Chapter Text
January 14th, 2018.
"Um, if you could go ahead and send over the copy of the report we made yesterday, we'd appreciate that. We came into contact with a whale, we recorded the recommended information down and where we found it. [.......] said it was a female."
"It's cold out here, though. The temperature sits at a good...19° F (-7 C). It's not looking good out here. It's stormy."
Despite what many would think, the open ocean was not a kind place, at least not all the time. It was rainy and windy, the waves would crash against the sides of the boat which made it rock slightly. Megumi was glad neither he nor Nobara got seasick, this would be hell if they did. And they'd probably be in the wrong career, too. The clouds showed no trace of the sun, only the dark clouds that were the colour of dark grey roamed the sky. It was quite the gloomy day, one that could easily be described as depressing. It seemed like the sun didn't even want to come out, Megumi supposed he couldn't blame it.
Megumi focused back on the water in front of him, but there was no signs of any animal based movement. If there was, it was disguised by the angry movement of the water. He sighed, but tried to keep his patience in check. He knew it was a process, you wouldn't always find what you set out to find. But it was cold, around 32° F (0 C) to be exact. Sure, he had a jacket, but he'd like to be in bed where it was warm. That morning hadn't been amazing, the constant rocking of the boat was getting on his nerves. From Nobara's loud and irritated sigh, she felt the same.
"God! We've been out here all morning! That report made it sound like we'd find any signs of life at all. Can we head back yet?" Nobara shouted, mostly at the ocean, but her question had been directed at Megumi. He shrugged, he was pretty sure if they went back now without a single report on anything, they'd get scolded even if only lightly.
"No, I'd rather die than go back empty handed." He responded simply, like he hadn't said something insane. The groan he heard from her was so guttural that it startled him. He got up from the seat in front of the steering wheel and moved to stand next to her. His eyes gazed over the ocean, and yet there was nothing there except for a bunch of little waves. He couldn't even see any fish in the water with how dark it was, and while somebody would've been stupid enough to lean so far over that they fell into the water and drowned, Megumi was not that stupid. He wasn't that careless with his life.
Because of the cold weather, the wind and rained combined, his face was pretty red and his eyes were sore from the pressure of said wind. Nobara took one look at him and figured he was catching a cold, he already looked somewhat feverish and extremely tired. But she wasn't going to comment on that, so she turned her attention elsewhere.
"This sucks." Nobara mumbled, sitting down on the boat and staring somewhat blankly at the sky. Megumi silently agreed, but she wasn't paying attention to him. They'd been looking for hours, since about 8am exactly. All they were after was a couple of fish, nothing extraordinary like a whale or shark or anything. But even that seemed impossible, as if they'd been hiding from them the second they set out.
Nobara let out another defeated sigh and looked over the railing of the boat, staring longingly into the water. By then, the rain and wind both had gotten worse. The rain that fell was harsh and cold, and the wind had felt unforgiving, cruel. Nobara's hair kept getting in her face despite her attempts to get it out.
She glanced over at Megumi, who now looked mildly uncomfortable with the weather and decided to comment her thoughts. "You're so catching a cold later, by the way. Check your temp when we get back, yeah?" It wasn't really a suggestion, she knew that. But if she phrased it as a suggestion then he wouldn't listen to her because he was stubborn like that. So she had to phrase it very directly, it wasn't preferred by the people around her most of the time but they didn't matter to her.
Megumi gave her a judgmental and downright rude look as if she'd personally offended him by worrying about his health. Nobara rolled her eyes at the sudden attitude, 'god forbid I care about him even a little.' She thought to herself as she heard his extremely uncool response. "I will not catch a cold, it hasn't even been that long." He replied, coughing immediately after he'd said that. So maybe he would, but that didn't matter to him right now because they had research they were supposed to be doing.
"Ugh, whatever. Aside from that, we're totally screwed." She assumed, hands wrapped around the railing. Megumi's gaze drifted away from her, even he was feeling discouraged. Megumi cocked his head to the side, confusion painting his face and eyes.
