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"I'll kill you."
"Bonito flakes", Inumaki said and placed his +4 on the stack. The crinkle of his eyes told on his smug grin under his collar. "Cod." (Blue)
Maki cursed and drew four. "I'm never playing UNO with him again."
"I'll avenge you, Maki-san!", Kugisaki announced and promptly squawked when Maki put a blue Skip. "Hey!"
"Sorry, Nobara", Maki said and gave her basically-girlfriend an entirely unapologetic grin. "Them's the rules."
Kugisaki grumbled and it was Megumi's turn, throwing down a plain blue 2. "Uno."
"Hold up!", Kugisaki groused immediately. "Since when do you only have two cards left! I hit you with a draw two last round, Fushiguro!"
"Salmon!", Inumaki agreed.
"I don't know what you're talking about", Megumi lied.
"You're cheating!", Itadori crowed and pointed an accusatory finger at him.
"No", Megumi lied again. "But Panda-senpai is. I saw him hide some cards in his armband."
Panda froze. "I Panda. I no speak human."
"Don't mess with me!!", Kugisaki roared and no one stopped her from pouncing on the second-year.
It was, however, not enough to throw Maki off his track.
"Megumi", she said and narrowed her eyes at him. "Open your shadow."
Megumi coughed. "That's… a very inappropriate question, Zenin-senpai."
Maki grinned wolfishly. "Call me Zenin again and I'll—"
"Open your shadow."
Cursed speech wafted over Megumi and his body moved on its own, his shadow unfolding and not one, not two, not three, but four cards spilling out.
Itadori gasped like a corpse had fallen out of there instead of hidden Uno cards. Megumi gave Inumaki, who just zipped up his collar again with a peace sign, a sour glare.
"Kugisaki!", yelled Itadori. "Fushiguro's hidden cards in his shadow!"
Megumi only managed to escape his classmates' wrath by sinking into his own shadow and reemerging on the other side of the room.
"You", Kugisaki growled and pointed at him, "have no integrity for the game! No sportsmanship!"
"It's UNO", Megumi said flatly.
"Bonito flakes, tuna mayo, salmon", Inumaki said. (And you cheat at Monopoly.)
"Do not", Kugisaki protested. "Itadori ate my figurine!"
"No!", Itadori yelped. "Sukuna did!"
"That's the same as saying 'my dog ate my homework'!"
Megumi glanced at Panda lying in the corner. Was he dead?
"Oi!", Maki called. "All those in favour of making Megumi and Panda draw a penalty four?"
Panda, apparently not dead, whined pitifully.
"What?!", Megumi hissed. "The penalty is two!"
"Is it? Can't recall."
Megumi stomped over to the box. "Where's the rulebook!"
In the end, Inumaki won (as he usually did) and Megumi somehow did not come in dead last despite his so called friends making him draw eight for "resisting arrest". Somehow, Maki's turn had managed to be skipped so often she came in last.
"Whatever", she grumbled and stood. "Let's go, Nobara."
Inumaki wolf-whistled and Panda cat-called (the cognitive dissonance of that threw Megumi for a loop). Maki flipped them the bird and Kugisaki blew them a kiss before trailing after her basically-girlfriend. Inumaki and Panda followed soon and Megumi helped Itadori clean up the cards before they went outside, plopping down on the porch.
"Aren't you cold?", Megumi asked, wrapping his jumper tight around him.
"Nah, I run hot!", Itadori, dressed in only a t-shirt, said and flashed him a thumbs up. He turned his face up towards the moon. "Y'know, Fushiguro, I think that's what I'll miss."
"Huh?", Megumi asked.
"When they'll execute me", Itadori said, so matter of fact and with a small, nostalgic smile that twisted Megumi's stomach into knots. "Just. Laughing with everyone. Fighting over card game rules. Simple sort of happiness. Get it?"
"Get it", Megumi said softly and the knot in his stomach hardened into determination. "I won't let them."
"Hm?" Itadori turned towards him.
"I won't let them execute you", Megumi said. Because there were so many things Itadori hadn't gotten to see yet. So many people and friends he hadn't met yet. He hadn't even met Okkotsu. Or Hakari. Or Kirara. They would love him. Itadori would love them. They deserved to meet.
Itadori deserved to grow. Grow up. Grow old.
