Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Come on, Tanjirou!” Zenitsu pleads, already taking the redhead’s hand and dragging him towards the school gym. “Let’s go watch the training match!”

Tanjirou chuckles, knowing exactly why Zenitsu wants to watch it. He’s one of his best friends so he’s okay with him liking his sister.

“You don’t even like basketball!” He smiles, letting the other boy drag him all the way inside.

The team is already practicing; the sound of the tennis shoes against the wood floor is one of the things they can clearly hear.

“Fine!” Zenitsu admits. “The cheerleaders are practicing too!”

Like she can feel them, Nezuko turns her head around and smiles at her brother; she’s part of the cheerleader team and is really good at it.

“Tanjirou!” She beams, then, after a while: “Oh, hi, Zenitsu!”

That’s enough to keep Zenitsu daydreaming about her for the rest of the day.

“Nezuko!”

Tanjirou laughs before sitting close to the cheerleaders; there are a couple of groups of boys and girls in the gym at the moment, but they’re mostly there to fawn over the basketball team.

“Why are they so tall?” Zenitsu complains, mood chaining suddenly. “Especially the captain! You know how many girls have crushes on him? It’s not fair!”

“Pretty sure boys like him too,” Tanjirou adds, prompting Zenitsu to glare at him. “But I think he has earned it! I mean he’s a really good captain and an excellent basketball player!”

“You don’t watch the games! How do you know that?”

“Nezuko’s friends talk about him a lot!” It’s true, Tanjirou doesn’t watch a lot of games, and when he does, he’s mostly taking pictures of his sister and keeping an eye on her. So he doesn’t know a lot about the team either.

“Oh, right,” Zenitsu huffs, rolling his eyes. “I forgot half of the cheerleader team has a thing for you.”

Tanjirou blushes to the tip of his ears at that.

“They don’t!” He blurts out, feeling a little bit flustered. “They’re kind to me because I’m Nezuko’s older brother and I bring them snacks sometimes!”

As they’ve been summoned, a couple of boys and girls from the cheerleader team approach them.

“Tanjirou!” A girl bats her eyelashes with a huge grin on her face. “It’s nice to see you again!”

Behind them, Nezuko rolls her eyes.

“Will you watch me cheer?” A boy asks quietly, looking shyly at him.

“Of course!” Tanjirou assures him. They all do a really good job so they deserve to have someone supporting them too!

“Nezuko, I want to be your sister-in-law!”

“No.”

“Why not?” Another girl pouts.

“Can you all focus? We need to practice for the game! It’s in a few days!”

Reluctantly, they all go back to practice their main routine. Tanjirou waves at them every now and then.

“Rengoku-san!”

Tanjirou gets startled by the loud girls and boys towards the middle of the bleachers. They’re not cheerleaders, but they seem to be very enthusiastic about anything the team’s captain does.

Well, he can’t blame them; it’s really hard not to notice Rengoku’s blond hair with red tips; he’s also really loud, but perhaps the most interesting thing about him is his ability to jump incredibly high when needed.

Tanjirou has lost count of the times he has scored in a few minutes.

However, he quickly takes his eyes off the practice match in order to look at his sister. Even though she’s an amazing cheerleader, Tanjirou worries about her, especially whenever she’s going to make a difficult jump.

He’s so distracted, he doesn’t notice the ball coming directly towards him until it’s a few inches away. However, he manages to catch it in his hands.

“Sorry about that! Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry!” Tanjirou smiles at the team’s captain, who rushes towards where they are to get the ball.

Tanjirou hands it back to him, feeling Rengoku’s fingers brush his for a moment.

The tall boy hasn’t stopped staring at him. His grin becomes huge, and his fire looking eyes start glimmering with joy.

“I haven’t seen you here before!” He says, leaning closer. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Kamado Tanjirou.”

“It’s a pleasure!” Rengoku says, even louder than before. It seems his voice volume goes up the more excited he gets. “I’m Rengoku Kyojuro!”

Tanjirou smiles back, prompting the captain to keep leaning closer.

“We don’t have all the time in the world, Rengoku!” The coach screams then, prompting the tall boy to take a step back from Tanjirou and blush to the tip of his ears.

“Right, sir!” He turns around but seems to reconsider it before looking back at the redhead. “I’ll see you later, Tanjirou!”

Only then he notices Zenitsu narrowing his eyes.

“Great. Now the popular guy likes you, sure this won’t be a problem at all!”

“He seems nice!” Tanjirou smiles, as the girls and boys who were screaming for the team’s captain get closer to them.

“Maybe if we sit here, we can catch the ball next time and get to talk to him too!”

Zenitsu groans, trying to pretend he doesn’t hear them.

***

After the practice, Tanjirou, Nezuko and Zenitsu decide to go to a cafe right outside their school.

“Tanjirou!”

As soon as they hear the voice, Zenitsu groans before the three of them turn around.

“Why do you have to be pretty and adorable?” He pinches Tanjirou’s cheek. “Why did you have to charm your way into the captain’s heart too?”

Nezuko chuckles as Tanjirou frowns at Zenitsu in confusion before he feels someone grab his arm gently.

“Where are you going?” Rengoku asks, leaning closer to him. He doesn’t seem to have an understanding of personal space whatsoever. But Tanjirou doesn’t mind.

“We’re going to eat something…”

“Can I join you?” Rengoku’s hair is dripping wet, and he’s wearing the standard school uniform, which means he came rushing from the gym’s locker room.

“Of course, Rengoku-senpai!” Tanjirou nods as the tall boy moves even closer. “By the way, this is Agatsuma Zenitsu and my sister, Kamado Nezuko.”

