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If it weren’t for the way that rain tapped steadily against glass windows and tried to fill the atmosphere with noise, perhaps it would’ve been a more lonely night. It was the one night that Yuta attempted to get rest without bothering Inumaki for the millionth time, given that he’d occasionally text him up until around midnight. However, for Yuta, while the peaceful sounds around him should most definitely lull him to sleep, it did no such things. Yuta was always the anxious kind of person that when something would lay heavy in his mind it would be nearly impossible to shake off. And after telling Inumaki that he should be heading back over there soon, the thought of traveling back and fearing that people wouldn’t like how he changed over time nipped away at him carelessly. Maybe he shouldn’t have told Inumaki that.
He was tempted to hit the facetime button, like he typically would on nights where he knew sleeping was going to be more difficult than normal. But bothering Inumaki tonight for some reason felt more selfish than usual this time around. He opted for tossing and turning instead, at only one in the morning, knowing that Inumaki was most likely still awake right now since he told Yuta earlier that he wouldn’t be training tomorrow. At this time of night, it seemed as though the longer Yuta laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling and occasionally closing his eyes, only made the minutes tick by excruciatingly slower. Around the moment he believes that sleep is starting to capture his thoughts and body, he feels his phone vibrate beneath his head. Leaving his phone underneath his pillow was likely a horrible idea considering the smallest thing caused Yuta to jolt awake. Yuta opted to try to ignore the vibration, but it happened again, and then his phone was ringing incessantly. He groaned, and lazily picked up his phone.
Of course, it was Inumaki, asking to facetime.
“I thought you were asleep,” Yuta says, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
“Okaka,” Inumaki says, shaking his head rapidly in the darkness, then looking around for what Yuta thinks is a source of light to turn on.
The light flickers on in Inumaki’s room, and he sees Inumaki signing fast. Luckily for Yuta, he picked up JSL quick, otherwise, he’d be dumbfounded by Inumaki’s urgency.
“Why didn’t you call me like you usually do, I’m offended! I was waiting for you to facetime me this whole time!”
Inumaki’s eyebrows are furrowed and he looks playfully upset, though there’s a hint of slight frustration hidden somewhere in his complexion. Even the sigils on the sides of his mouth were mimicking his emotions, at least Yuta thought so.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just didn’t wanna bother you tonight since you said you didn’t have practice tomorrow,” Yuta tried making up an excuse.
Granted, Yuta had gotten into the habit of calling Inumaki nearly every night and perhaps that was because every night was a struggle to sleep. However, it’s a bit embarrassing to admit that he’s become reliant on something so simple. Some nights Yuta would offer giving Inumaki a break so he wouldn’t have to lock his door at night, since Inumaki would leave his phone on speaker. Because even if Yuta wouldn’t admit it helped, the company of having Inumaki just on the other end of the phone call while he slept was very comforting. So yes, he would sleep call with Inumaki on most nights and typically on rainy nights he wouldn’t have to do so. Unfortunately for Yuta, the rain of tonight simply wasn’t enough to drown out the noise in his head.
“Takana, Yuta,” Inumaki called him out, “Stop coming up with lame ass excuses. You know I don’t care if you call me.”
Yuta sighs, shaking his head.
“Yeah, Im sorry. Still gotta work on it I guess. Anyways, how was your day?” he opts to try and change the subject
Inumaki glares at him through piercing violet eyes, then rolls them.
“I already told you, Gojo-sensei just loves to see us get our asses kicked by one another, I’m convinced by that already,” Inumaki signs, “Don’t think our other conversation is over yet either.”
Yuta tries to ignore the end part and focuses on just the basic training that Inumaki had endured today.
“You make it sound like he hates you guys, he just wants to make sure you guys are prepared,” Yuta smiles, speaking in a soft tone of voice so as to not bring attention to the previous subject.
“Shake, shake,” Inumaki says in a sarcastic tone of voice, “I’m not as tired as I thought I’d be from today’s training. What about you?”
“Ah, you know, training is always tiring but…yeah,” Yuta cuts himself off, wanting to comment more about being tired.
“I know, that’s why you shouldn’t skip out on calling me,” Inumaki signs, watching as Yuta attempts to cover his face to avoid the situation.
Yuta knew how persistent Inumaki could truly be about trivial things, but he also couldn’t be entirely mad at Inumaki for it. If Yuta knew that Inumaki regularly had issues with sleep, he would lend a helping hand all the time too. But deep in Yuta’s core, he couldn’t help but feel selfish for wanting Inumaki to call him every night just to be able to sleep. More over, the fact that he didn’t know why it always had to be Inumaki he had to call. His reasoning lie in the reality that it was normal to develop a nightly routine with a best friend. Some best friends send good night memes to one another or good morning messages, so how was this any different? Sleep call through the night into the morning, where when one wakes up, the other hangs up and texts them to have a good day. It wasn’t such an outlandish idea was it?
Perhaps because it wasn’t necessarily an idea, but just simply reality at this point. And even so, Yuta felt a little bit guilty about this reality. But little did he know that Inumaki cherished the sleep calls and good morning texts, and the check ins throughout the day when Yuta was especially anxious. Neither one has expressed this to the other though, given that their nightly facetimes would come to an end the moment that Yuta came back from training in Africa. That in itself did pry at both their minds whenever the thought arose in their heads, but of course, they both always brushed it off. They didn’t need sleep calls with one another to let rest settle in their bodies, it’s just something they preferred while being so far apart at the moment. To them, it wouldn’t be the same as soon as they reunited in person, they would simply go back to being the friends they had always been.
