Archive of Our Own

Yuuta learned not to ask questions.

He has always been proud of being someone who thinks too much before speaking, even though Maki and Panda say that isn't actually a quality. But even someone like him can be caught off guard. Sometimes his mouth is faster than his brain, and Yuuta finds himself saying: “Inumaki-kun... are you cosplaying Jinx?”

Because he had just come back from a fucked-up exam that made him wonder whether he still had time to change his major or maybe it was already time to kill himself, and Inumaki Toge was in the living room of the tiny apartment they shared, wearing a crop top and a long, very long blue braided wig.

Don't get him wrong, Yuuta isn't trying to imply that Toge's degree is easier!

Inumaki studies Fine Arts. And Yuuta remembers him saying he wants to be a screenwriter. Whenever one of his projects is due, Toge always becomes completely unreachable while busy filming one of his short movies. Yuuta can go days without seeing or talking to him. Mind you, they live together!

It's just that the cosplay thing doesn't seem related to any of that. It feels more like a hobby. Probably something he uses to disconnect from the harsh and miserable reality of university, the same way Yuuta does with kendo.

Toge also goes to a lot of cosplay conventions, usually accompanied by Panda, a friend of both of them and the one who introduced them in the first place, sometime around the middle of their first year, when Inumaki was desperately looking for someone to split the rent with.

And, of course, Itadori Yuuji. A fellow Fine Arts student and the star of the university's baseball team. No one expects him to be such a nerd, but then again, they probably haven't spent two hours watching Yuuji passionately defend Sasuke while dressed as the Naruto Uzumaki. All because Toge enjoys ragebaiting him.

When Yuuta thinks about it, he figures he probably stopped asking questions for good the night he got up to get a glass of water during one of his frequent bouts of insomnia, only to find Gaara of the Sand sitting on the kitchen counter of their humble apartment, his legs swinging back and forth sweetly as if he wasn't sporting an eyeliner sharp enough to slice Yuuta's head clean off, while casually eating a tuna mayo onigiri.

It was around that time that Yuuta also found out Toge creates content online with his cosplays.

Which certainly explained the elaborate makeup sessions and full-on productions at the most unusual hours, the kind that always left Yuuta wondering, damn, does Inumaki-kun know a cosplay event every hour of every day of every week?

That would be actually very impressive.

And that's where Itadori Yuuji comes in.

From what Yuuta understands, he and Toge always cosplay matching characters. Megumi-kun, one of his underclassmen, has also mentioned that Yuuji has a Tiktok account where he posts his cosplays too, many of them featuring Inumaki, by the way.

Yuuta doesn't have a Tiktok account himself, so he wouldn't know. Still, curiosity got the better of him, and he asked Maki and Panda to show him some of the videos. Most of them are built around wherever audio happens to be trending at the time, silly little dances, or videos showing the entire process of putting together a cosplay— from customizing the clothes to styling the wigs and doing the makeup.

And the more he scrolled through Inumaki's profile, the more often he found himself thinking, I remember that day. I was on the couch.

Or then, This part was cut out. I'm almost sure that's when I asked him what he wanted for dinner.

It seems that Toge always made sure not to show Yuuta in his videos or expose him online, probably very aware of his staggering levels of anxiety and complete lack of grace in social situations. Especially in front of a camera.

So, when Yuuta comes home after an endless meeting with his advisor, Gojo, he is practically a professional at moving around unnoticed. He makes no sound, stays out of frame, and carefully avoids every angle covered by the phone resting against the couch, currently recording Inumaki and Itadori as Jirou and Denki, respectively.

Yuuta is no expert when it comes to anime. Well, not compared to Toge, anyway, who seems to have an endless repertoire of them, from the beloved classics to absolute garbage. 

Every now and then, Yuuta catches him and Itadori talking about something with so much passion in their voices and the way they gesture, and whenever he asks what anime they're talking about, just to figure out whether he's seen it before, Toge says things like, "You don't want to know”, or a dramatical, "I'm almost ashamed to say it out loud. You don't deserve that”, which Yuuji always agrees with.

And Yuuta is just like, okay. That's their thing, or whatever. Good for them, I guess. It's not like he wanted to know that badly anyway. It's not like he wanted to talk to Toge, either. How dare he. Apparently only Itadori can.

Even so, he has watched Boku no Hero and recognizes most of the details in Toge and Yuuji's cosplays. Even though this one looks different from the other Denki and Jirou cosplays they've done together. Not that Yuuta is keeping track. He doesn't have TikTok and is definitely not using Maki's phone whenever she isn't looking, only to get humiliated when she catches him. It's just that they live together, so of course Yuuta notices these things. Anyone would.

And everyone knows Kamijirou is a popular ship in the BNHA fandom. He doesn't need to read the comments under Toge and Yuuji's videos saying they look good cosplaying them together to know that.

Especially because he does not have TikTok. Seriously.

Toge looks up the instant Yuuta closes the door behind him, and his face lights up with a really cute smile as he waves. Yuuta awkwardly waves back.

The purple hair looks good on him. It matches his eyes.

“Okkotsu!” Yuuji notices him too. He practically bends at a ninety-degree angle, even though Yuuta tells him every time that he doesn't have to. “We're almost done!”

