An: Based on a picture by Rusky.
Kanao Tsuyuri stood outside the Kamado bakery that Tanjiro Kamado (her crush) was working at. His family owned the bakery which explains the name, also working there was his friends Zenitsu Agatsuma, who is very cowardly and incredibly weird around women especially his sister, and Inosuke Hashibira who never understood much about the restaurant business, or anything at all besides fighting. Also working there is his little sister Nezuko, who for some reason always had some type of food in her mouth whenever she was working like now she was eating dango.
A small blush formed on Kanao's face as she watched Tanjiro busing tables with his friends and sister. She was wearing a short purple dress with white frills at the bottom and a purple shirt underneath, she had on black leggings and grey knee-high boots and to top it off she had a butterfly hair clip on her side ponytail.
She was tightly gripping a red gift bag with a bow in front of it in her hands she thought to herself about the situation.
You got this. You've been planning this for months and now's the time to do it. It's time to tell him how you really feel. She thought.
Kanao has had a crush on Tanjiro since they first met. It was in a time of her life when she didn't know how to make her own decisions by herself until he came into her life and told her to follow her heart instead of what her lucky coin said when it hit heads or tails.
(Flashback to a year ago)
Tanjiro was sitting on a bench in a park next to Kanao Tsuyuri in their school clothes and she was just telling him what she uses her lucky coin for.
"I flip this to help me decide what's not ordered of me, just now I decided whether to speak to you or not. Don't speak was heads and do speak was tails, and tails was what it landed on." she explained, "farewell." she said.
"Well why don't you choose for yourself? Which did you want to do?" Tanjiro asked
She merely shook her head, "it doesn't matter. Nothing matters to me, so I can't decide for myself." she said while smiling.
"I don't think there's anything in the world that doesn't matter." he said
"I guess...the voice in your heart is really tiny. Hmm.. following orders is important to an extent but.." he paused while scrunching his face in frustration.
Just then an idea popped into his head and he slammed his fist on his palm.
"Hey can I borrow that?" he asked, the object of which was the coin she held.
"Uh, sure." she said.
She gave him the coin and he stood up from his spot on the bench and ran a few feet from where she was.
"Okay we're gonna use this to decide!" he said while holding the coin up.
"Decide?" Kanao said, confused.
"Whether you'll listen, to your own heart, from this point on!" he said as he flipped the coin high in the air almost to a point where you couldn't see it.
(music ends)
"Oh geez! I flipped it way too high! H-heads, let's make it heads!" he exclaimed while she looked up in anticipation.
"If it comes up as heads you're gonna follow your heart." he said
All of a sudden a gust of wind came seemingly blowing away the coin, causing distress for young Kamado.
"Huh?! Hey! W-where did it go?!" he said worryingly causing him to nearly trip backwards.
Eventually the coin did fall down and he managed to catch it, much to his satisfaction.
"You see that Kanao? I got it!" he said ecstatic.
He ran back over to her to figure what the coin would say.
"Are you ready?" he asked while slowly moving his hand away from the coin.
Kanao looked on in deep anticipation on what the verdict was causing her to sweat a little bit and her heart to start pounding
Which will it be? His back was blocking it so I couldn't see which way it fell, she thought.
As he removed his hand, the coin was then revealed to be heads up.
"IT CAME UP AS HEADS!" he shouted and jumped in rapturous glee while she looked aghast.
"Here you go." Tanjiro said holding his right hand with coin
She reached out to grab it but then he clasped both his hands around hers surprising her.
"Remember, it's the heart that drives people, so it can grow as long as you need it to." he said
He then let go of her saying, "okay see you later!" and then started to run off.
Before he could she stood up and called out to him, "how? How did it come up heads?" she asked him, causing him to turn around to see her.
I saw his hand when he flipped it. I'm sure he didn't cheat but still… she thought
Tanjiro simply smiled and said, "just by chance. Though if it was tails I was gonna keep flipping until it did turn up heads." which made him laugh a little.
Another gust of wind blew by, making her hair flow in front of her and her eyes shined as a blush stilled on her face.
"Okay, take care of yourself!" he said as he ran off.
She stayed standing there as he left, then looked at the coin that decided everything. She held it close to her chest and looked to the ground then closed her eyes thinking, Tanjiro, thank you.
She didn't know how long she stayed there, all she knew was two things: boy changed her life forever, and was never letting go of that coin again.
(end of flashback)
Present day
She pulled out the coin from her dress pocket and held it in her hand then looked at it.
"Still have the coin I see." said a familiar voice.
She quickly turned to see it was her step-sister Shinobu Kochu and her boyfriend Giyuu Tomioka.
Giyuu had on a grey dress shirt with a red tie and a red sash around his waist, he also wore black slacks and dress shoes.
