Chapter Text
Yuuta shifts uncomfortably on the futon. He’s hyper aware of the eyes fixated on him. Despite the nonchalance he attempts to give off, his hands betray him as they start to clam up.
He should have known this would be the eventual outcome, but in his desire to ensure Toge had an evening with their friends where they could behave like normal teenagers, he had thrown caution to the wind and agreed to this dumbass game.
“Truth or dare, Yuuta. This isn’t rocket science. Just pick one” Maki snaps, her patience wearing thin.
“This feels oddly personal.”
“It is.”
Yuuta sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. All evening, the questions and/or dares directed at either or him Toge were becoming increasingly sexual in nature. It’s clear the rest of the group has decided to force a romantic connection between them, no doubt spurred on by Maki and Nobara’s knowing smirks and whispers. Nobara had immediately dared Toge to sit in Yuuta’s lap for five minutes, which he had done as if it were a completely normal occurrence between them.
Yuuta had felt… weird the entire time. It wasn’t as if physical contact wasn’t normal for them, they often leaned into each other when sitting side by side. Yuuta found he rather enjoyed having close physical contact with his fellow third years, especially Toge, as a matter of fact. But given what he had walked in on the night previous, and Maki’s implication that Yuuta would want to join in, it was becoming difficult to differentiate between actions that Toge would consider as Yuuta reciprocating romantic affection. Had he not accidentally seen Toge jerking off while moaning his name, Yuuta probably wouldn’t even have thought twice about Nobara’s stupid dare. Hell, he might have wrapped his arms around Toge’s waist and leaned on him, taking comfort in the fact he can have these sorts of connections with others now.
Despite last night’s “incident”, Yuuta had been steadfastly maintaining the delusion that any and all feelings for Toge were strictly platonic. However, at one innocent shift of Toge’s hips as he turned to sign something at Megumi who was sitting to his side, Yuuta had felt parts of his body very quickly tearing down the facade of “we’re just friends.” When the timer Nobara had set went off, Yuuta shoved him off his lap a little harder than he meant to, covering his increasing gay panic by stating Toge smelled like sweat from all the Dance Dance Revolution earlier.
This was then immediately followed by Hakari asking if Toge had ever had a sex dream about a classmate. Cheeks and ears bright red, he had signed a quick yes, only to ask if it was true that Hakari was a ‘two pump chump’. Hakari had let out an indignant “No!”, but the raised eyebrow Kirara had stared him down with definitely suggested otherwise.
Cut to the present, and it was obvious Maki was going to find some other way to force increasingly non-platonic interactions between him and Toge.
“Truth.” Yuuta says, bracing himself for a possible line of questioning regarding what he had confided in her last night.
“Have you kissed anyone before?”
There’s a shit eating grin plastered on her face and Yuuta is taken aback for a moment. She knows the answer is yes. He and Rika, while only a few times and only on the cheek, had kissed before and Maki knows this.
Was there a girl who he had a brief but intense crush on while training with Miguel (she had kissed him, Yuuta was far too chickenshit to make the move himself)? Yes, but there was no way Maki could possibly know about that.
“And NOT Rika.” There’s a beat before she adds, “Or bugs.”
“OH MY GOD, you know damn well that wasn’t a kiss!” Yuuta half yells, half laughs, as he tosses a pillow at her face. “I can’t tell you shit, I swear.”
Maki deftly bats the pillow away, but the knowing smirk doesn’t leave her face.
Megumi, who is easily the most flushed among them, eyes half lidded after being pestered into taking several swigs from Hakari’s flask, makes a sound akin to a dog about to throw up before grabbing Yuuta by the sleeve.
“You kissed a bug?!”
Yuuta rolls his eyes, but there’s no real heat to it.
“First of all, it was a curse . Second of all, I didn’t kiss it. I bit it.”
“What the hell? Why?!” Megumi is now mere centimeters from his face, staring at Yuuta with a mix of wonderment and horror.
