You're safe with me
When the new patron steps into the bar, he immediately draws all of the attention to himself, including Suguru’s. It’s hard not to, with his height and his mob of shocking white hair, but what stands out most to Suguru are the sunglasses the guy is wearing.
Inside of a bar, at a time that is closer to morning than evening.
Suguru has been in the business for long enough to wince slightly, because this guy is sure to be an asshole and tending to him is not going to be pleasant.
Still, Suguru plasters on a smile when the guy comes up to the bar, because it’s his job and it’s how he makes money.
“Hello there,” the guy says, and Suguru feels appraised in a way he isn’t quite used to because usually his scowl keeps people away until they are distinctly more drunk and then there’s so much less heat behind it.
“What can I get for you?” Suguru asks, his hands lightly resting on the counter, ready to get the guy whatever he wants, if only to get him out of his face faster.
“Straight to business, I see,” the guy mutters and then gives Suguru what must be his most winning smile. “Here’s the deal,” he then goes on, putting his phone on the bar between them.
It has to be one of the newest models and therefore probably cost more than anything in Suguru’s bar. He slightly wonders if the phone should even be touching the bar at all, but it doesn’t seem as if the guy cares much, going by the careless way he spins it around.
Suguru fights the urge to lean back when the guy leans closer but going by the small tick of his mouth the guy noticed anyway.
“My name’s Gojo Satoru,” he then says and now Suguru can’t hide his reaction because his eyebrows fly up.
Everyone knows Gojo Satoru; heir to the biggest company in the country and successful model to boot. The last part not quite undeserved, Suguru has to admit, now that he sees him in person and up close.
“Good for you,” Suguru says, just a beat too late, but it still makes Gojo crack a smile, despite Suguru’s rude tone.
“So you know who I am then, that’s good, means you’ll be much more open to my plan,” Gojo says, the same smile on his face, though it gains an edge.
“What plan?” Suguru wants to know because usually, plans that need a bar are the worst ones and he’s not going to mop up this guy’s puke, rich boy or not.
“I am going to get spectacularly drunk,” Gojo declares and slides his phone over to Suguru. “And once I’m passed out, you’re going to call someone, anyone, from my contacts list to come and pick me up.”
Suguru eyes the phone.
“That’s password protected,” he flatly gives back and Gojo cackles.
“It’s also fingerprint protected so just stick my thumb on it and it’ll unlock, no problem.”
Suguru narrows his eyes at Gojo.
“I fail to see how me knowing who you are is going to help with this brainless plan.”
“Ah, but see, that’s the beauty in it! It is a brainless plan; stupid and reckless and depending on who you call maybe even dangerous but it’s entirely up to you. You know who I am, so you get to pick who gets me. You get to decide who gets their hands on a defenceless Gojo Satoru. Surely there must be something you hate about me, maybe my family’s company fucked you or a loved one over. I hear that happens to a lot of people in this town, so this is the perfect opportunity to get revenge. Or just fuck with me, whatever you want.”
Suguru can do nothing but stare at him, because this guy is certifiably insane, he has to be. There is no other explanation for why he would do something so incredibly reckless, something so stupid and smile while saying it.
“You’re insane,” Suguru finally gets out and Gojo’s smile turns a little bit wider.
Suguru refuses to read anything in it that isn’t there, because surely the tension in the corner of his mouth, the way his eyes don’t quite crinkle correctly with it is all his imagination.
“Maybe,” Gojo agrees. “Possibly. Doesn’t matter though. You in?”
He uses one of his insanely long fingers to push the phone closer to Suguru.
And really, what is he going to do about this? This guy came into his bar, a plan clearly in mind and he’s definitely old enough to drink and he’ll probably be a good-paying customer.
There is no reason for Suguru to say no.
“If you puke, I’ll keep you here until you cleaned up behind yourself,” Suguru decides and pockets the phone before Gojo can push it off the counter.
“Deal,” Gojo immediately declares and claps his hands together. “Wonderful,” he adds in a whisper, and again Suguru refuses to read anything into that even though the way Gojo’s face falls for a second makes him feel a little bit sick. No one should look that empty.
“What’s your poison then?” Suguru wants to know, ready to keep a steady supply going, if only that will make Gojo get drunk faster.
“Something sweet?” Gojo asks with a tilt of his head and Suguru has seen enough people in his bar to know that he has no goddamn clue what the options even are.
“You–do drink, right?” Suguru wants to know, weariness creeping in and he wonders why today of all days he decided to cover a shift.
