#junkomaeda

SHE'S LIKE HEROIN 💔

I enjoy both groupings, yes. (Obviously, this isn't me exhausting all options, but just the first few that come to mind.)

Nagito/Makoto/Junko

Oh, so many fun and toxic ways for this to start.

The anime scenario of Nagito finding out about Junko's plots and trying to stop her, but then Makoto stumbles across their confrontation like, "Whoa, whoa! I'm sure we can talk this out, right?" And maybe Junko grabs Makoto with a pretense of clinging to him out of fear of Nagito's gun, when really she's just using him as a human shield. She's going, "Makoto, help! This psycho's trying to kill me!" While Nagito is telling Makoto to get out of the way, giving him some opaque explanation like, "She was never truly a symbol of hope." And Makoto manages to make them both explain themselves, and this becomes a metaphorical Makoto-holding-two-leashes scenario somehow. I haven't put much thought into it, lol.

Alternatively, Nagito and Makoto start dating during school and Junko deliberately disrupts it, trying to lure Makoto away for fun. Makoto, of course, refuses to cheat on Nagito, but Nagito starts to have passive aggressive side-conversations with Junko where he's basically like, "Surely an amazing Ultimate like you has all kinds of options, other than my boyfriend," and she's basically like, "If you believe so strongly in the superiority of Ultimates, you should have no reason not to leave Makoto to me." And Junko and Nagito are both pretty fond of games and tests, so Junko could almost definitely tempt Nagito into an "If you believe in him so much, then you wouldn't mind inviting me on your date," kind of arrangement. It's fun for everyone involved.

Or, Junko and Makoto are dating, Nagito has a crush on Makoto, and Junko pretends to think Makoto is cheating on her with Nagito, as a means of controlling how much time they spend together (and just to make her own relationship with Makoto a little worse). Over the course of this, Makoto doesn't just panic and give in to everything Junko says; he tries to figure out what's going on with her, and over the course of that, he learns that Junko kind of wants him to be cheating on her? And the vibe is, Junko is both monogamous and intensely possessive, but because of that, she really enjoys polyamory and how it makes her feel. Whereas Makoto just is polyamorous. Maybe there's a day where Makoto is at some kind of school event without Junko (because she's elsewhere doing other stuff), and he spends some time with Nagito, completely innocently, and then a picture of them ends up on social media. Next time Makoto sees Junko, she is acting extremely jealous, but also really...excited? And when Makoto starts explaining to her that nothing happened between him and Nagito, she doesn't seem relieved; she seems annoyed. Like he's poking holes in some romantic fantasy of hers. Or some kind of roleplay, maybe. So he...carefully starts roleplaying along? As this has good results, it gets to the point where Junko is saying, "Tell me you [extremely intimate prompt] him," in-between kisses. And Makoto...does his best. Very "Yes, and..." Nagito's crush and friendship with Makoto remain unchanged, from his perspective; he doesn't know Junko's using the idea of him in this way. But given Junko's fondness for escalation, I don't imagine it'll be long before he finds out.

Makoto manages to stop Junko from dying at the end of the killing game, Nagito gets involved, I've given this one even less thought than the first one.

Nagito/Makoto/Mukuro

A lot of potential here, too!

The biggest thing I see for them is both of them having crushes on Makoto and lowkey watching him a lot, and they notice each other doing it. When they interact with each other, it's either Nagito annoying Mukuro like, "Hello, Miss Ikusaba! Fancy meeting you here, alone, ten feet away from where your classmate is eating lunch. 😁" Or Mukuro confronting Nagito like, "You keep staring at Naegi. Why?" The thing is, because Makoto keeps seeing them interact, he ends up asking one or both of them if they're dating each other. And maybe Mukuro panics and says yes, and it's this dorky thing where she pulls Nagito aside like, "If we pretend we're dating, then we can both be around him more without raising suspicion." And while they're fake dating, they of course discover they like spending time together, and they're SUCH a bad influence on each other, also. Stalking Makoto becomes a cute couple thing they do.

Why did I know this was going to be the Barbie meme before I even copy and pasted it lol. The great thing about Junkomaeda is that it works either way: