Chapter Text
At last, the incident around Shibuya seems to have calmed to manageable levels for the staff of Jujutsu Technical College to deal with. The aftermath is devastating, of course, and it’ll likely take many years to fully repair the damage done during all of the fights and clean up any cursed spirit residue. However, after a few weeks the whispering surrounding it has quieted dramatically, meaning that less cursed spirits are becoming born of the anguish caused.
Yuuta realizes this, waking up one morning in his empty dorm. It’s the one that he stayed in during his first year and in his second year before he went off for Africa. Despite living here for the past few weeks, the room doesn’t look lived in at all. Yuuta supposes that it’s his desire for things to go back to normal, that being if he’s permanently back at campus already, that would be admitting that things aren’t the way they should be.
“Ah, Maki-san seems to have texted me,” he mumbles sleepily when his phone lights up with a ping.
Zen’in Maki: are you ever going to see toge? he’s convinced you hate him, you know.
A thin line appears on Yuuta’s forehead. He dutifully chooses to ignore such a text coming for him so early in the morning. In fact, he’d much rather check the second years group chat he checks maybe once in a blue moon than deal with Maki’s text.
Zen’in Maki: i just texted him, who knows if he’ll actually respond
Panda: Why are we talking about this in the group chat? Yuuta’s in this chat, after all.
Inumaki Toge: it’s fine, panda. it’s not like he actually bothers to check it anyways.
Reading the text from Inumaki stings more than any hit he’s sustained since coming back to Tokyo. Yuuta can only grimace and sit up in bed so he can ignore their problems and focus on looking presentable instead.
Unfortunately for him, being so low-maintenance means that it only takes him a few minutes to excessively prolong his already short routine to the point where he can’t justify messing with his hair for the fifth time. Yuuta finally slings his sword onto his shoulder to leave. Upon unlocking the door, however, it immediately swings open with incredible force that has Yuuta stumbling backwards.
“You! Why did you read my text and not reply?”
Maki stands there before him, haircut short and what looks to be a new eyepatch resting on her left eye. Despite being a few inches shorter than Yuuta, Maki’s presence dominates him in crushing waves. That’s to be expected of someone who massacred her entire clan, so Yuuta’s in no rush to peeve her off anytime soon.
“It’s only been ten minutes, I was… getting ready,” they say with faux confidence. Maki sees right through it.
“Bullshit. It never takes you more than five minutes to get ready unless you’re actively trying to avoid something. Why the hell are you avoiding Toge?”
Tension curls up in Yuuta’s cut. Why the hell is he avoiding Inumaki? He tells himself that he’s not ready to see Inumaki with only one of his arms, to see him look so different from when he last saw him. Seeing anyone he cares about like that would tear him up inside. But, it would only be part of the truth. Truthfully, Yuuta doesn’t even know how he’ll react when he finally sees the boy again. He has a feeling that he might do something stupid and outlandish, like kiss him on the lips, which is completely strange and unbelievable because Yuuta doesn’t have those kind of feelings for Inumaki?
“Oh, I know what it is,” Maki continues, tapping her foot impatiently. “You’re still avoiding that big stupid crush on have on him, aren’t you?”
Yuuta jumps and gawks.
“I do not have a crush on him! What are you even talking about?!”
“That reaction right there is proof enough.”
He knows he can’t win this one, no matter how wildly untrue Maki’s accusation is. Yuuta’s face buries into his hands for a brief moment before they drag down and fall to his sides once again.
“I don’t have a crush on him. I’ll see him right now.”
Yuuta is definitely eating his words by the time he’s faced with the door in front of him. The whole (and short, mind you) way there, Maki was berating him for ignoring his precious friend for so long even though he interacts with herself and Panda daily. That definitely does look bad, and maybe Yuuta could have even been convinced that he didn’t like Inumaki if he were the one looking in on the situation. All it does is affirm that Yuuta is a complete and utter idiot for avoiding Inumaki for this long.
“Well? Don’t just stand there. The door isn’t going to open itself, or are you waiting for me to open it for you? It’s not going to happen,” Maki hums. She peers over to Yuuta’s unassuming figure, which stands completely petrified. Her face softens.
“I really thought I had gained more confidence, but here I am, shaking like a child over seeing one of my best friends after so many months…” Yuuta laughs dryly and rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.
Maki reaches out a hand to fall on Yuuta’s shoulder. “You don’t have to be afraid, you know. Toge might think that you hate him, but he’s still grossly fond of you. I’m telling you, you better kiss him to make up for being such a jerk.”
She claps him on the shoulder once and opens the door anyways in spite of her previous statement. Maki’s hand on his shoulder also doubles as making sure that he doesn’t run away from this, since Yuuta was definitely considering it.
