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Satoru is idling his time away in his stupidly comfortable chair, hiding from Yaga and the no doubt judging look on his face and being terribly bored with Suguru out on a mission when his students file into the room. He instantly knows that they are up to something, because Megumi is shuffling behind Kugisaki and Itadori, who keep shoving each other.
“What’s up, dear students of mine?” Satoru asks when they don’t do something except furiously whispering between each other.
“We need your help,” Itadori says and that instantly has Satoru on edge. His students don’t ask for his help unless one of them is actively dying.
“With what?” Satoru asks, sitting up properly, his attention fixed on them now.
“We need you to settle a bet for us,” Kugisaki tells him and it takes Satoru a moment to comprehend her words. Once he does, he lounges back in his chair, though.
“Oh, this is gonna be fun. What’s the bet?” he wants to know and catches Megumi rolling his eyes in the background.
It makes Satoru smile, because even though he pretends that he wants nothing to do with this, he came here with Kugisaki and Itadori, so clearly he must be invested in the outcome as well.
“You need to tell us who Geto-sensei is married to,” Itadori says, almost bouncing on his feet that’s how excited he is and the image of Itadori as an eager puppy is enough to distract Satoru from the words he just uttered.
But when they finally make their way into his head, they hit, and they hit hard.
“Huh?” he gets out, his insides turning to ice over the situation he’s being presented with.
“You have to know who he’s married to, you two are inseparable,” Kugisaki chimes in now. “Fushiguro says he’s not married at all but we saw the ring and Geto-sensei knows we saw the ring and he only smiled that stupid sweet smile of his when we asked, so there has to be someone. And you need to tell us who it is.”
Suguru is married. Suguru is married. Suguru is married.
It doesn’t compute.
“You saw the ring?” Satoru asks, to buy himself some time, to maybe regain any semblance of control over this situation but he knows all hope on that is lost when Itadori nods.
“He wears it around a chain on his neck,” he explains, helpfully points at his own neck as well and Satoru’s world spins.
He has never seen the ring—or any kind of jewellery on Suguru, except his gauges—and Suguru certainly hasn’t mentioned being married.
And Suguru would have told him, right?
“I see,” Satoru weakly gives back and he can probably count himself lucky that Kugisaki and Itadori are too caught up in their own bickering to notice his strange reaction but Satoru knows that Megumi keeps a very close eye on him.
“So, who is it?” Kugisaki finally asks after shoving Itadori one more time and Satoru swallows heavily.
He’s not about to tell his students that he doesn’t know who his best friend is married to, so he needs to get out of this some other way.
“Who are you betting on?” he asks, hoping that this might give him something to work with and if the way Megumi rolls his eyes is anything to go by, he looked right through him.
“Itadori thinks it’s Ieiri-san,” Kugisaki tells him. “I think it’s Haibara-san.”
“Oh, dear,” Satoru huffs out and he doesn’t even have to fake his laugh for that. “Do not let Nanamin hear you say that, he’s going to chop your head clean off for that.”
Satoru watches how Itadori’s and Kugisaki’s eyes go huge and it’s entertaining enough to distract him from the cold feeling in his chest.
“Don’t tell me you never noticed,” he laughs out because it’s not as if these two are hiding their relationship. It would be stupid to, anyway, because they’ve been married for almost ten years now.
“But Haibara-san is all over Geto-sensei,” Kugisaki argues and Satoru chuckles.
“Because he honestly admires Suguru,” he explains and in his opinion, rightfully so.
Suguru should definitely be admired.
“And Ieiri-san?” Itadori asks, rubbing his hands together as if he already knows he’s winning this bet and Satoru doesn’t feel bad about telling him otherwise.
“Has been tragically pining after a teacher of our dear sister school, so chances are slim it’s her.”
“Wait,” Megumi finally speaks up and Satoru is already dreading what’s going to come out of his mouth. “So you want to tell us you don’t actually know who Geto-sensei is married to?”
Itadori’s mouth falls open at that while Kugisaki points an accusing finger at Satoru.
“Have you been lying to us?” she demands to know and Satoru raises his hands in defense.
“I have not,” he tells her. “You simply bet on the wrong people, that’s all.”
“Then tell us who he’s married to or otherwise we have to believe Fushiguro got it right after all,” Itadori whines out and Satoru doesn’t think it would be wise to cry out that he wishes Fushiguro’s bet is correct after all.
“If Suguru didn’t tell you then I won’t, either,” Satoru says, expertly avoiding a real answer and when Megumi smirks Satoru knows that he knows.
