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“—but c’mon, maki-senpai! you can’t back down now!”
itadori yuuji’s voice echoes inside the small bedroom, loud and cheerful. it earns him an elbow to the rib, courtesy of nobara, who follows the friendly hit with a shut it, itadori! and a flustered hmpf.
next to them, a black-haired boy snorts. it’s brief and quiet, hard to notice amid the loud bicker between yuuji and nobara; nonetheless, yuuta catches it as he fiddles with his hands, a little nervous amid faces he’s not that used to yet.
he likes it. the friendliness, the warmth they treat each other with — it’s homely, even.
“fine,” maki says, and yuuta notices how her cheeks are tinted red. it makes him cock one eyebrow, amused, but she’s too distracted to notice. “i’ll do it. nobara, come here.”
“it’s your turn, maki,” panda comments from where he sits, a tad far from the rest of them as he snacks on some chips. “you’re the one who has to go to her.”
“panda,” she throws him a glare over her shoulder. yuuta almost chuckles at how it screams shut up. “okay, yeah, whatever. let’s…”
maki’s voice trails down. their circle is small, so she doesn’t have to move too much to maneuver herself to sit in front of nobara.
silence follows. fushiguro clears his throat.
“you know, it’s hard to do it if you two won’t even face each other,” he reasons. yuuji snickers. “get on with it.”
nobara gives him a dirty look, but he seems unbothered. maki sighs.
“he’s right,” she raises her head. she’s way too affected for it to be a simple, casual spin-the-bottle-kiss.
… or, well, that’s what yuuta assumes. he hasn’t been around for long enough to be sure.
“let’s do it,” maki mutters what yuuta thinks it is the continuation of her half-sentence from earlier. she raises her hands to cradle nobara’s face and swallows. “alright?”
the nod that comes after is so immediate it’s cute. yuuta grins, happy to see his friend has found someone she cares so much about — read: has a crush on. romance between sorcerers appears to be more common than not, but he can understand.
(a lot. he can understand a lot.)
he, much like the others in the room, is silent for the minute that follows. nobara and maki stare at each other’s eyes for a slow moment before they lean in; yuuta looks away out of respect, but he knows they’ve kissed once maki pulls back, redder than ever and with a sweet smile on her face.
“oh," nobara uselessly comments before she, too, breaks into a grin. “nice.”
maki nods. “nice.”
another set of seconds pass.
“tuna,” inumaki states. nobara blinks, lost in her little dreamworld, and then makes a small sound of acknowledgement as maki moves back to her place, next to yuuta and toge.
toge, in casual clothes, mouth free from the high collar of his uniform. toge, with a teasing edge to the curl of his lips as maki sits down, violet eyes shining with humor. toge, with the cute marks of his seals on his cheeks and tongue. toge, who looks back at him in time to catch yuuta’s gaze with his before the latter hastily tears his eyes away.
yuuta’s heart skips a beat. it’s not the time for this.
“fuck no,” nobara breathes, and only then yuuta notices she’s already spun the bottle. it points to yuuji. “i’m not kissing you.”
yuuji laughs. “don’t be a fun killer, kugisaki! you don’t like me, i don’t like you, so it’s okay!” he beams, smiling brightly. “right?”
“right,” nobara repeats. “whatever. better you than fushiguro.”
“the feeling’s shared,” fushiguro answers.
“hey, guys— you don’t even need to kiss me if it makes you uncomfortable, kugisaki!"
nobara rolls her eyes and flicks him on the forehead. “don’t be a baby. a kiss between friends never killed anyone. plus, it’s a game.”
yuuji’s eyes twinkle. “oh, so you do think of me as a friend?”
nobara’s nose scrunches up. "acquaintance."
their back-and-forth banter has yuuta smiling again.
“god, you’re annoying — this is why you don’t have a girlfriend,” kugisaki pinches the bridge of her nose. “let’s get this over with. itadori, hold your breath. i don’t want to know if you smell or not.”
