Archive of Our Own

Inumaki Toge is a good person.

He works very hard to keep it that way. He doesn't have a choice; with all of the pain he's inadvertently caused with his cursed speech, there isn't a reason to keep living if he isn't constantly helping people. He knows that the best way to make himself useful is to take as many missions as he can—to save as many lives as he can—but he admittedly puts most of his effort into helping his classmates.

Maybe it's selfish. That's a lot of energy he could be putting towards extra training to better hone his cursed speech. But he can't help it. The love he feels for his friends is far stronger than the distaste he feels for himself, which makes it easy observe and notice.

Everyone has a different love language. Panda's is gift-giving, so Toge makes sure to buy him a new panda-themed trinket every time he sees one. Maki's is acts of service, but she won't like it if Toge is super obvious about it, so he's taken to polishing her weapons for her after she's gone to bed or offering himself up as a sparring partner once Panda's had enough for the day. There's a whole slew of small things Toge does for his friends daily to keep their spirits up.

When Yuuta joins their class, he's no exception.

Toge watches him from afar for a few days, but it takes him a few weeks to realize what Yuuta really needs: words of affirmation. It's quite possibly the worst possible love language he could have, but Toge does what he can to circumvent the Onigiri. He starts by trying to place a reassuring hand on Yuuta's shoulder before their first mission, but Yuuta yelps and jerks away, so Toge pivots towards hand-written notes for a while. They're nothing grand, but he notices that Yuuta smiles more often on the days he wakes up to one under his door.

Eventually, Yuuta learns Onigiri, and Toge's job becomes much easier. He's able to actually tell Yuuta when he's proud of him, when he's doing a good job, when he doesn't need to worry. And Yuuta, in turn, tries to offer the same service to Toge, but it mostly falls on deaf ears. Toge just can't believe any of the positive things Yuuta says about him. His opinion of Toge is too biased. He only knows Toge for the kind acts of today, and not the accidental inhumane ones of the past. It doesn't stop them from growing closer, and it definitely doesn't stop the redness from creeping up Toge's cheeks when Yuuta tries.

And then they ship Yuuta off to Africa.

Suddenly, Jujutsu Tech is a lot quieter. No one realized just how big of a space Yuuta filled with his awkward mannerisms until it was suddenly void. And, separated by Yuuta's shitty school-issued phone and a handful of time-zones, Toge can't do much in way of offering words of affirmation to Yuuta anymore. They rarely talk. Toge throws himself into his training, but it's a half-hearted attempt at a distraction, and it's not very effective. He still cracks jokes and pulls pranks, but it feels like they always fall flat without Yuuta there to laugh at them, even if everyone else does.

When Toge's phone gets a video call request from Yuuta one day, he nearly falls off his chair.

"Toge! I got a new phone! Look at what it can do! Can you see me?"

Yuuta's excitement is infectious, and Toge laughs as he nods, his stomach filling with butterflies.

"It turns out they pay special grades a crazy salary, and no one bothered to tell me about it? As soon as Gojo let it slip that I actually have a bank account, I wanted to get a new phone so we could FaceTime!"

And with the establishment of a weekly video call schedule, Yuuta manages to stumble into Toge's own love language.

Inumaki Toge is a good person. He would give up that title in a heartbeat if it meant he got to have unlimited quality time with Yuuta.