Chapter Text
When Yuta finally returns from an exhaustive, months-long mission on Kilimanjaro, he comes back with a cold.
It’s obvious to Maki immediately. Her expression is a giveaway when she picks him and Toge up in Haneda’s crowded baggage claim, and Yuta is prepared because Toge had told him on their last leg back that he shouldn’t bother with any transparent attempts to downplay it. He’s never been good at things like that anyway.
They’ve been traveling for three days, and the sore throat began halfway into flight from Tanzania to Dubai. Yuta had hoped it was a consequence of the dry, recycled air in the cabin or maybe the poor sleep and dehydration from travel and exercise finally hitting, but his head started pounding ten hours into their layover and he was stuffed up and sneezing before they boarded the plane toward Hong Kong. Toge did what he could to help him rest, but Yuta couldn’t shake the guilt of making him call the flight attendant over for extra blankets and hot tea and tissues and recommendations for the most relaxing in-flight movie the staff could find.
To be fair, Yuta never actually asked for any of those things. He still suspects that he was giving off some impression that he needed them, anyway, and Toge never hesitates when he finds an opportunity to lighten someone’s burden. Yuta couldn’t even share the tea without risking Toge’s health, too, which was a shame because it was an interesting herbal flavor that neither of them had tried before. Yuta couldn’t even taste it.
Hong Kong to Tokyo took four hours nonstop, and Yuta’s body finally allowed him to nap intermittently without even the pilot’s announcements or turbulent landing to tug him awake. The downside was that it took Yuta some time to find his land legs, meaning that Toge had to guide him out of the aisle and through the gate as Yuta sniffled and cleared his throat and imagined whether he’d feel less self-conscious with a surgical mask to hide the rosy glow outlining his features.
“What the hell’s wrong with you, Yuta?” is Maki’s actual greeting as she hugs him hello, quick to squeeze him around the neck with their faces way too close. “Just a carry-on? How’d you manage to be gone so long with only one bag?”
“Oh, we were hiking pretty much the whole time,” Yuta explains. His consonants stick and drag, and Maki frowns when he sniffles. “I didn’t want to carry any extra stuff that I didn’t need.”
There wasn’t a lot of room in their accommodations, anyway, and while he missed having more than two changes of clothes, Yuta would rather make do than take up extra space in a shared tent. He was usually too tired at the end of the day to do much but lie there and maybe use his phone if he could get any reception that day.
“Well, that makes things easier for me. No waiting around for the conveyer belt,” Maki says. “Let’s get a move on. I have to pay twenty one hundred if I’m parked for more than half an hour.”
Toge rolls his eyes to the side and points at over his shoulder with his thumb. Yuta looks behind him at the crowd of people waiting to reunite with their luggage.
“Tsunamayo,” Toge reminds them. Yuta’s body feels heavier as he realizes they’ll have to spend more time standing alongside everyone, expanding the distance between himself and the peace of his friends and his home and his bed.
“Oh, that’s right,” Yuta says to him, then addresses Maki. “Uh, Toge-kun has a couple suitcases. Come wait with us?”
“Sure,” Maki says, following them over to the station with her hands in her pockets. Yuta sniffles as discreetly as he can, but the congestion sits at the forefront of his swollen sinuses and crackles in the little space it has to move within them. He wipes his nose on the edge of his sleeve and sniffles again, letting Toge lead the group as he lingers behind Maki and watches her survey the airport curiously. “Jeez. Must’ve been a full flight.”
“Shake,” Toge confirms, looking straight ahead. Yuta sniffles once more. “Sujiko, mentaiko.”
“Yeah, it was pretty bad,” Yuta adds. “The flight attendants really had to work hard to keep everyone happy.”
Maki shrugs and says, “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t done a lot of flying.”
