Chapter Text
The moon shone down onto the low battery warning Geto was getting. He had gone out for a late-night snack grab because he couldn't help himself, and was on the way home. He listened to the rush of the cars passing by occasionally.
The grocery bag he was holding contained a couple bowls of ramen, energy drinks, pain reliever, instant coffee, and batteries for his TV remote that had died on him while he was binge watching the walking dead.
Geto turned off his phone and shoved it back into his pocket. He was only 10 minutes away from home but he was already dreading the load of assignments he had that were due tomorrow. It was only the first couple of days of the school year, but most of his schedule was already stock-pilled with work and school.
He walked by a bakery he frequently visited and took in how eerie it looked at night when it was closed. Geto kept walking, and he passed more establishments. There was a tire repair shop, a pub that still had music booming throughout the late hour, and an alleyway where someone with snow-white hair was plopped down on the floor.
Geto stoped dead in his tracks. White Hair? Geto looked down and instantly recognized him—How could he not?— It was his classmate, Gojo Satoru. The first time he had seen him was at school. He stood out like a sore thumb, with white hair that he swore wasn't fake and blue eyes that made Geto stare for a moment each time he saw them. He was always showing up with random cuts on his face that Geto had just assumed were from some exotic sport. Geto waited for a moment before deciding that if he were in this position, he would like someone to help him out. He reached down and gently tapped on Gojo's shoulder.
All Gojo did in response was curl up and use his hands to protect the sides of his face like a sleeper agent. Geto was going to ask him a question, when he looked at his T-shirt and saw the dried blood that was sticking to it. he had a moment's hesitation before tapping his shoulder again to check if he wasn't dead.
This time, Gojo uncurled himself and looked up at Geto. His right cheek was swollen abnormally, and he had a cut on the bottom of his lip. Geto could even see the wall he was leaning on, which was smeared with fresh blood that came directly from his back. He looked a complete mess, worse than Geto had ever seen him in class.
"Uh, wait-wait right there, my phone's dead but I can swing by the uh, pub and see if anyone can call an ambulance—" Geto was already turning around and about to scream his lungs out for help, but he stopped the second Gojo grabbed his hand.
"Please don't," Gojo half-whispered. His grip was so weak that he dropped his hand instantly.
"But you're bleeding! You need help, I need to call for help! Do you know anyone who can help you? Where do you live? Geto replied, exasperated.
"No please, just leave it, I don't wanna go anywhere…" Gojo's eyes began to swell up with tears. "Fuck.." He mumbled.
"But you'll probably die if you stay out here!" Geto was getting more and more worked up by the second, but he was definitely not going to let this guy die because he was too stubborn to find help.
"Dying would be better than that shithole." Gojo said, vigorously rubbing his tears onto the back of his arm.
"What am I supposed to…" Geto muttered under his breath. He wanted to help him, clearly he was doing something he wasn't supposed to that had injured him, but he needed to gain his trust.
"Come with me to my place then…" Geto said hesitantly. "It's just me, and I've got some medicine that'll probably help with the pain." Geto waited a moment before he heard Gojo mutter a distinct "Okay," and then he walked forward to pull him to his feet.
"Can you walk?" Geto asked.
"…No I think my ankle is swollen." Gojo replied, shaking as he tried to stand up.
Geto held him firmly and then wrapped his arm under Gojo's to support him even more, his back was covered in sweat.
Geto took a couple steps forward to test their balance, and then he directed Gojo to the way that led to his home. They walked in silence, with the occasional car passing by that would send wind rushing down their spines. The closer they got to getting home, the more Geto began to think of how stupid this decision was. He had around six assignments he hadn't started, and yet here he was, bring a guy to his house. What was he even going to do there? He had no medical experience and all he had was probably an ice pack sitting in his freezer and the pain killers he had just bought.
Geto grumbled to himself, and then took a right turn straight onto the road leading to his apartment complex. He led Gojo as slowly as he could through the broken sidewalks, and onto his doorstep. After fumbling with his keys with one hand, he pushed the door open and helped Gojo inside. He remembered the First aid kit he had in his bathroom and he directed Gojo straight there.
"I have a first aid kit in the bathroom," he said to Gojo, just to make things clear. "Are you hurt anywhere else other than your face?" Geto asked, Gently setting him down on the floor. Immediately it was clear what the answer was, as soon as Geto took away his hand that he had used to support Gojo, he realized that the fluid he previously thought was sweat was actually blood. And there was a whole lot of it too.
Gojo softly murmured in answer to Geto's question, "My back." And he then took off his shirt.
