Work Text:
Accidental Drunken Shenanigans
…
Bam. “Ow.” Abrupt, near-uncontrollable giggles escaped Genya’s mouth and he clapped one hand to cover the bottom portion of his face in an attempt to stop himself. It really wasn’t funny but watching the bleach-blonde haired Zenitsu amble around and nearly run into every piece of furniture on his way to one of the medical cots—even guidance from Tanjiro and Kanao didn’t provide any assistance as they were equally struggling to walk in a straight line.
It was like watching a train-wreck in slow-motion.
The normally light-footed Kanao ended up tilting to the left with a slow, confused blink and Tanjiro made a face when he registered that one side of their group was falling and attempted to catch her—apparently forgetting that he was attempting to keep Zenitsu from running into the wall again. Another giggle escaped as Genya watched them all collapse to the ground in a heap—Zenitsu getting nearly crushed underneath Tanjiro, who was still reaching out like he could stabilize Kanao.
Inosuke full-out laughed—not even ashamed by the boisterous noise that resembled a dying animal—from where he was close to teetering over the side of his own medical cot. Aoi had a long-suffering expression on her face as she attempted to force him to lay back down again. “That looked so ridiculous Gonparchiro.” Inosuke slurred, mouth struggling to shape around the name. Genya briefly wondered who the hell Gonparchiro was. Was Inosuke attempting to talk to the crow or something?
Where even were the crows?
Did they just opt out at some point? When did they even get to the Butterfly estate? Genya remembered walking—he thought he did—from a village or something. The five of them had been given a mission together to a nearby village—and then—then what? His brain isn’t braining.
“Ow.” Zenitsu whined again from where he was splayed on the floor. Kanao had stumbled on top of him too in an attempt to get back to her feet. Genya giggled, hiccupping. He jumped, surprised by the noise and wondered if he could do it again. “Why is everyone trying to crush me? Maybe I should just die here on the floor—” Big, fat tears started rolling down his face. His nose was also running—Genya wanted to go on a jog. Maybe they could even play hide-and-seek like his own family and he used to do when he was seven.
It'd been forever since he played hide-and-seek. “We should play hide-and-seek.” Genya announced.
The boar-head stared at him—it was like the mask was staring deep into his soul. Or something. It took a minute for him to remember that there was a person attached to the boar head. Inosuke. “What’s hide-and-seek?”
Aoi waved her hands emphatically. “No. No. No. Absolutely not. We are staying put.”
Genya stared at her. He laughed. “You looked like you were about to stomp your foot.” He mimicked the gesture, one hand cocked on his waist. “It was like this.” Genya clarified, because he needed to. Obviously. He suddenly focused on the really pretty butterflies in her hair. “Can you do my hair like that? I want a butterfly clip too.” When he was younger, he always wished that he had more hair for his little sisters to play with—they were always wanting someone to do their hair. Braids and having some sections of their hair curled up in a bun thing.
Now, he kind of wanted food. Watermelon. He wanted a whole watermelon to himself. Aoi blinked a few times at him. “Huh?” She seemed to settle with.
“It’s so pretty.” Genya explained. He hiccupped again. “You’re so pretty. You kind of remind me of what my little sister would have looked like—she had long hair too.” He explained wistfully.
He missed his little siblings. Aoi’s face reddened. “That’s so sweet.” Tanjirou declared. Genya blinked a few times at him. In the time since Genya had last paid attention, they seemed to have gotten themselves upright. Zenitsu was finally put on one of the cots so that he couldn’t run into anything—though there were tears rolling down his face still. Inosuke was touching the boar head all over, feeling it between his fingers. “Are you feeling ok, Genya?” The red-haired boy watched him with warm eyes.
Genya nodded. He smiled. “I feel all floaty.” He answered. “You’re so nice, Tanjirou-kun.” Genya suddenly launched himself at him. He wrapped his arms underneath Tanjirou’s armpits and shrunk himself down a bit.
Tanjirou laughed. “Ok—thanks Genya.” His smile was so warm. Genya hugged him tighter. Tanjirou was his favorite person right now. “Have one of the butterfly girls told Shinobu-san about the situ—situa—situation?” Genya pressed one ear to his chest, listening to the rumble of the words.
