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Aoi presses his lips to Yuji’s for one heartbeat.
Then another.
They are sitting in the courtyard of the Kyoto School, right behind the fountain and hidden away from view by a rather conspicuous and unrealistic sculpture of Principal Gakuganji, whose head is shrouded by the large cherry blossom trees around them.
Aoi may be biased because he has the pleasure of calling Kyoto his hometown but there is no better place to be in the spring. Beautiful cherry blossoms line the lanes and dress the floor in pink, geisha performances pop up all around the city, and an endless number of festivals to attend during the ten days of their break.
Kyoto in the spring is alive, full, and moving.
It’s a simple time.
The air is comfortable, cool enough for days spent exploring the wood and the town but warm enough the nights are just as inviting.
But just because spring is simple doesn’t mean that it is boring.
There is so much to do in spring that even during the extended twelve-day break that the Jujustu Prefectorial schools have —two days longer than the rest of the country because of the lull in cursed energy during the spring equinox — Aoi is never bored.
He spends his days climbing up mountains, hiking through forests, and training. His nights are filled with festivals. When he can he drags his classmates to them too. The Kyoto class —the city's invisible heroes — join the public to walk streets lined with lanterns as patrons at booths fill the night air with the smell of fried dough and meat. He loves spring in Kyoto. Takada’s birthday is in spring and her group hosts most of their special events during the warmer months so, for Aoi, the spring air is also filled with romance, love, and promise.
Which brings us back to...
Aoi and Yuji are kissing.
They are sitting on a bench, facing each other and leaning in until their lips touch and nothing else does. Aoi’s hands are pressed into the wood of the bench and he’s angled his legs away from the smaller man’s. Yuji’s right arm is resting on the edge of the back of the bench, and his feet are crossed at the ankle. It’s the last image Aoi has before his lips meet Yuji’s and he imagines that position isn’t very comfortable.
But then again, neither is the kiss.
Aoi pulls away first, leaning back and crossing his arms over the expanse of his chest. His eyes are still closed as he purses his lips considering the kiss.
It was… nice? Was nice a bad way to describe a kiss? His initial thought is “boring” — the kiss is dull, no passion and real desire driving it at all — but that isn’t a good word he wants to ascribe to his closest friend so he settles in nice. He isn’t really sure but he can’t help but feel like it’s somehow appropriate.
He opens his eyes to find Yuji staring at him.
The corners of his mouth twitch a little as he seems to be considering their kiss too — they are so in sync, him and his best friend, that Yuji is probably running through adjectives in his head just like he is — like he is trying his hardest not to smile. It makes it look like he’s about to laugh.
It makes him seem happy.
If Aoi was someone else — someone who knew how to navigate situations like this with something other than the brash upfront way he handles most things, with what Mai would call “decorum” — then he may have decided to focus on that rather than the hint of sadness in his brown eyes but he isn’t.
"Nothing, right?" It's a question but the tone of his voice makes it sound more like a statement even to his own ears. He doesn’t mean to sound as sure as he is, he hopes he isn’t being insensitive, but that’s just what it was, right?
The kiss was nice.
Like popping a piece of cotton candy into your mouth and savoring it until it disappeared into nothing. Aoi had never particularly liked cotton candy, never craved it, but it was nice when it was there and just as fine when it wasn’t. Exactly like that kiss.
Yuji frowns and Toudou rubs at the back of his neck awkwardly. “You alright?”
"Well, yes,” Yuji says, pausing for a minute like he isn’t sure where to start. Aoi waits for him to sort out his thoughts because even though people think Yuji is empty-headed and write him off as an idiot, which admittedly he kind of is, but Aoi is his best friend. He knows that Yuji just has so many things running in his head that wrestling them down and sorting through them all can be challenging. "I'm sorry."
Aoi frowns. “Why?”
If anyone should be sorry it should be Aoi.
He’s the one who suggested they do this.
So that Yuji could be sure.
But he doesn’t think this has helped as much as he thought it would.
“I don’t know.” Yuji slumps back against the bench, groaning to the sky. In the distance, more cherry blossoms kiss the floor. “I’ve never done this before. It just feels like the right thing to say?”
“Don’t apologize.” Toudou looks at Yuji closely, reminded of the time they had fought at the exchange event, of his answer to his question. Master Tsukumo had always said asking it was the easiest way to find out what someone was like and he had taken that to heart but now seeing how confused and mixed up his best friend is he wonders if there were perhaps preliminary questions he should have asked. He chooses his next words carefully. "But if it was the Fushigiro boy...?"
A moment of silence passes before Yuji answers.
"Yeah.” And it’s the truth. Toudou is nice and strong. He understands Yuji in a weird way that most people don’t. He is his best friend and the kiss is… nice. But...Megumi would be different. Yuji is sure of it. “If it was him.”
Toudou believes him but as he looks at Yuji he can tell that there is something else, something missing in his answer. Maybe it’s the way he exhales or the way he blinks up at the sky twice, but Aoi can tell that his best friend is holding back and that just won’t fucking do. Aoi never holds back. Ever. And he’s not about to accept that chicken foot, pussyfooting from his best friend.
He nudges Yuji’s foot with his own. The smaller man turns to him and Aoi gives him an incredulous look, eyebrow raised. “Just Megumi?”
