g. satoru | curtain of grief
angst, grief heavy, mentions of cancer, fem! reader VERY FCKING SAD
wc: 2.2k
Grief is a funny thing, isn’t it?
It’s sudden and invasive, slipping into every memory and every corner of life until you can’t remember what life was like before it. It forces you to come to terms with your new reality, not allowing you to escape as it wraps it’s ugly claws around your heart and squeezes.
Satoru can’t remember when he came to terms with it.
At first, he believed he could outrun it. Like if he worked hard enough, it would leave him alone and find someone else to terrorize. If he left no time to think, then it wouldn’t invade his thoughts and corrupt his memories. It was then that he decided to ignore it. He filled his days with tedious tasks, took on special grade missions, drank an excessive amount, slept less…
It helped him avoid his mind. Erase the regrets and vicious thoughts floating around in his brain.
He just didn’t want to think.
Because then he would think about what he lost…who he lost….
And once his mind started to wander, it would never come back.
But that’s the thing about grief: it didn’t care what Satoru wanted. It didn’t need permission to invade his mind or ruin his thoughts. No, it was an intruder and it found that tiny sliver of weakness and forced it way through the front door.
And once it was in, it never left.
It had been four weeks since you were taken from him.
Four agonizing weeks of living in your absence. Only able to relive memories through pictures and videos.
He was still in denial that this was his new reality. That this wasn’t some fucked up dream his mind came up with.
Satoru wanted to go back, begged to go back, to before. Before his life had been stripped of all it’s color and beauty. Before when he had meaning. Before when he was happy.
But life is cruel like that. The universe wasn’t satisfied taking his best friend…no… it had to have his lover too.
It continued on without you. He continued on without you. Without Suguru. Without his two greatest loves. His two greatest losses. He didn’t want to go on without either of you. His heart was crying out - begging him to stop.
He didn’t feel like he deserved to go on like this. Like he didn’t deserve the life he was living. Not when the two of you didn’t even get the chance to live out yours…
“Hi sweetheart…” He whispered, voice broken and defeated.
Satoru sank to his knees in front of the small altar, not daring to look at it directly. He couldn’t. He couldn’t bare to see your face - frozen in time with a glowing, gentle smile.
Instead, his frosty blue eyes settled onto a packet of incense and the stub of a burnt-out stick. Someone else had been here before him. Probably Shoko. The two of you were like sisters after all.
Shakily, he moved to set a new one in place. His movements were slow and purposeful as if one wrong move would break him entirely.
The match flared. The small flame flickered as he lit the incense. Smoke immediately curled upwards. Selfishly, he hoped that the smoke carried the words he couldn’t bring himself to utter out loud.
It was a selfish and desperate thought, but he didn’t have the courage to speak his mind. Because if he did, then there was no reality where you would come back. It would make this too real. And he couldn’t handle that right now.
Right now, he wasn’t the strongest jujutsu sorcerer blessed the six eyes. He wasn’t a strong, fearless man. No. He was a broken, hallow shell of himself.
After what seemed like a lifetime, Satoru forced his gaze to meet your frozen one.
There you were. Frozen in time. Beautiful. Happy. Alive.
He sucked in a breath, almost choking. He wanted to look away. This was too painful for him, but he owed it to you. Even if it broke him.
“I’m sorry it took so long for me to come see you…” He apologizes, voice breaking. “I didn’t-”
Satoru choked back a sob, “I didn’t think I could handle it…”
He tried to swallow his emotions, as if forcing them back down would somehow make this whole thing easier, but something inside him forced them back up.
A cry erupted from his mouth - raw, violent, and angry. He slapped a hand over it, as if it would muffle the pain and make it easier to survive.
His body shook with grief, not allowing for an ounce of self-control. This wasn’t just grief for you. This was grief for him. For his old life. Before things got complicated and messy. It wasn’t fair. The pain wasn’t fair. The grief wasn’t fair. You were supposed to be here. It should have been him. He should have been the one to go, not you.
You were too kind for the world.
You had too many dreams to live out.
Wishes that Satoru now had to fulfill.
He remembered them all. They had becomes his dreams…his wishes…
Silenced filled the room as he stared at your portrait, tracing every detail.
He refused to forget you.
The kindness glimmering in your eyes.
The small dimple on your cheek.
Satoru committed every feature to memory, refusing to forget his beautiful girl.
“You know…” He whispered gently, his voice trembling from residual sadness, “I was so fucking angry at first…”
Satoru pauses. He inhales through his nose, trying to get a grip on his emotions before speaking his next words.
“At you. At your doctors… at whatever higher being was fucking with your life…” A humorless laugh escapes his lips.
“How could they have not done more for you? There’s always more they could have done. Different chemo, different medications… something to keep you here.” He clenches his jaw, anger bubbling under his skin.
“I should have pushed harder, made them look for an alternative.” Satoru sighs, “but you were so tired…exhausted from the chemo and you just stopped.” His voice softens.
“I suppose the universe was granting you a small act of mercy, right? That you didn’t die angry or at the hands of another.”
Maybe it was his imagination or the grief altering his brain, but he swore that your eyes softened. That the version of you in the portrait was trying to comfort him.
He sets his hand back in his lap, unsure of what else to say. A small chuckle echoes throughout the room.
