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From the moment, Satoru opened his eyes from a restless sleep, he decided he was in an awful mood. He didn’t even need to gather any additional evidence to prove this point. Didn’t need to know that in just a couple of seconds he was going to knock over a glass of water on his side table as he fumbled to silence his alarm. No, today was not going to be a good one.
First off, his body was incredibly sore. The product of returning home from a mission the night before that not even Shoko’s healing technique could quite take the edge off. Second, his eyes were still aching from overuse of his technique, a skill he hadn’t quite mastered yet (not that he would ever admit it to anyone.)
It was supposed to be a quick, easy solo mission. Yaga assigned him and Suguru on their own, separate missions to take care of some grade-four curses. Just to work on their independent skills a little, besides they were still the strongest together. Simple enough, right? No. Instead, Gojo returned to campus totally roughed up after deciding to challenge himself and turning off Infinity for just a few moments. He was just glad Suguru had already been in bed by the time he stumbled into Shoko’s dorm, or else he was sure his best friend would’ve gotten a kick out of laughing at Gojo’s misery.
A mission the day before his birthday, Satoru grumbled to himself as he puttered around his room, trying to find a uniform that was clean enough and less wrinkled to wear to class.
Yeah, that was the third reason Satoru’s day was going to suck. It was his birthday. Worse, his sixteenth birthday.
Satoru absolutely despised his birthday. It was worse growing up, he’d spend the entire day trapped in a room with the Gojo clan elders, listening to them bore on about the blessing of his birth, the way it had changed the core of the earth. All in honor of the Gojo clan and its hereditary gifts. That was the issue, they didn’t care about Satoru. They could’ve cared less about him, had it not been for the gifts that were bestowed on him at birth.
He knew his cousins got fun birthdays, filled with presents and sweet treats, and a celebration of the anniversary of their existence alone. It shouldn’t have mattered and it shouldn’t have made him jealous. Satoru Gojo was above the trivial, childish whims of birthdays. His techniques were his gifts. Well, he was supposed to be, but as he listened to the elders drone on for hours in his itchy, traditional clothing, maybe he would’ve rather had a piece of cake or a cool gadget instead of the Six Eyes.
Satoru tried not to think of the significance of the day any further as he situated his sunglasses on his face, and headed to class. Silently steeling himself for the inevitable amount of birthday wishes he would be receiving today.
Shoko was already sitting at her desk in the classroom, eyeing her cuticles with a look of detached boredom. She flicked up her gaze as he entered the room and a smile stretched across her face. “Happy birthday,” she smiled, wiggling her eyebrows. “Are we doing anything crazy in honor of you, tonight?”
Satoru groaned loudly as he flopped into his seat, “No,” he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. He probably looked more like a pouting little kid than his new age of sixteen.
Shoko frowned, eyeing him suspiciously, “Aww, why not?”
Satoru huffed, “I don’t like birthdays.”
“What! You of all people?” Shoko’s jaw fell open as she gawked at him, “You’re a Sagittarius, you’re supposed to love this stuff.”
“Come on, stop,” Satoru’s whine turned into more of a plea, “For real, I don’t want to do anything.”
“Fine,” Shoko sighed, turning to examine her cuticles again, “Suit yourself, grumpy.”
“Who’s grumpy?” Suguru questioned, with a wicked grin on his face, as he sauntered into the classroom and took his seat next to Gojo.
“Who do you think,” Shoko laughed, nodding her head unhelpfully in Gojo’s direction. That traitor! Satoru leveled a glare back in her direction.
“Satoru? Grumpy?” Suguru smiled cheekily and leaned closer to examine the pout on Satoru’s face. “Why’s that?”
Satoru wasn’t in the mood for games today. Not at all. He figured he deserved at least that given that it was his special day after all. He didn’t even bother humoring Suguru’s attempts to play along with whatever Shoko had started, “My head hurts, you assholes.” He sunk down further in his seat, crossing his arms a little tighter against his chest. Suguru chuckled at Gojo’s dramatic display and clicked his tongue, moving to grab a notebook out of his backpack.
Well, that wasn’t the response Satoru had been expecting. After all, Suguru was his best friend; shouldn’t he already have wished him a happy birthday by now? Satoru pulled his phone out of his back pocket, checking his texts just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. No, absolutely no messages yet, and especially none from Suguru.
“Suguru,” Satoru pressed, turning in his desk to face the other boy. “Don’t you have something to say to me?” He tried to keep the hotness, and maybe even the disappointment, out of his voice, but it just came out sounding unsure and insecure.
Suguru looked up, his brows furrowed in confusion. “Uh… how was your mission, yesterday?”