She doesn’t sound resentful, and Yuta wishes he could say the same. He thought he’d be done with it after his first round in Africa, but Miguel had called for backup in training a search team in the east coast, where Yuta was most familiar. It made sense for him to go, and the mission took a devastatingly long time with all of the language barriers. Toge surprising him in Arusha to keep him company was so welcome that Yuta barely acknowledged the excessiveness of the gesture.
“Okaka,” Toge says for the both of them.
“What do you mean, ‘must be nice’?” Maki says with a dry smile. “You chose to use your vacation time to hang out in a village doing nothing for two weeks.”
Offended, Toge says, “Ikura!” and grabs onto Yuta’s hand, tugging him forward so that they can walk in tandem. Yuta stumbles with a yelpy grunt and rights himself quickly.
“Can’t imagine missing someone so much that I’d cross two continents just to watch them sleep for a few days,” Maki says. She looks away from the both of them like she’s embarrassed, but Yuta knows she doesn’t mean it. “Sounds boring.”
“Takana?” Toge teases. He waits until she’s looking at him and signs, ‘No Iwate with Kugisaki? I can tell her to cancel.’
“Shut up. That’s different,” Maki says in a panicked rush. “How many bags do you have?”
Toge holds up three fingers with a straight face.
“For real?” Maki says.
“One of them is just souvenirs,” Yuta explains. “We got a chance to go to one of the markets, and they gave us a wagon to carry everything back to our accommodations.”
He hopes the drone of the crowd will cover up the hoarseness of his voice.
“Tsunamayo,” Toge reminisces, because there had been room in the wagon for Yuta to pull him along the trail home. It was literally the most fun he’d had in weeks. Yuta smiles along with him.
“Well, you better have gotten me something good,” Maki threatens. “The traffic getting here was a mess. And I had to borrow one of the college’s cars.”
“Thank you for doing that, by the way,” Yuta says, ashamed that he hasn’t expressed his gratitude yet. “The train would’ve been difficult with all of our luggage.”
“Yeah, well. Toge isn’t the only one who…” Maki stops when a sneeze begins to steal Yuta’s breath and tug at his voice, prompting him to turn sharply away from her with the start of a noisy inhale. “What’s wrong?”
The distraction delays Yuta long enough for him to say, “I have to sneeze,” in case she thought she’d upset him, and then he does just that. With his jacket held in place by the weight of his backpack straps, he isn’t able to pull the lapels or collar over his face like he’d been doing on the plane. His sleeve is the next best thing.
As expected, it tears through him with a ferocity that wreaks havoc on his throat, no doubt offensive enough to trigger some questions and prompt Yuta to explain himself. Maki isn’t squeamish, but he’s sure that she won’t be thrilled about her chances of getting sick from the proximity after going to so much trouble for him. Getting to their apartment from the airport takes at least an hour.
Yuta sneezes again.
“Takana…” Toge says, rubbing back and forth along Yuta’s shoulderblade. Yuta sniffles and presses on his face to get himself under control.
It takes a third sneeze – insistent, emphatic and rough – to put an end to the crescendo, after which Yuta is fairly sure he has some time before the fuzzy sparkle in his sinuses holds him hostage once more.
“These yours?” Maki says from further away. Yuta takes a tissue from his pocket, glad he’s still got some left, then cleans himself up as best he can, grimacing as he blots at the skin under his nose and the fabric of his jacket. Not good. He’ll need to replenish somewhere.
A busted duffel bag and three hard-shell suitcases sit at Maki’s feet, two of them Toge’s and one of them somebody else’s. Yuta opens his mouth to answer, but Toge squeezes his arm and shushes him.
“Shake,” he calls just loudly enough, indicating at the correct items. He points toward the stranger’s suitcase and adds, “Okaka.”
“All right,” Maki says, holds up all but one of the bags like they’re filled with styrofoam packing peanuts instead of clothes and keepsakes. Some of the patrons stare, but she’s good at pretending that she and her companions are the only ones in the room. “C’mon. Garage is this way.”
