Work Text:
"So you've returned to the land of the living?" Nobara lifts a well plucked brow as Yuuji slides into his seat at their lunch table, a bashful smile that was already melting her and Megumi's grudge.
"Yeah… sorry for going no show over the weekend. He came to visit me," Yuuji places his bag by his feet, heavy with the schoolwork he was supposed to complete over the weekend and pointedly did not in favor of painting and movies. "Again."
"Oh, no. Don't worry, it's not like we've had any plans or anything." Nobara bites with her pretty teeth. Never one to hide her true feelings.
"I'm sorry, guys. I promise I'll make it up to you, we can go out after school?"
"Doesn't really matter if you're gonna be texting him the whole time." Megumi, who had been silent in allowing Nobara to metaphorically whip Yuuji for him, finally piped up. His voice carrying a hard edge to it. Wow Yuuji really fucked up.
Nobara nodded to herself, short and jerky. "Like you do even in class."
"I promise, just a quick text to my brother to let him know I'll be with you guys then no phone for the rest of the day— here, I'll even do this!" Yuuji unzipped his bag and pocketed his device in it. Offering a smile that would be hopeful if it weren't too tightly stitched at the corners.
Nobara and Megumi's ire lasts quietly and hotly as they glowered at him.
Megumi breaks first.
"We've missed you, idiot." The quiet boy reaches to punch Yuuji in the shoulder, it's not as soft as it could be, but not as hard as he deserves. Still, it knocks a laugh loose from his chest.
"I'm not one for sentimentality," Nobara's eyes narrow, then soften. "But it's good to have you back. I didn't realize how quiet things got when your loud ass mouth isn't here running about human earthworm for a couple weeks."
"Maybe I should go ghost again for a couple weeks." Yuuji's mouth quirks to a lopsided smile. "You're so much nicer to me when I come back."
Megumi and Nobara's expressions fall slack.
"Ah, too soon?"
He is rightfully kicked underneath the table by both, harshly.
True to his word, Yuuji keeps his phone stashed away in his bag and divides his time between class and friends.
That doesn't mean it's easy, though.
His thoughts are a well beaten path leading back to Sukuna, where he is, what he's working on, what he's ate for lunch, how he's going to relax after work. Their texts are mostly mindless, aimless chatter. Nonsensical teenage thoughts met by maturity that somehow turns it into meaning.
"Hey, are you even listening?" Nobara snaps her fingers in his face, like she's training a puppy to listen and obey.
"Huh? Yes! Sorry I just zoned out for a minute." Her painted lip frown, it's some new color she waited in line for. It was pretty, he hadn't called it pretty yet.
Guilt is eventually what always makes the dog heel.
"Where did you go shopping again? What for?" Yuuji tries to mend, to recall when Nobara had been a steady figure and Sukuna had not yet begun. Caramel colored eyes stare hotly at him, frustration and even hurt swirling in her eyes like sugar scalded instead of melted.
"Yokohama, and—"
She's not talking about it as enthusiastically as before.
Yuuji knows that he's being selfish, self centered. Like he's becoming the people who claim they don't need anyone other than their soulmate. And he knows that to be false.
Yuuji believed that while Sukuna remained to be the largest component in his soul, Choso, his grandfather, Nobara and Megumi, were all extensions of it too. They may not all share names on each other's body. But is a soul not developed by those around it? By Choso's stern but strong love, Megumi's calm attentiveness that's taught him how to slow down and think, Nobara's vanity that's showed him how to be selfishly proud, Wasuke's gruff nature of love that's led Yuuji to learn that care and compassion did not always have to be loud.
A soul is not built, but rather nurtured.
And yet, all Yuuji's mind chants is: Sukuna, Sukuna, Sukuna. A beg, a prayer, a hymn of devotion in an old temple where every echo wove into the pews and beams. Maybe it was something like separation anxiety, or because his soul simply yearned for proximity and touch with its other half.
All Yuuji knew, understood, is that he wanted to be with Sukuna.
And every thought, sounded distinctly of an old charming, delicate voice.
Yuuji engages more in the conversation and feels his heart swell at Nobara's gleeful smile.
