summary: tanjiro and zenitsu decides to play matchmaker and set up his good friend genya who was too shy to make a move on an already shy!reader. I changed the plot slightly. longest one shot I’ve written so far!
fluff! I love and miss my baby genya so much. I’m not ready for the next movie.
tanjiro could smell emotions, there was no doubt about that. His heightened sense were never wrong so when he smelt something so soft, so gentle, warm and sweet around genya he became curious.
“you okay, genya?” he asked as he watched his friend polish his gun. genya cleared his throat, “y-yeah.” He whispered not looking up at him. He heard a small laughter come from the end of the training ground. It was you playing five stones with other slayers.
the smell became stronger…sweeter.
he looked over at genya who was looking over at you with a soft expression, his ears red. Tanjiro smiled sweetly, “I see.” he said kindly before cleaning his own katana. Genya looked back at him, “you see what?”
“Your love for y/n.”
Genya jumped in the air and covered tanjiro’s mouth, “love?! love?!” He panicked, “who said I love her?! what are you talking about?! I have no idea what you’re talking about?! All those head butting must start to damage your brain!” he hissed before grabbing his things and left, his whole face red.
Tanjiro could only let out a soft laugh, “it’s okay to fall in love, genya. Love is an amazing feeling. I wish to feel the same one day.”
“shut up, tanjiro!”
once tanjiro finished cleaning his sword he heard footsteps walking towards him, “hey.” you whispered and sat down next to him, “why didn’t you join us?” you asked, “because I didn’t want to leave genya alone.” he replied, making you sigh, “oh.”
“he’s a good person, y/n.”
“I’m sure but you know how hard it is for me to make friends. I’m not like you or Rengoku that can be friends with everyone. I just find it hard to express my feelings and thoughts to random people.” You voiced out, “plus, it doesn’t help that he hates me. I don’t have the patience like you.”
“hate you?” Tanjiro repeated, “genya doesn’t hate you. At least I don’t smell hatred when he’s near or around you.” He explained. You looked into his eyes for a second before lowering your gaze to the ground, “he does hate me. I just know it, he never looks or acknowledges me. I know I don’t like to be centre of attention but I do want a voice of acknowledgement especially since we’re all in a similar age group.”
Tanjiro could smell that sadness blooming off of you. He didn’t know what else to say because he didn’t want to be the one to tell you genya likes you. He wanted his friend to confess.
confess? YES!
That is exactly what he will do. He will help him confess!
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
since tanjiro always had trouble lying he had to get zenitsu in on his plan. zenitsu was over joyed though he was jealous that tanjiro was trying to get genya with a pretty girl like you instead of him.
“y/n! y/n! y/n!” Zenitsu ran into the butterfly mansion because he knew you would be in there getting your daily massage from one of the butterfly girls. You looked up at zenitsu who was all up in your face giggling like a maniac.
“y/n..~” he sang loudly. You sat up and looked over at the flower girls who shrugged before walking away, “yes, zenitsu?” You whispered and played with your fingers, “is everything okay?” you asked feeling concerned and anxious about anyone and everyone’s safety.
“uhm…” zenitsu muttered. His task was to bring you to one of the private resting rooms where he and tanjiro locked the door with just you and genya inside. Hopefully, with the locked door genya confesses like Tanjiro planned. However bringing you to the room was quite the challenge.
“uhm…tan..jiro…” he trailed, “he needs help with braiding nezuko’s hair.” And with that he ran and you frowned, “doesn’t he already know how to?” You asked and trailed behind him slowly, “I’m sure other girls can help, I’m not the best at braiding. I didn’t have any sisters to practice on.” you mumbled.
As you reached the room where zenitsu was trailing you noticed it was sunny outside, “why would tanjiro braid her hair during sunlight hours?” you whispered to yourself. Too shy to say anything plus you didn’t want to question Tanjiro.
as you reached the room before you could turn, zenitsu kicked you into the opposite room making you stumble back into something warm. You felt arms around your waist and felt yourself get lifted.
