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There’s no other way to put it. Megumi is having a shit day.
First, his alarm fucking broke. He didn’t know alarms could even do that. Then, after stumbling out of bed hours late with a raging headache, he runs out of toothpaste. He forgoes it altogether, quickly brushing his teeth with just water before scrambling out of his bathroom. He casts a forlorn look at his coffee maker in the kitchen, but with another glance at the time, he’s speeding out of his dorm room without even a cup of coffee to function as a half-assed breakfast. It’s horribly embarrassing, walking into the lecture hall just as the lecture he was supposed to be present for winds up, and exhausted and terribly hungry, Megumi nearly falls asleep in his next class, too.
So really, after the day he’s had, he really can’t be blamed for snapping when he sees some stranger petting and coddling his dog just a few feet away from the dorm rooms—
“Hey,” he says. “Hey,” he says louder when the other pays him no notice. At that, finally, the stranger looks up, and his eyes are wide when he meets Megumi’s glare. Must be surprised that I caught him in the act, Megumi sneers in his head. “Hands off my dog.”
The other boy—he must be around Megumi’s age, and actually, Megumi’s pretty sure they share at least one class together—blinks again. He does not take his hands off Megumi's dog.
“Is he yours?” the stranger asks, infuriatingly calm even as his hand continues scratching the bottom of Kuro’s chin. “He doesn’t have a collar or anything, though.”
Megumi’s eyebrow twitches. “He doesn’t need one,” he bites out. “Kuro. Come here.”
Kuro doesn’t move. Actually, he looks rather content in his current position. Megumi has the distinct urge to snap someone’s neck. This boy, still staring at him with wide, wide eyes, is a great contender. Before Megumi can give in to his homicidal urges, though, he takes a few steps forward, bats the other boy’s hand away, and picks up Kuro with both hands.
“Hey—hey, wait,” the other boy calls, even as Megumi tries to quickly hurry away. “How can I be sure you’re not kidnapping—er, dognapping?”
Megumi grits his teeth hard enough to hear something crack. He spins around. “I don’t want to hear that from you, dog thief.”
The stranger gasps, scandalized. “Hey! You take that back!”
Megumi takes back nothing. With a final sneer, he turns on his heel again and treks back to his dorm room, where he lets Kuro to the floor with a bereaved sigh.
“How’d you even get out, boy?” Megumi asks quietly, rubbing a hand on top of Kuro’s head. Kuro has no reply other than nudging Megumi’s hand with his nose. It’s only when Megumi stands up that he notices the door he entered through—the very open door he entered through. He rubs a hand against his forehead. “Ah, fuck,” he mutters.
Guess it was time to order another alarm clock.
He thinks it must be some sort of ill providence when he runs into the same person the very next day. Now, though, with a relatively normal amount of food in his stomach, Megumi can recognize that he was probably too harsh on the stranger.
“Hey,” he calls out, and the other boy startles when he hears Megumi.
“It’s you,” he says with a confused blink.
“It’s me,” Megumi agrees. An awkward pause stretches between them. Megumi shifts on his feet before bringing a hand to the back of his neck. “Listen, about yesterday, uh… I’m sorry. I was… I wasn’t in the best mood.”
The boy lets out a short laugh. “Uh, yeah, I could tell.” He shakes his head, then beams at Megumi. “It’s fine! I shouldn’t have snapped back, either.” He thrusts out a hand that Megumi can do nothing but stare at. “My name’s Yuuji Itadori, and I like tall girls with a big ass! Nice to meet you!”
“Uh… yeah,” Megumi says slowly, shaking Itadori’s hand even though he has no idea what to do with the offered information. “Nice to meet you.”
“You’ve got a cool dog,” Itadori continues after they let their hands drop. “What’s his name, again… Kuro, right?”
“Yeah,” Megumi confirms. He frowns. He still feels like he needs to make up for his abhorrent behavior from the day before, and only one thing is coming to mind. “You… uh, want to see him again?”
Megumi swears literal fireworks erupt in Itadori’s eyes. “Seriously?” he asks excitedly. “You’d let me?”
Megumi shrugs. “I mean, it’s the least I could do…” He trails off when Itadori gathers his hands into his own. For a few moments, he can do nothing but gawp at their enjoined hands.
“Lead the way!” Itadori cheers, apparently entirely unbothered by their sudden hand-holding. Megumi pulls his eyes away from their hands to pull Itadori towards his dorm room—
—but he never quite manages to pull his hands away.
So Itadori becomes a frequent visitor to Megumi’s dorm room. He’s usually there to spend time with Kuro, but more often now, Megumi wonders if he might be coming over so often to spend time with Megumi, too. He tries not to think about it too often.
Of course, not thinking about it too often is a lot harder when Itadori, in his typical Itadori-type fashion, blurts out:
“I really like you. We should go out!”
Megumi’s book falls out of his hands. He turns to gape at Itadori on the other side of the room, who has his hands buried in Kuro’s fur.
“You… what?”
“I really like you!” Itadori repeats, and Megumi’s eyes widen even more. “You wanna, like… go out… on a date…?” At Megumi’s silence, his expression falters. “You don’t… have to, I mean, if you don’t—”
“Oh,” Megumi interrupts with a short laugh. “Oh, I get it. This is a prank, right?”
“...no?”
“No?”
“No,” Itadori says again with a shake of his head.
“But…” Megumi hesitates. “You said you like… tall girls…”
“Oh. Well, yeah,” Itadori agrees easily. “But I like you, too!”
“I called you a dog thief the first time we met,” Megumi argues weakly.
“So did I,” Itadori says with a shrug. He pats Kuro on the head. “And look where we are now!” At Megumi’s continued silence, his grin dims. “It’s fine, though, Fushiguro, if you don’t—”
“No,” Megumi blurts out. “I mean, uh, yes. I’ll go on a date. With you.”
Itadori’s eyes widen. He looks almost as excited as when Megumi first asked him if he wanted to see Kuro. “Seriously?” he breathes out. His grin returns with the fervor Megumi’s come to know and love—
—love, huh?
“Yeah,” Megumi murmurs. He can feel his face start to heat up, and he clears his throat. “Only if Kuro can come, though.”
“...do you think we can sneak a dog into a movie theater?”
“No.”