Tanjiro's pov

I waited a couple minutes before Muichiro was far enough for me to follow him without any chance of him seeing me. I walked far behind him, wanting to know what he likes. Where he lives. How are his parents treating him. If he has any siblings. What are his hobbies…

I wanted to know everything.

The first building he stopped at was a small Chinese restaurant. "Oh so he's into Chinese food.." I thought to myself and wrote that down. I waited for a little bit before Muichiro got his food. He sat down at one of the tables and took his phone.

I immediately started taking pictures of him. His soft lips slowly slurped the fried noodles together with bits or shrimp in it. I zoomed in and took more pictures before looking at all of them. He's beautiful, I couldn't stop looking at him.

~~~

After a while he finished his food and walked out of the restaurant. Now he didn't seem relaxed at all, he seemed anxious. He kept his gaze down and moved very slowly, like he was taking as much time to get somewhere and soon I realized why..

Once he got in front of one of the houses in the street, he took out his keys and shoved them into the lock, unlocking the door a second later.

I immediately wrote down his address and once he got inside, I went around the house and looked through windows to see where he came out next.

He came into a room that seemed like a living room together with a kitchen connected to it. There were so many bottles of booze and wine, cigarettes and just tons of mess everywhere.

Muichiro dropped his bag on the floor and immediately went to pick up the empty bottles and put all of them on the table. I kept watching him clean up, time passing faster than I expected.

Soon I heard a car pull over to the house and soon two people got out of it, probably Muichiro's parents. I looked at Muichiro again, he seemed panicked, he tried to clean faster but it wasn't enough, he only managed to clean one part of the living room.

The door shut and Muichiro froze in place. I couldn't hear what anyone was saying but all I saw was his parents being extremely mad at him for something, soon his father hitting him hard, making Muichiro stumble back.

I felt my blood boil, I was so mad, I just wanted to run in there and beat the shit out of both of them. How could they treat their son like that, are they fucking crazy?!

Their parents sat down on a couch and Muichiro got back to cleaning, now with tears streaming down his face freely. They hit him multiple times once again before he grabbed his bag and sprinted out of the room.

I looked everywhere on the first floor but couldn't find him. I climbed up and almost fell but I managed to catch myself. I saw him. It was probably his room, very empty one. I saw a table, bed, closet and.. nothing else.

I felt terrible for him, how could they do such a thing to him. I saw him on his bed, crying while hugging himself, he was trembling and it was clear he was struggling to keep himself quiet.

I had to do something, he couldn't keep living in this, I won't let them do this to him, I'll take him with me, he'll be mine and only mine and I'll take care of him! I will give him everything he ever wanted!

~~~

Muichiro's pov - next day

I woke up around 6am due to my parents arguing downstairs. I sighed and covered my head with my pillow, hoping it would cover up the noise.. but no, it didn't.

So I just gave up and decided to start preparing for school early today. I felt odd the whole night, I felt really uneasy, like someone was watching me but when I opened my eyes, no one was there.

I went to my closet and took out my uniform. I sniffed it, sighing "it smells like cigarettes.." I thought and put it on anyway, knowing if I'll put it in a washing machine now, I won't be able to dry and my parents would get mad at me for making so much noise this early in the morning.. even though it's them making so much noise most of the time.

I grabbed my perfume, seeing that I almost ran out. I didn't have any money to buy a new one but I didn't want to go to school smelling like a pack of cigarettes either.

I sprayed some perfume on me and sniffed my uniform again, now it smells much better which I was glad for.

I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs, still hearing my parents arguing. I just sneaked in and started preparing breakfast for myself, hoping I don't accidentally do anything wrong or drop something so they don't get mad at me.

I was always very clumsy and kept tripping over nothing and dropping things 24/7 so I was being very careful . I was making toasts and when I was putting cheese back into the fridge, I accidentally shut the door too hard, making the sound echo through the whole room.

After that, silence filled the room. I could feel my parents burning my back with their stares. My heart was racing, I was sweating and trembling slightly, waiting for the worse to happen.

I heard footsteps getting close to me, making me tremble harder. Suddenly I felt a hand slowly wrapping around the back of my neck. I gulped, my breathing getting heavier.

