Chapter Text
The sky was painted dusty rose, the sun was on its way to finally set. The day had stretched for as long as it could, yet only Suguru, Satoru and Shoko could tell how long it had been. Their limbs and joints creaking with prayers. Especially Suguru. Leaves swirled in the gentle evening wind, landing on the ground near the bench they had rested on a day before. The sun hadn't even properly set, yet the other half of the sky was alit with sparkling stars. Suguru looked at the sky infront which was pink, his long lashes catching it's hue, shimmering. Then he looked back at the darkened sky, three stars sparkled together.
His lips stretched into a tired smile, eyebags prominent and said, "Those stars over there... they kind of look like us." His ear tips reddened in embarrassment as he realised that came out cheesier. But his face remained calm.
"They do." Shoko agreed, followed by a snapping sound. He'd have to check it out later what she captioned and where she had posted it.
He caught Satoru looking at him from behind and raised his brow. Satoru's lingered but not exactly looking at HIM... Well, it was him but his eyes a little too lower. "What are you looking at?"
"Worried I'm looking at something else?" His voice came out teasing, a sloppy smirk plastered on his face. Suguru sighed and turned back his head. "You might get in trouble if you joke around like this, you know?"
"The chosen one can't concern himself with something this miniscule, Suguru." Satoru ran his long, slender fingers through his hair. Gait relaxed but eyes still somewhere near the ground next to the black cat who walked infront of him.
"We've got nothing to do tomorrow, wanna hang out with some people I know, then?" Shoko proposed the idea. Very uncommon. Some people she knows? Now that's new. Satoru showed instant enthusiasm, agreeing. Suguru, on the other hand was so tired he couldn't even fathom the idea of going somewhere to hangout. But agreed nonetheless. As if Shoko or Satoru were going to let him say anything other than yes.
Leaves crumpled beneath their feet, one following another. They had set out for the mission on a bright blue morning and arrived back to their dorms when the day had burnt away. Despite the scorching midday, breeze that blew in evening was awfully chilly. Suguru rubbed his arms.
Satoru glanced at the visibly tired Suguru who could barely drag his feet along. He shook his head, white hair swaying and catching the stray rays of the dipping sun. 'He is back to wearing his baggy pants, huh?'
He kept looking at Suguru, wondering when it'd be when he notices the tiny blobs of curse energies that had been trailing along their mother duck. Satoru's Six Eyes had long caught the faint infantile cursed energies that had been following Suguru. What surprised and made him laugh was the fact that Suguru was so tired his Cursed Spirit Manipulation sensors hadn't even noticed. No matter how tired someone was, not being able to detect cursed energy could prove very dangerous. But he rolled his shoulders, careless. Suguru's got him right behind him afterall. He can just protect him if anything happens. Satoru grinned to himself.
The three blobs tugged at Suguru's pants with all their might, yet all of it went unnoticed. They waddled behind at maximum speed, one of them falling over and over. Perhaps it was too weak.
"Suguru you never told me about your kids, how old are they?" Satoru asked, arms behind his head. Each step lazy yet firm. Shoko whipped her head around, staring at Suguru. She knew Satoru was joking around again but the topic was interesting. Might as well enjoy what prompted the joke.
"What nonsense are you spouting now, Satoru?" Suguru asked, tucking a stray lock behind his ear, head slowly turning to look at his stupid mug.
"Talked just like the perfect negligent parent. They're right behind you, fighting for their lives. They're running after you incase you leave them behind."
Suguru looked around but the faint energy of the cursed babies and their small size altogether made them negligible. Suguru saw nothing. But Satoru saw everything. The baby curses were right beside Suguru's foot, in his most blindest spot.
Suguru shot a tired glare at Satoru and turned back, continuing to walk. Shoko caught the sight of what Satoru was looking at and took out her phone.
"Open your eyes, Geto." Shoko commented as she started filming the black cat behind him.
Satoru started cackling. "There! right there!" He pointed at his foot, and when Suguru looked down he finally saw what the idiot behind him had been seeing. Suguru came to an abrupt stop and shut his eyes close, sighing. Every fibre of his being was screaming. He just wanted to lay on his bed and sleep. But he had more mess to clean up before everything.
"This is the residue from the curses we hunted... Can't you just do it for me? Exorcising them?" Suguru asked softly, hoping to touch a soft spot and take this load off his shoulders.
"The resemblance between you and them is uncanny if you ask me. It's the eyes, I'm telling you." Satoru commented, picking up one of the cursed babies that kept falling over, with blue-finger. "See? Like mother, like baby." He dangled the cursed baby in Suguru's face.
