Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Late in the night, silent as could be, Megumi stepped through the shadows into Yuji’s room and stood at the foot of his bed watching him sleep. Bright white moonlight came in from the four-paneled windows and fell upon them both. Megumi was not worried about being caught. He had learned, over many nights spent with held breath, that Yuji was a deep sleeper. So he stared at the place on Yuji’s chest where the blanket wrinkled with each of his breaths and inhaled deeply through his nose. 

The room smelt absolutely fucking delicious . Like crisp apples and sun-warm grass. Yuji must’ve been too tired to wash up much before turning in because his heavy, sweaty pheromones clung to him and perfumed the air. Megumi greedily absorbed the comfort it offered, instincts howling. He wanted to crawl into bed with Yuji and gather him close. 

Yuji. Yuji. Yuji. Megumi’s heart picked up. He loved Yuji. No, love didn’t describe it - he revered Yuji, he needed him. The first and only omega to fill his chest and heart with want. Compulsively, and against his better judgment, Megumi slid the soft inside of his wrist against Yuji’s blanket. Megumi’s pine cone and minty sap smell was strong. It paired nicely with the Yuji’s sweet, tangy scent. He stepped back through the shadows before he lost himself and scent-marked the rest of Yuji’s room. One day. He tells himself. One day. He leaves with the image of ruffled pink hair and the outline of Yuji’s lips parted around gentle exhales. And, maybe, a pair of dirty socks half-tucked under Yuji’s bed frame that Megumi is sure he won’t miss. The weight of the socks in his pocket thrilled him. He’d visited Yuji many times, but never taken anything. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stop once he started. 

Back in his room at Jujutsu Tech, Megumi ripped the socks from his pocket as he seeped from the shadows, balling them hard against his nose while leaning against the wall he’d traveled through to stuff a too eager hand down his pants. Yuji’s smell was more than enough to get him hard. Fuck, he was past hard. His guts throbbed, and he moaned wantonly.  Yuji. Yuji. Yuji. 

Megumi met Yuji two and a half months ago, on a mission to the outskirts of the Miyagi prefecture, where Yuji lived and operated a small community center. He served meals, rented school books, even responded to calls about cats-stuck-in-trees. Yuji was the kind, multi-purpose tool of his small village, and everyone loved him for it. It was the type of honest life Megumi could admire. That he craved for himself, and the children he’d have one day, and raise much differently than himself. 

So he read about the area’s history from a table in the center's corner as he hunted for the cursed spirit that had already killed three young girls, and, even from such a distance, Megumi fell in love. Yuji was perfect. Patient with children and elders, thoughtful, never too proud. And beautiful. His pink hair and light brown eyes were shinier and prettier, too, than any Megumi had seen before. When Megumi got hot inside, with self-righteous flames, wound tight with the compulsion to fight - Megumi thought of Yuji, and the thoughts slipped like cool water down his throat and soothed him. 

Megumi breathed a damp patch onto Yuji’s socks, so desperate to get more of his omega’s smell he’s nearly willing to swallow them whole. It took one, two, three, hot strokes of his dry palm across his filled cock for his vision to go white, gray sparks dancing along the backs of his eyelids as he slid to the floor and came hard in his school uniform pants, Yuji’s name on his lips. He panted raggedly into the silent dorm. 

Maybe, next time, Megumi could find Yuji somewhere he could formally introduce himself. 

After all, Yuji still needed to fall in love with him, too.

The next day, Megumi found himself at the table in the corner of the community center, watching Yuji read to a small circle of fat-cheeked toddlers. Accompanying the kids were a handful of parents, omega mothers and fathers, and a single alpha woman, whose red eyes were too keen on Yuji for Megumi’s tastes. He couldn’t think of an excuse to get closer to the reading group, or he would. Instead, he alternated between drinking in Yuji, dressed finely in gray linen pants tied at the waist, and a light yellow haori, opened over a white and gray patterned button-up, and skimming the book he’d selected at random - Traditions of Feudal Japan. 

Megumi’s phone beeped in his pocket. At the sharp chirp, Yuji’s chin instinctually lifted, and his brown eyes met Megumi’s across the room. He’s stunning. Several kids turned to look his way. Megumi blushed hard, looking down and whipping his phone out of his pocket to silence it before tipping his head in Yuji’s direction in sheepish acknowledgment. Sorry. Yuji just smiled and went back to his book. Megumi buried his face in Chapter Three: Industry to hide his flaming cheeks while his heart slammed in his chest. 

Yuji smiled at him. He’d done something annoying, wrong even - and Yuji had simply smiled indulgently. He was so good. So understanding. Megumi basked in the warmth that smile had kindled in him. 

Megumi waited ten minutes, trying to outlast the reading group, then stood to leave. He was weary to leave before the alpha woman- he didn’t want to leave Yuji alone to deal with a potentially uncomfortable situation- (ie: he wanted to circumvent any flirting) but it was time to answer Gojo’s beckoning. Yuji would be here even after the curses were exorcised. They were soulmates, after all. 

In the light of day outside the library, Megumi searched out a dark alley and melded with the shadows, emerging miles away under the swaying branches of a tree in the courtyard of Jujutsu Tech. Gojo waited for him by an idling car. Megumi climbed wordlessly inside as Gojo filled him in, his heart and thoughts far away. 

Gojo flicked the side of Megumi’s head, smirking. “You’re distracted.” 

Megumi glared at him. “No, I’m not.” 

Gojo leaned in and sniffed the air around Megumi’s head. “Scent doesn’t lie,” he sing-songs. “What’s got my student so excited?” 

Megumi grumbled but didn’t reply, turning to look out the window at the rolling hills. For now, Yuji was his secret. He wasn’t yet willing to share his omega with the others. Especially prime alpha Gojo, whose scent and pheromones filled every space like they were paid to. 

“Well…” Gojo began, uncaring of Megumi’s lack of interest. “The special grade seems to be targeting pregnant mothers…”

Four hours later, Megumi helped a swollen soon-to-be momma to her feet, the rancid smell of her fear and pain curling like a fist around his lungs and squeezing hard. Any moment he’d be suffocated by her negative emotions. 

“It’s going to be okay,” Megumi comforted gruffly, the arm he fastened tightly around her waist guiding her down the dank sewer duct. 

The woman sobbed in reply. One of her small hands supported her bare belly. The curse had ripped her blouse to pieces as it dragged her into its domain, and her nakedness contributed to her terror. Something unfamiliar pricked up Megumi’s spine as they rounded a dark corner. The walls trembled. Somewhere else in the bowels of the sewer, Gojo was fighting the special grade. It’d been Megumi’s task to track and rescue any survivors. He tried to exude a calming smell, but rubbing shoulders with an omega in such visceral distress made it nearly impossible. His alpha instincts howled. How could anything be evil enough to hurt someone so far along with a pup? He knew he had to smell wild. A little unhinged. 

They came to a stop at a steep service ladder. The woman peered nervously up the rungs as Megumi rested his hand in a puddle of shadow and asked, “What is your name?”

“Yachi,” the woman whispered. She was clearly weighing the odds she’d fall off the ladder as soon as she started scaling it.

“Yachi, do you trust me?” Megumi asked. 

Surprisingly, she nodded. 

Megumi looked at Yachi, then closed his eyes. He’d summoned his shikigami many, many times tonight. Perhaps more than he ever had before. To say he was drained, to call him tired - it would be an understatement. He was past the point of one more time. So he conjured an image of Yuji, taped it to the back of his closed eyelids, and gathered all of his strength. With a tremendous burst of effort and a loud grunt, Nue materialized from the darkness, his feathers rumpled. Yachi stared at the great owl in shock, but recovered quickly. Megumi wagered she had seen many terrible, unspeakable things tonight, and Nue was probably towards the bottom of the list in terms of fear-inducing.

“Wh-what is that thing?” She asked shakily. 

“Your ride,” Megumi said while he stripped off his shirt and handed it to Yachi. It wouldn’t fit around her belly, but it covered her pale breasts and shoulders, and she buttoned it gratefully just above the swell of her bump. Less exposed, she stood straighter and prouder. Like a simple shirt had given her strength. 

Yuji would be proud of his thoughtfulness, Megumi thought, preening.

“Take her to the surface,” Megumi directed Nue. “Carefully.” Then, to Yachi, “I’ll see you up there.”

Nue did not give Yachi enough time to respond. He gently scooped her off her feet, cradling her between taloned feet, and drove hard toward the surface with his red wings. A stray feather fell from him and spiraled toward the ground, brushing along the side of Megumi’s cheek before landing next to his feet. He snatched it off the floor and stuffed it into his pocket before it could get dirty. 

Then, he climbed the ladder and decided mid-way he deserved a visit with his omega. It didn’t feel like yesterday that he’d stolen those socks, and his once every three days rule was self-imposed, anyway. Besides, he reasoned, it was only natural to crave Yuji’s calming scent after a day like today. 

Right? He nodded to himself as he climbed. Of course. Yuji, and his sweet-smelling room, were all his . It made sense to be drawn back, and back, and back. 

Topside again, Megumi found Yachi under Gojo’s arm, the alpha releasing calming pheromones that had her wilting into his hold. Her bare, bruised feet looked impossibly vulnerable against the moon-splashed blacktop. The unfamiliar prickle from earlier went up Megumi’s spine again, and he shivered. 

It wasn’t the sight of Yachi, pregnant to bursting and purple all over, that gave Megumi the chills, but the thought of Yuji in her place . His omega, swollen with his pup, almost naked and scared half to death. Nothing like this can ever happen to Yuji. Megumi wouldn’t be like Yachi’s alpha, or his father, or any of the other deadbeats that left their omega’s behind, let them get hurt. Yuji was Megumi’s. And Megumi, unlike all the others in his field of life-and-death, chose who he protected. That meant he could never afford to slip up - not even a little. He shivered again and released his technique. 

Gojo helped Yachi into the car. When he looked up, Megumi’s name on his lips, the distant shadows quivered and Gojo knew they had already carried his student away. If he wanted to, he could peer through the darkness into Megumi’s destination. 

But the mission was over. They had thanklessly saved two lives in the middle of the night. Megumi could disappear if he wanted to. 

Yuji’s apartment had only a bedroom, a tiny kitchen with a two-burner stove-top oven and a mini-fridge, a bathroom with no tub, and a patio, on which Yuji grew small potted plants and drank tea in the morning. It was a cute place, and quite quaint. Megumi loved each night he spent here. Usually, just stepping into Yuji’s space calmed him. 

But tonight, Megumi was a bit off-kilter. Maybe Yachi’s distress had affected him more than he realized; maybe his heart hadn’t stopped beating fast since Gojo told him the curse targeted expecting omegas. Not Yuji. Never Yuji. 