He’d really rather be anywhere else than here at the moment and in all honesty it would have been hilarious if Nanako would have had to deal with this guy.
“Sure,” Gojo says with a confidence that tells Suguru that he most definitely does not and so he simply sighs.
“Fine, something sweet then,” he mutters and gets to mixing.
He doesn’t enjoy making cocktails but he sure as hell can and so soon enough a red, sparkly concoction sits in front of Gojo.
“It’s so pretty,” Gojo breathes out, as if he has never seen a sparkly drink in his life before and Suguru rolls his eyes.
“Thanks, I guess,” he says and for a moment he doesn’t understand when Gojo’s eyes snap up to his as a light blush dusts his cheeks.
“The drink,” Gojo almost yells out, correcting a mistake that wasn’t even made in the first place and Suguru can’t help it, he simply has to laugh.
“Sure thing, pretty boy,” he says with a wink when he stopped laughing, only making Gojo splutter more and as if to hide his embarrassment he takes the drink and downs it in one go.
Suguru raises an eyebrow at that.
“Did you even taste any of that?” he then wants to know and Gojo glares at him.
“Shut up,” he hisses and Suguru notes with alarm that there’s already a slur to his words.
Surely this guy is not that much of a lightweight, right?
Gojo continues to glare at him even as he ruffles through his pockets for some money, though his eyes get hooded, Suguru can see that even behind the sunglasses he is still wearing, and not even two minutes later his head drops down to the bar, some crumpled bills in his hand.
“You cannot be serious,” Suguru mutters out, staring in complete disbelief at Gojo. “Hey,” he tries, poking the mop of white hair with a finger, but he only gets a groan in response.
It seems as if he’s out for the count, after one measly cocktail.
“What the fuck,” Suguru sighs, and rubs a hand over his face. “Fine then. Be like that.”
He carefully extracts the money from Gojo’s hand—it’s way too much, and he has half a mind keeping it all, just for the hell of it but of course he doesn’t—and slips the change into Gojo’s pocket before he reaches for the phone.
One press of Gojo’s thumb unlocks it, just like he said it would and Suguru is free to scroll through his contacts, deciding on who to call.
It’s not going to be an easy decision, that much Suguru can already tell by the first few and his stomach drops with every new contact name he sees. Wants money, Wants favours, Already blackmailed me the words read and Suguru tries to will his hand to stop shaking when his eyes fall on Sent the assassin and switches off the screen when he reads Bad touch.
He shakes with anger, for Gojo, for what he clearly has to go through all day, every day and Suguru can barely bring himself to switch the phone back on to check if there is even one normal name in there.
But Gojo is still soundly asleep on his bar, and really, what other choice does Suguru have? He unlocks the phone with Gojo’s thumb again and scrolls through his contacts once more, going faster than before, so he can barely read the warnings Gojo set for himself.
He stumbles over a promising one—Nanami-still mad—before he finally finds a normal one. Utahime. That surely must mean she’s safe, right?
Suguru hopes she is, at least, because he already pressed the call button.
“The hell do you want?” Utahime greets and it gives Suguru pause, wondering if he made the wrong decision, when her tone suddenly changes. “Satoru? You there? You okay?”
It sounds almost as if she’s worried and that’s good enough for Suguru at the moment.
“Geto Suguru here,” he says. “Gojo is passed out in my bar at the moment.”
There’s a beat of silence on the other end.
“Fuck,” Utahime then sighs out and Suguru silently agrees with her. “He got drunk?”
“If he can get drunk off one cocktail, then yes,” Suguru gives back and Utahime huffs out a laugh. “He told me to call someone to pick him up, gave me his phone and everything, but—”
“Oh, Satoru,” Utahime whispers out, making Suguru wonder just how long they have been friends.
Clearly she’s not too surprised by his behaviour.
“Can you come pick him up?” Suguru asks, wondering how much longer Gojo can stay in that position until his back starts to hurt but he knows he has his answer when a telling silence comes from the other end of the phone. “You can’t.”
“I’m not in the country at the moment. What about Nanami?” Utahime asks and Suguru shakes his head.
“His contact says he’s still mad,” he tells her.
“Damn, that means Haibara’s out, too,” Utahime mutters and even though Suguru doesn’t know her, he can just imagine how she’s pinching the bridge of her nose. “You could—I mean. You can always put him in the back of a cab.”
“And send him where?” Suguru incredulously asks. “With how his contacts are named, you think I want to put him into the hands of a complete stranger?”
