Archive of Our Own ^beta

Despite what Gojo keeps implying, Fushiguro is not using a female avatar in VR to catfish poor unsuspecting boys and girls.

It’s just easier to avoid the Zen’in family in VR this way—otherwise, if he just used his regular appearance, they’d spot him in no time, and then they’d be hounding him about returning to the family compound and allowing them access into his implants.

Which no—first off there’s no “returning,” he’s never even been in the family compound, and second, he’d be enslaved in no time to their will and all his shikigami AI under their command if he ever allowed them even just a peek of his implants. Then how could he help Tsumiki?

Better to just fend off perverts and neckbeards in VR than that.

There was—one slight truth to what Gojo was saying though.

And that’s—

Itadori Yuuji still has no idea that Megumi and Fushiguro are the same person.

In his defense—he hadn’t set out to deceive Itadori—he had just—when the other boy had gotten infected with a pretty nasty AI, he had told him while they were in VR to go to the Curses Curses Curses Hardware Shop and ask for Fushiguro to help him, and Itadori had been the one who hadn’t figured out at first that they were the same person—

“Hey, so um—are you and Megumi related?” Itadori had asked, peering up at him.

Fushiguro had frowned. “…what?”

“Like—you guys really look alike—kind of act alike, too—you’re both kind of aloof but really nice, you know?” Itadori had smiled at him. “She helped me out there in VR, and you’re helping me to make sure the psycho AI doesn’t take over my implant now.”

“That’s part Gojo too,” Fushiguro had pointed out.

“Gojo seems really cool!” Itadori had enthused before continuing, “So are you and Megumi like, cousins or something?”

“…or something,” Fushiguro had said, somewhat bemused at the time.

“Oh cool—is she single? Oh crap—you guys aren’t dating, are you?” Itadori asked, looking somewhat abashed.

“Uh—single, yeah, and no, we’re definitely not dating,” Fushiguro had replied, thrown off and unsure why Itadori was asking this question.

“Oh good,” Itadori sighs, placing a hand against his chest. “Um—would you mind giving me her contact info? I won’t be creepy, I swear! I’d just—well—she saved my life—”

“From what I heard, you saved hers first,” Fushiguro interrupted seriously.

Itadori shrugs. “Let’s call it 50-50, I guess. But anyway—could I get her number?”

He had been somewhat curious what Itadori would say, so he had given it to him.

He had kind of expected maybe some terrible pick-up lines and getting hit on, but in fact—

Itadori had been really sweet?

He had mainly just wanted to join him on patrol and tag along, punching whatever bugs or hackers they ended up finding.

“Shouldn’t you head back to your game and keep ranking?” Fushiguro had suggested, scratching one of his Divine Dogs behind the ear (the nice thing about VR versus the real—hard light is not nearly as soft in the real).

“Nah, I like hanging out with you, Megumi!” Itadori said, putting his hands behind his head and looking at him. “Beating up bugs is pretty exciting.”

Fushiguro raised an eyebrow. “It can’t nearly be as exciting as your game—there’s fights sure, but there’s no adventure or cool quests or anything really.”

“Yeah, but you’re actually keeping people safe, so I think that’s really cool!” Itadori smiled at him. “You’re like—a real live superhero or something!”

Fushiguro flushed and looked down at the ground. “That’s—not really—besides—shouldn’t you be taking it easy with Sukuna in your head and all?”

“Oh him? I’ve got him under control,” Itadori shrugged.

“Like hell you do,” a mouth opening up on the side of Itadori’s cheek spat out. “When I get out, the first thing I’m going to do is have fun with that avatar over there—”

Itadori slapped the side of his cheek and sighed. “Just—have a couple of annoying glitches happening still.”

“…you should probably go get that checked again in the real,” Fushiguro said, walking forward and looking more closely again. “There’s some firewalls Gojo has been talking about that he wants to try on you—you’re apparently very compatible with most programs.”

“Yeah, I was going to go there after this,” Itadori said with a grin. “Thanks for recommending that shop to me—everyone there seems really cool! Especially your cousin—he really cares about his work, huh?”

“…yeah,” Fushiguro replied, shifting uncomfortably in place as both Divine Dogs turn to stare at him. “Anyway—let’s head out, we’ve got one last place to check.”

“Sounds good!” Itadori said, swinging his arms around and stretching before seeming to remember something and digging through the pouch at his side. “Oh! Also I—I found this while gaming, and I thought it might come in handy for you? It’s supposed to give you like, 10% extra stealth I think?”

Fushiguro stared at the shadowy hair pin in Itadori’s hand then slowly took it (extra stealth would come in handy, that’s true, and—and that was pretty nice of him really, he’s pretty sure this thing would be worth at least 20,000 credits). “…thank you.”

“No problem!” Itadori says, leaning back and his grin growing wider. “It’ll look way prettier on you than on me!”

So he had worn that hair pin, and of course Gojo had spotted it the next time they patrolled together, and now he wouldn’t shut up about it.

“You know I was kidding about the catfishing, right?” Gojo asks, propping an elbow on the shop counter and obnoxiously slurping on a boba milk tea.

“I’m going to tell him,” Fushiguro grits his teeth. “Just—next time he visits.”

“Suuuuure you are, so like that’s in—10 minutes?” Gojo asks, very pointedly glancing at his watch when his eye implant is definitely telling him the time. “So what’s the speech so far, you’ve got? ‘Hey, Yuuji—sorry that I made you think I was a hot girl, but on the plus side—’…what is your plus side? Is he bi? Can you leverage the fact that you’re not a bad-looking kid in real life too? You’re not like, at my level—then that’d be in the bag —but it might work—”

“That’s not— no, ” Fushiguro interrupts, glaring at him. “We’re not like that.”

“Sure, and that’s why you’re spending all your free time with him and always staring moodily at him,” Gojo sighs and sets aside his boba to move his sunglasses down and look at him in the eye. “Well—give it a few years. You look a lot like your dad, and he’s kind of hot in a ‘deadly assassin of the real’ kind of way, so you may grow into that look too—”

“I’m going now,” Fushiguro informs him, standing up and deciding to be the more mature one here ( someone has to) and not flip him off or steal his boba tea.

(It’d be disgustingly sweet anyway—Gojo always goes for 110% sugar because he’s insane.)

Gojo just cackles and waves him off, calling out, “Good luck, Megumi! Just remember—no breaking his heart too much, there are some programs I want to try on him.”

(Gojo is just wrong, as per usual.

He spends his free time with him because Itadori likes to hang out after his tune-ups, and Fushiguro wants to make sure his implants aren’t malfunctioning with anything they’ve tweaked.

And if he’s been staring, it’s because he’s trying to figure out what to do about Sukuna.

They can’t delete him, he’s worked his way too far into Itadori’s implant at this point, and it would probably turn Itadori braid-dead too to do that. They also couldn’t just move him to a new synth body or something, that would leave Sukuna free to wreak havoc in the real along with in VR to his heart’s content.

Unless they somehow added restrictions to said synth body—but then how to even get him out of Itadori at this point…)

“Hey, Fushiguro!” Itadori’s voice pierces through his thoughts, his wide grin and pink hair popping in front of him.

“Hey,” Fushiguro greets him, shaking his head quickly and gesturing at the seat across from him (may as well get this over with as quickly as possible). “Sit down, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Oh huh,” Itadori says, plopping down in the seat and scratching his cheek. “There’s something I wanted to tell you too!”

Fushiguro frowns and leans forward, immediately checking Itadori’s eye implant. “What is it—did the firewall not work? Are you experiencing any memory loss—”

“Nothing like that,” Itadori laughs, holding still obediently as Fushiguro stares into his eyes. “It’s just—I have something for you. Here.”

Fushiguro looks dumbfounded down at the physical book that Itadori hands him. “This is—this is an actual copy of Coraline —where did you get this from?”

“So funny story,” Itadori says, rubbing the back of his head. “You know I do a lot of odd jobs around the place, right? Gaming doesn’t always pay the bills—especially without sponsorships—so I was helping this old lady with an estate sale, carrying boxes and stuff, and I saw this, and I remembered you said you and your sister both really liked physical books, so—I asked her if I could have it as part of my payment, and she said it was fine.”

“…you could have sold it for a lot,” Fushigruo points out, carefully opening the book and paging through the yellowed pages (Tsumiki was going to flip —and even if this wasn’t his usual kind of book, he couldn’t deny the satisfaction of actual pages turning in his hand).

Itadori shrugs. “I just live by myself, what do I need all that money for? Besides, I thought you’d enjoy it, and we’re friends after all.”

(…they’re friends?

Fushiguro had—never actually had a friend before.

Well—technically, there’s Nobara, but as Nobara herself is fond of saying, if Maki didn’t come by so often to see Tsumiki, she wouldn’t choose to hang out with him either.

And if he tells Itadori about this entire avatar situation, Itadori would probably not want to talk to him again…)

“…thank you,” Fushiguro says, carefully setting the book aside. “It looks really cool.”

“Doesn’t it? I saw the movie before—so spooky! And no problem, glad you like it!” Itadori flashes a grin at him. “So what did you want to talk to me about?”

“…Gojo wanted to try and train you a bit next time you’re in VR,” Fushiguro finds himself saying. “He thinks you’ve got potential to maybe utilize some of the abilities Sukuna has in VR while still maintaining control.”

Itadori perks up. “Gojo-sensei thinks I have potential?” he asks breathlessly. “Wow! That’s so cool! I can’t wait to get started—do you think I’ll be able to fire off laser blasts with my hands or something? I’ve always wanted to do that…”

Fushiguro cracks a smile while shaking his head. “Maybe not laser blasts, sorry, but, super strength could be an option? You’ll have to talk to Gojo, he’s the expert for training and stuff.”

“Cool!” Itadori cheers then asks, “Can Megumi come too?”

Fushiguro stills, shifting in place. “Uh—why do you want her to come?”

“Don’t get me wrong, your cousin is super badass and could definitely kick my ass,” Itadori replies, holding up a hand, “But like—she could always be more badass, right? And I wouldn’t mind trying to show off a bit in front of her…”

“You should probably focus on making sure Gojo doesn’t make you punch yourself in your face first,” Fushiguro advises, pointedly not thinking about what Itadori looked like when he was fighting.

(He had a natural athlete’s grace, just throwing himself headlong into fights, fast and furious and deadly, even without professional VR training—

But that made sense since ranked gamers could only be ranked with either a lot of money, a great deal of technical know-how, or sheer physical ability, and Itadori lived paycheck to paycheck and was constantly coming to this shop to get different things repaired ever since they had met.)

