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"I wanted to eat food that I'm used to making... and gaze at the laundry hanging in the sun... and see Tsumiki off as she walked side by side with someone like you in the after-noon light."
Waking up to the sun streaming in through his windows was not, unfortunately, an uncommon experience. As a child, he used to laze around in his room with the curtains closed all day and feel the suffocating heat as the sun tried its hardest to get in but only the heat of it would pierce through. Even when he lived in Jujutsu High as a student, it was rare his blinds would open. He wasn't in the room during the day, he'd argue, so there was no point in opening them.
Since moving out of the school, or what was left of it at the time, Megumi's gotten used to both waking early and the sun warming his covers, sometimes his bare legs if he's had a restless night of sleep. He's taken the approach to this that you win some and you lose some. On the days that he wakes up and the blinds are still closed, not another sound to be heard except his breathing, he tends to fall back into those habits and tuck himself under the covers, berating himself for his inability to get up.
It was kind, he supposed, that Yuuji opened the blinds when he went out for his morning run even if Megumi complained like nothing else at breakfast. Yuuji sometimes knew him better than he knew himself. Today, with the pale rays of it gliding across the white covers and showing the small specks of dust in the air, he feels the very exact way he does when they're closed. A bad day then, Megumi thinks, and turns away from the window. He doesn't bother to check his phone to see if it's early in the morning or not, he can hear the windows being opened downstairs and a pot of tea being made. Yuuji's back from his run.
With the duvet tickling his neck from pressing against his too long hair, and the sheet soft underneath his bare legs, Megumi could be lulled back into sleep. It would ruin his whole day, objectively, because he tends to stick to a schedule even now and falling back asleep is not a part of that schedule. He's meeting Maki for lunch at one. After that, he's got to do a few errands (that he's hoping she'll help with).
A creak. Yuuji pushes the door open, two cups of tea in his hands, and sets one down beside Megumi on the bedside table. If he knows he's awake, he doesn't say anything, only leans down to press a kiss to his head and move some hair out of his face. Then he's gone, disappearing into the bathroom to take a shower. He'd be cross if Yuuji came into bed while he was sweaty and dirty from running. They've had the small argument a few times now. When the shower turns on, and Megumi knows he'll get a few precious minutes to actually wake up, he sits up in bed and runs his hands through his hair.
He can't go back to sleep or lay in bed all day. He's got lunch at one.
The tea is exactly the way he likes it, a little over stooped, with a single spoon of sugar. It's a typical sencha green tea which means that it can be very bitter with the way he likes it, hence the spoon of sugar. An odd combination, to be sure, and one that has Nobara raising an eyebrow at him whenever she makes it for him but Yuuji has never complained about the taste. He thinks that he might pour out his cup first and then let it stew a little longer for his own cup. Wrapping his fingers around the mug, Megumi slouches a bit and closes his eyes. They feel strangely like they're burning.
It took him a very long time to believe that Yuuji loved him. In a very honest way, even. Everyone apparently knew it before he did, Nobara citing events that happened as far back as their first year, as much of a dream that time is to him now. Maybe he's looking at it through a blurry lens, but he doesn't remember much of the things she's describing. Though, he feels it should be noted, he's got very poor memory these days and often has lapses where he doesn't remember a single thing besides turning fourteen and starting school with Gojo.
The small things really solidified it for him. Yuuji stewing the tea for that minute longer just for him, buying tofu and rare fishes that he doesn't like, doing the cooking every day because Megumi can't cook to save his life, even the brief stint where they lived in the Zenin compound and faced the cold hallways every day. He complained, to be sure, but he stood by Megumi no matter what. He also, funnily enough, ditches the blindfolds and sunglasses when Megumi asks him to.
A far less amount of time passed for Megumi to know he loved Yuuji. It was a few things that clocked him into it; one being he couldn't stand when they were apart for longer than a day. His chest would hurt and his thoughts would stray no matter how hard he tried to get them back on track. Then, when they were together, he'd forget about the fog that lived over his life for the vast majority of it, and everything would be crystal clear. Now, Megumi does the laundry and the dishes and sometimes suffers through the odd meeting with the new higher ups about why they'll be making things worse for themselves if they try to take Yuuji from him.
The shower clicks off. When they bought it, it was advertised as silent, but it makes a wicked noise when the pump is still on. The switch for it is outside the bathroom, in the hallway, seeing as it controls every shower in the house. Heaving a sigh, Megumi slides out of bed and shuffles into the hallway, turning it off. It's probably the house itself being old rather than the shower that causes the noise but the pump didn't nearly make as much noise when they had their old shower.
When he climbs back into bed, leaning against the headboard with his eyes closed and the mug held close to his chest, Yuuji is out of the shower and standing in front of their dresser, grabbing his clothes for the day. Laying them out on the chair in the corner of the room, he turns to give Megumi a small smile but doesn't say anything. He slips on a pair of boxers, abandons the other clothes he's got on the chair, and walks over to the bed.
