YOUR BOYFRIEND —
Will the football captain ask you out for valentines?
PAIRING: Yuji Itadori x Fem!Reader
WC: 2.5K-2.6K
CONTENT WARNINGS: Normal hs AU, and uhmmm corny writing plus confessions, not proofread if you can tell
Yuji sighs longingly. “Haaaaahhhh.. She’s so cute, man.” Megumi doesn’t even look up from his book, probably too busy focused on the storyline—but Yuji could still see Megumi’s fingers tighten on the spine of his book in irritation.
Yuji keeps looking at you from across the lunch room. He can’t help it—everything about you is just so captivating to him.
He can see you giggling, the ends of your lips curving up into the smile he loves so much. The light coming from the windows makes you even more beautiful, he thinks.
Your shoulders continue shaking with amusement as your friend just adds and adds onto the joke, your tummy tightening even more and more with each giggle till it ends up sore.
You wipe a tear away, still oblivious to Yuji’s longing and adoring gaze.
It seems to always be that way. You being oblivious, so to speak. “Itadori. Stop being an idiot and just tell her already..” Megumi mutters, his face still shoved in a book. Yuji groans obnoxiously, throwing his head backwards as he grips the table for stability.
Yuji immediately pulls himself back closer towards the table, his body slumped. An elbow places itself next to his lunch tray while his other hand flicks at the sides out of boredom. “Y’wouldn’t get it, Megumi. You’ve never had a crush before. Probably.”
Megumi simply rolls his eyes. He can’t be bothered to deny or admit the claim, so he just stays silent. Yuji abruptly pounds a fist onto the table, making some utensils jump up from the impact, before clattering back onto the table. “Valentine’s day!” he exclaimed with too much fervor, as if it was some kind of impressive eureka moment.
Megumi’s body slightly jolts from Yuji’s sudden movements. “You’re so loud..” Yuji only chuckles. “Okay, okay, listen. What’s the most romantic day of the year?”
“..Valentines?”
“Yeah! Exactly!”
“And what about it?”
“I could totally whip up some cookies and you know.. Give it to her.”
“And you know she likes you back how?”
“Well.. I mean I don’t- But that’s okay! If she doesn’t, she doesn’t, and if she does, well…”
“Well?”
“We could maybe start going out and stuff.. Maybe even—“
“Itadori, don’t start rambling off about your romantic fantasies, I don’t wanna hear it.”
“Whatever man… But it’s really no fair, you know.”
“What isn’t fair?”
“You get all the ladies! Do I need a mysterious nonchalant aura or something?!”
“Maybe I’m just more likable.”
“Oh shut up.. What’s the secret?!”
“I dunno. How the hell would I know?”
Yuji grumbles, his palm set under his chin. He traces imaginary patterns on the table, just thinking.
Maybe he could use his popularity as an advantage? He was the football captain after all. He tried to convince Megumi to join the first month of school but it seemed he wasn’t all interested—despite also being the epitome of a gym rat in his free time.
Of course Yuji, being the football captain was popular with the ladies, he just never noticed it. Never noticed the group of squealing girls coming up to him after practices while he was all sweaty and tired offering chocolate, never acknowledged the amount of sweet cocoa goodness stacked high in his locker, shoving it aside to get his necessary materials as always, and never took the time to even accept the confession.
That’s how he knew you were different. He actually made time for you. He *wanted* to make time for you. But it seemed you never had time for *him*.
And to be honest, it made him view his own situation during Valentine’s Day differently. It just wasn’t right to ignore all these girls—he should at least be honest with them.
He was in love with someone else.
***
“Sorry, I like someone else!”
Yuji exclaimed, bowing down a full ninety degrees. He could practically feel sweat dripping down his forehead as he anxiously waited for a response.
“Oh… No that’s uhm, that’s uhm okay…” The girl said timidly, her confidence evidently going down just by the second. “Can I at least know who.??”
Yuji straightened up immediately, making direct eye contact before breaking it to dart around his gaze all over the place. “Well… Uh.. I probably shouldn’t tell you. Gossip spreads around to be fair…”
And he was absolutely right. Not even a day later, while he was sauntering around the halls, he heard his name in a conversation. It wasn’t even the same girl he had talked to a few hours before, nor any of her friends, just two random girls gossiping.
He stopped at a water fountain nearby, pretending to be busy.
“Jeez, did you hear? Apparently some girl got rejected by the football captain.”
“Itadori? Same guy that usually ignored the hell out of any confessions?”
“Yeah. That’s not the weirdest part, either,” the girl said, leaning onto a locker and dropping down her volume, finally noticing Yuji four feet away from her. “He said he already liked someone. Rumor says she ran away cryin’..”