During their slog through the edges of the terminal, Yuta attempts to help Maki with some of their things and Toge calls her a show-off for refusing to let him. Yuta understands the expanses of her strength, but his principles make him uncomfortable watching Maki carry a group of bags that weigh more than his boyfriend while he approaches the exit empty-handed. Maki’s stubbornness reigns victorious.
The sliding doors unleash a startling blitz of chilly air, reminding Yuta of the seasonal opposition in Africa. It had been summer there and pleasantly warm, and although he’d prepared for the drafty air conditioning of air travel, Yuta’s sleeves are too thin for Japan’s late autumn frost.
At least the sun is out.
Maki breaks the silence of their journey when she scans her ticket at the paybox and hisses triumphantly with a gratified “Yes!” and her index finger pointed at the screen.
¥520, it reads, and Yuta is fast to take three coins from his wallet and put them in the machine before Maki has a chance. Good thing her hands are full.
“I could’ve gotten that,” she mumbles.
Cheerfully, Yuta says, “Too bad.”
He takes the ticket and scans the information, even though there isn’t anything there that he needs to know. Maki leads them to the elevator and onto the third floor, where she uses a remote key to unlock a glossy black car. Yuta doesn’t recognize it, which must mean she took it from someone other than Gojo or Ijichi.
“Who’s in front?” she asks before she’s loaded everything into the trunk.
Toge shakes his head and takes Yuta by the hand, pulling open the backseat door. “Ikura.”
“No way, forget it,” Maki says. “An empty shotgun makes me feel like a cab driver, and I haven’t seen either of you in weeks. Yuta?”
“Um! Sure,” Yuta says, even though he was looking forward to letting Toge drowse on his shoulder while he reoriented himself with the flow of Tokyo traffic. Catching up with Maki will be fine too.
Toge huffs and climbs in the seat directly behind Yuta, who appreciates the privacy to look for some spare napkins while Maki slaps their luggage into the trunk. Yuta takes his backpack off and sets it on his lap, rooting through the pockets until he yields a win in the form of a tissue package he acquired months ago at a convenience store.
While Yuta blows his nose, he feels a jolt and looks down to notice that his entire chair is rolling backwards. When he realizes that it’s Toge messing with the controls so that they can be closer, he sighs and reaches around his headrest so they can hold hands.
Silky hair shifts against the crook of Yuta’s shoulder as Toge gets comfortable, breathing delicate puffs of air onto the goosebumps coating his skin.
“Tired?” Yuta asks.
“Shake,” Toge confirms.
“I couldn’t sleep much, either. Flights always mess me up a little,” Yuta says. He feels the drag of fabric against the back of his neck as Toge pulls his mask down and presses a kiss there. It’s nice, but the softness of it makes him shiver. “I’m okay.”
He is. They’re almost home, and he’s sick, and he’s sitting down, and his lungs are tight, and he’s with his boyfriend and he’s really honestly okay.
The door clicks open, and Maki balks.
“What the hell?” She looks back and forth between them, processing.
“Mentaiko,” Toge says. Mind your business.
“Okay, fine,” Maki resigns. “Just put on your seatbelt.”
It stretches just enough for Yuta to click the metal into place. When Maki takes a sharp turn onto the street, Toge gives up and readjusts so that he’s further back in his seat with his legs propped up on Yuta’s armrest. Yuta cups his hand around Toge’s shin and uses the other hand to crush an ill-fated tissue against the lower half of his face.
With a vigor that insists against subtlety, the first sneeze rocks him forward. A second one bucks out immediately after, only marginally less demanding, and just like that, Yuta is rendered dazed and breathless as he tries to figure out how to belatedly warn Maki of his condition.
Then, as she nearly runs a red light, Maki says, “Where’d you catch a cold like that, anyway?”
“What?” Yuta replies. Had he spoken aloud by mistake?
“Must’ve been before your initial flight if you’re already this sick,” she continues. “Toge told us, although we were kind of expecting it. You always get messed up when you have something important to do.”
“I do?”
