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Tanjirou hesitated to ask for help this time around: the house, despite proudly displaying the Wisteria Crest, was considerably smaller in comparison to the ones that had assisted them in the past. What convinced him to knock upon the wooden door was his aching body and an almost asleep Inosuke leaning on his shoulder.
It had been a long trip, with nowhere to stop on the way. They slept where they could, under the safe shadow of a tree, but they couldn't afford to stay much: the longer it took them to get to their destination, the more time demons had to hurt humans. The fight hadn't been tough, nowhere near the pain of fighting one of the Twelve Demon Moons, but it still stole the rest of their energy away.
The only reason why Tanjirou remained on his feet was because both Nezuko and Inosuke were depending on him to get them to a safe place. With the Butterfly Estate days away, they had no other choice but to impose on the family that kindly offered their service.
The woman that spoke to them explained they had only one spare futon (she told Tanjirou, in a quiet voice, that her and her sick grandma didn't often get visitors, and Tanjirou hurried to assure her that it was more than enough).
Once that was settled, Tanjirou hurried to put Nezuko's box in the guest room and check on her. Inosuke, still clinging to him, slumped against Tanjirou's shoulder when he crouched to talk to Nezuko. He smiled at her, and she blinked slowly, looking as sleepy as Tanjirou felt.
"We're resting here for tonight, so you can sleep all you want this time," Tanjirou told her gently, and she made a small, happy sound.
Instead of settling down right away, Nezuko first patted Inosuke's head, looking like she wanted to watch over him. Tanjirou shifted for a bit, tightening his grip on Inosuke, and smiled again. "Don't worry, I'll take care of him, okay? So you go rest, leave it to your big brother."
She frowned, but nodded, and Tanjirou patted her. He kept an eye on her until Nezuko had shifted around a bit and laid back on her box to close her eyes, then Tanjirou closed the door. With that taken care of, Tanjirou focused his attention on Inosuke, who had yet to stir since they entered the house.
"Inosuke, c'mon, wake up," Tanjirou urged under his breath, careful not to wake up Nezuko as well. "You need to get ready for bed."
When that didn't get a response, Tanjirou shook Inosuke by the shoulder, then poked his cheek. Inosuke grunted and batted his hand away, but didn't move an inch.
"I'm tired too, you know…" Tanjirou muttered to himself with a sigh.
Seeing as Inosuke wouldn't budge, Tanjirou struggled to get to his feet, groaning when Inosuke's weight held him down. When he got to put Inosuke down on the futon, it was not at all graceful, and Tanjirou blamed that on the fact that he was quickly losing his coordination as his brain begged for sleep.
He had at least half the mind to pull the covers over Inosuke, and to set his mask aside for the night. With his hands now free, Tanjirou grabbed the extra pillow and hugged it to his chest, planning to crawl back to Nezuko and curl up next to the box, leaving Inosuke to rest on the one bed.
Before he could do that, however, there was a tug on his haori (that he just now realized he hadn't removed, but he could worry about clothes the next day). He stopped in his tracks, and turned back to find Inosuke looking at him with his eyes half open, only two fingers holding on to Tanjirou, but the grip was firm on his sleeve.
"Where are you goin'...?" Inosuke mumbled.
"Ah, did I wake you up? I'm sorry, I was just going to-" Tanjirou gestured with his pillow to the general direction of the floor- "find a spot to sleep."
Inosuke frowned. "Why?"
"There's only one bed, see? That's the one you're lying on," Tanjirou said.
"So?" Inosuke tugged insistently on his sleeve. "Sleep here."
"But it would be cramped, and I don't want you to be uncomfortable-"
"Sleep here," Inosuke repeated. Then, he tightened his entire fist on the green fabric. "Stay."
Tanjirou wasn't sure what the smell he was picking meant, but it made his heart clench nonetheless. It made it hard not to comply with Inosuke's request--not that Tanjirou would ever refuse: the small but firm voice with which Inosuke said it was enough to make Tanjirou want to do whatever Inosuke told him to (and wasn't that an embarrassing thought).
"Okay, if you want me to," Tanjirou said, just so he could make sure Inosuke didn't mind, and he wouldn't wake up next morning getting yelled at.
Inosuke growled but nodded, so Tanjirou lifted the covers to get in next to him. As he expected, it was a tight fight with both of them on the futon, but it wasn't bad enough that one of them would end up half on the floor.
As soon as Tanjirou laid beside him, Inosuke shifted closer and slotted himself under Tanjirou's chin, cheek pressed against his chest. It was closer than they had ever been before, and Tanjirou had to pretend his heart wasn't beating ridiculously fast. Having Inosuke's hair so close to his face didn't help matters either: the softness of it tickled against Tanjirou's neck, and he could smell the scent coming from it (there was sweat and blood, just as much as he could smell on himself; but there was forest too, leaves and wet earth, all clinging to Inosuke's body like a lifetime of living in the wild had made him one with it).
Tanjirou tried to swallow the impulse to hold Inosuke, but it was nowhere near effective, and a second later he found himself wrapping his arms around him, one hand tangled in his hair and the other sitting cosily on the small of his back. He turned his head to the side to bury it in the pillow under it, too ashamed to show his burning cheeks to the world, even if there was no one to look.
Inosuke grumbled under his breath and pushed his legs against Tanjirou's, the sudden touch of his bare feet against his ankles a surprise, enough so that Tanjirou ended up gasping out loud. Inosuke stopped, and Tanjirou did too, holding his breath and willing his body to stay quiet.
After a torturous moment of silence, Inosuke roughly rubbed his forehead on Tanjirou's chest and weakly pounded it once as well.
"Shut up," he complained, and Tanjirou realized he was talking about the loud thuds of his chest.
Tanjirou mumbled an incoherent string of words, maybe an explanation or an apology. He pressed his cheek to the top of Inosuke's head and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for sleep to finally save him from the embarrassment.