Thank you very much for euphoric who has helped me beta this story! Also, thank you for LittleDoot and Nobody(Super_NovaGrey) who have helped me proofread. Also, thank you for TungstenCat who has advised me with the romance aspect of the story!

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They couldn't stay inside the cave forever.

Both demons and Demon Slayers operated at night, and Kanao was not yet ready to face either two with Tanjirou at her side. She may be strong enough to not worry about weaker demons, but Kibutsuji Muzan might still be around considering that they were not too far from the Kamado house. At the same time, however, assuming that Shinobu immediately notified the Headquarters through her kasugai crow, a crowd of Demon Slayers would arrive in a day. Kanao was a Tsuchinoe and the Insect Hashira's Tsuguko, but she was nothing against the Hashiras, especially if she also had to protect Tanjirou. Should they stay, it would mean death for them both.

But Tanjirou was a demon, and demons were vulnerable to sunlight. They couldn't leave while the sun was up unless he was fully protected from sunlight.

Kanao turned to look at Tanjirou. He was now back to sitting still against the wall. He had been rather animated when she came back with the corpse, especially after she had dripped her blood into his mouth, but now he was once again a man-sized doll. Kanao was supposed to kill demons and not take care of them, so she had no clue whether a few drops of human blood was enough to sustain him.

Kanao glanced at the torn, blood-stained checkered haori over his shoulder. It was quite large, definitely larger than her white cloak, but nowhere big enough to cover his whole body. Unless…

"Tanjirou-san?"

Tanjirou moved his head minutely to look at her.

"Can you become smaller?" Kanao asked. She had seen demons growing bigger plenty of times, but rarely had she seen one growing smaller. "I am planning to carry you on my back and cover you with your haori."

Tanjirou's eyebrows twitched. He was silent for a long time. Kanao patiently waited until he nodded.

Tanjirou hummed in concentration. Gradually, he turned smaller, his head and limbs disappearing under his clothes. The bundle of clothes wiggled for a moment until his head popped back up from the collar.

Kanao stared at the toddler in front of her.

Her heart ached strangely. For some reason, Kanao had the urge to grab the small doe-eyed and chubby-faced Tanjirou into a hug. With the bamboo gag acting as his pacifier, he now looked just like any human child. Nothing like a demon.

Shaking her head to get rid of the strange thought, Kanao crouched down and offered her back to him. It seemed like Tanjirou was now a tad slow on the uptake, considering that she had to stay like that for quite some time until he finally reacted. Small arms wound around her neck as Kanao felt him lean on her back. She secured him properly before standing up, swaying slightly due to the unexpected weight. He was lighter than she had thought.

After making sure that he was fully covered by his haori, she set off.

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The sky was beginning to turn purple when Kanao heard soft whimpers from her back.

"Tanjirou-san?" Kanao stopped in her tracks to glance at him. She could not see his face due to the haori, but she could feel the arms around her neck tightening. Tanjirou had been silent and unmoving for hours, so the sudden noise from him was alarming. "Tanjirou-san, are you—"

Dust. It was faint and the colour was the same as his demonic mist, but she could see red dust dissipating from his body, just like the sign of a demon being burnt by the sun—

Immediately, Kanao looked around before inhaling sharply to run at a faster speed. Ignoring the ache behind her eyes, she scanned her surroundings for shelter. The setting sun cast an orange glow over the forest, warming her skin but incinerating her friend to ash. She glanced over her shoulder to see more dust emerging from the bundle of haori on her back.

Kanao gritted her teeth. How long has it been like this? The last time she checked on him over an hour ago, there were no signs of him burning. She had always chosen the paths shaded by the trees just in case. Tanjirou hadn't complained until now, so she had thought there was no issue.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for her to spot an abandoned shrine. Once they were at the deepest, darkest part of the shrine, Kanao put Tanjirou down and unraveled the haori.

He was a mess. His small figure slumped on the wooden floor, shaking terribly. His exposed skin was flaking off and his flesh was charred black as the corners of his fingers gradually turned to ash. He was panting, saliva streaming down his gagged mouth as he looked at her with unseeing eyes.

"Tanjirou-san!" Kanao gasped at his horrible state, hands hovering in uncertainty. She didn't know what to do, how to treat a dying demon, there was no medicine

Self-regeneration. Demons can heal

"Why aren't you healing?" Kanao gingerly took his tiny hands. He had stopped burning to ash, but his body remained painfully charred. "Demons are supposed to be able to heal quickly, so why—"

Drip, drip, drip, on her hand. Saliva, from his mouth—

Energy. He had run out of energy. The haori must have not been enough; he must've been continuously regenerating himself the entire time they were under the sun—

Kanao pulled out her Nichirin sword. Cut open the healing wound on her hand without hesitation. Blood immediately flowed out of the gash, red and warm. A demon's source of energy.

