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A consequence of letting her Infinity down around a sick Megumi was Satoru herself getting sick.
Which wouldn't have been an issue... if the Clan Elders hadn't forced her to use Infinity to fight off germs since she was a kid. They couldn't have their Strongest weak in any way. Her immune system was fucked, as Shoko put it. So what should have been a light cold if anything was a full-blown fever that left Satoru incapacitated.
Everything was fuzzy. Her Six Eyes were so unusually quiet, which was such a change from the constant flow of visual information. Satoru's everywhere hurt: from her throat to her head to her flesh. She was somehow freezing and burning at the same time, and the room around her was in perpetual motion which made her want to puke her guts out.
Toji nearly killing her was nothing in comparison.
Shoko had promptly taken Tsumiki and Megumi (who was a lot better) out of the apartment, before tending to her. She said that Satoru should make a full recovery, but that she needed rest and vitamins.
So here she was alone and on the brink of death. And so was the story of Satoru Gojo, the Strongest Sorcerer Alive, who met her fate by the common cold.
The door opened, at least she thought it did. She couldn't tell. She could barely open her main eyes, and her Six Eyes were only doing marginally better. The world was... almost silent for once. She wasn't used to that.
"Satoru?"
That voice. So deep, so smooth. It settled something inside her, something she didn't even realize had been restless. "Suguru," she realized right away. Because of course.
Warm fingers glided across her forehead. Infinity was down, not that it would have stopped him anyway. Suguru had never been a threat to her. "Hot," he realized.
Somehow, Satoru managed to smirk. "Tell me something I don't know, babe."
Suguru sighed, his warm breath gently hitting her cheek. "Shoko said you were in bad shape," he recalled. But I didn't think it was this bad..." He pinched her ear. "What were you thinking? Shoko told you this could happen years ago."
Satoru pouted; she knew that, dammit. "Don't be mean!" she whined. "I'm sick."
He sighed again, something he did around her often. "Have you eaten yet?"
She shrugged. "There's leftover soup from when Meg was sick," she told him. But truthfully, Satoru didn't think she could eat. Her stomach was in knots and if she tried to eat something, she might hack it up.
Suguru nodded. "Stay put," he directed her, pulling back from her forehead. She hadn't even noticed how comforting the small pressure had been before it was gone.
He was always trying to leave her... why couldn't he just stay where he was? With her?
Suguru returned and she heard the sound of a bowl being set on the table. "Come on, Toru," he urged her, calloused hands taking hers as he tugged her upright. "You have to eat."
The whole world seemed to spin on its axis. "No," she whined.
"Stubborn brat," Suguru grunted. "Just try, okay? You don't have to eat it all."
"F-Fine, but only if you feed me," said Satoru, managing to curve her lips into a smirk.
He rolled his eyes, but took the spoon and held it to her lips. "Now eat," he pushed.
Satoru opened her mouth, taking the spoon into her mouth. The warm liquid eased down her throat, temporarily soothing her burning throat. The taste of ginger was strong; usually, it would make her gag.
Right now, it just made her miss Megumi and Tsumiki more.
Gentle fingers carded through her hair. "I got Yaga to let you off for the next week," he tenderly told her. "And Shoko and Utahime are watching your kids. So just focus on getting better, yeah?"
Satoru groaned; great, she was gonna owe stupid Utahime big time. She had, reluctantly, introduced Magumi and Tsumiki to her a while ago and even she had to admit that the woman was good with kids. Better than her, at any rate. No, she wasn't jealous. "Together?" she asked.
She wasn't an idiot (though her classmates would disagree), she knew how hopeless Utahime was when it came to Shoko. The stick-in-the-mud was super obvious about it. Always fawning over and complimenting the med student.
Satoru was... pretty sure that Shoko felt the same way. It wasn't super obvious- nothing Shoko did ever was- but there was a fondness in her tone and a light in her eyes whenever Utahime was around.
What she saw in that woman, Satoru didn't know. But she supposed her best friend could have chosen a worse option. She would never tell Utahime that, though.
She was about to reply when a strenuous- and frankly disgusting- hack left her chest. It quickly turned into a coughing fit that she couldn't stop. Mucus tried to force its way up her throat, it was gross.
"You should spit that out," advised Suguru, almost clinically. He was spending too much time with Shoko.
Satoru shook her head, swallowing it; Satoru Gojo did not spit out mucus, thank you very much. That was nasty.
"Brat."
"Jerk." Her voice was raspy and almost unrecognizable to her own ears. But she still stuck out her tongue for good measure.
Suguru affectionately rolled his eyes and pressed a cool wet cloth to her burning forehead. "This should help bring your fever down," he told her. "Shoko said you should make a full recovery, and that you should let Infinity down for germs more often."
Satoru didn't say anything.
How could she? That went against everything she had ever been taught. She remembered pushing herself as a child, powering through keeping Infinity up. Back then, she couldn't synthesize it to one aspect, so she'd had to keep it up for hours on end whenever she stepped out of the Gojo compound. She was not to let anyone touch her once she was on the outside.
A rule she had broken when she met Suguru and Shoko in first year. To the point where her body resisted activating Infinity whenever they were near her.
Suguru's fingers traveled down from her forehead to her cheek, his touch featherlight. His hands were calloused- which she constantly made fun of him for- but every time he made contact with her, he was so gentle. Like she was precious to him.
She didn't mind the roughness of his palms.
"Suguru?" she rasped. "Have you been sleeping?" The heavy bags under his eyes had gotten marginally better, but they still lingered. She really hoped he was taking care of himself. She knew that he was giving his all for the girls- just as she was doing for Megumi and Tsumiki- but he needed to make sure he was okay.
She needed him to be okay.
"Hm," he answered, noncommittally. "Most nights. Shoko's got me on a sleep schedule, I try to follow it as closely as I can."
Satoru grinned. "Where would we be without that Shoko?" she jested, but she was actually very serious. They would have to do something nice for her.
"Dead," answered Suguru, vocalizing what she wouldn't as always.
"So morbid!" she teased, hacking again. It was so gross! "But not wrong." She leaned up, despite her head pounding in protest, squinting closely at her friend. "...Are you okay? Seriously?"
Suguru hesitated at how serious she suddenly got, but nodded. "I am," he assured her, voice smooth and convincing. "I won't lie, I was in a really dark place. If you hadn't came that night..." He didn't say it, but she knew what he meant. "It's hard. But Shoko helps. The girls help. You help. I..."
Satoru, as carefully as she could sitting at what felt like death's door, carefully traced over his cheekbones.
Suguru smiled warmly- a smile she hadn't seen since before Toji- and held enveloped her hand in his larger one, pressing it close to his face. She just realized it wasn't as gaunt as it had been just a few weeks ago. "I should have opened up sooner," he told her.
"No shit," coughed Satoru. Genocidal tendencies shouldn't be something to let fester. Was that not obvious?
He rolled his eyes at her, still smiling. "I mean it," he emphasized, nudging her back into laying on the couch. "Thinking about everything now with a clearer head... I think I was wrong. I don't think eliminating non-sorcerers will solve anything."
Satoru sniffed, only barely making sense of his words. Her brain was too fuzzy to process this conversation.
Suguru chuckled. "We'll talk when you're feeling better," he decided. "Rest for now, okay?"
He didn't have to tell her twice. Satoru closed her eyes, welcoming the temporary relief the darkness granted her. Her conscious had only just started slipping when she felt something warm brush against her forehead.
"Good night, Satoru."