Chapter Text
Megumi Fushiguro’s day was already bad. It was bad, but at least it was normal. Emphasis on the was. Earlier that morning he’d begrudgingly woken up at 5:30 to get ready for his shift at the emergency center. He’d made the commute to work in his sedan that’s definitely seen better days and put his scrubs on in the locker rooms.
Megumi was a veterinarian, 3 years strong. At this point in his career he’d fit his life into a stable routine: Wake up early, feed the dogs, go to work, come home, maybe go out with his best friend (though he’d never call her that to her face), and end the day in his dimly lit living room with a good book and his dogs by his side.
What wasn’t in Megumi’s routine was being stuck in a closet with a world famous pop star.
He tried to retrace his steps and figure out how he got here, pressed flush against Yuji Itadori as the latter’s raging fans stampeded through the hallway outside the closet Itadori basically threw him into. An hour before this he was just leaving the emergency vet clinic he worked at, ready for a hot shower and a cup of earl grey. He didn’t have the energy to get out of his scrubs, he just needed to get out of that building as fast as he could.
They’d lost a dog in surgery. She’d been rescued from a fighting ring and was in critical condition. He’d slaved away for 3 hours to do something, anything, to help the poor animal. When it breathed out its final breath, Megumi closed his eyes and rested a slightly shaking hand on the still body. He and the vet techs took a moment of silence for the animal, Megumi fighting back tears. After they’d paid their respects he placed a soft kiss on the dog’s forehead and got started on post mortuary cleanup.
Now, in the safety of his car, he felt a blaring headache coming on and reached for his glovebox, fingers fumbling in the compartment until he drew out his bottle of Advil. The light he was at turns green as he brings the container to his mouth, using his teeth to open it.
It was empty.
“Fuck.” He muttered, accelerating and throwing the empty bottle into his backseat. He saw a sign indicating the town mall’s coming up. He tilted his head in consideration, Well, there’s a CVS there. I might as well.
He glanced down at his scrubs and noticed that they’re stained by blood and other… bodily excrements. He sighed. It’s not like he was gonna see anyone he knew there. And even so, he clearly looked like he’s coming from work. He bit the bullet and parked his car in the one parking spot he found after searching for a good 3 minutes. The CVS is (thankfully) emptier than he’d expected. He gets his Advil and heads to the counter, absentmindedly responding to the small talk the cashier in front of him initiates.
As he walks back through the mall to get to the parking lot, he decides to slip into a hallway that leads to a bathroom so he can get some water to down his pills.
In the back of his mind he registers the sounds of sneakers squeaking against porcelain tiles and the far away sounds of a crowd. As the noise gets louder, Megumi glances behind him, only to see a pink haired man he recognized from somewhere turn the corner and sprint head on towards him.
The pink haired man bumps into him, cursing when he realizes the hallway’s a dead end. Megumi’s eyes are wide as saucers and he’s completely speechless in the presence of the man. The man in front of him panics and whirls his head around the narrow hallway to find a place to hide, eventually landing his eyes on the door to a utility closet. He begins to run for it, only to come to a quick stop and turn around to meet Megumi’s eyes.
In the blink of an eye he grabs Megumi’s hand and brings him into the closet, the sounds of the crowd getting closer to the hallway as he slams the door shut behind them.
What the fuck?
Megumi begins to protest but immediately freezes when the pink haired man brings his hand to his lips, pleading quietly for the former to be quiet. Megumi’s heart thumps in his chest and he bites his lip, forcing himself to be as quiet as possible.
He hears the crowd outside through the door.
“He can’t be far! Are you sure he came this way?”
“I don’t know anymore, he’s clearly not here. Maybe he went straight?”
“Probably. Man I need to get a photo from him or something, my friends are never gonna believe this.”
They hear the crowd disperse out of the hallway and the man breathes a sigh of relief. He brings his hand off of Megumi’s face and leans against the shelves of the closet. He looks up at Megumi and gives him a sheepish smile. Yeah, Megumi’s fucked.
“Sorry about that, man! I couldn’t leave you out there, I didn’t want you to tell them where I was hiding, haha.” He chuckles in a way that crinkles his eyes and rubs the back of his neck. “I’m Itadori Yuji, by the way! Again, I’m really sorry.”