"Hah", Itadori said softly. "That'd be nice. You're not just saying this because Sukuna has a soft spot for you?"
Megumi glared at him. "No. What are you talking about?"
"Well, you don't have to listen to him wonder if your eyes are blue or green or whatever inside your head", Itadori said, grinning as he did. "I mean, I don't pay him any attention but he gets kinda loud about it."
Megumi groaned and pulled his hood up, hiding his face in the fabric. Itadori laughed.
"I'd do it for both of you", Megumi said, voice muffled. "You're my friend. And your fate is irrevocably entwined with his."
It was a good answer to avoid the very question it had unearthed. What was Sukuna to him? The King of Curses? A Special Grade? A cursed object?
Not a friend. Not entirely foe, either, though Megumi would not hesitate to summon Mahoraga and take him out if push came to shove and Sukuna turned on him and his friends.
"Augh", Itadori rubbed the side of his head. "He really wants to talk to you, jeez."
"Okay", Megumi said before he could process the words.
Itadori saluted in goodbye and two hazel eyes closed, four wine-red ones opened. Black curse marks etched into Itadori's features and Sukuna inhaled sharply.
"Ah", he said. "Finally."
Megumi eyed the curse. "Did you really eat Kugisaki's monopoly figurine?"
Sukuna grinned, almost boyishly. "Your woman friend gets angry easy. Riling her up is fun."
"Can't believe it", Megumi said and leaned his head back against the wooden back wall of their shared porch.
"There is a game", Sukuna started. "The brat mentioned it. I'd like to play."
Megumi arched an eyebrow. "What game?"
"Twenty questions."
Megumi blinked. "You… why?"
"I know so little of you still, Fushiguro Megumi", Sukuna all but purred. "Colour me curious."
"I know just as little about you", Megumi scoffed. "Even less, I'd say. You know about my family."
"Is that your first question then?", Sukuna asked, red eyes glimmering. "My family?"
Megumi stared. He was serious, wasn't he?
"Sure", Megumi said, slowly, not quite believing this yet. "You… have you had any siblings? When you were human?"
"Yes", Sukuna hummed and Megumi sucked in a breath. He hadn't expected Sukuna to actually answer. "A brother."
A breeze swept past. Sukuna – or rather, Itadori – was wearing only a loose t-shirt, human flesh pebbling in the cold. Megumi pulled his jumper a little tighter around himself and wondered if Sukuna felt the cold.
"Older or younger?", Megumi asked.
"Neither", Sukuna said easily. "Twins. Even more inauspicious back in my era. It was common practice to kill the weaker of the twins among the major clans. Your Zenin friend, her sister would have lived while she would have been killed, back then."
Sukuna chuckled. "Jujutsu major clans always had disgusting practices. My parents let me and my brother both live instead."
Sukuna looked up at the sky and his lower set of eyes closed as if in enjoyment, face turned towards the moon. Megumi dimly recalled Sukuna's very first action upon fully incarnating, yelling about how moon light felt best on human flesh.
"What was his name?"
Sukuna clicked his tongue but the look he gave him was scolding rather than scorching. "My turn. Is it not how this works?"
Megumi's lips twitched. "Go on."
"Which shikigami did you tame first?"
Megumi hummed. It was a fairly harmless question. His mastery of his shikigami didn't depend on how long it had been since he'd tamed them so revealing the information wouldn't give Sukuna any tactical advantage. "Divine Dogs are given to a Ten Shadows sorcerer once their technique awakens. I tamed Nue first, with their help. I was… ten, I think?"
"Nue is a stunning beast", Sukuna said and Megumi almost preened with pride. Sukuna mimicked the summon for Nue and Megumi remembered how it had felt when Sukuna had taken his hand and finished the summon with his own hand, thumb hooked into Megumi's.
"What was your brother's name?", he asked, turning his face down to hide the pink in his cheeks at the memory.
Sukuna huffed out laughter. "Careful, sorcerer. You won't find any records even with his name. He died young."
Their breaths were coming out in white puffs and Sukuna touched the goosebumps on his arms absentmindedly.
"Nagare", Sukuna said, expression almost nostalgic, turning his face towards the moon, "was the one who cursed me."
Megumi stilled. A brother cursing a brother?
(He thought of Tsumiki, cursed by an unknown culprit, comatose and alone.)
