cooldown
pairing: kamado tanjirou x reader
warnings: none
genre: fluff, modern!au
wc: 1,520
Summer is the best season because vacation is in full swing, even with the looming, dampened threat of summer homework. The beaches are open, the days are long, and you get to spend time with your friends at season-appropriate festivals and make fun of the scaredy-cat of the group when you visit haunted houses.
Summer is the best season, because the cool inside of Kamado Bakery and the scent of fresh bread and sweets never fails to whet your appetite, a wide smile splitting across your face when the cute, well-loved sign comes into view.
Summer is the best season, because Kamado Tanjirou makes it so.
There’s an unspoken agreement between the two of you; he buys the first twin popsicle of the season to split with you, and you buy the last. When a new flavor comes out, you sometimes buy two in one day, try both flavors and compare notes. But the splitting of the popsicle is what matters, and no matter what you say, Tanjirou always gives you the bigger half if it breaks unevenly.
When the two of you are accompanied by Nezuko, Zenitsu and Inosuke, however, things change. You share a popsicle with Nezuko—smiling brightly over Zenitsu’s muttered ramblings, envious golden eyes eyeing the blissful expression on the girl’s face as you raise a brow at him, haughty and teasing.
Tanjirou usually placates him with a twin popsicle to share between them, while Inosuke buys his own. The latter is always trying to see how many he can eat before they melt, the number of crinkling wrappers and popping colors steadily growing over the course of the summer. You recall one afternoon Inosuke had bought ten, all of different flavors, and the incredible look on his face as he bit into all of them, voice garbled and slurred from the cold and limbs twitching and writhing as he powered through the brain freeze.
Yes, summer is the best season.
———
One thing you’ve noticed is the flavor that Tanjirou gravitates towards. It’s always in the same brightly-dotted plastic film, not one of the most eye-catching flavors, despite the pretty pink color, but the look of pure satisfaction on his face when he eats it is enough to pique your interest.
You start buying them, too, just to see.
It’s a very Tanjirou-like flavor, surprisingly divergent from the color, and you shrug when Nezuko gives you a curious glance, no doubt recognizing the wrapper you shake off sticky fingers into the trash.
The first person that notices this change is Zenitsu, who points it out with his half-eaten popsicle stick in his mouth, the damp, flimsy wood stick between his teeth as he mumbles through his words.
“Isn’t that the kind Tanjirou gets?” He asks, voice distorted from the strange way he’s holding the frozen treat.
You look down at the wrapper, half-shucked away from your quickly melting popsicle. “I suppose so,” you shrug. ���Didn’t Inosuke eat like, five of them at once?” Nezuko nurses her own share quietly beside you, choosing not to point out the clumsy shift in topic. “Inosuke, your teeth are gonna rot before you graduate.”
“Shaddup!” He barks, trying to fit both halves of a twin popsicle in his mouth. You laugh at the idiotic display, careful not to let stray drops of cold sugary-water drop onto Tanjirou’s leg, who has gone quiet beside you.
———
The next time you and Tanjirou are alone, he buys a twin popsicle with two different flavors, one half that familiar pink color you’ve somehow grown to love, and the other a pale blue, probably blue raspberry.
It breaks clean down the middle when Tanjirou pulls it apart, and you blink when he holds up both, like a food vendor trying to tempt you into picking your favorite. That on-brand Tanjirou smile already lighting his features.
“Which one do you want?” He asks. You point at the blue. In response, Tanjirou blinks. “Are you sure? I don’t mind taking the blue if you want the pink.” He continues, “You like this flavor, right? You can have it,” he says. You shake your head. In the direction this is going, the two of you will argue until the damn thing melts, but you’re determined not to lose to Tanjirou’s stubbornness.
“You can choose first. You bought it, after all,” you say, arms crossed. It’s his turn to refuse, thrusting them forward.
“I really don’t mind! I’m fine with either one!” He insists.
“Well, I don’t mind either,” you parrot, head tipping a fraction. The tips of the popsicles are already turning glossy, melting quickly beneath the searing afternoon sun. Neither of you acquiesce, and with a shrug, you dig into your pocket, pulling out your wallet and tracing a finger along the clasp. “Well, if you can’t decide then you can have the whole thing. I’ll buy my own,” you say, testing his reaction. His hands falter, expression turning a bit somber.
It’s when you mime going back into the store that he gives in, raising the pink side towards you.
“Okay, then, I like this side,” he says, turning his face away. A drop of light pink syrup begins to drip down the length of it, and you reach forward if only to save Tanjirou’s fingers from getting sticky, catching the drop with your tongue.
The familiar flavor makes you smile, pleased, until you ask Tanjirou what he thinks of his flavor.
“It’s… good,” he says, and you watch, suspicious, as his face twists. Indignant, you stop dead on the side of the street, pointing at him accusingly.
“You’re making that face! You don’t like it at all!” You say, voice rising indignantly.
“It is a good flavor!” He protests.
“That doesn’t mean you like it!” You counter, and then hold out the half he’d just given you. “Here, take mine instead! I could go for a change!”
Tanjirou shakes his head, a near triumphant smile on his face. “You already ate part of it, I can’t take it back now.”
“I only licked a little bit!” You insist, “Don’t think I won’t make you switch with me!” Tanjirou takes one look at you, your popsicle, and then his, and the little bastard stares you dead in the eye, biting a chunk of his popsicle and shuddering at the frosty chill zipping through his teeth. Your mouth falls open in tandem, frozen in your spot.
“Why didn’t you just take the side you wanted?” You ask.
