Chapter Text
Other than being forced to watch cheesy reality TV alongside you, Kugiskai, and, reluctantly, Itadori (who secretly loved watching just as much as his female counterparts), Megumi never considered romance in his life. Even crushes escaped his notice. His only proximity to the idea was watching various public humiliation rituals disguised as nonsensical premises of islands and pods for the sake of finding “love”.
He could objectively recognise that the concept of falling for someone and finding your person was… a thing, but he never gave much thought to what it meant for himself. It's not like he grew up watching great examples of love in his own life, either, thanks to his absent father. Additionally, he had a feeling that Gojo’s constant reminders on “advice with the ladies” (Gojo’s words) were anything but helpful. So, TV shows with ridiculous concepts that somehow have women all over the world swooning, as well as Itadori, were as close as he ever got.
He simply left it be, believing that once he met the right person, those feelings would reveal themselves as a crush. Suddenly, he would wake up and find himself infatuated by someone. It would be a light switch that would turn on the moment he found the “right person”.
What he didn’t account for was that those feelings weren’t binary. In reality, those feelings were slowly boiling inside of him, and his dormant heart was inching ever closer to erupting before he had the chance to realise.
“Last one to the water loses!” Itadori suddenly breaks out into a sprint across the white sand towards the turquoise ocean. No one else makes any moves to follow. Megumi lets out a short exhale at his enthusiastic classmate, turning back to drape his beach towel over his chair under the shade of the umbrella.
“What does he even mean by ‘loses’?” You let out a giggle as you set down your bag under the umbrella you were sharing with Kugisaki.
“It looks like he already lost… his mind.” Kugisaki sniffs as she relaxes back into her beach chair. The sunglasses perched on her nose surely were hiding her eye roll at the pink-haired boy’s actions.
After an overnight mission out of Tokyo, Gojo had suggested that the four first-years spend the weekend in the area, which happened to be in a popular beach town. Taking advantage of the scenery, you all decided to spend the day at the beach before heading back home.
In the distance, you hear Itadori’s yelps as he crashes into the water. You let out a grin as he starts splashing wildly. If you weren’t already aware of his incredible athletic abilities, you would have thought he was drowning by the way he flipped in the waves without going up for a breath.
“Are either of you two going into the water?” You glance at the classmates on either side of you.
“No, I don’t do salt water - it dries out my hair”, Kugisaki mutters lowly, sounding close to dozing off behind her shades.
You turn to Megumi on your other side as he lifts the book he has in his hand. “No, I’m pretty set too. And I get sunburnt pretty easily, even with sunscreen.” He doesn’t expect the small hiccup in his chest at seeing your disappointment clear on your face at his response, but he doesn’t mention anything.
“Aww, okay. I’ll probably go out there and keep Itadori company, and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.” You chuckle lightheartedly.
Then you are pulling your blouse over your head, revealing your two-piece swimsuit. Megumi’s eyes suddenly go wide. He forces himself to stare at the words on the page as you continue to take off your denim shorts, stuffing them in your bag before walking out of the shade of the umbrella towards the ocean. As he hears Itadori’s excited exclamations in the distance, seeing you join him, he looks up to see you running towards the water, which was… an interesting sight.
Suddenly, his previous reservations with the sun seem meaningless, and he has the sudden urge to follow after you. Not that you or your swimsuit had any effect on him. He was just suddenly struck with the idea that some swimming might do his sore muscles some good after their rigorous mission yesterday. Maybe if he made sure to reapply in 20 minutes, he could maybe risk the sunburn-
To his right, the sound of snickering cuts bluntly through his daze. He turns to see Kugisaki peering over the top of her sunglasses with a cat-like smile.
“What?” he snaps, but hears his voice crack on the one word. His brows furrow while his cheeks grow warm from what was surely just the heat of the sun.
“Oh, nothing.” Her smile grows devous, causing his ears to grow hot. Surely it was just the lack of wind causing the reaction and nothing else.
Scoffing, he forces himself to turn his attention back to his book, but quickly realises his brain has turned to mush, incapable of comprehending the page he had been stuck on for the last 5 minutes. His thoughts keep wandering back to you. On occasion, your joyful screams break through his concentration as you and Itadori engage in what seems to be a splash fight. He concedes and lets his gaze bounce back and forth from the sight in front of him to the pages in his hand. He can’t help the small smile on his face as he sees you joyfully enjoying the water.