Megumi’s blood was a little wild in his veins when he leaned in close to Yuji, who lay across his bed with arms and legs flung in every direction, his right cheek pressed to a pillow, his strong back chorded with muscle. Megumi put his nose as close to the base of Yuji’s neck as he dared, Yuji’s scent gland ripe, and sniffed. 

Yuji’s sweet apple smell filled Megumi’s lungs and buoyed him in the middle of a feral sea. Megumi’s muscles relaxed. Yuji was safe. Megumi had not failed. Nothing had happened in the seven hours since Megumi watched Yuji at the community center. Yuji’s neck, gently tanned like the rest of him from days spent in the garden and playing ball with the kids outside, was still unmarked by alpha fangs. 

The fear that’d been expanding in his lungs rushed from him like a knife popped balloon. He pressed the heel of his palm to his chest and willed his slowing heart to settle faster. Yuji shifted slightly in bed, and Megumi sprung back, pressing his shoulder blades against the shadowy far wall of the room, waiting with bated breath for Yuji to settle again. Finally, he rolled onto his back, vulgarly displaying his palm-sized maternity breasts to Megumi, and stilled. 

Megumi smiled. It’s okay, he thought, and allowed himself a seat at Yuji’s desk to see better. Yuji could be as brazen as he wanted. Megumi would always be there to protect him. 

It wasn’t until the sun peeked over the clouds that Megumi felt like he’d seen his fill and prepared to leave. He looked compulsively around the room before he stepped into the shadows, fingers itching to take along another treasure, like a pair of underwear or a sweaty shirt. He snatched the first thing he saw from the top of Yuji’s laundry basket, something white, and, just before leaving, reached into the tattered pocket of his pants for Nue’s pretty red feather, which he left in place of his stolen loot. Megumi disappeared exactly six and a half minutes before Yuji’s morning alarm rang. 

Back at Jujutsu Tech, Megumi paced the length of his room and wondered if Yuji would like his gift. Would he see it first thing in the morning? Or not until he changed from his pajamas? Megumi would go to the community center later to visit Yuji and see. 

In the meantime, he gingerly unwrapped the white article of clothing he’d stolen. A workout tank. 

Megumi made a giddy noise and scrambled into his bed, holding the shirt against his chest like he’d hold Yuji, and fell asleep to the sweet notes of his omega’s scent right under his nose.

 It’d been a good day. 

Actually? It’d been a terrible fucking day. 

Gojo came up beside Megumi and slapped him on the shoulder. He was grinning almost manically. “Look on the bright side,” Gojo said, as the curse’s domain expansion dripped and fell away all around them. “No one got hurt!”

Megumi sneered, annoyed with himself and the situation and his injury. Gojo must’ve seen the blood dripping from his head wound and decided it didn’t count. 

Megumi handled this mission alone as part of Nanami’s recommendation for him to ascend to Grade One sorcerer status. It had been an honor. But it had also been a tremendous burden. He was glad it was over. And he was glad no one died, though it was not so simple. The people Megumi saved tonight would see curses everywhere. For some, that would be a fate worse than death.

Megumi turned to Gojo and handed back the special grade cursed tool he’d filched for the job. “Give this to Maki.”

“Why can’t you give it to her yourself back at school?” Gojo asked. He still pocketed the shrunken sword, though. Probably to mess around with.

“I’ve got something I need to do.”

Jujutsu Tech would decide later how he’d done. For now, there was time to see Yuji. Yuji. Megumi hadn’t stopped thinking about him all day. Had he liked the feather? Had he understood it was a gift? His unexpected assignment had kept him far from Miyagi. The community center closed at dusk so Yuji could catch the last bus, so Megumi would have to visit him at home. Megumi was genuinely disappointed to have missed that day’s reading group, but seeing Yuji sleeping peacefully would be more than enough. 

Gojo must’ve sensed the direction of Megumi’s thoughts, because motioned toward the wound on the back of Megumi’s head and said, “You need to get this checked out.” 

“I will,” Megumi said, and meant it. His head was throbbing. The curse had pushed him through the second floor to slam him against the first, and he wasn’t convinced he didn’t have a concussion. But he needed to see Yuji. Warm blood slithered down the collar of his shirt and he steadfastly ignored it. Seeing Yuji is more important. 

Megumi looked around him for a sizable chunk of shadow, and sunk into it before Gojo could comment again, wincing with the effort of traveling through the darkness. 

He stumbled from the black corner of Yuji’s bedroom and slammed his hip on the edge of the desk, barely stabilizing it in time to save a tottering pile of books at the edge. He breathed narrowly through his nose and peered over his shoulder at the bed. Yuji slept soundly on his side, his back to Megumi. Megumi lowered himself into the desk’s chair and cradled his cheeks in his hands, letting Yuji’s scent wash over him. He wanted to look for the feather, mostly to make sure Yuji hadn’t thrown it away, but couldn’t bring himself to stand. 

More blood fell from the wound at the back of his head. Suddenly, he was exhausted. Yuji’s okay. He’s fine. Megumi closed his eyes and hunched over the desk as blackness tunneled towards him. He lost consciousness.

Megumi did not know how much time had passed when Gojo shook him awake. Instantly, his eyes blew wide. His heart turned over in his chest like a faulty engine.

 He’d passed out in Yuji’s room. 

“Is this where you’ve been going?” Gojo asked, looking at Yuji’s sleeping body. 

Megumi’s scent flared possessively. “What’re you doing here?” he hissed, half glaring at Gojo, half watching Yuji. Don’t wake up. Don’t wake up. 

Gojo’s expression gave nothing away. “You kept me waiting too long at the medical bay.” 

Megumi grimaced. “This was supposed to be quick.” 

“Then you must be glad I woke you.”

Megumi did not reply. He was not sure what Gojo understood of the situation and did not want to give too much of his secret away. Instead, Megumi held out his hand. Gojo touched it with two outstretched fingers. When Megumi blinked again, they were in the Jujutsu Tech medical bay. The school nurse had already left for the day, so Gojo bumbled around preparing bandages and antiseptic himself. While it hardly ever felt it, Gojo was still Megumi’s teacher. Neither said a word as Gojo worked, but he hummed to himself. He was never one to wallow in silence. 

After Megumi’s head was cleaned up and bandaged, Gojo lifted the corner of his eye covering to peer seriously at Megumi. “You should try talking to that omega when he’s awake.”

“I will.”

“When?” 

“Soon,” Megumi said. “I’m just keeping him safe until then.”

Gojo turned to re-shelve the antibacterial ointment. For a long moment, there was only the quiet scrape of plastic caps on wood shelves. It was the first time Megumi had ever seen Gojo choose his words with such carefulness. “I’m going to ask the higher-ups not to send you on any more omega victim cases for a while.”

Megumi jerked to his feet. “What? Why!”

“I don’t think your alpha is developed enough to handle being exposed to those kinds of scents. It’s not a commentary on your sorcery or technique.”

“I handled it just fine today!”

Gojo slammed the cabinet door. The medicine on the shelves jumped and rattled from the force of it. “Then why do you keep breaking into that boy's house, Megumi?”

“I’m protecting him. He’s going to be my omega!” Megumi defended. The wound at the back of his head throbbed, and he gripped the paper-wrapped bed to steady himself.

“Does he know that?” Gojo asked. 

But Megumi’s hand was already reaching for the light switch. The boxy exam room was plunged into darkness as Megumi threw the lights. It took less than a second for Gojo to have them back on, but Megumi was long gone. He needed only a split-second of darkness to vanish.

 Gojo threw away the bloody washcloth he’d cleaned Megumi’s face with and silently left the medical bay. There was no point in pursuing the boy anymore.

Hours later, Megumi found the feather in a cup of fancy pens at the community center. A special place, right next to Yuji’s busy computer monitor and a framed photo of him and his grumpy-looking grandpa.

Megumi wilted with relief. Gojo hadn’t known what he was implying. 

Yuji liked his gift, and they were in love.

Chapter Text

Megumi wants to intercept Yuji at the community center, but he never gets the opportunity. Yuji did not go to work the next day or the next. Eventually, Megumi broke down and shadow traveled to the hallway outside of Yuji’s apartment in the mid-afternoon, trying fruitlessly to peer in the gently parted curtains. He was desperate to see Yuji’s smile, and eyes. But the living room and hall lights were off, and Yuji was nowhere in sight. 

Megumi wanted to step through the wall but was scared of being caught. It was too dangerous when he didn’t know where Yuji was inside the apartment. He pressed an ear to the door and listened hard instead.  A tinny laugh track greeted him from the other side,  and he pulled away, relieved. Yuji’s television was on. Megumi thought that was a very good sign. He’s probably watching a show in the living room. 

Megumi shifted impatiently from foot to foot in front of the door and whined childishly under his breath. He wanted to knock and check-in with Yuji, just to make sure his omega was really okay. He had only gotten to watch Yuji as he slept the last two days. But he had no excuse to be there; and even less of an excuse for having Yuji’s address, to begin with. 

He could knock just to bring Yuji to the door and run before Yuji saw him. That, at least, might smother the growing bud of separation anxiety in his chest. I just need to see him. Smell him. The nights they spent together were no longer enough for Megumi. 

Megumi yearned. 

But as he raised his fist to rudely ding dong ditch, a tentative voice behind him asked, “Can I help you?”

Startled, Megumi dropped his hand and turned. Blood rushed to the core of his cheeks. “Um-” Megumi began, so shocked by the confrontation he found himself speechless. 

A thin alpha with a waifish scent stood in front of him. He had long brown hair swept into a loose bun at the base of his neck, and his green eyes were curious as they settled on Megumi. He clutched multiple stuffed plastic convenience store bags to his chest. Megumi could see he’d stuffed more than enough instant noodles inside one of them to feed the entire village. 

What’s he doing here with all that shit?

The awkward tension between them piqued. The other alpha started exuding an unhappy, protective smell. Megumi was taking way too long to think up a reply.

“I think I have the wrong address,” Megumi finished lamely, pushing past to race down the hallway, his heart a hammer against the cage of his ribs. 

Once in the elevator, he tapped his foot impatiently, eager to get downstairs and find enough shadow to slink into. He had to get into that apartment. Now. 

Who was that , Yuji? Megumi was fuming. Yuji’s hallway would reek of that shitty alpha’s stench. Who was he to smell protective about Yuji? Megumi had been the one watching over Yuji! 

In the downstairs lobby, Megumi shouldered a mopping maintenance worker out of his way, his black shoes scuffing the still-damp floor.

“Hey!” the man yelled, disgruntled. 

Megumi pushed outside without even glancing behind him and made a break for the alley beside the building. It was early in the day, and the sun glared off the blacktop. Not ideal for the kind of traveling Megumi had in mind. But he pressed himself against one of the looming brick walls stubbornly, trying to get as much of his body cloaked in the shadow cast by the overhanging gutters as he could. Come on. Come on. He rested his cheek on the wall and closed his eyes. He sealed himself so tightly the bricks scraped his stomach.

