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“Care to have a drink with me, lonely man?”
Two of the things that stranger just said to Sukuna were true: he did want to have a drink and he sat all by himself. The problem was, Sukuna had the skill to amend those things on his own so he didn’t care to have a drink with someone else. He chose to be alone and drinkless which this man – for all the suaveness he pretended to have – should’ve seen.
And yet he still talked to him.
At least the guy had guts because Sukuna knew he wasn’t the most approachable person – a look he cultivated over the years helped by the resting bitch face gene from his father’s side of the family. Add how he was in a bad mood and even the waiters thought thrice before asking him what he wanted. They did reluctantly ask a few times but close to an hour now his last drink was sitting empty in front of him.
“Do I?” Sukuna asked sarcastically, meanly, arrogantly; just to show how much danger one would be in by bothering him. The guy – hair long, perfectly styled, expensive clothes and shoes, older – just sported a grin to accept the challenge and elegantly sat down opposite of him. They were in a booth at the back of the bar, two walls and one partition separating them from the rest of the world.
The fashionable older man with one streak of white hair perfectly woven into his hairstyle, sat with as much distance to Sukuna as he could, which wasn’t much and didn’t distract from the fact his presence was unwelcome.
“You might not but I’ll still order one for you… if I may,” the older man said already calling a waiter over to them because he neither waited for an answer nor did he actually ask Sukuna for permission. That bastard… he intentionally paused after the first part of his sentence to see how Sukuna would react. When that reaction was stoic silence he added his actual question just when Sukuna locked his jaw to seem imposing. Seeing as Sukuna was unable to immediately say he “may not”, the guy forcefully took that as acceptance.
What a master manipulator. Too bad for him that Sukuna was one as well.
The problem was he wasn’t in the mood for games and manipulation and counter-manipulation or hooking up with a man. He wasn’t in the mood for pretty much anything right now not even alcohol. Truth was, Sukuna was here to sulk; sulk immensely after the dinner he just had with his family; the dinner where his own brother stabbed him in the back with his father not intervening in the slightest.
But why was he sulking in a gay bar of all places? Well… his sulking was about a man (hopefully one that dated other men), so here he was, swimming in even more misery caused by one Fushiguro Megumi who petulantly denied him contact with his new friend. His hot and older friend whose arrogance was so high Sukuna just wanted to rip it out of his mouth and shove it back into him from behind preferably while his hands were around that man’s throat.
“Any particular drink you want? My name is Kenjaku by the way.”
“You should better fuck off and find someone easier to influence.”
“Hmm. I guess I know what you want.”
To the surprise of no one, Kenjaku understood what Sukuna wanted not as “seclusion” but as the same drink he already had. How the guy managed to conclude what that was even though the glass in front of Sukuna was pretty generic, he didn’t care to know. But he liked to imagine Kenjaku sniffing his glass like a dog.
“I think you can create a completely new drink with the sourness coming out of every corner of your face,” Kenjaku said next, all smiles after the waiter got their (his) order. As far as pickup lines went, the guy knew how to transform his for the particular individual he wanted to seduce. As of now, that and the coming free drink were the only plus points he would get from Sukuna tonight. For everything else, he was just wasting his time.
“I think I saw a whore walk by just now. Your league if you ask me.”
The smile on Kenjaku’s face grew until the tiniest bit of teeth showed before he answered Sukuna.
“Funny then; I think I found my league right here.”
“Hh.”
That was a mix of a growl spliced with half a chuckle for the insult because it was actually funny how Kenjaku delivered it. But not even the most amusing conversation with an intelligent and manipulative bastard would be able to lift his mood today…
…because a few days ago Sukuna had the best verbal battle of his life (excluding family) with a man who wasn’t his type but forcefully made himself one anyway. Wit, arrogance, a body so honed for violence with which he was threatened constantly; perfect. Just perfect how Sukuna went from wanting to kill the man to wanting to kill him while also fucking him, all in a half an hour long conversation (debate, fight, murderous banter) in and outside of a food store. That had never happened to him before and Sukuna was someone who already wanted to kill half the people he met. Like now.
(He didn’t of course; he wasn’t that much of a psychopath. Yet.)
