You get no summary as to what this is about. It's around 2k words, but it only took me like 30 minutes to write so. it's. it's a bit confusing. but it's cute and happy!!!
“I don’t even know where to start,” Chloe whined, slamming her forehead against the library table. Jake winced involuntarily at the noise, but Chloe didn’t even seem to notice what she’d done. “She’s just so pretty, Jake. Have you seen her? Those eyes—”
“Yes,” Jake replied, an odd mix between bemused and annoyed. He had homework he was happy to ignore just to listen to Chloe’s excessive rantings on her most recent crush (there’d been three this week—she was struggling with the whole ‘not being in love with Brooke anymore’ thing), but it was still homework that he’d have to do later if he didn’t finish it now. “We get it, she’s hot and you want to fuck her, but did I factor this right?”
She barely glanced over his paper before giving him a half-hearted thumbs up and continuing on with, “I just want to be able to talk to her, you know? Be confident and tell her she’s the most gorgeous person I’ve ever seen.”
“Then do that,” Rich seethed. He was even more impatient than Jake, sitting red-faced with his arms crossed over his chest, staring directly at his computer with a familiar fiery gaze Jake was accustomed to being on the receiving end of. Jake’s heart did a flip.
“Shut up. You never confess to your crushes," Chloe shot back.
“Because I’m busy writing reports for my stupid research class, and I’d prefer if I could do it in silence.”
Jake leaned forward on his elbows and propped his chin on the heel of his hand, just close enough so he could feel the edges of Rich and Chloe’s argument like electricity in the air. They were both pissy today—Chloe because she was upset about her crush, and Rich because he had a three thousand word report due that night that he’d totally forgotten about until two days ago. Though Jake would usually have little patience when it came to Rich’s moods (uncommon now that he was unsquipped—most of the time it was either dorky ramblings or hesitant dad jokes), he was well enough adapted to Rich’s behaviors to know that hadn’t meant to put it off, really, it was just a thing that happened sometimes. He knew Rich had seen it in the color-coded agenda Jake had made for him, it simply didn’t register that it was real. Rich spent the past two days busting his ass off and Jake understood why he wanted silence so he could get it over with.
“No,” Chloe shot back, “You’re a coward. And I am too. I’m usually so confident, this genuinely hurts. I don’t know what to do with myself.”
Rich tilted his head back to cast a glance up at the sky, probably a prayer of some sort, before he closed his computer and turned to Chloe, expression cold. Jake watched his every movement.
“Five minutes,” Rich spat, “Five minutes, and then you shut up for the rest of the period and let me work. Deal?”
Chloe stuck out her hand and shook his. Rich set a timer on his phone and immediately Chloe was off. The color of this girl’s eyes (Jake wasn’t sure of her name, he’d been too busy watching Rich bite his lip while he focused to catch it), her hair, the way she made her feel.
“I can’t even think when I'm around her," Chloe sighed, borderline wistful, “My stomach gets in knots and everything gets fuzzy and warm. It’s like I’m melting inside, and not in a horny way. I want to take her away to some perfect place where she can never get hurt and teach her how to paint and feed her cherries. How am I supposed to talk to her when my brain is literal mush whenever she gets too close?!"
Rich laughed for the first time all day. Jake frowned.
“I don’t get it,” Jake said slowly, trying to decode Chloe’s words even as he was speaking, “Aren’t you doing that now?”
Chloe and Rich immediately turned to him, surprised by not only his sudden contribution to their previously exclusive conversation but also by his hesitance. Jake wasn’t hesitant. Jake always knew what he was talking about.
Even now, he was sure of himself. He knew Chloe was talking through that feeling now—Rich was sitting right next to her, and Rich was practically the embodiment of that feeling. He walked into the room and overwhelmed everyone with a giddy, sunshine feeling that made their vision blur and their heart beat too fast. It was a Rich thing, he brought it everywhere he went. Even when he walked in with a too-big sweatpants and oily hair after weeks of either studying or laying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling and convincing himself he was worth more than the persona he used to present, Rich ignited butterflies in everyone he met. Every single day.
Chloe didn’t make the connection to the Rich Effect (as Jake had dubbed it), though. She shot to her feet, eyes wide and panicked.
