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Megumi stands still, his heart doing the same for a brief moment. Yuuji looks at him with a small smile, eyes asking but not begging because it’s just a favor for him. ‘A small favor’ he had said, but to Megumi…
“Okay,” Megumi says, feeling almost an out-of-body experience when he does. Yuuji grins, and Megumi repeats, steadier this time, “Okay. Count on me.”
That’s how the first of thirty days pretending to be Yuuji’s boyfriend starts.
-
Yuuji lost his parents at a young age and his grandfather a couple of months before coming to Tokyo. It sounds tragic, but when Yuuji told him about it, he did it with a calm smile. One that he was able to wear despite the loss because he’s strong like that and because he was never truly alone.
Gojo Satoru, a friend of the Itadori family, took him in. He became his guardian, and together with his partner, Geto Suguru, the three of them became a family. A non-traditional kind of family that is frowned upon by the rest of the Gojo clan.
Neither Satoru nor Suguru pay mind to the whispers and judging eyes, but for Yuuji, seeing his family being the target of such animosity is a cause of stress.
“I don’t want them to be attacked like that,” Yuuji explains when they walk home together. “Every time we go to the Gojo estate for a family gathering, they whisper loud enough for them to hear. They bully them. I hate it.”
Megumi holds no doubt that they must bully Yuuji too.
Care about yourself too, idiot, he thinks. Out loud, he asks, “Why don’t you guys stop attending if it’s so bad? Wouldn’t that be the best?”
“Satoru-san is too prideful,” Yuuji says, frowning, “He thinks it’d be admitting defeat if we stop going. ‘I’ll stop attending the day I die. Until then, I plan to give hell to those old bastards’ he says.”
Megumi hums, not surprised considering the kind of person Yuuji’s guardian is.
“So, to avoid people focusing on them so much, you’ll be making yourself a target too,” Megumi says, understanding the plan though inwardly, not really agreeing to it.
“I know this won’t be a good experience for you,” Yuuji says with a sheepish smile. “So you can still say no if you want to. It’s fine, really.”
Megumi huffs. “I already said I’ll do it, didn’t I?”
Yuuji grins and bumps his shoulder. “You’re a great guy, Fushiguro. I promise I’ll treat you to whatever you want after this.”
Megumi doesn’t say that it’s not necessary. Faking to be in a relationship with the guy he’s been crushing on since almost the first day he met him is already good enough.
He’ll make each and every day count.
-
“Why do we have to pretend for a month, though?” Megumi asks three days later when they’re in Yuuji’s house, playing video games. Not really minding the time, but wondering out of curiosity. “Isn’t the Gojo family gathering a month away?
“It is— Oh, damn not that stupid shell again! Fushiguro, stop it!”
“Not my fault if you can’t avoid them.”
Yuuji frowns, tongue stuck out and a look of concentration on his face when he answers, “And well, Suguru-san is way too perceptive. If I tell him I’ll be bringing a date with me, he’d want to know when that happened and most likely know we’re faking it. No—why do you get the coolest items? It’s not fair!”
Megumi presses the A button harder as his stomach twists.
Yuuji is too focused on the screen, moving left to right as if he is the one behind the wheel. Megumi glances at him from the corner of his eye and wonders if thirty days would be enough for Yuuji to change his feelings to something akin to the fire-burning sensation Megumi has carried in his chest for so long.
It’s fine if it’s a little flame. That’d be a start, he thinks when his character crosses the goal and Yuuji wails in the background.
“Unfair! I only got banana peels!” Yuuji slides to rest his head against Megumi’s arm and looks up to him from under his eyelashes, “Suguru-san wouldn’t like me targeting myself for their sake. He’d be mad. That’s why we have to make them think it’s been a while and not just for the family gathering.”
“I see,” Megumi says, slowly placing his head atop Yuuji’s. “Then we’ll better make it believable, right?”
Yuuji laughs. “Yeah.”
-
“Hello, Megumi-kun. Nice to have you!” Suguru says, opening the door for him. Megumi nods calmly and politely as always. A high contrast to the chaos inside his ribcage.
“Thank you for having me again.”
“Of course. You’re always welcome,” Suguru says as he leads him inside. “Yuuji is in his room.”
