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Suguru lets out a weary sigh when the curse they are supposed to exorcise hides inside a building. It’s always so much more work if they have to track these things down across multiple floors.
“Ah, come on, it’ll be fun,” Satoru says, clearly not at all bothered and just seeing him bounce on the balls of his feet has Suguru exhausted.
He truly doesn’t understand where he takes all this energy from.
“How can you be this enthusiastic?” he sighs out and Satoru almost shoves a pack of sweets in his face.
“It helps wonders with energy levels,” he promises, rattling the bag as if that could make it more enticing.
“Fine,” Suguru sighs out, taking one of the sweets for himself and while he doubts that the sugar is going to do anything for his own energy level the taste of it certainly does lift his spirits.
“Good, right?” Satoru asks, munching away on a sweet of his own and Suguru’s mouth ticks with an aborted laugh.
He’s just too adorable, Suguru thinks and then promptly shoves that thought away. It’s neither the time nor the place for this and Satoru would probably have his head for thinking that anyway.
“It’s okay,” Suguru lies, because it’s actually amazing but he enjoys the annoyed huff Satoru lets out.
“Gonna find one you love one of these days,” he mutters under his breath and Suguru pretends that he didn’t just hear that. He’s too busy convincing his heart to beat regularly again anyway and by the time he can even think to react Satoru has ventured into the building, clearly on the lookout for the curse.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he sing-songs and Suguru rolls his eyes before he follows him.
Sometimes he wishes that Satoru would take these things more seriously but as long as he jokes around like this, there really isn’t that much danger for them. Suguru knows from experience that it’s time to worry when Satoru goes focused and serious and so this is actually more reassuring than anything.
Still, he can’t help himself.
“Would it kill you to take things seriously for once?” he calls after Satoru who waves over his shoulder.
“Yes, actually,” he flippantly gives back and Suguru thinks it might not even be a complete lie. Satoru acts deathly allergic to everything that would require him to act like a true grown-up so who knows. It’s always possible that he will simply implode if he can’t joke around.
Suguru follows behind Satoru, always unwilling to let him out of his sight during a mission even though he knows Satoru hardly needs his protection and something wistful comes over him when he notices that the floor is entirely used up by a car shop.
“Ugh, it smells in here,” Satoru complaints because of course he does but Suguru only hums. “What, you like it here or something?” Satoru wants to know as Suguru moves his hands over some of the tools.
“I do,” he admits and a small smile plays around his mouth as he remembers summers in his village. “I think if they hadn’t found me I would probably be a mechanic.”
“No way in hell,” Satoru immediately says and he seems honestly affronted. “You’re meant for more. I mean. You’re so good with people, surely you’d wanted to do something social?”
“I don’t actually like dealing with people that much,” Suguru says with a shrug.
Sure, he knows how people tick and he is not above using his looks to get people to do what he wants but he doesn’t enjoy it.
The only one he truly enjoys spending time with is Satoru.
Who is staring at him as if Suguru had just explained to him that the sky is black.
“You don’t like people?” he breathes out, clearly shocked and Suguru shrugs again. “But you like me!”
“You hardly classify as a person,” Suguru shoots back and before Satoru can get the wrong idea into his head and flinch with the implication that he’s nothing more than his technique Suguru adds: “You’re more sugar than human at this point.”
Satoru lets out a surprised laugh, though Suguru detects how relieved he sounds anyway. As if Suguru could ever think of him as anything other than painfully, wonderfully human.
“I don’t even eat that much sugar,” Satoru tries to defend himself but the bag of sweets that sticks out of his back pocket immediately calls him a liar and Suguru lets him know as much with a pointed look.
“Rude,” Satoru mutters and turns around to continue their search for the curse.
Suguru can’t detect any cursed energy and clearly Satoru can’t either because he’s in no rush to press on.
“So, you imagined yourself working in a place like this?” he idly asks as he looks around the room and Suguru nods.
“I helped out during summer breaks in my village. I liked working there. It’s easy, fixing a car.”
Unlike with humans; there are so many nuances and everything is so incredibly grey instead of simply black and white. Cars are easier.
“That’s so—mundane,” Satoru mutters and Suguru frowns at him.
“You got something to say to that?” he challenges him but Satoru waves him off.
“No, I just—I can’t really imagine you with a wrench in your hand, you know,” he then says and Suguru raises an eyebrow at him before he reaches out for the wrench that’s laying just next to his hand.
“Here, can you imagine it now?” he asks and Satoru blinks before he ducks his head and hides his expression.
“You look like an idiot, you should just drop it,” he shortly tells Suguru.
“You’re an idiot,” Suguru bites back—not very mature, but who cares—and then he throws the wrench at Satoru.