“Ah, no need to rush.” Yuuta waves his hands, avoiding their eyes as if the floor has suddenly become the most interesting thing in the room. “It's okay. I'm going to my bedroom. You know... assignments. Take your time.” He doesn't mean to come across that way, but somehow he just sounds pathetic and miserable. Which he is, if you ask Maki, but Yuuta would rather not advertise that fact to everyone.

He doesn't wait for an answer, already heading toward his room so he can replay that conversation a million times in his head. He can practically see himself choosing the worst possible dialogue options, as if life were some kind of choice-based game.

“Actually... Okkotsu! Wait!” Itadori calls after him again. Yuuta stops but doesn't turn around. “Inumaki needs your help.”

“No!” Toge's response is immediate.

Yuuta frowns in confusion, but he turns around and walks back over anyway. He would never hear that Toge needed help and not do anything about it.

“What do you need?” Yuuta immediately forgets everything else around them and focuses all his attention on Toge, directing the question at him even though it was Itadori who called him over.

And he probably does that a lot, because Yuuji doesn't even seem to mind and simply continues talking.

“He needs help customizing the last part of the costume, but Inumaki can't do it by himself because he needs to be wearing it. I was going to help, but I need to get home real quick because Choso left without his keys this morning, and he'll be locked out if I don't get there in ten minutes.”

Yuuta resists the urge to point out that Itadori's house is more than ten minutes away. He's seen the guy on the field when he tagged along to one of Maki's practices. Yuuji could probably make it there in five.

Even then, he insists on asking Inumaki himself. “Is that what you want?”

Since Itadori called him over and started yapping, Toge has remained quiet, not meeting Yuuta's eyes even once. Yuuta wants to help, of course, but he would never do something Toge doesn't want him to do. It wasn't Toge who called him over. It wasn't Toge who asked for help. And now, he hasn't said a single word, either.

Then Yuuta can't help but think that Itadori mentioned being the one who was supposed to help him in the first place. Maybe that's what Toge wants. Maybe that's why he's being so quiet. Maybe Yuuta could offer to take Yuuji's keys to his brother instead. Maybe he could still be useful to Toge, even if it wasn't in the way he wanted—

“Yes.” Toge interrupts his train of thought, and Yuuta realizes he's probably been staring at him for far longer than is socially acceptable. He scratches the back of his head and is just about to apologize when Toge speaks again. “It would help a lot, actually. Yuuta.”

Yuuta immediately closes his mouth, and somewhere behind them, Itadori laughs. Then Toge laughs too, but Yuuta finds that he can't care, even though he knows he's the reason.

“Okay.” Yuuji claps once, and Yuuta can tell he's smiling just from the tone of his voice. “I'm leaving now. I'll be back in thirty, and then we can go. Thirty, okay? Don't get too distracted...”

Itadori wiggles his eyebrows with a wide grin, and it's honestly kind of scary.

Yuuta doesn't get it, but Toge seems to, because he smacks Itadori on the head, sending him pitching forward with a groan of pain.

At least it's a very good wig.

“Okay, okay, I take it back!” Yuuji says, raising his hands in surrender. Toge doesn't look convinced, but he’s smiling, even though he’s clearly trying not to.

The sight makes Yuuta look away. Probably another one of those things only the two of them understand.

But he’s pulled out of his thoughts again, this time not by a soft voice, but by Toge’s ever-cold hand, the one without a glove. He grabs Yuuta by the wrist, and Yuuta lets himself be led without resistance. Yuuji laughs again before the door closes behind him, but the sound gets lost as Toge drops Yuuta onto the sofa and then settles almost right between his legs.

They’re so close now. Too close. Yuuta’s brain is short-circuiting, and he’s never had to struggle this much to keep his focus, not even when Gojo starts talking about quantum physics, all because Toge is wearing such short shorts, and his stomach is exposed, and it's so close to Yuuta’s face it makes him want to bite him. And he has his arm extended, his phone showing some image, and—

Wait. Yuuta is supposed to be looking at that.

He shakes his head a little too hard, like a wet dog, and Toge looks at him with a questioning expression but says nothing.

Right. The image.

It’s a fanart of Denki and Jirou. Now that Yuuta is actually looking properly, he realizes the characters are wearing the same outfits Toge and Yuuji are using, instead of their usual anime costumes.

When Yuuta doesn’t say anything, Toge leans in and zooms in quite a bit on Jirou’s legs.

It makes Yuuta look away almost instinctively, a little embarrassed to be staring, even if it’s just an image. Unfortunately, what ends up at eye level is Toge’s flat stomach. Lower down, his legs, wearing the same black tights as in the fanart.

Well, not exactly…

“Ah,” Yuuta murmurs when he finally understands. Toge’s tights are still intact, while Jirou’s are full of rips and tears. “You want me to make the rips in the tights?”

Toge smiles, satisfied, and nods.

“Ah, it’s fine, let me just—” Yuuta looks around and realizes he’s still wearing his backpack. He lets it slide off his shoulder a bit too fast and drop onto the sofa as well, the half-open pocket revealing a stack of papers filled with notes.

The movement catches Toge’s attention, as if he’s only noticing it now too. “It won’t be a bother, right? Itadori kinda forced you to help and…”

“No, of course not!” Yuuta rushes to answer, maybe a little too quickly, letting out a little laugh. “I don’t even want to think about that essay anymore. I might actually forget how to form sentences longer than three words.”

