Flashback -- Two Years Ago
it was one of those pre-drinking, post-childhood, parents-gone type of house parties. Maki was hosting, and had invited the newly formed freshman football team, along with the equally new freshman cheerleader squad. the teens were drunk on the usual supply--freedom, boredom, and uninhibited pheromones spraying everywhere in an unsupervised environment. Megumi would usually be disgusted at this kind of unabashed nascency, but something about the strangeness of the night was convincing him to have fun and enjoy himself.
it was before Nobara had been bitten, and before Megumi had fully presented--things that would change the both of them and their status in high school society drastically--so a freshly presented and dewy Nobara was playing the flirt with some of the alphas (Maki among them) at the pool table, while Megumi was holed up on the least obtrusive couch, nursing a flattening ginger ale.
the weird kid, Yuuji, had taken up the other half of the couch and was chatting with anyone who would listen like he was still a five-year-old pup. for all his muscle and sheer size, he still had the faintly milky scent of the unpresented, although the longer he sat next to Megumi (not really interacting with him), the more Megumi could smell a little of the alpha spice he would eventually have--resulting in a smell almost like freshly brewed chai that was making Megumi find extreme distaste with the now-flat ginger ale he held.
no one knew Yuuji had a demon inside him yet, though Maki did tell Megumi offhandedly that the boy was a beast on the field. Megumi knew in a vague sort of way that alphas and omegas were supposed to like each other, but had never felt that pull before--having remained unpresented for so long. Still, something was grounding her to the couch, and it certainly wasnt the ginger ale.
right when Megumi finally decided to set the ginger ale to the side, Nobara came running from the pool table, a triumphant grin on her face (she had successfully distracted all the alphas enough to pocket the 8-ball and win the doubles match for her and Maki). "Everybody get on the floor we're gonna play spin the bottle now!"
Yuuji eagerly jumped up from the couch, even as he asked, "Wait, what's spin the bottle?"
Megumi laughed quietly. what an idiot. even *Megumi* knew what spin the bottle was. The small group settled in a circle, and Nobara brought over an empty san pellegrino bottle, grinning wildly as she began explaining. "Okay, so everyone sits in a circle, and we take turns spinning the bottle. Whoever the bottle points at when its done spinning--" Nobara's eyes glinted and she flashed her teeth in excitement "--you have to *kiss* them. I'll start."
Nobara spun the bottle and laughed as it landed on Kasumi Miwa, crawling over on her hands and knees to perch her face in front of Miwa's. Miwa laughed, as Todo said, "Oh my god two omegas kissing, FUCK!"
The two girls shared a cute kiss and broke apart giggling, though Megumi could see Maki tense a little, her jaw tightening slightly. Mai also noticed, and gave her twin an elbow nudge as Nobara crawled back to her seat next to Maki. Maki determinedly rose to spin the bottle and it happened to land on Nobara--with a slightly smug expression, Maki curled sinuously around Nobara's smaller frame and used a muscular hand to cup her face before giving her a short passionate kiss that made Nobara squeak and flush slightly.
Mai laughed and shook her head, spinning the bottle to get Megumi. Nobara cut in to say, "Ew you absolutely cannot kiss family. Mai, spin it again."
The beta laughed gratefully as Megumi breathed a sigh of relief, and the second time Mai got Inumaki, who was neither a football player or a cheerleader, but who Maki had invited because she knew that Yuuta had a massive crush on him, and Toge was friendly with Megumi and Nobara anyways. The kissed in the way people who have no attraction to each other do, and fell apart easily.
Yuuta spun the bottle silently, getting Maki, and the two alphas shared the coldest, but most lustre-less kiss Megumi had ever seen. Nobara screwed her face up in annoyance. "Ugh, boooo. That was boring you two."
Yuuta just shrugged as Miwa took the bottle and got Megumi, opting to kiss him on the cheek out of shyness and Megumi's clear discomfort.
Inumaki went, very "luckily" getting Yuuta, who the small boy seemed to have an equally large crush on. Toge shuffled on his knees to approach Yuuta who was sitting stock-still, and leaned forward to place a sweet peck on Yuuta closed, frozen mouth, igniting Yuuta's cheeks in a blaze of red. Maki and Todo whooped and hollered, causing Toge to blush as well and scurry back to his seat.
