part one of monster fucker march: skinwalker kenjaku x f!reader; partially suguru geto x reader
your camping trip with your friends goes wrong (heavily inspired by the goatman creepypasta) • themes: a lot of plot, horror, trickery, manipulation, missing time, hypnosis, !!BIG WARNING!! for non!con because this is essentially a monster replacing geto and using his voice/appearance piece, but yes, there is plot before we get to it bc i got carried away geto is tagged but the main course is kenjaku • w.c: 5.9k • on ao3 • part two
Somehow, your boyfriend, Suguru, had managed to convince you, along with two others, that a camping trip with him and Satoru was a grand idea. The two of them already indulged in annual trips together, often out into the middle of the woods—albeit not too far away from the big city, just enough to say it was wild—as a pair of best friends. It was only when you started to become more involved with Suguru, however, that he started to invite you to these sorts of things, happy to involve you in his old traditions, as well as to make new ones, of course.
You had agreed initially, but you stubbornly insisted that Shoko would tag along too, because even if you knew you weren’t intruding, sometimes your involvement with the pair made you feel out of place. Suguru did not deny the third wheeling accusation, and besides, he had no issue with inviting others. Shoko begrudgingly accepted, understanding your predicament, but only if there was a sensible party involved, which was how Kento ended up being dragged into the trip, too.
Come the fateful weekend, and by the time you had all reached the campground, it was technically not as bad as you had expected. It looked scenic, almost.
Satoru was the first to break the strained silence amidst everyone else, dropping his backpack to the forest floor and dramatically inhaling the air, describing it as “refreshing”. Kento, on the other hand, followed much more carefully behind. His brows remained creased the whole afternoon, scanning along the treeline and alternating between checking his watch and worrying about the sun setting. Suguru stayed close to you, his hand coming to settle on your lower back, more to retain your comfort than anything else. Shoko otherwise lagged behind by a few steps, being sure that the smoke she exhaled did not reach those in front.
When it came to watching everyone else set up the tents, however, she scoffed under her breath at the sight of you stepping forward to try to help.
“Don’t bother,” she snorted dryly, her eyes half-lidded as she leaned up against a tree. “They insisted on this, didn’t they? So, let them suffer.”
“What about poor Kento, though?” you asked.
She met you with a shrug. “He’s exactly where he’s meant to be. He’ll keep ‘em in line so we don’t have to.”
You nodded along without much thought, watching as the three men before you attempted to set up anything at all. Satoru and Suguru wrestled with the supplies, and you found it to be almost a miracle, while watching the whole spectacle, that they could ever get anything done at all. Kento, predictably, hovered nearby nervously, his agitation increasing by the minute. The number of times that he must have glanced at his watch and then at the darkening sky could have been at a record high.
“It’s getting late,” he repeated after what must have been the third time.
“Yeah? We’ll be fine,” Satoru dismissed him casually.
He huffed, but he bit his tongue as he assigned himself to set up his own tent. He didn’t have a problem assembling Shoko’s either when she asked, happy to keep himself busy away from the two recurring sources of his unending stress.
Eventually, though, through sheer will and persistence alone, both Satoru’s and your shared tent with Suguru formed upright. Relief washed over Kento’s face in particular, although he looked more exhausted than anything else. Satoru looked proud. Suguru looked like he wanted to brag, demonstrating the notion quickly by grabbing you by the wrist and tugging you towards him.
“Come see,” he urged, pulling you towards the slightly larger tent among the lot that you were to be sharing over the next couple of days.
Inside, it smelled faintly of tarp and pine, with a double sleeping bag lined up right in the middle. Your backpacks sat right by the entrance, revealing a cramped but ultimately suitable space fitted for two.
“Ain’t this cosy?” he asked, seeking your approval.