Kenjaku’s wit and arrogance paled in comparison to his – to Gojō’s – his sophisticated demeanour a far cry from Gojō’s childish antics that drove a spear of supreme annoyance through Sukuna’s chest which magically turned into twisted fondness. Maybe if he had met Kenjaku last week Sukuna would’ve entertained the man for a bit and then decided if he was worthy to keep around or not.
But right now all his thoughts and his energy were concentrated on one man only.
A man his teenage brother refused to reveal his whole name, where he worked or from where they even knew each other. The probability was high that if Sukuna hadn’t decided on a whim to accompany Megumi during a shopping trip – where the cheerful voice from a man who acted too much like a child in his free time accosted them from the side – he would’ve never met that white-haired aggravation who threw subtle and open insults at everyone he talked to.
Kenjaku just couldn’t compare.
“Not to be too nosy but I just can’t help but feel intrigued why you look and act like someone stole your candy right out of your hand.”
Kenjaku was playing around with his words, trying to find an angle that would get a good rise out of Sukuna. Sucks to be him though, the mention of candy didn’t evoke something like anger inside of him; it merely reminded him of Gojō again. Why couldn’t his brother just give him his number? It wasn’t like he didn’t have a good relationship with Megumi!
The boy was Sukuna’s baby brother (nearly 17 to his just 21), they had each other’s backs (theoretically as of late; they didn’t encounter many problems in their day-to-day life anymore where they had to go out of their way to help each other) and until now they never had any major arguments or at least not ones they couldn’t resolve in the same day. (Sukuna did like to torment Megumi’s friends though, especially that Itadori boy.)
Fushiguro Tōji was not a man who was in danger of getting a World’s Best Dad mug in his lifetime, but for all his shortcomings (of which there were many) one of the things he did manage to accomplish as a father was having his sons be close with each other; be there for each other; even have a loving relationship with physical contact with each other while none of the Fushiguros generally liked that kind of thing. During his worst times as a father and a human being about to give up on his life, Tōji always found the strength to hammer brotherly compassion into Sukuna and Megumi, even if that meant teaching his sons to go against himself.
That included pulling his adult pants on and mediating between the brothers so they would never have devastating arguments which threatened to ruin their unity.
So how come that during today’s dinner, when Sukuna wanted to know more about Gojō, when Megumi aggressively shut his questions down repeatedly, until they ended up in a shouting match, his father refused to mediate between them?!
“I’m really sorry if I hit a sensitive nerve just now. I hope you can forgive me.”
“Huh?” Wow, Kenjaku was still here. Sukuna straight-up forgot his existence for a minute while boiling in suppressed rage. “It seems to me that you have two functioning eyes in your head, so why don’t you find someone else to bother on this fine evening?”
“My two functioning eyes simply found the most interesting person this evening. I’m sorry if that insults you.”
Any other time, Sukuna might’ve responded with actual intrigue at that man; a curiosity to see if he could fill his time with worthwhile conversation. But that time was not tonight…
…because when Sukuna had looked at Tōji for backup as Megumi was childishly unreasonable about Gojō, his father – his own flesh and blood who until this point had always taken great care to have his sons talk respectfully and genuinely with each other – took one look at Sukuna, shrugged his shoulders and went back to reading his self-help book (Das Kapital) making it abundantly clear he did not give a fuck about this particular argument between his sons.
Which then spiralled out of control really fast and now Sukuna was sitting here in a gay bar sulking while a man his father's age was trying to seduce him.
At least Gojō was only a few years older than Sukuna but why did his father abandon him? And why was Megumi so adamant about keeping Gojō away from Sukuna? Could it be… because he wanted Gojō to himself? His (definitely ten years older) friend who wasn’t supposed to meet his older brother because… Sukuna would take that man’s attention away from Megumi? Was that it? Teenage jealousy? A baby crush? That his father saw and still decided to do nothing about?
Well…
Sukuna might’ve brought his father’s indifference about this topic on himself because he did sabotage the man’s relationships while they grew up… all of them. Every time Tōji came back with a woman (or the rare man) toddler Sukuna, child Sukuna and even teenage Sukuna was there to scare her away and every tool and method to accomplish that was allowed in his mind. Long and concerning childhood behaviour story short, Sukuna didn’t want Tōji to have a relationship with someone because that meant that person would take his father’s attention away from him and Megumi.
So maybe Sukuna had been a jealous brat and now Megumi was the same which would be the cosmic comeuppance he deserved. Something his father saw a mile away but was too Marx to comment on outside of a pair of narrowed eyes before ignoring his fighting sons.
