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“Satoru!”
All it took was for the other to call his name. The familiar voice reverberated against every nerve and bone within his body as crimson blood dripped from his clothes.
All it took was for the other to call his name…and as pupils constricted and irises burned, three years came crashing down all at once.
He never wanted to rip out his heart and gorge his eyes more than right that instant, but as he craned his neck to face the stringless marionette, all he could do was stare at the man; a kaleidoscope of emotions bloomed like spider lilies from his chest.
Satoru could feel his knees shaking—threatening to collapse beneath him. He was no longer in a subway surrounded by faceless curses and humans alike. He was no longer drenched in blood staring at a stranger who once held him with uncharacteristically gentle arms. He was no longer Satoru Gojo of the Gojo Clan, strongest sorcerer alive…
“It’s been a while.”
…Instead, he’s sitting on a swing of an empty playground—kicking his legs back and forth as snow cascaded down all around him.
Sniffling from the frigid cold, Satoru buried his nose deeper into his thick scarf as familiar boots, crunching the crisp snow underneath, caught the corner of his eyes.
“You’ll get sick if you keep sitting out here.”
Tilting his head up, the milky-haired teen felt his eyes begin to water from the blinding sunlight.
“Where are your sunglasses?”
Satoru simply shivered and released his grip on the metal chains of the swing in order to breathe warm air into his numb hands.
The standing sorcerer reached out his own hand to brush off snow from the other’s hair. Although camouflaging and blending against the soft strands, the sunlight reflecting off of the ice made tiny snowflakes glint as if a million fractured crystals had been showered over the boy.
“Why aren’t you using limitless to cover yourself?” Suguru commented while absentmindedly twirling the soft hair between his fingers.
A pregnant silence fell into the space between the two. It was unlike Satoru to be this…listless. Suguru continued to wait for words to start pouring out of the sorcerer’s lips at a hundred words per second with the only purpose of making his ears bleed, but as he stood hearing only the distant traffic and melting icicles, Suguru grew more and more concerned.
“Satoru.”
“...”
“Hey, answer me.”
Satoru hid his face in his beige scarf and remained uncooperative.
“Did something happen-”
“AAAHHH”
Not even being able to process what had just occurred, Suguru found himself with his back on the ground, a puff of snow lifting upwards from the impact, and Satoru on top of him.
“ Where this ? Why that ? Did what ? You’re asking way too many questions for someone who can’t even say a simple “hi” after leaving me for two whole weeks!” Satoru huffed as his grip tightened on Suguru’s shoulders. His breath quickly condensed in the frosty air as teeth tried hard to not chatter.
“Didn’t you miss me?” He asked much quieter.
It took every ounce of strength in Suguru to restrain himself from crushing the other’s lips with his own. He settled for flipping their position which caused Satoru to release an unrefined yelp.
“Come on, I was on another mission just like you. You know how it is.” Suguru smiled as he brushed the other’s shorter hair behind his ear.
Satoru squirmed under the gentle gaze and could feel his cheeks burning as he quickly brought his hands up to cover his eyes; despite provoking the other, he still couldn’t handle this side of Suguru.
“I know, it’s just… it’s been… a while,” he pouted.
Looking down at the bashful teen, Suguru leaned down—long fringes tumbling to frame his face—and kissed lithe yet callused fingers that could probably kill him with a single flick.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
Picking themselves up from the snow, life returned to normal as Satoru immediately began to ramble on about updates on his own training, how boring the missions were getting, what Shoko’s been up to, what Suguru’s missed within just the two weeks he’d been gone, and how much he’s been—
Suguru pulled the teen back and kissed him.
A thousand miles per hour.
On a space rock where humanity trudges through each rotation and revolution stood two students at a standstill. Where every second a star implodes into existence while another gives way to a great cosmic explosion of violet and emerald hues stood two students at a standstill. Pale. Glistening. Soft. Untainted. Condensed breath carried unspoken promises that lingered in the crisp air like wispy fairies desperately reaching out to parted lips. Across shadows of distant silhouettes stood two students at a standstill. Opal and Obsidian. Sapphire and steel. Standing at a speed of a thousand miles per hour on a blue marble yet hearts beating even faster stood two students at a standstill.
Blood coursed through to warm already-flushed cheeks. Faces broke into Chester-cat grins while eyes shyly glanced away.
As delicate snowflakes coated their world white, all humanity was hidden away from the universe itself. And in the end, there was only two.
With his arms restrained and his cursed energy locked away, all three years were ripped from his grasp as reality came crashing forward.
Although the imposter reveled at the sight of the strongest sorcerer being reduced to an incapacitated state before being pulled into the prison realm, a dull buzz continued to wrack his soul and sharp pain shot through his chest; tears welled in his eyes—a stark contrast to the malicious smirk.
Against the hundreds of thoughts racing through his mind all focused on the next steps to take to execute his plan for a world of curses, only one echoed its loneliness and threatened to vomit from his lips.
“Shut up…shut up, shutup, shutupshutupshutup” Suguru’s body stumbled forward as he grimaced and slammed his head; blood cascaded down from his stitched forehead. His body convulsed as he began to dry heave and slapped trembling hands over his mouth—breathing heavily from his nose—
With lips raw and bloody from harshly biting them, he felt a million instances in time rise to the surface—a million moments that, compared to the span of his life, only lasted in a short blink of his eyes, and in that blink in which the world disappeared behind closed eyelids, there was only one…regret.
“I missed you…”
Sorry, you’ll have to wait a little longer this time, Satoru.