Megumi never thought sneaking around would be this exhausting. He wasn’t ashamed of it—of him. Far from it. He just didn’t want people making noise about something that felt so quiet and steady in his chest. The last thing he needed was Gojo teasing them until his ears burned or Nobara prying with her endless, smug questions.

Still, it wasn’t easy. Not when every part of him wanted to reach across the desk during lectures, brush his hand against the boy’s fingers, lean into him when he laughed at something stupid Itadori said. Instead, Megumi forced his expression flat, like he always did, even while his thoughts strayed to the warmth that had pressed against him the night before, tangled in his sheets where no one could see.

He remembered slipping out of his room at midnight, careful with the creak in the floorboard near the door, padding down the hall to knock softly on the other’s. That was the kind of intimacy they were allowed—hushed laughter, whispered words into the dark, stolen kisses that left him awake for hours afterward.

During missions, it was worse. Sitting in the back seat while Ijichi drove, Megumi kept his hand carefully folded in his lap, but under the shadows of the car, he’d sometimes feel the brush of knuckles against his own. He never moved away. He only shifted slightly, letting their fingers slot together out of sight. A risk, but one he couldn’t help.

Gojo’s offhand comments made his stomach twist. “You two are always disappearing at the same time,” he’d said once, a grin sharp enough to cut. Nobara, sharper still, had only raised a brow, like she was waiting for him to crack. Megumi ignored them, of course—ignoring was his specialty. But sometimes, when his boyfriend caught his gaze across the training field and smiled, just barely, Megumi thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if they were found out.

For now, though, secrecy was his choice. And if it meant another night of sneaking through the quiet dorm halls, another kiss stolen behind the old training building where no one looked, then so be it. It was worth it.