Todo went next, spun the bottle, and got Megumi, turning to him with a nasty grin. "C'mere little flowerbud," Todo said, closing his eyes and sticking out his tongue, waggling it lasciviously. Megumi wanted to throw up. As Todo got closer, he yelled, "No!" and turned away, Todo's wet tongue grazing his cheek as he fell back and into Yuuji, who instinctively grabbed hold of Megumi and pulled him away from Todo slightly.
Todo looked pissed, saying, "What the fuck bro, it's just a fucking game. You can't wimp out like that."
Nobara interjected, "Chill out Todo, Megumi doesnt have to kiss you." She grinned wickedly now. "But he does have to spend seven minutes in heaven with the person who she gets when she spins." Nobara waggled her eyebrows mischieviously.
Megumi groaned and approached the bottle with the attitude of a man approaching the gallows. He spun reluctantly, but hard, desperate to avoid Todo. Watching the bottle spin felt like it was taking hours as Megumi's life narrowed down to a small spot on the floor. Then it finished turning, to point directly to the person next to him. Yuuji.
The boy looked at him with wide eyes, like he still hadn't figured out the main point of the game was to get people to kiss each other. He looked from Megumi to Nobara with a quizzical expression that Megumi almost found cute as he asked, "Wait, so what do we do now?"
Nobara stood up triumphantly. "Now we lock you two in a closet together for seven whole minutes." She smirked evilly. "Come along."
The two pups got up and trudged along behind Nobara, one clueless, and one far too all-knowing for their own good. "In you go," said Nobara.
"But its tiny in there!" Yuuji protested, Megumi eyeing his big frame and trying to imagine the two of them fitting together in the cramped space.
"That's the point," Maki said as she snuck from behind them, unceremoniously shoving them both into the closet. By the time the two jumbled bodies were able to organize themselves in the space, the door had been locked.
Yuuji eyed the door. "If we had more space, I could break us out of here."
Megumi took a second to watch Yuuji's shoulder and neck muscles flex unintentionally in the dim light, the bobbing column of his throat showing how aggravated he was by their situation.
"Then they'd just be mad at us," Megumi sighed, "And we'd have to explain to my Auntie why her basement closet door is busted."
Yuuji sighed, before looking at Megumi curiously. "What are we even supposed to do in here?"
Megumi laughed. "You really are dense, huh. We're supposed to make out. That's why its called seven minutes in heaven. Its supposed to be fun."
Yuuji screwed up his face. "But you literally ran away when Todo tried to kiss you. And you weren't even that comfortable-looking when Miwa tried to kiss you either."
Megumi stared at Yuuji like he'd grown a second head. How did this totally oblivious jock notice all that!
"I guess I'm just shy," Megumi said, uncomfortable with feeling so seen. Usually he was able to disappear into the background with ease.
"Do you wanna kiss me?"
The question was so luminously simple, it shocked Megumi.
"I--I dont know."
"Okay," Yuuji said. "We dont have to then."
Megumi didnt know how to respond, and just fidgeted instead.
a beat of silence followed, the space warming up with their quiet breaths, their scents slowly spilling out. Megumi was too fidgety to notice the fact that either of them had scents at all, he just knew that the air was getting thicker to breathe. Then Yuuji spoke again, his voice quiet and small, in sharp contrast to the way his large body almost seemed to engulf Megumi completely in the small space they were trapped in together.
"But--if you did want to kiss me...I dont. Um. I wouldnt mind." Yuuji breathed in and out, a shuddering breath that Megumi could feel as if it were coming from his own chest. "I think you're really beautiful Megumi. Like the seaglass Grampa always finds on the beach in Sendai. Or like--like stars, when you can see 'em all in the night sky. Or like hay, when its all stacked up real neatly and the cows want to get at it."
A pause.
"Jesus I sound fucking stupid. Forget I said anything please."
Megumi felt his body moving forward before he could stop himself, something animal and primal taking him over from the hindbrain and overriding any conscious thought he might have had. Megumi surged forward in the small space, slender hands finding and grasping Yuuji's face, lips crashing against each other as Yuuji gave out a very cute, "Oh!" Megumi wanted to touch, to grab everywhere, to feel Yuuji beneath him, when suddenly it was bright, so bright, and someone was pulling him up by the scruff of his neck and he honest-to-god *yelped* like he was a pup again.