“Yeah, you’ve made your point clear,” Yuta says, waving his hand to signal he doesn’t want to continue the conversation anymore.
“Then promise me,” Inumaki signs, immediately catching Yuta’s eye.
“Promise you? Promise you what,” Yuta attempts to feign ignorance. He didn’t enjoy where this was going, considering that Yuta abhorred being reliant on others for anything. That included small things.
“Promise that if you can’t sleep, you won’t avoid me,” Inumaki signs, his lips downturned and matching the expression carried in his eyebrows.
With a sigh, Yuta admits defeat and promises a simple thing to Inumaki. And although Inumaki was under the impression that the call would last until the very early hours of the morning, he was sorely mistaken. At around three in the morning Yuta began tossing and turning, since he knew the exact reason for his insurmountable anxiety. He didn’t want to ruin anything and figured getting rest —albeit near impossible at this point— might distract his thoughts momentarily. When the time did come for Yuta to come back to Jujutsu Tech, the possibility of being unable to sleep with nothing to do about it continued to worry him. To make matters worse, Inumaki and the others had no knowledge of when his arrival would be.
When Inumaki checked his phone the next morning, he noticed the call had ended a lot earlier than usual. The urge to text feverishly and demand an explanation welled in his chest but he knew that reprimanding Yuta probably wouldn’t do much help and rather more damage. Inumaki shot a dirty look at Yuta’s contact name, and threw his phone lazily towards the side of his bed. Unknowingly, Inumaki had woken up slightly earlier, perhaps something to do with intuition that Yuta hung up earlier, and immediately checked his phone(a routine matter at this point). So upon realizing that Yuta was gone so soon, it was hard to distinguish between being upset that Yuta likely pulled an all-nighter or being upset because he went most of the night without Yuta’s company. And it’s possible that the latter was a bit selfish, but Inumaki had just grown to this new normal, which is what he sincerely hoped that Yuta would as well.
Getting out of bed later on after tossing his phone aside earlier and falling back asleep, Inumaki got ready for the day. It was strange to hear so much commotion outside of his room at this time in the day, granted it was only eleven in the morning, because most people would’ve already gone out on missions. Under the assumption it was just Maki and Panda arguing about trivial things, Inumaki opted for staying in his room a little longer. That was until he heard a very familiar voice while he was walking in the hallway back to his room. Inumaki figured his ears might be playing tricks on him, it was a long day yesterday and the exhaustion likely just trickled into the next day as well. But then, he heard a laugh unlike any other laugh, and bolted out of his room.
“What the hell were they feeding you for you to be this tall?” Inumaki heard Maki reprimand the familiar person.
An awkward laugh fills the room.
“I mean you can definitely hold your own now though! Right Maki?” Panda states enthusiastically.
Inumaki, who had now begun slowly walking instead of bolting down the hallway to not raise suspicion, stood just before the door opening. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself, a tightness filling his chest and his palms becoming warm. Maki mumbles something under her breath, and as Inumaki walks in, all eyes are on him. A small smirk finds its way to Maki’s lips and as she exchanges facial expressions with Panda.
“Yuta?” Inumaki questions, dumbfounded by who was standing before him.
“Surprise! I uh, didn’t wanna tell anyone I was coming and I happened to run into Maki and Panda first. But hey Inumaki!” Yuta explains, sounding cheerful, with still a tone of bashfulness threading its way through Yuta’s voice.
Inumaki begins to smile, contemplating on what to do next. He didn’t want to overwhelm Yuta since he had just gotten back and in the back of Inumaki’s mind he wasn’t sure where the two of them stood. But rational thinking wasn’t quicker than impulse, and with that he nearly tackled Yuta in a hug. Perhaps the stir of overwhelming emotions pushed Inumaki to go straight for it, so the immense rush of epinephrine was causing irrational thinking. Inumaki wasn’t about to contemplate the complexities of it, he just knew right now his arms were around Yuta and Yuta was actually here. Yuta was able to catch Inumaki fairly quickly, being pushed off balance for a second and taken aback by the semi-strange gesture. Inumaki was never one for hugs or even physical touch, but Yuta had noticed before leaving for Africa that Inumaki had grown to allow physical contact from Yuta.
“Alright alright, you guys can take your cringe shit somewhere else, this is the commons area not a bedroom,” Maki pokes fun at them, to which causes them to jump apart, their oddly intimate moment being interrupted.
“Okaka, ikura,” Inumaki says, furrowing his eyebrows and his cheeks suddenly turning light shades of pink.
“What does that even mean,” Yuta murmurs to Maki, trying to play it off like it was an out of the ordinary comment.
While it was quite out of the ordinary, it wasn’t as though whatever Inumaki and Yuta had going on was a secret. Because everyone else could feel the growing tension and heard the late night phone calls, but chose to ignore it up until now. Well, everyone but Maki, who would torture Inumaki whenever she could about the unspoken situation between the two of them. Inumaki would always fight back with whatever prank he had in mind next though, so all was fair game in the end. However, on days when Maki genuinely wanted to check in and confirm Inumaki was alright, she would pressure him to get information about what was going on. Inumaki, of course, would protest that this was a normal thing between friends, and that Maki would do the same thing if it was Nobara. Of course, Inumaki was a tad bit oblivious to the fact that Maki had a raging crush on Nobara though.
