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effeminateboyninja · 20 days

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3.2k | Toge Inumaki x gn!reader

S Y N O P S I S : You and Toge have been dancing around what everyone else already knows to be true, when finally a bet between friends brings it all to the forefront.

C O N T E N T : friends to lovers, fluff, brief mention of alcohol

A / N : loosely inspired by a song from OKLAHOMA! of all things. anyway it’s my first fic in a long time i hope u enjoy ! mwah!!

You rush down the sidewalk past buildings that flew by in a blur, feet tapping against the stone in a rapid procession that matched that of your thoughts.

Rarely, if ever, was there notable gossip within your group of friends. Sorcerers all, the daily tribulations of your shared profession usually stole the attention that might be reserved for petty speculation enjoyed by more typical individuals of your age group. Rarer still, were you the subject of such gossip. That novelty, and the eager sense to immediately share the news is what propelled you now at such a frantic pace towards the courtyard where a familiar figure was waiting. Toge — the white shock of his platinum hair coming into view first as you round the corner to approach him where he sat. Dutifully obeying your instructions to meet you there, texted to him just a few minutes earlier.

His eyes light up as soon as you come into view, widening when it’s clear that your rapid advance doesn’t seem to be slowing. You reach the bench where he’s sitting and barely manage to skid to a stop, the momentum of your actions toppling you down beside him with an exasperated sigh.

“Kelp.” He chuckles, amused by your dramatic arrival.

You give him a quick obligatory, “Hey, Tog,” as your hand reaches out in a well-practiced motion for the zipper on his collar, pulling it down below his chin so you could see his mouth and the marks on either side of it.

“You wouldn’t believe what I just heard!” the exclamation comes just as soon as the afterthought of a greeting leaves your mouth.

He looks back inquisitively and you continue without missing a beat. “So I overheard Yuji and Nobara talking...”

His eyes crinkle as he smiles and he types something on his phone: “You were eavesdropping…”

“Okay fine, I was eavesdropping!” You relent, “But that’s not the point! The point is — they have a bet… About us!”

You pause dramatically, waiting for an appropriately scandalized response and when none comes you continue, only slightly deterred. “More specifically, the bet is about whether or not we’ll start dating. Us.” You huff, “Can you believe that?”

He doesn’t miss a beat, his tone level and his expression unphased. “Salmon.”

“Right?! That’s what I said. Like why would-“ His response finally registers in your mind and you do a double-take. “Wait, what do you mean?!”

He pulls up the notes app on his phone again and his thumbs dance across the screen before turning it so you can read the message he’s typed.

“well I mean maybe if you didn’t flirt with me so much… 🤷‍♂️”

You scoff and raise your eyebrows skeptically. “Oh, I’m the one who flirts? Please. That’s all you.”

He furrows his brow slightly and tilts his head to the side.

“Oh don’t play dumb with me. You practically act like my boyfriend.”

“Bonito flakes.” He protests, a faint smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

The truth is Yuji and Nobara’s bet is not unfounded — not in the slightest. The two of you have been playing this game for far too long for your younger friends’ nearly nonexistent patience. But Toge loves it. He revels in the fact that your friendship with him teeters on the edge on something more and cherishes every little slip up that shows it.

“Whatever, liar.” You smile and shake your head. “We need to set some ground rules.”

He raises his eyebrows curiously.

“Ground rules, you know? A list of things you need to stop doing so people will stop thinking we’re a couple.”

He smirks, the cursed symbol on his cheek twitching upwards.

“I’m serious!” You reach and arm out to give him a playful shove, but he dodges it expertly. His smirk only grows, earning him an eye roll.

“First of all,” you start, ignoring his smug expression, “you’re way too good with my parents. You’ve got to stop impressing them so much or my mom will never stop calling you her future son-in-law.”

He scoffs, hastily typing up his rebuttal.

“are you actually complaining that your parents like me rn?? my bad, let me just make them hate me 💀”

You groan, “You know what I mean! You brought my mom flowers that one time, like c’mon.”

He smiles, remembering the occasion last year. It was your mother’s birthday and he knew that you’d be spending the day with her, which meant he wouldn’t be able to. He needed an excuse to at least see you for a few minutes — and so the white-haired sorcerer dropped by a flower shop and made his way down the familiar route to your house with a small arrangement of carnations and daisies. She’d loved them of course, and insisted he join the two of you for lunch. Mission accomplished.

He sighs dramatically, but relents “fine, no flowers for your mom… she’ll be devastated tho”

His add-on at the end makes you chuckle. “I’m sure she’ll survive.” You assure him.

“anything else?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” you respond to his newest note and sit up a bit straighter, putting on a playful air of haughtiness. “Don’t laugh so much at my jokes. I know I’m devastatingly funny, so that might be a challenge, but it gives people the wrong idea I think.”

His thumbs are tapping his phone screen before you can even finish your last sentence. “Who laughs at your jokes? 🤔”

The quip earns him another shove. One that lands this time because he’s too busy laughing at your shocked and offended expression to dodge it. Toge’s laugh is a soft, bubbling sound that in spite of your last statement, you could listen to a million times and it would never be enough.