“you okay?” you look up and saw genya looking anywhere but you. you jumped back and ran to open the door but it was locked, “you should watch where you’re going.” he said again, his voice rough.
you felt yourself shake, “sorry for troubling you.” you told him and the two of you were basked in silence. You saw genya go all red from his ears to his finger tips and you just thought it it was in rage.
“again, I’m sorry for bumping into you.” You whimpered and held onto your haori and cornered yourself in the edge of a wall. Genya grunted, “it’s fine.”
The air became awkward and you watched as genya rattled on the door violently, “it’s not just stuck, someone’s holding it from the other side.” He told you and started to elbow the door. Genya clicked his teeth he knew it was tanjiros doing. He looked over at you and saw you trembling like a little mouse. That’s when he noticed you were scared of the idea of being locked in a room, he just wondered if it was with him. Were you that scared of him? He knew he wasn’t the most gentle looking but seeing you scared of him made something twist in his chest and he did not like the feeling.
he didn’t like the way you looked at all, like the life drained from your face. He looked at the window and ran full force towards it without thinking, breaking the window and he fell right onto the ground outside. You gasped and ran after him in concern, “shinaguzawa?”
you looked down and saw him long gone, running away as fast as he can.
you heard the door unlock and both zenitsu and tanjiro had a dishearted expression, “oh no.” they said looking at the broken window, “shinobu’s going to kill me.” Zenitsu cried holding Tanjiro.
you just walked past them feeling more embarrassed more than anything, did he he hate you so much that he jumped out the window?
“I told you that was a bad idea!” Tanjiro cried making zenitsu smack his back, “it was better than tying them up together.” he defended.
the two just watched you go back into your room.
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
“uh…y/n?” zenitsu walked towards you a couple days later, “mhm?” you looked up and wiped your katana with your cloth and put it back into its home.
“I’m really really really craving that ramen from the stall…but I’m training with inosuke right now.” zenitsu smacked his own head, “what was it called…? The one with the old rude man.” he kept pondering, “ah! yes, sizzling soup! If you walk straight down the road for a few minutes you’ll come across a clothing store for children, turn right from there and keep walking straight!”
you were going to start doing your laundry but you didn’t want to upset him, you sighed, “okay.”
you didn’t see the thumbs up zenitsu gave to tanjiro.
“you’re the best, y/n!”
As you head towards the stall you realised he didn’t even tell you what he wanted. you grit your teeth as you pondered what he would like. you saw another customer looking at the menu and you looked up, “Shinazugawa?” he looked down at you before scratching his cheek and walked up to the counter, “I’ll get the dish that everyone likes.” He said as he too was not familiar with the menu.
you watched him pay and you stood up to the counter, “I’ll get the same.” You whispered, feeling shy the taller slayer was watching you, “sorry can you speak up?” The owner grunted, “the same.” You said louder, a little too loud for your comfort. You heard the owner scoff, “this is why women should stay home.” He muttered under his breath making you feel hurt. You felt your blood rush to your cheeks in embarrassment and you were about to walk away too stunned to say anything.
“Didn’t you hear her, old man?! She said she’ll get the same as me! She was speaking perfectly fine. In fact she was speaking louder than me! I think it’s your hearing that’s gone bad. You should stay home instead! You old fuck!”
you froze as profanities left his mouth and you looked at him in slight shock as he defended you. You watched as the man shut his mouth and walked back into the kitchen. You bowed as a kind gesture, “thank you. Though you really didn’t need to do that.” Your cheeks beating up as you tried to calm down your racing heart. Maybe he didn’t hate you as much as you thought.
genya scoffed, his cheeks flushing, “don’t worry about it. Men like him are cowards they never pick on men only women.” He grumbled after that the two of you were both silent waiting for your food, “so.” You cleared your throat, “you said you’re not familiar with the menu, what made you come here?”
genya scratched his cheek, “Tanjiro sent me, you?” You fiddled with your fingers, “zenitsu.” genya let out another huff and leaned against the stall, clicking his teeth again before looking at the sunset. he knew this was tanjiro’s doing again. But this time he can’t be mad because you weren’t scared. In fact you had this soft expression on your face, something with content. even though you never looked into his eyes he knew you were happy. with you being happy, he was happy too.
