!Now available on ao3! Same name, same author!
boketto (Japanese)
- the act of gazing vacantly into the distance without thinking.
*~-~*
In which young Y/n is shown there's more to life than fulfilling a duty.
And a young Tanjiro learns that first...
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Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.
Thomas Fuller
*A/N: Sorry for all the description stuff, I wanted to draw it out a bit. Not a whole lot of dialogue, but I promise the next chapter will be more interactions :)
The demon slayer uniform felt an awful lot heavier than it actually was.
The week was finally catching up to me, it seems, as the white bag felt as though it were filled with bricks on my shoulder. A heavy breath left me, shifting it on my shoulder and rolling my neck to try and relieve some of the many kinks tainting it. I couldn't wait for a good night's rest.
My crow cawed, alerting me of his presence before I felt his grip on my shoulder. I blew a stray feather out of my face before reaching up, letting him rub the top of his head onto my finger for a moment. I'll admit - in the very short time I've known this bird, he'd grown on me a bit. Maybe I could get him a little ribbon of his own or a tiny scarf or bandana. That'd be nice. At least then I could pick him out from the other similar-looking crows.
"Y/n," An ever-familiar voice called, and I pivoted to face the boy. Tanjiro looked worse for wear. Probably worse than I was, especially based on the walking stick he now leaned on. The adrenaline must've worn off of him as it had me, making our movements sluggish and our bones ache. My heightened stamina had helped me recover better than him, it seems.
I shifted the bag on my shoulder, causing my crow to hop onto my elbow instead (which I stuck bent for him), "Hello, Tanjiro."
He smiled, despite the pain, he was no doubt in, "I'm heading out, now. I was curious about where you were going."
A hum in thought was my first reply, shifting my gaze towards the dirt road for a second before deciding, "I'll probably head back towards the way I came."
"That's near Urokodaki's, right?" Kamado queered, tilting his head as he leaned quite a bit on the tall stick. I nodded in confirmation, making his smile a bit wider before proposing, "How about we travel together, then?"
I saw no reason to refuse, so I gave a simple response of, "Sure. Why not?"
My words seemed to make the boy satisfied, and after he sent the twin wisteria girls a wave, we headed off back down the mountain. Our pace was slow, and my crow took it upon himself to fly off, but I didn't mind. There was no reason to rush, anyways. At least on my part. I'm sure Tanjiro was more than ready to go back and see his sister and teacher.
My teacher, Akio, was surely gone by now. At least from the house, we were staying at. She always tended to move, so it wouldn't surprise me if she were already back at her own home up north. Sipping tea and tending to her plants. She was probably basking in the silence that ensued without Daichi or me. The thought brought me some joy, if not worry as well for her wellbeing and growing illness.