“I mean, usually.” Maki’s expression is blank. “You didn’t find anything on Mount Whatever, huh?”
Dread hits Yuta like a seismic wave.
“Did Toge tell you that, too?” he asks.
“Yeah. But it’s not a big deal,” Maki says.
“Our search was pretty fruitless the first time I went overseas, too,” Yuta contemplates. “I guess I don’t have a very good track record, do I?”
“No, I mean…” Maki sighs. “Gojo mostly just wanted you to make nice with the allies there. When it comes to the actual artifacts, he doesn’t really care these days. So don’t stress about telling him or the other bosses.”
“I’m not sure that makes me feel better,” Yuta shares. It’d mean he spent all that time climbing and poking around for an overemphasized objective when he could’ve just guided the students from the ground.
That’s all too much to think about right now. Yuta shoves it to the side of his mind and rubs his thumb along Toge’s leg, careful to keep his hand from trembling.
It’s hard to say whether he’s slept at all in nearly a week, and Yuta’s body is punishing him for its own doing. He really had been trying his best, but the conditions have been all wrong ever since he embarked on this mission in the first place. But despite his exhaustion, he still won’t be sleeping in the car, which means he should talk to Maki to be polite and keep her occupied while she drives. Not about work, though. It’s freaking him out too much.
A special grade curse is one thing, but a conversation with an authority figure is another. Turns out politics are much more complicated than magic and combat.
“How have things, um, been back here…?” he tries. It might be too vague for her, but the scenery is mostly concrete and water until they’re off the highway, so there isn’t much for him to comment on. “Did any new students start yet?”
“Higher-ups keep trying to call me in to teach,” Maki complains. “Most of the kids are annoying. Either way too entitled or just plain weird.”
“Really?” Yuta says. Gojo had stepped back from recruiting last year, and Yuta had considered inviting one of the novice sorcerers from the mountain to study in Japan. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea, if their cohort is an issue. “I thought Fushiguro and the others were doing a good job of finding people.”
Maki doesn’t argue. On second thought, she might have been insulting those poor students simply for the sake of it.
“Well, they all desperately want to meet you,” is what she says instead. “I told them you guys would be tired from a billion hours in the air, so they better not try and crowd the apartments.”
“Are they really that excited?” Yuta has a feeling that Maki and the others had misrepresented him with their bias. “I don’t know if I’m up to meeting anyone new right now.”
If he weren’t sick, or if he hadn’t just spent a long time away from home, or if his mission had gone well, then maybe Yuta could muster the energy from somewhere as a final hurrah. He probably would’ve tried to, when he was younger. In combination, though, he doesn’t have the confidence that he’ll be able to remember a single name, not with his head pounding and swimming and cloudy all at once. He’s no good like this.
“No shit, dude,” Maki says. “I’ll remove them with force if they try and bug you before you’ve slept at least sixteen hours straight.”
“I’m not so sure I can do that,” Yuta says. He isn’t sure what he’s done to make everyone’s expectations of him so high lately. “Though it does sound nice.”
Maki smirks and meets his eyes.
“We’ll make it happen,” she says, then drifts the vehicle past the sunset on the sky bridge toward the city.
-
Sixteen hours of sleep ends up possible after all, and it rewards Yuta with a fiendishly dry throat and a sensitive ache behind his eyes.
A sorcerer’s world moves quickly, which means Toge has returned to working in-city missions and left Yuta in their bedroom to gather his bearings by himself. He sips on the stale water waiting on his bedside table, rubs the blur out of his vision, and reads the note Toge has stuck to a package of Pabron tablets.
xtra medicine 4 you. txt when u wake up plz
It’s a different version of medication than the ones he’d loaded up on when they got home, which had been infused with a sedative to help him rest productively. He ended up needing to take a second dose when his stubborn nerves overrode its effects, and that had worked enough to get him through the middle of the night and then some.
