Staring Problem

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/52065313.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/M
Fandoms: 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Manga), 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime)
Relationship: Fushiguro Megumi/Reader
Character: Reader
Additional Tags: Fluff, Staring, Attraction, Awkward Crush, Awkward Flirting, 5 Times,
5+1 Things, Developing Relationship, Developing Friendships, Humor,
Light-Hearted, Mild Sexual Content, Unresolved Sexual Tension,
Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2023-12-06 Words: 4,998 Chapters: 1/1
 Staring Problem
by MistressPikachu

Summary

“Before you say anything, I wasn’t watching you. I was admiring Nue.”

Megumi scoffs. He can’t say he isn’t amused that out of all things to say, you start with that.
As if it isn’t obvious by now that he knows that you’re failing hard to hide your bad habit –
for whatever reason you have it. And even more amusing was the way your face would
highlight in embarrassment as you tried to hide the fact.

“Convenient story.”

Or,

Five times Megumi caught you staring at him + one time you caught him staring at you.

Notes

hii i have a request for megumi x reader where he is unaware of readers attraction to him and
he is doesn’t realise the effect of when he does something like scratch his neck and his shirt

😭
lifts and it happens one too many times until she admits that he’s pretty which makes him all
flustered

AN: I got carried away. <3 Thank you Avid and Wifey for beta reading <3
 I

The first time Megumi notices you staring at him is after the baseball game with the Kyoto
students.

The game was a big win for your group. Everyone was loudly cheering and celebrating your
victory over your sister school – aside from him. It’s not that he wasn’t pleased with the
victory. Who wouldn’t be? The cheering and high-fiving wasn’t his scene though. The most
celebration he required was simply brushing his hand through divine dog’s fur for a job well
done before dismissing the creature.

Megumi walks back to the dugout, steps into the drop-off, and peels his helmet from the top
of his head. The sweat accumulated in his helmet causes his hair to cling to him, forcing it
down against the back of his neck and his bangs into his line of sight more than usual. He
never liked what he considered too much hair on his nape; and for some reason, Gojo hated it
even more. Not that he ever understood why Gojo would care about how he styled his hair.
He was just weird, he guesses.

Either way, it was annoying.

Gripping his shirt collar, he brings it to his forehead to clean the moisture away, and there’s
the added bonus of the breeze cooling off his stomach as his shirt untucks from his uniform
pants. He finishes off his grooming with a quick stroke of his fingers up through his bangs
before reaching for his water bottle.

It isn’t until he’s finished drinking and wiping away the small bead of water that escapes his
mouth to cascade down his pointed jaw with the back of his wrist that he catches the sudden
sensation of someone looking at him.

He glances behind him, scanning the crowd of cheerful faces, and he catches your gaze
pinning him down. There’s no mistake you’re watching him, but he isn’t sure why you have
that clouded, half-lidded stare locked on him like a homing gun.

It makes him antsy even when your neutral lips turn into a gentle smile, and you move to
congratulate Itadori on his victory-winning home run.

II

The next time he catches you, you’re at the café with the other first years, pouring over
schoolbooks together. He doesn’t often study with the others outside of class; but out of
everyone in the school, he has the best head on his shoulders academically so he can’t really
refuse when the three of you earnestly ask for his help for once.

As he draws one leg over the other, Megumi shifts his weight to sit more comfortably in his
chair. He rests his chin against his palm, allowing his lengthy fingers to massage the
increasingly growing migraine from his throbbing temple while his elbow braces against the
table to support the position. His other hand tightens around the handle of his mug and brings
it to his mouth. The drink – coffee, black, always – is the only thing stopping his mind from
going numb at reviewing the same information he already knows as Nobara struggles to read
the chart on this particular page.

“Toos-day.”

“Tuesday.”

“When-is-day.”

“Wednesday,” Megumi corrects.

Stomping onto her feet, her hands slam on the table causing it to shake. Megumi holds his
drink closer to his chest to avoid it spilling over as she growls out. “This is so stupid! Why do
we need to know English anyway? Why couldn’t it be something like French? Then, we
could at least hit up Paris Fashion Week.” She pulls at her hair in frustration, stopping only
when you mention that she’ll cause split ends. Sighing, she releases her tension and falls back
in her chair. "I need a break."