Maybe he can try…just so tanjiro’s efforts aren’t going to waste.
The man placed your order on the table at the same time and you grabbed your bag and started to walk away, walking slowly so genya could catch up with you. You felt genya clear his throat a couple times before he opened his lips, “uhm…” you paused in your step and looked up at him.
“mhm?”
“would it be appropriate of me to ask if you would accompany—”
he was cut off with someone running towards you, “hehehehe.”
Inosuke? shouldn’t he be training with zenitsu? You thought before he stopped right in front of you.
“wow! that smells amazing, let’s eat this right now! Underlining (mispronounced name) Show me, king inosuke what you have received from that old cook!”
“uhm…I have no idea.” you whispered.
inosuke grabbed the bag and ran towards the demon slayer corps with you chasing behind him making genya sigh, at least you didn’t hate him anymore and that made him fall for you even more.
tanjiro and zenitsu were hiding behind a few bushes to see if the two of you walked in together. “of course, inosuke has to ruin everything.” Zenitsu grumbled as he saw inosuke taking all of your attention talking about the demon he just killed while genya walked a few meters behind the both of you. 
The two boys just sighed and gave up.
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
you came back into the corps after a mission and you were heading towards your ‘bedroom’ (it was just a spare room for demon slayers, since you didn’t have a family home you just made it your own). as you headed towards the building you heard a few grunts and clashes. You turn and see tanjiro and genya sparring.
you couldn’t help but watch. they weren’t using their breathing technique no, they were using constant breathing. You mainly focussed on genya. You never noticed his build, how much taller he was compared to tanjiro. Nor did you notice how muscular he was. The sweat clung to his body and his scars looked beautiful under the sun rise. His body looked golden, like an artefact. You felt something heat up in your chest and your cheeks burned slightly.
“your future wife is watching us.” tanjiro smiled slightly startling his opponent, “don’t say stuff like that so casually.” genya kicked him harshly making the redhead drop to the floor in slight pain before standing up. You were already looking at him. The two of you just gazed at each other.
Genya felt his breath hitch, this was the first time you looked at him, and your gaze was much more soft than he imagined. Your eyes, oh god, your eyes! they had an addicting flame that mixed with those colourful (eye colour) and he would forever allow himself to be hypnotised. It reminded him of a candle lit in a dark room, he was mesmerised by your beauty. You looked away first and you felt your whole body heat up. You cleared your throat and bowed before running to your room.
“Tanjiro…what is happening? what is this feeling?”
“my guess is, you finally fell in love.” Tanjiro replied happily, “if this is love...” genya gulped the knot in his throat. He felt his heart beat harshly against his ear. His lips felt hot, no his whole body felt hot. his stomach fluttered and his heart felt warm. he saw flashes of his siblings, his mum and his older brother when they were all younger, happy and hopeful. Now you came into the picture. He couldn’t stop the smile widening on his face, his eyes tearing slightly at this new emotion. He placed his hand on his chest, over his beating heart.
“I want to live by it everyday.”
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
as weeks went by you got busier with slaying demons. You were posted on the edge of the city. The demons weren’t as strong so you didn’t have an issue with killing them. but this one demon, you were struggling to kill her. She split into ten minor demons. You spent the whole night killing them so by the time you came back to the corps you were exhausted.
“y/n?.. Y/N!” You heard someone yell from afar and he ran to grab you. Your vision started to go blurry, “I’m okay. I’m home.” you whispered, as your vision started to go black you felt strong warm arms around your waist before you got lifted up easily, “y/n? stay with me. stay with me! Why didn’t you call someone?” you gazed up and saw genya running with you in his arms to the medical room. Blood stained his arm making him panic even more, “shinobu?! Someone?! Medic! I need a medic!” he cried and placed you on the bed.