“She’s here?!!?” she whisper-yelled, spinning in circles and scanning the library for her mystery crush, “Where?! Why didn’t you tell me—”
“What? No, calm down, I was talking about Rich.”
If Jake’s earlier statement had confused them, this broke them. Chloe sat down, her back rigid and eyes narrowed. Rich simply tilted his head slightly to the right, an innocent show of curiosity. Even that was enough to make the room flush pink, and somehow Chloe seemed perfectly fine talking through that, he didn’t see why this new girl was any different.
“Rich?” she echoed, “I don’t have a crush on Rich? It’s fine to talk around him?”
“Yeah, obviously. But he’s got the whole Rich thing, y’know?”
They did, indeed, not know. Jake looked between the two of them, searching for any flash of recognition, but he was met with empty stares and questioning looks. Rich made a small, confused sound.
“Like, Rich-walks-in-a-room-and-everything-lights-up? That thing? The butterflies? C’mon, you have to know what I’m talking about, he’s been doing it since the fire.”
Jake’s nerves somehow coalesced into an awkward, stunted laugh made just to fill the silence that followed his observation. Rich seemed weirdly flustered, as if he’d somehow been unaware that every single person he met was enthralled by the sound of his lisp or the way he fidgeted with the hem of his sleeves whenever he got nervous. This was normal—Jake knew it was normal. Everyone felt that, everyone knew it, it was just such a fact of life it remained unspoken amongst the masses.
“…no,” Chloe said as if she was explaining some foreign concept to a toddler, “Most people do not get butterflies at the sight of Rich. No offense.”
Rich shook his head as he muttered ‘none taken.’ He was studying Jake with the same lost expression Chloe was, lips parted, and it was only when Rich’s cheeks flushed a cute pink that Jake realized maybe he’d fucked up.
Rich clearly had no idea what he was talking about. Even worse, Chloe had no idea what he was talking about. Not only was Rich not purposefully torturing the entire population with his inexplicable ability to turn everything into gold whenever he smiled, but apparently his accidental magic only affected Jake.
A phenomenon most would describe as a crush.
Jake did not have a crush. He was straight, Rich was his best friend, and he’d never risk ruining that. But Chloe was slowly coming to the same realization he had and he watched the exclamation form on her lips before he had the chance to stop her.
“You like him?!”
Jake didn’t have time to form a defense before Rich was falling out of his chair, face red and eyes bulging. He popped back up almost immediately and screeched, “WHAT?!”
“No!!! Stop! I don’t! Slow down! It’s normal, okay?! Stop looking at me like that, Jesus. I’m not—I’m talking to you right now, aren’t I?! It’s clearly not the same. Just—the normal amount, you know? Don’t you give everyone butterflies? C’mon, it can’t just be me.”
Maybe it was just him, come to think of it. He didn’t remember many other people getting tongue-tied around Rich, or blushing simply when he entered the room. The only reason Jake could keep his cool around Rich was because he’d spent months adapting to this constant glow-y feeling. The first few weeks after meeting post-fire Rich, Jake had practiced talking in the mirror just to make sure he hadn’t had a stroke in his sleep and lost the ability to speak or something. Other people… didn’t seem to have that reaction. They didn’t act like Rich was made of pure sunshine, or his voice a melody, his eyes entrancing, his lips—
Jake searched Rich’s face for an answer, eyes darting from place to place helplessly. From his eyes to his eyebrows to his cheeks to his freckles to his hair. He was met with curiosity and excitement and tension—something that terrified him more than anything.
He didn’t think Rich would say no, not when he was looking at Jake like this. Like he was afraid to be happy, unbelieving that things could possibly go the way he wanted them to. Jake could ask Rich to kiss him right now and… and he might get that. He might like that.
“The normal amount,” Jake repeated, his voice trembling. Too fast. He was straight ten minutes ago, this was way too fucking fast.
“The normal amount is no amount, Jacob,” Chloe said. Unlike Rich, she didn’t sound afraid to be happy. She looked excited. She was finally free from Jake’s lingering attraction. She could go off and date this new girl without wondering if her ex-boyfriend would be okay with it. Because he had a crush on his best friend. Apparently. Fuck. No—
“Okay?! Then I don’t feel it any amount! It’s only sometimes—well, most of the time—but there’s no way—how can you look at him and not—?”