On that, you're all in agreement.

Taking the opportunity to ease his head, Megumi blows away the steam swirling from his
coffee. He closes his eyes if only for a moment to bask in the roast. The liquid is hot and
smooth on his tongue, a welcome sensation after walking through the cool evening to get
here. It’s enough to earn a small sigh of approval.

When he opens his eyes, he sees that you’re nursing your own drink by pinching your straw
between your lips. However, your eyes are on him 'or maybe the mug near his mouth?' he
thinks. Regardless, you’re doing it attentively with an affectionate glint like you were smiling
on the inside. It makes his eye twitch.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

You flinch like you’re snapping out a hypnotic trance. Slowly, a meek smile forms as you
innocently tilt your head and place down your drink. “I was?”

“You were," Itadori corroborates. "You do it a lot actually," Itadori adds between bites of his
sandwich. The fact is something Megumi has begun to notice recently as well.

Noticing everyone looking at you, your eyes widen slightly before you force them back down
to look at your textbook. You slide your hands from the table and rest them in your lap. “I
must’ve zoned out,” you say apologetically.

Megumi scoffs.

“If you’re going to ask me to help you study, you could at least pay attention.” Megumi sighs
at the growing remorse on your face. “Forget it,” he dismisses and decides to go back to his
coffee, but the peace doesn’t last long as he catches that same gaze from you a minute later.
Your eyebrows push in together as you narrow your eyes briefly in thought, and he can’t help
but wonder what’s going on in your mind as you cock your head to the side again.

“Ne, Fushiguro,” you begin hesitantly and quietly. He doesn’t think he would’ve noticed you
speaking to him with how soft your voice was had he not already been looking at you. “Did
anyone ever tell you that your voice is kinda husky in English?”

Suddenly, his face is hot along with his tongue as he inadvertently chokes on his drink while
the other two at the table burst out laughing, drowning out your frantic mutterings as you
collapse your face into your palms.

III

It seems to be a cycle now. Megumi would be going about his day when he would
occasionally (usually twice a day) get this sensation of being watched. Sure enough, he could
find you following him with your eyes. There isn’t any anger when you’re doing it so he’s
fairly sure that you’re not cornering him with your sight out of aggression, but he couldn’t
think of another reason his presence would be of interest to you.

Megumi tried to ask Gojo the reason why someone might stare at him. When he explained
that you were the one doing it, the older man only laughed at his predicament. Megumi didn’t
know why he expected him to be any help in the first place anyway.

Maki was even less help (she seemed reluctant even), but at least she didn't look at him like
he was an idiot like Nobara. Finally, there was Itadori, who only caused him more difficulty.

(“Are you sure she doesn’t just LIKE you?” Itadori suggested.

Megumi could only roll his eyes then. It always came back to that with him. “Look, if you’re
not going to take this seriously—“

”I am!”)

Megumi almost entertained it until he thought ‘what reason would she like me?’ After all,
you didn’t know each other that well. There was no explanation available so it had to be
something else.

Out of everyone, he decides to take Maki’s advice that it's best to get the answer from the
source.

However, whenever he asks what’s the problem, you never seem to give him a direct answer,
explaining away your strange…habit. Even stranger was that he was starting to become
accustomed to it, slowly losing the annoyance he held for it early on in your relationship – or
maybe he was getting better at ignoring it.

Nonetheless, it would still be nice to have an explanation.

When he sees you early at breakfast, and you undoubtedly see him early at breakfast, he
finally decides to broach the topic. He sits himself and his plate at your table, and he doesn’t
give you the time to make excuses when he knows for certain you were staring at him.
“Alright. Enough already. What's the deal?"

“Hmm?”

“The staring,” he reiterates.

Your mouth opens like you want to say something but throughout the many times he’s
confronted you on your manners, not once have you ever given him a straightforward answer.

“Don’t try to give an excuse. You were definitely watching me.”

As the small silence extends in the air so does the embarrassment on your face until it finally
fades away along with your resolve. “Okay, this time I was,” you admit very specifically.

