CRYING DURING SEX; CHAPTER VI
synopsis: blue haunts you everywhere. in the ocean. in his favorite shirt. in the awful bright sky. you realize you can’t cage birds meant to roam free but satoru doesn’t want to be free
word count:
content: gojo satoru x fem!reader, MDNI (18+ ONLY), TW! SA, TW! scide ideations, college au, friends with benefits, s3x worker gojo satoru, miscommunication, ANGST, trauma, alcoholic gojo, addictions, YEARNING, insecurities, casual sex
notes: do not read if u have sxual trauma, explicit mentions of sa. mentions of scuidal ideation. MY IDIOTS IN LOVE.
MASTERLIST - MOODBOARD - CHAPTER I, CHAPTER II, CHAPTER III, CHAPTER IV ,CHAPTER V, CHAPTER VII
I.
Summer passed quickly.
You didn't see Satoru nor did you hear from him. The silence was its own kind of violence, loud and consuming and everywhere.
You told yourself it was better this way.
Told yourself you were moving on.
Told yourself a lot of things that tasted like lies.
Fall semester started with new classes and the illusion of fresh starts.
That's when you met him, Kaito.
Sits two rows ahead in your sociology lecture. Nice smile, normal, the kind of guy who asks if you want to get coffee after class, who actually means coffee, who doesn't come with sharp edges and self-destruction.
You said yes because why not? Because Satoru had made his choice and it wasn't you and you were tired of cold sheets and unanswered texts and loving someone who couldn't love themselves.
Kaito is nice, that’s the word that keeps coming up.
Nice.
He pays for dates without making it a thing, send you goodnight texts and kisses you like he means it but not like he's trying to prove something.
The sex is okay. Fine.
Good, even, if you don't think too hard about it which you try not to.
You try not to think about how it's different, how Kaito touches you like you're precious and how he makes you cum but it doesn't feel like falling apart.
Sometimes you close your eyes and see white hair and blue eyes.
You feel guilty after.
Wash your hands like you've done something wrong, like thinking about Satoru while Kaito is inside you is a betrayal even though technically you and Satoru were never—
You were never anything, that's what you tell yourself.
But the blue follows you, haunts you.
In the ocean when Kaito takes you to the beach that one weekend.
In his favorite t-shirt that he leaves at your place.
In the awful bright autumn sky that makes you squint and remember standing in the cold outside school watching Satoru disappear.
You realize something in October when the leaves are turning and Kaito holds your hand walking across campus: you can't cage birds that were meant to roam free.
Some people aren't built for staying, some people are all flight and no landing.
You think you've made peace with it.
You haven't.
II.
Satoru doesn't want to be free.
He wants a cage, he wants walls.
Wants something to hold him together because he's coming apart at the seams and there's no one watching and nothing stopping him.
Everything is wrong.
It has been wrong since that night outside your door when you held his hand and he had to let go.
Since summer started and he realized you weren't calling anymore, weren’t texting and had finally given up on him like everyone else.
He gets meaner.
Girls approach him at parties and he tells them to fuck off.
Things he's never done before because being wanted was currency and you don't turn down currency but he can't anymore.
He can’t pretend,can’t perform.
The mask is cracking and underneath there's nothing but static.
He takes more jobs, more strangers.
Different beds but same emptiness.
He goes through the motions—undresses, gets on his knees, closes his eyes and goes somewhere else.
It happens on a Monday.
Some guy's apartment. Older. Businessman type.
"On your knees," the guy says.
Satoru's knees hit the floor, he’s done this before, done this a hundred times.
But today something's different, today when the guy unzips his pants, Satoru's stomach turns.
"I don't—" He stops then tries again. "Can we do something else?"
"What?"
"Just.. not this. Anything else."
The guy's face changes. "The fuck you mean not this? You think I'm paying you to be picky?"
"I'm not… I just—"
The punch comes fast, catches him on the nose. Pain explodes white-hot and immediate.
Blood tastes like copper on his tongue.
"You'll do what I paid for," the guy says.
His hand is in Satoru's hair, pulling. "Open your mouth."
Satoru opens his mouth.
He's somewhere else.
Not here. Not in this apartment with blood running down his face and a stranger's cock in his throat. He's—
He's thinking about you, your hands in his hair, gentle, your voice saying his name.
He's thinking about death.
He's been thinking about death a lot lately.