Well, at least he’s bound to stay quiet about it.
“You’re being so mean, sensei,” Itadori cries out but now that this is somewhat settled Satoru really needs to get away from his students.
And it’s definitely not to wallow in his misery alone, thank you very much.
“If that’s all, I have other places to be,” Satoru tells them flippantly, waving them off as he marches past them and he hopes Megumi knows he’s glaring at him when he whispers a quiet “I bet”.
But what Megumi knows and doesn’t know can be a problem for another day, because right now Satoru needs to drive himself insane over the fact that apparently Suguru is married to someone, or at least invested in them enough to wear a ring around his neck.
A ring!
Fuck, just the thought makes Satoru’s eyes burn and he’s glad he’s wearing his blindfold today in case he runs into someone before he makes it to the safety of Suguru’s room.
It should be very telling that Satoru didn’t even think of going to his own room, but that is something Satoru tries not to think too much about. It might not matter anymore anyway, if Suguru really is married to someone.
Once he’s inside Suguru’s room, Satoru falters.
He feels out of place, suddenly feels as if he’s intruding on something personal and Satoru never felt like that when he was inside Suguru’s room. Their rooms were never really Suguru’s or Satoru’s but always theirs; small things of both of them have made it into the other, enough so that Satoru feels just at home in Suguru’s room as he does his own and he is certain that the same is true for Suguru.
Well, Satoru used to be certain of that.
Now he doesn’t really know anymore.
Satoru looks around the room, tries to spot any hints of another person in Suguru’s room, but he only stumbles over things that belong to him. It makes something bittersweet twist in Satoru’s chest and suddenly he can’t stand to be in Suguru’s room a second longer.
He can’t believe that their lives are so intertwined, that they are so comfortable with each other and yet Suguru never told him about his spouse.
Fuck, Satoru doesn’t even want to think about this, but of course he can’t simply turn off his thoughts; ‘Suguru is married and didn’t tell me’ is running around Satoru’s head on loop and even after an hour it doesn’t get any easier to stomach that thought.
Suguru is married and he never told Satoru.
Satoru isn’t even sure what hurts more; the fact that Suguru married someone who isn’t Satoru or that Suguru clearly thinks that Satoru doesn’t need to know. Or deserves to know? Shouldn’t know?
He always expected to be rejected by Suguru, that’s why he never said anything about his stupid, useless feelings to begin with, so he expected that kind of pain, but to learn now that Suguru doesn’t even trust him enough to tell him something so personal hurts more than anything else.
Satoru loses himself in his thoughts, speculations on who it might be who snatched Suguru up running wild, but Satoru comes up empty.
The only one he can think of is Yuki Tsukumo and fuck, that would make sense, right? Suguru left with her for two painful years—claiming that he needed a break, that he needed to figure out what he wants to do with his life, and he had come back stronger and more self-assured than ever before—and that is the only stretch of time where Satoru wasn’t plastered to his side.
Did Suguru get married to Yuki? Satoru supposes he can kind of see it; she is a very beautiful woman and she’s strong, too. Is that something Suguru would go for?
It annoys him to no end that he doesn’t know what Suguru’s type is and he startles when he realises that they never talked about things like that. Satoru easily says when he finds people hot or admires them because it doesn’t mean anything anyway, but Suguru never mentioned anything in that direction.
Was he keeping secrets from Satoru all along?
Satoru flops down on his bed at that thought and he doesn’t like how much this all hurts him, how much this upsets his entire world view.
And all because of a stupid ring, which Satoru didn’t even see with his own eyes.
“There you are,” Suguru suddenly says from the door and Satoru jerkily sits up.
How much time has passed, he wonders but a look outside tells him that it’s already dark out. Suguru has been back for a while then, most likely.
“Welcome back,” Satoru greets him and quickly checks Suguru over for injuries. “Everything went well?” Satoru asks even though he can’t spot any injuries on him.
“Of course,” Suguru replies and steps into the room, closing the door behind him. “What’s going on, Satoru?” he asks, levelling Satoru with an expectant look.
“Huh? What is supposed to be going on?” he gives right back because they’ve barely seen each other for five minutes, why would Suguru think that something is going on?
“You weren’t waiting for me when I came back, you weren’t hogging space in my room and even now you’re being all—distant,” Suguru explains, waving a hand at the entirety of Satoru.
“How am I distant, I’m just sitting here!”
“Exactly,” Suguru says as if that makes any sense. “Usually you would be all over me by now. So I’m asking again, what is going on?”