"How are we screwed? Gojo always goes easy on us if it's things out of our control." Megumi pondered to her, which got him a deadpan look as an exchange. Did she really have to explain it? Was he that dense? Sometimes it was like talking to a coral reef. He just really didn't get it, did he. It seemed like he never did, so she just exasperatedly sighed and decided not to argue further. She was about to change the topic until something bumped against the bottom of the boat they were in.
Almost immediately, Nobara began searching through the water to see what it had been. Her eyes drifted all over the place, until her eyes got caught on a very long but somewhat pretty tail that definitely belonged to something of importance. Immediately she stood up and pointed it out in a rush, nearly tripping her own feet.
"Fushiguro, get back behind the wheel! Go that way before it disappears! It's some sort of fish or eel or something!" Nobara yelled in demand, and Megumi wasted no time in listening to her. At least she'd found something, even if they didn't know what it actually was. Megumi followed after the creature for a while, but they'd reached a dead end and were only met with the sight of a few rocks that were positioned above the water.
"Damn it." Nobara sulked, her enthusiasm being metaphorically pulled under the oceans waves. Megumi was a bit disappointed too, but at least they'd tried to go after it to tag it. Even if they didn't, they'd made a good attempt. It felt like the sky got darker after that, like it was mocking them. Megumi sighed, but figured he might as well stay in the area since there could be signs of life within it. Out of boredom and a slight need to feel anything other than disappointment, he leaned over the railing at a safe amount and placed his hand into the water. As he expected, it was freezing. But he kept it there.
"What the hell are you doing?" Nobara asked, clearly judging him for this. He couldn't really blame her, he definitely did look insane for doing this. He thought of an answer for a moment, but it escaped him. How did he explain this, exactly? Well, there was an explanation, he was sure of that, but it seemed to run away from him whenever he tried to reach for it. She remembered what she'd said about him catching a cold earlier, now she was 100% sure he'd be in bed for a week after this.
Suddenly, he felt something nip at his hand. "Ow!" He yelled, pulling his hand out of the water. It wasn't bleeding or anything, but there were definitely bite marks. So there was something in the water, he just didn't know what was in it. Nobara, however, immediately began laughing at him and calling it karma. Which...in hindsight, was pretty fair. Megumi supposed he was kind of asking for that to happen. He rubbed his hand a bit, the pain subsided after a couple seconds thankfully. But now he'd have to explain to Gojo why his hand was bright red, and he didn't need another person laughing at him. There was more movement from the water, which gained both of their attention.
It was hard to make out, but it looked like the tail of what Nobara saw earlier. It was sort of like darkish-light reddish-pink and had tiger-like stripes, but Megumi couldn't think of any animal that fit that description. With how dark the water was, it was impossible to see if it was thin or thick. It was very probable that it was just an eel, but he was still curious regardless.
"I think we should head back. We're not gonna find anything, whatever's down there is just trying to fuck with us to annoy us and it's working." Nobara said, her arms behind her head. Megumi, unfortunately, had to agree with her. So he left the railing and returned to his operating seat. Just as they were about to set off to get back to Gojo, a voice called out to them.
"Where are you going? Can I come with?" Nobara immediately jumped, putting her hand over her heart as both of their heads turned to look over at the boy. Megumi was pretty sure he wasn't there that entire time, he definitely would've noticed before. Did he just appear out of nowehere? Was he a diver? He couldn't have been because he was shirtless and no diver would submerge themselves without any equipment, either. So he wasn't a diver and he couldn't have been a regular guy, who the hell was this kid?
"Sorry I bit your hand, by the way." He added, stupidly. So that was him who did that? Yeah, Megumi didn't think that was weird at all. The boy dunked his head underwater again to swim closer to the boat. Now that Megumi got a better look at his tail, it had a nice pattern on it. Simple enough not to draw attention from any potential predators, but not bland enough to camouflage in a bunch of kelp. Once he poked his head back up again, he re-asked his question.
