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It’s only been a week since Suguru Geto showed up at Jujutsu High’s campus, declaring war. Tension has been high ever since, especially from the staff. Yuuta’s done his best to stay out of Principal Yaga and Gojo’s way, it was becoming clear to him that they didn’t want him to have any role in this upcoming battle.
Which was fine. He was still being haunted by Rika, still couldn’t quite figure out how to keep her from losing her shit on his fellow classmates. She’s definitely improved since the start of the year, only appearing if the cursed spirit deemed one of his classmates had gotten too close to him.
Panda and Toge knew they would be going to Kyoto once the eve of Christmas arrived. The two have been trying to put up a strong front, not wanting the rest to worry. But the tension was present.
That’s probably why Toge was coaxing the group into doing this. Yuuta found himself hunched over, behind Toge, with Maki and Panda behind him.
“Is this really a good idea?” Yuuta pipes up. They’re just a few short steps away from Shoko’s office.
“Salmon salmon.” Toge replies, and he waves off Yuuta’s sentence. He’s telling him there’s nothing to worry about. Yuuta’s gotten a decent grasp on Toge’s rice ball ingredient language. While he can’t quite compare himself to Panda and Maki, who’ve known the boy for far longer, Yuuta likes to think he’s made good progress so far.
“Yeah, you worry too much, Yuuta!” Panda says in a poor attempt at a whisper.
“Keep quiet.” Maki chastises the cursed corpse. She definitely didn’t seem too enthused to be here. But Yuuta found that Toge always had a way of convincing them to go along with his plans.
“Just hurry up and get it over with.”
Maki’s foot connects with Yuuta’s back, sending him tumbling into Toge. The shorter boy let out a raspy gasp from the impact, nearly doubling over.
“Inumaki! Are you okay?” Yuuta scrambles over to him. Yuuta wants to reach out, touch Toge’s shoulder, and check him over. But even then there’s the risk of Rika. It’s a pleasant surprise she didn’t appear from Maki kicking him. Maybe the vengeful spirit just thinks it’s sparring.
“Salmon.” Toge gives Yuuta a thumbs-up, recovering quickly.
“So much for stealth.” Panda chuckles, fascinated by the sight before him. He always seemed entertained by his human classmates.
Yuuta and I can go together. Toge signs to the group. Even with his mouth covered by the neck of his sweater, Yuuta can tell Toge is smiling just from observing his violet eyes. Sign language was something Yuuta was still learning once he realized it was another way to communicate with his classmate.
“We’ll keep watch.” Maki shoos the two boys away.
“O-Okay!” Yuuta squeaks, Toge’s hand wrapped around his wrist, pulling the dark-haired boy with him.
Through the glass window of the door, they can see the lights are off. Shoko’s gone, who knows where. It’s an unusual sight, with how many injuries occur in jujutsu, the doctor practically lives on campus.
Had she gone to plan and prepare with Gojo and the principal? Maybe she had a rendezvous with the Kyoto teacher Yuuta had met at the Goodwill event. That trip had been a bit lonely, none of his classmates could join him when he went, save for the second years. But Yuuta really didn’t talk much with Hakari or Hoshi, even after they did the school event together. Things feel more natural for Yuuta hanging out with Toge, Maki, and Panda
There’s the jiggling of the doorknob. Toge looks up at him, hand twisting at the knob.
“Oh…it’s locked.” Yuuta mumbles with realization. So much for Toge’s plan.
Stop Toge signs quickly before Yuuta can turn around and head back to Panda and Maki. He grasps Yuuta by the long sleeve of his uniform.
Yuuta’s brows knit. What was the cursed speech user planning?
Toge’s eyes sparkle, he lets go of Yuuta, now knowing the boy won’t walk away, and digs into his pocket. He pulls out a hairpin, a rather bent one. Toge shows off the pin to Yuuta before quickly bringing it up to the doorknob.
Yuuta blinks, watching as Toge pushes the pin into the keyhole of the lock. The light-haired boy fiddles with the device until there’s a click.
“Tuna, tuna!” Toge chimes joyfully. He turns the knob of Shoko’s office, opening the door.
Toge gestures to the open door, as if to say, After you.
Yuuta beams at his classmate. Toge’s always full of surprises.
“Where did you learn to do that?” He can’t help but ask. Toge merely shrugs back, and the two walk into the dark office. Neither moves to turn on the light, even though Maki and Panda are standing guard, it feels too risky.
