To say Tanjirou feels like a shitty human being was putting it lightly.

He feels like the lowest of the low, right down there with murderers. Okay, maybe a step above murderers, but still down there.

Inosuke's expression of betrayal and disbelief is a constant after-image imprinted on the darkness of his eyelids he can't escape. The image haunts him throughout his dreams and his waking life until it essentially consumes him.

But maybe it's best to end things this way; before either of them becomes so attached that their beings intertwine into messy, unruly knots.

Inosuke can look back on the moment and make Tanjirou the villain to save himself from a harsher heartbreak.

It makes the redhead feel better and like he'll throw up simultaneously.

Tanjirou falls ungracefully onto his bed with a small huff as he stares at the dimly lit stars on his ceiling as Nezuko glares at him from across the room.

The stars seemed to be losing their spark faster than him.

A week has passed since Inosuke kissed him in the rain. He's been in his head ever since, thinking over every minor detail that lead up to the moment and figuring out what he could have done differently.

Maybe Tanjirou could have kissed the wild boy again after his confession and lived for once in his life instead of closing himself off.

But past actions are incapable of change, so what's the point of living through something that will never happen the way he wants it to.

Nezuko has taken it upon herself to invite Zenitsu over every day so the pair can corner him and attempt to coax an explanation out of him, but he can barely talk.

It's not that he doesn't want to, he does, but his body is physically incapable of communicating the surging regret coursing through the blood in his veins.

Hot and heavy and suffocating.

So now, the three of them are occupying Tanjirou's bedroom, Zenitsu and Nezuko huddled together by his desk as they watch the redhead throw an arm over his eyes.

"If he won't even tell you, his sister, what happened after a week, what makes you think he'll tell me?" Tanjirou can almost hear the way Zenitsu moves his hands around exasperatedly.

Nezuko sighs, voice laced with frustration, "Well, I'm at a loss, Zen. I've never had to deal with the woes of my brother's love life because he's never had one!"

She groans at the end of her sentence, and he can hear the wheels of his desk chair glide across the hardwood as she falls back into it.

A soft incredulous laugh falls from Tanjirou's lips, and he pushes himself up on his elbows to stare at the other teenagers.

"Talking about me like I'm not here is pretty rude." He frowns.

"So he does speak," Nezuko asserts at the same time Zenitsu cries, "Tanjirou!" and jumps onto his form, clinging to him tightly.

Tanjirou grunts and wraps his arms around the blonde, hugging him back before trying to push him off. He isn't successful and instead ends up leaning against his headboard while Zenitsu holds onto his waist, face shoved in his side.

Nezuko giggles, and the redhead shoots her a glare as he plays with the blonde's hair gently.

"Are you finally going to tell us what happened to make you so," Nezuko hums unsure as she motions vaguely to him. "That?"

Tanjirou rolls his bottom lip between his teeth as he tries to concentrate on how silky Zenitsu's hair is to keep him grounded.

What did happen?

Inosuke had confessed to him, kissed him even, and then Tanjirou ran away like a coward.

Because that's all he is; a coward.

A coward who never lets himself think rationally when it comes to his own happiness because he taught himself to put everyone else's needs and satisfaction first.

(Tanjirou has convinced himself he could never truly satisfy Inosuke.)

Maybe it came with being the oldest sibling of six children; he's not sure.

"I think I did something you're going to yell at me about." Tanjirou avoids eye contact with his sister as Zenitsu springs into a sitting position beside him.

"What did you do?" His best friend pears at him intensely as he demands an answer.

"He said he liked me, and then he kissed me, and then I ran away." The surfer drags his hands down his face and groans.

Nezuko's jaw drops, and her eyes widen as she stares at her brother in utter shock, scrambling out of the chair so fast she almost trips.

"YOU WHAT?" She and Zenitsu scream in tandem.

Tanjirou grimaces at the screeching volume of their voices and shrinks into himself at a loss for words under their intense gazes.

But the teenagers are not left in silence long as the redhead's phone chimes once, then twice. Three pairs of eyes shift to the no longer inconspicuous device sitting on the nightstand.

The energy in the room can only be described as the calm before the storm as no one makes any abrupt movements.

Tanjirou watches Nezuko and Zenitsu make eye contact across the room.

Then Zenitsu is holding him down as Nezuko dives for his phone, successfully clutching it in her tiny hands as she unlocks it.

"It's from Inosuke!" She gasps, one of her hands waving frantically as she reads. "I'm sorry about kissing you. We can just forget it ever happened. I miss you."

"How the hell did you emotionally hurt that barbarian?" Zenitsu asks irked as he stops holding the redhead down.

Nezuko plops down in the bed beside the boys and hands her brother the phone.

Inosuke misses him?

He'd be lying if he said he didn't miss him too.

Tanjirou hesitantly types out several varying replies, all of which disappear as he holds down the backspace. He feels like nothing said over text can properly convey precisely what he wants to tell the foreigner.

He wants to tell him he regrets being so rash in his decision to run away.

He wants to tell him he returns his feelings.

He wants to tell him that in the end, they could make the distance work.

