Chapter Text
The first week of university classes had gone by surprisingly quickly, and Megumi was having less trouble than he had anticipated with waking up on time to attend. Nothing was as awkward as it had been in high school, which pleasantly surprised him. People tended to mind to their own, the interactions they did have with other people being almost entirely friendly.
That being said, Friday was always his kicker. Growing up with a certain Gojo Satoru, who, for his whole life had preached to a young Megumi that ”Friday should be fully considered as the weekend, he found he always had trouble pulling himself out of bed on those days, considering his own father had as well.
Megumi was shaken awake by his bed as per usual, but this time to the aromatic scent of coffee that was wafting through the room. Which certainly helped his eyelids to peel themselves open, where he was met with Itadori leaned over his desk, fully dressed and hastily scribbling out a note.
The black-haired boy sat up in his bed, where he supposed the shuffling of the covers alerted Itadori into turning around. ”Oh! Good morning, Fushiguro!” he greeted him.
Megumi watched curiously as the boy crumpled up the note and picked up the coffee instead. He offered it out to the sitting boy with a small, hopeful smile. Megumi pointed at himself with a questioning expression and Itadori nodded, laughing a bit. ”For you, I know you don’t like things very sweet so.. I hope you enjoy,” he said sheepishly.
Megumi hoped to god he was not flushing red, and reached out to gratefully accept the hot drink. He took a careful sip and relished in the rich flavor of the coffee before flicking his gaze back up to Itadori and giving him a thumbs up and a small smile while his lips once again clasped around the mouth of the cup.
Itadori smiled gleefully, his eyes shining. Megumi’s stomach turned, probably from the hot coffee entering his empty stomach. Suddenly Itadori’s face grew full of remorse and he motioned towards the door with his thumb. Megumi had quite honestly only been able to halfway pay attention to his lips, but understood that Itadori had likely been apologizing for having to leave already.
Megumi simply nodded all while sipping his coffee, and then waved his hand towards the door, wishing both of his hands were available to sign and tell Itadori to have a nice day.
Quickly figuring that since Itadori had just left to get to class, (although he was likely heading there early) Megumi realized he should probably get moving too. He placed his drink on the corner of his desk before unplugging his phone and checking to see if he had received any urgent texts.
He had not. So, he quickly changed out of his pajamas and into an outfit that was not much different, a pair of grey sweatpants and a loose fitting t-shirt from some marathon Gojo had forced him into running with him.
He grabbed his bag and his lanyard of keys, patterned with small ducklings. It was one of the few useful things his fathers had purchased for him leaving for university, though he knew as soon as he saw it who had picked it out for him.
His taste buds calling back to him, Megumi reached out and took his cup of coffee from where it stood on his desk before leaving his room for the day, locking it behind him and then setting off for his English class.
Megumi laughed internally at the thought of Itadori already being settled in a seat at that moment, pulling out the proper supplies in his bag to prepare for the lecture ahead of him.
That added a little speed to Megumi’s pace as he clumsily wound down hallways until he found the classroom he had been looking for, still very unaccustomed to the layout of the school. He was thrilled to find he had not been late at all, and that the lecture hall was just beginning to fill up.
He caught sight of Sara, his interpreter, standing up by the stairs, and Megumi waved at her before walking to a seat near the middle of the class, and waiting for her to come and sit next to him.
Pulling his laptop out of his bag, Megumi signed into it and prepared a page for note taking, and then scrolled through his phone for the remaining minutes, replying to all of the not-so-urgent texts he had received that morning.
Soon he was tapped on the shoulder by Sara and he took the hint to put his phone down and divert his attention over to her for notetaking, following her expert signing easily.
The day had gone smoothly as such, and Megumi now shuffled slowly back to his and Itadori’s room as he looked back on his classes of both the previous hours, and days. He only had some syllabuses to sign and a short paper to construct, describing himself and his character for his writing class. The weekend was not yet looming ahead of him, as he knew it would later on in the year.
Finally reaching his door, Megumi knocked on it and waited a solid five seconds, (fifteen being his maximum before he would open the door himself) until it was pulled open to reveal Itadori.
Megumi’s eyebrows raised both in surprise and appreciation at the sight, and he came through the doorway before placing his bag down on the ground and turning back to the brown-eyed boy.
He waved hello at him, to which Itadori perked up and did the same back. “H-I” he signed out, earning a chuckle from Megumi that sent a swell of pride to his chest.
The younger boy toed off his shoes before sitting on his bed, stretching out his legs and looking up at Itadori. ”How has the first week been?” he asked.
Itadori smiled for what felt like the millionth time that day, the same thousand watt grin that made the corners of Megumi’s own lips twitch.
“Good!” Itadori began, and the black haired boy quickly directed his attention to his words so as to try and catch everything he would say. “My kinesiology class is great, because it’s an hour after some of my other classes, so I get a nice break. And Professor Nanami is so cool! Everyone says he’s mean but he’s so smart and I think I’ve already learned so much,” Itadori spoke excitedly.
Piecing snippets together, Megumi figured that was what he had been speaking to his grandfather about on the first day of school. He wasn’t surprised that with Itadori’s bubbly demeanor, he had already taken a liking to the teacher most students found harsh.