About the bottle of pills in his bathroom cabinet. About how many it would take mixed with the vodka under his bed.
About the bridge he walks across every day to get to class.
About how tall it is.
About how quick it would be.
About whether anyone would notice, whether anyone would care.
Whether you would care.
The guy finishes and pulls out.
Satoru coughs, gags, tastes blood and semen and self-hatred.
Money on the counter.
The door closing.
Silence.
Satoru sits on the bathroom floor.
His nose is probably broken,deserves to be broken.
He looks at himself in the mirror: blood on his face, bruise already forming, eyes that look like his mother's—and thinks:
This is what you're worth, this is all you'll ever be.
He thinks about the bridge, about how the water would feel.
Cold.
Peaceful, maybe, in a way nothing else has been.
He thinks about you, wonders if you ever think about him, wonders if you've moved on.
Wonders if you're better off.
Knows you are.
III.
Shoko invites you to a party in November.
It’s a house party, off-campus.
Its the kind with too many people and not enough ventilation.
You almost say no but Kaito wants to go and you're trying, trying to be normal, to be the kind of person who goes to parties and has fun and doesn't spend every quiet moment thinking about blue.
The house is packed, bodies everywhere.
Music too loud.
Someone's already thrown up in the front yard.
Kaito holds your hand and navigates through the crowd and you follow because that's what you do now.
Follow. Be followed. Be with someone who stays.
You're getting a drink in the kitchen when you feel it, the hair on the back of your neck standing up.
You turn and:
Satoru.
He’s across the room, leaning against a wall with a red cup in his hand.
He looks different, thinner.
There's a bruise on his face that looks old, fading yellow-green and his eyes are hollow.
He's staring at you.
The room goes quiet even though the music is still playing.
Everyone else disappears and it’s just him, just those eyes.
Kaito says something but don't hear it.
Can't hear anything except the blood rushing in your ears.
Satoru's eyes move and land on Kaito, on his arm around your waist, on the way you're standing close. Couple close, together close.
Something crosses Satoru's face like you've reached into his chest and torn something vital out.
Then he's moving, pushing through the crowd and heading for the door.
"I'll be right back," you tell Kaito.
Don't wait for a response, you’re already following.
Already running. Always running after him.
Outside.
Cold November air that burns your lungs.
You see him halfway down the walkway.
"Satoru!"
He stops but doesn’t turn around.
"Satoru, wait—"
"Don't, just don't."
"Don't what? Don't talk to you? Don't care about you?"
You're moving closer, can see your breath in the air between you.
“You disappeared, you left, I waited and you never—"
"I know."
He turns, his eyes are red.
“I know, okay? I know I fucked up. I know I'm a piece of shit. You don't have to tell me."
"Then why did you leave like that?"
"Because that's what I do."
He laughs.
"You're better off. Look at you, you moved on, got yourself a nice normal boyfriend who probably doesn't—" He stops. "Who's good for you."
"You don't know what's good for me."
"I know I'm not." He takes a step back, creating distance.
"Go back inside, go back to your boyfriend... just be happy and forget about me."
The cold is seeping through your jacket.
Your nose is going numb.
Your lips feel chapped.
You watch Satoru watching you and think about birds.
"Is that what you want?" Your voice comes out smaller than you meant it to. "For me to forget about you?"
"Yeah," he says. "That's what I want."
"You're lying."
"Does it matter?" He's backing away,already leaving.
“You got what you wanted. Someone who stays, who's not—" He gestures at himself. "This."
"Satoru—"
"I'm happy for you," he says. "Really, you deserve someone good."
Then he's walking away, down the sidewalk and into the dark.
You stand there on the porch, frozen.
Your boyfriend is inside waiting.
Your life is inside waiting, normal and safe and exactly what you thought you wanted.
But all you can see is Satoru disappearing.
Again.
Always disappearing.
The cold settles into your bones.
You think about summer, autumn, three months of trying to move on, how you can't cage something that doesn't want to be caught.
You think maybe you don't want to be caught either.
You go back inside.
Kaito asks if you're okay and you say yes.
You're getting good at lying, getting good at pretending.
Later that night, he kisses you goodnight at your door. Hes sweet, gentle, everything Satoru never was.
You go inside. Lie in bed in the dark.
You close your eyes and see blue.
Some birds aren't meant to be caged and some people aren't meant to be saved.
You just wish you'd figured that out before you fell in love with one.
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