turtle boy || gyutaro x pretty! reader
Gender neutral reader, 9.4k, modern high school au, slow burn, angst with a happy ending, tooth-rotting flu ff, reader is described as pretty/attractive, gyutaro is a nerdy delinquent, daki is a Mean Girl™, enemies to friends (daki), strangers to best friend’s brother to lovers (gyutaro)
Warnings: excessive cursing because teenagers, mentions of abuse and neglect, self-hatred on gyutaro’s part, sibling fights, VERY brief mention of suicide, daki is a bitch at the beginning but she gets better i swear
Notes: I took inspiration both from the Kimetsu Academy Tales’ take on modern high schoolers Gyutaro and Daki and from my own ideas and headcanons. I took a lot of liberties, especially with some of the other demon characters (like the fact that I made Douma the pretty popular boy that everyone simps over) and their personal interests (daki is a cheerleader and gyutaro had a wild kratts phase. I will die on this hill). I also switch between using Daki/Ume throughout the fic depending on whose POV is mainly in the scene, but mostly I refer to her as Daki.
.
.
.
Daki had been more than a little vocal about her not wanting to go to her junior orientation, but Gyutaro, being the responsible older brother that he is, hauled her there at 9 am anyways. Whenever she’d begin whining and hitting his back from where she sat on the motorcycle behind him, complaining about how badly she didn’t want to go, he’d just twist the throttle and drown out her voice.
She was still complaining by the time he pulled into the school’s parking lot, groaning and moaning in an e fort to be as annoying as possible as he undid the straps to her helmet and stuck it into the back compartment of his bike.
“I don’t want to gooooo,” she said, and he wouldn’t put it past her to throw a temper tantrum.
“You’re going,” he said. “I missed my junior orientation, and I was totally lost when school started.”
She furrowed her brows. “Yeah, but you dropped out, so why would that matter?”
He grit his teeth. Dropout. He never liked calling himself that, the words leaving a bitter taste on his tongue, but to be fair, that’s what he was. A high school dropout.
“It matters because you’re not going to drop out,” he said, giving her a stern glare. She stuck her tongue out at him. Childish. “Watch me.”
“If you do, I’ll kick your ass.”
“And I’ll call child protective services.”
He groaned. “Jesus, just go to the orientation, will you?”
“Fiiiine,” she drawled, beginning to prattle on about how it’s totally useless anyways. But Gyutaro tuned her out when he spotted what had to be the most gorgeous person he’d ever seen from across the campus.
You walked calmly, holding an air of confidence that Gyutaro could never have had himself. You were hypnotizing; he couldn’t bring himself to look away. You glanced over your shoulder, and brie ly, your eyes met. Gyutaro’s heart skipped a beat.
“Oi, brother, stop staring.” Daki snapped him out of his stupor with a smack to the back of his head. “You look like a perv.”
“Do not,” he grumbled. “Th ey’re just... attractive, y’know? S’not weird.”
“Who are you even looking at?” She asked, and Gyutaro nodded his head in your direction. Her eyes widened for a split second upon taking in your appearance, before pulling her face into a scowl. “Th ey’re okay, I guess. I’m still prettier.”
Gyutaro looked between you and Daki. “I dunno, they’re giving you a run for your money.”
She smacked him on his head again, and he snickered. “Who even is that kid, anyways?” he asked, glancing in your direction once more.
“I don’t know. Never seen ‘em before.” Daki shrugged. “By the looks of it, they’re probably in my year.”
Gyutaro’s interest notably piqued at this, and Daki glared at him. “Fucking perv.”
“Am not,” he argued, buckling back on his helmet and lipping o f the kickstand a ter Daki had dismounted. “Now go. Be good. You’d better not get into trouble before school even starts.”
He twisted the throttle and zoomed out of the parking lot. Over his shoulder, he could see the vague outline of Daki giving him the finger as he rode o f.
As he rode back to his apartment, he couldn’t keep his thoughts from wandering to you. You, with your pretty face and confident walk and... No, he was getting ahead of himself. You’re miles out of his league, and the quicker he can get that in his head, the happier everyone will end up being.
Still, a little voice in his head told him, a guy can dream, right?