The clouds shifted overhead. For a split second, Megumi was covered in shadow. He sunk through the wall and into the darkness.

Yuji. Yuji. Yuji. Who was that alpha? And why had he come to his omega’s apartment? 

And what if Yuji let him inside?

Megumi’s blood ran cold. I should’ve stayed. I should’ve watched from the hall. I should’ve stopped that alpha from even getting close to Yuji. If something happened to Yuji when Megumi was so close, when Megumi was just outside- 

He stepped breathlessly out of the shadows and into Yuji’s room. It took Megumi, a sorcerer accustomed to thinking quickly, less than a second to get his bearings.

 He was alone. 

But Yuji wasn’t. 

Voices slipped under the closed door from the living room and Megumi knew Yuji had let that damn alpha inside. Into their den. Megumi could rip his fucking hair out! 

He stepped towards the sound of the voices, feeling feverish.

Then, the smell hit him. 

Megumi fell to his knees and breathed shallowly through his mouth. 

“Yuji,” he whispered. 

The extra sweetness in the air the past few nights hadn’t been Megumi’s imagination. It must’ve been the scent of Yuji’s pre. And now, he was in heat . 

The evidence was everywhere: Yuji’s rumpled, unmade bed, and the glaring wet spot at the center of it; the discarded underwear by the door; the assortment of knotting dildos and cocklet fleshlights spread across the lumped-up comforter. 

One of the silicone dicks was shiny from recent use. Megumi’s guts clenched hotly at the sight, and he drew himself up into a shaky crouch, listening closely to the conversation in the living room before picking up the toy.

“You didn’t have to bring all this,” Yuji said sweetly. 

“What else are friends for?” The soft-spoken alpha replied. 

Yuji laughed. “Thanks, Junpei.”

“Of course, Yuji-kun.”

Megumi’s inner alpha howled in despair. Megumi should be the one caring for Yuji, the one receiving his praise. Not Junpei, whose disgusting smell clouded the apartment and blurred with Yuji’s. This is wrong, Megumi thought frantically. This was all wrong! He was Yuji’s alpha! And this was their den. A sacred place, especially during an omega’s heat. 

Junpei was encroaching where he shouldn’t be. Megumi should make him leave.

In a spur of twisted jealousy, Megumi shoved the fake cock down this throat and lapped at the stringy traces of Yuji’s slick. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he bit back a deep moan. Still warm. 

Finally, finally, he could taste Yuji - apple and cinnamon and clove and perfectly baked pastry. Megumi wanted to lick the silicone skin of all the fake cocks that’d ever been inside Yuji. He wanted to jerk off with Yuji’s undies to his nose and rub his cum into the wet spot at the center of Yuji’s bed to combine their scents. He wanted more. Needed it. 

But Megumi could tell the meeting in the kitchen was wrapping up. He was running out of time. As Yuji bid good afternoon to Junpei, Megumi hesitantly replaced the toy and crawled back into the closet. He purposely left the door just slightly ajar to stare in at Yuj. The omega entered the room seconds later and flipped the lock behind him after shutting the door. He let out a long sigh. It sounded like he’d been holding it in for quite some time.

In a blur of movement, he kicked off his pants and tore his shirt over his head. His small breasts bounced with each heave of his flushed chest as he dove into the pile of blankets on his bed. He looked around and found a purple knotted dildo, situated himself in a beautiful mating fold -knees bent beneath him, and belly atop his thighs- and hurriedly pressed the dildo he’d selected deep inside himself. He moaned wantonly as it disappeared inside him.

He’d been talking to Junpei but thinking about this. The knowledge could make Megumi crazy, imagining what it’d be like when Yuji’s heat-fueled desperation was for him .

Yuji mewled from the bed as the toy’s knot snagged his rim and pressed at the base a little harder, his pink head thrown back and his neck beautifully arched. He got louder when the fake knot popped past his tight rim and filled him up completely.

In the closet, Megumi’s hands found his belt buckle, then his button and fly. He shoved his pants down just far enough to reveal his dick and licked his palm. From his angle, Megumi could see Yuji’s pink, hairless asshole, and his slick-shiny asscheeks. Megumi had fantasized about touching Yuji there, and all over. About knotting him. About biting his neck. 

Megumi caught his bottom lip between his teeth to keep from whimpering. Yuji smells so good. He’d halfway talked himself into barging into Yuji’s room when the omega’s hips stuttered, his hands scrabbling across the bed. He fisted the yellow blanket he slept with on top of his comforter and pressed his nose to the fabric. He sniffed around for a while as if searching for a particular spot, and when his desperation reached a fever pitch, he finally settled on mouthing at the corner of the blanket.

Right where Megumi indulgently scent-marked his blanket five days ago. 

“Oh,” Yuji moaned. “Alpha.”

Megumi opened his mouth and trembled with a silent groan. Oh, Yuji. He came all over the inside of his fist but did not go soft. He touched himself many, many times that night as he and his omega shared their first heat. And when Yuji fell asleep, Megumi laid on the floor between the bed and the wall, listening to Yuji’s even breaths and rubbing the scent gland at his wrist to produce pheromones and drown the room in YujiMegumi YujiMegumi YujiMegumi. 

Later the next day, Megumi sat beside Gojo to hear the higher up’s thoughts on his mission. The meeting was brief. It had been clear since year one Megumi was following in Yuta Okkotsu’s footsteps. Most of this -the discussions, the recommendations, the missions, and votes- was perfunctory. Maybe even decorative. Megumi inherited the Ten Shadows technique and oversaw the Zenin clan. This was his destiny.

At the end of the meeting, Gojo turned to Megumi, sniffed the air, and said, “Finally shacked up with your omega, eh, Megumi?” He elbowed Megumi in the ribs.

Megumi’s lips twitched in the likeness of a smile. Faint, but there. Gojo could not remember the last time he’d seen anything like it on Megumi’s face. 

“I knew you could do it, Fushiguro-kun,” Gojo said. “You just needed to talk to him, and he was yours!” 

“Right,” Megumi said evenly. 

Gojo invited Megumi to barbecue for lunch and Megumi indulged him. If Megumi had to guess, their fight in the medical bay worried Gojo much more than he let on. 

Frustration welled in Megumi at the thought. Gojo didn’t understand anything about him and Yuji. Megumi would never hurt his omega. And he wouldn’t let pressure from Gojo rush him into spoiling any of their firsts.

When his drink and plate were emptied, Megumi excused himself to the bathroom and snuck out the window. Surely Gojo planned to pick up the tab for their celebratory meal. 

It wasn’t every day a third-year became a grade one sorcerer. You’ll be stronger than me soon, Gojo had joked over sake. Neither of them laughed. 

Megumi hailed a cab on the street corner and climbed silently inside. The driver asked his destination. Megumi leaned forward and said, very seriously, “If you take me to a grocery store first, I’ll pay you triple the fare of a trip to a village near…” Megumi listed off the address. 

One hour and fifty minutes later, Yuji opened his door after three loud knocks to an empty hallway. Whoever had knocked was already gone; but they’d left several paper grocery bags, overflowing with fruit and snacks, in their place. Yuji stared at the food in awe, then looked up and down the hallway in disbelief. 

Take it , Megumi thought from his hiding place in the shadows. It’s yours. And it was going to taste so much better than the shit that Junpei had bought him. Forget the soup and crackers. Megumi was Yuji’s alpha, now. And he was going to provide for his omega. 

More than anything else, Megumi wanted to step out of the shadows and help Yuji ferry in all of his new groceries. Instead, he watched from a distance as Yuji glanced up and down the hallway one last time before shutting his door. The quiet click of his deadbolt sliding into place echoed towards Megumi. 

One heartbeat of time passed. Then two. Then three. Finally, Megumi granted himself permission to step out into the hallway. He hurried over to Yuji’s front “porch” area and, after glancing discreetly over both shoulders, unscrewed the bulb in the small light fixture on the wall that illuminated the hall in front of Yuji’s door. Megumi pocketed the bulb and pushed through the thick new shadows into Yuji’s closet. He eased the closet door open with his fingertips and tiptoed gingerly across the carpeted floor towards the kitchen. 

Dishes clinked together, and Yuji hummed. Megumi loved the soundtrack of life that always played here. It drew him forward.

He got as close as he could to Yuji, breathing quietly, careful not to scuff his shoes where the carpet bled into tile, and watched Yuji from around the corner. 

Yuji was beautiful as ever in his plain white tee and loose-fighting khakis. The worst of his heat had passed, but he still moved about the kitchen with a limp, his fingers skimming the countertops for support. His pink hair was wild from sleep and clearly unwashed. But that was okay. Megumi loved him like this. Could devour him like this. So soft around the edges and kind to the eyes that Megumi never wanted to look away. 

Yuji rummaged around in the paper bags until he found one of the many expensive chocolate bars Megumi had purchased for him. Megumi got so fucking hard as he watched Yuji hungrily polish off the candy before digging around inside the bag for another treat. 

After a heat, omega’s craved calories. Yuji spent most of his time volunteering and lived a modest life in the village’s singular, run-down apartment complex. He was not the type to splurge on the best sweets and ripest fruit. But Megumi was. And the satisfaction that blossomed low in his belly as Yuji peeled and ate an orange that Megumi touched - oh, there was nothing like it. He pressed the heel of his palm against his dick through his clothes and ground against it.

Yuji ripped open a bag of flash-frozen mochi and was about to pop one in his mouth when someone else knocked on his door. Megumi stepped backward in surprise. He struggled to keep the irritation flooding him from coming out as pheromones. Who the hell is it?

“Who is it?” Yuji echoed aloud. 

“Junpei.” Came the muffled reply.

Megumi balled his fists and shook them angrily at the door. Junpei. Megumi had stupidly forgotten about them in the excitement of the other night. 

Yuji opened the door and ushered Junpei inside. 

“What happened to your light?” he asked, flipping the switch by the door. 

Yuji blinked. “Bulb must’ve died.”

“Hmmm.” Junpei looked into the kitchen and appeared visibly taken aback by the spread of groceries across Yuji’s counter. “I didn’t know you were well enough to go out.”

Megumi held his breath as he impatiently awaited Yuji’s reply. 

“Someone left this stuff for me.”

“What do you mean someone? You don’t know who?” 

Yuji shrugged and popped the melting mochi he’d been holding into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed, then smiled. “Nope!”

“Yuji,” Junpei groaned. Megumi hated the sound of his omega’s name on Junpei’s lips. “What if it’s from some weird alpha?”

Yuji stilled. He looked very serious for a moment. As serious as Megumi had ever seen him. Then, his expression shifted into something lighter and he forced a laugh. “It’s fine, Junpei.”

“It’s not fine.”

Yuji made a clear attempt at changing the subject. “So what brought you by?”

Junpei wasn’t having it. “Did you even smell the pheromones out there? I’m worried, Yuji. There are real weirdos out there. Some punk was staring in your windows the last time I came!”