Megumi joins their group a little later at the cafe they chose as their meet up point. Yuuji had insisted they try the new place out, it was a cat cafe and cat cafes always made Megumi let his guard down. However, when he walks in, his pale cheeks are blemished a ruddy pink with a familiar scowl scrunching the bridge of his nose.
"Gojo?" Nobara and Yuuji ask in tandem.
"Gojo." Megumi sighs, taking his place in the lonesome chair. There's already a cup of coffee waiting for him, black with no sugar or milk, but cooled just enough to drink.
Gojo Satoru was a mystery to Nobara and Yuuji. Something like a ghost, which they realized was way more fitting than originally intended when they first met the man face to face. White hair, white skin, eyes so blue it almost hurt to look into them. He was funny, kind of a dickhead, but charming in his own brand of Gojo Satoru way. When asked what the relationship was between he and Megumi, the answer was always simple:
"He's my ward."
"He's my guardian."
And that explanation was given as if it answered the very question of what's the meaning of life? When in fact, it left many, many more questions in its wake.
As always, Megumi smoothly continues on before the topic can circle back to Gojo. "Anyway, what's the plan for today?"
Megumi is a go with the flow kind of guy except for when he isn't. Nobara and Yuuji eventually learned how to tell which hm and grunt meant what.
Nobara is the first to speak up, her thumb pointing at herself. "I want to go shopping."
"Hm," Megumi sipped his tea. Eyeballing a wandering calico that was eyeballing him back with a swishing tail.
"And then I figured we'd hit up that book store you like on the way back."
"Hmm," Megumi nodded. "Sounds good to me."
"Hey! what about what I want to do." Yuuji interjected sharply and pouted softly. Nobara whipped her head to him so fast he swears it actually spun.
"You're still being punished for ditching us! You even tried to take your phone out your bag!"
"I was just gonna take a picture of the kitties!"
"No phone!” Nobara scowled.
Yuuji groaned and slumped back in his chair, still pouting. He couldn't even say that it was unfair when the whole situation was because of his negligence. And yeah, he did want to take a picture of the cats! …to send to Sukuna.
God, he really was hopeless.
They spend their time in the cat cafe chatting aimlessly, downing tea and scratching behind the ears of kitties. It's a good time, and it fills Yuuji with a warmth he forgot felt so good. Just hanging out, talking, laughing at something stupid and teasing each other over something trivial.
"You know, Fumi is allergic to cats. But she pets them anyway even though they make her eyes water." Nobara says with a fond smile, petting the calico cat that in the end dodged Megumi's lap for hers. Though, quickly a brown tabby made itself home in his with biscuits and purrs.
"Tsumiki preferred- prefers dogs. I like any animal there is." Megumi mumbles, Nobara and Yuuji let the preferred slip as if it hadn't been uttered at all. They didn't know much about Tsumiki, just like they didn't know much about Gojo. Just that she was sick and has been sick a long time.
Yuuji stays silent, his chin to his chest as a maine coon swished its tail at him. The cat didn't really want to be touched, but it wanted to be near him. Blinking at him every so often with sharp yellow eyes.
Nobara glances at him, sharp. "What about yours? What does he like?"
Yuuji blinks dumbly a few times before he realizes her question is directed at him, and what it's for.
An olive branch, a twig, but still a growing branch.
"Sukuna? I actually don't know." Pets weren't brought up before in their conversations. He tries to picture what Sukuna would like — or what he'd look good with. Which, is everything if you asked Yuuji. But he could see Sukuna with one of those big dogs known for a sleek coat and powerful jaw. Or perhaps, a maine coon just like this one to sit in his lap while he worked. Hell, Yuuji could even see something more exotic like a snake or some sort of bird. The only thing he couldn't see Sukuna with is a crusty little white dog, and that thought made him snort. "He doesn't have any pets, and we've never talked about them before."
"Really? What do you guys talk about then?" Nobara's tone is a bit incredulous, Megumi stays silent.
"Uhh," Yuuji touches his chin. "He likes art and history a lot, so there's that. But we talk about school and his job a lot too, mostly when we're gonna meet up again."
"Job? Does his school let him have a part time job?" Megumi sits up a little straighter, his fingers no longer card through the fur of the tabby who makes a soft mrrp for his attention.
