Work Text:
Suguru stumbles when he absorbs the last curse. He’s exhausted, his side is aching from the hit he took halfway through the battle and his stomach is revolting with how many curses he had to take in today.
The mission went fine, but Suguru would still say everything is shit right now. He just hopes Satoru didn’t see because he’s going to make fun of him in that way that means he’s honestly worried and Suguru doesn’t know if he can find the strength to lie convincingly to him today.
“You okay, Suguru?” Satoru asks just on cue and Suguru waves him off, too busy trying to keep from throwing up from the vile taste the last curse left behind.
Usually all the curses taste the same, but Suguru thinks this one is worse than the others.
He really must be exhausted.
“Well, then let’s go for crepes!” Satoru excitedly says and drapes himself over Suguru’s back. “There’s a shop close to here, I think,” he mutters, already scrolling through his phone and Suguru wonders where he gets the energy to do anything right about now.
“I’d rather go home,” Suguru admits, his stomach still twisting and turning and just the thought of crepes makes bile rise in his throat.
“It’s on the way, though, I promise,” Satoru says and shoves his phone into Suguru’s face. “See? We can take that way home, and pass the shop. We get a quick little crepe to go and before you know it, we’re home and you can play hermit in your room.”
Suguru lets out a weary sigh. It’s hard to say no to Satoru when he presents things to him like that—it’s hard for Suguru to say no to Satoru no matter what—but he resents the last statement.
“Not everyone is invincible, you know. Some of us need sleep.” He intended to sound more stern, but it comes out weary and tired. It still doesn’t stop Satoru from digging his bony chin into his shoulder.
“And you’ll sleep better with a full stomach,” Satoru immediately replies and Suguru can’t even deny that he’s right.
It would probably help to get something into him but still, the thought of food right now makes him clench his teeth together in an attempt not to throw up right then and there.
“Fine,” Suguru sighs out, like he always knew he would, and Satoru laughs in victory. “But get off me,” Suguru complaints when Satoru jostles him so much in the process that his stomach turns again.
He shoves him off, and pretends not to see Satoru’s pout.
“Lead the way,” he gruffly tells Satoru. “And if you take more than two minutes deciding what you want at the shop I’m going to leave,” he then threatens, even though they both damn well know he won’t.
He would never just walk away from Satoru.
“They have their menu online, I’ll just decide on the way,” Satoru says, his nose buried in his phone to concoct the most revolting combination of toppings, no doubt.
By the time they arrive at the little shop, Satoru is still furiously muttering under his breath, clearly not at all decided on what he wants to order and Suguru sighs. He orders first—just a crepes with a little bit of chocolate for the taste—and by the time Satoru is done he has already finished his crepes.
“Knew you’d wait for me,” Satoru says with a way too satisfied grin and Suguru laments the fact that he didn’t just walk away, especially when he sees the monstrosity Satoru is carrying.
The toppings are all wobbling dangerously and Suguru can already see them all falling down, but Satoru chomps down on them without a care in the world. It would be nauseating but the food did help to settle Suguru’s stomach somewhat and at least the vile taste is gone from his mouth.
Now all that’s left is his exhaustion and the aching side, which is a win in his book, even when Satoru bumps right into him, making pain shoot up his ribcage.
Satoru munches on, but his eyes are fixed on Suguru over the rim of his glasses, intense and knowing, and Suguru quickly looks away.
“What?” he still asks and Satoru hums.
“You’re not okay,” he simply says once he demolished his crepes and licks his fingers. “You need to see Shoko?”
Suguru wants to say no, wants to pretend that he’s just as invincible as Satoru but the throbbing in his side is proof that he’s not.
“Probably,” he finally admits and Satoru simply nods.
Suguru somehow always expects him to turn away from him when he admits things like that, because he cannot keep up with Satoru, but it never happens.
“Then let’s go,” he easily says, dragging Suguru along by his arm but he’s more careful about it, clearly trying not to jostle Suguru too much.
Sometimes, Suguru doesn’t know how to handle his kindness at all.
~*~*~
“I’m thinking cake today,” Satoru says, stretching his back lazily as if they didn’t just put down a Grade One curse and Suguru has to press the back of his hand to his mouth to not throw up.
He swears they taste worse with every day.
Suguru mutely shakes his head because there is no way he’s going to be able to keep cake—or anything, really—down but Satoru has turned away from him and conveniently doesn’t see.
“This way, my friend!” he yells out and simply walks off into a specific direction.
