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“Remind me again why we are doing this?” Yuji asks. Megumi can’t tell if he’s gone pale or if the fresh dye job is making him look extra pale. Wet, hot pink hair hands limply around his face. There’s a towel draped over the shoulders of his hoodie, but the front of it is still wet.
“Because it’d just be cool,” he mutters.
“Yeah, right,” Nobara pipes up from his desk. She’s taking out all of his different pens and scribbling on scratch paper he keeps out. “You want your ears pierced because you thought Getou Sensei looked cool.”
“Okay sure.” He hopes his voice is as drenched with sarcasm as Yuji’s hair is. Why he refused to use Satoru’s hair dryer is anyone’s guess. “Why do you want to pierce your ear, Kugisaki? Do you think he’s cool too?”
“Excuse you, I have been wanting my cartilage pierced for a long time now, but my parents won’t let me. You just don’t listen to me.” She flings a pen at him. It bounces off his headboard and hits Yuji sitting on the floor.
“Hey!”
“Sorry Yuji!”
“Won’t your parents notice if you come home with a piercing?” He grabs the pen from Yuji and tosses it back to Nobara. “You better put them back like you found them.”
“You are so neurotic. And nope.” She starts to arrange his pens back into a pattern that looks normal for any other person. However, he knows he’s going to have to take the time when she leaves to make sure everything is lined up and facing the right way. “I’ll just wear my hair down for like a month around them. Maybe I’ll try and gaslight them into believing that they let me get it. It’ll probably be healed then, and I’ll just take out the ear ring when I’m around them. Won’t Gojo Sensei notice if you walk out of here with your ears pierced?”
“Please, his head is so far up his own ass that he hasn’t even noticed that I closed the door.”
“Fair point.” She takes the scissors off his desk and starts to cut into a box. “Where’d you get this stuff anyway?”
“Amazon.”
“Did you have to say you were 18 or something?”
“Nope, but I think Gojo’s ID is attached because he ordered Nanami Sensei a fancy bottle of wine or something.” He crawls across his bed to peek into the package. It contains a six pack of individual, single-use piercing guns. The listing had described it as “painless and fun for the whole family.” Megumi was skeptical, but it included gloves and alcohol wipes, so that was good enough for the moment. Satoru would definitely make fun of him if he asked to get his ears pierced.
He turns to Yuji, who is still sitting leaning against the side of his bed near the side table. His eyes are cast down to his phone. “Would you lock the door?”
“Sure,” he mumbles. Placing a hand on the table and rising like an old man.
Nobara is already tearing through cellophane; despite this, the quiet click of the lock still rings in the room. “Yuji,” she asks, holing up the piercing guns splaying them out like a hand of cards. “What are you getting pierced?”
Yuji was definitely going pale before because now the boy is tinged green.
“Yuji, you don’t have to do it.” Megumi says softly. He’s not really nervous about the piercing, but he’s starting to worry about the boy across from him. “You don’t even have to watch. You can step out and tell Gojo that you’re taking a call from Choso on the balcony. He’ll leave us all alone still.”
“No, I am fine. I am definitely not getting stabbed though.” He pulls his hood over his head for emphasis.
Nobara pushes past Megumi and lies across his bed. “Me first. I’ve already marked it. Don’t fuck it up or else.”
Megumi put extra hand sanitizer on his hands before snapping on the gloves. He peels off the individual wrapping of the piercing gun and tosses it in the trash. It’s a small white piece of plastic with the jewelry preloaded. All you have to do is press, seems simple enough. Just push! He’d watch a few of the video reviews before purchasing, and it seemed nearly impossible to mess up as long as you aimed right. He steps over to Nobara. She’s titled her head so an ear faces upwards. A hand reaches up to push back her hair, which was already out of her face.
“Do you see the dot?” She asks. He spies the little purple dot on the outer edge of her ear. “Don’t fuck it up.
“I’m not going to fuck it up.”
