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Suguru isn’t entirely sure how it happens. One moment they are in their usual groove during a fight and the next moment Suguru sees one of the curses aim for Satoru from his blind spot.
There’s not enough time to think, not enough time to remember that Satoru is basically invincible these days and before Suguru knows it, he’s moving. He knows he’s going to be fast enough the moment he pushes away from the ground and even though that means he’s going to take a–probably devastating–hit, there is nothing but relief that Satoru is going to be safe.
Suguru collides with Satoru just in time to tackle him out of the way and the last thing he hears before everything erupts into pain is a panicked “Suguru!”. After that, there’s nothing but darkness.
~*~*~
Suguru wakes up to an ache in his side that almost borders on outright pain. He takes a moment to breathe in and out, trying to get used to it, before he opens his eyes. He is, of course, met with the clinical ceiling of the medical room and really, with his side hurting like that it shouldn’t be a surprise.
It still is, somehow, until Suguru remembers just what happened.
“Satoru,” he breathes out, because he doesn’t know what happened after he got hit, after he lost consciousness and the thought that Satoru still might have gotten hurt is enough to force Suguru into a sitting position.
“I really wouldn’t do that yet,” comes Shoko’s voice from behind him and when Suguru whips his head around in surprise everything goes dark for a moment.
He’s clearly not at his best at the moment.
“Shoko,” he whispers, once the spots that dance in front of his eyes are gone. “Where’s Satoru?”
“You’re such an idiot,” she says, and there’s more emotion in her voice than Suguru is really used to. “You should really care more for yourself instead of him,” she chides him and Suguru grimaces.
“What’s the damage then?” he sighs out, because clearly it must be bad if he’s still here and subjected to her care.
“The damage is that you’re a stupid idiot,” Satoru’s voice rings out and Shoko rolls her eyes before she vanishes to god knows where, leaving Suguru to suffer under Satoru’s furious glare alone.
“You’re okay,” he still can’t help but to whisper under his breath but he flinches when Satoru’s glare goes even more murderous, if that’s even possible.
“And you probably think that’s because of you, dipshit, but news flash, I’m the strongest. Of course I’m okay. I’m always okay.”
He seems genuinely furious and Suguru busies himself with laying back down, if only so he can escape that gaze for a moment. Or at least pretend to.
“I’m glad,” Suguru gasps out once he managed to return to a reclined position, though even that brought cold sweat to his forehead.
He really must have been hit hard if he still feels this badly.
“Well, I’m not,” Satoru bites out and if Suguru still had the energy for it, he’d probably flinch.
“I don’t understand–” Suguru starts because he’s at a loss as to what could make Satoru this angry.
“What’s there not to understand?” Satoru interrupts him. “I’m the strongest. I do not get hurt. I am untouchable. I am invincible. I certainly do not need help from the likes of you.”
His words sting worse than whatever left-over pain he has from his injury and Suguru can’t quite manage to meet Satoru’s eyes anymore. Of course he’d be angry. Suguru basically implied that he is weak by budging in and taking that hit for him and Satoru always prides himself on being the strongest. Of course he wouldn’t take kindly to what Suguru did, no matter if it came from a place of worry.
“I’m sorry,” Suguru somehow manages to get out and Satoru huffs in a way that makes Suguru’s stomach turn.
He has seen Satoru this angry a few times but never before had that anger been directed at him. It’s not a nice feeling at all, Suguru finds.
“You better be,” Satoru snaps out, his voice shaking with how angry he is and Suguru wonders if things would be better if he fell unconscious again.
Since that is not something he can do on command, though, he chooses the next best thing.
“I’m tired,” he mutters, but is stopped by a sharp pain in his side when he tries to turn his back to Satoru.
“Yeah, I bet you are,” Satoru mutters under his breath and Suguru flinches with the reminder that he’s no match at all for Satoru.
He doesn’t even remember the last time Satoru truly needed to sleep and of course this is just one more thing that makes Suguru look weak in his eyes. Before Suguru can even try to come up with anything else to say, Satoru disappears between one blink and the next, clearly too impatient to get away from Suguru to simply walk out on him.
Suguru didn’t know it could hurt this much to have someone teleport out on him.
Sleep does seem like the better option in face of that, and to his own surprise it doesn’t take him long to fall asleep at all.
~*~*~
When he wakes up the next time it’s to Shoko standing next to his bed instead of Satoru.
“Morning,” he grumbles out, still more asleep than awake and Shoko gives him a look.
“Evening, actually,” she informs him and then watches as he struggles to sit up, not even lifting a finger to help him.
“When can I leave?” he pants out once he finally manages to sit properly and the look increases.
“You nearly died twice over, I don’t think leaving should be on your agenda for now. You can count yourself lucky that I managed to stitch your arm back on.”