"Good morning," Yuuji mumbles as he climbs into bed, sliding up right alongside Megumi. Tension releasing in his shoulder, he flops onto Yuuji's broad shoulder and hums. Megumi is not a morning person. Yuuji is. They've tried to accommodate each other. An arm slithers around his waist and pulls him closer, their legs entangling as Yuuji slightly turns towards him. More of an embrace now than anything, Megumi turns away to put the mug on the table and reaches out to grab Yuuji too. "Did you sleep okay?"
"Yeah," he whispers, staring at the pictures on Yuuji's beside table. One of the two of them together, fresh from Shinjuku and finishing up school, one of all the students and Gojo during their first year, and another taken of a grimy Yuuji next to a stony faced Choso while they traversed Shibuya and the surrounding cities alone. Though, the curse has got his arm around Yuuji's shoulder and is looking down at him rather than the phone, a sliver of fondness just there for him to see. Yuuji, despite all the suffering that was going on at the time, looked happy in the photo. "Not feeling too well right now though."
There it is again. The slight burning of his eyes, the lump in his throat. His gaze keeps straying back to the landscape photo of them all, caught on the way Gojo is hanging off him even if he was much taller and a grown man. Ieiri doesn't look too impressed but her hip was pressed to his. Even if you couldn't tell if they were close by the way Ieiri spoke to Gojo, then you could tell by the way they interacted. He should call her, he thinks absentmindedly, and see how she's doing. Afterall, it's been nearly six years since Gojo died.
Yuuji doesn't say anything. There's not much he can say. That was also figured out early into the relationship. Sometimes Megumi feels like shit and all he can think about is Gojo or Tsumiki or even all those other people they've lost, like Choso and Nanami. All Yuuji can do is be there, suffering right alongside Megumi but much more silent about it.
Yuuji rubs his hands across his back, Megumi's chest stutters when he feels the absence of two on his left hand. Such a stark reminder never fails to take the breath out of his lungs. One, taken for the worst kind of deception, and the other given away in the name of love. Nobara says that if they get married, it wouldn't even matter, since their bodies are already intertwined. She's too much of a romantic for Megumi but Yuuji gets a funny, sickening look on his face whenever she says it like he loves it more than anything, the undeniable proof they are together and very much in love.
(Maybe he doesn't hate it as much as he says he does.)
"Do you want me to stay here today?" A ritual, at this point, after those dreadful words are spoken. Yuuji will offer to stay with him all day and release some of that tension by negating the separation anxiety he gets, and Megumi will refuse. Though, today, he almost feels like giving in. Calling Maki and telling her he's not feeling a hundred percent, listen to her telling him it's fine and gruffly inform him that she's always there for him in her own awkward way, and spend the rest of it wallowing with Yuuji in bed.
A voice that sounds suspiciously like Gojo tells him that it's not good for him to indulge in those type of thoughts, knowing the negative outcome of them, and he's gotten better at listening to that advice since he was a teenager and bawling about feeling too different and too alone to a very confused man.
"No. But maybe we can stay here for a little longer." Chuckling a little, Yuuji nods into his hair and wraps himself further around Megumi, dragging him down the bed so that they're laying down. Small victories.
With the sun caressing his face, Yuuji looks beautiful. Even with the pale scar covering more than half his face and the white of his left eye, permanently blind since Shinjuku, and the Glasgow smile on the other side of his face, he's never looked so wonderfully appealing. It's the kindness of his face, Megumi thinks, and the memories stored there. He's got laughter lines in his cheeks, a dimple on one side, and crows feet by his eyes. A frown line between his brows, small freckles across his nose, honey pooling in his remaining eye. All of it, scars included, come together to paint a picture of resilience and love.
He lifts a hand and rests it on Yuuji's cheek, watching him close his eyes and press up against it lightly. All for him. It's dazzling, so much so that it nearly banishes that crushing weight on his chest, that he can have this. A shock to his brain, even now. They've been together since they were sixteen, much better mentally and physically after that final showdown, even if Yuuji said he loved him right there in the aftermath. They needed it, he thinks, that time to sort themselves out before getting together.
"What are you doing today?" Megumi asks, eager to hear his voice. Anything to distract from his thoughts, as wicked and awful and despairing as they are right now.
"I'm actually meeting up with Yuuta to discuss a mission we're going on soon, and then I think I'm going to apply for that teaching position in the school." Megumi practically perks up with the way delight streaks through him, eyebrows rising into his hairline. He's been trying to convince Yuuji to take up a teaching role in the school for a year now, since they graduated really. He was too good with the sudden influx of teenage sorcerers when school started again, wonderfully patient with the kids who were frightened of curses and their abilities. Dedication would fill in any gaps, Megumi is sure.