Yuji takes a huge step back as Megumi lines up the gun. It seems easy enough. He’s not sure how much pressure to use. He imagines stabbing a piece of steak, because that’s kind of what this is. He uses his knowledge of that to press the little gadget. He feels it click and give in quick succession. A small pop is heard, comparable to the lock. Nobara doesn’t even flinch, but he hears a deep sigh being released and looks back at Yuji. His hand is pressed to his chest, and he squints his eyes in their direction.
“Is she okay?” He asks.
“She great.”
Nobara picks up her phone and uses it as a mirror. “OhmygodMegumi!” She squeals. “You killed it!” She snaps a picture, the light of the flash reflecting off the silver stud in her ear.
Megumi sets to work prepping his own ears: making sure his hair is out of the way, wiping them thoroughly with an alcohol wipe, and marking with the included pen, using the tip of one of his other pens as a frame of reference to ensure they are both even. He looks into the camera on his phone, satisfied with his work.
He’s not overly excited, like Nobara. These won’t look super cool; they are just a first step. Maybe he’ll stretch them or get different piercings. He’s not sure. This is just a first step to see how it feels- not just the act but having a piercing.
He takes Nobara’s spot on the bed. It’s warm, and she wrinkled his sheets. Nobara has on gloves and is holding the piercing gun, looking down at him.
“How much force did you use?” She asks.
“Imagine I am a piece of steak.”
“Gross!” Yuji says. He can see a shock of pink hair as Yuji scoots closer.
The snap is loud beside his ear. It hurts less than he thought. Like a pinch. Yuji and Nobara stare at him with expectant looks.
“Did you fuck it up?”
“Nope,” she smiles. “Ready for the next one?”
“Yes.”
Yuji smiles at him. “You didn’t even flinch!”
“Nope! It’s not too bad.”
Nobara readjusts her angle to line up the piercing on the far side of his head. He looks up at her. She presses her lips together in focus. Yuji has stepped even closer. The color has not returned to his face but, at least he’s not green.
SNAP
This one feels worse, like he closed his earlobe in a door, and is accompanied by a thud. Nobara gasps and steps back.
He sits up.
“Don’t kill me.” Her eyes are wide. Yuji is lying on the floor. He passed out.
The door rattles in its frame as someone pounds on it.
“Megumi, why the fuck is the door locked? What are you doing?”
Hide it, he mouths as she shoves the plastic gun in her pocket. He tosses the box under his desk and crawls over to Yuji while Nobara unlocks the door.
“We don’t know what happened. He just passed out.” Megumi says, punctuating the gesture by looking up at Satoru with what he hopes are big, sad puppy dog eyes.
Satoru bends down and places a hand gently on Yuji’s forehead. “Shit! Shoko!”
Shoko steps in, kneeling next to Yuuji. “Grab me a cold compress.” She instructs Satoru, who does as he’s told swiftly.
Yuji’s eyes start to flutter and focus on the small crowd around him. Gojo returns, slipping an ice pack under Yuji’s neck. “How are you feeling, kid?” He asks.
Yuji smiles weakly, “Fine.”
To catch Yuji up on the lie, Megumi reiterates, “We don’t know what happened. He just passed out.”
Satoru frowns at them. His blue eyes snapping from concern to piercing in a heartbeat. They linger on the vulnerable Yuji, still splayed out on the floor. “Why was the door locked?” Each word is said slowly and carefully.
“I don’t know. Must’ve locked it when I came back from the bathroom out of habit.”
“Hmm, you’re not even supposed to have it closed.”
“Satoru,” Shoko smacks him. “They pierced his ears. Looks like Yuji just got squeamish.”
Satoru’s eyes lock on Megumi. “Take. Them. Out. Now.”
“No. I like them.”
“You like them?” Shoko scoffs. “Have you even looked at them?”
He feels his own face drain of color. She flips her phone around and passes it to him to use as a mirror. The first one looks great. The second one, oh god. The second has gone too far. The silver ball is half embedded in his earlobe that is slowly turning purple. He cautiously touches a bead of blood that has appeared behind his ear.
Satoru throws his head back in laughter. “Never mind. You can keep them.”