“Why?”

“There’s not really a reason," you explain while looking anywhere but directly at him, and it's
an easy tell to sense that you're lying.

Megumi narrows his eyes at you.

“For some reason, I feel like that's not the case."

There has to be some reason your attention is on him so much. He’d at least like to know if it
was something he did to you.

“It’s nothing bad really,” you confess, avoiding eye contact with him while your fingers
fidget. “Do…you want me to stop?”

Megumi would very much like to say he wants you to stop but somehow he doesn’t think he
would be able to force you not to look at him. “I’d prefer it.”

“No problem,” you say and purse your lips tightly. “But…I probably wouldn’t be able to help
it every now and then,” you warn him, which piques his curiosity even more.

“What does that mean?”

“Oh, that’s because, uhm—to tell you the truth,“ you pause, and he wants to prod more from
you but you’re quick to excuse yourself, leaving him with two weeks free from your staring.
Or, at least you attempted for that long.

IV

As he accepts that you're not going to stop, it comes to him that he doesn't really care
anymore in the following months. It's just how you are, he figures sentimentally. It would feel
weird if you stopped at this point. However, it leads to you catching him off guard too often,
especially in moments like these.

The two of you were assigned to a mission to dispatch some low-level curses together. It was
surprisingly easier than what the mission report suggested, not that he would complain about
an easy mission.

Nue is behind him as he requests a ride back to the school over the phone. The bird shikigami
is being needier than usual, nudging at the width of Megumi’s back with his head causing
Megumi’s voice to be unsteady as the thick plate of Nue’s mask braces between his shoulder
blades.

“Cut it out,” he scolds gently, reaching his free hand back to briefly ruffle at random mounds
of feathers.

There’s a soft crooning in his ear, begging for attention. He isn’t used to Nue being this
affectionate, not like his divine dogs. As he hangs up the call, Nue starts to stroke his head
against his side again.

Amused, he huffs softly - as close to a laugh as anyone has ever heard from the taciturn teen
– and raises his arm to let the bird cradle better against his side. The gentle cuddling from the
shikigami is enough to lighten his mood as auburn feathers tickle against his fingers and coax
the smallest smile from him.

“Alright. Alright. That’s enough,” he says affectionately before returning to the serious
matters at hand. “We need to regroup with our partner. Can you go scout for her?” Megumi
asks; but to his surprise, Nue flutters his wings and twists his head around to stare directly to
the side of him…at you, a few feet away.

Megumi didn’t know how long you’d been standing there, watching him. He thinks any time
was probably too long in this situation. (He also thinks he might demand you start wearing a
bell when you go on missions together.)

With a goofy smile, you walk towards him, and his heart is pounding, anticipating what you
could possibly be about to say as you shorten the distance between the two of you, so close
that an outreached arm would be enough to close it. The childishly smug look on your face
makes his cheeks burn as you gently begin to trace the outline on Nue’s faceplate and press
your head against the top of Nue’s.

“Before you say anything, I wasn’t watching you. I was admiring Nue.”

Megumi scoffs. He can’t say he isn’t amused that out of all things to say, you start with that.
As if it isn’t obvious by now that he knows that you’re failing hard to hide your bad habit –
for whatever reason you have it. And even more amusing was the way your face would
highlight in embarrassment as you tried to hide the fact.

“Convenient story.”

“It’s the truth. Isn’t that right, Nue? You’re so handsome that I can’t tear my eyes away,” you
praise, cuddling the owl until he ruffles his feathers and chitters, happily letting you drown
him in attention.

And for the first time, he finds himself watching you instead with your face buried against his
shikigami, and Nue is equally happy for your touch. It’s a sweet scene as Megumi concludes
where Nue might have started to learn these overly affectionate tendencies. That is until you
turn your head, naturally searching for his presence. When you meet his gaze, you smile
warmly at him causing heat to crawl up the back of his neck and his heart to jump in his
throat. With your focus on him this way, he is overwhelmed by a new sensation that he isn’t
sure why he’s feeling in the first place. It’s not like he was unused to you looking in his
direction.

Astonished by the moment, you point out, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile before.”