His partner was sporting a white dress shirt with a black vest over it that had yellow buttons and a handkerchief resembling her butterfly hair clip, alongside that was a black skirt, knee-high socks and dark purple open toe shoes.
"What are you doing standing around for? Go talk to him." Giyuu said while crossing his arms
Kanao flushed at his remark and turned away. Her sister put a hand on her shoulder in reassurance causing Kanao to turn back towards them.
"I'm sure he'll love it." Shinobu said with her usual smile.
Kanao nodded her head and decided to head inside. She pushed open the door and was greeted with the sweet smell of pastries, desserts, and bread.
She looked around until she found him with his sleeves rolled up while carrying a plate of food to another table. Acting on pure instinct she rushed over to him and hugged him from behind making him startled and nearly drop the plate. He managed to steady himself, but started blushing when he saw who it was.
"Kanao?" he questioned as she let go of him reluctantly. Meanwhile off to the side and peering from a corner, his friends and sister were watching their interaction.
Nezuko was blushing massively while gripping onto the corner of the wall because in her mind she was thinking, is she really going through with this? She's doing it, she's doing it!
"I-Is now a good time?" Kanao asked him.
Tanjiro blushed and nodded his head before saying, "give me one second." as fast as he could he set the plate he had to the table he was delivering it to then made his way back to her.
"So what did you want to talk about?" he asked while wiping his hands on a napkin he pulled from his pocket.
She held up the red bag she had in her hand in front of her while averting her gaze from him.
"Happy birthday Tanjiro." she said almost nervously.
Nezuko's face burned as she smushed her cheeks thinking, *gasp* She actually did it!
He grabbed the gift from her hand and looked inside while she fidgeted contemplating whether or not he'll like the gift.
"Do you like it?" she asked.
He closed the bag and then without warning grabbed her into a tight hug making her face hotter.
"I love it!" he said.
She reciprocated the hug, albeit nervously, and when she did, she felt some sort of warmth in his arms which made her hug him even tighter. Until Tanjiro noticed all the eyes on the two of them that were followed by some saying "aww!"
"Uh Kanao? People are staring." Tanjiro said embarrassingly
Realizing this, she let go of him reluctantly and looked down to the ground with her arms by her side.
"S-so, do you want to grab a bite to eat sometime?" she asked nervously
His face went red slightly and he said, "of course." which made her heart go aflutter.
After work around sunset
Kanao was walking down the streets with Tanjiro and since it was winter the weather started getting colder so they wore their jackets.
Kanao's wore a white jacket with the flaps turned up and white fur wrists and black buttons down the middle while Tanjiro's was beige with white fur around the collar along with the jacket he was also wearing the gift Kanao had gotten him.
The gift was a blue scarf that she knitted months prior to going here. The scarf used to belong to her when she was a child and she held onto it all her life until it ripped, so when her sister had told her his birthday was in December she decided to stitch the scarf back together and give it to him as a present.
They were both holding hands as they continued walking down the street until they reached a railing that overlooked the ocean which they stopped at. This was the one and only time they had let go of each other's hands and it was to place them on the railing and gaze over the water.
"So, did you have a good birthday?" Kanao asked
Tanjiro nodded as he kept gazing over the water while also putting his hand over hers making her blush and smile.
"Probably the best one yet." he said.
"Because of the gift?" Kanao questioned.
He turned to face her, taking her hands in his saying, "because of you." while smiling, making her blush.
All of a sudden after the sun had set, it started snowing making them both look up in awe, then Kanao decided to take the leap and while he was distracted, she stood on her toes and planted a quick kiss on his lips which made his ears burn and his eyes widened in surprise.
She put her hands on her head and crouched down in embarrassment as Tanjiro registered what just happened and touched his lips.
"Kanao?" he said getting her attention.
She lifted her face and looked at him still blushing.
Tanjiro looked down at her and said, "do you.. love me?" he asked
She quickly nodded her head in affirmation
"I'm such an idiot." he whispered, which made her confused, "come on, get up." he said while holding out his hand.
She took it gingerly and slowly stood up. They held hands as he looked at her warmly, after he slowly placed his hands on her cheeks while she looked down, then he leaned in close and so did Kanao while she placed her hands on his chest slowly rising to his shoulders as they passionately kissed in the pale moonlight.
They released from each other and Tanjiro stroked a strand of hair on her cheek while they both smiled, then he wrapped his arms around her while she placed her fingertips on his face as they rested their heads together affectionately.
"Kanao...I love you." Tanjiro said, making her smile
"I love you too." Kanao said
They held each other tight content with where they were as the moon shined over them and the snow continued to fall. They didn't care how long they stayed that way all that mattered to Kanao was that she got to hold the man she loved for the first time in her life knowing that her feelings were mutual.