Yuuta sighs dramatically, and Toge lets out a quiet laugh, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. It’s a cute habit. Especially because Toge’s closed eyes betray just how big his smile really is. Or maybe Yuuta only notices it because he’s too close. Close enough to pick up on things he really shouldn’t be noticing for the sake of his already severely compromised mental health.

Like the way Toge is looking at him right now. Or how good he looks when Yuuta has to tilt his head up just to meet his face.

Yuuta clears his throat, suddenly very interested in literally anything in the room that is not Toge, and Toge hums softly, still smiling into his hand, amused, but not at him. Not in a bad way.

Then he decides to start working, because he’s afraid of what his mind might do if he stays in this situation any longer. He stares at Toge’s thighs again.

Ah. Terrible idea. This feels like a medieval torture. Like he's some soldier seeing an ankle for the first fucking time, oh my God, they're just legs! Did his brain melt during his meeting with Gojo and this is hell?

“Right, maybe it’s better if I—” he glances up and down. “Yeah, it’s better if I sit on the floor.” He decides that since the rips go all the way down the tights, the angle would be bad if he stayed on the couch.

Toge seems to agree, making space for him to get up, and Yuuta does, only to immediately kneel in front of him.

They spend what is probably around fifteen seconds in complete silence, staring at each other without moving, which might have been the longest fifteen seconds of Yuuta’s pathetic life.

Honestly, he doesn’t know where to start. He even lifts his hands, trying to picture how it would look in the end so he could figure out how it was supposed to look now, but they freeze a few centimeters away from Toge’s legs.

In his defense, Yuuta doesn’t remember ever intentionally tearing anything before.

Toge, at least, seems to notice his… hesitation? Because he offers to show him how to do it first. He makes a small tear on his left thigh. The fabric resists a little under Toge’s fingers, but after the initial difficulty, he just needs to stretch it slightly more until he seems satisfied.

“You can just do it, seriously. The point is for it to look messy, like I did it myself anyway,” Toge shrugs.

“To look messy… right.” Yuuta repeats to himself, nodding. He frowns in concentration as he holds the fabric slightly above the tear Toge made. “Excuse me…” he murmurs very quietly, before putting force into it.

He doesn’t think about his own strength, not really. Toge had struggled a little to tear it, so Yuuta just assumes it’ll be the same.

Except it’s not. And the fabric gives way way too easily, a huge tear spreading almost the entire front of the thigh, far larger than the other rip, before he even realizes what he’s done.

“Ah,” Yuuta mutters. He looks up at Toge, only to find him already staring back with equally wide eyes and a slightly open mouth.

If this were a TV show, Yuuta is sure there would be more than ten different camera angles of the same moment playing out right now, complete with zoom-ins on every expression of shock, and especially on Toge’s now-exposed thigh.

Yuuta is the first to break the moment, letting out a quick laugh through his nose. It seems almost funnier than the situation itself, because Toge tries to hide his giggles with his forearm again, but he can’t— he’s actually laughing now. And it’s so rare to hear, not even when Yuuji is around does Toge make sounds like this, that Yuuta lowers his head, resting his forehead against Toge’s thigh, feeling himself calm down.

Then he feels a touch in his hair, it’s Toge’s hands, seemingly holding his head unconsciously, while he’s also doubled over with laughter.

Yuuta doesn’t even remember why he was so nervous in the first place now. It’s fine. It’s just Toge. He’s already seen him bald last year anyway, when he was doing an Aang cosplay from Avatar.

“Well, I guess… this is great?” Toge finally manages to say between laughs, trying hard to catch his breath. “I also wanted to stretch the fabric a bit beyond the rips.”

“I definitely thought about that,” Yuuta says, pulling back just enough for Toge to see his expression. Serious, in a way that is completely, undeniably fake.

Toge plays along, closing his eyes as if he’s considering it seriously. “I believe you.”

He keeps his hands in Yuuta’s hair, who doesn’t even know when it got so long, and Yuuta doesn’t really notice it either. It’s only when he’s almost done with the front of the first leg that a question crosses his mind.

“Can you use it again after taking it off the first time?” Yuuta squints, trying to imagine himself putting on these tights full of holes and ending up choosing the wrong one every time.

“Yeah. But I’ll probably mess up most of the rips in the process. It won’t last more than two or three cosplay uses.” Toge makes a grimace. It would probably last longer with a more careful cosplayer, but that was never one of Toge’s strongest traits.

“But it’s a nice cosplay,” Yuuta says honestly. “If you decide to do it again, I mean. It looks nice, kind of like punk styles…”

“One of my followers sent me the fanart a while ago. They said it looked like me and Yuuji,” Toge laughs. Yuuta hides his grimace, bending down to make the rips closer to the ankle. “But I like the accessories. And it’s easier than the original costume. It’s a good option if we ever need something like this again in a short time.” Yuuta hums in agreement.

“Is this okay?” He pulls back slightly to let Toge take a look.

He looks really handsome like this, his face serious and focused in a way Yuuta imagines he gets when he’s directing or following the filming of one of his short films.

“I think you can put some small rips in between,” Toge decides, and Yuuta immediately accepts it.