“Tuna.”
Toge’s hand grabs Yuuta’s wrist and leads him further into the dark room. It’s not impossible to navigate, the light from the hallway is enough. Toge seems to know where he’s going, which suggests to Yuuta that the boy has done this sort of thing before.
They make it to Shoko’s desk, and Toge lets go of Yuuta’s wrist. It’s a relief to Yuuta that he can’t feel Rika’s bubbling cursed energy. If Gojo or Maki had been the one to grab him, Yuuta’s pretty positive Rika would try to manifest. Girls and older men always seemed to be an issue for the cursed spirit. Yuuta can’t help but notice the absence of Toge’s hand now. The warmth he had felt was quickly fading away. It had felt nice, good, even if it was just for a little bit. At the same time, Yuuta can’t ignore the gnawing anxiety being touched gives him. There was always the risk of Rika manifesting, hurting people, people he’s grown to care about. It was too confusing, craving and yearning to be touched, held, anything, but knowing it could lead to disaster.
He needs to find a way to free Rika and himself.
Yuuta shakes his head, trying to rid himself of these thoughts. He looks over at Toge, who was hunched over, opening up the rather large drawer the desk possessed. The shorter boy pulls out a dark green bottle. His hands grasping the neck of the bottle, showing off his find to Yuuta. A bottle of sake, to be precise.
“Nice work, Inumaki.” Yuuta smiles, though he wasn’t sure if stealing a faculty member’s booze and then drinking it was a good idea. A clever idea, sure, but a good one? Yuuta gulps.
“Mustard leaf?” Toge’s eyebrows furrow, observing Yuuta’s nervous expression.
“O-oh, don’t worry about me.” Yuuta waves his hands. “I was just thinking.”
Toge hums, wrapping his arms around the bottle. Yuuta can’t help but feel disappointment grow in his gut, Toge won’t touch him if his hands are preoccupied. He should be careful, thoughts like these might trigger Rika.
Toge walks toward the ajar door, turning around to make sure Yuuta was still following him.
“You got it then?” Maki asks when the two make their way back to her and Panda. Her arms are folded, looking unamused. Panda is wearing a smirk, finding Maki’s attitude entertaining. If Yuuta has to guess, Panda said something that made Maki mad. Which isn’t exactly a hard task, Yuuta’s accidentally done it numerous times.
It’s hard to get a read on his classmates. Panda is the most straightforward one, and he’s not even human. Maki confuses him, he’s still not really sure what her deal is. She brushes him off when he tries to ask about cursed energy, but he’s only asking since he wants to improve, and Maki clearly knows how to wield cursed tools. Toge, well, Toge had intimidated him, maybe even more than Maki. Where Maki can voice her disdain, Toge can’t.
However, Toge didn’t seem to be bothered by him at all. Panda had told him that Toge worried about him and could relate to him even. Yuuta doesn’t feel intimidated by the shorter boy anymore, but he is confused. Toge’s an enigma to him. He wants to know him better, understand him. But it’s difficult. At least with Maki, she clearly has walls she doesn’t want to drop anytime soon.
Yuuta can understand that.
Which is what makes Toge so much more frustrating. It’s clear to him they both enjoy each other’s company, but there’s still such a rift. Yuuta needs to practice sign language more and hope his brain will finally click and understand exactly what Toge is saying when he speaks.
“Salmon.”
“Alright, time to get this party going.” Panda chuckles, and with that, the group starts heading back to their dorm's common room.
“Aren’t you supposed to serve sake warm?” Maki asks, an eyebrow raised.
The four of them are sitting at the kotatsu. Yuuta feels cozy, the table doing its job keeping him warm. December was gearing up to be colder than he anticipated. A warm beverage does sound pretty appealing right now.
“How do you know that?” Panda asks gruffly, he doesn’t seem to believe Maki.
“I know that ‘cause the Zenins always wanted us to serve them.” She snaps back. Yuuta’s eyes widen hearing that. He really doesn’t know much about Maki’s home life, other than it probably wasn’t very good, given she didn’t like being addressed by her last name.
“Well, I went on the internet, and it said heat destroys the flavor profile.” Panda argues back. It’s silly, imagining him browsing the internet and researching alcohol. Yuuta’s not even sure if the cursed corpse is capable of getting drunk.
“I…uh, don’t think flavor is what we’re going for.” Yuuta interrupts them.