Twenty minutes later, Itadori rushes back to the umbrella area as you wade in the water. He is completely breathless as he rasps out “Water-” gulping down the liquid “break-”
He sits on the chair next to Megumi, but Megumi barely pays him any notice as his eyes are transfixed on you. You stand in the water, the surface about mid-thigh. Your eyes are focused on the waves beneath you, and your hands are splayed out towards the surface. You gently spin back and forth between your feet, and he can immediately tell what you are doing. The water around you swirls with the manipulation of your cursed energy, causing swirls to dance in patterns. He notices a small smile on your face and how peaceful you look, and he’s entranced.
He’s about to get up to join you when suddenly a figure approaches you. It's a man approximately your age. You are caught by surprise as he speaks to you. Megumi’s eyes furrow immediately at the sight. You dissipate your cursed energy once the man enters your proximity, and Megumi almost wishes you didn’t and used it to drive the guy away instead.
Megumi grows annoyed seeing the man attempt to strike up a conversation with you, and you, always so sweet, entertain it. It puts Megumi’s nerves on edge at the sight. He tells himself that he’s just looking out for you. That he was just making sure that it wasn’t some creep trying to talk to you. Even when the guy cracks some joke that gets you laughing, Megumi chalks up the bitter feeling at the base of his stomach to worry that the weirdo was hitting on you. He’s simply looking out for a friend. It wasn’t that he didn’t think that you could handle a weirdo (he just saw you exorcise 3 curses simultaneously yesterday, so he’s aware of your ability to defend yourself), but even then, he couldn’t help but be concerned.
He would be lying if he wasn’t relieved to see the man walk away after a few minutes of back and forth between you two. He brings his attention back to his book in his hand and tries to narrow down the spot he had last read. He realised then he hadn’t glanced down at his book once, the moment he saw that guy approach you.
A few minutes later, you prance back to where the rest of your friends were, a little breathless and cheeks red from the warmth of the sun. Megumi couldn't help but admire the lightness in your expression. Most of the time, after long overnight missions, you look drained, but he could see that you were visibly brighter today.
“The water is so nice! You guys should come out!”
“Maybe not me, but I’m sure Fushiguro will join you.”
Megumi whips his head to turn to Kugisaki, a very familiar smirk on her face, the same one when she had first commented earlier. What was even more strange was that same smile was posed on Itadori’s expression as well, but a bit more of a teasing undertone than the devious one Kugisaki wore.
Clueless to this, you excitedly plop down in the sand right in front of Megumi, on your knees, palms on either side of his chair.
“Really, Megumi? You’ll come swim?”
It takes a second for Megumi’s brain to catch up, shocked by your sudden proximity. Seeing you like this, knees in the sand, staring up at him with that hopeful expression. All thoughts disappear from his head.
He knows that you are… pretty. He’d be stupid not to notice… objectively of course. It's not like he hasn’t noticed that sometimes his eyes linger on the way your hair looks in the sunshine through the classroom windows in the afternoon, or your figure when you are sparring, or the cute way you laugh…
But it was moments like these when he was caught off guard. It's one thing to admire you from afar, but another when you are this close. So close that he can feel the droplets of water dripping off your skin onto his toes as you lean forward speaking to him. He can’t bear to look away from your hopeful expression. Not only because he was transfixed with you, but because looking directly forward would put him face-to-face with your chest, which he was sure would ignite other feelings that he was not ready to confront just yet. Because you were friends, and friends don’t think about how pretty they look on their-
He clears his throat, a raspy tone taking over, “Uh, yeah, sure.”
“Great! C’mon, let's go!”
You grab the book from his hands and set it down in his bag carefully before dragging him by the wrist. He barely has time to slow you down to take off his shirt, not missing the way that your eyes linger on his chest as he pulls it off, tossing it onto his bag. He misses the loss of contact immediately, but he runs after you regardless.
“God, he is such an idiot,” Kugisaki lazily comments, leaving both her and Itadori in a fit of laughter as their other two friends run towards the ocean.