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Suguru does not like Satoru Gojo.
Suguru doesn’t like Gojo for a lot of reasons. He talks too much, laughs too loud, and has no sense of personal space. Also, he’s just plain rude. For all he makes fun of Suguru for not knowing every single sorcerer term, Gojo’s way more crass than he is. Now, though, he thinks he’s figured out a brand new reason to dislike the white-haired boy.
He’s just plain stupid. And also maybe a psychopath. This is not a combination Suguru would especially like to be around, and yet here he is.
He’d had his concerns when Yaga had assigned them on a case together—his first joint mission since arriving at the school—but he’d at least had the mind to hide his misgivings behind a thin smile. On the other hand, Gojo had done little to hide his sneer at the news.
“As if I need some third-rate sorcerer to tag along,” he’d huffed loudly, and Suguru’s smile had twitched. He knew Gojo was powerful, sure, but he didn’t think it warranted this much of an ego. Still, he decided he was going to try to get through this mission with as little interaction with Gojo as possible, so he’d kept his mouth shut.
Unfortunately, it seemed like Gojo had decided to get through the mission with as much interaction with Suguru as possible, so the entire walk to the station was filled with chattering, the entire train ride was filled with chattering, and the entire walk from the station was filled with chattiering. All in all, it only ended up being about 15 minutes, but Suguru decided 15 minutes was about 15 minutes too long a time to spend with Gojo.
To say Suguru had been relieved to finally arrive at the location they had to exorcize was an understatement. Maybe now, Gojo would finally shut up, they could get this thing over with, and Suguru could pretend to sleep on the way back—not that he really thinks feigning sleep would do anything to stop Gojo’s chatter.
At least, that was his plan. It was a good plan, Suguru thinks, if not for the simple fact that he forgot to factor in the number of brain cells Satoru Gojo has. Because, Suguru is finally realizing as he stares at the rubble slowly trickling into the gaping hope in front of him, Satoru Gojo has exactly two brain cells, and both of them are dedicated to Digimon.
“Are you insane?”
Gojo turns around and blinks at Suguru. “What?”
“Are you fucking nuts?” Suguru blurts. Gojo’s eyes widen. It’s probably the first time he’s heard Suguru curse, but Suguru cannot find it in himself to care in the slightest. Gojo glances around, as if he’s actually confused by Suguru’s reaction.
“What?” he asks again more insistently.
“You just—are you serious?” Suguru can only splutter out. “You just blew up an entire building. Over a second-grade curse. Without putting up a barrier.”
Gojo scratches his ear. “I thought you’d do that.”
“You blew the place up the second we got here!”
Gojo sniffs. “Well.” He looks away. “This is an abandoned area, anyway. No one was hurt.”
Suguru is so appalled at Gojo’s half-assed excuse that for a moment, he’s at a loss for words.
“You seriously think people won’t notice the giant crater you just made?”
Gojo has the audacity to roll his eyes. “Whatever, it’s not that big a deal. We finished the mission, yeah? Let’s just go.”
He offers Suguru a hand. Suguru had been knocked flat on his ass from the blast of Gojo’s cursed technique, and he’d been too stunned at Gojo’s resulting callousness to stand up himself. He glares at the proffered hand, then at Gojo. He has half a mind to slap it away, but with a shake of his head, he grabs it and lets himself get pulled up. He’s mildly grateful Gojo doesn’t pull hard enough to send him careening into the hole in the ground, something Suguru wouldn’t put above him given he now knew his penchant for recklessness. Luckily, Suguru manages to balance on his own two feet.
They stand there for a moment, awkwardly hand-in-hand.
“Hey,” Gojo says after a pause. “You know, you can let go now.”
Suguru stares at their hands for one moment, then another.
“...I can’t.”
Suguru doesn’t look up, but he can feel Gojo blinking at him.
“Huh?”
“I can’t,” Suguru says again, sounding rather calm for someone who feels anything but. “I can’t let go.”
Gojo’s face pinches in a half-grimace, half-wince. “Awfully sweet of you, but I don’t—”
“No,” Suguru interrupts. “I mean, I physically can’t let go.”
Gojo finally looks down at their hands. Suguru’s fingers are splayed outwards, but his palm is still firmly against Gojo’s. Gojo does an experimental tug, and Suguru stumbles a few steps forward. Gojo repeats the motion, and this time, Suguru manages to keep his feet stable, at least. Gojo stares at their hands, then at Suguru, back to the hands, back to Suguru.