Confused, Megumi blinks at you. Had he been smiling?

Your expression softens. “It suits you.”

Surprised by your tender observation, he shifts his head away, hiding his rapidly reddening
cheeks from you.

“Let’s head to the meeting point,” he manages, thanking whoever above that he was able to
keep his voice steady at least.

You decided to stop at the café together again. This time it’s only the two of you since the
others are still out on their own duo mission. Even with that being the case, he would still
have accepted your invitation regardless of the availability status of your other two friends.
He isn’t really sure when he started to be okay being alone with you, and he also isn’t sure
when you began to get comfortable with him as well. But he finds he doesn't mind either of
those anymore.

“You’re staring,” he points out flatly, not bothering to look up from his book to confirm his
accusation. He knows it’s true. “What is it this time?”

There’s a laugh from you, drawing his attention up. “Nothing.”

Normally, he would let you get away with that answer nowadays; but today, Megumi is
determined to finally get to the bottom of whatever is up with you and him.

“Nothing?” he questions again skeptically. You nod, and he holds his gaze on you, pointedly,
securely, determined to not even blink as he watches your face.

You frown. “Why are you doing that?”

“Doing what?” he asks, one long blink to reset himself before firmly keeping royal blue eyes
locked on you once more.

“That,” you say, motioning to all of him.

“I’m not doing anything.”

“Uh-huh."
There’s a small beat of quiet as you return your focus to your book, but you look up every so
often (probably to check if he's stopped eye-ing you down, which he doesn't). Holding an arm
across your chest to scratch at the other, you squirm. As awful as it is, he feels a bit smug at
the way you curve in and start to grow self-conscious.

“This is weird.”

“It is,” he agrees bluntly causing you to pout. He notes how funny it is to finally see the
tables turned between the two of you and to have you overly aware of his watch. Even if he
doesn’t get his answer, teasing you like this and eliciting that cute reaction is strangely worth
it.

“How long are you going to do that?”

Megumi crosses his arms and leans back in his chair, never letting you leave his vision. He
shrugs. “Depends. Are you going to tell me?”

You scowl but manage to hold your resolve for the better half of five minutes.

“Okay, I get it. I’ll stop,” you say, but he isn’t satisfied with that answer. Choosing to keep his
rebellious challenge against you, he leans in closer and keeps up the wall until you finally
start to crack under the pressure. “Well…it’s nothing really.”

“Then, tell me.”

“It’s,” you begin then pause.

He hunches in closer as if to keep your secret.

“It’s just that…” he can see you start to fidget in your chair, and for some reason, he feels his
own anticipation growing. “You have a really pretty way about you.”

That was not the answer he was expecting.

“Huh? I have…a pretty way about me?” he repeats in disbelief, his face scrunching. “You
must be joking.”

“I’m serious,” you tell him. “It’s something in the way you move, it makes it hard to
concentrate.”

Megumi could only guess what kind of answer you would have but it wasn’t one that
instantly makes his temperature skyrocket and causes his heart to start swelling against his
ribcage, spreading the feeling of liquid butterflies through his veins.

“That's the only reason,” you repeat, noticing the way he seemed to completely stop
functioning. “I’m not making you uncomfortable, am I?”

He uncrosses his arms, trying to sputter out a coherent sentence but his mind wouldn’t supply
him with one as he fights to keep his own blushing down. “No. I’m not—it’s not that I’m—I
just didn’t know what it was about—I—pretty?” he stammers, completely bewildered to the
point he thinks his voice might crack for the first time in years.

You nod, growing more embarrassed. “I mean in a masculine way! Like your eyes, your
hands, your voice, and the way your shirt drapes your shoulders. Ah! Basically…you’re
really handsome,” you finish quickly when you realize you are rambling stupidly, and you
squeeze onto the edge of your chair to calm yourself.

It’s so quiet between the two of you that you could possibly hear one of the cheap plastic
straws from the front counter drop.

“Fushiguro-kun?” you ask bashfully.

He focuses his attention on the passerby's walking by the window as he shifts and squeezes at
his uniform collar, attempting desperately to hide a fraction of his burning face behind the
dark blue fabric. You…were simply attracted to him for some reason he would probably
never understand (why in the world would you think any of that about him is attractive?) all
this time.

