Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The air smells like coffee. 

There is soft talking drifting in from the kitchen towards him. Megumi slowly opens his eyes, expecting light, but the lights are dimmed around him. He rubs his eyes, looking around quickly. There is a blanket over him that was not there when he fell asleep, or he doesn't think there was. 

Slowly, he rolls over because anything else takes too much energy. 

“Good morning!” Gojo’s cheerful voice calls, too cheerful for this early. Whatever time it is. 

Megumi looks over his shoulder to the voice and freezes. 

The kitchen is spotless. All the dishes cleared away, the counter spotless. The stacked up dishes, plates, cups, and pots are all gone. The sink is empty and the metal is shining in the overhead light. The containers of food and packaging are all gone, instead the counter is actually visible. The stove is cleared, no dishes clutter the burners. 

Nothing gives away what it's looked like for weeks. A complete wreck utterly gone. 

It’s all completely clean. 

Megumi stares. 

Geto takes a long sip of his coffee with a tiny hint of a mischievous grin, leaning against the clean counter. “Morning. Do you want breakfast? I made some pancakes.”

Megumi continues to stare, unblinking. Geto lowers his mug, looking slightly unsure now. “It wasn’t my idea, Satoru insisted on making the pancakes–”

“Not the pancakes-” Megumi stops himself and climbs out of the mattress. He stands awkwardly in the space between the living room and the kitchen. Why did they do that? It was one thing to help him when he was upset, but it’s another thing to physically clean the mess. “You didn’t have to clean that, it was my mess.”

“Megumi,” Geto gives him a flat look, though not unkindly. “I know it can be hard, but part of accepting help can be accepting help. You didn't say anything, but I could tell you were stressed about cleaning. Sometimes it’s the little things that really count.”  

How did he even pick up on that?

Megumi shuffles into the kitchen, not quite meeting their gaze. He stands beside Gojo by the stove, looking over the kitchen. Everything is completely spotless, cleaner than it may have been since he moved in years ago. 

His dad hadn’t cleaned it when they moved in so he and Tsumiki tried the best they could. Which wasn’t very good considering he was eight and Tsumiki was ten. They only had minimal cleaning supplies.

Gojo throws an arm over Megumi’s shoulder, pulling him into a side hug. “We said we were gonna take care of you, didn’t we?”

He looks back to the kitchen. And he sighs, letting go of any arguments. And he leans against Gojo, still tired. Shiro gallops over to him, his tongue sticking out and Megumi pets the top of his head. 

How did they always know how to help?

“Also,” Gojo says, grinning. “I made a deal with Suguru. If I cleaned the kitchen, then I got to pick out snacks and make the playlist for the party.”

Megumi looks over to Geto, who shrugs in a way that is somehow nonchalant and smug. Megumi snorts. “Truly the master of manipulation.”

“It wasn’t manipulation!” Gojo shakes his head. “It was a fair deal!”

Geto hands Megumi a plate with pancakes and bacon. Megumi takes it, glancing back to Gojo. “How was that a good deal?”

“I–” Gojo’s eyes dart between Megumi and Geto. “It was a good deal?” 

“Don’t you normally choose all the snacks and the music?”

Gojo freezes and looks over to Geto with wide eyes. Realization dawns on him and his mouth hangs open as he understands the betrayal. Geto grins and sips his coffee, smugly. 

Megumi rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling faintly. He takes a bite of the freshly made pancake, still burning hot. The playful bickering is familiar. Commonplace since he met the two of them years ago. 

Gojo flings himself at Geto, his arms wrapped around Geto’s neck, clinging. “How could my boyfriend do this to me? Betray the trust I put in him? Oh, the tragedy! I’ve been betrayed for all time!”

Geto pats Gojo’s head placatingly, not looking sorry in the least. Gojo still holds onto his neck, sliding downwards to the floor, Geto even seem to notice. “Anyway, before you woke up we were planning for the party.”

Gojo stands up, seemingly over his tantrum. He slaps a hand over Geto’s mouth, speaking first. “Actually, Suguru was planning the party and I was talking shit about Toji. I’m thinking of asking the local gangs to beat him up. Thoughts?”

Megumi just looks at him and takes a bite of a pancake. Normally, he doesn’t really sugar in the morning, but he still eats it since they went through the trouble to make it for him. “He’d fight them, so good luck with that. And aren’t you the one who said screw him and forget about him?”

“Yeah. I guess.” Gojo deflates, his shoulders slumping. After a long moment, he asks. “Why are you so calm about this? I feel like you should be way angrier or something.”

Megumi stares down at the pancake for a long moment, the butter melting into the syrup. He shrugs. “I was angry for a while, I guess. But it’s been like this for months, the novelty of it wore off. This is just how it is.”

They’re both quiet for a moment. 

“That sounds more like you’ve become desensitized to what happened,” Geto says, finally. 

Megumi shrugs again. “I guess.” That sounded like the right word for it. He didn’t really know.

“I mean, if this is the first time you’ve talked to anyone about what happened, you probably haven’t been processing how you feel.”

“It’s Megumi,” Gojo says, shoving a huge mouthful of pancakes in his mouth. “Of course he isn’t processing his emotions. Which isn’t healthy, Gumi!”

“I don’t know,” Megumi leans up against the counter. “It’s not like my dad is here for me to even talk to.”

The kitchen is silent for a long moment. Gojo frowns for real now, his eyes narrowed. And Megumi really doesn’t want to know what he’s thinking. But considering Gojo’s current line of thinking, probably something unkind about his dad. 

Then Gojo beams, clapping his hands together. “Eat up so we can go to the store! We can make a shopping list on the way! No more sad Gumis!” 

Megumi snorts and eats the pancakes. 

He feeds the dogs and gets ready to go while Geto and Gojo clean up all the air mattresses. Megumi exits his room, tugging on his hoodie that’s slightly too small. The arms don’t reach down to his wrists, but it’s the comfiest thing he owns. And he needs something comfortable today. 

The thought of even trying to wear jeans and an uncomfortable shirt makes him annoyed already.

Gojo is sitting on top of the table, holding the keys. “I’ll drive today. Driver and DJ.”

“I will not sit in any car you drive.” Megumi walks over to them, frowning. He snatches the keys from Gojo and hands them to Geto. He feigns hurt as Geto sticks out his tongue.

Geto sits in the driver’s seat and Gojo climbs into the passenger seat, pouting still. 

Megumi shoves a pile of candy wrappers off his usual seat and buckles in. “Your car is a mess.”

Gojo looks over his shoulder, grinning. “Thanks!”

“That’s not a compliment. Why would you think that’s a compliment?”

Geto pulls out of the neighborhood, as Gojo connects his phone to the car’s speakers. Gojo scrolls through the music on his phone, thoughtfully. 

“Whatcha feeling today?” Gojo taps his chin, thinking. “What’s the vibe? Vibe check or whatever it is my students are saying.”

Megumi sinks into his seat, his hands shoved into the pocket of the hoodie. It was tempting to sleep here. He’s always tired somehow. “Nothing you made on garage band, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”

Gojo’s evil grin says enough. “Maybe it is.”

“I will launch myself out of this car if I am subjected to that torture right now.” Megumi’s hand hovers over the button to roll down the window. 

“Wow,” Gojo draws out. “It’s not that bad. I mean, I think I have some talent.”

“I love you dearly, Satoru, but I will break up with you if you play that nonsensical hogwash.”

“Wow.” Gojo puts a hand on his heart, “That’s a lot of fancy words to make fun of my artistic talent.”

Megumi wrings his hands and his leg bounces up and down rapidly. “Like you two would ever break up over something like Gojo’s stupid music after all these years.”

Like they would ever break up. 

It would be wrong. Gojo and Geto being together has always been the natural way of things. They came into his life as a pair. They existed as a pair. 

Tsumiki always said that she hoped to one day have a relationship like theirs. Megumi looks down at his hands. They’d never break up. 

Gojo glances over his shoulder, his eyebrows knitted together. “Of course not we wouldn’t break up over my music.”

“I don’t know,” Geto says, like he was considering it. “His music is pretty bad.”

Gojo gasps. “My own boyfriend. The betrayal.”

He chews on the inside of his cheek, his leg still bouncing. “You guys are dumb. Who would break up over something so stupid?”

“Me–since Satoru keeps pushing his luck.” Geto slows the car as they stop behind a stoplight. “I have to hear that god awful noise being made. I don’t know how much more I can handle.”

Gojo slides down his seat. “I thought this was supposed to be a fun little trip to cheer up Megumi not turn into everybody-attack Satoru Day. Uncalled for.”

Geto laughs and pulls Gojo in to kiss his cheek. “There. I’m sorry for attacking your questionable music talents.” 

Gojo makes a stupidly sappy face at Geto now. “You’re forgiven.”

“Gross.”

Of course, they would never break up.

They park at the mall and Gojo is rushing ahead. “To tasty snacks!”

Megumi walks beside Geto as they go into the overstock store that Gojo is obsessed with since they always have rows and rows of cheap sugary snacks to choose from. “I thought we were going to make a list?”

Gojo grabs a cart, already standing on it and rolling. “Have you ever seen me make a list to shop? Shopping is done with the heart, Gumi. Remember that.”

“That sounds like an easy way to impulsively buy things.”

Gojo glances over his shoulder. “Exactly. Retail therapy, Gumi.”

Geto stops by the shelves of chips. “Do you think we should get chips? Students always love chips.”

“I think Yuuji or Sukuna mentioned bringing chips,” Megumi says. 

Gojo is rolling on the cart ahead of them. “Guys look! Cheese puffs!”

Megumi glances over at Geto. “I think you’re dating a toddler.”

Geto smiles and adds a big party sized bag of cheese puffs to the cart. “I knew that when I asked him out on a date–”

“I asked you out first!” Gojo comes rolling past them again. 

“Sure, whatever you say Satoru.” 

Gojo comes rolling back from the opposite direction now. “Hey, Gumi. You were looking pretty low on food, you should grab some stuff.”

Megumi shoves his hands into his pockets and shuffles his feet. “I shop every two weeks for groceries and this is my off week–”

Gojo comes to a stop, looking over his sunglasses at Megumi. “You didn’t even have any vegetables in your fridge. Not even frozen foods. You always have frozen foods.” 

“I–” Megumi stares at him and then snaps out of it. “Why were you even looking in my freezer?”

“Why don’t you get groceries now?”

“My budget–”

Gojo gives him a look. “Gumi, did you not hear us yesterday? You don’t have to worry about that. You need food. You need to eat. We’ll get it for you.”

“I’m not letting you pay for my groceries.”

“Either you pick it out yourself or I’m picking for you! Everything with peppers and no ginger.” Gojo cackles, rolling around the corner of the aisle. “Your choice!”

Megumi watches as Gojo disappears around the corner and he takes a deep breath to ask. “Why is he like this?”

Geto is looking at various chip dips. “What else did you expect after telling us everything?”

Megumi falls silent. He wasn’t sure exactly what he thought would happen when he told them. Mostly because he had never planned on telling them. 

He puts a couple things in the cart and Gojo takes one look at the four items and decides that isn’t enough. He keeps pestering Megumi until they have a full cart worth of food. 

As they’re checking out, Gojo crowds around the chip reader and won’t let Megumi see it. “I told you, we’re paying.”

Megumi is about to say something else, but Geto puts an arm around his shoulders and leads him away from the check out aisle. “Megumi, we are helping you. It’s not a bother, even if you feel like it is.”

He takes a breath. “That’s a lot of food.”

“Do you want to deal with an anxiously concerned Satoru who’s worried you aren’t eating enough?” Geto raises an eyebrow. “Because that’s what is going to happen otherwise.” 

Megumi crosses his arms. “You two are the worst.”

Gojo laughs, pushing the cart over to them. “We’re a great team! Just two hard working gay dads trying to take care of their sea urchin son!”

They bring everything back to the house and it takes much longer than usual for him to put all of the food away. Normally, he only has two bags of groceries. 

Gojo is tossing stuff into the freezer haphazardly. “Yo, Gumi. What are your plans for the rest of the day?”

“Nothing really.” He absently pets Shiro’s head. 

“Well then,” Gojo leans against the fridge. “How do you feel about staying at me and Suguru’s house till the party?”

Megumi blinks, still holding a bag of groceries. “Why?”

“Cause we’re worried about you? And it’ll be like a sleepover!” Gojo claps his hands together. “Plus you can chillax at our place, free food, snacks, lots of tea. And me and Suguru get Megumi-time. A perfect plan.”

Megumi doesn’t not say that it does sound nice to get away from everything for a little bit. Instead, he just says, “Okay.”

Gojo cheers. 

Biology lets out early on Friday–the day of Gojo and Geto’s famous midterm party–to which he has never felt more grateful for as he trudges out of the lecture hall. The professor kept going on and on about the same five points and Megumi had already taken notes on it. 

As he walks down the stairs, his phone buzzes. Opening the phone, he checks the message quickly. 

Gojo (the annoying one): one image attached

Megumi quickly opens the image, frowning as he pauses at the bottom of the stairs. It’s a picture of the lecture hall he just stopped out of. And he sees himself walking down the stairs, frowning and looking like he wants to just not exist. 

Is that really how he looks all the time?

When did Gojo take this picture?

Megumi’s head snaps up. Gojo and Geto’s black car is parked slightly down the street. Gojo leanshalf-way out of the car, waving like a maniac. He’s wearing his sunglasses as always. 

Geto waves too, grinning. 

Megumi grabs onto his backpack handles and hurries over to them before Gojo starts hitting the horn. As he nears the car, he hisses. “What are you doing? Stalking me?”

Gojo grins and waves again. “Hiya, Gumi!”

Gojo attempts several bad dance moves to inaudible music.  Are you ready to party?”

Geto unlocks the car. “We just finished our classes and thought we’d pick you up.”

Megumi grabs the car door, pulling it open. The back is strangely clean. He shoots them both a suspicious look before climbing into the car. The second seat is cleared off, no wrappers or random crap is covering the leather.

As he buckles in, suspiciously eyeing the car. “Why is it clean?”

Geto starts the car, pulling away from the curb. “I threatened Satoru into cleaning it.”

“Impressive.” 

Gojo slides down his seat till only the top of his white hair was visible. “He threatened to take away my garage band tablet.”

Megumi rolls his eyes. “Wow, I didn’t know you were an Ipad kid.”

Geto laughs while Gojo starts whining. “I’m not an Ipad kid. How rude of you to attack me like this, Gumi. I thought you liked your gay dads. And here you are, calling me an Ipad kid. That hurts you know.”

And Megumi questions again why he agreed to go to this party. Part of him just wants to go back to his room and crash onto his bed for the rest of the day. 

Maybe he could just crash on their couch for the rest of the day. They probably wouldn’t mind. They would probably just give him a blanket to be more comfortable.  

But he promised Yuuji and Nobara. So as they pull up to the house, he follows them to the porch. Geto pulls out his keys and freezes. 

“Where are my keys?”

Megumi sags. “Please don’t tell me you left them at school-”

Gojo snickers and reaches into his back pocket and holds up Geto’s keys. “It’s all good, I snagged them earlier!”

Geto pats his jacket pockets. “When?”

Gojo slides past Geto and unlocks the door, not before kissing his cheek. “Because I love bothering you of course! You should have seen the look on your face!”

Gojo opens the door, still grinning. Megumi walks in first, dropping his backpack by the door with a loud thud. He glances over his shoulder to see Geto grab Gojo’s collar and pull him back, saying something too quietly for him to hear while smiling faintly. 

He looks away. He did not need to see their PDA.

Megumi walks into their house. The living room is ahead, the six mismatched couches forming a circle beside the large, marble fireplace. Towards the right is the very large kitchen that is barely ever used, the blues and greens perfectly clean somehow. 

The only reason the kitchen has always been so clean is that Gojo never uses it. 

The living room is a mess, clearly at odds with the neat kitchen. 

Papers and books strewn around the couches, entirely engulfing Gojo’s dark blue single-person chair. The little coffee table has about fifty different books laid open, the small, dense text heavily highlighted with sticky notes on almost every page. There is a small poster board leaning up against a couch, photographs of various multi-colored nebulas stand out against the dark background.

The floor is no better. There is a pile of old containers and take-out boxes with a small clearing big enough for one person to sit down. There is an open laptop, one he recognizes as Gojo’s old laptop, the screen black but covered in little yellow sticky notes and the top covered in more notes. Printed out papers and sections of essays are strewn across the ground too.

There’s all the decorations that they had been putting up throughout the week. Gojo wanted a space themed party this year (they have had a space theme midterm party at least five times).

So there’s little paper planets hanging from the ceiling, along with glow in the dark stars and a big moon that’s also a disco ball. 

Blue, purple, black paper streamers are strung across the ceiling. 

Megumi walks into the kitchen, going for the cabinets on the right. He grabs a light blue glass and heads for the fridge. He pauses, glass still in hand. New photos stick to the fridge with space nebula magnets and magnets of little folklore creatures.

It’s a series of polaroids of Megumi and Tsumiki, a few years before Tsumiki started getting sick. 

In one photo, Tsumiki stands behind Megumi, her arms resting on top of his head. She’s grinning ear to ear, proudly holding up her yearly report card. She had gotten all As in every class that year. Megumi is holding up his report card. All As on his report card too. 

They were standing in front of the tiny, dingy, old fridge at the old apartment. 

He remembers that day. 

Gojo and Geto had been so excited that they got such good grades, they kept pestering him and Tsumiki to take commemorative photos for an entire week. Every time they stopped by, Gojo would continuously poke him and Geto kept asking insistently. Megumi had never seen the final pictures. 

There’s another photo of Megumi, this time at his middle school graduation. He’s standing beside Tsumiki again, who is grinning happily. 

And another photo of Megumi at his high school graduation, alone, holding up the diploma and he looked like he wanted to die. 

He also remembers that day. 

A few weeks before graduation, his dad left for a business trip that was supposed to last for a few weeks in January that then turned into a ten-month long business trip. The first unpaid water bill showed up three days before graduation. 

Megumi has to look away from the photo and all the memories it brings back. Of holding that first unpaid bill and the realization that he had no way to pay it. 

“Gumi, where’d you go?”

Megumi jumps a little then quickly reaches forward to fill up his cup of water, just as Gojo walks into the kitchen. 

Gojo grins widely, throwing an arm over Megumi. “Are ya ready to go crazy at your favorite party of the year?”

Geto walks into the room, his hands shoved into pockets. “I thought you liked our finals party better?”

“Nah,” Gojo waves a hand. “I like them both.”

Megumi sips on his water. “What do we need to get ready for the party?”

Gojo freezes. “Uh, I don’t know, food I guess? We already kind of decorated so I don't think we gotta do that much else.”

Geto sighs. “Well, we should probably clean up the living room first and we also need to get started on the nachos too.”

“I’ll make the nachos.” Megumi quickly volunteers himself, not really in the mood to clean up all of their mess in the living room. Also he didn’t really trust Gojo near the kitchen anymore, not after last time. 

Geto grabs Gojo by the sleeve of his shirt before he can protest. “You need to clean up your mess in the living room. I literally stepped in a burger wrapper yesterday and if I ever do that again, I will permanently ban take-out in this house.”

“You’re so mean to me!” Gojo whines, but he lets Geto drag him into the living room. 

Megumi goes into the fridge. He searches for all the groceries they bought earlier that week for the nachos. Lettuce, tomato, onion, spicy peppers, and the fancy nacho cheese sauce. 

He looks at the jar of the nacho cheese sauce with peppers and extra spices. He and Tsumiki always made their nachos with melted shredded cheese and hoped for the best. It usually just melted into clumps on the stove.

“It’s just nacho cheese.”

Megumi jumps as Geto walks into the kitchen, raising an eyebrow. “You’re looking at that jar like you’re trying to learn the secrets of the universe.”

“Excited for nachos, I guess.” Megumi shrugs and notices Gojo overly-acting as he tiptoes into the kitchen like he’s trying to scare Geto. 