“Yuuta’s right, this is about getting drunk.” Maki nods at him.
“Salmon.”
“Alright, alright.” Panda waves his paws.
Toge stands up and takes the bottle, moving to each one of them. He carefully pours into their mismatched cups. Each person gives a thank you to Toge, who sits back down in his spot.
“Cheers?” Yuuta asks, sheepishly lifting up his cup. Toge hums in response, lifting his own, the other two following shortly after.
Yuuta is pretty certain he’s supposed to drink it in one gulp, so he downs the alcohol. It’s surprisingly smooth going down, not at all what he expected. The others don’t seem to struggle with it, copying his move. There’s a steady burning sensation in his stomach now, maybe all at once wasn’t a good idea.
Oh well. His classmates copied him, they’re in this mess together.
“Now what?”
Toge signs something Yuuta can’t recognize. He narrows his eyes, as if doing that would help.
“Truth or dare.” Panda answers for him.
“Oh… okay.”
Yuuta can see out of the corner of his eyes Maki rolling her own. Yet she makes no move to get up and leave, it seems all four of them will partake in this game.
Before he realizes what’s happening, the cups are being refilled and drunk. Toge’s fair skin looks flushed with color now, and Maki’s as well, though not as much. Yuuta wonders if his face looks the same.
He feels lighter, as if the things they had all been stressing about are far away. This truth or dare game feels a lot more important than Geto’s supposed war declaration.
“Okay! Yuuta’s the oldest here, so he gets to go first!” Panda bellows, pointing a claw at Yuuta.
“Me?” Yuuta points inwardly at himself, surprised.
“Yeah! Truth or dare?”
Toge and Maki stare at him. It feels like their gazes are burning into him.
“Uh… truth!”
“Okay…” Panda put his claw to his lips in thought. “Have you ever said ‘I love you’ to someone and not meant it?”
Yuuta’s brows furrow at the question. Panda seems to have pulled that question out of his ass. But lying about love? Yuuta could never.
“What?” He asked, surprised by how serious his voice sounds. “Of course not. I would never lie about something like that.”
Maki snorts at his response. “Yeah, I don’t think we were expecting a different answer.”
“Salmon.”
“Aren’t you and Rika, like, engaged?” Panda asks. The group knew about the cursed spirit, of course, they had gathered enough to know Rika was a childhood sweetheart of his. Or maybe Gojo gossiped about it with them.
“Uh, yeah, something like that, it was a promise,” Yuuta mumbles, feeling embarrassed. “Uh…anyway, who goes next? Is it by age or—
“You pick.” Maki cuts him off.
“Oh! Alright, uh… Toge?” He looks over at the spiky-haired boy.
“Salmon?”
“Truth or dare?”
Toge signs at him. After seeing it the first time, Yuuta has a better idea of what it is now.
“Dare?”
A nod from the shorter boy. Yuuta smiles, now thinking of what exactly he could get Toge to do. He looks around the room, eyeing the unopened Tabasco sauce bottle.
“I dare you to drink straight from that!”
Yuuta points at the bottle, a little grin forming. It has to be a good idea for a dare, right?
Toge shrugs, standing up to go retrieve the sauce.
“That’s hardly a dare for him.” Maki comments, her hand resting on her chin. She swirls the contents in her cup before taking a swig.
“What do you mean?”
“Toge eats food with that stuff all the time.” Panda laughs heartily.
“Oh…”
Yuuta’s not quite sure what he feels. On one hand, it kind of sucks his choice of a dare isn’t much of a challenge for Toge. On the other hand, it is nice to learn a little more about his quiet classmate.
The three watch as Toge lifts the bottle up to his lips and starts to chug. They’re all buzzed enough to not be grossed out by it. The short boy sets the bottle down on the counter with a clank and wipes his lips with his sleeve.
It then dawns on Yuuta that he really doesn’t see Toge’s lips that often, they’re usually covered up by his scarf, his uniform, or a mask. It feels almost intimate. Which is a weird thought to have about one of your friends, so Yuuta quickly dismisses it.
Toge waltzes back over, a pep in his step. He grabs the bottle of sake, pouring himself another cup and quickly downs it, washing away the hot sauce.
“That was impressive.” Yuuta comments. It might not be that way to Maki or Panda, but Yuuta’s being honest, he really had no idea Toge enjoyed spicy food.