“Yeeeeeah, wouldn’t want to look too dumb in front of her,” Itadori says, then grins and slaps Fushiguro on the back. “Thanks, man, for always looking out for me!”

“…anytime,” Fushiguro replies softly, looking down at the counter and trying to ignore the guilt that was seeping up his insides.

Gojo barely seems to blink an eye behind that blindfold when Fushiguro shows up in VR a week later just to check on Itadori’s progress, and Itadori happily bounds up, tells him about all the cool stuff Gojo had taught him, harnessing Sukuna’s programming to turbo-charge his own impressive strength, and then says that he can’t wait to tell Fushiguro too.

Later however in the real, Gojo pulls him aside and even tilts down his sunglasses to look at him with his unnerving eyes. “…what happened to telling him?”

“I—he seems pretty happy, right?” Fushiguro says, looking away. “With—impressing Megumi and stuff…”

“It’s really weird to have you referring to yourself in the third person, but go on,” Gojo says conversationally.

Fushiguro glares at him. “You know what I mean. He’ll—he’ll train better if he thinks he’s impressing some girl, and—and that’s good, because he’ll need all the training you can give him if he’s going to keep tagging along with me and also keep his implant non-corrupted.”

“Really the key to his implant not getting corrupted and completely taken over by Sukuna is just plain biology,” Gojo shrugs. “Just like my Limitless and Six Eyes programming or your Ten Shadows programming: the reason we can use those programs is just that we’re genetically and biologically compatible with them. Still—there are certain loops of logic and factors that seem to be holding Sukuna at bay that could come in handy for others…”

“What crazy thing are you planning now?” Fushiguro stares suspiciously at him.

Gojo flashes a grin at him while pushing his sunglasses all the way up. “Never you mind, Megumi-chan~ Also—it does help that while Itadori is still unaware of exactly what’s going on, you guys can hang out a lot, right?”

Fushiguro shifts in place. “What does that have to do with anything—”

“Ah, teenagers,” Gojo simpers, propping his head in his hand. “I remember when I was a teenager…the absolute shit I used to get up to trying to impress my crush or make him laugh…”

“You get up to shit even without anyone to impress,” Fushiguro points out with a shudder (Gojo as a teenager must have been an absolute terror ).

“…something like that,” Gojo says with an enigmatic twist of his mouth before he pounds on Fushiguro’s back. “Alright, Megumi-chan, I’ll keep your secret! Partially because Yuuji should really find out from you, partially because you two are good for each other, but mostly because this is hilarious, and I love it. Shoko is dying to hear what will happen next.”

“I’m not one of your dramas, you freak!” Fushiguro yells before storming off.

He’s eating his words though next time he sees Itadori in VR, and Itadori seems oddly distracted and mopey while they go flying through the network after wrapping up an e-currency mining site that was draining the power of an entire neighborhood.

“What’s wrong?” he asks finally, after Itadori sighs for the sixth time.

Itadori jerks up and laughs awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. “Ah, sorry—just—thinking about some stuff…were you ever bullied at school, Megumi?”

Fushiguro blinks. “Uh no—why, is someone bothering you at your night classes?”

“Oh no, not me,” Itadori says, waving a hand quickly. “Someone I know, though. He’s around my age, and—well, some of the class is pretty nasty to him, I have no idea why.”

Fushiguro shrugs. “People are mean—especially people at school for some reason, and even more so in VR.”

“That’s true…but yeah, you don’t want to hear about depressing stuff like that, do you?” Itadori pulls on a grin. “Sorry about that—we were hanging out and everything…”

“I don’t mind,” Fushiguro says truthfully. “If it’s bothering you, let’s hear it. Are you going to try anything?”

“…maybe, although I’m not sure what would help,” Itadori admits, scratching his head. “I’ve tried beating some people up, which helped a little, but only when I can make it to class. When I’m not there, I think he gets ganged up on, even though they know I’m going to kick all their asses later.”

“Why not teach him to fight back? There’s even simple protection algorithms I can give to you that should work regardless of implant,” Fushiguro suggests, summoning up a simple dog shikigami to stand panting at their heels. “A dog could come in handy, right?”

“A dog definitely would!” Itadori says, immediately kneeling down to skritch the shikigami behind its ears. “But—aren’t these connected to you? Didn’t you say that only you could control them? Won’t they consume a lot of power?”

“This is just a normal shikigami construct, not one of my Ten Shadows Technique ones,” Fushiguro explains. “It’s easy to make and maintain—and nearly all implants with enough practice can be made compatible with the programming.”

“Cool!” Itadori says, hugging the dog to him as it happily licks his face. “So I just—bring this to him, and he’ll be able to figure it out?”

“Eventually,” Fushiguro shrugs. “Depends on how motivated he is.”

“Very, I think,” Itadori replies, his face turning a bit dark before clearing again as he beams at him. “Thank you so much, Megumi! You’re really a goddess among women!”

“I’m really not,” Fushiguro says flatly (the swooping sensation in his chest makes zero sense).

Itadori laughs then looks up at him through his lashes. “Well—you’re probably as close to one as I’ve ever met anyway,” he says sunnily.

(…what is he even supposed to s ay to that?

That’s—

That’s flirting, right?

But of course Itadori is flirting—he thinks Megumi is a girl, even if his avatar doesn’t look anything like Jennifer Lawrence who Itadori claimed once to him in the real was the pinnacle of hotness—besides Megumi.

He has no idea what to do with this—or why he weirdly feels happy about it?

And kind of pissed.

…it’s because Gojo has made him go on too many milk-runs recently, that must be it.)

Fushiguro looks away, rubbing his face. “You shouldn’t say things like that—people could get the wrong idea,” he says quietly.

“Mm, I don’t think it’d be the wrong idea in this case,” Itadori says simply, still smiling up at him before standing up while holding the happily wiggling dog under his arm. “I better get this to Junpei, but thanks, Megumi! You’re always saving my butt!”

“Tell him to go curbstomp those bullies,” Fushiguro replies, waving him off.

The next time he hears about this Junpei is about two weeks later when he was just thinking about whether to fire Itadori a message as himself, or as Megumi since he hasn’t seen the pink-haired boy for awhile either in the real or in VR (Itadori had said that he was having some issues with his apartment so would probably be AWOL for a bit, but this still seemed like a pretty long time without even a text…), when Itadori stumbles in through the door, a dark-haired emo-looking boy slung over his shoulders.

“Fushiguro! You’ve got to help him!” Itadori yells, pushing the boy towards him as his head lolls around a bit.

Fushiguro immediately clears up one of his techbeds and starts to help Itadori lower the boy into one. “What happened to him?”

“He—I gave him that shikigami program that Megumi gave me, and he said he’d go study it—and he even made this jellyfish thing that I think functioned kind of the same way—but he has this other friend named Mahito—who is a total, total shitstain asshole, and if I find him, I’m going to rip him to pieces —who—I don’t know—he’s an AI, and he gave him some other weird code—I think it really messed up his implant—”

(Well, that all sounds horrifically bad.

And also, Itadori is nearly in tears, and Fushiguro is itching to punch that Mahito as well.)

Fushiguro’s fingers fly over the keys as he enters in the firewall programs and scans that they used first on Itadori (may as well pull out the big guns—AIs that had enough consciousness to maliciously manipulate people should not be trusted at all ), and then he carefully moves the boy’s head and dark hair over to get a look at his implant.

It’s sparking oddly, and the lights keep flickering—which isn’t a fantastic sign, but when he glances up at the screen, it seems that at least the boy’s heart rate has steadied out from the distressing frantic pattern from before, and the firewall program is locking in while the scan is finding and quarantining whatever weirdness it can find.

“…I think he’s stable. I’m not a medic though, and his implant looks busted, so we’re probably going to have to call Dr. Ieiri over,” Fushiguro says, glancing over at Itadori who has his head in his hands.

Itadori looks up at him, wiping at his nose with his sleeve while a hope rises in his eyes. “He—he’s going to be okay?”

“I think so, but we should get Dr. Ieiri and Gojo’s second opinion probably,” Fushiguro warns, using his optic implant to go ahead and message both of them. “I’m not an expert—”

“You are amazing, Fushiguro,” Itadori says, grabbing Fushigruo’s hands in both of his. “Thank you so much—god if it wasn’t for you, Junpei—or even me for that matter—you always know exactly what to do!”

“I—that’s not the case,” Fushiguro says, his face feeling hot for some reason.

(Itadori’s hands are big and warm and calloused, and they feel really nice holding his own hands…

Is he sick? Has he come down with something?

Why is he feeling like this?)

“It totally is,” Itadori insists, not letting go. “If it was just me—I stopped him from using that shikigami to strangle someone’s mind but—Mahito was too fast— and then when I tried to ask Sukuna for help, he just laughed in my face— fuck , if only I had been training more with Megumi or Gojo-sensei instead of frantically running around about my stupid apartment—”

“You’re still having issues with that?” Fushiguro asks, frowning.

Itadori grimaces, releasing his hands to rub at his face (and Fushiguro does not feel any regret that Itadori let go, not at all, to feel that would make absolutely no sense at all). “Yeah—it’s really dumb, you don’t want to hear about it—focus on Junpei—”

“It’s bad enough that your freakishly fast reflexes couldn’t catch up with an AI, so I want to hear it,” Itadori insists, pushing over a stool for Itadori to sit on. “And don’t worry—your friend is stable, and I can keep an eye on the screen while also listening to you.”

Itadori sits down, his brow screwed up in a frown. “…how do you know I have freakishly fast reflexes?”

(…Shit.

Could he come up with some story—)

“Oh my god, does Megumi talk about me to you?” Itadori asks, sitting up straighter, a dopey grin on his face.

Fushiguro coughs and looks away. “Your apartment,” he insists stubbornly.

“She totally does, doesn’t she—wow, that’s really a thrill,” Itadori cracks a grin and then sighs. “It’s really nothing—it’s just that the complex I’m staying in is supposed to get razed for a new super highway or a virtual market or something—I’ve been trying to find a place with similar rent, but my place right now was my grandfather’s place and rent-controlled, and now, rent is so high everywhere…”

“You could move in with us,” slips out of Fushiguro’s mouth before he can even stop himself.

Itadori stares at him, his mouth dropping open.

(Great, great going Megumi, you just made one of your very few friends think you’ve lost your mind. )

“I mean—our house is way too big,” he scrambles as Itadori just continues to gape at him. “Gojo is filthy rich and bought the place when he took in me and my sister, since he said that he thought kids would need a lot of space, but there are so many empty rooms, where we just have all the furniture wrapped up in cloth—it’s a waste really, you’d be doing us a favor.”

