Megumi Fushiguro was irrevocably in love with you.
The revelation hadn't come in dramatically. No loud confessions or sudden realizations. It was slow, a warm feeling settling so deep in between his lungs that he could no longer pluck it out without hurting himself in the process.
It was a good thing that he never intended to.
Loving you was easy. Safe. Like gentle drizzling during a spring day. Megumi didn't have to cower from you, didn't have to hide in fear of being soaked to the bone.
He loved you. You, who were as soft as you were strong, who cared for him— and everyone else, he made sure to remember— in that special way of yours. He loved you because you never pressed, never pried, never, ever, made him feel anything less than what he was, yet still kept him on his toes.
Megumi loved loving you. Which is why he didn't mind keeping your relationship as it was. Friends, never quite earning the 'best' title as things would always lie unspoken between the two of you; content with you being safe, and just a little further than at arm's reach.
That distance started fading with the passing of time, though, and at the start of your second year, it was practically nonexistent. But so was it with Nobara and Yuji, a friendship so tight between the four of you that he, more often than not, found himself in your room.
A place that he had thought forbidden, something sacred he could never step foot in— now presented itself as his typical Saturday evening.
Other than that, things didn't change. You were still you, Megumi was still him. Dancing around each other calmly, like you had all the time in the world to get the full experience... of friendship.
"Things are meant to last," Gojo had once said during one of those rare moments in which he was serious "but not for us, never for us."
That same week, he nearly lost you.
Even then, there were no dramatics, just the weight of Nobara's tired voice crushing his heart.
Without you at the dorms, everything felt still. Stiff. Like the air had been paused the moment you stepped foot outside the tech's grounds.
Yet Megumi didn't confess when he went to visit you at the hospital. Didn't admit how scared he was and how much he missed you when you were back at the dorms. Or even weeks after when you could walk normally again.
He confessed on a random Friday. The day grey and his covers still rumpled from when Yuji had hogged his bed earlier, complaining about Choso being too overprotective and about how his training with Todo went.
Megumi was sitting at his desk, filling out paperwork about his latest mission with Nobara, when he heard a gentle knock on his door.
He knew it was you before opening it. You were the only one who ever bothered with knocking.
You stood there, a jar in hand, picking at your thumb.
Before he could get a word in, you gently shook the jar, making its contents clink against the glass. "You told me you ran out of treats for the divine dogs, I thought— well, I saw a recipe for homemade ones."
It was so stupidly thoughtful and cute that he wanted to sink to his knees right there and tell you to never doubt yourself or be nervous around him, that he'd even eat those himself if you asked.
Instead, he let you step inside with a nod. "We should see if they like them."
The treats—cut up with cookie cutters into cute shapes—were a total success.
Kuro licked the crumbs off your fingers insistently while Shiro waited patiently for another treat, sat between Megumi's legs, eyes fixed on the closed jar that stood on the floor between you both.
You smiled so softly at the shikigami and then so blindingly at Megumi that he couldn't think before spluttering it out.
"I like you."
He wasn't loud about it. A murmur you inevitably heard, one he didn't regret. Not even when you became wide-eyed and all red in the face. He owned it.
Because this— this tiny gesture that you probably thought of as small, as stupid, was everything to him.
You hadn't just listened, you had acted. Not in a simple way, like going to the store and buying the treats, which he would've equally appreciated, but instead making them yourself. Because you had not only thought of him, but of the things he cares about.
And that made him realize that you loved him too.
Not loud, not subtle. Just deep and easy, like he did.
So when instead of answering, you reached over and pulled him into a hug, tipping the jar of treats in the process, he kissed you instead. Soft, just a slow and inexperienced press of lips.
Still, It was everything, because it was with you.
A/N;; yes im a #yearner megumi warrior argue with the wall. he just doesn't yearn in the conventional way ok. leave him be. please.
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