Tanjiro's pov

Muichiro quickly sat up and let out a loud "LEAVE ME ALONE!" before looking around the room. I grabbed him by his shoulders, making him look at me immediately. "Are you okay?" I asked and sat down next to him.

Muichiro : yeah yeah...I am.. I am fine it was just a nightmare.. sorry for waking you up

Tanjiro : don't worry about that.... Do you get such nightmares often?

Muichiro : ...This week it's already the third time. There was a time I had nightmares a lot but that was a long time ago... then they stopped and now they are back...

He sighed and wiped his tears.

Tanjiro : Are you sure you are okay?

Muichiro : I am fine... I am sorry for crying so much... it must bother you..

Tanjiro : No, not at all. You can cry as much as you need to and I'll always try to make you feel better. Crying is nothing to be sorry about. If it makes you feel better just let it out.

I smiled.

Muichiro : Thank you. I appreciate that...

Tanjiro : What was the nightmare about anyway?

He opened his mouth slightly like he wanted to say something but nothing came out.

Tanjiro : You don't need to answer, I was just asking because you were yelling a lot at someone to leave you alone and stuff.

He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, wiping away the new tears that were slowly forming in his eyes.

Muichiro : It was about Genya

He sighed.

Muichiro : He's the only thing I've seen in the past week... I see him everywhere... It's like my brain is playing with me. I look at someone and immediately notice the things they have similar to him... it's just.. a lot

Tanjiro : I see..

I sat down closer to him and started stroking his back in hopes of him not breaking down again.

Tanjiro : don't worry, it'll be fine. It might take some time before you get over what happened but I won't allow anyone to hurt you in any way.

Muichiro nodded slightly and smiled still with eyes full of new tears.

Muichiro : thank you...

He pulled me closer to him and hugged me tightly, burying his face into my chest. I smiled and returned the hug. I pulled away and yawned.

Muichiro : I-I am sorry, you must be tired.

Tanjiro : no no it's fine, don't apologize. Let's just go to sleep now, okay?

He nodded and laid back down. I got on my bed and laid down as well. Couple minutes later I was already half asleep but Muichiro suddenly spoke up again.

Muichiro : I-It's a bit weird to ask but.... May I... sleep next to you?

"What....WHAT?! SLEEP NEXT TO ME?!" I thought, suddenly feeling more awake than ever before.

Tanjiro : S-Sure ... I.. I don't mind ahah

I said and lifted up the blanket as Muichiro got under it.

........

Couple more minutes passed and Muichiro fell asleep... while I was laying there internally screaming. I couldn't believe I was sleeping next to him. Like yeah he fell asleep on me a couple times but this hits differently.

Suddenly Muichiro turned around and snuggled to my chest. My face heated up even more as I laid my arm around his weist and looked him in the face.

I couldn't help but keep looking at his face and just think how beautiful he is. I laid there looking at him while running my fingers through his hair before I fell asleep too.

Muichiro's pov

I heard my alarm going off, I groaned and opened my eyes to only see Tanjiro's chest. My face immediately heated up as I tried to move away a bit.

Suddenly Tanjiro slowly opened his eyes and looked at me. We stared at each other for a while before I managed to get myself together. I moved away and reached for my phone. Suddenly my hand slipped and I fell down from the bed.

Tanjiro immediately sat up looking down at me "are you okay?!" He panicked a bit. I nodded "thank god the mattress Is here" I laughed a bit and turned the alarm off.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned. "How about we skip school today?" Tanjiro said. "Huh? No... No I can't" I said quietly. "Why?" He asked. "I have so many missed lessons already that I can't afford to miss more," I said. "I promised my uncle not to skip classes again"

"You didn't skip classes, ever-" "I did, for the past week I was only home for two days... then when uncle asked me if I could go to school... I agreed but... when I just faced the school it made me so worried... and anxious I couldn't go there...so I hid behind the school until it ended."

"Why didn't you tell me anything??" Tanjiro immediately stood up and walked closer to me "I told you so many times to tell me such things!" He yelled out while grabbing me by my shoulders.

"I know I am sorry.. I just felt so pathetic... I didn't want to bother anyone anymore..." I sighed looking up at Tanjiro "I am sorry.." apologized quietly.

Tanjiro pulled me into a hug and I buried my face into his chest. "It's okay Mui, I understand why you did such a thing" he said, lifting my head by my chin.

I laughed slightly. Tanjiro tilted his head to the right, clearly confused. "Did you just call me Mui?" I said smiling. Tanjiro's face immediately turned red as he looked away. "it's okay... I like it" Tanjiro turned to look at me again. "Really?"

"yeah" I said and turned away, with my cheeks slightly red. There was a minute of silence before Tanjiro decided to finally speak up "okay we should get ready now" I nodded and stood up.

...

