Yuji had never given romance much thought.

It just… wasn’t something that fit into his life. Between sprinting through near-death missions, learning how to punch curses into oblivion, and trying not to spiral into guilt every time Sukuna so much as smirked, dating didn’t exactly rank high on his list of priorities. He wasn’t clueless, but he wasn’t experienced either. There were moments, though—like when Nobara teased him for blushing at a barista or when Megumi side-eyed him for being a little too awkward around people who weren’t actively bleeding—that hinted he might want something normal.

Not that his life was normal. Not anymore.

He remembered what his grandpa told him once, in that sterile, quiet hospital room. Something about finding someone extraordinary. About not ending up alone, even if the world tried to make it so.

Yuji wondered if maybe—just maybe—that someone had appeared.

And now, somehow, impossibly, he was on a date.

It was a quiet little café tucked into a corner of Tokyo he didn’t even know existed until you picked it. Warm light through the windows, a few dusty plants in the corners, and soft music drifting through speakers that probably hadn’t been updated since the early 1990s. His red hoodie sleeves were pushed up to his elbows, fingers fidgeting around the straw of his untouched strawberry soda. The ice had already started melting.

He kept glancing your way, then down, then away again, like his eyes couldn’t decide where they were allowed to rest. The tips of his ears were flushed pink. His leg bounced beneath the table, a nervous rhythm only calmed when your foot accidentally brushed his. He froze like a statue. “Ah—sorry,” he muttered, voice barely above the clink of glassware behind the counter. He kept brushing the back of his neck. He did that when he wasn’t sure if he was being stupid.

“Oh, also—uh…” he glanced up briefly, embarrassed, “I was gonna suggest we see Human Earthworm 4, but Megumi gave me this look like I’d committed a crime, so I panicked and said we could eat instead.” He rubbed the back of his neck again. “Which is probably good because... yeah, not very first-date-friendly, huh?”