He knows it can’t hit him, will bounce off uselessly against Satoru’s Limitless, so he turns away before it even comes into contact with Satoru.
But then there’s the sound of metal hitting flesh, a pained yelp and Suguru turns back around so fast he thinks he sprained something in his back.
“Ow, ow, ow, Suguru, what the fuck,” Satoru cries out, holding his hand to his shoulder and Suguru can do nothing but blink in surprise. “Seriously, what was that for?” Satoru asks again, rubbing the spot where the wrench must have hit him. “Is that how we’re going to express ourselves now? No longer with words but by wrench throwing?” he mutters under his breath and he flexes his fingers and moves his arm in a way that lets Suguru know it really hurts.
“Are you dying?” Suguru blurts out, his brain coming back online and Satoru glares at him over the rim of his glasses.
“If you had aimed a little bit higher I might be, yes,” he snaps, and Suguru is at his side in a second.
“Satoru, are you dying?” he asks, more insistent this time and he flutters his hands over Satoru’s body. “Have you been cursed? Is that it?”
“Suguru, what are you on about? I feel fine,” Satoru says and slaps his hands away.
“Your Limitless. Why didn’t it work? Are you sure you’re feeling fine?” Suguru demands to know and he already has come up with several theories on what the curse could have done to Satoru to disable his technique.
While Suguru completely panics though, Satoru goes eerily still.
“Of course it didn’t work,” he finally says and Suguru stares at him.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You threw that wrench.”
“Yeah, so? Did the curse do something to me?” he then asks because that thought hadn’t even occurred to him yet.
“Suguru, seriously,” Satoru sighs out and Suguru might still be panicking a little bit but he doesn’t miss the faint blush that spreads out over Satoru’s cheekbones. “You’re the exception to my technique.”
There’s the faintest tremor to his voice and it’s enough to make Suguru freeze.
“What is that supposed to mean?” he finally asks because he needs Satoru to explain this to him with more words.
“Haven’t you noticed yet? You can always touch me.”
“You can always touch me, more like,” Suguru says on reflex, because it’s usually Satoru reaching out for him, hanging off his shoulder, tugging on his clothes.
“Potayto, potahto,” Satoru says with a roll of his eyes. “Do you really think I disable my technique every time I reach out for you? It’s automated, Suguru, remember?”
“So I—don’t register for Limitless?” Suguru breathes out and he can’t stop himself, he reaches out and ghosts his fingertips over Satoru’s cheek.
His skin is smooth and warm and there’s no trace of Limitless.
“You don’t,” Satoru says, his voice noticeably higher than it usually is.
“But the wrench? You said you automated it based on velocity and mass. It should have registered as a threat.”
“It was thrown by you,” Satoru simply says, as if he isn’t overthrowing Suguru’s entire world with this revelation.
“You trust me,” Suguru breathes out and Satoru pulls a face.
“Come on, Suguru, of course I trust you. We’re a duo, right?”
“No, you—” Suguru takes a deep breath. “You trust me.”
He means to say ‘You love me’ but can’t quite find it in him yet but the distinction must be clear to Satoru now because he goes bright red in the face and Suguru didn’t even know he could blush like that.
“So what if I do?” he finally bites out, crossing his arms in front of his chest as if that could keep Suguru away if Limitless already doesn’t help him there.
But Suguru is not one to be kept away, not by Satoru, so he simply steps forward and pulls Satoru into a hug.
“I trust you, too,” Suguru whispers into Satoru’s ear and it only takes Satoru a second to reciprocate the hug.
“I should hope so,” he sniffs out, but Suguru feels how tightly he’s holding on to him and he knows that for all his bravado, Satoru was still worried about this.
Just like Suguru was. And Suguru thinks it’s only fair that he gives Satoru a secret of his own.
“I like all the sweets you bring, because you bring them for me,” he whispers into Satoru’s silky soft hair and when his breath hits his skin a shudder runs through Satoru.
“Noted,” he wheezes out and Suguru chuckles before he presses a chaste kiss to his throat.
“Come on, lets exorcise this damn curse and then I’ll take you out for dinner, alright?”
“A date?” Satoru asks, moving away from Suguru.
“A date,” he agrees and briefly cups Satoru’s cheek in his hand. “But work first.”
“Fine. I’ll obliterate this curse,” Satoru breathes out and immediately gets going.
Suguru can do nothing but stare fondly after him and by the time he catches up to Satoru the curse is already long gone. It was Satoru’s quickest work yet and Suguru has never before seen him this motivated.
He’ll have to promise him dates more often in the future it seems, not that it’s going to be much of a hardship.
Suguru will promise him the world, if Satoru lets him, after all.