Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Back when the internet felt like a physical place you could visit, Suguru found himself hopelessly addicted to a stupid online game called FamFarm. At first, as a kid, he played with his classmates and friends. But as the years passed, people gradually moved on. And so, to keep his virtual farm from dying, he forced himself to talk to whatever strangers were left on the servers.

That's how he ended up over friends with "sixEyes," a guy who was just as obsessed with FamFarm as he was.

Together, they survived every absurd update the game threw at them, including the one that forced longtime players to get married. Oh, yeah, they were virtually married. At the time, they thought it was just another temporary event, like the old "Plagues of Egypt" update had been. But many years later, the lines had blurred so much that nobody could tell where Suguru's farm ended and sixEyes' began.

Which meant that one person's farm problems automatically became the other's. There was probably some meaningful or romantic lesson hidden in that somewhere, but Suguru hated dealing with problems, and sixEyes lacked the brain cells necessary to solve them. Consequently, more than once they lost everything and had to restart the game.

It was, in fact, working. The barn icon regained its color as sixEyes dragged the tape item over it. Suguru stared at the screen for a moment, not quite sure what to feel. By the time the tape ran out, the barn was 100% repaired, and so he closed his eyes and huffed, finally letting himself sink into the game and at the sheer stupidity of it all.

Overall, Suguru's days were usually pretty miserable. As embarrassing as it was to admit, FamFarm was his escape valve. And FamFarm just wouldn't feel the same without sixEyes.

Ugh.

Suguru didn't even want to remember.

Even after studying jujutsu society for months, Suguru still managed to embarrass himself on his very first day of class.

Apparently, he was supposed to know that his classmate, some guy called Gojo Satoru, was the most important person in the world or whatever.

Since nobody had bothered to tell him, Suguru didn't think twice before punching him in the face after Gojo said he looked like a wet rat.

Looking back on it, Suguru shouldn't have gotten so angry, but that guy, Gojo, really got on his nerves. He had an ego bigger than Mount Fuji and such a terrible personality that his birth chart should be publicly released just to prevent more babies from being born on the same day and time.

Yes, he shouldn't have gotten that mad, but the punch had been deserved. Fuck rich heirs who think they can treat everyone however they want just because they have money. Jujutsu sorcerer or not, Suguru wasn't going to tolerate disrespect. He hadn't survived the most violent school in his city just to get bullied by some arrogant albino.

"That's enough!" their teacher, Yaga, shouted as he entered the classroom and saw the scene. Gojo was about to hit Suguru back, but several plush-like cursed corpses grabbed him before he could move. "Ieiri, heal him. Geto, come to my office. Now."

With clenched fists and his nerves on edge, Suguru glared at his teacher. He wanted to argue that Gojo had started it, but in the end, he took a deep breath and lowered his head.

"Yes, sir."

As insufferable as his classmate was, Suguru needed to behave and be a good student. He couldn't risk getting expelled and returning to his old school, to his parents' house, to the same people who had never understood him.

With every step came another sigh. Even if sending him to therapy had ultimately been useless, his therapist had taught him a few breathing techniques to calm down. One, two, three… Slowly, the fight drained from his body. By the time he sat down in front of his teacher's desk, he was genuinely remorseful.

However, the moment Yaga entered the room with Gojo trailing behind him, Suguru felt his left eye twitch. Apparently, Ieiri had healed him completely, leaving no trace whatsoever of the punch on that flawless face. The fact that Gojo was beautiful somehow made him even more annoying. He had the prettiest eyes Suguru had ever seen. But the second he opened his mouth, that beauty shattered like broken glass.

"I'm not very good at lectures," Yaga admitted as he removed his sunglasses. "But I think there are some things I should say."

For a moment, he stared thoughtfully at the window behind his desk. Suguru hadn't expected the lecture to be directed at Gojo too, and that alone satisfied him enough to actually pay attention.

"You know, both of you have the potential to become Special Grade sorcerers. If you keep fighting like this, you're going to end up killing each other."

Silence lingered in the room.

When Suguru realized Yaga had actually finished speaking, he stared at him in disbelief.

"What?"

"Wow, sensei, you really are bad at this," Gojo said at the same time, covering his mouth in mock shock.

"We-" Suguru stumbled over his words. "I'm not gonna kill him, what the hell?"

"What?" Gojo turned toward him, eyebrows raised high. "Kill me? As if!"

"Hah? You think I can't?"

"You could never!"

"Boys!" Yaga interrupted loudly. He let out an exhausted sigh that somehow sounded centuries old, effectively silencing them both. "No more threats, please. Here."

From his desk drawer, Yaga pulled out a CD labeled “Mega Drive” and a controller.

"I don't think either of you deserves this, especially after acting like animals. But maybe it'll stop you from fighting. I only have one controller, so you'll have to share."

Immediately, Gojo jumped up and snatched both items from Yaga's hands before the teacher even had time to set them down.

"No way!" he grinned brightly and spun around for absolutely no reason, nearly knocking things over in the process. "Sensei, this is awesome!"

Beside him, Suguru frowned. Not even in a million years could he have predicted this outcome. At his old school, students who got into fights were suspended for days. Why were they getting a video game instead?

"Wait… Why are you giving us this?"

Yaga stopped glaring at Gojo and turned toward Suguru, his expression softening into something oddly fond.

"I already expected you two wouldn't get along. When I first met you, I thought you couldn't possibly be more different. But remember the admission form? You both gave the exact same answer to the question: 'What do you enjoy doing the most?' Isn't that funny?"

Yaga showed them their forms.

Below the personal information, there had only been one personal question. Suguru had written simply “gaming.”