"That's great," he says, and Yuuji smiles widely even if Megumi felt like it fell a little flat.
"Yeah. Don't be mad but it was actually Mrs. Ito down the road who convinced me." Despite himself, Megumi scoffs jokingly and rolls his eyes. The fog is leaving him, he can feel, and the sun is beginning to poke through. A little longer and he may feel ready for the day. "I said don't be mad! It's all because of her niece. She's a sorcerer and scared to start in April. I mentioned a while ago that you were trying to convince me to go and she must have said it to her niece because today a very adorable thirteen year old bounded up to me and said that since I was starting in April and so was she, we could brave the school together."
A very cute scene to imagine. Although, it's hard to imagine what sort of face Yuuji made when the bright girl said that, he can a hundred percent imagine the mortification that went though Mrs. Ito. A kind woman, to be sure, but a little hesitant when it comes to jujutsu and its practitioners. She warmed up to them nicely enough seeing as she saw them every week when they went in to buy flowers. She saw Yuuji much more, given he bought flowers for Megumi as well.
"As long as you get there, I suppose I can't be too mad at how it happens. Seriously. You should do it."
Being a fighter just doesn't suit Yuuji anymore. Not when a curse can remind him of his brother or how another sorcerer can remind him of Nanami. Not to mention the fact that curses have simply made his life hell, both sentient and non-sentient ones. Living with Sukuna for as long as he did was enough work for Megumi to suggest retirement even when they graduated school. For all his brawn and techniques (a strange amount of them that has boosted Yuuji to strongest sorcerer, right alongside Yuuta), Yuuji is too gentle of a beast to remain in the arena.
"I don't know," Yuuji mumbles, "I wasn't very good in school. My essays sucked, and science nearly killed me in fourth year." It was absolutely a joke they had to go back to school after everything that happened and for people like Maki and Yuuta, too old and powerful even in their young age for someone to force them, they didn't have to go but he supposes that himself and his friends were young enough and willing enough.
Megumi left that school and never looked back. He hasn't even taken up a mission since graduating. For all intents and purposes, he's retired as a sorcerer with the money the Zenin's left to him (his technique has never come in clutch like that before) and what Gojo left him to make his life comfortable. Yuuji gets a special grade income as well.
Life has been better and worse. Better, in the sense that he's not nearly as stressed and is nearly guaranteed a long and boring life. Worse, in that he's so disconnected from something that's been very large in his life that his own body and mind feels like a stranger to him sometimes. His shikigami are still kind, still enjoy his presence, but the guilt lingers, especially when he sees Tiger Funeral with its pale white pelt and luminous blue eyes. Using them for fighting only makes him sad. Using them for day to day tasks makes him less sad.
"But you'd be the teacher this time around. Hon, the rubric is right in front of you. All you'd have to do is teach it and grade it." Megumi may not be the best at being supportive but he's trying, slowly getting better and better at it, and Yuuji knows it and appreciates it.
"I know but even with that, just... what if they don't like me? It's a lie that not liking the teacher doesn't impact the class. I hated my middle school English teacher and I didn't participate in class because of it."
"Everyone likes you." This is getting too heavy for Megumi, for the day he wants to have once he's ready to climb out of bed, and he wiggles closer to Yuuji with a small smile. They're both breathing the same air now, hot pants against each other's face, and this could go another way if he wanted it to. "It's a bit of a problem, to be honest. Maybe we should get married, just so people could see the ring and know you're off the market."
Yuuji, already smiley and red–it's always been easy to make him blush, closes his eyes and pushes his head into the crook of Megumi's neck. Strong arms pull him closer, a leg wrapping around his hip to keep him there. Lazy days in bed are nice and all but personally, Megumi likes this part, the part where he's got Yuuji wrapped around him and they stay there if only because he's too heavy for Megumi to move him. It's both being trapped and suffocated while also burrowing into the heat his body possesses.
"I'm ready when you are." Always waiting on Megumi, always willing to wait. Yuuji never complains that it takes him a while to get there, a place Yuuji has been for weeks or even months, but then again he's always been the faster of the pair. Whether he's being serious right now or not, Megumi can't tell, and he also can't tell if that upsets him or not. Maybe it's time that conversation veered into more serious territory but that's for a day he feels a hundred percent, very present and not floating like he is now.
"A minor problem with getting married though," Yuuji says and that makes all thoughts of seriously discussing marriage halt in his mind. It must show on his face, the shock and the minor disgust there at being shut down, because when his head is lifted up, Yuuji laughs before ducking back down to hide it in his skin. Yuuji presses a smile into his collarbone, and then pulls back just enough to look him in the eyes, mirth dancing around in both eyes somehow. "I'm missing a key appendage."