“hey,” yuuji doesn’t sound half offended. he stills, closes his eyes and holds his breath, patient.
meanwhile, nobara signs something to fushiguro that he can’t quite understand. it makes him huff and turn away, though, and a proud smile grows on nobara’s face. yuuta has an idea of what it is.
unsurprisingly, they kiss. it’s barely a peck; fast enough that yuuta doesn’t have the time to avert his gaze. nobara looks disgusted when they pull away, but he’s been caught up in some of their behavior — he knows it’s exaggerated.
yuuji laughs. “that can’t even be called a kiss, kugisaki!”
said girl grimaces. “i’m not keeping my lips on yours for longer than what’s strictly needed.”
yuuta zones out, then. it’s as repetitive as it’s not — yuuji spins the bottle, it lands on fushiguro. he remembers seeing megumi’s face flush bright, but other than that detail and how itadori lingered a bit too long on the kiss (fushiguro did, too, chasing after yuuji when he started to pull away), it’s mostly a blur. fushiguro spun and it landed on… nobara, he remembers, and it was over more quickly than he expected. nobara got maki (again), maki got fushiguro (they skipped that one, he knows) and then he blinks and he’s staring down at the bottle, confused.
it points to him.
“ah,” yuuta says.
“ah,” maki echoes. “we gotta kiss, genius. you look kind of out of it, though. everything’s alright?”
“um, yeah, everything’s alright. just got distracted, don’t worry,” he’s quick to reassure, sheepish. he rubs the back of his neck. “so, kiss, right?”
“obviously,” maki rolls her eyes. she looks innocent enough, tugging him closer by the collar of his shirt, leaning in — and then her eyes narrow, a confident grin spreading through her face. “i know i’m not the one you want to kiss here, but it’ll have to do.”
yuuta feels his ears heat up. “maki,” he calls, exasperated, and maki laughs. it takes all of his will power not to look to the certain-someone-he-wants-to-kiss’ direction.
she shakes her head. “chill. it’s fine, yuuta.”
without another word, maki takes the initiative to kiss him. it’s a fast one, but it does the trick to make yuuta blush.
“done,” she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, craning her neck. “your turn, yuuta. i’ll be wishing you luck.”
the wink she sends his way makes him want nothing more than to melt into the ground out of embarrassment. he barely registers nobara’s threatening stare as he grabs the bottle, breathes in, out, and spins.
it feels like too long, but it’s not even an entire ten seconds later that it stops.
pointing to toge, thanks to yuuta’s wonderful, wonderful luck.
the sound of maki’s stifled laugh is dulled by the time it reaches his ears. he half-processes panda’s voice, too, in the form of an amused oh? before he’s looking up to meet toge’s eyes.
… he looks as mild as ever. it comforts yuuta in the same amount it makes his stomach twist with nervousness.
“i, uh,” yuuta gulps. “inumaki-kun, we don’t need to—”
“bonito flakes,” toge interrupts, shaking his head. “cod roe.”
it’s ok. come here, yuuta translates. his heart beats so loud he can hear it in his head. maki’s raised eyebrows or the first-years' curious eyes go by unnoticed as he shifts to sit in front of inumaki.
it’s awkward and nerve-wrecking, but in a strangely nice way. this close to each other, yuuta has time to notice again how much he’s grown over inumaki in the time he was away from the school. has the time, too, to stare at the markings on the corner of his lips and wonder how it’d feel to touch them, even if they’re nothing but symbols.
yuuta doesn’t know how much time passes (couldn’t be more than mere seconds, to be honest) when he feels a hand cup his cheek. the touch is tentative but sure and he’s not strong enough to not melt into it, sighing.
his brain screams embarrassing, but it’s easy to mute it with how warm his chest feels, be it with anxiety, fear or anticipation.
it’s a voice that snaps him out of his head. yuuta waits for his mind to come back down to earth and relaxes at the worried look on inumaki’s face.
“what,” yuuta inquires.
toge frowns. “mustard leaf?”