Geto starts to roll up his sleeves. “I’ll help with the food since Satoru is banished .” 

He looks over his shoulder as he says banished and Gojo freezes,

“Hey! That’s not fair!” Gojo points and lifts up his sunglasses. “Nobody else is getting banished!”

Geto pulls the lettuce out its bag, not even glancing over his shoulder. “Well, nobody else is leaving a huge mess in the living room.”

Gojo looks more annoyed and Megumi glances between them, about to speak. Gojo slumps his shoulders, pouting. “You’re hogging Megumi! That’s not fair!”

Not this again. 

Megumi rolls his eyes as he gets out a cutting board and a knife for the vegetables. 

Geto looks over his shoulder again, his singular strand of hair whipping around with the movement. “You say that as if you don’t hog Megumi all the time. He’s in your class.”

Gojo crosses his arms. “First you banish me and now you steal Megumi? Traitor.”

And Gojo marches out of the room and Geto rolls his eyes.

 Megumi glances between them again. “What’s up with him?”

Geto sighs, pulling out a cutting board. “He doesn’t like that I’m making him clean up his own mess that he made.”

Megumi shrugs. “That’s just how he is sometimes.”

“Oh, I know.” Geto smiles, putting on an apron. “Do you remember the time he knocked over the bag of sugar and left it?”

Megumi snorts. “Of course. Tsumiki cleaned it up.”

Megumi starts dicing the tomatoes and he pauses when he notices Geto had stopped moving to watch him. “Are you okay?”

“Oh yeah,” Geto smiles a little bit, “I was just thinking about the first time Satoru and I made dinner with you and Tsumiki.”

Megumi blinks a couple of times, trying to remember for a moment. Vaguely, he does remember the tiny apartment in a huge apartment complex, Gojo and Geto coming over with some plastic bags of groceries to make some food with them. 

Learning that Gojo can’t cook to save his life. Geto being appalled at the lack of cooking utensils they had in the kitchen. 

“Really?”

Now Geto smiles more. “It was one of the first times you opened up to Satoru and I. I remember you didn’t know how to dice a tomato then, you were only five.” He smiles almost wistfully. “I just noticed you still dice tomatoes how I showed you.”

Now Megumi looks down at the cutting and the large red tomatoes. Did he?   

Distantly, he can remember being much shorter and being unable to reach the counter tops. Geto noticing him trying to cut up tomatoes for dinner and Geto showing him how to properly cut them so he doesn’t get hurt and the tomatoes are in perfect tiny squares. 

Megumi goes back to cutting. “You were really good at cooking. You weren’t that old then.”

Geto hums as he continues to get the rest of the food ready. “I cooked a lot for my younger siblings growing up. I usually made dinner for them. They could cook, but they always preferred it when I made them dinner instead.”

That was more information about Geto’s family than he’s ever heard before. Sometimes it’s strange how much he knows about Gojo and Geto, but also doesn't know anything about their families.

“How many younger siblings do you have?”

Geto falls silent and Megumi wants to smack himself for even asking. There was probably a reason he doesn’t talk much about his family and it was probably painful to even ask about it.  

“Three,” Geto says after a moment, shrugging a little bit. “And four older siblings.”

Megumi turns to look at him, staring. “Seriously?”

He laughs. “Yeah. It was always interesting growing up with so many siblings.”

“I can’t even imagine. It was chaotic with just me and Tsumiki–but seven siblings?”

“I was never bored, that was for sure.” Geto smiles, tilting his head as he cooks. “So it was interesting when I met Satoru and he was an only child. It’s an entirely different experience growing up without siblings.”

Megumi tries to imagine what Geto’s siblings must be like, but he can’t even picture them. How did he never know that?

They work silently for some time after that. Geto chopping up all the veggies while Megumi cooks the beef and chicken, before adding the spices and chopped onion into the pan. It’s sizzling after a few moments. 

The sautéing onions fill the kitchen with the smells of fresh cooking. 

“You know,” Geto starts as he chops a pepper into thin strips. “You’re required to take two general education history courses? And you know, I happen to be teaching the first one next semester?”

Megumi stirs the pan, raising one eyebrow. “That was absolutely shameless. But yeah, I’ll sign up for it.”

“Awesome, now I can rub it in Satoru's face that you’re in my class now.” Geto sounds victorious, smirking as he prepares all the veggies into bowls for the buffet style meal. 

Megumi crosses his arms, blinking at Geto. “I’m required to take two back-to-back general sciences. So I’m still going to have class with him, you know.”

“Damn it.”

Hurried footsteps are the only warning they get before Gojo bursts into the room.

“Welcome to the annual Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru Midterm Party Fashion Show!” Gojo’s voice echoes throughout the house. Oh no. He almost forgot about that tradition. 

Every year. Gojo and Geto would proudly show off their increasingly ridiculous matching outfits for the midterm party. 

Gojo walks into the room with an outfit that looks like someone ripped out random parts of the worst fashion magazines ever printed and turned it into one, singular outfit that defies logic in how bad it is. 

Gojo was wearing a red and yellow Hawiian dad shirt, unbuttoned, with a bright neon yellow tank top underneath. Bright blue shorts that were either short shorts or were just too short for someone so tall. Flip flops and sunglasses, but not his normal sunglasses. These are double the size and have little diamonds encrusted on the side.

Gojo strikes a pose in the doorway, flipping his short hair back like a runway model. 

Megumi just stands there, holding the spoon. 

Gojo grins and strikes another pose. “What do you think?”

Megumi wasn’t even sure what to think about it. He blinks slowly. “You’re aware people are going to see you in that?”

“Yup!”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“Yup! I know I look good.”

“Just checking.”

Geto turns around, a hand on his hip. “Hey, watch it. I have a matching outfit.”

“You’re both disgusting.” He makes a face at the thought.

Geto snickers and finishes with the veggies. He washes his hands quickly and dries them. “Well, I’m going to change too”

He heads upstairs to Gojo and Geto’s bedroom.

Gojo jumps up and runs into the kitchen like a little kid. “I’ll help finish the veggies!”

Megumi sighs and wearily eyes Gojo holding a knife. “Are you sure you know how to use that?”

“Of course I do. Don’t doubt your gay dad.” Gojo proceeds to attempt to cut an onion with a stakeknife by stabbing it vertically straight down. The knife doesn't stick in the onion and instead it goes flying onto the floor. “Oops.” 

And all he can feel is disappointment. How has he not gotten better at cooking since he was seventeen? 

The sound of the doorbells rings throughout the house.

Gojo falls silent, looking up. Megumi immediately hands Gojo the spoon for the meat and beans and runs to the door. By the front door, he takes a moment to look like he hadn’t been running like a little kid to answer the door because his friends were here. 

He grabs the doorknob, opening it.

Yuuji, Nobara, and Sukuna are all crowded onto the porch, arms full of shopping bags. Yuuji is wearing what looks like beach clothes and he tries to wave while carrying at least ten different plastic bags that are stuffed full of food. Nobara waves as well, echoing Yuuji’s movements. 

Nobara is wearing all clothes with galaxy prints and bright make up that’s also probably supposed to look like a nebula.

Yuuji isn’t wearing anything with a space theme, though it does look like he has a temporary tattoo of a star on his cheek. “Hiya!” Yuuji dashes inside, the plastic bags making a bunch of noise when he moves. “Whoa, your gay dads’ place is fancy!”

Nobara follows after him, glancing around much slower like she is critically accessing everything around her. From inside, her voice carries, “Wow, this is nice. Who knew that the idiot had a decent place?”

Megumi huffs, speaking over his shoulder. “Wait till you see the pool.”

Nobara’s eyes go wide, almost too big. “They have a pool? Seriously?”

“They have a pool?” Yuuji appears around the corner, just his head visible and eyes wide. “Bro, too bad it’s too cold to swim.”

Gojo cackles from the kitchen. “Wait till you find out that it’s heated.”

Nobara and Yuuji both screech in excitement at the same time. 

For a moment he wishes that it would just be them at the party, nobody else. But that would be unfair to Gojo and Geto’s students who wait all year for this party. It was nice thought though.

Sukuna pushes past him–obviously not wearing anything space themes–carrying a cardboard box of something. “Your gays dads are loaded.”

Megumi raises an eyebrow. “I hope there’s no gas station alcohol in there.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Megumi closes the door and they walk toward the kitchen. 

Nobara and Yuuji are pressing their faces against the sliding glass doors to look at the pool. Gojo stands behind them, going on about all the extra add-ons the pool has like the rich guy he is. And each time he lists a new quality, they both gasp in surprise.  

Megumi follows Sukuna into the kitchen to check on the food that Gojo abandoned. He stirs the food in the pan a couple of times.

“Did you listen to that song I sent you?” Sukuna sets down the box and begins to unpack it. It’s all chips. The entire box is filled with chips. The whole thing. How many chips did he think this party needs?

“You mean the song where they screamed the whole time?” Megumi reaches into the box and just pulls out more chips. Why are there so many chips? “It sounds like every other screaming song you’re sent.”

Sukuna slowly looks up at him, annoyed. “The song I sent is industrial metal , not screamo. Those are two different genres.”

“Are they?” He opens a bag of tortilla chips, maintaining a flat expression. 

Sukuna finally stops unloading the frankly ridiculous amount of chips. “Hey, I don’t trash on your music taste.”

“What’s the thing Yuuji always says?” He pauses for a moment trying to recall all the moments Yuuji quoted the stupid meme line and eats a chip. “Get good scrub?”

A vein twitches in Sukuna’s forehead. And before he can start insulting Megumi’s music, Megumi asks, “Did you listen to the song I sent?”

Sukuna looks like he wants to say a long string of curse words directed at Megumi, but begrudgingly grits out. “It was good.”

And then Nobara's voice rises from the other room. “It’s not that hard, just give me the real study guide!”

Gojo makes a tsk sound, shaking his head. “No can do. I spend a lot of time making those incomprehensible. That is the real study guide.” 

“You’re an embarrassment. I can’t believe I ever thought you were cool over the phone at first.” Nobara sounds disgusted with herself. 

She starts walking back into the kitchen, shaking her head like she can’t believe it. Megumi almost feels bad for her for thinking Gojo was ever logical in any sense of the word. 

Gojo is still standing beside Yuuji, a hand on his hip. “Wow, rude. And for that you get extra hard questions for your midterm.”

Nobara whips around, a murderous glint in her eyes. She looks ready to explode and start screaming threats at him. Instead she calms herself and slowly speaks each word for maximum threatening impact. “You know what, I'll take it back. You’re not a bad professor.”

“Why thank you–”

“You’re a bad gay dad.”

Gojo actually staggers backward, knocking into the couch. One hand is pressed to his heart. Gojo supports himself with one arm, gasping loudly. He points a shaking finger at her. “You take that back right now.”

Yuuji also gasps. “Nobara! That’s too far!”

“What the hell is happening?” Sukuna says beside Megumi, watching this with a vaguely disgusted look. 

Nobara crosses her arms and shakes her head, proudly. “Nope. You’ve lost all your dad privileges till you give me a real study guide.”

And once again, Megumi questions how this is his life. 

Geto steps into the living room, grinning. He is now wearing an outfit that perfectly matches Gojo’s terrible outfit. They really are meant for each other. “It is the real study guide. He just disguises all the answers. All the answers to the tests are there if you can figure out what he’s saying.”

Nobara’s eyes get wide. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, but good luck trying to understand it though.”

Nobara whips around, her very intense gaze focused on Megumi. He almost steps back to avoid it. “You. Eyelashes. You can understand it, can’t you? Tell me the answers.”

Megumi shrinks back a little bit. “I don’t know. I don’t use those things. I just make my own.”

“Why do you have to call my study guides things in such a disgusted voice?”

Nobara throws her hands up in the air and looks at Gojo. “If your own son can’t tell what it says, how can anyone?”

Gojo shrugs, grinning. “Well, Megumi could figure it out if he tried.”

And Yuuji scurries away into the kitchen as they start arguing. He sets his bags down and leans over Megumi’s shoulder. “Bro, I don’t know what you’re making but it smells amazing.”

Megumi stirs the pan just once, making sure it doesn’t burn. “It’s just nachos.”

Yuuji shuffles closer, looking into the pan. “Ooh, that’s some fancy nacho sauce.”

Sukuna raises his voice above Nobara and Gojo so they can hear him. “Brat, I can’t believe you said he was your nice friend. He just said my music taste is shit.” 

Yuuji rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t know, bro. It’s kinda true though.”

“I didn’t say that.” Megumi adds quickly, clarifying now that Yuuji was here. 

Yuuji grins and gestures to Megumi. “See? Megumi would never insult someone’s music taste, even yours–”

“I said get good scrub.” 

There is something satisfying in the way Yuuji freezes then keels over laughing and Sukuna looks one second away from attacking him. And honestly, all of Sukuna’s music sounded like screamo, emo stuff that is too distorted to really understand or listen to with headphones. 

It wasn’t bad. But it was sort of funny to bother Sukuna about it. 

Yuuji grips the edge of the counter, still laughing. “Bro, you just got roasted.”

Sukuna rolls his eyes. “Whatever.”

Maybe he is being a little too mean, but the screamo music was just too much. He hadn’t been expecting to hear screams of someone dying right before bed and it almost gave him a heart attack. So he considers it payback. But he could still be slightly nicer. 

So he shrugs and adds, “But the acoustic version was good.”

“Hah! I told you it was good!” Sukuna points at him and then takes a moment to think. “Where did you even find an acoustic version of that? I don’t think I’ve ever heard an acoustic version.”

Honestly, it was late at night and he was bored. Not to mention that Youtube is easy to get sucked into weird rabbit holes. Also acoustic versions of songs are almost always better. He can actually hear what they’re saying and focus on the meaning of the music. 

So he shrugs. “Youtube.”

“And what did you think then?” Sukuna says, leaning against the counter and popping open a bag of spicy pepper tortilla chips. “Since apparently you can’t handle industrial rock.”

Megumi stirs the cheese again, shrugging. “I appreciate what they were saying about how the modern capitalist society is inherently flawed and that it really only benefits the rich.”

He looks back up to see Sukuna making a face, a chip halfway to his mouth. Megumi makes a face back. “What? I’m not sure how else it could be interpreted. Considering they kept saying ‘only the rich men get richer’ the entire song and all.”

“What song are we talking about again?” Yuuji asks, blinking a couple times, looking between them. “Cause I can’t tell the difference between all of Sukuna’s music.”

Sukuna rolls his eyes and pulls out his phone, typing aggressively for a minute. “Come on, brat. You literally hear me play this song all the time. I play this every single morning.”

“Doesn’t mean I know what it’s called!”

Sukuna plays the first part of the song. Just as loud and grating as he remembers. It only sounds worse on the small phone speakers in the kitchen. 

Yuuji’s eyes get wide. “Oh! That song!” Then he looks back to Megumi. “That’s what you got out of this song?”

“Yeah,” he says, somewhat defensively. “How did you interpret it?”

“A dude yelling a bunch?”

“The song is clearly about capitalism, idiot,” Sukuna says, throwing a chip at Yuuji. 

Yuuji rolls his eyes and eats the chip. He turns back to Megumi. “I’m sorry we don’t know what went wrong with him. But, can you show me Kuro and Shiro pics? My math class sucked today and I need a pick-me-up.”

It takes him a moment to process. Megumi stares at him for a very long moment, then he stands up straight. He whips his phone out and pulls up the folder specifically for his dogs. 

“Shiro has started sitting in the chairs like a person,” Megumi says, grinning as he shows the photo. Yuuji laughs at Shiro sitting in the chair, his paws on the table and looking at Megumi with big eyes. 

“I still can’t believe you have whole ass wolves in your house and you keep calling them dogs,” Sukuna says behind him, though he’s also looking at the photos, craning his neck to look over Yuuji’s head. He pretends not to care, but Megumi knows he likes the dogs even more than Yuuji does. 

Megumi swipes to show off a picture of Kuro laying on his back, legs straight up in the air while lounging on a couch. 

“Please send that to me.” Yuuji says, his eyes wide. “I really needed to see this.”

Suddenly, two hands land on his shoulders and begin pushing Megumi out of the kitchen. He glances over his shoulder at Gojo. He grins down at Megumi, a look that only means he is about to annoy Megumi. 

“Alrighty, time to go change into your party clothes!”

He digs his feet into the ground in the middle of the living room, stopping the pushing.  “I don’t have party clothes.”

Gojo lets go of his shoulders and runs forward, grabbing something off the back of the couch. He holds up a plain white t-shirt. “You do now!”

In big, bold black letters the t-shirt says; I LOVE MY GAY DADS. The O in love is a giant heart. 

It looks like a kid made it with craft paint. 

Gojo grins as he holds it up, proud. He just stares at it, mouth hanging open. Yuuji, Nobara, and Sukuna are all laughing, because of course they are.

Megumi stares at it and then at Gojo. Why does Gojo keep feeding into the whole joke about him and Geto being his dads?

 “I refuse to wear this abomination.”

“But I specifically made it for you!” Gojo says, leaning forward to poke his face, pouting. “Don’t let it go to waste.”

“He worked really hard on it!” Geto calls from the kitchen. “He made it today in his office. Even me progress photos!”

Yuuji quietly, slowly starts chanting. “Wear it, wear it, wear it.”

Nobara joins in and Gojo also starts chanting the ridiculous thing. They’re grinning widely. And Megumi refuses to acknowledge the warmth growing in his face. They can’t actually expect him to wear that thing for the entire party? 

They keep chanting. 

Megumi stares at the t-shirt. 

And they keep chanting, steadily growing louder. 

He swipes the t-shirt from Gojo’s hands. They all cheer loudly. “I hate all of you, except for Geto and Sukuna because they weren’t a part of this.”

Gojo puts his hands on his hips, leaning back and frowning. “That’s just favoritism. You’re not supposed to have a favorite parent, you know?”

Megumi glares, holding onto the t-shirt tighter. At least the material is soft. 

But he marches away to the nearest bathroom, fuming. He slams the door and waits a moment. Gojo, Yuuji, and Nobara are all still laughing in the living room. 

“I will burn it if you don’t stop!” Megumi shouts through the wooden door and the laughter ceases. Megumi rolls his eyes. 

Yeah, that’s what he thought. 

It’s a small bathroom, but somehow it’s still fancy like the rest of the house. The tiles are a shiny gray, no stains from long use and few cleanings. Even the overhead lighting is nice, a warm yellow light that almost looks like sunlight instead of cool, blue fluorescent light. He looks down at the t-shirt in his hands. 

Why would they make a shirt calling themselves his dads? It was just a misunderstanding that’s turned into something his friends tease him about. They’re way too young to have a kid his age anyway. 

Shouldn’t they be offended?

What was even the point?

He looks at it for a long time. He tries not to overthink it, but it still bothers him. Why would they make it? 

He keeps staring at it until he hears new voices entering the house–voices of all the students arriving. Gojo is loudly greeting them at the door. 

“Professor Gojo!” Someone shouts. 

“Hello random student!”

He quickly changes into the shirt. Glancing in the mirror, he can fully appreciate how stupid this t-shirt looks. It looks like something a kid would make during a craft day in school out of crappy, cheap paint. The heart is lopsided.  

Sighing, he looks back down at it. Is he really going to walk out of this bathroom so people can see him wearing this? Why did he agree to this?

There’s more voices outside of the bathroom now, all voices he doesn't recognize.

“I still can’t believe Professor Gojo and Professor Geto host a party together when they hate each other.”  

“I know right? Like, why do they even do this party? They can barely stand to be in the same room as each other.” 

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that everyone at the college doesn't know that Gojo and Geto are dating and practically married.

Megumi opens the bathroom door, going back into the hallway connecting to the living room. There’s a few students walking into the living room, a couple he recognizes from his astronomy class with Gojo.