Megumi frowns, beginning to get irritated, opening his mouth to ask why or maybe let a small ball of rage leave his chest where they sit and wait before he–stops. Then, he takes a deep breath while looking away. His eyes slip closed as a smile threatens to break across his face, listening to Yuuji's little chuckles and chortles, as small as they are loud. Incredulous, Megumi scoffs and pushes him away, failing because of the wicked strength Yuuji only uses when Megumi doesn't want him to.
"Did you forget?" Yuuji laughs, lifting his hand to wave it around between them. As if Megumi could forget–he was thinking about it ten minutes ago! Besides, sometimes, he can feel the weight of his second finger in his stomach, as if he didn't absorb it or purge it out there in the end. "Oh, baby, that's okay."
"No!" He says vehemently, scrambling to push away from the weight that's now pressing him into the mattress with only joy and mirth surrounding them, "I did not forget! I just... I did not forget! Stop laughing!" He slaps Yuuji's back, insulted by the laughter and only a little disgusted by his forgetful nature these days. Certain things slip his mind, is all, when they're not right in front of him–Shoko says it's normal, Megumi says it's annoying and stupid as fuck.
Yuuji, despite the small smacks to his back and the buck of Megumi's hips sending him towards the other side of the bed with Megumi himself still clutched to his chest, doesn't stop laughing until they're saying goodbye at the front door and parting to go their own way for the day.
Maki is a lot like him in certain ways. He was hoping to rope her into performing a few errands with him and she was hoping the same thing. They don't go as far as to laugh about it when it gets discovered but Megumi smiles and Maki opens both her eyes to stare at him with a smile. They go to a number of places together, only a few of them necessary to Megumi today; the dry cleaners, the grocery store, a bakery, back to the dry cleaners for a jacket that wasn't ready yet, a record shop (Yuuta's birthday is coming up), a random hundred yen store where Megumi buys pens and a cigarette holder for some innate reason.
Afterwards, they do get lunch. There's a sushi place nearby to the hundred yen store that Maki likes and Megumi has never been to before, so they go in. He gets the usual stuff he gets, only he enjoys the rolls a bit more than he thought he would. He thinks about bringing Yuuji here in a while and then remembers that he needs to have certain, private things with other people as well and marks this sushi place as a "Maki-and-Megumi-Place" .
"How's everything?" He asks, and she doesn't need much clarification that he's asking about the school and the general state of affairs in jujutsu society. He thinks about going back sometimes and then remembers the shock and trauma of the Culling Games and changes his mind.
"Fine," she says shortly while she takes a gulp of water, and when Megumi only looks at her, she sighs and continues with a roll of her eye, "Yuuta and Yuuji-kun are as thick as thieves these days. They go on a lot of missions together because the new higher ups lowkey want them gone but sending two special grades on a mission and expecting them to die is so stupid. Toge and Panda are planning to transfer over to the Kyoto school for a little bit, just while it rebuilds. You know about Nobara."
He does. She's taken to travelling these days, swanning around in Switzerland for the past month, with hesitant plans to continue and move through the west towards mainland Europe, specifically France. Everyone knows she wants to go to the fashion district during fashion week but that's a while away yet. Megumi and Yuuji miss her like something fierce, and they often face time, but Yuuji has sworn to chain her to them when she gets home and Megumi can't find it in him to complain. They spent so long apart that any time now brings a sense of impending doom and anxiety. He's dealing with it though. He's got no other choice, not with her intense desire to be out of Tokyo, even Japan after what happened.
"Since we've got like, five, special grades rolling around the work is pretty sparse. Some of those new kids in the school are irritating as fuck though." That brings a short laugh out of Megumi, the disgust coating her voice amusing more than shocking. Maki hates teenagers. Toddlers, babies, adults–she can deal with every single stage of life in another person except for being a teenager. He doesn't understand it.
"You can't tell anyone," he starts and she leans forward because that sentence usually means he's got something important to say or he's got gossip from his local gardening group he moonlights. "Yuuji is applying for the teaching position, for the first years." Maki leans back and her face smoothes out into shock. With Yaga and Gojo both gone, and the other teachers either dead as well or retired, teaching positions have basically become jury duty, especially for the first years. A random sorcerer will get drafted for a few months and then they'll rage quit, leading to another innocent soul being dragged into it.
(Megumi got asked in the beginning of the year, last year, freshly after they'd graduated. He voiced his desire to leave the society as a whole and, desperate to keep a technique as powerful as the Ten Shadows in the general circle, the higher ups had asked him to teach. The poor manager who'd delivered the message had to watch as Megumi had a minor breakdown and then tell a fretful Yuuta what happened when he stumbled across them. Watching his face turn pallid and pale must have been a show.
Being a teacher is fine. For everyone else. Megumi has only had one teacher in his life, and he refuses to try and fill those shoes. They'd be too big, too impossible for him to fill.)