Geto watched in horror, there was a five inch long cut going directly through the top half of Gojo's back and shoulder blades. There was blood all over the T-shirt he had removed and over his back. Most of it was dried, but some of it was still leaking onto the floor from the cut.
Geto immediately panicked. He quickly grabbed the shirt that Gojo had dropped next to him and he compressed it down and began putting pressure onto the cut. He hadn't had any medical experience, but he had watched more than enough shows to know that stopping the bleeding was one of the most important things you had to do.
He pushed the shirt in deeper and held it there. "Jeez man what the hell happened to you?" Geto asked, almost rhetorically.
"Tripped." Was all Gojo said in response. Geto didn't believe that, not one bit.
A couple more minutes passed of Geto pushing his entire weight onto Gojo's back. His arms were beginning to be sore from all of the force he was using, but he was definitely not going to let this man bleed out onto his floor because he 'Tripped.'
They stayed like that for ten more minutes, and by now Geto was already beginning to lose all feeling in his arms. He decided to take a peek at the wound, and it had eased down on the blood. Geto took a sigh of relief, and immediately smelled the intense metallic scent of the blood that was covering his bathroom. If not for Gojo's ragged breathing underneath him, Geto would have thought he was dead. Geto took a moment to decide what to do next, with one hand he kept adding a little pressure, and with the other, he filled a bucket with water from the bathtub.
He slowly removed the clothing from the wound, and looked at it. The wound wasn't as deep as Geto had initially thought, it was just bleeding heavily because of how long it was. Tripped my ass, someone clearly wanted to kill you. Geto thought as he took a long sleeve shirt out of the nearby laundry basket and soaked it in the water from the tub. He began to slowly remove the blood from the sides of the wound with the water, being careful to not let any water get inside the actual cut.
A few more moments passed, and by now the cut looked a lot less threatening than it had before. Geto stood back up and washed his hands again. He watched the blood slowly run down the drain before drying his hands. He opened the cabinet under the sink and took out a white box with a small red cross on the top. Geto opened it and took out two gauze pads. He then began to peel off the plastic that covered the sticky bits of the bandages. He strategically placed them onto the wound, being careful to not put the sticky parts onto the cut directly. When he was done, he looked over at Gojo's face, his eyes were squeezed shut and he was breathing deeply.
"Hey you can calm down now, it's not that bad." Geto mumbled, turning back around to find bandage wraps so he could keep the gauze pads firmly in place. When he turned back around, Gojo had slowly opened his eyes and was now facing him. He had sweat forming around his forehead. They locked eyes for a moment, before Geto broke the eye contact and then started wrapping the bandages around the top of Gojo's torso and across his chest. He finished packing them tightly and then put the first-aid kit back into the cabinet.
"Sit tight for a second, okay?" Geto asked, staring down at Gojo as he was about to exit the room. The other boy only nodded and then let himself relax his back against the wall. Geto left the bathroom and entered his bedroom. He tidied up some of the clothes he had thrown around, and then he set the bed. Geto decided that it wouldn't be very moral to have an injured person sleep on the couch.
While he was cleaning up, Geto thought about the blood soaked T-shirt, and the fact that he was still starving as he had eaten nothing for about three hours now, and the six assignments that were due tomorrow. And the fact that tomorrow was a Sunday, which meant he also had work. And then he let out a sigh and walked over to his closet to get a change of clothes for Gojo. He picked out gray sweat pants and a simple white tee.
When he walked back over to the bathroom and looked over at Gojo, He was standing up and had splashed his face with water. Gojo turned around to look at Geto, and then he eyed the T-shirt and pants Geto was holding. Geto handed him the clothes, and then his eyes traced back to Gojo's lips. (Purely out of coincidence, of course) He noticed the cut that Gojo still had on the bottom of his lip. Geto immediately turned over to the sink and then opened the cabinet that was located behind the mirror. He searched through it's contents before finding what he was looking for, a tub of Vaseline.
Geto opened the container and scooped some of it up onto his finger. He looked back up at Gojo and then slowly reached his hand over to his lips on the area where he had the cut. Geto immediately began to get all nervous because he had decided that putting Vaseline on another man's lips was more suitable than letting him do it himself. Still, he pushed his finger against the cut and then moved it side to side to help it absorb into the cut. When he pulled his finger back, he stupidly decided to look up at Gojo, who was staring back at Geto. He didn't look disgusted though, so Geto was slightly less worried. Geto turned back over to the cabinet to put away the Vaseline. He could feel his ears going pink.