“Hey!” Someone says–an older astronomy student that Megumi has run into a couple times when going to give things to Gojo at his office. She smiles at him. 

“Oh, hi.” He stops to talk to her and to seem polite even though he just wants to go back into the kitchen. 

She glances down at his shirt, blinking a couple times and he can feel his entire face warm up. But she doesn’t comment on it. “You’re always at Professor Gojo’s parties, but I don’t see you at any of the astronomy major events. You should really go to them, they’re super fun!”

Megumi rubs his arms. “I’m not actually an astronomy major.”

“Oh, really? Then, are you taking intro to astronomy for an elective or something?” She seems genuinely curious. 

“For my general education science requirement actually.” He shrugs. 

Now she looks even more confused. A few more students squeeze past them into the living room. “Oh man, that must suck. Did you not take your gen ed requirements your first years?”

Now Megumi is confused. “I’m a first year?”

Her eyes get huge. “Wait, seriously? I thought you were a senior. I could’ve sworn I’d seen you at one of Professor Gojo’s parties last year during my first year.”

Oh. Megumi shifts weight on his feet. Nobody has ever noticed that before so he isn’t even sure what to say. “I knew Gojo from before college. Unfortunately.”

“Oh.” She smiles. “Is that why he always seems to single you out in class?”

Megumi can feel himself shrink down a little bit. “Yeah.”

He really wants to leave now. Small talk is not something he enjoys and he’s barely ever talked to her before except in passing. 

“Hey, Megumi.” 

He turns in time to see Maki shoving past him. Inumaki, Yuuta, and Panda are all with her as well. He didn’t know they were going to be here. 

Then Maki sees the shirt, freezing when her eyes land on the t-shirt. Her face goes from confused to disgusted to smirking at him. She nudges Yuuta’s shoulder and points at the shirt. 

Megumi slouches, crossing his arms, and scurries away. 

“Nice shirt, Megumi.” Ieiri looks at him from her spot on the couch armrest. Vaguely amused, she raises her eyebrows. “Did you lose a bet or something?”

She didn’t normally come to their midterm parties, so it’s slightly surprising to see her this time. 

Sighing, he shakes his head. “No, but I’m on my way to punch him now.”

Ieiri nods. “You have my blessing. Have fun.”

He also nods, immediately going in search of him. It isn’t hard to find Gojo considering how loud his voice is inside of the house. 

Gojo is lounging on one of the large blue couches beside Geto, who is setting up the speaker system. A student is talking to them both.

“Yes, yes, of course Professor Geto and I have a rivalry. ” Gojo says, waving a hand. “We always have to argue. It’s how things are.”

“I don’t know, it just seems weird. If you guys don’t like each other why are you having a party together?” The student asks, glancing between them. 

“We like to confuse people,” Geto says good naturally and without missing a beat as he plugs in several cords into the speakers.  

Walking up to them, he crosses his arms. “Hey.”

Gojo, Geto, and the student all look over to him. 

“I’m wearing the stupid shirt you made.” Megumi says, blandly. 

Gojo beams, his smile growing wider and slaps two hands to the side of his face, gasping. “Oh my gosh! It’s perfect! We have to take pictures to commemorate this moment!”

Megumi’s face burns, the student looking on with a confused look. “Why are you like this?”

Geto looks up from the speaker system, grinning. “What a fashion statement you’re making there.”

Gojo jumps up from the couch and crushes him into a hug, squishing him. “You really do love your gay dads!” He lets go then laughs, pretending to cry. “Who would’ve thought that the kid I brought as a show and tell would call me his gay dad.” 

The student looks around, increasingly confused. 

Megumi rolls his eyes. “Can you let go now?”

Yuuji zips through the crowd until he’s leaning in towards Megumi with wide eyes. “Okay, so I just heard that Gojo brought you to school as a show and tell. And I’m extremely curious now, how exactly did you meet your gay dads?”

Megumi looks at him for a moment and Yuuji just looks back, waiting. He looks away, thinking for a moment. It was such a long time ago, he isn’t really sure he remembers the exact moment. Or maybe he does. Gojo and Geto’s presence is pretty hard to forget. 

Of course he remembers, but he doesn’t really see how that’s relevant now of all times. 

So he just says, “It’s a really long story, I’m sure you don’t want to hear it right now–”

“I do!” Yuuji grabs his arm, shaking it and jostling Megumi. “I have to know!”

Nobara launches herself over the side of the couch, stumbling over to them. “Me too! I’ve been wondering about this for a really long time now and I have some bets.”

“You have bets ?”

There’s more students looking at them and watching. Megumi wants to disappear from view so everyone would stop looking at him. 

“Yeah,” Sukuna says as he leans against the back of the couch and shrugs. When did he get there? “I’m betting that they stole you from your unwilling parents. I have some serious cash on this.”

Megumi just stares at them, unbelieving. That was the most idiotic thing he had ever heard. If he was kidnapped, why would he still be here? He just makes a face at Sukuna, silently asking why this was the conclusion he came to. 

Sukuna’s expression doesn’t change. “Fess up.”

“Well,” Gojo starts, pulling Megumi closer for a side hug, grinning stupidly the whole time. “If you have to know–I used to be baby Gumi’s babysitter!”

“Hey!” Geto says, still fiddling with the speaker system. “I was there too!”

The students are now all looking around with wide, shocked looks. 

“And he tagged along with me of course.” Gojo adds, patting the top of Megumi’s head. “We babysat him at the dojo his dad worked at.”

Megumi sags. Everyone is listening to Gojo now. And it’s way too many people looking at him and he really wants to melt into the carpet and disappear. So he covers his face with a hand as his face just keeps getting warmer and warmer. He did not sign up for this. 

“He was so tiny, like an itty bitty mini-gumi.” Gojo says, sighing fondly. “Sometimes I miss the days where he was still tiny and I could pick him up and carry him around.”

“If I remember correctly, half the time I was stopping you from destroying stuff. If anything, I was babysitting you.” Megumi says, the hand still slapped over his face. He lowers his hand to glare at Gojo. 

Gojo just smiles back.

Megumi can hear someone whispering: what is happening?

“Damn it,” Sukuna hisses. Is he serious? “I can’t believe that’s how you meet these weirdos.”

Yuuji grins. “See? I told you it wasn’t child kidnapping. They’re wholesome gay dads.”

Nobara huffs. “I can’t believe Yuuji won the bet.”

Megumi turns to Yuuji, narrowing his eyes. “You had bets on this too?”

Yuuji’s eyes go wide and he quickly glances around the room. “Huh? What? No, I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

Nobara pulls out her hot pink purse and takes out money. She slaps a bunch of cash against Yuuji’s chest and walks away. Sukuna also throws cash at Yuuji, swearing the whole time. 

Yuuji holds all the cash and slowly looks back at him. “This is completely coincidental.”

He does not believe that for one second.

“Ha! Finally got it!” Geto says and the music starts. 

The music finally starts playing. 

The music is instantly recognizable. It’s the music that Gojo and Geto listened to throughout all of college. So, naturally, it became part of Megumi’s childhood too. The four years Gojo and Geto were in college resulted in nights where they would do homework on the floor with him and Tsumiki, the music playing from a crappy radio.

He had never complained, considering it was the only music he usually heard beyond Geto’s much more laidback music or much-loved disco music. 

Gojo would blast the music whenever he would show up at the old apartment and when they moved into the house. Gojo and Geto would try to study for college and high school, dance music playing in the background. 

But it often resulted in Gojo getting distracted and starting a dance party with Tsumiki instead of studying. 

“I love this song!” Yuuji shouts and immediately breaks out in a very uncoordinated robot dance. Nobara joins in seconds later, copying his awkward, stilted movements. 

Honestly, he has no idea how they aren’t embarrassed with all the other people around them. There are far too many people in the house. If anything, it feels like more people than usual at the party. Or maybe he’s just more irritated than usual. 

There’s too many people in the living room right now. All cheering and talking over each other. It’s too loud. 

So he just shuffles away, hoping nobody tries to talk to him after Gojo embarrassingly announced how they met. The kitchen is connected to the living room, but there’s nobody in there. He takes a breath. 

The whole kitchen island is a spread of foods, but there’s really only one thing he wants. He grabs a plate, piling it with a small mountain of nachos. Maybe he adds too much cheese sauce, but he’s not paying for it. 

Glancing back into the living room, he can see Gojo is performing the original music video choreography for some music video, all his students cheering him on. Geto is laughing and holding up his phone, recording him. 

Megumi just hops up on the counter and decides to eat his nachos in peace while he can. He had been waiting all day for this and he didn’t really feel like dancing in front of a bunch of strangers. But he wouldn’t mind watching Gojo’s students lose respect for him. 

He sits there, eating the nachos and trying not to think about Tsumiki for the moment. She always loved these parties–always liked talking to Gojo and Geto’s students, the food, the music, and how much fun it was. 

She would usually dance most of the time, then go to check on Megumi. Not that he ever really danced at the parties, he mostly stayed in the kitchen or outside where it was quieter and there were less people. And it wasn’t as if people ever tried to talk to him either. 

Sukuna walks into the kitchen, looking down at his phone and aggressively typing. He glances up and lowers his phone. “Are you just sitting in here? Eating nachos?”

That is exactly what he is doing. He glances down at himself, sitting in the kitchen by himself at a party and wearing a t-shirt that says I love my gay dads. This was probably why nobody wanted to talk to him. “Yeah. I guess.”

Sukuna looks at him for a moment. It’s so hard to tell what he’s thinking. Does he think Megumi is weird? Or weirder than he probably already thinks Megumi is.

Sukuna puts his phone away and grabs a whole bowl of chips from the countertop. “You know, at first, I thought you were normal. But I take it back.”

“Thanks?”

“I don’t like normal people.” 

Furrowing his eyebrows, Megumi narrows his eyes at Sukuna. Honestly, he wasn’t sure how to respond to that comment. “Is that your way of giving a very backwards compliment?”

Sukuna fixes a look at him then grabs a chip off his plate. Megumi jerks his plate back, glaring. 

“You’re so weird.” Megumi mutters under his breath. As far as Megumi is aware, Sukuna doesn’t really like him. Or at least, that’s what he thought. But didn’t Sukuna just compliment him, even in Sukuna’s strange way? He really didn’t understand why people are so hard to understand.   

Sukuna eats more of the chips. “Am I?”

Megumi scopes up a chip and shrugs. “I mean, you have this weird delinquent look and pretend to hate everyone and everything, including Yuuji–”

Sukuna scoffs. “First off, you can try living with the brat and see how that goes. He leaves his shit everywhere and I’ve been stuck with him and his stupid posters for eighteen years.” 

He says that it somehow explains everything. Which it doesn’t. 

Megumi looks back into the living room. Yuuji and Nobara are having a dance off, while Gojo is cheering them on. It’s hard to imagine being annoyed at Yuuji, he’s always kind and caring. Just like Tsumiki was like…

Megumi looks back down at his plate, the music playing loudly in the living room. “I think it’s nice. That you and Yuuji are roommates.”

Yuuji and Nobara pose for a photo together, both throwing up peace signs in sync. It’s so similar to how Tsumiki would dance at these parties, happily posing for photos that Gojo took with a green disposable camera. 

“You complain about him, but you still decided to see him every day.” Megumi shrugs after a moment, not even sure where he was going. “You should appreciate him more. It’s dumb to be annoyed at him all the time and bicker with him. You never know when you’re going to grow apart.”

The song changes, filing the house with momentary silence. And a new song plays, everyone cheering for the new, upbeat song that he’s never heard before starts blasting. 

“That’s really messed up to just assume you’re going to grow apart.” Sukuna says, his voice weird, calm and almost apprehensively. 

He is perfectly aware of that fact, but sometimes that’s how things are. It can’t be controlled. “Nothing lasts forever.”

Now Sukuna turns to face him. “Me and Yuuji are twins. Even though he’s an annoying little shit most of the time, I still care about him. And it’s not like we’re never gonna see each other again or drift apart forever suddenly.”

Memories of laying on the hard floor of the living room with Tsumiki when it was too hot outside. Sitting outside of the dumpling shop while it rained. Reading a mountain of library books together. Working on homework together at the small kitchen table. Singing along to Gojo’s music in the car, at the top of their lungs. 

Assuming they were going to be together forever. 

And he thinks of a quiet, sterile, white hospital room. 

“All I’m saying is that you never know what will happen, so appreciate Yuuji while you can.”

“Wow, what’s gotten into you?” Sukuna snorts, laughing for a moment. 

Megumi looks down at the nachos. “I don’t know.”

Sukuna stops laughing to give him a more pointed look. “You gonna drop the weird cryptic bullshit? What’s got you sprouting all the sad shit?”

A sudden, intense need for someone to understand comes over him. He experienced the sudden, jolting feeling of losing someone he thought was going to be with him the rest of his life. He lost a sibling and he really never ever wants someone to experience that again. 

Maybe it’s because he had talked to Gojo and Geto, he doesn’t know. Megumi sets aside his nachos and turns towards Sukuna. He leans back slightly, narrowing his eyes at Megumi. 

“It’s not cryptic.” Megumi says, his voice low. “I’m just letting you know, it’s dumb to be annoyed all the time at Yuuji. Especially, since you never know what could happen and you should appreciate him. Something could happen, you never know. It’s not as unlikely as you think.” 

Sukuna just looks at him for a very long moment. “Okay. Are you gonna expand on that depressing idea?”

Megumi wants to leave now. This was supposed to be a fun midterm party, not a time for him to ruin it for everyone. “No, I just–”

Sukuna raises an eyebrow. “Just seems like you’re talking from personal experience.”

“Maybe. I mean, sort of–”

Yuuji comes crashing into the kitchen, skidding over the tiles without any shoes on. He grabs onto the counter then reaches for the water bottles and proceeds to drink two of them. 

Megumi immediately goes back to eating the nachos on his plate and like he wasn’t about to tell Sukuna about Tsumiki. Why was he about to do that?

The only people who know are Gojo and Geto. 

Yuuji wipes off his mouth, breathing heavily. And he waves at them. “Hi guys!”

Yuuji chugs half of another bottle. “I’m glad you guys are becoming friends. It’s nice that Sukuna finally gets along with one of my friends!”

“Maybe you should get a better taste in friends then.” Sukuna crosses his arms, but he doesn’t sound angry. 

Yuuji pouts. “But Megumi’s my friend and he’s chill.”

Is he? He has never thought of describing himself as chill. He tries to sound normal and not like he was about to reveal deeply personal information to Sukuna. “I’m chill?”

“Yeah!” Yuuji nods frantically. “You’re the calm and collected one of us!”

And he distinctly remembers how last week he had a complete and total breakdown in his kitchen, sobbing for hours, because he just told someone about his dad. But then again, they didn’t exactly know about that.

Or that his entire life is a mess. 

He picks up a chip. “Okay, sure, I guess.”

Yuuji grabs a grape soda, popping it open. He chugs the whole thing. “Anyways, I’m glad we’re hanging out again, bro.”

And Yuuji just runs back into the living room. 

Sometimes Megumi really wishes he had a fraction of Yuuji’s never ending energy. Then he remembers how tiring that would be and he decides that he’s okay without it. But it would be nice sometimes. 

The music is the only sound he can hear now. So he goes back to eating and pretending like he wasn’t talking to Sukuna about anything before Yuuji rushed into the room. 

Sukuna very loudly eats a chip. “So, what were you saying before?”

It comes out awkward and Sukuna seems overly awkward. 

Megumi doesn’t look at him. “Nothing. Just tired.”

More silence.

Was he really going to tell Sukuna about Tsumiki? 

More awkward, silent time passes and Megumi seriously considers just leaving to avoid it. 

“Also did you listen to the Needle Society song I sent?” Sukuna finally asks, grabbing a whole bag of chips. “Because apparently you have a whole ass limited edition poster of theirs in your house and you’d never heard a single song by them before.”

Thank god Sukuna isn’t trying to talk anymore about it.

He can pretend to be normal. He’s good at that. “Yeah, the lyrics are good, but it’s really hard to hear them over the guitar that sounds like someone ripped apart the strings.”

Sukuna jabs a finger at him, glaring. “That song is literally a classic of the post-punk genre.”

“Yeah and the lead guitarist doesn’t know how to properly string his instrument.”

Sukuna shoves a handful of chips into his mouth. “How do you even know that?”

“Gojo had a very short, very very intense obsession with learning how to play guitar a few years ago. And when he’s obsessed with something, he talks about it constantly and nonstop.”

Sukuna snorts. “I’m somehow not surprised.”

“There’s about fifty guitar books he memorized and likes to impart his knowledge onto people.” Megumi makes a face at the memories and all the lectures he had been subjected to during high school. Of sitting on a couch while Gojo ranted about the history of guitars.

Sukuna is snickering. “Wow, I could see that. Probably made posters and presentations for it too.”

Megumi laughs. Because Gojo had, he even made diagrams and timelines. “And one time he tried to join a band.”

Sukuna immediately starts laughing.

And Megumi keeps telling stories about the guitar escapades. Including when Gojo refused to speak a word and instead carried his guitar everywhere and sang everything like he was in a musical. And Gojo’s first aerospace conference and the disaster it resulted in. 

Then neither he nor Sukuna could stop laughing. Megumi keels over, holding onto the edge of the counter.

“He went to the national aerospace conference like that?” Sukuna wheezes, practically on the floor now. 

Megumi can only nod through laughter. And then Megumi hops off the counter, calming his laughter. “I wish I was joking. The suit was neon blue.”

“ Why? ”

“He said it matched his eyes.”

Sukuna laughs even harder. “He’s weird. I hope you know that.”

“I know.” He shrugs. “That’s just how he is.”

“Hey, Megumi,” Geto pops his head into the kitchen, grinning. “I think Yuuji wants to check out the pool, but he doesn’t want to bother anyone about it. He’s been staring out the back doors for the past five minutes.”

Megumi looks into the living room. Yuuji is standing by the glass doors, looking outside. He’s holding a plate of food and he keeps glancing at the handle of the door longingly like all he thinks about is a pool and how much he wants to go outside to the pool.  

“Can you help him out?” Geto asks. 

“Oh yeah,” Megumi moves around the couch. 

Part of him is also glad to go so Sukuna can’t ask about anything. Megumi opens the back doors and looks over to Yuuji. “You don’t have to wait, you know.”

Yuuji breaks out into a huge smile and practically skips outside. “Thanks bro, I wasn’t sure if the pool was off limits or something.”

“No, everyone’s just too busy dancing right now to be outside, I guess.” 

Megumi follows him outside. It’s cooler out here, but not cold. And when the door closes, the music is muffled behind the glass doors. The backyard is big, much bigger than expected from just one couple living in the house. 

But Megumi remembers Geto saying when they bought the house, that he and Tsumiki could play in the backyard. He had even talked about putting a swing set in the backyard, but Tsumiki started getting sick and other things were more important. 

The huge porch leads directly to the deep rectangle pool. Five blue steps lead down into the water, rippling slightly. There’s some beach balls that are supposed to be planets floating on top of the water, some with flashing lights inside.  

Yuuji kicks off his tennis shoes and scurries to the edge of the water. “Whoa, I can feel how warm it is from here.” 

He steps into the pool, just to his feet. “Wow, this is nice.”

Megumi also takes off his shoes, sitting down beside Yuuji. He puts his feet into the water. It’s warm, not too hot. Yuuji offers his plate of nachos, cookies, and mini chocolate cakes that Gojo definitely bought. Megumi grabs a couple chips. 

“It’s so nice that it’s heated,” Yuuji eats a whole cookie in one bite.  

“Gojo complained about it being cold all the time. So one year for Christmas, Geto made it heated.”

“Aw.” Yuuji smiles widely. “That’s so cute.”

“It’s gross.”

“You’re just saying that cause they’re your dads.”

Megumi eats a chip. 

Yuuji peers at him, curious. “You used to be against me calling them your gay dads?”

He did. 