Something in Satoru’s chest twists at that, hearing just how well Suguru knows him and it makes anger rise up in Satoru, too. How dare he know him that well and still keep secrets from him?
“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” Satoru bites back and it only serves to make Suguru frown.
“I just came back from a mission, why the hell would anything be going on with me?”
“Have you even been on a mission?” Satoru scathingly asks because who knows, maybe he just uses them as excuses to meet his spouse.
“Huh? Where else would I have been?”
“Yeah, I wonder,” Satoru mutters and Suguru sighs.
“Okay, something really is going on. Satoru,” he softly says and steps close so he can sit next to Satoru on the bed. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” Satoru huffs out but it’s more than obvious that Suguru doesn’t believe a single word he says.
They sit in silence for a long moment, and never before has a silence he shared with Suguru been uncomfortable but this is edging close to it. Satoru hates it with a passion.
“Stay with me,” he finally whispers out, because for all that he’s hurt by Suguru’s secrets at the moment, his biggest fear is that Suguru is going to leave him to be with his spouse.
“Where would I go?” Suguru wants to know and Satoru lets out a long breath.
“I don’t know—away. From me. To spend more time with your—” he cuts himself off there, unable to say it out loud and it apparently only serves to confuse Suguru even more.
“With my—? Satoru, honestly, what the hell is going on with you today?”
“I don’t know,” Satoru hotly says, “why don’t you tell me? You’re the one keeping secrets from me!”
“Secrets? Satoru, I’m not keeping any secrets from you,” Suguru gives back and Satoru hates that he is tuned in enough to Suguru’s feelings to know that he’s hurt by the accusation.
“Aren’t you though?” Satoru whispers out and taps his chest, where he guesses Suguru’s ring is resting. “I know you’re married.”
“Married? What the hell, Satoru, I’m not married!” Suguru exclaims and he seems honestly shocked by the accusation.
It only serves to hurt Satoru more, though, because this clearly is a huge, fat, boldfaced lie.
“Great, so you’d rather continue to lie to me than actually be honest with me. Real nice of you, Suguru,” Satoru spits out and gets up because he cannot bear to sit next to Suguru for a moment longer, not when he still keeps secrets from him.
“I am not lying!” Suguru hotly says before he takes a deep breath. “Why do you think I’m married?” he then asks, much more calmly and it only serves to upset Satoru further, so he starts pacing the length of his room.
“The kids saw your ring, Suguru,” Satoru reminds him and he watches Suguru’s face like a hawk, so he sees the confusion melt away into embarrassment.
“Ah,” Suguru breathes out and his hand reaches up to his chest, as if he’s about to pull the ring right out and Satoru tears his eyes away.
He never wants to see that offending piece of jewellery.
“It’s not like that, Satoru,” Suguru softly says and Satoru huffs in disbelief.
“Right. Sure, keep your secrets I guess,” he bitterly mutters as he makes his way to the door. “Later, Suguru.”
Satoru doesn’t even manage to open the door before Suguru is right there, keeping the door closed with a hand while the other is tangled in Satoru’s uniform, keeping him rooted to the spot.
“Let me explain,” Suguru says, his voice barely above a whisper and when Satoru dares to look at Suguru he sees a light blush dusting his cheeks.
It does nothing to settle his nerves and the pit in his stomach that has been there ever since the students came to him only grows.
“Explain then,” Satoru harshly says, crossing his arms in front of his chest and putting a little bit of distance between them.
He wonders why Suguru always allowed him so much physical contact if he’s married to someone but he’s going to find out now, apparently.
Satoru just hopes it’s not someone he has to see every goddamn day, because he’s not sure he could do that.
“It’s not a wedding ring,” Suguru starts with and then takes a necklace out from under his shirt.
There’s a ring dangling on it, but completely contrary to Satoru’s expectations, it’s not a metal ring, something beautiful and expensive like Suguru deserves, but a cheap plastic ring, and one that has definitely seen better days on top of that.
“What the hell is that?” Satoru blurts out before he can think better of it, his eyes still glued to the ring and he’s unable to tear his eyes away.
He recognises that ring, he faintly thinks and then blanches when it hits him.
Suguru is not looking at him, so he doesn’t seem to notice Satoru’s turmoil, because his gaze is fixed on the ring and he seems so fond of it that Satoru’s stomach flips with it.
“I knew you wouldn’t remember,” Suguru mutters, and now Satoru can’t hold back anymore, he lets out a disbelieving laugh.
“I gave you that ring,” he gets out and Suguru’s head snaps up.
“You remember?” he breathlessly asks. “It was just some cheap gift in a candy bag.”