When Megumi was able to make sense of what his eyes were seeing, his Auntie was towering over a cowering Yuuji, still cramped on the floor of the basement closet. words rushed back to Megumi as his Auntie yelled, "Get up and get out of my house right this instant!"
Megumi glanced back and saw the room had been cleared except for Maki and Mai who were sheepishly standing by. The rest of their friends must've been herded out already. Megumi's gaze snapped back to Yuuji who had scrambled up and couldn't stop mumbling "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," as he was made to flee the basement. Their gazes met for one singular moment, Yuuji's wide hazel eyes wet with tears as he murmured, "I'm sorry Megumi, I'm so sorry," before he was moved away and out of the house.
Megumi stumbled, feeling like he was only getting flashes of reality, as his Auntie grabbed him and steadied him, bodily hauling him up the stairs and depositing him in the guest bedroom with a stern yet concerned, "Wait here."
Auntie closed the door behind her and Megumi listened to her stomp to the kitchen where she proceeded to yell at Maki and Mai for five minutes straight. Megumi could only focus long enough to hear small snatches of the conversation, despite Auntie's loud tone likely loud enough for the neighbors to hear.
"... how dare you let an Alpha be alone with your cousin in that state, do you know what could have HAPPENED to him!? ... no Mai, now is NOT the time to defend your sister, it was HER duty to protect your cousin from this EXACT kind of situation, and Maki you KNOW that. How many times have I told you... If that had gone on any longer... I shudder to think of how I could have explained that to Toji. My brother may be many things but that child is his only... What were all of you THINKING!? Nevermind, dont answer that... kids your age dont think, just pups with no grasp on the consequences... the both of you are GROUNDED for a MONTH... go to your rooms I need to take care of Megumi now..."
A soft click and a partially unconscious Megumi felt more than heard his Auntie enter the room. He groaned, really moreso mewled, and asked, "Why am I so wet Auntie?" he felt drenched all over, sweat pouring out of him, and a peculiar sensation coming from between his legs unlike anything he'd ever felt before.
"Don't worry Megumi, you're just having your first heat. You're finally presenting sweetie, this is normal."
"Not Maki-Mai fault," Megumi slurred, anxious to absolve his cousins from any wrongdoing. If it was normal it couldnt be their fault right? His mind was hazy, and he had already half-forgotten the encounter with Yuuji in the closet.
Auntie ignored him and hoisted him upright, leading him to the bathroom. "We're just gonna take a shower sweetie, and then we're gonna wrap you up nice and warm in some soft blankets and get you a heat reducer--im sure we have some around here somewhere--and you're gonna rest nice and comfortable here for the weekend."
"Toji--"
"Your dad will be happy knowing youre riding out your heat here, safe and attended."
"...Soft."
"Yes honey, just relax..." Somehow the shower and toweling off had happened already, and Megumi was now cozy and cuddling a pillow in the nest he had made in the center of the guest bed. "Drink this?" Megumi swallowed a pill with dry lips and drank some water.
"Mmm, night Auntie," Megumi said.
"Good night, porcupine," she said, just a tinge of worry in her voice as she closed the door behind herself.
Megumi slept deeply, interrupted only every now and then by a twinge moving in his gut, and dreams of golden eyes staring him like a moth loved a flame. And Megumi stared back.
---
Yuuji walked home that night with his fangs fully bared and hands shaking, miles of nighttime stretching along the secluded highway as he chafed against his very skin, feeling like he wanted to howl at the moon. His thoughts turned and tumbled like an ocean at war with itself, but there was only one thing on his mind forevermore.
*Megumi, Megumi, Megumi.*
white jade Megumi, Megumi who hung the moon and the stars, slender, slight, small Megumi, Megumi who kissed *him*, Megumi's little hands on his face, his shoulders, his knees, Megumi's soft skin calling out for him to bite it, mark it, make it his. Yuuji trembled, recognizing the chill was coming from the sweat pouring down his back and clinging the shirt to his skin, his skin that still felt raccoon hands clinging to him like Yuuji might be special, clinging to *Yuuji* who had never been special to *anyone*, not to his deadbeat parents, not even to his grandfather, not really.
Megumi who was like water in his hands, slipping away even as he grabbed harder. Yuuji knew in that moment, in that instant, there would never be anyone else. He had imprinted fully onto the beautiful creature that had been taken from him, that he had been punished for daring to touch for even the briefest of moments, and he knew he would live in purgatory for the rest of his life from that moment on. But it was worth it. It would always be worth it.
