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“Do you think Fushiguro’s hot?”
Despite Nobara’s serious tone, Yuuji still chokes on the pearls in his brown sugar milk tea at her question. The sun burns down on them, filtering through the gaps of the leaves in the tree they were sitting under, on a bench. The light summer breeze doesn’t alleviate much of the heat and Yuuji can feel his sweat running down his temple as he swallows down the pearls without chewing.
“W-What do you mean?” he coughs out, watching her grimace around her straw of her own milk tea – honeydew with popping lychee pearls and coconut jelly.
“What do you mean what do I mean?” she grouses, fanning herself with a hand, jacket of her tracksuit long discarded to instead stew in her pink tanktop. “Do you think he’s hot or not?”
Yuuji purses his lips in thought, brown eyes slyly settling on Megumi’s tall figure standing on the grass, few feet away from them. He’s currently in the middle of a sparring session with Maki-senpai, his sword against her Playful Cloud. The chains connecting the three red staffs together rattle ominously as their senpai swung it around expertly, eyes glinting deviously behind her glasses.
So far, Megumi’s been faring well against her blows, making sure to duck and block at the right times, black blade sparking against the staffs, until the girl did a particularly tricky fake-out and ends up scoring a point by swinging her weapon right into his ribs. He winces as Panda-senpai hollers next to Inumaki-senpai, who holds up Maki’s score paddle with her face on it to indicate her point. Megumi huffs.
“Again,” he orders, before roughly shucking off his jacket, leaving him in a black tank as he gets back into position. Yuuji can vaguely hear Maki gloat something, but he’s too distracted by the lean yet toned arms of Megumi, muscles tensing every time he exchanges a blow with Playful Cloud.
“So?” Nobara’s voice pipes up again, sounding almost smug.
Yuuji swallows. “Yeah. Fushiguro’s a pretty good-looking dude, I guess.”
“You guess?” his friend snorts, shaking her head. “Gosh, you’re so obvious.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Yuuji, mildly flustered, finally tears his gaze away from Megumi managing to get revenge by whipping one of his long legs into Maki’s side.
Nobara grins around her straw, before finishing her sip and bringing up her other hand to cup around her drink, head tilting to the side in a cutesy manner. She bats her eyelashes, russet eyes glimmering in the sunshine as she begins to croon; “Oh Fushiguro, you’re so smart! Fushiguro, I think that was amazing! Fushiguro, come try the food I made! Oh Fushiguro, will you let me hold your hand?”
Yuuji squeaks, franticly slapping her shoulder to get her to stop. “Shh! Shh! Kugisaki, stop! He’ll hear you!” He pouts when she lets off to laugh at him. “You’re so mean! I know you think he’s hot too!”
The girl shrugs as she takes another sip of drink, sunlight catching in her orange hair like fire. “And? He’s got a nice face and I’m jealous of his eyelashes. I like looking at him,” she says, like it’s nothing as Yuuji gapes.
“Seriously? That’s so…” he grapples for a word, “…shameless?”
“Says the guy, who openly admits his type in girls is tall with a big ass. How shallow!”
For a moment, Yuuji looks worried. “Is it really?” he asks, letting his straw poke his bottom lip in thought. Nobara rolls with her eyes.
“It’s just funny hearing you get so worked up over this,” she says, “mostly because it’s hilarious that your type in guys is bad boys, apparently.”
The boy next to her flushes from the tips of his ears down to his collarbones poking out of his white t-shirt. “N-No way! That’s your type!”
“Are you stupid?! I like powerful women and men who are afraid of me, everybody knows that!”
Yuuji winces at the memory. “Right, yeah. B-But that doesn’t mean–!”
“Honey, both of your crushes are dark haired, broody boys – trust me, I saw the selfie of you and Junpei.” As if to accentuate her point, Nobara takes a long sip of her milk tea, raising an eyebrow in challenge as the boy whines.
