“That doesn’t count.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t count?”
“I said what I said. Now try again.”
Fushiguro’s groan could be heard from the hallway, matching Kugisaki’s pestering in volume.
Normally, Sukuna would not pay attention to these pointless conversations. Today, however, was a sluggish one. His mind was still reeling from his late awakening, a rarity that only occurred when his idiot twin’s antics were not around to disturb him from his slumber. Yuji had spent the previous night blaring movies in Fushiguro’s dorm. No invitation to suffer through a sleepless night had been extended Sukuna’s way. Why would Yuji bother to ask if Sukuna would be interested in something so irritating and mind-numbing? It was not as if he knew Sukuna had any other plans; no, he had just forgotten them in the heat of the moment. His excitement had gotten the better of him, just as it always had.
Sukuna silently gave his sympathies to the Ten Shadows user, knowing full well that there were three layers of bags under his eyes no amount of caffeine could spirit away.
Concerned that he would be forced to participate in whatever nonsense was being bounced around the three inside, Sukuna pulled out his phone and began sifting through his social media page. One ear was inevitably left to listen in, if only to let him know when it was clear to enter.
“Fine. I guess my answer would have to be Gojo, then.”
“Huh!?”
Sukuna raised an eyebrow, mildly confused as to why Fushiguro’s answer would evoke such a loud response from their classmate.
“Why does that surprise you?” A yawn separated Fushiguro’s words. “He has no sense of personal space. He shows affection in all sorts of weird ways.”
Affection?
“He doesn’t count either.” Kugisaki sighed in a particularly exaggerated manner. “He’s your guardian-teacher thing.”
“Quit changing the rules.”
“I’m not changing anything!” Kugisaki’s palm connected with the wood of what may have been Fushiguro’s desk. She had a habit of sitting on either his or Yuji’s when conversations dragged on to avoid shouting across the room. “I shouldn’t have to spell it out—”
“—What about you, then?” Fushiguro slammed his own palm against the desk in retaliation, escalating the argument between them. “Have you ever actually kissed someone?”
Kissing? That was what their argument was about?
Sukuna stuck his tongue out, pretending to gag as he sent a slew of mocking emojis to represent his current misfortune to Uraume in the classroom over. It was a crime that they couldn’t spend each day together, but they just had to be a grade above him.
What were his classmates, five? Who the hell cared about a ‘first kiss?’
“I have!” Kugisaki valiantly defended whatever pride she took in that fact. “It was my dramatic goodbye kiss before leaving for school in Tokyo, you ass!”
“I never had a first kiss.”
"Excuse you!?"
Both Kugisaki and Sukuna, though his words remained internal, shouted at the sound of Yuji’s response, breaking up his classmate's shouting. The pressure of Sukuna’s grip on his phone threatened to shatter the screen. Why was his idiot twin participating in this—Actually, Sukuna knew exactly why his brother would speak up. It was for that reason that he was currently dragging a fed-up hand down his face.
“Well, yeah, I just haven’t had a first kiss. Is it really that weird?”
And there Yuji was again, intent on outing himself as someone who had never experienced the mystical elation that came with swapping spit with another human being. God, Sukuna’s teeth could not grind any harder against themselves.
“No way, you haven’t—You and that whole, cute puppy vibe. A little dumb, but loyal. Someone has to have jumped on that.” It was difficult to find a counter to Kudisaki’s assessment.
With the short hum to follow, Sukuna pictured Fushiguro nodding in agreement.
“Rude.” Offense was taken, yet Yuji did nothing to defend his own honor. Typical. “We already established that girls don’t like me.”
“And what about guys? Come on, Itadori, you had to have kissed someone!”
“Nope.” Adamant on asserting that his previous statement was correct, Yuji did not hesitate. “No one.”