“What did you do?”
“What did I do?” Suguru blurts out. “Why are you assuming this is my fault?”
“Well, it’s not mine,” Gojo’s quick to say, moving to cross his arms but aborting the motion when Suguru’s arm comes with him. “Have you been eating too many curses or something?”
The question incenses Suguru enough to tug his hand towards him. He relishes a bit in the way Gojo stumbles forward, eyes wide.
“I haven’t done anything, but you just blew up a curse without taking the time to assess its capabilities. You think that might have something to do with this predicament?” Suguru asks wryly. Gojo’s lips purse.
“You talk like a nerd.”
“You talk like an idiot.”
They glare at each other for one, two, three seconds before they both turn away at the same time. Not that it really accomplishes much, because their hands are still very much glued together.
“...I think we should see Shoko,” Gojo mutters eventually, and Suguru sighs.
“...fine.”
They get a few strange looks on the train ride back—probably because they’re both scowling and cross-legged, faced away from each other, even as their hands rest together in the space between them. Their fingertips awkwardly hover over each other, refusing to touch, caused by the tension they both keep to avoid touching any more than they have to. It’s a bit uncomfortable, and Suguru’s pretty sure his fingers are going to start cramping any second, but he keeps his mouth shut, and blessedly, Gojo does the same. At the very least, Suguru’s wish for a quiet train ride was granted, but Suguru thinks that’s a pretty thin silver lining for the situation they’re in.
Shoko barely spares them a glance when they stumble into her room a few minutes later. She’s splayed out on her bed with a magazine in her hands, and her eyes only flicker up to them for a moment when they crash through her door before returning to her reading material.
“Congrats,” she says, flicking to the next page. “When’s the wedding?”
Gojo sputters out something unintelligible. Suguru is too appalled at the insinuation to do anything but gape at her, slack-jawed.
“No,” Suguru says vehemently when he finally remembers how to talk. “No. Shoko, we need help. We’ve been cursed.” He pauses. “Probably.”
Shoko raises an eyebrow, evidently unimpressed. With a sigh, though, she finally sits up and puts her magazine away. Suguru hasn’t interacted much with the other girl, but in the few instances they’ve worked together, Suguru’s gotten the sense that despite Shoko’s initial reluctance to put effort into something, she is fairly reliable when she wants to be. That, specifically, is what Suguru is counting on, now.
“Probably,” Shoko repeats dryly with a shake of her head, before beckoning them forward with a wave of her hand. “Fine, let me see.”
Suguru extends their hands forward. “They’re stuck,” he says bluntly.
Shoko’s lips twitch into something almost like a smile. “I can see that.” Her hand hovers over theirs for a few moments, and Suguru feels something warm wash over his skin. With a hum, Shoko pulls her hand back, and the warmth fades. “Yeah, that’s a curse.”
When she doesn’t offer anything further, Suguru’s eyebrows raise. “And?”
“And what?”
“How do we get rid of it?”
Shoko sighs. “It’s not… actually a curse. It’s just the remnants of one. So there’s nothing you can really do now except wait it out.”
This is, Suguru thinks, frankly terrible news. He hopes his despair doesn’t show so visibly on his face. “Wait it out,” he repeats slowly. “For how long?”
Shoko gives him a half shrug. “A day? Maybe more, maybe less.”
Suguru’s lips press together. A day—he could do that. He could probably do that. He glances at Gojo, who’s been staring at him for the entire exchange, before quickly glancing away.
A day. It shouldn’t be that bad. Just one day.
The entire room has been silent for more than a few moments now, and Suguru clears his throat. “Okay. Thanks, Shoko.”
Shoko gives them both a dismissive wave before picking her magazine back again. Suguru makes for the door, and a step behind, Gojo follows—not that he particularly has any choice in the matter. Once well out of Shoko’s room, Suguru comes to a stop and finally turns to fully face Gojo.
“Well?”
“Well?” Gojo returns, blinking at him. It’s the first word he’s said in a while, and Suguru feels a bit strange realizing he had noticed at all. “What’s the plan?”
“It’s still pretty early,” Suguru muses. He brings his free hand to rub at his forehead. “We could… get lunch, I guess?”
He expects a loud and huffy rejection to his proposal—not for any real reason other than to piss Suguru off—but to his surprise, Gojo simply raises his shoulders in a shrug. Suguru waits a few moments longer for the expected argument, but it never comes.