The problem is that there isn’t much space left between the existing rips, and Yuuta doesn’t want to risk repeating what happened earlier and accidentally creating an even bigger hole.

The most reasonable solution his mind comes up with, of course, is to use his teeth. Because being fucking normal was never one of Yuuta’s strongest traits. And without any warning, he simply leans closer to Toge and manages to make a small tear with his mouth.

The light brush of Yuuta’s nose against his skin makes Toge flinch slightly. “Tickles,” he murmurs, more like a thought spoken out loud.

Yuuta is completely sane about this. Seriously.

So sane that his brain simply ignores this new information. It also ignores the sudden urge to find out how sensitive Toge is, ignores the fact that he just buried his face in his roommate’s thigh with absolutely no context, and especially ignores the heat rising to his ears and spreading through his skull like one of those hot chocolates Toge makes so well.

Maybe if he doesn’t move, Toge will think it was just a hallucination.

Sorry, Inumaki-kun. He’s going to have to sacrifice your sanity in exchange for the little dignity he has left.

“Can you turn around, please?” Yuuta says, the first thing he can think of.

“Sure.” Toge’s answer is immediate, and he does turn around so quickly that Yuuta almost loses his balance.

Damn. That idea was worse than the last one.

Yuuta keeps tearing the tights, still using his teeth for the smaller rips because, god, he’s just a man. It’s also less embarrassing to do it without Toge’s attentive gaze on him, though Yuuta doesn’t want to think too hard about what this situation would look like to anyone from the outside.

A very unhealthy part of him wants Itadori to walk through the door right now, while another wants to suffocate that part with a pillow tonight.

He’ll have plenty of time to see which one wins before he goes to sleep. Clearly, Yuuta won’t be getting anywhere near the softness of a dream anytime soon.

Though he might disagree with that, because being this close to Toge, having him to himself, being the only one he needs right now, arguably, could be a taste of some spiritual plane.

They were about to finish the second leg, this time without another totally-not-accidental large rip, Yuuta having finished the back first while he was already there, and now working on the front, when he notices the absence of another presence that is usually already there in their apartment when they have a convention.

“Will Panda take you?” Yuuta asks. That was usually how it went. Panda isn’t really into cosplay, but he loves buying all the little trinkets sold at those events, so he always ends up giving the dynamic duo a ride.

Toge pouts, and Yuuta has to stop for a moment just to appreciate it— just a little.

“Not today. He went to visit his family with Yaga-san today. We’ll have to take the good old subway.”

Yuuta smiles a little at the idea of the two of them all dressed up on the train. It reminds him that Yuuji is probably running around right now dressed as Denki from Boku no Hero, which somehow makes it even funnier.

“I can take you guys if you want,” Yuuta shrugs.

“My hero,” Toge says very, very seriously, grabbing Yuuta by the shoulders and even shaking him a little as if he were Deku himself, which makes him let out a soft laugh. “Seriously, Yuuta, you should try a cosplay someday too. You could be like Aki,” Yuuta doesn’t know who that is, but he just nods anyway. “Or like Ace.” Now he knows that one. “People would go crazy, I bet.”

“I don’t think so…” Yuuta stumbles a little. Ace is that Luffy’s brother who’s always shirtless, right? He hasn’t gotten that far in One Piece, but he’s heard about the guy.

If so, that would be a disaster.

“Please,” Toge blinks at him, and Yuuta lets out an unintelligible sound, completely falling apart. Very embarrassing. Good thing Maki isn’t seeing this.

As if he isn’t going to tell her everything later in detail, and she’s going to hate every second of it.

Yuuta gathers some courage to reply, a little awkward. “Only if you do it with me.”

Toge smiles, completely, openly, no hesitation. A huge, beautiful smile just for Yuuta. “I’ve always wanted to cosplay Angel,” he says.

And that’s a yes, apparently. Whoever Angel is, god bless them.

Like it was planned, the door opens the very next second, and in walks Itadori, who doesn’t look tired at all, which, honestly, is a little annoying. Yuuta looks back at Toge’s tights and realizes he had already finished the rips a long time ago; he just kept sitting there talking to Toge because… yes.

Because he has that effect on people. Yuuta can’t even blame Yuuji, or anyone, really.

“Whoa, that looks so cool!” Yuuji exclaims from the doorway, rushing over to get a closer look, and Yuuta uses that moment to finally stand up. “Now I just need to find my phone and we can go!”

Toge looks thoroughly unimpressed as Itadori pats down the pockets of his oversized shorts and glances around frantically.

“Yuuta is giving us a ride,” Toge informs him. Yuuji punches the air in celebration without stopping his search, which makes Toge raise an eyebrow and cross his arms. “You didn’t even bring it with you when you left? What if your brother called?”

“I forgot! I left in a hurry, but it was fine— aha! Here it is.” Toge doesn’t even see where he pulled the phone from, too busy gathering his own things for the afternoon out, and also thinking about touching up his makeup or fixing any part of the costume if needed.“One hour of footage?!” Itadori almost screams.

Toge makes a face at Yuuta over Yuuji’s shoulder, and Yuuta can’t help smiling a little. Cute.

Good thing it’s not his turn to edit the making-of.

Toge was having a really good day.