But he knows it won't hold the same weight that he wants it to through a text message.

Tanjirou allows the phone to drop into his lap as he takes a deep breath.

"This isn't really a text conversation, is it?" Tanjirou glances over at Nezuko and pretends he doesn't notice her nimble fingers slyly wrapping around the ends of Zenitsu's.

So they really were starting to become a thing right under his nose. In the end, as long as Nezuko is happy, Tanjirou is happy.

She shakes her head. "No, not really."

The redhead groans and flops back on the bed again.

"All right, that decides it." Nezuko slips off the end of the bed with ease and starts walking out the door. "It's time for a brainstorm sesh. I'll get some snacks."

With Nezuko off finding snacks for what will presumably be a long night, Zenitsu proceeds to roast Tanjirou about his taste in men, much to his dismay.

.oOo.

The sound of Zenitsu ripping out another page from his notebook and crumpling it up for probably the hundredth time in the past twelve hours makes Tanjirou want to commit a hate crime.

The trio was trying to find a proper way for the redhead to make it up to Inosuke, and they weren't having the best luck. Each of their romantic styles varied greatly, so they kept ending up at standstills.

Tanjirou glances down at his phone and reads 4:34 AM at the top of his screen and has to keep himself from crying.

If they hadn't thought of anything by now, they weren't going to.

"This might be the sleep deprivation talking, but what about just going to talk to him?" Zenitsu raises his eyebrows as he looks between his companions. "You don't need a big romantic gesture. Just speak fucking words he can understand."

Tanjirou blinks at the blonde, and then he's standing looking for any of his shoes frantically.

"We're so DUMB!" He finds a pair of low-top vans and pulls them on without undoing the laces. "Zenitsu, I could kiss you!"

"Please don't," is the only sighed reply he hears as he takes off, running down the stairs and out of the house.

Tanjirou's ankles ache with the brutal force of slamming them against the ground as he pushes himself to run faster. His lungs scream at him to slow down, but he ignores their pleas in favor of taking ragged breaths.

Sure he was a surfer in good shape with an impressive physique, but he's never pushed himself to sprint a full mile without stopping before.

When he finally arrives outside the apartment, he skids to a stop and greedily sucks in air with his hands on his knees. However, he doesn't allow himself to do that for long and pushes himself to stand up straight.

After noticing a slightly ajar window, Tanjirou cups his hands over his mouth and yells, "Inosuke!"

He feels like if he stares any harder at the window, it'll burst into flames and ruin the last thread of hope he's clinging to desperately. But then he sees a mop of fluffy black hair poking out from the opening.

"Sentarou?"

Inosuke's eyebrows shoot up and disappear under his messy bangs as he leans further out the window as if to get a closer look to see if it really is Tanjirou.

"Yes, it's me, Tanjirou!" The local boy's voice shakes as he smoothes down his T-shirt with sweaty palms. "I wanted to tell you I'm an idiot for running away that day because I actually really fucking like you too!"

Tanjirou swallows thickly when Inosuke continues to gape openly at him without acknowledging his confession. The air around him becomes dense and humid, and he finds it hard to breathe as his hopes shatter right in front of him.

Inosuke ducks his head back into the apartment, and Tanjirou thinks he might start crying.

What kind of idiot was he to expect Inosuke to just forgive him after doing something so shitty?

He feels a cold droplet of water soak into his shirt and then another.

It's raining. Of course, it's raining. He missed his chance.

The droplets start to fall faster and harder, and Tanjirou is about to begin his trek home when he hears a door slam open and aggressive footsteps barreling toward him. He turns around to see Inosuke running at him full speed with no intent to stop.

"I knew you liked me back, stupid Gonpachiro!" The wild boy hollers as he leaps at the redhead, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

The uneven asphalt scrapes up Tanjirou's back as they slide across it, and he knows it'll sting later, but when he sees Inosuke's storming green eyes gazing down at him, he doesn't feel any pain.

"Yes," his breath catches as he looks from the ravenette's eyes to his lips and then back. "I'm very, very stupid."

Before he can fully finish his sentence, Inosuke's lips are on his, and his veins buzz with an intoxicating electricity.

Tanjirou presses back and moves his lips against his chasing the feeling.

More.

More.

He wants more.

Tanjirou hands glide up Inosuke's back, scratching lightly before fisting his hair and pulling out his ponytail.

The strands are soft as they slide between his fingers, even if he finds stray particles of sand hidden in them and the rain starts to matte them together. It helps to remind him Inosuke is here with him now and he's real.

Real enough to touch and be touched by.

Inosuke pulls back slightly to nip at Tanjirou's bottom lip and tug him into an upright position before pushing their mouths back together harder.

Tanjirou wasn't lying when he said kissing Inosuke is like dying.

His body feels light and far away as if he's floating close enough to heaven to reach nirvana.

God, why did he ever convince himself this wasn't exactly where he was supposed to be?

Inosuke brings his hands up to cup Tanjirou's face, pulling him impossibly closer, and thunder rings out somewhere above them.

This, he thinks, is perfect.