.
.
“Turtles, turtles, turtles.... where’s the part about turtles...,” you muttered to yourself, lipping through the pages of the he ty encyclopedia you’d pulled from the library shelf. You sat down at one of the lone tables in the public library, pulling your notebook and pencils from your bag. All for a biology presentation you totally hadn’t waited to do until the last minute.
Unbeknownst to you, Gyutaro was watching you from across the room. He was wide-eyed and staring, like a deer caught in the headlights and unable to blink or move away.
It was you. at stupidly pretty person he’d spotted from across the courtyard when he want to drop o f Daki two weeks ago. The one he couldn’t stop thinking about (in a totally-not-weird-way), the one who he really didn’t expect to run into when he was going to return the books he’d borrowed the previous week. In the back of his mind, he’d hoped he might run into you again, and that next time he did, maybe he would be able to stop himself from staring at you like a creep
Yeah, that didn’t work out well.
Without thinking, his feet began to carry himself over to you. Not close enough to be weird, just.... to get a better view, that’s all. Yeah. Totally not creepy.
You gave a little “Aha!” sound as you lipped to a page of a large photograph of a green, stubby shelled animal. “Finally, I was starting to think this book didn’t even have turtles,”
“ That’s not a turtle.” the words slipped out of Gyutaro’s mouth before he could stop them, and at once he slapped his hands over his mouth in horror.
You looked up at him, and he wanted to do nothing more than run away and hide in some dark, dank corner where he belongs. He hadn’t meant for you to see him—he was used to people cringing away at his monstrous appearance, and he knew it’d hurt even more if you did it.
Your eyes widened for a split second, and then... You cocked your head. No cringing, no grimace, you were almost looking at him like he was normal.
“What do you mean it’s not a turtle?” You asked.
God, he wanted to run away so bad. But he steeled himself in place and grit his teeth; he dug this hole for himself, and now he has to follow through. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.
“ That’s Testudo kleinmanni,” he said, trying with all his might to keep his voice from cracking. “Or, more commonly called the Egyptian tortoise. I-it’s technically a turtle, since it’s in the order Testudines, but for sake of specificity, it’d be better described as a tortoise.” He couldn’t stop himself, now; the words came tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. Awkwardly, he leaned down to point at the picture. “See how its shell is more concave and juts upwards? at’s a tortoise’s distinction, since turtle shells are more flat and smooth. Also, tortoises are exclusively terrestrial animals, while turtles are semi-aquatic.”
Well, shit. Whatever sliver of a chance he thought he might’ve had with you just disappeared into thin air, all because he couldn’t keep his nerdy, know-it-all mouth shut. He fucked up, and he knew it—if it wasn’t for the fact that he wanted to maintain a shred of dignity, he definitely would have hightailed it out of the library in a second.
“Huh,” you said, looking at the picture. He was waiting for you to slap him, curse him out—any number of things that he probably deserved for not being able to keep his smartass thoughts to himself. “ That’s really interesting, actually. I didn’t know that.”
...What.
“Do you think you could find the section on turtles?” You continued, o ffering him the encyclopedia. “ The aquatic ones, I mean. I swear, I’ve been going through this for half an hour, but still, nothing.”
“Um.” You can’t be serious. Not only are you not upset, but you’re asking him to talk more? “Yeah. Sure.”
Against his better judgment, he took the seat next to you, scooting as close to the opposite edge as possible so as to not accidentally touch you. He couldn’t imagine what he’d do then.
“You checked the index, right?” He asked, taking the book from your hands and lipping to the back.
“...I did not.” You rubbed the back of your head sheepishly. “Wow, and here I thought I couldn’t look any more stupid, huh?”
Gyutaro cracked a smile. What gods took favor in you and gi ted you good looks and a sense of humor? It felt unreal.
He got to the T section of the index and pointed. “Here. Testudine, order. at’s the order that all turtles are in. It looks like you were looking at family Testudinidae, so if we backtrack and look at family Cheloniidae instead...” He flipped back to the section you were in, then a little further before. He stopped at a picture of a green sea turtle. “Voila. Sea turtles. These were more on the lines of what you were looking for, yeah?”