“…you guys are already doing so much for me, I really don’t want to take up any more of your guys’ goodwill…” Itadori says quietly, his hands clenched at his side.

Fushiguro snorts (oh good—Itadori doesn’t actually seem to be weirded out by his offer). “It’s not purely out of goodwill—do you know how weird Gojo is around the house? You never know what he might do—one day you’ll walk in, and he’ll have stuffed the entire fridge with nothing but sweets, he’s wearing a skirt for some reason, and he’ll be humming some kind of annoying song that you’ll get stuck in your head for weeks. If you’re there, you’re his favorite, so maybe he’ll tone it down, just a little bit.”

Itadori cracks a grin, tilting his head. “Wow, well—I mean, I think you’re wrong about me being Gojo-sensei’s favorite since you’re actually adopted by him, but—if I could just stay for maybe a month or so until I can find some other place—I don’t have much to pay rent with, but I can clean! I can’t cook—or at least, you probably won’t like what I cook—but I can definitely do other chores!”

“Stay as long as you need,” Fushiguro says with a nod and a slight smile. “And it’s fine if you can’t cook—the street food here is pretty amazing anyway, we usually go get food from there.”

“Oh yeah—there was that stall of Singapore vermicelli that was pretty amazing that one time…and Megumi mentioned a chicken and rice stall that I’ve got to try,” Itadori says blithely before perking up. “Um—does she drop by your guys’ place often?”

(Oh, shit.

He hadn’t even considered how he was going to keep VR and the real separate with Itadori living with him.

It should be fine, right?

It wasn’t like he ever manifested his shikigami in the real that often anyway—that would give him away immediately.)

He’s saved from having to answer the question with both Gojo and Ieiri walking into the shop, Gojo pulling up his blindfold to get a look at Junpei and whistling before clapping Itadori on the back.

“Well, that’s some pretty nasty viruses running through him—still, looks like you were able to stave off the worst of it, Yuuji! Knew Nanamin taught you well!” Gojo says cheerfully as Ieiri goes forward to examine Junpei’s implant.

“Thanks, Gojo-sensei!” Itadori beams at Gojo before turning back to Fushiguro. “But Fushiguro was the one who really put in all the programs to stabilize him—his breathing seemed a lot worse before—Fushiguro is really amazing!”

“Yeah? What about Megumi-chan, won’t she be jealous to hear that?” Gojo asks while raising his eyebrow because Gojo is just a shit like that.

Itadori’s face turns horribly red as he starts to wave his hands in front of him. “It’s not—I don’t think—um—oh geez—”

“Implant’s totally busted,” Ieiri announces, setting Junpei’s head back. “But seeing the diagnostic reports, his ports seem to be more or less intact, so he can get a new one after some recovery time. I’d recommend a model with more firewall backups and maybe an accelerator if he’s going to be running shikigami programs in VR too. Tell him to call me like after a month—might want to make it two months just to be on the safe side, the physical damage isn’t pretty.”

“So—he’ll be okay?” Itadori asks anxiously, drawing closer to Junpei’s bed.

“He’ll be okay,” Ieiri confirms, her eye implant lighting up. “Going to need a recovery period like I said—and the sooner we get that implant out the better. You want to help me haul him over to my clinic, kid? I just called over a hovercraft.”

“Sure!” Itadori says already reaching down before his hand freezes above the techbed. “Uh, is there some specific way I should hold him or…?”

“Just piggyback him,” Ieiri says diffidently, already clacking away in her heels. “He should be fine.”

“Okay!” Itadori replies, carefully hauling Junpei up and slinging him onto his back. Fushiguro comes forward to push him up and secure him, and Itadori flashes him a grateful look. “Thanks! And—um—I guess—I’ll bring my stuff over later? Or maybe tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Fushiguro nods and pointedly doesn’t look at Gojo as Itadori waves and then hurries off with Ieiri.

“What’s this I hear?” Gojo asks in a terrible sing-song voice, clapping a hand on Fushiguro’s shoulder. “Is Itadori moving in? Are congratulations in order? Have you managed to finally beat out your ‘Megumi’ alter-ego in his heart—”

“He’s just—his apartment’s going to get torn down, and you know how high rent is everywhere, and it’s not like we don’t have space,” Fushiguro mumbles, shrugging Gojo off. “He can pick any room to stay in for a bit…”

“Is someone moving in?” Tsumiki asks, coming down the stairs. “Who? Is it Itadori-kun?”

“…yes,” Fushiguro admits.

Tsumiki purses her lips as she clasps her hands together. “While I’m happy for you—are you sure this is right, Megumi? Did you tell him about—that entire thing with your VR avatar yet??”

Fushiguro shifts in place, looking down. “…no…”

Tsumiki sighs, shaking her head and crossing her arms. “Megumi—I know you don’t mean to hurt him, but this situation isn’t sustainable. At this rate, Itadori-kun is going to be very hurt when he finds out—”

“He’s not in a good place to hear that right now,” Fushiguro interrupts, looking up. “His friend—his friend just got severely injured, and he’s under a lot of stress right now about rent and money and his apartment, so—so I’ll tell him when the situation has calmed down a bit?”

Tsumiki raises her eyebrows. “Is that going to be before or after he moves in? Because if you think I’m going to pretend that ‘Megumi’ is someone else like Gojo does, you know I won’t.”

(Shit, he hadn’t even thought that far.

Still—this is salvageable.

Tsumiki is about to go on a horror writing fellowship so she won’t even be living with them for the next two or three months—

Surely by then he can figure out how to reveal to Itadori everything that has been going on without it completely blowing up in his face?)

“…I’ll have told him by the time you get back from your writing fellowship, promise,” Fushiguro says finally, looking up at her.

“…alright,” Tsumiki sighs before reaching forward and ruffling his hair. “I recommend the sooner the better though, you’re not doing yourself any favors here—and Gojo, you really aren’t, either! Doesn’t Itadori-kun trust you as a wise mentor?”

“He does, he does, but all kids have to learn up to not always trust authority figures,” Gojo says with a shrug. “Besides, as much as I like Yuuji-kun, you and Megumi-kun are my kids, legally speaking, which means that I’m honor-bound to support my son—”

“Please don’t call me that,” Fushiguro says with a pained expression.

“—my ungrateful ward in all his endeavors, no matter how dumb or stupid,” Gojo continues cheerfully, not missing a beat. “And also, when Yuuji-kun does find out, I fully intend to say that it was all Megumi’s idea, and I told him it wasn’t the best idea, but he still did it anyway because he has a big dumb crush on him. I feel like that should overload his brain enough for me to make my quick get-away.”

“I—I don’t—I’m his friend, ” Fushiguro emphasizes, his cheeks flushed.

“You can have crushes on friends.” Gojo nods in what he probably thinks is a sage way but just makes him look like a douche. “ I have mainly had crushes on friends—”

“Gross,” Fushiguro snarks, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Don’t want to know. Also, I’m not comparing myself to you —”

“Which is a good thing, or else you’d be absolutely devastated over how many confessions I got as a teenager—”

“Megumi,” Tsumiki interrupts before Fushiguro can try to strangle Gojo (with no luck, anyway, because the bastard had activated Limitless in the real). “I am very sure the two of you are friends but—you’ve done a lot more for Itadori-kun than I’ve ever seen you do for any of your friends. Would you offer to let Nobara-chan live at our house?”

“No, because then Nobara would be attempting to get Maki over here even more than she already is, and it’s weird to see her strut past her constantly and ask if she wants food,” Fushiguro screws up his face. “And then if I asked for a drink, she’d snap at me and tell me to get it myself.”

“…fair point, but still,” Tsumiki says after pausing for a second. “You don’t really care as much what Nobara-chan thinks about you, right? As much as you worry over what Itadori-kun will think? I feel like—your feelings towards him are quite different, aren’t they?”

(…that’s true.

His heart has never raced around anyone else, and he’s pretty sure he’s blushed more in these months of knowing Itadori than in his entire life before.

But that didn’t mean—

That didn’t have to mean Gojo was right, did it?

He doesn’t—He doesn’t think he’s really had any thoughts that way—)

“Megumi,” Tsumiki continues patiently, seeing him frozen there. “If Itadori-kun asked you out—you in the real, what would you say?”

(Happiness blooms in his chest at the thought, followed by his stomach plummeting down when he manages to make the connection.  

Shit.

He really did have a crush.)

“Aw, he finally figured it out,” Gojo quips, leaning an arm against Tsumiki. “I’m surprised his eye implant isn’t literally blue-screening.”

Tsumiki sighs and swats at Gojo’s shoulder. “You’re such a terrible person, Gojo.”

“Would a terrible person have remembered to save you honeydew milk tea with mango jelly bits?” Gojo beams at her, taking out the drink from the fridge below the counter.

Tsumiki looks at it consideringly before taking it from him and taking a sip. “Ah, very refreshing. Did you bring any for Megumi?”

“One red bean milk tea with no pearls at all coming right up for Megumi’s demisexual awakening,” Gojo announces, pulling out another milk tea out of the fridge and setting it in front of Fushiguro. “Or is it asexual? Pan?”

Fushiguro doesn’t answer just grabbing the milk tea and sucking down the familiar lightly sweet, earthy flavor of red bean milk tea.

“Well, whatever you are Megumi, yay!” Gojo says, taking out his own neon colored boba with what looks like every single possible jelly stuffed inside and clinking their cups together.

(He has a crush on Itadori, but Itadori definitely doesn’t have one on him—but he does on his female avatar.

And Itadori is about to move in soon.

They’re going to be living in the same house, eating possibly the same meals, and sleeping right next door to each other, while Itadori blissfully believes the lie that Fushiguro has been feeding him this entire time—)

“….what am I going to do ?” Fushiguro finally asks, staring at Gojo in sheer desperation.

Gojo’s eyebrows go up at that, and he actually drags his blindfold down to properly look him in the eye. “…Tsumiki, go mark the calendar, this is the first day Megumi has actually asked me, the great Gojo Satoru, for love advice. ”

“Forget it,” Fushiguro sputters, hastily looking away and drinking the rest of his milk tea. “If you’re just going to make fun of me—”

 “Okay, okay, okay, the mockery ends now, although I’m not guaranteeing it won’t resume later,” Gojo says, steepling his fingers in front of him and propping his head on them. “Well first off, you’re going to help Yuuji move in because you did offer it to him, and we do have the space. Next, you’re probably going to need to come up with some confession speech about the whole situation soon, because the longer it lasts, the more I’m pretty sure Yuuji is falling for both of you—although yeah, you’re maybe not wrong to wait until after that Junpei kid gets better, no need to keep piling stuff on. And lastly—be honest about your feelings. Don’t keep certain things hidden because you think they’re embarrassing because you might not get a chance to tell them later.”