But, after the past couple days–he isn’t even sure anymore. 

Megumi looks over the water, the warm glowing lights underneath the water glittering and making the water almost look like it’s glowing. “Maybe they are, I don’t know. It’s weird sometimes, I guess. I don’t know exactly how to explain it.”

Yuuji just smiles, understanding, and pats his shoulder. “That’s fine, bro. Family is weird sometimes.”

“Yeah.”

Family doesn’t have to be who you’re biologically related to.

“Sometimes a family is you, your two gay dads who aren’t married, your two wolves, and your frog army,” Yuuji says with a completely straight face. 

He slowly turns to look at him. “I seriously thought you were going to say something meaningful there.”

“Of course not,” Yuuji waves a hand, laughing, “Always gotta joke, you know?”

Megumi looks over the water, the light reflecting off the water and making rippling light fall across them. The night sky is clear tonight, no clouds cover the half moon. It’s nice tonight. A couple stars are visible even this close to the city. 

“Hey,” Yuuji starts, staring down at his food. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

His head whips around. “What? No? Why are you even asking that?”

Yuuji sighs, an unusual sound for him. And he shrugs. “I don’t know, man. I just, maybe I am kinda dumb?”

Megumi narrows his eyes. “Did someone say something to you?”

“Well,” Yuuji draws out, rubbing the back of his neck. “Did I tell you what happened at the school study group yesterday?”

“No?”

“So I started going to those study groups you told me about–thank you by the way. And so I was just vibing, learning stuff, asking questions like a good student. And then a new student peer tutor comes in.”

Megumi nods, stealing more of Yuuji’s chips. 

“And then this ugly guy–he was super weird by the way– tells me I’m too stupid to be in an anatomy class. And that I’m too stupid to understand humans or something weird like that. Like what does that even mean?”

Megumi jerks back, almost dropping the chip into the pool. “What? He said that to your face?”

Who would even say that about someone like Yuuji? He was such a nice person, he probably didn’t have an evil bone in his whole body. The meanest he could be was when he was bickering with Sukuna. But he wasn’t stupid and he spent a lot of time trying to improve his grades which is more than some students do.  

“Yeah!” Yuuji looks at him and waved his hand around while he explains. “I tried to play it off, but that kinda hurts you know? I mean, it is super confusing and all.”

Megumi blinks. “Who said that?”

“I don’t know, a new peer tutor or something. They had a name like Mehto or something like that.” Yuuji thinks, squinting while he tries a bunch of different names, but can’t remember. 

“Wait, no, it was Mahito.”

Megumi makes a mental note to keep an eye out for someone named Mahito. 

Yuuji frowns. “And I really don’t like that dude, you know. Which is saying a lot for me as a person.”

It really does. He hasn’t heard Yuuji say a bad word about anyone, except maybe Sukuna. 

“I mean,” Yuuji gestures to himself. “I’m friends with Todo for god’s sake. I like most people.”

“Wow, what an asshole.”

Yuuji frowns. “Yeah, it  was really rude.”

“Well, you’re not stupid.” Megumi says, firmly. “And that Mahito guy sounds like a terrible person so try not to worry about it.”

Yuuji springs up. “Imma go grab some nachos!”

He races back inside just as Sukuna walks out. Sukuna closes the door, watching Yuuji rush inside with a side eye. 

Sukuna is carrying a plate full of wings in a bright, red sauce, observing the backyard. “Wow, they really do have a whole ass pool.”

Megumi turns back to the pool, trying to think of anything to say before Sukuna tries to ask him about earlier. “Can you believe what that tutor said to Yuuji? What an asshole. I can’t believe he said that.”

Sukuna speaks around a mouthful of food. “Who?”

Megumi glances over his shoulder. “That tutor who said Yuuji was stupid?”

Sukuna freezes, half a wing hanging out of his mouth. “What.”

Megumi turns around all the way. “Yeah, he called Yuuji stupid for being in anatomy, which isn’t true. It’s a hard class, sure, but it’s passable.”

Sukuna drops the bone onto the plate. “Well, that guy had better keep an eye out or else I’m–”

Yuuji waltzes back out, carrying a huge pile of nachos. “Whatcha talking about?”

“Someone called you stupid?” Sukuna turns towards him and speaks almost accusingly. 

“Oh yea,” Yuuji shrugs. “I forgot to tell you.”

Sukuna narrows his eyes.

“But don’t egg his car or something!” Yuuji points at him. “I know you! Don’t do it!”

Megumi almost snickers as he speaks. “What a tragedy if suddenly there just happened to be a bunch of broken eggs on his car and house.”

Sukuna grins. “Yeah, how terrible.”

“Megumi!” Yuuji whirls on him, pointing. “Don’t encourage him! I didn’t expect you to engage in delinquent behavior.”

Megumi snorts, crossing his arms. “Well, you never met me in middle school.”

Yuuji’s eyes look ready to pop out of his head. “What?”

Sukuna just laughs, completely disbelieving. “You?”

Why did he say that? He shouldn’t have said anything. Middle school was a weird time for him, he had a lot of issues. As if he doesn’t have issues now. 

“I mean, I got into a fight once.” Megumi looks down at the water. 

Gojo and Geto had been more upset than his dad. Gojo had thought it was hilarious at first and even offered to teach Megumi more martial arts, but he ended up agreeing with Geto and Tsumiki that it shouldn’t happen again. Once Tsumiki really talked to him, he had to let it go. 

“I guess I just caused more problems than got into fights.”

He hopes they let it go. They do not.

Yuuji just keeps stuttering, like it’s impossible. 

“How?” Sukuna scrunches up his face, his eyes narrowed like Megumi is a specimen in a museum exhibit. “You’re like the scrawniest person I’ve ever seen.”

He rolls his eyes. “My dad was a martial arts instructor, thank you very much. He taught me some.”

Yuuji finally breaks out of his shocked state, his eyes practically sparkling in excitement. “Bro! That is so cool! Can you show me?”

Megumi stares at him for a moment. He glances around the deck. It feels very suddenly like he’s been put on the spot. Swallowing and wringing his hands, he speaks. “Seriously? Like right now?”

“Yeah!” Yuuji shoves his plate into Sukuna’s hand to hold. “I did some martial arts with Sukuna and Choso when we were little! We should spar, bro!”

Megumi just looks at him, ignoring how his heart is racing. Slowly, he pulls his feet out of the pool and walks toward Yuuji. It had been a while since he had done martial arts. 

He rubs his arm for a moment. “Are you sure you want to spar?”

“No offense, but I refuse to believe that you beat up kids in middle school.” Sukuna says, gesturing loosely at him with a plate. “It’s kinda hard to take you seriously with the whole ‘I love my gay dads shirt’ and the fact you’re a twig.”

Megumi glares at him. “Bold words for someone within pool pushing distance.”

Sukuna shrugs. “Okay, but I’m just saying.”

Megumi turns to Yuuji. “Okay, this is probably going to end terribly and if we get hurt, it’s on you just so you know.”

“That’s fine!” Yuuji says, still grinning. “Fight me!”

It had been years since had used anything he learned from his dad. But he drops into a stance and Yuuji does the same. Yuuji is about to make a move and Megumi just remembers all the fights in middle school. And he just moves instinctually. 

In seconds Yuuji is flat on his back. 

Megumi steps back, furrowing his brows and relaxing his stance. “I thought you said you did martial arts?”

“Holy shit,” Sukuna says, baffled.

Yuuji is silent for a moment then his head pops up. His eyes are wide. “Bro, how long have you been doing martial arts?”

“I stopped going to the dojo right before college,” Megumi shoves his hands into his pockets. “But I still practice with Gojo and Geto sometimes.”

Yuuji sits up, rubbing his back and wincing. “Oh, I thought you meant like you went a couple times. Cause I only went like twice with Sukuna and Choso, but I quit to be in the paranormal club.”

Yuuji stands up, eyes practically shining. “But dude, that was cool!”

“Yeah, that was pretty badass,” Sukuna says, actually looking vaguely impressed. 

Megumi gives them a look. “I thought you meant you did a lot of martial arts. Your stance is terrible.”

He thinks back to the afternoons he spent in the dojo. Before his dad started working with the private investigators, he had a lot of side jobs as a martial arts instructor. A benefit of his upbringing and his private security jobs from before Megumi was born. 

And before he got a babysitter, Megumi would tag along. At first, he would sit and read. But eventually, his dad started teaching him. He remembers practicing katas with his dad for hours.

And even now, the memory of his dad’s rare proud look when he started moving up in the ranks is clear. And all the times he said Megumi was doing a good job. And he remembers hearing his dad brag to the other people at the dojo. And he pretended like he hated it when his dad would brag that his kid got a new belt, but he secretly relished it.

And then his dad got a new job somewhere else. 

Megumi shakes his head. He wouldn’t think that way. It was one of the few things he can remember positively about his dad without it being tainted by the current state of his relationship with his dad. 

So he focuses on the twins instead. 

Yuuji takes his plate back from Sukuna, standing now. “Stop eating my food or I’m going to hire Megumi to beat you up.”

“Sure,” Megumi says, snagging some nachos off Yuuji’s plate. “You can pay me with the money you got from betting on me earlier.”

The door to the house flies open. Nobara’s head pokes out. “Hey, you nerds come back inside and watch Maki beat Todo in an arm wrestling match.”

“Wait, when did Todo get here?” Yuuji asks, but starts towards the door anyway. 

Megumi was almost positive that Todo wasn’t invited. So he had no idea why or how Todo was here. Who invited him?

Megumi follows after him. “Sure, I want to see her crush his spirit again.”

Nobara looks at him a bit surprised then grins. “Hell yeah you do!”

Todo and Maki are both on the floor, their elbows braced on the small coffee table. Gojo is standing over them, announcing the fight to the party and the rules in a voice that sounds like a wrestling match announcer. Nobara is already recording it, most definitely for blackmail purposes and bragging rights about dating Maki. 

“Ready,” Gojo raises his voice. “Set, Go!”

And Todo’s fist hits the coffee table, the impact echoing.

Silence fills the room for a long moment.

Nobara shouts at the top of her lungs. “That’s my girlfriend!”

Everybody cheers. 

Todo stares at his hand and Yuuji rushes over to him, hitting his back. “It’s okay, bro. Everyone experiences ups and downs.”

Gojo cups his hands around his mouth. “And let the party continue!”

And Gojo’s upbeat dance music starts again as Geto turns it back on. 

Gojo points to Geto, dramatically posing as he announces loudly to the whole party. “I challenge Geto Suguru to a dance off!”

Oh no. 

Megumi knows how out of hand their dance battles get. It was also a tradition of their midterm and final parties.  

Geto blinks at Gojo, then shrugs nonchalantly. “Well, prepare to lose then.”

Geto and Gojo move to stand in front of each other, staring each other down like this dance challenge is the last thing they will do. Gojo stretches his arms and pops his knuckles while Geto pops his neck and rolls his shoulders back. 

“I hope you’re ready to get crushed, old man.” Geto says, also cracking his fingers. 

“I’m only a few months older than you!”

“Oh? Can’t handle some smack talk? You scared?”

Megumi pulls out his phone, pointing the camera at them. He would absolutely record this for blackmail purposes, though they probably wouldn’t care about it at all. But either way, he records as they start dancing. 

And it gets out of hand fast. As it always does.

One moment Gojo is attempting to breakdance and then both of them are performing a tango-like dance. They start waltzing together, still looking at each other with narrowed eyes. Like this was a serious battle instead of a dance battle. 

A student that Megumi doesn’t know leans in towards their friend and loudly whispers. “You know, I was under the impression that they hated each other…”

The friend leans in too. “Yeah, no one’s really sure. But there’s some rumors .”

“Oh?”

Megumi pretends like he isn’t listening. 

“I heard from some of the fourth year students that there’s an ongoing bet. Some people think they only pretend to hate each other and everyone’s waiting for them to start dating.”

Megumi has to fight the urge to laugh. These students had no idea how close they were to knowing the truth. 

“Oh,” the first student said, thoughtfully as Gojo and Geto go into a complex attempted jazz step. “I’m in Professor Geto’s history of folklore creatures in the middle ages class, you know?”

“Yeah.”  

“I don’t think they’re dating cause like–” the student looks around and lowers his voice. “I think Professor Geto has a kid, dude.”

Megumi almost chokes on nothing. 

The other student whips around. “Wait? Seriously?”

“Yeah, he always mentions someone named Megumi. And the way he talks about them sounds like they’re his kid.”

Megumi has to fight the deep urge to either start laughing or crying. He looks at Geto, who is dipping Gojo during a dramatic waltz, and remembers when Sukuna told him that Geto talks about him during class sometimes.

Geto spins Gojo and quickly dips him almost too low, his head almost on the floor. All of the students cheer, shouting and encouraging them. Their hideous outfits only make it funnier. 

“But Professor Geto is so young though,” The other student says, curiously. “His kid must be pretty young. So if he has a kid, I doubt he and Professor Gojo are dating.” 

“People can be gay, bro.”

“Oh, yeah, you’re right. But how’d he get a kid then?”

“Adoption is also a thing, bro.”

“Oh, that’s true. Just, he talks about the kid all the time. He sounds really proud.”

“Good to know he’s an involved father.”

Megumi lowers the camera slightly, watching everyone else dancing and laughing. And he chews on the inside of his mouth. Was that really how Geto talks about him?

And for a moment, he wonders why he was so worried about the party. Nobody was here to judge him. Everyone was here to spend time together, enjoy being around each other. And did it matter if someone thought he looked dumb when dancing? Would it really alter his life that much if someone saw him dance to music? 

Would anyone actually judge him or was he just worried they might?

Who was he to be lecturing Sukuna about losing people at any moment when he was doing the same thing?

“It’s time for a genre change,” Geto says before literally diving over the couch to the music system. His head appears a few seconds later and he’s holding his phone, frantically scrolling through music. Everyone cheers loudly. 

And the beginnings of a very familiar, funky disco song starts. 

The cheers get louder. 

Louder than they had been earlier. 

While upbeat dance music had been a staple of his childhood since he met Gojo and Geto, disco had been even more so. Geto had always had an obsession with disco, anytime he picked out music it was disco. Car trips, studying, working on homework, cooking, on the radio, playing through an old CD player. It was closer to the background music of his childhood.

He remembers late nights listening to the long disco songs Geto burned onto blank CDs while studying at the kitchen table, Megumi at his chair trying to finish his homework. Geto danced with Gojo in the kitchen while they ate take-out, Tsumiki always joined in with them. Megumi would bop his head along with it while he read about animal facts.

Why was he so worried?

Megumi puts his phone back into his pocket and he tells himself that nobody is here to judge him specifically. 

This was supposed to be a chance to relax and have fun.  

Megumi jumps in between Gojo and Geto on the makeshift dance floor. Both of them freeze for a moment, pausing the dance-off. Gojo recovers first, breaking into a huge smile, to the point it almost looks painful. 

“Megumi!”

The looks on the two students’ faces who had been talking whips around to stare. One of their mouths drops open.

And Megumi just starts dancing the dumbest, most stereotypical disco moves he can think of. But he doesn’t really care, not with how excited Gojo and Geto look now that he’s here. 

Geto also smiles widely, laughing. And he copies Megumi’s terrible dance moves. “We haven’t had a disco dance party in a long time!”

Megumi laughs as he makes peace signs over his eyes. “I’m pretty sure my neighbours hated us.”

“I’m sorry, but if you don’t like disco then I’ll assume you don’t like happiness.” Geto says, laughing and pushing his long hair out of his face. 

Megumi laughs again, Gojo joining in. 

And Gojo grabs Megumi’s shoulder and pulls Geto close too. Gojo holds up his phone, the camera pointing toward them. Megumi throws up a peace sign, smiling. Geto leans over both of them, arms over both of their shoulders, smiling. 

Gojo takes the selfie. 

“Oh shit,” one of the students says. “Holy shit. Professor Geto does have a kid?”

And they all keep dancing to Geto’s very long disco playlist. And Megumi keeps dancing until his feet start to hurt and he wants to just collapse onto a couch and sleep. 

And really all those issues don’t matter for a moment. 

And sometimes that’s what counts. 

Gojo and Geto’s house is loud the whole night, people singing along to the music loudly and dancing to the playlist. The music itself is almost too loud to hear people speak, especially combined with all of the seaking. 

It’s still loud even from the carpeted stairs leading upstairs. It had just been a little bit too loud for too long for Megumi. Normally, by this time of night, he’s already fallen asleep somewhere else. But this time he had people to talk to. 

Sitting on the stairs with Yuuji, hidden from where everyone else is. The lights are dim, so it’s not as overwhelmingly bright here. Strings of lights in the shape of tiny stars hang from the ceiling and around the stair railing. It’s also a little bit quieter here. 

A paper plate with freshly ordered garden vegetable pizza on it balances carefully on his knees. Megumi blows on the pizza, it’s still hot to the touch. 

“I really like the decorations,” Yuuji says, looking at all of the string lights. “Really goes with the theme! Where did they find these?”

“Gojo just had them tucked away for some reason.” Megumi blows on the pizza again. “He’s weird like that.”

“Hey, bro,” Yuuji says, shoving half the slice of pizza in his mouth. How he didn’t burn himself is beyond Megumi. “I have an important question.”

“Yeah?”

“What was your first impression of me?”

Megumi glances over at him. It takes him a moment to recall walking into Shoko’s classroom for the first test of the semester and someone leaning over to ask if he was okay. He tried to recall his first thought. 

“...Pink hair.”

Yuuji blinks, his eyes wide. “Seriously? You didn’t think that I looked cool or that I seemed nice or that we were gonna be best friends?”

Megumi shrugs and blows on the pizza again. “I don’t know, pink hair is unique.”

“Second impression?” Yuuji says hopefully.

He takes a bite of the pizza, it’s still hot. “Someone who’s about to fail a test.”

Yuuji looks at him, his mouth hanging open. “I mean, that’s not wrong, but wow. That was really your first impression of me?”

Maybe that was a little bit mean. But it was true. So he adds. “Then I thought you were really nice.”

Yuuji sits up straight, beaming. “Really?”

He nods once. Of course Yuuji was nice. He’s one of the nicest people Megumi has ever met. 

Yuuji keeps smiling happily and eats a huge bite out of his pizza. “I thought you looked really nice and also you had nice looking notes. And I was like, I hope this person knows if we have a test and then you proceeded to save my life.”

Megumi snorts. “I gave you my notes, not CPR.”

“You might as well have.” Yuuji smiles faintly. “It was a very nice first meeting.”

There’s a warmth in his chest at Yuuji’s words. Megumi also smiles, echoing Yuuji’s expression. He looks down at the plate of pizza.

It was a nice meeting, if not a bit of a strange one. Megumi had definitely not been expecting to meet someone he would call a friend during that random class or really ever in college. He had just assumed it wouldn’t happen. It had never happened during high school, so why would it happen now?

The music downstairs shifts. The song is a little slower and a bit quieter now. The voices, singing, and people cheering each other on. People must be getting tired at this time of night. He’s already tired. He wouldn’t be surprised if some people had gone home or some people were trying to fall asleep on the couches. There’s still laughter drifting up the stairs and conversations carrying, too faint to understand. 

Yuuji looks over at him and speaks with his mouth full. “Can I tell you something?”

Megumi squints at him because of his strangely serious voice. “If it’s about Jennifer Lawrence or Megan Thee Stallion, then no.”

Yuuji waves a hand, shaking his head. He glances about quickly and then leans forward. Lowering his voice like someone might overhear their conversation somehow. “No, it’s actually nothing like that.”

“Okay?”

Yuuji tilts his head and shrugs, but he’s fiddling with the edge of the plate. Yuuji swallows, taking a deep breath. “Well, I was wondering if you’ve ever, like, asked someone out before?”

It takes him a second to process the question. 

Is Yuuji really trying to ask him for dating advice?

