reina-tries-2-write

[reina-tries-2-write]

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 13: Reverberation

SYNOPSIS: You and Toge are sent out on a mission to exorcise a sound based curse but, as per your luck, something goes wrong.

WC: 2.3K

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You and Toge were called out on a mission today to exorcise a curse that was known to have sound based abilities. It was speculated by the sparse details on it that the two of you would be perfect for this mission. Nitta drives the two of you off to an warehouse that is filled with stacks of metal shipping containers. This was the best place for a sound based curse to be; somewhere nice and echoey.

Great.

It made you a little nervous but Toge didn’t seem particularly bothered which helped you relax. Toge followed you through the maze of containers as the curse got louder and louder to you.

Peering around a container, you spotted the curse. It was pretty damn big and was covered in mouths, most of which were clearly emitting noises you couldn’t hear. Toge helped formulate a plan with you which involved flanking it. Your usual plan was Toge told it to freeze and you got in close to exorcise it with your dagger. This had worked for the two of you many times and despite the original failure the day you first heard him, Toge was willing to continue with the plan.

After a nod to confirm the plan, you and Toge each leapt out from behind the container, each sprinting off in a different direction to flank the creature. Despite not having any visible eyes, the thing clearly spots Toge and you watch one of the mouths open wider than before.

You can feel whatever sound the curse made, the waves reverberating in your chest and vibrating your whole body. As the sound washed over you, you looked over to check on Toge and he immediately stops in his tracks, covering his ears as he drops to his knees in pain. You rush over to make sure he’s okay and you notice something out of the corner of your eye as you do.

Another mouth opens and you feel soundwaves directed at you and they wash over you as you get closer to the curse. You begin to manipulate the cursed energy in the area to both protect Toge and reflect the curse’s noises back at itself. Along with having countless mouths, the curse had eight or ten legs that it was using to scuttle around a lot faster than you would have liked.

At one point, right before you can get in close enough to exorcise the damn thing, one of it’s legs kicks you backwards into a metal container. The impact knocks the wind out of you and you drop down to the floor as you regain your breath. Other than a sore back, you were fine but Toge clearly thought otherwise and moved his hands to unzip his collar which let you see his bleeding ears.

Damn this curse must be loud.

Something in you knows Toge shouldn’t use his cursed speech. The way the sound waves the curse was emitting felt and the way it was moving around instinctually spelled disaster for you. But you were currently struggling to breathe so you couldn’t shout a warning to him. Toge leaps up off his knees and unzips his collar, shouting a command at the curse right as you regain your bearings.

“TWIST!”

You feel the energy and vibrations from his command and watch the curse move back a little bit as the command hits it. But your horror, Toge’s command bounces off the curse, racing right back toward him. You watched the soundwaves kick up some dust on the ground as they headed for Toge in slow motion for you.

You try to summon a barrier between him and the soundwaves but you’re too slow and his own command affects him.

His right leg contorts in a painful and almost grotesque way as he falls to the ground. Unable to move from his position and clearly crying out in pain, the curse takes this as it’s opportunity to do god knows what to him.

But you’re already on the way over.

Leaping into the air, you kick out at the curse as it dives for Toge and you divert it’s path, stomping it into the ground away from him. It flings you off it before you can stab it but you catch yourself, digging your heels into the concrete and rushing it once more.

Your fight with the curse feels like it takes hours but four minutes after you spotted it, you were finally able to exorcise it. You channeled as much cursed energy into your dagger as you could and rushed the curse who was once again, targeting Toge, clearly sensing his vulnerability. Leaping over him since he was still on the ground, you landed between him and the curse, launching your dagger at it.

The blade sunk into the curse up to its hilt and it dropped to the floor before it began to fizzle out into nothingness.

You turn and rush over to Toge who is gritting his teeth in pain and holding his injured leg. His pant-leg covers up the more grotesque part you were glad you didn’t see but his foot was facing the wrong direction and it was obvious that his femur and knee were really messed up.

Fuck.

You had recently started learning how to use cursed energy to heal injuries and while you hadn’t been completely successful at healing anything, you still wanted to try. Toge was in a ton of pain and you just couldn’t sit there and do nothing.

“Can I try and help?” You ask, hands held out at the ready

Toge shakes his head and signs back. “No. It’s really bad. Need Shoko ASAP.”

You nod and after retrieving your dagger, begin to help him to his feet. You have to support most of his weight on your walk out of the warehouse and the journey is clearly excruciating. In the car, Nitta agrees that Shoko is the best person to fix Toge’s leg and drives back to campus as fast as she can.

You offer Toge you hand to hold in the car so he can squeeze something aside from his fists. He latches onto you hand and practically turns your fingertips purple with how tightly he’s holding onto you. But you don’t complain and sit there with him silently, occasionally signing words of encouragement or an ETA update.

Between you and Nitta, you get Toge into Shoko’s office and onto a medical table. She begins to cut off Toge’s pant-leg to better assess the injury and you take that as your cue to leave, gently squeezing his shoulder before following Nitta out.

****************************************

Y/N and I were given an assignment we would be perfect for: a sound based curse. I agreed but was nervous the entire car ride to the warehouse. They knew this curse was at least a grade two which scared the shit out of me. Sure my speech can handle even special grades but what if I couldn’t protect Y/N?

What if something happened to her again?

In the warehouse, I followed Y/N through the maze of shipping containers. The curse was making noises I could hear but I really couldn’t pin down where it was coming from with all the echoing.

No wonder they sent us.

She holds a hand out to stop me and peeks around a red metal container and clearly spots it. We sign back and forth, agreeing on our usual plan when we’re sent out on missions together which is quite often.

This was gonna be fine. We’d only had the one accident the first mission we went on and since I was learning sign so much better, we’d be able to communicate fine. This was gonna go smoothly and we’d get to go back to the dorms early. Maybe early enough for a sign lesson. Yeah. We’d be good.

We begin to flank the gross curse. It was a weird purpley-blue and was covered in mouths. The teeth inside them ranged from nasty squared yellow ones to sharp, pearly white ones.

I don’t know how but the thing spotted me and screeched the worst, high pitched noise I’d ever heard. It was like if nails on a chalkboard were coming out of a massive speaker right in front of me.

I covered my ringing ears and dropped to the floor in pain. This thing was loud. Thankfully, Y/N was unaffected and rushed over to back me up. She held her hands out and I could feel her manipulating the cursed energy around us to hold the curse off.

But before I could recover and do anything, one of its legs kicked out at her and flung her into a shipping container. She slid down it and slumped over a bit which terrified me.

I knew I had to do something at this point since the curse turned to target her. The curse is long and round, like a hotdog, so I figured my next command would be a good idea. I wouldn’t fuck up my throat with this one just in case I needed to help Y/N again.

So I unzipped the collar of my uniform and shouted a command I could barely hear over the ringing in my ears. But something weird happened. The curse deflected it and before I could do anything, it turned my command back on me.

I felt my right leg twist up and I fell to the ground, screaming out in pain. I heard and felt my femur and shin snap as well as something in my knee crack. My foot was fine but it was facing the wrong way and I felt blood start to run down the back of my knee.

Not good. Fuck.

What am I gonna do? It’s gonna go for her and I can’t get to her nor will my speech work. Think, think, think. What are you gonna do? How can you help her?

But as my mind raced, I watched the curse turn to attack me. As scared as I was at the prospect of getting chewed up by some horrific looking teeth, I was just glad it was me and not her. As I scooted back, pushing myself with my good leg, the curse made its way toward me, slowly and baring its teeth.

Before it could get close enough to do anything to me, I watched Y/N leap up into the air and slam her boot into its face, knocking it off course. It flung her out of the way but thankfully this time she caught herself.

I assumed it was going to go after her and my mind raced, desperate to think of how I could help but the pain was overwhelming. Every sound the curse emitted vibrated the ground, sending waves of pain through my leg. I about passed out a couple times at how intense and searing it hurt.

But I did my best to push it away. I had to help. I couldn’t just sit here like a useless idiot. Hurt or not, I had to back her up somehow.

The curse comes barreling at me again and I watch as Y/N leaps over me, standing between me and the curse.

She was protecting me.

No. It was supposed to be the other way around. I couldn’t let anything happen to her. I’d never forgive myself if she got hurt again. Hell, we might not even make it out of here if she gets hurt bad enough. I can’t walk or move around at all and if it does something to her, I won’t even be able to get to her.

But to my relief, she throws her dagger at the curse and successfully exorcises it. It fizzles out into nothingness as she races over and drops to her knees next to me, holding her hands out. She clearly wanted to help but was too scared to touch me and cause me more pain.

But after offering to try and heal my leg, she helped me out of the warehouse and into the car. I don’t really remember most of the drive, the pain overwhelming. But I do remember her offering her hand to me. I latched onto it and that was my anchor from drowning in the excruciating pain in my leg. I had to bite back cries of pain every time we drove over a bump in the road but she held onto my hand the whole time, gently rubbing circles on the back of my hand with her thumb.

We made it back to campus and Y/N and Nitta carried me into Shoko’s office. They set me on the table as gently as possible but my vision tunneled as they did. The last thing I remember is Y/N giving me a worried look and gently squeezing my shoulder.

**************************************

You made it back to your dorm room and finally let your emotions take over. You couldn’t do enough to prevent Toge from getting hurt. You saw the soundwaves, felt them, knew what they were doing. But you were too slow.

You had to be better. For him at the very least. You had to be faster and stronger and better. You couldn’t let anyone else get hurt on your watch.

His leg looked so painful, the look of anguish and pure pain on his face, the way he desperately held onto your hand in the car— all of it culminated in your mind and tears began to slip from your closed eyes.

How could you let something so horrible happen to someone you cared about so much?

You didn’t get to think on that for long before you heard the low thrumming sound again, this time accompanied by a loud noise that sounded like a scream of pain. Was that what Toge sounded like when he cried out in pain? Did it sound that distressed and anguished?

What was happening to you? What was going to happen to Toge? Was his leg even going to be okay? Could Shoko fix it? What if she couldn’t? It would be your fault.

Why weren’t you good enough?

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 12: The Thrumming

SYNOPSIS: The odd ambient noises of campus are starting to sound weirder and eerie. Was something going on or are you going crazy?

WC: 1.3K

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Over the course of the last several weeks, the weird thrumming you had started to hear, the noise you dismissed as the ambient noise of Tengen, started to change.

You started to hear it randomly during the day as well. That was the first thing that changed. It was only for a few seconds the first time you noticed it but your head snapped up in class and you looked around for the source.

—What’s wrong?— Toge’s note he’d slipped onto your desk read.

—I don’t know. Thought I heard something—

—Weird—

You nod in agreement, furrowing your brows at the oddness of the noise.

This continued for several days, the noise lasting a bit longer than before and changing pitches on occasion. You didn’t notice this aspect until one of your training sessions with Toge. You had asked him for more one on one sessions around the time you started studying in the library together and he happily agreed.

You were in the dojo together, going through some moves with staffs which you particularly sucked at. There was just one move you couldn’t get right and Toge moved to stand behind you to show you, reaching around you and placing his hands on top of yours.

Your heart began to race and you felt your face heat up, knowing it was turning pink. He walked you through the move, guiding the staff around in the air. But you were having a hard time focusing on what you were doing with him this close to you. Sure you’d hugged him before so the proximity wasn’t new but the way you felt about it was.

You had been in the middle of a very emotional conversation when the two of you had hugged so maybe that was just distracting you from this feeling. But you couldn’t quite convince yourself of that. This felt different. A lot different.

He suddenly let go, snapping you out of your thoughts as he stepped away from you. In all honesty, you hadn’t learned a single thing from his guiding you around, purely because of how distracted you were. You strangely missed him standing that close to you, his fingers wrapped around yours, gently but strong as he guided them through the air.

He moves around to stand in front of you, gesturing for you to try the move on your own and you took a deep breath, doing your best to focus on what little you remembered of his teaching just seconds ago.

You went to take a step forward when you heard the noise again. It was much louder and sudden than before, making you flinch and almost drop the staff. The low thrumming was accompanied by a higher pitched buzzing. The buzzing had a weird quality to it that you couldn’t really describe. Like crackling and screeching in a way but those words weren’t really accurate enough.

The noise lasted for several seconds, long enough for Toge to notice something was wrong. You were frozen in place as you listened to the long sound, emanating from all around you. It was eerie and terrifying in all honesty.

What was going on?

“You okay?” Toge signs, worry in his lavender eyes.

You were still frozen in place as the noise continued and his worry increased. He stepped forward and placed a hand on your shoulder which coincided with the noise stopping, letting you snap back into reality.

His worried gaze darted around, reading you for any explanation as to what just happened. You shook your head, blinking a few times, and pulled yourself back into the moment, feeling the cool tatami mats under your bare feet again and Toge’s warm hand on your skin.

You gestured to your ear before you pulled out your phone, the words you wanted to say still a bit out of reach for you to sign to him. He was learning fast but you were really freaked out right now and needed the most direct way to talk to him.

—I heard it again. It’s changing—

—What is?—

—The noise I’ve been hearing. The thrumming. It’s different now. I never hear it during the day and it never sounds like that—

—Where was it coming from? We can go check it out—

—No, it’s like it’s all around me. It’s always like that. Everywhere. But it’s more ominous now. Like getting actually scary—

—You should talk to Gojo about it. I have no idea what it could be—

—I don’t want him to think I’m crazy. I might be for all I know—

—I don’t think you’re crazy. You reacted really weird just now. It was definitely genuine and not in your head—

—I’ll talk to him. Will you come with me?—

—Yeah, ofc—

—Thank you—

Something really weird was going on and you were the only person who knew about it. It was scary and you thought you might actually be going off the rails this time. It wasn’t like when they medicated you as a kid. This might really be in your head. Were you gonna go off the deep end for real? Would you be able to get out of it? Would medication even work?

What was happening to you?

****************************************************

I noticed Y/N was acting a bit weird lately. It happened slowly, just random flinches here and there but one day in class, her head snapped up and she looked around the room frantically. My eyes darted around too but there was nothing different at all.

No one had come in or walked down the hall or anything like that. After asking what was wrong, she wrote back that she was hearing the noises again. She had mentioned to me this noise she would hear at night and it would occasionally wake her up but she’d never mentioned it happening during the day.

I got genuinely worried about her when we were training together in the dojo. I had stepped up behind her to walk her through one of the staff movements. I really didn’t know how else to teach it to her so I stood with my chest to her back and my hands on top of hers.

That same feeling from our first sign lesson rippled through me again and I was scared she could feel my heart that wanted to beat right out of my chest. Thank god my hands didn’t get sweaty or shaky but my heart pounded so loud I could hear the blood rushing in my ears.

But I took a deep breath and guided her through the movements. I saw her face flush and that only made my racing heart pick up. Did I make her uncomfortable? She’d never given me any indication that physical touch wasn’t okay with her. We had hugged a few weeks ago so I didn’t think this level of touch would make her uncomfortable.

I kept going, almost done with the move anyway and the second I was finished, let go and stepped away. I stepped around to ask her if I did in fact make her uncomfortable when she flinched.

Violently.

And then she froze. Her eyes weren’t looking at anything in particular and looked almost glassy. Did I really freak her out that much? I asked if she was okay and she didn’t respond. That was weird. And scary.

I placed my hand on her shoulder despite my better judgement and she snapped out of whatever weird trance she was in. The glossy look in her eyes was gone a few blinks later and she looked absolutely terrified as to whatever just happened. Frantically typing on her phone, she explained to me what was going on.

She heard the noise again.

It must have been really unnerving for her to have reacted like that and I was really worried about her. Not that I thought she was crazy— I believed her. Her competence in the maze proved to me that she was really picking up on something that no one else could.