You were staring at him, wide eyed, and he swallowed. Had he fucked up again?
“Wow. I didn’t understand half of what you were saying, but either way, thanks.” You smiled at him then, and he felt his face heat up like a copper pan on a gas stove. “ This is exactly what I was trying to find.”
“N-no problem,” he replied, internally cursing himself for his awkwardness. Every bit of his instinct told him to run away before he could ruin whatever the hell this was.
You cocked your head at him. “I feel like I’ve seen you before... What was your name, again?”
Th is time his instincts won out. He shot up from his chair and bolted out of the library, not slowing down until he was a block away to where he’d parked his motorcycle. He held his head in his hands and groaned, cursing himself.
Hopefully, you’d forget him easily enough, and if all goes well, you’ll never see each other again.
Th at was what he wanted to hope for, anyways. Th ere was still this ache in his gut that urged him to go back, apologize for being so weird and awkward, and introduce himself.
Yeah. Like hell he will.
.
.
.
When Daki came home a ter school, she slammed the door so hard that the whole house shook from its force. Gyutaro jumped and looked over from where he was perched on the couch, watching anime. When he saw her, he realized she was nothing short of fuming.
“ That bitch!” She shrieked, kicking o f her shoes and stomping over to him. She braced her hands on the edge of the couch, looking down at him. “ That boy-stealing, cock-sucking bitch!”
“ Those are some, uh, interesting choice words you got there,” he said. “What happened?
She hu ffed, and hopped over the side of the couch to plop down next to him. “ This bitch is trying to steal Douma!”
Gyutaro blinked. “Douma as in pretty-boy-Douma? And what do you mean, steal him?”
“From me!” She said, pointing to her chest. “ is was finally gonna be my year to get with him, and that bitch fucking ruined it!”
He blinked. “Since when do you have a thing for Douma?” He asked, thoroughly confused.
“Since, like, forever,” she said. “Don’t you remember?”
Gyutaro definitely didn’t remember, but for the sake of pleasing his sister, he nodded along like he knew what she was talking about. Daki groaned, and yanked the pillow out from behind her so she could bury her face into it. Gyutaro sighed. Sure, his sister was always prone to the dramatics, but she was still upset, so it was his duty to help her out.
“Alright, who is it?” He asked. “Do you need me to beat ‘em up?”
She sni ffed, looking up from behind the pillow. “Please?”
“Sure thing,” he smiled so tly. “Now, who is it?”
“Th e new kid,” she said. “Th e one you were staring at the other day, remember?”
Gyutaro freezed. “...You’re sure it’s them?”
She nodded frantically, eyes burning. “Positive. I saw them flirting with Douma with my own eyes!”
His gut clenched. He wasn’t sure what he hated more; the fact that his sister now apparently hated you, or the fact that you were most-likely taken. Either way, it made his chest hurt, and he didn’t like it.
“Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding,” Gyutaro reasoned, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice so as not to give himself away. “ They looked, uh, nice, I thought.”
“Nice?” She sco ffed. “Gyu, don’t give me that shit. They’re just a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and you know it.”
No. He didn’t know it. And he really, really didn’t want to believe her. You’d seemed so sweet when he met you at the library, this just doesn’t make any sense.
Gyutaro was at a crossroads. He had to choose between believing in the goodness of a person he’s met, or take his sister’s word that they’re nothing like they seem. They both seemed wrong and right at the same time.
In the end, like he always had, he chose his sister.
“Th at sounds horrible,” Gyu said.
Daki cocked her head. “Well, are you gonna beat them up or what?”
He hesitated. “I didn’t mean that literally, Ume. My delinquent days are behind me. I’ve had enough scrapes with the law as it is.”
She groaned, tossing her head back and getting up. “Fine. Be that way. Don’t help me,” she retorted as she stormed upstairs to her room.
Gyutaro massaged the bridge of his nose. He was bound to be in the wrong either way, huh?
.
.
.
For the next two weeks, all he heard from Daki was the sins of this ‘new kid’ that she’d grown to hate even more with every passing day. Did he like listening to it? Not really, but he had to be a supportive older brother.