“Oh, right! I thought you looked familiar, Kamado!” He tells Nezuko with a huge grin. “You’re an amazing cheerleader!”

“Thank you, senpai!” She chuckles, amused for some reason.

“And you’re the boy who was sitting close to Tanjirou earlier.” Rengoku’s smile drops suddenly, eyes staring at the boy with yellow hair like he’s trying to figure something out.

Zenitsu pales.

“I’m his best friend!” He blurts out suddenly. “We only see each other as friends!”

“Oh, great! Nice to meet you, Agatsuma!”

After that they all seem to relax somewhat. Tanjirou watches in surprise at all the amount of food Rengoku can eat. It’s also curious, but endearing how he says “tasty” after each bite.

He’s sitting next to Tanjirou, while Nezuko and Zenitsu sit in front of them. The redhead can feel the other’s leg pressing against his even though he has plenty of space on his side.

When they’re done, Tanjirou asks for a milkshake; the others order one too.

They talk a little bit about the upcoming game and basketball in general; Tanjirou notices that, during the conversation, Rengoku insists on calling Nezuko and Zenitsu by their last names, but refuses to do the same with Tanjirou, even though they just met.

“Rengoku-senpai…”

“Please, call me Kyojuro,” the boy says, already grinning at Tanjirou with so much enthusiasm, the redhead can’t say No.

“Alright, Kyojuro-senpai!”

It seems the boy likes that because he beams before leaning closer to Tanjirou.

Nezuko is watching them with amusement.

“Don’t worry,” Kyojuro says after a while. “I’ll pay for everything!”

“No, wait! Kyojuro-senpai!”

But he doesn’t let Tanjirou pay for his or Nezuko’s food.

“Alright, he’s not that bad,” Zenitsu finally admits after they say goodbye to the tall boy. “Very nice of him to pay for my food too just to impress you.”

“He wasn’t trying to impress me,” Tanjirou assures him, feeling very flustered out of the sudden.

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”

***

Kyojuro hangs out with Tanjirou a lot now. He walks him to his classroom, with an arm around his shoulders and listening with undivided attention to whatever Tanjirou decides to talk about that particular morning.

Tanjirou has the feeling that the other students have started talking about them because they’re constantly looking in their direction whenever they are together.

When Kyojuro finds out Tanjirou helps his family by working part-time in their bakery, he starts going there and buying a lot of pastries for himself and his family.

That’s how Tanjirou’s parents meet him.

“I don’t know,” his father tells his wife, narrowing his eyes at the door Kyojuro used to exit. “He’s very touchy with Tanjirou and he stares at him a lot.”

“That’s because we’re friends!” The redhead assures his father. “He’s a very kind person. I like him.”

“Don’t worry!” Kie tells her husband, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “We’ll keep an eye on him and we’ll decide later if we approve of him or not.”

Tanjirou is a little bit puzzled; they didn’t act like that with Zenitsu or Inosuke, and that boy is really energetic and wild, so he has no idea why they’re being so harsh on Kyojuro.

Sometimes they’re a little bit overprotective around him.

Tanjirou meets the Rengoku family a week later when his friend invites him to have dinner with them.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all!” He bows as soon as he walks in.

“Nice to meet you, Tanjirou-san,” Senjuro, Kyojuro’s little brother, mumbles shyly. The redhead adores him immediately; he reminds him of his younger siblings.

“We have heard a lot of things about you!” Shinjuro, their father, says with a smirk as a form of greeting.

Kyojuro turns slightly pink at that.

Then, Ruka steps closer to him. Her red eyes look at Tanjirou’s in a way he feels like she can see right into his soul.

Finally, she smiles kindly and pulls him into a hug.

“Welcome to the family, Tanjirou.”

“Really?” Her husband looks at the redhead again, surprised. “How can you tell?”

Ruka looks at something behind Tanjirou and Shinjuro follows her eyes.

“Oh, right.”

Tanjirou is absolutely confused; he has no idea what they’re talking about, besides, the only thing behind him is Kyojuro himself, smiling at him the same way he has done since they both met.

“We met in high-school too,” Ruka reminds her husband, like she’s trying to make a point.

“Yeah, we did,” he grins again before turning towards Tanjirou and Kyojuro. “Dinner will be ready in an hour.”

“We’ll be in my room!” Kyojuro says, grabbing Tanjirou’s hand in his.

“Alright, but keep the door open,” Ruka tells him, prompting Kyojuro to turn completely red in seconds.

“Mother, please!”

She chuckles, looking fondly at how embarrassed her son looks.

Tanjirou doesn’t understand what’s going on, but he has a good time nonetheless.

***

Things start making a lot of sense when, a couple of days later, after the Ubuyashiki school’s team wins the match against Kibutsuji school, Kyojuro rushes towards the bleachers, takes Tanjirou in his arms and gives him a kiss on the lips.

Oh. So that’s why everyone acted so weird around them.

Tanjirou kisses him back, just a quick peck on the lips because he doesn’t want the teachers or the coach to scold them.

Kyojuro’s eyes start glimmering like it’s the best day of his life. He nuzzles against Tanjirou’s cheek until the boy giggles.

“Would you like to be my boyfriend, Tanjirou?”

“I’d love to, Kyojuro.”

As soon as they get out of school, Kyojuro gives him a lot of kisses, but this time, they’re open mouth ones that make Tanjirou’s toes curl.

“You still have to earn my parents’ and siblings’ approval,” Nezuko warns him.

“I’ll do my best!” Kyojuro promises before pulling Tanjirou in his arms again.

Tanjirou gives him a kiss on the cheek. He knows his parents will grow to like him because he’s an amazing person and has a kind heart.

It’ll be fine.