“Fuck him,” Sukuna said out loud but he didn’t know if he meant Megumi, Tōji or himself.
“It’s so interesting to try and find out what has you oh so bothered in this specific establishment. Fascinating.”
And Kenjaku was still here.
“Did they throw you out of the human zoo so now you have to find new entertainment for yourself?”
“The best entertainment is always out in the wild.”
Perfectly timed with his words, Kenjaku grabbed his glass to drink his fancy alcohol, socially engineering Sukuna to do the same with his own.
And Sukuna was so distracted and boiling internally that he did.
Fuck! he thought after the alcohol hit his tongue. He was being seduced by a guy double his age. Either he put a stop to it now and left or this night would take on dimensions he couldn’t anticipate. The problem was that Sukuna didn’t want to leave; he wanted to sit on his ass and sulk until Megumi grew up and gave him Gojō’s address or number. But seeing as Sukuna’s relationship sabotage only ended because his father stopped having relationships and not because Sukuna grew up, that hope should be shelved into the fantasy realm.
“Fuck off.”
Sukuna wasn’t capable anymore of coming up with a better comeback, so he pulled his phone out to contact Uraume. At least someone with a functioning brain should be here tonight with him before Kenjaku completed his mission to bother him into seduction but who knew? Maybe Sukuna would be able to learn some tricks from the guy who seemed to have decades of experience in doing that to the most unapproachable people on earth.
But before Sukuna was able to hit send, he saw something past the sly grin on Kenjaku’s face. At the other end of the bar, a white head just came through the doors with aplomb; a white head with a youthful face on a tall and muscular body.
Gojō.
Sukuna’s sulking in the last hours was so intense that it felt like his world stood upside down now that the object of his infatuation was suddenly in the same space as him. Kenjaku was forgotten once more while Sukuna stared at Gojō casually walking over to the bar and sitting down but that man did more than that, too. He looked around. He looked around in search of something… or someone.
That person could be anyone but Sukuna would cut his own arm off if he didn’t force himself to be that person this second.
“Don’t tell me there is something more interesting behind me.”
Of course, this evening just couldn’t proceed without Kenjaku forcing himself into Sukuna’s awareness again but the older man’s luck had finally run dry and Sukuna couldn’t wait to forget him one last time. Unfortunately, and Kenjaku’s twinkling eyes and upturned lips attested to that, Sukuna wouldn’t be able to get rid of the older man so easily. With how the last ten minutes of his life had gone, he knew that two seconds after he started talking with Gojō, that menace would slide into the seat next to him.
But Sukuna was desperate at this point; he couldn’t let this opportunity with Gojō pass him by, so with a half-angry and half-pacifying look he took out a pen from his jacket and wrote something down on the napkin that came with his new drink.
“An address and a time. How intriguing, lonely man, but I’d rather spend time with you now.”
“At that gym, at that time, you will find someone else to bother into your bed. Your bourgeoisie-looking ass will have the time of its life there with him. Believe me.”
“Really?” Kenjaku didn’t look convinced but by now Sukuna feared that Gojō might leave so he stood up and levelled one last glare at the older man, hoping for his sake that his next words would convince him to leave him the fuck alone.
“Yes, and if you’re lucky, I might be forced to call you Dad in a few months, too.”
For the first time during this evening, Kenjaku looked thrown off his game but his widened eyes went back to normal pretty fast. Before he was able to give him another snarky remark, Sukuna pulled the plug on their conversation and erased that man’s face, voice and overall presence from his mind from one second to the next.
His newfound freedom couldn’t compare to the elation of meeting Gojō again though. The anger from the last hours washed right out of his system (for the time being; Megumi was still on his shit list) while he walked over to that white-haired and colossal pain in his side.
“Gojō. I wouldn’t have thought to see you in a place like this,” Sukuna said, his voice effortlessly carried by a smooth cadence over to his nemesis. Gojō turned around to face him with a cheeky grin and Sukuna knew all at once how that magnificent argument they had during their first meeting would become child’s play compared to the one they would’ve now.
“Sukuna, the moment I saw you I knew you would come to places like this to torment gay people at your leisure.”
