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No matter how many times Yuji and Nobara tries to convince him that he has some sort of tendency to avoid conflict, Megumi will always choose to believe otherwise.
He thinks he can face conflict alright, he just doesn’t like to do it as heads on as his best friends Nobara and fiance Yuji.
Fiance, oh God, his eyes unknowingly jumps to the small band of silver on his ring finger and he feels a smile tug on his lips.
Yuji Itadori, his fiance.
See that’s just another example of his conflict facing capabilities.
He proposed to Yuji, not the other way around. Granted it was because Yuji seemed to be doing it himself but he said it first, that’s what matters.
Nobara had screeched when they had told her and not that she’d admit but Megumi had detected a few stray tears that managed to leak out her eyes. Maki had proudly and very responsibly taken all the duties to arrange the ceremony and Megumi had tried to convince her that it’s okay he’ll manage somehow, she hadn’t budged.
Maki was scary, okay.
Yuji didn’t bother arguing over anything instead he sat there with a stupid smile on his face and whenever Megumi consulted him about a wedding decision he’d just shrug and say, “I just want the groom of my choice”, Megumi would scoff but then shuffle closer to Yuji and kiss him silly.
It was hard to imagine that someone like him would get married, he knows he’s not the most easygoing person thank you very much.
Infact these days he has been thinking about his kid self quite a lot, Nobara thinks it’s because he wants kids of his own and it’s absolutely not, he’s getting married and he’s an adult and he never thought he’d ever get a chance to live or be happy. He’s just a little sentimental.
Even now, sitting in this coffee shop he can feel the memories pressing in. The coffee shop in the present merges into a beloved memory of the past.
He glances at his clock, Gojo-sensei is 15 minutes late already. With a sigh he leans back and looks onto his child self again.
Megumi had stared at the shop in wonder, with wide eyes and parted mouth but also a frown.
He shuffled behind Tsumiki’s skirt and if anyone asked Megumi would just say that he was walking slowly and no he was not hiding behind his older sister.
He watched as Gojo-sensei greeted all the staff, like he was their acquaintance and he watched as the girls failed to keep themselves safe from his charm.
Well only for like a minute because then Gojo-sensei started ordering his complicated coffee process that Megumi didn’t even bother to listen and started pointing to things to pack too fast for anyone to catch up.
Then he had turned to them, to him and Tsumiki, and so did the staff with them.
Tsumiki in her easygoing nature followed in his footsteps with pride and Megumi just stared at it all. At the options, at the awaiting staff, at Gojo's face.
A lump formed in his throat, he did not know what to take.
He felt the air pressure tighten at his neck threaten to cut his supply and he just shook a head in no.
No, he's fine, no, he doesn't need anything, please stop staring at him like that and that he really really wants that purple pastry just doesn't know how to voice that need.
“Tsk tsk”, Gojo tutted ,”that won't do. Maybe you're just not in the mood right now”.
He wanted to argue but then he (again) turned to the staff and with a charming smile just said, ”can you pack us one of everything here, dear”.
The woman’s eye twitched and her smile wavered and Megumi went back to hiding behind Tsumiki.
Even now it made him shake his head in disbelief at Gojo’s antics but a small part (a huge part) was eternally grateful of Gojo. He had gotten his purple pastry (and a pink one and a yellow flower shaped one) and Gojo had pretended not to notice.
“Megumi-kun!” Gojo-sensei’s fake falsetto dragged him back into the present with a sigh and he remembered what he was here to do in the first place.
Embarrassed, he glances around the cafe praying that somehow everyone had gone deaf in time to hear Gojo’s exclamation but they didn’t.
All of them stared at them unabashedly as Gojo strutted towards his table. Whatever he said about being grateful for Gojo? He takes it back.
“You’ve grown so much, it’s almost like yesterday when you were this small,” Gojo said pointing to his pinch that barely has an inch gap. Megumi feels the heat creep up his cheeks.
“You literally saw me yesterday, sensei.”
“Don’t you know kids grow up everyday!” Gojo loudly exclaimed and he opened his mouth to protest but Gojo just mainly waved his hand in the air, ”tell me what is it you need help with.”
“What?” he says, his throat a little dry. He gets the world’s most idiotic urge to run as he remembers the words he is here to say.
It’s stupid on multiple levels.
