𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ↝ getō suguru

𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙴𝙴

[MAY, 2007]

iii. DESCENT

──────

GETO HAD BECOME QUEITER, LESS ACTIVE, LESS AFFECTIONATE, LESS— THERE.

it had been such a slow transition that you almost hadn't noticed it at first. so silent that maybe an small insect crawling by would've been more noticeable. but once the realisation came crashing down upon you, the difference was as stark as gold and mud. 

guilt had stricken you then too. your own boyfriend was suffering and you had not noticed, too enveloped in new missions and honing your skills, to notice suguru's change in demeanour.

you had been spending increasingly less time around suguru. not of your own volition of course, but it was as if a distance was growing between you two and you felt powerless in stopping it. 

yaga was beginning to send the second years on more solo missions, too. you assumed that your teacher had deemed that enough time had passed since the incident and so the four of you had been receiving individual missions. 

with each mission, gojo returned more confident, seemingly edging closer to perfection with his new techniques. 

it was an aura that he gave off. 

it was in his gaze, it was in his walk too. he seemed to exude his new found strength with every movement. you silently wondered if satoru's new found strength played a factor in suguru's descent. as if their strengths were tethered to one another, like a scale that need to remain balanced lest it be tipped.

shoko, on the other hand, was never really assigned dangerous tasks to begin with, most likely due to the nature of her cursed technique being a more defensive technique. yet you noticed that she still had made some improvements with her reversed cursed technique.

geto, however, returned supposedly fine each time. tired, yes, but unharmed.

and that was what had deceived you.

in your love for suguru, you had dismissed the cost of his strength. you knew geto would always be able to exorcise the curses with ease, but that did not mean it had no toll. it was like a small fragment of his soul was lost with each mission.

on the surface, geto appeared more lethargic. his reactions had become more delayed and his responses, more blunt. 

but in the evenings and nights that you spent together, the price he was paying became more evident in not only his behaviour but his reasoning.

much like now.

geto sat opposite you on his bed. his legs were brought up to his chest and his arms encased them, hugging tightly as if it offered solace. he rested his head in the dip between his knees, leaning to one side. you sat cross-legged, resting on the wooden backrest as you listened to the words that spilt from suguru's lips.

"y/n– i don't get it..." suguru's words were muffled slightly by his knees but you still caught on.

you furrowed your brows slightly in confusion but allowed your body to slump back on the wooden slab as you centred your gaze on geto.

"why– do we have to do these things, y/n?" geto's voice was quite as he spoke. his hazel eyes did not meet yours as he spoke but instead they remained fixed, almost enchanted, on the distance between his body and yours.