A/N: CW for dry humping. There's like no detail given, but Junpei and Yuuji are horny teenage boys lol.

Also! A new character enters the story :)))

When they get back to campus, Kugisaki marches right up the stairs in search of food and her girlfriend, in that order. Junpei trails behind her, mulling over his interaction with Shikichi in silence. A person developing cursed energy who absolutely had not had it just a month ago is unusual enough on its own—unheard of, as far as Junpei knows—but the fact that Shikichi can also see cursed energy…it's too much of a coincidence to ignore. The only other sorcerer Junpei knows of who can do that is Gojo.

Gojo and Nanami mentioned that in their conversation. They have to know something that can explain why. I need to—

As he rounds the corner of a building, he stops short just in time to avoid bumping into Nanami.

"Yoshino."

Heart in his mouth, Junpei steels himself. Just ask just ask just ask.

"How did the mission go?"

Junpei swallows. "Fine."

"Good."

Nanami moves to continue past him, and Junpei inhales sharply, but the words die on his tongue.

He's not ready. That's what Nanami had said. He's not ready.

Junpei digs his fingernails into his palms as he watches Nanami walk away.

I'll show you ready.

He takes out his phone and dials the number for the guidance center. It rings through to the voicemail, and as soon as the tone beeps, he says, "Can you pass this message along to Shikichi Kota? He knows me, I lived there for a few days. Tell him Yoshino Junpei wants to talk to him and give him this number that I called from. He'll know what I want to talk about." He pauses, heart pounding in his ears, and then he hangs up.

I'll figure this out without their help.

There's a text notification from Yuuji, and Junpei opens it to see a picture of Yuuji's homework with a blurry Fushiguro in the background. "helpppppp fushiguros not making any sense"

In spite of himself, Junpei's lips twitch with a small smile. He pockets his phone and heads towards the dorm building. When he reaches the common room, he pokes his head in to see Yuuji and Fushiguro sitting at one of the tables. Yuuji's brow is furrowed in concentration, the already-obliterated eraser end of his pencil between his teeth. Junpei watches him for a few moments, eyes tracing the smooth line of his neck up to the muscles clenching in his jaw with every bite down on the pencil. The memory of following that path with his lips and oh god his tongue flashes through his mind, and he feels his cheeks heat up.

That's when Fushiguro notices him. Their eyes meet, and Junpei's face heats further, convinced that Fushiguro can see on his face what he was thinking about. Then Fushiguro, expression unchanging, turns his attention back to Yuuji and says something. Yuuji's head pops up, and he turns around in his chair. He grins and waves when he sees Junpei, then jumps out of his chair and jogs over to him.

"Hey." Yuuji grabs his hand and laces their fingers together, squeezing a few times.

"Hey," Junpei ducks his head to help his hair cover the way his cheeks are burning.

Yuuji's head tilts to maintain eye contact. "How'd it go?"

"Uh, fine. We got the curses."

"Yeah? And?"

Junpei shrugs. "They weren't that bad. Kugisaki got the grade three, I just did a few grade fours."

"That's still super cool, though!" Yuuji squeezes his hand again and brings it to his face to plant a kiss on the back. "Did the cracks do their job?"

"Yeah." Junpei drops his free hand to the hilt of one sword. "They worked great."

"Sweet! You'll have to give Maki the blow-by-blow at dinner."

"I dunno about a blow-by-blow," Junpei says with a huff of laughter. "I don't need her knowing that I froze up."

"You froze up? Well now I need a blow-by-blow."

"Yeah, sure." Junpei's voice drops, and his cheeks heat up again. "Um—do you want to head to my room until dinner, though?"

Yuuji blinks with surprise and checks his phone. "Sure, but we only have half an hour. I was thinking we'd just hang out here and I can finish up my worksheet really quick…"

"Yuuji." Junpei raises his eyebrows meaningfully, and Yuuji just looks at him blankly.

God, he's so fucking oblivious.

Then understanding dawns on Yuuji's face. He nods eagerly and pushes past Junpei out the door, tugging him along. "Give me the blow-by-blow while we walk."

Junpei smiles softly and follows his boyfriend down the hall. As soon as the door's shut behind them, Yuuji cups his face and kisses him, and Junpei melts into the kiss as Yuuji's thumb brushes his hair out of his face.

"This is what you meant, right?" Yuuji says breathlessly, breaking away from the kiss.

Junpei nods quickly and closes the distance again. He feels Yuuji smile against his lips, and he smiles too, grins spreading until they have to break the kiss again. He slips his hands around Yuuji's waist and tugs him further into the room, trading messy kisses as their knees bump against each other. He flops back onto the bed and pulls Yuuji with him. They land on the bed in a tangle of limbs and breathless laughter, and Yuuji peppers kisses all over his face. Not in the mood for too much build-up, Junpei grinds his hips upwards against Yuuji's. Yuuji drops his head, a soft moan leaving his lips, and then he responds in kind.

