Floating Like a Lilo ── Itadori Yuuji (✓)

10 WANTING TO LET GO OF THE PAIN

WHEN I GET BACK I'LL LAY AROUND
AND I'LL GET UP AND LAY BACK DOWN
ROMANTICISE A QUIET LIFE

i know the end,
phoebe bridgers

     Your dorm is illuminated by the dimming sunshine sifting through closed curtains, a shroud of darkness that reminds one of the lacking shadow behind a burning flame. It was a heavy blackness, but that did not give it the semblance of an omen as you had expected it to but a meandering warmth as you slept away in the comfort of your bed.

     After you had fainted, Gojo-sensei had Ijichi-san carry you back to your dorm, cackling at how his co-worker was slaving away. Hours trickled by slowly but soon you awake to an unknown sound.

     Someone's voice pierces the painful headache you have been burdened with, making your impenetrably heavy eyelids open a little.

     "Oh, [L/n]-san!"

     You turn to the side, shrugging it off, because it sounded too playful. It felt muffled as you listened, having blocked out so many things in your head.

     They don't relent, "Pst! [L/n]! I have a surprise!"

     Your eyelids flutter much like a dazed, iridescent butterfly, hues of [eye colour] swivelling and fixing on the figure on top of you in bed.

     "Itadori?!" Your eyes widen, and you scramble, feeling your back pressed against the wall.

     Itadori stares back at you and it leaves you chasing the clouds for breaths. Ivory flecks his face with warmth and a hint of fresh air, as if ichor pulses through his veins from the vibrant smile he gives you. He is no longer a simply memory silhouetted tightly to your soul, as if he can finally breathe again. He's no longer a ghost smiling away in dead ends of the labyrinthine mind.

     Your heart skips a beat - did you miss him more than most? He felt like the moon melting to fill your hollow heart with silver, a metaphorical mercury poisoning; maybe love was poison after all. As you look at him, you know it's not love because that word is too big and heavy for the little rushes of adrenaline. Even though your cheeks burn whenever he looks your way, or you smile back at him when you watch those lips tug upwards, this was just a crush. And, just as the name suggests, maybe this emotion will eventually come to destroy you.

     "Surprise!" He grins, a thin-lipped smile that covers the width of his face. "Gojo-sensei told me you fainted but I hope you're feeling better."

     You suddenly take his hand, struggling to contain your burst of tears upon realising he was alive. A thin aura outlines your figure as you feel the weight of his cursed bones and the blood singing hymns as it moves across his body.

     "Me?! I'm more concerned about you!" You splutter, rendered speechless and how close he was to you. "You died!"

     You had admired his lips from far, like how he bit them when deep in thought or chewed on the end of his pencil during class. Those lips were inches away from yours and they are steeped in acetone, polished to a brim and perfected every possible shade of diluted pink.

     "It feels good to be back," He smiles, lifting his hand for a high-five and you do the same.

     His touch isn't devoid, as if you were looking at a corpse - it's brimming with fiery humbled, confidence. It made you think that death was biting at his heels from the shadows, curled up and struggling to strangle the life out of the carefree teenager before you. Itadori's perseverance was unlike no other, strengthened by a promise to a dead loved one.