"Villagers wanted to poison me after I displayed my technique", Sukuna went on, unprompted. "They poisoned Nagare instead, mistaking him for me, insolent fools."
Oh. Oh.
"I haven't thought of him in a millennium", Sukuna mused, something of a fond note in his voice. "He cursed me while dying, having fallen victim to a poison meant for me. He made me all the more powerful for it. Made me the King of Deadly Poisons. I suppose I should thank him."
"There is a reason my original form has four eyes and four arms, Fushiguro Megumi", Sukuna went on, lower eyes opening again. "Nagare's death and curse merged us. Cursed techniques consider twins the same individual. In death, he became me. Couldn't even do that right — botched it and left the task half-done before the poison finished him off. Though, I admit, four legs would be difficult to navigate."
Megumi almost laughed hysterically at the mental image and noted how Sukuna gave a pleased smile at the reaction.
Ryoumen Nagare, huh? He had never heard the name before. But trusting that Nagare had died young enough for his name to never be mentioned even in the Nihon Shoki, that was not surprising. He wondered how old Sukuna and Nagare had been at the time of Nagare's death. Older than Megumi himself now? Younger?
"My turn", Sukuna said. "Who is Six Eyes to you?"
Megumi sighed. A question as old as time to him, something he'd been asking himself since Gojou had cancelled his sale to the Zenin clan, since he had plucked Tsumiki and him out of their rundown apartment and housed them at one of the Gojou clan's safehouses. Sent them to school, made sure they had money, clothes, food. Stayed the weekends, whenever he could. Brooded over his own homework at the same table where Tsumiki was studying trigonometry and Megumi was learning a frustratingly long set of kanji.
"He's my guardian, caretaker", Megumi said, but it felt too little, it always did. "A… parent, I suppose. Not by blood. By choice."
Sukuna watched him struggle with the words and Megumi cringed. He'd only said it out loud to Tsumiki, twice. Once, when he was still little and some kid at school had asked if Gojou was his babysitter. Then, when Tsumiki fell into a coma and Gojou and Megumi had scoured all of Japan looking for a cure to her curse.
It was true, yet odd to say, still.
"You truly are an enigma, Fushiguro Megumi", Sukuna muttered. "Born into Zenin, to Heavenly Restriction so powerful it erased cursed energy itself. Equipped with Ten Shadows. Raised by Six Eyes, as insolent as he is. You are a sorcerer of a great clan, yet you are refusing the name and reputation and riches and operate on your own. A shikigami user versed in close combat, with a technique strong enough to bewitch even me."
Megumi flushed and hoped it could be blamed on the cold.
"How did you spell your brother's name?", he asked to break the spell.
Sukuna seemed to think for a moment before sliding closer and taking Megumi's hand in his. Some synapses in his brain stopped firing.
"Like this", Sukuna mumbled and turned Megumi's palm up, drawing the kanji with his finger into the skin of his palm, leaving a trail of heat.
永. Eternity.
禮. Gift.
"It fits", Megumi said, traces of the kanji simmering in his palm, his hand still in Sukuna's grasp. Loose, casual. "Given that he gifted you eternal life with him through his curse."
Sukuna hummed and closed Megumi's fingers, folding his own on top. "Indeed."
His fingers were shorter, bulkier than Megumi's. But warm. So much warmer than his own.
"How is your given name spelled?", Sukuna asked, low enough for only Megumi to hear.
Megumi looked up, green meeting double red. "I think you know that already."
Sukuna hummed again and Megumi stilled when Sukuna's free hand came up to tuck a strand of his hair behind his ear, his knuckles brushing Megumi's temple and leaving a streak of heat.
"I do", Sukuna said and did not remove his hand, gaze devoid of any amusement and full of sincere curiosity, warm like a blanket draped over Megumi's shoulders. "A blessing among curses."
Megumi shivered and could not blame the cold.
Sukuna's bottom set of eyes flicked to his lips and Megumi licked them, suddenly dry. Yet, Sukuna made no move to lean closer.
Megumi lifted his hands, slowly, like he was approaching a cornered beast, and cupped Sukuna's face in his palms, fingers tracing over his black curse marks, tendrils of his shadows licking along the lines, following the patterns and touching Sukuna's skin.
Four eyes, red and wide, almost like a deer in headlights locked eyes with him. The skin was hot, almost smoldering, not human, like the curse's ever-present gaze following him around.