“Well—I mean, he did put himself into the hands of a complete stranger,” Utahime tells him none too gently and Suguru has to admit that she’s right.
It’s still different, though, because Gojo made that decision for himself. Now it’s on Suguru to make a decision and he doesn’t want to get Gojo hurt. Something Gojo himself clearly is not too concerned with, if his actions are anything to go by, but Suguru can’t get that one look out of his mind.
“I’ll keep him here,” he decides on a whim and wonders if he’ll manage to get Gojo up the stairs to his apartment.
“Huh?” Utahime very eloquently asks and Suguru takes a breath.
“This is my bar and I live upstairs. I can keep him here until he’s sober tomorrow. Then we don’t have to worry about anything.”
“That’s—awfully nice of you,” she says and Suguru can hear the suspicion in her voice. “What do you want in return?”
“To know that he didn’t get fucked up on his way home?” Suguru shoots back. “Listen, he’s—” Suguru doesn’t even know how to finish his sentence because he doesn’t know Gojo besides the handful of sentences they exchanged, but that one look; he had seemed so resigned, so empty that it makes Suguru ache even just remembering it.
“He’ll stay here,” Suguru says instead of trying to find words for something that probably can’t even be said out loud and he holds his breath for Utahime’s answer.
“Fine. I have his location pinged, if he ends up hurt or vanishes or anything like that, I know where you are, just saying.”
“Noted,” Suguru gives back, secretly glad that Gojo does at least have one friend and Utahime hangs up on him without saying goodbye.
“Rude,” Suguru mutters as he pockets the phone again and surveys the bar.
There’s no one in it anymore besides the two of them and it’s close enough to closing time anyway that Suguru doesn’t feel bad about flipping the sign at the door to Closed. He cleans up what he can with Gojo still slumped over half of the bar and then he gets ready to lug his unwanted guest up the stairs.
Suguru is no slouch, he does work out regularly and carrying around all the bottles in the bar is kind of a work-out itself but still; Gojo is all long limbs, flopping around without a care in the world and Suguru almost falls twice dragging him up the stairs.
They do make it in the end, but only barely so, and Suguru is a lot less careful when he dumps Gojo on the couch.
“What the hellhell are you so heavy for?” Suguru pants out, dragging a hand over his face and he decides that this is it.
He’ll throw a blanket over Gojo, get him a glass of water and then he’ll go to bed himself. Let him fend for his own for a while. He does exactly that—though he also gets Gojo situated more comfortably and gets him a bucket in case he does have to throw up—and by the time Suguru falls into bed himself he wonders just what the hell he got himself into with this.
Well, he’ll probably find out in the morning.
~*~*~
Suguru is in the process of frying bacon when he hears a low groan from the living-room. He moves the pan to the side, before he goes to see his unwilling guest. Gojo’s hair is rumpled, sticking up in every which direction and Suguru’s fingers twitch with the urge to smooth it back out. Gojo is blearily blinking at his surroundings, clearly trying to piece together what happened and where he is, and Suguru can see the rising tension in his shoulders when everything is unfamiliar.
“Morning, sleeping beauty,” Suguru greets him, even though it’s long past morning and he doesn’t mention the way Gojo startles as his head flies around to him.
Gojo’s mouth drops open when he recognises him and then his face goes petulant.
“I did not throw up,” is the first thing he says, his voice still scratchy from sleep and it’s surprising enough that it startles Suguru into a laugh.
“No, you did not. Still decided to keep you here,” Suguru gives back with a shrug. “Didn’t like your contacts much, to be honest.”
“What?” Gojo breathes out, his eyes falling to his phone. “But—you could have—”
“Yeah,” Suguru agrees, because he could have. “But I didn’t. So. You take your breakfast with coffee?” he asks, almost desperate to get that look of surprise off Gojo’s face.
“I take my breakfast with a name,” Gojo shoots back and Suguru has to give it to him, for all that he gets drunk awfully fast, he doesn’t seem to suffer much for it, if his wit is anything to go by. Or maybe that’s just wired into his very being.
“Geto Suguru.”
“Suguru,” Gojo mutters and then smiles brightly at him. “I’m Satoru.”
It’s overly familiar, Suguru thinks, but then again—Satoru did just sleep on his couch and Suguru did just offer him breakfast.
Maybe it’s just familiar enough.
“Coffee?” Suguru comes back to his original question and Satoru’s face really is enough to give him his answer.