“Alright, it’s Toge’s turn now.” Panda announces. It makes the dark-haired boy realize he’s been staring at Toge.
Panda. Toge signs at the bear. Truth or dare?
“Dare!”
Toge giggles to himself before signing, Bark like a dog.
“Aw.” The cursed corpse groans. “But I’m not a dog, I’m a panda.”
“Don’t wuss out.” Maki chides.
“Ugh, fine. But no videos.”
Panda opens his mouth, letting out a loud bark. Toge claps enthusiastically, thoroughly amused by the tomfoolery. Yuuta can’t help but chuckle at the sight, while Maki lets out a snort.
“Alright, you all had your fun.” Panda grumbles. “My turn now.” His beady eyes narrow at Maki, clearly not amused by her reaction to his dog impression.
Maki glowers at him. Panda hasn’t said anything yet, but she has a good idea of what’s about to happen. She takes a sip of her drink, her face a light pink from the alcohol.
“Maki. Truth or dare?”
“Truth.” Maki begins. “You’d make me do something too stupid otherwise.”
The cursed corpse is grinning now. His eyes go from Maki to Yuuta. Who, in turn, squirms uncomfortably. If a dare was too stupid, he has a feeling whatever Panda is about to say will probably be just as stupid.
“If you had to pick someone to kiss in this room… Who would it be?”
Yuuta tenses up hearing that, Panda’s always putting Maki on the spot like that. Maybe because she’s the only girl here? He watches the girl tense up as well, her scowl becoming deeper.
“You’re a dumbass.” She huffs, “All of you are.” She then clarifies, looking around the table.
“Pollock roe.” Toge rolls his eyes and flips Maki off.
“C’mon, you gotta answer.” Panda grins.
Maki groans. “By process of elimination, I’m not going to kiss a panda, that’s gross, so you’re out.”
Maki then looks between Toge and Yuuta, eyes shifting between them. She hums to herself, in deep thought.
“Toge doesn’t like girls, so I don’t think I’d want to force him to kiss one.” Maki shrugs as she says it. “I guess I’d kiss Yuuta if I had to pick one of you dolts.”
Yuuta feels himself shrink at this information. Kissing anyone was just unheard of for Yuuta. He can’t imagine doing that while Rika haunts his every move. His throat tightens, not because of what Maki said, but because of who heard those words. Her cursed energy is starting to bubble up, it makes his body burn painfully, trying to keep Rika at bay. Combined with feeling a little woozy from drinking, Yuuta feels like the room is spinning.
Please, not now.
Please, not now.
Please, not now.
Don’t, don’t, don’t.
He silently begs her. Maki didn’t mean it, please don’t hurt anyone.
Maki stands up, completely unaware of Yuuta's internal crisis. He’s picked up that she can be observant on the battlefield, not so much when it comes to other people. Yuuta’s staring down at his hands, he hears a crack and looks up to see Maki kicking Panda in the face.
“Ow! That hurt, you know!”
“Good. Don’t ask stupid questions.”
A hand brushes against his clenched fist.
“Mustard leaf?” Toge whispers. Panda and Maki are going back and forth now, not noticing or caring about Yuuta’s panicked behavior. The prickling sensation of Rika’s cursed energy starts to diminish, and the dark-haired boy breathes a sigh of relief.
“I’m okay… Thanks, Inumaki.” Yuuta smiles softly as he looks up at the boy. Toge’s hand gently opens up the balled fist and gives Yuuta’s hand a reassuring squeeze. There’s no internal panic, he can’t feel Rika anymore.
Maki sits back down with a huff, and Panda looks at Yuuta. Despite Maki roughing him up he’s still grinning. The bear looks ready to mention Yuuta having a shot again but stops himself when his eyes glance down at Toge holding Yuuta’s hand.
Panda smiles instead, he doesn’t say anything about the handholding, he rubs his nose, which looks just a bit bruised from Maki’s foot. It’s less damage than Yuuta was expecting, the girl must have held herself back. Toge takes Panda’s staring as a sign and lets go of Yuuta’s hand.
“Well, Maki, you get to pick the next victim.”
Maki narrows her eyes at Yuuta, probably misdirected rage after Panda’s question. He lets out a sigh, knowing she’s set her sights on him as a target.
“Yuuta.”
“Uh… dare.” He might as well try something different than last time.
Maki’s lips curl in thought before she nods to herself.
“Alright, dare you to lick a bar of soap.”