Nevertheless, Maki rolled her eyes and exited the room before even thinking of continuing a conversation. Partially because Maki was aware that the two of them had conversations to catch up on and so much more than that as well. Panda, who could take a hint as well, decidedly stayed for a bit longer, chatted, then slowly exited the room. If it weren’t for the way that there was awkward pauses in communication between the two and deafening silence that lingered between one another, Yuta and Inumaki would’ve thought everything was fine. Inumaki knew Yuta a lot better than that though. He studied how Yuta would begin to shake his leg to think of something new to talk about, or crack his knuckles when Inumaki started explaining something, or even when Yuta would twirl his ring on his finger when explaining something. Most of the time, Inumaki was aware that these were normal anxious habits that Yuta put forth. This time, it was in excess, each habit being taken up a notch and being increasingly evident and noticeable. When Yuta began shaking his leg again, Inumaki put a hand on it, and it ceased.
“Are you okay? You seem stressed about something. Want to talk about it?” Inumaki offered, starting his coax towards getting Yuta to genuinely talk.
“Huh? Oh! No, no, I’m fine, I’m just not used to being back here yet. It feels like home but I still have a lot of things to get used to now,” Yuta begins his trail of falsehoods.
Inumaki would never call Yuta a liar, because it would imply he does it out of malice. No. Inumaki would just call Yuta a reasoner, because he would always change conversations and give convincing reasoning for things to not cause any concern for others. And admittedly, it was in itself very concerning to be so selfless. If there was anyone that could get Yuta to talk, it would always undoubtedly be Inumaki, and he was incredibly sure of that fact. It never stopped Yuta from trying to get around it though, through intricately fabricated reasoning and clever excuses that would cause a person to genuinely believe the words that exited Yuta’s lips. In some cases it could just be equated to the way that Yuta expressed himself, as though he’s sure of his reasoning but his way of speaking is consistently erratic. With a speech pattern that always came across as nervous and uncalculated, it was when he was poised and calculated that was when it should raise concern. However now, after being gone for so long, Yuta always carried a diction of poignancy and calculation, and when he was not that, he was being his authentic self.
“Yuta,” Inumaki says, and narrows his eyes at him, “We can talk in my room if you want. Or yours. Whichever is better.”
“No, I promise it’s fine, Inumaki. Just a little tired and overwhelmed is all. I’ll be good by the end of the day tomorrow, I promise,” Yuta explains, which caused Inumaki to instantly drop the conversation.
If Yuta didn’t want to talk, Inumaki knew that pressuring him would only encourage him to push down the issue into the back of his throat for longer. So Inumaki opts for light hearted conversation about how Yuta enjoyed the travel and his overall experience, even though Inumaki knows he was detailed nearly every single moment since they had begun facetiming at night. And of course Yuta inquires more about how Inumaki passed the time at Jujutsu Tech, with Inumaki making jokes about how he couldn’t stand dealing with Maki while Yuta was away. Though the day just consisted of catching up with friends and taking time to relax, there was still an unspeakably thick tension that coated the air, almost like a dense fog. Later on in the day, after Maki and Panda had taken a hint, they came back to catch up with Yuta as well. Anytime Inumaki and Yuta had their full attention on one another, Maki would roll her eyes and Panda would shrug his shoulders. When the first years had come in to catch up as well, most of Inumaki and Yuta’s attention was focused on one another.
Despite the attempts at making conversation inclusive, everyone ended up speaking to the people they typically indulged in conversation with. The attempt made at getting the group together to catch up on lost time was demonstrated when Yuji was smart enough to bring out the card game he happened to be carrying with him. Sitting in the living space and spewing curse words every so often whenever someone would skip their turn or give them four more cards, it started to get louder. Had it been anyone else training them, they would’ve yelled at the group to keep it down, however Gojo had been out on a mission and no one seemed to care too much anyways. After some awkward eye glances and Inumaki slyly signing to Yuta behind his cards, some people were beginning to catch on.
“Hey! That’s cheating, you guys can’t team!” Nobara shouts, pointing her finger at the two of them and furrowing her brows.
“Wait it is? So I shouldn’t be looking at Megumi’s cards?” Yuji asks, to which Megumi turns his cards inward to himself and makes a face at Yuji.
“Are you dumb or do you just look it?” Nobara turns her attention to Yuji, deadpanning at him.
“Hey!” Yuji calls out.
“It’s okay, Yuji, I’ve just been eating the cards when no one is looking,” Panda whispers to Yuji.
“I heard that! No wonder you’ve been winning so much!” Maki protests, throwing her cards on the floor in the middle.
“Sujiko,” Inumaki says, “And yet you’re trying to say we were cheating.”
“You literally were!” Nobara starts accusing Inumaki again.
“Guys it’s just a game, please calm down,” Yuta tries to mediate the situation, knowing fully well that Inumaki was and has been cheating the entire time.
“Of course you would say that, you’re the one helping him cheat!” Maki chimes in.
“Yeah exactly!” Yuji adds.
“Yuji, you have no room to speak, you’ve been looking at my cards this whole time,” Megumi states, narrowing his eyes at Yuji.
“You’ve probably been helping him by letting him look anyway!” Nobara turns the situation to Megumi now.