And that very lack of hesitation affected Sukuna far more than he expected. Fury boiled up from the churning pit in his chest. Sukuna’s heart pounded so intensely that he heard it in his ears and felt his pulse underneath his thumb the moment he registered his shaking fist. This intense reaction was out of character for him. He knew that, and by God, he tried to bring himself down before he did something stupid, but the most Sukuna could do was keep up his stone-faced facade upon entering the classroom. The younger Itadori twin—by two minutes, hardly anything to brag about—strolled up to his brother’s desk and clasped his hand over Yuji’s chin.
He was easier to control this way.
One yank was all it took for Yuji and his desk to come forward, the legs of the latter screeching against the ground as Sukuna forcefully brought his brother’s faces so close that he could feel Yuji’s bewildered breath against his own. A momentary lapse of judgment led Sukuna to pause when their eyes met. Concentrated anger versus pathetic confusion, which lasted barely even a second before Sukuna shoved their lips together. It had taken everything in his power to restrain himself from biting down when the need for air opened his mouth. Instead, Sukuna shoved his twin back down into his chair and scoffed, leaving Yuji too wide-eyed to say a word.
“Now you can stop your pathetic whining, brat.”
No first kiss my ass.
Sukuna took his seat, ignoring the reaction of the other two classmates he’d left in shock. Their even more idiotic sensei arrived not even a moment later, shifting the topic of the day’s discussion to something Sukuna was already familiar with. Unlike his twin, he was a prodigy. These lessons were helpful reviews at best and tediously dull at worst.
Why he continued to endure them, well…
Yuji’s sudden bout of silence remained throughout the lesson. Kugisaki and Fushiguro picked enough fights with their sensei to drown out the dark cloud, dampening the usual energy in the room and keeping Gojo from saying anything. At the same time, Sukuna simply shook his head and rolled his eyes at his twin’s pathetic reaction.
He should be grateful, and yet not once, not even after the lesson, did his brother attempt to offer his thanks for reminding him that he possessed something that he could lord over at least one of his classmates. Instead, all Yuji did was get up and leave the moment class was dismissed. Not a single glance was cast his twin’s way! At least his friends had the decency to give him oh-so-mature looks of disgust and annoyance. Neither of which made Sukuna bat an eye.
What was Yuji’s problem?
Yuji was nowhere to be found the following morning.
Classes had been pushed to the following day, as once again, their ‘dear’ sensei had been summoned by the elders for whatever nonsense they deemed worthy of wasting his time with. Sukuna swore he had nothing to do with it this time, or else he would have been dragged along as well. Regardless, Gojo’s absence and Kusakabe’s refusal to pick up his slack left their Friday free to be used as the first-years pleased while their prospective Saturday lay in ruins.
Sukuna had thought that his brother had run off to their classmates. However, throughout the day, he’d run into Fushiguro and Kugisaki each taking a personal day, leaving Yuji’s whereabouts unknown.
Fine.
The younger twin wasn’t his brother’s keeper. It was not his responsibility to know where the brat was at all times. Yuji could be on the other side of the country for all he cared! But the fact that he hadn’t spoken a word to him since the previous day had Sukuna… It couldn’t be concern. He wasn’t concerned.
No.
Sukuna was irritated.
Again.
Yuji always messaged him around noon. They always made plans for lunch, even if they agreed that they would go their separate ways for their midday meal as long as they reconvened for dinner in the evening. Yuji always bounced suggestions on what to make, ignoring Sukuna’s input and deciding on his own what they would eat no matter how much Sukuna protested—His twin had done none of this today. Not once had Sukuna received anything. Not a ‘Good Morning!’ or a silly emoji or stupid video of some internet cat—Nothing.
Studying in the library accomplished nothing, as Sukuna found himself glancing at his phone more often than the actual texts he’d dug out to read! None of this made any sense. Surely, something was truly wrong with his twin, and now he wasn’t answering any attempts at communication.
How many ‘?’ did Sukuna have to send before Yuji would respond? One should be sufficient, but so far, three have not accomplished anything, and he refused to stoop down so low as to send a fourth.If not a picture containing that asinine grin on his face, a simple smile constructed of those various keyboard symbols his twin liked to play around would be an acceptable response to Sukuna’s message.
Why did he have to be born from the same womb as him?