“…well, that’s depressing,” Fushiguro says flatly, staring at Gojo.

Gojo shrugs. “Life happens, kid. Sometimes it sucks—so it’s better if all feelings are out in the open while they can be, alright?”

“But what am I supposed to say ?’ Fushiguro emphasizes again. “Wouldn’t it be more awkward if I did tell him I have a—a crush on him? Because he doesn’t like me—he just likes Megumi.”

“Who is essentially you, just with boobs. And not even like big ones—or anything close to a big butt like Toudou keeps saying his ideal girl is,” Gojo says, putting his blindfold on properly again. “I think you’re good, and also—I don’t think he’s that indifferent to you in the real either.”

“…you also once convinced Nobara that Maki was in love with Tsumiki just so you could troll her, so I’m not trusting your judgement here,” Fushiguro says, crossing his arms.

(It’s too much to hope for.

That Itadori—brave, kind Itadori would actually like him for who he really is—

The only reason he even got close to him is because of a lie.)

“…I’m not sure Gojo is trolling you in this case,” Tsumiki says before patting Fushiguro on the back. “But either way—I think his advice is very sound! And I’m sure you’ll figure out what to say Megumi—he’s your friend, and you care for him very deeply.”

Fushiguro feels like Tsumiki’s confidence in him is entirely misplaced. As Itadori moves into the room next to his own and Junpei recovers and somehow decides to form a horror movie club with him and Itadori, Fushiguro is still no closer to figuring out at all what to say.

(All he has managed to figure out is that apparently, Itadori is exactly as built in the real as his avatar is in VR.

“Oh yeah, fighting in games is easier if you know how to do it in real life,” Itadori had said casually, dragging his shirt over his head. “So I try to maintain a good fitness regime.”

Fushiguro had somehow not died from all his blood rushing down to various parts of his body and bolted away before he could have any more embarrassing reactions.)

“You’re making a weird expression—are you constipated?” Nobara demands, shoving his books over in favor of the obscene number of shopping bags she carried in.

Fushiguro rolls his eyes, peering inside one of the bags frothy with tissue paper. “No. Are these all for Maki? You could just take them to her apartment, you know.”

“That would be far too forward, and some of these are for Tsumiki when she gets back,” Nobara says primly before narrowing her eyes at him. “Then what? Don’t tell me you’re thinking about something dirty—I know I could be a model, but you really have to set your sights lower—”

“I was thinking about movies for the horror movie club that Itadori and his friend started,” Fushiguro interrupts before Nobara can say any more horrifying things. “We haven’t decided on an order yet.”

Nobara’s fingernails tap against the table. “Are you telling me that you boys made a horror movie club, and you didn’t think to invite me to it?” she demands, her voice a dangerous low pitch.

Fushiguro just stares at her. “Since when did you like horror movies?”

“Since I realized that with the right timing, I have an excuse to toss myself into Maki’s arms and let her comfort me,” Nobara declares without an ounce of shame. “Also who knows—I could get scouted as a scream queen during one of these watch parties!”

“Oh, you’re interested in horror movies too?” Itadori comes bounding up, fresh from the gym, and Fushiguro watches as sweat trickles down his hair to the edge of his jaw. “Great! Watching movies is more fun with more friends—although it has to be in the real, because Junpei is still in recovery.”

“All the better, it’s not like Maki can do VR anyway,” Nobara shrugs. “What are the options?”

Itadori starts to count them out on his fingers while nodding his thanks with a slight flush to his cheeks at Fushiguro as he quickly passes him a towel for his own sanity. “There’s Earthworm Man 2, Scary Movie, Scary Movie 2, Scary Movie 3, Scream —”

“Wait, what happened to the first Earthworm Man?” Nobara demands.

“That one’s not that great,” Itadori shrugs. “Personally, I want to go with Scary Movie —Megumi said she hasn’t seen it before, and even if she says she can’t make it, there’s still a chance she could…”

“Megumi?” Nobara repeats, her brow furrowing as she glances over at Fushiguro. “…isn’t that—”

“—the person who is going to be really busy with patrols to help look for that bastard Mahito? Yes, she is, Nobara,” Fushiguro quickly cuts in.

Nobara stares at him before turning her head to stare at Itadori, and then her head whips around again to stare at Fushiguro as her eyes narrow. “…what the fuck,” she says dangerously.

Itadori blinks. “Uh—do you have a problem with Megumi or something?”

“I didn’t think so before, but now I have to wonder,” Nobara says, staring fixedly at Fushiguro. “So Itadori—you’ve never actually met ‘Megumi’ in the real?”

“Nope! She’s always really busy—makes sense though, all her AI shikigami are so cool! Apparently it’s some kind of family technique? But she says that she doesn’t really consider herself part of them,” Itadori replies cheerfully.

“So if you’ve never met her in real life, how do you know she’s not some creepy basement dwelling 50 year old man?” Nobara demands, placing her palms against the table.

“Um, because I’ve talked a lot with her, and she’s not creepy? Also, I’m pretty sure Fushiguro would tell me if that was the case?” Itadori says, glancing over at Fushiguro.

Fushiguro feels a stab of guilt but simply opens his mouth and says, “Megumi is not a 50 year old creepy basement dwelling old man.”

Nobara’s nostrils flare, and she stares him down. “Well, fine, maybe not an old man then, but what are you going to do if ‘Megumi’ doesn’t look much like her avatar?”

Itadori shrugs. “I like who she is, not just her looks. I like how she’s quietly funny and sarcastic, how she can kick butt, how she saves people, and how she tries so hard to be a good person. The rest is—a bonus, really.”

“Funny, I can’t tell if you’re describing Megumi or Fushiguro there,” Nobara says snidely, tapping her fingers against the table.

Itadori practically turns the color of his hair at that as he pulls out his phone and says hurriedly, “Um—I’ll just go tell Junpei that you guys will also be joining us—” before he rushes out of the room.

Leaving just Fushiguro in the living room with Nobara glaring a hole into his head.

Fushiguro attempts to brazen it out, standing up. “Well, if that’s it, I’ll just take Tsumiki’s gifts up to her room—”

“Sit down, Fushiguro,” Nobara says, her voice icy as she slams her foot against the coffee table.

Fushiguro sits back down but mutters, “If you scuff that, Gojo will never let you hear the end of it.”

“Oh big deal, I’ll just tell him that Itadori did it since you say he’s apparently Gojo’s favorite,” Nobara sniffs before her eyes grow dangerous again. “And I thought he was your favorite too, except why does he have this delusional idea that you and ‘Megumi’ are two different people ?”

“…I’m going to tell him. Soon—when Junpei gets a bit better, and before Tsumiki gets back,” Fushiguro says, looking down at his hands. “It was—at first, he just made an honest mistake, and I just went with it, and later—later I didn’t want to tell him because we were friends, and then—well, you see how much he likes Megumi—”

“I see how much he likes both of you, and I feel like he’s going to be simultaneously heartbroken and relieved when he finds out,” Nobara muses.

Fushigruo frowns. “…why would he be relieved?”

“Because I’m sure he feels bad he has a crush on two different people at the same time, he seems like that kind of guy,” Nobara says with a shrug.

(Gojo had said something similar, and Fushiguro had just dismissed it, but if Nobara also said it—

That didn’t make it true, Nobara was also constantly convinced she was on the verge of stardom even though he’s seen agents in VR specifically sprout wings to get away from her.

Still—

Neither of them are wrong that he always acts the same in VR as he does in the real…

But Itadori has only ever expressed interest in girls.)

“How does that even work? Has he just—never noticed that he doesn’t see you in VR?” Nobara’s voice breaks into his thoughts. “And what about Gojo, did he just never tell him?”

“I say I’m busy, which is true—I’m just busy on patrol with him,” Fushiguro says distractedly. “And you know Gojo’s kind of an asshole.”

Nobara snorts. “That’s for sure. Where is he anyway, I don’t think I’ve seen him for a while.”

“There’s been some cyberterrorist activity recently—I think he’s been investigating. He left me and Itadori to do most of the basic patrols lately,” Fushiguro replies.

(It’s not entirely accurate—it’s more like the most wanted and dangerous cyberterrorist group, The Chosen, led by Geto Suguru, had suddenly gone dark, and Gojo had gone off to figure out why.

He knows they have some kind of history—he thinks they went to school together or something—but he’s also seen Gojo beat him and his minions to bloody virtual paste before, so he’s not entirely sure if Gojo is doing it out of some kind of concern or actual investigation.

Or just to be a dick and rub it in Geto’s face whenever he rescues him from something, because that really sounds like Gojo.)

“And then Itadori comes back and spends even more time with you in the real,” Nobara shakes her head. “You’re lucky he’s dumb.”

“Itadori isn’t dumb,” Fushiguro says, raising up his head and looking Nobara in the eye. “He’s just—a very straightforward person, and he believes in the best of people.”

“Wow, do you have it bad,” Nobara says, sighing. “Well—you better tell him soon, that’s all I’m saying. I really don’t want to try and pretend that you and Megumi are two different people, that’s weird. And let me tell you, if Maki finds out, she is for sure just going to tell him.”

Fushiguro shudders (he can imagine what Maki would say). “I’ll figure it out before then.”

He had at least decided that maybe it would be best to tell Itadori in the real rather than in VR (surely it would be too grotesque to tell Itadori the truth while using his avatar, the entire source of the lie in the first place) by the next time he and Itadori go to look into what should have been a simple cheating scandal at a VR school and then turns into this massive bribery conspiracy with a mutated AI that comes pretty damn close to killing them.

Itadori, though, has become even faster and more lethal than before, and so between his shikigami and Itadori’s sheer reflexes, they manage to quarantine it and mark it for retrieval.

“Phew, that was a lot,” Itadori sighs, sitting down and rubbing his head, his torn shirt for some reason not resetting and just showing off his rock hard abs (abs that are true to life—he should be examining Itadori for damage, not drooling over him). “We definitely deserve a treat after that.”

“Yes,” Fushiguro agrees, stepping closer so that he can scan him. “Are—are you hurt? Is Sukuna acting up?”