First of all, Gojo-sensei will catch up to him in a blink. Second, his wedding is two days away, he has to do this now. Thirdly, he could feel Yuji’s stupid (pretty) voice in his head claiming that Megumi avoids his issues.
“Duh. You said to me on the phone and I quote,” Gojo lifts up a finger as he makes his voice obnoxiously high, “Oh dear Gojo-sensei, I need your help again please help me out or I’ll cry.”
That is not how Megumi sounds thank you very much but he knows when to pick his battles and this is not it, he just wants to get this over with.
“I did not say that but yes I do need your help with something important,” he looks down to fiddle with the hem of his shirt trying to look anywhere but at Gojo.
“Fire away, my favourite student.” He pointedly ignores the little jump his heart does at the admission and the way satisfaction spreads under his skin.
“It’s something related to the wedding-”
However Gojo Satoru was Gojo Satoru so he interrupted and Megumi could only stare in horror as he went on and on.
“What! Do you want to call it off!? Is Yuji pressurizing you? But no he would not do that. Did you even try telling him? Megumi-kun I know you tend to get lost in your head but you just have to talk to Yuji and I’m sure he’d understand after all there’s a lot of other auspicious days and-”
Megumi snaps.
“I want you to walk me down the aisle!” he shouts finally. Falling back on the chair, drained.
Pure impenetrable silence follows his announcement and he looks around the cafe to watch other people staring at him in concern.
Oh he’s never coming back to the cafe again.
Gojo stares at him and for the first time in his life Megumi has seen him lost for words.
Fear clutches his throat and for a second he wants to take it all back, wants to swallow back those words and never let them see daylight again. But then again if he took it back from Gojo-sensei, the man who never once lost his patience with Megumi’s frowns and silence and depression, then who would he ever turn to?
“I mean- you don’t have to? Yeah like I’ll manage, you don’t have to force yourself if you don’t want to?”
He cringes internally at his awkwardness, he knows for sure that no one can convince Gojo Satoru to do anything but he tries to ease the rejection that threatens to spill out of Gojo’s lips as every agonizing second passes.
He was about to stand up and make a run for it when Gojo’s hand went at the back of his head to tug the blindfold.
Blue wet eyes stares into his as Gojo grips both his hands in his and he smiled, not his fake ones not his super sweet ones, but the most sincere one as he said in a shaky voice, “Megumi, it’s an honor for me.”
Megumi is embarrassed of the shaky sigh he releases but the relief he feels is so immeasurable that he finds himself smiling back to Gojo-sensei, smiling back to the man who’s his father.
Megumi can’t say it today, he doesn’t have a way with words like others do but there’s no doubt in his mind that he, that Gojo Satoru, is his father, and Megumi thinks he wouldn’t have it any other way.
｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ
Megumi cannot breathe. Maybe Nobara and Yuji was right about his tendencies of wanting to run from his issues but right now is possibly the worst time to prove them right.
Right now, as in right now, barely five minutes before his wedding, before going out to people and solidifying this and praying that it doesn’t blow up in their faces.
God, he cannot breathe.
He paws at the collar of his black kimono trying to get the very much needed air in his lungs.
Where is Tsumiki? He sent Panda to get her like an hour ago.
Oh God, has it already started?
He cannot do this.
Hecannotdothishecannotdothishecannotdothishecannotdoth-
The door swings open and he jumps out of his skin.
“Megumi, you-” Gojo-sensei stood in the doorframe, he had traded his dirty blindfold for some dark glasses and wore a red kimono with swirling gold patterns and his voice did the shaky thing again and Megumi cannot, absolutely cannot, take it so he interrupts.
“I cannot do this,” he blurts it out before he could help it and totally does not stop there, “I cannot breathe, sensei. It’s too much, there will be so many people out there and I don’t know what if I fucked up? What if Yuji did? What if this is all just a mistake and maybe we were downright idiotic to rush this through and I-” he goes on and on and Gojo to his credit never once interrupt.
Instead he shuts the door behind them softly and directs his undivided attention to him.
Megumi lets himself talk, all the bullshit, all the insecurities, he lets it all out, because looking back in his eyes Megumi thinks himself to be a little kid again.
There was one incident in particular where he wanted to make a friend and was scared that he’d get made fun of for trying to befriend someone.
