Chapter Text
Thick fog is surrounding Jujutsu Tech when Suguru's alarm goes off in the morning. He gets up to find Satoru’s sleeping bag already empty,the duvet left in a chaotic state with its owner long gone. Suguru walks over the bag and goes to the bathroom; he is too tired to look for his best friend right now.
He keeps his morning routine short, a fraction of what it used to be. Before everything. He tries not to dwell on it too much, keeps trying to convince himself that just his priorities have changed. But when he looks at himself in the mirror, which he does less and less these days, he barely recognizes the person staring back at him. His messy hair looks just as lifeless as his eyes. His skin is paler and seems fragile, his veins far more visible than ever. At this point, he is an imitation of a corpse. And he sure as hell feels like one.
A deep sigh escapes his lungs as he leaves the bathroom to go look for his white-haired counterpart. Satoru isn't in his own room, but he can hear his voice somewhere in the distance. It does not take long for Suguru to realize that he is with the twins. He immediately heads to the kitchen and sees all three of them there, talking about something Suguru can’t figure out yet. The girls are sitting at the table and Satoru is standing next to them with a pan, scooping steaming scrambled eggs onto the plates. They seem peaceful, all things considered. It’s their first breakfast together, but it looks …natural. As if they had always done this. Suguru has the urge to take a picture of this moment, to cherish it for years to come.
“Oh, good morning Suguru,” Satoru greets with a wide smile, his six eyes focused on Suguru, as usual.
“Good morning!” Mimiko and Nanako exclaim in unison once they see him. They already seem more relaxed than yesterday.
“Good morning to you, too,” Suguru replies with his go-to smile because that's all he can manage at this point. Satoru signals him to sit, a plate with scrambled eggs already waiting for him. He complies and takes the seat next to Mimiko who is preoccupied with inhaling her breakfast, completely ignoring the steam coming out of her mouth. She tries to inhale air with every bite to cool the food.
“What are we doing today?” Nanako asks curiously between bites. Suguru can see that both girls eat like they're in a hurry, but he doesn't blame them. They didn't have full, regular meals back in the village. As far as Suguru is concerned, they can have all the food they desire. He can teach them table manners another time.
“We'll go shopping today!” Satoru announces all excited, expecting a similar reaction from the twins. But they just look confused.
“What is shopping?” Mimiko asks. Right. They have never had proper contact with the outside world before. Both boys exchange a look before Suguru decides to talk.
“Shopping is when people go to a place called a store, to get things they need or want,” Suguru starts. “Like our food, for example. We get food from a store so that we can have something to eat at home.” The girls nod slowly, processing the new information.
“But today we will get you some clothes, toys and other stuff. That sound fun?” Satoru decides to help with explaining. Mimiko and Nanako nod again, a lot faster this time which is relieving for the boys.
Speaking of clothes, Suguru realizes that the twins aren't wearing the same outfits anymore. Instead of the dirty rags from before, they are wearing the basic training clothes given by the school; a plain T-shirt and shorts with the school's logo on it. Suguru assumes Satoru changed them before making their breakfast. And it seems like they were bathed too. How early did Satoru wake up? And how did he sleep through all of this?
After breakfast the boys clean up the kitchen before leaving, giving Suguru the chance to ask Satoru about the twins.
“Why didn't you wake me up? I could have helped with the girls,” Suguru says while drying the clean dishes with a towel.
“Didn't want to bother you, you were sleeping so peacefully,” Satoru replies as he closes the fridge. They are pretty much done with cleaning now and ready to go on a shopping spree with Mimiko and Nanako.
“Besides,” Satoru approaches, “it wasn't a big deal anyway. Shoko bathed them which took a while because we didn't want to scare them. And then I found those training clothes that are way too big for them, but they'll have to do it for now.”
“That's still a lot, thank you for everything. But I don't want you to feel obligated to be their nanny if you don't want to, you’re already busy enough.” As Jujutsu society's golden boy, Satoru has too many responsibilities for his age, he doesn't need two kids on top of all that. Especially since he wasn't the one who found them.
Satoru scrunches his nose, something he always does when he’s not happy about something. Suguru finds it endearing, but he would rather die than let the white-haired boy know because he would be very annoying about it.
“But I wanna be. I have no problem with being their nanny because I get to do it with you, Suguru,” Satoru is now whispering for a reason Suguru can't figure out right now.
“I gotta say though,” Satoru puts his arm around his shoulders, “I don't like nanny, it sounds too boring!” Suguru laughs. Only Satoru would care about such mundane things.
“Fine, call it whatever you want.”
— — —
Having children is very expensive. That's something Suguru realizes while all four of them are at the cash register of a huge retail store. 74.000 Yen just for clothes and shoes. And they haven't even bought anything else yet. Satoru already put himself in front of Suguru in order to pay with a card. A very wealthy looking card.
