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When Gojo announced that the first years’ next mission was going to be on a luxury cruise ship, Yuuji couldn’t be more thrilled. He’s never been on any boat at all, let alone a cruise ship! Those are like super fancy! And the three of them even got to wear fancy outfits to fit the occasion!
Yuuji is practically bouncing around the room as he gets dressed. He can’t recall a single time in his life where he’s worn anything this expensive. The whole experience is going to be super cool!
“Hey, Fushiguro, have you ever been on a boat like this before? Like a big cruise one?” Yuuji asks excitedly, buttoning up his shirt. The two of them were both in the process of getting dressed for the night.
“Once, on a mission.” Fushiguro answers simply, fidgeting with his sleeves.
“That’s so cool!” Yuuji beams.
He goes to the mirror to try and tie his tie. He swears his grandpa taught him once before, but now that he’s trying to remember it, it’s all hazy. He tries not to let that deter him and he continues to poorly attempt at tying it while rambling.
“How was it? Actually, wait, what’s the first thing we should do on the cruise? ‘Cause like, I’ve never been on one and…”
Yuuji loses his train of thought and shuts his mouth. His tie, to put it simply, did not look anything like how a tie was supposed to. He continues to stare at it awkwardly in silence, trying to figure out how in the hell he created this knotted monstrosity.
“Itadori, do you not know how to tie a tie?” Fushiguro asks quizzically, raising a brow at the tangled mess of a tie around the other boy’s neck.
“Uhm,” Yuuji starts to say. He decides to give it another shot, just in case, but the tie still doesn’t tie properly. In fact, this attempt is even worse than the last. “…no?”
Fushiguro sighs, but he doesn’t sound irritated. It sounds…fond? Sort of?
“Here,” Fushiguro tells him with that same softness to his tone, “I’ll show you.”
His spiky haired boyfriend moves to stand next to him, unties his own tie, and looks at Yuuji in the mirror. He adjusts the two sides of the tie and leaves them at uneven lengths, but, knowing Fushiguro, that has to be intentional. He shoots Yuuji a look afterwards, one that clearly means he wants Yuuji to follow his lead.
“First you grab the side on your left.”
Yuuji copies him, grabbing the same piece of the tie as Fushiguro.
“Then the rabbit goes under the log.”
Yuuji blinks in surprise at the words, but Fushiguro continues as if what he said was a perfectly normal sentence. The dark-haired boy takes the tie piece he’s holding and tucks it under the other one and—oh! That’s what he means! Yuuji tries (and fails) not to smile as he scrambles to make his tie look like Fushiguro’s.
“Then the rabbit jumps up and goes in the burrow.”
He’s still doing the rabbit analogy, holy shit. Fushiguro’s no doubt doing something else with the tie now, but Yuuji’s hardly paying attention. He wonders if Fushiguro came up with this himself.
Yuuji barely suppresses a laugh at the thought. Not because it sounds dumb or anything, but because it sounds so so cute. Even if he hadn’t come up with it himself, the fact that he’s saying it all is cute, and it’s strange for Fushiguro to be cute. Fushiguro is always cool, breathtakingly handsome and incredible, not so much cute, so to see a side of him like this has Yuuji rather charmed.
…Wait, now that he thinks of it, Fushiguro is cute a lot, actually. There’s those times where he’s sweet with his Shikigami even though he insists they’re not pets, or when his face scrunches up when he’s thinking, or when—
“Are you listening?” Fushiguro asks him, sounding actually annoyed at this point. Unhelpfully, Yuuji thinks that even the face he’s making right now is cute. How’d he never realize this before? “Do you want me to help you or not?”
“Sorry! Rabbit in the, uh, rabbit thing.” He says, frantically tucking the tie into the loop.
“In the burrow. Then it takes a trip, but it gets tired so it goes in the little rabbit hole and goes to sleep.” Fushiguro finishes, letting go of his tie, which looks perfect.
Yuuji barely registers that he’s supposed to be doing something with his tie as well, unable to stop thinking about how Fushiguro did the rabbit analogy the whole way through.
“Little rabbit hole…asleep…” Yuuji mutters to himself, trying his best to copy Fushiguro, but, by the time his rabbit has gone to sleep, his tie looks not even remotely tie-like.
“Agh, what happened!?” Yuuji exclaims, looking at the orange fabric that’s supposed to be a tie.
“It just takes practice. You can try again.” Fushiguro, though he acts all gruff, is an absolute sweetheart and unties his beautiful tie (once again) just to show Yuuji. Yuuji struggles for a few moments to get the knots in his pathetic excuse for a tie undone, but he gets there eventually and is ready to try this rabbit method once again.
“Did you make sure the sides are different lengths?” Fushiguro asks. Yuuji fiddles with his tie to make it look more like Fushiguro’s, then nods.
“It’s the big rabbit that likes to go under the log.” He adds.
Yuuji slowly and clumsily tries again, looping the longer piece of the tie under the shorter one as instructed.
“The rabbit goes up and into the burrow,” Fushiguro tells him a second time, looping the tie through the hole slowly to make sure he sees it.