When they've both finished, Yuuji sinks down to lay on top of Junpei, a contented hum low in his throat. Junpei reaches for a couple of tissues from the box on his bedside table and cleans himself up as well as he can, nose wrinkled. He drops his tissues into the trash can and turns his head back to check on Yuuji. Yuuji's eyes are shut, and his breathing has gone slow and heavy.

"Yuuji?" Junpei whispers. No response. Then a light snore rises from him, and Junpei has to press his lips together to keep from laughing. He squirms out from directly under Yuuji and rolls onto his side, pressing a kiss to Yuuji's forehead. Yuuji sighs softly and pulls him closer, his hand slipping under Junpei's shirt and touching the bare skin of his waist.

Junpei stiffens, heart leaping into his mouth as sparks race up his spine, and Yuuji's brow furrows. "Whoops," he mumbles, and he pulls his hand away, patting around clumsily until he finds the hem of Junpei's shirt and tugging it down. Replacing his hand on Junpei's waist, his face clears, and he buries his nose in Junpei's hair.

Junpei lies there stiffly, heart racing. On the one hand, he wants Yuuji to touch him there again really fucking badly. On the other hand, that was way too close to the freshly-scabbed cuts on his stomach. Fuck, this is so much harder than I thought. He never had a problem hiding the cuts from his mom, but it turns out a boyfriend is a lot harder to hide these things from than a mother. He's been trying not to cut as much, especially after he ran out of space on his shoulders, but he'd caved and started on his stomach after a shitty few days of training.

Junpei reflexively checks to make sure his shoulders are still covered. He's noticed Yuuji glancing at them every now and again with a slight furrow between his brows, and he can't shake the feeling that Yuuji knows, even though he can't think of a single time when Yuuji would have seen them. Yuuji's been good about not looking every time Junpei's changed around him, and neither of them have taken anything off when they're doing…other stuff. Yuuji hasn't asked about the reason for either yet, and Junpei still doesn't know what he'd tell him if he did ask.

"Hey Junpei?" Yuuji says softly, his breath tickling Junpei's cheek.

Junpei's heart jumps into his throat again. "Yeah?"

"Whatcha thinking about?"

"Nothing," Junpei replies, maybe a little too quickly.

Yuuji props himself up on one elbow and smiles at him softly. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"Today's our one-month."

Junpei releases the breath he'd been holding and smiles back. "Yeah, it is."

"What do you want to do tonight?"

Junpei huffs out a small laugh. "More of this?"

"I'm down," Yuuji replies, laughing. "But what else? Like maybe we could go somewhere? See a movie or something?"

"It's a school night, we can't stay out late."

"Then how about this weekend?"

"Yeah, we could do something this weekend."

"Yay!" Yuuji leans down and pecks him on the lips. "It's wild that it's been a month already."

"Yeah." Junpei's eyes drop to the marks on Yuuji's cheekbones, and his heart sinks. I wonder how many more we'll get.

"Hey," Yuuji says, poking him a few times in the cheek. "No being sad on our one-month-aversary."

Junpei tries to press his lips together into a smile, but it can't cover up the sick, hollow feeling in his stomach. So instead of answering, he buries his face into Yuuji's chest. Yuuji squeezes him and kisses the top of his head, and then he sighs. "We should probably get to dinner."

"Yeah." Junpei sits up, and Yuuji follows suit, scooting to the edge of the bed to put his arms around Junpei. Junpei gives him a squeeze, and then he gets to his feet. "Come on."

Yuuji takes his hand, and Junpei tugs him to his feet. They hug tightly, Junpei burying his face in Yuuji's shoulder and breathing in his scent, and then they head back out into the hallway, linked hands swaying between them.

By the time they reach the cafeteria, everyone else has already sat down with their food, and Panda and Kugisaki are having a contest to see who can fit more rice balls into their mouths. They get their own trays of food and take a seat next to Maki, who's rolling her eyes fondly at her girlfriend. Kugisaki's trying to cram a fifth rice ball into her mouth, but halfway through, the rice starts to fall apart in her fingers. She groans and drops the remnants of the rice ball onto her plate, then covers her mouth as she starts to chew.

"Looks like I win," Panda says around his own mouthful, which isn't even pushing his cheeks out at all.

"Couldn't have seen that coming," Fushiguro mutters, and Kugisaki glares and flips him off.

Under the table, Yuuji squeezes Junpei's hand, and Junpei looks over at him. Yuuji gives him a small, amused smile before going back to his food, and Junpei feels a familiar flutter in his chest. He doesn't think he'll ever get tired of being the one Yuuji looks at like that.

"Heard you went on a mission today," Maki says, looking over her glasses at Junpei.

He nods, and, hoping she won't ask for any more details, says, "The swords worked great."