Shinobu ran onto the bed and the butterfly girls surrounded you, they quickly cut open your uniform and saw the state of your body. Genya trembled as he saw gashes and bite marks on your trembling frame, chunks of meat and skin missing.
“she’s going to be okay? she’s going to be okay right?!” He yelled in panic but nobody was listening, they were too busy amending you. He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Tengen nodding at him, “let’s wait outside. Your girl won’t find it flashy if you saw her all weak and vulnerable.” Genya didn’t have it in him to correct him that you weren’t his girl, at least not yet. All he cared about if you were going to make it. There was so much blood.
genya went to his shared room and stared at the ceiling. He heard rushed footsteps, “genya! genya!” Tanjiro kicked open the door and ran towards him, nezuko following behind him. Tanjiro panted, “what happened? Is she okay?” Genya sat up on his bed and curled his knees to his chest, “I’m not sure.” He whispered.
“She fought a lower moon.” genya and tanjiro let out a shriek as they saw inosuke crawling on the ceiling, “I overheard the hashira’s talking.” He informed and jumped to the floor, “she’s okay. Of course she is! she’s my strongest underlining. Once she recovers back to health I will ask her to fight me!” Genya sighed in relief, “she’ll be fine.” Tanjiro whispered rubbing his back, “what if she isn’t? I was just training. I could have joined her. Maybe my brothers right, I should leave the corps cause of how weak and useless I am.”
It’s been a week and you were still sleeping, you were by a stream. on the other side was your family, smiling at each other having a picnic. The stream separating the both of you, “ma?…MA!” you yelled out loud and they stood up waving at you. You let out a choked sob and ran towards them. Before you could step on the stepping stone you felt something warm grab your wrist.
it was calloused, protective, warm and gentle. you looked back but you couldn’t see anything or anyone, “please?” a voice begged, “please wake up, y/n.. I want you to keep looking at me.” you frowned, that voice sounded familiar. Genya?
You looked back at your parents who waved at you, “for once in your life. Be selfish.” You mother yelled from across the river, “we love you.”
you snapped your eyes open and gasped, “genya? genya?” you got up and you saw your room empty and sighed was that a dream? The door opened shinobu smiled softly, “look who’s awake~” she laid you back down and checked your wound and pulse. She smiled, “looks like someone’s going make a safe recovery.” you gave a small smile, your body was aching everywhere and why did you feel lighter? “Think I need painkillers.” You whimpered.
word went around you woke up and soon people started to visit you. Even the mist hashira paid a small visit and left a small leaf on your desk. “So what do you think?” you looked and saw Tengen grinning at you, “what are you talking about?” You asked.
“Well with Kyojuro gone, we have a Hashira spot vacant and since you killed a lower moon (all by yourself which is very impressive) it should be yours.” he explained, “that’s how shinaguzawa became one.” you frowned, “there’s already a sound Hashira, you. Why would there need to be two?”
“I have no idea about that, but speaking of shinagazawa, what’s happening between you and sanemi’s younger brother? mhm?…” he grinned cheekily and sat down on the bed leaning close to your face, “something your mentor needs to know about?”
you lowered your gaze, you had a small smile grown on your face, you fiddled with your fingers, “nothing.” You whispered. Tengen let out a loud laugh, “it didn’t look like nothing. You should’ve seen his face when he carried you to the infirmary. He was about to cry. He was so worried. Ugh! so flashy! Two young people in love! look at you getting all shy…” you slapped his hand away from your face that kept poking your cheek, “go away…” your cheeks getting redder by the second and your stomach fluttering, “why you so shy? mhm? shy shy shy shy?” he kept punching your cheek, with each ‘shy’ word, “stop teasing me.”
before he could say anything else a knock on the door startled you. The door creaked open and genya looked through the crack. Tengen jumped up from your bed and grinned, “if you need a packet or packets let me know.” He whispered before walking out the room giving genya a rough smack on the back, “don’t be too rough on her, soldier.”
“w-what is he talking about?” Genya asked, before closing the door behind you. You shrugged, pretending you had no clue. You stood up and the room became silent between the two of you.