There was something going on and she was the only person who knew.

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 11: Teach Me

SYNOPSIS: Toge catches you in the kitchen one day with a very important question.

WC: 1.2K

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It took Toge a couple days to truly accept your message before the two of you were back to normal, goofing off and teasing one another.

Today, Toge caught you alone in the kitchen after lunch and something about his expression looked off. You realized he looked nervous which was very abnormal for his usual confident demeanor. He handed you a note and immediately clasped his hands in front of him, his knuckles turning white at how hard he was holding them together. You furrowed your brows in curiosity and concern but opened up the note nonetheless.

—Will you teach me sign language?—

You stared at the note in shock. He wanted you to teach him to sign? He wanted to put in, quite frankly, a ton of effort into truly understanding you and communicating your way? Learning a new language is a big commitment and a lot of work and you were taken aback that he was willing to do this.

**************************************

After the incident at the mall, I still felt really guilty but the conversation Y/N had with me made me feel so much better about it.

I didn’t hurt her.

I still felt responsible in a way but she repeatedly reassured me that it wasn’t my fault. Her messages helped and a few days after our conversation, I felt pretty much back to normal.

But there was something nagging at me.

She heard me. She got a little glimpse into my world— having the ability to hear. I felt bad that she couldn’t have it permanently since she clearly wanted to. And I understood why. She wanted more than just text messages and gestures. I did too.

So, why not get a glimpse into her world? I could learn a bit of sign language.

But the prospect of actually being able to convey how I really felt to someone was quite overwhelming and exciting. She couldn’t interpret for me or anything but talking to her was more than enough.

I’m gonna ask her to teach me sign.

**************************************

Looking down a the piece of paper, your delight quickly overrode your shock and you looked up at him with a massive smile, eagerly nodding your head. He was clearly relieved at your reply and relaxed, pulling out his phone to type to you.

—Do you have time now?—

You nod again and type back.

—Let’s go to that study room with the whiteboard. That’ll be easiest—

He agrees and the two of you walk across campus to the main building, sliding open the door to the small unoccupied study room. It had a round table with rolling chairs around it along with a large whiteboard on the back wall and a shelf of various textbooks.

You walk over to the whiteboard and uncap a marker excitedly. You begin to write down a ton of basic words and phrases and you notice he looks a little intimidated at all the writing on the board. You stop, realizing you were getting a bit overzealous and the two of you sit down facing each other in front of the board so you can easily point and write additional words down.

He looks at you a bit expectantly and you begin to type up some stuff on your phone that would have taken up way too much space on the board. You explain the basics of how to read sign and that he can’t mirror you but has to do the opposite and other specifics of the language.

Nodding and handing you your phone back, he awaits your instruction. You start with pointing at the board, one word at a time, and showing him the sign. He picks up on the basics very quickly and seems really excited that he can communicate with you outside of nodding and pointing.

You were patient with him, the language isn’t easy after all, but he made surprisingly good progress. He got particularly frustrated with one sign and you simply reached over to adjust his hands. It felt like a small spark of electricity when your hands touched. It was different from every other time your hands had touched, mostly to get each other’s attention. It was like there was something more than just getting his attention. You were closer, facing each other, fingers lingering longer than before.

You didn’t quite know what to make of the new feeling quite frankly so you dismissed it for now, getting back to teaching him since he was eager to learn.

In fact he is so eager to learn that once you get through the entire list, he requests more. But you shake your head, not wanting to overload him with information. Instead you point to a random word and request he shows you the sign for you to quiz him.

The two hours you spent in the study room was the best time you had since arriving here five months ago and you were eager to spend more time teaching him.

**************************************

We headed off to the study room with the whiteboard and she immediately walked over to it, uncapping a marker and filling the board with words. She was writing down so much and I was worried she expected me to learn all of that today. I really had no idea what to expect from the language but there was still a lot written on the board.

My expression spoke for me and she sheepishly capped the marker before sitting down in front of me. She typed up some things about the language that I needed to know before learning it. After I read through the information which made sense, we got to work.

The first ten or so words were really easy, only requiring you to use one hand and being relatively self explanatory. But it quickly got more complicated.

I huffed in frustration at my inability to sign one of the words and she gestured for me to take a deep breath. She was right. It was gonna take a lot of work.

She reached over and moved my fingers around to the right configuration before gently guiding my hands around to do the sign. Her hands lingered on mine as she looked up to confirm I understood and something about that made my heart race. I thought it was going to pound right out of my chest for a few minutes until I got distracted learning another word.

She was patient with me for the whole lesson and corrected my hands when necessary, flashing me proud smiles when I would get something right. Of course I loved spending time with her but there was something else about our lesson I really liked that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

We packed up our few things and something overtook me to grab her attention, gently placing my hand on her forearm. She turned around and looked at me expectantly before I figured out what I wanted to say.

‘Thank you.’

**************************************

“You’re welcome.” You sign back with a smile, glad he enjoyed the lesson.

But for some reason, you couldn’t put your finger on, that didn’t seem like enough. It was your automatic response and you did mean it, but there was just something else you wanted to say but couldn’t figure out how to.

There was one thing you were sure of—Toge had stepped into your world today, and you didn’t want him to leave.

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 10: Breaking The Silence

SYNOPSIS: After the mission, you attempt to reach out to Toge, desperate to tell him what happened. But strangely, he's acting like you don't exist.

WC: 1.4K

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To your dismay, you barely saw Toge for the next several days. You honestly only saw him in class which is when you noticed a change in his demeanor. As opposed to passing notes back and forth and exchanging glances and smiles like usual, he didn’t even look at you.

He ignored your several attempts to pass him a note and you got a little frustrated at one point, scrawling out a fifth note and leaning over to place it on his desk since he wouldn’t accept it from your hand under the desk as always.

You got genuinely upset when he simply grabbed the small piece of paper, balled it up and stuffed it in his pocket, not bothering to read it.

You had clearly done something to upset him.

**********************************

I hated avoiding Y/N but it was for the best. I was clearly too dangerous to be around and I didn’t want to do anything else to hurt her. I couldn’t.

I watched her reach up to get something out of a high cabinet in the kitchen and not only did I watch her wince at the pain but her shirt slipped up and I saw the scar on her side.

It wasn’t a small scar either.

I immediately turned and left the kitchen, slamming my door shut and barely keeping my composure.

I did that.

She’s got a permanent reminder that someone she trusted hurt her.

*****************************************

You spent the next couple of days trying to reach out to Toge, texting him, slipping notes underneath his door, and attempting to corner him anywhere you could. But none of your efforts were successful and you were starting to get angry. If you did something wrong, why didn’t he just tell you instead of acting so immature?

Desperate times call for desperate measures and you video called your friend Mari to ask a favor. You wanted her to teach you how to say Toge’s name. Properly. Everyone had yet to hear you speak still and you were going to need a shock factor to prevent him from walking away from you again.

She spend a good half hour with you, explaining how to pronounce it, signing back and forth with you. After you apparently nailed it perfectly, no ‘deaf accent��� at all, you thanked her for helping you and hung up.

You pre typed a message to him so he wouldn’t have an opportunity to leave while you did so and saw your opening to corner him today. You knew he was gone on a mission and thankfully no one else was in the dorm so you sat in the living room and stared out the window, waiting for him to return.

Seeing him come up the path, you peeled yourself up off the couch and stood facing the front door. You pulled up the message on your phone and waited for him to walk inside.

He didn’t see you as he opened the door, his gaze sadly trained on the floor. After closing the front door, he turned back around and spotted you. His eyes widened before his expression fell. If he looked sad a second ago, he looked utterly depressed now.

He turned to walk right back out the front door and right before he grabbed the handle, you said his name. You were firm but not harsh and you watched as he froze in place, fingers inches from the wooden door handle.

***************************************

She said my name. Out loud. I’d never heard her speak before due to how much she hated her own voice. I must have really fucked up for her to speak. Of course I fucked up. It’s my fault she got hurt.

I wanted to leave so bad, just disappear and not be around her again. If my speech wasn’t enough to protect her then my absence would have to do.

********************************************

You stepped up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder to turn him around but he shrugged it off and grabbed the handle. You said his name louder, this time more upset and you didn’t hear the anger in your tone.

Frustrated at this point, you tugged on his shoulder and forcibly turned him around. He didn’t fight back this time and defeatedly let go of the handle as you pulled him around.

You held the phone in his line of sight, not realizing how angry you looked or how aggressively you shoved the device toward him.

—One second we’re on a mission and the next you’re pretending I don’t exist. You have ignored me for a WEEK and you won’t even make eye contact with me or so much as look in my direction. You’ve ignored every single one of my attempts to ask what’s wrong and how you are and make sure YOU are doing okay. Do you know how much that hurts? What the fuck did I do wrong?—

***************************************

She thought she did something wrong? Oh god what did I do? I was just trying to protect her from me but I hurt her. Again. Sure not physically but she seemed just as emotionally hurt as she did physically.

Great.

Way to keep fucking it up.

***************************************

You watch his eyes scan the text and his expression change. His shoulders droop and he drops his gaze from your phone. He gently shakes his head and points to himself.

Oh fuck.

He wasn’t mad at you at all. He felt guilty for you getting hurt. You immediately felt like shit for getting this mad at him and you stood there in shock for a second before pocketing your phone. You couldn’t find the words to apologize so you did what came naturally to you.

You took a step forward and wrapped your arms around him, not caring about the pain in your side in the slightest.

You felt him tense up for a second, this being the most intense physical gesture either of you had expressed up until this point, but he melted into you and gently wrapped his arms around you in return. He held onto you desperately but like you were made of glass. Like you would shatter if he let go.

The two of you eventually pull back and you grab your phone to type to him.

—Not your fault—

***************************************

Not my fault? Of course it was my fault. She didn’t have to be nice about it. I knew what I did and I felt like shit about it.

I shake my head and take her phone to type back.

—It is. I accidentally told you not to move. It’s my fault it hurt you. I hurt you. I’m not safe to be around anymore—

She takes her phone back and furiously types back, a tear visible in her eye. She takes a good minute or so before desperately handing me the device.

—Toge, it’s not your fault. You didn’t hurt me and I know you never will. I was just in shock because I heard you. I heard you say ‘don’t move’. In the 18 years I’ve been existing on this planet, your voice was the first and only one I’ve ever heard. I wasn’t alone in silence for that one split second and I’ve been trying to tell you that. I’m sorry for not realizing how you felt and for getting upset. I was just frustrated that you wouldn’t communicate with me. You didn’t do anything to hurt me okay? I stopped moving of my own volition. Please don’t push me away. I feel safer with you than without you—

I stare at the words on the screen. It takes every ounce of my self control not to break down right then and there.

I didn’t hurt her? But more shockingly, she HEARD me? This was a lot.

***************************************

His eyes widen and he looks up at you in disbelief. You nod slightly to affirm your message and he slowly gestures to you, his ear, and then himself. You nod once more, the tiniest smile slipping up into your soft expression.

—You heard me?—

—Yeah. Promise that’s the only reason I froze. You’re not dangerous and I’m not scared of you or anything because I trust you and I know you’ll never do anything to hurt me. I’m sorry if I scared you with the whole bleeding out thing but you made it less scary. I’m glad it was you with me. Please don’t beat yourself up about it okay?—

He reads the message and gives you an empathetic expression, one that conveys everything he needs to say. But not only does he pull you back in for another hug, you hear him speak again, feeling his words against your shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

It was softer this time, filled with emotion—something you hadn’t realized words could carry. For so long, silence had been your world, but now, with just two words, Toge had filled it with something you hadn’t known you were missing.

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 9: Two Little Words

SYNOPSIS: Something very strange happens one day while you are on a mission with Toge and the next thing you know, you're bleeding out. What exactly happened to you?

WC: 1.5K

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You were paired up with Toge today for a mission that had the potential to be pretty dangerous. You were currently standing in front of a shopping center with Mr. Ijichi who cast the veil for you after you entered. You make your way through the shopping center and before long, you feel and hear the cursed energy from the curse in the direction of the food court.

You point to where you hear the buzzing and Toge nods and follows you toward the food court. You peek your head around a corner, looking into the middle of the tables and chairs to see a massive, serpent-like curse. It has jagged spikes running down its spine and is a nasty green color. It isn’t looking in your direction and you turn to relay the information to Toge.

—Let’s flank it. If you can get it to focus on you, I can get in close and touch it and we’ll be done asap—

He looks a little worried at the message on your phone but nods his head in agreement nonetheless and you head off to sneak through the food vendors to the complete opposite side of the court. You look up over a counter and see Toge still peeking out from around the corner where you left him.

You give him a thumbs up and hop up over the counter, ready to sneak up on the curse. But unfortunately, before you can get close enough, it sees you.

The curse whips its head around opens its mouth in a roar as you see Toge unzip the high collar of his uniform.

“DON’T MOVE!!!” You hear Toge shout, taking you aback.

You heard him.

The sound of his voice hit you like a truck. It was more than just hearing, it was like it buzzed through your whole body, making your ears ring and your head pound. The roar of the cursed energy faded into the background, but Toge’s command repeated in your mind over and over, drowning everything else out.

You freeze in shock, and your mind begins to race.

You heard him. How? Why haven’t you ever heard him before? Was it just the curse manipulating you? Could you only hear when he used his cursed speech? This was the first time had used it around you so maybe...

However, extremely distracted now, you don’t register the curse breaking free of his command and whipping around to attack. The curse’s tail comes up faster than you can react and slices into your side. The strike flings you back into a wall, the impact knocking the wind out of you. You slide down the wall and slump over slightly, unable to hold yourself up. The wound is deep, traveling from just under the band of your bra down to your hip, and probably goes to the bone in the portion over your ribs.

You clutch the wound and you feel blood leaving you rapidly, the warm liquid rushing out from between your fingers. Your vision starts to get blurry and hazy as you hear Toge say something else. You don’t quite catch it due to the ringing in your ears but seconds later, he comes into your narrowing vision and drops to his knees next to you.

You feel two hands putting pressure on the wound and you look up into his horrified violet eyes. As bad as the wound is, you know it’s not bad enough to kill you but you unfortunately can’t convey that to him right now. You move one of your hands and place it on his forearm, doing your best to let him know you’ll be okay but all it does is cause tears to well up in his eyes.

Your vision swam as the pain in your side intensified, each heartbeat sending a fresh wave of agony through your body as the adrenaline wore off. You tried to move, but your muscles refused to respond. The taste of metal filled your mouth, and the edges of your sight darkened until all you could see was Toge’s horrified face.

You see his lips move but you can’t make out what he says as your vision tunnels and you slip into unconsciousness.

***********************************************

I was sitting at Y/N’s bedside, head hung as I recounted the mission over and over in my head.

She froze. I told her not to move. It’s my fault she got hurt. She almost died. I barely got her here in time according to Shoko who was also barely able to patch Y/N up on top of that.

It was my fault.

I did this.

She must have been terrified too, unable to move and suddenly being flung back into a wall. The wound wasn’t shallow either and it must have been excruciating. And on top of it all, I was the only person around to help. The same exact person who hurt her. She probably hates me now.

I hate me too.

I looked up over at Y/N, lying asleep in the hospital bed. She looked so small and vulnerable and I could barely stand to see her like this. I got up and left the room, not really wanting to be there when she woke up anyway. I needed to keep my distance from now on. I was too dangerous. Right when I actually got to know her and thought I had my shit under control too.

Why do I always have to fuck things up?

*********************************************

You blink your eyes in the bright light above you and feel a throbbing pain in your side as you fully come to. You groan in pain as you push yourself up into a sitting position to assess where you are.

You’re lying in a hospital bed and you suddenly remember what happened.