Chloe had the audacity to laugh at him, elated and unbridled. That, of all things, should’ve had Jake’s heart melting into his lungs.
But instead, it was Rich’s small, “Jake…?” that made the sky turn pink.
“Don’t. I don’t like you, okay? I don’t. It’s—”
Jake would kiss him if Rich asked him to. But, because this was post-fire Rich instead of pre-fire Rich, Rich didn’t say a word, didn't lean forward and offer Jake the sweet relief of letting all this built-up excitement out into a kiss. Rich sat back down, mouth clamped shut and eyes trained carefully on the table in front of him.
“Okay,” he murmured, his face flushed, “Sorry. Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“Go out to dinner with me.”
Rich refused to look up. Still staring at the table, he whispered, “What?”
“I don’t know?! Apparently, not everyone thinks you’re the most beautiful person to walk the planet?! And I mean, if I get to keep you all to myself, then fuck me if I don't. So. Dinner. I don’t know what’s happening right now, but I’m not a fucking coward. I’ll go for it. You’re pretty, you make everything warm and happy, and I think I really fucking like that feeling, so.”
“You’re straight.”
“Maybe not?” Jake offered, his voice small and on the verge of cracking.
Rich’s hands clenched the edge of the table. Jake, disoriented and desperate, reached out and threaded their fingers together just to loosen his grip.
“Please?” he whispered, “I think—I think I really like you.”
“Okay,” Rich replied.
“No, I’m serious. I—”
“I know you are. But I’m sure I like you. A lot. Why don’t you go fuck around a little and experiment a bit before you decide to go and break my heart?”
“Oh, shit,” Chloe said. Jake shooed her off with his free hand, not even bothering to look at her. His full attention was on Rich and his trembling hands.
“I don’t wanna experiment. I want to go out to dinner with you.”
Rich shrugged. Jake made a small sound of frustration.
“C’mon, you can’t—I like you! I have all the feelings people get when they like someone. Hell, I probably have more, considering I literally cannot see anyone else whenever you so much as brush up against me. I was raised to be fucking president of Model UN and the archery team, Rich. My brain never managed to compute that liking guys—liking you—could even be an option. But it is an option, and I like you, and now that I know it I don’t think I will physically be able to handle being in the same room and not kissing you. Dinner. Please. One date. Then you can decide I’m a slut who just wants to experiment.”
Rich squeezed Jake’s hand, tight and unwavering. When he looked up, all Jake could think about was how grateful he was Rich hadn’t done it earlier. He already knew he was fucked—just from Chloe’s confusion, from Rich’s embarrassment—but damn. Damn. Jake wished he was more poetic. He’d trained himself to write succinct essays and informative contentions, not stanzas about the exact shade of gold the perfect mix between green and brown could make.
“One date.”
“And when I prove you wrong, we can go out on another.”
Rich let out an awkward laugh that sounded somewhere between pained and excited.
“Sure,” he said, “Then we can go on another.”
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Future hashira au where tanjiro isn't a demon, I've been daydreaming about how the plot would go and I'm loving how it sounds in my head so hope someone enjoys it!
Explanation of the au→
So basically, muzan had made a plan C before the final battle, (he's a tinge bit less arrogant in this au) he wanted to make sure that even if he couldn't escape from the demon slayers in time, he could still live on, and conquer the sun. It was all planned from when he saw through hantengu the earrings and nezuko, he would get into tanjiro's body, add the property of sun immunity to his blood, and then transfer his soul telepathically to his 'daughter'. Apparently, muzan made her to be the perfect vessel for his blood, and placed some of it inside her, but didn't fully turn her into a demon, she does get nauseated at human food sometimes but she's still capable of eating. She doesn't have demonic powers, because all of the blood is stored in side a small part of her brain that muzan can control effortlessly (i.e not much power needed so even if Tamayo poisoned him, he could still do the blood manifestation, she did poison him by stabbing him early on with her poison and was taken away by one of the hashira, and sent to the farthest place she could get, far from the dk's reach), on a telepathic level. What happens when muzan proceeds with the blood manifestation is as the following >
1. The daughter becomes a demon
2. She is basically muzan but in a child body
3. His original body is rendered lifeless
4. Muzan's soul is transferred to the
daughter.