The familiar atmosphere of the living room brings some calm to Yuuta. He can hear Panda muttering to himself about something that he’s reading on his phone while Inumaki sits cross-legged on one of the chairs watching YouTube. It’s the first time he’s seen Inumaki in person since leaving for Africa. He’s just as beautiful as he remembered, if not even more so from the increased maturity.
His hair isn’t spiked anymore, Yuuta assumes that he simply just became too tired to spike it up in the mornings. Even though Inumaki’s wearing relatively baggy lounge clothes, Yuuta can still tell that he’s become more toned under those clothes. He chooses not to think about how he’d like to see exactly how those muscles would feel under his clothes. Most importantly, where Inumaki’s left arm should be, there’s an absence. The vacancy slashes at Yuuta’s insides. Somewhere in his haze, he hears where Inumaki pauses whatever video he was watching.
“Yuuta?”
It’s not the first time that he’s said his name, but it’s the first time it’s not called out of hopeless desperation. It does things to Yuuta’s mind. From behind him, Maki kicks his ankle; he must have been staring.
“Ah, hello, Toge. It’s been a long time. Sorry I haven’t made time to see you yet, I’ve been… busy?” Maki steps in front of Yuuta to give him an unimpressed look. He’s lying out of his ass and he knows it.
“Have you really been busy?” Inumaki’s using sign language, since when did that happen? It looks like Maki is about to translate, but Yuuta doesn't need it.
“When did you start using sign, Toge? I thought you were able to get by on onigiri language,” asks Yuuta, no longer inhibited by his embarrassment and now spurred on by curiosity.
“After you left. It’s easier to communicate with people outside of the school if I know sign language. How do you even know what I’m saying?”
Oh, that’s a bit of an embarrassing memory for Yuuta. During his first year, he committed himself to learning JSL after some deliberation about Inumaki’s cursed speech. Yuuta wanted to know JSL in case Inumaki decided to learn in order to communicate more efficiently.
“Ah, I learned it while I was abroad. Learning a new language can help to kill time, you know?”
“Why sign language out of all languages? Couldn’t you learn something that would help you while you were in Africa?”
Yuuta can’t answer that without making himself look like a lovestruck fool. Maki, wide-eyed, goes over to Panda and starts to drag him off and out of the room despite his fervent protests.
“Maki? Where are we going? Yuuta just got here.”
“I want to spar with you. Outside. Away from here,” Maki enunciates in an attempt to make the unsaid obvious. Panda doesn’t get it.
“Are you sure you just don’t want to beat me up?! Just because I’m a panda doesn’t mean that I don’t have feelings, I’ll have you know that—”
The door shuts behind Maki and Panda, which leaves Inumaki and Yuuta alone together. Yuuta thinks that he would rather be dead than in this room right now. Inumaki’s hurt is scraping at him and he can’t ignore it anymore. In his effort to spare Inumaki from any of his unnecessary feelings, he’s only hurt him more. Perhaps Maki had a point with the whole “crush” thing. Yuuta’s first to break the silence between them.
“I wasn’t avoiding you because of anything you did, I promise," Yuuta mumbles. "It’s something of my own stupidity.” Inumaki gives him a cold look, the first that Yuuta has ever seen from him. He never wants to see it again.
“Then why did you avoid me? Did I not tell you that I would be there for you?”
“I know you’re here for me, Toge. I just don’t want to burden you with any of my struggles.” Especially when they involve Yuuta’s personal feelings about Inumaki.
“What’s so hard that you couldn’t even share it with me? That you had to avoid me for weeks after you came back? I was waiting for you to come back. I was so excited when Gojo-sensei told us that you would be returning to help with Shibuya. Are you sure you don’t hate me, bec—”
“How the fuck am I supposed to look at the man that I love when he’s missing an arm now?!”
Yuuta’s hand slaps over his mouth as soon as he says it. Inumaki’s hands freeze in the air and his expression shifts to one of shock. Why did Yuuta say that? How did he say that? There’s no way that he actually meant that. He pivots to run away, to ask Maki to beat some sense into him so that he stops thinking nonsensical things, but he catches Inumaki’s hand yanking down his mask.
“Don’t move!”
The cursed energy booms and rattles and wraps itself around Yuuta in a binding hold. He’s never really been on the receiving end of Inumaki’s cursed speech, but now he knows just how powerful it is first-hand. Every muscle in Yuuta’s body contracts and relaxes to no avail, for he remains unmoving. After a few seconds, the cursed energy dissipates and Yuuta finds himself sitting on the floor facing a stunned Inumaki. However, he stays unmoving, Inumaki’s hands frozen in a half sign.
Yuuta isn’t about to wait up for the harsh rejection that he's about to receive, his legs animate on their own and carry him out of the room as fast as physically possible.