“Yuuji, look at me. Do I look like I’m going out with anyone or anyone’s asking me out?” Gesturing to himself, but he is also referring to his general existence and lifestyle. Sure, a relationship might one day happen, but right now he does not have the time for a relationship or the energy. Not to mention he did not look like someone anyone would willingly want to ask out.

He is aware of this.

“I don’t know, bro!” Yuuji throws his hands up into the air and quickly shrinks back down, glancing at the bottom of the stairs. “I need some help here. I have no idea how to ask someone out. And I’m not even going to think about asking Sukuna .”

Megumi shakes his head. “Yeah, probably don’t ask him. Maybe ask Choso?”

Yuuji sighs, a hand propping up his head. “I mean, I could try. But Choso’s never been on a date. Plus, he’s super overprotective of me.”

“Right.” Megumi takes a bite of his pizza now that it’s cooled down some. “And who do you want to ask out?”

Yuuji’s face quickly turns pink and then turns red so much that it’s visible in the faint light. Rubbing the back of his neck, Yuuji mutters underneath his breath. “You know when you went to the film club meeting? The guy with the black hair?”

“Oh,” Megumi does remember. He had longer black hair, long bangs covering one of his eyes. He was quiet and seemed nice. “Junpei, right?”

Yuuji just nods and covers his face with both hands. His voice is slightly muffled as he speaks and Megumi has to lean closer to understand. “He’s so cool and nice and we get along really well and I have no idea how to ask him out.”

Megumi pats his shoulder and hopes that’s the right thing to do in this situation. “I’d love to help, but I don’t think I’m the right person to ask.”

Yuuji looks at him between two of his fingers, slouched over still. “In all your years of living you never asked someone out? I thought you’d be good at that, you know, because of Gojo.”

“I’m sorry, do you think Gojo is romantic? Their first date was at a cheap pizza parlor for a pizza eating competition. They ate so much they got sick. How is that romantic?”

Yuuji sits up all the way quickly, moving his hands away from his face. “Wait, how’d Gojo and Geto end up going out?”

He wants to tell Yuuji not to expect ancient wisdom from Gojo and Geto of all people. 

Rolling his eyes, Megumi eats a chip. He had already been told this story so many times now that he practically has it memorized. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

Yuuji leans forward eagerly. “But they have such a great relationship. They’re practically the dream couple. You have to have learned something from your gay dads.”

“Don’t do what they did, that’s all I’m saying.” Megumi takes another bite from his pizza.

Yuuji stands up, shoving his plate at Megumi. He grabs the plate before it falls onto the stairs. He is already halfway down by the time Megumi stands up. 

“Yuuji, wait, don’t ask them–”

Yuuji is already gone. 

How is he so fast?

Megumi stumbles down the stairs, carefully balancing the two plates. Sliding to the bottom, he runs in hopes of stopping Yuuji. But it’s too late, Yuuji is already approaching Gojo in the doorway between the kitchen and living room. 

He makes it in time to hear Yuuji ask, “Hey, Gojo, how did you first start dating?”

Megumi slumps where he’s standing. 

Oh no. He really really didn’t need Gojo telling anymore stories, but it was too late at this point. Gojo freezes where he was shaking something in his fancy drink mixer. He sets it down, his eyes are already getting wide with typical Gojo excitement. 

Oh no. 

Gojo immediately sets down the drink shaker and cups his hands around his mouth. Shouting. “Attention everybody!”

All the students stop dancing, looking into the kitchen. Great. Now everyone is listening and watching Gojo with anticipation. 

“Gather around students! Let me tell you the tale of how I wooed my dearest Suguru and made him fall for me.” Gojo says loud enough that people in the living room fall quiet as well. Gojo gestures around widely. “For it is a most wondrous tale!”

Megumi sighs and makes eye contact with Geto, who is listening with a smile.

In the living room, he notices the students who don’t know Gojo and Geto personally looked surprised, some downright shocked. Well, now Gojo’s ruined the mystery of their rivalry. 

But this is one of Gojo’s favorite stories to tell. He would never miss a chance to tell this story.

Gojo sighs dramatically in a lovesick tone. “Our story begin when we were in high school. Our fourth year in fact. During this time, I was secretly questioning whether or not I found men or women to be more attractive.”

He pauses. “In other words, I was questioning if I was gay. But alas, at this time, I pretended to be straight. Because of the horrid thing known as homophobia.”

He pretends to shudder. “Oh, the horror. But, before that–in a class that I cannot even remember now because it was completely pointless–I met my one true love, Suguru.”

Yuuji is watching with his eyes wide open. As is every single other student. 

Gojo smiles, talking in a dreamy voice. “The only reason I was there at Suguru’s high school was because my private school was temporarily closed because the structural integrity of the building was compromised, but because of that I met Suguru and realized I was definitely, absolutely not straight.”

Megumi rolls his eyes and eats a chip, leaning his back against the kitchen island beside Geto. Who, of course, looks deeply endeared as Gojo recounts this story for at least the millionth time. 

Gojo pauses. “I mean, I suspected I wasn’t straight. Okay, I knew for sure, but like I thought I would never do anything about it. But I was completely positive when I walked into that classroom and saw Suguru for the first time, you know?”

Yuuji nods like Gojo is speaking the secrets of the universe. The other students hang onto his every word. Megumi sees Ieiri rolling her eyes. 

Gojo takes a deep breath. “We became friends instantly, but I harbored feelings beyond friendship, lamenting over the fact my feelings could ruin our friendship. But amid all that pain, I still relish the memory of Suguru at this time. That was how I found it is indeed possible to describe a man as beautiful.”

Megumi makes a face. “Gross. Nobody wants your commentary about your crush.”

“Shush.” Gojo holds up his hands to silence everyone. “So after years of pining and pain, I decided enough was enough. So during lunch one day I made a song and dance routine to confess my love to Suguru.”

Yuuji blinks. “What?”

Megumi can see the students all watching in utter bafflement, which was very similar to how Megumi felt when Gojo and Geto very first told him this story the day after it happened. 

Geto’s face is hidden in his hands. The students in the living room are all watching, staring intently. Behind his hands, Geto mutters. “Oh god, I wanted to disappear.”

Gojo winks at him. “It’s okay, you don’t have to pretend to be embarrassed. You were deeply endeared.”

Geto lowers his hand, his face red, but he’s smiling too. 

Gojo presses a hand to his forehead. “But alas, my parents are homophobes and they heard their one and only son confessed his undying love for another boy in public at school. So when they picked me up, they banned me from ever stepping foot inside that place again. Because apparently it tainted me or something equally stupid.”

Several students blink at the sudden tone change and exchange looks. 

“You were very clearly gay before that, but okay.” Ieiri says, sipping on her drink. “I remember how you acted at that time. You looked at him like he was the only person on the planet. It was painful to witness.”

Gojo ignores her. “So obviously, I was living in a real life tragedy. Separated from my love and forbidden from seeing him. A tragedy. And that night, I sat by my window, wallowing in the pain and misery of losing the only love of my life.”

Megumi rolls his eyes and glances at Yuuji. But he looks like this is the greatest tale he’s ever heard. Why was this his life?

Ieiri rolls her eyes, already knowing where this is going. Geto now entirely covers his face with one hand, already knowing where this story is about to go.

“It was then someone threw a rock at my window. Outside stood my one and only, Suguru.”

Several students gasp audibly. 

“Oh god,” Megumi shakes his head. Even if he’s heard this story many times, each time it was equally as dramatic and over-the-top.

Geto covers his face with his hands again, but his ears are red. 

Gojo throws an arm around Geto and pulls him closer, grinning. “He was carrying an old speaker. And he performed his own song and dance to confess his love to me as well.”

Yuuji gasps, as do many other students. All of them are listening like this is the most riveting love story they have ever heard. Which it might be considering how dramatic this story already is.

Gojo sighs, looking down in a way too fake to be real. “Then, the very next day, I went back to school and asked Suguru out the moment I saw him.”

Geto lowers his hands, sending a look towards Gojo. “First off, I asked you out first and paid for it. So who took who out on a date?”

Gojo looks at him with a deep fondness, smiling. “Whatever you say, love.”

Megumi pretends to throw up, rolling his eyes. “You both disgust me.”

“That was the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.” Yuuji has stars in his eyes, staring at them like they have solved all of his romantic issues. 

Nobara is staring at them, mouth hanging open. Sukuna’s expression is akin to disgust and shock. Maybe both.

Not that Megumi thinks anyone should ask their crush out like that. It only worked for them because Gojo and Geto are two halves of the same idiot. And Junpei isn’t an idiot as far as Megumi can tell.

Not in the way that Gojo and Geto are.

Gojo looks up, smiling fondly still. “And, interestingly. A few months after I met Suguru, I started going to a dojo for martial arts. Because my parents somehow thought it would make me less gay. And there was some random kid reading books in the corner.”

Megumi pauses, looking back at Gojo now. 

Gojo grins. “And I had never really spent any time around kids, so obviously I was curious. And I went over to investigate.”

“You mean to annoy,” Megumi narrows his eyes, trying not to be amused. 

“And the kid was reading some animal book, and keep in mind this kid was like five or something. And he was reading perfectly, it was really impressive actually.” Gojo laughs. “I was convinced he was a baby.”

Geto is also smiling now. Gojo snickers at Megumi’s expression. “And the instructor came into the dojo and said that it’s his kid. And this kid kept insisting that he was five and not a baby.”

Gojo grins evilly and throws an arm over Megumi’s shoulder now. “Then it just so happened that the instructor needed a babysitter the next day and I agreed. So me and Suguru ended up watching the very cold five-year-old.”

Gojo suddenly jumps up and gestures to Megumi. “And we decided to adopt a tiny little Megumi!”

There are actual gasps from the small grouping of students in the living room.

“So really my parents hoped that martial arts would make me not gay, but instead I’m a gay who can kick ass and I adopted a kid from the dojo with my boyfriend.”

“Wait! Wait!” Some student in the crowd shouts. “You two aren’t rivals?”

Geto laughs, throwing his head back. “No, not really. We just like to mess with each other. We’ve been dating since we were seventeen.”

“You have a kid?”

Gojo pats Megumi’s head. “Yep! Stole him from his dad! And Megumi’s been stuck with us ever since.”

“So you did steal him?” Nobara shouts, pointing an accusing finger at Gojo and Geto. “I knew it!”

Megumi sighs. “And I’ve been used as a show and tell prop, I really should have just stayed in the back of the dojo that day. Minded my business.”

Yuuji chokes on his drink.

There’s knocking at the front door. Gojo and Geto are too busy answering student’s baffled questions, so Megumi goes to answer it. It’s late, so he’s not sure who it could be. 

Somehow, even more unexpected than the cops, is Nanami. Megumi blinks a few times, trying to think if he’s imagining this somehow. Nanami also looks just as confused to see him. 

“Professor Nanami?” Megumi furrows his brows. 

Nanami’s eyes dart into the house then back to him. “Am I at the wrong address?”

“Where are you trying to get to?”

“Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru’s house. They are both professors at the college.”

Is Nanami here for the party? It seems unlikely. “No. This is their house. Are you here for their midterm party?”

Nanami looks somehow even more confused now. “I was unaware that you knew them.”

Megumi holds the door open. “I mean, I’ve known them since I was five.”

Nanami stops short to look at him, a little more intently. “You were the child they brought to our high school?”

“You went to high school with them?” 

How did he never know this? He probably met Nanami at some point then, if Nanami remembers Gojo bringing him to school as a show and tell. 

Then there’s the loud sound of Gojo laughing from the living room, Nanami’s expression unreadable at hearing it. Not that Megumi could imagine Nanami getting along very well with Gojo with how serious and practical he is. 

But Nanami looks back to Megumi, strangely expressionless still. “I need to talk to them actually. I am confused about how I never knew that you know them.”

“I guess it never came up.” Megumi closes the door, shoving his hands into his pockets. It’s strange seeing someone who he works for in Gojo and Geto’s house. 

And then Megumi notices Nanami looking at the shirt he is wearing. And he becomes instantly overly aware of the shirt he’s wearing. The fact that it looks like a child made it and what it says. Tugging on the hem of the shirt, Megumi shifts his weight and hopes Nanami does not ask about it. 

He swallows. “Oh, um, Gojo and Geto are in the living room. If you want to talk to them. There’s also food.”

With that, he heads back to the living room, not really sure what else there is to say at the moment. Nanami trails behind, a little hesitant. Since Megumi has been to every single one of these parties, he knows Nanami has never been to one before. 

So it’s strange to see him now. Is he friends with Gojo and Geto? 

Megumi passes by the students, intent on going back to the kitchen to eat more nachos before all of them are gone or he’s too tired to eat anything and crashes on the couch. 

They are both in the kitchen, Ieiri beside them, sipping on some drink watching the chaos unfold with her usual nonchalant attitude. As he’s passing by Gojo and Geto in the kitchen, both standing together as some students interrogate them, they both move to wave. 

Gojo pauses, looking past him. 

And Geto utterly freezes. 

Both of them are looking at Nanami in the kitchen doorway.

It’s weird. Megumi glances between all of them, trying to figure out what is happening. Nobody speaks at all. 

“Nanami!” Gojo finally says, breaking through the physical feeling of the awkwardness in the room. “You made it!”

Geto’s head snaps to look at Gojo so sharply that it startles Megumi. He stops walking into the kitchen. Nobody talks. 

What is happening?

Nanami clears his throat and he’s not quite looking at anybody. What is happening? Are they not friends? “I thought it might be the time to accept one of Gojo’s invites.”

No one else says anything and Megumi shifts his weight slightly, rubbing his arm.  

Geto continues to look at Gojo with narrowed eyes. Almost angrily. Didn’t they go to high school with Nanami? Why does Geto seem upset?

It’s not often Geto gets upset, or at least, visibly upset. So for him to be actually visibly upset with Gojo seems wrong. Should he have not answered the door? 

Gojo laughs, awkwardly this time. “Yeah, uh, great!”

More silence beyond the party happening in the living room. He gets the intense feeling that he should not be here, but he’s partly responsible since he let Nanami in. 

Geto still hasn’t said anything. 

Megumi glances between the three of them quickly. Gojo isn’t speaking and is barely even glancing at Nanami now. He looks between them again and looks at Shoko, raising an eyebrow. 

She sighs and shrugs. Shoko leans over to him and whispers. “I’ll explain later or you can just ask after the party. But why don’t you just go hang out with your friends for a second?”

There’s an uncomfortable twist in his stomach. He furrows his brows, about to speak and ask what she means. But Shoko pushes him towards the living room, whispering that they’ll explain later. He walks into the living room, glancing over his shoulder once. 

“Megumi!” Yuuji grabs him, pulling him towards the couch before he can dwell too much on it. “Your gay dads are so cool! You must’ve been lying to me!”

Megumi blinks, thinking back to how Gojo and Geto were standing awkwardly. He glances back toward the kitchen. Why were they acting like that?

“About what?”

Yuuji gets in his face and grabs his shoulders, shaking him. “You must know how to woo people! Don’t lie to me!”

Megumi leans back, blinking rapidly and frowning while Yuuji keeps shaking him. “Woo? What? I don’t want to emulate that ! Stop shaking me!”

Yuuji stops and pretends to cry, his hands still on Megumi’s shoulders. “How could you be so cruel in keeping your flirting expertise from me!”

“My what ?” 

“Your flirting expertise!” Yuuji says, slowly and enunciating clearly. “Tell me your secrets!”

“I don’t have any expertise in flirting, Yuuji. I’ve never even dated anyone and I’m the last person you should ask for advice from.” Megumi says, emotionlessly. 

He can’t hear anything in the kitchen from the music playing and students talking.

“I’ve been lied to,” Yuuji flops onto one of the couches, pretending to cry still. “How could my own bestie do this to me? How can I trust anyone? What am I supposed to do? Ask Sukuna about dating advice?”

Megumi sits down and pats Yuuji’s shoulder. “I promise I haven’t been keeping a secret that I’m a dating expert.”

Nobara freezes beside Maki as they’re walking past. Nobara makes a face at Yuuji. “This guy? As in Fushiguro ‘I don’t have a life outside of studying’ Megumi?”

Wow. Rude. 

Yuuji gestures vaguely at Megumi. “But he had to have learned something from Gojo!”

Maki makes a face and waves a dismissive hand towards Megumi. “Please. I once saw someone ask Megumi out in high school and he just looked at them for two minutes then proceeded to say he’ll pass.”

Megumi slides down the couch and covers his face. “I thought they were asking if I wanted a piece of gum. Not asking about a date.”

“How did you even get those confused?”

Nobara laughs. “Wow, no wonder you’ve never gone out with anyone.”

Maki snorts. “Oh you should have seen the time it was Valentine’s day at school and this dork freaked out when someone tried to give him a valentine’s card. You want to know what he said?”

Megumi groans and buries his face further into his hands. “Stop!”

Together Nobara and Yuuji say, “What?”

Maki laughs. “He panicked and shouted that he had to fold the dishes and ran home.”

They all burst into laughter. Not just three voices this time. Megumi moves his hands, glaring. Sukuna, Yuuta, and Inumaki have joined their little circle as well. Megumi slaps his hands over his face again. Why did his friends find this amusing? Were his social inept moments funny or something?

Yuuji grabs his shoulder, laughing. “Oh my god, dude. Who does that?”

Megumi looks up. “I didn’t like them! But I didn’t want to be rude!”

“So you said you needed to fold the dishes? At school?” Sukuna asks, laughing. “Wow and the brat calls you the smart friend.”

Megumi sighs and looks at Yuuji, but he’s still laughing. “See? This is why you shouldn’t ask me for advice.”

Yuuji wheezes. “Bro, you’re a disaster!”

“Thanks.” Megumi gives him a deadpan look. “But please don’t ask Gojo for more advice. He will start giving you unsolicited advice all the time. Do you know how often he randomly texts me about ‘advice’ that actually hardly qualifies as advice?”

“I mean, it can’t be that bad.” Yuuji says, shrugging. 

Megumi settles back against the chair. “He once texted me at two in the morning just to tell me that he’ll still love me if I’m gay and that he knows plenty of gay people so he won’t judge.”

Nobara looks at him, raising both of her eyebrows. “Was this before he realized he was gay or…”

“No.” Megumi says, sighing. “It was three weeks ago.”

Everyone laughs. 

“Wait, what other advice has Gojo given you?” Yuuji asks, curiously. 

“One time, he called me at midnight on a school night. Just to tell me that it was highly inefficient to wash dishes by sticking them all in the sink and filling it with water. Apparently, it doesn’t get all the food residue off.” 

Yuuji blinks. “That doesn’t work?”

Sukuna sighs. “How are we related?”

“You’re twins, obviously.” Nobara says, pointing at Yuuji then Sukuna. “He’s the nice, but dumb twin. You’re the evil twin, that’s somehow smart.”

Sukuna shoots a look at her. “You keep saying that. What proof do you have that I’m the evil twin and he isn’t?”

“I’ve known you long enough to know,” Nobara says, unbothered. “Also you might be part of a gang and all so there’s that.”

Sukuna rolls his eyes. “I’m not in a gang, for the millionth fucking time. I didn’t even know anyone in the gangs in high school.”

Nobara comedically narrows her eyes. “Sure. We’ll see.”

Megumi glances back at the kitchen, all he can see is part of Nanami’s back in the doorway still. 

Slowly, Yuuta and Inumaki both drift off, talking quietly to each other. 

Yuuji is leaning against Megumi’s arm, still determined to believe Megumi has some secret knowledge of how to ask someone out. Nobara and Maki are standing, but leaning against each other by the side of the couch where Megumi is sitting. Sukuna is sitting on the coffee table now, texting someone. Probably Uraume. 

Yuuji sits up suddenly like he’s had an epiphany. “Okay, I’ve been thinking.”

Nobara, Maki, and Sukuna all turn their heads to look at Yuuji now. 

