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You had been doing a pretty good job at hiding your occasional wincing. With Nanami walking slightly in front of you, you could hold your side and try to suppress the involuntary sharp inhales when you accidentally pressed on it too hard. You knew his mind was surely running rampant with thoughts due to the situation you both were in, and it was starting to feel numb in the area anyway.
Stopping to dress the wound would just waste time. You and Nanami just needed to get out of this stupid building and back to Jujutsu High to report what you had found.
Nanami pulled out his phone with a sigh once again, trying to call Ijichi no doubt. Nanami’s previous attempts to contact him had resulted in the same bad luck. No service.
It wasn’t like all hope was completely lost, though. You trusted Nanami to find a way out of this. His logical thinking was usually the way out of any tough situation. You would also normally trust yourself too, but your head was feeling a bit swimmy and strange so you left Nanami to take the lead.
And it was that logical thinking, no-nonsense attitude that had caught your attention in the first place. Nanami was a terribly serious man, and when you first met him, you thought he might have some sort of grudge against the world that would make him almost unbearable to be around.
You quickly learned otherwise. Nanami was serious, but it was a calmness rather than a grudge that made him like that. And he was no-nonsense, but he just knew what he wanted and what needed to be done to finish the job. And despite his tendency to express his thoughts rather bluntly, he was careful to make the best decisions for everyone involved.
He also had this quiet chuckle, low and rumbly in his chest that’s always accompanied by the slightest lift of his lips. A soft smile that the first time you saw it, it made your entire body warm from the inside out. You learned that Nanami was compassionate and caring for his peers and colleagues, making sure they were always protected and safe. He had a soft spot for the Itadori boy as well, and you always caught the way his eyes softened when the kid runs up to him all excited to tell him about his newest skill.
It was all of those things that turned your likeness for him into admiration, admiration into fondness, and fondness into a much deeper feeling you weren’t quite ready to admit to yourself.
That didn’t really matter now, though, since you were stuck inside of an incomplete domain. It was silly to think about those buried feelings at a time like this.
A frustrated sigh made you look ahead at Nanami once again, and he shoved his phone into his pocket with a huff.
Maybe you two really were lost. Oh well. You wouldn’t mind spending the night here. It was kind of quiet. And nice. And you really just wanted to sit down. Sitting down sounded amazing.
Your side really hurt.
A voice floated into your ears. It sounded echoey and not quite clear. “Huh?” You mumbled, and it was a bit clearer this time. Nanami’s voice.
Though you really didn’t hear what he said, and you were too tired to really care, so you just answered with a quiet, “Oh…yeah…”
Nanami looked over his shoulder a bit more at your mumbled answer, expression always so serious. So handsome. “You have service? Can you call Ichiji?”
You didn’t even hear him that time, too worried about the way Nanami’s serious, handsome, stern face was swirling together by the minute. You felt dizzy, and so you stopped walking to try and get a grip on yourself.
A moment later, you were face down on the cold, concrete floor and tingling all over.
Your name said in alarm brought you slightly back to reality as you began to groan and roll yourself over.
Hands were all over you then, and you were gently flipped on your back. A strong hand cradled the back of your head, and through your spotty vision, you saw Nanami.
He had taken off his glasses, so you could see his sharp brown eyes that were immediately drawn to your abdomen where your injury was. Even in your delirium, you could sense Nanami’s energy change.
“This is…” Nanami said your name in a stern tone, though there was something like panic behind it. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
It was strange to hear Nanami so…unsure. You didn’t like hearing the panic in his voice. You didn’t like hearing your name sound like a plea from his lips.
You could barely form any words to respond, though. “Not…not…that bad…”
“Not that bad?” Nanami snapped again, lifting your shirt and pressing something soft on your injury. He said your name again with that panic you didn’t like. “This is bad. What were you thinking?”
Your words came out in an incoherent mess. God, you felt like you were on fire. Or maybe you were ice cold. Everything was too much and too little at the same time.
You had definitely lost more blood than you initially thought. Dammit, this was bad. This was really bad. What were you thinking? Nanami was right, you had been stupid, careless, reckless, and now you were stuck in this place with no way out—
“Shhhh, you’re going to be okay. Y/N, open your eyes for me.”
You barely heard him, but you leaned into his voice, his arms that were now holding you against his chest with care. Your eyes fluttered open to meet his worried brown ones.
“You have to stay awake, Y/N. Just hang on,” he spoke to you and then looked forward. Nanami stood up with you in his arms, and he continued to walk in the same direction you had been in before.
There were barely any thoughts in your mind, only sensations. Nanami’s warmth, his scent, his heart beating rapidly through his chest. His hands and arms that held you with a steady grip.