"I'd be the father if they were my kids." Suguru mumbles tiredly.
Shoko shook her head, "I catch the drift of what Satoru's saying. Mother is more logical since you store them in your stomach."
Satoru stepped closer to dap Shoko up for defending him but Shoko turned away.
"Your hands are all sticky. I may be a doctor but there's an extent to what filth I can tolerate." To which Satoru just scoffed.
Suguru heaved a sighed and didn't even spare the cursed baby a glance. Utterly disgusting creatures, he knew because he'd tasted more than he'd seen them. His shoulders slumped.
Satoru smiled and stepped closer, wrapping a single arm around Suguru's back. "You're asking me to exorcise your children because you're tired? Sounds like postpartum depression to me. I'll take care of them with you, don't worry."
Shoko had stopped walking again, watching the two of them starting a new antic again. She snapped a picture of both of them. Satoru who'd held a cursed child in one hand, Suguru in his other arm, and a big smile painting his face.
"Yep, perfect family photo." She sent the photo to the GC. Captioning: 'Judging the Suguru's expression, how expensive push-gift should Satoru be giving him?'
Suguru rubbed his face, pushing Satoru away softly. He looked down at the other two blobs nibbling on his uniform and his expression of exhaustion turned into that of profound disgust. Every curse was a reminder of that revolting taste he had to endure every mission. He had swallowed two of those vomit-balls today as well.
Suguru almost gagged, covering his mouth. "Get them away from me, Satoru." The voice came out more strained than necessary.
Yaga Sensei who was passing by one of the hallways noticed them and started making his way over. As he neared them, raising his arm about to call out to them, he heard his 'favourite' student utter the most atrocious thing he could hear in all his lives.
"Oh no. Shoko, do you think I got him pregnant again? It's not even morning yet he's all nauseous." He wrapped his arm around Suguru again, rubbing his back in exaggeration.
"Shut up, Satoru. I'll kill you..." Suguru rolled his eyes as he pushed his arm away. He turned around and froze. The hand that was pushing the Gojo abomination hung in the air, his eyes wide.
Yaga Sensei was standing behind them with a deadpanned expression. Like a pressure cooker that was on its last bolt before bursting, eyes red and wide, mouth hanging open. Suguru tried to warn his best friend.
"Sator-"
"It's just you're so irresistible Suguru, can you blame a man?"
Shoko clamped a hand on her mouth. Suguru looked like his soul had been sucked out, while the oblivious heaven's chosen one rambled on about how and why he got his "wife" ...well, pregnant.
"—and honestly, Suguru, with how much you’ve been eating those curses lately, I’m starting to think you ARE pregnant! No need for a test. Oh, you look pale! Don't worry cause your husband is a rich man." He flexed his arm.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Shoko didn't even look up. She just exhaled deeply and shifted 5 metres away to record properly, effectively removing herself from the "blast zone." Suguru stood frozen, his hand still mid-air from where he’d been trying to flick Satoru's arm off his shoulder. His eyes were wide, fixed on the sheer, unadulterated rage radiating from the hallway behind Satoru.
Yaga didn't move. He didn't even yell. He just stood there, his sunglasses casting long, dark shadows over his face as his knuckles turned white against the paperwork.
"Satoru," Yaga said, his voice a low, vibrating growl that made the leaves on the tree tremble.
Satoru’s grin vanished. He didn't even turn around; he just felt the sudden shift in atmospheric pressure. "Yaga!! You’re back! With the... very important documents that we definitely didn't forget..."
"Goddamn it, Satoru! That was yesterday!" Yaga roared, the sheer volume of it finally snapping the tension. He dropped the reports on the porch and began rolling up his sleeves. "I leave you alone for five minutes—five minutes—and you’ve managed to insult the laws of biology, your classmate’s dignity, and my last remaining nerve."
"It was a joke! A metaphor for his cursed energy storage! And besides you left us alone for a whole day-" Satoru scrambled away, putting the trunk of the tree between him and his teacher.
"I’ll give you a metaphor for your medical bills, smart ass!" Yaga yelled loud enough for the whole school to hear. Well, for anyone who was left in the school.
Yaga sensei looked at the horribly tired Suguru who Satoru had been messing around with. 'Making inappropriate jokes like that as students' he shook his head, thinking that.
"Satoru, come for a meeting tomorrow morning. 9:00 PM sharp." He left saying that, constantly shaking his head as he walked away. Mumbling something about how the new generations were progressingly becoming dirtier and mannerless.
Suguru looked at Satoru who's expression had frozen, and smiled victoriously. Shoko who had been recording everything finally chuckled and left as well.
