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“He told me he likes girls like Jennifer Lawrence." Satoru snickered.
Pink sun filtered through the window and landed perfectly across all their laps, just skimming over their faces to shield their expressions. It was an air of intimacy, but not the swooning kind—it was like a smog, more like the feeling of crushing affection.
"It's Jennifer Lawrence, you can't blame him. She's no Takeda though." Todo scolded as if even mentioning another woman in a romantic sense that wasn't Takeda was an insult to his devotion.
"Typical." Nobara huffed. "I liked Megumi's answer. He's a gentleman."
He'd been breathing all the information they'd spouted. Yuji never usually spoke about his taste in girls unless he was asked because romance simply wasn't the most important thing to him, especially not in the past year or so, with his life on the line and all.
"When was this?" He finally spoke up.
"Before the Kyoto Sister-School Exchange Event." When recollection didn't shine in his eyes, Nobara added ; "It was when we first met Mai and Todo."
Megumi's eyes widened. "And what was my answer?" He had forgotten what he had let slip. Maybe he shouldn't be asking her that because if Nobara told them all—
"You said you liked a girl with a good personality opposed to someone with, I dunno, big boobs."
Megumi breathed a sigh of relief. Of course he did. He should have trusted himself better, he knew that it was a closely guarded secret and even then he wouldn't have said. Not even to Nobara. "So…" He thought out his words carefully before asking. His heartbeat had spiked uncomfortably and he needed to phrase it right lest it pick back up. "What kinds of girls does he like? Or romantic partners in general?"
"He told me he likes tall girls with nice asses." Todo glanced up at the ceiling like he was fighting off tears. "A true brother."
Tall girls. Nice asses. Megumi didn't exactly fit that description.
Nobara put her arm in front of Todo to show he was done talking before raising her eyebrows suspiciously. "Why do you want to know?"
"Well, I was going to ask all of you guys too." He lied quickly. Usually he was so blunt, so now everything rolled out of his mouth easily. "I think Todo's got a good idea of bonding. Someone's tastes say a lot about a person. I just figured we could try it."
"Now since when did you ever want to bond?"
Fuck. "I can tell you guys don't like the idea. We can be done. Actually, we should be. I'm going to bed." Wasting no time, he got up and closed the door behind him.
"Bed? Doesn't he know it's still light out, or did one of you hit him too hard while training?" Satoru asked.
"Shoot," Panda grimaced. "that might be my fault."
"Salmon."
Megumi stared at the ceiling, trying to sleep. He wished he could ask himself why that was so scary for him, but he knew. He liked Yuji.
He'd grappled with it in the first few months of their friendship, insisting to himself that he just didn't know what true friendship between guys felt like. But now that being more open had introduced him to more friends, Inumaki, Todo, Maki, Nobara, Panda, he knew that wasn't the case. This wasn't normal friendship, he liked Yuji more than a friend.
Groaning, he rolled over. It was useless. Getting Yuji out of his head was impossible.
"What's going on out there?" The door slid open and the slim and tall figure of Yuji Itadori stepped in. "When I got back they all shooed me out of there."
"They were talking about you." Megumi sat up to stare through the curtains. To keep his eyes off Yuji.
"They were talking bad about me?" Yuji pressed his hands to his temples in a mind-blown expression.
"No." Megumi huffed. His arms assumed a slouched positon across each other to match his pout. "There was nothing bad to say."
Yuji chuckled before ruffling Megumi's hair. "I didn't know you could be so sweet."
He snatched his hand from his hair and pulled him down next to him. He didn't want Yuji to know how he wanted to be closer, but he couldn't stand to keep him an arms length away. "I told you not to do that."
A small sigh escaped both their lips for two different reasons. Yuji rested his head on Megumi's shoulder. Megumi gasped alone that time, wondering whether pushing him away or melting into would be easier. Neither, he decided, so he stayed stiff.
They sat in still silence for a few moments, but Yuji could never stay still for that long. "Let's watch a movie. Human Earthworm 4 is still in theatres. Nobara wouldn't watch it with me, said she'd rather go shopping. I thought most girls liked romance movies."