“Yes.” Aoi answered immediately. Genya turned his head so he could look at her. She was scanning them all with a hint of bewilderment in her eyes. He tilted his head—she looked kind of lonely all by herself.
“Aoi—do you want a hug too?” Genya asked.
Aoi stared at him. “No—no thank you—I don’t—”
He felt a bit sad. “Do you not like me? I’m sorry.”
She waved her hands back and forth rapidly, face reddening. “No. That’s not true. Don’t be sorry.” Aoi exhaled, a full-bodied sigh as she walked over. She gave a slightly awkward, one-armed hug and Genya beamed.
Zenitsu sniffled. “You’re so affectionate, Genya-kun.” He attempted to stand up. Several people moved forward, knowing that that was a bad idea. “Can I have a hug too?” Zenitsu slurred.
Genya nodded, stumbling over to him to latch onto him. He wrapped his arms around Zenitsu’s shoulders and squeezed. “I love you guys.” Genya beamed. “You guys are so nice and—and so much fun.” He stuttered a little bit, temporarily frowning at himself for not being able to get the words fully out. “We should play hide-and-seek!” He announced brightly.
“No.”
“Yeah. We totally should.” Zenitsu agreed. He popped his head up.
Kanao nodded. “I want to play, too. I never got to play hide-and-seek when I was little.” She sounded kind of sad about it and Genya wasn’t going to let that continue. It was practically a rite-of-passage of everyone’s childhood to play hide-and-seek.
Inosuke chipped in, still messing around with his boar head. He’d rotated the thing all the way around and Genya stared at him for a little bit, wondering if he should feel disturbed by how it looked. “I still have no idea what that is. But, is it going to be a competition?”
Genya nodded. “Yeah. One person counts while everyone hides and then they have to find everyone. Whoever gets found last wins.” He explained. “And they’re dubbed the best-hider-in-the-world.” Genya added.
“I’m going to be the best hider-in-the-world!” Inosuke shouted, lifting his arms to the sky. “Let’s play!”
Aoi looked a bit frantic. “No. Maybe later. Why don’t we all wait here until Miss. Shinobu gets back here from the Hashira meeting?” She glanced at Tanjirou and Genya just shrugged as he watched Tanjirou think about it for a few minutes.
“Please—Tan, can we play?” Genya pleaded.
“Yeah. Let us play Gonparchiro!”
Tanjirou shrugged, giving Aoi a comforting smile. Genya rocked back and forth with Zenitsu a little bit. “Let’s stay on the butterfly estate for the game, though.” He provided a condition. “I’ll be the seeker and the rest of you can hide.” Tanjirou decided.
Genya grinned, cheering as he opened on arm for Tanjirou to join the hug with Zenitsu. The red-haired demon slayer laughed and wrapped his arms around them both. “No more disgusting skin-on-skin contact—” Inosuke started, rotating the boar-head so that he could see out of it properly. “—let’s play!”
He let both Tanjirou and Zenitsu go and stood up, wobbling for a bit before steadying himself with a giggle. A sudden weight hopped on his back and he glanced over to see Nezuko smiling at him. “I want to—be—on Gen-ya’s team.” She spoke slowly, articulately the words so they almost had a dream-like quality.
“I work alone.” Inosuke insisted. “I’ll be my own team.”
Aoi sighed, massaging her forehead. “This isn’t going to end well at all.”
Genya wobbled over to her with Nezuko carried on his back like a younger-sibling. He would never let her fall, if he could help it. “Don’t worry, Aoi. We’ll be care—careful.” He stumbled over the word a bit as he assured her.
Tanjirou cleared his throat. “I’m going to start counting to sixty—everyone better go hide.” He announced. Genya didn’t even wait till his eyes were closed before he and Nezuko were taking off.
“Where should we hide, comrade?” Genya asked, swiveling around as he looked from place-to-place. He thought about hiding them under a table or in the kitchen or beyond a door or curtain, but those options seemed so boring.