“Huh? No, I’m good,” Itadori says, looking a bit confused. “Sukuna’s being an ass as always—”

A mouth opens up on his hand, “It is intolerable having to live inside your brain—you don’t even admit to half the things you are doing—and if you’re going to manipulate your avatar, you could at least add some arms. Why don’t I solve some problems by telling your little friend what—”

Itadori slams his hand against a wall before shaking it out and looking apologetically at him as his shirt quickly resets to its normal appearance. “Sorry about him, Megumi, he’s—well, you know. Psychotic.”

“What did he want to tell me?” Fushiguro asks, frowning.

“Nothing!” Itadori immediately answers in a high-pitched voice (well that didn’t bode well—he’ll insist that Itadori needs a scan when they get back to the real). “Nothing! Just—um—well—your—your cousin, Fushiguro—does he ever—does he ever talk about me with you?”

Fushiguro stares at him (had Itadori figured it out? No—he didn’t seem angry enough for that…). “….why are you asking?”

“Just—he was nice enough to let me stay at his place you know, and—and I know I’ve gone way over the month I said I would be staying—and it’s an adjustment having someone new over—and sometimes he gets this odd look on his face when he sees me now, so I just—I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t bothering him or anything,” Itadori rushes out, looking up at him plaintively.

(Oh—he hadn’t even realized Itadori had been staying with them for over a month—it had felt so natural in some ways.

Seeing his smile in the morning, feeling his energy around the house as he bustled around and sometimes cleaned, hearing him chatter away with Gojo—

It had all been really nice.)

“…you’re not a bother, Itadori,” Fushiguro says firmly. “We all know it’s hard to find an apartment, and that house is huge. You’re fine.”

Itadori still has an anxious expression on his face, slapping away the fanged mouth that forms on his cheek as soon as it opens. “It’s just—you don’t think—sometimes I—have I come off as overly friendly? Or creepy?”

“…no?” Fushiguro answers, thoroughly bewildered now. “Was that something Sukuna told you?”

“ I think that you’re both the most moronic humans I’ve ever met, and your only saving graces is that one of you is weirdly resilient and the other has the hard light shikigami programming under control,” Sukuna answers from the back of Itadori’s head.

Itadori takes out some kind of pill from his bag and tosses it into Sukuna’s mouth. Sukuna lets out a disgusted noise, starts coughing, and then fades away.

“That was handy,” Fushiguro comments.

“Yeah, there’s a surprising amount of junk data lying around that AIs don’t like eating,” Itadori shrugs. “Gojo’s idea.”

“Sounds exactly like Gojo.”

“But—um—it’s just—how would you feel if—no, that’s stupid,” Itadori sighs, burying his head in his hands.

Fushiguro moves closer and tries to tug his arms aside. “What’s stupid?”

“Me—emotions—I don’t know—you know, I think it’s almost time for me to go train with Nanamin, so I better head off before he gives me the whole lecture again—and oh thank god, look, retrieval bots, I’m out!” Itadori babbles before literally dissolving away as he transfers away.

(…well that was strange.

It sounded almost as if—

But no, he shouldn’t let Gojo and Nobara’s crazy ideas get into his head.)

By the time he’s managed to hand off the AI to the retrieval bots and log out himself, Itadori has already logged out and left a note saying that training had finished and he was off to visit Junpei.

He doesn’t have a shift at the shop right now—Gojo had, for some reason, decided to close up in favor of some big project, so he goes ahead to rent a speeder to drift up and fly over to where Junpei lives.

Junpei’s mom greets him with a big smile and a pat on the back (she seems convinced that he helped save Junpei’s life even though all he really did was run a few programs—Itadori and Dr. Ieri were the ones who should really get most of the credit), and Junpei is looking much better day by day, much improved from the nearly dead state he had first seen him in. He still has the absolutely awful emo haircut, but last visit he had mentioned off-hand that he was thinking about changing it, and Fushiguro had absolutely supported this idea.

Today for some reason though, he and Itadori immediately stop talking when he walks into the living room, both of them staring at him.

Junpei has a more considering gaze, while Itadori is just chewing on his lip with his brow furrowed while stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“…what’s going on? Did Nobara make some special demand about the horror movie club?” Fushiguro asks, carefully taking out a scanner from one of his pockets and discreetly scanning both of them.

“Uh—nothing! Just—um—” Itadori flounders, glancing over at Junpei.

“Nobara just texted and said she wants us to go to a theater that has at least five flavors of popcorn, one of which has to be kettlecorn, and that it has to be close to a talent scout agency so they can sign her as soon as possible,” Junpei says smoothly.

Fushiguro glances down at the scanner to see all signs pointing to normal (well—within the range of normal for Itadori—Sukuna tends to mess up some of his readings. Still—it seems odd that they look so nervous just over one of Nobara’s usual demands). “Huh. Well, let me search around a bit, I’m sure we can find one.”

“Yeah, I’ve got one in mind—it mostly shows new films, but there is a new slasher film that came out that should be cool,” Junpei shrugs before asking carefully, “So—do you know if Megumi will be able to come?”

(…had Junpei figured it out?

He’s never met him in VR since his implant still isn’t fixed yet, but he might not need to if he had heard Itadori talk about them.

And Itadori always seemed happy to talk about Megumi.

Was that why Itadori was acting so strange?)

“I thought Itadori already received an answer?” Fushiguro answers, turning to glance at Itadori.

“Yeah, just wondered if you heard otherwise since you’re cousins and all,” Junpei says, looking down at his tablet and tapping on a few things. “So I’ve got the theater’s site up—and I’ve gone ahead and forwarded it to you. If the two of you go look at its virtual tour, we can figure out if they’ll be alright?”

“Sure,” Itadori nods, standing up and glancing over at Fushiguro. “We can go now?”

(Is this a test?

He hasn’t come up with the right words to say yet—)

“…two people isn’t necessary,” Fushiguro says, walking over to glance at Junpei’s tablet. “And I’m not picky—you go ahead Itadori.”

“Uh—alright,” Itadori says, glancing over at Junpei again before scratching the back of his head. “It’s just—Junpei mentioned something, and I—I just realized—I’ve never actually seen you in VR, have I?”

“We meet so often in the real,” Fushiguro replies, not really liking where this conversation is going.

“That’s true but—Fushiguro um—is—is something also wrong with your implant?” Itadori rushes out, his face screwed up in worry.

(Oh.

Itadori is always so sweet—he doesn’t suspect at all, does he?

But still—to continue the lie like this would be too much.

It’s already gone too far—so no matter if he hasn’t really figured out how to put it, he should just confess now.)

Fushiguro takes a deep breath. “No, there’s nothing wrong with it. There—there is something I need to tell you, though. I—”

A shrill scream breaks through, and they all immediately turn towards the kitchen, Junpei’s eyes widening.

“Mom!” he yells out, frantically running out the door, Fushiguro and Megumi hot on his heels.

In the kitchen, twisted around Junpei’s mother is some kind of centipede-like creature, with sparks crackling around it, and a miasmatic display of code pulsating around it as she struggles within its grasp. 

(A virus actually managed to embody itself in the real?

That doesn’t work without some kind of tether usually—either someone with particularly powerful programs running through their implants or AIs that have grown and taken on synth bodies in the real world—

Mahito.)

Itadori has immediately run over and started trying to punch the virus, but his fists barely leave an imprint (he’s never had any practice harnessing any of Sukuna’s powers in the real—Gojo said that would come later—), and Junpei is doing his best with a mop he had taken over from, but the virus seems to just be gripping Junpei’s mother harder, and something like spikes seem to come out and aim towards her implant—

Fushiguro doesn’t even think twice before forming his hands into the right position and activating his programs to power up his shikigami in the real with hard light constructs, going ahead and summoning Toads to pin the virus in place and Nue to rip Junpei’s mother out of its grasp.

While the virus is still flailing around and attacking his Toads, and Itadori is staring at him slack-jawed (well—now his plan is completely fucked), and then both his and Itadori’s eye implants start to flash.

It’s Gojo (of course it’s Gojo).

be right there hold tight

also don’t shoot on sight~~~

Itadori blinks in confusion (Fushiguro doesn’t really get it either) before catching one of the toads that got thrown away, and then tossing it straight back at the virus, hitting it square in its wriggly face and causing it to let out an unholy screech.

Well—that’s certainly one way to handle it, and Fushiguro glances back over at Junpei’s mom and sets Nue to guarding over her along with Junpei.

“These—these are Megumi’s shikigami,” Itadori says while using the Toads’ tongues to try and tie up the virus. “But—But Megumi said they were—some kind of family algorithm—that no one else could use them—”

“…that’s right,” Fushiguro says helplessly, directing his Toads to cooperate with Itadori. “No one else can use them but me.”

Itadori is still for a moment before he spasms wildly, his hand coming up to clutch at his head. Fushiguro rushes forward (what is happening—did that virus just try to infect him—what the hell—), summoning his divine dogs without even thinking about it to crowd around Itadori, but Itadori flinches and pushes himself away from them, shrinking in.

“Ita—Itadori—I know you hate me right now but—are you okay?” Fushiguro asks desperately, taking out his scanner to scan him.

(Not good—his brain activity is wildly fluctuating all over the place—

Sukuna.

Shit.

Is he trying to take over Itadori right now?)

“Don’t—don’t talk right now,” Itadori chokes out, his eyes screwed shut and clutching his head. “I—no—”

Fushiguro draws back looking desperately around (shitshitshitshit shit ), and Junpei has rushed forward at this point to stand at Itadori’s side, rubbing his back as he glares at Fushiguro.

“ Fix this ,” he hisses, gesturing around at the virus that’s still flailing around.

Fushiguro grits his teeth and focuses on coordinating his Toads together with his Divine Dogs (don’t think about how overwhelmed Itadori must feel to let Sukuna get to him—don’t think about how he probably hates you right now—), but without Itadori, the virus is breaking through the Toads’ hold, and Fushiguro is trying to decide how much property damage will be acceptable if he summons any more of his shikigami, when suddenly the door slams open, and Gojo comes striding in followed by a dark-haired man wearing what looks like Buddhist robes—

Fuck, that’s Geto.

Orochi splits its way up through the floorboards (he sends a mental apology out, but Gojo can compensate everyone later for any damages, this is way too dangerous), hurtling straight at Geto, but before it can get close, Gojo flicks a finger, and Orochi gets knocked askew and crashes into a wall instead.

“I told you not to shoot on sight,” Gojo scolds lightly, kicking the squirming virus in the head then glancing over at Itadori who was still hunched over in a corner. “What’s wrong with Yuuji?”