A very, very tight knot begins to tangle in Yuuji's chest. "Ah… no? Sukuna is out of school."
"College?" Nobara asks like this is a game of charades. Megumi's attention is getting colder, sharper.
"No, I mean he's out of school." Yuuji mumbles, quiet but loud enough to be heard.
Nobara is still processing the meaning of Yuuji's words, for Megumi, it clicks much faster.
"Yuuji," he starts slow and unkind. "How old is your soulmate?"
"He's thirty-seven." Yuuji shrugs, hoping that if he says it casually then maybe they won't take it so badly.
That's not the case.
Nobara and Megumi cry out so loud that other patrons whipped their heads to them. Some glaring at disrupting teens, others in alarm, even the cats in their laps go flying.
"Thirty-seven?! Yuuji!"
"It's fine! It's fine! This has already been worked out, Choso is watching us like, really closely!"
"It's not fine!" Nobara hisses.
"I knew I heard the name Ryoumen Sukuna somewhere but I thought…" Megumi's face contorts painfully. "There's about seven billion people on the planet, and you got Ryoumen Sukuna."
"You say that like it's a curse." Yuuji knuckles whiten, hands balled to fists in his lap. Megumi scoffs.
"Who is Ryoumen Sukuna?" Nobara growls between the two boys.
"Ryoumen Sukuna is a man famed for his paintings; he studied a lot of traditional methods that aren't as commonly used these days, that alone was eye catching, but then his paintings were said to be 'too dark' and 'monstrous' giving him a sort of infamous-fame. After some time, he decided to become a gallerist after a fall out and run in with the paparazzi." Megumi explains, so firm in each detail that it makes Yuuji jealous. He'd known a little bit about the gallerist and of course the paintings, but…
"And how do you know this?" Nobara raises an eyebrow. Megumi growls under his breath.
"Gojo has been a long term client of his."
The girl throws her hands up, exasperated.
"But it doesn't matter how I know this, Yuuji. Do you know this?"
"I knew about his current job, but not the stuff before it."
"And you don't even know what type of animal he likes." Megumi scoffs.
"What does it matter?" Yuuji grits his teeth — he knows he's becoming angry, defensive, whatever. But what gives Megumi the right to act like this? "We've only know each other a little while now, we're getting there!"
"It matters because he's a grown man, Yuuji. He's a grown man and you said you wanted a romantic soulmate— and he's pursuing one in you? Right? That makes him a fucking pervert."
Yuuji stands sharply, knocking the chair over and causing the onlookers to glance warily at them once more. "Megumi… don't."
But Megumi isn't done. He sneers, cruelly. "I knew you were naive, but I didn't think you were an idiot."
"You know, maybe you should tell us about your soulmate before you go judging mine." Yuuji spits with more contempt than he ever knew could've existed in him. "Which one is it? Tsumiki? Gojo? Someone you're ashamed of? Because that seems like what it is to me."
"Hey, maybe we should take this somewhere else." Nobara, the only one with any wisdom in the moment, tries her best to pacify the situation. The manager of the cafe is whispering to an employee while staring the three teens down.
Hurt flashes through Megumi like a lightning bolt. And Yuuji wishes he could eat the words as soon as he spat them out.
"I'm not ashamed." He says, calm.
"I…"
"But you should be." Megumi turns without another word, grabbing his things and storming out before Nobara or Yuuji could object. Leaving the boy to stand there, dumbfounded and swamped with guilt. And Nobara with a pinched expression she has no shame in directing to Yuuji.
"This is really bad, Yuuji. You could've been in danger this whole time." Much more politely, Nobara dusts rises and dusts off the cat fur from her skirt and shirt before meeting golden eyes, glossy with tears. "You lied to us."
"I didn't lie. You guys didn't ask." He pitifully snaps, wiping his eyes.
"We shouldn't have needed to ask, you should've been there with us the whole time." Nobara's lips wobble, and Yuuji thinks she wants to cry too. "And you might've not lied, but you didn't tell the truth either."
"Nobara—"
"Just give us some time, okay? Space and time." She calls without looking over his shoulder, and leaves him too.
Yuuji makes his way out next, walking home in a daze. Gramps is at the hospital for an appointment, Choso is at work. The house is quiet and empty and suddenly too big and small.