You heard Toge.

The pain in your side washes away as your mind swims with thoughts.

It was just two words but they were the first ones you had heard in your entire life. You replayed them over and over in your head, listening to his voice on repeat. Not that you had anything to compare it to, but you loved the sound of his voice despite the anger behind it.

Could he talk to you? Could you hear everything he said? Were you finally not alone in your world of buzzing and silence?

Someone walks into the room, snapping you out of your thoughts. You don’t recognize the woman but she’s clearly aware that you’re deaf because she hands you a piece of paper on a clipboard with a pen attached. The paper already has writing on it and you read the neat script.

—I’m Shoko Ieiri, the doctor on campus. You’ve been out for a few days but thankfully your injury, although serious, was able to be healed. It will still hurt for a while and you need to take it easy for the next week or so but, other than a thin scar, you will be fine. Can you tell me how you’re feeling?—

—There’s a faint throbbing and it kinda hurt to sit up—

You hand her the clipboard back and let her read and write back to you.

—I have pain medication I will give you to take back to the dorms. I’ll do a quick check and rewrap it but then you are free to go—

You nod and let her take the clipboard from your hands. She does as she explained, examining the stitches and wrapping the wound back up. Giving you a bag with more bandaging, ointment, and medication, she helps you up out of the bed and bids you farewell.

It hurts to walk a little, the faint throbbing turning into a dull ache as you make your way back to the dorm. You are dressed in hospital type clothes but thankfully you had your phone on you and you check the time. It was around dinner time and you were eager to get some food in you.

Opening the front door, everyone whipped their heads around to look at you, worried looks melting into relief. Panda stood up from the couch to give you a gentle hug and Yuta followed him over to you, gesturing to the kitchen to indicate they had food for you. Maki gave you a sympathetic smile after you nodded at Yuta to request something to eat.

However, as your eyes continued scanning the room, you noticed Toge was nowhere to be found. You assumed he was just playing a video game in his room or still out on a mission and didn’t think much of his absence.

You ate and chatted with the three of them and reassured them you were okay. You didn’t mention the fact that you heard Toge’s command, still grappling with your shock. You did have a genuinely good time with them but wished Toge was present.

You wanted to talk to him—needed to talk to him—but the thought of it made your stomach churn.

What if it was just a fluke? What if it was the curse and not him? What if you could never hear him again?

The idea of bringing it up felt overwhelming, and for a moment, you wondered if it was better to just keep it to yourself.

What were you gonna do?

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 8: The Mute Maze

SYNOPSIS: Your practical final exam for the semester is today. There is a maze with curses for you to find and exorcise. How are you going to navigate it?

WC: 2.7K

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This week was the last week of classes for the semester and your finals were held tomorrow and the day after. First was the written exam, covering everything you had gone over for the past four months. You were particularly nervous about this considering you missed the first month of classes and had a hard time understanding what was being taught.

Then there was to be a curse exorcism practical exam the following day. You weren’t told what it would entail until right before you did it which was nerve wracking.

You had spent the past two weeks studying your ass off and training as hard as you could in preparation for the finals and you felt as prepared as you were going to get.

The five of you walked to the main building together, verbal silence between you due to how nervous you all were. You were to take the exam in separate rooms which you were grateful for since everyone was particularly loud due to their nerves and Toge gave you a small thumbs up before you each stepped into your respective rooms.

The room was small and a single desk was set in the middle with three pencils and the exam sheet on top of it. A clock sat on the wall in front of the desk and at the start time, you opened the exam packet and got to work.

It was grueling but you managed to finish it just in time and were satisfied with your work. You knew you didn’t do perfect but you were fairly confident and thought you might score a B. Your study sessions with Toge definitely paid off.

But today was the day for your practical and you were sweating with how nervous you were. You met up with Gojo in the training arena and he explained the exam to everyone.

“Okay! So your practical exam is a bit different than what we’ve done before. You guys are exceptionally talented so we’re trying something new. That being said, we’re willing to curve the grades and be more generous with scores if performances are unexpected so don’t worry too much. For the exam, you will have half an hour to navigate a maze and exorcise as many curses as you can. They are all low level and you are allowed a weapon of your choosing. Questions?” Gojo explains, cheerfully as usual.

“Are we competing or is it individual?” Maki asks, arms crossed.

“Individual. You will be the only one in the maze during your allotted time.” Gojo answers, clasping his hands together.

After a bit more explanation, the five of you grab your weapons and follow Gojo off to the testing area. Maki and Yuta chose their usual weapons to no one’s surprise. You selected the dagger you had been practicing with recently. Panda went without a weapon, but had his usual blue knuckle bands. Toge hesitantly grabbed a short sword and followed you down the path.

You knew, while being really good, he was the least experienced with a weapon. He relied on his technique but that might become a setback for him in the maze. His technique was usually only good for one or two commands depending on the intensity and would attract other curses due to the volume. You could feel how nervous he was, his usual humming faster than you had ever heard before.

As the two of you trailed behind everyone, you watched him fiddle with the hilt of the sword, hands shaking. You pulled out your phone and typed up a message to him to try and help encourage and calm him down.

—You’ll do great. Try not to worry too much—

He takes your phone to type back, fingers shaking as he typed.

—I have zero field experience with a sword and my speech is gonna be good for like 3 curses tops. You don’t have a limit on your technique plus you actually know how to use the dagger. And obvs everyone else is gonna do great.—

—I think there’s more to this exam than just the number of curses you exorcise. How you navigate the maze, how you handle the curse and other stuff like that is probably just as important. Panda is gonna race through, Maki is gonna be overzealous, and Yuta is gonna be too cautious. So just go at a good pace, be confident and you’ll nail it. Promise—

—Thanks. You’re right. Plus Gojo said they’d take it easy on grades. I just don’t wanna have the worst one.—

—You did really good on the written so even if you do, I don’t think it matters—

—Fair. Still nervous—

—Me too but we got this—

He hands you your phone back and gives you a nervous smile as everyone arrives at the maze. There are actually two mazes so everyone won’t have to wait as long but to your disdain, you are last.

Maki and Panda go first, leaving you, Toge and Yuta to type back and forth for a half hour. The thirty minutes flies by and you give the pair a thumbs up as they enter their respective mazes.

While they take their turns, you formulate a plan. Your newfound ability to hear curses more accurately was going to give you a major edge in navigating the maze. But when you couldn’t hear anything, you decided to do the left-hand maze trick. You would use the dagger as much as possible to make things more efficient and faster but you were still going to showcase your technique since you knew you were being observed. You got this.

Your turn rolled around and you were given the choice of which maze you wanted. It didn’t matter but you chose the maze Toge had, just so you could talk with him about it later.

You stepped in between the grey stone walls and immediately heard a low buzzing. The maze was musty and old, dust and spiderwebs in the corners of the stone walls. You couldn’t pin down a direction yet so you took a left at the first fork. A few turns in and the buzzing got loud enough for you to follow it and you deviated from your left turns, taking a right toward the curse. Four turns later and you found it at the end of a long corridor.

It was a rodent looking thing and was about the size of a Great Dane. It opened its mouth in a snarl you didn’t hear as you drew your blade.

Taking a deep breath, you charged it and threw the dagger. It sunk into the curse’s face and distracted it enough for you to get in close and touch it. You baseball slid toward it on the ground to get around its toothy maw to touch it and you drained it of its remaining energy. It fizzled out into nothing seconds later and you breathed a sigh of relief.

One down.

You didn’t know it but you were only three minutes into your designated half hour and had been the fastest to find and exorcise a curse.

After the curse fizzled out, you picked up on a weird crackling from the right of where you were and you followed it. You didn’t backtrack a single time and found it just as quickly as you had the first. This one was a bit harder to exorcise since it was faster, but you managed fine.

You had just finished exorcising your sixth curse when the time went off, which you didn’t hear but a light flashed for you to indicate you were finished. Most of the walls dropped, vibrating the ground as the stone scraped together while you walked to the exit, sweaty but feeling good about your performance.

You met your friends at the other end and they all gave you high fives and everyone congratulated each other on finally being done with the semester. Gojo gave you all a few minutes to celebrate before approaching you.

“Y/N, I need you to come with me.” He says, his usual smile not on his face.

Oh fuck. How badly did you do?

You give everyone a nervous expression before following Gojo off to his office while they went back to the dorms. You picked at your fingernails as you followed Gojo off to the main building, your heart practically beating out our your chest. Your hands got sweaty, so sweaty that you couldn’t even get a grip on the nail you were picking at. The building seemed more ominous and foreboding than usual, which didn’t help your anxiety.

You shakily sat down in the chair across from Gojo in his office and clasped you hands together so tight your knuckles turned white.

Then, as if it could get any worse, the dean walked in.

Gojo began speaking first and you could barely concentrate on his words with how fast your heart was beating.

“You’re not in trouble nor did you perform poorly so take a deep breath and relax.” Gojo starts.

You do as asked and try to calm down, now confused more than nervous.

What did you do then if you didn’t do bad? Did you do the whole thing different? Did you not understand the instructions right?

“You actually performed exceptionally better than any of us expected and during your exam, we had to release extra curses since you exorcised them all. You performed at three times the average and your ability to navigate the maze was quite frankly incredible.” Gojo explains to your utter shock.

You blinked, the words barely registering. Better than expected? You had prepared yourself to hear the opposite, to be told you hadn’t measured up. That you missed some crucial instruction didn’t even do the test right. Now, sitting there, the weight of Gojo’s praise sank in slowly, a flicker of pride sneaking up in your chest. Could you really be that good?

“We would like to help you harness and enhance your ability to hear curses as much as possible so please tell us how we can help you do this.” The dean elaborates, a proud grin on his usually stoic face.

Gojo hands you a notepad and you begin writing as fast as possible.

—Honestly a lot of it is self trained and I need a quiet place but more obstacles like the maze might be helpful. I don’t necessarily need curses in it but something that emits cursed energy would be helpful. That’s all I can think of at the moment but I’m honestly taken aback and though I was performing below average—

“We can leave the mazes up and change them around for you as needed. Please just let us know what you need. You are welcome to do individual training from here on out and won’t be required to participate in group training.” The dean says, looking at Gojo who agrees with a nod.

You shake your head and grab the pencil again.

—No, I still want to do group. It’s just as important to me to be able to work with everyone and learn from them too. I can do individual training on my own. I can’t promise my grades will stay the same but I’ll do my best—

“You’re certainly dedicated, I’ll give you that. Just know you have the potential to exceed your classmates and possibly myself. But that was all so you’re free to go now.” Gojo tells you with an encouraging smile.

Holy shit, you were that good?

You thank the pair and head off to the dorms to meet up with everyone else, your mind racing.

******************************************

After our practical exam, which I felt particularly shitty about Gojo asked to speak with Y/N alone.

Oh god, if she did bad, how horrible did I do? No, there was no way she did bad. Maybe she just did the best and he wanted to tell her separately?

She looked really nervous, probably having the same thoughts I was, and gave me an anxious look and shaky wave before following Gojo off toward the main building on campus.

“What was that about?” Panda asks, gesturing to the pair down the path.

I simply shrug my shoulders, my worried expression worrying him.

“How many curses did you guys get?” Yuta asks us, clearly trying to piece together what was going on.

“I got two.” Panda answers.

“I was in the middle of my second when they stopped me.” Maki notes.

I hold up my pointer finger to indicate I only got one and to my relief, Yuta also only got one.

“Did she not get any?” Maki asks, crossing her arms.

I shake my head and furrow my brows. “Okaka.” There’s no way she didn’t get any.

“She definitely got at least one. She looked out of breath and no one ran the maze.” Yuta notes.

“Maybe something happened with her technique?” Panda suggests.

We struggled to figure out what had happened and went back to the dorms to wait on Y/N to find out from her.

About twenty minutes after we got back, Y/N came through the front door. Her expression was hard to read, worry and stress mixed with pride and relief. What on earth had Gojo said?

“What was that about?” Panda asks as I gesture for her to join us in the living room.

She plops down on the couch next to me and pulls out her phone to tell us.

—So, apparently I did good. Like freaky good. Gojo said they had to release extra curses since I got all of them. Gojo and the dean just wanted to know how to help me train with this hearing curses thing—

She did that good? How many were there in the maze in the first place? I was stumbling around in the maze like an idiot, arbitrarily choosing a direction but she was actually navigating it. She could hear the curses and they were giving off their location like a beacon to her. Meanwhile the rest of us were completely oblivious to this.

She just seriously leveled up being able to hear them. Sure she’d told us she could hear curses and cursed energy and the like but the fact that she was able to use it like that, to track them, was incredible.

Apparently I wasn’t alone in my thoughts because Panda’s jaw dropped upon reading her explanation and Yuta looked up at her incredulously. Even Maki looked impressed.

“How many did you get?” Panda asks, still in shock.

She holds up six fingers with a shy smile on her face.

Six?! I got one. Panda did the best and he only got two. No wonder Gojo wanted to talk to her about it. She got over three times the average score out of the rest of us. That’s insane.

The room begins to buzz with conversation and her eyes dart back and forth between everyone, clearly unable to keep up with everyone talking over each other.

—You’re crazy awesome. You literally did six times better than I did. You were nervous for nothing—

I type, gently nudging her to show her my phone. She takes it from me, smiling a bit sheepishly but I saw the glimmer of pride in her eyes.

—Ngl, it was kinda easy. They all made different noises and it was like they were just telling me where they were. Guess I’m not that useless after all—

Useless? She thought she was useless? Who on earth made her believe that? My expression fell upon reading her message and she immediately diverted her gaze to the floor almost guiltily.

—Useless? That’s the last thing you are, technique or not. You’re fucking awesome and I mean it—

She blushes upon reading my reply and I see a bit of sadness creep up in her eyes but she types back nonetheless.

—Thanks. Just feel like I can’t do normal things a lot of the time since I can’t hear—

—You can still do ‘normal’ stuff. You just gotta adapt it sometimes and from what I’ve seen, you’re amazing at that. Plus I’ll help if you need—

—Thanks for believing in me—

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 7: The Library

SYNOPSIS: Toge catches you in the library one day and the two of you begin to have study sessions regularly, getting to know the other a bit better.

WC: 1.7K

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The classwork wasn’t like you expected it to be and your struggles didn’t get any easier as time passed. If anything, it just got harder the more material you missed. You didn’t have an interpreter or friends to take notes for you like you did back in high school which made everything harder. Gojo did his best to make sure you were understanding everything but had a tendency to turn his back to you while he was still speaking so you couldn’t read his lips.

You found yourself spending a lot of time in the library, relying heavily on your textbooks that you actually purchased so you could write in them. You annotated the shit out of every single page you read over and did your best to fill in the gaps in your notes.

It was pleasantly quiet there too and you would even come to decompress sometimes, taking the occasional nap in a study room or just watching things on your laptop. It was a nice space for you to get away from all the noise of campus and really focus on something.

On occasion you would see Toge in the library with you, doing his own studying. The two of you wouldn’t interact but he would give you a quick smile and wave in greeting.

Except that changed today.

You were in your usual spot, working intently on your notes and textbook annotations when you saw Toge walk in. He gave you his usual smile and wave but instead of going off to his spot, he came over and sat down across from you.

You gave him a particularly wide smile, happy to have him around and to let him know he was welcome to sit with you. He looks down at your open textbook that is now bright and colorful due to the highlighting and sticky notes plastered all over it, before he pulled out his phone and typed to you as always, turning it around for you to read.