Kanao snatched away the bamboo gag from his mouth before offering her wounded hand to him.

"Drink," she ordered.

Tanjirou stared at her blood and gulped. But, he didn't move.

"Tanjirou-san, you have to at least drink some blood," Kanao urged him once more. "We have promised each other this morning. You are a demon now, and you're dying. Drink."

Tanjirou shook his head imperceptibly.

"You—" Kanao hissed in frustration. She leaned forward to grab his shoulder so she could force-feed him, but the way he shied away from her made her hesitate. Tanjirou looked at her...in fear.

That was the last straw.

"Please…," she mumbled, slumping on the floor. "Don't leave me..."

Kanao fell silent. She had given up. Her friend had turned into a demon now, one who didn't even wish to live. It was foolish wanting to care for a demon, when she knew nothing but how to kill.

Blood continued to drip onto the floor, unconsumed. Wasted—

A soft touch. Chapped skin on her hand, charred black but warm, gently tugging at her wounded palm. Slowly, Tanjirou leaned towards the edge of the gash. He sniffed, hesitating, before licking her blood.

The cut stung, but the tongue on her skin felt ticklish.

Kanao watched him drink her blood, finally of his own volition. Gradually, his charred flesh turned red and his skin regrew. It was strange that he could gain this much energy to regenerate from just a few licks of blood. She was more used to demons having to devour a whole human than this.

Suddenly, a dizzy spell struck. Kanao closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, waiting for the lightheadedness to pass. Perhaps she had lost a little too much blood, especially considering that she had been using her Breathing techniques for hours without rest. She couldn't remember if she had even eaten the entire day.

When she came around, Tanjirou was done licking her wound and was re-wrapping her palm with a new strip of torn haori. At some point, he had grown back to his normal form.

"You should stop doing this, Kanao," he grumbled. "You're losing too much blood for nothing."

"You aren't nothing," Kanao replied, feeling relieved on the inside. He was talking again now, as the Tanjirou she knew and not a mute demon. "I can't let you die."

"With how much blood you keep wasting on me, you'll actually die first from blood loss."

"That's why you shouldn't waste my blood."

Tanjirou narrowed his eyes at her in disapproval. Kanao smiled at him.

"...I should be the one taking care of you," Tanjirou muttered, so softly Kanao almost missed it. She wanted to ask why he was obligated to do so, but the pain when he tied the bandage tightly distracted her. "Do you have food?"

"F-food?" Kanao asked in confusion.

"Yes. Now it's your turn to eat," Tanjirou let go of her hand, his frown deepening. "Don't tell me you didn't bring any food with you."

Kanao stared at him in silence. Tanjirou sighed at her response, or rather the lack thereof. It couldn't be helped, Kanao thought. She had been in a rush to get away from Nishiazuma and didn't want to risk making a stop at any settlement to stock up.

Dizziness hit once more. Kanao breathed out in an attempt to rid the nausea, to no avail. She could have lasted longer, but the blood loss had made her fatigue worse. Now that they had made a stop here, her body had lost the momentum to keep going. That wouldn't do, she still had to get Tanjirou farther away from—

A warm palm covered her eyes.

"Shh," Tanjirou whispered before gently pushing her head to rest on his shoulder. "You've done well. But you still need to rest."

Kanao moved to get up, but she fell back into his arms when he refused to let her go. "I can still—"

"Let me take care of you this time," Tanjirou said, stroking her hair softly. "Now, sleep."

Against her will, her eyelids grew heavy. As the sun disappeared from the horizon, the warm hand on her head and the steady heartbeat against her ear finally lulled her to sleep.

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"... 'njirou-san."

Blinking dazedly, he roused from his sleep upon hearing her calling his name. The sunlight still penetrated through the holes of the decrepit roof, making him wince at its brightness. He looked down to find her still sleeping on his shoulder, a frown marring her face.

"Are you…'fraid of me?" she mumbled.

He stared at her in confusion. She was talking in her sleep, dreaming. Her scent indicated disappointment, guilt… and fear.

"Why won't you take my blood?" she continued. "Why… did you flinch away?"

He tensed up. Clenched his teeth on the bamboo muzzle upon listening to her fear. He wanted to wake her up, wanted to reassure her that that was not the case. He was a demon, a man-eating monster, and the sight of fresh blood had triggered his basest instinct to devour. He could barely stop himself from taking a bite of her flesh and sucking her sweet blood dry. He was supposed to take care of her, his only reason to live, and yet… He could not survive without eating her.