He catches his breath and straightens up a bit then points to himself, an ever present ghost of a smile playing at the corner of his lips. “My turn” he mouths.

That’s only fair, you think. So you nod, encouraging him to elaborate. He crosses his arms into an “X” in front of his chest — no more — then he points to your eyes with his index and middle finger, then points to himself.

You stare at him puzzled for a moment. “I’m not allowed to look at you?” You ask incredulously.

He shakes his head and rolls his eyes, mouthing. “Not like that.”

“Like what?” You laugh.

“Like this,” his lips move silently once more and he reaches out his hand, cupping your cheek to hold your gaze, his lavender eyes locked with yours, sparkling mischievously like he’s got a secret he’s about to share with only you. There’s a beat of silence. And you have to work to resist the urge to lean in and kiss him. He just looks so pretty. Had his lips always looked so soft? So perfectly paired for your own…?

“Alright fine,” you exhale, shaking yourself from your reverie and grasping for an excuse to turn away from his touch. When his hand falls away from your face and you can breathe normally again, you speak once more. “The notes then. You’ll have to stop collecting them.”

You’re referring to the scraps of paper the two of you use to communicate when his riceball ingredients aren’t enough and he’s too lazy to pull out his phone. The ones he refuses to throw out, opting instead to fold them into his pocket and place them neatly into a shoebox under his bed later for safekeeping. They might just be random bits of paper, small snippets of past conversations with no context, but he doesn’t need any. He can recognize if you were happy, excited, sad or angry when you wrote each one by just the subtle changes in your handwriting. Keeping those notes is important to him; each one of them a memory that he has of you, and has no intention of kicking the habit any time soon.

This is one rule he won’t entertain. He shakes his head defiantly and furrows his brows. “Bonito flakes.”

There’s a sense of relief at his refusal as you let out a breath you didn’t even know you were holding in. This habit of his was one that had always made you feel important to him in a way that separated you from all his other friends, and it reassured the tamed and quiet part of you that hoped this familiar game would someday come to an end in your favour to see he didn’t want to relinquish it.

“Alright, I suppose you can keep the notes,” you say, and he beams, relieved by the knowledge that you enjoy his more sentimental tendencies.

Relieved too, that you clearly didn’t understand his one and only ground rule, because there you are again looking at him with that magnetic gaze that makes his heart melt.

You’re so focused on him that you don’t notice the phone he’s holding up for you at first, and he has to wave it slightly to get your attention.

“is it really so bad though?”

“What do you mean?”

“is it so bad that people think we’d make a good couple?”

No.

Your inner voice answers before you even have time to process that he’s asking you this — Toge, who’s occasional flirting you entertained, sure, but who you had convinced yourself long ago was off limits. Only allowing yourself a little self-indulgence once in a blue moon, wondering about what it might be like to take the plunge and turn your friendship to something more. A subtle touch every now and then, lasting just a bit too long. A moment of absentminded closeness, eyes flitting to lips before embarrassment comes blundering back in, followed by a blush and flustered change of subject. Those things were more than enough for what you had long ago accepted as just a silly and wholly unserious crush on your closest friend. It wouldn’t be right to risk all the trust and comfort the two of you had built as friends for just a chance at knowing what it would be like to call him yours. But here he was asking — what would be so wrong if you did?

Or was he? The doubt creeps in to cloud the excitement just as quickly as you’d let yourself believe he might return your feelings, and you begin convincing yourself that it’s just too good to be true.

Toge can see the gears in your head turning, the adorable and familiar way your features twist in concentration when you’re thinking really hard about something. He imagines reaching out his thumb to brush away the lines that have formed between your eyebrows as you furrow them at him, trailing it down to trace your lips and bring it back to touch his own — an inadvertent kiss.

But he doesn’t. Now, he needs to know your answer.

Your response finally comes as a tentative murmur, purposefully vague and noncommittal in an effort to suss out whether he’s being genuine or just teasing. “I guess not…”

His face falls just slightly. “you guess?”

“Well, I mean, I don’t know..” You huff, shifting uncomfortably in your seat. “What do you think?”

“i don’t mind at all.”

Your eyes race over the words a few times, just to be sure, then flick up to his face searching for any break in his level expression to indicate he was kidding around. But there’s nothing. Not even an echo of the smirk he wore earlier. An answer eludes you and you can only purse your lips and stare at him, desperately trying to figure out how you’re supposed to respond.

That’s when the young sorcerer rolls his eyes and lets out an exasperated sigh, his patience finally being worn thin. The game had been fun he thinks, but your obliviousness was getting downright painful at this point. If he has to spell it out for you then so be it.

He looks you in the eyes, his expression as serious as it’s ever been on his most important mission and takes hold of your hands in his. They give a gentle squeeze, urging you to pay attention. Then, he points his index finger to himself, makes a heart with his hands, and points to you. Repeats twice more for good measure, and looks at you with a gaze he hopes says I’ve loved you since I met you, you are so, SO precious to me.

There, he thinks, there’s no explaining it away this time; there’s little room for interpretation in those movements.