Maki seems to be following the general train of thought he did when he first suggested it to Yuuji. Firstly, remembrance of Yuuji's prowess in physical training that dwarfed his scholarly degree. While smart, he struggled in the classroom, particularly with paying attention while sitting still for so long. Then, how kind Yuuji is with kids who are like him and kids who aren't, his patience that has an endless well, and the fierce belief in him that everyone is inherently good and deserves a good life. He'd be perfect for first years, fresh to the world and so frightened from everything they saw five years ago.
"I can see it. He'd be a lot busier," she warns. Since becoming the final two Zenin's, Megumi passing the torch of clan leader onto Maki as soon as he could, they'd become a lot closer from their school years. They’re both filling a space that's been left empty, he supposes. It's easy to talk to her though because, unlike everybody else (sans Yuuji, bless his soul) who dances around it, she will openly discuss and joke about his memory loss and the physical therapy he attends sometimes. Your brain isn't right, she'll say, but if you ask me, it never was.
She knows about his general anxieties about Yuuji leaving him, both of choice and that sword finally falling down on his neck. There's a deeper level to it that he keeps close to his chest, only revealed when he's been separated from the people he loves for longer than a week and he's pacing the house with his heart racing and his mind whirling. Only Megumi knows about his sleepless nights spent theorizing about all the ways people will leave him.
"I know. But Sendai is close enough to the school that I could go see him or he could come out to me."
"It's an hour and a half on the train."
"That's not that long! I like the train." Driving isn't an option. Neither of them have their driver's license, too busy doing other stuff to get it. Besides, a manager drives Yuuji around if he needs to go on a mission or, since he has been talking a lot with their upperclassmen recently, Yuuta can.
"You could move to Tokyo. It's getting tiring coming out here." Never one to beat around the bush, Maki tells him how she feels about coming out to Sendai. It's a nice place for them to live, sentimental enough for them both and calm. Sorcery and the Culling Games didn't touch this place much, not beyond the general way it affected the whole country, but it was affected enough that neither him nor Yuuji get funny looks in shops and on the street.
"Pass." If he moves back, those pesky higher ups will assume he wants to rejoin the sorcerer world, what with Tokyo becoming it's main hot spot for the past couple of years. Not that it wasn't already the base of operations for Japan, given it spouted out so many special grades and was the center for a lot of important clans to send their kids, but it's somehow become more popular. Maki sighs but doesn't push. She knows how he feels. Almost everybody does.
They fall into a short lull, the calm tune of piano playing over the speakers breaking whatever awkwardness that could form. Maki finishes up her meal and orders tea for the both of them, apparently intending to draw this out. She's got a contemplative look on her face, one that Megumi hasn't seen in quite a long while. He thinks the last time he saw it was... fourth year? When she thought about rejecting the title of clan head, for a brief second, until viscous triumph reigned over her features and she turned on her heel to stalk towards the plot where the rest of their family lies, no doubt intending to gloat on top of her old man's grave.
Megumi pokes around at his sushi for a while, taking it apart using his chopsticks and then putting it back together. He's not too interested in it anymore. Eating, that is. At least not today. Though, every now and then, Maki will take a piece of sushi and give it to him, giving him a deathly glare until it pops into his mouth. With little fanfare, she drops her hands on the table and, very plainly, announces;
"Yuuta asked me to marry him."
He pauses. Puts down his chopsticks. Folding his hands neatly in his lap, still looking at the plate in front of him, he nods. Megumi tries to understand how she feels about it based on the tone and inflection of her voice but it reveals nothing. Sorcerers age in dog years and Maki and Yuuta have been together for three years now. That's basically a decade. For a sorcerer pair, both of them special grades at that, that's nearly double. He doesn't know whether to say congratulations or swear never to look at Yuuta again, if they've gone separate ways.
"What did you say?" Megumi lands on, not looking at her. The irony of Megumi and Yuuji considering marriage on the same day Maki announces Yuuta proposed to Maki isn't lost on him. Maybe Yuuta asked Yuuji's opinion on it? They have gotten fairly close. No, he'd only ask Panda and Toge. But neither of them can keep a secret. Yuuji would have told him though, surely?
He's thinking in circles about it. It doesn't matter. Megumi focuses back on Maki, catching the way she shifts in her seat and fiddles with the rim of her cup, running a finger over the smooth edges in a constant circular motion, again and again.
"I said I'd have to think about it."
"What did he say?"
"He said okay and to take my time." Pursing her lips, her eye darts off to the side before she sighs and opens both on her next blink, staring at him with her wild eyes. No matter how much time has passed, he thinks, they'll never lose that gleam of violence and anger that sparked with the death of Mai. Their relationship was a lot more than what he assumed, way back when in first year. "That he'd always wait for me."
I'm ready when you are.
Bastards.
"Are you ready?" He asks and then pauses when it comes out too flat, too monotone. Clearing his throat, he tries again. "I mean, is that what you want? Like, did you talk about it or did he ask out of nowhere?"