"What did we tell you about this? Do you not remember all the rules?" My father said, with an annoyed tone.

"I-I do, I-I am s-" I wanted to say but he interrupted me again "repeat them for me"

I took a deep breath "one, I am not allowed to leave my room when guests are over. Two, I am not allowed to take any money without permission. Three, I am not allowed to leave my room after 10pm. Four, I am not allowed to slam doors or anything like that. Five, I am not allowed to talk until I am told to. Six, I am not allowed to have people over here. Seven, if I get a bad grade, I get beat up"

"You forgot one.." he said with a cold voice. My mind was racing "forgot one?? But I don't remember, ugh there's so many of them! Come on, think, think!"

"Eight, for every time I break a rule, I won't get food, remember?" He said and looked at my toast.

I quickly shook my head slightly "no please don't, I am sorry, it was an accident!"

"You say that all the time" he said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Because those are only accidents! Please, I beg you! I haven't eaten anything since yesterday's lunch!"

"And now you're going to yell at me?!" My father shouted and clenched his fist. I backed away and before I could say anything, he hit me.

I laid my hand on my eye, groaning in pain. "Yell at me again and it'll be even worse, now get out of my sight!"

I nodded, grabbed my bag and quickly ran out of the house. I stopped when I was outside, still keeping my hand on my eye.

Both of my eyes were watering from the pain "shit.. I will for sure have a black eye.." I sighed and took out my phone, looking at the eye with my camera on my phone.

It didn't look that bad now but it'll show more tomorrow for sure. I sighed and just walked to school. I was starving, I was so hungry I felt like I was going to pass out any minute.

"It's all my fault, I knew very well what the rules were and yet I still managed to break one.. I can't blame my parents for that" I thought to myself, being so mad at myself for messing up once again.

Tanjiro's pov

I waited for Muichiro to come to school. I heard that his first lessons now was PE and all I wanted was to watch him. Suddenly I saw him walking in the distance, his gaze on the ground. He was all sloppy and walked so slow.

"Yo" I said simply and waved at Muichiro. He looked up at me and waved as well "oh h-hi" he said quietly.

"You okay?" I asked and moved a little closer to him "you seem all sloppy"

"Oh it's nothing, I just ehm.. didn't have dinner or breakfast.. so I am a bit out of energy" Muichiro giggled "but it's okay, I'll just wait until lunch"

I shook my head and took out an apple from my bag "is this enough?" I asked and moved the apple closer to him.

"I-It's okay, you don't need to give me anything, it's really fine" he said but I only moved the apple closer without any other answer. He sighed and took the apple "thank you" he thanked me and took a bite of the apple.

The second he took a bite, the apple juice dripped down from his lips to his chin. He smiled and thanked me once again before wiping the apple juice from his chin.

I nodded "it's fine" I replied and a second later asked "your first lesson is PE, am I right?"

"Mhm, it is, well run laps I think" he sighed "I hate running so much, I don't have any stamina but I can run pretty fast"

I laughed "yeah I am the complete opposite, I can't run fast but I can run for a really long time without getting tired"

"I see," Muichiro giggled. "Well, my first lesson is biology so I'll probably skip, I can sneak in together with your class and keep you some company during PE" I said.

"I don't think that's a good idea, I have mister Tomioka for PE, he's really strict and I don't want you to get in trouble" he replied and I shook my head "I don't care, all he can do is tell me to go away and if I don't do that, he can't do anything"

"You're not scared? Like being sent to the principal's office because of that?" Muichiro said with a slightly worried tone.

"Nope, I've been there so many times that if I went there, principal would just go "what did you do now?" and probably let me leave" Muichiro laughed "wow, you talk about it like it's not a big deal, I am honestly scared of the principal, I don't want to get in trouble"

I nodded but before I could say anything else we both heard the bell ring. "Shit I am going to be late for PE!" Muichiro yelled out and quickly threw the apple core into the bin. "I'll meet you at PE if you'll be there!" He yelled out and quickly ran into the school.

I smiled as he ran off. I looked at the bin where he threw the apple core and walked towards it. I took out the apple core and smiled.

"I am going to keep this.."

...

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