“Why the hell is Geto Suguru with you?” Fushiguro demands, Orochi rising back up and hissing at the placidly smiling man.

“It’s a bit of a long story, but it can basically be summed up with I’m helping Suguru out with a nasty little bug, and oh by the way, we’ll probably have a spring wedding,” Gojo says, taking off his blindfold, and his eyes practically sparkling.

“ What? ” Fushiguro just stares at Gojo and then at Geto and back again. “ What? ”

Geto nods seriously, his arms crossed. “You see, Satoru? Even your adopted son thinks spring weddings are cliché and overdone. We should have a fall wedding.”

“You just think that falling autumn leaves are, like, the pinnacle of aesthetic,” Gojo complains, walking forward and touching Itadori’s shoulder. “Hey Yuuji—I know you can fight him and win. Oh and also Sukuna, don’t forget that I can kick your ass in the real so much worse than in VR.”

Itadori’s face twists, and his mouth draws up into a twisted grin as he looks up, “If you beat him up here, you’ll be beating up the kid as well.”

“Not the way I do it,” Gojo says confidently, cracking his knuckles. “Also—you might want to think twice given that I have a devourer of both viruses and AIs here.”

He gestures at Geto who has already walked over to the virus, poked at it, somehow turned it into a small black ball, and is now pushing it into his mouth and swallowing it down whole.

(…he had heard stories about Geto’s abilities, but he hadn’t thought they were real.

It’s risky consuming stuff like that—infections are no joke, look at Itadori.)

He keeps Orochi out and hissing at Geto, but Geto simply discreetly wipes at his mouth with the back of his hand and looks over at Itadori curiously. “So this is the one?”

“What do you want with him?” Fushiguro demands, stepping around so that he puts himself directly between any view of Itadori and Geto.

Geto raises his eyebrows and says, “Huh, Satoru wasn’t off on how far-gone you are?”

“Told you!” Gojo sings out and catches Itadori’s fist with no effort at all as it comes hurtling towards his face. “Sukuna, don’t make this embarrassing for yourself.”

Black lines actually begin to appear on Itadori’s arms before Gojo simply nearly seems to teleport behind him and then slap his hand over Itadori’s implant, Gojo’s eyes flashing, and then Itadori slumps over, nearly falling to the ground before Junpei catches him.

Fushiguro hurries forward to Itadori’s side, leaving Orochi trained on Geto while bringing his scanner out and worriedly placing a hand on Itadori’s head. “He’s—firewall is stressed, but seems stable—we should really do a scan, though—maybe call Dr. Ieiri over—”

“We will definitely do all that,” Gojo promises, his eye implant flickering bright, then he stands up and glances around before beaming at Junpei’s mother while placing his blindfold back on. “And hello! Sorry that my kid here has kind of torn up the place—we’ll definitely pay you back!”

“Oh—it’s okay, I really didn’t like this carpet anyway,” Junpei’s mother says in somewhat of a daze before snapping out of it and coming forward. “Oh and—you were part of the group that helped Junpei weren’t you? Then really, what’s a damaged floor in the grand scheme of things?”

“You need to stop jerking Itadori around though,” Junpei says, looking over at Fushiguro, his face stern. “It’s really not cool.”

“I’m not—I was going to explain—I let it go too far, I’m sorry,” Fushiguro says, his hands clenched at his side.

“You should apologize to him, not me,” Junpei points out, nodding at Itadori. “He really likes you, you know.”

Fushiguro can’t quite help the bitter laugh that escapes his throat. “He likes ‘Megumi,’ me—I was happy with just a friendship, but—I ruined it all.”

Junpei just stares at him. “…wow, I thought Yuuji was bad, but you’re actually just as dumb, aren’t you?”

“Excuse me?” Fushiguro demands, both of his Divine Dogs also swiveling over to look at Junpei.

Junpei just sighs and looks back at Itadori. “…it’s really for him to tell you, not me. But no wonder Nobara said you guys were hopeless. Oh yeah, by the way—after you properly apologize to Yuuji, this better not affect the horror movie club.”

“Very important, Megumi,” Gojo chimes in, nodding obnoxiously while going to stand next to Geto. “You should go hang out with your friends while Suguru is moving in.”

“ Excuse me? ” Fushiguro can only repeat, pointing at Geto. “You’re—you’re shacking up with a cyberterrorist? The most wanted cyberterrorist on this whole planet?”

“This whole system,” Gojo corrects, wagging a finger. “Maybe further—I can only settle for the best, you know?”

“That doesn’t explain anything ,” Fushiguro says despairingly.

“While I’ll still probably be hacking things and making a mess for our dear corporate overlords—I had some time to think while a virus AI was eating me whole, and Satoru has a point. We do have a common goal, but my methods of getting to that goal have perhaps been—somewhat extreme at times,” Geto shrugs. “Besides the fact that my recovery would be best overseen by Satoru, going forward, it would seem better to work with you all, and to perhaps focus less on disrupting civilian spheres and more on going after the people really responsible for this mess and perhaps educating other white hats like Satoru does.”

“…you want to teach people like Gojo does?” Fushiguro asks, latching onto the only part of this he can really understand.

“He’s already well on his way, he’s got two lovely daughters who will also be moving in with us,” Gojo announces, slinging an arm around Geto’s shoulders. “You get more older sisters, Megumi! Aren’t you happy?”

(…maybe this is some bizarre dream, and he’ll wake up soon and just be like ‘wow that was super weird’, and still have to think of a good way to confess everything to Itadori.

….but no, even his brain couldn’t come up with something this weird.)

“Annnnd Shoko is here, so haul up Yuuji, and let’s all go tell her the happy news,” Gojo says cheerfully, turning towards the door.

Dr. Ieiri seems pretty nonplussed to see Geto at Gojo’s side, but more importantly, she scans over Itadori and announces that he’s pretty much fine, he just needs a lot of rest.

“And probably an explanation,” she says, leveling a look at Fushiguro.

Gojo nods seriously. “Yeah Megumi, how else am I supposed to plan a proper fall wedding when your plus one is super confused and liable to suddenly manifest a malevolent AI in the middle of the place?”

“You should worry more about your groom not blowing anything up between now and fall,” Fushiguro snaps back, smoothing back Itadori’s hair.

Gojo shakes his head as he drapes himself across Geto, “Suguru~~” he whines as he pouts (oh god why). “Do you see what I have to deal with all the time? Tsumiki is a darling, and Yuuji is a cutie, but Megumi here is a little hellion—not like your Mimiko and Nanako at all!”

Geto chuckles, flicking at Gojo’s head. “You say that as if Mimiko and Nanako haven’t already tried to kill you on three separate occasions.”

“It’s cute that they think they can succeed,” Gojo shrugs before clapping his hands together. “Well, then—let’s head home, and Megumi, you can do your love confession there.”

(There are way too many things he can say to that, but nothing that Gojo won’t probably turn into a joke, or even worse, discuss with Geto loudly in front of him, so—

For now it’s probably best to keep quiet and just get Itadori home in one piece.)

Fushiguro determinedly ignores Gojo practically seating himself in Geto’s lap during the heli-car ride back home, and he also determinedly erases the fact that Geto goes into Gojo’s bedroom with him as soon as they get back (thank god Gojo has his own wing), focusing instead on tucking Itadori into bed firmly and giving their housekeeper droid a cup of tea to keep warm for whenever Itadori wakes up, when Itadori shifts on the bed and lets out a groan.

Fushigruo immediately moves forward to examine him, before drawing back.

(Given what happened last time—should he even be here at all?

Bit too late now though to just go running away.)

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Fushiguro asks awkwardly, drawing away.

Itadori sits up, rubs at his head, looks around,  sees him, and at first smiles—but then his expression flickers, and his face is stony. “Not great—Sukuna is yelling and laughing a lot—and—you—you and Megumi—but there was no Megumi there was only you—was it funny?”

“What?” Fushiguro asks in confusion.

Itadori’s hands clench around his blankets. “Was it funny pretending to be two different people and—and acting like you were my friend? I thought you cared but—were you just laughing at me this entire time?”

“I was never laughing at you,” Fushiguro replies fiercely, looking him in the eye. “Never.”

Itadori’s hands relax just a smidge, but his face just looks even more confused. “Then—then why? Did you—were you just trying out being a girl in VR?”

(That’s so like Itadori, to find such a nice, well-meaning excuse for him.

It’s also absolutely not true, and he’s done telling him any more lies.)

“No. My motives were—entirely selfish,” Fushiguro scrubs a hand over his mouth. “I—I use a girl avatar to avoid the Zen’in family, mostly. And at first when I met you—at first I thought we wouldn’t be friends anymore if I told you what I had let you believe. And then—and then—I really—I kind of—I like you. A lot. But you—you only liked me in my female avatar form so—not that that’s an excuse. I wanted—you had a lot on your mind already when I figured out—what I felt about you so I thought—I thought I’d give you some time with all the stuff with Junpei and your apartment situation, and then—I was trying to figure out how to tell you. I was about to—before Junpei’s mom got attacked. I—I know that sounds like an excuse, but—”

“You—you like me?” Itadori interrupts, his eyes wide. “And you—you only figured it out when—when I was about to move in?”

“…I’m not very—experienced in the feelings area,” Fushiguro explains awkwardly, looking away. “It’s not—if it makes you uncomfortable or anything—or if you just need space because I was an asshole to you, I can move out—”

“Shouldn’t it be moving out? It’s your home,” Itadori points out, fiddling with his blanket.

“I’m the one who was a jerk, so I’m the one who should move out,” Fushiguro replies stubbornly, “It’s—it’s probably weird and creepy to you—”

“It’s not,” Itadori says, his cheeks flushed as he leans forward then scratches his head. “I mean—I mean—I’m feeling way too many things right now, I kind of feel like I’m going to explode, so hang on.”

Fushiguro nods.

(After all, it’s only what he deserves—

Itadori’s inherently nice nature is probably warring with the betrayal and disgust he feels towards him right now…)

“I’m glad you like me,” Itadori declares loudly, looking him right in the eye, the flush on his cheeks having grown to a full-on blush now.

(What?

He must have heard wrong—)

Itadori nods and continues while Fushiguro just gapes at him. “I—half the reason this whole thing kind of overloaded me was because—I liked both you and Megumi, and I felt really, really, really bad for being the kind of dick who would fall for a pair of cousins. So—so, finding out you’re actually the same person—on one hand, it made me really happy? Like at least that wasn’t an issue anymore, but at the same time—you lied for so long to me.”