“How come we never met Megumi until college? Like he probably went to the same high school as us, right? Cause Maki went to the same high school as us too.”

Oh. 

Megumi sinks into the couch. “We probably just didn’t go to the same high school.”

“Lies.” Maki says, narrowing her eyes at him. “You totally did, but you were hiding in the library the whole time. I hardly ever saw you and I actively tried to talk to you.”

Yuuji looks sad at this and pulls Megumi into a hug. “We could’ve been friends this whole time, bro.”

“He was probably too busy studying to have friends,” Sukuna says, snickering. 

Megumi wishes he could say that Sukuna was wrong, but he wasn’t exactly. 

High school was a fairly bad time for him. Most of his time was spent in the library, studying or at the hospital with Tsumiki. And the rest of the time he would be with Gojo and Geto as they tried to cheer him up. He barely remembers anything that happened during school. 

Just trips to the hospital. Medical procedures for Tsumiki, sitting in rooms at the hospital. Tsumiki, getting sick from the radiation treatments. Tsumiki, barely able to move around the house and making her food to eat in bed. 

Staying at Gojo and Geto’s house for a week straight while his dad was gone. Not sharing the guest bedroom with Tsumiki for the first time. A pamphlet about comas.

Maki looks at him. “You did sort of drop off the face of the planet during the end of high school.”

Megumi looks down, shuffling his feet. “I was busy.”

Maki doesn’t look like she quite believes this, her eyes narrowed. “It’s never just ‘I’m busy,’ but whatever you say.”

Busy with doctor appointments. Busy with taking care of Tsumiki who had been growing weaker and weaker. Busy from trying to handle all of Tsumiki's medical papers. Who was having trouble speaking from the tumors growing and pressing against her brain. 

Nobara leans forward and flicks him. “Why are you making that ugly face?”

Megumi tries to look neutral, but he’s probably failing considering everyone’s expressions. “I’m not making any faces. High school was just a bad time for me, like it was for the majority of people.”

“Okay,” Maki says, even though she clearly doesn’t believe him. 

Yuuji pokes his face and Megumi swats his hand away. “Why are you always so weird and mysterious?”

“I am not.”

“You totally are,” Maki says, nodding. “But then again, considering who your dad is, I’m not really surprised. I know next to nothing about him. I don’t even know what he looks like.”

His dad had always been slightly weird and always said not to give out personal information. He knows that most parents are like that, but his dad was very strict about it. Maybe because of his former jobs and everything, but he had always told Megumi not to talk to people about himself.

So he doesn’t. 

That’s just how it is. 

Yuuji lays his head back down against the couch, yawning as he does it. “I keep hearing all these things about your dad. When’s he coming back from that business trip? I’m starting to think Gojo and Geto actually stole you. And I don’t want to think something so negative about the gay dads.”

Megumi shrugs and tries very very hard not to get irritated that Yuuji brought it up. Yuuji doesn’t know. He swallows. “The trip actually just got extended. So I’m not really sure.”

“Well, that’s shitty.” Sukuna says, weirdly slow and in a weird tone. Almost fake sounding. Then he shrugs. “But I guess that means we can keep showing up unannounced at your house then.”

“He wouldn’t care if you guys were there anyway.” 

But he wasn’t really sure. His dad might have been relaxed, maybe too relaxed, but then again he and Tsumiki never had anyone over. Other than Gojo and Geto.

Not like his dad would even notice probably, with how little time he spends at the house as it was. And he really doesn’t want them to stop showing up at his house randomly. It’s nice to have other people at his house other than himself.

“I thought you said your dad hated it when people came over. Didn’t he get all weird when a classmate was going to come over for a class project or something?” Maki says, snagging a chip from his plate. 

That did happen, but that was middle school. He’s not twelve anymore. 

“No, he mostly doesn’t like Gojo and Geto.”

“Oh, yeah that makes sense.” Maki eats the chip, eyeing him curiously. “Anyway, how’s Tsumiki doing? I haven’t seen her in a while.”

Megumi freezes. He can tell everyone else noticed, but he bites the inside of his mouth. Taking a deep breath, reminding himself it’s okay. He tries to relax, but he probably doesn’t do very well. “She’s fine.”

All of them are looking at him now. Megumi squirms, not looking at any of them. “She’s doing okay.”

“Really?” Maki asks, sounding surprised. 

Megumi chews the inside of his mouth, still not looking at any of them. “Yeah.”

They all fall into silence after that. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Nobara, Yuuji, and Sukuna all giving each questioning look. Maki shrugs, but she doesn’t say anything. Megumi looks down at his plate and the nachos. He tries not to think about how much Tsumiki would have enjoyed the night.  

Everything had felt normal. Almost.

He’s barely noticed how more and more students are gone now. 

Yuuji pats his shoulder, yawning. “It’s okay, you can keep being mysterious. We still love you despite the fact you’re a real mysterious dude.”

And Yuuji’s head falls against his arm, eyes closed. 

Megumi furrows his brows. “Did he just fall asleep?”

Sukuna sighs, setting his phone down. “Sugar crash.”

Nobara glances at the time on her phone. “We’re probably gonna head out soon. We’re going on a date tomorrow and I don’t want to look like a zombie for it. Make sure to tell your gay dads that this was really fun and that we had better be invited for the finals party.”

“Will do.”

Nobara and Maki head out, as many other people are doing. Yuuji doesn’t move, just sleeping slumped up against Megumi. It was impressive he managed to sleep through the noise of people leaving and saying goodbye. 

Sukuna stands up, shoving his phone into his pocket. He grabs Yuuji’s arm, pulling him. “Let’s go, brat. You can’t sleep here.”

Yuuji mumbles something, still not waking up. Sukuna rolls his eyes. “You didn’t even drink anything other than soda, brat.”

“And like five water bottles,” Megumi points out. 

Yuuji lifts his head, squinting at Sukuna with a tired looking smile. “Thanks, bro.”

“You’re really just going to make me carry you, punk?” Sukuna picks Yuuji up, leaning against him. 

Megumi watches them for a moment. And he wants to tell Sukuna to be nicer, but is it really his place? Not to mention he probably already bothered him enough about it earlier. So he doesn't say anything. 

Yuuji yawns and leans his head against Sukuna’s shoulder. Sukuna rolls his eyes and glances back down at Megumi. “You crashing here?”

“Probably.” It’s late and he doesn’t think Gojo and Geto want to drive all the way back to his house. Not to mention he’s been staying here since he talked to them about what happened with his dad. 

The house is quiet now. Though the music is still playing, quieter than before. When there’s nobody else around, it’s easier to notice the tiredness hitting him now. His eyelids are heavy and he really wants to lay down on the couch. So he pulls his legs up underneath him and lays his head on the armrest. 

Gojo and Geto wouldn’t mind if he slept here. Plus he really doesn’t want to walk home in the dark by himself, not that Gojo or Geto would let him. So he lays his head down, eyes closed. 

Voices drift into the living room. 

“Okay. I’m leaving. You all need to talk.” Ieiri says, sounding more tired than she usually does. “Maybe not right now though. Bye.”

Footsteps come into the living room and he glances up at her. Ieiri rubs a hand over her face, shaking her head, seemingly not noticing Megumi. Then she leaves. 

The front door closes.  

Then there’s a shuffle of footsteps in the kitchen.

“I should go,” Nanami says a few moments later, his voice quiet.

“Yeah.” Geto says, his voice also quiet. “That’s probably a good idea.”

Footsteps come into the living room and pause, before leaving and the door closes again. There’s a long moment of silence before another step of footsteps enters the room. 

A moment later a hand lands on his head, ruffling his hair. “Hey, Gumi, are you awake?”

He opens his eyes slightly. Gojo is crouched down in front of him with a faint smile. A strangely tense looking smile. “How about you sleep at our place for the night? Do you want a blanket?”

Megumi nods and closes his eyes. He hears Gojo stand up, open something. Then a heavy blanket is laid over him. 

Gojo pauses to ruffle his hair again. “There’s extra blankets in the drawers, you know where they are. And you can grab some extra pillows from the guest room if you want them.”

Megumi nods. 

“Goodnight,” Gojo says and his footsteps echo. 

“Come on, we need to talk.” Geto says, his voice a whisper. And they’re footsteps echo as they head upstairs. 

And Megumi wraps the blanket tighter around him and everything else drifts off. 

All the lights are out when he opens his eyes. Megumi blinks, looking around the room. The house is empty and he can barely see anything. The outlines of the other couches are visible and the doorway into the hallway to the upstairs. Even the music is off.

And he becomes intensely aware of the growing pain in his neck. 

Sitting up, he rubs the back of his neck. It probably didn’t help that he was leaning against the armrest like that. Rubbing his eyes, he grabs his phone and squints at the brightness.

1:03 am. 

It hasn't been that long since he fell asleep and he still doesn't need to wake up for a long time. But he really doesn’t want to have neck pain all week. So he slides off the couch, wrapping the blanket over his shoulders. He walks quietly up the stairs, heading toward the guest room. 

He tries to walk as quietly as possible, since Gojo and Geto are asleep by now. He turns down the hallway. They wouldn’t mind if he took a pillow from the guest room.

Voices drift down the hallway and there’s light shining from under their door. Oh. They must still be awake. 

“And so it didn’t even occur to you that it might upset me?” Geto asks, his voice tense. 

Megumi freezes, stopping in the dark hallway. 

“I didn’t think you’d still be upset about it.”

“Why wouldn’t I be upset?” Geto’s voice raises a little bit.

“It was a long time ago and I thought we could talk–”

“When were you going to tell me that you invited Nanami to all of our parties?”

“I mean,” Gojo pauses for a second. “I don’t see why you’re upset–”

“This is your issue, Satoru. You dont think through anything that you do. Did you even consider how that would make me feel?” Geto’s voice raises.

“I’m just trying to help you.”

“I’m thirty-one! I don’t need you to look after me like a little kid! I’m perfectly capable of dealing with people on my own without intervention. You need to stop trying to do it all for me. If you wanted to talk, then do it. It’s stupid! Just talk to me instead! Just be honest!”

Megumi grips the blanket, completely frozen. And he becomes very, very aware that he is not supposed to be awake right now. 

He thinks about leaving.

“Oh?” Gojo asks, with no hint of humor in his voice. “We’re talking about being honest right now? You know what I find ironic? How you’re always telling me to be honest and shit, like when you told me to come out to my parents when you’ve apparently never told your parents who I am.”

There’s silence. 

His heart is racing, but he can’t get himself to move. 

The coldness settles in around him, all he can hear is their voices. He’s never heard them talk to each other like this before. Ever. 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Gojo sounds legitimately hurt by this. “When we ran into them, they didn’t even know who I was! And you don’t even want to talk to me about it? That’s such bullshit!” 

Megumi takes a step backwards towards the stairs. 

When did this happen? Today?

No. They seemed so normal today.  

“They thought you were living with a friend and that you had a girlfriend! A girlfriend , Suguru! And after everything you preached about me being my most honest self for all these years.”

“You have no idea how overbearing my parents can be.” Geto cuts him off, flatly.

“Yeah, I don’t know because you’ve never introduced me and you never talk about them to me. I thought you just weren’t close to them after what happened in high school. But you just didn’t tell them about me for thirteen years! Isn’t that being hypocritical? Telling me to talk to you honestly and you don’t even do that?”

Gojo's voice is sharp. “And also, my parents are shitty about me being gay every single day, but at least they know you exist.”

A moment of silence. And Gojo speaks again. “I haven’t seen them in a long time, but sometimes my dad still tries to contact me to let me know how I’m going to ruin the family line for being gay or some shit. But I still told them.”

Silence.

Megumi can hear his own heart pounding.

“Can you stop avoiding what I’m actually trying to talk to you about?” Geto says, his voice sharp, strangely defensive. “You need to stop avoiding that you messed up and now you need to deal with it.”

He hears Gojo scoff. “I don’t even know why you’re so upset–”

“You invited your fucking ex without asking me!”

Megumi stares widely at the door and the little sliver of light shining from underneath it. He takes a small step backward. He really really should not be hearing this. 

He’s breathing heavier now. 

He doesn’t want to hear this.

“And you were acting like a jealous high schooler about it! I thought that maybe we could all be friends again,” Gojo snaps back. “It was a single date. And I left half-way through it! It’s not a big deal–”

“You didn’t even let me know ahead of time. I didn’t know he was going to be here,” Geto says, annoyed now. “How would you feel if I had an ex and invited them to our house? To a party we host for our students?” 

Before Gojo even has a chance to say anything else, Geto speaks again. “Which can’t happen considering I’ve never dated anyone other than you and I’ve never wanted to.”

“You didn’t have to act like that the whole time he was here.” Gojo says, snapping. “Even some of the students were noticing! Megumi saw! I don’t want Megumi to get pulled into our issues.”

“Oh my god, you never listen–”

“I don’t listen?” Gojo repeats. “You aren’t listening that I don’t have feelings for Nanami.”

“Oh my god,” Geto hisses out the next words. “You are such a rich, self-centered spoiled kid sometimes.”

“I'm self-centered? You're the one who dropped off the face of the planet for like a month and didn't tell anyone where you were. And you still don’t talk about it.”

Geto’s voice is much quieter when he speaks now. “That has nothing to do with what we’re talking about, Satoru. That was during high school. It was a long time ago.”

“It doesn’t make sense to me how you’re telling me to be honest and talk to you when you won’t talk to me about something as huge as that.”

Geto takes a breath. “No, we're talking about how self-centered you are acting right now. All I am asking is that you consider how your actions made me feel. You didn’t consider that you should have at least talked to me about inviting Nanami beforehand?”

No answer. 

“You didn’t even think about it?” Geto sounds hurt by that. 

“I mean,” Gojo is quieter now. “Not really?”

“Sometimes you are just so incapable of understanding other humans' emotions, I swear. Did this stem from being ignorant about how hard life is when you don't have your parents' giant fortune to solve your problems?”

The silence following Geto’s words is palpable. It’s almost heavy, like something physically is in the air. Megumi’s hands are shaking and he tells himself he should just go downstairs and pretend he never, ever heard any of this. 

He takes a couple steps back, moving towards the stairs. 

“Okay, that’s a little harsh, Suguru. I’m not incapable of understanding people’s emotions.” Gojo’s voice is quieter now, upset. “I know how hard those years were for you and I know how hard everything has been for Megumi–”

“You don’t know.” Geto’s voice is cold, leaving no room for an argument. “You've had money for your whole entire life. You have no idea what it’s like when you don’t have infinite amounts of cash to solve your issues. And you don't understand how detrimental mental health can be, especially in Megumi’s case.”

“What are you talking about? Megumi is a well-adjusted kid.”

“What fucking daydream do you live in, Satoru?”

Megumi can’t move. 

He should go downstairs and never think about this again. 

“Satoru, Megumi has really serious childhood trauma, in case you haven’t noticed. Which you probably haven’t because you don’t acknowledge something if you don’t like it . He’s a depressed, anxious kid who’s been forced into trying to act like an adult.”

Geto is silent for a moment and the words sink in. 

“Megumi has been struggling so much and for almost his entire life he isn’t even aware of it. After everything that happened in his childhood, with Toji barely being present, Tsumiki getting sick, Toji left him–how do you think he’s doing? He’s struggling.”

Megumi’s shaking now, taking deep breaths. 

Gojo’s voice is so quiet, it’s like a whisper. “Megumi had us–”

“We were kids too!” 

The silence is loud. 

Too loud. 

Geto takes loud, deep breaths. “Satoru, you can’t keep ignoring things like this. I’ve been telling you for years and it feels like you’ve entirely ignored me. And now you’re wondering why I’m upset?”

Megumi can’t breathe. Geto sounds so done. So tired. Defeated. 

“I don’t know if I can handle this anymore, Satoru.” Geto’s voice is too quiet. “You never listen to me or to anyone. It’s like my feelings don’t even matter to you.”

“Suguru–”

“I love you, but it feels like you don’t care enough to even listen to me. I don’t know if I can keep doing this–”

And Megumi doesn’t even listen to the rest. He’s gone. 

He runs down the stairs. He can’t listen to the rest. He can’t. He doesn’t want to. 

He runs back to the living room, breathing heavily. He flings the blanket onto the couch and frantically grabs his phone, wallet, and keys. 

He can’t stop to think about what would happen if they broke up. 

He can’t. 

He doesn’t want to think about it. 

He grabs his shoes and runs. 

Maybe he’s just avoiding his problems. 

Maybe he always avoids his problems. 

But it doesn’t really matter right now. He closes the door softly behind him, trying to keep his breathing even. The air is chilly outside. He doesn’t care. 

Megumi shoves his feet into his shoes and starts running again. It’s too cold outside and he wishes he kept his hoodie on. 

But it’s back inside and he doesn’t want to go back right now. 

Megumi keeps running. Through the neighborhood. Past the houses. Onto a main road. Onto a smaller road. 

Thirteen years. 

The tears are running down his face now and he wipes them off with more force than necessary. Face stinging, he keeps wiping away the tears too strong, but he can’t bring himself to care.

He’s not even wearing socks. 

Did it matter? Those thirteen years they had been together.

If those thirteen years didn’t matter, did anything?

He keeps running and running. 

The street is surrounded by trees now.

Did they even care? If they could just give up on thirteen years that quickly?

And he slowly stops, staring down at his feet.

Wearing shoes without any socks. 

He sucks in a breath and wipes his eyes again. 

Glancing around, he’s just on the side of some road in the middle of the night. God, he was so stupid. He should have noticed. How tense Geto seemed the moment he saw Nanami. The awkwardness. 

Why did he open the door? He opened it and let Nanami in. 

Why did he do that?

He should have noticed. 

His hands keep shaking. Maybe it’s from the cold, but he knows it’s not. 

He didn’t want to go back and see it happen. He can’t deal with that. Not now, not ever. But it’s almost over an hour walk back to his house. 

And he doesn’t even have socks on. 

If he doesn’t have them, what does he have?

His phone buzzes. 

Megumi stays still for a moment longer then slowly reaches for his phone.

He pulls it out of his pocket, staring at the bright screen emotionlessly. 

Sukuna: yo check out this song 

Sukuna: it’s acoustic so you’ll be able to actually appreciate it this time

Sukuna: because apparently you think screamo and industrial rock music is the same thing

He thinks about ignoring the text and putting his phone away. Because why would he care about Sukuna’s stupid music recommendations right now?

He’s about to turn off his phone. Hadn’t Sukuna been trying to ask about Tsumiki earlier? 

And he doesn’t even think when he hits the call button.  

His call is answered in a few seconds.

“Shouldn’t you be asleep right now?” Lazily, Sukuna asks.

“I don't know what to do.” His voice shakes, breaking between the words. He hates it. 

So he just falls onto the grass. It’s wet, but he barely notices. He’s sitting on rocks and chunks of stones, but it doesn’t matter right now. “And I don’t even have my stupid, idiotic socks on.”

“Whoa, wait, slow down.” Sukuna says, sounding suddenly more awake. “Aren’t you at your gay dads’ house–”

“They broke up!” 

His voice echoes through the empty street, the words replaying and mocking him. Wrapping his arms around himself, he stares down at the crumbling sidewalk. Everything had been doing so much better, he should have known better. He had felt better. 

Thirteen years together and then in a few minutes it was like those years didn’t even matter. 

“They broke up,” he speaks quietly, almost too quietly. 

He almost thinks Sukuna hung up from how quiet the other side is.

Did they even care? Why would they break up like that?

“Oh holy shit, wow,” Sukuna says, his voice rushed. “Okay, well shit.”

Megumi rubs away the tears, the skin under his eyes stinging. Sukuna clears his throat. “Shit, where are you? Are you still at their house or…?”

Megumi looks at the street. Nothing is familiar. The woods across from him aren’t familiar, the road itself is unfamiliar, the small grassy patch he’s sitting on isn’t familiar, no signs or anything. He doesn’t recognize anything.