"So, can I come with? I don't have anything better to do." He asked, realising he hadn't given his name and quickly doing so. "Oh, sorry. My names Itadori Yuji." He introduced with a bright smile on his face. The positivity that radiated from him would send Megumi into a coma if he kept that up, he couldn't really tell if that was a good thing or not. Nobara and Megumi made eye contact in a silent exchange of words, essentially both saying 'there's no way he'll survive that.'
But Megumi decided to speak about it first. "Itadori, was it? My name's Fushiguro. I don't know if you'd be able to make it on boat with us. I guess you could just follow us if you wanted." Megumi tried to put it lightly, but he was still pretty blunt about it and most of it was against his will. It was simply his nature to be blunt about these things, it had been ever since he was a kid. Yuji tilted his head in a manner no human would be able to, Nobara cringed.
"Huh? That shouldn't be a problem. I survived 400 hours on land once." Yuji said casually as he managed to climb onto the boat. And dear god was his tail so, so long. It was barely comprehensible. The stripes would continue down it until the very tip of it where they'd stopped. Then what he said had made it's way inside of Nobara and Megumi's brain. 400 hours was sixteen days, that was several weeks without hydration. And to be fair, it was raining so it wasn't like he'd dehydrate. He seemed pretty insistent on going with them...so Megumi sighed and started the boat back up again, he wasn't escaping it now.
"How on earth are you alive?!" Nobara shouted in confusion. When Yuji made his way up, he laid down and spread his arms around to take up as much space as possible it seemed. Megumi had noticed it, that his tail didn't have all those fancy fins and crap you'd see in movies about merpeople. In fact, it was pretty slim in general but especially when it began to taper off. But he decided to stop paying attention to that and keep his eyes on where he was supposed to be heading. Which, to be fair, was just a bigger boat meant to house them. But it was nice, he liked the compact rooms.
Yuji shrugged in response to Nobara's question and looked up at the sky. His pupils were slit, meaning they were elliptical, meaning realistically he's supposed to be nocturnal. Or, did it not work like that for merpeople? Neither of them had a clue, they were pretty uneducated about things like this. Either way, Nobara was still mentally trying to figure out how he'd survived 16 days on land without needing to go into the water, it just...didn't click for her.
"How'd that even happen to begin with?" She asked, her gaze wandering over him to ensure he wasn't a threat. He seemed nice, almost too nice. If she had to guess, he probably didn't have many friends given the sudden increase of marine animal deaths, most were due to pollution and things of that sort. Nobara had always found it kind of disgusting but this really amplified it.
Yuji thought, then shrugged. "I got washed up onto an island and then got lost." The way he phrased that made it sound like instead of going back into the water, he just started wandering around the island. Was he stupid? Nobara thought to herself as she heard her explanation. She'd noticed a couple things about him, and his hair colour being pink wasn't necessarily surprising considering her teacher's hair was naturally bright white. It could be weirder, she decided.
"Right." Nobara replied, then decided to do something that would definitely tick Megumi off. A mischievous grin birthed itself onto her face, and a couple of giggles escaped from her.
"The whole hand-biting thing was really funny, though. If you ask me, he totally deserved it for sticking his hand in freezing cold water." Nobara commented just loudly enough for Megumi to hear, and he just sighed in exasperation. He was ready to go back to sleep, so he didn't have to deal with her antics anymore. Yuji leaned his head back to look at her, shifting his lower body, or in this case his tail, to be more comfortable. He didn't really get why she found it funny, but maybe it was an inside joke of some sort.
"Where are we going?" He asked cluelessly. The raindrops only grew harsher the longer they were out on the ocean, but Yuji didn't necessarily seem to mind at all. Nobara gave him a look, but decided to answer his question instead.
"Back to where we came from. We're supposed to be studying marine life, but we found you instead. Do you count as marine life?" Nobara asked, immediately getting sidetracked from her explanation. Yuji pondered for a moment, did he? He didn't know. Yeah, sure, he lived in the ocean and ate seaweed most of the time, but did he really count as marine? Or alive? Then he realized that was a stupid question to ask himself.