They all begin yelling at one another and accusing one another of cheating, when in reality, the only person that was actually playing fair was Megumi. Inumaki was laughing quietly and covering his mouth in hopes that no one would notice him, and clearly only one person did, and he was laughing along with Inumaki. Nobara was furious with rage and so was Maki, since they assumed they were playing fairly too — which they weren’t, as they were making hand symbols at one another whenever they got a peak at someone’s cards. Naturally watching Maki hit Panda on the head for wasting cards and not having the proper amount to be playing in the first place since he ate them, was a hilarious sight. While everyone was still arguing, Yuta got up from his place, making his way out of the room. And just as only Yuta noticed Inumaki laughing quietly, Inumaki noticed Yuta flee the scene.
And of course, Inumaki had to follow. So following Yuta he did, which landed them in Yuta’s old dorm room, now with all his stuff back in it, currently very unorganized. Inumaki knocked on the doorway and Yuta jumped, turning around startled.
“I didn’t even notice you saw me leave,” Yuta said, laughing nervously.
“Why did you?” Inumaki asks, cocking his head to the side.
“Oh, just got a little overwhelming, but with them, when isn’t it chaotic, you know?” Yuta says with a smile.
Inumaki nods his head. “Do you want some company or to be left alone?” Inumaki adds.
“I wouldn’t wanna bother you, you can go hang out with the others, I just wanted to relax a little,” Yuta attempts to get Inumaki to go back and enjoy his time.
“Okaka, I see them literally everyday. You’ve been gone for months,” Inumaki complains, and walks straight into Yuta’s room without a second thought.
Admittedly, there was guilt that buried itself in the corners of Yuta’s mind from taking Inumaki away from a good time. But there was also a sense of unexplained happiness that burrowed into his body as well. The overwhelming sensation of tiredness started to flood Yuta, which was typically very normal but this time, it wasn’t like how he usually felt drowsy. He chalked it up to the fact that the trip did take a while, a little faster than he expected but he was exhausted nonetheless. With all the yelling and accusatory statements being thrown at one another, the best option was most definitely for Yuta to take a break. His head thumped loudly with pain and his ears felt sore from the pain in his head. The room being a mess only added to Yuta’s stress, and being sat doing nothing now wasn’t very productive.
So without a second thought, Yuta began unpacking and organizing his room, with Inumaki beginning to help.
“You don’t have to do that, I’m fine with just your company,” Yuta tries to reassure him.
Inumaki furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head, continuing to help in whatever way he can. Inumaki could understand that Yuta abhorred asking for any kind of help, since Yuta had expressed in the past that he felt like a burden. This wasn’t going to stop Inumaki from helping him when he thought it was necessary though. They unpacked what Yuta brought along with him, which admittedly wasn’t much and most of the things in Yuta’s room were left here from the last time he had inhabited the place. But nonetheless, it was still a bit of a wreck. Yuta began dressing his bed since it had been without a cover for so long that it seemed like a thin layer of dust was starting to collect on it — and of course, Yuta dusted it before putting the cover on. Inumaki was busy taking out things for Yuta to place to his liking and eventually got sidetracked by his phone, just after he had finished sweeping the floor.
“Tsuna Tsuna,” Inumaki called Yuta’s attention, which got Yuta to turn around from struggling to dress the bed, the bedsheet flinging backwards.
“So is everything how you remembered it?” Inumaki signs, tilting his head to the side.
It was a shame that Yuta couldn’t see the sigils on the sides of Inumaki’s mouth right now, he had gotten used to it because of the late night calls when Inumaki no longer covered his mouth at the end of the day. He didn’t know why it even mattered so much to himself, and had to keep himself from physically shaking the thought out of his head. Was it really the same as he remembered it to be? The people had definitely changed, for the better of course, but everyone’s personalities were most certainly intact. And Jujutsu High as a whole never really changed much anyways.
“Yeah, I think so. I mean, maybe you’ve gotten a little taller since the last I saw you in person,” Yuta jokes, a smile forming on his lips and squinting his eyes as he said it
“Ikura,” Inumaki narrows his eyes and his eyebrows furrowed, “That was uncalled for. We get it, you’re a tree now.”
Yuta laughed and watched as Inumaki tried to look for something to throw at him, settling on the pillow that was resting at the end of the bed, which Yuta allowed to hit him instead of catching it.
“I’m kidding, but I guess this room does seem kinda smaller,” Yuta noted aloud.
Whether it was the fact the room only felt smaller because it was in the school or perhaps because it was slowly getting warmer the longer he spent time in there, Yuta realized he probably shouldn’t have voiced that thought aloud. Especially because in reality this room was quite spacious compared to the one he was staying in overseas. So he really had no explanation for his palms still sweating like crazy after everyone had already proven to still like Yuta and for the way his cheeks burned with a permanent pink tint whenever he was alone with someone in particular. He chalked it up to nerves, because in reality, he had been facetiming and texting Inumaki any chance he could get, and having him in his presence now felt oddly overwhelming. He continued to try to get the cover on the bed but everytime he looked away it snapped back at him. Something else was catching his attention right now.
“Really? That’s shocking. I noticed that everytime you walk into a room your cheeks are pink. Maybe because of the temperature change? That might be why the room feels smaller because it’s hotter, you know?” Inumaki explained briefly to Yuta, which caused Yuta’s face to flare up even more, and just when he got the final corner of the sheet to stay, it sprung back on him and he got startled.
Inumaki bursted into laughter and went over to help him. Yuta, who was at a loss for words, tried to frantically nod along with Inumaki’s assumption, although admittedly, Yuta had a feeling it really had nothing to do with the temperature change.
“You could’ve asked for help, you know?”
“I didn’t even realize I needed it to be honest,” Yuta says, laughing awkwardly trying one more time to put the bedsheet on right.