The convention was a success! He and Yuuji recorded a bunch of fun TikToks they had been promising each other for about three cosplays now. One of their videos dancing to RICHMAN got 190k likes, and they even filmed it pretty quickly right after getting home, too. Toge’s shirt wasn’t even a crop top anymore, because he had lost the hair tie he used to keep it tied tight at the back.

Yuuta had driven them back too, and then offered to take Toge to college next day as well. Something about his advisor lending him the car, which was great! Because it meant he could sleep more.

The grade for his latest short film just came out, and Toge did really well, he’s even cleared the class now and won’t need to attend university on Thursdays anymore. On top of that, they sent a message in the class group chat saying tomorrow’s professor is on medical leave, which means (with all due respect to Suguru Geto’s possible conditions) Toge gets to turn Friday into a long weekend and finally binge the second season of Sousou no Frieren. He’s already four episodes behind.

Panda even bought him a tuna mayo onigiri to celebrate, and also as an apology for not being able to be with them yesterday. Toge was genuinely very happy, savoring the taste of the 120 yen he had saved, when Maki had to ruin his day.

Well, not that she actually did anything herself, the truth would’ve reached Toge’s ears eventually anyway, but he needs someone to blame while Itadori isn’t around yet, and she’s the messenger of chaos, so she deserves it.

“I knew you were an exhibitionist little shit,” were Maki’s first words, as she casually dropped her bag onto the seat beside him, where Toge and Panda were sitting under the stairs. “But I have to admit, I didn’t really believe the idiot would go along with your idea of turning whatever this thing between you two is into a whole spectacle. He’s in love, yes, and he’s stupid, for sure, but I didn’t think he was insane.”

Toge raises an eyebrow at her, completely used to all the insults. “What are you talking about?”

Maki raises one right back, stepping over Toge’s outstretched legs, comfortably resting in Panda’s lap, before sitting down on the other side.

“What else? You and your mysterious friend,” Toge keeps staring at her like Maki has completely lost her mind. Maybe she got hit too hard by a baseball at practice this morning.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a day as good as Toge’s. What a shame.

But then Panda, ever so helpful, decides to share his opinion too. “I think he doesn’t know.” And Toge starts to get a little worried.

“Doesn’t know what?”

Maki completely ignores him, damn her, considering the possibility with a thoughtful expression. “You’re right. He’d definitely be showing off right now if he knew about the video.”

“Wait, what video?” Now Toge is panicking. God, he hates not understanding things.

“Wow, this just got way better,” is what Maki says instead of answering him! And then she starts smiling like a maniac, and Toge is two steps away from ripping her hair out when he sees Panda moving to take his phone out of his jacket and feels a little, just a little more relieved.

At least one good friend! Thank you, Panda, he’ll pay him back fifteen onigiris later.

The motion of bringing the onigiri back to his mouth is automatic. Toge has always had this habit of chewing on something to ease his anxiety. He had just bitten into the rice ball when Panda suddenly points the phone at him, and Toge’s body immediately forgets how to perform all basic functions.

On the screen, there is none other than him and Yuuta from the previous afternoon, when Yuuta was helping him style the tights for the Jirou cosplay.

Vaguely, Toge’s brain remembers Yuuji saying the recording was over an hour long. He just never connected A to B to realize that meant the camera had been running the entire time Yuuji was away. Filming him and Yuuta.

And Itadori posted it.

His mouth is already forming the words “what the fuck—” when Yuuta on the screen leans down and tears the tights with his teeth, and it’s automatic. Toge’s jaw drops, and the half-chewed piece of onigiri falls out of his mouth too.

“Gross,” Maki says flatly, maybe about Yuuta’s actions, definitely about the onigiri thing, but Toge completely ignores her, not out of revenge, but because he’s too busy grabbing the phone out of Panda’s hands to look closer, unable to believe what he’s seeing.

How did he not see this? His username is even tagged in the caption, and the video is from hours ago. Then it hits him. He always turns off TikTok notifications after events because they get too annoying on his screen.

The video restarts from the beginning, and Toge realizes that, thank God and whatever entity is out there, there is still some sense left in Yuuji, because it has no original sound, only some random music playing in the background.

The post is a reply to a comment on their fucking RICHMAN dancing video.

@bakuwife: i bet denki was the one who made the rips in the tights

And then the caption, which finally makes Toge understand Maki’s words from earlier.

Not this time haha, we have to thank Jirou’s mysterious friend.

Yuuta in the video is half turned away, but part of his face is still visible, just slightly hidden by his hair.

“He didn’t do that.”

“He did,” Maki is not helping at all.

Toge immediately turns the phone off, which almost falls from his lap along with the half-bitten onigiri and the rest of his sanity. Panda catches it just in time, in a panic.

“Oh my God, Yuuta is going to hate me,” he blurts out, running his hands over his face.

“I think he’s physically incapable of hating you,” Maki murmurs, far too unconcerned for the life-or-death situation they are currently in.

“You guys don’t understand!” Toge groans, and that finally seems to worry Panda and Maki, because both of them soften their expressions.

Toge is always careful not to accidentally record Yuuta, always. He knows Yuuta is a bit shy, and he also doesn’t want to scare the boy he’s been in love with for over a year by dragging him into his chaos.

(No, Maki, having dinner with him while dressed as Ryuk from Death Note does not count as scaring him!)