Yuuji makes his way to his room, and cries.
For three days, Yuuji tries to do exactly as he's told.
Nobara at least takes some sort of pity on him, if you could call it that. The girl still traded notes with him in class, let him sit next to her at lunch even if the only ambiance was the chatter of others and not filled by their own mouths. She didn't offer an after school activity, didn't even badger him to go shopping with her. When he brought the subject up, scaling the olive branch like a set of monkey bars, her glare was answer enough.
Megumi acted as if Yuuji didn't exist.
If Yuuji approached, Megumi left. If Yuuji sent a text, it went unread. So on and so forth.
By the fourth day, Yuuji's chest aches too much to wait it out.
It's probably not wise to trail the other boy, wait for a sneaky moment where they were in the transition of classes and activities, but Megumi is slippery when he wants to be. Stepping in the light when he wanted to be seen and stepping in the shadows when he didn't. This is the only opportunity Yuuji will get because if he scouts out Megumi's home address he's sure to get a restraining order put on him.
Recalling every spy action he's ever watched, Yuuji keeps his steps light enough as he weaves through the crowd until he's close enough to smell his cologne, and with a silent prayer, his hand darts out, snagging Megumi's slim wrist. Megumi stiffens, a low noise of alarm as his head turns to glance over his shoulder, surprise melding to annoyance.
"Before you say anything, please just hear me out." Yuuji blurts without class.
Megumi doesn't offer a word of reply. Testing the grip Yuuji has on his wrist by giving a few forceful tugs, it's no use; Yuuji is the strongest boy in their school and everyone knows it. He could snap his arm in half if he wanted to right now.
But he doesn't, Yuuji hopes he knows that he doesn't.
"Let go of me first and I'll consider it." Megumi says, his tone even but not kind. Yuuji falters, teeth worrying his lower lip before hesitantly, he lets go.
Megumi instantly turns on his heel and begins walking away.
"Dammit—!" Yuuji curses, picking up the pace and following the heel of Megumi's brown shoes. Other students are watching them with gossip hungry eyes. "Megumi, please just talk to me! We're never going to get over this if you don't…! If you don't give me a chance to explain."
"I think you explained enough." Megumi is still walking away, but he's talking, Yuuji can work with that.
"I didn't! I just said something I shouldn't of said." He admits, rushing in front of the other to force his eyes to meet pleading browns. "I shouldn't have said what I said, I know soulmates are…" he grimace, "tricky business. I had no right to assume."
'I had no right to assume, either.' Is what Yuuji wanted to hear from Megumi. But his friend(?) just stares at him so expressionlessly that he would've preferred hate.
That look holds for a few terse seconds that felt like they stretched for a millennia. Then, Megumi sighs.
"Fine." He relents, and then walks again, this time leading instead of leaving. Yuuji scrambles to keep pace until they enter an unused classroom. The desks are still down and too much sunlight dusts in through the windows for them to be having a conversation like this. Make ups were usually reserved for twilight and dusk skies.
"Say what you want to say," Megumi trails over to the desk and leans on it, if it were a more appropriate time Yuuji would make a joke about how he looks like a disappointed teacher. "Because I'm not staying long."
The problem is: Yuuji doesn't know exactly what he wanted to say.
I'm sorry? He already did that. I'm mad at you for saying bad things about Sukuna? That would only stray Yuuji from his goal of repairing their friendship. Please be my friend again? He wanted to scream that until his throat was raw and hoarse.
"I… made a bad choice."
"Hm."
Yuuji grimaces. "I made a lot of bad choices."
Megumi gestures for him to go on.
"I got wrapped up in my soulmark and neglected my friendship with you and Nobara, for that I truly am sorry." Yuuji debated bowing, he wanted to, but that would probably just piss Megumi off more. Instead, he poured every ounce of honesty and sorrow that he could into his words. Hoped that it reflected in his eyes that bored into Megumi's. "I was… really alone before you two came to Sendai, you know? People liked me but they didn't know me, they just knew me as the boy whose mother tried to kill him." He laughs sheepishly, rubbing his nape.
Megumi's tense posture softens ever so slightly.
"I think that's kind of why I got so lost in Sukuna, you know? For once I wasn't that boy," until he was. "I was just somebody's soulmate, and that's all that mattered to them, that's all they saw."
