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The lack of sorcerers had always been an issue in the jujutsu world. They needed more especially for times when there was a sudden increase of curses. When there were no more adults left to take on jobs that only left the kids who were still studying.
The world for sorcerers got even worse. Kids having to take jobs was one thing though even though they helped just as much as the adults did, possibly even more, they were not treated fairly.
An example was the second-year students at the technical college. Zenin Maki was hated by her family and wasn't allowed to take jobs by herself. Despite that she desperately wanted to and was more than capable.
Panda was the principal's son and he was treated oppositely. He was always given more free time and abused the power a little. If he never felt like doing anything, he didn’t.
Those in a strong bloodline were worked like crazy—that applied to the remaining second-year students. The two of them were always running around, unable to catch a break even though kids their age were typically spending their summer with friends and having fun. Oh, how they dreaded to have a normal life but were unfortunate enough to be dragged into a life of curses and the unimaginable.
They didn't catch breaks. Every time that they tried to relax, someone handed them a job to do. The least that they got to do was getting the chance to take a shower and maybe a thirty minute nap.
That only occurred at the rise of many curses however it happened to be one of those times.
Exhausted, Toge let out a quiet sigh as he arrived back at the dorm room late at night. He had never felt so stressed before. His shirt was sticking to his back with sweat, his throat felt dry. A small cough tickled his windpipe. He made a fist and covered his mouth while he headed down the hallway to his room.
He pushed open the door and flicked on the light. His room was spotless only because he didn't have the chance to ever be there to mess it up. All he ever did in his room was change his clothes and sleep. Apparently, someone came into his room to take his laundry and clean it for him, return it folded and washed then put them away. At least there was that but part of Toge wanted to do his own things that were normal for someone his age.
He wanted to get annoyed from having an adult telling him to do his own things, he wanted to get irritated when his someone told him that he had a messy room with dirty socks, he wanted to get grounded for sneaking out at night from doing something rebellious.
Toge's feet ached as he shuffled on his feet into his room. He reached up and grabbed the zipper of his jacket to begin to pull it down.
"Hey, Toge, real quick."
Did he not close the door behind him?
Toge spun around and looked toward the voice. Just to his luck Satoru leaned in the doorway. Could he not get rid of him?
"Can I use you real quick?"
'Use you.'
He wished that Satoru would have worded that another way. All he felt like was that people were using him for him and his technique.
"Sorry," Satoru apologized. He moved to stand fully in the doorway to show Toge he was giving him his full attention. "I shouldn't have said it like that. The higher ups appreciate how hard you've been working."
"Mentaiko," Toge said under his breath.
"Yeah, I don't give a shit about what the higher ups say either," Satoru said as he leaned against the frame. "I appreciate what you've been doing," he said. "You’ve made it easier for me since my second year."
'That's almost a good two decades,' Toge thought.
"One more job tonight? I promise I won't ask of you of anything else tonight and the whole day tomorrow? I'll secretly send Maki instead. You know she'll be up for it."
He couldn't just say no. Satoru was his—was he his boss? He was his teacher but he ordered him around as if he was in charge of him. The deal didn't seem that bad either. He knew that Maki would love to hop on a solo job and Toge would love to give her the chance to take the job from him.
Toge sighed. "Salmon."
Walking down the street Toge tilted his head back and glanced up at the sky. It was cold, the sky dotted with white spots. He wished he could name a star or something—have astrology or something as a hobby, but he didn't even have the time to gather a hobby. Once he was done with killing the curse Toge thought about looking up star constellations for that night. Maybe he would be able to see if he could match up whatever the internet told him to the night sky.
The job was something that was a bit into the woods which was why he didn't need Kiyotaka to drop a curtain. Instead he walked. Even though his feet were still hurting from never having the chance to sit down Toge favored nightly walks. He walked on a path he found. For the first time Toge was bored because where was the curse that Satoru was talking about?
A branch snapped next to him. Toge quickly glanced over and reached up to his collar. He unzipped it and prepared himself to speak a curse. As he took a deep breath he reminded himself of how dry his throat was. He forgot to get a glass of water and grab another small bottle of throat medicine.
As a cursed stepped into view Toge moved into his stance, feet locked in place incase he was possibly forced back. He sensed a large amount of cursed energy from him but he could tell that it wasn't too much to the point where he would be in a situation that would kill him. He didn't know if he was lucky or not.
Toge didn't really care what type of curse it was. The quicker that he got rid of the curse, the quicker he would get to his day off.
"Blast off."
The curse hardly got a chance to even glance at Toge before it was flung back into trees behind it. It knocked over a few trees before it ran into enough to bring it to a stop. Toge made his way to the curse and stopped in front of it. It was still alive. Hardly.
Toge took a deep breath and put a hand over his throat. He rubbed it back and forth, feeling a pain as it throbbed.
