other times, other places(Saga of Tanya the demon slayer side stories)

Kyujuro Rengoku was sitting in his home, his father had gone to sleep. Which was good cause it meant he could focus on his thoughts. His normal wide smile had faltered greatly, replaced with a look of complete nervousness. 'the festival I wanted to take her to starts soon, I should ask Tanya today, right?' he rationed with himself, yet shook his head. 

He had asked Mitsuri, his former student and also current Love pillar of the Hashira for advice, unfortunately, she had proposed a very romantic way to do it, with him riding on a horse, stopping in front of her, and saying a line that even made him want to crawl in a hole. Tanya would never go for something like that! He was pretty sure she would say no to that for sure. 

"Should I ask others?" Kyujuro tried to think of who he could ask, but the only one he knew that was actually in a relationship was Tengen. He did have three wives so he must be doing something right. But something told him that the Sound Hashira's methods would be just as ineffective. He could also ask Sanemi, he was pretty sure the Wind Hashira dated Kanae Kocho. But even he was aware that bringing that up would just open up unneeded wounds, and get him punched. "Oh what do I do?" he rubbed his head, ruffling his wild yellow hair. 

The only other option was his father, and well, the last time he asked for advice from the man in his drunken state he left the house with a mix of different alcohol splashed all over him. He crossed his arms when Senjuro came out. "Hey Kyujuro, are you okay? Did you get beat up again by" the elder Rengoku brother raised his hand? "No, just stuck thinking." his brother sat beside him. "Well what I like to do when I am stuck thinking is I wonder exactly why I am thinking it, and how it came to disrupt me so." the younger sibling looked up at the clouds "most of the time, at least when it comes to why I stay here with dad is because I still want you to come around, and the second is, I know one day he will snap out of this." 

Kyujuro was impressed with how Senjuro kept up his positivity, and he was glad to be part of the reason why. He placed his finger by his chin "the reason why…" as he thought to himself he thought back a little further than just one thing 'It all started one day, no more than that…'

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'....It was a day like any other where I came back from a mission, with one notable difference.'

Kyujuro had just returned from a mission, he had heard some clashing metal swords. Of course, assuming his father was still trying to get Senjuro to train. While their mother always stopped them from going too far for the younger sibling, he would soon find out that he was wrong on who was being trained. When he got there he saw a blonde-haired girl, shorter than Senjuro even, training with his father on the ground of their estate. He found out from his brother and mother that the girl was Tanya Kocho, the adopted little sister of the flower Hashira that worked with their father. 

'I thought that Kanae was always smiling and cheerful, Tanya must be similar in a way. Heh, how wrong I was.' 

He later approached Tanya, who was currently sitting outside. "HELLO TANYA KOCHO!" the girl yelled and jumped in surprise. She rubbed her hair and looked back at him, when he saw her glare, it filled him with a greater fear of death than any demon he had faced till then, though at that point he had not been on the field. But his mother had taught him respect, so he kept smiling and did not give any indication her glare made him want to hide behind many locked doors. "Who, the hell, are you?" she sorta growled at him. He kept smiling and said "Me? Thank you for asking! I am KYUJURO RENGOKU! I use flame breathing like my father. I am glad to see though that he has a new student." 

Kyujuro could tell, but his shouting and positive attitude were annoying the girl to a heavy degree. "Oh you, right heard about you from your family, and saw you across the table at dinner," she spoke with an annoyed grunt, he raised an eyebrow, at dinner, the girl had spoken with respect and calmness when talking to his parents and brother, her sudden annoyed tone and her bad eye look was confusing to him. 'Did I offend her?' he thought to himself, he then approached and stood beside where Tanya sat. "SO! How has training with my father gone? He can be strict but he is also fair. RIGHT?!" 

Tanya rubbed her ears, something she probably thought Kyujuro had not noticed. "Look, Rengoku, you need. To. stop. Yelling!" she glared up at him again, once again making the smiling male nearly crumble on the spot, even if he did not show it. "Not only am I right here but its night time." they stood in silence. "OKAY!" Tanya then held her face and went to punch him, but he quickly stopped it with his hands. "Wow, great reflexes Kocho!" she pulled her hand away "what every, stop yelling Rengoku. I need to rest," she grumbled some more things under her breath that he did not hear. "Huh. the little Kocho is scary. But she's got a real fire in her eyes, she will make an amazing flame breath user." 