"Uhh, maybe? I don't know." Yuji answered honestly. Megumi wanted to throw up, now he had to deal with two people sharing a brain cell instead of just one person with a brain cell.
"Of course he counts, moron." Megumi answered, a slight hint of exhaustion in his voice. He hadn't slept much last night and he definitely was getting sick, so realistically he should be the last person to be driving a boat. Nobara muttered something about him being a buzzkill along with a dumbass, then moved on to a more pressing matter.
"So, Itadori..." she started, tapping her finger against the railing. She wasn't sure if the question she was about to ask was offensive or not, but she shot her chance anyway. "Have any friends or anything?" She asked, still staring at the water hoping to find an actual animal they were supposed to study.
"I used to hang out with two friends I made, but we just kinda stopped after a while." She let out a hum in response to his answer, but continued to keep an eye out on the water. It made sense, friends tended to drift apart from each other after a while. Sometimes it was inevitable. Megumi hadn't paid any attention to their small conversation, seeing as they were basically almost there.
Once they'd arrived, Megumi turned the boat off and stood up. "We're here." He said, tying the rope to the other, much bigger, boat. Nobara took her arms off the railing and stretched, what was that? About twenty minutes? She was dying to walk around instead of being stuck on a small boat. By then, the rain had completely stopped despite the wind continuing to blow.
Yuji sat himself up and glanced around, the sight was pretty impressive. He'd never been that close to humans before, so he was thrilled over what most would consider nothing. Soon after, footsteps echoed the area and got Yuji, and the other two's, attention.
"Yo, you two are back. Sorry I sent you on a wild goose chase, thought there'd be something by now. But I guess the weather's too bad." The man said nonchalantly with his hands in his pockets. Yuji had never seen such a weird looking guy before. He wore a blindfold but didn't seem blind, his hair was brighter than a pearl, and overall he stood somewhat weirdly. Nobara wasted no time in talking, though.
"Yeah. We didn't find any animals but we found a guy." She said, pointing to Yuji. The man nearly stepped out to get a better look but then decided he'd stay in a dry-er spot. He nodded, thinking for a moment.
"Bring him here to me, I wanna see." He said with a grin. Weirdly enough, he didn't seem to hold any malicious intentions. Or, at least Yuji didn't think he did. He seemed pretty chill and carefree based on the way he seemed to acknowledge the lack of animals. Megumi sighed and nodded, moving back over to Yuji and picking him up like it was nothing. Unfortunately for Megumi, he had no idea what he'd just done by even thinking of touching him. Even the man cracked a smirk at such an interaction, the poor kid had no idea.
Carefully, he stepped on and brought Yuji over to Satoru so he could get a better look. "He wanted to come with." Megumi explained as Gojo, handlessly, examined the merman with what could only be assumed to be a curious expression. But since Yuji couldn't see his eyes because they were covered by a blindfold, he could only assume.
"Nice." Satoru eventually said after a solid five minutes. He seemed pretty okay with the situation despite how rare it was to find an actual living merperson. Megumi tried putting Yuji down, but then realised the floor would probably be uncomfortable so he kept holding him instead. Then Satoru paused, placed his hand upon Megumi's forehead.
"Yikes, you're warm. You should get to bed. That's my bad for sending you out in weather like this." Satoru told him, once again, not making a suggestion and instead telling him to do something. Nobara finally chimed in, somewhat pissed and annoyed but mainly confused above all else.
"Wait, you don't even care about the guy we found? Really?" She asked, getting a nod in response as Satoru easily recovered back to his usual demeanour. Megumi wanted to go to bed, he'd completely forgotten about the merman in his arms who looked pretty content with where the situation was at in the moment. In fact, he looked like he never wanted to be put down, Nobara gave the two a somewhat strange look.
