Chapter Text
Suguru groaned as he rolled over, awoken by his ringing cell phone. Normally when it was this late he would ignore the call and go back to sleep, but he knew it was his partner Saturo calling, due to the custom ringtone he had set. He pushed himself up before reaching over to the bedside table and grabbing his phone to answer it.
“Satoru, it’s the middle of the night,” Suguru greeted, still half asleep.
“Suguru,” Satoru began, cutting Suguru off. “They wanted me to kill a kid!”
Suddenly Suguru was fully awake and sitting upright in bed, “what!?”
“Yeah! He's like 10.”
“What do you mean they wanted you to kill a kid?”
“The higher ups, they want this 10 year old kid to be executed.”
“What the hell?”
“Yeah I know,” Satoru’s anger seemed to subside as he continued speaking, “somehow this kid has a pretty nasty cursed spirit attached to him. I managed to convince the higher ups to let him live though.”
Suguru inwardly sighed a breath of relief, he was happy his partner didn’t have to kill this kid, he felt the blood of such innocence would stain more than just Satoru’s hands.
“That’s good at least.”
“The catch is,” Satoru began to explain, “that the kid has to live with us.”
Suguru expected to hear something like that. It wasn't the first time Satoru ended up just bringing home a kid. It had been about four years since Satoru brought home Toji Fushiguro’s kids, Megumi and Tsumiki Fushiguro. Satoru explained it was to keep the kids away from the Zen’in clan, which Suguru rightly understood. But Suguru sometimes wondered if there were other reasons for it. He knew that it was both his and Satoru’s fault why the kids' father disappeared from their lives rather suddenly.
“Could you get the spare room ready for him?” Satoru asked.
“Of course.”
“Cool, we'll be home shortly.”
“See you soon,” Suguru ended the conversation, hanging up the phone.
Once out of bed, Suguru let out a heavy sigh, running his fingers through his long hair. He made his way to the spare room across the hall. To the right of the spare was Tsumiki’s room, across from her room was Megumi’s room and then next to Megumi’s was Suguru’s and Satoru’s. The spare room was luckily mostly tidy, as it was currently used as a sort of storage place. For now Suguru stacked the few boxes into a corner, knowing tomorrow he and Satoru would find a better home for them. After that he pulled out an old fold out cot they kept in the closet, another thing he figured would be replaced in the morning. Satoru was rather free with his money when it came to the kids, often buying them expensive name brand clothes. Suguru found that rather charming about him. With the cot set up, he then covered it with some spare pillows and blankets, and once the room seemed cosy enough for now, he went down stairs to wait for Satoru and the kid he was bringing home.
Once downstairs, Suguru made his way into the kitchen turning on the electric kettle. Part of him knew it was too late to be drinking tea seeing as it was just past 1:30 but Suguru also wasn’t sure if he would be able to go back to sleep after all this.
He pulled a cup out of the cupboard, placed it on the counter by the kettle, and placed a bag of his favourite tea into it while waiting for the water to boil.
Suguru sat with just the sounds of water boiling and a clock ticking, allowing him to get lost in thought.
Suguru hated that he wasn’t fully surprised that the Jujustu higher-ups wanted a kid dead. He knew Satoru was right, that they wanted to get rid of anything they didn’t understand. He knew first handed that they saw people almost completely expendable. He remembered when he and Satoru were younger and they had to retrieve Riko Amanai, how they referred to her death as ‘erasing’ her, how in the end it didn’t matter that Toji had murdered her, there were other Star Plasma Vessels. How after her death when Satoru was reaching his full potential, Suguru felt utterly exploited by the higher-ups. How they had sent him on so many missions, how many cursed spirits he had to consume and the taste they left in his mouth. The death of Yu Haibara. How Suguru had hit his mental rock bottom, how close he was to leaving it all behind. Just as his thoughts were spiralling deeper and deeper, the click from the kettle broke Suguru from his thoughts. He took a deep breath further trying to ground himself.
Slowly he went through all the steps of making his tea focusing on each as he continued to ground himself, a type of mindfulness that he had learned a few years back when he was trying to deal with everything he had been through.
As he finished making the tea he heard a key in the door, meaning Satoru was home. Suguru grabbed his mug and made his way to the entrance of the kitchen to greet him.
“I’m back,” Saturo called softly as he was taking off his shoes.
“Welcome back,” Suguru responded.
Behind Satoru, doing his best to hide, was a young boy. Suguru rightfully assumed it was the kid Satoru had told him about on the phone. And Satoru wasn’t lying about the cursed spirit either, the cursed energy coming off the kid was strong and nasty, almost bringing the taste of the cursed spirits Suguru had consumed with it. He couldn’t help but feel bad for the kid though, to have something like that clinging to him; something traumatic had happened. He figured the poor child probably had no idea what was going on as well. The kid's dishevelled appearance seemed to back up the idea as well. The dark circles under the kid’s eyes made Suguru wonder when the last time the kid had slept.
Then Suguru realized he didn't know the kid's name yet.
Without even having to ask the question Satoru responded, “this is Yuta Okkotsu. And that,” Satoru gestured towards Suguru, “is Suguru Geto, he’s the other strong sorcerer I told you about.” Satoru explained the last part to Yuta as he knelt down, helping Yuta remove his shoes.