“I—I did,” Fushiguro admits, his thoughts just whirling around in his head.

(Itadori had liked both his identities? That’s—

How—

Why—

He’s not dreaming, he already checked that. But then—)

“You—really?” Fushiguro can’t help but ask, still staring at him. “I thought—you said you only liked girls.”

Itadori scratches the back of his neck, looking a bit abashed. “I mean—I thought I did? And then I got to know you more—in the real—and I kind of—I guess I’m bi? Or at least—maybe I just really like hot people who save me, I don’t know.”

“You said that your type was a tall girl with a big butt,” Fushiguro reminds him.

Itadori rolls his eyes. “Literally, I only told Toudou that once—and that was before I even met you! Either of you!”

(He had never really understood why some people burst out crying or started screaming during love confessions before in all the dramas he’s seen, but now—

Now he can kind of understand that feeling.)

“Then—then where do we go from here?” Fushiguro peers at him, drawing a tiny bit closer. “Is—is there anything I can do to make amends?”

Itadori grins sunnily at him before assuming a serious expression and crossing his arms. “Yes. First, you need to never lie to me again.”

“Done,” Fushiguro says instantly, pulling up legal documents on his implant and transferring them over to Itadori. “I think Nanami can serve as a notary for the agreement, and you can set any terms and conditions you want—”

Itadori reaches out a hand to cover Fushiguro’s over and shakes his head while giggling a little. “Uh—no need to go that far. Just—just don’t do it again, alright?”

“Alright,” Fushiguro says slowly, Itadori’s hand a warm brand.

“Next—at the inaugural meeting of the horror movie club, you have to vote for Scary Movie with me and Junpei,” Itadori nods emphatically while ticking off his fingers. “And then—and then I want us to go on a fun date.”

“A—a fun date?’ Fushiguro does not squeak out.

“Yeah!” Itadori’s smile is practically blinding. “In the real and—and just you know, a fresh start, I guess?”

(…he could do that.

If Itadori had demanded that he move out or go kick Geto out of the house or even talk to Toji, he would have done so.

This—well, he’s never been on a date before, but he can do research, and he will put together a date for Itadori that will let him have tons of fun while also somewhat making up for his heinous deception maybe.)

“Yes,” he agrees, carefully gripping Itadori’s hand tight. “I—I’ll do that. All of that.”

“Great!” Itadori grins at him, gripping his hands tightly back. “And—”

“Hello children, the two of you aren’t doing anything indecent, are you?” Gojo asks as he flings open the door, and then clasps Geto’s hands in his own. “Hand-holding! An important first step Megumi, very good—and Yuuji, glad to see you up and about! Sorry about the deception—I would have told you, but I really thought it was something Megumi here should tell you himself. And look—you guys worked it out!”

“No, Gojo-sensei, I totally understand!” Itadori says sincerely, still holding onto Fushiguro’s hands. “It really is something Fushiguro needed to tell me himself, and—um, Gojo-sensei, that guy looks a whole lot like that cyberterrorist Geto…”

“Pleased to meet you, Yuuji-kun,” Geto says with a smile. “I’m reformed now. Mostly.”

Gojo snaps his fingers as he drapes himself across Geto. “Oh yeah, you were out for the announcement, but Geto and his daughters will be moving in soon! And we’ll probably be having a fall wedding—you can’t be the ring-bearer, Yuuji, because that’s reserved for Megumi, but do you want to be a groomsman?”

“Wow, congratulations, Gojo-sensei! And yes, what an honor!” Itadori cheers, stumbling up from the bed.

Fushiguro quickly steadies him and says, “…that’s it, you don’t have any more questions about a wanted cyberterrorist moving in and seducing him?”

“I’m sure Gojo-sensei knows what he’s doing!” Itadori says brightly.

“Besides, you’ve got it all wrong, Megumi,” Gojo says, grinning wickedly as he leans against Geto. “I’ll have you know that I was the one seducing him—”

“Get out,” Fushiguro points at the door while getting Itadori to sit back down on the bed.

“You boys have fun, nursing people to health can definitely get interesting ,” Gojo cackles before he turns to leave.

“We certainly had some fun with that,” Geto muses out loud before shutting the door.

Fushiguro groans and slumps over, attempting to bury his head in the blankets. However he miscalculated, and since this was Itadori’s bed, it smelled like him—that warm smell of sunlight and musk that Itadori somehow always carries against his skin.

“Uh—I guess that’s a lot to take in?” Itadori asks, poking at him with his foot.

“You think?” Fushiguro groans. “I don’t need to know any of that—and besides, how do we actually know Geto is reformed?”

“Well, he didn’t immediately try to hack us or kill us, so you know, that’s probably a start?” Itadori offers. “Plus, Gojo-sensei knows what he’s doing, I’m sure. What do you think Geto’s daughters will be like?”

“If they’re who I think they are, they’re weirdly chirpy, and they’ll definitely need their own bathrooms,” Itadori rubs his head and quietly breathes in the sunny scent (it’s—soothing). “Oh god—I still need to tell Tsumiki.”

“I think she’ll be fine with it—she seems nice. Go ahead and give her a call—and don’t forget about our date!” Itadori says, with an almost bashful smile.

“I could never forget about that,” Fushiguro replies, getting up and looking him over. “If—if it’s okay, I’m just going to leave the droid here, and if anything seems off, it’ll call me, okay?”

“Sure,” Itadori says, waving him off. “I’m fine—Sukuna is still mocking me, but that’s nothing new. And—and I’m really looking forward to all this, okay?”

“Okay,” Fushiguro echoes, his voice soft with his hand on the door-knob. “I have a lot to make up for, and I’ll be sure to make it spectacular, I promise.”

Itadori’s smile could light up the entire house. “I’ll hold you to that.”

--

Like Itadori had said, Tsumiki turns out to be super excited that she’s basically gaining two new step-sisters, even if said step-sisters used to be cyberterrorists.

“I’ve always wanted little sisters!” Tsumiki says dreamily, “Do you think we can do each other’s hair?”

“From what I’ve seen of them, you guys can properly do makeup for days,” Fushiguro replies, glancing over in the direction of the wing where Mimiko and Nanako have settled. “Apparently they’re going to be style and makeup V-Tubers instead of cyberterrorists now.”

“Ooooh, let me know whenever they set up their channel so I can like and subscribe,” Tsumiki says cheerfully before her expression grows more serious. “And—I heard from Gojo that Yuuji-kun found out, but apparently you two managed to make up? How’s it going now?”

“It’s—it’s going okay, I think,” Fushiguro mumbles, looking down.

(It really had—Itadori hadn’t had any additional flare-ups since that major incident, and had been cheerful as ever when they were helping Geto, Mimiko, and Nanako move in.

And during their inaugural horror movie club, they had sat right next to each other in the theater, and their knees had knocked together, and Itadori had actually leaned against him, and it had been so nice even with Nobara kicking the back of his chair—she was just jealous because her plan of acting scared and leaping into Maki’s arms wasn’t working because Nobara kept forgetting to be scared and laughing at the movie instead.

But—they hadn’t met up in VR since then.

And Fushiguro has some really good plans he thinks for the date but—but he doesn’t know if it’s enough.)

“I heard you guys were going to go on a date?” Tsumiki prods, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m still planning it—you know that park, ‘Wonder Emporium’?” Fushiguro says hesitantly. “Itadori hasn’t been before, and I thought—I got VIP passes, and I mapped out all the best rides, so I think—maybe he’ll like that?”

“I’m sure he will,” Tsumiki smiles at him. “It sounds like a really cute date, Megumi. Remember to take lots of pictures so me and Mimiko-chan and Nanako-chan can also see!”

“…couldn’t you just keep them to yourself,” Fushiguro grumbles.

“Nope!” Tsumiki says cheerfully. “And besides, you know even if I did, Gojo would hack in and then show them to Geto, and if Geto sees them, then Mimiko-chan and Nanako-chan also will. And even if Gojo didn’t hack in, Yuuji-kun would just show them to him, anyway.”

“That’s true,” Fushiguro sighs. “Well—wish me luck?”

“Good luck, little brother!” Tsumiki says, holding both fists clenched up in support. “I’m sure Yuuji-kun will love it!”

And it really seems that Itadori is having a good time, being wide-eyed as soon as they get out of the heli-car and see the gleaming silver gates of the Wonder Emporium, and all the crazy roller coasters zooming away in the distance.

“Oh my god, ” Itadori breathes as they breeze past the horde in front of the gates through the nearly empty VIP line (Fushiguro had chosen to upgrade them to the most premium of packages). “I always wanted to go here, but I never had the spare money—how much did you spend ?”

“Don’t worry about it, Gojo owes me for all the mental trauma I’m going through seeing him and Geto making out everywhere in the house,” Fushiguro shudders. “How you go to his wing of the house without being scarred for life, I don’t know…”

“I make a lot of noise and keep my eyes closed when I head that direction,” Itadori replies tactfully, then tilts his head. “Did Gojo-sensei never bring anyone back before?”

“I mean, if he did, I never knew about them,” Fushiguro shrugs. “Unlike Geto, who is now living with us, critiquing my tea-making skills, and is like hip-deep in spreadsheets about the wedding.”

“He does make pretty good tea, and yeah, the seating arrangement is kind of hard when he’s tried to kill half of the guest list before. Still, I’m sure it’ll be the best wedding, and I can’t wait to be a part of it!” Itadori says cheerfully as they enter the park proper, and his eyes widen at the fountain that keeps changing shimmering colors and looks as though silhouettes of people keep walking through it. “Oh woooow—and this place is so big too—where should we go first?”

“Up to you, but if you like roller-coasters, the guides I read said that we should either ride the ‘Lightspeed to Infinity’ or ‘Head in the Clouds’ first,” Fushiguro says, nodding at two different roller coasters in the far distance, one that had a track that seemed to be operating under some kind of alien geometry, and the other where the cars seemed to be literally being thrown around and juggled in the sky.

“I love roller coasters!” Itadori says energetically, “Lightspeed to Infinity looks more intense, let’s go on that one first!”

“Sure thing,” Fushiguro says, moving forward and cueing up the optimal path on his eye implant that he had saved.

“Um—can we—can we also hold hands?” Itadori asks, his voice a little more shy as he stretches a hand out.

Fushiguro feels his own face heat up, but he nods and quickly grabs Itadori’s warm, callused hand.