—You’re certainly dedicated—

—I try. Kinda gotta teach myself some of the stuff—

—Wym?—

—Gojo turns his back a lot when he teaches so I don’t catch everything he says. Gotta fill in the gaps—

—He turns his back a ton! Why haven’t you said anything?—

—I dunno. Used to teaching myself stuff I guess—

—Well if you ever need notes, I got you—

—Thanks. I appreciate that—

—Ofc. Whatchya workin on?—

You turn your textbook around to show him the page and he nods as he scans the text.

—You mind if I join? I kinda need to work on that too—

You nod and give him a thumbs up before you pat the space on the table next to you, indicating to him to come sit next to you so you can share the textbook.

He moves seats and pulls out his own notebook, reading over your annotations in you book and comparing them to his notes.

—Maybe I need to get notes from you. This is really good—

—You’re welcome to study with me anytime you want—

—I might take you up on that—

—Well you can come join anytime you see me or come get me from my room—

—I actually wanted to ask you about that. I know I can’t exactly knock so how do I get your attention through the door?—

—Oh, I probably should have explained this to everyone. I leave my door unlocked so you can just crack it open and flick the lights a few times until I come over. But if there’s an emergency, you can literally just barge in lol. I’m thinking about getting a light doorbell for you guys to use though—

—That’s honestly pretty genius. I’ll do that if I need ya—

—Thx. Gotta find workarounds yk?—

—I’m genuinely impressed, I’ll give you that—

—Well thx. Is there anything else you wanna work on or just whatever after this?—

—Whatever you need to work on—

—Works for me. Lmk if you can’t read my handwriting lol—

He gives you a thumbs up and the two of you begin to study, typing back and forth when necessary but mostly getting by on pointing to words or scrawling something down on sticky note.

*****************************************

I had noticed Y/N spending a lot of time in the library in our down time and I pieced together that she was probably struggling with the classwork still. I didn’t really want to interrupt her studying but I still wanted to let her know I was here outside of training too.

So I sat down across from her today and she offered to let me study with her. I originally thought I would be helping her most of the time but her notes and textbook annotations were extremely thorough and she ended up teaching me just as much as I taught her. I helped her fill in the gaps in her notes and she helped me with fully understanding some theoretical concepts. Those were pretty difficult for me. I’m a pretty hands on, practical kinda guy and theory is out of my grasp sometimes.

But she was patient with me, as much as I had been with her, and she was actually really good at teaching without needing to use words. Sure we were scribbling things down on sticky notes to communicate but most of her teaching was pointing and showing me her notes.

I loved how proud she looked when I actually grasped a concept, particularly if I had really been struggling with it. She seemed more than happy to help me and I realized this might be her way of paying me back for training so to speak. Like it felt more equal to her.

I benefited from our study session and it began to be a regular thing with us, mostly on weekends but I’d catch her on the occasional weekday if I was really confused about something or she was particularly lost.

I found myself really looking forward to our study sessions and she made the classwork actually enjoyable which was a welcome difference for me. Along with looking forward to spending time with her, I noticed she seemed to be getting more comfortable with physical touch. Sure she relied on it but that didn’t mean she liked it. I understood that much.

But over time, my heart would start to race when our fingers touched or her gaze lingered. I’d honestly get a little flustered, very unusual for me, when she’d give me certain expressions. Pride, understanding, thanks. She started to be more expressive around me which I loved.

****************************************

After getting through all the material you could manage today, you typed a bit with Toge for some decompression time.

—Oh, btw, can I get ur number so we don’t have to share a phone to type on lol—

—Ofc! 987-654-3210—

You handed him his phone back, your fingers brushing across the other’s, and pulled yours out, ready for his text and to save his number.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TOGE:

Hey! thx, this is so much easier lol

YOU:

def lol

TOGE:

so, tell me more abt u

YOU:

well, whatchya wanna kno?

TOGE:

i dunno. like what ur life was like before here?

YOU:

pretty boring ngl. I have like two whole friends and that’s abt it. and as much as I love them, I’m a third wheel lol. but they’re cute together so idc

TOGE:

oof lol

YOU:

yeahhhh. tell me abt u

TOGE:

wellllll um, I never really had friends cause of the whole not talking thing and not going to public school but everyone here is nice and it’s a good change of pace for me.

YOU:

glad to hear that. sry we gotta type all the gd time btw. its better than nothing tho

TOGE:

dw, I’m super used to it.

YOU:

same unfortunately. I hate it tbh. just feels really impersonal yk?

TOGE:

I def get that. like where’s the tone and expression and everything?

YOU:

right?! like u mad or just being simple or fast or smthn?

TOGE:

Ik! hate that shit. at least I can convey tone and shit with onigiri ingredients but it still doesn’t work very well hence the gesturing which im sure u get

YOU:

for sure lol. I’m just glad I learned to read lips otherwise I’d be fucked

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two of you end up spending quite a lot of time in the library, texting back and forth and having a generally good time.

This became a routine pretty quickly and the two of you would compare notes in the library on Sunday’s to make sure you were studying the right material and that he was fully understanding it.

Your grades started to improve thanks to Toge filling in the gaps for you and you were actually pretty proud of your improvements so far.

In exchange for the study sessions, he started bringing lunch for the two of you. You felt a little bad since he was helping you just as much as you were helping him but he insisted it was fine and that he wanted to. Most of the time it was onigiri unsurprisingly but they were always really good so you had no complaints.

You really liked your weekly study sessions with him and slowly getting to know him a bit better but you really disliked having to type. You weren’t the biggest fan of it in general, particularly when you were talking to someone new. It just felt really impersonal even though it was the most practical way for you to communicate aside from sign. You obviously preferred sign but you never asked anyone to learn the language and you never used it around people who wouldn’t understand. What was the point? Plus it just made you stick out even more.

Unfortunately it was the only way for you and Toge to communicate so you obviously still typed to him but you did your best to hide your occasional frustrations. Words on a screen could only say so much you know?

You still enjoyed communicating with him however you could though so it wasn’t as bad as it was with most people. You really love talking to him.

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 6: Silent Support

SYNOPSIS: After a particularly difficult training session, you storm off in frustration. But right behind you is Toge, wordlessly offering to help. From that day on, you began to rely on his silent support.

WC: 1.7K

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Today’s training was particularly difficult and you just could not pick up on the pattern your feet were supposed to follow with the punches. The punches were a bit easier but you constantly confused your hands and feet and were stumbling around in the grass like an idiot.

Your arms ached and you legs felt like lead, only contributing to your fumbling and inability to follow the commands and patterns.

Despite Panda’s help, you still could not pick it up for the life of you. You got so frustrated that you walked away, grumbling incoherently to yourself. This would happen relatively frequently for you during training and you would remove yourself from the situation before you got mad at anyone. It wasn’t their fault but you used to take your anger out on people so this was your way of avoiding doing that.

You really didn’t want to drive away your new friends.

You stormed off to the dojo and found a punching bag in the corner. You had a really rough time in class today and that on top of the training really got to you.

Why can’t you just pay better attention? Why can’t you follow a simple pattern with your feet? Why is all of this so damn difficult for no reason? Were you even cut out for this whole Jujutsu Sorcerer thing? What would Edo think?

Each punch on the bag landed harder than the last and if your arms weren’t sore already, they were aching now. But you kept going, the pain helping you get your anger out. You deserved to feel your knuckles hit raw against the rough surface of the bag. You weren’t doing enough. You weren’t good enough. You had to do better. Otherwise, what were you doing here? You couldn’t waste Edo’s opportunity for you.

****************************************************

Y/N was clearly having a rough day today and stormed off during training. Her abrupt departure combined with her loud noises of frustration caught everyone off guard. I watched her march off toward the dojo to no doubt get some anger out.

I partially expected Yuta to follow her and write down something reassuring but he looked genuinely scared of her reaction.

No one else made an attempt to follow her and help so I decided to. I gave her a little alone time, knowing she still needs to vent her emotions. But after a good fifteen minutes, I heard a defeated shout from the dojo and figured now was a good time. I at least wanted to check on her since the sound was borderline concerning.

I grabbed my phone and headed off, not saying anything to the others who didn’t follow. I gently slid open the door and saw her in the back corner, head rested on a punching bag in defeat. Her hands were dangling at her sides and I saw her bloody and raw knuckles. She hadn’t bothered to put on the gloves she was that angry.

I got immediately sad and even more worried that she’d punched her knuckles raw but I didn’t bring it up. I didn’t want to focus on her being upset but how to help her out of it.

****************************************************

You spent god knows how long beating the ever loving shit out of that bag until you heard someone approach.

You smacked your forehead into the bag, dropping your hands to your sides and biting back tears. You could tell they were in the dojo with you now, and you watched the shadow of the door move on the floor as it was closed behind you.

You turned around to see Toge walking in, typing on his phone as he made his way over to you.

—Do you wanna practice just the two of us or do you need to beat the fuck out of that bag?—

You smirked a smidge at his message and reached to type back. You watch his expression sadden a bit and you realized he probably noticed your red, raw knuckles since you didn’t bother to put gloves on.

—We can practice. Just give me a sec—

He takes his phone back and nods before you walk over and plop down on the mats, laying flat on your back and putting your hands over your face. You took a minute to yourself, doing your best to keep your composure.

Why can’t you just get the simple move down? It doesn’t look hard. Why won’t your body cooperate?

You began to move the cursed energy in the room around you, washing it over you like waves gently creeping up on the shore. This was one way you calmed yourself down after you learned to control your cursed energy. Despite feeling like electricity more than water, the ebbing and flowing really helped ground you.

Once you calmed down a few minutes later, you sat up and saw that Toge was sitting cross legged next to you, a polite distance away as he patiently waited for you.

****************************************************

I gave Y/N a few minutes to regain her composure and used the time to figure out how I was going to help. I hadn’t exactly come up with a plan before I walked over and I knew I needed to do something different than the way everyone taught.

Those methods were clearly not working and she needed a different approach to training. Not one that involved following verbal commands.

I knew how difficult training was and I could imagine how not being able to hear the commands would make it that much harder. The way she handled herself, even in her frustration and anger was admirable. She could have taken her anger out on Panda for not teaching well enough or simply given up but she didn’t do either of those things.

****************************************************

You took a deep breath and gave Toge a thumbs up to indicate to him you were ready. He stood up and offered you a hand to help you to you up which you accepted and he easily pulled you to your feet. He’s a smaller guy but is surprisingly strong and you were a bit surprised. Something about the simple gesture was really reassuring and helped you feel a little less excluded.

It was a little weird too, someone offering to help you without you having to sheepishly ask for it. It was like he just knew. Like he read your mind or something.

The two of you continued to work on what Panda was teaching, going slow for you.

He was patient, standing in front of you and next to you as needed for you to see a particular move. On occasion, he would simply move your arm or leg around, gently nudging you in the right direction.

He went as slow as you needed, making sure you really understood what he was teaching. You genuinely liked the time you spent learning from him, not needing to type on your phones the entire time, and you were considering asking him for more training like this sometime soon. The hour you spent with him in the dojo was one of the most productive training sessions you had up until this point.

As the days progressed, his silent gestures continued. He made sure he was always next to you and he would silently nudge you in the right direction regardless of if he was the one teaching or not.

For the first couple days, his silent help was just an unsaid thing between the two of you until at the beginning of training today, he handed you a piece of paper as opposed to a message on his phone which intrigued you. He’d never written to you aside from the notepad at this point and you were curious as to what was so important. You unfolded the small piece of paper and read it as he headed off, Gojo having called him over.

—If you ever need help, just signal to me. I’ll be there.—

You were actually really touched by his message and felt a small smile creep up onto your face. Sure he had been helping you when it was obvious you needed it but the fact that he extended it to inviting you to ask for help was comforting.

For the first time in a long while, someone was offering help without being asked, without you having to struggle alone. You stared down at the note for a few seconds before carefully folding it up and sticking it in your pocket.

As the days passed, Toge continued his unsaid, silent help. There would be moments you would get particularly frustrated and look around for him for help. And he was always right there, ready to help without you having to walk over and ask.

One afternoon you had a particularly hard training session. Maki was teaching and it was grueling and you were getting increasingly frustrated as usual. But before you could even huff in frustration, Toge stepped up next to you and nudged your arm in the right direction, tapping your ankle with his foot to indicate to you to move it.

You took a deep breath and gave him a grateful smile at his help. He was starting to figure you out and could step in before you even had time to get frustrated. You found yourself relying on him more and more and you slowly opened up to him. More than the others. The two of you would spend quite a lot of time together outside of class and training, usually in the dojo for one on one lessons.

You really wanted to tell him just how much you appreciated his help but you couldn’t figure out what exactly what you wanted to say. So one day, after he helped you master something you had been struggling with for weeks, you walked over to your gym bag and pulled out your notepad, scribbling down a note and rejoining him. You plopped down on the mats right in front of him and handed him the small piece of paper.

—Thank you. For everything.—

He read it, then looked up at you, a soft smile visible in his eyes. Instead of typing a reply, he simply gave you a thumbs up, then pointed to himself and back to you, a gesture that you understood as ‘we’re in this together’.

And for the first time since arriving at Jujutsu Tech, you believed it.

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 5: New Sounds

SYNOPSIS: As you settle into your new life at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech, you start to notice something strange. You are slowly able to hear new cursed energy sounds, one in particular that is a bit unnerving. Why are you suddenly able to hear these new sounds?

WC: 2K

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Over the course of the next week, you began to settle in properly, not isolating yourself but feeling more included and connected to everyone. You still struggled to understand what Panda was saying since his snout was a bit harder to read than you anticipated but you were slowly picking it up.

Toge was the hardest to communicate with and the two of you heavily relied on a notepad or notes app. The two of you were slowly learning how to read the other’s gestures which varied quite a lot. Your gesturing was more so based on how sign language worked while Toge’s was more direct and to the point since he was conveying less.

You would tend to act things out a little with your hands while Toge did a lot of pointing accompanied by an expression.

But you were each doing your best and Toge was patient with you which you greatly appreciated. It was frustrating at times but Toge always kept his cool and would reassure you and help you keep calm as well. You were still learning.

As the days slowly passed, you began to notice something weird going on with the cursed energy around you. You were able to distinguish everyone by their sounds but the noises started to sound different, deviating from the usual humming, buzzing, and crackling you heard.

There were different qualities to everyone’s innate noises but you couldn’t quite put your finger on what they were. This very subtle difference was arguably more distracting than the volume of the ambient cursed energy which you were getting used to.

You were a lot more distractible and unfocused due to this discovery and you wished more than anything you could ask Edo about it. He would know what was going on and how to help you adapt.

Because of your new distraction, your already average grades began to slip some and training became more difficult than it already was. Even when you couldn’t fully hear the new noises, the fact that they were there would nag at you.

What was going on? Why were you suddenly able to hear something different? Was it due to being around so much cursed energy? Or were you just naturally developing something new?

Today you were sitting in the grass arena for training, doing some meditative exercises. You didn’t mind doing these since they were much easier than sparring or weapons and were similar to what you had done with Edo but there was one aspect about it that you hated.

Closing your eyes.

As a deaf person, you rely heavily on your other senses, particularly sight and you felt very vulnerable when your eyes were closed. You really only felt safe closing them in the privacy of you own room when you went to sleep. You’d always been scared of the dark as a kid for the same reason and you felt lost without your vision.

But you took a deep breath and closed your eyes, placing your hands with your palms down in the grass on either side of you to keep yourself oriented. You were sitting in the middle of the group so you felt safe enough to close your eyes in the first place but were still really on edge. You were comforted by the fact Toge was sitting closest to you, well within reach to touch you to get your attention.

Your heartbeat picked up and you felt like you were a little kid in the dark of your bedroom again. But you focused on the feeling of the grass under your fingertips. You toyed with individual blades, feeling the smooth, waxy surfaces, the blunt edges and pointed tips. You associated the feeling of grass with the color green and it felt like you were directly touching the color. Your other hand pressed down on the ground and you felt the blades crunch under the weight of your palm, feeling the subtle vibrations on your skin.