Suguru walks toward the kitchen, already knowing the usual routine of Megumi knowing how to navigate in their house. This time, however, Megumi stays rooted where he is.
“Itadori and I wanted to talk to you about something. Didn’t he tell you about it?”
Suguru turns and motions with his hand to follow him.
“He did. You both make it sound as if it’s serious. Should I be worried?” Suguru asks with an amused smile.
“No. Everything’s okay,” Megumi replies just as Yuuji steps out of his room and joins them in the kitchen.
“Sorry, I was cleaning my room,” he says, addressing Megumi.
“Cleaning your room, huh? That’s a first,” Suguru says. “Are you inviting someone over other than Megumi-kun?”
Yuuji pouts. “Are you saying I’m only cleaning my room when I have someone over?”
Megumi snorts next to him, earning squinted eyes at him from Yuuji. “I’m not a pig. I clean my room all the time, but… ”
At the trail off, Megumi squares his shoulders, knowing what’s coming next. Yuuji stands next to him and says slowly, shyly, “I was cleaning my room now that I don’t want my boyfriend to see it all messy.”
Suguru, who had his back turned to them, serving the tea perks at that. He turns around and looks at Yuuji, then at him with an unreadable expression.
Megumi holds himself steady, barely noticing when he reaches for Yuuji’s hand not as an act but rather as a supportive gesture.
Yuuji’s hand is slightly colder than his, Megumi notices with surprise.
At the back of his mind, Megumi wonders why they’re both this nervous when it’s an act.
“Really?” Suguru asks, but his tone is not one of disbelief. Both Yuuji and Megumi nod. Suguru smiles, walks to them, and ruffles their hair. “So that’s how it is! Congrats!”
Yuuji smiles sheepishly at him, and Megumi returns the smile with one of his own.
That went surprisingly well, he thinks before Suguru throws his heart into disarray when he says, “Finally!”
-
Megumi has always been smart. That’s why, as he lies in bed that night and thinks about Suguru’s words, he understands why he said ‘Finally’.
It’s not something to be surprised about when put into perspective. He and Yuuji spend so much time together that people would think of them like that at some point.
Almost two years is enough time to make anyone suspicious. Especially because Megumi knows he tries hard to hide his crush but tends to slip as easily as Yuuji smiles. Suguru must have caught Megumi's feelings in one of the many times he's been at their house.
It’s a bit embarrassing now that he thinks about it.
He wonders how many more people had noticed, and with that as his last thought, he falls asleep.
-
Unlike Suguru’s reaction, the rest of their friends and their senpais barely display any sign of surprise when they learn the news. They congratulate them and look genuinely happy for them. They pat them on their backs and laugh while Yuuji accepts their words with cheeks shaded in pink and melodic laughter.
Megumi, on the other hand, is both relieved and confused. The latter being due to the lack of shock from their friends. It’s not that Megumi wants fanfare and a party thrown for them, but they take the news in such a peaceful manner that it throws him off.
There are no questions of ‘How did it happen?”, ‘When did it happen?’, ‘Since when?’. Not even Nobara blinks twice when hearing the news. If anything, she frowns and warns, “Don’t get gross in front of me. I won’t tolerate any kind of PDA.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re envious that we got a boyfriend before you did,” Yuuji says, locking arms with Megumi and resting his head on his shoulder. “Right, Fushiguro?”
Megumi nods stiffly, red-faced and tense.
“Fushiguro, huh?” Nobara smirks and Megumi knows that face. Whatever it is that is coming from her mouth, it’s not going to be good. “You guys know each other for a while now, and if you’re dating, shouldn’t you use your given names instead?”
Megumi looks at her with outraged eyes it’s almost comical.
“You can’t just decide that on our stead, Kugisaki.”
“Eh? But Itadori looks like he’s actually considering it,” she says, and true to her words, Yuuji has a pensive expression on his face. He looks as if he’s trying to solve a riddle rather than coming to terms with taking a new step into their fake relationship.
“Itadori?”
“Yuuji,” Yuuji says, pushing his face closer to Megumi's. He still hasn't let go of his arm.
“Itado— ”
“Yuuji,” he and Nobara say at the same time. One wearing an eager smile, the other, knowing his struggle and downright having fun at his mortification.
