Chapter Text
Yuji coughed, a heavy feeling resting in his lungs, he’d been coughing ever since his mission earlier that day; him and Nobara had been assigned to take care of a simple low level curse that’d been inhabiting an abandoned home in a small neighborhood. The only thing off about it was the fact they didn’t exorcise it, it muttered something and practically blew itself up! Although, Nobara didn’t seem to be affected, maybe it was just a cold. Yeah, just a cold.
He shook his head, walking a bit faster to catch up to Nobara, “Kugisaki! Come onnn, you’ve gotta wait for me!” Yuji whined, keeping his pace with her, “Hey, don’t you think that curse was a bit weird?”
“We exorcised it anyway, why would it matter?” She rolled her eyes. “It’s a cursed spirit either way, doesn’t make a difference to me how it acts as long as it’s dead in the end.”
That… actually made a lot of sense, Nobara was right, she normally was, but it was still refreshing to hear it coming from her. He sighed, he felt a lot better now, “Yeah you’re right! Guess it was just too scared to fight us, huh?”
Nobara grinned, “Damn right!” She punched him in the arm lightly, it had definitely lightened the mood as they returned to Jujutsu High; It took them a bit to get there, but Yuji was just happy to be able to collapse into his bed. He shucked off his shoes, kicking them to the corner before sitting back in his bed. The dorms of the school had ended up being surprisingly comfortable, the extra space was sure surprising but he hadn’t expected them to be so nice.
He closed his eyes and just sat there for a bit, the peace was calming, it was always helpful in rebuilding his energy after a mission.
The sound of his door sliding open caught his attention before he barely managed to stop a bento from hitting him in the face, looking at Megumi in the doorway. He was as grumpy as ever, holding his own bento as he came in and sat down at the coffee table; they’d just recently put it together after Gojo ordered it on a whim seeing how undecorated Yuji’s room was.
“Nobara told me you seemed off after the mission, I thought you might be hungry.” Megumi opened his own bento, he’d made oyakodon the night before, whether the suspicious extra amount that so happened to be just enough for another bento was done on purpose he wouldn’t tell.
“Thanks!” Yuji smiled, shuffling off the bed down to where Megumi had sat, opening his bento happily, “You know, the curse we exorcised today exploded by itself! How weird is that?” He laughed, Megumi simply rolled his eyes in response, the slightest smile on his face.
“You’ll end up encountering a lot more curses like that while being a jujutsu sorcerer.” He ate another chunk of his food, poking around at it a bit to mix the toppings in, “I had to exorcise one that had hundreds of eyes all over its body.”
“Woah! Did they all blink at the same time or was it like when a frog blinks?”
Their conversation continued on like that while they ate, laughing over past curses Megumi had to exorcise, simply just enjoying the opportunity to be in one another's company. They’d ended up sitting on his bed once finished eating, demon dog totality sat behind them, acting as a large comforter to rest against.
“So how many curses have you exorcised?” Yuji looked over to Megumi, “Like in total, would you be able to give me a rough estimate?”
“Nah,” He waved his hand, “I’ve been doing this longer than you have so of course I’ve exorcised a lot of them. If I tried to count I’d just tire myself out.”
“Well, one day I’ll beat your amount! Mark my words, I’ll try my hardest to exorcise as many curses as I can!” Yuji grinned, receiving a fond sigh from Megumi in response. He yawned, realizing just how late it’d gotten. Megumi stood up, letting the demon dog go, which made Yuji fall back and hit his head on the wall.
“Ow! Warn a guy first!” He pouted, “Aww, are you going back to your room already?”
“It’s late, if you're gonna beat my record, you’ll need to be well rested.”
“Right!” He nodded, waving as Megumi left the room, leaving him to sit in silence, his lungs gained that heavy feeling again. It was almost as if something had settled deep within them. His throat felt itchy as coughs made their way out of his throat, trying to get whatever was in his lungs out.
Yuji covered his mouth with his hand, eyes widening when he felt blood splatter onto it. What the hell was going on? He pulled his hand back, staring at it in shock. There was a flower petal. He coughed up a fucking flower petal.
It was a white petal, the blood had coated it but he could see it well enough. Was it a gardenia? Yuji tossed it off to the side, he’d have to ask Shoko about it later. For now, he was simply tired. He grabbed his blanket and pulled it to cover himself; his room felt cold and lonely.
He wished Megumi had stayed longer, even if it was irrational of him. He coughed more, a few more petals left his mouth, and fell onto the bed. If it truly was something life-threatening, Sukuna could handle it. The more he stared at the petals the more thoughts swirled in his head, was Nobara experiencing the same things? Was he worried over nothing? Was it just a side effect of the curse that would go away?
Yuji didn’t find the answer to any of these questions, opting to curl up further under his covers, hugging his knees like a child would. He was tired, surely he’d find the answer to these questions come morning when he could visit Shoko. Yeah, he’d figure it out.