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“Megumi.” Yuuji rocks Megumi’s shoulder gently, stirring him awake. “Megumi. Megumi. Gumi. Gumi. Gumi. Wake up. Megumi.”
Megumi grunts, rolling himself deeper under the covers. He burrows his face into the mattress and mutters something like “leave cheese alone, I bread summer sleep” (it’s really unclear, and Yuuji doesn’t exactly have the best of hearing).
Yuuji presses his face to Megumi’s nape, leaving a kiss below his ear. Megumi shivers under his touch. Yuuji smiles. “Megumi. Megumi. Gumi. Gumi. Gumi. Gumi.”
“Whrnwgwghghh….”
“Gumi. Gumi. Guuuuuuuumi.” Okay , Yuuji brainstorms, this isn’t really working. He thinks, Maybe this 6 a.m. thing wasn’t the best idea. He thinks again. No, it definitely is. He perches his chin on his hand, pausing momentarily, before breaking into a toothy grin. “Sweetheart ~”
Megumi stops shuffling under the blankets.
Yuuji thinks that Megumi’s stopped breathing.
“My love. My darling. My bestest, bestest, best-in-the-whole-world boyfriend. The love of my life. The man of my dreams. The prettiest, most amazing boyfriend in the whole world- No, the whole universe- No, the whole-”
Megumi shifts up abruptly and slaps his hands over Yuuji’s mouth. “That’s enough.” The tips of his ears are flushed with red. “You’ve...been hanging out with Gojo-sensei too much.”
Yuuji licks Megumi’s palm, causing Megumi’s jaw to slack, before subsequently jerking his hand away and rigorously scrubbing the residue on Yuuji’s sleeve. Yuuji wags his finger. “Hey, I'm your boyfriend. Don’t compare me to your dad-mentor-teacher-guardian-guy, it’s weird.”
“What’s weird,” Megumi wrings his hand free of Yuuji’s sweater, “is you bursting into my room at dawn and licking my hand. Seriously, what are you, five?”
“You’re making this sound weirder than it actually is.”
“That’s the appropriate amount of weird to address this situation with.”
“Not fair, you made the licking part sound weird, and-”
Megumi sighs, yanking Yuuji by the collar to press a hasty, sloppy, you-broke-into-my-room-at-6-in-the-morning-don't-blame-me-if-I-have-morning-breath-esque kiss. Yuuji savours it. Megumi does have morning breath. Also, his lips are chapped. Maybe it’s the air conditioning. Anyways, Megumi does tongue stuff. Yuuji also does tongue stuff. They both do tongue stuff and they’re both very bad at it.
Yuuji likes kissing Megumi a lot .
When they break apart, they’re both huffing and Megumi presses his face into Yuuji’s neck, as if to say, “Okay, we’ve had our fair share of adventure today, I’m going back to sleep.”
Yuuji deduces this, and chooses to ignore it completely. He keeps thinking about how Megumi’s eyelashes are very long. He likes how pretty they are. He can’t wax poetic about them because he’s not as smart as Megumi or as pretty as Megumi, but he does press a ghost of a kiss on Megumi’s eyelids, as if to say, “I love you so much.”
Megumi deduces this, kind of, and continues to press his nose against the back of Yuuji’s neck.
“Gumi, let’s go outside.”
“Whrnrgrgrgrggrh…” He says, but this time, he says it while he’s got his face glued to Yuuji’s shoulders, so it leaves a little hum and makes Yuuji feel tingly. Or maybe it’s just Megumi. Maybe it’s all the Megumi that’s making Yuuji feel tingly.
“Gumi, come on, let’s have fun! It’s our day off!”
Megumi murmurs something like, “What mind of bun” and burrows his face into Yuuji’s sweater. Yuuji thinks that Megumi likes the smell. (Good. He bought a new brand of laundry detergent. It’s peach-scented. Megumi likes peach-things.) Yuuji knows what that means this time. A little. But is a little bit too distracted by how Megumi, too, smells faintly like peaches. He runs his fingers through Megumi’s hair.
“A picnic! We’re watching the sunrise!”
Megumi raises his head, locks of hair tickling Yuuji’s chin.
“Picnic?”
-
There’s not a lot for Megumi to do when he gets there. He just sits against a tree and pulls out his little book and flips through some poetry and yawns sometimes. Occasionally, out of the corner of his eye, Yuuji also sees Megumi look up at him, and look up at the moon (which isn’t really much of a moon anymore because the Sun’s coming up), and make this soft expression, as if to say, “You woke me up at 6 in the morning just to look at the Sun, but I still love you enough to forgive you, and there’s no better sight than this.”
Well, Yuuji isn’t entirely sure that’s what Megumi is thinking. Lucky guess. Yuuji isn’t sure he even really wants to know. For all he knows, Megumi could be thinking something like, “I wonder what we’re going to be eating for dinner” or “I wonder where Nobara’s gonna drag us to this weekend” or “I regret saving you.”
The odds of it being the last one are low. But Yuuji’s not sure.
Yuuji isn’t sure of a lot of things, these days.
When the picnic blanket’s set up, Yuuji lets Megumi rest his head on his lap. As an apology for the whole 6 a.m. thing. He’s positive that his lap isn’t nearly as comfortable as Megumi’s bed, but Yuuji’s selfish, and he wants to watch the Sun rise with him. Whether or not Megumi’s actually watching the sunrise doesn’t entirely matter.
It’s hard to be alone.
He grabs a croissant from the picnic basket and tears off a chunk for Megumi. Megumi eats it whole. They go on like that for a while. Yuuji feeds Megumi scraps of food that he may or may not have spent the whole morning preparing. Megumi makes a little humming noise, and the edge of his eyes wrinkle, because he’s happy. He’s happy and the Sun isn’t entirely in the sky yet. Yuuji wipes a crumb off his cheek and kisses it clean.