“Ita— ”
“Yuu— ”
“— ji,” Megumi finishes, then says clearer, “Yuuji.”
Megumi finally relents, defeated, tasting the word and noticing how it rolls out of his tongue. Not for the first time, but feeling as if he’s stripping it from its friendly wrapper and leaving it naked for intimacy.
“Yes, Megumi?” Yuuji says with so much ease that it’s both frustrating and exciting for Megumi.
Yuuji holds his eyes, a smile on his face and a slight blush on his cheeks.
“Ugh. What did I tell you? No PDA!”
“Eh?! But we’re not doing anything!” Yuuji complains.
“You might as well be kissing with those stupidly infatuated eyes.”
Megumi opens his mouth, but no sounds come from it. Nobara holds his eyes, there’s a teasing glint in them, but at the same time, the way she smiles at him, all knowingly yet patient, makes Megumi’s stomach twist. More so, because all the while, Yuuji is still tightly pressed to his side.
-
It’s the end of their second week of pretending. They’re having dinner at the Itadori residence when Gojo Satoru returns from his business trip overseas.
“Guess who’s here!” he yells from the genkan in a way one would say ‘I’m home’. Neither Yuuji nor Suguru moves from their place at the table.
Satoru steps into the kitchen with several bags that Megumi knows are souvenirs for them. He included.
“Children,” Satoru acknowledges, ruffling at Yuuji’s hair when he passes him by.
Yuuji, who’s chewing his food, only manages an unintelligible sound as a reply while Megumi responds with a polite nod.
“Wife,” Satoru says, addressing Suguru with a tone of playfulness.
“Stop calling me—Hmmp.”
No matter how many times Megumi’s been at Yuuji’s house, he’ll never get used to seeing both of Yuuji’s guardians almost reaching third base in front of them. He sensibly averts his gaze and catches Yuuji eating without a care in the world, already too used to it or numb enough not to care anymore.
“Satoru, there’s a visit,” Suguru whispers, loud enough for Megumi to catch it.
“Eh? It’s just Megumi,” Satoru says dismissively, “He doesn’t count as a visit anymore. He practically lives here.”
“Gojo-san, please don’t talk about me as if I’m not here.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Gojo says without really meaning it. He sits at the table, refusing Suguru’s offer of food with a dismissing gesture, then addresses them, “So, how’re things? Any interesting things happening while I was gone? Did they finally open the ice cream parlor we were waiting for?”
“No,” all three of them reply in unison.
“Well, that sucks.”
“But in other news, something did happen,” Suguru says, propping his chin on his fist, smiling conspiratorially at Satoru who mirrors him. “Oh? Tell, tell!”
“Our child is growing, Satoru.”
“Oh? Did he get laid?”
Megumi chokes on his rice. Yuuji merely gives them a dead look.
“Can you please not treat me as a kid?” he reaches for Megumi’s back and pats him, still looking at his guardians. “Also, can you not try to kill Megumi?”
Satoru widens his smile slowly and creepily that Megumi feels a shiver run down his spine. “Hey, Suguru, did you hear that? Yuuji called him Megumi.”
“I wonder why?” Suguru questions playfully.
Megumi can’t believe this family is full of clowns.
“Yuuji-kun?” Satoru points at him. Yuuji perks, raises his hand, and replies as if a teacher was calling his name in a classroom. “Yes, Satoru-san!”
“Explain.”
“Fushiguro Megumi is my boyfriend. That’s it,” Yuuji says promptly, tone unwavering while Megumi gulps down, waiting for Satoru’s reaction.
Satoru crosses his arms over his chest and nods, once, twice, until he says in a chirpy tone, “I don’t buy it.”
Both Megumi and Yuuji flinch at that. They look at each other with wide, slightly fearful eyes.
“Satoru, don’t bully them.”
“I’m not! I just want to see them being boyfriend-y with each other. I wanna see them kiss!”
This time, Yuuji is the one who chokes.
“Kiss. Kiss. Kiss,” Satoru chants, clapping his hands like a little kid while Suguru looks at him with fond exasperation.
Suguru turns to them with eyes that clearly say, ‘He’s not going to stop until you do it.’