"Of course they did," she replies. "Did you use your cursed energy on them?"

He presses his lips together and shakes his head. "I forgot."

"They'll become stronger weapons the more you channel your cursed energy through them," she says. "Don't forget next time." Junpei nods, and she opens her mouth to say something else, but then her gaze flashes to the other end of the table. "Where do you think you're going?"

Junpei looks over to see Inumaki halfway out of his seat, phone in hand, looking guilty.

"Make him say hi to the rest of us," Maki says, waving Inumaki back into his seat.

Inumaki pointedly rolls his eyes, but he sits back down and taps his phone before holding it up with the screen facing them all. Junpei leans forward to see the screen better, and he can make out the pixelated image of a black-haired boy in a white shirt waving at them.

"Hey, guys!" he says, voice tinny through the speakers.

"Yuuta!" Maki replies, leaning forward on her elbows. "Long time no see, asshole. Glad to know we all rank below your boyfriend."

There's a sheepish laugh. "Sorry, Maki. I'll make sure to call you next time."

"You better."

Yuuta laughs again, less sheepish this time. "So what's new?"

"Nanami's a teacher now," Panda replies, popping another onigiri into his mouth.

"No way, they roped Nanami into teaching?"

"Yep. He's technically the third year teacher, but for now, he's mostly just Gojo's and Kusakabe's sub."

"Apparently it took Gojo weeks to convince him to take the job," Kugisaki interjects.

"That doesn't surprise me," Yuuta says, and then he looks over at Inumaki and signs something. Inumaki signs back rapidly with one hand, gesturing at each of the first years in turn. Junpei, watching closely because he's still shit at JSL, catches his name and Yuuji's, but nothing else.

"You can ask them to introduce themselves, Yuuta," Maki says flatly, the corner of her mouth tilted up in an amused smirk. She turns to the first years and continues, "This is Okkotsu. Resident special grade sorcerer and jerk who thinks he's better than everyone else."

"I do not, Maki."

She turns on him, one eyebrow raised. "Do too." He rolls his eyes, and she smirks, then turns to gesture at Kugisaki. "This is Kugisaki."

He grins. "Oh, I know."

"Shut up," she shoots back, but her smile takes on a pleased tilt. "You know Fushiguro, and I'm sure you've heard of Itadori."

Okkotsu waves, a little shyly, and Yuuji waves back. "Nice to meet you!"

"The one next to Itadori is Yoshino. He took your spot as the one I'm beating into shape."

Junpei presses his lips together into an awkward smile, and Okkotsu says, "Has Maki gotten any better at teaching?"

Junpei glances over at Maki, and, out of self-preservation, answers, "I've made a lot of progress with her help." Which is true. He's just also gotten a lot of bruises.

Inumaki kicks Maki's foot under the table. "Tuna mayo."

"Fine, fine," she says, waving him away. "Go enjoy making goo-goo eyes at your boyfriend. Yuuta, respond to my texts once in a while."

"Will do," Okkotsu says as Inumaki pulls the phone towards himself and climbs out of his seat. Maki watches him go, chopsticks dangling absently from her fingers.

"You said he's in Africa?" Yuuji asks, leaning around Junpei to address Maki.

"Mm-hmm," she replies, stabbing into her fish with her chopsticks.

"What's he doing there?"

"Looking for something for Gojo."

"Looking for what?"

"Neither of them will say."

"It's all very hush-hush," Panda comments from the other side of the table.

"So he's a special grade sorcerer?" Kugisaki asks.

"Yep. One of only four in the world, and the youngest by ten years."

"He must be super strong, then," Yuuji says, eyes wide.

"He is now. He was a mess when he started here," Maki replies, smirking.

"Really?"

"Yeah." She jerks her chin at Junpei. "You reminded me a lot of him at first, Yoshino."

Junpei blinks, unsure of how to take that. "Like…because he was a mess?"

"Because you're both haunted by personal tragedy and have shit coping mechanisms."

"Oh."

"I'll leave you to chew on that," she says, shoving her last bite of food into her mouth and standing with her tray in hand. "It's too bad he's gone, though, he would have been a good senpai for you." With that, she heads out.

Once she's gone, Yuuji nudges Junpei's knee with his own. "You should talk to him," he says quietly. "He could probably give you advice on the stuff you're working on in therapy."

Junpei shakes his head, eyes dropping to his plate. "Therapy's going fine, I don't need to bother him."

Yuuji lets out a small sigh, then goes back to his own food. "Okay."

"So what do you want to do this weekend for our anniversary?"

"I was thinking we could go see a movie in theaters."

"Okay. Good. Sounds good."

A/N: I fucking love Okkotsu you guys, and I'm so excited for him to be a part of my story :)))

Also,,, Junpei and Yuuji's sex life is important to the development of their relationship, but I won't be giving any more detail than I absolutely have to bc writing sex is a big ick for me.