#yuji threads.

[gravesung]

❝ ...? ❞ leeeans down to where they're sitting. ❝ hey, you okay? ❞

[gravesung]

ON HIS BIRTHDAY THE YEAR AFTER, yuji organizes his own party. it's no fancy sushi buffet or intricately-decorated surprise — karaoke with everyone he could think to invite, dinner at a big family-style restaurant after — but it's... fun.

sometimes that's all you can ask from the jujutsu world, you know? eke out a little happiness here and there, when you can. more importantly, set the stage for the people you love so that they're able to experience joy. guess where he learned that from?

❝ yo—! sensei! sorry i'm late. ❞ with a sheepish laugh, yuji sits crosslegged at the foot of a small patch of earth. normally he'd sit at his house's shrine for this sort of thing, and he still plans to do so when he gets home, but a little more formality is needed when he's visiting his grandpa at the same time. here, it's just him and gojo. no pretense. ❝ i had fun. ❞ ( echoes. ) ❝ the party was great — wish you coulda been there! i bet you're a great singer. i mean, you're good at everything, so that tracks. hah — did you guys go to karaoke when you were young? ❞ here, his eyes fall to the grave adjacent. ❝ i'm gonna visit nanamin after this, so i can't stay too long, but... ❞

( i'm counting on you... yuji. )

❝ it's good... aghh... ❞ yuji sighs, runs a hand through his hair. swallows down what threatens to bubble up like acid in his chest. after a few moments of silence, and a shaky exhale, he lets his wobbly smile fall and drops his face into his hands. ❝ i still don't get it, sensei. how could you expect me to ever forget you? ❞ how can he go a single birthday without some part of him expecting, blindly, to be lifted by the hood and carried off to a kitschy surprise party? how can he eat kikufuku without an overexcited voice in the back of his head explaining that it's the best you can find? how can he spend a single moment alone without feeling like you're waiting around every corner, goofy grin stretched wide, surprise! haha! you really thought i was dead, that's hilarious!

❝ sssorry, ❞ he says into his hands, voice rough with tears he is actively losing the fight to hold back. if fushiguro were here, or kugisaki, it would be so much easier to keep up a smile. it's never difficult to feel hopeful or accepting or peaceful around them, but as soon as yuji finds himself alone, everything kept back by the light starts to creep back up to the surface again. ❝ sorry, i'm — supposed to be happy. but i miss you. it's lonely without you here. ❞

because @mukagenborn asked for it!

[gravesung]

無量__The most subtle aspect was the silence exuded when suddenly grasping and lifting his student like a most cherished gym bag, hauling him without grace or decorum to one of the many classrooms within school grounds. Upon nearly hurling the sliding wood off its hinges, he would make egregious jazz hands towards the setup; The normal party accoutrements, streamers, balloons, party hats forced on people who wouldn't normally wear party hats, plus a bunch of extras on the table, a distinct and probably insanely expensive sushi buffet... and movie popcorn! A poster of an idol he was pretty sure the kid liked... you know, the basics. "OUTANJOUBI OMEDETOU, ITADORI-KUN~! Happy birthday! YAY!"

birthday boy yuji! birthday boy yuji! // @mukagenborn

BEING PICKED UP AND CARRIED by gojo like a piece of luggage is nothing new for yuji. it's never any less jarring, though. like a cat lifted by the scruff of its neck, he goes limp and succumbs to his fate without protest (other than a yelp of surprise when his feet are suddenly Off the Ground instead of On It.)

after a short and bumpy trip across campus, a door slams open and yuji's blasted with a cacophony of joyous shouting, colors, smiling faces — did he tell anyone it was his birthday? damn, he kinda forgot about it with all the curse stuff going on. the thought goes in one proverbial ear and out the other, though. gojo lets him down and yuji immediately turns around to face him, then his friends, grinning like an absolute idiot. ❝ dude! look at all that sushi! ❞ no clue why gojo included a poster of his favorite idol, but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?

❝ thanks, sensei! you really pulled out all the stops! ❞ if gojo wasn't in the mood to be hugged, it's too late. he's getting hugged. (besides, he could always bounce yuji off with infinity, right?) and while all of the decorations and the food are great, the true cause of his radiating joy is the sound of his classmates' chatter as the party really starts up. it's the fact that his birthday was something other than an annoyance to avoid, or an obligation to zombie through, or whatever the hell. it's seeing them happy.