"Die."
He watched as the curse crumbled. It slowly turned to a million pieces taking the form of ash before dust and then dispersing into the air. With a sigh, Toge turned on his heel and pulled his phone from his pocket.
Toge [00.13]: done
Satoru [00.13]: perfect !! thanks toge
Satoru [00.14]: your day break officially starts now
Toge [00.14]: that doesn’t mean you can wake me up at this time tomorrow in the ass crack of the morning for a mission
Satoru [00.14]: I wasn’t going to :/
Satoru [00.14]: maybe I thought about it but now I’ll just ask maki or yuuta
Toge [00.14]: or get panda off his ass
Satoru [00.14]: as if masamichi would let me
Toge [00.14]: fushiguro then
Satoru [00.14]: ooh that’s possible
Satoru [00.15]: I’ll figure it out just enjoy your day off toge
Satoru [00.15]: thanks for all the help
Toge [00.15]: mhm thanks for the day off
Toge sighed and returned his phone back to his pocket. He began his walk back to the college. The noises from the cicadas and a few birds filled his ears. Did they have to work all the time just as Toge did? He hoped that nature at least found themselves a break as well.
On his way back the second-year hummed. A few times actual words would slip his lips but he knew that he was safe from harming anyone else but himself. He stayed careful considering if he actually caused harm to himself it would hurt a lot as his throat was already damaged. Though he still freely sang under his breath enough to make himself satisfied.
He left out of the forest and walked on the sidewalk. A park was nearby. Toge thought about stopping. He could sit on the swings and enjoy some time by himself, slowly swing back and forth, twist the chain, maybe swing really high and jump off it to see how far he could land.
“Hey.”
Toge closed his mouth right away. He reached up and zipped up his collar quickly as he spun to search for the voice.
On one of the benches, standing not sitting, was a familiar face—or not familiar as he hadn’t properly seen him or had a talk with him in a few months. Yuuta. There were bags under his eyes and he was clearly exhausted but still tried to look fine. He jumped down from the bench onto the sidewalk as Toge walked over.
“Gojo-sensei send you on a job?”
“Salmon,” Toge said with a nod. “Tuna?” He pointed to the other to ask Yuuta about why he was out this late.
“Yeah, Gojo-sensei gave me a job as well,” Yuuta hummed in agreement. “I don’t want to head back though. He promised me a day off but I have a feeling he’s gonna give me at least five more ‘last jobs’.”
“Tuna tuna?”
“Really? At least he gave us the same day off. He’s doing something right.” Yuuta said. “Your throat sounds kind of scratchy. Let’s get you a drink.”
Yuuta and Toge walked to a vending machine nearby. Without saying a word, Yuuta bought both of them drinks and handed Toge exactly what he wanted. He sighed and plopped down onto a bench next to Toge. Sulking down in his seat, Yuuta cracked open his small can of soda.
“Flavored water good?” Yuuta asked. He pointed to the drink in Toge’s hand with his own. “I assumed you wanted to chug it a little so I didn’t want to give you something that might burn your throat but thought you’d at least want more flavor.”
“Mhm,” Toge hummed with a small nod. He took a sip from it and washed down the pain in his throat.
“This too.”
The cursed speech user glanced over. Yuuta held out a bottle of throat medicine.
“I carry one around just in case,” Yuuta said.
“Tuna?” Toge asked, pointing to Yuuta for a second to ask why Yuuta carried around throat medicine. He stopped pointing at Yuuta and grabbed the bottle from him. Turning it over to read the label, he noticed it was one of his favorite flavors.
“No, not for me,” Yuuta said. “For you.”
Toge kept his eye on Yuuta as he sprayed the medicine in his mouth. The back of his throat felt a little numb and he could taste the strawberry tang on his tongue.
“Sorry, is that weird?” Yuuta asked.
Lowering the small bottle, Toge shook his head. “Okaka,” he answered because if anything he found it sweet. He slipped the medicine bottle in his pocket. “Tuna tuna?” Toge let his head fall on Yuuta’s shoulder. He grabbed the other’s hand, slowly pushing his fingers through the other’s. The fit was perfect and snug. Yuuta’s hand was just slightly bigger than Toge’s hand. It was like a hand hug.
The word ‘hug’ was unfamiliar to Toge. He swore that he hadn’t had human contact in what felt like years. As he let a deep breath huff from his nose he realized he wanted more. He pulled his hand from Yuuta’s and jumped at Yuuta. Wrapping his arms around him he buried himself into the other, resting his cheek on Yuuta’s chest.
It felt like the first hug in a century. Nothing could compare to the comfort of a real person, not even the feeling of his own, cold pillow at night when he finally got an hour of a break. Toge closed his eyes and nearly fell asleep.
