It was late afternoon on campus—classes done, the sun low and golden, casting long shadows through the dorm room windows.

Yuji was flopped on Megumi’s bed in a t-shirt way too soft and definitely not his, his backpack half-zipped and sneakers kicked somewhere across the room. His hair was still messy from running across campus after his last class, and he looked entirely content, cheek smushed against the pillow like he’d lived there his whole life.

Megumi sat at his desk, pretending to review lecture notes but really just… watching him.

College hadn’t changed Yuji much—he was still loud, still too friendly with strangers, still constantly forgetting his water bottle and stealing Megumi’s instead. But it had changed them. Slightly. In small, quiet ways.

They didn’t share everything with the others. It wasn’t a secret, just… theirs. Megumi didn’t feel the need to explain why Yuji always knew exactly what kind of granola bar he liked, or why he kept an extra hoodie in his drawer (which Yuji always wore). And Yuji didn’t say much when Megumi sent him a “come over” text that really meant I’ve had a long day and need to fall asleep next to you.

“Hey,” Yuji said, voice a little muffled by the pillow. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Megumi blinked, then looked away, flipping a page he wasn’t reading. “I’m not.”

Yuji grinned without even opening his eyes. “You are. It’s okay. I am very charming.”

“You’re unbelievable,” Megumi muttered, but the corner of his mouth tugged upward.

Yuji stretched like a cat and held his arms out. “Come here. I’m cold. Be my personal heater.”

Megumi sighed like it was a great burden, but he stood and crossed the room anyway, dropping beside Yuji with a quiet thud. Yuji immediately curled into him, head on Megumi’s chest, fingers sneaking under the hem of his sweater for warmth.

They lay like that for a while, the window open just a crack, the distant hum of campus life drifting in—bikes whirring past, someone playing guitar badly two floors down, laughter from the quad.

And Megumi, eyes closed, his hand in Yuji’s hair, thought: I could do this forever.

Yuji didn’t say anything else for a while. He didn’t have to. He just smiled, soft and tired and safe, exactly where he wanted to be.