Grounding yourself in reality and placing a larger amount of trust in Toge, you kept your eyes closed for the exercise. In all honesty, you ignored Gojo’s instructions for the exercise and simply focused as intently on the noise as you could.

There was something about Toge’s innate cursed energy that sounded different and stood out the most to you. His normal noise was a steady humming sound, consistent but not rapid. Not quite like Kai’s whose was lower like a bass speaker but warmer than that. But you would notice small fluctuations in the humming. Like it would get warmer or colder here and there. The duration of the hums would also change like it would pick up speed or slow down as well. They were very subtle shifts but you could still hear them.

The meditative session went really well and you were able to tune into the new sounds better than you had before. You made a point to try and do this again and maybe ask Toge to sit with you.

The session ended and while you clearly didn’t know Gojo told everyone they could open their eyes, Toge reached over to get your attention.

You felt his hand gently rest on top of yours for a second and you felt your face heat up as your eyes snapped open. He briefly left his hand on yours, having been gentle to not scare you and clearly a little tentative.

****************************************************

We were doing a meditative exercise with Gojo today and I knew he usually had us close our eyes for it to help us focus. I noticed Y/N get particularly nervous about that prospect, her clasped hands clenching tighter and I quickly put two and two together.

Since she couldn’t hear, she relied on her other senses a lot more and sight is particularly important to everyone, deaf or not. She must feel particularly vulnerable with her eyes closed. I didn’t really know what to say to her to reassure her and I didn’t have time to pull my phone out so I simply scooted over closer to her, giving her space but sitting close enough to reach over to get her attention.

I peeked my eyes open a few times during the exercise and noticed Y/N intently moving her fingers through the short grass next to her crossed legs. Everyone else had their hands on their knees like I did and I knew Gojo hadn’t instructed us to do that. Did she just not catch his instruction? Or was it something else?

I closed my eyes, getting lost in thought and not really doing the exercise. I don’t know why I was so intrigued by the way her fingers intently picked and felt each individual blade of grass, palm grazing over the surface and occasionally pressing down to the dirt. Was she feeling something I wasn’t?

I moved my hand down into the grass but didn’t feel anything aside from regular old grass. Her fingers moved with clear intent despite their subtlety and gentleness. That’s when something struck me.

Was this her way of enhancing a sense to compensate for her lack of sight and hearing? There was a pattern to her fingers moving in the grass and I thought she might be grounding herself that way. Feeling something tangible around her due to two of her senses being gone. That was really smart and I internally applauded her adaptability. She could have just sat there with her eyes open to do the exercise or not done it at all but she took a deep breath and did it, accommodating her own needs.

She’s more resilient and quite frankly amazing than I originally thought.

The lesson ended and Gojo told us we could open our eyes as we were done. But of course, Y/N didn’t see or hear his instruction. I reached over to get her attention, placing my hand on hers as opposed to her shoulder like she had mentioned. I didn’t want to give her the impression that someone was behind her while she was already in a vulnerable state and she knew I was sitting next to her so I figured it would be the best way to not scare her.

I watched what looked like a blush dust her cheeks when I did, her eyes snapping open and looking down at my hand on hers. I pulled my hand back now that her eyes were open and she gave me a grateful smile but there was a hint of something else with it. Embarrassment? Maybe touching her hand was the wrong move. She didn’t seem upset about it so I dismissed it.

****************************************************

As the days passed, you still couldn’t quite pin down what it was but you eventually got distracted from the new noises by your slowly growing friendships. You would spend more time with everyone, getting to know them better. Your friendships with Maki and Yuta progressed faster than they did with Toge and Panda due to the communication issues but everyone was putting in the effort to understand you and were as patient as possible.

Panda was always upbeat and playful with you, using physical touch to convey his jokes and humor.

Maki was pretty straightforward, telling you things bluntly and to the point. But you appreciated her honesty with you and the fact that she wasn’t beating around the bush to make you feel better. She was the last person that was going to pity you.

Yuta was sweet and always put in extra effort to make sure you were understood. He always had a notepad at the ready just in case and would read out anything you wrote down for the group.

Toge communicated with you mostly through gestures and body language when the two of you couldn’t type or write. You found yourself paying particular attention to him and learning how to read his expressions. This was hard since he covered half of his face but he is very expressive which helps compensate for your inability to see his mouth. You had an easier time understanding him over meals when he would pull down his sweater or take off his face mask and you started to miss seeing his smile when he’d pull them back on.

Along with hearing everyone’s innate sounds changing, there was something off about the ambient noise of campus. Particularly at night. You would hear a low thrumming that would slowly pick up in the evening and die down in the mornings, completely gone during the day.

It was weird and gave you an unnerving feeling. Something about it felt wrong. Like it wasn’t supposed to be there or sound like that. You had no idea what it was but maybe it was just something on campus that you were learning to hear. Like one of the controlled curses they used for practice or something. That would explain the weird feeling.

But you couldn’t quite convince yourself it was normal. There was just an aspect about it that you couldn’t pin down that was... wrong. You had no idea how to describe it to anyone so you dismissed it as best you could. But on occasion it would wake you up in the middle of the night and the eerie feeling accompanying it made it difficult to fall back asleep.

—You okay?—

Toge asked this morning over breakfast. You were really tired, not having gotten good sleep due to the weird thrumming noise.

—Just tired. Didn’t sleep good—

You answer honestly, giving him a small shrug as you handed his phone back.

—Were we keeping you up?—

—No. It’s not you guys. I don’t know what it is but it’s really weird. Idk I’m probably just hearing something new that’s normal around here—

—What does it sound like? Can you tell where it’s coming from?—

—It’s a low thrumming. It gets louder at night and is gone during the day. It’s like it’s everywhere. Might just be the collective energy of everyone or something—

—Hmm. Weird—

—Ikr lol—

You were grateful Toge didn’t think you were crazy for hearing something new and his casual attitude about it was relieving. He wasn’t sensing anything wrong so it was probably just a weird new sound you were learning to hear. Maybe it was Tengen. That would explain why it sounded like it was everywhere. Yeah. That was it.

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 4: Finding A Place

SYNOPSIS: After a silent week at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech, someone finally reaches out and invites you to participate with everyone. Are they just being pitying or are you really going to find your place?

WC: 2.8K

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You were sitting alone at lunch today, as usual, and you had noticed that Tired Guy was observing you. You had no idea why, he was probably just being judgmental or something but you couldn’t quite convince yourself that was the case. He looked almost sad for you so you assumed he was just pitying you.

But your assumptions were quickly proved wrong today.

A few bites into your meal, he came over and sat down across from you with a small smile in greeting. He pulled out a yellow notepad and pencil before writing something down and turning it around for you to see.

—Hey! You know you don’t have to sit alone. You’re always welcome to come join us if you want to. Just tell us how you need to communicate and we can do that. We did it with Toge so that’s not a problem at all. Want you to feel like you fit in and everything. And if it’s any consolation, I struggled to fit in at first but they’re all really good people/panda—

You looked at the message a little shocked. You were not used to people taking the time figure out how to communicate with you, let alone inviting you to participate with them. You picked up the pencil and wrote back, hand a little shaky in shock.

—Thank you. I really appreciate that. Kinda used to not fitting in anywhere tbh. Thing is, I can speak, I just don’t sound normal and hate talking—

—We don’t care if you think you sound weird. Toge only talks in onigiri ingredients so you definitely won’t be alone in the unique communication situation—

—I’ll manage. But thank you for including me. I kinda don’t know anyone’s name still since I struggle with new words—

—I’m Yuta. Panda is pretty self explanatory. I told you about Toge and then that’s Maki. She’s a bit intimidating but nice once you get to know her—

—It’s nice to officially meet you. Sorry it took so long. I’ll come sit with you guys—

He nods and smiles at you before leading you over to the table everyone else was sitting at. He gestures for you to take a seat and you end up between him and Blond Guy— Toge, that’s his name.

Picking up on the fact that you knew nothing about anyone, Yuta says something to the group that you don’t quite catch before he hands the notepad to Panda.

He takes a second and writes something down before handing you the notepad back. In his, interesting, handwriting is a proper introduction and an explanation of his cursed technique. Rather the fact he’s a cursed corpse.

After you read, Toge gestures for you to hand him the notepad and does the same. Cursed speech is his technique and it makes sense as to why he covers his mouth. You hadn’t noticed before since you sat alone during meals but he has cursed speech marks, a snake and fangs seal as he explained, on his cheeks and tongue along with having actual fangs which you found pretty cool.

Maki goes next and explains she can’t use cursed energy which you find interesting. Could you potentially give her some and teach her to use it? You had tried with Mari but it didn’t work so you weren’t too hopeful and didn’t bring it up.

Yuta went last and explained his curse, Rika, and his newfound technique— copy. He rambled a bit on the paper and you figured you might be able to help him control cursed energy if he wanted your help that is. He seems pretty damn competent with it already.

He requests you introduce yourself as well since Gojo had apparently not done a good introduction for you and they also had no idea what your cursed technique was. You figured this would be a good time to explain that, while you were touched by the gesture of using the notepad, you could get by without it. So needless to say, you wrote for quite a bit.

—Hey, I’m Y/N. Obvs I’m deaf but I actually can hear cursed energy. Sounds like how electricity feels if that makes sense. My technique is called Energy Flux and along with hearing cursed energy, I can manipulate it. Give it, take it, move it around, stuff like that. But there’s some stuff that’s important about me you should know. I can usually hear you guys coming up behind me because of your energy and stuff but it’s really loud around here and I’m still getting used to it so you’re welcome to tap my shoulder to get my attention if you need. You all sound different so I’m figuring it out. We don’t have to use the notepad the whole time since I can read lips but new terms and names are hard for me at first. So that’s why I had no idea who you guys were until now. But let me know if you have any questions about me and being deaf and stuff. I don’t get offended about it so you’re welcome to ask anything.—

Everyone reads your message and nods, letting you know they understand and will ask when they need. Toge notes the two of you will probably need to keep writing or typing since you don’t know his onigiri language and that he prefers it anyway since his language doesn’t exactly convey much.

***************************************************

Today at lunch, Y/N was sitting alone again, as she had done all week, and I watched Yuta’s mind race. I knew what he was thinking so I nudged him and nodded my head toward Y/N.

He gave me an appreciative smile before digging through his bag for a notepad and pencil. I heard him take a deep breath before going over and sitting down across from Y/N.

Obviously I wasn’t privy to their written conversation but a few minutes later, to my delight, Y/N followed him over to our table. I scooted over on the bench so she could sit between Yuta and I. She was clearly comfortable with him so I hoped she’d be okay with me too.

Yuta explained that she didn’t even catch our names during introductions last week and that we should do a proper introduction. We all took turns writing on the notepad and passing it around.

Y/N’s turn to introduce herself came around and I was actually a bit excited to get to know her. Figure out how she talked in a sense— what she was like.

She handed me the notepad after writing down a good bit of information and I scanned the page. The first thing I noticed was her handwriting. I really liked it and it was a nice personification of how she would sound if she spoke. It gave her tone and emotion that normally wasn’t present with written words.

She explained her technique which I thought was really cool. She could hear cursed energy? That was, well, unheard of. Not only could she hear it but she could manipulate it too. I wondered what exactly she could do with that.

She said we were welcome to ask any questions and after a few basics about how to communicate with her that Panda and Yuta asked, I scribbled down a question.

—What do I sound like?—

She smiles and takes the notepad back, writing down her answer.

—Like a humming noise. It’s not low like a bass speaker but more like a machine. Soft and not annoying. Kinda nice actually. You’re not as loud as Yuta but you’re louder than Panda. He sounds like a cat purring. Yuta sounds like a storm. Crackly, buzzy, the most like electricity. Maki is a quiet buzz but when she gets angry she sounds like electricity too.—

I chuckled at her response and was honestly happy that I didn’t sound annoying to her. I liked that she seemingly liked how I sounded the most. Based on her description, everyone else sounded kinda annoying except maybe Panda. I loved that he sounded like a purring cat— I was definitely going to give him shit for that.

I loved finally getting a little glimpse into who Y/N was and I really liked her personality and seeming resilience. She was doing her best to make the most of her situation and while clearly frustrating, she was still upbeat and kind to us.

****************************************************

You have a good time with everyone at lunch and after going back to the dorms to change into your training outfit, meet up with them in the arena. They’re all talking together when you arrive and you walk up to join, your notes app pulled up on your phone so you can communicate with Toge.

They all greet you and Maki indicates to you that she has a question for you.

“So, theoretically, can you give someone or a weapon cursed energy?” She asks, placing a hand on her hip.

You nod and smile, not expecting someone to be that interested in your technique.

“Show me.” She requests simply, brows raised.

You give her a thumbs up and everyone takes a few steps back, not knowing what to expect. To take or give cursed energy, you have to make contact with the target entity. You can still repel, amplify and manipulate the energy otherwise without physical contact. It’s just that the transfer process is much faster and safe for you this way.

That being said, you simply extend you hand out to her and she gives you an odd expression. You glance from her, to your open palm and back to indicate to her to hold your hand.

She furrows her brows a bit as if she was skeptical of the experience but places her palm face down on top of yours.

You already know she can’t use cursed energy, you can hear her or rather, she’s almost silent, so you channel a very small amount into her hand. To you, cursed energy feels and sounds like electricity, buzzing and slightly tingly and you don’t want to freak her out.

She flinches a bit at the new feeling, her eyes widening as she feels it move through her per your direction. You donate a small amount of your energy to her and once completely transferred, you drop your hand out from underneath hers.

She looks down at her hand, turning her palm up and making fist a couple times before she gives you a genuinely grateful smile. You then point to her polearm lying in the grass next to her and raise your brows. She picks it up and hands it to you, and upon touching it, you feel the energy flowing through it. It is already extremely powerful on it’s own, clearly compensating for her lack of cursed energy so you don’t tamper with it and quickly hand it back.

Training goes by faster than you could have thought and on your way back to the dorms, you reflect on your interactions earlier.

Sure everyone was nice to you which was surprising but welcome but were they just doing it out of obligation? Were they just being nice out of pity? It didn’t quite seem like it, Toge and Yuta being the most genuine with you. Maki was a little more closed off and Panda was hard to understand but was clearly trying to cheer you up and lighten the mood.

Maybe they weren’t being fake.

****************************************************

Y/N seemingly had a good time at lunch and didn’t struggle as much during training today so I figured it would be a good time to invite her to hang out with us again. Dinner would probably be a good, casual, no pressure opportunity for her to join.

I wanted her to continue to feel included and not like lunch was a one time thing. Plus I liked hanging out with her so I pulled out my phone and typed up a message to her.

Toge walks up next to you, snapping you out of your thoughts, and hands you his phone with a message typed up in his notes app.

—Wanna have dinner with us at 7?—

You smile and nod as you hand him his phone back and he accepts, smiling back.

****************************************************

You showered, changed, and hung out in your room until seven rolled around. You walked down the hallway to the kitchen to discover everyone already there, Toge and Yuta cooking something that smelled really good while Panda and Maki sat at the table, chatting.

They all greeted you in some form, smiles and waves once more, and Panda gestured for you to join him and Maki at the table. You sat across from the pair and Panda said something that was clearly directed at you. But you still couldn’t read his lips yet, or snout rather, so you furrowed your brows and pointed to your mouth as you shook your head.

“You can’t read his words?” Maki asks, picking up on your confusion.

You nod, happy someone understood. You pulled out your phone and typed to the pair.