“oh,” yuuta’s mouth hangs open. “oh! yeah, i’m fine, i am. i— can i kiss you?”
he’s sure the loud snort he hears is from maki. toge’s lips curl into a small smile and yuuta feels ready to hit the coffin.
the hand on his cheek slides down to the crook of his neck. “salmon.”
yuuta swallows a sigh of relief. that’d be way too embarrassing and he doesn’t want to make a fool out of himself when he’s this close to kissing the boy of his dreams.
toge’s eyes close, but yuuta can’t manage to do the same. his eyelids flutter down, but his gaze remains steady on toge’s mouth and the seals on its corners. he licks his lips, brings a hand to the back of inumaki’s neck, pulls him closer, closer…
and then, thanks to a funny, unfortunate prank pulled off by destiny or whatever, someone knocks on the door.
not only once, mind you.
toge’s eyes open and they’re so close yuuta can’t help but abruptly pull away, embarrassment catching up to all it’s been lacking reactions to in the past minute and his face flares red, from the tip of the ears down to his neck.
the door opens a second after that. satoru stands in front of the door with a wide, wide smile.
“hey, kids! goodnight, goodnight— oh, you were playing spin the bottle? a classic,” he invites himself into the room. “aw, i feel bad for interrupting… well, anyway, we can’t undo the past! i come with a message!”
“spit it out,” maki says, not looking the happiest.
“ouch, so harsh,” satoru laughs. “alright, since you insist! the first years have a mission today’s morning, got it from the big guys a few minutes ago. i didn’t want to crash yuuta-kun’s welcome home party, buuut!"
“the big guys? weren’t they who…” fushiguro frowns.
“don’t worry about that,” the tall dumbass they call a teacher answers, winking behind the blindfold. “it’s all clear, so all you need to do is make sure to be ready for tomorrow, got it? and sorry for the sudden warning! i’ll be going now," he doesn’t sound apologetic at all. satoru waves. “see you, kids!”
it’s a surprisingly quick visit, but no one’s about to complain. the air’s awkward by the time satoru leaves and yuuta finds out that the floor is not as boring to stare at when you feel like you’re about to burst out of… a lot of emotions.
“this sucks,” nobara declares after a bit, standing up. she pats down her shorts. “killed the mood, that ass. and a mission, too?”
“it’s not his fault,” yuuji tries to reason, smiling. “plus, it’s kind of late already, right?”
“it is,” megumi agrees. “i’ll head to bed. can’t afford being tired during a mission.”
maki makes a displeased noise.
“understandable. c’mon, panda, let’s go to our dorms.” she leaves her spot on the floor to instead go to the door. it’s left open from when gojou came in. “uh… nobara, can i have a quick talk with you outside?”
“sure,” nobara answers as if she was expecting it. panda grabs his package of potato chips.
“i’ll wait for maki in the corridor,” he explains, waving at the other four boys. “ah, yuuta, your room is the same one as before— but i’m sure toge wouldn’t mind walking you there.”
yuuta opens his mouth to say something, but the words die in his throat.
“goodnight, panda-senpai!” yuuji calls out, as bright as always.
“goodnight,” fushiguro, too, says. his focus changes to both yuuta and toge. “to you too, senpai.”
“ah, of course!” yuuta scrambles up, pulling at the hem of his shirt. he smiles. “thanks for lending us your room, fushiguro-kun.”
fushiguro doesn’t comment about how yuuji was the one to offer his room. that’s beside the point.
“it wasn’t a problem,” is what he settles for. “close the door on your way out.”
yuuta agrees, not bothering to ask why yuuji’s not leaving. he feels something tug on is shirt and turns around to find inumaki’s eyes on him.
he’s suddenly reminded of the fading red on his face. toge nods towards the door and yuuta, too, nods in return, letting the other boy guide him to his dorm.
as asked, he closes the door on his way out.
[...]
the walk is a short one, but the air is so tense and awkward it feels like years.
so much for wanting to come back and see inumaki only to look like an absolute idiot when he has the chance to. it’s weird, yuuta tells himself, and reasonable. we almost kissed , i almost kissed him, and…
“tuna,” toge’s voice brings him back to earth. yuuta’s eyes leave the floor to instead meet the door of his dorm.