When Daki came home that a ternoon, she burst through the door, making Gyutaro glance up from the instant ramen he was eating. She had a wild grin on her face.
“Brother!” She exclaimed. “You’ll never guess what happened!”
He finished slurping up a bite of noodles and swallowed. “Did it have to do with the new kid?”
“Well, duh, it had to do with the new kid,” she said, tossing her book bag on the table and sitting down across from him. “But this time was di fferent.”
Gyutaro leaned forward and set his chin on his hand, vaguely bored as Daki started her story.
“Okay, so it all started at lunch, right?” She said. “I was shit talking the new kid to all my friends-“
“As per usual.”
Daki shot him a glare. “Let me finish. I was shit talking the new kid and they overheard me, right as I was talking about how they were a boy-stealing, bitch-faced slut. And, like, if I was them, I totally would’ve squared up, right there. But they didn’t say shit! They just kinda looked at me with this hurt expression-“
“Well yeah, you were literally shit talking them.”
She hu ffed. “As I was saying, they looked all hurt and stu f, and walked away like some hurt puppy or some shit. But I totally didn’t feel bad. I mean, I’m the victim here!” Gyutaro wordlessly nodded his head and hummed, trying not to roll his eyes.
“But. But!” She leaned forward, grinning with her eyes alight. “Later, I was walking through the halls and overheard them talking with Douma. Not just talking, oh no—they were straight up rejecting him!”
Th is made Gyutaro’s ears perk up. “Oh?”
“Right?!” She exclaimed. “ They said something about, like, him not being their type or whatever, so they should just stay friends. A stone-cold-bitch move, if you ask me.”
Gyutaro didn’t know if he should be relieved or disappointed by this information. On one hand, he was relieved that you didn’t have feelings for Douma, or anyone as far as he knew. But on the other hand, if a guy as good-looking as Douma wasn’t good enough for you, there was no way he had even a sliver of chance.
Daki noticed Gyutaro’s focus had started to wander, and she snapped her fingers to get his attention. “Hey! I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet.”
Gyutaro reclined back in his chair, cocking his head with interest even though the pang in his heart was nearly unbearable. “Which would be...?”
“A fter they totally le t him in the dust all sad and heartbroken,” the pang in Gyutaro’s heart twisted, “Guess who gave him a shoulder to cry on?”
“Hm... Let me think...” He tapped his chin. “Was it you?”
“It was me!” She all but shrieked, and proceeded to run and throw herself onto the couch, stu fing a pillow in her face and screaming with her legs kicking back and forth in the air. “Oh my god, it was me! It was so romantic, too! Like, right out of a movie kind of romantic! And oh my god, Gyu, you will not believe how good he smells-“
Gyutaro tuned out his sister’s rambling about how perfect Douma was, setting out to finish his now-cold ramen and try his best to look apathetic.
When Daki’s screams had died down enough for her to talk, she poked her head up, and looked at her brother, still grinning. “Oh, also, the new kid? They’re coming over tomorrow.”
Gyutaro nearly choked on his noodles.
“ They’re what?” He coughed, wiping at the noodle splatters on his mouth.
“Coming over tomorrow.” Daki got up and skipped over to where he sat. “Since it’s a Friday, they might stay the night, too.”
“Stay the night?!”
She nodded eagerly. “Yup! A ter that whole thing in the hallway, I went up to them to apologize for all the shit-talking I did. I mean, they totally did me a solid with that little stunt! And then we kept talking, and it turns out we have, like, a ton in common. So now we’re besties!”
Gyutaro’s heart was pounding as he tried to wrap his head around all of this. She’d hated your guts just the day before. Was she really able to change her tune this quickly? And you were okay with that, enough so to come over to their apartment a fter being friends for a day?
Oh, shit, he thought, dread washing over him at this realization. You were going to come to their apartment. His apartment, technically, as he paid the rent, but that only makes it worse. You’ll see how broken his family is, the shithole of a house they live in, just how useless of a parent figure he is. All of the things that he’d tried so hard to bury away since he got to high school. He looked around, and the dread only mounted more; this place was ugly, falling apart, filthy-
He stood up suddenly. Filthy. He couldn’t help how poorly-made the apartment was, but he could control how clean it was.