“There.” Nezuko pointed. Genya followed her clawed finger to inside one of the flower-bushes lining the pathways outside. He followed her advice and got them both secured inside a bush, giggling and peeking out with wide-eyes. “This—is—fun.” Nezuko whispered.
Genya nodded. “It really is.” He giggled once more.
…
“Found you!”
“Eep!” Zenitsu’s screams echoed around the butterfly estate. Genya peeked out from the bushes, curious. That didn’t quite sound like Tanjiro—instead, it sounded like the love pillar, Mitsuri Kanroji—unless the red-eyed boy had suddenly developed the high-pitched melodic voice of a woman.
Maybe Tanjiro had gotten the pillars to be on his team—well, Genya supposed that the wind pillar would definitely not be involved in a game of hide-and-seek, which made him feel inexplicably sad. The game wasn’t so fun anymore, but he wasn’t going to ruin it for Nezuko. She was far more important than some stupid feelings about his absentee aniki. “Still—fun?” The demon poked him.
When Genya looked at her, she was looking at him with as much worry as possible in her luminous pink eyes. Genya smiled. “Of course—but we’ve got to stay quiet, otherwise they’ll catch us.” He held a finger to his lips.
She mimicked the gesture, making a shushing noise. Genya’s grin softened, reminded of Hiroshi. He would always want to hide with Genya whenever they played, too, and worked hard to keep Genya from making too much noise from giggling that would get them caught by Sanemi. “Too late!” A voice shouted exuberantly. Genya’s heart dropped to his stomach as a muscled arm wrapped around his midsection and hoisted him up—arms and legs dangling towards the ground and suddenly it was much further from him.
He looked to his right and spotted Nezuko being hoisted up as well. Genya looked further and upwards and located that it had been the sound pillar that had found them. Long, white hair cascading over his shoulders and robes. “Hi, Uzui-san!” Genya greeted with a smile. He hadn’t been able to have many personal interactions with Tengen Uzui, but it was nearly impossible to forget the flashier man. Plus, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke had shared about their own ventures with the man—confirming the rumors that they’d been there during his battle with uppermoon six when he’d announced his retirement.
With warmth in his dark-colored eyes, Uzui-san glanced at him for a moment. “You’re Genya-kun, right?” He tilted his head to one side. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Tengen Uzui—the flashiest former Hashira that you’ll ever meet.”
“That’s so cool.” Genya stated brightly. “Nezuko, we’re playing hide-and-seek with some of the pillars—isn’t that so fun? We should get a watermelon—now. I want a watermelon. Have you had one before? They’re my favorite dessert.” He really wanted a watermelon.
“I’ll get you a watermelon.” Uzui-san offered. “But, first, we need to find Inosuke and catch up with the others.”
Genya squirmed with excitement. The arm underneath his stomach made him slightly more uncomfortable and he tried to adjust so that the man’s forearm didn’t dig-in so much to his stomach. “Get—down?” Nezuko whispered.
Frowning, Genya adjusted once more as Uzui-san paused and set him down. He glanced at the former hashira-ranked demon-slayer and decided that he looked huggable. Genya jumped at the man, wrapping his arms around the man’s waist and squeezing. The breath whooshed out of Uzui-san and he patted Genya on the head with his free hand, the other arm still wrapped around Nezuko. “Alright—tell you what—how about you get on my back?” Laughter was strewn through the words.
His eyes lit up. “Can I?” Genya only knew of a few people taller than him and Tengen Uzui was one of those people. Gyomei didn’t normally show physical affection like that, so Genya wouldn’t even know how to ask him to give him any type of piggyback-ride.
Uzui-san laughed. “Of course, you can, Genya-kun.”
“I—want—carry—too.” Nezuko protested.
The sound pillar looked thoughtful. “Give me one second.” He gently put Nezuko down and remained crouched. Picking her up in his arms, he then turned to his back to Genya and he got the message. Genya carefully wrapped his arms around the white-haired man’s neck and the man angled his elbows away from his body to give Genya somewhere to put his legs. “There we go! Now, we’re all good to go!” Uzui-san announced loudly.
Genya cheered—a sound that was slightly echoed by Nezuko. Uzui-san would’ve made a good older brother. “You’re a good older brother.” Genya remarked.