You hesitated, just a little, as you glanced around, nodding to keep your true opinion from airing out loud. Nature—or, namely, camping—had never been your forte; you grew up in the city and preferred things like parks instead, rather than overnight instances that made you feel less than safe. Still, you kept your head up. You wanted to be more adventurous at his side and go to new places and do all sorts of new things, just as other couples did. Considering how he was around his best friend, you wanted to be able to keep up.
Even though, truth be told, he did not mind you the exact way that you were.
As such, he knew you quite well and could get a read on how you felt right away.
“It’ll be okay,” he was quick to assure you, his voice oh so soft. He pulled you closer as you both settled into the tent, the entrance quite not zipped up all the way just yet. He opened his lips once more, as if hesitant to reveal something big, but he longed for you to feel safe, so he spoke of a little secret. “I’m serious,” he added, pulling you closer up against him, nodding to the gap of the tent that revealed the outside. “There’s a little cabin not too far away from here that’s got a generator running, so if it feels too scary, we can go there instead. Alright?”
Then, before you could answer, Shoko popped her head into the tent, startling you both.
“Are you for real?” she questioned, her eyes wide with annoyance. “You’re saying that we don’t have to sleep in these things?”
Suguru hesitated, but Satoru was the one who ended up pulling her right back, causing her to stumble over her own two feet. He gave her a pat on her shoulders to keep her steady.
“Sure, we do,” he reasoned. “It’ll build character for us all.”
She snorted at him, not seeming too pleased. Kento, all the while, just pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Whatever,” he muttered. “Let’s just go to sleep, maybe by some miracle, we can get through this trip in one piece.”
Sure enough, the bickering died down eventually, forcing everyone to crawl into their respective tents for the night. It was easier to do so for you when the promise of the indoors lurked not too far away from where you were set up, allowing for night to come and settle. Without the sun, the woods transitioned into something denser and heavier, making the darkness feel almost layered. Somehow, it felt more isolating and claustrophobic, even if it was out in the open. To add to that, it was deafeningly quiet, and not even insects chirped, and not even owls hooted, which you found the slightest bit odd.
You lay down with Suguru in the shared bag, feeling his arm looped right around your body. The warmth that radiated from his form was steady and reassuring, especially with how close he pressed up right behind you. His lips settled at your neck, his breath exhaling hotly at your skin. His chest kissed against your back, while his bottom half pushed into your buttocks, fitting behind you like he belonged.
“Cold?” he quietly asked.
A hum left your lips.
“I got you,” he murmured, adjusting the bag a little and pulling you closer in the process. You relaxed against him, listening to the thrumming beat of his heart, letting it fill out the otherwise deafening silence that played just outside.
Slowly, your thoughts loosened, and you allowed yourself to relax; your mind drifted off gradually, and then even more gently, sleep took over completely, until something shifted, and introduced a secondary weight—
It was not just Suguru’s arm around you that you felt, nor was it his body lined up against your back, but something else that had settled in front of you. It felt like pressure from the other side, subtle and barely there, not significant enough to wake you, but just enough to make the hair on your neck stand up. It felt almost as though a knee brushed against yours, like something—or someone else—settled in right beside you.
A frown formed in your sleep, and then, you muttered out Suguru’s name under your breath, needing him to react—to make you feel safe—to tell you that he was there and that it was all fine.
A pause followed, but then, from the side that you were facing, that should have been empty, someone else answered.
“Yeah?” his voice replied, soft and familiar. “I’m here.”
At the same time, you could still feel Suguru pressed up behind you, breathing down your neck. As you heard the other answer, his lips that were right against your skin, did not move.
Your eyes snapped open.
Given that it was pitch black, nothing immediately came into view. You were right in the middle of the woods without any light from the lanterns, which were nearby, but cast low enough that they did not show through the barrier of the tent. The skies were also overcast despite the earlier pleasant weather, so there were no stars, let alone a moon, that were able to provide a revealing light.
Your mind struggled to comprehend what you were experiencing: you were lying between two sources of solid, organic mass. One body behind you, and then one in the front.
“Suguru?” you asked again, sounding much more lucid than before.