There’s only a few street lights, barely giving any light to where he’s sitting currently. It’s fine. He doesn’t care.   

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I’m sitting on the side of a road.” 

“What the fuck?” He hears Sukuna mutter under his breath, then he speaks up. “Are you near their house at least?”

“Probably like fifteen minutes from it, I don’t know.” 

“Okay.” He hears a door slam, then a familiar terrible sounding engine turns on, distorting sounds for a moment. “Send me your location. I can’t believe you’re just sitting on the side of a road in the middle of the night by yourself.”

Megumi can’t even say anything. His throat hurts, stinging in the way it does after crying too much.

He should care where he is. But he doesn’t. 

“Do you want someone to rob you or something?” Sukuna asks and his voice is slightly distorted from the wind. “Send your location. At least go somewhere you aren’t gonna get robbed or some shit.”

Megumi stares down at his phone and sends his location absently. He hadn’t even thought about someone robbing him or kidnapping him. He looks up and down the road. There were no cars, no people, no houses on this stretch of road. If something happened, nobody would know. 

God, he was so stupid sometimes. 

Somehow, that still felt secondary to the fact that Gojo and Geto broke up. He had never heard them talking to each other like that before. They only argued jokingly. Never like they wanted to hurt each other. Not like that. 

“Where the hell are you?” Sukuna sounds confused. “You’re literally in the middle of nowhere. How the hell did you even do that?”

He swallows. His throat is dry. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t move. Well, move if you see someone sketchy or some shit. Or beat the shit out of them instead. Because that’s something you can do apparently.”

He tries not to think about Gojo and Geto arguing. He tries to focus on anything else.

Anything else.

Megumi wraps his arms around himself and really, really wishes he had his hoodie. “I don’t think Nobara’s right, you know.”

“What?” Sukuna says, confused.

“I mean, you’re not evil or mean. You’re actually pretty nice.”

The other side of the phone is quiet for a moment, the only sound is loud wind.

“Hey, watch it,” Sukuna says, “I’m not nice.”

“You’re literally driving to the middle of nowhere because your brother’s friend is panicking because his not even actual dads broke up at one in the morning.” Megumi says, ripping a tuft of grass out of the ground. “That’s nice.”

Silence. 

Megumi throws the grass weakly. He is so stupid. He should’ve seen the signs of tonight. He should’ve noticed there was something off. 

Why did he open that door?

He didn’t have to open it. So why did he?

If he hadn’t opened the door then maybe…

They were arguing about him too. About each other. 

Images of his dad come back. His dad was talking to Tsumiki’s mom, when she still lived in the apartment with them–for that brief time before she went somewhere else. She said something about Toji being useless and he called her a terrible mother, that she wasn’t good for the kids.

He remembers being upset hearing them yell at each other. 

And Tsumiki had grabbed his hand, pulling him into the further room in the house. They usually went outside, but it was too cold then. And they sat on her bed, sharing the one crappy set of earphones. He didn’t know at the time, but the earbud Tsumiki used didn’t even work. 

“First off,” Sukuna says, firmly. “You’re my friend, not just the brat’s friend. Second off, I am nice to people who aren’t stupid. Everyone else doesn’t matter.”

“Did you just call me a friend?”

“Yeah, who else is going to listen to my music recommendations?”

Megumi swallows and ignores the tears again. His voice sounds choked up and he’s sure that Sukuna can hear it, but he’s already a mess. There’s no point in pretending he’s not. 

Did he really call Sukuna, of all people, in the middle of the night? Sukuan, doesn't really like him in the first place?

“Sorry.”

“Why the fuck are you apologizing?”

“It’s the middle of the night and–”

“I was already awake, idiot.” Sukuna says and Megumi can practically see him rolling his eyes. “And I was already out, I’m picking up Uraume from work soon anyway. Also you need to stop apologizing for the littlest shit all the time.”

He bites his tongue to apologize for apologizing. 

“Seriously, where the fuck are you?” He hears a horn over the phone and then Sukuna shouting a string of curse words. “It’s not hard to use your fucking blinker, you asshole! Yeah, you! Your hairdye job is shitty!” 

Another horn. 

Megumi glances down the road. There’s lights glaring, far too bright and light. He covers his eyes. A bolt of fear runs down his spine and Megumi really, really hopes that it’s just Sukuna. And not some random person who happens to be driving in the middle of the night.

“You alive?” Sukuna asks. 

“There’s a car.” Megumi scrambles back, standing up. His heart races. 

He can vaguely hear Sukuna saying something.

And the car starts to slow down. His heart is pounding as the car slowly rolls to a stop in front of him. 

And suddenly, he really wishes he took his dad’s advice and carried a knife with him everywhere. That he actually listened to his dad’s paranoid advice. 

The driver’s side window rolls down and someone leans out the window. He looks about Gojo and Geto’s age. The top of his hair is light but the ends are a much darker color.  

Megumi immediately wished he was back at Gojo and Geto’s house. Back at the house. Back in his bedroom. Anywhere else. 

“A bit of a strange place to be hanging out so late at night.” The guy in the car says, looking up and down the street before looking back at Megumi with a strangely and uncomfortably intense look. “Perhaps you’re lost somehow?” 

Megumi stares at him, gripping the phone tightly. “No.”

The guy raises an eyebrow, but he keeps looking at Megumi. Why does he keep looking? His gaze is analyzing and Megumi wants to just run off, but he doesn’t move. “It’s dangerous out here.”

“I’m fine,” Megumi says quickly, not letting him finish. 

Why didn’t he listen to his dad about this one thing?

The guy narrows his eyes. “It’s really not safe, you know. Do you need some help?”

Megumi swallows and tries not to fidget. The guy looks at him again, analyzing. He can’t even imagine what he looks like to someone right now, wearing shoes without socks, this stupid t-shirt, no jacket, bedhead. 

The guy speaks up, analyzing. “Do I know you from somewhere? I could have sworn we’ve met before.”

Megumi looks at the guy and he’s positive he would remember someone who looks like a nature-born asshole. “Probably not. I’m not from here.”

Lie. Just like his dad said to do if someone ever started asking him too many questions. 

The guy looks him up and down. “You look like someone I know.”

“Good for you,” Megumi says, not caring if he offends him. Actually, he hopes it does offend him and that he leaves Megumi alone. 

The guy frowns now, not happy that Megumi is clearly uninterested in his existence. “My name’s Naoya. Where are you from?”

Why is he asking so many questions?

“Not from here,” Megumi looks down at his phone. The call ended and he isn’t really sure when. Hopefully Sukuna is closeby. “I’m waiting on someone, so I don’t need help. Thanks.”

The Naoya guy looks like he’s about to say something else when there’s a very loud, familiar car engine. Megumi instantly turns towards it. The crappiest car he’s ever seen pulls up towards them, slowly approaching. And Megumi feels some tension leave his shoulders. 

Never before has he been glad to see that stupid, broken car.

The car pulls closer and the lights turn off. 

Sukuna leans his head out of the window. He looks at Naoya and then goes back to Megumi glaring with an extremely hostile look. “Hey, you dropped my call.”

And he’s never been more grateful for Sukuna. 

Megumi quickly gets in Sukuna’s car and for once he doesn’t care that it looks like it’s about to break. As long as he is inside and away from that guy. Sukuna watches the Naoya guy for a moment longer and he looks back. The whole thing is enough to make Megumi uncomfortable.

Megumi buckles in quickly, taking deep breaths. 

Sukuna hits the gas, backing up. He looks into the rearview mirror, eyes narrowed. “That guy looks shady as fuck.”

Megumi wraps his arms around himself until the guy disappears behind them. Sukuna glances over at him. “You good?”

“No, not really.” Megumi closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. 

“What the hell happened?”

“I don’t even know. I went upstairs and they were arguing.”

Sukuna tightens his hands around the steering and then loosens them again. “You seem really upset…”

Megumi looks down at his hands. Still shaking. “I don’t even know. They’ve always been there. Everyone else hasn’t and now they might not. I don’t know.”

Sukuna pauses glances at him once then looks back to the road. He seems almost hesitant. “What about your sister?”

Megumi slides down the seat. “I haven’t talked to her in years honestly.”

The only sound is the loud engine. Broken and too loud. 

“Oh shit.” It seems like Sukuna’s instinct to say that, cause he keeps glancing over at Megumi with an almost concerned look. “Oh well, that’s pretty shit.” 

Sukuna glances at him again, but quickly looks away. “Uh, you hungry?”

Megumi isn’t really thinking about food right now. “Not really.”

“Food’s the best remedy to feeling shitty,” Sukuna says, gesturing loosely with one hand. 

“I guess.” 

He stares off into the road. Gojo and Geto seemed so normal this morning. The whole day. What happened?

Was it only because Megumi let Nanami into the house? Would have everything been okay if he hadn't done that?

“Wanna know what the brat did?” Sukuna says suddenly, cutting through his thoughts. 

Blinking, Megumi briefly looks at him. “What?”

“Yeah. The brat passed out on the couch as soon as I dragged him back to our dorm. He kept falling off. Wanna see some pictures?” Sukuna gets out his phone, looking at the road while finding his camera roll. 

“There’s one of him face down on the floor. Thought it was pretty funny.”

Yuuji is lying on the floor, eyes still closed. He looks at the photo for a moment then looks at Sukuna. “Are you trying to cheer me up?”

“Hey. Seeing Yuuji make a fool out of himself always cheers me up.” Sukuna clicks his phone off and he whips around a corner and Megumi grabs onto the car door for dear life. He braces his feet against the dashboard as they swing around a corner and come to a stop. 

Megumi still holds on as they slow down. “How do you have a license?”

Sukuna comes to a stop, pulling sharply into a parking spot. He takes the keys out and looks over at him, still holding onto the car door. He rolls his eyes. “You can let go now.”

Megumi slowly lets go and puts his feet back down on the floor. “Your driving is terrible, truly. And I’ve seen Gojo’s driving. How do you have a license?”

Sukuna just grins. “Come on, we’re getting something to eat.”

Megumi scrambles out of the car, following him. “Wait, you do have a license, don’t you?”

Sukuna just keeps grinning, his hands stuffed into his pockets. “This place has some of the best seafood in the city; the shrimp is slow cooked in a seasoned butter sauce.”

While he’s walking beside Sukuna, Megumi gives him a look. “You’re not answering my question.”

Sukuna doesn’t answer and opens the front door. And when he steps inside all he can smell is food. Not just crappy cafeteria food or simple, prepacked foods. The scent of spices and smoke fills the foyer. Megumi stops in his tracks, just appreciating the smells. 

The man behind the counter in a black three piece suit looks up, clearly recognizing Sukuna as he waves lazily and instantly looks less formal. He leans against the counter. “I was starting to wonder when you would get here. You’re usually here earlier.”

Sukuna grins. “Had to make a pitstop.”

The man glances at Megumi. “Are you actually here to eat food like a normal customer with a friend?”

“Of course not.”

“I’m assuming you want your usual seat?”

“Two, actually,” Sukuna says. 

The man wordlessly makes gestures for them to go ahead and Sukuan doesn’t wait to walk into the dining area with familiarity. 

Sukuna leans towards him to whisper. “That’s Kenjaku. He’s an asshole.” 

And Megumi just follows behind him, looking around the restaurant. It was odd that it was still open at this time, but it was decently filled with some people inside and sitting at the small tables. It was dark, all lit by candles, flickering in the otherwise fairly dark space. 

Even the floor is made from a dark, red wood. It’s polished enough he can see himself in it as he follows the waiter into the restaurant. The walls are made from the same deep red wood, but covered in hanging artwork. The art is elegant, simple watercolors in the same deep blacks and reds of landscapes. 

Sukuna sits down at a table beside a wall, assumingly his usual spot. Megumi sits down across from him. 

A waiter appears, setting down napkins. “Someone will be with you soon.”

There is a centerpiece of deep red tulips floating in a glass dish filled with water, surrounding one tall candle in the very center. He glances around again. 

“This is fancy,” Megumi looks around again and looks back to the flowers. He says it to just say something because he doesn’t know what else to say. “How’d you find it?”

But Sukuna isn’t even bothering to look at the menu, but all of his attention is focused on the two swinging doors leading into the kitchen. 

The doors open. 

And then someone approaches the table, wearing a formal black suit. They are shorter, but not as short as Nobara. They have a white bob slightly past their chin and they do not look particularly happy. 

Sukuna leans heavily on the tabletop, grinning and lazily waves once as they walk towards the table. 

“I was beginning to wonder if you were going to be late for the first time.” They say, crossing their arms. “Have you not gotten enough food already?”

“I’d never miss a chance to see you.” Sukuna says, holding out the menu with a grin. “And aren’t you the manager? Plus, I deserve boyfriend privileges, don’t I?’

Oh. This must be Uraume. Megumi had really started to think that Uraume was made up. 

Uraume frowns, raising an eyebrow. “You were here this afternoon.”

“So?” 

Uraume looks at Megumi, glancing at him for a long moment. “I apologize for him. He only wants free food, so he is abusing his ‘boyfriend privileges’ as he says.”

Sukuna scoffs. “Well first off, I’m being nice here. He’s had a really shitty day or night or whatever.”

Uraume raises one singular eyebrow, not amused. “Why do I not believe that coming from a free-loader?”

Sukuna gestures at Megumi, more earnestly this time. “His gay dads broke up.”

It sounds ridiculous saying it out loud. 

Megumi sinks into the chair, frowning and his eyes sting again. He was actively trying not to think about it. And he really doesn’t want to think about them arguing and what they were saying. Looking back at the candle, he tries to not look like he’s about to cry.

He’s sure he looks like an utter and complete mess in front of Uraume and they don’t even know him.

Uraume gives Sukuna a sudden sharp look. And after a few seconds, Sukuna says, “Sorry.”

Megumi doesn’t look at either of them. But he can see Sukuna gesture towards him. “This is Megumi.”

“Oh,” Uraume says softly, then they speak thoughtfully. “I guess I do see what you mean that he looks like a sea urchin.”

Megumi’s head snaps up, glaring. Sukuna holds up his hands, but he does not look apologetic at all. “What? You don’t say anything when your crazy gay dad says it.”

“Yeah, because I haven’t been able to get him to stop after thirteen years.” Megumi says quieter now and he looks back down. “And my hair isn’t that bad.”

Sukuna makes a face at that. 

“Sukuna has mentioned your gay dads before. I am sorry to hear that.” Uraume’s voice is quiet. “Would you like some food?”

Sukuna raises his hand. “I do.”

Uraume gives Sukuna a look that is hard to read. Are they actually annoyed or are they only acting like it? “I know what you want.”

Megumi shrugs. “I don’t know, anything is fine. I’m not really hungry.”

Uraume nods and takes their menus. “If Sukuna starts bothering you, let me know.” 

And Uraume walks away. Sukuna scoffs, leaning back into his chair. “They always act like they aren’t excited to see me every time. But still they come over every time I stop by. I always get free food.”

Sukuna grins as the doors to the kitchen swing shut. “It’s cute.”

The table falls silent. And Megumi looks down at the flowers, watching them float in the water. He really wishes he had just stayed asleep. If he was still asleep then this wouldn’t have happened. Or maybe he would have just found out in the morning. 

No. He doesn’t want to hear them tell him that they broke up. 

“Um, so, do you wanna talk about it or…”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. I overheard them arguing so I don’t think I was supposed to hear it. I don’t know.”

He leans back in the chair, crossing his arms. Maybe his back hits the chair with too much force, but he’s mad. “I mean, they’ve been dating for thirteen years and now is the time they decide to break up for the first time?”

“Maybe try texting them?”

And a realization dawns on him. 

If they broke up, they wouldn’t want to be around each other anymore. Only one of them would stop by at a time and they would never go anywhere together as the three of them. Megumi’s hands shake and clenches his hands, trying to stop it. 

Megumi shakes his head violently. “No. Absolutely not.”

“What if they want me to pick a side?” He whispers it and he feels so stupid. Why are relationships so stupid? “I can’t do that, I can’t.”

“I’m so shit at this,” Sukuna mutters to himself then sits up. “Then don’t call them, don’t text them.”

He looks up, furrowing his brows. “What?”

“Yeah, don’t fucking do anything you don’t feel like doing. They've known you for a long ass time. They’ll respect that you wouldn’t pick sides, but I don’t think they’d make you pick in the first place.”

Uraume appears beside the table, carrying two bowls. Meugmi jumps at their appearance. He hadn’t even heard them walking or anything. They set the bowls on the table, making no sounds as they do. 

“I am not sure the last time I heard you speak nicely to someone who is not myself or Choso.” Uraume picks up a chair from the table across from them and sets it down, sitting down, somehow making the action elegant. “Poor Yuuji would cry if he knew.”

He glances at Sukuna. He was sure that Sukuna didn’t like him at all. 

Sukuna grabs the bowl in front of him. “I’ll be nice to the brat when he stops hanging up those hideous posters in our shared spaces and makes his friends stop calling me the evil twin. That shit hurts, you know.”

Uraume looks emotionlessly at him for a moment, then nods once. “Understandable.”

Megumi slowly grabs the bowl, sliding it towards himself. He isn’t really sure what’s in it, but it smells amazing. The rich brown soup is still bubbling, small slices of ginger on top moving with the boiling liquid.

Aromatic and filled with finely sliced vegetables in the broth. It looks like something in a high-end food magazine or restaurant with far too little seating. 

“You really are here to free-load.” Uraume observes while Sukuna devourers the soup. “I already gave you three bowls today.”

“So boyfriend privileges don’t work anymore?” Sukuna asks, raising his eyebrows. “Also I know you always have leftovers. I’m just helping you not to throw anything out.”

“Sometimes I think you only use the soup as an excuse,” Uraume says as Sukuna drinks the soup straight out of the bowl. “I stand corrected apparently.”

Megumi quietly eats his soup. And he almost wishes he could cry. Maybe he just hasn’t eaten something so well cooked before, but if he could ever describe something as perfect it would be this soup. Maybe he was just being dramatic. 

He sits quietly and eats the entire bowl. 

He hears Sukuna huff out a laugh. “See? Food always helps.”

Megumi is still holding onto the warm bowl, warming the coldness that had settled into his hands while standing by the side of the road. And he looks up at Uraume. “You’re a very good cook.”

Uraume blinks slowly, as if processing the words. They smile faintly, almost a non-smile but it’s there. “Thank you. It is a bit on the simpler side of what we serve here, but it is one of my personal favorites.”

“It’s very good,” Megumi says again. 

Uraume smiles again. 

And a waiter scurries over to them, leaning down to whisper something in their ear. Uraume sighs, standing up, a cold look on their face. “Unfortunately, it appears I am needed to deal with a chef who undercooked a pork loin in my kitchen.”

Sukuna leans back in his chair, throwing an arm over the back. He grins at Uraume. “Sounds like you need to kill someone.”

Uraume moves the chair back, frowning icily. “I run this restaurant to perfection. I will not allow undercooked pork to ruin its reputation and disappoint the customers.”

Sukuna holds up his hands, still grinning. “Okay. Go kick some ass.”

Uraume smiles at Megumi again. “Thank you again for the compliment.”

And they walk towards the kitchen with a single minded focus, opening the doors to the kitchen without making any noise. Megumi can see several cooks and chefs quickly step out of their way, fear in their eyes as they dart out of the danger. 

“It’s hot when they get mad,” Sukuna says, watching the kitchen doors close. 

Megumi furrows his brows. “You’re so weird.”

Sukuna doesn’t look away from the doors, raising an eyebrow. “Am I?”

“Yes and I’m saying that as someone who grew up around Gojo.”

Now Sukuna looks up, actually offended. “Don’t compare me to that . I’ve never brought a whole ass kid to my high school as a show and tell, thank you very much.”

At the mention of Gojo’s name, he feels his shoulders sink again. And he looks down at his hands. Part of him wants to pick up his phone and call, just to ask if everything is alright. But part of him doesn’t want to know. Maybe they didn’t break up and it just sounded like they did. 