Tanjirou’s words are slurred a bit from the cold. “But I did!”
“I see you eating this flavor all the time!” You would have waved the popsicle in the air, if it weren’t in danger of dripping everywhere.
“You do too, [First]!”
“Only because you were eating it!”
“I bought this one because I thought you liked the pink!”
Your face explodes with heat as you stomp your foot, petulant like a child. “Well, I only started liking it because that’s the flavor you kept getting and I figured if I like you I should try to like some of the same—”
Tanjirou decides right there that it would be a good choice to mirror his popsicle, because he visibly freezes, going rigid during your rant. You freeze, too, nearly dropping your half at the realization of what’d burst from your mouth.
“I-I-I mean,” you stammer, trying to salvage the moment of poor timing on your part, “since you like the flavor so much I thought I might like it too, s-so—“
Tanjirou successfully ends your rambling by taking a step forward, vermillion eyes wide and cheeks turning pinker than your popsicle. You wonder if he can see the heat rising from your face in invisible, wavering steam. Your melting popsicle runs over your fingers, chilly and merciless with sticky sweet.
“[First], you—dp you—?” The question dies on his tongue as you gnash off a chunk of your poor treat, teeth instantly freezing at the tiny particles of ice. “Is—Do you like me?”
He said it!
“I don’t… not… like you…?” You offer, voice trailing off.
“I like you!” He bursts out, like he can’t contain himself. “Um, [First], I really like you!” You jolt visibly, taking a half step back with the passion of his sudden confession. “Um, not like a friend, either! Um, I have a—rather, I like—“
“I-I get it,” you wave him off furiously, very aware of the stares and whispers from passersby. “Y-you don’t have to say anymore!”
Tanjirou deflates a bit, then, but he takes in your embarrassed expression, rigid posture, and beams.
“I… like you, too,” you admit, daring to steal a glance of his face, and feeling gratified at the sight of his cheeks turning pink with mirth.
“Then,” he clears his throat, pulling himself together remarkably quickly given the clumsy confessions exchanged. “Do you… want to do something this weekend? Just the two of us.”
You nod, breathless. “O-okay.”
Tanjirou’s smile rivals the afternoon sun. “Great! I’ll text you the details later, okay?”
You nod, smiling. Then, after a pause, you speak up again. “Next time, I’m taking the blue half, though.”
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For your drabble event, may I request something fluffy with Senjuro? The manga got me all soft for this boy, and I really liked your ice skating one shot! Sfw please, it could be something simple as reader comforting senjuro when his father is being a dick
A/N: I didn’t do the plot you mentioned, I wanted to write something a bit more unique, but it’s just as fluffy and sweet. Ily senjuroooo
———
One, two, three… now multiply that by two, three, four… and add maybe one hundred.
That’s how many fireflies there were tonight.
Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it surely felt as if there were thousands of fireflies, all lighting up this summer night as they flew around in the air. There were enough that you could at least see the wonderful expression on Senjurou’s face as the two of you stood with your feet wet in the marsh, hands cupped to try and catch one or two luminescent flies.
He looks so happy, his eyes lit up in awe each time he catches one and then watches it float up from his fingers. The color they shone across his face was soft, blending in well with the dark of night that surrounded you both.
“We should probably head in soon,” Senjurou whispered, his eyes meeting yours for a second before he’s quickly distracted by the fireflies again, one flying close to his ear and making him jolt and then laugh. You laugh too.
“Yeah,”
But neither of you walk away. You stay in the marsh, your toes certainly pruning from the muddy water, but that’s an irrelevant detail. What’s more important is the smile on Senjurou’s face, the heat on your cheeks, the tingling feeling when your shoulders brush together.
His family being one of slayers, you quickly discovered that Senjurou was a bit scared of the dark. It only made sense, the boy being young and impressionable and being taught of demons and heartache at an early age. But you wanted to show Senjurou that while it was wise to be wary, the night was still an important part of life’s cycle. It existed for a reason. It was a beautiful period of time if you knew where to look.
A loud croak catches both of your attention. Coming from below, a toad sits on a rock, and his throat expands as he croaks again.
You meet Senjurou’s eye, brows raised. “Wanna catch it?”
He gasps. “Catch it? Isn’t that mean?”
“You’re catching the fireflies, aren’t you?”
Senjurou gasps again and lets go of any that may be in his hand. He whines, “I didn’t think about that!” And then he looks at the toad again, guarded but no doubt curious. “Do you think he jumps very high?”
“Nah,” you lie.
He did, in fact, jump very high. When you both tried to catch it, it launched in the air and landed right on Senjurou’s head. The poor boy screamed and you had to stop yourself from laughing as you scared the toad away, back into the marsh and quickly hopping away from you two.
That’s when Kyoujurou had come rushing from the house, his katana in hand and heavily breathing with his hair askew from sleep. All the fireflies were gone at that point as you both had to quickly explain to Kyoujurou you were just trying to have some fun- it took him a second to process, but he wasn’t mad. He actually had lit up and smacked Senjurou on the back, saying he was proud of his brother for being brave during the night.
But next time, you were warned not to wander so far from the house. If only for Kyoujurou’s sake, as well as your own- he was more of a worrywart than he seemed, interestingly enough. He held onto Senjurou’s shoulder the entire walk back.
Neither of you seemed to mind. As you walked by Senjurou’s side, you meet his eye again, and he’s already looking right at you. His eyes are soft and his smile is big. He reaches out barely, his pinkie finger brushing over yours, and you catch it with your own smile.
It was a wonderful night even if all the fireflies had disappeared. That wasn’t the point in the end.
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