"Nah. Look at them, why should I care?" Did he know something she didn't? That answer was so incredibly vague it drove her crazy. Before she could get annoyed, Nobara decided to step away from the situation before she started acting like someone who just got cheated on. So, she decided to stop questioning that man's antics and follow Megumi to their, pretty small, shared bedroom.
The room was dimly lit by a lamp, coating the room in a soft yellowish orange. Above their dresser sat a music player, which was used pretty frequently and almost every day. Yuji seemed fascinated, so when Megumi set him down on his bed, he immediately started staring at it.
"What's that?" He asked, dragging himself off of the bed and onto the floor to try and get a better look at it. Nobara shut the door behind her and moved over to her bed, immediately laying down with an arm behind her head and her phone in the other hand that wasn't busy.
"It's a music player. I can play something for you if you want." Megumi offered even though he was incredibly tired and wanted to sleep. Sure, it was only about ten in the morning, but it'd been a long morning. Yuji's eyes practically started sparkling as he nodded quickly. Megumi, wordlessly, got up from where he sat and grabbed a CD to put inside of it. The CD in question was a classical music disc, it was something he played when he wanted to unwind for the night. Once it had started playing, Megumi laid down on his bed finally.
But his peaceful moment was soon interrupted when Yuji crawled into his bed and wrapped his tail around his own body, only half awake. His hands sprawled out across Megumi's body and don't get him wrong, this was cute, but it felt so random. Either way, Megumi shifted his position so he could support Yuji and make sure he didn't fall off the bed. He'd figure out the water situation later. For now, he just wanted to rest. Yuji was surprisingly clingy though and tried to be as close to him as he could be.
Megumi readjusted again, but no matter what he'd end up in the same situation. So he accepted it and wrapped his arms around Yuji. Maybe the guy just had attachment issues or something, probably not but that was Megumi's attempt at justifying his position right now. Yuji seemed very happy though and started rubbing his head against Megumi's neck like a cat would. This dude was so confusing, and he could feel Nobara holding back giggles from her own bed.
"Don't say it." Megumi told her as Yuji slowly but surely drifted to sleep. His tail moved to wrap around Megumi's leg to keep him there. In short, he was 'clingytron500' apparently. He just never wanted to let Megumi go which, surely, had to be a platonic type of bond. He mentioned he didn't have many friends before, so maybe he was just confused on how you were supposed to interact with another friend.
"I'm gonna say it. You look like his boyfriend." Nobara teased, a very smug look on her face. She couldn't resist taking a photo, so she did just that. Okay, she took more than one, but she soon laid back down on her back. She was getting rather curious, so she opened her search engine and started typing. Eventually, she found some sort of forum that held the answer to basically any question she had.
Why is a merperson so clingy?
A merperson may be clingy with someone else because they have formed a special bond with them, similar to how birds and other animals will imprint on their human companions, meaning they see that person as their source of support and affection. More commonly, this will occur between two merpeople. This person or other merperson will be the person they spend most of their time with, around 95% to 120%. This can happen when touched in any way, even harmless methods of carrying, if the merperson is in need of rescuing, can cause this reaction. This is because merfolk have a very thin layer of a 'liquid' on their entire body that is invisible to the naked eye. This liquid sends signals to the brain when touched by another merperson or a human. In mer-culture, touch is a very important method of communication and bonding, which is why they developed this to begin with.
Nobara's face immediately deadpanned as she stared at the forum page she'd gotten her information from. Part of it was because it was so long she had to reread the answer several times to comprehend it. She glanced at Megumi, then her phone. Well, she'd have to break the bad news sooner rather than later she supposed.
"You're never getting rid of him, by the way." Nobara stated casually, achieving an alarmed look from Megumi followed by a couple more coughs.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He questioned, his eyes moving down to look at Yuji, who'd been cuddled up against his chest for quite a while now as if listening to his heartbeat.
"You touched him or whatever so now he's like, bound to you forever. Something about an imprint or liquid or whatever the hell." She explained, very scientifically. Which was a lie, she kind of half assed the explaination but to be fair she hadn't really understood about 90% of the words on that forum. Megumi's brain seemed to finally process the information, and he simply sighed. Of course, he should've known better than to touch a strange creature he'd never seen before. But he didn't and now look where it led him, with a clingy merman who apparently liked classical bedtime music.