Megumi smiles, but he notices something when he opens his eyes, (and Yuuji wishes he didn’t break the fragile tenderness of the moment, because Megumi was happy. He was.) so he trails his hands down Yuuji’s jaw, and looks up at him with a furrowed brow, as if to say, well, he does say, “You’re thinking.”
“I’m hurt, Gumi.” Yuuji sighs. “Is that supposed to be rare?”
Megumi mock-slaps him over the wrist, before locking their fingers together. Megumi’s palm is warm. Yuuji lifts it up and presses a kiss on his knuckles. Megumi continues looking up at him. Intently. “You know that’s not what I mean.”
“...I want us to be normal.” Yuuji says, and kind of regrets it the moment it leaves his mouth, but Megumi’s still looking at him and he can’t hide anything when he looks at him like that. Like he wants to know him. “I don’t want us to be ‘Sukuna’s vessel’ and ‘the guy who has to kill him.’”
Megumi’s about to say something, and he’s making a face where he’s biting his lip and wants to say something like “This should be obvious. I would never kill you.” or “You’re not just Sukuna’s vessel.” or “I wish I did, Yuuji.”
Yuuji’s selfish. And a coward. So he presses a kiss to Megumi’s forehead and doesn’t give him the chance to speak. He continues rambling, instead.
“I want to wake up in the morning, and see your derpy face, and see drool sliding down your chin. And then I want to say,” Yuuji raises his hands and waves them, for emphasis. “‘Good morning, sleepyhead! Wake up! You’re late for work!’ And then you’ll say ‘Five more minutes.’ and pull me back to bed, and we’ll just lie there in each other’s arms until there’s no point in going to work anymore.”
Megumi draws circles on the back of Yuuji’s hand. There’s something he wants to say, and Yuuji can tell, because he’s still doing that lip-biting thing, but whatever it is, he doesn’t say it. He snuggles his head against Yuuji’s side. “Why am I the clingy one in this alternate universe?”
“Every time I wake you up before 10 a.m., you make a face.”
He pouts in response. Yuuji giggles. Megumi clicks his tongue. “Well, tell me more.”
“What?”
“Tell me more. About this alternate universe. This universe without curses.”
Yuuji’s eyes widen. “Oh. Yeah. Yeah, sure.” He rests his hand on Megumi’s chest, feeling it rise and fall rhythmically. The Sun’s still making its way up. Yuuji thinks that Megumi looks ethereal with all the saccharine pinks and yellows of the sky painted on his cheeks, but he doesn’t say it. He thinks that Megumi wouldn’t get it.
He continues. “I would come back from work, and you’d already be there. All the food would be on the table, and I would know it’s takeout because Gojo-sensei raised you and he can’t cook and you can’t cook-”
Megumi reaches up to flick Yuuji’s forehead. “Less insulting my cooking skills, more talking.”
“Okay, princess. Jeez.” Yuuji coos. “I’d ask something like ‘Tough day at the office?’ and you’d respond by kissing me on the cheek. So, I’d be like, ‘I’m guessing that’s a yes.’ And then, you would say-”
Megumi blurts out. “I love you.”
“Well, I was about to say that you’d answer ‘Much better now that you’re home”, but-” Yuuji pauses. He looks down at Megumi. His lips are trembling. “Oh. Oh .”
“Yeah. Oh.”
“I love you too. I love you so much. I love you. I love you. I love you.” Yuuji repeats it. He says it over and over again but the more he says it, the harder his fingers clench around Megumi’s hands, and he’s worried he’s hurting him, but it’s also too much, it’s too much, because-
“Yuuji?”
Yuuji’s vision becomes blurry. Something inside him breaks. “I- I don’t want to die, Gumi. I love you so much. I don’t want to die.”
Megumi opens and closes his mouth again. He props his hand against the curve of Yuuji’s face. “I don’t want you to die either.” He grits his teeth. “I don’t want you to die, and I don’t know why you keep saying that you don’t want to die like it’s selfish of you to want to live. I want to grow old with you too, Yuuji, so, why-”
“Because I’ll hurt you!” Yuuji buries his face in his hands. He doesn’t want Megumi to see him like this. Weak. Selfish. Crying like a child as if people haven’t died because of him. “I’m Sukuna’s vessel! He’s- I’m going to kill everyone if I keep living! It’s not just about me-”
“But it is !” Megumi shouts. And he grabs Yuuji’s wrists and gets up and shouts and Yuuji can hear the hiccup in his voice and the way the words get caught in his throat and this was supposed to be a nice morning but now Megumi’s crying because of him and he ruined it. “It is! It’s your life! Would you stop thinking about other people for once, and actually let yourself live ?! I've already lost Tsumiki, I can't-"
“I don’t know.” Yuuji whispers. And the world slows down. He can hear himself sniffling. It’s quiet. “I don’t know. You’ll move on without me.”
Megumi shakes him by the collar, clenching his fists against the fabric. “How could you decide that for me?! I don’t want to move on without you! I want you to pull that fucking rope off your neck when they execute you! I don’t- Fuck! I don’t want you to just walk up to that pedestal like you’re just some sacrificial lamb, like you’re not worth living for!” He chokes, sobbing through his words. “I don’t want you to just let yourself die, as if there’s no one out there who loves you.”
Yuuji smiles, glancing down at the field below him. He swallows. “...We missed the sunrise.”
Megumi’s face contorts with grief. He lunges forward to wrap his arms around Yuuji. It’s tight. Yuuji’s arms slack at his sides. Megumi holds tighter. “Yeah, we did.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for making you regret saving me, Megumi.”
Megumi’s breath catches in his throat. He releases a shaky sob. “How could I ever?”