After being told that, some of the tension in Yuta’s body seemed to disappear.
Suguru smiled. Even after everything it was nice to know Satoru still saw them both as strong. Of course Saturo was stronger than anyone else could be. Suguru accepted this, and accepted in turn his own strength as a sorcerer paled in comparison to Satoru.
As Satoru entered the main living area of the house, Yuta followed close behind him, nervously glancing around the place as he did.
“His room is ready,” Suguru told Satoru. “We should get him some proper furniture in the morning.”
Satoru nodded, “that’s what I was thinking, we can all go together as a family.”
Family was a word Suguru liked, so it was a word Satoru used often. Sure their family was different then most, even more so considering Satoru and Suguru were still kids themselves when they started looking after Megumi and Tsumiki, but it’s what they were, a family.
“I think that’d be nice,” Suguru responded with a smile.
“But right now,” Satoru placed a hand on Yuta’s shoulder causing the boy to flinch slightly, “we need to get him to bed, it's super late.”
“Your room’s upstairs,” Suguru told Yuta, still smiling. He placed his cup of tea down onto the coffee table before he stepped past Satoru and up the stairs. Satoru and Yuta followed behind him.
Suguru opened the door to the once spare room, still just as bare as it was when he had set it up.
Yuta was gripping his own shirt tight, clearly very nervous as he quietly glanced around his new room.
“It's not much right now,” Suguru began. “Tomorrow we'll get you a new bed and anything else you need.”
Yuta’s eyes widened as if the kid had never been offered something kind like that before.
“He’s right, money won't be an issue,” Satoru explained with a huge grin on his face.
Again, Suguru thought of how Satoru loved to spoil Megumi and Tsumiki, how much Megumi hated all the fancy clothes but would still wear them, and how Tsumiki would always excitedly show off every new outfit Satoru would get her. That was something those kids could never get if Toji was still around.
“I’ll finish getting Yuta ready for bed,” Satoru told Suguru. “I'll meet you downstairs after.”
Suguru nodded and turned to face Yuta once more, “good night,” he told the boy in a soft tone before leaving the room.
As he walked down the hall he decided to check on the other kids, hoping the commotion of everything didn’t wake them up.
He checked on Tsumiki first. She was still fast asleep as Suguru expected. She was often the easiest of the kids to take care of. Quietly, he walked over to her bed, and softly pulled the blanket back over her shoulder.
After that he went across the hall to Megumi’s room. Luckily, Megumi was also still asleep. Sometimes he found the youngest kid to be a light sleeper. Suguru figured it was due to the fact that Megumi had the potential to be a sorcerer, and not just that, one who could be on par with Satoru. Suguru hated that that was Megumi’s future. But that was also the reason Satoru took the kids in. For now, he would do everything he could to give Megumi a normal childhood. As he did with Tsumiki, Suguru tucked Megumi back in, careful to not wake the boy up.
Once downstairs again, Suguru grabbed his cup of tea, which was still warm, and quietly waited for Satoru to return.
Satoru sat down beside Suguru on the couch and rested his head on his partner's shoulder, “he’s in bed but I can’t say that he’ll sleep.”
“That’s understandable, sorry you have to deal with that Satoru.”
“What do you mean?”
“That you have to deal with the bullshit of the higher ups. That they wanted you to kill a kid.”
Satoru shrugged “it is what it is, someone has to do it, and that someone is me.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Suguru replied.
“Yes, it does. I have the six eyes and am the strongest Jujutsu sorcerer, things would go to hell without me. Besides, I told you I would be the strongest for both of us.”
Suguru remained silent, staring down at the now cold tea. Part of him felt guilty. After what happened in 2006, Suguru found it hard to remain a jujutsu sorcerer, having his abilities, it should be an obligation for him to be one. He was ranked as special grade after all. He knew he had to leave that world behind to stay sane, but he knew it was selfish of him.
“Suguru,” Satoru's voice was soft. “I mean it. It’s fine, I can handle it. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”
“I’m not,” Suguru replied, looking down at Satoru, who was still resting on his shoulder.
“You are, I can tell it’s written all over your face.”
Suguru sighed, “you’ve really learned how to read me.”
“Of course, I almost lost you once, and I can’t lose you now,” Satoru's reply was marked by a genuine tone of voice.
At that, the conversation naturally died down. The only sound in the room being the soft ticking of a clock which showed that the time was 2:40, over an hour had passed. Suguru still didn’t feel ready to go back to sleep, and seeing as Satoru was still sitting on the couch by him he figured it was the same for his partner.
Suguru wondered what the next day would have in store for their family. He couldn’t imagine Megumi being happy that Satoru randomly brought home another kid, though Tsumiki probably wouldn't be as bothered. She seemed to be able to handle Satoru’s antics more than her brother could. It always brought a charm to the dynamic. He had no idea how Yuta would react. Yuta seemed like a scared and timid kid. would he be intimidated by Megumi? Suguru could see it happening even though Megumi was a year younger then Yuta. But that would be a problem for when the kids woke up, until then, it was peaceful.