For some reason, the man paused for a few heartbeats. He then continued walking, “You’re a lot sweeter than your brother, Genya-kun.” Uzui stated.
“No way—Nemi is the kindest and sweetest person ever.” Genya protested.
The man snorted. “I’m sure he’s different to his family.”
Genya rested his chin on Uzui’s shoulder. “He was—he loved our baby siblings a lot. I miss them. And Nemi—he might hate me, but he’s right to. I’m not a good brother.” Genya shook his head, hating the sadness that layered in his voice.
“You—can—be—my—brother.” Nezuko commented.
“I’ll gladly have you as a little brother.” Uzui added.
“Yay!” Genya squeezed a little bit tighter and then loosened his grip more. “Can we still get watermelon when we meet up with everyone?” He questioned. The other chuckled and lightly bumped his head against Genya’s in acknowledgement of the question.
A few seconds later there was a loud string of curse-words and Genya blinked in absolute confusion as a cackling Inosuke ran past—a suspicious red liquid around the mouth part of his boar mask. Uzui collectively turned the three of them and guffawed when two figures emerged from the direction that Inosuke had come from. “Couldn’t catch the boar kid, could you?” Uzui sounded highly amused.
The snake pillar looked slightly homicidal. “Shut up, Uzui.” Genya observed the collection of branches and leaves in his outfit as well as the thin, fresh scratch above his golden eye. “Where did he go?”
Genya leaned over to Nezuko. “Should we tell him?” He whispered.
“Good question.” Uzui-san hummed thoughtfully. The wind pillar emerged behind him—and Genya brightened momentarily upon seeing his aniki, before his mood dimmed and he lowered his head remembering how angrily the wind pillar usually addressed him. “Oh, wow, you’re looking a little rough there Sanemi.” There was a suspicious bite mark on his upper arm that was shallowly bleeding.
“I’m going to murder that little shit. He fucking bit me.” Aniki scowled.
Iguro Obanai seemed to share his opinion. Genya wondered if they were actually serious about murdering him. He’d also kill for a watermelon right now. “Can we get a watermelon?” He poked Uzui on the cheek.
Uzui snorted. “Yes, Genya-kun, we’ll get you a whole watermelon for yourself.”
Genya cheered brightly. “Yay.” He glanced over to the two pillars and pointed in a different direction than Inosuke had gone. “He went that way.” At the moment, Genya didn’t have any consequences for the lie and those two had no reason to interact with him behind this—besides Inosuke reasonably could have swerved in that direction.
“Uzui—why are you holding him—them like that?” The wind pillar sounded like he was gritting his teeth.
Blinking at him, Genya wondered if the other was dumb. “Because he’s a good older brother, duh.” He rolled his eyes.
Shinazugawa scowled darkly. “He is not your older brother.”
Genya glanced towards a teary-eyed Uzui-san. “Would you mind if I adopted you as an older brother?” He poked the man on the cheek again, his eyes landing on the pretty eye patch and he considered poking that too. Intrusive thoughts were fun.
Uzui-san sounded choked up when he spoke. “Nope. Adopt away.”
“Excuse the fuck out of me.” The wind pillar looked and sounded enraged. Genya noticed that the snake pillar had found Mitsuri and they were both looking for Inosuke. “No. You’re not adopting a grown man. Let him go, Uzui.”
“Why are you ruining my fun?” Genya pouted. “Bad Aniki.” He swatted the other on the head when he got close enough to.
“Did you just hit me?” Aniki looked flabbergasted.
Had Genya never hit him before? That didn’t make sense. He should have at least bit him on the ankle as a kid at some point. “I can do it again.” Genya offered brightly. “You’re making it take too long to get my watermelon. Boo.” Genya swatted at him again.
“Boo.” Nezuko repeated.
Aniki suddenly paused and pinched the bridge of his nose. “How fucking drunk are they?” It didn’t sound like a question that was directed towards Genya. Uzui-san suddenly got a little bit more serious as he shrugged.
“No idea.” Uzui answered. “I don’t think Nezuko is drunk. Just Genya-kun—” He shook Genya slightly for emphasis and Genya felt a giggle escape. “—Tanjirou, the board-head, the whiney blonde one, and Shinobu’s tsukugo.”