“I–nearly lost my arm?” he asks and looks down at his torso. He doesn’t see much, of course, with the shirt he’s wearing, but it would explain the pain, actually.
“Nearly is generous,” Shoko shoots back and then rattles off a downright staggering list of injuries he sustained when he took that hit for Satoru.
Suguru can indeed count himself lucky that he’s still alive.
“How did I get back here?” Suguru asks, still trying to wrap his head around just how close he came to dying.
“Gojo. He teleported right into the room, clutching you to his chest.”
“He can’t do long distance teleportation,” Suguru mutters, because it’s one of the few things Satoru still struggles with.
“He can when it comes to you,” Shoko instantly replies and Suguru flinches with her words.
It’s just another reminder that he’s not nearly as strong as Satoru, but Suguru guesses Satoru will at least be grateful to him for making him learn that.
“So, when can I leave then?” he asks again, because staying here is not something he wants to do.
Shoko regards him for a long minute before she sighs.
“There’s a tray in the room next door I need. Get that to me without having to sit down and you’re free to leave,” she tells him and just by her tone Suguru knows that he’s not going to make it.
Still, he has to try.
By the time he’s on his feet, he’s drenched in sweat, his entire side is screaming at him and his knees feel like jelly. Shoko clearly has no sympathy for him.
“I’m gonna make it,” Suguru grits out and Shoko huffs out a disbelieving laugh.
“Sure. Don’t break something when you faceplant into the ground,” she tells him with a wave as she leaves the room.
Suguru is almost thankful that now there won’t be witnesses when he does exactly that. Still, he clenches his teeth and shuffles forward. He’s not going to stay in this room for a day longer, not if he can help it.
He refuses to acknowledge the fact that his stubborn–and possibly stupid–desire is entirely born out of the urge to prove to himself and Satoru that he’s not as weak as Satoru clearly deems him to be because that is only going to make him spiral.
Suguru thought they were friends. Equals, even, as much as anyone can be that with Satoru. And maybe even–Suguru cuts himself off there, because that is absolutely something he does not need to think about right now. Satoru’s derision for him was more than clear earlier. Suguru pushes that thought away too and instead focuses on shuffling through the room, always keeping a hand on the wall; it’s not as if Shoko told him to not do that, and he’ll take any advantage he can get, no matter how small it might be.
Somehow he makes it to the door besides his like this, knees wobbling, sweat rolling down his face, hand shaking where it’s steadying him against the wall. It’s barely a victory but Suguru will take it. He does not think about the way back.
He pushes the door open, leaning on the handle to keep his balance but when he sees what’s inside, he freezes up completely.
Satoru is draped over a bed, a TV stashed in the corner, his clothes flung around the room as if he’s been living here for months.
This doesn’t add up.
“Have you been hurt?” is the first thing out of his mouth and it would almost be comical how fast Satoru shoots up from the bed if Suguru wasn’t so worried. “Satoru, have you been hurt?” he asks again, more insistent this time when Satoru fails to answer him and he knows he shouldn’t, knows that Satoru is just going to take it as another offence against himself but Suguru can’t help himself.
He needs to know if Satoru got hurt.
“No,” Satoru finally gets out and Suguru almost stumbles where he stands. “Are you allowed to be up? Shouldn’t you be laying down or something?”
Right, because he’s too weak to even stand on his own, Suguru bitterly thinks.
“I just–Shoko said–what are you even doing here?” he finally asks because he can’t understand what Satoru is doing here if he hasn’t been hurt. “Did you burn your room down?”
It’s the only other thing that makes sense to Suguru but Satoru only glares at him.
“I did not.”
“Then what–”
“You should sit down,” Satoru interrupts him and carries a chair over to where Suguru is still standing in the middle of the doorway. “Sit.”
“I can’t,” Suguru faintly says, even though there is nothing else he wants to do more. “Shoko says I can only leave if I make my way back without having to sit and I really want to leave.”
“You’re an idiot,” Satoru mutters and puts a hand to Suguru’s shoulder.
Suguru is ashamed to admit that even that faint weight is enough to make his knees buckle.
“Fuck,” he whispers when he heavily sits down on the chair, because there is no way in hell Shoko is going to let him leave now. Suguru is so not looking forward to spending another night here.
Speaking of–
“How long has it been? Shoko didn’t say.”
“A week,” Satoru says, his voice barely audible in the room and Suguru almost chokes on nothing.
“A week,” he wheezes out because even with how serious his injuries were he didn’t expect that.
“A week,” Satoru repeats and Suguru can’t quite place the emotion in his voice. Before he can puzzle over it more, though, Shoko’s steps ring out behind him and Suguru groans.
“You’re staying then,” she says when she sees them, a pointed look at the chair Suguru is sitting on. “And you,” she continues as she glares at Satoru, “get the hell out of my hair. He’s alive, what more do you want? I’m sick of having you live here.”