Any lingering anxiety is mostly gone now. It’s a relief, his main stressor now is just having to lick a bar of soap. It’ll taste nasty, he’s sure, but it can’t be that bad. With a new sense of confidence, Yuuta opens his mouth.
“Alright, bring it on.”
Yuuta’s pretty sure he can handle worse once he finishes his dare. It still had a rather unappealing taste and sensation. Toge nudges him, offering a cup filled with more sake to drown out the taste of soap on his tongue.
Yuuta eagerly accepts, downing the drink. It definitely helps. He sets the cup down with a louder clank than he means, he’s been feeling a lot more clumsy with the liquor in his system. But overall, right now he feels pleasant, his body feels warm with the sake in his belly.
“Pandaaa.” He might be slurring, but the dark-haired boy can’t be bothered to care.
Panda’s ears twitch, and he shifts, waiting for Yuuta to finish.
“Truth? Or dare?”
“I guess I’ll go with truth this time.”
“Yay.” Yuuta smiles, he really has no idea why he said that. It doesn’t matter to him what Panda picks out. He’s not even sure if his brain will cooperate with him.
“Um…” Yuuta closes his eyes in thought. “Uh… What’s your lifelong goal?”
Panda looks bewildered, he scratches the top of his head with his claw. “I…never really thought about that… I guess it would be pretty neat to meet another cursed corpse like me.”
“Like you?”
“Yeah, well, a cursed corpse created by a human tends to just follow the sorcerer’s commands. It would be interesting to meet one like me, who’s sentient.”
“Ohhh.”
“You’re all drunker than I was expecting.” Panda chuckles, looking around the kotatsu. The bear himself seemed sober compared to the three of them, especially to Yuuta. Panda nods at Toge, making his mark.
“What will it be?”
Truth. Toge signs. The boy’s face is flush with color, his violet eyes a little more droopy than usual, all the impact from the rice wine they had been consuming. Yuuta watches the grin on Panda’s maw, he must be up to something again. One would think he learned his lesson when Maki kicked him.
Panda chuckles, and instead of opening his mouth to say something, he moves his hands instead. Panda made the decision to sign his question at Toge. Yuuta’s meager sign language skills and his drunkenness contribute to him not being able to make out much of anything Panda signs. Panda’s hands meet and then push away. Yuuta furrows his brow, trying to decipher. Maki lets out a huff, clearly she knows what Panda had asked.
“Salmon.” Toge responds. Panda’s eyes move from the cursed speech user and then over to Yuuta. That makes the dark-haired boy’s heart jump a little, he’s not entirely sure why. Yuuta glances at Toge, the light-haired boy’s face looks even more red than before. Panda must have asked something embarrassing, probably in the same vein as what he asked Maki. Did it have to do with him?
Panda always likes to stir the pot, especially when it comes to his classmates' love lives. Yuuta always seems to be in the middle of it. He can’t say he’s the biggest fan of it. Although, he definitely is curious to know exactly what was asked.
“Inumaki?” Yuuta is quiet as he speaks. It feels as if he and Toge are in their own little bubble.
The two stare at each other, faces red and sweaty from drinking and being embarrassed. Yuuta can hear Maki get up and haul Panda out of the room, mentioning something about beating the bear up for always putting his classmates in awkward situations. It’s just them in the room now. Yuuta’s heart races.
Want to know what Panda asked? Toge signs at him, his hands are clumsier than normal. Yuuta gives a short nod, he can’t stop the heat growing on his face, he wants to know.
Toge’s hands mimic the gesture Panda had done, but he then pulls out his phone. The boy opens the notes app on his phone and starts typing. Yuuta watches over his shoulder as Toge misspells the words, and they quickly get autocorrected as he types.
he asked if i wanted 2 kiss someone.
Yuuta blinks, reading the screen over several times. The words take their time to register within his brain. Finally his eyes widen, and he lets out a little “Oh.”
Toge giggles watching Yuuta’s reaction. The shorter boy’s eyelids flutter as he glances up at him.
“Like, someone in this room or—
Yuuta can’t finish his sentence as Maki stomps back into the room, interrupting him. Panda sluggishly walks behind her. The cursed corpse rubs at his head, no doubt he took a beating from Maki while they were gone.
“Whose turn is it?” Maki asks, taking her seat once more.
Yuuta doesn’t have the opportunity to ask Toge more about that question. He swallows, trying to rid his mind of the very idea. Panda’s eyes are on Yuuta now. The bear seems to be observing him.