And Toge normally takes this very seriously, really. But then Yuuji asked Yuuta to help him with the tights, the tights, of all things, and Yuuta agreed because he’s just that kind of nice person, and then he kept looking at Toge, which is a normal thing human beings do, but when Yuuta does it, it stops being normal, okay, and Toge turned into a complete mess and— ugh.

Yuuta’s expression, all focused and concentrated, is incredibly disarming when you’re the target of it. But it’s even worse when Toge sees it in third person.

And he can’t believe Itadori left in the part where Yuuta tears the tights with his mouth. Even Yuuta didn’t mention it; he just pretended it never happened, and Toge agrees that was probably for the best, because he still feels like dying just remembering how he got goosebumps while Yuuta had his face basically buried in his legs (God, brain, rewrite that sentence).

He’s going to hate Toge when he finds out this is all on the internet. And it has 345k likes.

Why the hell does a video of his cosplay that he spent ten hours sewing never get that many likes?

“He won’t like me anymore,” is all Toge manages to say, because the monologue in his head has gotten way too long, and the words come out more melancholic than he intended, but it’s also all he has.

Maki lets out a long sigh beside him, adjusting her glasses with that expression of someone about to be a very good friend and pretend she isn’t.

“I think Yuuta is also physically incapable of doing that.” She raises an eyebrow, and Toge snorts in response, but doesn’t deny it. “Look, you weren’t the one who posted it, and you didn’t even know Yuuji was going to post it. Come on, Yuuta would never blame you in a situation like this. He doesn’t even blame you in the ones you’re actually guilty of!”

Toge sticks his tongue out; Maki threatens to rip it out.

“He probably doesn’t even know yet. I would know— against my will, but I would know.” Toge lets out a small laugh. Maki bumps her shoulder against his. “Just talk to him.”

“Alright,” he murmurs, not very convinced. This time, it’s Maki who snorts.

“And then I’ll hit Yuuji with my bat tomorrow.”

Toge breaks into a huge grin. “Deal.”

Yuuta is having a slightly weird day.

This might just be him overthinking again. Maki, Panda, and Toge would each bet 200 yen on it, and they’d be right, but the thing is, Gojo is smiling in a strange way.

Stranger than usual. Way too much, too. He keeps looking at Yuuta with those very blue eyes over his thick glasses, letting out a small laugh, then glancing back down at the pen Yuuta has been anxiously tapping against his notebook since the seventh time Gojo did it— the moment Yuuta actually noticed the pattern.

By the sixteenth time, he puts the pen down.

“Gojo-sensei, what is it?”

“It’s nothing,” he says in that very clearly-this-is-not-nothing kind of way, and Yuuta must make some familiar expression of suffering, because Satoru smiles again, this time a little… soft? “I’m just proud of my dear student.”

Yuuta looks at his very messy notes, then at Gojo’s disastrous board that only he seems to understand, and then back at Gojo again. The disbelief on his face is almost palpable.

He must be getting really better at decoding the teacher, if he’s this satisfied.

Two robotic knocks sound at the classroom door, and Gojo’s smile grows so wide the moment it opens that Yuuta didn’t even know that was physically possible. He has to turn around to look as well.

But it’s just Kamo Noritoshi, another student Satoru is also advising. Yuuta looks back at Satoru with a judging expression, because, Why is he so happy? He loves teaching physics that much? Right as Kamo speaks.

“Excuse me, he’s looking for Okkotsu.”

Yuuta has to look again, now curious about who could possibly be looking for him, and it’s simply Inumaki. He startles a little and even straightens his back, and Yuuta is almost certain Gojo is laughing through his laptop, if he hadn’t already covered it with a ridiculous cough.

“Inumaki-kun?” Toge steps out from where he had been completely hidden behind Kamo’s figure, quickly bowing in apology.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you were still in a meeting.”

Yuuta opens his mouth to say it’s no problem at all, Gojo definitely wouldn’t mind if he stepped out for a moment to talk to Inumaki and then come back to the meeting, but Gojo beats him to it.

“He’s all yours, Toge-kun.” Gojo practically grabs Yuuta by the shoulders and starts stuffing his things into his bag for him. “We’re done here anyway.”

“We are?” Yuuta blurts out before he can stop himself.

“Of course. My prodigy student doesn’t need any more corrections on his essay. I’m a very good advisor.” Yuuta lets out a faint grunt of protest that is immediately lost as Gojo shoves the bag into his chest and pushes him toward the door.

Oh God… was he happy before because he was just figuring out how to get rid of Yuuta as quickly as possible? Yuuta wouldn’t even blame him.

Toge and Noritoshi end up suffering from their advisor’s chaos, and at least in that, Yuuta has a slight advantage. Gojo can be unpredictable, and usually for the worse, but Yuuta is at least used to it. He manages to sling his bag over his shoulder mid-push, bumping only into Kamo, and somehow fits himself between him and Toge as all three of them are practically expelled from the room.

“But I also can’t take away the credit from our great Yuuta here,” Gojo smacks Yuuta on the back, making him wince. At least it gets a smile out of Toge. “He’s more than he seems, isn’t he? You could even say he’s a bit… mysterious.” And then Gojo has the audacity to wink at Toge, and it’s hard to tell if he even tried to be subtle, because absolutely all of them saw it. Yuuta would bet he didn’t even try.