“Let’s pretend this conversation never happened,” he tells you frantically.

Nodding, you confirm. “Yeah! That’s a good idea.”

For once, you’re not staring at him yet Megumi still feels like he can’t breathe despite the
rapid rising and falling of his chest showing that he was very well breathing. As his face
continues to burn and his stomach churns with this unfamiliarly pleasant and confusing
emotion, he wishes his shadow would open and swallow him whole. Forever, perhaps.

It isn’t until later that night when his mind is heavy with thoughts of you, he admits to
himself that he doesn’t exactly hate your reason.

Bonus

Before you enrolled in this school, your clan already outlined your priorities in life. Study,
learn, become the best sorcerer you can for the benefit of the clan and your own survival.
There isn’t time for things like friendship and even less for love, your family taught you, at
least not until you’re older.

You agreed with that sentiment, going through your younger teen years not ever having a
crush on someone or a strong preoccupation with romance. However, this school is proving
that you still very much feel attraction.

Specifically for your withdrawn classmate.

Something about him was just so pretty. You’re not sure if it was the way his hair falls ever
so neatly over his forehead before turning back into spiked peaks, or how deep blue his eyes
are especially when shadowed by gorgeous rows of midnight eyelashes, or the way he carried
himself like the stoic protagonists in the love comics your friends were obsessed with last
year.
Maybe it was the entire package.

At the time you first started to notice him, you didn’t have the answer pieced together yet.
Seeing that you also hadn’t learned anything proper about romance and attraction from your
clan let alone flirting, the only thing you could do was stare at him as you failed to decipher
this newfound infatuation that made your heart stutter and your lower body hot with tingles
similar to the sensation of ginger spice on your tongue.

‘Is this that puberty thing they were talking about in health class all those years back,’ you
wondered. They did say it could happen late, but this late? You weren’t sure, but you did like
looking at him. That much was certain.

So, you continued to do so.

It's not like you were exactly going against what your clan told you.

After all, your clan would always say it’s important to be aware of your surroundings as a
sorcerer, remember every little detail, and save it to memory, that could be the difference
between death and victory in a battle.

Shouldn’t you take that advice to heart when it comes to your teammates as well? After all,
these are the people you will be relying on while working. It’s important to learn their
mannerisms.

Another thing your clan told you was that hands are an important thing to watch. Any
sorcerers’ hands were a danger from Itadori’s hand-to-hand combat style, Gojo-sensei’s
domain expansion, and Fushiguro’s entire technique.

His hands were always coming together to summon shadows, and he talked and explained
things frequently with them to the point it became a distraction for you.

You also like the way his dominant hand always seems to climb up and curve around the
back of his neck in the mornings as he stretches out the tightness from a cramped sleep. You
would watch as he glosses each finger across his nape and shoulder, wondering what it would
be like to have them coming across your own and to have fingers that could expertly craft
signs tickling at your skin. Would you shudder or would it tickle or would it feel like
nothing? Fortunately, you always resist the shaking urge to glide your own hand across your
collar to find the answer.

It isn’t always the way his palm brushes his neck that entirely gets you but the way his
sweatshirt rises, barely revealing a ring of beige skin that was normally hidden away under
layers of comfortable cotton. It not only exposes him to the stagnant air of the school
building but to your wandering eyes that had a bad problem of not being able to remain
where they should be.

Objectively speaking, you were aware from day one that Itadori was strong and well-built
under his clothes, but you didn’t realize the same could be said for Megumi until you saw the
slip of his lower abdominal and the constellation of pale brown freckles hidden in the groove
of his hip.
By the time your attention would return to his hands, you would be locked on the gentle way
his knuckle catches the edge of his shirt's neckline. It was unknowing to him during those
times that the action was teasing you by causing the fabric to lightly shift and expose the crux
of his collarbone.

Then, you didn’t even want to get started on his face or eyes. The same ones that are
gorgeously blue even when stormy with annoyance or softened with confusion every time he
would catch you.