“Hmm?” came the response, but this time, from both sides.
At that, some instinct of yours urged you to dispel the disbelief coursing through your veins, urging you to reach out and confirm to yourself that you were just imagining things. You pushed your hand out, expecting it to collide with nothing—to meet with the cold, empty air ahead—only to strike something solid instead.
You sucked in a sharp breath at that, which was enough to wake up Suguru, too. He felt some resistance as you pushed out, his brows furrowing in his sleep. He, too, had the same idea that you did in that moment; reaching past you, running his fingertips along your skin, and then branching out to feel what was up ahead.
It was probably nothing, but then—
He felt it.
Suguru froze, his breath suddenly lost, but at the feeling of cold, sudden dread, he reacted quicker than you knew he could ever move. He grabbed you within an instinct, hauling you back with such a force that it stole your breath away. You barely had any time to gasp before he hauled you out into the open, desperately flickering the knob on the lantern, to force more light to come.
Only for it to reveal nothing in the tent.
He stared at the space as he struggled to put a lid on his boiling panic; his eyes searching around every illuminated corner and crease as if something surely must have been there. The tent was small, so there should have been nowhere to hide, especially since it only worked one way. You could not open it from the outside, as that much was its basic security feature, leaving him momentarily stumped.
“You felt that too, right?” you asked, desperately seeking comfort.
Suguru hesitated.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Maybe it was just a dream?”
“That we both shared?” you asked, hoping that he would continue to lie.
He gulped, taking an unsteady step back, only to bump into someone. Immediately, he spun around, ready to defend you if necessary, only for him to face Satoru instead, who stood there with a head full of messy hair, yawning lazily as he took in the sight of you both.
“What’s up?” he yawned out.
Suguru forced a breathless laugh, trying to play whatever that was off.
“Think an animal was curious and dug at our tent,” he lied.
Satoru leaned off to the side, glancing at your tent. “Ah, an animal?” he questioned, looking around the dark as if he could see anything at all beyond the lantern light. “Think you’re safe,” he added with a teasing laugh. “All the dangerous things are up in Hokkaido. Maybe it was a rat or a bird?”
Suguru forced another laugh. “Yeah, maybe.”
Shoko’s tent rustled next, and she walked out into the clearing, languidly stretching as she did so. Given how restless she seemed, she was likely never asleep in the first place. “Why are we all up? Thought it was bedtime.”
Then, a moment later, Kento emerged as well.
“What now?” he almost pleaded.
A round of small talk was exchanged between you all, and Suguru avoided bringing up anything that he thought had happened. Ultimately, everyone had varying schedules due to their line of work, so sleep was officially out of the question. For the time being, the plan was to go to the cabin that Suguru had revealed and stay up until actual exhaustion took over.
Inside, the air was stale and dusty, but it had solid walls and a lockable door, which you liked. The interior was pretty sparse, though. Just a couple of benches and a wooden table that was pushed into the corner. Beds did not seem to be an option, hinting that this building was more likely a common ground for campers to hang out, weather storms, store things, or whatever else.
Shoko threw a pack of cards on the table, taking a seat, as everyone else followed.
“Might as well,” she murmured, grabbing the pack and beginning to shuffle.
Of course, you settled in right beside Suguru, who, as the game progressed, did not mind at all whenever you peeked at his hand. He was barely aware of it, even, since his attention was fixed on the cards only as a necessity, and everything else occurred on autopilot. It was easier for him to relax when he was in a lit area with people he knew, allowing him to move on from an uneasy situation.
But then, at some point, when the five of you had fallen into an automated routine, Shoko froze, but tried not to make it obvious. She simply had noticed something just… off.
She dealt out the cards, counting the hands:
One, two…
…Three, four..
…Five…
…Six?
So, that was her, you, Satoru, Suguru, Kento—
At the realisation, she did not dare look up. Her eyes stayed on the deck, following everyone’s hands that sat at the table. By the sixth pair, she did not recognise who they could have belonged to. They were much paler, the skin almost grey. The fingers were too long, and the nails were far too sharp.