Yuji’s drooping chin snapped up. “What? You didn’t tell me that!”

“I didn’t want to scare you, Yuji, I-“

“Junpei,” Yuji interrupts, not unkindly. “We’ve talked about this. You don’t have to treat me differently now that you’re all presented as alpha.”

“I’m treating you differently because I feel differently,” Junpei confessed in a rush. He laid a trembling hand on his heart. “My alpha- it wants to protect you.”

“Junpei-“ 

It was Junpei’s turn to interrupt. “It’s not because you’re an omega. It’s because I’m an alpha. I-I didn’t even know I could feel jealousy. You make my instincts go crazy.”

He took a deep breath. “I want you, Yuji. I want us to be together. And- and I want to try and keep you safe, even though you’re stronger than me.”

“Junpei…”

Junpei held up his hands. “Don’t say anything right now. Just think about it.” He reached uncertainly for Yuji’s face and stroked sweetly down the side of his cheek. 

Yuji blushed. “Okay,” he whispered, but he leaned away from Junpei's touch and kept his eyes downcast. 

“I’ll go,” Junpei said, dropping his hand. “I was just stopping by since I was in the neighborhood anyway.”

“Will I see you tomorrow?” Yuji asked. 

“Sure,” Junpei replied. This time, it was Junpei avoiding eye contact as he pulled Yuji into a brief hug, and left. The room smelt like disappointment when the door closed behind him. 

Yuji had not rejected him. Outright, at least. But Junpei had to know Yuji wasn’t interested. 

And of course, he wasn’t. He’d found his soulmate in Megumi. How selfish was Junpei to interfere with that? 

Yuji covered his face with his hands and emitted a scent so sad Megumi’s eyebrow ticked in anger. Yuji’s shoulders shook.

Oh no. He’s crying. Megumi ached to step forward and comfort him but knew they couldn’t meet like this. Megumi’s alpha cried out. He’d never smelled anything like this from Yuji before. 

I have to do something. Megumi’s pulse grew frantic. I have to stop Junpei from hurting Yuji again. 

Megumi turned on his heel and walked back down the hall to Yuji’s room. He stepped through Yuji's closet and stepped out of Junpei’s shadow six blocks away. 

No one made Yuji cry. 

Chapter Text

It was a cold day. Late-ish in the afternoon. There was a gentle breeze - the first tease of the winter to come. Leaves rustled. And the shadows were nice and long. Not that Megumi was going to need them - he didn’t have to summon any shikigami to protect Yuji from this useless alpha. He’d kill Junpei with his bare hands for making Yuji cry. 

Megumi grabbed a fistful of hair from the back of Junpei’s head and slammed him onto the concrete. Junpei cried out as he hit the ground and scrambled instinctually towards the grass, one of his hands coming up to protect his head in a pitiful defense against Megumi. 

Megumi tsk’ed at the sight. “You have no pride.”

Expressions chased each other across the half of Junpei’s face Megumi could see. Fear. Shock. Anger. And finally, finally. Recognition. 

Junpei’s scent soured. “You’re-” He clumsily tried to push himself to his feet, but his knees shook so badly he couldn’t gather himself. He propped himself up on his wrist and stared at Megumi instead. “You’re the alpha from Yuji’s apartment.”

Megumi towered over Junpei and said nothing.

“What do you want with him?” Junpei asked as he managed to get his legs under himself. 

The two alpha’s stared at each other, Junpei’s chest pitching quickly up and down between them. His nerves are so obvious. 

“You should worry about yourself for now,” Megumi said calmly.

Junpei’s sour scent was burnt by his heart-numbing terror. He smelt like fried hair.

Megumi wondered what Junpei smelled coming off of him right now. Could Junpei smell Megumi’s intentions? Did some part of him already know he was going to fucking die for confessing to a claimed omega? 

“What do you want from me?” Junpei asked, and crossed his trembling arms stubbornly. “I’m expected somewhere. And you’ve been very rude.”

Megumi dipped his head in a mock bow. “I’ll make this quick.”

Then, he sprung for Junpei. 

To Junpei’s credit, he was quick to bolt. He had halfway turned around when Megumi crashed into him and sent them rolling into the grass.

“Stop!” Junpei shouted, struggling without finesse, bucking his hips in an attempt to dislodge Megumi. “Please, stop!”

Megumi didn’t stop. 

He wrapped an arm around Junpei. Junpei’s adam’s apple fluttered in his throat when Megumi caught it in the bend of his elbow and squeezed. Hard . Their blood soared in tandem as Junpei’s smell spiked with mortal terror. The smell of someone who knew they were out of time.

“This is for Yuji,” Megumi said, and cinched Junpei’s waist with a long leg, leaning back to bend his spine and choke all the air from his lungs. This is for coming into our den. This was for daring to smell Yuji’s heat smell. This was for daring to stroke Yuji’s cheek. 

Junpei made desperate choking sounds and clawed at Megumi’s forearms. His nails raised furious red lines along Megumi’s pale skin, his pupils blown wide with a hunger for air, bright and alive in his face, all too aware of what was happening to him. 

With the last of his strength, Junpei dug his heels into the dirt and lurched back. His head cracked against Megumi’s chin, and the hold on his windpipe loosened. Junpei sucked in a huge breath and blindly threw an elbow. SLAM! He got lucky and connected with Megumi’s cheek and dazed him. Junpei seized the opportunity to surge forward out of Megumi’s grasp and make a break for it across the courtyard. 

The elbow to the face had cleared some of the fog in Megumi’s mind. 

This is taking too long. They’d been rolling around in the grass of this public park for minutes, now. I should’ve done this in an alley somewhere. Or in the woods. It was taking longer to kill Junpei than he’d anticipated. 

Megumi, usually so calculating and precise, had been jealous, and rushed. He hadn’t thought past his hands wrapping around Junpei’s throat. 

He’d been stupid - but he’d fix that now. He wouldn’t leave Junpei’s body on a public sidewalk to traumatize someone’s kid. Or for Yuji to cry over. 

Megumi got up and brushed off the knees of his uniform pants. He felt more like himself than he had since Yuji’s sad scent first pushed him off-balance. 

Junpei, who hadn’t stopped running, was a slow streak of color at the park’s boundary. He was trying very, very hard to get away. 

 Megumi could respect that. He just couldn't let that happen. 

 Megumi pressed his hand against his stretched shadow and let it swallow him whole. When he re-emerged, he followed Junpei over a fence and into someone’s backyard. Junpei limped towards the back door, glancing periodically over his shoulder at Megumi, his neck already stained red and blue from Megumi’s grip on it. 

“Help!” Junpei screamed. “Somebody help me!” 

Megumi watched as Junpei half-stumbled up the first of three porch steps.

“Don’t do it,” Megumi warned. 

Another step. “Help me!” 

“Junpei. Don’t.”

Junpei’s fist rose. And just before his knuckles rapped on the back door, the shadows under his feet shifted, and a cold, black hand reached out and wrapped around his ankle. Another set of fingers clawed up his leg. 

Junpei cried out, the horrified sound cut off when a shadow abruptly filled his mouth and pushed against the back of his teeth. Ice filled his lungs. He opened his mouth wider and wider but found no air anywhere. 

Inky blackness crawled up his body, undaunted by his struggle until it covered his face and head and sucked him down, down, down.

Less than a second later, Junpei was lost to Megumi's domain. His cursed energy leaped as Junpei’s soul was extinguished within the realm of his power. A tickle raced up and down his spine and he shivered. 

It’s that easy. It’s done. Megumi could keep Yuji forever because no one was strong enough to take him away. 

Dead. Junpei was dead. 

Megumi really did kill him. 

For some reason, it was growing harder and harder for Megumi to breathe. The shadows at his feet writhed. Dead. Dead. 

The back door opened and a nervous head popped out. A mousy salary man looked around. His eyes slid over Megumi, crouched in the shadows to conceal himself, and he called back inside, “I don’t see anyone, dear!”

The reply comes almost instantly. “Let’s call the police anyway,” an equally nervous-sounding woman replied. 

“Okay, dear.” 

The door closed. 

Inside his dorm at Jujutsu Tech, Megumi’s electric mania buzzed through his veins like adrenaline. His pounding heart still hadn’t slowed. He pressed his nose to Yuji’s dirty socks, the omega’s scent faded with time, and pulled deeply, willing his body to calm down. 

Megumi had never killed a person before; only curses and cursed corpses. His nervous system wouldn’t stop reacting to what he’d seen. What he’d done. 

“I had to do it,” Megumi said to the room. And to himself. “For Yuji.”

Megumi was not his father. He would not run away when things got tough. He would not let his omega go because he was weak. 

He did not regret what he’d done. 

There was a knock at the door. Megumi jerked towards the interruption in time to see Gojo cracking it open and peering inside. 

“You reek,” Gojo said.

Megumi quickly stuffed the sock into his pocket. “What?” 

“I could smell your anxiety down the hall.” Gojo took a step into the room and looked around at the bare walls. “And someone else’s. Did something happen with your boyfriend?”

Megumi wrapped his arms across himself like it’d contain his scent, and glared at Gojo. “Of course not.” 

“You’re sure?” Megumi scoffed loudly, and Gojo waved him off. “I had to ask.” 

“Did you?” Megumi replied.

Gojo smiled. “You’re funny, Fushiguro-kun,” he said. Then, the easy expression slipped right off his face. “You’re shaking.”

Megumi fisted his hands by his sides. He had not noticed the fine tremble running through his fingers until Gojo commented. It was easy to miss when his whole body was vibrating.

“I haven’t eaten today,” he said. (Not technically a lie.)

Gojo waved a hand. “Let me take you to the cafeteria. I was just about to find something sweet.” 

“No,” Megumi blurted. Then, he took a deep breath. He couldn’t afford to be rousing anymore of Gojo’s suspicions. “I mean- I can’t. Yuji and I have dinner plans.”

Gojo couldn’t help but ask, “Is there room for one more?”

“Oh get the hell out of here already.”

Gojo laughed, reached for the door. He stopped with a loose grip on the handle. “Fushiguro-kun?”

Megumi rolled his eyes. “Yes, Gojo-Sensei?”

“Visit with Shoko before you leave. My six eyes…” He turned to face Megumi. The black cloth covering his bright eyes looked oddly serious. 

“There’s something off, with you. With your cursed energy. I’ll feel better if she takes a look and gives you the thumbs up.”

Megumi swallowed. “What do you mean something’s off?” His mind flipped through what he remembered of his last few missions. “Has someone cursed me?” 

“No,” Gojo said. “I think something much, much worse has happened.” He opened the door and stepped through it. 

When it closed behind him, Megumi stood in the still room and wondered if what he’d done to Junpei had changed him in some fundamental way. Gojo could tell just by looking that Megumi had done something that could never be taken back. 

But how ? Could Gojo’s six eyes really see through him so clearly? 

