Work Text:
Yuuji slumped at his seat, sighing heavily as Nobara took the spot across from him. Lunchtime was a pain since the school got too many students and too little cafeteria seats. And they weren't eating outside the glaring sun by the bleachers. Nope.
"Fushiguro's caught up in classes, so it'd be just us, Itadori." Nobara placed her food on the table, Yuuji following suit. He eyed the newly painted nails of his friend, chuckling to himself as he saw them to be the same colour as Maki-san's hair.
One dramatic sigh took Yuuji's attention.
"What's wrong, Kugisaki?" Yuuji took a bite of the bento he prepared for himself, "Did you and Maki-san argue?"
"Haa?" Kugisaki's brows scrunched together, an angry expression showing off her face that definitely drew the others away, "Of course not! It's Nishimiya! She's been annoying me for quite some time now."
"What did she do?"
"Many things! Too many to name!"
Yuuji only shook his head, a wry smile on his face as Kugisaki grumbled under her breath.
He was halfway through eating when—
"Oh? Yuuji, look..!" Kugisaki grabbed his wrist and tugged him close, knocking his body against the table, "That's the guy Nishimiya likes."
Yuuji squinted, eyes sweeping all over the crowd. There are too many people to even know who Kugisaki was pointing at. How did she even know about her enemy's crush anyway? Women are scary.
"Who..?"
"There, dummy!" Kugisaki sneakily pointed a painted fingernail on the person she's talking about, "The one with the pink hair!"
Pink hair? Like mine?
Someone left their seat and stood up. It turned out that Yuuji couldn't see the guy since someone was blocking his view.
Wait, are students even allowed to have that many tattoos? Yuuji wondered as he stole glances on the pink-haired senpai on the far corner of the cafeteria. Unlike his hair that Yuuji kept hanging low, the senpai's hair was spiked up and away from his face.
Good-looking face.
"Do you see now?" Kugisaki snapped him out of it.
"Uh.. Yeah.. He's not too bad." Yuuji cringed at the way he stuttered, "But he looks like trouble.."
"I'm not the one who likes him, Yuuji. Nishimiya does. That girl loves bad boys, you know?" Nobara let go of Yuuji and began eating once more, "She even almost liked you, until she found out that you weren't the brooding, bad boy type."
Yuuji held back a laugh, "That's Fushiguro, not me. Did you hear he used to beat up his schoolmates?"
Nobara rolled her eyes, "Yeah yeah, I heard. He'd glare at you 'till you wither and die if you mention that though."
Yuuji chuckled, "Yeah."
He began eating in silence once more, thinking of his next classes and if there'd be a possible pop quiz anytime soon. Again, Yuuji was snapped out of his mind when Nobara snapped her fingers like she had come across some epiphany.
"I got it!" Nobara wore a smile that was so bright that it probably meant mischief, "Itadori Yuuji, hurry up eating."
Yuuji gave her a skeptical look, "Why?"
Nobara didn't bother answering, and instead hastened her bites. She only gave Yuuji a vague hand gesture, and Yuuji had no choice but to comply.
They finished eating under mere minutes.
The moment Yuuji finished eating and fixed his things, he was dragged by Nobara by his wrist. They maneuvered away the crowded halls, bumping into people here and there and Yuuji gave his best to apologise while being dragged away.
He gave her a confused look as they ended up in the school's wide expanse of a field, and through his peripheral vision, he saw hues of pink standing out amongst the other colours.
"The guy Nishimiya likes?" Yuuji saw the senpai fiddling with his phone while a short, white-haired person was beside him.
"Yeah. Did you know that pink-haired senpai over there is cold as ice and very scary ?"
"Why are we sneakily getting closer to him then?"
"Shush, Yuuji." Nobara took her phone out of her pocket, "We're gonna sneak-steal some photos and blackmail Nishimiya with them."
"By 'we' you mean you ?" Yuuji asked half-amused. He took sneak photos before so he wasn't a stranger to the concept, but if Nobara said that their senpai was not someone to mess with, then they probably shouldn't?
"Of course, you're gonna help me with it." Nobara began tugging him faster, before they settled for a spot where the background looked good enough and also had the perfect view of their senpai.
Now that Yuuji's staring at him again, his senpai was really good-looking.
Yuuji shook his head at the thought, but he didn't even get to chastise himself when Nobara tugged her close, her arm raised as she held out her phone to their faces.
The camera was focused on the tattooed male though..
Nobara gave his side a pinch, "Smile..!" She whispered menacingly.
So Yuuji did, he forced his lips into a curl, focusing on the good-looking senpai again…
Maybe he focused too much on him, that was why he noticed it all too late.