Where did Yuji run off to—Screw it.
Eventually, Sukuna reached his limit. His ability to concentrate disintegrated within his own hands, leaving him no choice but to remove himself from his nook and seek fresh air outside. A walk was the perfect solution to that. A walk that preferably took him across the entire campus to not only take up his time, but also cover enough area for Sukuna to happen across his twin… Well, that wasn’t so difficult. Look who happened to be here…
Sukuna spared the upcoming occupied bench a single glance as he walked past, outwardly turning his attention toward the nearby vending machine. It had taken a pretty far walk to the far west end of campus, but low and behold, he knew he’d come across his twin eventually. Yuji had a pretty odd habit of seeking solitude in areas others would eventually pass by. Even when he so desperately wanted to be alone, never once could his twin stand to be lonely.
So why must he go through this song and dance whenever he gets upset?
After pretending to care about the selection of drinks in front of him, Sukuna eyed the glass casing of the vending machine further, honing his focus on the sad reflection sitting behind him. When Yuji wouldn’t say anything, let alone raise his head to acknowledge him, Sukuna knew he would have to be the one to initiate whatever this conversation was about to be.
“Since when did you loiter around out here?” Sukuna took note of cigarette butts left behind by the school nurse and whomever she dragged along to be her second-hand smoking partner. “You better not start smoking. You’d bring that awful smell back into the dorm when you finally decide to come back at all.”
Yuji remained. Nor did he move, not even to flip his twin off for insinuating that he would be the one to fall into such an unpleasant habit.
“Why aren’t you with your—” Sukuna rubbed the back of his neck, groaning before allowing his sentence to conclude “—friends?”
Still nothing.
Great. Now, there was no avoiding the subject. Whatever came next, it was the brat’s own fault.
“Are you going to avoid me for the rest of time?” Sukuna’s patience, what little he naturally possessed, had left him completely. “Answer me.”
“No.”
“You just did, idiot.” Sukuna shook his head, deciding on a particular can of coffee that he knew could match the bitterness in his soul.
“I hate you.”
“Likewise. Want to explain whatever this sulking is?” Watching the literal embodiment of a ray of sunshine duck behind cloud cover was exhausting. “If this is about what yesterday—”
“Kugisaki said childhood kisses don’t count.”
What? They don’t—What does that have to do with anything?
“By that logic, you acting like a child right now means that none of this counts.” Sukuna ran his fingers through his hair, already tired of the loathsome talk around the basic act of kissing. Had Yuji really been so worked up over Sukuna’s move? It was just a kiss. Leave it to others to make a big deal out of nothing to rile his twin up. “So, there you go. You can keep pretending what we have means nothing. Continue living in your shame.”
The coffee Sukuna paid for fell out of the bottom of the vending machine with a loud clunk. His movements to tear it from the machine were harsh, threatening to put a dent in the can as he tore the top off to drink it. Nothing he did was about to completely drown out whatever response came next out of Yuji, leaving Sukuna to pick up incoherent pieces that left him too frustrated to ignore.
“What was that?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“No, you’ll tell me.” Sukuna spun around and pointed at Yuji. “Spit it out.”
“You’re such an asshole! You want to know what I said? Fine!” And with that, Yuji shot up from his fetal position on the bench, stomping his way across the sidewalk until he stood dead center to shout his heart out as loud as he pleased. “Maybe I wanted it to count, ok!?”
Oh, so now Yuji wanted it to count?
But what about before?
Why was this brat insisting on toying with him!?
“Screw you.”
“No, screw you! Since Kugisaki said childhood kisses don’t count, I thought that…” Yuji took in a deep breath, blaring his nostrils upon exhaling. Then, with a shaking hand, he brought the pads of his fingers to the edge of his bottom lip, gesturing to it as he spoke. “A first kiss, a real kiss, is supposed to be romantic and special, and… and you messed it all up!”
That was what this whole thing was about!?