—I’ll pick it up eventually so don’t worry. I’ve just never exactly talked to a panda before—

You watch the pair chuckle at your message and Panda nodded to acknowledge you. He said something again and you picked up on an ‘okay’ assuming he was telling you it was okay and that he’d be patient.

Maki looked up over your shoulder as you heard someone come up behind you. You turned to see Toge sit down next to you, setting a plate of yakitori in front of you. You flashed him a grateful smile that he reciprocated and, after Yuta served Panda, Maki and himself, the five of you dug in.

The food was absolutely delicious and you tapped the table between you and Toge to get his attention. He looks over at you and you point to the plate before giving him a thumbs up. He gives you a thumbs up back and elbows Yuta who is on the other side of him, pointing to you, his plate and giving him a thumbs up.

Yuta peers around him. “Glad you like it.”

Everyone diligently includes you in the conversation and as delighted as you were to be accepted, you knew you were only slowing it down. Toge noticed your change in demeanor and typed to you.

—What’s wrong?—

—I appreciate being included but I know I’m just hindering the conversation—

He vigorously shakes his head no before typing back.

—You’re definitely not. Promise. We want you to participate so we can get to know you and learn your gestures and stuff—

You smile, a bit sadly, but accept and continue answering questions and typing to everyone until you finished eating. After you cleaned up dinner the five of you migrated into the living room to continue your conversation.

****************************************************

In the middle of dinner, Y/N’s expression and body language suddenly changed. She looked sad and upset with something I couldn’t quite tell. No one else seemed to notice so I did what I would have wanted and typed up a quick message to ask if she was okay. For all I knew she could just be lost in thought but I got the feeling something else was wrong.

I tried to hide my sad expression after she answered my question.

She felt like she was being a burden. And I knew exactly how that felt. The two of us have unique communication needs and while I knew everyone here didn’t mind adapting, I understood why she felt that way.

I made sure she knew she wasn’t hindering the conversation in the slightest. She was actually contributing quite a lot to it and everyone was having a particularly good time tonight. Maki was more involved, Panda was a bit crazier and Yuta was more relaxed. She was helping for sure.

****************************************************

In the living room, Toge sat next to you on the smaller couch and you were more comfortable with his presence than you thought you would be. He seemed to understand you in a different way. Quietly. Intently.

Whatever it was about his presence was comforting in a way and you found yourself relaxing into the couch and social situation more fluidly and easily than you had ever done before.

Usually you were pretty guarded when it came to sharing details about yourself aside from surface level explanations about your deafness and the like. But the group had really put in an effort to include you and you could tell they were being genuine. Not pitying.

As you all settled into the living room, the conversation drifted to topics like favorite movies and embarrassing childhood stories. You found yourself laughing more than you had in weeks, and when it came time to share something about yourself, you hesitated for a second before revealing a small detail about your life before Jujutsu Tech. The group listened intently, their reactions kind and encouraging, and for the first time, you felt a glimmer of belonging.

You slowly opened up to them some, still a bit guarded because of past experiences but you could tell they all meant well so you revealed a few little pieces of yourself. Maybe you had found another little band of misfits.

[reina-tries-2-write]

ur series is my fav 😔✊ keep up the good work !! >_<

Thank you so much! 💕 just doin my best lol

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 3: Echoes of Frustration

SYNOPSIS: Your first week at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech isn't going how you imagined it would. You are struggling to keep up with your classmates and understand what anyone is trying to teach you. What are you going to do?

WC: 2K

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You had breakfast by yourself today but ran into Tired Guy in the hallway on your way to the classroom. He gave you a smile and a wave before gesturing for you to walk with him. He didn’t say anything to you the whole time, but his quiet company was nice.

You figured he was just being polite out of pity, like all the other strangers who were nice to you.

Blond Guy caught up with the two of you in the hallway and you all walked into the classroom together.

The girl and panda are already there when you arrive and you see three empty desks between them.

Blond Guy automatically walks over to the one right next to Panda and the two begin chatting. You look over at Tired Guy, not wanting to take the spot he usually sits in, but he smiles and gestures for you to pick. Hesitantly sitting down in the middle desk, you flash him a look that asks if it’s okay that you’re sitting where you are. He replies with a wide smile to reassure you it is, and you relax into the wooden chair.

****************************************************

I ended up sat next to Y/N in the classroom today and flashed her an encouraging smile. She looked extremely nervous, and I couldn’t exactly blame her. The curriculum could be intense sometimes and not being able to hear Gojo’s lecturing was definitely going to be a challenge for her.

I made sure to take extra detailed notes just in case she needed them at any point and decided to spend the next couple of days revising my notes from the past month that she had missed. I didn’t want her to be even more behind than she already was and hoped I could help when and if she needed it.

She looked pretty confused the couple times I peeked over at her during the lecture which only reinforced my assumption that she wasn’t picking up on everything Gojo was saying.

I heard her fingers tapping on the keys of her laptop rapidly as she clearly struggled to keep up and I noticed she had a lot of blank spaces and question marks where I had notes.

I was definitely going to help if she asked.

****************************************************

Gojo comes in a few minutes later and begins to lecture. The classwork is nothing like you expected and is a lot faster paced than you would have liked. You really struggle to keep up with his speaking, particularly because he has a tendency to turn his back to you while continuing to talk.

You almost raised you hand a couple times, having written your question on a stray piece of paper but by the time you were ready to ask, Gojo had clearly moved on from the topic. The pace of the class was fast, and you were barely keeping up.

There were tons of question marks and blank spaces in your notes by the time the lecture ended, and you realized you were only getting about sixty percent of the information after peeking over at Blond Guy’s notebook. He had a lot more written down.

The five of you were dismissed for your lunch break before training. Everyone went off to the cafeteria style area that served meals for anyone who lived on the campus, and you trailed behind, not really knowing how to interact with anyone and feeling particularly meek and left out.

After picking up your tray of delicious smelling food, you found a place to sit in the corner by yourself. The food tasted just as good as it smelled, and you were pleasantly surprised by the quality. You observed the others from afar as you ate, watching their interactions and feeling quite left out due to how much fun they were seemingly having. But you knew you would just slow down the conversation and become a social burden if they invited you anyway.

Y/N sat by herself at lunch today and I decided to leave her be for now. She was clearly overwhelmed by class and a social interaction, which was obviously difficult for her, would only contribute to that.

I felt bad for letting her sit alone but Yuta and Panda came to the same conclusion which helped me feel better about it.

“Do you wanna invite her over?” Panda asks after looking over his shoulder at Y/N.

“I think she just needs some space. Class was a lot for me today so I imagine it was a lot for her.” Yuta answers, empathetic as always.

I nod my head in agreement along with Maki who wasn’t really contributing to any conversation about Y/N. I know it wasn’t anything personal, Maki is just wary around new people.

I looked over Maki’s shoulder quite often as we ate, quietly observing Y/N. She looked really defeated and would clearly zone out a little bit here and there, her utensil frozen in midair or eyes a bit glassy.

I wished more than anything I could just tell her I understood how she felt. But I can’t exactly talk, and she can’t exactly hear. So where did that leave us?

****************************************************

You went back to the dorms to change into some workout clothes because the next thing on the schedule was training which you were particularly nervous about. Despite working with Edo for six years, he never taught you how to spar or wield a weapon. Some of training was student led when Gojo wasn’t teaching and today, the girl was instructing.

You struggled to keep up with her instructions with the bow staff and you ended up fumbling around like an idiot with the wooden pole. You were so bad in fact, that you managed to hit yourself in the back of the head with the damn thing.

Naturally, your loud noise of pain and surprise caught everyone’s attention which was exactly what you needed in that moment— everyone staring at you with the pole on the ground and you rubbing the pained area.

After you hit yourself a couple more times, making a knot on the back of your head, she clearly tried to slow down for you but everyone else knew what they were doing so she couldn’t walk you through it step by step like you actually needed. She called a break, but you knew it was specifically for you to take a breather. You were getting really frustrated and upset with yourself.

Why can’t you do something so simple? I didn’t look that hard and there weren’t very many steps, but you just couldn’t figure it out to save your life.

You put the bow staff aside and tightened the laces on your shoes before stretching a bit in preparation for a run around the track. You were good at running and it gave you time to think and process your emotions.

You pushed yourself as fast as you could keep pace, the vibrations from your feet drumming on the red track drowned out the buzzing and humming of the cursed energy around you, helping you clear your mind. At least here, running around the track, you were finally in control of something. Your body would listen and could do what you asked.

Ugh, why couldn’t Edo have taught you at least a little bit on how to fight? Sure your technique was out of control for a long time but still. Even a couple lessons would have helped you not look like an incompetent idiot. That was totally helping your whole fitting in thing. They don’t know how to communicate with you and clearly aren’t trying. Or are too scared to. Why couldn’t Mari and Kai be here with you? They’d interpret for you— advocate for you. But here you were, alone in your world of almost silence, completely out of your element.

Three laps in, the girl flags you down and you slow your pace as you approach.

“You ready to get back at it?” She asks as you get close enough to read her thin lips.

You simply shake your head and pick up your pace again as you pass her. You really couldn’t bring yourself to pick up the stupid staff right now.

She gave you an odd and almost disapproving look before she continued teaching the others while you ran the track.

Great. She’s mad.

You ended up spending the rest of the allotted training period running, doing countless lap and pushing your body to its limits.

You did your best to repeat Edo’s encouraging words in your head. That your deafness wasn’t a limitation, just something you needed to find adaptations to. That you were stronger than you thought you were. That you were more than capable. That you could do it. But his words just didn’t seem to help as much as when you would see them signed on his rough, calloused hands.

This was going to be a lot harder than you imagined it would. But you were going to do your best.

****************************************************

Y/N’s struggles didn’t end in the classroom and unfortunately it looked like she had next to no experience with any weapon. Maki was teaching today and was surprisingly empathetic toward Y/N, slowing down a lot more than she normally would have and calling a break after Y/N hit herself in the head with the staff.

After an understandable huff of frustration, Y/N tossed the staff aside and began to do laps around the track. I watched her make a full lap as we took our break and she was a lot faster than I expected. She had seemingly set a good pace and was making good time around the track. I was fast but I might struggle to keep up with her.

“What’s all that about?” Maki asks, crossing her arms after gesturing to Y/N on the track.

“She’s frustrated.” Panda answers, a small frown on his face.

“Well sure but she doesn’t have to sulk.” Maki counters, brow raised.

“I think you’re forgetting she can’t hear anything you’re telling her, slow or not.” Yuta pipes up a bit timidly but saying what I would have.

I can’t exactly blame her for taking a break. Staffs are hard and I’ve gotten frustrated even listening to Maki’s instructions.

I wonder what’s going on in her head.

Five or six laps in, after declining Maki’s offer to resume training, I watched her face scrunch up in pain. Emotional or physical, I couldn’t tell. Probably a mix of both. To my surprise, she ran the rest of the allotted training time, which was quite a while. She clearly needed to vent her feelings and I really couldn’t blame her.

I’d be frustrated enough to run laps if I wasn’t able to keep up in class, but she was struggling with training on top of that too. I couldn’t imagine how she was feeling right now.

****************************************************

Unfortunately for you, your struggles didn’t end on the first day and the rest of your week was extremely difficult. You would spend hours in the library in the evenings, trying to catch up on the material you missed, desperate to catch up.

Training was arguably worse and you ended up getting frustrated and having to walk away a lot. You would do laps around the track or go into the gym to run on the treadmill when you were particularly frustrated so no one would see the tears slipping down your face. You were barely keeping up and were exhausted at your efforts to try and stay on top of things.

You knew you couldn’t ask questions since you’d only slow down the lecture or training session for everyone else and you didn’t want to be a burden to everyone.

Outside of class and training, you kept to yourself, mostly busy with trying to keep up, but even in your free time, you didn’t really interact with anyone.

You did finally start to catch onto the classwork to your relief, but you still had to work to catch up.

You were exhausted and discouraged at you experience here so far. But you trudged on, motivated by your memory of Edo and all the time he’d spent preparing you for this.

You were gonna do it for him.

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 2: Origin of Silence

SYNOPSIS: Your life has been full of struggles, sorrow, and happiness. You worked hard to get where you are today and are very proud of your progress. You reflect on how far you've come as you sleep soundly before your first full day at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech.

WC: 2.2K

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Your cursed technique is called Energy Flux. Not only are you able to hear cursed energy but you can manipulate it as well. It’s a powerful technique as you are able to enhance, redirect, and disrupt cursed energy. Additionally, you can drain others of their cursed energy to weaken them or oppositely, give cursed energy to an ally to aid them in their own attacks. But you can also overdo it.

You felt the crackling of cursed energy flowing through you and your vision started to spin. You’d overdone it. Stumbling around in an attempt to get back into your house, you fell to your knees as they buckled underneath you. Your vision swam and blurred until your surroundings were unrecognizable. Then your limited sight tunneled and blackness overtook you.

You have to be careful. You always have and you always will.

You were born deaf. That’s just the way you came into the world. You’ve never been able to hear any voices or music or pleasant noises. The doctors and audiologists couldn’t exactly figure out why you were deaf since your ears and brain seemed to work fine. They just assumed there was a connection you were missing that they couldn’t quite nail down. That for some reason, your brain just couldn’t process sound. Or so they thought.

You were six when you discovered that you were the only one who could hear the buzzing, crackling, and humming noises of the world around you. You did your best to explain how it changed volume and type around different people but your audiologist wasn’t having it. In fact, the guy was so rude and generally awful that he recommended you to a psychiatrist because there was no explanation for the sounds you were ‘hearing’ so they must be in your head.

‘No, they’re really there, I promise. Like you sound like—” You were cut off by a wave from your audiologist.

He said something to you, his lips moving rapidly, but you hadn’t learned to read lips yet.

What did he say to you? He looks mad. Is he mad at you? You didn’t do anything wrong. Did you? Were you supposed to be hearing these noises? Why were you hearing them? Why didn’t he believe you?

Worried and doing their best, you parents listened. None of the medication ever did anything but make you feel tired and foggy and you eventually refused to take it. Your mom understood how you felt but your dad was a bit more reluctant to let you stop the meds, just wanting you to ‘get better’. Whatever that meant.

Not long after you stopped the medication, around the time you were eight, you started to discover you could do things no one else could. The noises you were hearing were like electricity and you found out you could control this. You could give it and take it and move it around and make it into shapes. It was invisible but the feelings and sounds were very real to you.

But this discovery only lead to more medication, your parents thinking you were genuinely hallucinating now. The few friends you had stopped playing with you at school and all of the parents would give you disapproving looks, like there was something wrong with you.

For a while, you did believe there was something wrong with you and agreed to try different medications and treatments. However, your emotions only made the sounds worse and you started to control the energy unintentionally.

You were sitting in the middle of your wrecked room, sobbing into your shaking hands. Items were strung about in the whirlwind that had happened minutes earlier. It was like you had caused a tornado to form around you, flinging loose items all over the place. Broken glass from picture frames, your toys and books were littered on the floor around the small pristine circle you were sitting in. What was wrong with you?

After a particularly violent outburst, your mental health slowly deteriorated— you stopped eating, avoided everyone, and refused to communicate. It got so bad you found yourself in an institution right after your tenth birthday. But you were grateful for the experience because your doctor brought in someone on your third day.

“Y/N, we have a visitor for you.” One of the doctors said, opening the door to your plain room.

Behind him was a shorter balding man who gave you a surprisingly gentle smile as he walked inside. He pulled your desk chair out and sat down in front of you where you were curled up on the bed.

“Hi, I’m Edo. I heard about your case and I think I can help.” He signed to you.

He can sign? He wanted to help? He doesn’t look like a doctor. He’s not wearing doctor clothes so how is he gonna help you? Does he know something the doctors don’t know?

