The Strongest | ɢᴏᴊᴏ ꜱᴀᴛᴏʀᴜ

Chapter 5

I startle out of my sleep and am momentarily disoriented. The room is dark, but the curtains aren't drawn, and the window is opened so I can feel the cool summer breeze on my burning cheeks, and the moon illuminates the room. My heart is pounding, and I'm sweating as if I've just woken up from a nightmare I don't remember. My head still feels a little foggy, and my mouth is as dry as sandpaper.

"Are you awake?"

The soft voice makes me jump, which sends a sharp pain through my spine. "Gojo?" I ask, then lick my lips to moisten them.

He appears in the faint moonlight, and he's not smiling. He frowns just a little, but it forms a crease between his brows and destroys that smooth and perfect face. Despite the lack of light, his eyes feel like they're shining. I curse at my brain for not remembering what happened. I remember that he somehow got me here, but everything else is a blur.

"Were you awake the entire time?" I ask, and he nods, making my eyes widen a little. He was watching me sleep? Or just watching over me? I don't know which is weirder.

Without me even having to tell him, Gojo moves across the room and vanishes into the darkness for a moment before coming back with a glass of sparkling water. My arm feels heavier than usual when I take the glass from him, and my head feels almost impossible to lift off the pillow.

I drink, sip by sip, and when the glass is empty, Gojo's long fingers take it from me, grazing mine before I pull my hand away.

I watch him walk away again, into the darkness, and I can hear the sound of the glass being refilled. "What are you doing here?" I ask, genuinely confused.

"This is my room," he replies and comes back, then sets the glass on the bedside table. "Your keycard is in your jacket, and I didn't want to molest you by searching for it. Besides, it was faster to get you here, and you were already falling asleep, so I would have had to carry you down the hallway. I didn't feel like doing that."

I raise my eyebrows. "You didn't feel like it?" I repeat in disbelief, but what I really want to ask is... was he really awake for the entire night? Was he checking that I was still alive? Or is he just some creep who likes to watch women sleep? Even though I kind of want to believe that, I really can't. Gojo might be the bane of my existence, but he's not a creep. Not like that, at least. He's someone who would sacrifice his own sleep to make sure the wounded woman in his bed is okay.

"Thank you," I mumble when this realization comes to me.

The room is dark, but I can see his face stretch into a wide smile, and I'm already regretting having said that. "What did you just say?"

I roll my eyes even though it hurts. "Don't push it."

Goio laughs out loud once, then chuckles a little and leans down, so he's bent over ninety degrees and hovering just above me. I push my head back into the pillow and scrunch my nose. When he blinks, it looks as if he's doing it in slow-motion, and I think time is messing with me. I have to stop breathing just because I don't want him to smell what I might smell like. My stupid cheeks heat up again, but it's just because I'm wrapped in a blanket.

"You're welcome," the sorcerer says in this annoyingly seductive voice and how dare he smile like that and bat his eyelashes like that and how dare he? "Now go back to sleep. Your body needs a little more rest before you're healed."

He stands back up, I breathe out and narrow my eyes as he retreats back into the shadows. "You should sleep too, you know?" I say after him.

Gojo chuckles again. "There's no need to worry about me. I've gone longer without sleep."

The sentence makes me frown. "I'm not worried about you," I snap back. "I just don't like the thought of you watching me sleep."

"Oh, believe me, I don't find joy in watching you sleep either, occupying my bed and staining it with your blood. Thank you for that, by the way."

My jaw drops, and I glare at the darkness where his voice is coming from, offended. I know I shouldn't get up right now, but if this is what he wants... I raise myself up and move to get out of the bed, but Gojo is by my side in an instant and pushes my shoulder back into the mattress.

"Don't be ridiculous and just lie down," he snaps before I can open my mouth to protest. "You didn't listen to me yesterday and look where that got you, so now just do as you're told."

Narrowing my eyes is the only thing I can manage before he walks away again. Wherever he's going, I can't see him. I can't even tell if he's sitting or standing, and that's annoying me.

"At least come where I can see you," I say.

Gojo has the audacity to sigh, but he moves the chair closer to the window so I can see him sitting down on it. "Who wants to watch whom now, huh?"

I roll my eyes, aware that he can't see me. But then he sighs again, and I think maybe he can. No, that's silly. Surely his six eyes can't see across a dark room...

Realizing how dumb that sounds, I pull the blanket up to my chin and close my eyes. I take a deep breath. It's too hot. I'm still wearing my uniform and it's summer and I'm wrapped in a blanket and it's too hot. I push the blanket down to my waist, ignoring Gojo. He's not even looking at me, just pointedly looking out of the window.

Then I make the mistake of not ignoring him. The light coming through the window makes his eyelashes look almost translucent, and his eyes are bluer than I've ever seen them. There's a soft wind coming into the room, and it's moving the silver hair that's resting on his forehead. His skin is so smooth and pale and perfect and -

I look away, then turn to my side, my back to him. The position makes my spine scream in pain, and I remember the cursed spirit throwing me into the wall. How stupid it was of me to take it on alone without any backup. Who knows what could have happened to me. I always thought I was a great sorcerer, but apparently, I'm not. I'm not like Nanami or Shoko, and I'm definitely not like Gojo. Then again, is anyone?

"Are you ever going to fall asleep again?" he asks from his seat at the window.

I don't know if he's still looking outside or at me now, but I don't turn my head to find out. "Yes. If you shut up for once."

Silence fills the room, and it's so uncomfortable and suffocating that I roll to my back again, which makes Gojo snap. "Just stay still!"

"Your stupid bed isn't comfortable," I snap back because I know that the real reason I can't sleep is because he's here, looking better than I'd like to admit.

The man turns his head to look at me, and our eyes meet. His look so blue and so annoyed. "It's the same bed as yours," he says.

"No, it's not. This one is molded to your body."

"I haven't even slept in it yet!" His voice is rising. "You're driving me crazy!"

I put on a sweet smile that makes him grit his teeth. "You're regretting having saved me right now, aren't you?"

Gojo groans and puts his face in his hands. "Yaga would have killed me if I came back after one day to tell him you're dead."

I wish he was sitting in the darkness again, and I wish he'd shut up. I knew he didn't save me because he wanted to and rather because he had to, but that doesn't make it any easier to actually hear him say it. What was I expecting? That he would miss my constant nagging and complaining? Our little fights in the hallway? Or our big fights? Making a fool of each other in the cafeteria? What, really? What was I thinking? Would I miss that? Probably not...

He looks up again and sighs. "Stop thinking," he says, making me scared for a second that I said any of this out loud. "I can't fight with anyone like I fight with you. Now sleep, for the love of God. Sleep."