Megumi was supposed to use the technique he was cursed with to save humans; instead, his shadows had claimed a life. Did it show on his skin? The hands he’d used to summon? 

He reached into his pocket and pulled out Yuji’s sock. He has to be worth it, Megumi thinks. And when he huffs the dregs of Yuji’s sweaty feet smell, Megumi’s convinced that he is. 

That night, Megumi snuck into Yuji’s room and found his bed empty a little after ten P.M. 

Megumi’s hair was still wet from his bath and it dripped all over his shoulders, making him shiver. He climbed underneath Yuji’s blankets to get warm and summoned his divine dogs, who tore down the hall and leapt through the front door, narrow-eyed with determination to fulfill Megumi's command: find Yuji. There was plenty of his scent all around. They’d howl once they tracked Yuji down, and Megumi would go where he’d been called. 

Until then, Megumi rubbed Yuji’s blanket up and down his chest, coating himself in Yuji’s mind-blowing scent. He couldn’t stop his hand from rucking down his pants to reveal his gray boxers and the erection tenting the fabric. 

He’d been hard since he’d stepped into the room. 

Can you blame him? After the day he had?

“Yuji,” Megumi moaned, rolled onto his belly to hump Yuji’s sheets, the drag of his cotton underwear rough against his flushed skin, the pressure on just-this-side of pain. “Yuji.” It felt so good to inhale Yuji’s fresh scent and play with his cock. Megumi felt almost drunk off it. 

Finally, he had a tap of his favorite drug. And he couldn’t get enough. 

Megumi closed his eyes and imagined splitting Yuji’s thighs with his hips, bending his omega into a deep mating press, kissing the deepest part of Yuji with the tip of his cock over and over again. Yuji’s thick arms would wrap around Megumi’s neck, his breasts against Megumi’s flat chest, and he’d make more of those sweet sounds Megumi overheard from the closet. The mmms and the aaaahs and the alpha! Megumi would make those sounds from Yuji’s mouth. Fuck, he’d bounce Yuji on his knot and make him a dam. He was ready for a big litter of Yuji was the one carrying them. 

Megumi’s guts clenched. Yuji stuffed full with their pups and showing off his bite. The thought alone had him barreling towards completion. Yuji’s skin would be so hot, so smooth… 

Megumi fucked into the pillow in fast, rhythmless rocks of his hips, growing more erratic as his orgasm approached, Yuji’s scent like an aphrodisiac trickling down his throat. 

“Yuji, Yuji, Yuji,” he wedged a hand between himself and the mattress, tightly gripping the base of his dick to stimulate his knot as it fattened up. His orgasm approached like a bright white light, his toes curling and uncurling, his low belly flexing. 

He came with a broken, “ Oh,” and cupped his hand under his dick to catch his cum. It puddled thick and off-white in his palm. When he could stand,  he wobbled on shaky knees and hiked up his pants with his free hand, careful not to spill anything as he maneuvered through the apartment. 

Despite his best efforts, drops of cum dripped from between his fingers and dotted the carpet. Small punches of Megumi’s strong alpha scent littered Yuji’s small apartment and stank the place up with wantlovedesire. Don’t waste it, Megumi scolded himself.

He banged around for a while, and eventually found a tea towel in Yuji’s kitchen drawer to rub the cum into. After peering through the peephole to ensure the hallway was empty, Megumi quickly swung the door open and rubbed the towel along the frame and side panels of Yuji’s door, smearing thin, shiny streaks of Megumi’s cum on the wood. Megumi’s scent spilled from the house and wafted from the doorway and filled the hallway. Megumi was everywhere. 

No one who smelled the claim Megumi had made on Yuji would enter their den. This was HIS omega.

It’s better this way, Megumi told himself.  This way, they’d stay away. This way, he didn’t have to hurt anyone the way he hurt Junpei. 

He took a deep breath and went back inside the apartment. 

Somewhere in the village, Megumi’s divine dogs called for him to reunite with Yuji. The sound traveled fast through the darkness. 

Yuji was at the community center, drinking a beer and gardening on his knees in the moonlight. Megumi stood behind a tree a few yards away and watched him diligently alternate between digging up potatoes and sipping his drink for several minutes. Yuji was beautiful barefoot and dirty. Megumi wanted to cradle his ankle and suck the soil from his toes.

The wind blew and rustled the leaves overhead and carried Yuji’s scent across the grass to Megumi. There was a little bit of heat smell, even now, but the sharp-edged sadness from earlier had settled in something softer, calmer. Still, he was somehow not himself.

Another cold gust cut the night. Yuji shivered and rubbed his uncovered arms. It was winter, but he had not worn a coat. Maybe he’d been so upset he forgot. 

Megumi pressed his palm against the rough bark of the tree. “Junpei’s gone,” he whispered soundlessly. It felt very important that he be the first to tell Yuji what’d happened.

Yuji stood and dusted his knees as he looked around for his sandals. When he’d stuffed his feet into shoes, Yuji stumbled over to the bike racks by the front door and slung a leg over a red bicycle he hadn’t bothered locking up. He pedaled twice, wobbling dangerously, before stopping in the middle of the walking path to climb off and guide the bike beside him. 

Megumi’s half-extended hand retreated back to the shadows once Yuji got both feet beneath him again. 

The two walked towards Yuji’s house for three blocks uninterrupted, Megumi always a few paces behind Yuji and glued to the shadows, keeping him safe even if they couldn't yet walk side-by-side. Yuji hummed loud enough for Megumi to hear and bobbed his head side to side in a small dance. Streetlights illuminated puddles of blacktop and occasionally shone off Yuji’s pink hair. 

Megumi blushed. It was a nice night, and this almost felt like… a date. Like he was walking Yuji home from dinner and a movie, and he might get a kiss under the porch light. ( If he hadn’t stolen the bulb.)

Until they passed a broad-shouldered alpha with a foot propped on the outside wall of the pachinko hall leisurely smoking a cigarette. His nostrils flared as he took a deep drag of Yuji’s passing scent, and he chuffed. “Smelling real fucking good, Strawberry.”

Yuji said nothing in defense of himself and did not speed up. He kept his chin lifted. Yuji was not embarrassed about being an omega - and he was strong enough not to worry too much about douchebags like this. 

But Megumi? He was so mad he couldn’t fucking see straight if he squinted. Their nice night was being rudely interrupted.

The man kicked off the wall and grabbed the seat of Yuji’s bike. Yuji jerked to a halt, glaring over his shoulder at the stranger. “Let go.”

“Awe c’mon,” the man cooed, grinning at Yuji’s anger and the blossoming annoyance in his scent. He reached out and gripped Yuji’s face between his fingers. “Such a pretty face shouldn’t be wasted on a look like that.”

Yuji ripped his face away and yanked his bike free. He started off down the road but the man followed, insistent. 

“You smell like heat. You tryna tell me you aren’t a little bit hungry for this?” He laid a hand across his crotch. 

“You’re a creep,” Yuji spit. The interaction must’ve sobered him enough to steer straight, because he straddled the bike again and sped off in the direction of his apartment. The man stood laughing after him until he saw Megumi striding towards him. He’d stepped away from the walls and approached with a purpose. 

“Now that’s a face!” The alpha laughed again. “What is it, kid? Was that your little boyfriend?” 

Megumi grinned savagely and raised his folded hands, the shadow of two pointed ears stretching up the side of the pachinko hall. “You could say that.”

The divine dogs materialized, one dark, one light, and raced across the sidewalk, crashing into the man with their sharp nails and teeth on full display. He hit the ground hard as they tore into his chest and legs, blood springing to the surface of his skin as gash after gash was opened. They bit his shirt and dragged him, kicking and flailing, into a nearby alleyway to chew on him in peace.

Megumi laughed maniacally and followed them. “They’ll eat you alive for what you said to my omega!” 

He’d just stepped over the curb when a new shadow fell across his own.

 “This doesn't look like dinner plans, Fushiguro-kun,” Gojo-Sensei said. 

Chapter Text

Megumi had only seconds to decide what he was going to do, and his thoughts raced, almost tripping over themselves, his heart pumping just as fast. The stilted joke Gojo told over their celebratory lunch replayed in his mind:

You’ll be stronger than me, soon. 

Too bad Megumi was out of time. It was looking like soon might have to be now .

“Gojo,” Megumi said, turning finally to face his mentor. He released his cursed technique and took a half-step back to stand in the shadow cast by an awning, his fingers spreading amidst the darkness. The perverted alpha’s pained cries quieted. In death or relief, Megumi did not know. 

There wasn’t a trace of Gojo’s usual semi-permanent half-smirk on his face. He was expressionless and spoke blandly. “I won’t let you hurt anyone else, Fushiguro. You’re my responsibility.” He said it like a statement of fact. Megumi would hurt someone else, and Gojo would stop him. Gojo would be the only person who could stop him. 

In the distance, a siren sounded. 

“I don’t hurt anyone that doesn’t deserve it,” Megumi said.

“And you decide that?” Gojo asked. “Who deserves to be hurt?”

Megumi laughed despite himself - a dark, choppy chuckle. “Isn’t that what a sorcerer does? We’re both killers.”

Gojo’s face tightened. “This has nothing to do with jujutsu. This is about your crush-”

“Don’t call him that!” Megumi interrupted. The surrounding shadows leaped like flames and licked longingly at his heels. To call the feelings Megumi had for Yuji something as childish as a crush made his face hot and his chest tight. Yuji was Megumi’s omega. And Megumi had killed for him. He was Megumi’s everything - not some schoolyard infatuation. 

The sirens were almost on top of them. Someone had called the police on the man in the alley. 

“Come back with me,” Gojo said. He held his hand out palm-up. “Willingly.”

“What will you do to me if I do?” Megumi asked.

Gojo’s scent spiked and made Megumi’s knees waver. Damn alpha prime. “Lock you up until I can convene with the elders. Then we’ll decide together what happens.”

Megumi scoffed. “They’ll kill me.”

Gojo shrugged. “Maybe.”

The ambulance would be there any second. 

“I’m not coming,” Megumi said, stepping deeper into the shadows. Black fingers curled comfortingly at his shoulder. 

He looked around the street. “We can fight if you want. Level this whole village together.”

Gojo sighed. He reached up and lifted the corner of the black cloth covering his eyes. Their eyes met. “Next time, I’ll be here sooner. So don’t let me catch up to you again, Fushiguro-kun.” He lowered the cloth and straightened up. 

Then, with an air of finality Megumi had only felt at funerals, Gojo was gone. Megumi did not know if he would ever see his stand-in father and live to talk about it again.

Megumi rode the shadows across town until he found himself breathing hard in front of Yuji's apartment building. His pulse hadn’t slowed, and the stitch in his chest wouldn’t ease. He leaned against the brick wall and braced his hands on his knees. His meager breakfast lurched in his stomach and crawled up his throat and splattered the pavement between his shoes. 