Someone else took a card from the pile, then added to their hands, and then, someone else entirely, whose voice sounded so wrong, far from anything recognisable, let alone anything that sounded human at all, said “uno”.
One by one, the rest of you noticed that something was off.
There were far too many players.
Kento, that time, was the second to react, but the first to move.
Everyone, as if on queue, followed abruptly after him, practically spilling out of the cabin and back out into the woods. You could feel your heart pounding wildly as a strange, deafening whooshing sound played on a loop in your ears, making it difficult to focus, especially given that you were already tired and on edge.
Kento counted obsessively over how many people there were.
“One, two, three, four, five—”
He repeated himself, again and again, needing to confirm something.
Then, as he turned slowly to the still-lit cabin to confront the possibility of a sixth person, the lights blew out before he could catch a peek. The low-hanging lamp burst, and the glass shattered, falling to the floor. Just outside, the bulbs in the lanterns broke, leaving you all stranded in complete and utter darkness, and something cold, like an unseen presence, brushed past you all.
You cried out softly in fear before Suguru’s hand closed over your mouth.
“With me,” he whispered, “and don’t make a sound.”
Before you could think, he pulled you away into the deep woods, separating you from everyone else. Branches snagged and scraped against your arms, leaving behind tiny, itchy welts on your flesh. The leaves crunched underfoot as you stumbled after him, and your heart continued to beat so loudly that it almost hurt.
Then, he stopped and crouched down ever so slightly, pressing you to his chest. One hand still covered your mouth, while the other held securely around your waist. It was only then that you noticed just how icy his fingers felt; colder than they should have been.
Slowly, he pressed you to face the surface of a nearby tree, his whole body digging in to keep yours in place. Bark dug into your chest and stomach, and the soft give of your thighs. His face dipped, kissing the back of your neck, inhaling deeply.
Somehow, you knew that it was not him.
“Suguru?” you asked him anyway. “Is that really you?”
A pause followed, but then something else that almost sounded like a smile. A soft exhale that gave way to a wet sound, like lips parting.
Whatever it was that was behind you had tightened its hold, pressing you up so tight against the tree that you could hardly breathe.
“Ah,” the thing behind you said, adjusting ever so slightly as soon as it noticed, but it did not apologise.
You tried to pull away as soon as it gave you space.
But then its grip immediately tightened.
“Not so fast,” it caught you, returning its lips to your neck once more. It did not kiss you that time, nor did it bite you; it simply rested its mouth there.
All the while, you could hardly think.
“I like you,” it added softly after a moment.
Then, after a pause.
“A lot.”
Your body went still despite every instinct otherwise screaming at you to run or fight or scream, even if nothing in your body allowed you to budge. You were locked into place, caught in between terror and something else, waiting for whatever was behind you to make its move. Its hands brushed against your arms, almost gently, as though exploring your body, but it was only when you flinched at its touch that it shifted its voice into something familiar once again.
Maybe to comfort you.
Or, to trick you.
It sounded like Suguru again.
“Don’t worry, I’m here,” it soothed.
The sound of him sounding so soft and gentle and just like the man you loved almost broke you.
“Are you going to hurt me?” you dared ask.
“Hurt?” it replied quickly. “No, not hurt.”
Then, as an afterthought.
“Keep?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Your stomach dropped.
“Then, are you going to hurt my friends?”
You gulped.
“Or… Suguru…?”
For the first time, it seemed to hesitate. You could feel the reluctance from the way its chest stilled against your body, but then, it breathed out slowly, sounding almost amused.
“Only if they’re in the way,” it promised.
You tried to nod, but couldn’t. You could not scream either, but something else desperately pushed you to force the thing behind you.
“Can I look at you?” you asked, needing to confirm to yourself more so that it wasn’t Suguru.
