interlude(iii): separate and ever deadly | prev track< | setlist
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synopsis: your best friend has always been an asshole - whether it's in his band or in his bed. him ditching you? nothing new. but when one bedroom door closes, another one opens
pairings: rockstar!Suguru Geto x f!Reader x childhood fwb!Sukuna
a/n: art by @baobei-bu and divider by @/animatedglittergraphics-n-more <3
Satoru Gojo never thought he'd see the day he'd be watching Sukuna get fucking dog walked.
Or that he'd wish he was on the leash instead.
"The soda's flat," You were pouting, pushing your drink in front of you before Sukuna just switched yours with his.
"Just take mine," He grumbled.
"So, um, how long have you known each other?" Gojo asked, brows furrowed together as he swirled his straw around in his drink.
You readjusted anxiously in your seat, although it was harder to tell with the way Sukuna's hoodie swallowed you. Despite the small diner the latter has chosen, he'd still pulled the hood over your hair, insisted on you sitting on the inside of the booth so it'd be harder for anyone to see you. Gojo had assumed for a second that he was just being a territorial asshole until it hit him that Sukuna was just trying to shield you whatever way he could.
He refused to say much, letting you take the lead and keeping his mouth shut most of the time. Only sparing the occasional rare glance at Gojo to remind him how much bad blood there still was between them even outside of their bands.
"I dunno, since we were like, in diapers?" You looked over at him, your chin propped in your hands. The man next to you huffed, scrunching his nose up as if he was annoyed, but his shoulder kept brushing against yours, too close and too comfortable even for childhood friends.
Sukuna hadn't stopped staring at you since you sat down.
Barely took his eyes off you in his passenger seat either. Listened to every word you said like he couldn't stand to miss a single syllable, a tattooed hand resting on your headrest that you didn't seem to notice while you leaned back to pass Gojo some of his CDs to choose what to listen to from.
As if giving the tension a sound track would make it go away.
It was still probably the most awkward fifteen minutes of his life. Forced to sit in the back like a little kid watching his parents pretend that everything was fine.
Honestly, the whole thing made his head fucking hurt.
His best friend's ex-girlfriend he definitely didn't have a crush on was best friends with their biggest competition. In the charts and in your bed.
"Suguru doesn't know," Gojo slowly said, less of a question and more of an observation.
Knowing Suguru?
He probably would've sent that stupid sex tape to Sukuna himself if he just saw the way your 'best friend' was looking at you.
And if he found out now?
Suguru was going to fucking lose it.
He'd been spiraling since your breakup already. He didn't say anything. But it showed. In the exhausted rings under his eyes and the sheer number of cigarettes he'd smoke in the evenings after rehearsal and recording, despite him insisting that it was under control, that he only ever did it when the girls weren't around. His fatigue was in the permanent frown etched in his face, the snarky remarks and fights he'd been picking over the stupidest shit.
He acted fine when his daughters were there. The same old Suguru. Reserved and responsible. But the second they were asleep or being babysat, some switch flipped, his carefully crafted guard cracking and breaking around the edges.
But this wasn't something a few smooth words could fix.
"I tried telling him like ten times," You shrugged, but any idiot could see that you were struggling to talk about it too. Picking at your nails and studying the knots in the wooden table. "But you know him. Too busy."
You couldn't hide that kind of hurt.
It was ridiculous that he felt the tiniest bit responsible for it. If he hadn't pushed you to get together, hadn't texted you or stolen that stupid pick, would any of it had even happened?
A tiny voice in the back of his head suggested the slim possibility that maybe he might've had a chance if he hadn't shotten himself in the foot by trying to put Suguru's happiness first. Convinced you were too good for him, too cool to give him a chance - so why should he try when you would just choose Suguru like everyone else?
"You two are just friends though?" Gojo hesitantly posed the question as if the immediate shift in the air didn't answer it.
If you weren't having sex now, you definitely had before.
"Yeah," You answered, to Sukuna's obvious disappointment? Irritation? Annoyance?
"Yeah?" Gojo repeated.
"I mean, we used to fuck before me and Geto started dating," You freely admitted, your eyes flitting over to the pink-haired asshole by your side, searching for some reaction. It was almost impressive how fast his face softened, the crease between his brows and the lines by his lips disappearing when your focus was on him. And Gojo realized what it was before written in his eyes, a feeling he unfortunately was well-acquainted with. Anxiety. "But we got in a big fight a few months ago and stopped talking until, uh, recently."
It was Sukuna's turn to shuffle uncomfortably in his seat.
"Oh," Gojo swallowed hard. Another complicated history that he wouldn't stick his nose in if he had any sense.