“I—N-Nanami-san—“you spoke in mumbles. “‘M sorry, sorry Nanami—“
“Don’t talk,” he interrupted you with a soft seriousness. “Don’t say a word. We’re gonna get you out of here.”
Your delirium began to speak for you. “I…’M gonna die…sorry…sorry…”
“You are not going to die, Y/N. You’re going to be just fine. Just focus on me. Keep your eyes open. Look at me.”
Nanami began to beckon you to him. He repeated those phrases over and over again so you would fight against the effects of your injury. And it was working. It was something to hold onto while he began to desperately search for a way out.
You drifted in and out for a while, focusing on Nanami’s voice and the way he held you firmly against him. Every once in a while, he would stop and check on the wound, brush his fingers across your face, or make you open your eyes. You could feel yourself weakening by the second, and it was only Nanami’s voice and touch that kept you hanging on.
One moment your eyes drifted close, and the next moment you heard chattering voices filled with urgency.
“Ichiji, we need to go now,” you heard from above you. Another voice, a car door slamming, the startling start of a moving vehicle.
Nanami’s embrace continued to hold you as he pressed down on your wound and occasionally dabbed your face with a cloth. At this point, you didn’t have the strength to keep your eyes open. You didn’t have the strength to do much else except yearn for his voice. Very little of it you actually understood, but one thing stuck out from all the rest.
“Stay with me.”
Fading away little by little, it was the one thing you heard him say. The one thing you understood. From the car ride to Jujutsu High to Shoko’s medical room, he repeated it to you. And it kept you alive.
There wasn’t much you remembered after that. It could’ve been hours or days that passed, but when you woke up, you certainly remembered how stupid you had been.
Amongst the searing pain in your body and the ache throbbing in your head, the memories leading up to how you got into this mess hit you like a truck. And you knew you could never face Nanami ever again.
You tried to swallow then, but your throat was so dry it got caught in your throat, causing you to cough. And coughing with an abdomen wound was just about the worst thing you’d ever felt in your life.
You groaned and tensed your body to try and get through the shooting pain, but you felt a hand on your shoulder that caused your eyes to spring open in panic.
His kind, tired brown eyes met yours.
“Here,” Nanami spoke softly, and it was then you eyed the small glass of water he was holding out to you. “Shoko said you might wake soon.”
His hand on your shoulder moved to snake around your neck, and he guided you to take a small sip of water. The simple action was about all you could handle though as your head fell back onto the pillow with a wince and a sigh.
With your eyes closed, you tried to breathe through the pain. Nanami’s hand moved back to your shoulder, the gentle grip steadying you but scaring you at the same time. How could you face him? How could you look into those tired, lovely brown eyes again and face him after how badly you messed up?
A finger brushed against your cheek suddenly, and you realized then you were crying.
You opened your eyes and looked straight at the ceiling through your tears. “Sorry,” you inhaled sharply. “It just…hurts.”
It did hurt. Your stomach, your head, your heart. Everything hurt.
“No need to apologize,” Nanami’s voice was gentle.
And those words right there opened the gates.
You cried, sobbed really, as Nanami sat next to you. He wiped away every tear with his finger, and eventually grabbed a tissue to dry your cheeks.
You didn’t have it in you to try and hide your emotions. The shame of your reckless actions was deep, but so was the fear that you had almost not made it. The relief you were laying here now, alive and breathing. The throbbing ache you felt your Nanami coming to the surface with each gentle touch.
And with the tears continuing to fall, you finally met his eyes and tried to find the words.
“I’m so sorry,” you began. “I was so stupid.”
Nanami didn’t respond right away. He kept his eyes locked with yours, hand resting on your face with his thumb placed strategically to catch the remaining tears.
And then, “You were—”
He sighed, looking down. You watched his face. You could tell he was trying to hide his own emotion, but his eyes flickered with it. So you waited for him to continue.
“You were reckless is what you were,” Nanami began, and you watched him continue to look down at his hand that held the tissue. “It wasn’t like you. You know better.”
“I know,” you barely whispered.
He met your eyes again at that, and something softened. “Don’t ever do that again.”
Emotion filled your eyes again at that, Nanami’s words letting the feelings come to the surface. “I’m sorry,” you said again. “I won’t. I promise.”
Nanami and you stared at each other, and you wondered if maybe your unspoken yearning was not lost on him, that maybe he knew, that maybe he was hiding something too. But then he sighed, gathered up your hand in both of his, and brought it to his lips.
He closed his eyes. “I can’t lose you.”
The words were so quiet that it was only the movement of his lips that made you understand. Your chest ached, and you brought your other hand to rest on his.
“I can’t lose you either.”
A gentle kiss against your hands sealed an unspoken promise. A promise that you and he would carry for the rest of your lives.
Or until time ran out.