Suguru didn't grow up even remotely rich, so it was definitely a shock when Satoru showed him all of the cards in his wallet a couple of months ago. He still doesn't think that he can fathom how insanely rich he and the Gojo clan really are. Almost a hundred thousand Yen doesn't even put a scratch on Satoru's wealth. It's probably pocket change for him. Suguru on the other hand has just learned the difference between a debit and a credit card.
“What are you doing? I'm paying!” Suguru protests as he tries to get to the front of the counter, but with no success. Satoru has already paid, which earns him a punch to his ribs that he doesn't block with his infinity.
“That was harsh,” Satoru pouts as they walk towards the exit with their giant bags. Once outside, Nanako holds on to Suguru's wrist while Mimiko holds on to Satoru's. The girls look a little stumped from all the crowds everywhere but they don't want to finish shopping yet.
Mimiko and Nanako are slowly acclimating to the outside world. They are shy and slightly overwhelmed, but are still interested in everything. They like shopping and they are cooperative when it comes to trying out new things, which eases Suguru’s heavy heart momentarily.
“Deserved, since you wouldn't let me pay.” Suguru continues their quarrel. It's the same discussion every time when Satoru pays for something. Suguru has always been too proud to let someone else pay for his things and he feels guilty every time someone does. He knows that it isn't a big deal since Satoru has a seemingly infinite amount of money that he loves to share with him, but he still can't get this trait out of his system. He feels like he is using Satoru for his money. And he isn't, which he knows and even Satoru has reassured him more than once, but he can't help it. At least the girls have some clothes now.
Since the bags are becoming heavier by the minute, the group decides to go back to the car in order to put them in the trunk, before continuing with what Suguru deems the world's biggest shopping spree - for Satoru, a regular Tuesday afternoon. “I can finally feel my hands again,” Satoru mutters, which makes Suguru chuckle. They bought two whole wardrobes worth of clothes in just a few hours, so that the girls don't have to be exposed to all the daily chaos for too long, at least not for their first time. In just one day they went from living in a cage together, to living in a school with two teenagers who have little to no knowledge about childcare. At least Suguru and Satoru know that they would have to ease them into the world.
“Okay,” Suguru turns to the girls. “And now it's time for shoes.” The girls seem okay. It's early, so the stores are not as full which means less overwhelming noises for two little girls. The group continues their shopping. Now, it's all about shoes. Mimiko and Nanako don't have any preferences yet, so they say yes to pretty much any piece of clothing or any pair of shoes. However, they do like matching with each other. Matching purple pajamas, yellow hats and blue shoes. The teenagers think it's cute how connected they are. It also saves them a lot of time.
Before they end their little trip, they stop at a toy store to fill the girls’ dorm with toys and books.
“Woah,” Mimiko whispers, completely in disbelief. Nanako mirrors her sister's expression. They observe every single toy they come across. Satoru throws a bunch of different toys into the cart, quickly filling it up. “They don't know what they like yet so they should try a little bit of everything,” he reasons after Suguru looks at him with a puzzled look. This will be their most expensive purchase, Suguru can already tell.
After another agonizing hour, the quartet is finally done with shopping. Satoru calls his private driver and they start driving back to Jujutsu Tech. The girls are exhausted at this point, leaning on each other for support – a force of habit for those two.
“So girls, what do you think about today?” Satoru asks with a grin on his face.
“Best day ever!” Mimiko answers enthusiastically. Nanako nods violently in agreement.
A wave of relief washes over Suguru. He's more than glad that the girls enjoyed themselves without feeling too overstimulated.
The rest of the car ride is filled with Satoru blabbering about whatever comes to his mind. Mimiko and Nanako are trying their best to keep up with his fast pace. “Satoru, slow down,” Suguru decides to interject after a few minutes of monologue about unpacking all the newly acquired stuff.
“Right. Sorry girls,” Satoru apologizes light-heartedly, then continues at a more acceptable speed. This moment reminds Suguru of Shoko making fun of them because Satoru seems to listen to Suguru only. The term “kiss-ass” is Shoko's favorite way of describing Satoru when he's with Suguru. If anybody else told him to talk slower he would have probably talked even faster, just for the sake of being annoying.
“It's okay,” Nanako whispers, which earns her a smile from both boys.
— — —
Back in the dorms, the group is putting together the new room for the girls. The shelves are now filled with books, the desks are fully equipped with art supplies and both beds are covered in stuffed animals. Not to mention all the different toys lying around.
Most of the things in this room were paid by Satoru. Suguru only managed to pay for the books, arguably the least expensive items in comparison. And yet, this one shopping trip set him back months financially.
Once they’re done decorating, they look around to admire the end result. Suguru thinks it looks like every child's dream room. That thought solidified as the girls start grinning from ear to ear, running around the room, not knowing where to go first.