Next to the box is a half-full bottle of Toge’s favorite cough medicine – the smooth and expensive kind – with another note reminding him not to chug the stuff. It really hurts to swallow, but Yuta downs a capful anyway.
With the shades closed, Yuta needs the clock to discover that the day has faded into early evening. He knows he should eat. And probably take a bath and brush his teeth. Maybe look at his notifications. He’d rather put his head in Toge’s lap and stare at the ceiling until he’s allowed to go to bed again.
Hi, I’m up. Sorry I slept so long, he says to Toge in a private chat. Their last messages to each other are from a moment on the plane when Toge had something rude to say about their fellow first-class passengers, who he believed were paying from their own pockets instead of financing through their teacher – as though the latter was more honorable. It was clever and had made Yuta cough through a smile.
Immediately, Toge responds.
omg
Yuta feels himself smiling. And then coughing. And then waiting to hear anything else from his boyfriend, who is supposedly still typing, which is suspicious because it never takes Toge more than a few seconds to press enter. He likes to message in staccato.
Thank you for the medicine. I think I’m feeling better? Yuta adds, but he still doesn’t hear back.
To pass the time, Yuta zones out for a few minutes and then checks on his other messages. It’s mostly from colleagues welcoming him back, and a few closer contacts asking after him. It’s embarrassing to find out how many people know he’s sick, but their kindness softens the unpleasantness of being in the spotlight for it.
Some scrolling tells him that his friends are planning to go out to dinner later. There’s a lot of fighting and arguing about where to go, based on what kinds of food people are in the mood for, whether they want to drink alcohol, and how far into the city they can tolerate. Presently, they’ve settled on an Izakaya on the outskirts of an expensive neighborhood, the kind with modern decor and an adventurous menu, but Yuta has seen target destinations change all the way up until halfway through the train ride there. He tries not to stress about it.
Itadori asks whether Yuta is coming, and Fushiguro updates him, somehow, on Yuta’s truant status. Knocked out is the phrase he uses, and all Itadori says back is No way!!! and Maki saying that if he’s still as sick as he was yesterday, he shouldn’t come. She adds some unflattering things about his appearance and symptoms, and that’s when Yuta resolves to reunite with society and speak for himself.
In a direct reply to Itadori’s initial query, he apologizes for disappearing and explains that he’s only come down with a cold and is otherwise feeling fine, which is true. He is. They’ve all had worse and still completed missions just fine, and he has a meeting tomorrow whether he likes it or not. Socializing in a low-pressure setting will probably be good practice.
He still offers to take a rain check to spare everyone the discomfort of having to listen to him cough and sniffle endlessly throughout their meal and worry about getting sick themselves. It doesn’t mean he didn’t miss them, he promises, and then a barrage of friendly encouragement floods the chat.
Itadori Y: Noooooo okkotsu D:
Itadori Y: We dont mind
Itadori Y: U can wear a mask
Fushiguro M: you can’t wear a mask while you’re eating
Fushiguro M: but you should still come if you’re up for it. i’m sure we’ll be fine
Kugisaki N: damn aren’t u jetlagged??
Panda: Yuta is always jetlagged
Panda: from being alive
Itadori Y: 💀
Kugisaki N: maki-kun says she misses you
Kugisaki N: this is maki. stay in bed
Kugisaki N: maki says to pls come to dinner with us
Kugisaki N: shes worried about u and wants to see you :’)
Kugisaki N: please don’t come if you have a fever -maki
Kugisaki N: aww see shes so worried<333
Panda: what if you guys got a room
Fushiguro M: does maki not have her own phone?
Kugisaki N: kys
Maki: kys
Panda: gross! lol
Itadori Y: Guys should I invite Gojo sensei?
Kugisaki N: NO
Maki: no
Panda: no
Fushiguro M: are you kidding?
Fushiguro M: why?
Itadori Y: He said he would be in that area today
Fushiguro M: no. i mean why would you want to?