“Toge?” Fingers softly threaded through his hair. They started at the bottom of his scalp and combed up, fell through his fingers and dropped down before he started again. His movements were slow and made Toge feel completely at bliss.
Toge moved his arms down from around Yuuta’s neck, slightly bumping the other in the chest so he could slip his arms under Yuuta’s. A small hiss came from Yuuta which made Toge pull away right when he heard it and back up to raise an eyebrow at him.
“Takana?”
“I’m fine,” Yuuta tried to reassure. He gave a small nervous laugh and lifted his hand to brush aside a strand of Toge’s messy bangs.
Toge wrapped a hand around Yuuta’s wrist and stopped him. “Katsuobushi,” he hissed to figure out what Yuuta was hiding.
“Okay, okay,” Yuuta said. He wiggled his hand out of Toge’s grip and switched it around so he was holding his hand. “I may or may not have nicked myself while pulling out my sword,” he admitted quietly.
Toge blinked a few hundred times.
“Stop looking at me like that. Quit blinking.”
The cursed speech user couldn’t help but crack a smile. He giggled a laugh and tugged on the front of Yuuta’s shirt attempting to pull it out from being tucked in the other’s jeans.
“Tuna.” Toge wanted to see it.
“No.”
“Tuna tuna!” Toge said as he laughed a little louder. He fought against Yuuta’s hand on his wrists that tried to stop him from lifting his shirt.
“Okay, alright,” Yuuta said. “I’ll show you, alright.” He looked down and grabbed the bottom of his shirt. Tugging on it, Yuuta released the shirt from his jeans. He lifted it up to reveal a bandage on his stomach. There was a faint, red line of blood in the center of the bandage. “It’s stupid,” he muttered. “I’m stupid. I wasn’t being careful.”
“Takana?” Toge asked. He hoped Yuuta would pick up on his question. ‘Are you taking care of it at least?’ That one word could fit so many meanings in Toge’s book.
“I am,” Yuuta replied. “It needed a stitching or two—Miguel taught me how to do that.”
And of course, Yuuta was always able to figure out the meaning. He read the situation, the language the other spoke—he read Toge perfectly. The cursed user didn’t have to worry about the barrier that always placed itself in Toge’s path and blocked his way of communicating with other people. Yuuta could see through it.
Toge leaned forward and put his lips on Yuuta’s cheek. He stayed there for a second and closed his eyes, his lips just pressing against the other’s cold face. Yuuta paused, staying still.
The cursed speech user took one deep breath. “I missed you so much,” Toge whispered in the quietest voice he could. He, for one, didn’t want anyone but Yuuta to be able to hear—not even a cicada bug or a bird. Secondly, he tried to put zero cursed power into it. He wasn’t sure if it was possible and he was still working on the chance of it, though he knew that current attempt was a fail when he felt the seal on his tongue tingle slightly.
Thankfully nothing bad happened other than Yuuta smiling in response. He backed up just enough so that he could turn his head and put his lips to Toge’s. It soft and light, moving in slowly because kissing Toge was now something that he hadn’t felt in a long time and he wasn’t sure when he would have the chance to again. He wanted to let the feeling make his lips numb so that Toge would be the last thing he felt, wanted to never feel them leave so that he could tell himself Toge was always there, wanted them to never leave in the first place so that he was always there.
Though nothing could last forever.
“Salmon,” Toge said as he pulled away. He slowly stood up from the bench and stretched, then he reached his arm out to Yuuta and yanked him up from the seat. Yawning, he rubbed his eye and let go of him. He reached for the drink Yuuta had bought for him and turned to him. “Tuna?”
“Mhm,” Yuuta hummed. He leaned over and placed a quick kiss on Toge’s cheek. “Yeah, we should head back. I’m ready to pass out. I feel like I haven’t slept in decades.”
Toge slipped his hand into Yuuta’s and pulled on it. The two began to head back to the college. As they walked Toge lifted his other hand and held out the bottle of flavored water to Yuuta.
“Huh?”
“Tuna mayo.”
Yuuta sighed and grabbed the bottle. “Yes, I’ll carry it for you.”
“Konbu,” Toge said with a grin. He slowed down their walk to reach over and tilt his Yuuta’s head over to look at him. Lifting off his feet he kissed Yuuta and laughed. “Tuna,” he added—telling Yuuta to keep up the pace.
“I’m coming,” Yuuta said. “We can take a very long sleep and go out somewhere.”
“Salmon,” Toge quickly responded with a smile. The idea excited him. A break with Yuuta. He nodded.
Yuuta laughed and squeezed Toge’s hand. “Then we will,” he said. “And we’ll turn off our phones too so Gojo-sensei doesn’t try dragging us back.”
“Salmon,” Toge agreed with a nod.
“Okay,” Yuuta said with a smile, reaching over and stealing one quick kiss. “We will.”