A pause followed, and initially, you expected a rejection, but then it stepped back. Right about then, the clouds seemed to part, allowing the moon and the stars to come into view, briefly highlighting the creature that towered over you in the small clearing.
At the sight of it, you could technically say that it certainly resembled Suguru, but only to a point. The height of it was wrong, even if the shape was right. It had his hair, his sharp jaw, but the look in his eyes was completely wrong. His smile also looked like it did not belong.
“W-what are you?” you stammered out.
No reply.
“How do you look so much like him… but, somehow, not at all?” you managed, surprised that you could ask that much, considering you were too afraid to run or scream.
“This is all just a temporary look,” it said, not quite answering either of your questions. “I can keep it if you want, if that helps. Would you like that?”
Something about the offer made your skin crawl, and, before you could answer, you could hear a distant voice call out through the trees.
“Where are you?”
You recognised from the cadence and fear, that the voice that called out for you, had belonged to the real Suguru. You listened on, focusing on what you heard, recognising Shoko, Satoru and Kento all calling out your name too.
Your heart jumped, and you tried to look past the creature and towards the sound of promised safety, but then you remembered its promise. It said nothing as you writhed around near it, seemingly letting you decide on your own. If you were to stay quiet for now, then it would not harm the people you cared about.
For that reason, you held back, even if it was a trap to surrender. Maybe it did so because it was weak, but you could not take that risk. Sure, you could guesstimate that it might not be able to handle many people at once, which was why it aimed to isolate people and get them all alone, but on a deeper scale, you knew there was more to it than that.
You sighed, deciding to stay.
“Good,” it said. “You did the right thing.”
Your throat tightened.
“But you’ll let me go eventually, right?” you asked.
No such answer came out, and it reached out to hold onto you again. You understood its answer without needing to hear it, especially from what it had revealed before about its intentions, that escape was likely not such an easy prospect. Tears rolled down your cheeks as you realised just how doomed you were, and you noticed that right away.
“Ah,” it said, stepping closer, bringing its lips down to the spot where your tears fell, lapping it up with its tongue. “No need to cry.”
You trembled, feeling it lean in further, its lips finding yours.
“It’s okay,” it said again.
You tried to pull away from its advances, but the more you resisted, the more you felt as though you were melting into a dream, or perhaps, rather, a nightmare. Its words had a gentle ring to them, even if you felt in more danger than ever before. Your body felt heavy, sluggish, even as if your thoughts were sinking into thick, unyielding water.
It repeated itself then, its voice now stripped completely of Suguru’s warmth.
“I like you a lot,” it declared again.
You did not like how its voice seemed to surround you as it spoke, for it was as though it came from everywhere all at once. Nor did you like how it kept on trying to kiss you, as if it were entitled to your reciprocation.
“Such soft skin,” it murmured, guiding its hands to slip under your clothing, eager to feel what was beneath. Its touch felt possessive in a way you did not like.
“Don’t you want to be mine?”
You tried to shake your head, but in your drowsy, almost hypnotised state, words that you did not mean started to leave your lips.
“Yes,” you found yourself saying, but not out of a will that belonged to you. Your eyes snapped open again, horrified over what you had revealed. This was not you consenting. You thought the opposite, and yet—
Did it trick you?
The creature smiled, sounding entitled as it digested your words.
“Good,” it praised. “What a good, good girl.”
In a flash of movement that you could barely register, it flipped you over so that you faced the bark again, forcing you to face the cold wood. Its hands pressed hard over your head, its fingers splayed around your scalp.
Despite this, its touch came in soft; its fingers trailing down the curve of your spine and settling at the small of your back. Its touch lingered, but then it began to tease along the waistband of your clothes, hinting that it wanted entry. The sensation was maddeningly light, and yet, you could not displace the feeling of complete and utter dread.
Next, something hot in contrast to the rest of it pressed right against your buttocks, digging into the soft flesh. It felt hard and poked insistently at the fabric in the way of your bare skin, throbbing against you.