“oh,” yuuta stops walking. it takes him a moment to turn and face inumaki with a smile — it’s a little shaky on the edges. “thank you for the company, inumaki-kun. i appreciate it,” the words start tasting a tad sour. he swallows. “you can leave me be now. i don’t want to take up much of your time.”
“bonito flakes,” toge answers and yuuta frowns.
“no?” his head tilts. “why?”
it’s quiet. yuuta watches as yuuta’s eyebrows furrow.
“cod roe,” it sounds like a demand despite his soft voice. look at me. yuuta dumbly nods, and then toge starts to mouth his thoughts.
back then, yuuta freezes. he doesn’t dare tear his eyes away. the kiss.
it’s like having a bucket of hot water poured on his head, but he freezes all the same.
“the kiss?” he tries. toge nods and yuuta’s mind spins. he laughs nervously. “ah, of course— sorry about it, i didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
toge shakes his head. yuuta starts feeling dizzy.
“you don’t forgive me?”
another shake. toge looks exasperated.
“you… weren’t uncomfortable?”
a nod. yuuta’s not going to make it.
“oh,” his cheeks turn a dark shade of red. the moonlight that comes from the windows bathes them in the kind of ethereal light that’d be romantic if yuuta didn’t feel like he could die in the next three minutes. “oh.”
realization downs in slowly. how toge didn’t pull away, how he encouraged yuuta to kiss him, how he was waiting for it when gojou-sensei entered the room.
“do you…” his mouth goes dry. “do you want to kiss?”
there’s a brief pause. the answer doesn’t come immediately, but toge does step closer, hands moving to hold yuuta by the nape. the way his fingers tangle with the short strands of hair there send a shiver down yuuta’s back.
“salmon,” he whispers, and yuuta was never quicker to oblige to someone’s wishes in his life.
the way he closes the remaining distance between them is almost desperate. yuuta’s arms find home around toge’s waist and the warmth that comes with the closeness is enough to melt what little self-control he has — yuuta tilts his head so their mouths slot together more comfortably and shudders at the small, tentative, gentle nip of toge’s sharp teeth to his bottom limp.
it doesn’t take much coaching for their kiss to deepen. inumaki throws one arm around yuuta’s neck and buries his free hand in the soft mess of black hair, tightening his hold to tug him closer — impossibly so. it’s nice and slow and good, better than he could’ve ever imagined kissing toge would be.
a soft, quiet sound escapes yuuta’s mouth only to be swallowed by inumaki. his eyes flutter shut, too lost in the sensation of toge’s lips against his, toge’s hands on him, toge’s smell, how close toge is, toge, toge, toge.
it’s intoxicating, in a way, because all that the time they’ve spent far away from each other did was make yuuta’s crush turn into something more. it’s intense and burning hot, sends a tingling sensation to his fingertips — and while he wouldn’t call it love, it gets somewhat close to it.
yuuta almost doesn’t register his back hitting the wall. inumaki’s still kissing him and perhaps the lightheadedness growing in yuuta’s mind comes from the lack of air.
he thinks about pulling away, taking a breath, calming down — but before he can do any of that, toge tugs at his hair firmly and yuuta breaks the kiss to breathe in sharply, eyes dazed and tongue heavy.
oh.
he recovers fairly quickly, licking his lips. he looks down and chokes on air at the sight.
toge, with his cheeks painted in a cherry red. toge, with his mouth half open, lips swollen and slick. toge, staring at him through his eyelashes. toge, who just kissed the air out of him.
“toge,” yuuta’s voice is strangled and the name rolls off his tongue like a sweet treat. it tastes nice, too, and heavy and hot. “toge.”
and, unexpectedly, an answer comes.
“yuuta.”
yuuta’s mind goes blank. it’s easy to let himself go, to let his hands slide underneath toge’s shirt to hold him by the hips more firmly. their lips meet each other’s again — and again, and again, and he’s left breathless every time. each kiss leaves him wanting more, lost in how their mouths mold against each other’s in a way he didn’t think they would, in how he can kiss and touch his markings, in how good it is to press his own tongue against toge’s, to savour and taste.
it’s good. it’s better than what he had fantasized. far, far better.