“I couldn’t exactly use my hands at the moment, so I blasted pure cursed energy out my mouth. It kinda exploded after that. Honestly, I thought it was pretty clever.” Yuuta says with a shrug. The more he gets flustered about it, the more Maki rags on him.
If only he could apply the same level of blasé to her teasing about Toge.
“You can blast stuff out of your mouth?! Thatssofuckingcool .” Megumi hiccups slightly and turns to face Yuuji, who is sitting to his left. “Did I ever tell you he’s my favorite senpai?”
Yuuji, only slightly more sober than Megumi at this point in the evening, nods enthusiastically.
“M’kay just checking.” Megumi pats Yuuji’s cheek and proceeds to lean on his shoulder.
Yuuta laughs to himself, watching the scene unfold before him. Perhaps Yuuta can steer the group’s efforts into trying to get those two together instead. Clearly, there’s something going on between them.
He always did find Megumi and Yuuji endearing, but watching Megumi begin to loosen up and behave like a normal teenager around Yuuji filled him with a sort of sticky fondness he had long since found himself trapped by with Toge and Maki.
“OH!” Megumi sits up abruptly, swaying to maintain his balance. “DID you kiss anyone?”
Yuuta retracts his previous thoughts.
“Uh. Yeah. In Kenya” Yuuta mumbles while maintaining firm eye contact with his socks. For some reason, (and at this point he really is in denial) he feels a strange sense of guilt admitting this in front of Toge.
“I knew it! You whore.” Maki teases. She nudges Toge, who had settled beside her on the futon next to Yuuta’s. “Got any thoughts on that, Moaning Myrtle?”
Toge gapes at her, mouth hanging open in confusion. He hiccups slightly, also tipsy, courtesy of Hakari's flask. Almost as if in slow motion, Yuuta watches the pieces click into place when Toge’s figures out (incorrectly mind you) that Maki must have heard him ‘enjoying’ himself the night before. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t tell what the others were doing with all their dares and not so subtle comments, but he couldn’t quite place why it had become such a concentrated effort on Maki's part. His face is bright red as he elbows Maki in her left tit.
Nobara is doubled over laughing to the point of tears when Toge rounds on her. He assumes (this time, somewhat correctly) that Maki had told her what she could hear him doing. He attempts to punch her in the tit as well, but she’s quicker than he gives her credit for. Far too comfortable with each other for Toge’s liking, she flicks him swiftly in the crotch and Toge immediately grunts and flops onto the ground, letting out a pathetic whine as he clutches himself.
Panda is howling while Hakari and Kirara are pointing and laughing without any shame. Despite the secondhand embarrassment Yuuta feels for Toge, he can't help but join in on the laughter. After all, as far as Toge knows, Yuuta didn’t hear or see anything last night, so might as well play dumb and laugh along.
“Okay, okay. My turn.” Yuuta figures he might as well get some cheap shots in tonight as well, giving Maki a playful sneer, “Same question to you.” He’d be shocked if she and Kugisaki haven’t done something by now given the incessant flirting those two do.
“Nope. Unlike you, I can keep it in my pants.”
“You mean you’re a loser who’s seventeen and still hasn’t been kissed?” Damn, Yuuta figures he must be more drunk than he thought considering Maki could still beat his ass in his sleep.
“Oh hohoho, fuck you.” Maki spits back, with the slightest hint of anger. She isn’t truly pissed, Yuuta can tell, but she’ll be damned if she lets that slide. More than anything she’s glad Yuuta is finally in a place where they can give each other shit without him spiraling into a fit of anxiety.
Not like that's going to keep her from smacking the shit out of him.
Maki moves to grab the pillow tossed her way. Reeling her arm back, she hesitates when Toge moves in front of her, signing, ‘ You absolutely have kissed someone before, dumbass. Did you forget?!’
Now it’s Maki’s turn to stare at Toge, slack jawed, brows furrowed as she makes sure she’s read his signs right. “What?! No I haven’t!”
‘Really? I know head trauma is kind of my thing but I know you haven’t been hit hard enough to forget.’