“Is that what you were telling your grandfather about, on Monday?” Megumi spoke softly, signing.
Itadori looked somewhat sad, and then surprised for a moment, though soon remembered never to underestimate his roommate’s ability to read lips. “Yeah, he told me to call him every week so that he can know what I’ve been up to,” he explained.
Megumi nodded in understanding, the fondness of the way in which Itadori spoke of his grandfather not lost on him. With a motion of his hand for Itadori to continue speaking, the older boy did just that.
“Mostly everyone in my classes is nice, and I met this guy named Inumaki in my kinesiology class that I think you would really like, because he doesn’t like to talk a lot, but he’s super good at listening. Just like you.” Itadori said animatedly, his words on the cusp of being spoken too quickly for Megumi to comprehend.
Megumi smiled gratefully, feeling his stomach turn at the statement. He figured he was just hungry, he really hadn’t eaten all day. “I’ll have to meet him sometime then,” Megumi teased.
Itadori nodded. “All the assignments I have are super easy, so I’ll probably get them all done really fast this weekend in case you wanted to hang out,” he said hopefully.
In response, Megumi raised an eyebrow combined with a small smile, one which Itadori took to mean a yes.
“How was your week?” he continued, “I haven’t heard anything about it.” Or, not that he could understand. Itadori had seen Fushiguro signing on the phone happily to what he guessed were his parents, but could hardly pick out few words in between.
The dark-haired boy narrowed his eyes in thought. ”It’s…” he paused as he searched for the right word, his hands twitching in the air. ”Hard.” he finally finished, lips twisted.
Itadori’s head cocked in confusion, and he waited for Fushiguro to continue.
”Everyone’s nice, my teachers are nice, but,” he paused, and Itadori subconsciously mimicked the short sign, mouthing the word as he did so. ”I feel like I’m working so hard, and everyone else has it easy.” Megumi finished.
Itadori pursed his lips in sympathy and his eyes opened wider, that same unnameable emotion clouding over his irises that made Megumi (and his stomach) feel like he could do nothing else but look away.
“I wish I could do something to help,” he mused. “I’m sure you’re doing great, Fushiguro. I’m proud of you.”
The dark-haired boy received that short phrase more than possibly anything Itadori had ever spoken to him, the shape of the words resonating deep within the tissue of his heart, sending warmth through his chest. Megumi opened his mouth to mumble something back, but absolutely nothing came out.
Instead, his right hand lifted nearly subconsciously up to his chin as he signed the words, ”Thank you,” hoping that the sincerity in which he meant them was washing over his limbs and finding its way straight to Itadori’s own heart, just as his words had done unto him.
“Of course!” Itadori said honestly, smiling brightly down at the shorter boy. “Can I hear some highlights, too?”
Megumi chuckled. ”My writing teacher is cool, her class is already a lot of fun.” he began. ”I’m hoping she's not the type to be into group projects..” he shuddered, and Itadori laughed aloud at that.
”My interpreter is really nice, her name is Sara.” he continued. ”She seems to like me, and her signing is really clear so she makes everything a lot easier.”
“That’s good,” Itadori mumbled, listening intently.
”And,” Megumi began again, finally forming a concrete answer to Itadori’s halfway fledged proposition from before. ”I have very little homework, just a short essay. So we could go do something… like you said.” he finished unsurely, fingers twisting around themselves nervously.
Itadori positively lit up. “Really?! Okay, just let me know when you feel like it, I’m about to go to the gym so I can look around if there’s somewhere cool we can go check out.”
Megumi paled. ”You want me,” he pointed at himself. ”to go to the gym with you?” he asked, horrified and unable to keep the disdain from his face.
Itadori simply stared at him for a moment before his lips curled up in a wide grin and he began laughing uncontrollably. “N-no, not the gym” he stuttered after a few moments, his syllables still being interrupted by the odd chuckle. “You’re cute, Fushiguro.” he teased.
Megumi lowered his eyebrows both in rebuttal to Itadori’s laughter, and as a disagreement to his previous statement. He saw Itadori’s hand flex at his side, and raised his gaze to him once again, this time in confusion as well.
“I’m going to the gym now,” Itadori said slowly, pointing to himself. “And I’ll look for a cool place to go on the way there.” he finished with a smile.
The younger boy’s mouth curved into the perfect little ‘o’ and he nodded rapidly as his cheeks flushed a scarlet red. ”Have fun,” he mumbled hastily, embarrassed from his dramatic misconception.
Itadori smiled down at him sweetly, no traces of malice or teasing woven within its shape, and he finally, shakily, raised his hand from his side as he used it to ruffle Megumi’s spiky black hair.
Megumi raised his gaze upwards at him in surprise, and just as he did so, Itadori was pulling his hand away. Some innate part of Megumi told him to pitch his head forward to chase the warmth of Itadori’s palm, but he quickly shoved the idea away with the sight of Itadori walking through their door.
Megumi sat in silence on top of his bed for a moment before flicking himself on the forehead as he pulled out his phone to tell his sister all about his week, the comfortable weight of Itadori’s hand dissipating from his mind gradually, but nowhere near quickly enough.