“again,” yuuta murmurs once they part for the god-knows-what time. “can you, can you say it again?”
inumaki looks debauched in the best way possible. he averts his gaze, swallows, and yuuta has to hold back from going back to kissing him stupid.
“yuuta,” he calls, careful. yuuta shivers. “yuuta.”
“toge,” yuuta rests his forehead against inumaki’s. his grip on the other boy’s hips turns tighter and toge tenses. “i like you,” he kisses the corner of his lips, “i like you.” does the same to the other side. yuuta has to crane his neck to trail the kisses down inumaki’s chin, to nip at the underside of his jaw, to bite weakly at the side of his throat and press the flat of his tongue against toge’s adam’s apple.
the moan he earns in response makes yuuta feel weak to the knees.
“i like you,” he continues, nibbling on the skin at the crook of inumaki’s neck. he’s mindful enough to not leave marks. “i like you a lot, toge. a lot.”
he’s going to die out of embarrassment once the thrill of making out with the boy you’ve liked for a while sinks in. the fingers in his hair flex and then toge’s tugging him up so their mouths can clash in another kiss — one that’s far more tender and slow than the other hungry, desperate ones.
it’s just as good, in yuuta’s humble opinion. it’s perfect as long as he’s kissing toge.
the next time they pull away for air, toge’s the one to aim for the neck. it’s a funny way to think about it, but the neediness behind the teeth grazing over his throat cannot be explained differently. yuuta’s hands go up to grip toge’s waist to pull him closer, fingers digging into the soft curve hard enough to mark — but that’s a problem for later.
“toge,” he utters. it feels right to call inumaki by the name.
his focus wavers when teeth sink into his flesh, a harsh bite to the skin near his shoulder. it’s easily hidden by clothes, so that’s not too bad. the thought of having toge’s marks on him definitely isn’t too bad.
“toge,” he says again. his friend (boyfriend?) doesn’t stop, though, and yuuta has to push him away with as much gentleness as he possibly can when another bite has a moan spilling out of his lips. his face feels so hot he thinks he might pass out. “toge.”
“mustard leaf?” inumaki murmurs, breath ghosting over his neck.
“mustard leaf,” yuuta repeats. it only downs on him how stupid he sounds when he feels the curl of toge’s lips against his skin. “i-i mean, it’s all good— it’s more than good, but… maybe we should stop.”
toge pulls away. he looks up and raises his eyebrows.
“don’t get me wrong,” yuuta licks his lips, smiling nervously.. “i liked it. i, i’ve been wanting to do this for a while. kissing you,” inumaki looks way too amused. he feels like he’s digging his own grave, unable to hold his tongue. “being with… with you.”
his hands leave toge’s hips. instead, they search for toge’s own to hold.
“i like you,” he murmurs, entwining their fingers together. it’s a tender gesture — yuuta hopes it is, at least. “a lot.”
inumaki hums and yuuta sees god. he watches, flabbergasted, as toge brings their hands to his lips and presses a soft kiss to the back of yuuta’s.
the feeling might inch closer to love than what he thought.
“um, do you,” he starts, trying to find his voice. it’s hard to focus while inumaki kisses his knuckles, one by one. “do you want to… do you want to,” he licks his lips. again. “spend the night here, maybe?”
toge glances up at him with a questioning gaze. it’s hard to see that much emotion on the other boy’s face — yuuta still doesn’t know how to deal with the pleasant, comforting warmth it brings to his chest.
“salmon,” inumaki nods.
yuuta’s grin is so wide and full of relief it hurts his cheeks. he laughs and feels a weight leave his chest alongside the sound, tugging their hands up to nuzzle toge’s.
“right,” he pulls toge closer, but the heat from before is gone. the proximity is soothing and yuuta, after so much time away, feels truly at home. “salmon.”