“Seriously, what the fu…” Maki trails off as she meets Toge’s amused stare, memories long buried underneath years of the general fuckery that is sorcery beginning to resurface. “Wait…Oh, Christ you’re right.”
Maki’s flushes a deep pink, or as much as the unscarred skin allows, as she buries her head in her hands.
“God, that was so long ago. I completely forgot.”
—————————————————————————————————————-
Toge watches Maki all but slam her face into her hands, whether it's from embarrassment or anger he’s yet to tell.
Nobara prods at Maki’s side. “So, uh, you gonna enlighten us or what?” Her tone is playful but Toge knows her well enough now that he can detect the undertone of jealousy in her question. Maki must be able to sense it as well, as she promptly abandons her task of ‘ beat Yuuta’s ass ’ to grab Nobara’s hand and hold it in her own. Toge’s tries not to snort at the sudden change in Maki’s demeanor when it comes to Nobara, so he covers the noise with a cough.
Maki shoots him a look as if to say ‘fuck around and find out’ before turning back to Nobara.
“Don’t worry about it. It was totally meaningless.”
“Pollack roe! Salmon caviar!”
Toge decides he’s going to find out.
‘The hell Maki? I was not meaningless'
“Okay reel it in. We dated for like, two weeks, at most . And we were what, fourteen at the time? It barely counts.”
“I KNEW IT! YOU TWO KISSED! YOU KEPT TELLING ME NOTHING HAPPENED BUT IT DID!” Panda is beside himself, practically shaking Toge as he grasps at his shoulders. Toge tries to wriggle out of his grasp so he can angrily sign at him that it’s HIS fault they kissed but Maki beats him to it.
“The only reason we ‘dated’ at all is because you wouldn’t stop trying to get us together, you big idiot.”
Toge raises his hand, ready to sign indignantly to her that, just maybe, he genuinely thought he had feelings for her at the time, but Nobara’s jealousy curiosity has her cutting him off.
“Okay, I need details and I need them 10 minutes ago. Spill.”
“Yeah, me too. Let's hear it.” Yuuta interjects. Maki gives him a knowing look before turning to Toge and giving him a rare soft smile. Toge is suddenly reminded why he had confused his feelings of having his first genuine friend for those leaning more towards romance. For all the shit they give each other, Maki, on the rare occasion, can be quite sweet when she lets her defenses down. And while Toge may be a gay man, he isn’t blind. He’s always thought of Maki as beautiful. At the time when they had “dated”, he really had believed himself to be fairly smitten by her in the beginning.
Then he had a jiu jitsu lesson with Megumi the day after he and Maki had shared their kiss, and very quickly he figured out why kissing Maki had felt wrong in more ways than one.
Maki at least has the foresight to seem fond of the memory, so Toge decides he’ll let her tell the majority of the story. The brief moment of softness she had spared Toge quickly dissipates as Maki realizes everyone is staring at her with baited breath. She stiffens under their gaze, not used to being the one to give out personal details about her life. The dead silence of waiting for her to speak doesn’t help.
“Like I said, it could barely be considered dating. We held hands a few times and went to a movie together. Once. I wasn’t even sure I liked guys at the time. Toge was just sort of the first male friend I had. The bar was pretty low.”
Wow, ouch. Toge shoves her playfully, eager to ease the weird tension in the room.
‘Don’t talk me up too much, damn.’ Toge places his hand over his chest in mock hurt, but he too can’t help but smile at the memory. He remembers wandering the school grounds the morning of their ‘date’ and picking wildflowers, choosing ones specifically representing strength and beauty. Perhaps even more embarrassing, he remembers getting yelled at by Yaga for being in the part of the school he wasn’t supposed to be in yet. Yells of “you need to be patient young man, you’ll be in these classes soon enough!” and “Damn Gojo! Always rounding up these stray kids, this is a school not a halfway house!” echoing through the halls as he scurried away. He was looking for a nice string, or something of that nature, to fasten the flowers he picked into a bouquet. Sue him for being a romantic.