"You never cease to surprise me, Megumi", Sukuna murmured, almost in awe.
Megumi was the one who closed the distance between them.
It was barely a kiss, a brush of lips against lips, a shared exhale. Yet it had Megumi burn like the flame Sukuna had summoned a few nights ago, made Sukuna's breath hitch in a way he had never witnessed before.
"Megumi", Sukuna repeated, almost reverently, and pulled Megumi close, pressing his face into his hair, lips finding his temple and pressing another kiss there. Megumi trembled and shifted, let himself be held, face tucked against Sukuna's neck.
He smelled different than Itadori. Itadori smelled like most teenage boys, of cheap body spray and generic soap.
Megumi's eyes fluttered close and he inhaled deeply.
Sukuna smelled like incense.
"Yo, what the hell."
Megumi reared back, the scent of incense wafting away with the wind, and stared at Itadori's befuddled expression.
"Itadori–!", he hissed and scooched backwards, cheeks likely bright red judging from the heat im them.
"Sukuna was way too relaxed and happy!", Itadori called and made a wild gesture as if that explained anything. "I thought he'd killed you, or something!"
"Are you serious?", Megumi said, flaming face and all. "You–"
"Not like I expected you to snuggle up to him", Itadori said. "Or vice versa! What's up with that?"
Megumi pulled his hood up again. "None of your business."
Itadori didn't push the topic for exactly one blissful minute.
"Fushiguro."
Megumi groaned. "What."
"Todo will beat you six ways through Sunday again if he finds out your type is the King of Curses."
"Would you drop it?!"
"Hell no!"
Megumi flipped him off half-heartedly and Itadori punched him in the shoulder, weak by his standards but still enough to almost topple Megumi over.
"Hey, Fushiguro?", Itadori spoke up again.
"What", Megumi grumbled and rubbed his sore biceps.
"Do you know what you're getting into?"
Megumi looked up, green meeting brown. Worry was etched into Itadori's face, furrowed into his brow. The easy teasing was gone from his voice and the air turned cool.
"No", Megumi admitted, softly, and looked at his hands, still warm with the phantom memory of Sukuna. "I don't."
Sukuna was a curse. Not just any curse, but the King of Curses. Megumi was well aware of it, despite the soft words, trailing touches and curious gazes so unbecoming of a curse of Sukuna's calibre.
"Please watch out for yourself", Itadori said and wrung his hands together in uncharacteristic helplessness. "I– I know about the vow you made, but there could be a loophole. Don't trust him, Fushiguro."
"That wouldn't be interesting to him, anyway", Megumi muttered and pulled a knee up to his chest, resting his chin on top of it. "But yeah. I know. And I'm not… about to fall in love with him, or something."
Itadori winced. "He is."
Megumi blinked, hard. "Huh?"
"He is. Pretty much. In love", Itadori managed to get out and groaned, letting his head fall back against the wooden back wall. "And I think that's even scarier than if he saw you as a regular sorcerer. He doesn't care about any of us but you, take it from someone who has to share a headspace with him. So, seriously, watch out for yourself."
Megumi swallowed, head spinning a little at the revelation Itadori had just served him with.
In love. Sukuna. With him.
"Is he listening in?", Megumi asked instead.
Itadori snorted. "No way. I pushed him way back."
Megumi couldn't help but be relieved. If there was one thing that was bound to lead to nothing but heartbreak and tragedy, not only for oneself but the very foundation of jujutsu society, it would be falling for a curse like Sukuna. And Megumi was not arrogant enough to believe he could change him.
If Gojou Satoru, Six Eyes, strongest sorcerer of the modern age couldn't convert Getou Suguru back to good, how could Megumi ever hope to do the same to Ryoumen Sukuna?
"It's cold", he said, and it was. Sukuna's red-hot gaze was absent, leaving him shivering in the winter air, in the realisation that the earlier kiss had laid the foundation for nothing at all because there was no viable future it could bring. The only thing this... infatuation would lead to was heartbreak and roads covered in the blood of jujutsu sorcerers.
Ryoumen Sukuna was a curse. Fushiguro Megumi was a sorcerer. At the end of the day, their relationship could only exist on opposite sides, tender reaches across cut down by the very nature of their beings.
"Yeah", Itadori said and stood. "Good night, Fushiguro."
Megumi waved.
"Night."