Itadori practically bounces all the way to the ride, and they both scream their lungs out as they twist and turn and nearly seem to invert and turn inside out as they nearly crash into cars on the other tracks, and then they both scream and laugh and whoop with delight in the ‘Head in the Clouds’ ride as their compartment goes flying up in the air and comes nearly crashing back down, and during the entire time, they’re holding hands.

They go through pretty much the entire itinerary, riding every single roller-coaster, until Itadori has to sit down and put his head between his legs to breathe slowly, and Fushiguro takes out the electrolyte drink he had prepared ahead of time and sets it in front of him. “Take small sips.”

Itadori looks up at him and grins as he opens up the bottle. “So prepared. And how are you not dizzy?”

“I’ve had to train a lot with being able to take crazy spins and drops to be able to use Nue properly,” Fushiguro explains.

“Oh yeah—that’s right, I always thought that was really impressive,” Itadori nods, taking a couple gulps of the drink. “So wait—if you can summon them here in the real—could we go flying? ”

“Sure, but we’ll have to find some airspace that’s not restricted—don’t really want anyone shooting at us,” Fushiguro says, “We could also do it in VR—”

(Maybe he shouldn’t have brought that up.

Was that something that would ruin this whole day?)

Itadori nods as he looks at him, shifting in place. “…yeah, I’d like that.”

“Is—is it weird seeing my avatar?” Fushiguro asks, his fists clenched at his side.

“Mm, no,” Itadori replies easily, looking him straight in the eye. “Now that I know it’s you—I don’t think so. It’s not like you act any different. It’s just—well, I’m trying to figure out—should our first kiss be in VR or in the real?”

(…. what ?

Itadori wanted to—

Well, yeah, he wanted to too, but wasn’t this too fast, the date wasn’t even over yet—)

“Shouldn’t you wait until the end of the date before you make that kind of decision?” Fushiguro blurts out then clamps his mouth shut.

(Dumb, so dumb—and so eager, ugh, when did he become this obvious?

Love is a weird thing.)

“Well—yeah I guess, but it’s going so well, and—um, you want to, right?” Itadori asks, peering up at him. “Because I mean, I’ve been looking up stuff, and if you’re ace, I’m fine with just hugging too—”

“I’m not ace,” Fushiguro says, then wants to claw his own face off.

(Yes, why don’t you just tell Itadori how you can’t get the image of him shirtless and wet from the shower out of your head, that doesn’t sound like you’ve been perving on him at all.)

“Oh—so, kisses then?” Itadori asks, his voice curving up with eagerness, and his eyes bright.

“At—at the end of the date,” Fushiguro says, turning away and covering the bottom of his face with his hand.

(There is no way he’s going to be able to properly function and give Itadori the perfect date if he kisses him now, he might actually explode.

Although how he’s going to function with the idea that Itadori is eagerly looking forward to kissing him at the end of this, he doesn’t know either.)

“Yay!” Itadori cheers then stands up, drawing close to him. “Can’t wait!”

“Let’s—there’s a part VR, part roller coaster ride with haunted dolls and zombies that’s supposed to be good over there,” Fushiguro says, pointing over in the direction while dithering over whether or not to lean into Itadori’s warm side.

(Surely horror will take his mind off other distractions???

Although that didn’t mean he couldn’t lean in…)

Itadori takes the decision out of his hands by pressing close and saying right next to his ear, “Sounds fun, let’s go!”

They end up riding the haunted dolls vs. zombies ride twice, Itadori screaming and then laughing as they go out, wiping at his eyes and saying that they should definitely bring the horror movie club around sometime.

“Nobara would definitely get a kick out of that,” Fushiguro says wryly. “Maybe even finally launch herself successfully into Maki’s arms.”

“Maybe not, Maki seems the type to check the seatbelts on everyone before we all go in,” Itadori comments. “Also—what’s their deal anyway? Why hasn’t Nobara just asked her out yet?”

“Because she wants Maki to ask her out, and Maki is oblivious,” Fushiguro says bluntly.

“Wow, and it’s you saying it, too!” Itadori jokes as they walk towards some of the more traditional carnival game booths.

“I’m not that oblivious,” Fushiguro protests.

“Yeah, you were, I’m not that subtle,” Itadori says, catching his hand in his own and swinging them around as they keep walking down and admiring the various booths. “Don’t get me wrong—at the time I was glad since I had no idea how to choose—and this is definitely the best date I’ve ever been on.”

“I have a lot to make up for,” Fushiguro reminds him, tightening his grasp in his.

“…yeah, but—well—you don’t have any either world-shattering secrets you’re hiding from me, right?” Itadori asks, half-joking and slanting a look at him.

Fushiguro searches his mind and then says, “Well—I have no contact with him, but you should probably know that my biological dad is an assassin.”

Itadori’s eyes widen as he stares at him. “An assassin? Like—like a brain jacker, or one in the real?”

“The real,” Fushiguro confirms, “He’s like Maki—he can’t have any implants. His business card says, ‘You can’t do shit in VR, if you’re dead in the real.’”

“…huh,” Itadori muses, “So—how’d you and Tsumiki end up with Gojo-sensei?”

“I think Toji tried to kill Gojo,” Fushiguro shrugs. “It was all when I was pretty little—and after he ran off on my stepmother in the first place, so I’m not clear on exactly what happened. Just one day Gojo showed up and announced he was adopting us.”

“Wow, that’s super cool,” Itadori grins, “Gojo-sensei is the coolest!”

“Not when he keeps asking me what I think about floral arrangements,” Fushiguro groans.

“The cake tastings will be fun, though!” Itadori says enthusiastically.

“Will it?” Fushiguro asks doubtfully, “The two of them will probably be busy trying to feed each other, and we’ll be stuck watching.”

“…I could feed you some cake?” Itadori suggests, his cheeks slightly pink.  

(Before, he would have absolutely said that feeding someone was a really weird infantile thing couples did for each other, and that he’d rather die than do that.

Faced with Itadori’s flushed face, suddenly the option doesn’t seem that bad.)

Fushiguro looks away and coughs. “…maybe,” he says gruffly.

Itadori laughs. “Alright, there’s also—oooh, look at that bunny, it’s so big! And adorable!”

Fushiguro turns to see an absolutely gigantic fluffy bunny plushie presiding over a stall that proclaims ‘Fight to the Death! Winner takes all!”

“You want it?” Fushiguro says, tugging them over to the booth.

Itadori scratches the back of his head, “Well, it is pretty cute—”

“Indeed, it’s the cutest and the grandest of prizes!” the boothkeeper beams at both of them, waving at the plushie. “Many have tried, but none of prevailed to take this cutie away from the skeletal horde guarding it!”

“So it’s a VR game?” Fushiguro asks, glancing at the VR chairs and then at the plasma screen showing a bunch of skeletons farming.

“Indeed! 50 credits per try, and you’ll have to leave all your equipment off—nothing but your pure ability against the skeleton army horde!” the boothkeeper clenches her hand to her chest, eyes blazing.

“I don’t know why a bunch of skeletons are guarding a bunny, but sounds good!” Itadori says, cracking his knuckles and glancing over at Fushiguro. “You in?”

“…yeah,” Fushiguro agrees, sitting down in one of the VR chairs.

“Splendid! The rules are simple—be the last two standing!” the boothkeeper grins at them before logging them in.

The skeleton horde immediately rushes at them as soon as they appear, but after all, Itadori and him have fought side by side against viruses, AI, and much harder opponents than a few programs before, so even with just pure physical power—and even Sukuna shrieking from Itadori’s face that this was so dumb —they dominate.

(If Fushiguro takes the time between bashing skeletons to sneak a peek at Itadori’s effortless athleticism and muscles on display—

Well, Itadori doesn’t seem to mind, winking at him and nearly making him trip over another broken skeleton.)

When they smash the last skeleton, and a giant bunny comes gamboling over to them, making the ground beneath their feet vibrate with each step it takes, Itadori turns to him, panting. “So—um—does this count as the end of the date? And also—did you say our first kiss should be in VR or in the real, because you looked so hot fighting—you always do—and I kind of want to kiss you—”

“In—in the real,” Fushiguro stammers, flicking some stray strands of hair back. “I think that bunny wants us to get on its back.”

“Alright,” Itadori says, grabbing his hand and clambering onto the giant bunny. “Let’s go, then!”

When they log out and return to the real, the boothkeeper is clambering down from the ladder and struggling to bring the massive bunny plushie down. “Wow, you boys are really good! I’ll have to up the difficulty later—maybe I should add man-eating plants as well…here you go!”

Fushiguro takes the giant bunny plushie and hands it to Itadori. “For you,” he says seriously.

“I love it,” Itadori replies, squeezing it tight, then his head pops out from the side of its fluffy bulk. “Seriously, best date ever!”

“There’s—there’s still the kiss,” Fushiguro reminds him.

(He does still want to kiss him here, even though he is now obviously a boy, right?

He had said he had liked both Megumi and Fushiguro—but could it be different now that he’s presented with a guy in real life—)

“The part I’ve been waiting for the entire time,” Itadori says huskily, pulling him over to behind the massive bunny, leaning forward, and kissing him squarely on the lips.

(…. oh. )

Any thought Fushiguro had that Itadori isn’t fully invested in this goes flying out of his head as Itadori’s hands tangle in his hair, and even though Fushiguro doesn’t really know what he’s doing, he kisses back as best as he can, clutching at Itadori’s chest and enjoying the pleased rumbles Itadori lets forth.

They only stop when the boothkeeper lets out a loud cough and says pointedly, “Ah, young love…but you’re blocking the way for paying customers! Shoo!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Itadori laughs giddily, while pulling Fushiguro away. “Um—um can I call you my boyfriend now?”

“Yes,” Fushiguro answers immediately, his face hot. “I—there’s a grotto with a water-show not far from here—it’s supposed to be—very romantic…”

“I’m sure it’s going to be great, but I’m going to have a really hard time concentrating on it when I’m busy staring at my boyfriend,” Itadori says with a dopey-looking grin on his face.

Fushiguro is sure his answering smile isn’t any better. “…same. My—my boyfriend is hard to look away from.”

Itadori lets out a happy gasp, and they walk around the grotto all the while exchanging kisses and whispers and laughs, and Fushiguro can barely believe this is reality.

Even later, when Tsumiki, Mimiko, Nanako, and Gojo all team up to coo over them (with Geto smirking at the side), the first time Fushiguro calls Itadori by his first name and refers to him as his boyfriend, it’s all worth it to see Itadori’s face light up.

(He may also be reading a few of the guides Gojo had sent him instead of trashing them like he said he would.

Their first date was perfect, so their first time should be as well.

Itadori deserves the best, after all.)