“Oh I remember that! Yuuta, you should have seen them. It was so cute. Toge made her a bouquet, and he was blushing so hard when he gave it to her. Maki, you were pretty red too! Kinda like how you are now.” Panda drives a furry finger into Maki’s cheek and is promptly sent flying several feet back as she shoots a leg out to kick him.
“Wait, is that what those dried flowers hanging in your closet are?” Nobara asks incredulously.
Toge raises an eyebrow at her. ‘What happened to ‘it was meaningless'? Seems like you made a point of hanging on to those flowers all these years.’ He’s teasing, mostly to get a rise out of Nobara, but again this was a rare moment of sweetness from Maki he rarely sees, and it touches his heart in a painful way. They’re both keenly aware that their youth was ripped from them far too young, and something as simple as keeping some dried flowers reminds him that they are still deserving of tender, innocent moments between them. Not that he would ever admit it to her, but Toge still has the ticket stubs tucked away in a box in the far depths of his closet.
“Look, I remember why you gave me the flowers, but I really did forget we kissed after the movie. It was, and I mean this in the nicest way, fucking awful.” Maki huffs out a laugh as Toge makes a face as he too fully recalls what exactly had happened.
It was horribly awkward. Toge for one, didn’t know what the hell he was doing, and to be fair, neither did Maki. All he knew about kissing, at the time, was that it sometimes involved tongue. After a few misaligned bumps of their lips, and not really feeling “the sparks” he read about online, Toge had promptly tried to shove his tongue in her mouth. Maki had immediately slammed her jaw shut at the intrusion, biting him in the process. He had managed to blurt out a hasty “musthad weaf!” before yanking his scarf back up and power walking his way back to the station. What followed was the most awkward train ride of his entire life, followed by the most awkward walk back to the school, only to be followed by the most awkward goodnight, before more or less sprinting back to his room.
Cut to Gojo dragging him out of his room the next day for jiu jitsu sparring with Megumi, whereupon hot breaths puffing against his neck during a particularly difficult round had him quickly realizing just why he hadn’t felt much while kissing Maki.
Second hard cut to Toge taking several “am I gay?” quizzes at two am that night with all the results giving a resounding “yes, you are indeed attracted to men” as the answer.
Maki dumped him a day later, and he couldn’t have been more grateful.
“Please don’t tell me he had his tongue in your mouth.” Nobara’s tone is not unlike one would use upon finding dog shit smeared under their shoe.
“Unfortunately, yes. It tasted like cough drops and popcorn. Truly disgusting.”
'Fuck both of you.'
Yuuta snorts, hiding his mouth with his hand as if Toge wouldn’t be able to see Yuuta laughing at his expense. “I’m sorry…hahaha…you tried to French kiss Maki ? She’s like, the poster child for mean lesbians.”
Toge shifts to the right, allowing Maki to backhand swing the pillow directly into Yuuta’s face.
**************
Nobara wakes up with a start, momentarily disoriented as she tries to make sense of her surroundings. Right, they’re in one of the unused spare rooms. Waking up in any place other than her room always leaves her with a brief moment of anxiety, worried she’s in the medical ward of the school again.
Thanks, Shibuya.
Glancing over to the futon next to hers she notices Maki must have left at some point in the night. She places her hand where she had been laying.
Still warm.
Maki must have gotten up recently. Figuring she probably had gone to use the bathroom or something, Nobara decides she might as well do the same. She stands to leave and finds her eyes wandering over the room. Her two idiots are off to the corner diagonal of her and Maki. Megumi is sleeping flat on his back, arms straight at his sides like a psychopath, while Yuuji is starfished at ninety degrees beside him, head resting on Megumi’s chest. Nobara wonders briefly how long those two are gonna dance around each other before her eyes land on the other two idiots in the corner directly across from them.
Toge has mostly thrown himself over Yuuta, face buried in his shoulder while his leg and remaining arm are wrapped snugly around his side. Yuuta has both of his arms wrapped surprisingly securely around Toge’s back given he’s clearly out cold.