I can’t do this anymore. 

What else did that mean other than a break up?

Sukuna flicks his forehead and Megumi jerks back, glaring and tells him. “That was rude.”

“You didn’t have anything to do with them breaking up.” Sukuna crosses his arms, glaring at him from across the table. “Stop being an idiot. Don’t take responsibility for issues you can’t control.”

Megumi wrings his hands, picking at his nails. The turning feeling of his stomach is back, settling into his stomach. The constant swirling thoughts of everything that's wrong. 

Maybe he did have something to do with the break up. They shouted at each other when talking about him. They argued about him. Maybe he has been a burden and they just weren’t going to tell him. Why wouldn’t he be a burden? 

He let Nanami in. 

They can still care about him and he can be a burden. 

“So apparently reassurance doesn’t help you,” Sukuna mutters, sighing. “The brat always insists that reassuring people is the best thing to do.”

Megumi looks up. Is Sukuna trying to reassure him? 

Sukuna rolls his eyes, propping his head up with one hand. “What do you normally do when you’re dealing with anxiety attacks?”

He blinks. 

Anxiety attacks?

This isn’t an anxiety attack. He’s just thinking. 

Why would Sukuna even think that?

“What?” Megumi glances around the restaurant like it would answer his question. “I’m not having an anxiety attack.”

Anxiety attacks only happen to people with serious issues, right? And that they were a lot worse. This was just normal anxiety, the everyday kind. Normally, he was just better at ignoring it, but it’s worse than usual. 

Not an anxiety attack or whatever. 

Sukuna does not look like he agrees, but he doesn’t say anything. 

Megumi crosses his arms and really wishes he had a hoodie. It’s far too cold in here. “Stop looking at me like that. I’m normal right now.”

“Full offense, but if this is what your normal looks like, that’s pretty shitty. You might want to think about the fact that your ‘normal’ sucks.”

“You’re such an asshole,” Megumi mutters and looks away. 

Sukuna is probably right. 

It’s weird. He thought Sukuna didn’t like him. Why would he? 

Megumi thought he understood Sukuna, but apparently not. Not if he is sitting here, in the middle of the night, trying to reassure him. 

And telling him that he’s dealing with an anxiety attack, even if it isn’t.

It isn’t an unfamiliar feeling. But when he does feel like this, he can’t make it go away. So usually he just tries to do anything other than think about it. Do homework, work on his class readings. It didn’t matter anyway. 

Or he would have to go to class or work and then he didn’t have time to even think about it anymore.

“You gonna finish that?” Sukuna points at his bowl of soup. “Cause, if you’re not. I will.”

“No.” He goes back to eating the soup. 

The restaurant is quieter now. Less people sitting down, some people leaving through the entrance. Waiters are starting to clean off tables, cleaning them quickly and moving the dishes. 

And the waiters put away their things, all leaving in a group together. They’re talking quietly to themselves, but laughing as well. 

The restaurant is quiet now. 

“We can leave now.” 

Megumi jumps, turning in his chair. Uraume stands by their table, carrying five white folded paper boxes. They’re no longer wearing the black suit from earlier, but fitted dress pants and an oversized white sweater. 

Sukuna stands up, grabbing the boxes from Uraume. “More leftovers?” 

Sukuna tries to open the lid of one of the boxes. Uraume swats his hand. “Of course. I was not going to let perfectly expensive pork go to waste because our newest hire apparently does not know how to sear pork properly.” 

“That kid’s failure is my gain.” Sukuna grins, heading towards the entrance of the restaurant. 

Kenjaku is on his phone, leaning against the counter again. He waves lazily. “See you tomorrow.”

Uraume only nods, heading outside. 

Megumi follows them out of the restaurant, stepping back into the cold outside. It’s dark outside, but the string lights hanging around the doorframe help to illuminate everything. Megumi wraps his arms around himself, really wishing for his stupid hoodie now. 

But it’s still on the back of the couch. 

Uraume locks the doors, tugging on it several times. Once they are sure the door will not open, Uraume turns back to them. “Stop trying to get into the pork.” 

Sukuna freezes and the lid to the storage pops open. Uraume sighs and starts walking towards the car. “It is dangerous to drive and eat at the same time.”

There’s a few cars left in the small parking lot. Sukuna’s piece of crap standing out among all of the cars that don’t look like they are about to fall to pieces. 

“When have I ever cared about safety?” Sukuna unlocks his car, still holding the boxes. 

“Catch.” And Sukuna dumps all of the boxes into Megumi's arms then slides into the driver’s seat.

Megumi stands there for a moment, glaring. “Seriously?”

Sukuna leans back in his front seat, unlocking the back door from the inside. He pushes it open for Megumi, grinning. “What? Uraume said it was dangerous to hold it and drive.”

Megumi gives him a look still, but climbs into the car. He pulls the door shut with his foot. “Is this even safe? You know, considering you were implying earlier that you don’t have a license and all.”

Sukuna turns on the car. And the engine sounds like it’s on its last limb before being dumped at a car junkyard. “I can be a safe driver without a license. You're doubting me, Fushiguro Megumi?”

“He has a license.” Uraume says, looking back over their shoulder. 

Megumi shivers, still thinking about his hoodie. Uraume rolls up all the windows, blocking the cold air. “Though, I am not sure how exactly he managed to pass.”

“First Megumi calls me an asshole and now you call me a bad driver, what did I ever do to you two?” Sukuna floors it and the car speeds out of the parking lot. 

“You free-load?” Uraume says this like it is the only possible answer. They pull up their phone, flipping through messages quickly.

“Okay, wow. I didn’t know it was Bully Sukuna Day.”

“How many messages did you send me today?” Uraume asks, still scrolling.

“Thought you’d want to know about my day.”

“You thought I would want to know a play-by-play of your entire morning routine? I do not need to know how you made cereal, Sukuna.”

Sukuna cackles. “Just keeping you up to date on the important things.”

Megumi sets the boxes on the seat beside him, carefully. And he closes the lid of the one box filled with different cuts of pork. And he grabs a couple of the textbooks thrown around in the back, assigning them to prop up the boxes. He watches the boxes for a moment, making sure they don’t fall over. 

He moves an extra textbook over as well, for good measure.

And then he sits back in his seat, still watching them from the corner of his eyes. The last thing he wants is random pork bits all over the car. He could imagine Sukuna making him do that. 

Someone laughs. 

He looks up and Sukuna is watching him from the rearview mirror. He snickers. And Megumi almost kicks his chair, but decides not to kick the chair of the person driving. 

He settles for glaring and snapping at him. “What?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Sukuna keeps laughing. Uraume looks back, looking down at the boxes that he propped up nice and safe. 

“I don’t want them to fall! Stop laughing at me!” 

“You just looked so determined it was funny.” Sukuna keeps laughing. “Like you were lining them up like they’re fragile glass shit or something.”

“Be nice. That was very thoughtful.” Uraume says. “Also I know you do not want to clean pork fat rendering out of your car.”

Sukuna makes a face. 

“Ha!” Megumi can’t help but mock him. 

“Wow, I still can’t believe the brat says you’re the nicest person he’s ever met.” 

“He just says that because I helped him pass a test.”

And then Sukuna hits the gas pedal, speeding through a yellow light. Megumi’s back slams into the seat and he latches onto the door handle. The car slows down a few seconds later. And he quickly glances down at the boxes, everything still in place. 

“Hey, Uraume, do you want to go back to your apartment or do you want to crash at the dorm?”

They don’t even look up from their phone, texting someone. “No.”

“Cool. We’ll go to my dorm instead.”

They stop in one of the college parking lots, almost entirely devoid of cars beside a few, all empty.

 Megumi picks up all of the boxes, carefully balancing them in his arms. He kicks the door shut. Because one kick could do no damage to this car. He could probably hit it with a hammer and nobody would ever notice the difference, even with a microscope. 

The campus is dead. Which isn’t very surprising considering it was nearing two in the morning now. The air is chilly, a slight breeze making it even chillier. 

“I can take those.” Uraume takes the boxes, balancing all of them on one arm with practiced ease. 

And with his hands free, Megumi shoves them into his pockets. He glances at the road. 

It was a twenty minute walk to his house from here. It wouldn’t be too bad if he left now. It would be better if he had his hoodie. Or if he at least has socks, but he has neither of those things at the moment. 

But it’d be nice. He can see Shiro and Kuro too. 

“Are you just going to stand there?”

Megumi turns around. Sukuna and Uraume are walking in the opposite direction, towards the nearby dorm. Sukuna is looking at him with an expectant look. 

Megumi glances around quickly. Not sure what else he would be doing. “Uh, I was just going back to my house. Where else would I go?”

Sukuna rolls his eyes. “You’re not walking all the way back there in the goddamn middle of the night.”

Megumi just stands there in the middle of the parking lot like an idiot. Where else was he supposed to go then? 

Sukuna rolls his eyes again, groaning about something under his breath. He marches over to Megumi, grabbing his shoulder and shoving him towards Uraume. 

“Just crash with me and brat tonight. We’re already here.”

So Megumi just follows them to the dorm. The inside is about what he imagined for a college dorm, walls with thick layers of white paint, tiled floors that looked decades old, a rickety elevator that slowly creaks up to the sixth floor. 

Outside of room 606, Sukuna pulls out his keys, jingling loudly in the hallways. It takes Sukuna five minutes to unlock his door. He shakes the doorknob. “I hate this stupid fucking door. It always gets stuck.”

“You are using the wrong key.” Uraume shakes their head. 

Sukuna switches keys and the door pops open. “I hate this door.”

“Pretty sure it wasn’t the door.” Megumi mutters, but steps inside of the dorm. 

He closes the door. It’s dark inside, barely illuminated except for Sukuna’s phone screen. Loudly, Sukuna closes the door behind him. 

“What’s going on?” Yuuji’s voice says, tired and mumbling. A bit freaked out sounding. “Sukuna? What the hell man? What time is it?”

The light turns on. 

Yuuji is lying on the couch. The room is an oddly shaped rectangle, with a TV on one end and a two person couch on the other side, two small chairs beside it, and on the opposite side from the TV is a small kitchen space. The opposite wall from him has two doors. So they must be in a common space or something. 

Yuuji rubs his eyes, squinting in the sudden light. Still wearing the same thing he had been wearing at the party. His hair is messier now. 

Megumi waves once, not sure what else to do. “Hi.”

Yuuji rubs his eyes again, staring. Looking around like he wasn’t quite sure he was seeing what he was seeing. “Megumi? Bro, why are you at our dorm?”

He waves again, not sure what else to say.

Sukuna takes the boxes from Uraume and sticks them into a black fridge. Uraume sits down in a chair, crossing their legs. 

Yuuji looks around the room and Megumi suddenly feels terrible for waking him up in the middle of the night. “Uh, why is Megumi here?”

Nobody says anything, but Yuuji is still waiting. 

He sighs. 

“Gojo and Geto broke up while I was at their house, so I’m here now.” Better to explain it now, and to be direct before there’s more questions. 

Yuuji stares at him for a long moment, not quite understanding. Then his eyes widen and he throws off his blanket. “What? Seriously? They broke up?”

Megumi shrugs. “I guess so.”

Yuuji looks close to tears. “Seriously? The gay dads?”

He shrugs again. 

Yuuji pulls him into a hug. “Bro, that’s so terrible. I’m sorry that happened. I can’t believe that–like whoa.”

Megumi doesn’t really say anything, but he hugs Yuuji back. He’s incredibly warm and honestly almost feels like he has a fever, but it might just be because Megumi is freezing. 

Yuuji leans back. “Do you want snacks or something? Snacks always help.”

He shrugs because it’s easier than talking. 

“How am I supposed to go back to sleep?” Yuuji says, squeezing a pillow with his arms and fighting back tears. “If the gay dads broke up that means love isn’t real!”

Megumi blinks. He awkwardly pats Yuuji’s shoulder and then Yuuji hugs Megumi. Is he actually crying now?

“If even the gay dads can’t stay together, what chance do the rest of us have?” Yuuji sniffles and he can’t quite tell if Yuuji is being honest or if he is simply acting. “This is devastating news!”

Megumi pats Yuuji’s head again, but doesn’t say anything.

Yuuji jumps up. “I’m going to make a pillow fort!”

“Why?” Sukuna is making a disgusted face, grossed out. “We aren’t five years olds.”

“Because it’s fun,” Yuuji says, his arms crossed in the exact same way that Choso had done. “And Megumi is sad and there’s nothing more fun than making a pillow fort with your friends!”

With that, Yuuji disappears through another door. He comes back, tossing a bunch of blankets and pillows at them then dashes back into the room. 

Megumi catches one of the pillows, looking down at it.   

Uraume looks back down at their phone. “I am going to order late night cookies. Does anyone else want some?”

“Yes!” Yuuji’s voice echoes from the room. 

“You want crappy cookies?” Sukuna asks, looking at them.

As they say, “I made fancy food all day, I want some junk food.”

And now all of them are sitting, eating warm late night cookies and sitting in the pillow fort that Yuuji constructed.

Megumi pulls the heavy throw blanket tighter around himself and grabs another chocolate chip cookie. He’s mostly just listening to the others talk, while making occasional comments. He’s really too tired for anything else. 

Yuuji snags the box of cookies. “So anyway, I’ve been trying to ask out this guy in my film class and I’m not sure how to do that yet. Thoughts?”

“Are you talking about that emo film kid?” Sukuna physically jerks backward, scrunching his face up. 

“You’re the same age as him, dude.” Yuuji barely seems bothered by Sukuna’s reaction. “And Junpei is really nice.”

“Don’t settle for someone cause they're just slightly nice.” Sukuna pokes Yuuji’s forehead, shoving him backward. “You can do better than just nice. Don’t settle.”

Yuuji rubs his forehead. “See? This is why I don’t ask you for advice.”

Sukuna leans back, propping himself up with one arm. “Well, I’m the twin who actually has a significant other, so you should be begging for my advice, brat.”

Yuuji turns away from him, looking at Megumi and Uraume, ignoring his twin. “So anyway, I have no idea how to ask him out. Like should I be upfront or try to do something cute? Do you think he’d like cute better?”

“You’re an embarrassment.” Sukuna shakes his head. 

“Quiet.” Yuuji makes a shooing motion to Sukuna, not even looking at him. “I mean, he’s super shy all the time. So I’m not sure how he’ll react and all. And I’m worried he might reject me and then we won’t be friends anymore.”

“Are you still trying to get my advice?” Megumi asks, eating a bite of a cookie. “I think it’s been established that I am not who you should ask.”

“Who am I supposed to ask then? Choso? Sukuna?”

Sukuna gives him the middle finger. “Still the only one who has a significant other. So who’s really winning here?”

Yuuji makes a face. 

Megumi looks down at his hands and thinks about Gojo and Geto again. 

What happened? 

Was it really only Nanami that led to that argument? How did he not notice beforehand?

Sukuna kicks him, jolting him out of his thoughts. “You’re zoning out. Your turn.”

“My turn? For what?”

“We’ve all been ranting. Go.”

It takes him a moment, then Megumi settles into the blankets. He holds onto the blankets tightly. Where does he even start with that? What does he even say?

Yuuji nudges him. “Bro?”

Megumi stares at the cookie in his hands and sighs. “I don’t know. I woke up and I went upstairs to grab an extra pillow or something. And they were arguing.”

Yelling at each other in a way he’s never heard. 

Megumi drops the cookie into the box and looks up. He had almost forgotten. “Because apparently Professor Nanami is Gojo’s ex! And Gojo didn’t tell Geto that he invited Nanami to the party!”

Yuuji’s mouth drops open. “What? Really?”

“Oh shit.” Sukuna actually drops his cookie.

“I know!” Megumi leans forward now. “And then they broke up.”

“Over that?”

It was more than that. But he didn’t really want to say everything in front of them. As conflicted as he feels, he doesn’t think he needs to air out all of their dirty laundry for everyone. It seems just too personal to tell them, even if they are his friends or at least he’s fairly sure they're friends. 

So he shrugs instead. “I didn’t hear the whole argument. I’m sure there was something else too.”

“But did they say they broke up?” Sukuna squints slightly, thinking. 

“I mean, yeah. It sounded like it.”

“They may not have.” Uraume says, speaking up for the first time in a while. Megumi blinks at them and Uraume gives an awkward smile. “I know we only met tonight, but you sounded worried, but they may not have broken up.”

Sukuna and Yuuji nod at the same time. 

Maybe they were right. But it sounded too nice to be possible. 

I can’t do this anymore. 

“So why were you on the side of the road? You never really explained?” Sukuna cuts through the awkward silence, ripping open a bag of chips in one motion. 

Yuuji perks up, concerned. “Wait, what?”

Megumi cringes. And he looks away, talking quickly and quietly. Sukuna decides to fill in for him. “He apparently ran out of the house and ended up in the middle of nowhere.”

Sukuna leans forward and emphasizes. “The middle of nowhere. Literally, the location didn’t even register on my phone at first. That’s how you get caught by an axe murderer.”

Yuuji’s head whips around, shocked. “Bro, that’s totally not safe! What if there had been some weirdo?”

Megumi already knows what is about to be said, so he sinks down and pulls the blanket higher. Waiting on Sukuna to talk again. 

“Actually, there was a wack ass weirdo when I got there,” Sukuna says, gesturing towards Megumi. “Megumi looked ready to punch the asshole in the face at least.”

“He was creepy,” Megumi cut in, crossing his arms. “Like who’s driving around at that time and stops because they see some random person on the side of the road? Some creep. So yeah, I was ready to punch him if I had to.”

“But bro, you’re like tiny–” Yuuji cuts himself off when Megumi gives him a flat look, reminding him of the party earlier today. “Right. Martial arts.” 

“I’m sorry to cut in,” Uraume says hesitantly. “But do your–”

“Gay dads.” Sukuna supplies through a mouthful of cookies. 

Uraume glances down at Megumi’s shirt for a second before looking back at his face. “Do your gay dads know you left? Do they know where you are?”

It’s like someone threw ice water onto his face. 

He had just run out of the house, taking all of his stuff without any warning. He didn’t even say where he went or that he left. He scrambles around, searching for his phone in the pile of blankets around him. Unlocking his phone, he opens up his messages. 

And freezes. 

His thumb hovers over the two different chats. 

Gojo Satoru. 

Geto Suguru. 

Should he just call them?

Would they think he’s picking sides if he does? 

Yuuji leans closer, looking over his shoulder. “Bro?”

“What if they think I’m picking sides?”

Sukuna knocks his phone out of his hands, landing on top of the black blanket. “Just call them first thing in the morning or something.”

Yuuji nods. “Yeah, just figure it out in the morning, bro. Don’t stress about it, just text them super super early and it’ll all be okay.”

Megumi nods. 

He feels emotionless. How was he supposed to focus on anything else right now? Pulling the blankets around himself again, he rests his chin on his knees. What was he supposed to do during class now? Would Gojo still annoy Geto’s class or would it be out of malice now? Was it a mutual break up?

Did they even break up?

Would he ever see them together again?

Megumi looks at the time on his phone absently. 

3:45 am.

It was too late to think about this. He would worry tomorrow, not like he had any other choice. He lays down, his head resting on his arm. 

He barely noticed the others falling asleep as well. 

He tries to sleep. But all he can do is remember. He can remember this morning. It was only this morning they were in the car, laughing over Gojo’s weird music. Flashes of disco music and dancing, making the dumbest dance moves together. Gojo holding up his phone, snapping a selfie of them all making peace signs. 

Laying on an air mattress in the dark, talking quietly to each other. Geto holding him on the kitchen floor while he cries. Gojo pulling him into a too-tight hug, his head resting on the top of Megumi’s head. Trivia nights where they almost lost every single time. 

Car trips and loud music and singing loudly with Tsumiki in the backseat. Would it ever be the same?

And if he shakes while he cries himself silently to sleep, nobody knows.