Yuuji sees a visible shift in Megumi at those words — his brows knit together. But he trudges on nonetheless.
He takes a deep breath. "I don't regret the time I've spent with Sukuna, and I don't have second thoughts about wanting a romantic soulmate relationship with him. But I don't want to lose you and Nobara, either. I want us all to stay friends, I want you to meet Sukuna and to talk about our soulmates together, all three of us, if you… ever decide to tell us who it is. If not, that's okay too."
Yuuji smiles, watery and unsteady. "It's just… I don't want you to hate me. You know? It'll be lonely without you, Megumi."
Out of words, Yuuji lets Megumi ponder all that he's laid down. Wiping furtively at his eyes and lightly cursing himself for being such a crybaby. When Megumi's reply lacks to come, he half expects that to be it. He'll just leave, and that'll be their friendship at its wits end.
"I don't hate you, idiot. I'm pissed off at you, but I don't hate you."
"You don't?" Yuuji's heart soars tentatively.
"No," Megumi replies, pushing off from where he leaned to take strides toward Yuuji. His expression was serious now, but it was better than nothing, it was better than hate. "Because as much as I'm pissed off at you, I'm worried for you. Ryoumen is a grown man— yeah, you said it yourself that neither of you asked for this. But you have to understand that it's still wrong, right? That he's even interested in the idea of you like that."
("You make it hard to be good.")
"I know," Yuuji admits, bordering on shame. "We both know, we— we've talked about it. If it helps, we're both waiting 'till I'm of age before we do anything. We're just getting to know each other for now."
"So then you're dating." Megumi corrects, flat. "If he had any true conscious about this then he'd wait until you were of age to even breathe around you."
At that, Yuuji can find no response. The truth is simply the truth no matter how hard you try to spin it. Megumi's nostrils flare with another heavy sigh.
"You could've been hurting. And we wouldn't of known because you hardly texted back, or called. And you didn't tell us from the start not just because you got 'lost in' him, but because there was some part of you knew that it was wrong."
"Yeah, you're right. I think." Yuuji agrees. "But soulmates are complicated, they're not… easy. Megumi, you have to know that with your own, or else you wouldn't pretend it didn't exist." He points out, tone much gentler than the first time. "I promise, I promise that Sukuna hasn't done anything to me. If anything I'm the one who's always pushing for more and he never gives. He does care that I'm a lot younger, he cares a whole lot when I wish he didn't. Because…"
"Because what?" Megumi snaps.
"Because I'll only have my soulmate for about half of my life, a little more of it if I'm lucky. And honestly? I'm tired of everyone thinking that I'm condemned to an unhappy life because of what my mom did. I want to live a good one, with my soulmate, and die a good death too. I don't want to be miserable because everyone else decided it's how I should feel." He wrung his hands together and glared at the floor. "That's all I want, if they'll just let me have it."
Yuuji swallows, thick. "I think I already love him, Megumi. I know you'll hate to hear that but it's the truth."
"But do you think you love him because he's your soulmate, or do you think you love him because he's Sukuna?" Megumi asked, and spat the name with enough venom to burn a hole through the floor.
"W-what?" The question throws Yuuji off balance.
Megumi doesn't have care for that. He hoists his bag on his shoulder and offers Yuuji one final look. "Figure out the answer to that, and then come to come talk to me. Until then, leave me alone."
Kuna <3: Brat? You're not seriously studying are you?
Kuna<3: I'll take your continued silence as a yes.
The phone screen strained his tired eyes, and not even a message from Sukuna could cheer Yuuji up right now. No matter how badly he wanted to hear his voice— Megumi's overshadowed it.
He scrolled through the read but not replied to texts, their conversations weren't long since the day in the cat cafe, little things here and there before one of them eventually had to return to real life. He felt bad for ignoring Sukuna, but his head was so full of many things — Sukuna included — that he felt like it was liquid. He couldn't convey a single thought to message back with.
So, Yuuji placed his phone down and hugged his pillow tighter to his chest.
Yuuji had mulled their conversation over and over and over again until his brain went into the numb state it is now. It was the weekend, and Yuuji had, in fact, not studied even a little bit. Because Megumi provided an even more challenging exam and the deadline was looming on a forecast sunny Monday morning.