He was terrified not of her but of himself.

Kill me. Do not let me live. Put me to death before I lose myself and hurt you instead. He wanted to shout out these words, but she had decided to save him. She had pleaded for him to live, to not leave her behind. She would burn to death the longer she stayed with him, but she would wither away should he die.

He wished to put an end to this poisonous dependence, yet he could not bear to see her cry.

So he squeezed his eyes shut and held her tighter, wishing he could do much more for her.

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When Kanao woke up from her sleep, it was dark and snowing outside. Tanjirou was nowhere to be seen.

Panicked, she rushed out of the shrine and quickly followed the trail of red mist. It was faded—Tanjirou must have been gone from the shrine for hours. Her mind began conjuring the worst-case scenarios; that he had lost his mind to his demonic instinct and devoured people, that he had gone to kill himself through sunlight exposure, that he had decided to abandon her—

All of sudden, Kanao collided with a hard wall.

Said hard wall yelped. Kanao blinked dazedly at the bright red mist which gradually dispersed to reveal Tanjirou, sprawled on the snowy ground with the bamboo gag back on his mouth.

Kanao wasted no time to hug him. He was solid and warm. He was real. She bit her lip when she felt him patting her back soothingly.

"Where did you go?" she asked, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

He pulled away from her, picked something on the ground before showing it to her. It was a wrinkled wild persimmon.

Kanao blinked before looking down at the assortment of fruits scattered on the ground.

"Demons can't eat plants," Kanao told him.

Tanjirou tilted his head. Took her uninjured hand before putting the persimmon in her palm.

Realisation dawned on her. "Are these for me?"

His eyes crinkled in a smile. He stood up, pulling Kanao along with him, before bending down to gather the foraged items. He never let go of her hand as they made their way back to the shrine.

Tanjirou guided her to sit on the steps of the shrine, before nudging at the persimmon in her hand, silently telling her to eat it. Kanao obediently nibbled on the persimmon as she watched him brush off the snow on her head and shoulders. Once he was done, he rubbed her cheeks with his warm palms.

"What's wrong?" Kanao asked when she saw him frowning.

Tanjirou stood up and went inside the shrine. He came back with his tattered haori, draping it over her shoulder before sitting down behind her. Kanao tensed when she felt his arms wrapping around her waist, pulling her back to rest on him. She felt warm. A little too warm, especially when he rested his chin on her shoulder.

They stayed like that for a while. When Kanao finished the persimmon, Tanjirou picked another fruit from the pile beside her and urged her to eat more. Once Kanao accepted it, he patted her head as if expressing his approval.

Kanao munched on some berries as she gradually relaxed into his embrace. She could use her breathing techniques to regulate her body temperature without needing an external source of heat, but the warmth on her back was surprisingly pleasant. This was bad; they were still too close to Nishiazuma to her liking, yet now she was getting drowsy.

"Tanjirou-san," Kanao sighed when he kept feeding her fruits. "We need to go soon."

Tanjirou was silent for a few moments. Once Kanao finished the last fruit he had given her, he gingerly took her bandaged hand to inspect it.

"I'm fine," Kanao glanced at him and mumbled, reassuring him. "I can still go on."

Tanjirou tilted his head to look at her eyes. His face was so close to hers that their noses almost touched. They blinked at each other, neither backing down.

Tanjirou finally relented a moment later. He unwound his arms from around her before standing up. Kanao felt momentarily discomforted when the heat on her back abruptly disappeared.

"...What are you doing?" Kanao asked when she saw him crouch in front of her, offering his back.

Tanjirou looked at her over his shoulder, blinking innocently.

"I can walk in the dark," she said and stood up before walking past him. "Let's go. We shouldn't waste any more time—"

Suddenly, a clawed hand grabbed her arm. Too surprised to react, Kanao was whirled around before being flung across his shoulder.

"T-Tanjirou-san!" Kanao hit his back repeatedly, face flushed in embarrassment. At that moment, Kanao wished she was wearing hakama pants. She had favoured the skirt for mobility, but now that she was bent over, the skirt was riding up way too high for comfort. "I'll do what you want, so put me down!"

Tanjirou gently brought her back on the snowy ground. Kanao's eyebrow twitched when she saw his eyes crinkling in satisfaction. He may be mute now, but he was also unexpectedly bolder than when he was still a human.

He crouched back down and offered his back once more. Kanao sighed in defeat before wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning on him. His shoulders were broad and his back was warm against her torso. She rested her face on the crook of his neck and tightened her hold when he stood up. How the tables had turned.

Once she was settled, Tanjirou looked up to sniff the air before continuing their way west.

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