Megumi lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in and leans his shoulder against a wall. “Yeah, uh. I know.” He flushes. Of course he knew. Who didn’t know Itadori Yuji. One of, if not the biggest musician in the business right now. Megumi scrambles, “Not that I’m like, a superfan or anything. I’m not gonna go home and tweet about this and try to live out some 6 seconds of fame.”
Itadori beams at him gratefully. “Thank you man, really. It means a lot. I came here without a bodyguard thinking it’d be safe for me to try on some shoes since this mall’s smaller. Little did I know some dumbass tweeted a picture of me they took from behind a wall and ended up bringing a mob to this place.” His eyes widened, “Not that I hate my fans! They’re the reason I’m where I am right now. It just… gets a little much, you know?” He nudges his head towards the door, referencing the crowd chasing him just a few moments prior.
Megumi shrugs. “I mean I don’t blame you for getting frustrated. I get it.” He thinks back to his guardian’s fans, remembering the time he’d woken up to a random woman trying to scale up the side of their house. He shudders at the memory, but doesn’t bring it up. He wasn’t in the mood to talk about his famous family.
He looks down at his scrubs and suddenly remembers what he was here for.
He glances at Itadori and puts his hand on the doorknob, indicating he was going to open it. “I had a long day at work man, I gotta go. Do you need me to check if there’s any stragglers out there?” He offers.
Itadori nods, his fingers fiddling with the drawstring on his hoodie absent-mindedly. “Yes, please, that’d be really helpful.” He pulls up his hoodie and covers his hair as much as he can, giving Megumi the go ahead to open the door.
Megumi walks out and glances around a few times, making sure there wasn’t anyone there waiting to catch Itadori off-guard. Once he’s sure the coast’s clear he taps on the door and opens it for the pinkhead.
“You’re good. I’ll head out now.” Megumi says with a nod, turning around to walk away, only to get stopped by a hand around his wrist.
He looks back to see Itadori, his face matching his hair in a pretty pink shade. Fuck, he’s so cute. Megumi jolts. NO. No. Stop. Be normal.
Itadori lets go of his wrist and puts his hands in his hoodie pockets. “Wait.” He looks up. “What’s your name?” He says, a nervousness in his eyes.
Megumi raises an eyebrow. Why did Itadori seem so… shy? Maybe he was just a little shaken after the mob. Megumi points at the nametag on his scrubs. “Fushiguro. Megumi Fushiguro.”
Yuji slaps his forehead and huffs out a laugh. “Oh wait, duh, I don’t know why I didn’t read that, ha ha.” He tilts his head. “So, are you a nurse? That’s cool, the medical field that is. Very respectable.” He says, nodding.
Megumi feels himself flush. This Itadori guy’s going to be the death of him. If it was anyone else he’d have been in his car, on his way home now. But this was Itadori. A man he barely knew, yet was completely captivated by.
He shrugs, trying to calm himself down. “In a way, yeah. I’m a vet.”
Yuji’s eyes grow wide and he beams. “A vet??! That’s so awesome, dude oh my god! So you like, see cool animals all the time huh?”
Megumi thinks back to this afternoon, his brows knitting in concentration as he tries to think of the most unique animal he’d seen today. “I took care of a sugar glider a few hours ago.”
Yuji squeals and his face grows into the widest grin Megumi thinks he’s ever seen. “Ohh my god!!!!! Awwww!!! I love sugar gliders so much.” He calms down a bit and rubs the back of his neck. “Uh, what clinic do you work at? If I may ask? It’s just that I have a really old cat and I’m always curious about vets in my area.”
Megumi puts his weight on his left foot, “Oh, Shikigami Emergency Vet Clinic. It’s an independent clinic, we serve mostly exotic animals, but we take on your average household pets too.”
Yuji beams. “Oh, awesome! That’s so cool that it’s independent, musta cost you a fortune-” He’s interrupted by a phone call, his ringtone being one of his own songs. Megumi resists the urge to roll his eyes at the upbeat pop song.
“Uh, one sec.” Itadori says apologetically.
He picks up the call and tsks at something the person on the other end’s saying. “Nana- Nanami, dude… Yes, I know… I’m sorry… I didn’t know I’d get recognized!.. I know, I know. Next time I’ll take Todo with me… Aw, is that Sukuna I hear?.. Okay, I’ll be home quick.” He hangs up and looks at Megumi with a glint of disappointment in his eyes. “Hey man, I’m really sorry, I gotta go home. My guardian’s worried I’ll get trampled, haha.”