Gojo and Megumi fought often - but not like this. Never like this. 

Had they both really been prepared to kill each other? 

…don’t let me catch up to you again, Fushiguro-kun. Megumi couldn’t interpret Gojo’s parting words as anything except an unveiled threat. He had called on his cursed technique and his shikigami to kill. Megumi was not a jujutsu sorcerer. He was a curse user.  The elders would expect Gojo to handle him as he would any other that’d strayed from the path.

Megumi spit some of the bitter taste out of his mouth and wiped the back of his hand across his slimy lips. He needed to talk to Yuji. He didn’t know what he’d say to convince him, but the two of them had to leave town. 

Yuji… oh, Yuji. He was so passionate about his work at the community center. But Megumi could help him find something just as fulfilling somewhere safer for them. For their family. Undoubtedly, Gojo would find some way to interfere in their relationship. He might even try to tell Yuji what Megumi had done for him. 

Megumi shivered and pushed off the wall. Quite some time now had passed since the sunset and the sky was the deep blue of a night well worn in, and stars dotted it like bright freckles. There weren’t as many street lamps around Yuji’s apartment as there had been closer to the center of town - but there was a light or two in front of the building, beckoning Megumi inside. 

Megumi spit again and cupped his hand over his mouth to smell his own breath. Great . His mouth stank and his slacks were dusty from kneeling in the grass to watch Yuji garden. And that said nothing of his scent, loaded with fear and anger, jealousy and desire. 

Plus a more than healthy dose of nerves. Knocking on Yuji’s front door (and actually waiting for him to open it) was never part of the plan. 

Megumi could be impulsive, yes. That much was obvious. But Megumi could also be very, very smart. He read often and his quietness encouraged a deep perceptiveness. 

Megumi knew he was younger than Yuji, barely 17 and still only a third year, and that Yuji was older. He had graduated high-school three years ago and stayed in his village to take care of his ailing grandfather, who passed away sometime last fall. It was going to take careful work to come together.

Megumi gritted his teeth. Gojo had taken a sledgehammer to their delicate situation. The only thing that mattered was making sure Yuji didn’t get cut on any of the sharp pieces. 

It doesn’t matter how old I am. I am going to do whatever it takes to keep you safe, Megumi thought, mentally rehearsing what he might say to Yuji as he pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped the camera. His reflection on the screen was pale and sweaty. His hair had fallen and clung to his damp forehead and the back of his neck. 

“I look like shit,” Megumi said to no one. His heart picked up again. He couldn’t see Yuji in this state. It was strange enough to show up at his door so late, an alpha reeking of adrenaline and uncertainty, but it was stranger still to look so shitty.

  Fuck. Should he just… wait for Yuji to fall asleep? Megumi could take Yuji from his bed and explain everything once he’d woke. But what if he scared Yuji? Megumi knew from getting knocked out in battle that waking up somewhere you’d never been was horrifying. He (his heart) couldn’t risk Yuji’s opinion of him. 

Fuck it. Nothing was going to happen in this alleyway. 

He needed to go see Yuji. 

Megumi was striding up the hall when Yuji’s door swung open and smacked the outer wall, a haggard-looking Yuji spilling out from inside with his coat half on, and his phone to his ear. 

“Pick up. Pick up,” Yuji chanted. 

Megumi quickly pressed himself to the wall and sunk into the shadows, watching Yuji’s frantic race down the hallway and feeling worried. When Yuji shoved through the stairwell door, the phone still glued to the side of his head, Megumi stepped back into the hallway and summoned his divine dogs. He knelt in front of them on the carpet. 

“Follow Yuji,” he instructed. “And protect him.” 

The dogs took off and leaped through the stairwell door like it didn’t exist. Meanwhile, Megumi made his way over to Yuji’s apartment. In his rush, Yuji hadn’t locked the door, and Megumi pushed inside, casually glancing over his shoulder as he closed it behind him to make sure no one had seen him enter. He trusted the dogs to call for him if they got into any trouble.

The hallway smelt like Megumi, and so did the living room. All the lights were still on, and a half-unfinished beer sat on the coffee table in front of the TV. A reel of commercials played in the background as Megumi picked through the house. He found the bathroom and wet his face, inhaling the comforting remnants of Yuji’s scent as he toweled off and teased his hair into something more presentable. Megumi swiped Yuji’s deodorant under his shirt and hoped it’d cover some of his anxious scent. Then, he plucked Yuji’s yellow toothbrush between two fingers and brushed the traces of vomit from his teeth and tongue. This time when he cupped his hand in front of his face and exhaled to smell his own breath, there was only minty toothpaste. 

Megumi looked at himself in the mirror and practiced the smile he’d offer Yuji. I know this is a lot to take in , Megumi would soothe, but I’m here now. Maybe he’d hold Yuji’s chin to his neck and let Yuji breathe in the comfort of his alpha’s protective pheromones. Maybe Yuji would let Megumi do the same to him . 

In the living room, a fast-talking woman replaced the monotonous hum of the faux-happy commercial voices. Megumi could make out less than half of what she said, but he dropped the toothbrush in the sink and ran for the TV. 

Yuji had left the station tuned to the local news. The words BREAKING NEWS glowed at the top in big letters as Megumi read the ribbon of text streaming along the bottom of the screen. Man brutally killed in an alley beside local pachinko parlor. A pretty-red lipped anchor in a neutral blazer instructed locals to stay indoors. Her station must’ve deemed the story important enough to respond from the city, some twenty-ish minutes away. Yuji’s village was small and did not have any high-caliber reporters ready for situations like these. 

“First responders are struggling to understand what they’re seeing. Until they can promise the safety of the public, Miyagi police are asking all residents to stay inside and lock their doors-“ 

Megumi snatched the remote off the coffee table, upending Yuji’s beer. Amber liquid spread across the tabletop and dropped onto the floor, but Megumi made no move to right the bottle, or clean up the mess. He stared slack-jawed at the now dark screen. Is this what Yuji had seen before racing out the door?

“Oh no,” Megumi said. “Oh no.” 

When the authorities released a picture of the victim, Yuji would surely recognize him. If he hadn’t already put the pieces together. Junpei, then the man that’d cat-called him - both gone in the span of one short day. What would Yuji think? Especially when a man he recognizes the smell of but doesn’t know shows up asking to take him somewhere far, far away. 

How could Megumi explain this, all of this, to Yuji? Was it even possible? Or were there secrets Megumi would have to keep forever to protect Yuji? Lies he had no choice but to tell?

Megumi knew he was out of time. But he didn’t know he wouldn’t even have the night.

“Fuck. Fuck!” He made fists of his hands and knocked his knuckles against his skull. What the hell was he going to do? To say? Megumi walked over to the coat rack and pulled one of Yuji’s scarves loose. Since it was worn so close to his neck, it smelt heavily of him, and the kick of sweetness was like a foot on the brake of Megumi’s hysteria. He soothed himself for some time on the scarf and nuzzled instinctually at it to leave some of his own scent behind for Yuji. 

When he felt recovered enough, he strung the scarf back on its hook and drank a cool glass of water from the tap. After eating one of the fancy chocolate bars he’d bought for Yuji, a steamed bun he found in the fridge and helped himself to, and two more cups of water, Megumi felt prepared to talk to Yuji, or, as prepared as he was going to get. The outline of a narrative had taken shape in his mind and he believed, if he said exactly the right things, Yuji and he would be on their way to Tokyo in just a few hours. 

But first - he needed to change. 

It was weird to be in his jujutsu tech uniform again, after what Gojo said to him, but Megumi thought it might be helpful in convincing Yuji. The presence he exuded was going to be extremely important. He needed Yuji to sense and understand how serious he was. About everything. 

Megumi found Yuji on a bench outside the dormitory wing of the village’s two-year college. The divine dogs shimmered translucently where they curled around the legs of the bench, their furry ears lifted, twitching at the sounds of Megumi’s distant approach.

The lights inside the dorms were off, except for the soft red of the emergency exit sign peeking through the window. Megumi wagered Yuji couldn’t get inside the building to wait by Junpei’s door without a keycard. The sight of him sitting so loyally in the cold twisted something almost-remorseful in Megumi’s chest. 

Yuji wore nothing but his muddy overalls and a coat. His bare ears burned red as the wind licked them. His pink hair was wind-swept and pushed away from his eyes. He looked like a portrait or a statue. Something to be admired. 

Even across the grassy courtyard, Megumi could hear Yuji pleading to Junpei over the phone. 

“Junpei, there are dangerous people out there. Please call me back,” Yuji said earnestly into the receiver. He pulled the phone from his ear, only to dial again. After five perfunctory rings, Yuji begged Junpei’s voicemail to return his call and re-dialed again, and again, and again, the sadness in his voice so real, the desperation so profound. Yuji wanted to find Junpei. Badly. 

But Megumi knew he never, ever would. There wouldn’t even be a body for a casket. For everyone who loved Junpei, there was a long future of un-knowing ahead. To them, Junpei will have simply vanished . Mere minutes after confessing his love for and being rejected by Yuji… 

Megumi found a good-sized tree a few yards behind Yuji and slid along the bark to the ground. He cradled his face in his palms and listened to the swell and lull of Yuji’s voice as he waited to hear the beep over and over. 

Megumi did not regret what he’d done. But he regretted the way it made Yuji feel. 

But it was too late now. And there was no going back. And Megumi had done it to protect Yuji. Yuji didn’t have to understand that for it to be true. 

Megumi was Yuji’s alpha, and he knew what was best for Yuji. 

Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Yuji shivered on the bench and finally stopped calling Junpei. Megumi had to wonder if his phone had died. He watched, frowning, as Yuji drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He stared blankly out at the lamp-lit courtyard. 

Megumi hated how defeated Yuji looked. It was so unlike him. 

More minutes passed. An hour. And an hour and a half. No moment felt right for Megumi to rise and approach Yuji - a shell of himself on a public bench, chapped from the chill and covered in goosebumps. Megumi felt like he was watching a private grieving ceremony. Like he was interrupting something by being here. 

Megumi sat back against the tree and allowed more of the night to roll by. When the sky pinkened, he knew he could not afford to put it off any longer, and he finally, finally rose, dusting the back of his uniform trousers and smoothing the wrinkles on his coat.

Before he could talk himself out of it, or convince himself the story he’d fabricated wasn’t convincing enough, he stepped out from behind the tree and strode confidently into Yuji’s sight. His heart thumped like a bunny’s foot. When Yuji looked up and their eyes met, Megumi’s stomach swooped. An indecipherable expression flitted across Yuji’s face, then disappeared. Megumi half-regretted the steamed bun he’d devoured. 

“Itadori Yuji?” Megumi asked, swallowing hard to keep his ‘dinner’ down. He could barely catch his breath . This was the closest they’d ever been while Yuji was awake. 

“Yes?” Yuji asked, curious but not unkind as he sat up straight, his nostrils flaring. He seemed to watch Megumi closely.