It was hard enough to compete with Suguru. Sukuna?
"Can we talk about something else?" You sighed, glancing back out in the dim restaurant, probably looking for the waiter.
Your phone started ringing, and you sucked in a sharp breath before you even checked it. Chewing on the edge of your lip while you stared at the screen while you glanced over at Sukuna again.
"Everything okay?" He grunted.
"It's the maintenance guy," You mumbled. "I'm just gonna take it outside."
Sukuna had to shuffle out of the booth to let you through to answer.
But the second your figure slipped out the front door, Sukuna's harsh stare was focused on him.
"What the fuck do you want with her?"
"I don't want anything from her," Gojo frowned. And it was true. Pretty much.
He liked you. Liked talking together. Trying to get a giggle out of you. When your hand would brush against his or you'd scrunch your nose up at him. Finding new details to memorize in your smile and learn all your little mannerisms.
You didn't judge him. Would listen to him ramble and sometimes laugh at his shitty jokes. Understood him in a way no one had ever bothered to.
Gojo didn't want to let go of you. Didn't want to not have some small place in your life, whatever it might be.
"We might not be together, but I swear to fucking God, if it's about sex and you hurt her, you'll have to buy yourself a new face," Sukuna warned, shoulders stiff and tense, knuckles white and condensation from his drink dripping over them. "Or maybe your dad will just pay for that too."
He'd probably grab his collar and throttle Gojo if he knew he already finished on your face. If he saw the image of you that had been burned into his mind, glossy cum on your parted and panting lips, all fucked out and full, wide-eyed with fluttering lashes while your pretty tits bounced in time with every thrust.
It was easy to assume you hadn't exactly told Sukuna about what the three of you had done at the party. Shit. What the hell had the two of you talked about there?
Gojo didn't even remember texting him. Only had his number through other mutual contacts in the music industry. It wasn't like he'd ever consider the chance Sukuna would show up.
But you were worth making an exception for, he supposed. He'd do the same in his shoes.
"We're just friends," Gojo gritted his teeth. He was trying to be, at least. Trying to ignore the faint flutters in his own stomach when he saw you. How the sound of your laugh you made something in his heart stir, left him empty and aching just waiting to hear it again. It was wrong.
And anyway, he didn't need Sukuna and Suguru ready to strangle him over you.
Sukuna scoffed at him, jaw locked like he was considering biting his head off for putting himself in the same category.
"You think I buy any of your or his bullshit?" He practically growled, but it wasn't so intimidating when he glanced through the thick glass window behind him to make sure you were still fine outside before looking back at Gojo. "If it was up to me, I'd punch you again just for showing up at her door after that asshole friend of yours broke her heart, but for some fucking reason, she actually likes you."
Gojo hated himself for how much he liked hearing that.
Someone showed up with the food, dropping off plates and asking about refills.
It wasn't really a truce. And they weren't allies. But they still ate without shouting or fighting, so it was close enough.
"She won't tell me what he did," Sukuna eventually grumbled, wiping away a smear of sauce from his lips with a napkin.
"He was a dick," Gojo admitted, on accident, really, his big mouth speaking before his sometimes tiny brain could shut it up. "Pretty much accused her of calling the paparazzi to take those pictures."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Sukuna snarled, dropping his food and glaring at him like he did it.
"That's what I said," He threw his hands up in annoyance. "I mean, like, I get that he's overprotective when it comes to Nana and Mimi, but if she was my girlfriend-"
He stopped talking the second he saw you walking back, unhappy and flustered.
"What happened?" Sukuna immediately asked, rough and raw, but reaching out to touch your wrist. Out of habit, instinct.
You swallowed hard, on edge still and tapping your feet.
"They want to do more work inside my place so they told me to stay out for the next few nights but don't want to pay for a hotel," Your voice cracked. Frustrated and fed up with everything, clearly.
"You can stay at my place," Sukuna muttered, but you shook your head.
"They don't even want to let me back in to get my stuff," You protested.
"They can't do that." It only took him approximately four seconds to get even more irritated than you were.
"Can you yell at him?" You huffed, an arm wrapped around your waist and a cute pout pushed together on your lips. Your other hand held out your phone, and Sukuna was quick to snag it from you, standing up to let you back in.
"Why don't you tell me what you told her?" Sukuna snapped into the speaker, walking out front and leaving you alone in the booth with Gojo.
"So," He awkwardly chuckled. "You and Sukuna?"
"I know he seems like a dick," You sighed, sipping your drink. "He is one."
Gojo couldn't help but actually laugh at that, cracking a grin at your easy shrug. "Yeah."