He must have scoped out the place before they even came here, Suguru thinks with despair, and he plays with the thought of simply letting Satoru walk away without following him and instead returning home immediately, to curl up in his bed, hoping the nausea will pass.
Before he’s even done imagining that scenario his feet started to walk on their own, and it’s decidedly not into the direction of home, but after Satoru.
Suguru briefly closes his eyes but then gives in.
“You’re so selfish, Satoru,” he mutters and Satoru flips him off for it.
Suguru really has to learn to not go along with every single one of Satoru’s whims but he knows that today is not that day.
“The cake is supposed to be so good, though,” Satoru says, slowing down so Suguru can fall into step next to him. “You’ll see, you’ll like it.”
Suguru doubts that very much because the taste of vomit and shit is still on his tongue but he doesn’t tell Satoru that.
“You’ll rot your teeth away by the time you hit twenty if you’re not careful,” Suguru mumbles and Satoru shrugs.
“It’ll give Shoko something to do,” he says with a wide grin and bumps their shoulders together. “You think we should bring her a slice as well?”
“Might as well,” Suguru sighs out because Shoko is stuck at school more days than not and she’d probably enjoy some cake.
“Great. It’s your treat then,” Satoru mischievously says and then runs off before Suguru can slap him over the head for it.
Suguru follows much slower, his stomach still too upset for anything even remotely to running but of course Satoru lets him catch up.
The cakes do look good, when they finally make it there, and Suguru has to admit that his stomach settles somewhat after eating a slice. It definitely settles enough for him to argue with Satoru for close to half an hour over what cake to bring Shoko only to pay for an entire ensemble of slices.
“Next time it’s your treat,” Suguru grumbles because he doesn’t quite understand how it came to this but Satoru only grins that devastatingly beautiful smile he has and Suguru knows that they’ll have this exact same fight next time as well.
He pointedly doesn’t think about the fact that there definitely will be a next time because it would be akin to admitting just how weak he is to every one of Satoru’s whims.
There could be worse people to be weak to, though, Suguru thinks as Satoru hangs off his shoulder even while they walk.
~*~*~
“Rise and shine, grumpy!” Satoru yells as he barges into Suguru’s room without even knocking.
“Go the fuck away,” Suguru mutters into his pillow and pulls the blanket more firmly around him.
It’s one of their rare days off and Suguru intended to spend it in bed, sleeping to his heart’s content but clearly Satoru has different plans.
“Nope,” Satoru sing-songs and flops down on top of him.
Suguru is glad the blanket is hiding his face, because he’s sure it must be bright red. Satoru is in his bed and Suguru shouldn’t even be thinking about this.
“Yes,” Suguru gruffly gives back but of course it has no effect on Satoru.
“We have plans for today,” Satoru informs him and pokes his head through the blanket.
“Yes,” Suguru agrees. “And those plans involve staying in and sleeping. I’m not leaving this room and I am definitely not leaving this room to get more sweets. Go on your own.”
“Aw, Suguru, are you a grumpy person in the morning? That’s adorable,” Satoru laughs out.
Suguru has to bite his tongue because ‘You’re adorable’ is not a good comeback to that and so he instead opts to roll over in an attempt to shove Satoru off the bed.
It fails, of course, and when Satoru worms his way under the blanket Suguru surrenders to his fate.
“What?” he snaps out when Satoru won’t stop staring at him and Suguru realises that he must have pocketed his glasses before he slipped into bed. He tries not to think too hard on that, because it makes his heart do funny things, to think about how Satoru intended to do this all along.
“We’re going out. There’s a place I want to check out,” Satoru declares and his voice leaves no room for argument, though Suguru still tries.
“I am sick and tired of checking out more places,” he grumbles.
“Nah, you’ll love this one,” Satoru says with utmost conviction and it’s intriguing enough for Suguru to raise an eyebrow.
“Oh, will I now?”
“Yep,” Satoru immediately says. “But—you’ll have to get up,” he then says and Suguru has a split second to notice the mischievous sparkle in his eyes before he’s being shoved off the bed.
“Ouch, Satoru, what the hell,” he wheezes out, his side aching slightly from the impact with the ground and when he looks up at Satoru, he sees him sitting up in his bed, blanket pulled around himself and he looks so cosy and adorable that Suguru wants to do something stupid, like reach out and hug him or maybe even kiss him.
He looks away instead.
“We’re on a time table, here, so get your ass going. We’ll be leaving in fifteen.”
“This is worse than going on a mission,” Suguru grumbles under his breath but he gets up and leaves for the bathroom.