Megumi nods, feeling kinda sad at their little interaction ending. This was the nicest he’s felt in a while, it almost made him forget that he’s completely exhausted and just finished a 9 hour shift.
Yuji puts out a hand, blushing slightly. “I’ll see you around, kay?”
Megumi nods and returns his handshake. “Yeah, see you around.” He really hopes he does. God, he does.
They part ways and walk to their respective cars. Megumi lets out a deep sigh as he sits back in his sedan. He unhooks his keys from his belt loop and turns on the car, finally going home after over 10 hours of exhaustion.
—-
Megumi opens the door to his apartment and immediately gets trampled by his dogs. He laughs, petting both of them as he pushes himself off the wall to get to his kitchen.
“Hey, puppies. Oh you missed your papa, huh. It’s okay, I’m home now.” He says softly. He places his bag on his kitchen counter and walks past it to hang his keys on a hook on the wall. He chuckles when his dogs scurry over and sniff every inch of his scrubs, no doubt smelling the countless animals he saw that day. He remembers the dog he’d lost and feels a sense of sadness take over him. He takes off his shoes and pads over to his room, closing the door and undressing so he can finally take a shower.
It’d be a lie to say Megumi didn’t cry tears of joy when the hot water hit him. He’d probably taken the longest shower of his life, scrubbing away aggressively at his skin until it flushed red. When he finally feels satisfied that he’d cleaned himself up enough, he steps out of the steaming shower and turns on the bathroom fan to clear up some of the fog in the bathroom.
When he finally finishes his night routine he heads to his couch and snuggles up next to his dogs. He brings out his phone and mindlessly scrolls on social media. One post in particular though, catches his eye.
It’s Itadori. He scrolls back up the second he recognizes that familiar crop of pink hair. It was a clip of an interview he was recently in. Megumi tucks his feet under his legs and shuffles closer to his dogs as the video plays, already feeling blood rush to his cheeks.
In the video Itadori was clearly at a music awards ceremony, dressed out in a sleek black suit. His hair was actually styled and he looked… nice. Really nice.
The interviewer’s voice rang out in the background, her tone stable and clearly rehearsed. “So, Yuji! Tonight you won your 6th ever Grammy! How do you feel? Getting bored of these ceremonies yet?”
He smiled back at her confidently and leaned towards the mic. “With their drink selection? Never.” Megumi hears the interviewer laugh behind the camera.
Itadori continued, “As for the Grammy, I’d like to say I’m really grateful for this award, as I am for all the others. It’s such an out of world experience being at events like this. Really makes me feel loved. I know I grew up in the spotlight, but even a decade later, it feels so insane that anyone likes my music enough to be an avid listener. I’m so grateful.”
The interviewer’s voice took an almost sweet lilt to it as she chuckled at Itadori’s response, “That’s so sweet, truly.” She paused, “The fans wanna know, Yuji. Is there anyone in your life right now?”
He flushed and smiled softly back at her. “You know I keep that information private. But even so, no, no one currently. My old mystery partner’s onto better things now.”
“So you’re single!”
Megumi’s eyes widen at his phone. Itadori? Single? No way.
He shrugs sheepishly. “Yup. And certainly not ready to mingle, haha.’
A voice calls for Itadori in the background, causing him to whip his head around and grin. He turns back to the interviewer apologetically, “Sorry! Gotta go, the afterparty starts soon! Contact my manager if you wanna do a longer interview!”
The video ends there. Megumi opens the comments and is immediately annoyed.
YujiItadorisgf122223: So what you’re saying’s I have a chance
DamnImhungryl0l: Girl you wish, he’s 100% just lying so PR’s good. No way he’s single.
Eatad0ry: He’s so cute omfg. I actually can’t do this anymore
Maybe_3rin: Anything but dropping a new album
AllM1ghtluvr: Be grateful he released a single at least. Art takes time.
Maybe_3rin: Just saying, it shouldn’t take 3 years just to drop a new album. Idk, maybe I’m asking too much.
Megumi scoffs. Yeah you are. He sighs and sets his phone away, adjusting himself so he could lay his head on his dog, Kuro. He matches the soft breathing of his dog until he feels himself slowly fade out of consciousness, falling into a deep sleep filled with dreams of pink hair and smiles with brightness akin to the sun.