“Do you feel me?” it asked.
You tried to speak, finding this time that you could not.
“Don’t you feel how much I want you?”
It took your continued silence as the consent it needed, moving forward regardless of what you felt or wanted. The pressure in between your legs intensified as you could feel the fabric ripping, feeling cold air greet your flesh.
Then, its voice returned to something familiar, as though to coax you.
“Fuck, babe, you feel so wet for me,” it muttered, using the exact tone that Suguru reserved for you. The only difference was, that never in his life, had he called you babe.
You were left stunned, unable to believe that this was happening, and yet—
“Tell me that you want this,” it continued, its voice perfectly imitating the man that you loved as something wet and slick began to trace along the edge of your heat, threatening to push past and ease inside. “Tell me,” it demanded again.
Your mind reeled—you knew that this creature was adopting Suguru’s voice to confuse you—to lull you into a false sense of security, and yet, you lacked the strength or the will to fight back. Something sickly sweet hung in the air that took your breath away, but you weren’t sure what. All the while, it shuddered along the back of your neck; its breath hot and humid, exploring you with hands that weren’t his like you were something familiar.
The thing behind you was shaking now, trembling with such excitement that it made your stomach churn. Its whole body vibrated against yours, and when you did not reply to it, it continued anyway.
Silence was all that you had, and still, that alone could not save you.
“If you can’t use your words, then I’ll have to guess,” it teased, its voice dropping to a low gravelly sound, “it’s just, I might not be as gentle as he is.”
Something wet slid into the reach of your wetness, and your body reacted involuntarily. A sharp gasp left your lips as it pushed inside, forcing the bark from the tree to dig painfully into your skin. You tried to palm out and steady yourself, but your face was pressed against the rough wood, making it difficult to find any stable footing at all.
“I’ll be so good to you,” it promised, its voice dripping with false sweetness. “I’ll be so much better… than him.”
Then, as if bothered by your extended silence, it didn’t bother to wait for an answer at all. It continued to push into you regardless, its length sliding into your slick walls that did very little to accommodate its size. Its cock was unlike anything you had ever felt before; searing hot and somehow too large for you to take.
“Fuck,” it breathed, its voice still like Suguru’s but warped with something darker. “You feel so perfect—”
It started to move, albeit not gently like Suguru would, not as softly as he would talk you through it, but something else entirely. It did not seem to care for your comfort, let alone your pleasure, acting on a base need to fill and claim. The pressure from inside felt overwhelming as it forced itself in even further, stretching you out in all sorts of ways that should have been impossible. You could feel your body resisting the intrusion, but it did not stop once. It kept on pushing, pushing, and pushing, until—
It finally managed to slip in all the way, hilting as far as it could physically go.
The violation felt raw and brutal in its intensity, and a breathless scream tore from your lungs.
“It’s okay,” it whispered out as it felt you struggle. “It’s okay, babe. It’s just me.”
You could no longer contain your tears as it moved from within you, its length pulsing and tearing you up from the inside and out. It held onto the memory of every little lean and angle and keening cry or gasp that you made, being sure to repeat what was otherwise music to its ears.
“Don’t you like this?” it goaded, the question itself laced with the threat of punishment if you answered wrong. “Has he never fucked you like this before?”
Its finger then dipped lower, slipping to pad over your clit, allowing itself to wander and, confusingly, to an extent, stroke around the bud. It traced slow and deliberate circles as it pounded into you with wild abandon, the dual sensation and the fear you felt, almost being too much.
Then, it pulled you back by the strands of your hair, fisting itself around your scalp, making your head burn.
“Call out his name,” it demanded, rutting into you faster, its hips snapping into erratic force. “Scream it.”
To press your reaction, it pushed its finger against you harder, invoking a horrendous sensation of pain that mixed with pleasure. In the heat of the moment, your body betrayed you then, and you could feel yourself tensing. A new feeling of profound horror gripped you in the realisation of that, for you did not want to give the beast behind you such a reward.