"No, we've been talking about it for a while. Maybe... since last Christmas? It's a while coming, I suppose, but it still took me by surprise. He asked on Wednesday during breakfast." Cute. Megumi nods, getting the feeling she simply wants to talk at him for a while. Slowly, Maki tells him that she does want to spend the rest of her life with Yuuta, but she doesn't understand why they can't go on like they have now. "Besides," she says, "what about the clans? He's a Gojo, technically, and I'm a Zenin. We're both the clan heads. What will happen?"
"Nothing," he shrugs. "Why would anything happen? You're still a Zenin, he'd still be a Gojo. Nobody says you have to change your name."
"Everybody is saying that! That's what women do, right?" Megumi raises an eyebrow, feeling like he lost the plot to this conversation a while ago. Marriage doesn't sound that bad, so why is Maki making it sound like a fight she's got to win?
"Sure but that's not what you have to do." All he gets in response is a frown. Looking around, possibly to find the patience to deal with this when he's got a headache forming and a suspicious gap in his memory from yesterday evening, he catches sight of a young couple a few seats away from them. A young man, not much older than them, reaches across the table to hold his girlfriend's hand. She reacts with a bright smile and to cup his in her own, still waving her chopsticks around as she passionately tells a story.
Megumi interrupts Maki in the middle of a rant that he was not paying attention to, "What do you like about Yuuta-san?"
"Huh?" Maki gapes at him, glasses sliding down her nose. She pushes them back roughly, frowning at him. "What kind of question is that?"
"The honest kind. What do you like about him? Not love, that means nothing when it comes to marriage, what do you like about him?" As he watches, the woman places another sushi on the man's plate, stealing one of his with a cheeky wink. They've got some bags by their feet, mostly going ignored by the pair. The man says nothing, only allowing her to continue her story while staring at her with stars in his eyes. He looks very love struck. Megumi looks away, staring right at Maki's eyes.
She takes a moment. Maybe she shouldn't, maybe she should. He'd need an eon to answer, he's sure, simply because he likes his thoughts to be in a neat little row before he says anything and lately that's been a bit too difficult for him to do automatically. He knows that he could talk for years and years about Yuuji, his hair, his kindness, his bravery, the way he loves with his whole body–the list goes on and on. He loves how he makes him tea the way he likes but he likes that Yuuji knows that at all. He loves the time they spend together but he likes that they can be silent, simply existing in each other's space. He likes Yuuji almost as much as he loves him.
"I like his hair," she says softly, staring down at the table with a stricken look on her face, like she's surprised she's saying anything at all. "I like the way he moves around the house, loud but soft at the same time. I like how strong he is, mentally and physically. I like how he's never forgotten about Rika, as odd as it sounds. I like his voice. I like his music taste. I like... the way he talks to me. Like I mean a lot to him. And, I like the way he makes me feel."
Maki finishes talking so softly and thickly that he almost misses it. He also feels a little choked up, listening to her talk. He sort of wants to go home, in a very distant way, and his chest only pangs when he thinks about his place in Sendai with Yuuji and not the small little apartment himself and Tsumiki had as kids or the much nicer, much bigger one they shared with Gojo for a few years. It's less of a weight on his chest, his grief, but it finds ways to catch up to him. Not today though, not with Yuuji in bed next to him and Maki sharing her news with him from across the table.
"Well then. I'm not telling you what to say but I think it doesn't matter if you get married for love. A thousand people do that every day and most of the time it doesn't last, not happily. Marriages that last the longest, and are the best, are the ones where they still like each other. A small difference but it seems more important to me."
Maki, seemingly shell shocked by his revelation, nods. Conversation is sparse after that, but when he's on a train to go home with his bags between his feet and headphones over his ears, he receives a text message from her. It's a photo. Maki and Yuuta are holding hands, small smiles on their faces as they're pressed together with their clasped hands lifted upwards to show off the ring sitting on Maki's finger. It's sort of simple but the kind she'd like. A follow up picture is sent a second later of two black bands in her palm, differing in size to show they're not both for her.
Maki, 16:47pm,
for everyday use he got us silicone ones
seems safer ig
Megumi?
Megumi, 14:48pm
yeah?
Maki, 16:50pm,
thank you.
He smiles. Getting off the train isn't as much of a hassle as it was getting on, mostly because less people are getting off in their area compared to how many got on in the main city, but he associates it with knowing how happy Maki is going to be with Yuuta. They really are a sweet couple, as much as people make assumptions about them.
The walk home is brisk. He's quick about it, eager to get home. Yuuji is either back already or on his way. He was meeting with Yuuta a bit later than he was, yes, but they weren't doing as much. Unless the school held him for a very long time to discuss a teaching position (unlikely given how desperate they are for one), then there's no reason he shouldn't be at home. Megumi is hoping to bully him into making gyoza for dinner.