"But he's working on his stuff," You murmured, eyes flicking up to meet his, softer, letting some of that shield down. "I just, um, appreciate you being cool about this, I guess."
"Sure," Gojo flushed, face heating up more than he'd like. "Anything for you."
He meant it more than he should.
More than a friend should.
"Can I ask why all of you hate each other anyway?" You tilted your head to the side, curious and anxious all at the same time.
"Yeah, it's, uh, kind of embarrassing," Gojo admitted, ruffling his hair. His palms were sweaty, had been since he made the drive to your apartment for the second time. The first? He'd followed Suguru up to your door, just to drag him away before he could make an idiot of himself.
"I'm listening," You laughed a little, but it just sounded like you were getting ready to be disappointed.
"It happened a long time ago," Satoru hesitated, the puzzle pieces of the memory in his head and what was happening now snapping together a little too cleanly to be comfortable.
"Just tell me," You groaned.
"It was my idea for us to go their show. But we'd been drinking like, a lot," He muttered, sheepish already. "There was this after party, and I went up to him, I swear, just trying to talk about the show, but it started an argument."
Even your grimace made his stomach flip, the small breath that slipped between your lips like you expected as much before he continued.
"It was mostly just insulting each other and shouting until Suguru saw the lock screen on his phone and said he was probably just jealous and then, he, um, sorta said he'd fuck his girlfriend," Gojo muttered the last part quietly, swallowing hard and averting your stunned gaze. But he peeked back up, painfully aware how hard you were second-guessing Suguru even more than you already had.
"Sukuna didn't have a girlfriend then," You muttered.
He wondered if you'd already came to the same conclusion he had.
"I didn't see who it was," Gojo shook his head. "I only remember what Suguru said because two seconds later, Sukuna punched him."
"Oh," You breathed, looking kinda like you'd been punched yourself.
"If it was you-"
"I doubt it," You interrupted. "He, um, was sleeping with other girls back then."
You picked listlessly at your food before waving over a waiter to ask for a to-go box. It only took a minute for him to bring it, Sukuna still outside probably cussing your poor maintenance guy out.
He wasn't sure what to say. How to help you. Words were something he was usually clumsy with. He'd force them out and laugh too loud and fill the air with chatter just to hear himself speak.
But he didn't want to do that with you.
Gojo wanted to say something that would make you smile, that would erase even a fraction of how fucked up it all was.
"I'm just trying to say Suguru probably doesn't remember either way," Gojo frowned. If he did, he surely would've said something by now to him, if not to you. "He was pretty wasted."
"Okay," You mumbled, closing the lid on the to-go box and reaching to grab the check on the table.
Gojo beat you to it, pulling out his wallet next and getting out of the booth. "I've got it tonight."
It wasn't much. But maybe it was a start.
Sukuna got off the phone a few minutes after he paid, what was left of the food boxed up and bagged, glaring at Gojo once again when he said he paid for everything, grumbling under his breath about not wanting to owe him shit before insisting on carrying the food for you.
The car ride back to your apartment was at least less excruciating. He only wanted to throw himself out the car twice when he caught the way you glanced at Sukuna, unsure how to feel about how you were comfortable around him in a completely different way than what it was like when you were with Suguru.
The air was charged. Every glance felt like it dragged on forever. The little brushes and grazes that meant nothing and everything.
They both followed you up to your floor though, Sukuna glancing around like your guard dog when you pushed open your front door to see one of the water stains on your ceiling leaking onto your plastic-covered coffee table.
"Shit," You groaned. "Can you guys just help me grab some of my stuff?"
"Sure," Gojo volunteered first, earning a pointed eye roll from your friend. "Mind if I just use the bathroom first?"
"Yeah, it's that first door there," You distractedly nodded, pointing down the hall before turning your attention to Sukuna to ask him to grab a suitcase from the shelf in your closet.
Gojo had just shut the door behind him, already pulling down his zipper when he saw what was on the counter.
Two pregnancy tests.
RIVAL ROCKSTARS SETTLING A SCORE OVER DINNER?
Suguru was fucking sick of getting blindsided by headline after headline.
Yet another betrayal.
His best friend sitting across from the biggest jackass he'd ever met. Casually eating a fucking cheeseburger. Dated last night.
"What the fuck is this?" Suguru gritted his teeth, shoving the blurry photo in Satoru's face.
"It's nothing, Suguru," He lied. Staring at his guitar and tuning it soberly between recording songs, just sitting there as if having a meal with Sukuna could mean nothing in any universe.
Everyone else was on a lunch break, papers scattered with lyrics and notes and sheet music and instruments still out.