After some quick shuffling and pulling on each corner, they both finally manage to get the bedsheet on — something that should’ve only taken Yuta less than five minutes in the first place. Yuta turns around abruptly to be faced rather closely to Inumaki who had made his way over to Yuta. Yuta’s shoulders rose and fell in quick succession and Inumaki raised his eyebrows as though he hadn’t realized he was going to startle him. The room was filled with an overwhelming sensation of warmth and the air felt as though it was getting foggy, despite how Yuta could see very clearly in front of him. Inumaki awkwardly looked off to the side, fixing his uniform to make sure it was properly covering his face. Yuta couldn’t deny the obvious rush of emotions that were starting to incapacitate his rational thoughts, and was struggling to get words to settle between his lips. Inumaki clears his throat and takes a small step back.
“Do you need help with anything else?” Inumaki asks, his hands fumble when conveying his words, and his eyes concentrate on only his own movements.
“Uh, no it’s fine! No worries, I uh, pretty much everything is good now, thank you though!” Yuta rambles out, his words stitched together and almost unintelligible.
Yuta finishes putting away some leftover clothes onto hangers and Inumaki sits awkwardly at the edge of Yuta’s bed, his fingers dancing away at the screen of his phone. Yuta was never a nosey person, but the curiosity of what he was so feverishly typing about did intrigue him. Inumaki stood up abruptly, shoving his phone in his pocket and waving at Yuta.
“I’m sure you’re tired from the travel, I’ll get out of your way,” Inumaki tells Yuta, seemingly trying to excuse himself.
“Oh! But you’re not bothering me, you actually helped me clean up…sort of. Anyways, you’re fine, I mean, unless you need to go do something, then I totally get it and—“
“Yuta,” Inumaki speaks aloud, giving Yuta a knowing look of ‘you’re rambling again.’
Yuta awkwardly laughs and runs a hand through his hair, something that makes Inumaki bite back a smile, though he knows Yuta can’t see it.
“I can stay longer, let me just change out of my uniform,” Inumaki conveys, walking out of Yuta's room for the time being.
Yuta takes a seat on the bed, putting his head in his hands and breathing out heavily. He was admittedly aggravated with himself for blabbering about every little thing, and felt as though he was in fact bothering Inumaki. Something that he noted he shouldn’t be so worked up over, yet couldn’t stop from his head berating him for such nonsensical speaking. Yuta looked up to face the door, which at the moment was closed and Yuta was a tad shocked to see that Inumaki had the courtesy to close it. Inumaki used to always leave Yuta’s door open, simply because he’d forget or purposefully to make Yuta get up and close it. Yuta had grown accustomed to it, and had built the habit of politely asking Inumaki to close the door, to which sometimes he’d leave it open just a crack. Yuta was keenly aware of how ridiculous it was to harbor such feelings towards his friend, but he bargained that choking it down and forgetting about it might be a better deal than whatever other option there was.
Especially because the person in question was so unserious about so many things, he couldn’t even begin to fathom that Inumaki had a single thought of Yuta like that. The line between friendship and whatever else was possible — but not entirely possible — was drawn out in permanent marker, as it was something no one should ever cross. Yuta had made amends with that a while ago, so he figured starting anything wouldn’t be worth the trouble, nor would confessing do any good either. He stood up from the edge of the bed and walked over to his closet, changing from the clothes he came in, to something more comfortable. As he was putting his shirt on, he heard the door open and shut behind him. He cringed at the thought of Inumaki watching him put on another shirt, just hoping that maybe he didn’t notice. Lo and behold though, Inumaki did more than notice, he had actually opened the door earlier but the sound of it opening was pin quiet on purpose. His idea was to startle Yuta, but instead, he was greeted by Yuta without a shirt on. Inumaki covered his face, and turned around quickly, quietly shutting the door.
Inumaki’s eyes went wide and the blood rush to his
cheeks was more embarrassing than he’d like to admit. He hadn't realized just how much Yuta had changed and just from the view of his back, Inumaki was shocked. He composed himself, breathing in then out and opening the door with enough noise to let him know he was coming in, then shutting the door just as loudly behind him. Averting his eyes as much as possible — and of course taking a peek in between — he waited for Yuta to finish putting his shirt on. For Inumaki, it felt like an impossible exam to pass and almost a losing game with how often Yuta unknowingly did things that would get him red in the face. Inumaki brushed a hand down his face, trying to get the pink tint on his cheeks to subside as quick as it had appeared.
“Oh, sorry Inumaki, I just wanted to change since it’s warm in here,” Yuta said, fixing his shirt and assuming that it was Inumaki that had walked into the room.
Yuta turned around to see Inumaki had taken a seat on the bed, about to respond to Yuta, and Yuta had to suppress a look on his face. Inumaki wasn’t wearing something to cover his mouth. Yuta could see his face. He could see his sigils. Inumaki’s hands were moving and he was saying something but Yuta was entirely distracted, he hadn’t seen Inumaki’s face in real life for so long, he forgot how good he looked in real life. Yuta almost shook his head at the thought, it was weird for him to even consider his best friend as good looking in that sense. Inumaki could tell that Yuta’s attention was diverted, and a look of annoyance overcasted on his face.
“Yuta!” Inumaki calls out, and Yuta immediately snaps out of it.
“Huh?! Sorry, you were saying something, I got distracted. Thinking about, uh, plans for tomorrow. The trip over here did a number on me,” Yuta quickly whipped up an excuse, smiling softly.