“You can make the noises go away?” You ask curiously.

“I can’t make them go away but I do know what they are.” He explains.

“Do you hear them too?” You inquire, sitting up and scooting forward.

He shakes his head. “You seem to be the only person in the whole world who can hear them which makes you exceptionally special.”

“I am?” You reply, head tilted to the side in confusion.

How did hearing these noises make you special? They were just electricity type noises. They weren’t like how music or voices feel.

“Yes. You are able to see into part of the world that not a lot of people can see. Have you ever seen little monsters around?” He asks you, a bushy brown brow raised.

Turns out, you weren’t crazy, you were just unique. Edo explained curses and cursed energy and it all made sense to you. That’s what you were controlling. To your slight disdain, you ability to hear the energy was unheard of but Edo reassured you it wasn’t a disadvantage in the slightest if you could learn to harness it.

The weight of your fear of not being right— of being broken lifted off your little shoulders in that moment.

You weren’t crazy. They were wrong. You’re special.

You were out of the hospital the next day and after your parents saw the difference Edo made in your life, allowed you to go live with him. You still saw your parents often since Edo didn’t live very far away but you were enrolled in a new school.

The first two months of school were tough for you. Not only did you have to be the new kid, but you were the deaf new kid and the interpreter that followed you around only made you stand out further.

On top of school, you were doing lessons with Edo on how to control and manipulate cursed energy. That was particularly draining but you powered through.

You met Mari and Kai a couple months in and after a few sign language lessons, the three of you became inseparable. They were the weird kids too but the three of you were the perfect little band of misfits in your book.

“I like being the weird kids.” Kai signs out of the blue one day while the three of you were in the cafeteria for lunch.

“Why? Everyone looks at us funny.” Mari counters, her expression one of slight disgust.

“Cause they think we’re cool. Why would they look if we weren’t interesting?” Kai replies with his characteristic toothy smile.

“I don’t care what they think. I like you guys and that’s what matters to me.” You add, flashing the pair a massive smile.

The next six years of your life were the best ones you’d ever had. You were learning about cursed energy and how to harness it, how to interpret the noise it made, and spending time with actual friends.

“Ugh! Edo! This is stupid!” You complain, smacking your palms against your forehead.

“It’s not stupid. You’re just learning. Mistakes are a part of that. You don’t see it but you’re doing really well.” He reassures with his characteristic encouraging smile.

“Fine. One more time and if I mess up, we’re done.” You concede with a huff.

He nods and begins to walk you through the move again, more determined to get it down and finally control your technique in this way. You focused and calmed down, knowing this was your last try. It didn’t matter if you messed up, you were gonna be done anyway.

But to your surprise, you successfully manipulated the energy and completed his task to perfection.

“There you go! Atta girl! I told you you could do it! You can always do it.” Edo congratulates, giving you a hug.

You felt on top of the world in that moment, having just harnessed one of the hardest moves Edo had taught you so far. But happiness is always interrupted and your world got turned upside down five months before you turned seventeen.

Edo died.

He’d gotten called to back up some other sorcerers in a particularly nasty battle with an overwhelming number of special grade curses and never came home.

“I’m very sorry.” The tall man at your doorstep concludes.

You freeze in fear. “No! You— He can’t be!” You stutter out, feeling your emotions creeping up though your chest.

“I’m afraid he is. Again, my condolences.” He repeats to your horror.

Your chest tightens and the look in his eyes says everything it needs to. Edo really was gone.

You shoved past him, racing into the woods behind the house. You sprinted as deep into the thicket as you could as tears streamed down your face. You were going to lose control and if there was a place to do it, it was here, deep in the woods where you couldn’t hurt anyone.

You finally dropped to your knees in a small clearing and unleashed your feelings. You screamed as loud as you could, clutching your chest as you felt the vibrations escaping you. Your eyes were squeezed shut so you didn’t see the devastation around you. Trees cracked and broke, falling away from you, the ground got kicked up and the top layer of soil and grass blew away, sticks and branches and bushes flew all about in the explosion of your emotions.

When your voice gave out, you gasped for breath from your extended scream, emptying your lungs of everything they had. Opening your eyes, you surveyed the damage as best you could with the tears in your eyes. You were knelt in a small circle of grass in the middle of the devastation you had unleashed on the forest. You had decimated a massive portion of the foliage, a fifty meter diameter circle of destruction around you. Fallen trees, piles of leaves and dirt and branches littered the edge of the circle of dirt.

Your sobbing didn’t stop and you sat in the middle of the clearing, head in your hands as you let out all your emotions.

They took him from you. The one person who truly got you and helped you and made you feel a little less alone in your silent world. They took him from you. You didn’t even get to say goodbye. What were you gonna do?

Mari and Kai were there for you through it all and you eventually reached a breaking point, telling them all about your world of curses and sorcery. They were understanding and the only people who didn’t think you were crazy for it.

“I’m sorry you’ve been going through this but you don’t have to be alone. And I promise we don’t think you’re crazy for it. We believe you.” Mari signs sympathetically.

“Anything you need, we can do. You’re like family you know.” Kai adds before giving you a hug.

You had to move back in with your parents and when you returned home, they felt like strangers. Your mom seemed pretty wary and distant and your dad looked like he could care less about you, clearly having given up on you ‘getting better’. Needless to say, you spent a lot of time couch-surfing at Mari and Kai’s houses.

But you weren’t hopeless for long. Edo had some connections that were complicated and above your head but somehow, you were guaranteed admission to a special sorcerer school in Tokyo. Albeit the profession was dangerous and you could turn out just like he had, but you didn’t care. Unfortunately, you got enrolled late to Tokyo Jujutsu Tech but you were still almost desperate to go. You wanted to do it for Edo.

You had a purpose now.

You knew why he trained you— what he trained you for. Edo taught you to use your ability for good, to help people, protect people from unseen horrors.

“I know you can do it. You’re gonna struggle, you’re gonna fail, life is gonna suck sometimes. But you can push through. You’re stronger than you think you are and you are more capable than you know. Being deaf isn’t a limitation. It’s your unique way to help. You know I love you and believe in you.” Edo told you with a soft smile.

The signed words on his hands slowly faded away into nothingness and you blinked your eyes open in the morning sun filtering through your curtains as you woke up. You took in your brand new dorm room, all of your things organized and set up how you liked, and you couldn’t help the massive smile that crept up on your face. In spite of all your fears and anxiety, you were here. You were here and you were going to do this. You could do this.

And you were gonna kick ass just like Edo knew you could.

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Chapter 1: Unfamiliar Territory

SYNOPSIS: What will your first day at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech entail?

WC: 3.2K

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The story switches between your POV and Toge's between the asterisk cuts. Any descriptions of sign language will be referencing ASL not JSL since I don’t know it. This is my first serious work so I hope you enjoy!

masterlist - next

You step off the train onto the platform in Tokyo, stomach churning with anxiety. The station is noisy, louder than you expected and the ambient volume is a lot to take in. The buzzing and humming is unlike anything you’ve ever heard before and it feels like electricity is running through you.

Scanning the crowd in the station, your eyes finally land on the person you’re looking for. He’s not hard to spot since he’s easily over six feet tall and wearing a blindfold which only makes him stand out further. You walk over and greet him which he eagerly reciprocates before leading you out of the station.

The two of you don’t talk as you make your way through the massive city that you are spending most of your time gawking at. You lived in a remote village and had never seen a building taller than four stories so the city was quite the shock for you. It was beautiful and a lot more colorful and busy than you expected which was honestly a little overwhelming but enjoyable nonetheless. The towering skyscrapers reflected the mid morning sun in a dazzling display that sparkled in your vision as you took in the colorful lights and people of the city.

Today is your move in day at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech and you are incredibly anxious about it. Sure, anyone would be nervous about moving five hours from home for university but you have an extra reason to be nervous.

Aside from missing the first month of classes, the thing about you is…

You’re deaf.

You can read lips and speak fine, or at least well enough to be understood, but you still battle a communication barrier. It can be quite frustrating at times as well. When people find out you’re deaf but can read lips, they often exaggerate their mouth movements as they speak which only makes it harder for you to understand them.

You find yourself nodding and smiling along with strangers quite often, having absolutely no idea what they are saying to you.

Back home, your friends Mari and Kai were the only ones who weren’t weird about you being deaf and took the time to learn sign language with you. You had a blast teaching them in middle school and the three of you were super close throughout the rest of middle and high school.

The three of you went off to separate colleges but promised to do your best to keep in touch despite being so far apart. You were definitely going to stay in contact with then since they’re your best friends, number one supporters, and honestly, the best people in your life. They’re more like family really.

You snapped yourself out of your thoughts of your friends and back into your anxious reality as the blindfolded man, Gojo, lead you up a dark cobbled path onto campus.

As you walked closer and closer, the buzzing, humming, and crackling in your ears got louder. Despite being deaf, you can hear cursed energy, and is louder the stronger it is. That being said, Gojo is pretty damn loud and so is the campus.

Regardless of the volume, it is really nice, set in the woods just inside the city and has beautiful traditional architecture. There are several different types of housing buildings on the campus along with student housing of course.

There is also a large training area with multiple accompanying buildings, and more official looking buildings where classes and other meetings are probably held, in the middle of campus.

There are some nice secluded corners of the campus too with ponds and shrines and small places to spend time in nature.

Gojo leads you to a dorm building and you take a deep breath of the crisp September air before walking up the three wooden steps. After the front door closes behind you, you sigh lightly in relief at the welcome, slightly quieter atmosphere.

Your room is nothing crazy fancy but it’s still very nice. Your belongings have already been delivered and are neatly sitting on the wooden floor in the middle of the room.

All of the furniture was wood but was in very good condition, clearly new and well taken care of. The bathroom was pretty plain, white tile and vanity, a shower with a small bench inside, and a small cabinet under the sink. You take in the warm wood of the room, breathing in the smell of varnish and a fresh citrus-y cleaner. The only noise in the room was the loud crackling and buzzing of Gojo’s cursed energy blaring in your ears.

After looking around, you turn to him to await further instruction, having no idea what you’ll be doing today.

“Alright! Now I’ll give you a quick tour of campus and then you can meet the other first years.” He tells you.

You nod your head nervously and follow him out of the dorm. Despite the fact you are able to speak, you prefer not to. Mari and Kai had described your voice to you on one occasion and, through no fault of their own, made you extremely self conscious about it. You knew you didn’t sound normal and had what is called a ‘deaf accent’ which only made you even more different. Needless to say, you never speak unless you absolutely have to.

You hated the way people reacted when you did speak— the way their eyebrows would knit together, and their smiles would falter, told you everything you needed to know. It was better not to try. Better to just be silent. Stay in the background.

Gojo takes you around campus and explains some day to day activities, giving you a mini version of the orientation that you obviously missed. Walking by the training arena, you spot four people at work. Well, three people and a panda to your utter surprise.

Noticing your intrigue, Gojo explains that they are the other first years and that you’ll get to meet them soon. You watch a guy with platinum blond hair and the panda goofing off which makes the girl cross her arms and shake her head as if to fake disdain for their antics while the other guy laughs along.

They all clearly knew each other pretty well at this point and that only made you feel even more excluded. Not only were you going to have to learn how to read them, get to know them, and be accepted, but you were going to have to figure out how to communicate without talking if possible. You didn’t want them to think any differently of you.

Well, more than they initially would.

Were you going to be able to fit in with them? What were they going to be like? Particularly the panda. Was he able to talk? Would you be able to read him? What if you couldn’t?

After a tour of the buildings, Gojo lead you down the stairs into the arena where the other students were still training. He greets them and instructs them to come over to meet you. The humming-buzzing noise gets louder as they approach and you are able to tell that the taller guy is the loudest which only makes you more nervous. He’s almost as loud as Gojo and you know he’s freaky powerful.

Your only goal today was to try and fit in. Okay just get through introductions without looking like an idiot. If you can do that then maybe, just maybe, this whole new life— your fresh start— wouldn’t be so terrifying. Yeah. You got this. You had to. You couldn’t survive four years alone without anyone who understood you. Back home it was so easy to slip into the background unnoticed. But there were so few of you here you had to fit in. You’d just be a burden to them if you couldn’t. You had to be seen— useful for once.

You get increasingly nervous as they all stand around you and you begin to fiddle with your bracelet, plucking at the beads with shaky fingers as Gojo introduces you to them, simply saying your name and explaining that you’re deaf.

You wished he would have said more and you looked up at him, eyes pleading to give a better explanation. You desperately wanted to fit in. But he didn’t look over at you.

You give everyone a timid wave and notice the guy with platinum blond hair seems to take particular interest in you, his thin brows raised curiously. Unfortunately for you, he’s got a high collared sweater covering his mouth so you won’t be able to read his lips.

Everyone goes around and introduces themselves to you but, as usual, you have no idea what their names are. New words you’ve never seen spoken before, names in particular, were very difficult for you to lip read.

The girl seems a bit standoffish, crossed arms and raised brow, but looks relatively happy to have another woman around nonetheless as she looks you up and down with a bit of approval. You get the feeling she’s pretty intense and despite having the least amount of cursed energy, you’re most definitely intimidated by her presence and sizing you up.

The taller guy seems pretty tired, eye bags and slouched posture, and a bit shy due to his timid wave and smile. But he gives you the impression that he’s pretty easy going and approachable despite the massive amount of buzzing cursed energy he’s struggling to control.

The panda eagerly introduces himself but since you’ve never exactly spoken to a panda before, you have no idea what he says at all. He then gestures to the blond guy and seemingly introduces him since he doesn’t speak to you. Or you don’t think he does anyway. He gives you an eager wave, eyes crinkling with his assumed smile.

Great.

You still had no idea who any of them were. Not to mention, you’re particularly anxious about how you’re going to communicate with the guy who covers his mouth. Hopefully that wasn’t a regular thing with him. Could he even speak? The panda did introduce him and for all you knew, he could be deaf too. You highly doubted that though. He would have signed to you if he was, right?

****************************************************

Gojo told us that the final first year would be arriving today and we were all curious as to who they would be. I got genuinely a bit disappointed at having yet another person who wouldn’t understand me but that’s just how things are for me. Always have been, always will be.

We were in the arena for afternoon training when we heard Gojo come in. With him is the new student, another girl to Maki’s clear intrigue. The pair make their way down the stairs and we meet them at the bottom for introductions.

“Hey guys! This is our final first year Y/N! One important note is that she’s deaf but she can read lips so we’ll do introductions now!” Gojo chirps in explanation.

She gives us a shy smile and wave before continuing to fiddle with the bracelet around her left wrist. She looked absolutely terrified of being here, out of her element and around people who she clearly couldn’t understand. She nodded and smiled along with everyone’s introductions but I know she had no idea what we were saying.

I’m very used to getting that look when I speak. The awkward smile and glimmer of confusion in their eyes, stiff and nervous body language, being obviously uncomfortable and suddenly reserved— I know all the tells.

But something about her quietness was different. It was like she was escaping into her world of silence whereas my quiet was just something I was used to. Something that just inherently came with me.

I felt genuinely bad that she wasn’t understanding but of course there wasn’t anything I could say to help the situation. Panda introduced me and I did my best to be welcoming and approachable. I could tell she had extra no idea about Panda and I, probably because she’d never spoken to a panda and it was difficult to read his lips. Well, snout. Whatever.

I’ll have to do a proper introduction with her later when I can type or write something up. I didn’t want her to feel isolated. I know what that’s like too.

****************************************************

After the very unhelpful introductions, Gojo tells them to resume their training and says that you can just watch for the time being as the allotted afternoon training time was almost over. You nodded and sat down on one of the benches as the others continued.