“Brother?” Daki asked as he began to walk away. “Where are you going?”
“I’m gonna clean,” he replied. “If your friend’s coming over, I at least don’t want our place to look like a shithole.”
Daki frowned. “But it is a shithole.”
“Not for long,” he answered, beginning to pull various cleaning supplies out of the closet. “Not if I can help it.”
.
.
.
Gyutaro bounced his leg. He twiddled with his fingers, anxiously glancing at the clock every few seconds. He was sweaty. His heart kept pounding like he was running a marathon, no matter how hard he tried to calm it down.
His manager had let him leave early (thank god she pitied his poor little life) so he’d be home before you got there. He wanted to make sure nothing was out of place—first impressions were everything
4:56 PM. Four minutes until you arrived.
Daki took a crunching bite out of her apple, looking at her brother quizzically from where she stood in the kitchen. “You good, brother? I know you’re not good around people, but it’s just one person. They’ll only see you for a second, anyway.”
“I’m fine,” he said, sounding harsher than he meant to. He took a deep breath, and tried again with a sof ter tone. “I’m fine. Really.”
She shrugged. “Whatever you say, bro.”
He checked the clock. 4:57. Three minutes until you arrived.
The doorbell rang.
Fuck, you were here early!
Daki took one last bite out of her apple, quickly chewing and swallowing before skipping over to the door and opening it with a cheery “Hi!”
He heard you greet her and come inside, closing the door behind you. He didn’t look up. He didn’t know if he could. Maybe if he sat still long enough, you wouldn’t notice him. Or at least not try to talk to him.
“Wow,” he heard you say. “Your place is... really clean. Like, super clean.” Gyutaro’s heart swelled a bit. His hours of work weren’t for nothing a ter all.
“Yup!” Daki nodded. “ That’s all my older brother’s doing. He was nervous about having a guest, so he power-washed this place from top to bottom.”
Dammit Ume! is This not the time! He thought furiously to himself, heart beating even faster. As much as he adored her having pride in him, he wanted nothing more than to disappear. As long as they don’t notice me, he thought, I should be fine-
“He’s right here!” Daki chirped, louncing over to the couch and tapping his shoulder. “Oi, brother, say hi!”
God fucking dammit, Ume.
Begrudgingly, he turned his head around, o fering a smile that he hoped didn’t look too much like a grimace. Maybe you don’t remember him...?
Upon seeing him, your eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh my god, Daki, you didn’t tell me your brother was Turtle Boy!”
Fuck.
Daki raised a brow. “Huh? Turtle Boy?”
You nodded, now excited. “Yeah! We ran into each other last week at the library, and he helped me research for a biology project, because apparently I know nothing about turtles.”
This is just getting worse by the minute, Gyutaro thought.
Daki barked out a laugh and covered her mouth. “Oh my god, do not get me started on this one and turtles. Throughout all of middle school the only thing he wanted was a pet turtle. Like, he was obsessed with them. He had posters, books, bedsheets...” she turned to him. “You probably still have all your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle DVDs, right?”
At that moment, it occurred to Gyutaro that curling up in a hole and passing away sounded like a wonderful idea.
You giggled. It was music to Gyutaro’s ears. “Yeah, that definitely explains a lot,” you said. You turned to him. “Are you looking to study them in college? Turtles, I mean. I think you’d make a great biologist.”
Daki burst out laughing. “College?” She wheezed. “Dude, my brother’s a high school dropout. It’d be a miracle and a half if he went to college.”
Gyutaro’s ears burned and he felt himself shrinking in on himself. Daki just couldn’t keep her big mouth shut, could she? He fixed his eyes on the ground, not daring to look up and see what kind of horribly pitiful expression you were looking at him with.
Daki’s laughter died down, and she gestured for you to follow her. “C’mon, let me show you around.” For once, Gyutaro was grateful his sister couldn’t stay on one topic for the life of her. You nodded, and followed as Daki led you down the hall to her room.
As soon as you were out of earshot, Gyutaro let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, and slumped into the couch.
So much for first impressions.
.
.
.