“We're happy you like it,” Suguru says and Satoru adds a light “Mhm.”
They leave the girls alone to enjoy their new room and head towards the kitchen to get started on dinner. Tonight they will make Yakisoba, a wheat noodle dish with vegetables and tofu.
“Today went better than I expected,” Satoru breaks the silence as he chops the cabbage haphazardly. He looks over to his best friend who is standing over the stove. Suguru, who was deep in thought, looks back at him and forces a little smile. “Yeah, they were really brave.”
Satoru doesn't continue the conversation. Instead, he turns back to the vegetables he's preparing. He can see Suguru is preoccupied about something, but he knows he won't say what bothers him. He leaves him be.
It doesn't take long until the food is ready and served. The four of them are sitting at the table and eating quietly until Mimiko and Nanako start bombarding them with questions again. And the boys are happy to answer every single one of them.
After the meal, the girls help with the dishes before running back to their room, leaving Satoru and Suguru alone in the kitchen. The room is filled with silence until Yaga enters with a blank face that none of them can decipher.
“I see you went shopping with the kids.”
“Yes, we got them some necessities,” Suguru replies while putting the leftovers in the fridge.
“And some toys so they don't get bored,” Satoru adds with a grin. Yaga nods.
“Okay,” the boys’ teacher continues, “I wanted to let you guys know I got them a spot at a kindergarten not far from here. They start on Monday.”
Both boys are surprised. How did Yaga get them into a kindergarten that fast?
“I thought kindergartens had insanely long waitlists, how did you do that?” Suguru asks.
“Don't overthink it, just thank me for saving your asses - again.” The boys know better than to annoy him when he's like this. “Thank you,” they obey in unison.
“I will give you the details later,” Yaga says as he leaves. Satoru glances over to his best friend. “I don't know either,” Suguru shrugs.
After dinner, the boys go to their own rooms, occasionally checking up on the girls and playing with them until bedtime. Tonight Suguru tucks them in. It's something his parents did when he was little and now he wants the girls to experience it too. It might help them to establish a routine, he figures.
“Will the bad people come to get us back?” Mimiko asks as Suguru covers her with the duvet. “No, they are far away,” he starts to comfort her, “You are safe now.” Suguru understands why she asked this. Sometimes, the brain doesn’t know when the trauma is over. Mimiko slowly nods.
“Okay, good night.”
“Sweet dreams.”
Suguru tip-toes out of the bedroom and heads towards his own. He can feel his head pounding. It's all too much. Every time he looks at the girls he thinks about that day in the village and how close he was to going crazy. What would he have done if Satoru hadn't been there? And what if something similar happens again? He starts panicking again until he hears a familiar voice. “Hey Suguru, everything alright?” Satoru's voice drills through Suguru's thoughts and brings him back to reality. He didn't even register Satoru coming into his room.
“Yeah, just tired,” he lies yet again. He can't help it because he doesn't feel like his feelings deserve to be said out loud. Shame consumes him after every irrational thought. He's just grateful that Satoru doesn't force him to talk, but he can clearly see it in his face that he’s hoping for it.
“I have something for you,” Satoru continues and pulls a book out of a bag. He must have bought it while they were shopping. He hands it over to Suguru and upon further inspection he realizes that it is not a book. It's a blank notebook, and not a cheap one at that. It has sturdy blue hardcovers and the pages feel thick. It's no surprise that Satoru Gojo takes the ridiculously expensive version of whatever he wants to buy.
“I got this for you, so you can write about the things that keep you up at night,” he explains in a calm voice. Suguru just stares at him. He doesn't know if he should be grateful or defensive. This feels too intimate. But he's going to stay silent for now.
“I know the incident in the village did a number on you,” Satoru continues, “so anything you can't say to me or Shoko, write it in here.”
Suguru decides to be grateful. Satoru is giving him a medium to process his problems which is very mature of him. Although he’s not sure if this will help a lost cause like him. Writing a diary can’t change the Jujutsu world.
“Wow,” he manages to blurt out, followed by a breathy laugh. “Thank you Satoru, I'll try.” Satoru gives him an appreciative nod.
“Okay then, I'm gonna go back to my room. Good night,” Satoru announces. And before Suguru is able to wish him a good night as well, he finds himself in a tight but fleeting embrace. It happened so quickly, that it felt like his mind was playing a trick on him. But he knows it’s real, because he could smell Satoru. A faint sweet smell that Suguru immediately recognizes.
Once the hug ends, Satoru leaves while Suguru stands frozen in the middle of his room. His brain flat-out malfunctions. He feels a mixture of shock and confusion, but his heart picks up the pace once he realizes what had just happened.
“What the fuck?” he mutters to himself.