Within the depths of Sukuna’s mind, a metaphorical palm slammed into his face. All of these emotions had come from some infuriating idea that there were kisses between two parties that did not count and that when they finally met whatever parameters deemed by the great arbiter of this phenomenon,Kugisaki—Sukunawas going to have words with her later—they were supposed to be special. Ah. Of course, how silly of him for not understanding that.
“You are an idiot.”
Special, really? Was not every kiss between them special, just as any intimate moment they shared that no other could replicate? The connection of two halves to the same, vivid soul was an experience only one other could even come close to understanding, and her relationship with her other half had been broken into so many pieces that Sukuna may actually grasp the concept of true heartbreak for another.
“You didn’t even try! You just squeezed my lips and smeared yours against them—Do you even know how to kiss?” His twin lunged forward to replicate the act, shaking Sukuna’s head from one side to the next until his brother forced him off.
“I know how to kiss!” Sukuna hissed, offended at the question. “If you’d like a demonstration…”
“Hell no. I’m mad at you.” This time, Yuji did flip him off. Twice. Both hands at the same time. Then, his twin crossed his arms and stormed off, refusing to slow down despite the hand reaching out and failing to keep him in place.
“Brat.”
“No.”
“Yuji.”
“Not listening.”
In peak maturity, Yuji pressed his palms against his ears and picked up his pace, forcing Sukuna to give chase. The two continued to scuffle after this, smacking each other around in an offer to either grab or be torn off depending on the perspective followed. In an effort to escape, Yuji had ducked and twirled around at some point, entangling Sukuna’s footwork but not his grip, bringing the two to a pathetic fall that no one else was able to witness.
Thank the heavens.
“Come here!” Sukuna reached out yet again, dragging his twin into his lap as they continued to fight. He managed to hold out just long enough until he could manage a chokehold to prevent Yuji from continuing his retaliation.
“You’re an idiot, but you’re my idiot,” Sukuna reassured his brother before letting out a sigh. He would not keep up his restraint for long, choosing to loosen his grip just enough to spin Yuji’s head around so that eye contact could be made once more. “From the day we were born, till the day we die.”
“That’s so cheesy.”
The whining Sukuna received only made him frown. Beggars couldn’t be choosers.
“Isn’t that what you want?”
“That depends,” Yuji leaned in, pressing his forehead against Sukuna’s to stare so deep into his soul that he was met with his own. “Do you mean it?”
“Absolutely.”
This time, Sukuna thought it would be more appropriate to be gentle.
This time, Sukuna lifted Yuji’s chin ever so gently from underneath, tilting his head back just enough for their separate pieces to lock into place.
This time, Sukuna’s tongue lingered in his brother’s mouth, only permitting gaps of air when he wished to tease that gorgeous bottom lip with the edges of his teeth. There was something to be said about savoring the taste and another to be swept up in the experience that nothing could register beyond the touch of Yuji’s nails kneading the back of his head. The rest of Sukuna’s mind had failed him. In the wake of such failure, he found himself progressively leaning forward until Yuji lay flat on his back, and a single hand of Sukuna’s was keeping him propped above him.
“I love you, Kuna.”
Yuji breathed between gaps of air, his voice barely escaping into Sukuna’s ear.
“Oh, Yuji… I love me too.”
And just like that, the moment was ruined.
But it was so worth it.
“You’re such an ass!”
Without a moment to spare, Yuji threw hands at Sukuna, failing as his wrists were captured and bound. This was the only way Sukuna could ensure his next kiss would land. Then another. The another, peppering his twin’s cheeks as he thought to himself how many freckles he would be leaving behind.
“I shouldn’t have to say it, but I will pronounce my love if you can’t fathom my reason for holding you at all.”
The pair remained lost in each other for some time, engaging in the affectionate teasing they had spent so long growing up with behind closed doors. Secrecy meant nothing now. Both of the twins knew that, yet when the sound of Kugisaki’s camera broke through the emerging barrier that encapsulated their own little world, all hell broke loose as Sukuna climbed up from the ground to give chase.
This time, Yuji was the one who had to give chase, pleading with his twin to do nothing rash on Sukuna’s deaf ears.