Satoru felt his heart sag a little bit more in disappointment. Did Suguru not know it was his birthday? No, he had to know, of course, they’d discussed it before, hadn’t they? They weren’t like—technically—dating, but they made out a lot a little, and he was pretty sure that Suguru cared for him in a more romantic way. Shouldn’t boyfriends be the number one supporter of birthdays? More than that, they were best friends, after all, and Gojo was sure best friends remembered each other’s birthdays. Had Suguru forgotten?
“Oh, uh, it was good,” Satoru quickly recovered from the initial disappointment, “How was yours?”
Suguru opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Yaga entering the classroom and announcing the start of the lesson. Not that he could pay attention to the lesson at all, he was absolutely reeling. Thinking of all the possibilities surrounding Suguru’s lack of a birthday greeting. It was to no avail, he couldn’t figure out what he’d done or said for Suguru to just disregard his birthday. Sure, he silently hated birthdays, but he wasn’t open about it to Suguru at least.
Even if Suguru did know about Satoru’s disdain for birthdays, shouldn't he be the one to try and change his perception? That’s what Satoru would do for Suguru. But maybe he was wrong about Suguru’s feelings for him.
It just didn’t make any sense.
By the end of the lesson, Satoru’s day had gone from bad to worse. Thanks to his racing thoughts, he was feeling positively blue. He kept chancing glances in Suguru’s direction, hoping for any sort of recognition. He got nothing, save for a couple of small smiles.
He felt a surge of hope course through him as Suguru opened his mouth to say something to him. Maybe he was finally going to say something? The hope was quickly dashed by Yaga calling out Suguru’s name, asking to stay after class to debrief his mission.
Satoru sulked out of the classroom, in favor of going to lie out on the courtyard and mop underneath the shade of his favorite tree. It was his day off and his birthday, anyway, he could decide what he wanted to do, even if that was nothing.
As he was resting in the shade, a hand over his already shaded eyes, trying to block out more information from streaming into his tired brain, he heard approaching footsteps. He felt his spirits perk up just a bit. Could it be Suguru?
No. Instead Nanami and Haibara were walking towards him, Yu was waving enthusiastically. “Happy birthday, Gojo!” Even Nanami joined in with a birthday wish.
His spirits flagged a little, but he tried to muster up a good smile and thanked the two before they headed off in another direction, probably going to class or something.
After they were out of his line of vision, Satoru slumped back down into the grass. Wow. He wasn’t surprised that Yu had remembered, he was just an all-around good kid, of course he’d remember something like that.
The next time he heard footsteps it actually was Suguru, but again, he brought no birthday wishes or even an inkling that he knew what day it was.
“Hey, you,” Suguru kicked lightly at the sole of Satoru’s shoes. Do you wanna come spar with me?”
Satoru dramatically threw a hand over his eyes, “No,” he uttered quietly.
Suguru let out a disappointed sound, the nerve! “What? Come on, why not?” Suguru pouted, getting on the ground next to him and trying to pry away Gojo’s hand from his eyes. Suguru was lucky Satoru didn’t just turn on Infinity and send him flying across the courtyard, Satoru thought bitterly to himself.
Instead, Satoru jerked away, quickly jumping to his feet. “’Cuz I don’t want to,” he grumbled, turning on his heels and walking away from the other boy before he could even get a glance at what he was sure was a confused, stunned look on Suguru’s face. It would only make him feel worse. Would remind him either of Geto’s innocent ignorance, or his willful indifference, and he wasn’t sure he even wanted to know that answer.
He figured his dramatic exit in the courtyard that morning would have signaled to Suguru, who was usually so genuinely in tune with others, that something was amiss and that he wanted space or something.
Nope. It was clear that he hadn’t gotten the message.
Satoru continued to cross paths with Suguru throughout the day, even with his best efforts to avoid them. Worse was the constant harassment of suggestions of things they could do together. This would have usually excited Satoru, but the real issue was Suguru’s reasoning behind these offers, or rather his lack thereof.
“Hey, do you want to go try that new crepe place?” Why? “Oh, no reason.”
“Want to go shopping or something?” What for? “I don’t know, whatever you want!”
“Do you want to watch a movie?” Why? “Oh, I’m just bored.”
“Come on, Satoru. Please, let’s just hang out.” Why do you want to? “Do I need a reason, silly?”
No, no, no, NO!
Yeah, the hint had been missed completely. It was exhausting, and each time it left Satoru feeling worse and worse about his already predetermined bad day. He hated it.
By the end of the day, nearly everyone on campus had wished him a happy birthday. Everyone but Suguru, that is.
Hell, even the kind of scary chef that manned the kitchen had given him an extra, birthday helping of his favorite dish.