The girl wielded a polearm and was clearly very talented with it, sparring with the Tired Guy who’s weapon of choice was a katana. The Panda and Blond Guy didn’t wield weapons and instead goofed off a bit and worked on their physical fitness, doing a few laps around the track and the like.

Training ended a little bit before dinner time and you walked back to the dorms with the others, behind them on the dirt path. Blond Guy looked back at you a couple times, his expression hard to read and you hoped he wasn’t being judgmental even though he most likely was.

You weren’t very hungry due to the large meal you’d eaten on the train a few hours ago so you simply headed off to your room to unpack. Plus you wanted an escape from the loud buzzing of cursed energy that was going to take some getting used to.

You started with your litany of clothes, filling up your closet before you started on the mess of boxes. You hadn’t exactly organized them very well in your rush to pack and you had to dig through them to find everything you needed as you went.

The room quickly turned into a mess, items scattered all over the place as you looted through boxes and simply dumped a few of them out on your bed to rifle through the contents.

But a couple hours later and your room was complete, reflecting your bedroom back home, your style, and personality as you liked it to. It was an extension of yourself in a way and you felt much more at home now that it was decorated and the like.

Okay. Nice and organized and just like home. Yeah. This is good.

It was now your new sanctuary in this new and honestly overwhelming place. Despite your orientation, you were still pretty clueless as to what was going on around here and you struggled to keep up with the fast pace of the place.

It was well after dinner time when you got hungry and thankfully, one of the few things you understood was that the kitchen was communal and you had free reign to use whatever you’d like unless it was clearly marked with someone’s name.

You made yourself a simple sandwich and as you finished, you heard the buzzing increase like someone was walking toward you. This noise was more of a humming that wasn’t overwhelming and had an almost pleasant pitch. Like a machine quietly whirring as it worked intently on its task.

Cursed energy noises— that was your one and only auditory cue as to your surroundings and since most everyone had some amount of cursed energy, you learned to tell where people were relative to you.

****************************************************

I ran into Y/N later that evening in the kitchen on my way to get something to drink. She had her back turned to me as she prepared something on the counter and as much as I wanted to approach her, I didn’t want to scare her or anything by suddenly appearing or tapping her shoulder.

So I stood there a bit oddly as I contemplated how I wanted to approach but a few seconds later, she turned around. Thankfully she didn’t look surprised or scared about my presence and I chalked it up to her having felt my footsteps as I walked in or something. That or she just wasn’t a jumpy person and was used to others randomly appearing.

She looked really troubled, her brows furrowed at seemingly nothing and her shoulders slouched as she held a blue ceramic plate with a simple sandwich on it.

Looking up at me, she froze, eyes wide for a second.

Did I scare her? Was there something intimidating about me? Was it because it was just the two of us in here? I didn’t want to be threatening.

She blinked a few times before she gave me an awkward smile before her expression fell even further than it was before.

I did my best to ask if she was okay but she didn’t pick up on it immediately. But after a few seconds, she understood and shrugged her shoulders in answer before looking down at the plate in her hand, expression conveying some sadness among other things.

She holds her hand up in an odd goodbye of sorts, almost as if to stop me from asking or saying anything before she scampered off to her room, shutting the door loudly.

What was going on in her head? Was I not as approachable as I thought? Or was something else going on? She probably had a very overwhelming day and another social interaction might be too much for her right now. I wasn’t offended at her awkward departure, I was just worried and confused about what she was thinking. I didn’t want her to feel isolated here.

****************************************************

Turning around, sandwich in hand, you saw Blond Guy in the kitchen behind you. He gave you a smile and wave before his expression changed. His brows furrowed and his head tilted to the side ever so slightly.

Your eyes widened as you froze in place.

How were you gonna communicate with him? The one person around here that you can’t understand at all. Was he gonna think you were weird for smiling and waving and gesturing instead of talking? Would you be able to fit in here with him?

He pointed to you and then gave you a hesitant thumbs up. Your own brows furrowed in confusion before you realized he was asking if you were okay.

Are you okay? No, not really. You were overwhelmed and exhausted and hungry and terrified of what tomorrow was going to be like.

But you give him an awkward smile before shrugging your shoulders and diverting your gaze from his violet eyes to the sandwich on your plate.

You notice what looks like a frown on his face, again you still couldn’t see his mouth, but the rest of his face conveyed it fine.

Oh god, what is he thinking? Does he think you’re weird? Does he not like you? Is he scared to try and communicate with you?

You hold your hand up briefly as a goodbye of sorts before sheepishly heading back to the quiet of your room.

The weight of the day settled onto your shoulders as you shut the door behind you. For a moment, you stood there, leaning your forehead against it, letting the quiet calm you down.

Finally, a space where you didn’t have to try so hard.

[reina-tries-2-write]

The Space Between Sounds

Toge Inumaki x deaf!reader

Chapter 1: Unfamiliar Territory

Chapter 2: Origin of Silence

Chapter 3: Echoes of Frustration

Chapter 4: Finding A Place

Chapter 5: New Sounds

Chapter 6: Silent Support

Chapter 7: The Library

Chapter 8: The Mute Maze

Chapter 9: Two Little Words

Chapter 10: Breaking The Silence

Chapter 11: Teach Me

Chapter 12: The Thrumming

Chapter 13: Reverberation

Chapter 14: COMING SOON

[reina-tries-2-write]

AMNESIA

Toge Inumaki x Reader

WARNINGS: None, pure fluff

WORD COUNT: 2,434

NOTES: Toge's nickname for you is Mochi. Takes place after Shibuya but is altered cause this is my copium lol. Enjoy!

You blinked your eyes open and squinted in the bright white light. Taking in your surroundings, you realized you were in a hospital room. There was a dull ache in your head and your figured something had happened to it for you to be here. You noticed there was a person sat in a chair next to your bed and you took them in as well.

He had seemingly fallen asleep with his head on his arms that were rested on the bed next to your hip. You could feel your left hand in his without needing to see it underneath his platinum blond hair. He wasn’t dressed like hospital staff which meant you must know him on a personal level.

You suddenly realized you had no idea who he was. You had no idea who you were for that matter. You sat up some to look around the room for something that would help trigger your memory as to who you were. Maybe your phone or clothes. You slip your hand out of his to push yourself up as you look around.

You unintentionally woke him up as you righted yourself in the bed and you saw a look of worry and relief flush his soft lavender eyes as he lifted his head up to look at you.

“Takana Mochi?” He asked gently.

You stared at him blankly as you tried to comprehend what he’d just said. You couldn’t quite understand what he meant but his expression spoke most of it. He was clearly worried about you. But the fact you had no idea what he said kind of freaked you out.

His words and tone didn’t match up and neither did the foods. You were immediately confused and scared that you had no idea what he was saying. Maybe you just weren’t fully awake yet.

“Mochi?” He asked, more concerned than last time.

You still had no idea what that meant and you didn’t want to be rude since he was clearly invested in your wellbeing. You blinked a few times as you struggled to come up with a reply.

“I— um. Do you know why I’m here? I can’t remember anything.” You ask softly, still scared and freaked out.

He tilts his head to the side and furrows his brows as if something was wrong with your response. That or he didn’t understand it.

You watch as he pulls out his phone and begins typing on it, the look of worry on his face increasing. He turns his phone around and shows you the screen.

—We were in Shibuya. You maxed out saving me from Sukuna. Do you not remember that?—

Shibuya? Was that a place you were supposed to know? Maxed out? What the hell did that mean? And who or what was Sukuna?

You had more questions than answers but you got the feeling whatever happened was big. He did say you saved him. But you still had no idea what any of that meant.

“I— I um, I don’t remember. I— I don’t know what any of that means...” You trail off into a whisper.

You watch his face fall and he pulls his phone back to type on it more before showing you the screen once again.

—Do you remember anything at all? Do you know who I am?—

You sadly shake your head. “I don’t even know who I am.”

You watch as tears prick his sad lavender eyes and you feel extremely guilty for not knowing. Not that you could help it but you got the impression he’s pretty important to you since he was waiting for you to wake up. You really didn’t want to upset him.

“I’m sorry I—” You start, not even knowing what to apologize for but not wanting him to be sad more than anything.

—I’m sorry I can’t talk to you. But I can type to you. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. I really want you to remember—

You didn’t know why he couldn’t speak aside from food but you honestly didn’t care. You could still communicate and more importantly, he could help you remember.

“That’s okay. Just tell me everything. I don’t remember anything at all. Like what I look like or my name or anything.” You ramble quickly, panic rising in your chest again.

He types for quite a while before handing you the phone back. Your name is typed up at the very top of the page.

Y/N

Not ringing any bells.

You continued reading and the first of several paragraphs is a detailed description of what you look like and your personality.

The second and third paragraphs explain these things called curses and that not only can you see them, a rare thing in itself, but you have like a superpower that can help you exorcise them. You go to a school where you are learning about them and training.

The final paragraphs inform you about what happened for you to end up in the hospital. A lot of this part didn’t make sense to you but apparently you were pretty badass since you had saved not only him, but a bunch of other people too.

You take a bit to fully absorb the information before you get curious about him. He never explained himself but he clearly knew you pretty well due to the description of your personality.

“Tell me about you?” You ask softly.

He takes his phone back and types less than he did last time before handing it back.

—I’m Toge. We met on our first day at Jujutsu Tech. I knew you for a year before you kinda confessed to liking me. I love onigiri and since I can’t talk conventionally, I speak in onigiri ingredients. I have my own little language with it and you were the first person who ever asked me to sit down and teach it to you. You are absolutely amazing and perfect and I’m so lucky to have you in my life but I might be a little biased since I’m your boyfriend —

Your boyfriend? Well you didn’t exactly have any complaints about that since you thought he was really cute.

Before you could reply to his message, you heard the door to your room open and you looked over to see a nurse walking in.

“Good afternoon sweetheart. How are you feeling?” She asks gently. “My head hurts a little but it’s not bad. Just like a mild throbbing headache feeling. I- I don’t remember anything is the issue. He’s explaining things to me though.” You tell the nurse. “You were in a coma for almost a week so it might take you a bit to remember. Don’t worry about that too much darling.” She reassures. “I was out for a week? Well no wonder I don’t remember. That’s kinda relieving.” You sigh. “We will need you to keep us updated on your memory. Unfortunately there is a small chance the memory loss will be long term or permanent. I’ll be by to check on you in a few hours but please call for me if your headache worsens.” She explains. “I’ll keep you updated as best I can, I promise.” You agree. “Good.” The nurse pats you on the shoulder before leaving.

You take a deep breath and sit back in the bed a bit, tilting your head back and taking a second to process the information.

She said there’s only a small chance you won’t remember everything so you probably just need a couple days and to ask a ton of questions. Then it will all be back to normal and life will be fine.

As you lay there, staring at the white ceiling, you feel Toge reach over and gently hold your hand. It was weird knowing he was your boyfriend that you didn’t remember at all but it was comforting so you grasped his hand in return as your mind raced.

Through all the thoughts scattered in your mind, you were scared more than anything. You got the feeling you had a really good life and you felt a nagging in the back of your mind.

You HAVE to remember.

You WILL remember.

----------

You got discharged from the hospital the next day, Toge having stayed with you the whole rest of the day and sleeping on the couch next to your bed. A car came to pick the two of you up and drove you back to campus. The campus was really beautiful and you enjoyed the ride, holding Toge’s hand the whole time. You were really glad you had someone you were this close to that you could rely on.

Back at the dorms all of your friends and roommates were waiting for you in the living room and a red-headed girl immediately leapt off the couch and wrapped you in a hug. Based upon her reaction and how she held you, you assumed she was your best friend.

“I’m so glad you’re alive.” She whispers into your shoulder. “I, I still don’t remember but I get the feeling you’re my best friend.” You reply softly. “Nobara. But you just call me Bara most of the time.” She reintroduces after pulling out of the hug. “I like that.” You smile at her. “I love it.” She echoes.

Everyone else comes over and gives you a hug, reminding you who they are and recounting fond memories with you. You have a lot of people in your life and they all care about you more than you expected them to.

Toge lead you off to your room to hopefully trigger some memories. You certainly like the room and the subtle familiarity of it but you get frustrated at the fact you still don’t remember.

You request some time to yourself and Toge agrees under the terms he can come check on you later or you text him soon. You tell him you will and he leaves after giving you a quick hug. You lock the door behind him and sigh, resting your forehead against it for a second.

For the next several hours, you sit on your bed going through your phone, reading text messages, looking through photos, checking out social media and generally scouring your phone for anything to trigger even the smallest memory. You get tired eventually and text Toge that you’re gonna take a nap and will let him know when you wake up.

Your nap is filled with tidbits of memories, blurry images, and muffled voices but it is comforting nonetheless. You were remembering. Slowly but you were.

The only thing you truly remembered was one snippet of your life with Toge. It was the day you had confessed to him actually. You don’t remember all of what you said, your confession having been longwinded and rambled but you remember the most important part.

“And yeah. I like you. A lot.” You finish rambling.

You worked up the nerve to look at him and you saw his lavender eyes were wide but seemingly pleased. He looks almost relieved in a way as well. His expression was hard to read but you could tell it wasn’t negative at least.

After staring at each other like deer in headlights, he suddenly yanks down the high collar of his sweater and cups your cheek, swiftly but gently leaning in and kissing you.

Your eyes widened for a second before you melted into him. You could feel the cursed energy from the marks on his cheeks and tongue and the kiss felt, quite literally, electric. The two of you slowly parted, half lidded and mesmerized eyes looking into the others.

The two of you slowly came back to reality and he smiled at you, cheeks dusted pink as he gently tilted your chin up to maintain eye contact.

“Okome.” He whispered and for the first time ever, you didn’t have to ask him the definition of the new word.

“I love you too.” You reply softly, moving your arms to pull him into a hug.

After replaying the memory in your head several times, hanging onto every miniscule detail, you grabbed your phone and texted Toge. You had no idea what to tell him aside from a ‘hey I’m up from my nap’ or something similar but then the perfect idea hit you.

—Okome—

Your message was simple and seconds after sending it, your heard pounding footsteps down the hallway. Leaping out of bed, you yanked open your door and practically fell into Toge’s arms. The two of you stood in your doorway, holding the other as tight as possible for god knows how long. After pulling back some, he looks into your eyes, his gaze intense but relieved that you had clearly remembered something at the very least.

You watch his gaze flick from your eyes to your lips and back, asking permission to kiss you. You nodded gently and reached up, pulling down the collar of his sweater and connecting your lips. It felt exactly how you remembered in your dream and was honestly better than you could have expected.

Once you parted, he gently rested his forehead against yours, his eyes scanning yours for something you couldn’t figure out. You didn’t care what he was trying to read you for, you were busy getting lost in his lavender eyes that you would happily lose your memory again and again for.

He reaches up to cup your cheek and kisses you once again, deeper and with more intent than the first. You eagerly reciprocate and reach one of your hands up to tangle your fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck.

“Get a room you two!” You suddenly hear shouted from down the hallway followed by an obnoxious wolf whistle.

You both pull back, you embarrassed and Toge annoyed as you look over to see who scolded you.

Panda.

Yuji was stood next to him and you assumed he was responsible for the whistle.

“Ikura.” Toge mutters before gently guiding you backwards into your room.

You giggle at his clear curse, not needing to know his language to understand what he meant. ‘Assholes’

“Don’t be too loud!” Yuji calls as Toge closes your door behind him.

Toge rolls his eyes and smirks at you, lightly chuckling at your friend’s antics. You pull him closer to you for a hug, burying your face in the crook of his neck and squeezing him as tight as you could.

You still didn’t remember much but you were sure of one thing.

You were home.