"You did get in trouble, Satoru. The chosen one HAS to concern himself with this now." Suguru smiled softly, eyes crinkling. His long lashes casting a delicate shadow. Satoru looked at him for a while before scoffing. He put his hands in his pockets and threw his head back laughing. His fine, white hair catching the last rays of sunlight which made it look as if his hair were on fire.
"When I'm this unique, why wouldn't I?"
Suguru huffed in amusement before looking down. This was the first time he properly looked at the curses that had followed him all the way to Kyoto from Shibuya. He bent down slowly and picked them. The one that Satoru had given him was a small fist sized baby, with pale blue skin and dark cat like eyes with a mouth so small only a soft bout could be seen. It's long silky black hair were tied in two pig tails which gave it's full cheeks more display.
In simple words, it was an undeniably adorable looking curse. Suguru had never seen a curse this cute. Small and sticky ones were everywhere but a cute one that didn't harm it's host? None at all. He looked at the other two he had picked up and they were just blobs of slime. Purplish, sticky slime that left a residue of curse energy whichever place or thing they touched. They were smaller and had a more unstable form than the adorable one which Suguru held in another hand.
"What are you doing? Exorcising?" Satoru asked, leaning over Suguru's shoulder. "Eh...this one's so cute. Why are the other siblings so ugly?" He pointed at the cute one which kept stumbling over at the start and then at the purplish, slimy blobs.
"That's because one of them is a conscious curse spirit and the other two are just slime curse energies that create mold in houses." Suguru noticed how the pale blue baby would flinch whenever it saw the purple blobs. He looked down at his feet and realised that most of his shoes had been stained and the hems of his pants were eaten. Good grief.
"These mold curses, throw them out." He handed the purple ones to Satoru who looked at him with a brow raised. "Ouch- ugly babies are being tossed out. What a beautiful natural selection."
"They are just molds. It's even hurt this child curse." Suguru explained. He took the pale blue baby curse closer to itself for further inspection which Satoru found odd.
'child curse' ... Why'd he say it so softly? Suguru may be unaware but Satoru wasn't. Suguru's tone noticibily softened depending on the person he talked about. Very proudly, he's also noticed how Suguru said his name. Even softer than anyone's ever taken.
"Hmm..? Suguru, are you taking it with you to the dorms?" Satoru asked before he stretched his arm back, lifted his leg and chucked away those purple slimes like a baseball. Definitely a couple kilometres farther than their school.
"... This one is not aggressive and I'm very tired so I'm thinking of dealing with it tomorrow."
Satoru stared at Suguru, waiting for him to explain more. This couldn't be all. And he was pretty sure Suguru couldn't have taken all the parental bafoonery to heart either.
Suguru opened his mouth but closed it back. Then opened it again and said softly, "Don't tell Yaga sensei." And with that, Suguru was gone.
Hiding something from a teacher meant only one thing, Satoru thought. Trouble.
Satoru stood there with his mouth hanging open. Haha... Suguru actually felt empathetic over a curse. Suguru, over a curse. And now he's even taking it to his dorm room! He laughed as he took off after Suguru. Yep, he was spending a night at his room. I mean, letting the mother handle all child care went against his principles. And Suguru was tired too. He could lend a hand or two. Or maybe just be a good spectator if Suguru gets angry. A present father, better the child's upbringing. He grinned to himself as ran.
__________________________________________
Knock knock
Satoru knocked for the fourth time. Was Suguru out dead inside? "Suguruuu, let me in."
Nothing.
Satoru knocked again. But still no response. His brows knit together, as his clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I might break the door Suguru, you haven't gotten the child's custody yet. Let the father in!" He said in a sweet voice.
Kerchak-
The door opened revealing a half dead Suguru, hair wet, skin glistening as his shirt clung to his wet frame. A soft mewling sound drifting through the door.
"I was in the shower, Satoru. What's wrong?" Suguru placed the shirt back on his shoulder which had slipped off.
Satoru looked away for some reason and smiled, "ah..I wanted to spend the night here. You don't mind, I know."
Suguru sighed almost sadly. "Satoru..." Because Suguru could protest, Satoru smiled, checking all the 'suguru's concern boxes'.
"You can sleep. No games, no nothing tonight. I just wanna sleep over. Rest assured."
Suguru opened his mouth again but was cut off.
"Yes, I won't take the bed from you. I'll sleep on futon this time." He flexed his biceps as if he hadn't agreed to sleeping on a futon but rather agreed to being sold for the sake of his country.