When me and Tanjiro finally got to school we immediately went to our lockers and placed our things there. I closed my locker and waited for Tanjiro. Suddenly Kanao appeared next to me. She came closer to Tanjiro and hugged him from behind. "Hey Tanji" she said, poking Tanjiro's cheek playfully.
"Oh hey Kanao" "so you know what's in a couple days?" she asked, smiling. Tanjiro thought about it for a second before saying

Tanjiro : oh right! your birthday!

Kanao : yes! you remember

Tanjiro : of course I remember

Kanao : Well I will have a big party for it, almost everyone is invited, including you... you will come, right?

Tanjiro : of course I will

Kanao : Thank you Tanji! Also invite anyone you want! I want to have as many people as possible!

She said excident before leaving. Tanjiro closed his locker and turned to look at me "will you come?" he asked. My eyes widened as I quickly said "h-huh? no, of course not, as she said there will be a lot of people, we don't even talk to each other I can't just go to her party like that, what will I do there anyway"

Tanjiro : She clearly said to invite anyone I want and that means you are invited, you can just try and if you start to feel anxious we can leave.

Muichiro : I'll think about it... but I don't know, I don't think it's a good idea... I mean the last time I was at something like this was a couple years back... and I couldn't stay there for more then one hour haha... I just sat there and... scrolled on my phone..

Tanjiro : Well, did you even drink alcohol before?

Muichiro : No... I am not interested in that thing... I am just worried that if I get drunk I get way too excited and start saying things that I don't want to... and still, I never had a drop of alcohol, I would feel horrible the next day... Plus I hate being around drunk people.

Tanjiro : Well you still have some time to think about it, her birthday is on sunday.

Muichiro : no... I.. I don't know, I'd rather stay home.

Tanjiro : Come on, it'll be fun! You have to do something like this to move on.

Muichiro : I am not really sure about that...

Tanjiro : Muichiro come o-

"don't force him," I heard behind me. I turned around to see Nezuko, with an angry and disappointed look on her face. She walked closer to Muichiro and looked at him "don't listen to him Muichiro, it's your choice". Muichiro nodded and then looked at me "I-I'll go to class now" he said and quickly walked away.

Tanjiro : What the heck are you doing?

Nezuko : What the heck are YOU doing? Why are you forcing him?

Tanjiro : I am just trying to help!

Nezuko : Help?! Can't you see he's getting uncomfortable already?! You are being controlling! Genya was controlling towards Muichiro too and you see how it ended up! Sooner or later he'll get scared of you!

Tanjiro : What are you talking about?! I am not controlling him!

Nezuko : Yeah right, if you want him to fall in love with you and get better at talking to people then take it with him slowly!

Tanjiro : I am! It has been 3 months already!

Nezuko : Can't you see he needs more time?! You are being stupid right now

Tanjiro : Stupid?! I am trying my best!

Nezuko : Then try harder, talk with him! Make him believe you more! Hangout with him and add more people to the group! I don't know, do anything, just don't force him like this!

Nezuko then walked away. I wanted to stop her and prove her wrong but when I thought about it more, I realized that I was forcing him... how he kept on saying things that make him uncomfortable about that whole thing and I still kept forcing him into it.

I sighed and walked to my class. I walked into the class and went immediately to my seat. Muichiro was looking in front of him with his mouth slightly opened, so I looked too. My mouth dropped when I saw Mitsuri making out with Iguro on the desk in front of us.

"Mitsuri what the fuck" I said still looking at them. "Ah hey Tanjiro, I didn't see you come in," she said, pulling her face away from Iguro's. "Yeah I wonder why" I said before Iguro pulled Mitsuri into another passionate kiss before leaving the classroom.

Mitsuri just waved at Iguro before looking back at me and Muichiro. "what? she asked. "what? You are asking me what?? I am traumatized"

Mitsuri laughed and said "you are acting like you never kissed anyone before, do you remember that time you made out with Aoi?". My face immediately turned red as I turned away "That was one time! And that was a full on mistake! I would never miss her again"

"Or that one time you got into a fight with Zenitsu but you ended up falling on the floor and Zenitsu on top of you, hahaha I still remember how red your face was when you pulled away" she laughed.

"That was a mistake! It was an incident! You can't even count that as a kiss" "well, your lips touched so it counts" "oh my god shut up already, I am gonna jump out of a window if you continue.
Mitsuri just laughed and Muichiro joined. I looked at him and he looked at me as well, still laughing. "Not you too!" I said, crossing my arms.

Kanao's pov

"Tsk... What a freak... I need to do something... but what...well Tanjiro will of course invite Muichiro to the party so maybe I can do something there...hm.. Tanjiro can't handle alcohol very well, he gets drunk pretty fast... maybe I can do something with that.."

I thought to myself and looked inside the classroom once rome. Tanjiro was holding Muichiro by his wrists, with his face all red from embarrassment. I couldn't help but feel jealous, mad and sad at the same time.

All I wanted was Tanjiro to be with me but this idiot keeps getting in my way... I can't handle this anyone! Sunday will be the last day you will ever talk to each other...

....

word count : 2041