Toge raises his hand at Maki’s question. He points at Yuuta then, making his decision. The dark-haired boy’s stomach flips.
“Uh…D-dare.” He stutters out. Will Toge ask him a dare in a similar vein as Panda? Yuuta feels a blush crawl up his face at the thought.
Toge grabs his phone off the table. Apparently signing was too troublesome now. Most likely due to their waning levels of sobriety. Toge shoves the phone into Yuuta’s face. He scrunches his face up at the brightness as he starts to read.
prank call gojo n ask him 2 buy us fastfood.
“Oh, okay… I can…I can try.” It makes him a bit nervous to bother Gojo. The man was probably busy with important things, especially with Suguru Geto’s threat looming over them.
Still, Yuuta isn’t about to back out of a dare. So he fishes his phone out of his pocket, scrolls through his contact list, and hits the call button. The rest of his classmates watch him like a hawk as he presses the phone to his ear.
“Yuuta? Is everything okay?” Gojo sounds wide awake when he answers the call.
“Uh, yes—I mean no!” He watches Maki shove her palm into her face as he flubs his lines.
“No?”
“Um, Teacher… can you pick us up some fries?”
“Fries?” Gojo repeats, sounding bewildered by the request.
“Don’t forget to get burgers and drinks.” Panda supplies rather unhelpfully.
“Salmon roe!”
“And burgers and drinks too.” Yuuta adds on, no doubt slurring his words. He hears a noise of puzzlement on the other end.
“Yuuta, are you and your classmates drinking?”
“No!” Yuuta yelps into the phone and quickly disconnects the call. He sighs in relief, dropping his phone to the ground. He looks up at the rest of them.
“He probably knows we’ve all been drinking.”
“No shit,” Maki comments, “Even if you didn’t give it away, Satoru’s six eyes see everything.”
Panda and Toge chuckle at that. If Gojo really cared that they were all drinking, he would have visited and taken the booze away by now. Yuuta’s not entirely sure what to make of that. His teacher probably knew that the kids needed some coping mechanism to get through being jujutsu sorcerers. Underage drinking might be better than some of the other options.
It’s his turn now. He needs to come up with a good truth or dare. The one he had asked Panda earlier was a bit lackluster, and Toge had done his dare like it was hardly a challenge.
“Maki!”
“Alright, show me what you got, Yuuta. I’ll do dare.”
The boy only needs to think for a little bit before he gets his idea.
“Okay, okay.” Yuuta nods to himself. “I dare you to read us the last text message you got!”
Maki’s eyes widen behind her frames. She slowly takes out her phone from her back pocket, maybe even hesitantly.
“Fine.” She sighs as she unlocks the device.
“Ohh, what’s it going to be?” Panda asks, smirking. He nudges Toge’s shoulder. “I bet she gossiped with someone about her crush.”
“Crush?” Yuuta tilts his head, confused. He’s not sure about that.
“Bonito Flakes.” Toge doesn’t seem that sure either.
“I don’t have a crush, you idiots.” And Maki confirms their thoughts. She clears her throat as she reads the text.
“Don’t text me again until you figure out what you did wrong. You asshole.”
“I thought the dare was to read a message you got, not one you sent.” Panda sneers.
“I didn’t send this one.” Maki says. She glares at Panda. Yuuta honestly was under the same impression as Panda, it seems like something Maki would say to someone if they pissed her off enough.
Yuuta opens his mouth to ask who, no longer having the impulse control to stop himself. Thankfully for him, Toge grabs his shoulder, stopping him. Toge watches Maki, he seems to have an understanding of what the girl meant. Still, Maki sighs, knowing the other two are curious.
“It’s from my sister.”
Right, Maki’s mentioned having a sister before. Vaguely, she never gave Yuuta many details. It just reminds him that he doesn’t know very much about her. Was Maki estranged from her family? More and more things seem to hint at that. It makes Yuuta realize he also doesn’t know much about Toge’s home life either. That’s something he wants to change. Did Toge have a strained relationship with his parents like Yuuta did? Did his cursed technique cause issues like Rika did for his family?
“Ugh, this game was stupid.” Maki declares, tearing away Yuuta from his sobering thoughts.
“Uh, sorry… Maki.”
Maki let out a sigh. “It’s whatever, I could have just quit the game.” The girl stood up from her spot, stretching. “I’m going to bed.”