"Hello?" Megumi calls into the house once he gets in, slipping off his shoes by the door and putting on the dog slippers that lay out for him. One white, one black. Stepping into the sitting room reveals a new set of flowers sitting in a vase, a little note off to the side of them. No answer came, but he hopes it's because Yuuji's outside and not still gone. Megumi would like to lock up the house and hold his people close to him, cradling them to his chest.
Love, your worse half.
Sighing, Megumi presses the card to his chest and closes his eyes. Worst half. Yuuji is adamant to call himself that, claiming it's only because Megumi is his better half and that only leaves the bad stuff left, but that doesn't stop the little ball of worry forming whenever he says it or writes it. The back door opens and closes the sounds of Yuuji mumbling to himself carrying through the bottom floor. Touching on the blue roses and other flowers, Megumi puts the card in his pocket and makes a mental note to put it in the box upstairs where the rest of them lie.
"Hello?" he says again, softer this time. Yuuji stops talking to himself, calling back much more excitedly. When Megumi steps into the kitchen with the groceries in his hands, the bags weighing down and irritating his wrists after so long, Yuuji takes them off his hands. He leans forward for a kiss. Soft lips press against Megumi's, the lingering taste of sugar there. On the counter top lays a bag of sweets covered in the stuff and as he passes, Yuuji takes one out and eats it. "How was your day?"
"Great! Yuuta was a little glum but he was fine. We talked about the mission and I think he's gonna bring it up to the higher ups we both don't need to go but he's a little worried that means they'll only send me." And I'll die, Yuuji doesn't say or maybe doesn't even think but Megumi hears it anyway. "The school seemed pretty happy to see me, though. The kids liked me enough. I sat with them for like twenty minutes before leaving."
"That's not how Maki described them," he grumbles and sits at the kitchen table. Yuuji's got his slippers on, one black and one white, just like his. A pair of lounge pants practically hangs off his hips, a large t-shirt leaving absolutely everything up to the imagination with how it billows and waves around his frame. He moves around the kitchen effortlessly, putting groceries away and talking about the kids; their techniques, where they're from, how they feel about being sorcerers. He already knows all their names.
"How was your day?" Yuuji asks, coming closer. He stands between Megumi's legs, pushing his hair back out of his face and leaning down to press another kiss to his forehead and then his nose. Megumi grips his hands tightly, practically prying them off his face, and looks at the stupid English band on his shirt and not his face.
"Fine. I got all my things done, I think. I feel like I'm forgetting something but it doesn't seem too pressing, so I'm hoping it'll come back to me eventually." Yuuji nods, flipping their hands around so that they're intertwined and pressed palm to palm. He hums and leans down again, practically folding himself into Megumi's lap. Head pressed to his shoulder, Yuuji keeps their hands between them, pressed right up against their chests. "Yuuta and Maki are getting married."
"What!" Yuuji exclaims, sitting up. His hands tighten imperceptibly in Megumi's, joy lighting up his face. Megumi nods and Yuuji sighs, leaning his head back down. He sounds so dreamy. "That's good. I'm glad. Yuuta was pretty worried she'd say no."
Megumi pokes his chest a few times, barraging him with questions about how long he knew and why he didn't tell him and how long he knew. Yuuji, practically curling in on himself, mumbles that he was sworn to secrecy and that it's only fair he knew since Megumi knows stuff about Inumaki that no one else does, not even Yuuta and Maki. Shaking his head, Megumi lets it go for now.
In the hallway, barely visible, is the butsudan they put together. It's got fresh incense burning, as well as some cups of steaming tea on a lower shelf. It looks uncharacteristically full for a place that only houses two barely adults. A different photo of Choso, no less grimy but much more stoic as it's only him, has got a small vial of blood in front of it. Yuuji's. A photo of Gojo, grinning and throwing up a peace sign, much younger than he was when he died, has got his sunglasses, his blindfold, as well as a bowl of sweets that gets changed out every other day in front of the delicate frame. There's a box there as well, one where Megumi puts in notes of things he wants Gojo to know about.
On a different shelf, with its own incense burning, is a photo of Tsumiki. She's got a head scarf wrapped around her photo, a touch more personal than anyone else's even if it looks careless, and a book on French poetry presented to her. When she fell into her coma, she'd gotten really into learning the language and expressed an interest in travelling to the country. If Nobara ever goes, he'll have to ask her to bring something home for her.
Another shelf. Nanami, with his tie and a cup of water in front of it since he didn't like tea all that much. Itadori Wasuke, a single forget-me-knot flower and a letter that gets changed out as frequently as the notes pile up in the box. Yuuji probably follows the same system he does. A drawing of nine children and Yuuji sitting at a dinner table, chatting and happy. A photo of Megumi's parents, as old and stiff as it is. A photo of Ieiri, Gojo and a third person half cut out. An old picture of Maki and Mai, both of them indistinguishable from the other except for the headstrong way Maki holds herself, even as a toddler.