“Okay,” Suguru says after a pause. “Lunch.”
Lunch is a bit of an awkward affair for the obvious reason of having their hands glued together. Eventually, though, they manage to sit across from each other, two cup noodles in front of them. Suguru is in the unfortunate position of having his dominant hand stuck to Satoru’s, but luckily, he’s mildly ambidextrous and only struggles a little bit in situating his chopsticks in his hand. Even as he busies himself with his own food, he can’t stop himself from glancing at Gojo every so often. Gojo hasn’t made any move at all, instead simply staring sullenly at his chopsticks. Suguru opens his mouth to ask if something was wrong, then closes it. He’d better enjoy the silence while he could. If he was lucky, maybe the entire rest of the day would go like this.
As expected, it takes only a few more moments for that silence to be broken—albeit not in the way he expected.
“Why don’t you like me?”
Suguru’s chopsticks still. After a beat, he puts them down.
“Um,” he says, watching as Gojo nudges his chopsticks away from himself with his fingertips. “What?”
Gojo finally looks up. His eyebrows are furrowed. “What did I do to make you hate me so much?”
This is not really a conversation Suguru wants to have with Gojo ever, but especially not while he is physically incapable of fleeing the other person. So much for getting through this entire affair without confrontation. Suguru takes a moment to think before responding.
“I don’t… hate you.”
Gojo frowns. “You don’t like me.”
Suguru stays silent. Gojo’s frown deepens.
“Why?” he pushes, and Suguru sighs. He’d better be careful with his words.
“I don’t… not like you,” Suguru says eventually, glancing away from Gojo’s unblinking stare. “I’m just not… particularly interested in… getting to know you.”
“Why not?” Gojo asks again. This time, Suguru frowns.
“Do I need a reason?”
Gojo visibly sulks a little at the response. Suguru huffs out a quiet breath and tries again.
“I came here to study. To learn. I’m betting that’s why you’re here, too,” Suguru says carefully. “So I don’t really see the need to… do anything more than that.”
“You get along with Shoko fine,” Gojo mutters.
Shoko doesn’t talk my head off every time I see her, Suguru decides not to say. Instead, he evades answering with a question of his own.
“Why does it matter so much to you?”
Gojo’s eyes flicker away. He makes to cross his arms over each other, once again aborting the motion halfway through with the added resistance.
“Dunno,” Gojo mumbles. “Thought it’d be nice to have a friend.”
Well. Now Suguru feels a little bad. He clears his throat.
“You… also seem to get along with Shoko fine,” Suguru points out. Gojo shakes his head.
“She’s not…” Gojo trails off with a frustrated noise, before leaning back and running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, but she doesn’t—get me. You know?”
Suguru doesn’t really know, but he thinks he gets the gist of it. He stares at the table.
“You think I can?”
Gojo shrugs. “I dunno.” He pauses. “It’d be nice if you tried.” He sniffs. “Or whatever.”
Suguru’s lips almost twitch into a smile at the terrible attempt at nonchalance. He can feel Gojo inspecting him as he leans forward to pick up some noodles.
“I can… try,” Suguru offers, although he seriously doubts his impression of the other boy will change anytime soon. “At least for today.” When he looks up to see Gojo pouting, he relents a little more. “And… maybe later, too.”
Gojo brightens to a surprising extent, straightening in his chair and beaming at Suguru. “Yeah?”
Suguru has absolutely no clue what he’s gotten himself into. He very much hopes he will not regret this decision down the road.
But for now, he offers a weak smile. “Yeah.” He nods towards Gojo’s untouched noodles. “But eat something first.”
Gojo is only far too happy to oblige, and he proceeds to dig into his meal with fervent vigor. He finishes off the entire cup in record time and immediately launches into prattling about the latest anime he’s seen—Suguru is a bit overwhelmed at first, but he sticks to his word and actually tries listening to his rambling rather than tune him out like he’s done so many times before. To his mild surprise, he actually can follow Gojo's rapid-fire discussion, and although he’d intended to stay quiet through the entire thing, when he does blurt out an interrupting question, Gojo doesn’t rebuff him for it. In fact, Gojo only grows more animated, his hands—well, hand—moving around animatedly in an effort to answer Suguru’s question.
“Interesting,” Suguru eventually says after it seems like Gojo’s finished talking, and he’s surprised at himself that he actually means it. “And you said it just started airing?”