When Yuuji got home, half feral, hands clenched so hard his nails were causing his palms to bleed, fangs like tusks with the way they protruded from his mouth, Yuuji's grandfather simply got up calmly, going to the kitchen to set some water on for tea. Yuuji simply stood in the living room like some unconscionable beast, muddy shoes still on his feet, feeling like he might rip out of his skin if he sat down. Wasuke came back with gauze and alcohol, gently peeling Yuuji's hands open, murmuring quietly, "The first one's always the hardest, my boy."
Yuuji didnt even flinch as the stinging liquid was wiped over his cut open palms, let his grandfather wrap his hands, toed off his shoes at his grandfather's urging, and accepted the steaming hot cup of gingerroot tea. When Wasuke led him to a locked corner room in the house, Yuuji listened as the older man said, "I've been saving everything in there for your first rut, boy. Nothing in there needs to be saved any longer."
Yuuji held the tea in his two bandaged hands as he downed it, not caring for how hot it was or how it scorched his tongue and throat as he drank the whole thing. He gave the cup back to his grandfather and wordlessly entered the room, allowing his grandfather to lock him in the room with a soft click. Inside were a variety of things you might find in the cage of a large hunting hound, ropes and layered leather balls perfect for clawing and gnawing and ripping to shreds. Yuuji growled and let loose on the room, working out his energy punching and biting, tearing open pillows and humping tattered furniture, until he was finally spent. Yuuji circled his chosen spot in the middle of all his mess, curled up on the hardwood floors, and slept like a dog.
---
When Megumi woke to the world, two days later, he barely remembered a thing. The heat had burned through his brain like a wildfire, and all that remained was the drying sticky sensation between his legs and a vague uneasiness. He was told a story, which became THE story given his lack of memories, by his Auntie and later by Toji, that he had been locked in a closet with Yuuji while the Alpha was in rut and Megumi was in heat (somehow unbeknownst to Maki or any of the other already presented teenagers at the party).
Then, when Yuuji could barely make eye contact with him at school, and became a demon on the field during practices and games, Megumi knew that his Auntie had done the right thing, and was right to be upset with Maki. Megumi didnt blame Maki, some tiny niggling doubt threading through because he didnt *remember* being in heat when they went into the closet, but he also didnt *remember* much of anything else either. Maki and Mai didn't have a version of the story that was that different from Auntie's and Toji's, so Megumi chalked the whole thing up to an freak accident, and was glad to have walked away with his virginity and his mating gland intact. Whatever weird feelings that Yuuji conjured up in him were some lingering biochemical affliction from them sharing a presentation day and nothing more.
But when Yuuji woke up, he remembered everything. He remembered the stirring feelings that had started as early as when he had unconsciously chosen to sit next to Megumi, the way both his and Megumi's scents had started to come forth. Megumi's milk-and-honey smell lived in his mind like a specter taunting him. He remembered the feel of Megumi's body underneath his hands like someone would remembered a brand being burned into their skin. He remembered the desperate, whispered confessions he had told the omega. He remembered the taste of Megumi's lips on his, given freely, with desire pouring off the omega in waves strong enough to push Yuuji fully into rut.
He was embarrassed to find how little control he had over himself, how he would have let Megumi do anything to him in that moment. To die by a knife in the omega's hands would have been like the sweetest gift he could imagine. And it made him shy and avoidant when he finally saw Megumi again, not wanting to overwhelm the little omega with the wealth and depth of newfound emotion he now had for him. And Megumi avoided him in turn, cementing Yuuji's belief that perhaps it had just been a fluke, a symptom of Megumi's oncoming heat, because of course no one as perfect as Fushiguro Megumi could like someone as broken and boring as Itadori Yuuji.
The guilt and fear and shame and worry ate at Yuuji until the only thing he could do was channel it into his only physical outlet--the only thing his alpha excelled at. Everyone called him a demon for his violent prowess on the field, but Yuuji knew the reason. Deep down, he knew he would never love anyone the way he would love Megumi for the rest of his life. And with Megumi literally cheering Sukuna--cheering Yuuji on, his alpha had to perform for the only omega it had its heart set on. He would break the bones and rip out the throats of anyone who stood between him and his beloved, because Megumi was the only one who had ever touched him so delicately that it made him feel like he could break. And that was that.