“Only if there’s syrup and sugar and a lot of milk,” Satoru gives back as he gets up, pocketing his phone.
“You have a new contact, by the way,” Suguru says, trying for nonchalant as he turns back around to the kitchen. “It says Safe.”
Suguru doesn’t try to think too much about why he did that in the first place; he doesn’t know Satoru, has nothing to do with him and there is certainly no obligation to care for him and yet—the thought of letting Satoru leave, letting him go back into a world where the only safe option for an emergency pick-up might be out of the country sits wrong with Suguru.
Satoru is very quiet behind him and it stays like that for long enough that Suguru turns to look over his shoulder. Satoru is staring at his phone, his face slack with the same surprise as before and Suguru’s heart squeezes when he sees Satoru’s lips shake.
“That’s a joke, right?” Satoru asks, clearly pushing it all away and giving Suguru a smile that tries to convey that he looked right through him.
Even though there’s nothing to look through.
“Try it,” Suguru simply gives back and does not startle when his phone starts ringing not even a moment later.
“You’re serious,” Satoru breathes out behind him and again, there is that itch in Suguru’s fingers to reach out for him, soothe him in any way he can.
Suguru wonders if there’s something wrong with him.
“Of course I am. If you insist on doing stupid stuff,” he says with a shrug and this time he does startle when Satoru steps close to him, presses against his back as if he had done it a thousand times already.
“What if I call you in the middle of the night?” Satoru wants to know and Suguru lets out a measured breath.
“Then I’ll see if I can find someone who takes over the bar for however long it takes me to get you,” he gives back, doesn’t think too hard about the promises he is making right now but just the thought of not doing it makes him feel vaguely sick.
“What if I pester you all day long just for the heck of it?” Satoru asks next and Suguru lets out a snort at that.
“I’m kind of expecting that, though in the dreadful kind of way,” he explains and laughs even more when Satoru pokes him in the side.
“And what if I only come to your bar to make stupid decisions?” Satoru wonders and Suguru sighs.
“It’s your back that’s going to get ruined on the couch,” he easily gives back and Satoru hums.
“Mh, maybe I’ll send you a new couch then,” Satoru says and Suguru groans.
“Please don’t.”
It’s—strange, how domestic it all feels, how right and familiar, as if Satoru has always been there, right at his back when Suguru makes breakfast, but Suguru refuses to think any more on that. He doesn’t know if Satoru feels it in the same way he does, isn’t even sure if he wants to, and he certainly doesn’t know how to explain it should Satoru not.
“How else am I going to say thank you?” Satoru asks, his head now on Suguru’s shoulder as if it belongs there and who knows. Maybe it does.
Suguru doesn’t know anymore.
“Maybe by not getting drunk anymore and putting yourself at risk?”
“But will I get to see you again if I don’t?” Satoru asks, the hint of a grin on his face and Suguru loses the fight with his hand, because he reaches out to ruffle Satoru’s hair.
It’s just as soft as he imagined it to be.
“You have my number, idiot, you know where I work and you know where I live now. Hard to not get to see me again, don’t you think?”
“Mh, true,” Satoru hums out and then looks down at what Suguru is making. “Breakfast, just for lil old me?”
“More for me, but you can have what I can’t eat,” Suguru shoots back, as if he always bickered with Satoru like this, as if this is simply his normal state of being and for now Suguru decides to just go with the flow.
Satoru is warm against him, he seems to be an alright guy—fucked up life excluded—and Shoko does tell Suguru that he needs to get out of his comfort zone more.
This is very much still in his comfort zone, despite everything, but he guesses Shoko will appreciate the thought, if nothing else.
“Thank you,” Satoru mutters after a moment, barely audible over the bacon sizzling in the pan and Suguru knows that this is not about breakfast.
“Always,” he gives back and he’s surprised to find that he truly means it.
“I’m going to shamelessly abuse this, just so you know,” Satoru tells him, as he pulls away, spilling himself into one of the kitchen chairs and grinning at Suguru.
“Oh, I expect nothing less,” Suguru sighs out, already dreading what he got himself into and yet feeling more at home with Satoru right there than he ever has.
He wonders just how far Satoru can push it before he changes his mind about that, but Suguru guesses he’s going to find out soon enough, if Satoru’s bright smile is anything to go by.
(Satoru can push and push and push and it never gets too much for Suguru. He has to admit that a few weeks later when Satoru invites himself to live with Suguru and Suguru starts to fantasise about rings on their hands. It doesn’t stay a fantasy for long.)
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