“Ugh, that’s why I always stay wary of any guy. Heartless freaks, all of them.”
Yuji choked on the water spurting out from the water fountain, coughing loudly as he drew weird looks.
Heartless freaks?! No, no, no, no, no. They’ve got it wrong. Yuji would and could never. The last thing he wanted to do is hurt someone’s feelings.
Apart from that, this also wasn’t a good look for him. For your view of him, he thought.
Yuji spent the next week being the best person he could. Offering his lunch money, helping out with homework (Well, the best he could do to help), sharing his AirPods that.. eventually got lost, all to save his reputation.
No, that wasn’t it. It was all for you—in a way. He didn’t want to look bad in your perspective.
But it was kind of doing the opposite for you.
Everytime you saw him buy lunch for a girl, your heart set itself on fire, threw water on itself, then tore apart and smushed to the ground. You sat at your table mindlessly tracing patterns with the tip of your pointer finger for the rest of the period.
Oh and god, that wasn’t even the worst occurrence.
Usually, you come to a lot of the schools football games to gush over Yuji, which.. in reflection was embarrassing, but totally worth it.
You loved seeing him dominate the field, watching him prove himself to deserve the title of captain of the football team. You loved hearing everyone around you sing tunes of praise and excitement, you loved the bright and warm beams of light casting onto your face.
You loved reliving that comforting and familiar moment over and over again.
You just never expected all of that to shatter just from one day.
The memory went as this: A girl runs up to Yuji, holding up what seems to be a small box with colors that Valentine’s day practically owns—red, pink, and other metallic tones of again, red and pink. Yuji seems to bow, a bit too low, but whatever. He takes it anyway.
First thought that ran through your head? He officially has a Valentine.
Your friends don’t seem to notice how you zone out after a certain point; too busy living in the moment.
Your mouth stays agape, frozen in time. You can’t seem to avert your eyes from the distant scene unfolding in real time. No matter how much it hurts.
You went home looking at those “POV: Being a lover girl” reels on instagram for a good two hours untildrowsiness won over your unrequited feelings.
Oh, if you both only knew how wrong you were..
***
3 MORE DAYS UNTIL VALENTINE’S DAY.
“Urghh… Come on!” Yuji exclaims exasperatingly, struggling to squeeze out frosting from a piping bag.
He squeezes even harder, the frosting being as stubborn as a mule and refusing to just… come out. And in the blink of an eye, heaps of pink and white frosting bursts straight onto his face, leaving sweet splodges of fluffy goodness on his cheeks.
He licks up the frosting near his mouth without hesitation. Might as well put it to good use, right?
Now, what to do about the mess on his kitchen counter…
..It’s fine.. He’ll just get his brother, Choso, to clean it up.
Yuji keeps on baking. If it meant making you smile, he’d do it.
So Yuji takes the challenge of remaking a batch of frosting head-on, his love for you overcoming his love for slacking off.
He spends the next hour singing over some embarrassing Justin Bieber song, as he burns himself using the oven about 3 times and knocks over pans that fall straight onto his toe, making him yelp in pain.
Choso later finds the mess on the counter and is.. Not so pleased, but it’s his little brother so, how could he be mad?
***
2 MORE DAYS UNTIL VALENTINES DAY.
Flowers. What kind of flowers did you like? Maybe roses? Hydrangeas? Orchids? Okay, his brain was starting to hurt just looking at all these plant names.
“Need help, young man?” The voice of what sounded to be the voice of an old woman, her voice raspy but kindly warm and inviting—like she was the type of elderly lady to feed you freshly baked cookies until you just couldn’t eat anymore.
Yuji immediately whipped his head to her direction, his eyes meeting one of a pretty hazel, her face all smiles and wrinkles. “Oh, uhm, yeah.” The old lady moves closer to Yuji, cane bumping against the floor with a soft thud as she steps.
She places a hand to her chin, stroking it gently. “For your girlfriend?” Yuji almost stumbles back at her sudden assumption. His hands scramble wildly all over the place, probably trying to make a point but ultimately failing—because it genuinely just seems like made up sign language.
“N—Nah, nah! It’s for my uhm.. Crush.” He admits, his tone converting into one quieter and more timid as he goes along with his sentence. The old lady lets out a hum. “Really now?”
Yuji nods, not really knowing what else to say. “Anything will do, really. I’d just like to give her something..”
The old lady moves along without warning, making Yuji awkwardly scramble to her side as she walks through the aisle. She stops, and Yuji almost bumps into her due to her abrupt pause. “This is beautiful, isn’t it?”