“You didn’t see a thing I just said, did you?” Inumaki complains, tilting his head to the side, spelling out “thing” very exaggeratingly.
Yuta is quiet for a moment, and laughs awkwardly. Inumaki sighs.
“You think it’ll be different sleeping here compared to overseas? It’s supposed to rain tonight, I’m sure that’ll help too,” Inumaki repeats himself, and Yuta suddenly realizes where the conversation is headed, his cheeks already starting to simmer again.
“Oh! Uh, I mean, yeah there’s a possibility it’s a whole lot different but, if anything it’s probably the exact same,” Yuta states, waving his hand in front of him to signify it wasn’t a big deal.
Yuta’s mind was torn between addressing the very obvious implications at hand or simply just continuing to gloss over it. There was the slight possibility that Inumaki wouldn’t dare suggest anything but he knew Inumaki could have the tendency to be straightforward at times. Especially since Inumaki had a tendency of not wanting to hold his tongue, or his hands in this instance. Part of Yuta was silently hoping it would just get overlooked but as soon as he saw Inumaki smile knowingly, he knew it was too late.
“You realize you can’t just facetime me here to fall asleep right?” Inumaki pokes fun at him, and suddenly Yuta realizes that saying “it’s the exact same” was a complete mistake.
Yuta started to fumble and stutter over his words, causing Inumaki only to look at him with a face that said Yuta was digging himself a deeper grave than he had bargained for.
“I didn’t mean that! I meant like how I usually have trouble falling asleep anyway and like yeah the rain helps so I’ll probably fall asleep pretty fast, I mean I am pretty tire—“
Inumaki puts a hand over Yuta’s mouth, since he had a tendency to get caught up in his thoughts and therefore his words.Yuta’s eyes widen for a second and Inumaki removes his hand in the same instant.
“I’ll stay here as long as you need me to, it’s fine.”
Yuta wanted to audibly protest, purely out of the fact that there was this guilt that continued to well inside him, yelling at him that he had overstayed his welcome by asking so much of Inumaki. Even though Yuta had asked for nothing at all, it was simply a matter of Inumaki wanting to make Yuta feel welcomed back. His heart continued to pound away at his chest with ferocity, with words failing to form on his tongue. The gesture that Inumaki offered was a tempting one, but there was a key underlying issue that Yuta refused to address outwardly. Yuta wasn’t sure if Inumaki could tell what he was doing to him, but from the way that Inumaki worded things to how touchy he had been ever since Yuta’s return, he was starting to believe maybe Inumaki did know.
Unbeknownst to Yuta however, Inumaki knew exactly the type of game he was playing. If Inumaki couldn’t know for sure what kind of feelings Yuta harbored towards him, he’d figure it out one way or another. Part of Inumaki was betting on winning the bet between him and Maki, that Yuta entirely saw Inumaki as just a friend. But with every silently passing moment that would leave the two of them without words, it was as though a thick veil had coated the room. Perhaps it was simply because of the tension that was “most definitely not there” as Inumaki put it when arguing with Maki, but Inumaki was set on winning this bet. Solely so he could be rid of the idea of anything happening between the two of them. After all, Yuta and Inumaki became friends fairly quickly, it’d be a tragedy to let something as trivial and pointless as romance come between the two of them.
“You really don’t have to, I—“
Inumaki brings his finger up to his own lips to signal to Yuta to stay quiet for a second.
“I want to. Let me, please?”
If it were possible for Yuta to physically melt at what Inumaki had just said, he figured he’d be a puddle of lava melting between the floorboards. He refrained from protesting and simply nodded his head in agreement.
“Are you sure? I don’t know how long until I’ll fall asleep honestly,” Yuta reminds Inumaki, despite the fact that Yuta was already feeling the jetlag settle on his eyelids.
Inumaki nods his head, “We could always just share the bed if you really can’t sleep.”
Once Yuta saw what Inumaki had to say, he looked around the room in panic and started nodding his head frantically.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s fine, I mean only if you’re comfortable with it, obviously you wouldn’t have to but I wouldn’t mind and I mean if you ever wanna leave you—“
Inumaki rolled his eyes, grabbed a pillow off the bed again and threw it at Yuta to get him to stop. The pillow softly hit Yuta’s face and fell to the floor, with Yuta awkwardly laughing and placing it back on the bed. As endearing as it was to Inumaki to watch Yuta ramble, sometimes he wondered if he ever took breaths between rambling. Yuta finally decides to take a seat next to Inumaki on the bed, the same heaviness in the air rolling back in as the bed dips from Yuta’s weight. The silence causes Yuta to begin shaking his leg again, the nerves starting to roll back in and the drowsiness he had earlier tumbling back in. Inumaki, who just as much felt nervous about the situation, opts for crossing the imaginary wall built between them, and places a hand on Yuta’s leg. His leg ceases immediately, tensing for a moment and it causes Yuta to look directly at Inumaki who was already turned and giving Yuta his full attention. Inumaki smiles softly, trying to reassure him through the facial gesture and Yuta smiles back, his leg untensing. Yuta tries to bite back a yawn, and it happens anyway, causing Inumaki to yawn as well.
“You should try sleeping,” Inumaki suggests, taking his hand off Yuta’s leg.
“You yawned too though. You can go back to your room if you wa—“
“Cut that out already, I'm staying unless you tell me to leave,” Inumaki asserted.
Yuta nods his head, “Fine, I’ll try to sleep then.”