Ugh, these two are so much worse. Between Yuuta absolutely bending over backwards to make Toge happy at any given moment, and the gross way Toge stares lovingly at Yuuta whenever he thinks no one is looking, they truly are insufferable.
Hakari farts as she moves past him on her way out.
Fucking men.
**************
Nobara is about to re-enter the room, hand reaching out to slide the screen open when the sound of a small cough catches her attention. Looking for the source, she notices the door leading to the second story veranda is slightly ajar. Well, it's not like sleep would come easily again, might as well see who it is.
She isn’t entirely surprised to see Maki leaning on the guardrail, hair let down, head hanging slightly as she stares into the distance. Nobara finds she really likes it when Maki’s hair is down, it makes her want to grow her own out. She likes everything about Maki, really.
Nobara wishes they could stop doing their own little dance and get together already.
Maybe now is her chance.
“Hey. Couldn’t sleep?” Wow, super suave.
“I was asleep just fine, Toge woke me up.” Maki sighs. There’s something about her voice that causes Nobara to pause. There’s an emotion there she can’t quite place, but whatever it is, it doesn’t sound happy.
“Was he being a little shit? I can put his hand in some warm water.” Nobara offers, hoping to get a smile out of her. Maki lets out a small laugh.
Mission successful.
“It would serve him right, he got me really good in the boob earlier. He’s got pointy ass-elbows.” Maki’s grinning as she continues, “I’m glad my advice of ‘fight dirty’ is finally being taken.”
“Didn’t you tell him he should pull your hair for head control during spars?”
“Yeah, butthole asked if he should take me to dinner first.”
They both laugh as Nobara joins her, leaning against the railing. “It’s good advice,” Nobara offers, “He needs to take every opening he sees with one arm and all that.”
Maki lets out another sigh. “Yeah, I know.”
A minute or so passes as they simply exist next to each other. Nobara is quickly losing interest in the scenery before her, as beautiful as the mountainside the school is nestled beside is, she finds there are far more pretty things to look at. And in much closer proximity.
Sneaking a glance sideways, Nobara is just now able to properly take in Maki’s features in the dark they find themselves in. Her eyes are red rimmed and slightly puffy.
What the fuck? Had she been crying?
Nobara feels her brain start to buffer. She never had been good with other people’s emotions, let alone even having the first clue as to what could possibly make Maki cry. Does she bail? Claim to be tired and leave Maki to it? It’s a shitty move, but Nobara has the sense to realize that “talking things out” isn’t something Maki tends to do, and would probably prefer to be left alone.
Then again, she hadn’t made a move to leave or seemed uncomfortable in Nobara’s presence so maybe staying put was the best option?
Nobara is spared her brain continuing to short circuit when Maki asks quietly, “How much do you know about Toge’s technique?”
Oh. Definitely not expecting that.
“Uhm. Not much more than what I’ve seen or what little Gojo has told us. Why?”
“Do you know why he’s so good at getting away with his dumb little pranks? Whenever he laughs, you can feel his emotion in the noise. He thinks he’s funny as shit so once he starts cracking up, you can’t help but laugh along with him.”
“I never really paid attention before, but yeah I see how that makes sense. When I thought he stole my skirt I was pissed. Then he lost it when Gojo walked in wearing it and suddenly I thought it was the funniest thing. It was SO stupid.” Nobara scoffs slightly at the memory and falls into an uneasy silence. Not sure if this was Maki’s way of letting her know it was okay to inquire about what she no doubt realizes Nobara has noticed, the quiet stretches between them.
No way to know unless she asks.
“How did Toge wake you up?”
Maki turns to properly face her for the first time since joining her outside and the look on her face is unreadable. Nobara supposes it could be sadness, but the hardline of her brow suggests more unease than anything.