Gojo, meanwhile, had enthusiastically written “playing games!” in a surprisingly neat handwriting.

Ugh.

Beside him, Gojo burst out laughing. Apparently, he had already forgotten Suguru punched him. What the hell was wrong with jujutsu sorcerers? On one hand, Suguru was relieved he wasn't being punished. On the other, this entire reconciliation plan sounded ridiculous.

"I still don't get it. A CD and one controller. Where's the console?"

"We don't need one!" Gojo turned toward him and held up the controller cable right in front of his face. "Look! The dorm computers have ports for this. We just need to configure it."

"Seriously?" Suguru hadn't even noticed the ports on the computer in his room. He only ever turned it on to play FamFarm, and FamFarm was an online game.

In front of them, Yaga coughed loudly, interrupting again. He wasn't that old, but the exhaustion on his face made him look ancient.

"So. Can I trust you two not to kill each other now?"

After sighing, Suguru reluctantly gave in.

How badly could this possibly go?

As he would later learn, in many, many ways.

For starters, Gojo had absolutely no concept of personal space. The moment they sat down on Gojo's dorm floor to play together, he pressed himself against Suguru like they were lifelong friends. Suguru tried shifting away, but apparently Gojo couldn't understand a hint even if his life depended on it, eventually trapping Suguru between himself and the wall.

The dorm computers technically worked, but they were painfully outdated, which made every game harder than intended because the screen lagged and randomly went black for several seconds at a time.

The third time Suguru died in “The Lion King” after falling into a pit during one of those blackouts, Gojo rolled around laughing so hard he nearly cried. If this was supposed to bring them closer together, then it definitely wasn't working.

Gojo memorized maps at terrifying speed, so the glitches barely affected him at all. He was, unfortunately, very good at every game they played. The only reason Suguru didn't suspect he had already played them before was because of all the constant "ooooh"s and "aaah"s he let out every few seconds, genuinely amazed by the details.

Usually, Suguru struggled to talk with boys his own age. Gojo, however, talked so much that even when Suguru wanted to say something, he couldn't. More than once, they ended up yelling over each other, neither willing to shut up first.

"No, go up! You'll waste too much time down there!" Satoru whined anxiously.

"There are more coins here! The more coins I have, the harder it'll be for Dr. Eggman to kill me!"

Gojo grabbed his own hair dramatically while Suguru played, as though he were genuinely suffering. To him, every game had to be completed as fast as possible.

"That's… That's your Curse Manipulation technique talking!" he shouted.

Suguru gasped in offense.

On-screen, Sonic fell onto a spike and died.

"Ah!" Gojo grabbed Suguru's arm the moment the game over screen appeared, devastated as though he had lost.

"You did not just compare me to fucking Sonic."

Gojo turned toward him, his other hand landing on Suguru's shoulder. At that point, Suguru had already given up trying to avoid all the touching.

"What? Sonic is nice! It's a compliment!"

Suguru frowned. Even after hours of playing together, they still couldn't understand each other. That is, even sitting side by side, it somehow felt like they were in entirely different universes.

"He's… He's a fucking naked hedgehog. What?"

For a moment, Gojo just stared at him in confusion.

Then he threw his head back and laughed loudly.

He did that a lot. Laugh loudly.

Suguru pressed his lips in a thin line, too exhausted to get annoyed anymore. After receiving the CD and controller, they had spent hours gaming together, still in uniform, sitting on the floor as though they had no responsibilities.

However, Suguru did have a responsibility.

He needed to return to his dorm and play FamFarm.

Despite his jealousy, Suguru felt his heart warming at the thought of sixEyes being happy out there.

At the end of the day, when Suguru closed his eyes to sleep, he imagined sixEyes as some kind of shounen protagonist: always smiling, effortlessly friendly. Still, sixEyes rarely talked about other friends, so maybe he didn't have many. Perhaps he was shy. Or introverted. Suguru hoped that one day they would finally meet in person and actually have fun for real.

Maybe then, if Suguru told him about curses, sixEyes would believe him.

He'd probably be frightened, like all non-sorcerers were, but Suguru would protect him. It was his duty, after all. As long as they stayed together, there would be nothing to fear. Yes, swallowing curses was disgusting, but Suguru would gladly do it if it meant protecting sixEyes.

Blushing in embarrassment, he pulled the blankets over his face.

Ah, he really shouldn't be imagining things like this. It definitely wasn't healthy. But the thoughts came uninvited, interrupting everything else.

What did sixEyes look like?

What did his voice sound like?

His smell? His eyes?

Whatever the answers were, Suguru felt certain he would love every part of him. Still, sixEyes had never once described his appearance.

Maybe he was ugly.

Even imagining someone ugly made Suguru feel happy. Hell, he just wanted to touch him, to be beside him. They could both be shapeless blobs, birds, trees, Suguru wouldn't care.

If he passed sixEyes on the streets of Tokyo, would he recognize him?

Before, meeting had seemed impossible because they lived in different cities. But a few months ago, Suguru mentioned he would be moving to Tokyo, and to his shock, sixEyes said he would be moving there too. It almost sounded as though he had decided solely because Suguru mentioned the city, but that couldn't possibly be true.

Ah, they really should arrange to meet, shouldn't they?

Abruptly, Suguru lowered the blanket from his face.

That was it.

He needed to gather the courage to ask sixEyes to meet him.

Right now, it was winter. When spring arrived, they could go see the cherry blossoms together. Wouldn't that be incredible? Two months from now, then.

Satisfied with this tiny little plan, Suguru closed his eyes and fell asleep.