💋ྀིྀི | PART THREE OF EX!SUKUNA WITH PRINT OF YOUR LIPS TATTOOED ON HIM, I HAVE MOTIVATION TO WRITE YAY
— ᨳଓ . pt. 1 — pt. 2 — pt.3 <here!>
[ cw : sfw, there's more of sukuna lore, SLIGHT themes of abuse, naoya mention | reader gets called : nothing <3 ]
By the time Thursday comes, Sukuna has taken a cold shower twice, answered two of his hundreds of emails before giving up and cleaning his house, not once, but twice. His house wasn't particularly messy or dirty, so cleaning really meant he had rearranged his furniture twice and re-shelved his bookshelf maybe four times. You had agreed to come on the pretext of "just friends" and he had agreed, scouts honour, if only to see your pretty face up close again. It was the mature thing to do anyway, he had no intention on opening up old wounds with you.
However, looking presentable to you was important to him, so by the time he opens the door for you, all you see is a clean, tidy apartment past his shoulder. And when he looks down at you, he knows you haven't changed with those pretty eyes and that perpetual glow. He thinks is unfair that you're allowed to always just look like that all the time, the universe just lets you.
"Hi," you look up at him.
"Hey," he breathes out at the sound of your voice, "C'mon in,"
He watches you set your bag down on the coffee table before settling on the couch; on the spot you always used to take. Your bag is spilling out onto the table, your scent is lingering in the air, and he thinks he's getting deja vu of an old memory, of when you used to be his.
Fuck, you're saying something about the dye and he hadn't been listening, your eyes looking up at him expectantly.
"Sorry, say that last part again?"
"I was asking if you had any plastic bowls we could use to mix the dye,"
"Oh, yeah, it's all in the bathroom," he says, tilting his head towards the bathroom.
"Cool," you say quietly and follow him into his rather small bathroom. He has opted to sitting on the toilet making space for you to stand in front of him. He watches you open up the box and read through the instructions, humming to yourself and it feels so domestic. Like some god in the universe plucked the two of you and put you back in time two years back — this used to be routine for the two of you.
You put up your hair and he ignores the slope of your neck, he puts on a playlist you like, still in his spotify library and sees you smile, the quiet song filling the echoey walls of the bathroom.
"Okay, I'm ready," you say pulling the gloves on and you look down at him, head tilted. It's a feeling akin to the relief he used to feel when he would get caught breaking something as a child and look up to see his mother instead of his father. You give him that relief even when he isn't in any sort of danger. So he turns his back to you, lets you slide out of his sight, lets himself be vulnerable with you once again.
You run your fingers through his hair, the thick strands give away and create divots where your fingers trace his scalp. You feel him let out a breath as his eyes flutter shut. His knees are pressed up uncomfortably against the bathtub and the temperature in the small bathroom is increasing rapidly, but he cannot let a complaint fly out of his mouth as long as your fingers stay on his scalp. You haven't even used anything yet and he should question you about it and you should start the process before it gets too late, and—
Your phone dings loudly in the silence, you can practically feel it ringing in your ears. You see Sukuna's eyes flash to the screen before looking away. It's a message from some guy you matched with.
"Naoya Zenin?" Sukuna murmurs.
"I, uh, yeah?" you're glad he's not facing you, how awkward is it to talk about the other men you've been talking to, with your ex? "Do you know him?"
You hear him hum in response, as if he's thinking about how to word what he wants to say.
"Just make sure he's treating you right," he turns his head up to look up at you, "Better than I made you feel, yeah?" you frown.
"Sukuna I—" he gives you a look, the one he used to give you when he thought you were being stupid, "Yeah, okay, I will, promise,"
He grunts in response, apparently pleased, before looking down. You let out a silent breath of relief.
You jump back to the task at hand as a distraction, grabbing the brush from the bowl and pouring two bottles of pure chemical in and mixing them together. The chemical odour is strong in the small space even with the door open, it hits you hard and you have to blink and step back.
"Jesus christ," Sukuna coughs, you giggle before stepping out of the bathroom and going to his room across the hallway on instinct and opening his window. When you turn around, you see him leaning on his doorframe staring at you.
That's when you realize you're in Sukuna's apartment, doing his hair, and now you're in Sukuna's room, the same room that used to be yours once too.
"Shit, I'm sorry, I should've asked before coming in,"
"No it's fine," he murmurs quietly, "You never used to anyway, it'd feel weird," he is shrugging and is coming towards you in large steps, his eyes are on you and your feet are frozen and he reaches behind you and fixes the handle.
You forgot it would be at an angle to fall and break.
You blink, watching Sukuna narrowly avoid touching you, you're twisting your body to make space for him in the small space between his wall and his bed, he turns the handle down and makes sure it's sitting on the ledge so it doesn't fall.
"I forgot, I'm sorry," you say quietly.
"Stop apologizing," he turns to you and you look up at him, meeting ruby eyes. "You're doing me a favour remember?"
"Yeah, okay," you, stop to think before giving him a nod, "Yes,"
Your eyes catch on a picture on his table that you haven't seen before. He turns to look at what you're looking at.
"'S a picture of Yuji and I," he steps back to let you walk past him and look. You gasp, excited, grabbing the small frame standing on the desk. It's of when the two were boys, Sukuna has Yuji on his back in a piggyback, the kid shooting the camera a smile as Yuji reaches for the fireflies just above his head.
"Oh my god, you two were such cute kids," you practically squeal. Looking closely at the frame, Yuji still toddler sized and Sukuna only a bit older. "Does this mean—" you look up at him and he meets your eyes knowingly.
"Yeah," he nods, "we're good, been going to the gym together and shit,"
"That's great! I'm happy for you Sukuna,"
Sukuna wishes he hadn't lost you in the process so he could agree with you.
He had been snappy and distant. You had known he was struggling with communication with Yuji and the situation with their father, his relationship with his father. You had listened to all he had to say one night and hugged him while he tried not to cry on your shoulder. He should've known to be grateful for the space and time you were giving him.
Instead he had snapped at you about something mundane, something you know he didn't care about at heart because you knew his head was occupied. But you had slapped him, it was — in Sukuna's opinion at the very least — well deserved, and you weren't going to let any man talk to you like that, let alone a boyfriend.
You remember going to your shared room, locking the door and crying about it. You didn't know that he was just on the other side of the wall, head between his knees on the couch, another beer in his hands, trembling at the thought of losing you, he knew it was coming and knew he deserved it with how he'd been with you for the past month.
You had broken it off the next morning, having packed all your essentials from the bedroom as best as you could the night before because you couldn't sleep. He had nodded, didn't say anything and went to the gym to give you the space to take the rest of your stuff and leave. You weren't quite sure if he even realized at that moment, but it had hit him hard. He had sat in his car in the gym parking lot a long while before entering, just trying not to cry.
author's note : I HAVE A PLOT I PROMISE, WORK WITH ME NOW — *fucking explodes*
snowghoul
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