The way Gojō nonchalantly talked about something that was a favourite pastime of Sukuna had his heart beating faster. This was what he was sure to have lost because of Megumi’s stubbornness. Thinking of which…
“I’m surprised you’re here at all. I was sure my brother would’ve faked my death to you so we would never meet again.”
“Hahaha!” Gojō’s laughter was loud and obnoxious but it shot through Sukuna’s body like fire, igniting places everywhere that were supposed to be opposites of each other. Like his libido and desire to inflict pain on someone. “If it were up to Megumi, we really would’ve never seen each other again!”
“So then how,” Sukuna took the stool beside Gojō, “did you find your way inside this particular bar in a city as big as Tokyo?”
“Well, well, well.” Gojō was all big and sly smiles. “Seeing as Megumi-chan refused to answer me the most basic questions about his big brother and seeing as I don’t know where you lot actually live, I took the bullet and just called Tōji an hour ago.”
“…you called my father?” Wow… what a coincidence that Sukuna just thought back to his destroyer of relationships past because those old feelings of wanting to prevent his father from having a romantic love interest resurfaced like a volcano. A weak volcano luckily, as Sukuna wasn’t an idiot child anymore but still… why the fuck did Gojō and Tōji know each other!
A thousand ways to destroy their relationship went through Sukuna’s mind in a second.
“Why the fuck do you know my father?”
“Huh?” Gojō was puzzled at Sukuna’s (angry?) question for a few seconds before he burst into laughter again. Another action of the white-haired guy that shot annoyance through Sukuna’s heart which travelled down to his dick. “Don’t tell me Megumi didn’t even mention to you that I’m his teacher! And that for two years now! Since High School started!”
“What?” That sounded outlandish. Surely in all that time, Megumi would’ve said something about… wait. “Don’t tell me you’re the overgrown otaku he constantly talks and complains about?”
“Ha! I know that’s me because Megumi-chan isn’t shy about calling me that to my face!”
Wow. Just wow.
Sukuna was already hating Gojō for two years. His knees got weak realizing that but luckily he was already sitting.
“Let me guess: you know my father from the few parent-teacher talks he managed to go to.”
“Exactly! And during the first I was sure he would try to throw me out of the window!”
Not only did that admission close the lid on Sukuna’s sabotage fantasies, the vivid image also reminded him of a few days ago when he wanted to throw Gojō out of a window. A glorious moment that would now be repeated in his head (or real life) for a long time despite Megumi’s efforts. Sukuna grinned at Gojō showing how amusing he found the thought of his defenestration…
…and Gojō grinned back at Sukuna knowing perfectly well what he was fantasizing about and promising to aggravate him more in the future so those fantasies could keep flowing.
“You know,” Gojō said after they got their non-alcoholic fruit drinks that Sukuna had no say in ordering. “Megumi is just the cutest when he’s jealous. My, he got so jealous because of Yūji after the boy transferred to his class because of how I treated that happy cutie-pie with all the love he deserved. Then he got jealous because his new best friend spent more time with me instead of with him.
“And the past few days he was so jealous I would take his big brother’s attention away from him that he forbade me from ever seeing you again!”
“…really?”
…maybe… Sukuna had Megumi’s intentions wrong this entire time and he actually wanted to keep Sukuna all to himself and not Gojo… or they were both right and Megumi was just an emotional wreck who couldn’t stomach the idea of people close to him being close with other people as well. Even if he knew and liked both of them. Thinking of this, Sukuna remembered now that Megumi had helped him ruin their father’s relationships.
“Yes! I have the feeling the Fushiguros can get quite jealous.”
“Hm.” Sukuna took his new drink and nearly gagged at how sweet it was. Only a flaming gay would order something like this and that made him want to throw that drink over Gojō’s white fluffy hair. “I heard my mother was like that as well. Megumi didn’t manage his objective to keep us separated though. Now we can finish our debate about the Japanese Self Defence Forces once and for all.”
“Yes! Finally! I brought my receipts with me to show you how wrong you are! And I can’t believe that Tōji of all people helped facilitate this meeting.”
And here Sukuna thought his father had abandoned him but Marx just worked in roundabout ways it seemed. Now he felt bad for siccing Kenjaku on him though. Half an hour later, the barkeeper threw them out for disrupting his business with their agitated debate that sometimes couldn’t be distinguished from an angry make-out session anymore.
Megumi was not amused when he saw them a few hours later sucking tongue while gripping each other's arms until they bruised.