The old lady points to a bouquet that’s just perfect. The bouquet sleeve is made out of a clear cellophane while a white mesh tags along, both materials being tied together in a ribbon at the middle of the bouquet. The inside harbors many posy’s of different flowers like pale pink lilies and roses, tall white hollyhocks that adorned the edges, and other pretty pink flowers that Yuji doesn’t know the name of.
Yuji gulped, adjusting the collar of his shirt for no reason. “Y—Yeah, it’s beautiful.” The old lady pats his shoulder with a soft, creased smile. “Now you go on and build up your courage, boy.”
Yuji flashes a grin awkwardly, chuckles awkwardly, and puts up a thumbs up awkwardly.
***
ONE MORE DAY UNTIL VALENTINE’S DAY.
“Go on.” Choso says patiently.
“I—It’s embarrassing, man…”
“You said you wanted to practice, so practice.” Choso’s voice is muffled, due to his face being covered by a big printed out photo of your face that is taped onto Choso’s forehead, draped down the rest of his face.
Yuji drags both of his palms down his face, pulling at his lower eyelids before letting go to run a hand through soft pink locks of hair. “Also, the photo just makes me feel like a loser. It’s a photo from last year’s photo book, too!”
“Well, it doesn’t change much.”
“Still makes me less confident. Don’t even wanna look her in the eye..”
“Do you have a script prepared?”
“A.. Script? I need that?”
“You don’t always need one. I just mention it so you don’t end up messing something up, or spouting nonsense.”
“I’m not gonna memorize all that..”
“…Write it down, brother.”
“Oh yeah!”
Yuji hurriedly brings himself back onto his feet, flashing a grin with all teeth at his brother before scurrying off to his room.
His room isn’t all that decorated, nothing much adorning the space except a taped up poster of a model in a bikini that… probably shouldn’t be there if he ends up actually getting with the girl he likes.
Nonetheless, he does have a desk that he uses for the usual things like homework and even a diary. Though with how much Yuji struggles to be consistent, the dates jotted down are all weeks or even months apart, making it clear he writes just when he feels like it.
He pushes away a stack of missing homework to the side of his desk, a few papers slowly falling to the ground.
He sets an unused math notebook infront of him just to open it and tear off a single sheet of paper. He places the sheet onto his desk with an unnecessary amount of force, acting as if being rough with a piece of paper will free him of his unnerving.
Yuji begins to write. He’s thoughtful, considerate, and passionate with his words—almost like he’s trying to psychically pour out his feelings onto his desk and letting it splatter onto the paper.
With every line and stroke at the paper, the more he starts to get into the feeling of just.. being vulnerable and honest with himself.
Yuji was always the energetic one. The happy go lucky guy with zero doubts towards himself, the guy with confidence, the guy who cared for everyone but himself.
Of course Yuji had some things he didn’t like about himself. Like the annoying pimples on his back he couldn’t get rid of, or the way his pink hair stands out when surrounded by a crowd of people, or the way he was just an ordinary teenager—like everyone else.
Maybe he liked you for making him realize that.
***
It was the end of the day. Yuji watched as swarms of students poured out of the entrance, each pitter-patter of steps against the concrete floor making him anxious as he waited for you.
He held the bouquet, the cookies topped with frosting, the letter he wrote, and his confidence behind his back. He couldn’t help but pull them closer to himself, anxieties overwhelming him with thoughts of ways this could all possibly go wrong.
A cold breeze brushed past his cheek, making him shiver. More and more students came and went, occasionally some of his friends stopping to make small talk to him. He simply nodded along to their quick chat, keeping his gaze on the entrance.
His eyes finally landed on you. You were smiling to yourself, looking down at your phone attentively. What were you looking at? Was it funny? Well obviously it was, so I guess that was a dumb question, but he nonetheless was curious.
His hand moved to grab your wrist, stopping you in your tracks. You almost stumbled forward, caught off guard by Yuji’s sudden act.
You turned your head to look at him, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear as your breath hitched once you made eye contact.
“Y/N, wait.” He began.
“…Yeah?” You swore you could see a petal from a rose sticking out from behind his back.
“Can we… Talk?”
“Uhm, yeah. I don’t mind.” You say, dubiously shoving your phone into your pocket.
He thrusts out everything he’s put his effort into so far. The bouquet, the note, and the chocolates. He gives you that same goofy, boyish, grin that’s all teeth. One that’s only reserved for his loved ones. One that’s reserved for you.
“Will you be my Valentine?”
A/N: oh my goddd this is such dog water guys I’m sorry. Also I was gonna upload this sooner but tumblr was tweaking on me for a good 2 days so I couldn’t edit my drafts 🥹
Fic on who next?
Nerdjo (Nerd Gojo)
Toji
(Nerdjo it is!)