It’s true; it was one of these advertisement thingies that makes you want to buy the candy even more—not that Satoru ever needed any kind of incentive for that—and he still remembers giving this bag to Suguru clearly.
Mostly because he had given it to him because of the ring, just to pretend for even a moment. It’s also the reason why Satoru has the exact same ring in his wallet.
“It wasn’t,” Satoru whispers out and digs around for his wallet, much to Suguru’s apparent confusion. “It meant much more to me,” he admits when he finally found his wallet, taking the very same ring out of it with shaky fingers.
If Suguru kept it for all these years, wears it around his neck and close to his heart, then surely it must mean something, right?
“You—have one, too?” Suguru shakily asks and he reaches out for Satoru’s ring with trembling fingers as if it’s all just a trick of the eyes.
“Of course I have one, too,” Satoru says. “I knew you weren’t ever going to wear it, that you would never feel the same but like this, I could at least—I don’t know, pretend for a little while,” he admits and saying it out loud now, that Suguru doesn’t feel the same, doesn’t hurt anymore because the ring gives him hope.
It has to mean something.
“Satoru,” Suguru breathes out and Satoru drags his eyes back to Suguru’s face only to find that Suguru is already looking at him. “I’ve been in love with you since our first year.”
It takes Satoru’s breath away, to hear it like that and to have Suguru’s gaze on him but Satoru doesn’t let that distract him.
There are more important things to do.
He steps forward, right into Suguru’s space who doesn’t back away and so it’s easy to press their lips together.
“Same,” Satoru mutters, with barely enough space between them to even get the words out but the thought of being further away from Suguru right now seems unbearable.
His admission makes Suguru laugh.
“So you want to say we wasted over ten years?” he asks, his lips brushing Satoru’s again.
“Did we waste them, though?” Satoru wants to know because they share so much already; Satoru’s life without Suguru in it is unfathomable and they are so comfortable with each other that they piss of their friends regularly. “We still spent them together, didn’t we?”
“We did,” Suguru gives back, a smile making his eyes crinkle in that way Satoru loves so very dearly and he kisses the corner of his eye.
“Do you want a real ring now?” Satoru then asks and revels in the way he can feel Suguru’s chuckle almost more than he hears it.
“And now we’re skipping steps?”
“The kids are betting on who you are married to. No one bet on me. I’m upset,” Satoru pouts out and Suguru pulls him into a soft kiss again.
“Clearly,” he agrees. “I didn’t know you to be so jealous.”
There’s a question in there, Satoru can tell, and he sighs.
“Mostly I was upset that you were keeping secrets from me. That was almost worse than knowing you belong to someone else.”
“I would never keep secrets from you and who else would I even belong to? You’re all I’ve seen for the past decade,” Suguru admits and it almost makes Satoru swoon on his feet.
“Please say you’re going to marry me,” he begs Suguru, nuzzling his cheek and he can feel how Suguru smiles.
“If you have a ring for me, I can be convinced,” he gives back and it feels as if Satoru’s heart is going to beat out of his chest with how happy he is.
“Are you free right now?” Satoru eagerly asks and then pouts at Suguru when he shakes his head.
“I just came home from a mission, I’m beat and I have a fiancé to cuddle. We’ll have to take a rain check on that.”
Satoru’s entire being tingles when Suguru calls him his fiancé and he guesses he’ll forgive Suguru this once for telling him no.
“Oh, what a hardship,” Satoru gives back. “It’s a date for tomorrow, though.”
“I’m free right after breakfast,” Suguru agrees and tugs Satoru over to the bed. “Now come here.”
Suguru stretches himself out on Satoru’s bed as if he belongs there—and he is so right with that—and then makes grabby hands at Satoru who happily climbs on top of him. They fit easily together, having spent countless nights plastered to each other like this, and Satoru instantly relaxes when Suguru’s arms come up around him.
“I’m glad you’re not married,” Satoru mutters after a few moments and Suguru kisses his forehead.
“I’m about to be, though,” Suguru reminds him and Satoru wriggles around with his happiness.
“And I am overjoyed about it,” Satoru happily says and lightly trails the tips of his fingers over the place where a ring would soon sit. “You’ll make a good husband.”
“I should hope so,” Suguru mumbles. “I have to match my perfect husband, after all.”
It makes Satoru laugh, because he might be cocky and so very self-assured but he’s definitely not perfect at all, but he’s not about to argue with Suguru right now.
Right now, he will enjoy one day of cuddling his fiancé before he makes an honest man out of him and then he’ll gloat to the kids. That’s definitely an important part of his future, too.