Yuuji and Megumi look at each other with wide eyes. Both wearing a blush.
“I—I will only do it if Megumi is okay with it. We’re not like other people who are into exhibitionism.”
Satoru mutters, “It’s incredibly innocent and cute that you think this is exhibitionism.”
“It’s fine,” Megumi says, ignoring Satoru. “Even if I’m not like other people. I don’t see anything wrong with a kiss. Just one.”
“You’re not getting any of the souvenirs I brought,” Satoru says, but both ignore him again as they face each other.
Megumi can see Yuuji’s Adam apple bobbing, his tongue darting over his lips, making them shinier and wet. Before losing his bravado, Megumi leans forward. Yuuji blushes harder upon his prompting but follows suit. Before touching lips, they linger a couple of millimeters away from each other, breath mingling as green and honey eyes connect before Yuuji closes the distance.
Megumi closes his eyes the moment he feels Yuuji’s lips touching his. A second passes, or maybe two or three, but then Megumi presses himself forward, pushing against Yuuji, tilting his head to slot their lips better.
Yuuji cups his jaw, and Megumi mirrors him, placing his hand on top of his.
Megumi grows bolder. He licks at Yuuji’s lips, asking for an entry that is easily granted. He meets Yuuji’s tongue; hot, wet, tasting like udon and spice.
Megumi sighs into the kiss. It takes another second for him to finally pull away, knowing they still have an audience but barely minding it anymore.
Hot breath falls on his face as Yuuji opens his eyes and looks at him. They’re still close, too close they could fall into each other’s lips again with the slightest movement.
There’s a noise at the other end of the table, and just like that, the moment is gone. Megumi looks at Yuuji’s guardians and finds Suguru looking at them with raised eyebrows while Satoru is no longer smiling. An astonished expression settles on his face. He looks as if he wasn’t really expecting them to carry on his demand.
He only says, “Okay, I’m convinced. But no one asked you to use tongue, y’know?”
Megumi wonders how rude it would be to throw something at his head, fake 'father-in-law or not.
-
“The dark blue or the green one?” Megumi asks, trying to bury the feeling of domesticity as he shows both kimonos. Yuuji, who is sitting on his bed, eyes both of them carefully, munching on chips.
“I like the blue one. I feel it’s very you, Megumi,” he says. Megumi’s stomach twists pleasantly. “Ah, but the green one goes with your eyes. Hm, it’s a hard choice.”
The Gojo gathering is in less than two weeks. As the traditional family that they are, they’re expected to attend in the proper dress code.
“Why don’t you try both?” Yuuji prompts. “That way we can choose.”
Megumi nods. It’s at the moment that he takes the hem of his shirt that he considers, should he undress here? In front of Yuuji? It’s not that they haven’t seen each other before when they’ve changed in the lockers before and after P.E. Still, there’s a wave of self-consciousness that wasn’t there before — at least, not with this intensity. He peeks from under his eyelashes and finds Yuuji staring at him, strangely quiet.
“Yuuji?”
Upon his call, he springs to his feet. “I-I can leave if you want.”
“No,” Megumi hurries to say, grabbing his wrist when he’s on his way to leave. “It’s fine.”
I want you to see, he doesn’t say out loud because even in the privacy of his mind, he is not sure exactly what exactly it is that he wants Yuuji to see.
Yuuji takes a seat again, eyes fixed on him, smiling and looking like a kid about to watch a movie in a theater for the first time.
Megumi takes his shirt off, then his pants, awkward. Even if he wanted, he doesn’t know how to put a show. He doesn’t know how to seduce someone. His movements are almost mechanical, limbs stiff with nervousness.
After he puts on the nagajuban and the kimono, he searches for the koshihimo with his eyes. Yuuji takes it and walks to him to hand it.
“Thanks,” Megumi says. His cold, stiff hands make him lose his hold on it, and the other end of it falls to the floor.
“I’ll help you,” Yuuji offers with a smile, taking the koshihimo back.
Megumi has no reasons to oppose.
Yuuji steps closer and surrounds Megumi with his arms to wrap the koshihimo around his waist. Megumi forces himself to relax. Once Yuuji ties it, Megumi promptly hands him the obi. This time it takes longer, but when Yuuji finishes, he meets eyes with him — it takes exactly three seconds which Megumi uses to watch his eyes, his mouth, then eyes again — for Yuuji to pull away.