Kugisaki N: new plan. let’s go to the place in roppongi
Fushiguro M: veto
Panda: too crowded 😩
Yuta decides to let them figure it out and check in later, still too groggy to process everyone’s ideas at an appropriate speed. He thinks about looking at his work email for a moment and decides against it, then rereads Kugisaki and Maki’s shared messages to figure out who is who.
Good idea, Maki. He was supposed to take his temperature.
Does he own a thermometer? Maybe Toge can assess that for him. His hands are more sensitive than Yuta’s, and he’s accurately predicted the severity of Yuta’s illnesses before. This cold still doesn’t seem like such a bad one, all things considered, just a pain. Not the kind of thing he should bench himself for. He probably is fine to go out, so long as he’s careful to avoid eating from any communal dishes.
A gasp scratches his airways as Yuta startles at the knock on the door, followed by Toge’s voice asking to be let in.
“Konbu?” he says, indicating to needing some sort of assistance. Yuta realizes the knock had been a kick.
Coughing from the disturbance to his lungs, Yuta rises and keeps his wrist over his mouth. Once he opens the door, Yuta turns away into his arm to avoid contaminating Toge and whatever it is he’s carrying.
“Okaka, takana,” Toge apologizes.
“S-sorry,” Yuta scrapes out, then clears his throat so he can actually talk. “Not your fault. I was lost in thought.”
Toge sets a tray on Yuta’s desk, then turns to him and gestures to his own throat and gives Yuta a thumbs-down.
“Oh, okay,” Yuta says reflexively, then switches to JSL. ‘It hurts a little but I think I just need to wake up. Is that tea?’ When Toge nods, Yuta says, ‘Thank you so much. Have a cup with me, please.’
Chivalrously, Toge pours for them both. Yuta slouches himself on the desk chair, and Toge sits on the table surface with his feet in Yuta’s lap and hand on his shoulder.
Yuta exhales happily, puts his cup down and signs, ‘That feels amazing.’
He gets a tissue from the box next to his lamp and blows his nose so he can taste a little better. Yuta turns his head away and Toge rubs his back.
All of the movement resurfaces his cough. A sip of tea soothes his throat enough to stop it.
As soon as Yuta signs an apology, Toge grabs his hand and wiggles it harshly in disagreement.
“Takana, Yuta,” he says. He’s worried, too. About Yuta’s cold, sure, but mostly about Yuta worrying about bothering anybody. They’ve had this conversation before.
‘I’m okay,’ Yuta reminds him. He sets his cup down. ‘Can you help me with something?’
“Shake,” Toge says with a dutiful nod.
‘I’ve been trying to figure out if I should go to dinner or not,’ Yuta begins, and Toge looks at him like he’s nuts. ‘I mean it! I was looking forward to seeing everyone. Look at the big chat.’
While Toge scrolls through all of the messages, his expression is neutral. Yuta finishes his tea and without even looking, Toge pours what’s left in his cup into Yuta’s.
He peers down at Toge’s phone to stay up to speed. The new choice is an older restaurant in walking distance of the closest train station, where staff are familiar enough with sorcery to be considered windows, although they don’t really do much for the school other than get its staff drunk upon request.
Kugisaki complains that “the food is mid,” but Maki reminds her that Panda can be himself there. It’s also nearby enough “to make it easy if anyone needs to bow out early,” and Yuta is smart enough to understand that she’s talking about him.
For once, there isn’t a lot of pushback. This one might actually be a winner.
Before he can commend Fushiguro on his idea, or even ask Toge to do it on his behalf, Yuta bows away from the table to sneeze.
Like before, the sound is fierce and obtrusive, involving his entire upper body. The material covering Yuta’s shoulder is all he can manage to cover with, since he’d slept in a t-shirt and his arms are bare. He only sneezes one more time, but he shudders with its intensity. A perilous sniffle provides him with the confidence to assume he’s done for now.
Toge isn’t looking at him when Yuta raises his head, but he signs afya to communicate a Tanzanian blessing. A few people had used it to respond to sneezing while they were staying there.