“He was crying. And Nobara, he was so scared . It wasn’t even loud but holy crap all I could feel was how terrified he was. It was awful. I was about to get up and…and I don’t know. Comfort him, I guess?” Maki gives an involuntary shudder, shaking her hands out as if to physically repel the negative feelings swirling inside her. “When I sat up to check on him Yuuta was already awake with him so I let them be. I know he would just be embarrassed to have more people fuss over him. But lying there, and having to listen to it? It was horrible.”
Of course that would rattle her, Nobara thinks to herself. Maki has no cursed energy. Unlike the rest of them, who always have some amount of latent energy buzzing about even while at rest, Maki was absolutely open to even the slightest amount Toge lets through when making involuntary noises. Add in being asleep and it’s no wonder she was a bit shaken up.
“Are you okay?” Nobara leans her weight into Maki, who thankfully doesn’t recoil from the physical reassurance. “I know we don’t really do feelings , but I’m here.”
Nobara feels Maki lean her weight back into her. “I’m fine. It wasn’t exactly pleasant in the moment, but I imagine I’m doing better than he was.” She pauses, considering her words before continuing. “You know it was Panda who got us both out of Shibuya right?”
Nobara stiffens. Since, well, everything , they’ve yet to really discuss much of what had actually happened. She’s aware that Maki had more or less offed her entire clan after Mai’s death, but they’ve both settled into a comfortable ignoring of that giant elephant in the room. Her own memories of those few days after Shibuya were still fuzzy given she was still in and out of consciousness.
“He was carrying us back to Shoko’s little hospital thing and I was so out of it, but I remember Toge just kept saying he was sorry over and over again. I think Panda tried to calm him down, but I don’t think he was fully aware of what was going on.” There’s a hard frown on her face now. “I tried asking him about it once, but he brushed it off. The thing is, when we were both getting fixed up by Shoko, he kept at it, crying that he was sorry.”
Maki takes a moment to chew her bottom lip. “It was the same feeling, he was scared. I mean, we all were, but having that feeling as a result of his technique feels… wrong. ”
Nobara gives her a puzzled look. “Wrong? I don’t think I understand.”
“I don’t know how to describe it, really. But it’s not like I know what he’s upset about, I can just feel the fear. It’s weird, because you’re terrified, but you don’t know why.”
Nobara considers this for a few moments. She hadn’t thought to question laughing when Toge did. Afterall, it's a nice feeling to laugh with friends, but again, with her cursed energy, the effect was most likely dampened a bit.
“Well, that sucks.”
Maki scoffs softly as she swipes the back of hand across her left eye. Nobara pretends not to notice but Maki doesn’t bother trying to play it off as anything other than what it is. “Sorry.“
A sniff.
“That little turd is like my brother, I hate knowing he was that upset.”
Nobara recalls a memory from shortly after the exchange event the year before. She and Toge had been playing Super Smash when she had gotten a text from Maki. She was letting Nobara know that she was heading back from her mission early. In her eagerness to reply, Nobara had all but abandoned the match, allowing Toge an easy win. When he saw who she was texting he let out a snort. Smiling softly to himself, he continued to pick up his own phone and began typing.
Another text comes through
‘She totally likes you.’
“WHAT?!” Nobara yelped, “We’re just friends!”
Toge snorts louder this time, nearly giggling as he types.
‘She’s much softer with you than the rest of us. I’m surprised you don’t see it.’
“Maki is NOT soft, what are you talking about?!”
Toge stares at her for a few seconds, seemingly mulling over if what he’s about to tell her will get his ass kicked later for it. With a shrug he turns back to his phone.
‘It's not often, but she can be very gentle. Sweet even. Hell, sometimes she can even be empathetic.’
“You’re messing with me.”
Her phone dings again.
‘She’s not some emotionless monster, she cares deeply about us. And she shows it more often than she realizes.’
“Of course I don’t think she’s emotionless, Jesus!”
Toge clicks his tongue as he starts up another match, but the gentle smile doesn’t leave his face even when Nobara manages to perfect him that round.
The sound of another sniff draws Nobara back to the present.
She supposes this is what he meant.