"Nobara-"
The resounding click echoed in his mind, dulling the noise around them. His jaw slackened, eyes widening in horror.
Oh gods.. What have we done..?
It seemed that Nobara noticed too, since she almost dropped her phone.
"The camera flash.. Is on.." Yuuji mumbled weakly, voice raspy and out of breath.
Goddamn, even if it was bright, someone was sure to notice the camera's flash. And the damned phone was angled perfectly towards the senpai too.
Maybe he didn't see..?
Yuuji stole a glance at their subject.
Oh, he definitely saw.
Gold met red. And then cool senpai raised a brow at Yuuji, lips twitching into a lopsided, 'don't-you-wish-you-had-me' smirk.
Holy heavens above, Yuuji swore his heart skipped a few beats.
Oh, I'm so gonna kill Nobara, later.
Later. For now..
The yelp that escaped Nobara was pathetic as Yuuji dragged her away using his remarkable speed. God blessed her though, since she didn't trip and die as all of that was happening.
Yuuji just can't believe that happened. His face was probably as pink as his hair. Or as red as the senpai's pretty eyes—
Wait no, damn it! He just embarrassed himself in front of that senpai and his company! He could never face them again. Nope. Nada. Never again. If he ever does, he'd move countries, change his name and appearance. He'd disappear from the face of the earth.
"Yuu..sto..p.." Nobara managed to wheeze out the moment they had some distance from the point of disaster. Yuuji halted his run, dropping Nobara's wrist as he fell over and slumped on the ground.
Nobara fell without any grace whatsoever on the spot next to Yuuji, heaving and panting. He was out of breath too, but not because of exhaustion from the run..
His mind flashed an image of that smirk and those knowing eyes.
Oh how he wished to be swallowed up by the ground there and then.
"Kugisakiii.. He didn't see you, he saw 𝘮𝘦." Cried Yuuji as he pressed his palms against his heated cheeks.
"Should I move schools? Can I still move schools?" A groan escaped Yuuji as he threw his head back, nose scrunched into a cringe.
"Why didn't you.. Tell me?" Nobara asked between the puffs of air she was chasing after the sprint. "Dummy.."
"You were the one holding the phone! You were the one who took the picture too!"
Nobara groaned too, "I'm sorry! Okay? He'd probably forget you in a week! Stay clear of him until then."
He'd probably forget..me.. For some reason that didn't sit well with Yuuji. Hold on, I hope he forgets me!
Despite the twist in his stomach though, he grumbled with a pout, "You owe me lunch, for two weeks."
"...fine.."
"Sukuna-san, should I..?" Uraume stood from their seat, eyes trained on the retreating figures.
The chuckles that escaped Sukuna startled Uraume, "No. There's no need."
"You're not going to ask them to delete the photo?"
"No." Sukuna glanced at them, lips curled into a genuine amused smile, red eyes twinkling with safe delight that was an unfamiliar sight. "I'll deal with the boy myself."
He was looking forward to seeing the boy in the near future.
The near future came after two weeks.
Sukuna had strolled out of his class, bored out of his mind. He already learned all those anyway.
The classroom felt all too cramped to him, and he was craving some meat buns. There was no other time perfect, since when break comes the cafeteria would be too full again.
He never really planned to see the familiar mop of pink hair on the counter though, but it was a welcome, pleasant surprise.
"Kugisakiii, you said you'd buy me lunch!" The pink-haired boy huffed, cheeks puffed cutely with a small pout. "For two weeks! I still have three days left."
"You said I'd buy you lunch. It's not lunch time." The brunette who held the phone remarked with sass. Sukuna swore he saw her once with that remarkable martial arts student.
"Well, you're leaving before lunch! You can't buy me food then."
"Not my problem?"
Pink-haired boy pouted deeply, "Even when I embarrassed myself because of you.."
"I couldn't use the photo though, too blurry."
"Well that's because—"
Sukuna found it to be the perfect time to announce his presence.
"I can buy you lunch." He brushed past his frozen underclassmen. "You owe me twice, the first one was for that photo."
The way the two froze was comical.
The brunette was the first one to snap out of it, "Haha.. Would you look at that, Yuuji! Maki's already calling me! Bye!"
Then she dashed out of their sight in seconds .
"So, you're Yuuji?" Sukuna bought two meat buns, nudging the cute kouhai out of his shock.
The blush came after that. Completely and utterly adorable.
"Uhm..?"
"C'mon, I already bought you food, you can't run from me." Sukuna whisked little Yuuji away and they sat on his usual spot, on the far side of the cafeteria.
Little Yuuji's golden eyes kept on darting up at him and to the floor. Gods, he's adorable.
"Would you like to take a picture?" Sukuna teased with a sly smirk, "I'd even strike a pose for you."