Gojo nods vigorously. “Yeah, the newest episode comes out…” He trails off in thought. “Today, actually, I think.”
Suguru’s eyebrows raise. “You don’t say.”
Gojo fidgets in his seat. He opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again, closes it again.
“Do you,” he eventually gets out. “Do you want to, uh, maybe…?”
Suguru saves him the trouble of finishing the question. “We are spending the rest of the day together,” he hums. “For better or for worse.”
“Is that a yes…?”
Suguru sighs. “Yeah, okay, I’ll watch the newest episode with you.”
Gojo’s face splits into a wide grin. “Okay,” he says with barely contained excitement. It’s a bit endearing, Suguru has to admit, to be on the receiving end of such an expression.
When they get to Gojo’s room, Suguru watches with mild amusement as Gojo flits around the room—tugging Suguru along all the while—and throws a few pillows on the floor. He turns to Suguru with an expectant look, and Suguru acknowledges it by sitting against one of the pillows. Gojo throws himself down next to Suguru as soon as he does, turning to Suguru with yet another grin.
“Ready?” he asks, his eyes crinkling at the corners with the force of his smile.
“Sure,” Suguru responds with a blink. Gojo turns the small television in his room on and quickly navigates to the right channel. They start a few minutes into the episode, and Gojo frowns.
“We missed the opening,” he mutters a bit sullenly.
Suguru pats him on the shoulder. “I don’t mind rewatching the previous episodes with you after this.” Suguru surprises himself with the offer. He’s getting quite a lot of surprises today.
Suguru didn’t think it was possible, but Gojo’s eyes grow even sparklier, and his grin even wider.
“Really?”
“...sure.”
And just like that, the rest of Suguru’s day passes in a blink. One episode turns into two, into three, into four, until Suguru stops keeping count altogether. Instead, he finds himself strangely captivated by the show he had thought he’d be forced to pretend to enjoy. Instead, he finds himself glancing at Gojo every so often—at his wide smiles and his loud laughs that maybe weren’t that loud at all. Instead, he watches the way their hands rest on top of each other, their fingers loosely interlaced together. Instead, he wonders why any of this doesn’t seem like a bother at all.
A few probably expired snacks and a lot of episodes later, they’re both suppressing yawns behind their hands. It’s gotten dark outside, Suguru can tell from the window, but neither of them seem particularly inclined to get up.
“One more episode,” Gojo suggests, and Suguru probably should say no, but Gojo’s looking at him like that, so—
Hm. That’s a troubling thought. Suguru quietly shelves it away for later rumination.
“One more episode,” Suguru agrees.
The next thing Suguru knows, he’s waking up to a heavy block on his shoulder.
No, not a block—Gojo. Gojo is fast asleep on his shoulder. He’s probably drooling. Suguru should be a lot more concerned about this fact than he actually feels. This is also a troubling thought, and also one Suguru saves to think about later.
Suguru nudges Gojo on the shoulder. When that doesn’t work, he brings a hand to shake him a little more vigorously. When that doesn’t work, Suguru brings both hands to both of his shoulders and gives him a few strong shakes. Eventually, Gojo blinks awake, his sunglasses askew.
“Hi?”
“Hi,” Suguru returns his sleepy greeting with a slight smile. Gojo groans and brings a hand to his forehead, pushing his glasses up in the same motion.
“Shit, what time is it?”
“Late, probably.”
Gojo drops his head into his hands and groans. “God, my neck.” He pauses. “Ah.” He pulls his hands away from his face. He looks at his hands, then at Suguru’s. “Oh, hey.” He blinks. “You’re not stuck with me anymore.”
Suguru is almost positive he isn’t imagining the slight melancholic tone to the words. He sighs and brings a hand to his neck.
“I need to go to my room to… get out of these clothes, for one,” Suguru says, tugging at his uniform. “But I don’t think we have any missions or classes today. So…” He raises his eyes to the ceiling. “I can come back, maybe?”
There it is again—that face-splitting grin. How hadn’t he realized how often Gojo smiled?
“I’d like that,” Gojo says, and Suguru thinks maybe he would, too.
“Okay,” Suguru says, getting to his feet and tilting his head to the side. “I’ll see you in a bit, then.”
“Promise?” Gojo blurts out suddenly. Suguru blinks before a smile breaks out on his own face.
“Yeah. I promise.”