“Thank you,” Yuta says reflexively, then puts things together and nearly chuckles. “I didn’t realize you picked that up.”
“Shake,” Toge replies. He frowns, then lifts his free hand and holds his index finger vertically to his lips.
Even though it’s a little painful, Yuta rolls his eyes. ‘You weren’t looking! How else could you have heard me?’
Toge returns to his phone and types something, then bends down to pull Yuta’s phone out of his own pocket. Yuta hardly fidgets
Still sniffling and with a tissue pressed to his nose, Yuta opens his messaging app and reads the updates as they come in.
Inumaki T: no fever 4 eyebags boy so well prob come
Itadori Y: Yayyyy
Kugisaki N: are you sure? -maki
Inumaki T: use ur own phone -toge
Kugisaki N: worry about yourself<3
Kugisaki N: yo maki is so happy
Fushiguro M: we have to make it for 7:30 because yuji is running late
Kugisaki N: idm we dont need a rez
Kugisaki N: but we’re gonna get there at 7 anyway bc we’re already on the train
Kugisaki N: so we will be drunk before apps just fyi
Fushiguro M: that doesn’t sound healthy
Kugisaki N: oh noooo 💅 dr megumi we’re already drunk
Panda: nice. I’ll meet with you guys early
Fushiguro M: wtf ok
Fushiguro M: i’ll tell him to hurry up.
Okkotsu Y: Hi can you link the address? I don’t think I know this place
Panda: Yuta!! can you really make it?
Kugisaki N:
Rabbit Rabbit Izakaya and Hot Pot
Kugisaki N: you all better?
Okkotsu Y: No, sorry. :(
Okkotsu Y: But it’s just a head cold? So I can handle dinner if you guys really don’t mind
Kugisaki N: omfg
Kugisaki N: don’t isolate yourself to protect people who didn’t ask for it yuta
Kugisaki N: this isn’t high school
Kugisaki N: so dont be annoying
Kugisaki N: -maki
Okkotsu Y: Lol okay!!!
Fushiguro M: are you up to walking with us from our apartment?
Fushiguro M: i’m assuming you’re both still in the building
Inumaki T: only if yuji carries u and me there with 1 arm each
Fushiguro M: nvm
Okkotsu Y: We’ll walk with you Fushiguro-kun. It feels easier to be late if you’re in a group
Inumaki T: u boys gonna pregame
Fushiguro M: no
Okkotsu Y: I have to start getting ready but I’ll see you in maybe an hour?
Fushiguro M: it’s okay if you’re a little late. you’ll still be ready before yuji is
Fushiguro M: i might leave without him
Itadori Y: WAIT
Fushiguro M: where are you?
The conversation begins feeling too private for him to read without getting flustered, so Yuta closes the app and puts his phone down on the table, exchanging it for a fresh tissue as he feels his nose continue to run. That might be a problem unless he can find a mask, like Itadori said.
“Shake?” Toge asks him, sliding himself off of the desk and tilting his head.
‘Yeah. I think it’s a good plan,’ Yuta confirms after he swipes underneath his nose. He really should start getting ready if he wants to make it down to the lobby in time to leave with Fushiguro and Itadori. ‘Do you?’
Toge nods and begins stacking their cups to take back to the kitchen. Yuta clears his throat to get Toge’s attention.
‘You know… I just realized,’ Yuta signs, and he waits for Toge to nod before he continues. ‘We switched places. Now you’re the only one speaking out loud. Kind of funny, isn’t it?’
“Tsunamayo,” Toge says with a shrug. ‘Yuta will be talking all night. Someone has to look out for his poor delicate voice.’
“Stop that,” Yuta says, grinning from the bottom of his heart. He shoves Toge toward his unmade bed, and before redirecting Yuta to the shower and the closet and the medicine cabinet in a labor of love and support, Toge happily sacrifices himself to kiss him back.