Before you could say a word genya rushed towards you, his hand finding your waist and other hand on the back of your head and he pulled you in a tight embrace, “that was so scary.” He whispered.
the two of you just held each other in complete silence. You loved how warm he was. You listened to his heartbeat, “you weren’t waking up and I feared the worst.” He breathed out, his voice shaking.
You looked up at him, his shaky violet hues looked into yours. His eyes traced your face for any signs of pain or discomfort. He cradled your jaw softly and rubbed your cheek with his thumb, his finger trembling.
“y/n.”
“genya.”
The two of you spoke at the same time, you giggled softly, “you speak first.” you whispered. genya felt his face redden and his heart thump violently against his chest. He gulped,
“may I kiss you?….please.”
His eyes teared as he glanced from your lips to your eyes again, his lips trembling. He looked like he needed it.
“yes, you may.”
His lips locked with yours and you were surprised by how soft and warm they were. You fisted his haori and pulled him closer. your body felt like they were warming up after a cold winter day outside. You pulled away and he placed his forehead against yours. He smiled so kindly and you wrapped your arms around his nape and pulled him to another kiss.
“I promise to protect you, y/n.”
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ─── ─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
“did you hear?” Iguro started as the two hashira’s both got into a fighting stance, “that little brother of yours was getting chummy with the girl that killed the lower moon. Mitsuri said she saw them kissing through the window.” Iguro looked at his best friends face, waiting for a reaction.
to his surprise the wind Hashira let out a sigh of relief.
“I hope she gets pregnant. That way my useless brother will be forced to leave the demon corps and provide for his family and live a normal life.” He voiced out. Just like he wanted from the start. He didn’t want his baby brother in a violent world like him, he wasn’t born to be violent. Him falling for you was a living proof of that. Maybe, just maybe you could convince him to retire.
His baby brother, alive and well. Just like he wanted.
I hope you guys enjoyed this one shot as much as I enjoyed writing it. if you have any requests let me know. see you in the next fic! byee x
With HellPark’s 6th year anniversary right around the corner, why not make things a bit more fun for the community by some setting some art prompts for people to follow?
This year’s theme is Summertime in Hell.
It will start on April 23rd and last until April 29th.
Use the #hellpark week 2025 and #hellpark week tags when sharing your artwork.
Apologies if someone’s already made a parody of this! But when I listened to this song and watched the music video, I couldn’t think of anyone else but them😂😂
First and foremost, want to give a big shoutout to @thegunnsara now that I have finally finished their 3rd place prize with the inclusion of their amazing OC, Ibris. I still love their COVER from the Holiday Special Competition dearly! I'll be sure to slip Ibris into a few more scenes in the future. Sorry it took so long to finally get to him! I took some liberty with what his reaction would be to such a scene... hope I did him justice!
Hope you're all ready for some tension in the next update!
Same posting schedule as last chapter: every other week on a Friday.
Chapter Progress Dates
Thumbnailed: Dec 2023 (revised May 2024)
Lineart/inks: May-Jun 2024
Colour: finished Nov 2024
This chapter is dedicated to my late Grandma. She was one of the biggest supporters of my art as a child and the supplier of many sketchbooks. In her last months she asked, nearly every day, about how the story I was working on was coming along. I never had the heart to tell her it was a silly TMNT fan comic, but her encouragement meant so much to me.
A big thank you to my patrons for their support over these past few months while I struggled and still struggle to get back on my feet. Another thank you to them for helping me choose which sketch to use for the cover of this chapter <3 You guys are very cool!
Anyway, I appreciate all the kindness during the long wait between chapters, I am excited to share more of this comic with you soon!
UMMM EXCUSE ME??? HOW DARE YOU DROP A BANGER LIKE THIS ONE ME‼️‼️‼️‼️ I LOVE HOW YOU DREW THE ANIMALS. OMG THE SHE SHADING IM LOSING MY MIND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING EVERYONE PLEASE LOOK LOOK LOOK
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