Yuuji tries very hard to focus on the exact way he does it; pick up all the little details. He watches Fushiguro’s hands like his life depends on it. His movements are graceful and careful, but not in a way where he seems to be putting a lot of effort into tying the tie deliberately. It seems like second nature to the other boy to just effortlessly and delicately tie a tie. He’s really amazing…Yuuji realizes he’s been staring at Fushiguro’s gorgeous slender fingers for too long and quickly moves his own hands to continue tying his tie.
“Then the rabbit goes on a trip. I think you forgot that part last time. Remember it has to go on a trip and that’s why it’s tired.” Fushiguro explains with that lovely voice of his.
Yuuji really really tries to be a good listener and do it right this time. Fushiguro is great at explaining, so Yuuji just messed it up somewhere.
“Then it goes into the little rabbit hole and goes to sleep.”
Ok, second time’s a…he would say second time is a charm but the way the saying goes is third time’s a charm. He must have jinxed himself because it miraculously did not work. Again.
“I think maybe you-“ Fushiguro starts to say before he’s cut off by rapid knocking on the door.
“The hell are you guys doing in there? Hurry up!” Kugisaki complains from the other side of the door.
“I’m tying my tie! Give me a minute!” Yuuji shouts back.
“It’s been like a million minutes!” She huffs. “And where’d Fushiguro go?”
“He’s here with me!”
“I’m helping him tie his tie,” Fushiguro replies, though at a normal volume rather than shouting.
“You’re helping him tie his-ugh, forget it! You guys are ridiculous! I’m just going to get on the cruise and leave you two here!”
The sound of Kugisaki’s heels can be heard clacking loudly against the floor. She’s no doubt stomping away dramatically in an effort to hurry them up.
“We can try it again,” Fushiguro suggests.
“Maybe I just can’t do it.” Yuuji laments, looking at his sad mess of a tie in the mirror and untangling it.
“If you think like that, then you won’t be able to.” The taller tells him. Yuuji just sighs.
“You’re just like super good at it and I don’t even know what I’m doing.”
“What, do you want me to tie it for you or something?” Fushiguro raises a brow.
“Can you?” Yuuji asks, giving him puppy dog eyes.
Fushiguro doesn’t say anything, simply grabs him by the tie and does so. Yuuji thinks he might die a second time. He forgets how to breathe and his heart stutters erratically. Fushiguro loops the untied tie into a perfectly tied tie in what must have been a matter of seconds. Yuuji finds himself deeply impressed.
“There,” Fushiguro says, hands hovering over Yuuji’s tie still.
“Uh, thanks. Thanks a ton, Fushiguro. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You’d just go out without a tie, probably.” Fushiguro answers in a deflective manner, seeming a little shy at the praise. He starts to retract his hands but Yuuji really doesn’t want him to.
“Wait a second!” Yuuji exclaims. Sure enough, Fushiguro stops, hands almost grazing his chest and his face remaining inches away from Yuuji’s. “There’s…a wrinkle in your jacket?” He decides to say.
Pretending like he’s in a movie, he tries to pat down an imaginary wrinkle on Fushiguro’s shoulder. He leaves his hand there, hoping that that was smooth.
Fushiguro doesn’t say anything, just looks at him with wide eyes. Maybe he’s not in the mood for this when they have to leave for the cruise soon. Or maybe he just didn’t like Yuuji’s bad flirting.
“Uh, sorry.” Yuuji apologizes after a few moments of silence, removing his hand from Fushiguro’s shoulder. Fushiguro catches his arm by the elbow before he can fully retract it.
“You have one too.”
“Huh?”
“A wrinkle in your jacket.” Fushiguro tells him, smoothing out his sleeve. Like Yuuji’s horrible attempt earlier, he lets his hand linger.
“Oh. Thanks.” Yuuji says breathily. The contact on his arm burns, not in a bad way, just in a oh-my-god-Fushiguro’s-hand-is-still-on-my-arm way. “Thanks for helping me with my tie, too.”
“I couldn’t even teach you how to do it.” Fushiguro huffs, discrediting himself.
“You’re a great teacher, though! I think you’re right, I just need more practice.” Yuuji licks his lips, which had started feeling dry all of the sudden, and looks into Fushiguro’s eyes. They’re soft and inviting and Yuuji wants to stay here with him forever. “Maybe we could try another time?”
“Yeah.” Fushiguro nods.
They don’t act on their words, however. Yuuji doesn’t make an effort to untie his tie and neither does Fushiguro. Yuuji doesn’t want to break the contact, and it seems Fushiguro feels the same. In fact, Yuuji wants to be closer, he wants them to be touching even more.
The frantic knocking at the door returns, startling them apart.
“If you guys are seriously still in there I’m going to kick your asses.” The oldest of the three threatens.
Yuuji scrambles to open the door.
“We’re coming, we’re coming! I just had to fix my jacket.” Yuuji lies, opening the door and being greeted with Kugisaki’s scowling face.
“Don’t even start, Itadori. You’ll look ugly no matter what, so it’s not even worth it. We should’ve left way earlier, we’re going to miss the cruise at this point.” Kugisaki whines.