He doubts Satoru will let him crawl back into bed and the sooner he goes along with whatever nonsense Satoru has planned the earlier he’ll be back in his own room.
They are on their way to the city thirteen minutes later and Satoru looks way too pleased by that. Suguru really is too weak when it comes to him.
“Where are we going?” Suguru asks when they continue to walk for longer than he expected and by now his stomach is grumbling a little.
He wonders if the sweets he’s surely going to have to ingest soon are going to upset his stomach if he eats them first thing in the morning, but he probably should have thought about that earlier. It’s way too late now.
“You’ll see,” Satoru cryptically says and Suguru sighs.
“You’re a menace,” he tells him and Satoru simply grins at him.
Suguru wants to trace that grin with his fingers. Or maybe even his lips.
“If the food is not good, I’ll be leaving immediately,” Suguru grumbles out, tearing his eyes away from Satoru.
“Who said anything about food?” Satoru gives back and Suguru frowns at him.
“You said we’re checking out a place. When you say that it always means food!”
“Not today,” Satoru grins and then suddenly stops without warning. “Shit, you didn’t have breakfast yet. Wait here.”
Between one blink and the next he’s gone, and Suguru wonders if anyone ever told him to not needlessly teleport to places. Probably not, though, and even if—it’s not as if Satoru is going to listen to that.
Suguru waits for less than five minutes before Satoru appears next to him again, sandwiches in his hands.
“Here you go.” He shoves one at Suguru and he notes with surprise that it’s his favourite.
“Thank you.”
“Sure thing,” Satoru easily says and then drags Suguru along the path once more.
They banter for the rest of the walk, until Satoru finally comes to a stop and expectantly looks at Suguru. But the sight in front of him makes Suguru speechless.
“This is a flea market,” he finally says. “For books.”
“Yes,” Satoru agrees as if it should be obvious, and it kind of should be with all the books around but—
“You don’t like books. You don’t even read.”
“But you do,” Satoru says, as if that is explanation enough, as if it’s as easy as that, and Suguru turns towards him.
“Why?”
“Because I keep pestering you with things I want to do after missions, so I thought this is only fair.”
Suguru opens his mouth, closes it, takes a deep breath and then tries again.
“It helps though,” he admits. “What you do after missions. The food.”
He’s not sure how to explain it to Satoru in a way that doesn’t make him worry for the foreseeable future but when Satoru’s grin turns into something soft, Suguru knows he doesn’t have to.
“I know,” he simply says and Suguru blinks at him.
“How?”
“You get this—look that only lifts after we ate something,” Satoru explains and reaches out to touch his fingers to the corner of Suguru’s mouth, before he moves up to brush them under his eyes. “Your eyes get all pinched and the corners of your mouth turn down. And you lose colour. They don’t taste good, the curses, do they?”
“They don’t,” he whispers out, completely caught off guard that Satoru notices these things about him.
“I thought some sweets might help,” Satoru says and scratches the back of his head as if he’s embarrassed all of a sudden. “Don’t get me wrong, the sweets help me replenish energy as well but it’s not as if I couldn’t just eat at home. But you don’t, I know that. You go straight to bed and then you feel worse when you get up, so I thought—”
“I’m in love with you,” Suguru blurts out because he’s an idiot and in love and he cannot handle this side of Satoru at all.
He’s not used to someone paying this much attention to him, and then doing things for him. It’s all Satoru’s fault, really.
Satoru blinks at him and right about now Suguru really wishes he knew how to teleport as well, because being anywhere else would be preferable right now.
At least until a blinding smile breaks out on Satoru’s face and suddenly Suguru can breathe again.
“I should hope so,” he says like the insufferable brat he is, “because I’m not doing these things for just anyone, you know.”
His voice speaks of confidence but Suguru knows him better than that. The minute shaking in his fingers when Suguru reaches out to thread their fingers together speak a different language after all.
“Thank you, Satoru,” Suguru says, smiling brightly at him with his heart beating fast in his chest and he loves to see the faint flush on Satoru’s face.
“Yeah, yeah,” Satoru stutters, clearly caught off guard but then he tightens his grip on Suguru’s hand, determination in his gaze. “Just, in case it wasn’t clear, I’m in love with you, too.”
“The books might have given you away,” Suguru teases him and proceeds to drag him onto the market, not letting go of his hand at all.
Satoru complaints the entire time they spend on the market, just like Suguru usually complains the entire time after a mission when they go get something sweet to eat, but Satoru doesn’t pull his hand away once, not even when Suguru would need two to check out a book.
And Suguru wouldn’t have it any other way.