Megumi's throat closes up.
I'm ready when you are.
It'll be lonely without you, Fushiguro.
Marriages that last the longest, and are the best, are the ones where they still like each other.
I like the way he makes me feel.
I like the way he makes me feel.
I like the way he makes me feel.
I like the way he makes me feel.
"Yuuji?" He asks. The somber silence ringing in his head is no different to the one outside, but Yuuji doesn't seem too sad–that is, he's comfortable to sit in the kitchen with Megumi while he collects himself and ponders over everything and nothing. He hums, tilting his head further up to look at him from the corner of his eyes while still pressed against him. He doesn't move much to be honest. Having all his weight on Megumi's legs isn't exactly forgiving but he won't ask him to move, not when he'll need to be very grounded to say what he's about to say.
"I like when you do the dishes." Yuuji mumbles in confusion, possibly half asleep on top of him but Megumi's just got to plough through it now and think about a reaction later. "I like going on walks with you. I like waking up to the sun on my face. I like when you shower before getting into bed. I like when you cook for me. I like your hands. I like how selfless you are. I like... I like," he stumbles here, growing weepy and so full of love it's practically bursting out of him, "I like that you never make me feel bad about forgetting something, even if it's important. I like that you never judge me or blame me. I like that you love me, even if I don't think you should. I like how you love, in a way that's both so overwhelming and perfect for us that we couldn't have lived any other way. I like the way you talk to me."
"Megumi–" Yuuji starts, wiping the tears that have fallen down his face with his thumbs, concern painted plainly across his face.
"I like how you go to the cemetery with me every week, even if there's no one there for you. I like that you consider me in everything. I like that you buy me flowers and say nice things and treat me like I'm so very special to you. I like how you're patient. I like that you say how you feel. I like your hair. I like your eyes. I like your scars. I like how you sit with me in bed, even if I know you find it boring." Now Yuuji's got a few stray tears making their way down his cheeks, eyes watery and shining so brightly in the low light of the afternoon slipping in on them.
"I really love you but I like you the most."
Sniffling, he drops his head into the crook of Yuuji's neck, unable to look him in the eyes and see all that love and passion rumbling around in them. Constantly, he's assaulted by Yuuji's love–the power and force behind it. He feels like sometimes he's not the best at reciprocating it, either verbally or in his actions, but Yuuji's never complained or voiced any worries. He's not the type to share those with the people he loves, which means Megumi's got to bully it out of him every now and then, but it's always benign stuff–never anything huge.
"Where'd this come from?" Yuuji whispers. Megumi shrugs, trying to burrow closer. Yuuji runs his hands through his hair, mumbles about him needing a haircut absentmindedly, and rests his forehead on the crown of Megumi's skull. Evening light pools in the center of the kitchen, the temperature getting colder around them as the sun leaves, and the candles around the place burn through their wicks.
"I like you too, Megumi. I like your cheeks. I like your voice, the way it sounds when you say my name. I like that you do the laundry. I like when you put my clothes in the dryer so they're warm for me in the morning. I like when you buy an extra cupcake because you know I'll want another later in the day. I like when you pack my lunch. I like when you try to make dinner. I like that you've never blamed me . I like how you share things. I like the way you think. I like the way you dress. I like the way you listen to my music even if it's not to your taste. I like watching movies with you. I like travelling with you. I like sleeping alongside you. I like cuddling with you. I like when you get frustrated because your face pinches."
Megumi only laughs and laughs because he knows all that stuff. Half of it he does only because Yuuji likes it. He wonders if Yuuji knew all the things he said too and promptly decides he doesn't care because he needs to learn, apparently and according to Nobara, how to let people love him.
"You know what I don't like?" Yuuji says, flipping the script around on him. He feels a brief moment of panic before he looks up at Yuuji, at the mirth in his eye and the small smile tugging at his scar. Megumi grins, just a little, only to himself. When he looks up, the snot runs back down his throat and he sniffles with disgust pooling around his throat. "I don't like doing laundry but we've got so much of it."
Ah. Megumi forgot to do it this week.
"I'll do the laundry," he says and Yuuji pulls their hands together again, fingers tight right up until they're not and they've held hands so much that the empty space doesn't even register anymore. They've still got to make dinner but he's so used to making gyoza these days with Yuuji that it shouldn't take too long. He's got to get changed and possibly brush his hair, depending on how messed up it is from Yuuji running his hands through it. "I'll do all the laundry," he repeats, just for the sake of it.
And even if his head does keep him in bed most days and his grief catches up on him in the middle of the day or in the garden, when he feels nearly at peace, and Yuuji will have to move to Tokyo temporarily during the school year–despite all those objectively bad things, Megumi can find happiness in eating dinner at his own table and doing laundry and drying dishes and meeting with his family in a sushi place or a facetime in the middle of the night.
It's his ideal life. It's a happy life and that's exactly what he likes about it.