[gravesung]

🍝 from megumi to yuji XYKCK

can you smell what the rock yuji is cooking // @quillheel

HE'S TOO ABSORBED IN HIS task to notice megumi's quiet footsteps at first. yuji yawns, scratches the back of his neck, and flips another buckwheat pancake — only to swear under his breath as it folds over itself and lands, crumpled, in a messed-up shape.

( this has happened with every pancake. the plate beside him, should you come upon it uninitiated, appears to be full of chunky nonsense. )

halfway through his last try, yuji starts at the flicker of a shadow cast by the light and whirls around to face megumi — or he starts to, because this time, the jerky motion of his hand somehow manages to perfectly flip the final pancake.

❝ hey, don't sneak up on me like that! i could've died! ❞ how? ❝ i, uh... tried to make breakfast. one of them turned out good! maybe the secret's being scared half to death. ❞

[gravesung]

@ninjatales ( katsuki ) // yuji one-liners.

❝ yo, bakugou! i didn't know you could cook. whatcha making? ❞

[gravesung]

³²⁾ homemade lemonade & ²⁴⁾ cold tiles // from megumi to yuji <3

IT'S A CRIME THAT HE'S BEING PUT to work for his arm strength while the others play volleyball on the sand. what is he, a pack mule!? wait — that's not right. whatever. anyway, yuji's halfway through the giant stack of lemons gojo-sensei plunked down on the balcony table next to him, taking each through the manual citrus-presser to fill cup after cup of lemon juice and empty them into a glass jug. it's a bit like being lunch leader at school — only worse, because you're at the beach, but unable to actually be on the beach. but he has a duty.and a duty assigned by gojo-sensei is a sacred one.

at least fushiguro stayed back with him to halve the lemons and pass them into his hands. ( though yuji suspects ulterior motives for that, given the balcony's non-windblown umbrella and the bitterly cold air-con of the house behind them. ) something in him jolts like a static shock every time their fingers brush, eyes finding each other, lingering. his heart rate shouldn't be this high while stationary by any means. but neither of them address it. they only look, brush, look away. once the lemon juice itself has reached half the adjacent jug, they'll fill the rest with water, add the floral syrup geto-sensei made and bring it out to the rest of their peers.

that was yuji's goal at one point, anyway. his mind has a habit of losing them when something more interesting comes up. once the bucket they've been tossing lemon peels into has filled past the brim, the two boys head back through the sliding door and into the kitchen to dump them into the compost bin. ( geto's enforcement, not gojo's. he thinks they use it for gardening or something. )

it's... quiet. yuji hisses as his feet touch the cold tiles of the kitchen floor, and the sound echoes through an eerily empty house. makes sense, he'd suppose, given that gojo and the girls dragged geto out to the beach for a game before he could continue slaving away in the kitchen as he is wont to do.

still. it's weird. he can hear his own breathing layered over megumi's. both quicker than they should be, especially now. maybe it was inevitable, the way the tension was building, that yuji finds himself turning, pressing megumi back against the tiled wall by the hips, and kissing him like it's the end of the world.

it'll be a wonder if he remembers the lemonade afterward.

domestic prompts. // @quillheel (everyone lives and they're vacationing at gojo's beach house i don't make the rules)

[gravesung]

'this is gonna be really bad for my health, isn't it?' gumi / yuji! @maskfetisch

❝ DON'T WORRY SO MUCH, fushiguro. that's not healthy for you either. c'moooon, i waited for you so that we could try it together. ❞ because what's bonding if not trying a new, dubious sweet treat brought back from the states? unrelenting, he holds out a square of definitely-outrageously-sweet filled chocolate for megumi to take.

@maskfetisch

[gravesung]

"Ooooiiiiiiiiiii, Yuji-kun!" Kousei calls from afar, waving once attention's been captured. "Have you seen Nanami-san anywhere? He's not picking up my calls!" ( post canon probably? when nanami wakes up and goes with having a cursed weapon prosthesis that kousei does maintenance for / annoys him all the time, hence the lack of callbacks )

❝ yo— , mori-san! ❞ big grin as yuji bounds up to him, though it falls into a puzzled pursing of the lips soon after. ❝ nanamin? haven't seen him today. i wonder if he's with... ❞

... gojo-sensei, he doesn't say, because he can't anymore. instead, he rubs the back of his neck and racks his brain for the last time they spoke. ❝ ... ieiri-san? ❞ he offers lamely, but it's easy enough to swallow down the awkward thing in his throat and put on a smile again. ❝ i'll take you to the school. we can look together. ❞