She doesn’t wait for either of them to answer before she walks away and Suguru can do nothing but stare after her before he slowly turns back to Satoru.
“Live here? Why would you live here?”
“I don’t,” Satoru lies and Suguru pointedly looks around the room; the very lived-in room and he can’t quite hide his confusion when Satoru goes red in the face. “This is not about me,” he then hisses. “This is about you and your stupidity.”
“I already said I’m sorry,” Suguru snaps out. “What more do you want from me?”
“I want you to stop being this stupid! I’m invincible! No one and nothing can touch me, so what the hell were you even thinking!”
“I wasn’t!” Suguru shouts back and his eyes widen in shocked surprise when Satoru falls silent at his admission but it seems he can’t stop himself now. “I wasn’t thinking, Satoru. I saw that you were about to be hit, that you were about to be hurt and I didn’t think. I just knew I had to protect you.”
“I–”
“—don’t need your protection, yeah, I know,” Suguru bitterly mutters because Satoru has made that more than clear. “Sorry for caring about you, I guess,” he quietly tacks on and isn’t proud of the way it makes Satoru flinch.
“I’m invincible,” Satoru mutters—yet again—and Suguru is so fed up with hearing this that he rolls his eyes.
“Yeah, I get it! Would you stop saying that already.”
“I’m invincible,” Satoru still says one more time and there’s something desperate in his voice. “But you’re not!”
“What?” Suguru says, a frown now on his face. “Thanks for reminding me just how inferior I am.”
“No, no, it’s just—” Satoru reaches out for him, though he doesn’t quite touch him. Suguru can still see the faint tremor in his fingers. “There was so much—” he trails his fingers along a line and Suguru guesses he’s going to find a scar in the exact spot under his shirt. “I thought you died,” Satoru weakly finishes and then plasters his usual cheerful and entirely fake smile on his face again. “But I guess you didn’t, so good for you!”
Suguru is almost getting whiplash from how fast his mood changed and he’s glad that he’s already sitting down.
“What is going on, Satoru?” he weakly whispers, too tired to try and puzzle this all out for himself, though he’s slowly getting an inkling as to what this could be about. “Explain it to me.”
The smile drops from Satoru’s face as if it’s never been there and Suguru startles when he crouches down in front of him, his gangly limbs all tucked up.
“I thought you died,” Satoru evenly says, not meeting Suguru’s eyes. “Your arm was just dangling about and there was so much blood. I thought you died.” His voice breaks over the last word and Suguru sees how he clenches his hand into a fist. “Everyone always keeps telling me how I’m the strongest, how Limitless makes it almost impossible to hurt me and it was the only thing I could think about. If I’m so strong how come you felt the need to protect me? If I’m so strong how come I almost lost you?”
He pillows his head on his arms, burying his face so he can’t see Suguru anymore but Suguru still smiles softly at him.
It makes sense, now. Satoru is just feeling what Suguru felt when he moved to protect him.
“I didn’t think of you as the strongest when I pushed you out of the way. I just thought of you as Satoru and how I had to make sure you don’t get hurt,” he softly says and watches how Satoru’s entire frame shudders. “I just wanted to keep you safe,” he adds, reaching out to push his hands into Satoru’s silky soft hair. “That’s all.”
He lazily scratches Satoru’s scalp until the shudders stop and Satoru turns his head to finally look at him again.
“Don’t do that again,” he whispers and Suguru laughs.
“I can’t promise that,” he honestly says, because if something like this happens again, he has no doubt that his body is going to move once more before he can form a proper thought. “You stayed here to keep an eye on me?” Suguru then asks and again, a faint blush dusts Satoru’s cheeks.
“Couldn’t bear to be all across campus,” he mutters, clearly embarrassed but Suguru thinks it’s sweet. Kind of over the top, really, but sweet nonetheless.
“Mind to share your room with me tonight?” Suguru wants to know. “Yours is much less clinical than mine. Easier to keep an eye on me that way, too,” he adds with a grin, though his exhaustion is quickly catching up to him.
Satoru must notice, because he’s quick to get up, carefully helping Suguru across the room to the bed.
“You need to rest more,” Satoru chides him as he tucks him in and if Suguru had more strength he would laugh at how incredibly overprotective this is.
“You need rest, too, strongest or not. Come here,” Suguru says and tugs at Satoru’s hand in an attempt to get him into bed with him.
“I guess I can sleep,” Satoru agrees surprisingly easily and slides into bed with Suguru.
Suguru doesn’t have the energy to tease him over the way he curls around him but there is one question on his mind, even as sleep tugs on him.
“How come I can touch you?” he slurs out, reaching out to wrap his fingers around Satoru’s wrist and he’s not sure with the haziness of sleep but he thinks he feels Satoru’s lips against his forehead.
“You’re always the exception,” he hears Satoru mutter and then everything goes dark once more.
But this time, he falls into it with a smile.