Yuta goes to move but then feels warmth settle on his hand, and looks down to see Inumaki put it there.
“Did I do something?” Yuta asks, trying to avoid the very obvious warmth creeping up on his face again.
“Is it…okay if I sleep close to you?”
Yuta’s heart is practically begging for a break at this point, he’s unsure of how much longer he can continue to try and act as though he’s entirely unaffected by Inumaki’s words. Worry and anxiety can come off of Yuta in any way and none would know the wiser, but it felt as though Yuta’s face was permanently stained with cherry blossom petals blooming in the spring. Something urged him to grab back at Inumaki’s hand and pull him in, maybe just look into his eyes a little longer and caress the marks on the sides of his lips. And once that thought entered his head, he realized he was truly doomed to succumbing to the reality of his feelings. Yuta just nodded aggressively again, and smiled incredibly brightly instead of opting for stumbling over his words embarrassingly. Yuta got up briefly to turn the lights off in the room, a sliver of light from the moon being visible from the window and a smaller nightlight plugged in the corner; Yuta refused to remove it, as it was a gift from Maki that was primarily a joke but he enjoyed the moon shape it had.
When he turned back to the bed, Inumaki was with his back turned toward Yuta, the blanket already covering him. Yuta slipped into bed as well, covering himself with the same blanket and also facing away from Inumaki, their backs nearly pressed together. As soon as they had settled into bed, Yuta could make out the sounds of the rain tapping against the window and the soft bellows of thunder. He could feel Inumaki shift in the bed, and there was a soft grip on the back of Yuta’s shirt. Not being entirely sure if Inumaki needed his attention for something, he turned in bed just to take in the fact that he was incredibly close to Inumaki, who was looking right at Yuta. He watched Inumaki’s expression change, and realized that it’d be harder to communicate via JSL if it was dark. Even so, Yuta was frozen in surprise at how close their faces were and how sleepy Inumaki had looked prior to the realization of their closeness.
Yuta chuckled awkwardly, and Inumaki tapped at Yuta’s hand, asking if he could give it to him. Yuta obliged, a bit confused at first but understanding what he meant fairly quickly. He could feel Inumaki using his finger to trace something, and then realized he was spelling out a word. H…U…or wait that’s as an O. So H-O…L…D…huh what is he saying. N, no wait that’s an M…so M…E? Wait, he wants me to—, Yuta thought to himself, a slight panic settling in, hold him? Inumaki continued to keep tracing the same phrase until Yuta finally understood what he meant, and perhaps it was easier this way, since if Yuta never understood, nothing would happen and Inumaki would be right. However, the moment Yuta understood and had let the panic set aside, he grabbed Inumaki by his waist and held him close against his body.
“Like, this?” Yuta asks for reassurance, getting a quick nod from Inumaki, whose head was now settled on Yuta’s chest.
If Yuta had any common sense left in him at this point, he’d let go now and just say he wanted a hug. However, whatever rationality he had left in him had long left his body the moment he was allowed to start tip-toeing over the line of established friendship. Yuta felt as though he had to hold his breath to not disturb Inumaki, taking in how warm Inumaki’s body felt and the way it perfectly fit against his. Yuta was unsure of how to describe exactly what he was feeling, a flood of emotions and adrenaline replacing rational thoughts at the moment. He could feel Inumaki grab for Yuta’s hand again, taking Yuta slightly by surprise and focusing on what Inumaki had started to trace into his palm again. A simple “?” which Yuta assumed he meant that he had a question.
“Mhm,” Yuta mumbled, starting to adjust to the rather comfortable position that he had put themselves into.
Intently focused, Yuta started to make out the words on his palm.
“D-o u l-i-k-e m-e?”
The moment the words registered with Yuta, he pulled his hand away from Inumaki’s finger and looked down at him now. Inumaki met his eyes with some confusion and worry dancing in the moonlight reflections that came through the window. The rain began to pound harder, and Yuta could hardly tell the difference between the rain and his heart practically beating in his throat. He was unsure what Inumaki meant by such a vague question. As a friend or as…more than a friend? He pondered curiously, eye contact unbreaking and spoke into the night air.
“You’re my friend Inumaki, of course I like you,” Yuta chose his words carefully.
Inumaki shakes his head, and grabs Yuta’s hand again.
“M-o-r-e t-h-a-n t-h-a-t?”
Yuta processed the message. More than that? More than a friend, was what he landed upon piecing his vague phrases together. Yuta’s mouth ran dry and his throat felt as though it was closing up from embarrassment. He closed his eyes and contemplated on his next words, unsure if he was allowed to say the truth. Then Inumaki started tracing on Yuta’s palm again, a lot softer than before, almost tickling Yuta’s skin.
“I l-i-k-e u”
Yuta watched as Inumaki’s eyes went from being transfixed on his hand, to slowly meeting Yuta’s gaze in a sheepish manner, something Inumaki never usually did.
“As a friend?” Yuta pressed, afraid that if he assumed anything, he could potentially damage a very important friendship to him.
“M-o-r-e.”