Suguru didn't think more and nodded. Satoru arrived inside in a blur, kicked off his shoes before hurriedly going in the bathroom to take a shower.
Suguru's eyelids couldn't hold out any longer. Everything felt heavy, even drying his hair was out of option. All he wanted to do was lay in his bed and pass out. Preferably, he'd have loved to be crushed under some weight so it'd soothe his aching muscles but that was out of option. He locked the dorm room, heading inside.
He heard the shower inside the bathroom was turned on so he went to his closet, grabbed a clean towel that he'd specifically kept for Satoru incase he ever came over, which he often did. He knocked on the bathroom door to which Satoru replied with a hum.
"The towel's on the table, use it when you're done. Don't wake me up or the curse child."
No response.
Suguru's head started to hurt. "Satoru? Do you understand or not?"
"Mhmn- I do, I do - dangit! The soaps all inside my mouth." Satoru replied, voice muffled in the shower.
Suguru rubbed his hair half dry with a towel before stretching and getting under the covers, ready to sleep. The moment his head hit the pillow and his back straightened against the mattress, he almost moaned in pain and happiness. It felt as if all this exhaustion was seeping into the bed, his body relaxing. Now all that left was sleeping. He closed his eyes.
One minute.
Five minute.
Ten minutes.
16 minutes had passed and there was still no sleep. The curse child was long asleep in the small corner of his bed after being briefly washed. And maybe even Satoru had fallen asleep inside the shower since he hadn't come out in a while. So why couldn't he sleep? He groaned, tossing and turning. No sleep, not a wink. He was exhausted, his eyelids heavy yet there was no sleep. What form of torture was this?
His long slender fingers caressed his midsection which had started to hurt after the long day of having eaten two grade 2 curses.
The lights were turned off, air conditioner on. The bed was soft and cosy yet there was not a wink of sleep. And now even his stomach had started aching. And these were the sort of aches which couldn't be cured with medicine either.
Kerchak-
The bathroom door opened quietly and Satoru's hand reached out, fumbling with something on the table besides the bathroom door but couldn't find it. Suguru appreciated him being silent but since he couldn't fall asleep, it was better he helped the poor man. He got out of bed and grabbed the towel Satoru couldn't get a hold of. But before he could give Satoru his towel, the man came out of the bathroom. All nude. Suguru's eyes went wide as he quickly looked away before pushing the towel into his hands, or arms or whatever it was and turned away.
"Ah..thanks." Satoru was surprised to see him awake. He was sure Suguru would have fallen asleep by the time he'd come out. Was he...was Suguru waiting for him? His pearly grin almost lit the room up.
Satoru wrapped the small, white towel around his important area and stepped out the bathroom, leaving the door slightly ajar so the dim light of bathroom would fill the dark room.
"You're still awake. Why?" Satoru asked reaching for the towel Suguru had used to dry his own hair, to dry his own.
"Yeah.. can't sleep. My stomach hurts too." Suguru's voice was quiet and soft. "It hurts a lot."
The heaven's chosen stopped mid-hair drying and looked over to the almost fragile looking Suguru sitting on his bed. His thin, broad shoulders were slumped, head hanging low while his hands clutched at his midsection. He could hear short breaths he took quietly, face pale.
He went over and sat down infront of him, holding him by his shoulders. "Look at me."
As if Suguru couldn't hear anything, he kept his head hanging low, body curled into itself.
"Suguru. Lets call Shoko." Suguru shook his head.
"Suguru, you're shaking." The heaven's chosen gripped his jaw in his hand and lifted it up. "Why do you not want to get help from Shoko? It's barely evening. She isn't asleep."
Suguru's response was shaking his own head. "Doesn't work..."
"Doesn't work? Then how do you usually deal with this?" Satoru asked, his voice bewildered. He brushed away the hair that covered Suguru's face and helped him sit on the ground, his head laying on the mattress. Satoru's hand worked up and down his lower back as Suguru kept wincing and groaning.
'He deals with this every mission?' Satoru thought to himself. He knew Suguru felt uncomfortable and queasy almost the rest of the day after swallowing the curses but he'd never seem him like this. So... vulnerable. He brows furrowed.
"Does this happen everytime?"
Suguru shook his head slowly, eyes half lidded. His hand kept rubbing his stomach in a circular motion even though it didn't help. Atleast Satoru's hand rubbing his back helped the back ache. He couldn't think properly but he was pretty embarrassed Satoru saw this part of him. So weak and pathetic.
"You know, Suguru?"
"Mhn?"