"Since when do you hide stuff from me?" Suguru scoffed. A three-day-old headache was bursting behind his eyes, tension pounding and throbbing from the still-growing stress of being stuck as front page news no matter how hard he tried to get the photos taken down.
"Probably when you decided to treat your girlfriend like shit," Satoru scoffed. "Sorry, ex."
As if you weren't already fucking haunting him.
The conversation wasn't supposed to go like that. You weren't supposed to just leave. Weren't supposed to shut him out and break it off before he could even get everything out.
The whole thing was a blur. It wasn't meant to be a confrontation.
He was just hurt.
What was he supposed to think? No one knew but you about breakfast. You checked your phone like fifty times while eating a single waffle during it. Left his house two minutes after you got back. He'd been busy, okay, but you'd been pulling away from him for weeks.
If it was just a photo of the two of you? He'd probably think it was some braindead idea Manami or some other higher up had concocted. But his contract was supposed to protect his daughters. It was in the fucking fine writing that they couldn't use or publish any photos of them and they'd strike down anyone that did.
He wanted to believe you. Wanted to think all of it was some awful misunderstanding. That maybe you'd told a friend who called the paparazzi instead.
That Suguru hadn't somehow hurt you, one of the only people he trusted, so much that you'd feel so inclined to sell him out for a few bucks.
Anything other than it being you.
But he didn't have the fucking luxury of being soft when it came to his children. Couldn't risk putting them through any more than they already had been.
He expected you to deny it, to be as fucking baffled as him, to give him some straw to grasp at so he could focus the anger elsewhere. He'd gone about it wrong, yeah, said it the worst way possible, throwing the most terrible thought that crossed his mind out because he needed to hear you say no.
Wanted to hear you tell him you loved him just one more time so he could trust his gut.
Suguru hadn't once considered you'd break up with him. Block his number and cut him out of your life completely.
Gojo has chewed him out for it when he admitted what happened afterwards.
Called him a prick and a pussy and said he was goddamn moron for thinking for even a second you'd do something so shitty.
The girls didn't want to talk to him. Just asked about when you'd be back every other day. Nanami kept looking at him like he knew something he fucking didn't, offering to take the girls a few nights out of pure pity. Even Haibara was disappointed. The only people happy with him were the two people whose opinions he didn't give a fucking shit about.
"Why don't you ask your new girlfriend to fix it for you?" Satoru snapped.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Suguru scowled. Maybe you broke up with him. But there wasn't a chance he was going to risk losing you forever by laying even a single fucking finger on someone you told him you didn't like.
"Nah, I'm not," Satoru shrugged. "Sort your shit out."
"Why do you care so much about my relationship?"
Suguru knew. Had known ever since he caught the puppy dog eyes and sly flirts Satoru snuck in every time you were around. Clinging too close just to stare at the floor like he was considering killing himself when Suguru would kiss you.
"You're just not the kind of guy I thought you were," Satoru bluntly answered.
That stung almost as much as your silence.
"So you're hanging out with someone who hates me now?" Suguru retorted, a slimy, sinking feeling slowly making it's way to his gut at heading Gojo confirm all the terrible things he already thought about himself.
He wasn't the good guy. Hadn't treated you right and broke your trust despite whatever excuses he'd been holding on to. Turned on you instead of leaning on you.
"We just have a mutual friend," Satoru muttered. He looked uncomfortable, eyes shifting away as he sat the guitar back down, about to walk away before Suguru started following him.
"So what now? You're just not going to talk to me anymore either?" He was acting like the asshole he didn't want to be. But he didn't know how to get back to how things were a few weeks ago. Get back to being the guy that had the girl and his friends and everything handled.
"You made your bed. Sleep by yourself in it."
Satoru was chewing the inside of his cheek like it was candy, still clearly concealing something and stressed over it no matter what he said.
"I don't know what to do," Suguru heard himself say. "I want her back."
He hadn't expected Satoru to laugh at him.
"Good luck getting her," He scoffed, sliding his phone back in his pocket and heading towards the door. "I just don't really want to be around you right now either."
Who would Suguru lose next?
He needed proof. A plan. Some way to show you that everything had just fucking spiraled out of hand. That he didn't want to break up or be without you.
The tiniest seeds of an idea had sprouted from one of Gojo's comments. Although, he wasn't one he was particularly fond of.
He just needed Manami's phone to do it.
reblogs n comments are super appreciated <3 love hearing your thoughts !! also apologies for any typos >.< was it so mean of me to use that header art hahaha ;p we'll find out next chapter what exactly went on between sukuna/reader/gojo after dinner ;p