“The night you died-” His voice shakes again, “-left… you yelled at me. Do you remember that? You told me that my eyes were going to pop out of my ‘ugly’ face if I kept staring at you like that. You were joking obviously.” He pauses.
“I know I’m a good looking son of a bitch.”
The joke died as soon as it slipped past his lips.
“…you were always thinking about me….taking care of me.” Satoru shook his head, trying to make sense of his rambling. “Now look at me…I’m practically withering away. I’m a mess sweetheart…” He admits.
“This isn’t a way for me to live is it?”
Clarity peeked out from behind his curtain of grief. He ran his hands down his face, rambling off sentences that even he didn’t fully understand.
“I think I’ve been living on autopilot, still alive. Still me…but also, not me, ya know?”
Satoru blinked back tears.
“I don’t know how much longer I can be like this…existing… going through the motions of what happened. I know I need to get myself together, start living again…but I don’t know how.”
A confession. A raw, honest, confession.
“It might take me awhile, so be patient with me, okay?” He asks, voice small and timid. “Don’t yell at me from beyond. Just give me some time…”
He presses two shaky fingers against his lips and then reaches out, pressing them against the cold glass that separates the two of you. He doesn’t pull his hand back right away. Satoru’s eyes stay focused on yours, searching for sign that you were heard him. His fingers linger against the cold glass, flat against its surface. He stays like that, only for a few more moments. The silence that surrounds him speaks louder than he ever could.
A few more minutes pass by before grief finally loosens its tight hold around his heart. It doesn’t let go, not completely. What once felt like a chain around his throat, now felt like a bittersweet hug. It stopped suffocating him and becomes something he can hold onto when the rest of the world threatens to fall away.
Satoru’s fingers slide down the glass, returning to his side. He remains still, taking in the moment. Finally, he stands, not breaking the eye contact between you, scared that he will forget what you look like.
“I love you.” He states firmly.
It’s the most confident he’s sounded in weeks. There’s no hesitation. Just the truth. He whispers a soft goodbye, taking one last look at your smiling face, before turning to leave.
Days turned into weeks which turned into months. Still, Satoru kept his promise. It wasn’t easy at first. Some days were better than others.
Some days, the grief stayed behind the curtain, peeking out just enough to make itself known. It watched as Satoru’s life breezed by only whispering remnants of what used to be. Other days, it reared it’s ugly head, tearing holes in the curtain and squeezing Satoru’s heart until it bled out.
Those days were the hardest. The days were when he missed you the most. But he lived through it. He survived. He was still strong and most importantly, he was still alive. He learned to recognize the patterns, when he would feel it the most, when the silence would outweigh the noise in his life.
But there were still moments where his heart ached so much that he felt like he was drowning. Like when your favorite song would come on, or when he caught whiffs of your favorite perfume, or when he would pass by your favorite cafe. But Satoru refused to push those feelings back down. He understood now that hiding them wouldn’t help. It wouldn’t make things easier. Now, he welcomed then because he knew no matter how much it hurt him or how much he wanted to cry, it was proof.
Proof that you lived a life full of love.
Proof that you did exist.
Proof that you left little pieces of yourself in the universe for Satoru to remember you by.
And slowly, piece by piece, Satoru began to see the joy in life again. It wasn’t healing - he knew that much. He knew he would never truly heal from your death. Grief didn’t work like that. Once it was there, it never left. People never outgrow their grief. They simply grow around it.
They use it as proof that you can survive, that beauty does come after loss. That you can live a full life full of beauty and happiness without feeling lost.
That realization came quietly for Satoru. It came in fragmented pieces that slowly pieced itself together, until he found himself not thinking about you every single moment of every day.
It was bittersweet, but he knew that it was what you would want for him. He knew that you would want him to move on and live his life. Try new things, meet new people…Love new people. He could almost hear you encouraging him - in your own fucked up type of way.
Cursing at him until he got up and moving.
Because grief didn’t control his life. He did.
Years later, he met a woman.
He tried to stay away from her, but something about her reminded him of you. The way she made him smile even when his energy was low and unwilling. The way she filled the silence without uttering a word.
And when he realized that he was falling in love with her, he was terrified. Absolutely terrified.
Terrified that falling in love again meant losing you again. Or worse…letting you go.
But much like grief, love didn’t work the way he thought it did.
It didn’t replace anyone. It didn’t erase his feelings for you.
It existed alongside what was there before, reshaped the negative emotions into something softer, something new and familiar. It pleaded with him - begged him - to hold grief in one hand and love in the other.
Grief was never a funny thing, was it? It was simply love that had lost its home…
a/n: I couldn't wait till the poll was over sorry !!! I hope this lives up to your expectations and I'm sorry if it hurt your hearts... Grief is not something I would ever wish on anyone - not even my worst enemy. It is a feeling that I am all too familiar with. It creeps up on you like a shadow and wears you down, even on your best days. If you are experiencing it, i'm so sorry. I am always open to talk or simply just listen if any of you need to rant or express your feelings. This is a judgement free zone! Anyways, on a lighter note, i hope you all enjoyed reading this and that it lived up to everyone's expectations for angst! as always, constructive criticism is welcome and my requests are ALWAYS open! (no serious give me something to write, pls im begging you)
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