Yuta was awestruck with emotions, unsure of whether or not to confess as well, as a verbal confession would seal how Yuta truly felt. And Yuta was unsure if he himself was ready to come to terms with that at first. The eye contact between the two was unbreaking, and Yuta gently held on to Inumaki’s hand once he had stopped tracing letters into his skin. Perhaps it was the way that Yuta’s heart beated in time with the rain collapsing on the window that had caused him to act on instinct rather than the rationality that plagued him. Yuta’s hand slipped away from Inumaki’s, gently placing it on Inumaki’s cheek. Yuta began to lean in slowly, giving Inumaki the time to push back or turn away, but instead he leaned in as well. Neither had noticed they were getting closer, until their lips met softly, gliding against one another in unison. Yuta could have sworn he could taste the cursed energy from Inumaki’s mouth, and it was a bit exhilarating to feel for himself. The slow part had Inumaki’s eyes half opened with a stoic look on his face, and Yuta matching the same expression.
“I, um, like you too. If the kiss didn’t make it obvious,” Yuta joked nervously, and Inumaki shook his head and laughed.
Inumaki rested his head back against Yuta’s chest, letting out a deep breath, something that Yuta could only assume was relief. Yuta himself had to let out a sigh, as a weight had been lifted off him — most definitely not physically though, as Inumaki was nearly glued against his body. Inumaki was on the verge of letting sleep overcome his body until his eyes shot open at a realization. Maki won the bet. He figured he’d deal with that tomorrow, but it would sure be a pain in the ass to deal with. Inumaki grabbed Yuta’s hand one more time to trace a few more letters.
“T-h-a-n-k g-o-d,” he waited a few seconds, “W-o-u-l-d-‘-v-e b-e-e-n a-w-k-w-a-r-d.”
Yuta laughed softly, then held Inumaki a little closer, given that everytime Inumaki wanted to tell Yuta something, he’d have to give him some space to trace letters into his hand. Yuta muttered a brief goodnight to Inumaki who nodded back in agreement. The steady tapping against the window from the downpour outside had Yuta out within the next couple of seconds which had shocked Inumaki upon feeling the grasp on him loosen. Knowing that Yuta was now comfortablely asleep, Inumaki then drifted to sleep as well.
The next morning, instead of Yuta holding onto Inumaki, Inumaki was clinging onto Yuta’s side, with Yuta’s body sprawled out onto the bed and Inumaki curled up into a ball. Unfortunately for the two of them, the door was unlocked and given that everyone was still fairly excited about Yuta’s arrival back, it meant that anyone could barge in at any minute. There was laughter traveling through the halls and suddenly the door to Yuta’s room was busted wide open.
“Hey, Maki needs…oh my god.”
Nobara cut herself off, staring at what was currently in front of her. She held in her laughter, running out the room and leaving the door wide open. As quickly as she had left, she came back, this time with Maki in tow.
“No no, you have to see this now!” Nobara gushed, laughing like a madwoman.
“I told you to wake Yuta up because I can’t find Inumaki, so what—“
Maki stopped in the middle of her sentence and her eyes widened.
“Well…found him,” she states matter of factly, “Onigiri owes me a favor now.”
Maki laughed along with Nobara, causing some other people to walk over. The rest of the first years and Panda made their way over to the commotion.
“Hey, what’s so funn— oh!” Panda starts, then looks into the room.
Yuta began stirring in his sleep because of all the noise which caused Maki and Nobara to go silent. Itadori kept looking confused at Yuta and Inumaki and then would look back at Megumi for reassurance. Megumi, of course, was ignoring Itadori’s looks and shaking his head. Yuta moved in bed to drape an arm over Inumaki and Maki snorted rather loudly, causing Yuta to begin waking up. He blinked a few times, then turned over to sit up in bed. When he gained his vision, at the doorway he could see all his friends with shocked expressions on their faces. Except for Maki and Nobara, in which Nobara knew of the bet and Maki was apart of said bet. Yuta panicked briefly and dragged a hand down his face.
“Wha…What are you guys doing in here?” Yuta questioned, tiredness littered on his face mixed with panic and worry.
“Well, I was looking for Inumaki but it turns out that he was busy having fun with you last night,” Maki pokes fun at Yuta, whose face is coated with embarrassment.
“Nothing like that even happened! I just, uh, we were cleaning up my room and we were really tired so we both just—“
“I didn’t know Yuta liked guys too,” Itadori blurted out, earning him a slap on the back of the head from Megumi.
“Sure Yuta, whatever you say. Didn’t know you were like that though,” Nobara chimes in with Maki’s teases.
“Guys seriously! We were just sleeping, you don’t have to make it dirty!” Yuta protests.
Inumaki begins stirring in his sleep now too, slowly waking up and rubbing his eyes. He notices Yuta is sitting up in bed, then looks across the room and realizes why he’s sat up. Shit.
“He’s awake! You owe me by the way, don’t think I forgot! Just didn’t expect this to happen that quickly,” Maki calls out.
Inumaki sits up in bed and waves his hand dismissively at her.
“Are you guys just going to keep standing there or…,” Yuta asks, as they keep talking amongst each other and spewing jokes at them.
“Fine, but at least try keeping your hands to yourselves a little longer next time, it literally wasn’t even 24 hours before you did,” Maki quips one last time and Nobara shuts the door.
Yuta can hear laughter from the door and then Itadori saying something about not being homophobic, to which Megumi explains to him he can’t just “say stuff like that.” Yuta turns to Inumaki and smiles sheepishly. Inumaki facepalms and shakes his head.
“Hey, what did you owe Maki by the way?” Yuta asks innocently.
Inumaki shakes his head,
“Don’t worry about it.”
Yuta shrugs his shoulders and decidedly gets out of bed, Inumaki following with. They knew once they left the room, the teasing wouldn’t cease for the rest of the day. But at the very least, the rainstorm outside could keep them inside a little longer together.