From your point of view, you admit that both looks were handsome on his face. However,
you’re starting to realize from your last interaction that maybe you were being a tad…
invasive. You refused to say creepy without a pillow to scream into.

So, you convince yourself to stop staring whenever you notice your eyes drifting to him.
Only small peeks for his comfort unless you were talking to him or he to you. In hindsight,
you think you are better at talking to him without embarrassing yourself all the time at least.

Your new resolve would be tested today as you prepare to head to the training field for
another day of close combat drills with your upperclassmen. You dress in layers, wearing a
light jacket and thigh socks with your shorts, fully intending to ditch both once it heats up a
little more in the afternoon.

When you make it to the practice field, you notice two things: that Megumi is there (which
you swear you only took note of for two seconds) and that you’re the last to arrive, meaning
that you’re going to be the first put through the wringer with Maki-senpai.

The only positive is that you manage to last an extra round against her more than usual, and
you’re left with only an aching butt as you hit the ground. You hiss and rub your wounded
rear before dusting the ripped-up blades of grass from your lap. Noticing your socks bunched
against your ankles, you click your tongue. Bending your legs, you start to shuffle one back
up the length of your calf then your thigh. You unfurl it as high as you can until there’s only a
small circumference of skin left between your shorts and the top of your sock. Satisfied, you
start to repeat the process with your other leg before Maki taps your hip with her staff.

“Megumi is staring at you,” she grunts in a quiet warning, and you blink at her before trying
to glance back over to the first row of bleachers. “Not too obvious.”

You force your gaze back to her, using the opportunity to catch Megumi in your periphery.
Sure enough, you could barely make him out looking in your direction while Itadori talked to
him. That was weird. You don't think you can recall a time where he was watching you unless
you did it first. ‘He was probably watching me train,’ you begin to decide.

Before you can register what's going on completely, Maki calls out dryly, "Hey, Megumi,
pictures last longer!”

Barely from this distance, you can see his head snap back and a scowl glowering on his face
as he glares at her direction. “What are you talking about?”
“So, you want to play that way,” she mumbles and singles him out with a point of her staff
and a crooked smile. “In that case, I’ll explain while we train!”

Megumi looks more annoyed than you have seen him in the last few days as he declares from
the bleachers that he’s training with Panda instead as soon as he’s done with Nobara.

“That guy,” Maki grumbles quietly, slapping her staff back against her shoulder and layering
a hand on her hip. “He makes things so difficult for everyone, including himself. I guess I’ll
have to have a chat with him later.”

"Huh?" you huff as she twists her waist to look at you.

“Well, I can’t exactly have my darling little relative turning out like the rest of those perverts
from the clan, after all,” she explains vaguely but instead of anger, there’s a rare hint of
sarcastic amusement in her words. Suddenly, it starts to dawn on you what Maki means as
your fingers brush the side of your inner thigh, and your throat starts to tighten with
something akin to anxiety, and you want desperately to bury your face in your hands as you
realize that he was looking at your legs. That he must like your legs…

The thought makes your heart pound, and something pulses inside you with what feels like
anticipation as you catch his attention on you again. You were used to lusting after him but it
was a different feeling to experience it in reverse – mutually even.

Is this what it felt like? Have you ever made him feel like this by watching him?

You didn’t know what to do.

“What do I do?”

She gives an incredulous look. “Call him out naturally, especially if it bothers you,” she
replies. "But that isn't what you want, right?"

You frown, not entirely sure yourself. It didn’t bother you necessarily. If anything, you like
his attention on you. It makes your body otherworldly hot when he gives it to you. Pulling
your knees to your chest, you think back to what someone in one of those television dramas
would do in this situation. It takes some courage, but you find your answer.

You wink at him.

It elicits an immediate response that involves him shoving his hands in his pockets and
scrambling to break eye contact; so much that you can see Itadori twisting towards him with
concern.

“Hah, that was a good one." Maki lets out a short and harsh snort. "Wait until I tell Panda.”

Smiling proudly, you can’t resist staring at the flush that he has to stand and stalk off to the
other side of the field closer to Inumaki and Panda to hide. Out of all the attractive things
about him, you think that might top your list; and truthfully, you wanted to see it again.
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