~
With a sigh, Geto plugged his phone into the charger he had in the kitchen, and then briefly checked the time. It was 2:34 am. Geto shut off his phone and then headed back towards his front door. He had dropped the grocery bag onto the floor when he first entered the apartment, and he bent down to pick it up. He carried it back into the kitchen and then took out the contents. Geto began preparing two bowls of ramen with hot water. He opened the pill bottle and then took out a pain killer. He had initially bought the pills for his headaches that he was getting ever since he stared staying up late. Geto took one out and then swallowed it whole with some water. Right as he was done with that, the bathroom door opened and out came Gojo. Surprisingly, he fit quite easily into Geto's clothes without them being too under or over sized.
They locked eyes again and Geto could feel his face going warm. "I made some ramen if you want some," He mumbled, staring at the counter for no apparent reason.
"Sure," Gojo muttered back, walking over to the counter to pick up the food.
They both sat down on the couch, almost touching shoulders. When they were both finished eating, Geto went to go and dispose of both of the bowls. He put the utensils into the sink, and then he stared washing his dishes from earlier in the day.
"Thanks though." Gojo said from behind Geto, leaning on the kitchen doorframe.
"It was nothing." Geto called back, scrubbing a spoon.
"And for this," Geto responded, rubbing a finger over his cut.
Geto looked back to see what he meant and then he remembered the way he had stupidly rubbed Vaseline on Gojo's lips. He immediately turned back around and started picking up another bowl to wash, his face heating up. But he couldn't help but smile, as this was the first time Gojo had smiled or even cracked a joke since Geto had taken up caring for him. He finished off the rest of the dishes and then turned back around. Gojo was still leaning on the doorframe with his arms crossed, but his eyes were closed and strained. Immediately Geto remembered the pain killers, and he went back over to the counter to grab them and a glass of water.
"Here." Geto added, holding the pill box and the glass of water up for Gojo to see. Gojo opened the pill container and took one out. He put it into his mouth before grabbing the glass of water from Geto. He took small sips before finishing it all and handing it back to Geto, who took it back to the sink and then gave it a quick rinse.
~
Geto had told Gojo that he could sleep on the bed and he was going to sleep on the couch, and so they did exactly that. Except that Geto still had his assignments to finish, so instead of sleeping he stayed up and stared writing. Except he couldn't do that either as he had no clue where to start. He would write a paragraph, delete it, change the song he was listening to, and then try writing again. He was on his sixth deleted introductory paragraph before he spotted Gojo entering the bathroom. Geto looked over at the clock and saw that it was 4:59 am. Great, another night where he would be able to watch the sunrise due to lack of sleep. He sighed and took another sip of the energy drink he had opened moments earlier. It tasted like shit. Geto sighed and turned up his music even louder to the point where it was bouncing off of his bones.
A couple moments later and Gojo emerged from the bathroom. He was slightly slouching and Geto saw him stifle a yawn out of the corner of his eye. He expected him to take a look at Geto, and then walk right back to the bedroom to sleep. What he didn't expect, was for him to start walking over to Geto and then leaning down behind him to see what he was working on. Geto turned over to stare at him, confused. He took off his headphones and turned off his music.
"Oh you're doing Ms.Hettrich's assignment too? I didn't know you had her." Gojo commented, still keeping his eyes locked onto the screen. Geto stared at him, baffled.
"We have her together, you sit at a table diagonal from me."
"Oh."
Idiot.
"You should go back to sleep." Geto advised, trying to think of what to write for the next sentence.
"No, every time I try I just can't." Gojo answered, moving from where he was crouching behind Geto, to sitting right next to him on the couch.
Geto let out another sigh and then shut off his computer. He decided to ask a question he was really dying to ask, but in the best way possible. "So did you actually trip or are you actually a secret assassin that's getting targeted by one of your assassin rivals?" Thankfully, it had the effect Geto had hoped for and Gojo smiled.
"No, it was neither." Gojo began to fiddle around with his hands. He was looking at a spot on the coffee table, thinking of what to say, his smile completely gone from his face. "It was my mom who gave me the cut on my back." He paused for a moment before speaking again, a bit quieter this time. "She usually only hits me, but I guess she smoked the wrong joint and decided that pulling a knife on me was the better option…" Gojo had interlocked his hands and was digging his nails into the back of his right hand.
"When I go back she's probably gonna kick me out the house again..." His breath quivered, and Geto looked up at his eyes, they were wet with tears. Geto reached out and put his hand on top of Gojo's.
"You shouldn't claw at your skin like that, you'll start bleeding." Geto advised.
Gojo just let out a sigh and then he started crying.
~