“Hey, isn’t Gojo taking us?” Fushiguro asks.
“That’s what he said!” Yuuji chirps.
“Then where is he?”
At Fushiguro’s words, Yuuji and Kugisaki both look around. He’s right, Gojo is nowhere to be found.
“He’ll probably show up soon, though, so you guys should just be ready to leave!” Kugisaki proclaims loudly, putting a hand on her hip.
“I doubt it.” Fushiguro says, sounding disappointed but not surprised.
“Do you think he’ll be a while?” Yuuji asks.
“He better not be.” The shortest grumbles. Yuuji gets it, he’s also looking forward to this cruise, but right now there’s something else on his mind.
“That guy is never on time, so yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised if it took him another hour.”
One hour is a while, alright. With that long…All of the sudden, Yuuji gets an idea. He starts pulling at the knot in his tie to undo it.
“What are you doing?” Kugisaki deadpans, giving him a judgmental look.
“Nothing.” Yuuji tells her in a hushed tone in hopes that Fushiguro won’t look over and see what he’s doing. He eventually gets it all the way undone and then he looks up at Fushiguro, who is already staring at him.
“Oh no, my tie just came undone by itself.” Yuuji lies, not looking at Fushiguro and hoping that he didn’t see that.
“Oh, did it?” Fushiguro replies in what almost sounds like a teasing manner. Damn, he totally saw.
“Fushiguroooo, can you help me fix it please?” Yuuji begs him anyways.
“Itadori, you’re the worst. Are you not embarrassed?” Kugisaki crinkles her nose at him. Yuuji elbows her in the side for ruining his moment. She elbows him back in retaliation and they would’ve squabbled even more if Fushiguro didn’t speak up.
“I guess I can help you.” Fushiguro says, stepping back into the room and gesturing for Yuuji to come. Yuuji happily follows after him, ignoring the comments from Kugisaki about how he’s gross and so is Fushiguro and that she’s going to eat all the buffet food without them.
“So…ties.” Yuuji says lamely when the door shuts with a click behind them.
“Mhm, ties.” Fushiguro says back. Yuuji tries to think of the most subtle and least weird to ask Fushiguro to please put his hands on him again.
“Can you…Can you tie it again? So I can see what I’m supposed to do?” He holds out his tie so that Fushiguro will take it rather than untying his own again.
“Here, look,” Fushiguro says, tying Yuuji’s tie slowly and brushing his hands against Yuuji’s chest more than he needs to. Yuuji looks, but not at the tie. “You’re not looking.”
“I am,” Yuuji tells him, not taking his eyes off the other’s face for a moment.
Fushiguro does the same, meeting his gaze and staying there. They’re close, too close to properly tie a tie; there’s hardly enough space between their chests. They’re close enough that Yuuji can count Fushiguro’s eyelashes and feel his breath tickle against his face.
“You know,” Yuuji can practically feel each word on his skin, “you’d probably be able to tie your tie if you’d been paying attention.”
“How am I supposed to do that when you’re as cute as a rabbit?”
“Cute as a rabbit?”
“Get it? Like the tie rabbit thing.”
“That’s dumb.” Fushiguro’s mouth quirks up at the edges into one of those little half smiles.
“Well, maybe I’m…wait, can you say that again but with stupid instead of dumb? Please?”
“You’re just going to turn it into some ridiculous pickup line, aren’t you?”
“Maybe a stupid pickup line, even.”
Fushiguro rolls his eyes. “Yeah, you probably are going to say something stupid.”
“Because I’m stupidly in love with you,” Yuuji says as quickly as he can and winking.
“That’s the line you wanted to tell me?” Fushiguro feigns annoyance, but he’s looking shyly to the floor the way he always does when he secretly likes Yuuji’s flirting. A cheeky grin works its way across Yuuji’s face.
“I’ve got more.”
“Enough with those.”
Yuuji doesn’t even have time to think of a flirtatious comment about Fushiguro shutting him up before Fushiguro does exactly that.
-
At some point, Ijichi—not Gojo—comes to pick them up. Apparently, Gojo had changed plans last minute and would just meet them there? Whatever the case, they were actually leaving now, so no more tie business.
“Itadori, you’re going to get us kicked off the cruise!” Kugisaki immediately hounds him as soon as he steps out of the room. She points an accusatory finger at his chest and only then does Yuuji remember his tie is still undone.
Without even being asked, Fushiguro fixes it for him.
“You really should learn to do this by yourself.” He remarks.
“But then I won’t have an excuse to make out with you in dressing rooms anymore.”
“We can just do that anyway.” God, he’s so smart. “I can teach you properly when we get back.”
“Ew, I can hear you guys.” Kugisaki blanches. Fushiguro quickly steps away from him and coughs into his sleeve. “You guys better not act gross in the car. I’m not going to lose my appetite right before we go to the buffet.” She promptly leaves them behind to go claim the window seat.
“Hey, wait up!“ He calls out, piling into the car after her.
Fushiguro gets in on Yuuji’s right and shuts the door behind him. The three of them are finally heading off to their cruise ship trip. Yuuji can’t wait.