“I can’t help it! Fushiguro is so cool and mysterious, but then he also refuses to drink from any other cup than the one with the dog on it.” Yuuji covers his face at the memory of Megumi looking mildly embarrassed, as he admitted he didn’t want to drink his coffee from the plain black cup Yuuji had given him one morning. “He’s so cute, it’s awful.”
He hears Nobara chuckle. “Yeah, that was pretty cute. Who knew a sourpuss like him could be so childish? Remember when he picked out all the peppers from his food last week?” She laughs again and Yuuji watches her from between his fingers, eyes shining at her smile.
“So, you do like him too!” he says, now grinning mischievously as he sees her blush pink. “N’aww, that’s so cute, Kugisaki.”
“Shut up!” She clicks her tongue at him. “I just think it’s nice that he can be a gentleman every once in a while, despite being a rude and grumpy teenage boy.”
Yuuji gasps, delighted. “Is it because he once willingly offered to carry all your shopping bags? And got you chocolate during shark week?”
“You’re such a kid, just call it period!” she barks at him, now obviously flustered at having her soft, appreciative side exposed like this. He’s laughing at her now, boyish joy brightening his features as she reaches over to shove him lightly. “You do those things too, you know?”
He grins at her. “Do you think I’m cute too?”
She seems to actively consider him, pursing her lips. “Sure,” she says, “as cute as one finds a dog cute.”
“Really?” Yuuji perks up, when the entire sentence finally hits him. He whines. “Hey!”
Nobara cackles. “What? I just said, you’re cute, Itadori!”
“But I’m cuter than a dog, right?” he wheedles, leaning into her side so far, he’s resting his chin on her shoulder, face pleading. “Right? Tell me I’m cute!”
“Lord, you’re needier than those popular girls in TV dramas!”
“Kugisaki, tell me I’m cute and compliment my hair!”
She’s laughing, bright and genuine at his pouty demeanour, when a shadow falls over them.
“Who’s cute?”
Both Nobara and Yuuji squeak at Megumi’s deep voice piping up so suddenly, pressing up against each other in fright. His tall stature blocks the sun behind him, making his onyx hair shine and darkening his green eyes into the colour of the deep sea. Dark strands are sticking to his forehead and Nobara scrunches up her nose.
“Ew, you’re sweaty,” she tells him and he snorts.
“No shit,” he says, reaching for the hem of his tank to lift it and wipe his face with it. Both Nobara and Yuuji eagerly soak up the sight of his exposed stomach, eyeing the lines of built up muscles, before the hem drops back down as Megumi shakes his head like a wet dog. “Water,” he rasps.
Quickly, Nobara hands him his water bottle that had been resting under the bench. Greedily he drinks down the cool liquid, while the other two watch the bob of his adam’s apple, distractedly trying to find the straws of their drinks again without looking away. When Megumi finishes, he quirks an eyebrow at the plastic cups in their hands.
“You guys got milk tea?”
Nobara blinks, before her brain does a kickstart. “Wh– oh yeah! Yeah, I sent Itadori out to fetch them”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted some from the nearby store, duh. What else?” she snarks, as Yuuji reaches down to retrieve a third cup in a small bag wet with condensation.
“Here, Fushiguro!” He offers the other teen the drink. “We got you one too; matcha milk tea, half sugar, half ice, herbal jelly. Right?”
Megumi takes the bag from him to inspect the drink – it’s exactly how he likes it. His lips twitch up into a small smile. “Yeah, that’s perfect. Thank you.”
Nobara watches how Yuuji brightens, cheeks colouring slightly at the praise. She subtly lifts three fingers, counting down as Megumi sticks his straw into the cup. She barely reaches zero when the other boy exclaims; “No problem, Fushiguro! Anytime!”
She snorts and Yuuji whips his head around to face her, blushing furiously at the knowledge of what she’s probably thinking.
“Kugisaki, this is bullying!” he almost wails, embarrassed and she cackles. They begin to bicker again, not paying attention to Megumi, who watches them as he drinks his treat. He likes the colour on Yuuji’s cheeks and wonders if Nobara’s wearing lipgloss again. The corner of his mouth twitches up again, this time into a subtle, lopsided grin.
Hot, huh?