Stone Cold | Tanjirou Kamado

6. When she fades away

A strange peace she didn't feel in a long time wrapped her up like a blanket. A fire seemed to be by her, but it didn't burn her, it protected her with its arms and melted the snow to give life to all it grazed. As if it gave back the comforting sun rays of spring after a long and merciless winter.

The first thing Ayaka thought was that it felt good.

With a smile unconsciously appearing on her lips she snuggled closer to the person hugging her.

It was as if no wrongdoings existed in the world, nothing could ever disturb her or make her suffer and cry. As if she had gone back to being eleven again.

She could feel someone else's breathing on her clean hair.

"Yuu," she muttered, letting out one of those sighs one only lets out when they have no worries in life.

She opened her eyes, so calm it didn't feel real.

Instead of being face to face with Yuu Kobayashi, just as she expected, the only person she saw was Tanjirou Kamado.

He was close, very close.

"Did you say something?" he asked, having woken up not much later than her.

Ayaka took a moment to look around her, realizing for the first time she wasn't eleven and that this was, without a doubt, Tanjirou with his arms around her. He groggily rubbed his eye with his hand, but he made no attempt in taking his arms away from Ayaka's body.

"Are you sick? You have a weird expression on your face," Tanjirou asked, trying not to sound worried, but small pinches sometimes touched the surface of his voice.

Ayaka realized he was right, her face had contorted on itself, making way to a bizarre expression, between disappointment, confusion, and something she wouldn't know what to call. Disgust, probably.

Finally she took in the importance of the situation.

Her eyes went from Tanjirou's arm around her waist to his face a few times with an eyebrow raised in an accusatory manner, waiting for him to notice by himself what was wrong. Even if his nose was still buried in between her hair.

«It's settled, he's dumb»

Harshly and with crimson cheeks, she pushed against Tanjirou's forehead, making him take his arms from around her.

That seemed to get him out of his own thoughts, and because he was Tanjirou, he proceeded to apologize profusely.

"I'm very sorry, you just smelled so good and seemed to be so cold and I-!" He moved his hands without control, in fast and clumsy gestures.

It would have made Ayaka to make fun of him if it weren't because his insistent habit of apologizing for everything annoyed her, and because she was embarrassed about it too.

"At this point the only thing you have yet to apologize about is being alive," she said in calm, finally getting and urging Tanjirou to do the same so she could collect the futon.

Her cheeks were still burning.

Tanjirou opened his mouth, attempting to apologize again, but he stopped himself before doing it and closed it.

"By the way, where is Nezuko?" Ayaka asked as she aired the futon. Then she looked out the window, at the darkness of twilight. "The Sun will rise soon, make sure she's safe by then."

"She must have gone back to her box already, she usually does it a bit before sunrise," Tanjirou answered, leaning his cheek on his fist, as he observed like in a trance how Ayaka folded the futon, too big for her, and got it on the closet as if she had been doing it all her life.