Megumi bowed deeply, his inner alpha squirming excitedly under Yuji’s attention. “I’m Megumi Fushiguro.”

“Have you been following me, Fushiguro?” 

Megumi’s heart stopped. He swallowed again, reflexively. His throat was dry. “Yes. I have.” 

“Why?”

Megumi knew it would be easier to prove than explain. He crouched amidst the grass, shadows leaking from his kneecaps, his toes, any part of his body that touched earth spilling blackness link ink. He made a hand puppet of a rabbit and watched Yuji’s shocked expression morph into awe as white rabbits hopped from the depths and scattered the park. 

“I’m a jujutsu sorcerer, here to protect you from a curse,” Megumi said.

“I’ve been cursed?” Yuji repeated, dumbfounded as he slunk to the ground and petted between the ears of a shikigami. 

“It’s been following you for some time.”

Yuji looked behind him at the dark dorms. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Junpei-”

Megumi’s eyes also wandered over to the dorms. “I’m sorry, Yuji.”

“Did something - did I-“ Yuji’s breathing grew labored.

“This curse - it’s not your fault. There was nothing you could do to stop it.” Megumi released his technique and stood again, reaching for Yuji’s hand and helping him to his feet. Hot sparks raced up and down his spine when their bare skin touched and Megumi kept a firm grasp on Yuji’s fingers as Megumi caught his eyes and said, “I tried to save him, Yuji. I’m so sorry. The curse - it was so strong, and I arrived too late. Junpei was already gone.”

Yuji shook his head more frantically and failed to tug his hand free from Megumi’s grasp. His skin was clammy, his brown eyes wild. “That man. In the alley -“

“Yuji…” Megumi gently interrupted. Beyond Yuji’s shoulder, the sun rose. Beautiful multi-colored sun rays painted the sky and caught Yuji’s eyelashes when he blinked. His eyes grew watery. 

He must understand, even without Megumi putting it into words, that the curse had acted on that man in the alley. 

“What is it?” Yuji whispered. “How do I stop it? How do I - how do I get Junpei back?”

Megumi squeezed Yuji’s fingers in solidarity and chose his next words very carefully.  “A curse is a collection of negative energy, heartbreak, grief, loneliness, that comes out looking like a monster. The monster following you is worse than any I’ve seen. I’m sorry Yuji, but anyone who confesses to you - who pursues you - will die unless they exorcise your curse.”

Chapter Text

Whatever Megumi expected Yuji to say; however Megumi expected him to react - he didn’t. There was no cry of disbelief or outrage. He twisted free of Megumi’s grasp and asked, simply, sadly, “Junpei’s really dead?”

Megumi opened and closed his mouth. Then, he pressed his lips together and nodded, looking somewhere over Yuji’s shoulder to avoid the raw look in his eyes. And the way they shone with tears. “Yes.”

Yuji sat down hard on the bench and dropped his face in his hands, his shoulders trembling with silent tears while Megumi hovered in front of him, uncertain. Fuck. Fuck! This was exactly why Megumi had to lie. Yuji wasn’t ready to accept what had to be done to protect their relationship, to protect him . 

Megumi chewed on the inside of his cheek and resisted the urge to soothe his omega, the fermented fruit smell of Yuji’s stress and shock curdling his already upset stomach. He knelt in front of the bench, trying not to crowd or rush Yuji, but unbearably compelled to be close because Yuji smelt so upset. His inner alpha howled and howled in displeasure. 

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He didn’t want to make Yuji cry. 

“I’m sorry,” Megumi said again, feeling useless. “Please stop crying.” 

Yuji sniffled and sat up, revealing his tear-ruddy cheeks as he crudely wiped his snot shiny nose on his coveralls. His tone was steel-sharp, like Junpei’s death whetted it, and did not match his waterlogged expression. “The curse - it can be killed?”

“Exorcised,” Megumi corrected.

“Could I exorcise it?” Yuji asked seriously.

Megumi blinked, surprised. This wasn’t one of the topics he mentally rehearsed. “Only a jujutsu sorcerer can exorcise a curse.” 

A disappointed, “Oh.” Then, Yuji perked up. “Can I become a jujutsu sorcerer?”

Megumi turned a couple of different answers over in his mind and settled on, “I could try to teach you a few things. But it would take years of training to exorcise the curse attached to you. And you’d still have to find some way to summon it.”

Yuji’s upper lip ticked, then settled. He looked down at his shoes. “Right.”

The curl of Yuji’s shoulders tugged at Megumi’s heart. It felt like he’d popped a kids balloon, so he permitted himself a consoling hand on Yuji’s shoulder. When Yuji did not flinch away, he swiped his thumb once across a ribbon of muscle near Yuji’s neck. “Come with me and no one else will get hurt. I can help you. We’ll exorcise your curse together .” 

“If I come with you, the curse won’t hurt anyone else?” Yuji repeated. He looked over his shoulder at Junpei’s dorm, now lit from within as students woke and began their day, then back at Megumi.

Megumi stood and dusted his knees with the backs of his hands. The sun had almost fully risen in the sky and the exhaustion of the day was settling into Megumi’s bones. He held a hand out to Yuji to help him to his feet and said, empathic, like these were the truest words he’d ever spoken, “I won’t let it.”

Yuji took it.

They go back to Yuji’s small apartment, Megumi looming protectively around the edges of each room Yuji entered with his fists in his pockets, nonchalantly setting the bottle he’d knocked over upright when they went into the living room and sliding the chocolate bar wrapper into the trash. If Yuji noticed Megumi picking up, he didn’t say anything. He buzzed determinedly around the room assembling the contents of a small suitcase. 

When they got to Yuji’s room he stopped. The rest of the house smelt like Megumi, sure, but the bedroom was on another level. Everything reeked of Megumi’s want. 

“Get what you need,” Megumi said, watching his omega’s reaction from the corner of his eye. 

Yuji’s nostrils flared, and he nodded, a little stilted. He went to his closet and disappeared for a moment behind the door. Megumi took the opportunity to wipe his sweaty hands on his pants and turn off his phone. Gojo could always track them with six eyes, but that didn’t mean they had to make it tracking-app easy. 

Megumi closed his eyes and inhaled his and Yuji’s overlapping scent and couldn’t help but flash the empty room a wild grin. Yuji was coming with him! Megumi couldn’t fucking believe it. 

Yuji. Yuji. Yuji! All to Megumi! They’d travel to the Zenin family home, a place they’d be safe from Gojo, and live happily ever after together! He couldn’t help but imagine a million angles of their life together: tatami mats pushed together, 

Earlier that night, all Megumi could ask for.

But now, in Yuji’s room, surrounded by Yuji’s scent, having touched Yuji’s bare skin for the first time, Megumi was greedy for more, more, more. The stomach ache from earlier twisted his lower belly into knots. 

“Fushiguro?” Yuji called. 

Megumi’s eyes flew open and found Yuji standing in the doorway of the closet staring at him. He looked almost… worried. Megumi’s knotted guts grew hot . 

“Are you okay?” 

“Just tired,” Megumi said quickly. “I used my technique a lot today.” 

“Technique?”

“That thing with the rabbits.”

Yuji paused thoughtfully. “Could I learn how to do that?”

“No.”

Yuji sighed. “But I liked the rabbits.” He tossed the clothes he’d chosen unfolded into the suitcase and zipped it. Obviously, Yuji didn’t think wrinkles would be a concern where they were going. 

He crossed the room with his suitcase and, like he’d almost talked himself out of it, squeezed Megumi’s elbow as he passed for the hallway. 

A dizzy heat sliced Megumi to his core. Yuji was comforting him. The thought lit him up inside and made it impossible to think past that strange, building warmth in his belly and canine teeth…

“Fushiguro? Fushiguro?” 

Megumi blinked, and he was sitting on the edge of Yuji’s bed, Yuji’s face hovering a few inches in front of his own. “What?” Megumi asked as he looked around disoriented. When had he sat down? 

“You’re an alpha, right?” Yuji asked. He was crouched like a frog with his hips squared and knees bent. The fabric of the coveralls was tight around his full inner thighs. Megumi imagined holding them open as he nuzzled between Yuji’s legs and licked at the sensitive glands there. Some omega’s could come from gland stimulation alone. What if Yuji could come just from Megumi lapping at his sweet skin? 

Megumi only realized he really had reached to touch Yuji’s thigh when strong fingers gripped his wrist. 

“Answer me,” Yuji demanded. 

“What?” Megumi asked. He couldn’t remember what Yuji had asked. 

“Are you an alpha?”

Megumi blushed. “Yes.”

“Haven’t you gone into rut before?”

Megumi shook his head. “I was sexed by blood type. I haven’t had my first rut.”

Yuji’s eyes widened. “How old are you?”

Megumi could lie - but his naivety would betray his age. He really hadn’t been through a rut yet. Doctors said it wasn’t cause for concern until twenty-one, but Gojo thought it was a topic of endless comedy. Fushiguro-kun hasn’t even gone through second puberty yet.  

If this was his rut he would need Yuji. So he told the truth. 

“Seventeen.”

Yuji gasped aloud and stood abruptly, his face going beet red. “You’re seventeen?”

“It doesn’t matter how old I am - I’m still a jujutsu sorcerer.” 

Megumi stood. Shadows splashed up around Megumi’s ankles and lapped at his knees like waves. He looked very powerful, and the air around him crackled like a downed power-line letting off sparks. 

 “The strongest jujutsu sorcerer,” he finished. 

“You’re still going into your first rut,” Yuji said, pinching his nose between his fingers as he rose. The red in his face collected at the center of his cheeks in a bright, nearly feverish flush. He looked away. “I’m sorry. Your smell- it’s really strong.”

“Do you like it?” Megumi asked. 

Yuji’s blush got impossibly deeper and he reached for a pillow on his bed. “I’ll crash on the couch. The worst of your rut will pass by morning.”

Megumi’s hand darted out to capture Yuji’s on its own accord. “No,” he said. Too harshly if Yuji’s flinch was any indication. Megumi softened his voice and tried again. “We can’t stay here.”

“But you said the curse-“

“You were the last person to see Junpei alive. Do you think the police will believe he walked out of this apartment and vanished on the way home? We have to get out of here before they come looking for you!” 

Because if Gojo had a starting point for looking for me, this would be it, Megumi thought. 

“They won’t come before morning,” Yuji insisted. “And with your power, we could run in an instant.”

A hook in Megumi’s guts pulled and pulled him towards Yuji, an almost painful sharpness to his desire; but still, his frustration bubbled. Yuji should trust him. Megumi was looking out for the two of them. Couldn’t Yuji at least try to understand that?

“It’s better that we get a head start,” Megumi said. 

Yuji tried his luck one more time. “I don’t think you can travel like this.”

“Enough, Yuji.” Megumi got off the bed slowly and held out his hand. “Do you have your phone?” 