Your face morphs with the motions of tentative understanding, a curious disbelief present in your expression. You could imagine his voice, the sound of it dutifully committed to memory despite its infrequency — saying the words along with each movement: I. love. you. I love you. I love you.

“Don’t mess with me Toge,” the last vestiges of your hesitation voice themselves, stern despite the giddy excitement that sent your stomach fluttering, “flirting is one thing but this is entirely different, it’s cruel.”

My god, the cursed speech user thinks to himself. You’re certainly not making this easy on him, a fact he supposes is only fair considering how long he’s let this go on. He shakes his head, a baffled smile playing across his lips. Well, that only leaves one option.

“I love you.”

This time, the sound of his voice is not imagined. He doesn’t imbue any cursed energy into the words but the air around you two still seems to tingle with a latent electricity in their wake. You shoot him a shocked look, eyes wide as saucers as your mouth opens to chastise him. But Toge is quick — and somewhat impatient after all this time — leaning in before your accusation can be fully voiced to cut it short with a long overdue kiss. Your admonitions are forgotten completely the moment his lips meet yours, mind consumed with the feeling of it, with him.

It’s a soft thing, your lips moving gently together for only a few precious seconds that still manage to send your head spinning. When you retreat slightly, forehead resting on his own, he grins wildly before pulling you back in for another, deeper embrace that brings his hands to either side of your face and presses yours eagerly against his chest.

Minds rushing with the thrill of it all you both stay there for the better portion of the evening, making up for the lost time. Lips on swollen lips, hands in tangled hair, just kissing, kissing, kissing…

***

A few days later, you and Toge are at Yuji and Megumi’s apartment to gather with all your friends for the first time since the two of you made it official.

The group chat went absolutely wild when Toge announced your status as a couple by casually sending a picture he’d taken of your arms wrapped around him and face buried in his neck — and after a barrage of excited texts, decided that you all needed to get together to celebrate.

“Finally!” Yuji exclaims loudly as soon as you walk through the door, wrapping both you and Toge into a tight bear hug that lifts your feet off the ground. “I knew it! I totally called it. Did I not call it?”

“Hardly impressive on your part,” his roommate chimed in from behind him where he stood with his hands in his pockets. “We all knew it was going to happen eventually.”

Fushiguro nudged around his loud, enthusiastic friend to greet the two of you with handshakes and quick ‘good to see you’s before retreating to the kitchen to get drinks for his guests.

“I called it.” Yuji insisted. Then, “come!” He waved you both towards where everyone was gathered and joined them. Maki and Nobara were wedged on the couch, sharing the one remaining cushion not occupied by Panda’s hulking form. And Yuta, smiling proudly at the two of you like he especially had known the inevitability of this pairing, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of them.

You and Toge exchange greetings with the others, join Yuta on the floor, and fall into easy conversation with the group who had only grown closer in the years since graduation. Toge’s arm wraps around you instinctively, pulling you close to him. He’s so caught up in the boastful satisfaction of the action he hardly notices when Fushiguro returns passing out drinks. You take his drink for him along with your own, offer an apologetic smile for your raven-haired friend that is met with an understanding smirk and shake of his spiky head.

Hours pass, drinks are downed and conversation gets louder and more interspersed with raucous laughter.

“So which one of you started that bet anyway?” You ask eventually, playful and curious. “And which ones of you bet against us, huh?” You cross your arms over your chest and look at the group, narrowing your eyes in faux suspicion as you examine them. It’s this action that stops you from noticing the way your boyfriend straightens, sharing a look with his best friend across the coffee table. One that contains the guilty awareness of a schoolboy about to be caught in his mischief. Yuta stifles a laugh.

The rest of them exchange confused looks, then looks of understanding, before joining Yuta in suppressed amusement.

“You haven’t told them yet?” Maki directs her incredulous question at Toge, and scattered snickers and gasps follow from the rest of them. You watch him intently for his response. Which, is at moment, only a sheepish grin and deep blush of his cheeks.

Just like the night that he kissed you for first time and told you he loved you, this time slightly dulled by the drink, the gears in your mind start to turn and you start putting it all together. Then it clicks.

“Oh my- I’m so dumb.” You chastise yourself for the delayed understanding and Nobara bursts out laughing. Grabbing her stomach and falling back dramatically against her girlfriend who only halfheartedly rolls her eyes before joining in with a chuckle of her own. Of course Toge had been the one to start the bet. Which was in truth less a wager on whether or not the two of you would get together, but how quickly. Of course he knew Yuji and Nobara wouldn’t be able to keep quiet about it, eventually making it known to you.

You turned on him then with a knowing smirk and leaned towards him, “Were you planning on telling me, hmm?”

He shrugged, blushing more furiously now as your face neared his.

“Well,” you say, now just inches away from him, “I’m glad you did it either way.” You close the last of the small distance and catch his lips in a kiss. He kisses you back, and the way it sets his heart racing is enough to distract him from the teasing hooting of your friends who are most definitely not going to let him live down either this display of public affection, or his part in the bet that started all this. Which is just as well to him. He’d been playing the long game after all, and the outcome was exactly as rewarding as he’d hoped.

#toge inumaki x reader #toge inumaki x you #toge x reader #toge x you #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #reader insert #ebn; fics

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