“We’re not drunk.” Genya frowned. “Alcohol is gross.” He shuddered—alcohol was something he associated with Kyogo. And, therefore, it would make people feel angry and was all-in-all a bad thing.
“Of course not.” Uzui-san appeased him peacefully. “You’re just a little playful right now.”
Genya nodded. “That’s right. We were playing hide-and-seek.” He remarked. “We should have made it hide-and-seek tag, that would have been so much fun.” He leaned his head against the side of Uzui-san’s.
Aniki looked somewhat conflicted. “Give him here, Uzui.” He stated a second later.
He glanced at the other white-haired man. “No.” Genya tightened his hold slightly.
“Genya—”
“No.” Genya felt a tad too upset. “I want to keep getting a piggy-back ride.”
“I’ll give you a damn piggy-back ride.” Sanemi argued, arms outstretched.
Genya swatted him away, again. “No—you won’t. You hate me.”
Uzui-san cut in then. “Sorry, Sanemi—but you’re kind of upsetting him and we don’t want to deal with them getting too upset.” Uzui tossed the wind pillar a sympathetic look when Genya wasn’t paying attention to him. “I’m going to get these two back to Shinobu. Why don’t you go back to helping catch Inosuke?” The man’s suggestion was met with hesitance from the wind pillar.
Aniki grumbled. “Fine.” He stormed off towards where the snake pillar and Mitsuri were calling for Inosuke. Genya giggled, realizing that they were still heading in a different direction than Inosuke had gone in.
“You had fun with that one, huh?” Uzui-san snorted.
“You didn’t correct me.” Genya teased in a sing-song voice.
“Of course not—us brothers have to stick together.” Uzui-san winked.
…
“They’re probably sobering up already. Maybe a few hours left before they’ll all crash out.” Shinobu Kocho reported after they’d gotten to the infirmary. Uzui-san nodded, setting Genya and Nezuko down on one of the medical cots. “Did you have a fun adventure?” She questioned with her customary smile.
Genya nodded. “Yeah. We should do it again, sometime.”
Both her and the sound pillar exchanged glances. “Yeah, of course, but—next time, maybe we’ll set limitation as to where hide-and-seek takes place, hmm?” Shinobu replied calmly.
He shrugged. “I thought we did.”
“Inosuke broke that rule.” Uzui-san snorted.
“That sucks—then he can’t be the ultimate hider.” Genya pouted. Kanao, Nezuko, and him exchanged commiserating looks, before Genya got distracted by Shinobu’s butterfly clip. His expression brightened. “The butterfly clips are so pretty—” He remarked.
Shinobu’s smile looked a touch amused. “Really? You like them?”
Genya nodded rapidly. “Yeah—you look really pretty.”
Kanao nodded in agreement. “She’s always pretty.” She answered softly.
“So are you, Kanao.” Genya remarked. He hiccupped, “How was your first game of hide-and-seek?” He hoped that she had a lot of fun—for her first time playing the game, it had to be amazing.
“I did.” Kanao agreed. “Do you think we can play another round?”
“Maybe later.” Shinobu cut in. “How about we get you all some food?” She gave Uzui-san a significant look, he nodded slightly in response.
“Watermelon.” Genya’s eyes sparkled.
Uzui-san chuckled, reaching forward to ruffle his hair. Genya leaned into the touch. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you the best watermelon I can.”
“Thanks—you’re the best big brother ever.”
Shinobu shot the other pillar a sharp look. “I’d be careful about letting him say that with Sanemi around.” She remarked idly. Uzui-san shrugged blithely and left. Genya glanced towards her; an eyebrow raised.
Aniki had no reason to be upset—he hated Genya. “Aniki wouldn’t care about that.” Genya remarked, confusion in his words. “He hates me.” He stated as simply as possible—water was wet, air was air, and Sanemi Shinazugawa hated Genya—they were all facts of life.
Her expression looked a bit off—though the smile still remained. “Ah. I see that you’ve found Tanjirou, Muichiro.” Genya glanced over to see them both. He grinned, wobbling off the bed and launching himself at them. Tanjirou laughed and welcomed the embrace.
