inumaki x reader except it's idiots to lovers because reader's cursed technique allows her to negate cursed energy. featuring lots of pining and copious amounts of the miscommunication trope because inumaki, the poor baby, wants to make sure everyone stays safe so he keeps speaking in onigiri ingredients because he doesn't want reader to think that he only keeps her around so he can talk like a "normal person."

inumaki also loathes how he can't speak normally so lots of self hatred there

except reader just thinks he hates her because he doesn't really fundamentally understand how she feels about him? but they're friends so it hurts more? and it turns out he's been madly in love with her and it's so blatantly obvious from both sides to the point where maki and panda are about to start bashing their heads into the walls

like. you leave him cute handwritten notes before his missions, along with a neatly packed bento with a different flavor of onigiri each time. you keep cough medicine on you at all times, making sure that you have the cherry flavor because he finds it more tolerable than the grape. and he keeps hair ties on his wrists because he knows you always break them on accident when you spar. he keeps your favorite drinks stocked in his room in case he needs to cheer you up from a bad day.

but somehow, it gets inside his head through a [redacted scenario] that he's just using you. it makes him feel so incredibly guilty that he withdraws. the onigiri lays forgotten in the same spot you leave it. you get used to fighting with your hair down because you no longer have spare hair ties to tie it up.

so you pine and pine and want and want until something inside you breaks-

only to realize he was yours all along and both of you were just too stupid to realize it