"Not ones about worms." Megumi rolled him off. Play cool, be uninterested, grudgingly accept. "Why would I want to see that movie either? I don't like romance or worms."
"WHAT?" Yuji exclaimed. "WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO SEE HUMAN EARTHWORM 4?"
From the room across, Nobara shouted back; "FUSHIGURO AND I!"
Pouting, Yuji pulled out his phone. "Come on Megumi, tell me this looks interesting."
"I prefer reading." At his friends upset expression, he hesitated. "But if you're buying the tickets I wouldn't mind seeing it with you."
"And that's why you're better than Nobara!" Yuji held is hand out for a high five.
On the other side of the wall, Nobara shouted back at him and Megumi tried not to laugh.
Small places are much easier to maintain compared to large ones and the movie theater was good example of that. It couldn't seat more than fifteen people, but every inch of it was crystal clean. Maybe they cleaned it often, or maybe there were no customers coming to make it dirty. Either way, it was only Megumi and Yuji.
"Full house." Megumi reluctantly joked. It fell on silent ears as Yuji was busy belly-flopping onto the open seats.
"We've got it all to ourselves!" He kicked his feet back and motioned Megumi over to the seat next to him.
Megumi slouched into the chair before reminding Yuji— "You promised popcorn on the ride over."
"I did? I did." Yuji decided. He stood up and left, but Megumi smelled his return before he saw him.
"Smells good." Megumi admitted.
"Thank you!"
"Not you, dumbass." Megumi shoved him down into his seat and stole the popcorn on his way down.
With the reeling of a projected behind them, the film started. If Megumi was honest, he had been doubting Yuji's taste with how bizarre the plot was, but it wasn't… completely horrible. It was still bad, but it had redeemable parts. With it being a romance movie and all, of course the relationship between the woman and the earthworm was the focal point. They had their moments of chemistry, odd enough to say. He was almost compelled to compare them to him and Yuji—with Yuji being the incredibly ugly earthworm, obviously.
But comparing the him and Yuji to the pair in front of them was the most cheesy thing he could do, so of course he wasn't thinking about it the whole time.
When it was over, Megumi regretted saying he had a good time.
"What did you think?" Yuji stared at him expectantly, wide eyed and tight lipped.
"Horrible. Absolutely horrible."
Yuji groaned. "Come on. Not as good as the third, but you have to admit that wasn't bad."
"Rather die."
They sat in silence for a moment, and then Yuji spoke up. "You feel it too, right?"
"Yeah, the popcorn had a nasty aftertaste—"
"No, I mean us. We're friends but not like Nobara and I. We-we're closer. You know?"
"Um, no?" The air was colder now with the conversation coming to settle on an uncomfortable topic.
Yuji scooted closer until his breath brushed over Megumi's face. "I like you."
The moment their lips pressed together Megumi felt a feeling much like a Black Flash surging from his mouth to his chest. Megumi didn't know whether this was a joke or a dream, but he was going to enjoy this while he could.
Why was Yuji kissing him? What did he have to gain?
But he also wanted to keep kissing him. It couldn't hurt, if Yuji was the one that leaned in. He could blame it on him if he pulled away. But he didn't. The kiss just grew more passionate.
"What are you doing?" Megumi asked. But he didn't move his lips away to ask, he kept them resting on top of Yuji's. "Is this some joke?"
"Why would I be joking?"
"Because I…" he hesitated. Fuck, this was Yuji. Yuji wouldn't tell a hurtful lie like that, Yuji wouldn't even hurt an insect. "I share your feelings."
Poorly hiding his excitement, Yuji tried to close the gap again, but was pushed away. "Hm?"
"I thought you liked girls like Jennifer Lawrence."
"Oh yeah." He thought. "I think I like both. Guys and girls that is. It's just easier to tell people I like girls. But I also don't really know. I haven't had too many relationships in the past, so I think you'd be the first boy I've liked." A pause. "Can we kiss more now?"
In the dim light of the movie theatre, they kissed again.