Yuji’s eyes flicker over to the cherry blossom tree across from them and look further into the sports field where even Aoi can see the ghost of a girl with nails and a hammer who is all the way back in Tokyo.
"No," Yuji admits. Something about how he says it makes Toudou believe that this may be the first time he’s admitting it. "Both of them. It would be different with either of them.”
Aoi leans back, considering that.
Aoi is a simple man who likes simple things.
Tsukumo’s question is simple. It tells him what Aoi needs to know about people without requiring too much of him. And hearing the answers, even if the answers themselves are hit-or-miss, is never boring.
When Yuji had told him all those months ago his preference— “A tall woman with a big ass, I guess?” —he thought that was what solidified Yuji as someone worthy of his time and attention. Someone who wasn’t going to bore him. But there was more to Yuji. There had been then — when he remembered their shared history — and there certainly was now that his best friends had feelings for the only two other students in his year.
Yuji had alluded to these feelings of his but he hadn’t been certain which Aoi thought was understandable. When he had first enrolled at Kyoto he had developed a fondness for Iori sensei, who was nothing like his type at all. Iori sensei is short and while her casual clothes reveal a little more of her shape than the miko outfit she prefers, he would hardly call her particularly curvy.
Besides, she looked nothing like Takada.
But proximity and the hormones of an eccentric teenager had placed her on his radar for at least the duration of his first year. Now, thankfully, he was over the silly little infatuation.
So he understood Yuji’s confusion at his interest in his classmates. Megumi didn’t at all fit the description Yuji had given as his preference, and while Nobara did in fact fall under the category of girl, he could attest that her ass was not exactly big .
So Aoi had suggested the kiss to see if proximity was the only factor influencing his affections. He and Yuji were close. They were best friends. And while normally miles away from each other, they had spent the entirety of the twelve-day spring break in Kyoto together. He’s taken him along on his hikes and climbs, delighted by how his best friend matched his enthusiasm for the physical. They’d gorged on festival sweets and meats to the disgust of his classmates and Aoi had even taken Yuji along to Takada’s VIP Member Birthday Handshake Event.
No one had been in Yuji’s proximity as much as Aoi recently.
But they both knew that Yuji was in no way attracted to Aoi. Just as Aoi was in no way attracted to Yuji (note: Yuji looked less like Takada than Iori sensei did).
So, if they had kissed and Yuji had felt something then that would have proven that his feelings were strictly due to proximity and his teenage body’s need for some kind of intimacy.
The plan was simple. But…
It would seem that Yuji wasn’t.
Yuji had more than one type.
Aoi hummed to himself. Usually, he would be put off by the sudden unnecessary complexity of this situation but he can’t help but be intrigued.
His best friend was by no means simple, it would seem, but at least he wasn’t boring .
"Why choose? Why not both of them?" Aoi asks. Yuji’s eyes snap to him and the gape of his mouth sets Aoi off. He laughs, simple and boisterous as his friend flounders, and wonders why Yuji never considered that option himself. It seems like the simplest answer to his seemingly complex problem. And if there was one thing that Aoi knew how to do — it was simplifying things. "You should tell them."
“W-what?” Yuji stammers. “I can’t do that!”
“Which part? Tell Kugisaki and Fushigiro that you like them or have both of them?”
“Either!”
“Why not?”
Yuji pushes them and Aoi can just about see the cogs turning in his head as he considers it. Aoi has never been in the position of liking two people — Takada is the only one for him — like Yuji is but that would be his solution if he was. Choosing one of the other, when it’s clear that Yuji feels for the both of them differently but with the same intensity and end, is only going to cause a whole lot of headache and complicate matters. Choosing both (or, Aoi supposes, choosing neither) may seem selfish to some but it is the most simple answer.
“Can I do that?”
“Of course!” Aoi supposes the desire for simplicity often comes with age and while they may only have about a year between them, that is still something. He had needed Tsukumo to guide him, it was only right he tried to do the same for his best friend. “You should tell them. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but you should still tell them, soon."
A few days later, Gojo, Maki, Nobara, and Megumi arrive on the Kyoto campus in the pursuit of a special grade curse that has taken an interest in resurrecting Sukuna and therefore in Yuji.
This development cuts their spring break short and prompts the Kyoto school to convene with the Tokyo sorcerers to come up with a plan of action. It interrupts his and Yuji’s plans but Aoi doesn’t mind much. He is sat between Miwa and Momo. Iori sensei is glaring at Gojo, who keeps teasing her about one thing or the other. On the other side of the room, Nobara and Megumi have taken up space on both sides of Yuji, listening intently to the conversation and occasionally whispering to Yuji and each other in hushed tones.
Yuji is decidedly avoiding Aoi’s eyes.
This is, again, fine because Aoi is enjoying watching his best friend do his best to ignore how Nobara’s thigh, bare in her cut off shorts, rub against his leg with how close she is sat by him or how Megumi has his arm thrown around the back of the bench they are all sat on. Aoi usually finds these kinds of meeting rather dull but now he is able to amuse himself by casting Yuji knowing smirks and watching as he blushes when Megumi leans in to whisper in his ear. Or nearly have a heart attack when Nobara’s leg lands on his thigh.
It’s nothing short of hilarious.
And, yeah, this whole thing Yuji is going through is private and delicate and maybe he shouldn’t enjoy teasing his best friend as much as he does but well ...
Isn’t that what friends are for?