His phone buzzed again on the bed, trembling Yuuji's core with it.
He wanted nothing more in this moment to reply to Sukuna's texts, call him and hear his voice through the line, feel the rumble of his car as they drove off together into the sunset where they didn't have to care about what others thought about them. He wanted to ask Sukuna the same question Megumi asked him: do you love me because I'm Yuuji or because I'm your soulmate? But the potential answer to that question left his stomach feeling like a punched out crater.
Sighing and deciding he needed to end his bed rot session before his bed became an actual coffin, Yuuji swings his legs over the edge. Wincing at the pop in his joints when he stands. He felt as aimless as before, but it was good to move around.
He leaves his phone on the bed.
Yuuji walks past the photos of haunted smiles and wanders through the kitchen, munching on snacks that taste like cardboard on his tongue. Gramps is still at the hospital, but he'd be pretty happy to hear the old man snarl at him right about now.
He lets his feet carry him as if he's exploring his own home for the very first time. In a way, he feels like he is. Maybe that happens when you grow up a little more and the world you've always known starts to feel too small.
His footsteps falter outside Choso's door, peeking in, he could see his older brother sprawled on the bed. Earbuds in and phone in hand. His dark brown hair is down for once, flowing to the slight bob of his head.
He steps in without thinking, and also stands there without thinking, until Choso feels his presence and looks up — startled.
"Yuuji?" Choso pulls out an earbud, his dark eyes soft and a little wide at the sight of his brother loitering in his doorway like some creep. He realizes, then, that his appearance may be unkept. "Are you okay?"
Yuuji's brain reboots. "Y-yeah, I'm okay. I was just wondering if maybe we could… if I could ask you a question?"
"Of course," Choso takes out each ear bud and the rock music from them stops playing. He scoots over on his crimson comforter, patting the spot next to him invitingly. "You know you can always come talk to Onii-chan."
Yuuji accepts the invitation, listening to the springs squeals and cozying up to Choso's side. His brother laughs, soft and surprised. But happily wraps a sturdy arm around Yuuji's shoulders and hugs him closer.
"You haven't let me hold you like this since you were little." Choso sighs, turning his head to swipe his nose through unruly pink locks. Yuuji hums.
"Just felt like I needed it." He mumbles.
"What's going on in that head in yours, then?"
Yuuji tries to figure out how to condense the events down into something short and comprehensible. The cat cafe, the weird energy with his friends at school, his conversation with Megumi. Choso's patience for his brother is near endless, he lets Yuuji worry his bottom lip as he lightly thumbs the skin of his arm.
Tired of dancing around bullshit, Yuuji just comes out swinging.
"Do you love Yuki because she's your soulmate, or because she's Yuki? And no, Sukuna hasn't done anything to me. I was just… having thoughts." He tacks the end on nervously.
Choso has had a lot thrown at him in his life to be too surprised at a random question being thrown at him. But, his expression does blank enough to make Yuuji giggle.
"Where is that coming from?"
"Like I said, I'm just having thoughts." Yuuji reassures, and this time it's his turn to give Choso patience.
"The answer is both," he decides lightly after a considerable pause, where the both of them just listened to their shared heartbeats and breathing. "I love Yuki because she is my soulmate and that is a fundamental part of our relationship. But, I love Yuki because she's fierce, because she's kind, because she treats my little brother well." Choso squeezes him closer, and squeezes giggles out of Yuuji as well. "So, to me, the name Tsukumo Yuki is just a name on my body, the soul that inhibits that name is what makes it worth loving."
"That… is a really good answer."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, full points for Itadori Choso." Yuuji nods, firm but silly. Choso laughs as well, and Yuuji didn't realize how much he missed hearing it until now.
"Your older brother is full of infinite wisdom, you should ask him more questions."
"Mm, infinite wisdom my ass, you still try to hand feed me spaghetti."
"Because you'll always be my baby brother." Choso kissed his forehead with a smile.
You: hi kuna!!!! I'm srry for not texting back ;3; I was studying a whole lot but I think I got the answers memorized
You: I think
Kuna<3: It's nothing to worry about, glad you're finally putting actual effort into it.