Muichiro arched an eyebrow at him and Genya stuck his tongue out playfully. “You’re quite cuddly, Genya.” The fourteen-year-old remarked calmly. Genya shrugged and held an arm open to offer him a hug as well. Bemused, the mist pillar allowed him to.
“You guys—Uzui-san is getting a watermelon.” Genya reported happily.
“Ah—you’re favorite food, huh? That’s very nice of him.” Tanjirou smiled knowingly. “Can you hold him Muichiro? I’m going to check on Kanao and Zenitsu.” Genya noticed that the blonde had arrived, led there by Mitsuri and Obanai-san—who seemed to have given up on finding Inosuke and was glowering at Zenitsu instead.
Genya wrapped himself around Muichiro, while the other snorted, but returned the embrace. “You tired?” Muichiro asked when Genya yawned.
He held up his pointer finger and thumb, putting some space between them. “A little bit. I still really want a watermelon, though.” Genya remarked. Muichiro chuckled, maneuvering them over to one of the cots. Genya let him go at the slightly elbowing he received as Muichiro got on the cot and then folded his legs, allowing for Genya to use his lap as a pillow.
“He’s crashing out, already?” Shinobu’s voice was soothing.
Muichiro nodded. “Yeah.”
“Too bad Shinazugawa-san missed getting him to cuddle him.” Tanjirou noted. “Uzui-san was particularly gleeful about it. I think Genya won him over somehow.”
“He referred to Uzui-san as a really good older brother.” Shinobu stated.
Muichiro chuckled. After that noise, Genya drifted off, feeling warm
…
“Oh my god—shut up.” Genya murmured; voice raspy. His head was positively throbbing and he wanted it to stop. “What the fuck?” His breath hissed out between his teeth as he attempted to pry his eyes open—it took a few attempts.
“Watch your language, you fucking little shit.”
Genya froze and then peered upwards—he met similar-to-his-own violet eyes. “Aniki—the fuck did you do?” He closed his eyes, head feeling like someone was hitting it with a hammer.
A long sigh answered him. Genya cracked an eye open. The wind pillar looked a mix of exasperated and fond—it wasn’t an expression that Genya was familiar with seeing on his typically scowling face. “The drinks that the villagers gave you on your last mission were spiked.” Aniki remarked, voice deadpan.
Genya paled. “You’re kidding.” He breathed.
“I wish.” The wind pillar snorted. “You attempted to adopt Uzui.”
He sat up almost too-quickly and swayed, nauseous. The wind pillar outstretched a hand, gripping his shoulder and stabilizing him. “Oh, my fucking god—what the actual hell?” He massaged his forehead.
Genya had a vague recollection of playing hide-and-seek, but that was about it. “You also wanted to cuddle with literally everyone, but me.” Aniki pointed out—sounding very cross about the whole thing.
“That’s probably your fault.” Genya quipped.
He whined when the man flicked him on the ear.
After a second, Genya furrowed his eyebrows. “If I tried to cuddle with everyone but you—” He started, speaking slowly, and peering up at his brother with confusion, “—then why did I end up waking up with you staring at me like a creep?”
Another ear-flick greeted him. “I’m your older brother—not a damn creep.”
“I feel like you might be the drunk one—the aniki I knows hates me and would never entertain this conversation at all.” Genya pointed out.
“You want me to go?”
“I’m not sure what the right answer to that is.” Genya answered. “If I say yes—I have a feeling you wouldn’t leave out of pure spite. And if I beg you to stay—you’ll leave. It’s always the opposite with you.”
It was so silent that Genya almost would have thought the wind pillar left—if not for the fact that he could see his brother in front of him. Both of them seated on the cot. “I’ll stay, then.” Aniki answered. “Uzui got you a watermelon—you were seriously craving it when you were drunk.” The other stood up and went to get a bowl that had some cut-up watermelon in it. He sat down and handed Genya a piece.
Genya opted to not question Sanemi anymore. Instead, he enjoyed the hang-over watermelon with Sanemi—the brief respite from the tension that fractured their relationship more than welcome, at least for a moment.