In the end Gojo had stayed up till two, let Megumi stuff his face with caramel ice cream as they talked through every possible scenario that could happen even though Gojo had only just returned from a mission.
He doesn’t even remember what happened with that friend, he just remembers this ball of anxiety tugging at his heartstrings and Gojo had stayed up despite being tired to help him detangle his kid self.
“What else is bothering you?” Gojo had said deep into the night and they had talked everything that Megumi had just shook his head no
“What else is bothering you?” Gojo says now as he stands facing him like he’s still a little child.
But Megumi is grown up, he’s an adult who has his own life so he doesn’t say nothing this time instead he says with an embarrassing sniffle, “I think I wrinkled my kimono.”
“It’s okay,” Gojo brings up his hands flattening the fabric as he speaks smoothly, “Nothing that can’t be fixed. From what I can hear, Megumi, is that you love Yuji. A lot. So I’m gonna tell you a slightly harsh truth, okay?”
Megumi nods as Gojo untucks the haphazardly stuffed fabric and smooths it all out.
“You are my child,” he lifts up his eyes to meet Megumi’s, his hands halting for a while, “You are my son in everything but blood. It may not be my blood that flows in you and Tsumiki but there was no doubt in my head since I saw you both that you are my children. It deeply pains me to say this because this is a pain that no parent wants to ever go through but us sorcerers' lives are rarely fulfilling and content. We live to give and, Megumi, if you ever find something that you love, keep it and cherish it, we never really do have as much time as we think.” His voice turns wistful and he catches the mist in his eyes just before Gojo averts them, busying himself with Megumi’s kimono.
“I had a guy I loved once,” Megumi had to use every ounce of his self restraint to not let his jaw drop and Gojo continued like it wasn’t the first hint he had given of his life before Megumi and Tsumiki, “I thought I had all the time in the world but I didn’t. I lost him and I still mourn him to this day. In love you will mess up, maybe you’ll have a terrible fight with Yuji but at the end you will both return home and you will work it out because you love each other. And one day, even if that love only exists in memory, you’ll be glad you went through with it and let yourself give all the love you carried.”
It’s such a foreign concept, for him to not love Yuji Itadori.
Megumi thinks that even if they have to go separate paths one day, he’ll love Yuji till his last breath.
A weird lumps forms in his throat. Nobara is going to kill him for ruining his makeup.
“So, Megumi Fushiguro, do you love Yuji Itadori?” Gojo puts his hands on his shoulders and asks.
Megumi nods.
“And, are you sure that Yuji Itadori loves you?”
He thinks of Yuji whispering in his ears in the dead of the night, “I think you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
He nods again.
“Are you sure that you want to take Yuji’s name in marriage and become one of those sweet couples that stays together till they’re wrinkly and old and boring,” he rolls his eyes but is smiling as he nods.
“Ta-da! Gojo Satoru saves the day! Again! Now let’s go before your sister actually kills your old man,” Gojo attempts to strut away but Megumi puts a hand on his forearm.
In a blink of an eye, Gojo has his infinity removed and another lump forms in his throat and his words are shaky as he speaks.
“Gojo-sensei,” he pauses, clears his throat before starting and this time a tear manages to sneak past, “dad”.
He feels his father freeze up beneath his touch and he doesn’t let himself get caught up in head.
Instead he falls into his father’s arms.
”Dad. Thank you.” He clenches his eyes shut and feels wet drip onto the backside of his neck as a tremor goes through his father’s body and he brings up his hands to engulf his son in his warmth. “Thank you so much. I’m so grateful for you, dad”
“No, I am grateful for you. For you and Tsumiki both. Thank you so much for letting me watch you both grow into amazing human beings.” and Megumi curls further in his dad’s arms.
Suddenly the door is thrown open and Megumi glances to see Tsumiki with large tears running down and screaming, “I am so grateful for you both too!”, as she pounces on them and squishes them.
Gojo somehow manages to wrench out one his hand to bring behind Tsumiki’s and for a while they all just stand, crying and hugging.
A whole complete family of people who might not say it often but loved each other to the ends of this world.
God, Megumi doesn’t know what he would’ve done without his father and sister.
They would have resumed their hug for longer but then Nobara stalked in the room, her voice terrifyingly low as she informed them, “I am going to kill you three”, and even Gojo gulped at the threat.