Gojo shuts the door in their faces. Yuuta is confused, Kamo looks bored, and Toge looks very horrified— wait, is his face red?

“Right,” Yuuta says, to no one in particular.

They all stare at each other in very uncomfortable silence before Toge sighs and turns to Kamo. Yuuta definitely did not pout.

“Thank you for taking some of your time to help me find the classroom,” Toge says, already halfway into another bow, but Kamo stops him with a hand.

“It wasn’t a bother,” he says, and Yuuta can tell he means it, because Kamo is the kind of guy who doesn’t soften anything just to spare people’s feelings.

He finally looks at Yuuta, who may or may not be staring at him a little too openly, but there is no one here to confirm that, and Kamo scans him from head to toe, so they're even.

“Honestly, I didn’t notice at first, but it’s not that hard if you know him. Okkotsu never takes that jacket off.” Yuuta doesn’t understand any of this, but he’s slightly offended by the comment, even clutching the white jacket he’s been wearing for the third time this week because, well, it’s comfortable. He doesn’t even get the chance to defend himself, because Kamo adds, “I didn’t know he'd finally said anything. See you later, Inumaki.”

And just like that, he leaves.

A very, very weird day.

Yuuta lets out a confused laugh and turns to Toge. “What did you want to talk about, Inumaki-kun? Did something happen?” But the words die halfway through, because Toge is staring at the ground and is red again for some reason.

Okay, now Yuuta is a little worried. Is Toge getting sick? He’s always been prone to fevers, and it’s been a little cold lately. Right, maybe he needs a ride to the hospital. Or home. Yuuta can help! He can just borrow Gojo-san’s car again—

Yuuta. Overthinking again.

He almost smacks himself in the forehead. Ask him, Maki’s voice immediately scolds from somewhere inside his head. He can practically hear her saying, stop trying to guess what people are thinking and just ask them to tell you.

“Toge, are you—”

“Yuuta!”

He startles and immediately goes quiet again.

Maybe it’s just the effect of hearing his name come out of Toge’s mouth. It always leaves him a little dazed.

“Yuuji left his phone recording yesterday when he went to meet Choso-kun, and then it turns out you showed up in the footage when you helped me rip the tights, but I didn’t remember that, and it was Yuuji-kun’s turn to edit our prep videos and mine to edit the event ones, because last time it was the other way around, so we split it like that, and I didn’t even think about it, and I know I messed up because I should have thought about it, because then I woke up this morning, came to university, and found out he just posted both of us on his TikTok, and the video already has 400k likes—I checked, it’s still going up—and you’re kind of facing away, but you can still see a bit, and I think Kamo noticed it’s you, and maybe your advisor too? Oh my god. I’m so sorry.”

It doesn’t look like he was sick at all, but instead gathering courage, because the moment the first word came out, Toge completely started rambling. If Yuuta weren’t so used to having an overactive, chaotic brain, he wouldn’t have understood a thing.

Toge is gesturing a little. A lot, actually. Yuuta tries to keep up, following one sign after another, though Inumaki's slightly adorable expression keeps stealing his attention.

Yuuji, recording, tights, TikTok, Gojo-san— okay, no, he got distracted somewhere along the way.

“Toge, breathe,” Yuuta says, smiling a little but also worried Toge might pass out from lack of air.

The word seems to be a trigger for Toge to realize just how much he needed it, because he takes a deep breath.

“Yes, please. If you pass out, I’ll pass out too, and then you’ll have to wake up and take me to the hospital.”

Toge lets out a weak laugh, but Yuuta can see his shoulders slowly relaxing with each breath.

“You said Itadori posted a… video. Of us. From yesterday. On his TikTok?” he asks, slowly, but it’s mostly just to say something and stop Inumaki from panicking, because his own brain doesn’t seem to have processed what that actually means. It definitely isn’t what he’s imagining. Toge nods in confirmation. “Can I see it?” He nods again, already pulling his phone out of his pocket and opening the app.

The two of them squeeze side by side, and Yuuta bends slightly to match Toge’s height. He can already see the notification tab exploding even while Toge is still on the home screen. Yuuta swallows.

The video is worse than he expected, because Yuuta’s expectations were basically him disappearing off the face of the earth in the split second between Toge’s news and the video actually playing.

It’s a little strange seeing himself from this perspective. He doesn’t take many pictures, so at most he sees himself in the occasional group selfie whenever the four of them go out together. Yuuta barely recognizes himself. It doesn’t make him feel bad, just... strange.

Like looking at a character, the same way it is when Toge is cosplaying. That’s not really him, right?

But he tries his best not to think, which is admittedly the thing he does best, because Toge already looks nervous, and it’s kind of Yuuta’s fault. It could’ve just been a normal video if he hadn’t been a complete freak and practically attacked Inumaki Toge’s perfectly immaculated white thighs with his teeth.

“Hum,” Yuuta stammers when his digital, unhinged self once again tears the tights with his mouth, but he quickly recovers, because for the sake of his own mental health he promises himself he will never watch that video again, avoiding the screen. “Inumaki-kun, it’s fine. I don’t mind being in the video.”