Yuji reached into his pocket, strangely trusting or slightly afraid Megumi wasn’t sure, and fished out his phone. He set it face up in Megumi’s palm. 

“What do you need it for?” Yuji asked as Megumi swiped open the screen. 

Huh. No password. 

That was just the kind of person Yuji was.

“I’m calling us a cab,” Megumi answered as he brought the phone to his ear. When the dispatcher asked his location he confidently recited the address. 

“Ask for a beta driver.” Yuji stage whispered.

Smart. The scent of another alpha might set off Megumi’s more… protective instincts. “And can I request a beta driver?”

The dispatcher agreed to the stipulation and informed him that they would send over a beta driven taxi right away. Megumi thanked her and hung up the phone. Then, he channeled a little cursed energy into his hand and crushed Yuji’s phone in his fist. Hard plastic chunks dusted the carpet between their feet. 

“What’d you do that for?” Yuji cried. 

“They could use it to track you.”

“Still. You could’ve asked,” Yuji grumbled.

“You handed me your phone, didn’t you?” Megumi retorted. 

Yuji only blinked and smiled a little sadly. “I guess I did.”

As they left, Megumi tipped over the trash can and tossed a few couch cushions, strategically pillaging the apartment. 

“What’re you doing?” Yuji asked from the doorway. 

“Tripping up the cops,” Megumi said. This way they’d be half trying to solve the mystery of who’d broken into Yuji’s apartment when they came looking for Junpei. Maybe it’d be enough to divert suspicions and keep Yuji’s name and face off the news - as a suspect at least. 

They just needed some time ; an opportunity to put some distance between all of this and them. 

Yuji watched as Megumi worked quickly to destroy his small apartment and did not say another word until they entered the elevator together. 

“I brought something for you,” Yuji said at last, his hand dipping into his pocket and pulling out a long piece of cloth. “I scented it for you. I-“ He blushed again. “I think it will bring you comfort.”

Megumi carefully took the scarf. His heart ran a medal-winning race in his chest as he lifted it to his nose. Yuji has to know what this means. The implications of a scent token like this were many, and intimate. A confession between two that they couldn’t go on without the presence of their beloved. 

Megumi inhaled, and sweet peaches and blooming flowers rushed to his head. Yuji smelled even better than usual as Megumi’s pre-rut pheromones picked at the edges of his control. Megumi couldn’t help the satisfaction that leaked into his smell. 

Things had been a bit not good earlier, but that was behind them. Yuji liked Megumi’s smell. Seemed helpless but to react to it. 

Fated pairs. It was the coined term used to refer to the biological phenomena of an alpha and omega driven beyond reason by each other's heat or rut scent alone. Sure - most alpha’s and omega’s felt some kind of compulsion when they smelt another’s heat or rut. But everything Megumi read on the internet told him a shared heat/rut between fated pairs was something else entirely; a complete take-over of the basal alpha and omega instincts within them. Totally primal. Totally hot. And the perfect chance for Megumi to put a pup into Yuji. Then he’d never leave. 

Megumi chuffed at the thought and the sound filled the small space. His inhibitions were gone. 

 Beside him, Yuji braced a trembling hand on the wall and stared at the doors as if willing the elevator to hurry down. They were absolutely drowning in each other's scents. 

The elevator dinged. 

Yuji skidded across the lobby and pushed outside, desperate for fresh air. His chest pitched as he took big gulping breaths. Megumi followed him outside, scarf clutched in hand, and the two climbed into the back of the taxi. Megumi pulled up Yuji’s hood as they settled in the backseat to hide his pink hair.

“Where to?” The driver asked. 

“Tokyo,” Megumi replied instantly.

Yuji sat forward. “You won’t make it,” he whispered urgently. Tokyo was more than a five hours drive from the village. Then louder, he said to the driver, “Know any good hotels in the city?”

The driver's eyes swept over Megumi and Yuji in the mirror and he cracked a smile. Even without an alphan or omegan sense of smell, he knew what was going on between them. “Sure. I know a place.”

Yuji thanked the driver and asked if it was okay to crack the window. He laughed and said of course, so Yuji rolled down the glass a little and lifted his nose to catch the breeze that came in. 

“You two been together long?” The driver asked to make conversation. 

“A few months,” Yuji replied easily, not looking at Megumi. 

Megumi’s head drooped against the door and he held the scarf to his face as discreetly as he could. Shamefully, he was already fully hard in his trousers. He glanced at Yuji from the corner of his eye to see if Yuji had noticed, but Yuji’s gaze bore out the window, almost intentionally avoiding Megumi’s, and he was still blushing like crazy. 

Megumi wanted to reach out and touch him but didn’t. 

They were here. Together. 

That was enough for now. 

The hotel was nice but inexpensive. Yuji pulled his hood low over his face and littered a step behind as Megumi approached the front desk to make their arrangements like they’d discussed in the car. His pink hair was so distinct an eye-witness might remember it for weeks. “Oh yeah? That guy? I saw him at the rose hotel!”

The concierge tapped away at her screen for a while, then said, “I’m sorry, but we have only one room right now. A single.”

Megumi exhaled harshly between clenched teeth. Sweat collected in earnest in his hairline and under his arms. This is taking too long. The ride there had sucked up every ounce of patience Megumi had. “Could you call another hotel for us?” Megumi snapped. “And we’ll need another cab.”

Yuji stepped forward and put a comforting hand on Megumi’s back. “We’ll take the room.” His head dipped in a shallow bow. “Thank you, ma’am.”

Megumi flushed in surprise and shock as he reached for his wallet. He paid for the night and the next day with cash and then trailed after Yuji up the stairs to their second-floor room. Yuji swiped the key card and let them inside.

Then, they were alone in a hotel room in a city they’d never been. A big bed took up most of the room but there was a small cabinet packed with snacks and a mini-fridge in the corner. There was a white corded phone on the bedside table to call for room service or more towels. Two chairs, a small circular table, and a loveseat sat in front of the TV. 

Yuji sat on the edge of the love seat and started unlacing his shoes. 

“What’re you doing?” Megumi asked. 

“Getting ready,” Yuji said. 

“For what?”

“Can’t you smell it?” Yuji asked, not exactly happily. He got his shoes off and lined them up under the window.  “Your rut triggered my heat.” 

Megumi could smell it. Had been able to smell it since a few minutes into their cab ride. “Oh,” he said. He felt stupid and turned on all at once. They really were fated pairs… His rut smell had been enough to inspire an early cycle in Yuji. He swallowed. “Are we…” He trailed off and shuddered with excitement. 

Was Yuji going to have sex with him? It would be the only way to end this shared cycle quickly. If they resisted, it could take days to pass…

“I don’t know how long we have,” Yuji said. He didn’t need to put the rest of his sentence into words either. He unbuckled his coverall straps and pushed them down to his waist. “You have to prepare me now.”

Yuji stepped out of the coveralls and stood in his tight black boxers and shirt. Sunlight streamed in through the window and lit Yuji’s silhouette on fire. His light brown eyes had a filmy sheen over them. 

“Fushiguro?” Yuji’s hand hesitated at the hem of his shirt. “If we keep traveling, someone will smell me. And they might say or do something to trigger the curse. Please just… Just help me.” 

Megumi’s guts clenched, and his cock throbbed. “I’ve never done anything like this before. But I want you,” Megumi admitted rawly. 

Yuji reached for him. “It’s okay, I’ll help you. But we have to hurry.”

Megumi nodded. The heat inside of him was growing unbearable. “How do I, um, prepare you?” 

“Kiss me,” Yuji said. 

“Yeah,” Megumi breathlessly replied. “Okay.” He took Yuji’s outstretched hand in his own and leaned forward to clumsily press their mouths together. It was Megumi’s first kiss. 

Yuji tasted just as sweet as he smelled, and Megumi pressed forward and wrapped an arm around Yuji to draw their chests together, Yuji’s bare thighs rubbing against Megumi’s knees. Eager palms ran down Yuji’s spine, over his ribs, and finally, they broke apart as Megumi tugged his shirt off. 

In nothing but his boxers, Yuji was an absolute vision. His nipples were pink, and his palm-sized breasts swollen. Megumi’s teeth ached to sink into all the tanned, muscle-chorded skin he’d only seen from behind the closet door. 

“You’re so beautiful,” he exhaled. He pressed open mouth kisses to Yuji’s cheeks and chin. Everything felt feverishly warm to the touch. “Yuji-chan. Yuji-chan.”

Yuji groaned. The sound zipped like a lightning bolt from Megumi’s canines to his cock. Fingers wrapped around Megumi’s jaw and tilted his chin down. They kissed some more. Yuji’s tongue traced Megumi’s bottom lip and slipped inside to lick across his tongue.

Yuji pulled away. “Kiss my neck,” he demanded. 

Megumi held the back of Yuji’s head and nuzzled at the juncture of his neck and shoulder, the pheromones there dizzyingly potent, his mouth leaving wet kisses and lathes on the skin around Yuji’s swollen scent gland. 

“Don’t bite me,” Yuji said.

Megumi did not reply. 

When Yuji pulled at the buttons of his shirt he sat back for just long enough to strip out of his jujutsu tech uniform. Yuji’s hands found the planes of his ridged chest and he humped his hard cock against Yuji’s stomach. 

“Bed,” Megumi growled. One word seemed almost more than he was capable of, and he bumped his shoulder against Yuji’s to show his urgency. 

They stumbled back until Yuji’s knees hit the bed and they went sprawling across the mattress. Their lips found each other again in the tangle of limbs and they kissed almost frantically. 

“Finger me,” Yuji panted against Megumi’s mouth. “Open me up now so I’m not too sore.”

Megumi moaned. “Yuji…” 

Their hands fumbled at the waist of Yuji’s boxers. When Megumi realized he couldn’t get Yuji naked while laying on top of him, he tore the fabric down its seam and chucked it carelessly over his shoulder. 

Yuji’s cocklet was hard, and its cute tip was pink. Drool collected in Megumi’s mouth and he crawled down Yuji’s body to suck him. 

Yuji cried out and fisted his hands in Megumi’s hair when he was swallowed down. Curious fingers slid through the slick collected in Yuji’s crack and pressed bluntly at his hole. 

Megumi’s heart pounded when his finger slipped inside and Yuji’s back arched on a moan. He couldn’t help but fit another finger inside along the first, twisting and pumping, Yuji’s hole clenching tightly around thick fingers as slick gushed down the backs of his legs. 

He’s so wet for me, Megumi thought dazedly. He took his mouth off Yuji’s cocklet to lap up some of the dripping slick and whimpered. It’s so good. The best thing Megumi had ever tasted. 

He shoved his nose deep into Yuji’s taint, licking and slurping wildly, thoughts falling out of his head just as soon as they entered it. His tongue found Yuji’s stretched rim. 

“Alpha!” Yuji cried.

And everything went red.