Chapter Text
Today was supposed to be The Day, so it’s right on par with Megumi’s usual luck that the moment he gets home after having spent the whole day mustering the guts to finally confess his feelings for his roommate, Yuuji’s not even there.
Now that some rationality is starting to return to him, he chastises himself for being so disappointed. He shouldn’t have expected Yuuji home by this time in the first place. They barely see each other these days, what with Megumi spending so much of his time at the library or chasing after his elusive professors’ office hours, while Yuuji is (more often than not) training or hanging out with his track friends.
Megumi has half a mind to regret how quickly he’d refused Yuuji’s invitation for him to join track back when they were freshmen, but ultimately, he still stands by that it would’ve been an insult to the upperclassmen to just be there so he can spend time with his crush. Besides, Megumi was never one for sports. While there was gymnastics in elementary and middle school and volleyball in high school, those were things he did mainly because of Tsumiki dragging him along for the ride. After she got tired of them, there was no real reason for him to stay.
Another reason Megumi didn’t feel the need to join track just so he could spend more time with Yuuji is that they easily found plenty of time for each other back then. With the reduced course load of freshmen, Megumi was able to limit his time spent studying and working on requirements to the weekdays. Then, on the weekends, he and Yuuji had all the time in the world: to find new hole-in-the-wall restaurants or food stands downtown, go clubbing, do karaoke, or whatever else their wallets could handle. Maybe it’s his fault for failing to consider that things wouldn’t always be that easy, but it was such a gradual slip that Megumi only realized how much things had changed when he found himself missing Yuuji, the guy he lives with.
That’s what today was supposed to change. But, oh well.
Megumi absentmindedly pads around their dorm room. He reorders his books. He rearranges his pillows. He goes back to his bookshelf in search of something to read, but nothing seems appealing. He sits on his bed, forlorn, and that’s when he notices it on the coffee table: a note.
It reads, Went to Sukuna’s place to watch his cat until he gets back from the hospital. Come hang out if you’re free! with an address at the bottom.
Megumi perks up. Maybe all hope isn’t lost quite yet.
…Is what he would say if Yuuji was actually present by the time Megumi got there.
Alas, all that greets him at Sukuna’s apartment is, well, Sukuna.
“Wow, so you are human after all,” is what Megumi opens with, at the sight of Yuuji’s almighty older brother with a huge cast on his left leg and a sling across his right arm.
“You just missed him by two whole hours,” Sukuna deadpans. He doesn’t even deign to look Megumi’s way, just watches TV with a bored look on his face while stroking his beloved cat Uraume with his free hand.
Uraume is the one who makes eye contact with Megumi: a clear glare with a matching displeased noise, as if Megumi is an intruder on sacred ground. Megumi glares right back.
“What happened to you, anyway?” Megumi asks.
“Oh, nothing. Just a minor mishap on my last crystal meth delivery,” Sukuna answers without missing a beat, still not looking in Megumi’s direction.
“Funny. What actually happened?”
Sukuna finally spares him a glance: a suspicious, narrow-eyed stare. “Since when do you care?”
Megumi huffs. “I don’t. I was just asking to be polite.”
“Didn’t sound very polite to me.”
“Ugh.”
Sukuna chuckles. “Aren’t you supposed to be mooning over my little brother right about now?”
Megumi’s fists clench at his sides. “You’re infuriating!”
“And yet, you’re still in my house. Hm.”
Megumi sighs a well and truly put-upon sigh. “Well, if you must know: I was gonna confess today, but I can’t even find him anywhere.”
To Megumi’s surprise, this statement manages to put a somewhat serious frown on Sukuna’s face.
“You really don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“Hmm. I wonder if it’d be more effective to tell or show.”
“Tell or show what?!”
Sukuna rolls his eyes. “What your roommate gets up to after dark, dum dum.”
Megumi pauses. “Huh?”
Now, it’s Sukuna’s turn to sigh. “Fucking great. It just had to be while my bike’s still in the shop. Ugh.” He looks at his cast and sling, then back at Megumi. “Come back here after your finals. Then, I can take a field trip.”
“Sorry, I’m doing what now?” Megumi smiles, incredulous.
“You know,” Sukuna says. “All this time, I’ve been wrong about you.” He shakes his head at Megumi. “I thought you were smart.”
Megumi has to use up all his willpower not to walk right up to that couch and give Sukuna a piece of his mind. “You…!”
“Go home and study or something, Megumi. That’s what you do best, anyway.”
“Somehow, coming from you, that sounds like an insult.”
“That’s because it is.”
“Well, if you’re so much smarter, why don’t you enlighten me, then?” Megumi taunts.
Sukuna snorts. “Sure. What are you working on that’s giving you the most trouble?”
Surprising even himself, Megumi answers honestly. “Physics.”
“Whose class?”
“Gojo.”
“I knew it. Should’ve picked Ms. Iori; she’s way nicer when giving grades, too.”
“Wish someone could’ve told me that at the start of the year. Did you take her class?”
“Nope, she wasn’t there yet when I had to take Physics. We all had to suffer through Gojo then, so don’t feel too bad.”
“How can I not? He’s always talking about himself and going on personal tangents during lectures; he loves giving group projects and practicals; his tests are fucking excruciating because he’s so strict with notation; and after all that he has the audacity to give out ridiculously low grades!”
“Yeah, Gojo’s a pain, but at least you’ll never have Econometrics under Ms. Mei Mei.”
“I’ve heard of her. Is she really that bad?”
“Yep. For one, she didn’t allow calculators, so we had to compute everything by hand.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Mhm. And, before every major exam, she would have the whole class bribe her by letting us bid on the topic coverage and types of questions. Even after we’d narrowed down the scope and removed shit like word problems and essays, she had a way of making the tests punishingly difficult anyway. Odds were, at the end you’d be both a failure and broke. Pretty sure she was just doing it to fuck with us.”
“What the fuck? How is that allowed?”
“No idea.”
“No one ever tried to report her or anything?”
“She had a way of dealing with snitches. No one had the guts.”
“Not even you?”
“Why would I? I passed that class just fine without ever spending a cent. Besides, I respect the grind. You ever see that bright purple sports car in the priority parking just outside the admin building? That’s hers.”
“Geez. That’s obscene.” Megumi laughs, before catching himself.
Is he… really having companionable banter with Sukuna right now? Yuuji’s brother Sukuna, unanimously nicknamed ‘the demon king’ by every single one of Yuuji and Megumi’s mutual friends?
Oh, how far the mighty have fallen indeed.
Megumi clears his throat. “Uh. I’d better get back. Dinner.”
Sukuna nods, unbothered. “Sure. See ya.”
Megumi doesn’t know why, but some part of him feels reluctant to leave.
Nonetheless, he steels himself through it, and tries not to think about that whole conversation afterwards.