“Yuuta!” Toge scolds him, and Yuuta almost apologizes despite having done nothing wrong. Somehow, his reprimands are almost scarier than Maki's. “You're only saying that because you never blame me for anything. Maki said so!”

“No!” he waves his hands. Toge doesn't believe in it. “I mean it. I’m just kind of bad with cameras, so I don’t really like being filmed, but it has nothing to do with being exposed or anything. I didn’t know I was being recorded, so I wasn’t nervous. It’s fine, really,” Yuuta reassures him.

“Are you sure?” Toge looks up at him, his eyes somehow even bigger like this. Yuuta swallows again.

“Absolutely sure.”

"I'll ask him to delete it," Toge says anyway.

He's already halfway through typing a message to Yuuji when he starts walking too, which makes Yuuta briefly consider that Toge might be planning to track him down and delete the video himself.

Yuuta hurries after him and steps into his path, catching both of his hands without even realizing he's doing it.

"Toge."

He puts on his best puppy-dog expression, which, according to Maki, is just his normal face.

Toge answers with his grumpy cat face.

It's ridiculously cute, and Yuuta ends up smiling. That, apparently, convinces Toge that he's won this battle, which, to be fair, he absolutely has, and that he can go back to texting Itadori.

Yuuta needs a new challenge, one where he actually has the advantage. So he snatches the phone right out of Toge's hand and lifts it above his head, well out of reach.

"Yuuta!" There it is again, the scolding tone.

Toge immediately stretches up to grab his phone back, but it's completely hopeless with the height difference between them. He keeps inching closer and closer, trying from different angles while Yuuta twists away and dodges every attempt.

He's having a little too much fun with this. Which probably makes him a terrible person.

"You're overthinking it," Yuuta tries to defend himself. Toge gives him a look.

"Am I really hearing that from you?" he mocks, still reaching for his phone.

"Hey!"

Yuuta is fully prepared to argue against an accusation that is, admittedly, completely true, but he never gets the chance.

Toge lunges for the phone again, so Yuuta steps back, but his heel catches on absolutely nothing and, suddenly, they're both losing their balance.

"Oh—"

Toge crashes into him first. Yuuta's free hand instinctively finds his waist before either of them can hit the floor properly, but the momentum still sends them stumbling awkwardly into the nearest wall.

"Toge?" Yuuta asks immediately. "Are you okay?" Toge blinks at him, then rolls his eyes. Relief floods through Yuuta. "Sorry," he says, genuinely. "Sorry."

He lowers the phone between them, finally giving up. When Toge reaches for it, Yuuta accidentally catches a glimpse of the screen.

There are approximately three hundred messages in the chat, most of them appear to be insults. Creative insults, by the way. A truly impressive amount of them.

Yuuta only has time to read a few before Toge tries to yank the phone away. That's when he sees Yuuji's latest reply.

you see how many comments are saying you two look like you're dating
seriously
everyone sees it except you two

Below it is a screenshot.

Yuuta's eyes betray him, damn them, because he reads.

i want someone to look at me the way the mysterious friend looks at jirou

view 43 replies 34k

denki can you fight

view 103 replies 42k

he was practically stroking his hair 😭 so cute

view 9 replies 18k

his bf looks nice

21k

THE TEETH GUYS HE USED HIS FCKNG MOUTH

view 519 replies 98k

The screen suddenly goes dark, and Toge clutches the phone to his chest. His eyes are wide, maybe not quite as wide as Yuuta's, and for a moment, neither of them says anything.

He knows Toge caught him reading it. It's written all over his face, just as surely as guilty is probably written in big letters across Yuuta's forehead.

"Don't be weird."

Toge's words cut him off abruptly, which is impressive considering Yuuta had only just opened his mouth.

"That's kind of a difficult thing to ask of me," he admits, a little uncertain. Toge laughs again, that same snorting laugh he usually hides behind his arm. This time, though, he grabs Yuuta's arm and uses that as a shield instead.

"Don't act differently. Don't think too much about what they're saying, just don't..." Toge closes his eyes. "Don't change."

Yuuta frowns.

"Never," he says, and he means it. A part of him is bothered by the idea that Toge might not fully understand that, so he cups his face with both hands and makes him look back at him. "I'll always be the Yuuta you know."

Toge's eyes light up unbearably, bright as stars.

"Good." He nods several times, as if he approves of Yuuta's answer far more than he should. Then he straightens up, suddenly serious as he adds, "I'll always be the Toge you know, too.”

The Toge he finds at 1 p.m., in the middle of the living room, wearing tights and a cropped top, covered in accessories and a purple wig. The Toge he finds at 3 a.m., sitting on the kitchen counter, biting into an onigiri, his hair red, dressed in a full cosplay. The Toge he finds at 7 a.m., half-asleep on the sofa, his normal blond hair, his normal lilac eyes, no eyeliner, no costume, just his ridiculous tuna-print pajama pants and an oversized T-shirt that went missing from Yuuta’s closet four weeks ago, right after it had been Toge’s turn to do the laundry.

Even when he is someone else, he is still his.

"That was beautiful. Seriously, really beautiful. But how long are you two planning to stay on the floor?"

Toge and Yuuta immediately turn toward the voice. The head is poking through the crack of the slightly open door, and a phone is pointed directly at their faces, clearly recording.

"Gojo-san?!”

They went viral again.