexed under the loose sleeve of his yukata ad became giddy. When Zenitsu raised his head up, snot and tears were pouring down his face. Tanjirou couldn’t help his dopey grin even as Zenitsu shook him, complaining all the way. 

“Have some mercy on me, you asshole! Have some pity! Why can’t you consider me for once!” Zenitsu screamed. “I mean, honestly! This setting, this atmosphere, this, this gift! And you! That expression on your face, do something about it!! My poor heart can’t take all of this! I’ll be seeing Gramps even sooner than I thought!

Expression? Atmosphere?

Tanjirou glanced around as best he could. Moon up high, (nearly) quite, soothing night, just the two of them, and a music box. Tanjirou didn’t know what expression was on his face, but if it felt like how Zenitsu smelled, despite the whinging, and his smile wouldn’t go away, then —  

Tanjirou reached out and took the other man by his chin. He pulled him forward just as he leaned in, and kissed him. Zenitsu punched him in the gut and drew him closer. When Tanjirou tried to pull away to breathe, to whisper his name, Zenitsu chased after. 

Eons and sunrises could have passed and Tanjirou wouldn’t have known. When they pulled apart, Zenitsu had stopped crying. Out of habit, Tanjirou wiped his face, watching Zenitsu’s otherwise blank expression slowly turn aware as the gears in his brain began to turn again. 

He looked good after a kiss, Tanjirou thought. He smelled good, too. He wanted to kiss him again. He could just lean back over and do so. He could - 

Tanjirou felt the bottom of his gut drop out. He’d kissed Zenitsu.

He’d kissed Zenitsu. Oh no.

-

AN: totally not cliche at all, but hey. I really enjoyed writing Tanjirou & Nezuko's banter. I wish I had a better idea of how to write Nezuko and what her personality is like, so I kind of just made up my own. I hope she came out okay. 

Kamado Siblings being mlm/wlw, can you imagine?

My gentan heart eternally says Tanjirou kept that damn tooth. We're getting close now, I really hope I can finish it.