5. The daughter is now partiality immune to the sun and practically almost invincible, unless you cut up all of the atoms in her body, which is some yoriichi level stuff. Another option is the antidote, which is the option they'll most probably use.
In this au, he managed to get close enough to tanjiro and poured himself into tanjiro when he just barely joined the battle, so tanjiro isn't poisoned and didn't lose any limbs yet. So he does what he does, and fully transitions into his daughter, with his wife waiting expectantly. She's a powerful demon in this au, she got turned a while ago, muzan making her an experiment, and when he found her blood demon arts useful and rare, he suggested a marriage, she consented but muzan would have done it anyways. He told her of the plan and it all worked thanks to one of her blood demon arts that helped store the blood in the daughter's brain. She wasn't actually their daughter, she was an orphan they raised to keep the facade of a happy family.
The 'wife' was kibitsuji tamaki, she was a beautiful woman of mysterious background, no parents, no siblings, no relatives. She was the perfect spouse, she had no real friends and never stayed in the same place, so no one knows too much of her existence, she had no morals and pride, she played dirty just to survive, but was loyal to those she deemed worthy and powerful. She was power starved and a liar, and she knew that. She loved and mastered the art of manipulation, she always had a smile on her face, never feeling remorseful of her actions, she was almost as much of a monster as muzan.
What a match made in hell.
Back at the battle field, everyone is confused as quack and no one has an idea of what the heck just happened. They were still in the dead of the night, 2 hours away from dawn. Alot of the hashira were gravely injured, muzan wanted to wipe out the supposed strongest out of spite, and everyone was a lot more injured, especially Obanai, he was deflecting all attacks sent his way, AND any extra attacks on mitsuri.
The hashira that died are as follows >
1. Kocho, cause of death > douma being disgusting
2. Himejima, cause of death > blood loss and demon slayer mark
3. Tokito, cause of death > split in half like a mozzarella stick
4. Iguro, cause of death > grave injuries injuries and blood loss
Mitsuri survives because the amount of damage she got was big but treatable. She had broken arms and 3 broken ribs, a concussion, and a slash that just barely missed her chest, and several bruises and cuts across her body.
Iguro does confess, and she reciprocated, but he went limp after uttering his confession of love. Mitsuri screams for him to wake up and continues to ball her eyes out, loudly confessing her love and begging him to stay with her.
The kakushi weren't expecting to be called until at least an hour later, but they were able to appear as quickly as possible.
Tamayo hears of the news, and is pissed.
She screams and curses at kibitsuji for what seemed like forever. She had to eventually leave with yushiro and return back to the butterfly mansion.
Everyone is taken for treatment, tanjiro has all of his body parts intact, kanao didn't have to use the antidote, since muzan left his body almost instantly. Tanjiro's wounds were all healed, so he doesn't have any of his scars anymore.
Since zenitsu, inosuke and kanao didn't engage too much into battle, they're in condition where they can fight again, after getting rehab and a lot of rest to heal.
Aoi and senjuro would be picking up their blades and going into battle in this au, and they're besties in my au fight meh if you disagree.
This is the au main plot, the mini skits and drabbles will explain what happens later. Hope this is a good plot, I worked so hard on the idea, and I can't believe it came out well, it actually kinda makes sense! I'm so proud of this!
Link To other posts related to the lore ➜➜➜
Muzan leaving tanjiro out of context
The beginning of the therapy arc
Random drabble (platonic inoaoi)
Taisho secret
1st patient:Shinazugawa Sanemi
2nd patient:Agatsuma Zenitsu
Sanemi gives mitsuri 'good' advice
Mitsuri decided to cut her hair as one last goodbye
I wrapped up the entire therapy arc into one post
2-3 weeks after the battle
Shinobu's loss' affect on aoi, yes, I am biased.
Kanao's character development (I have no idea if this is development though)
Aoi's exposure therapy (first post on my new blog @saffron-rose
Sayaki's character info post (it's long overdue lol)
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