They bid Maki a good night as she leaves the common area, heading for her dorm room. Yuuta lets out a pitiful sigh. He can’t help but feel like he ruined the game with his dare. There’s a warm hand patting his back now.
“Mustard Leaf.” It was Toge’s way of showing concern. Maybe this time it was him telling Yuuta that it’s okay.
“Toge’s right. It’s not your fault, Maki just gets like that sometimes.”
Go check on her. Toge signs at Panda. Yuuta feels his heart flutter, if Panda leaves, he can finish asking Toge that question. Maybe it’s a little selfish of him. Maybe he should be the one to check on Maki. But the dark-haired boy is pretty certain Maki would hate it if he did. Panda knows her a little better than he does.
Panda sighs and gets up. “Have fun, you two.” He lilts as he heads to the dorm rooms. Yuuta can feel the heat rise to his cheeks. He doesn’t feel as inebriated anymore, maybe just a mild buzz now. He watches as Panda disappears down the dark hallway, out of sight. It’s his turn now.
“Um… Inumaki?”
“Salmon?”
“S-so… Who would you kiss?”
Toge’s cheeks are red, the tips of his ears quickly turn a similar shade. He pulls down the blue scarf hiding the bottom half of his face. His lips and his curse markings are now visible, right in front of Yuuta. He can’t help but wonder what those lips might feel like, would he be able to feel the markings brush up against him?
Toge’s hand reaches out, gripping Yuuta’s white shirt. The fabric balls in his hand underneath his grip.
“Really?” Yuuta can’t help but ask, even if by now it should be painfully obvious.
Toge nods meekly, his violet eyes darting down to look at the ground before moving back up to meet Yuuta’s dark blue ones. He can’t help but feel nervous, he’s never kissed a boy before, never really had a proper kiss in general. The chaste ones he shared with Rika when they were children weren't quite the same.
“Can we?”
“Salmon.”
Toge’s hand moves from his shirt up to his cheek. His thumb delicately caresses Yuuta’s cheek, his face inching closer until their noses could almost touch. It feels nice, this closeness, Toge’s hand on his cheek, his breath fanning his face, and the fact Rika remains quiet.
The last part is a huge relief for Yuuta. It allows him to finally let go and not hold back. He tilts his head and presses their lips together. The taller boy’s hands move to Toge’s head, one holding his cheek and the other caressing the back of his head. He can feel the boy’s hair gel stick to his fingers as he rakes a hand through Toge’s spiky hair. Yuuta can feel Toge sigh into the kiss, and it makes his heart jump.
The dark-haired boy pulls away before things can get more heated. He can feel her energy starting to stir.
“Ah, shit…” He mumbles. Toge starts to back away, he can sense the intense cursed energy now manifesting.
“Yuuuutaaaa.” Rika’s shrill voice pierces through the room. The vengeful spirit has started to manifest. Her sharp teeth gleaming, Yuuta can only imagine she’s staring holes through Toge, though she lacks the eyes to do so.
“Rika!” Yuuta cries out, turning towards her. “Calm down.”
Rika snarls as she speaks, her words dragged out and haunting. “Why were you kissing another—
“Not a girl! A boy! It’s different.” Yuuta says in an attempt to placate her.
“A boy?” She turns back to stare at Toge, tilting her head.
“Salmon, salmon!” Toge nods along. He looks scared, but also a little disappointed. Maybe because their kiss was cut short, or maybe because of what Yuuta had said.
It wasn’t different to him. But Yuuta can’t risk Rika hurting Toge. The kiss felt good, he wants to do it again. If he can convince Rika that whatever they did is not the same as kissing a girl, everything will be okay.
Toge runs a hand through his hair, and he pulls his scarf back up to hide his kiss-swollen lips.
“The only girl I’d kiss is Rika, okay?” Yuuta smiles softly at the cursed spirit. Rika in turn starts shifting excitedly, pleased to hear that come out of Yuuta’s mouth. She fades away in only a matter of seconds, satisfied with Yuuta.
“Inumaki, I’m sorry… I just… I wanted to kiss you, I should have thought about the risks.” Yuuta sighs out. He averts his eyes, looking at his lap.
Toge shakes his head, he doesn’t blame him for this. Instead, the shorter boy takes Yuuta’s hand into his own, interweaving their fingers together.
“Yeah… This is also nice.” Yuuta says, smiling.