'Something weird happened another day…' 

Kyujuro was about to leave for another mission, his crow reported to him that it was not too far away. As he was leaving though he heard some muttering inside, not much, he just heard '..X' and 'take down the rest was mostly inaudible to him. He did not mean to eavesdrop, so he planned to apologize to Tanya before he left, even if he did not hear much. He then found out Tanya could smile widely like him. Just in a far darker way. 

Tanya's smile, unlike the small platitude smiles she had been giving when asking or thanking for things, was unlike anything he had ever seen. She was biting her nail, her eyes seemed wide with both greed and excitement, and her wide grin reminded him of a devil-like smile. He instantly hid on the other side of the door, sweat physically dropped down his head. 'That…that was something' he thought to himself. He felt for once he had seen her true smile, and he was unsure how to feel about it. But one thing was for sure. 'It's interesting…and that look, she may have more a more burning passion than I thought. More than me even.' 

Suddenly, he heard "Rengoku?" tilting his head he saw Tanya giving him a strange yet curious look, "What are you doing out here?" he held up his hand quickly "RIGHT! I WAS LEAVING AND I WANTED TO SAY GOOD BYE.!" her usual annoyed look that followed his yelling returned. "so….GOODBYE!" Tanya rolled her eyes "fine, whatever Idiot, goodbye." both of them walked in separate directions, Rengoku towards the gate. 'Tanya hides a lot of things, when only when training and around me have I seen her act- that way. Is that her true self?' he wondered to himself. He wonder what else Tanya had hidden, and more than that he found himself thinking about her a lot after seeing her devil-like smile. 

'And then, that moment…' 

A year had passed after his mother's passing, though he was devastated, he had to keep smiling. Even if unlike when he smiled, he had to fake it. With his Father turning into a drunken mess and quitting the corps, berating them and him, but also Senjuro. Kyujuro figured that he and his smile were the little positivity that his brother had in his life. He kept up his smile when training with Tanya since he's all she had once again because his father was a drunken mess. And he kept it out in the field, less a fellow demon slayer sees him as weak for crying about his mother, when most of them had likely lost someone at some point. 

Kyujuro kept these feelings bottled inside. But then, Tanya's confronting him, berating him for faking a smile. He thought he was doing great at hiding it, Tanya always seemed to have a problem with his large smile, how could she tell it was fake now? But that did not matter, as when he tried to leave Tanya forced him to stay with a duel. And would not let him leave till he got all of his frustrations and sadness out. It was great, and exactly what he needed. Tanya was the only one who could tell he bottled up his emotions, and when he was able to release them all in one fight. He felt something he had not felt ever since his mother passed, happiness. 

After the fight, the next day when he was healing from the wounds he got from it. He was certain of a few things, he cared about his brother, he still wanted to become the flame pillar of the Hashira, and that one feeling that he had bottled up still was that he had feelings for the scary, calculating, but proud, Tanya Kocho. She walked out, sitting beside him for once without him being the one to approach her. She said "Like I said last night, I needed some stress relief. I do a lot actually." he nodded "yeah, but I am glad it is all out!" Tanya smirked, this time in a way that was neither fake nor scared him. "From now on, if you need to get some stuff off your chest, come to me, we can have another intense spar like that. Trust me I'll need it as well no matter when it happens." 

Kyujuro laughed loudly "if we do that too often, the whole house will be nothing but rubble." for once, he heard Tanya genuinely laugh. It was, cute. He dare not say that out loud, knowing the girl's aversion to being called that at all. The last time he did, bricks were thrown at him. "But yes, thank Ta- Kocho. I will remember that." she nodded at him "good." Tanya and Kyujuro looked at the sky, watching the sunrise. His genuine smile was back, even if it was brought back by the girl that hated it. 

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Kyujuro smiled again, his brother smiling back at him. "You look like you figured something out," Senjuro said as his older brother nodded. "Yeah. Senjuro, let's go. Mitsuri offered to take you with her and Iguro to a festival with them. I am sure father won't mind you being gone for a week." Senjuro smiled widely "really? Give me a minute to get ready." he ran inside. 

As the two were leaving they saw Mitsuri poking the ground with a stick outside their home. "Miss Konroji? I thought you left an hour ago." Senjuro said as the pink-haired girl nodded "yeah I did…" Kyujuro could tell the Love Hashira wanted to come along to see Tanya's reaction when he asked her. "You can come! The more the merrier!" Mitsuri perked up and stood up with excitement all over her face. 

As they left Kyujuro did have a small worry that she could just say 'no' outright. But he put that thought at the far back of his head. He, without knowing how ironic it was, had faith that Tanya would say 'yes.'