"This reminds me of how the alphas takes care of their omegas in estrus cycle. Like you're an omega right now. You're not giving off the maddeningly sweet scent but you smell nice too so it's definitely similar to that." Satoru rambled on and on about this topic.
"... Satoru, what are you... saying?" Suguru turned his head towards him, frowning. Well, whatever Satoru was trying to do was working on him. He did get distracted for some time. It was sweet how Satoru changed topic and would start spouting unbelievable things just to take his mind off something that bothered him. Satoru may have not known but Suguru was always aware. And he truly felt cared for whenever Satoru's did that because, he'd realise that there was someone in this world who was willing to speak nonsense, make an idiot out of himself, using unnecessary brainpower to think up funny things just to distract him.
"Satoru..." He whispered, the name more of a prayer than a word. "..Thank you." covering his face deeper in his arms and bed mattress.
Satoru shook his head but said nothing. His hand rubbed his back without a stop.
Somewhere during the night, the duo had fallen asleep together. Half sitting down while the upper body laid on the bed. Suguru woke up with a start as the first thing he saw while opening his eyes were Satoru's eyes. They weren't closed properly and thus shined so brightly since the dim light which came from the bathroom lit up his eyes even bluer than normal.
After breathing in and out a few times, he realised that Satoru had fallen asleep beside him. His brows furrowed in worry and shame. Satoru was just as tired as he was... probably. Yet because of him, Satoru had stay up rubbing his back for him, whispering nonsense, abandoning his own comfortable futon all for him. Well, can't say he finds that thin, hard futon comfortable but... well, it was better than whatever this was.
He looked at Satoru who seemed to have fallen asleep not longer ago. Should he wake him up and offer him his bed? But wouldn't that disturb his rest? Suguru thought.
Maybe he should move him? No, that would disturb him too. But if he slept like this then he'd wake up with an aching body. He sighed and bent down, slowly wrapped Satoru's arm around his shoulders before lifting him by holding his back.
Ugh- 'why is he so...heavy?!' Suguru thought, slowly bringing his whole body to the bed. He laid his head on the pillow with care and let Satoru have the outer part of the bed. He then slowly climbed from the other side and laid on the bed. Before he could close his eyes he hoisted himself up and covered Satoru with a blanket since this guy had gone and fallen asleep in just a towel wrapped around his waist which barely covered half his thighs. He shook his head.
After he covered the heaven's chosen he remembered the cursed baby who was still asleep for the past 3 hours. He picked the baby up gently and placed it between him and Satoru in case it falls down the small crack between the bed and the wall. Satoru moved in his sleep alot but if Suguru keeps a hand over the baby curse, he'd know instantly when the baby moved or who is about to crush it.
A couple minutes later, he was out like light. All three of them, two sorcerers and cursed baby asleep in the same
bed. A picturesque family.
________________________________________
Somewhere during the night, Satoru woke up to the sounds of sniffling and sobbings. At first he remained motionless, just subconsciously listening to the sounds but then sat up, waking up fully. The thin blanket cascading down his torso, revealing his shirtless body.
'ah...i didn't even wear anything after showering.' he realised.
He hadn't slept this long in a while since he was extremely paranoid about being vulnerable during his sleep. He'd only be able to relax like this when he was with Suguru, knowing that someone he trusts is besides him.
He blinked a couple times before looking over to his side, to source of the sounds. He knew it wasn't Suguru, didn't sound like him. Ah, so it was the cursed baby. He saw Suguru sitting on the bed, back turned towards him as he kept rocking something in his arms. The loose shirt barely hanging onto his shoulders, it's neckline having skid down half his back. He hadn't said anything but Suguru looked over his shoulder, perhaps having felt the mattress shift beneath, he knew Satoru had woken up?
"Ah.. I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" Suguru whispered.
"Kinda but don't worry. I wake up more often when I'm by myself." He rested his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes. Then tapped on Suguru's shoulder, asking him to turn around. The mattress shifted beneath them again as Suguru carefully turned around, revealing the soft round baby in his hands. Satoru's eyes widened slightly. The baby, almost the size of an adult man's fist looked like a tiny jelly plushie in Suguru's arms.
Satoru chuckled quietly before reaching out to take the baby from Suguru's arms who pushed his hand away softly. Suguru shook his head, face pale and eye bags prominent.
Satoru raised his eyebrow and shrugged 'why?'
The other just looked down at the sobbing baby whose eyes were half closed. 'Just about to fall asleep.' Suguru mouthed at Satoru who nodded in return.
The peaceful silence shattered.
Suguru must've expected a lot from him, he grit his teeth. But would Gojo Satoru be still Gojo Satoru if he actually listens to someone for once?