It felt stupid to be upset over something so small. It was stupid. He wasn’t even supposed to like his birthday after all. Still, he couldn’t deny the heavy feeling that weighed at the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t used to the feeling of disappointment, so he didn’t like this at all.
Satoru laid in his bed, staring at the ceiling, willing the ache of disappointment and the hot tears threatening to fall to disappear. It was to no avail, and he felt a tear slip down his cheek. He couldn’t help but laugh bitterly at this realization. He was supposed to be the strongest and he was reduced to feeling so vulnerable over his not-boyfriend not wishing him a happy birthday after he personally declared his disdain for such trivialities.
Well, deep down he knew it was more than just that. He cared for Suguru, probably more than he had ever cared about anyone—or anything—in his life. Suguru was the first person to ever make Satoru feel like a person himself, separate from the gifts he carried. Maybe he hoped he’d get to do another normal person thing with Suguru, but maybe he’d been totally wrong in his assumption. May Suguru didn’t feel the same way about him. The thought made Satoru cry even harder, he had to pull a pillow over his face to hopefully dull the sound because it was far too embarrassing to be crying in the first place, let alone over this.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and the sadness turned to rage as he got ready to chuck it across the room, dreading another baseless suggestion from Suguru. Sure enough, Suguru’s name was displayed on his phone screen, and against his better judgment, he opened the text.
“Come to the roof,” the text read.
He was already typing back a curt Why, before the response came: “Don’t ask questions, please just come.”
Satoru sighed, figuring he might as well humor Suguru just once today. Maybe it would be fun, even if he didn’t get a birthday wish. He blinked back his tears, swiping a hasty hand over his eyes. He pulled a sweatshirt—Suguru’s sweatshirt—over his head and made the trek to the rooftop of the dorm.
He pushed open the door. Suguru was sitting cross-legged on a picnic blanket the twilight sky framing him. He had an entire feast of sorts sprawled out on the blanket and in the middle, was a clearly homemade, sort of lopsided birthday cake.
“Surprise!” Suguru smiled, wiggling his fingers, “Happy birthday, Satoru.”
Satoru froze in the doorframe, not sure how to comprehend how quickly all his expectations and assumptions had been shattered. Suguru hadn’t forgotten, not at all. He felt overwhelmed at that moment and another wave of tears washed over him, spilling down his cheeks. Satoru covered his face with his hands, trying to hide the obvious outburst from Suguru. It was a feeble attempt, because Suguru was at his side in an instant, pulling the white-haired boy against his chest, smoothing a gentle hand down his back. “Why are you crying, baby?”
Satoru tried to speak through his tears, but it came out all gross and snotty. “I—I… I thought you forgot,” he wailed, hiding his face against Suguru’s sturdy chest.
Suguru chuckled a little breathlessly, pulling away so Satoru could see him shaking his head. “No! I’ve been trying to get you alone all day so we could celebrate, but you kept saying no!”
Satoru blanched, how could he have been so wrong? “Are you sure? You didn’t just come up with this last minute.”
Suguru shook his head fondly, cupping Satoru’s face gently in his hands. He tilted his head towards the picnic blanket, “Does that beautiful cake look thrown together?!”
Satoru laughed a little, wiping at his eyes. “Yeah, kinda.”
It was Suguru’s turn to blanch, but it quickly turned into a genuine laugh. “Hey, come on, I’ve been practicing! Just ask everyone else, they ate my rejects. Besides, how could I have forgotten someone as special as you? I love you, Satoru.”
Satoru felt his heart nearly stop inside his chest at those words, “You—you love me?”
Suguru smiled, looking a little sheepish. “Yeah, is that okay?”
Satoru nodded enthusiastically, more tears starting to stream down his face. Though, not from sadness this time. He surged forward and pressed his lips against Suguru’s finding that his efforts were returned happily as Suguru leaned into the kiss and wrapped his arms even tighter around him. Satoru pulled away after a few moments and pressed another quick peck against Suguru’s lips, “I love you, too. Thank you for making my birthday special, sorry I was a brat.”
“You weren’t a brat, you thought I forgot! I’m sorry, next year I won’t let that happen again,” Suguru pressed forward and kissed him again. “Now… do you wanna open your presents and eat your cake.”
Satoru smiled up at the other boy, the one that he loved with his entire being. Even if he could be oblivious, there was no one else he’d rather spend this once dreaded day with, no one else came close at all. “Yeah, I really do,” Satoru squeezed Suguru one more time, trying to convey just how much this meant to him.
“Good, you deserve it,” Suguru whispered, a small smile gracing his lips, “Happy birthday, Satoru.”