And now he would be sharing this bed with him every single night for the rest of their lives. As much as he tried to tell himself this was annoying, he knew deep down that he didn't feel like that at all. He was just tried, sick, and not in the right mindset to process it properly. Maybe once he had a clearer head, he'd be able to understand it.
"Oh." It was a one word response, but Megumi was too tired to think of anything else to say, so he didn't. His brain officially shut off.
22:46
Megumi shifted in bed, his eyes slowly managing to open. He'd been sleeping pretty much all day, so it wasn't a shock that he was up late at night. By that point, all that was heard in the bedroom was the music player and soft breathing from the two others in the room. His head hurt, but he couldn't necessarily get up to go get medication from Shoko because of the merman who was still wrapped up around him.
Occasionally, he'd shift and try to move under the blankets but fail. Which would prompt an almost whine-like sound, maybe a grunt of some kind. Megumi took pity on a sight like that, so he assisted him and pulled the blanket over him. Now that he got a second look at him, he definitely didn't look awful. And his personality, something he always paid more attention to than physical looks or gender, was a good one as well. He thought back on Nobara's words earlier, how she'd claimed he was stuck with this guy forever. And now that he thought about it more, he didn't think he minded.
Sure, Yuji wasn't a complete genius and was more like the complete opposite, but it's not like he needed to be as smart as Satoru Gojo or anything, nobody had to be. So he let more air escape him as he held Yuji a little bit closer. Not that it made a difference, the two were already pretty physically close to each other in the moment. For a while, he blankly stared at the ceiling to contemplate how weird his life had suddenly gotten. To be fair, it'd been weird since the moment Gojo took him in, but now it multiplied by about thirty.
When he glanced back at Yuji, he seemed to really enjoy the blankets on his bed. Megumi assumed that there wasn't an equivalent to a blanket underwater, so it shouldn't have been too shocking to see him be fond of it. Megumi let a quiet groan as his headache worsened, and he was about to put his hand on his head but Yuji seemed to have done that instead, so he closed his eyes to savour the feeling. He wouldn't lie, the coolness of his skin felt really nice. When he opened his eyes again, he accidentally made eye contact with Yuji and quickly closed them again.
"Sorry, did I wake you up?" Megumi whispered as Yuji rubbed his head against his shoulder this time. But he'd felt the shake of his head despite the constant movement. Still, he felt bad for waking him up when it was his fault he got sick to begin with.
"You didn't." Yuji verbally confirmed, deciding not to stop with the constant head rubbing thing. It was somewhat in his nature to be clingy like this, and Megumi never seemed to care if he was or not so there wasn't anything stopping him from doing so. Megumi nodded, falling silent once more and just allowing the music to play. Yuji eventually stopped moving his head around and laid over Megumi's heart again.
"The music is really nice, I wanna listen to it forever." Yuji, nearly incomprehensibly, mumbled. Megumi couldn't really help himself, he just had to run his hand through his hair as he said that. Okay, sure, they'd only met today, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't already falling for him completely. He had to keep ahold of his emotions, though, because Yuji would immediately pick up on any shifts in his heart rate. So he nodded.
"Yeah. It's good to fall asleep to, I listen to it every night." He responded, shifting slightly so he could be more comfortable on his side. Yuji nodded, his blinking slowing down once more. It wouldn't be long before he fell asleep again, which was proven when his breathing lightened and evened out fully. The hand on Megumi's face had gone loose, but didn't necessarily make it fall off.
Megumi smiled just barely, not enough that any normal person would've been able to tell it was a smile, but enough that the people close to him would be able to tell he was smiling in his own weird way. After a small coughing fit, Megumi had also drifted off once more. Hopefully he'd feel better in the morning, he was completely exhausted and actually preferred to have energy throughout the day. As shocking as that may sound.