“Done,” he announces.
Yuuji is still close enough that Megumi yearns for more; the arms around him, his warmth, his scent. Gathering courage, he takes one step forward, coming nose to nose.
Yuuji blinks, confused but rooted on the spot.
“I… Can we—Can I kiss you?”
He expects Yuuji to flinch away, surprised, but he doesn’t. He looks at him with slightly widened eyes, mouth agape, and cheeks turning red. There are no words of hesitation, no gestures of doubts. Yuuji nods and breathes out a ‘Yes’.
This time, Megumi is not shy or slow and kisses him full on the lips, pushing forward without hesitation. Yuuji sighs into the kiss and cups his cheek as he tilts his head.
Megumi grabs him by the waist. Later he would claim it was him drunk and lost in a haze of euphoria when he leads Yuuji to the bed and makes them flop on it.
Yuuji sucks in a breath.
They hold eyes for a brief moment.
This is just faking, Megumi tells himself when Yuuji winds his arms around his shoulders and pulls him down to kiss him more heatedly.
This is just going with the flow, Megumi tells himself when tongues meet, and the kiss becomes wet and noisy.
This is just playing along, Megumi reminds himself when they grind against each other, frantically and letting their hormones take the lead.
They come calling each other’s names into their mouths.
A couple of seconds pass by before Megumi flops next to Yuuji, regaining his breath.
“Green,” Yuuji says. He turns to Megumi with a soft smile on his face and cheeks still on fire. At Megumi’s silence, he elaborates, “The kimono. The green one.”
Megumi doesn’t question why they’re talking about that and not about what just happened. He says, “I haven’t even tried that one on.”
Yuuji grins, eyes crinkling when he does, “Green because you just dirtied the blue one.”
Megumi can’t help it; the bubbling sensation in his belly ends up echoing in his room when it makes it past his lips as laughter. Yuuji has always been good at words and knowing exactly what to say.
He’s settled a calmer, much less awkward atmosphere.
Megumi is thankful and in love.
“Idiot,” he says, holding his stomach.
“But that’s not the only thing,” Yuuji continues. “Green goes with your eyes.”
Megumi stops laughing, but his smile remains. “Is that right?”
Yuuji nods.
Megumi regretted what just happened for an infinitesimal moment, but Yuuji makes him feel safe once again. So easy and effortlessly that the only fear Megumi has left is time running out. No matter how this ends, Megumi is sure he will never lose Yuuji’s smile.
-
The last week before the gathering is spent without things changing. That much.
The only difference is the kisses; the good morning kisses, the ‘see you around’ kisses, the ‘I’m happy and having fun with you’ kisses, or even the ‘Whatever. I just want to kiss you’ kisses.
Things rarely get as heated as the last time, but not for the lack of want.
Megumi knows they’re playing with fire.
His lust is put out by the uncertainty that each day brings, forcing Megumi to pull away right before he throws himself from that cliff, no parachute on his back. Yuuji never elaborates why he reciprocates or initiates the kisses. Even if he looks like he wants to, he never questions why Megumi stops right before things escalate.
Are we doing this because he’s still pretending and is only indulging me? Or …?
Megumi doesn’t know. Doesn’t care. There’s only one week left, just seven days until the mark hits zero, and he’s determined to take as much as he can without burning himself too much in the process.
At the end of it, he’s hoarding a treasure on a sinking boat, he knows.
-
The day of the Gojo gathering arrives, and with it, also Megumi’s first heartbreak. He tries not to think of how the day will end and forces himself to stay in the present.
At that moment, in front of the Gojo estate gates.
“Well, let’s start the shitshow,” Satoru says with a naughty grin, passing his arm around Suguru’s shoulders, pressing him closer to him. “Remember, you gotta call me only stupidly corny names in front of them, Suguru.”
“I’m only doing this because I dislike them as much as you do, but every time I do this, I feel like passing out from embarrassment.”
Satoru laughs and turns to them.
“Children,” he calls.
“We’re fifteen, Gojo-san,” Megumi patiently says. Yuuji next to him, already used to it, says nothing.