You: rude af I always put effort
Kuna<3: Your grandfather says otherwise.
You: he's a SNITCH
You: wait???? You talk to my grandpa on the phone???
Kuna<3: Not important, I have free time to call if you're available.
You: YIPPIE! !!
You: and it's VERY IMPORTANT??
"I'm ready to answer your question."
Nobara's head swivels between the two boys. "What question?"
"I'll explain it to you later," Megumi offers her, Nobara just scowls and repeats her earlier question to be ignored. "Let me hear it, then."
"Both, it's both. I love Sukuna 'cause he's my soulmate, but I love Sukuna because he's smart, and because he has a passion for art that he's shared with me, at least some of it. And he has a whole life for me to learn about and find my place in, same for him with me. We didn't get to grow up together but, I think we'll grow together."
"That's disgustingly sappy, but I'm still missing context here." Nobara huffs.
"Again, we'll explain later." Megumi snaps, then collects himself. He stares decisively at Yuuji, assessing him, his answer.
"Fine, I'll accept that. I still don't like it, I won't respect him at all. But whatever, it's better to keep a close eye on you than to not."
"I… I'll accept that too, just glad we're all still friends." Yuuji wanted to throw his arms around the two of them and pull them close and never, ever let go.
Megumi punches his shoulder, light and offers a smile with it. "Sorry for calling you idiot, still not sorry for calling Ryoumen a pervert though."
"I'll take it." Yuuji grins.
"Who said we weren't going to stay friends?! God boys are even more dramatic than girls." Nobara groans. But even then, Yuuji could see the relief in her posture too, how she smiled ever so slightly at them like nothing bad had ever happened at all.
Megumi, however. Crosses his arms, shifting his body slightly away. And Yuuji thinks: oh no, not again.
"And… maybe I should've been more honest too, you guys are my friends. I guess."
"You guess?!" Nobara and Yuuji cry at the same time. Megumi flinches, mouth dropping and raising his hands palm facing, placating.
"Listen, listen. I'm trying to tell you about my soulmate here."
Nobara and Yuuji's jaws snap shut with a click.
"I'm only going to show to you once, so don't ever ask again. Got it?" Megumi's aura is menacing enough to kill daisies wherever he walked. Nobara and Yuuji snap to position, offering salutes and all as they cried: got it!
He makes them promise again, and then untucks the shirt from his pants, lowering his waistband down slightly to his hip. And there, in neat little words, rests the name: Gojo Satoru.
"Well, that was kinda obvious to be honest." Nobara crosses her arms, though her eyes flick as she rereads the name.
"Huh?! Your soulmate is older than you too and you got mad me?!" Yuuji growls, pointing an accusing finger at Megumi, who, simply tucks his shirt back in.
"Because It's not like that with Gojo and I, and he's twenty-eight, not thirty-seven.”
"I guess that's fair… I guess."
Megumi just shoots him an aggravated stare.
"If it's not like that with him, then what is it like?" Nobara inquires, her eyes sharp and quizzical. Megumi's lips purse.
"Complicated."
"One step forward, two steps backwards." She shakes her head. "I guess… that kinda answers a lot and a lot of nothing at the same time. But I have to say, I'm surprised it isn't your sister."
"I don't need a soul-bond with Tsumiki for me to love her like a sister, it's already reason enough."
"That's fair," Nobara shrugs. "But we're all chill now, right?"
Megumi and Yuuji's eyes meet briefly.
"Yeah."
"Yes."
"Good, 'cause," she jumps and brings them down by their necks. Megumi squints at her apprehensively, and Yuuji beams brightly. "I got a lot of questions and a lot of things I want to buy but don't wanna carry."
"Yes, yes, Kugisaki-dono. Whatever you desire."
"Don't indulge her." Megumi mutters.
Nobara pulls them in tighter. "No, keep indulging me. It goes straight to my ego."
Nobara: hey did you guys hear about the new school festival shit thing they got going on? It's ridiculous. I can't wait to force you two to do it.
You: should I be scared
Nobara: yes.
You: ty for the heads up
Nobara: ofc.
Megumi: I'm not indulging anything anymore with you two, my arms still hurt from carrying bags.
Nobara: oh yes you will
Nobara: it's a reverse maid cafe.