“Kids, ” Satoru corrects, “Don’t let anything they say or do get to you and, if possible…” He trails off, smiling wickedly, “give them hell.”
“Yes!” Yuuji says, pumping his fist in the air.
-
The gathering is pretty dull and rather anticlimactic from what Megumi was bracing himself for. It’s not until Yuuji excuses himself to go to the bathroom and both Suguru and Satoru are at the other end of the room that he’s approached.
Ah, so they’re that kind, Megumi realizes.
The type that gangs up against the newbie when he’s left alone, the kind that throws rocks at someone and hides their hands, the kind of people who are hypocrites and cowards.
“Fushiguro-kun, was it?” an elder asks. Megumi nods. “Ah, it’s a pleasure. I hope you’re enjoying yourself.”
“I am. Thank you,” Megumi replies tonelessly.
“It’s weird for Satoru to bring new guests,” he says with a fake smile. “I had hoped that in the case of bringing a guest, it’d be a girl… for the kid. I’m sorry to see they have pulled the kid into the same deviations as they are.”
The only sign of annoyance coming from Megumi is a quick tick in his eye.
“Oh?” the man fakes surprise. “Perhaps you weren’t aware of that? Did you come thinking you were brought as a friend? I’m so sorry, Fushiguro-kun!”
Megumi doesn’t say anything as the man continues, “Perhaps, for your own good, you should avoid that kind of people. You look like a sensible person, Fushiguro-kun unless… ”
At his trail-off, Megumi actually smiles, but there is no humor in it.
“Unless what? I suck dick too?”
Not having expected that the man sputters in indignation, scandalized.
Give them hell. For Geto-san and Gojo-san maybe, for Yuuji definitely.
“Because I do. I suck Yuuji’s dick. Sometimes we even watch Geto-san and Gojo-san suck each other too. We’re a happy, orgy-friendly family.”
The man’s face is red and hot. He looks as if he would pass out from one moment to the other.
“We can invite you to watch too,” Megumi says, giving the final blow, “You certainly look like you could jack off to our show and stop being such an asshole.”
The man sputters some more before he feels.
Was that it? That was too easy.
Megumi wonders if he had gone too far, but the moment he finishes that thought, Suguru places his hand atop his head and musses his hair. Satoru next to him grins wide, looking proudly at him.
“I guess I had nothing to worry about,” Suguru says. “The moment I saw that ass near you, I thought he’d make you feel uncomfortable.”
“Rather than making me uncomfortable, he pissed me off,” he admits.
Satoru laughs. “Man, I knew there was a reason Yuuji chose you. You got spunk, Megumi.”
“Thanks?”
“You can say this is a passing ritual,” Suguru explains.
“Yeah, the moment Suguru left one of my grandfathers cold and close to a heart attack, that was the moment I knew he was the one.”
Even if the tone is playful and the arm around Geto’s shoulders looks friendlier than intimate, Megumi can see the attachment and care. The love.
They were once best friends, Megumi remembers Yuuji once told him. Looking at them makes the tiny flame of hope flicker and turn bigger.
“Welcome to the family,” Suguru says. “Every day is a new horror, but we live.”
Satoru squints his eyes at him. “I feel like I’m being insulted.”
Suguru sticks out his tongue and turns his head the other way.
“Ah, Suguru, you idiot—!”
“Eh? What’s happening? What did I miss?” Yuuji asks when he arrives. His shoulder brushing Megumi’s.
“Just your family being your family,” Megumi says. He catches the eye of the old man he drove away minutes before. Megumi smirks and takes Yuuji’s hand, intertwining their fingers together for the show. Still, he’s pleasantly surprised when Yuuji squeezes his hand and smiles at him.
Megumi blinks and draws a lazy, adoring smile on his face.
If the man didn’t believe he was Yuuji’s boyfriend and in love with him, now he would.
-
The ride home is uneventful and oddly quiet.
The familiar way their shoulders are tightly pressed together and the gentle way they hold hands with intertwined fingers makes it feel like the prologue of a goodbye.
Thirty days have finally passed by.
Suguru pulls the car in front of the Fushiguro residence at the same time that Megumi’s stomach bolts.
“Thanks for joining us today, Megumi-kun.”
“Yeah, thank you for making my uncle’s blood pressure lower. I really appreciate it.”
Megumi snorts, gives a quick, polite thanks, and steps out of the car. His hand sliding slowly out of Yuuji’s hold.
“Wait—” Yuuji calls after him, then turns to Suguru and Satoru, “I’ll return home walking later.”
With that, he steps out and closes the door.
As the car drives away, Megumi turns to Yuuji with questioning eyes.
Did Yuuji stay behind to put an end to their ‘relationship’?
He thought he still had tonight to brace himself for the breakup. Megumi isn’t ready yet — he doubts that he will be tomorrow, in a week, ever.
“Yuuji… ?”
Yuuji presses his lips into a line, a clear indication that he’s uncomfortable. He meets eyes with him and says, “I wanted to talk to you about this. About us.”
Megumi tenses like a string ready to break. He nods.
“I’m sorry I put you into this in the first place. Satoru-san and Suguru-san have no problems dealing with this stuff, but today they looked like they didn’t just go through like always. I think they really had fun bringing you in with us. So, thank you for that.”
Megumi hums softly. “I already told you. It was fine.”
After a pause, Yuuji stutters, “W-we can put an end to this now.”
Megumi thought he was ready to listen to those words. He wasn’t. He isn’t. His heart clenches inside his chest, and an annoying prickling settles at the back of his eyes.
“I… ”
“Only if you want to,” Yuuji hurries to add.
Megumi blinks, silently waiting.
“Because I—I don’t, really,” Yuuji admits, looking at him with pursed lips and bright, nervous eyes.
“You don’t want to?” Megumi asks, shocked.
Yuuji takes a deep breath and sighs loudly, defeated. Then says, “Listen, Megumi. I… I can’t lie.”
Megumi knows. That’s why it was shocking that Yuuji asked about this in the first place.
“I wanted to protect my family even in the smallest way possible, and I’m not bright like you are, so this was the only way I could think of,” he pauses, licks his lips, and takes another breath as if gathering courage. “The first and only person I thought about doing this with was you because it’d look natural. I wouldn’t have to fake anything.”
Megumi’s chest tightens, and a warm, pleasant tingle spreads from there to the rest of his body.
“What are you saying?” Megumi asks slowly, already knowing the answer. He asks only because he needs to hear it and because the words will give the peace his afflicted heart needs.
“I’m saying that I'm an idiot,” Yuuji says, exasperated, but then adds calmer, looking at him, “Because I like you. I’ve always had, and I really wanted to help my family, but I think I was using the opportunity and expecting you to like me back.”
Megumi takes a step forward and takes Yuuji’s hand in his. “Everything I did these last days has been something I’ve dreamed of doing for a while now.”
“Megumi?”
Megumi rests his forehead against Yuuji and confesses, “I like you. I have for a while now that I didn’t think twice to agree to this. I wouldn’t have done it for anyone else. Just you, because I, too, was waiting to make you like me back.”
Green and amber met, then soft tremors assault Yuuji’s body, and then the most melodic laughter fills Megumi’s ears.
“What kind of corny soap opera is this?”
Megumi snorts with a smile on his face. “An awful one.”
“So, what does this mean?” Yuuji asks, eager and happy, “Are we still boyfriends?”
“Real boyfriends,” Megumi declares.
“Ah, yes. You’re also ‘part of the family’ was it?”
“Apparently,” Megumi smiles as his arms come to circle Yuuji, confident and elated.
“Megumi,” Yuuji calls. Megumi hums from his place on Yuuji’s shoulder. “You never told Toji-san about us, right? If he sees us like this, he’s gonna have so many questions.”
“Stupid old man doesn’t need to know.”
“Oh,” Yuuji says, disappointed.
“But I was thinking,” Megumi adds. “If you made me go through Gojo-san’s antics, I can take revenge by introducing you to the old man like my boyfriend. I’m sure that would be fun.”
Megumi pulls away to look at him.
“Sounds like that’ll make us even,” Yuuji says, pouting, then smiles, “Okay! Let’s do it. If he wants us to kiss, then we already got the hang of it, right?”
Yuuji even winks. Megumi can’t help himself and leans down this time to give him an ‘I love you so much you have no idea’ kiss.