And yet, even so, as you met your reluctant climax, you called out for Suguru almost desperately, and so did, too; the creature began to follow up after, as though you had fulfilled the conditions for some sort of ritual. It exploded within you right after, filling you up with a warmth that felt far too scalding for your insides to handle, before collapsing above you entirely.
It was still hard even when it pulled out from within you, and you could feel it throb against your back—feel whatever it released inside of you, as it seeped out and trickled down your thighs—as exhaustion claimed you what felt like immediately after.
Then, later, when you woke up, it was bright again.
You could hear the people you were better familiar with close in, and see them, this time too, at last reuniting with you. Whatever dreadful feeling you had before was gone with its absence, and an arm hooked right around you, pulling you upright so that you were sitting, and not sprawled out on the forest floor.
“There you are,” Suguru—the real one—murmured, his voice tired, but coated with relief.
You blinked as you came around, the trees above you blurring and then sharpening again. Daylight filtered through the branches, making you squint. Nearby, Shoko was crouched by a rock, holding up a piece of fabric that had torn from your clothes, inspecting it carefully. Satoru stood not too far away from both you and Suguru, giving as much space as you needed. Kento was a couple of steps away, glancing around the trees, trying to piece something together.
Throughout it all, your body ached. You hissed as you tried to steady yourself.
“Easy,” Suguru caught you, his hand gripping your arm.
You blinked down at your skin, noticing the littered thin red lines adorning your flesh. Your palms were scraped raw, too, and your knees felt bruised.
Suguru exhaled as he took in the sight of you.
“Where did you run off to?” he asked, not sounding angry, no, but perhaps worried.
You blinked once more and then forced yourself to speak.
“What… What happened?” you tried to ask. “How did I… end up all the way out here?”
The group glanced around uncertainly at one another, rippling back as a shrug that met Suguru’s shoulders. He hesitated, not seeming too sure himself.
“I…” he started. “We found you out here. All I remember was you running off last night, but not much else.”
You frowned as he explained it all to you.
“You really don’t remember anything else?” he probed.
You shook your head, allowing the remnants of what otherwise felt like a realistic dream, if not nightmare, away. Or at least, what felt unreal. You remembered darkness and running and stopping somewhere abruptly, your name spoken out all wrong and as sickly fingers caressed your flesh and felt something—someone—inside you.
You swallowed hard.
“Think I had a nightmare, and maybe… sleepwalked off?” you managed to suggest.
Suguru studied your expression, but ultimately, he settled on the explanation. He sighed deeply before pulling you in close to meet with his chest so that his chin could rest over the top of your head.
“Well, it’s okay now,” he murmured, soothing you with the warm and familiar touch that certainly belonged to him and him alone. “Let’s get back home, alright? We think a storm last night blew out our supplies anyway.”
As he helped you up and walked you back to the parking lot, with all of the supplies in tow, carried by others, the forest seemed almost normal again. That time around, you could hear the birds chirp and insects buzz and hum in the spring air. Shoko tossed her bag into the trunk as soon as she reached the car, and so did Kento, who was carrying the rest. Satoru slid into the driver’s seat, and you sat in the back, only for Suguru to hover outside for a moment before pausing.
“Shit,” he muttered. “Need to take a leak. Won’t be long.”
You sat back in the backseat with the door still open, not noticing how subtly the sounds of the nearby forest died right down. Minutes passed as you curiously watched the line of trees, waiting on Suguru to return, thinking it was odd that he seemed to be taking his sweet, sweet time.
But then he showed up right at the door, startling you out of your daze.
“Back,” he said, sliding right in, shuffling right in next to you. Kento had insisted on taking the passenger seat, just in case Satoru fell asleep at the wheel, so there was enough room for exactly three behind.
You shuffled along the backseat, noticing that something about him was slightly off, but you could not place what: he looked the same as he always did, from the same hair, to the same clothes, to the same familiar silhouette, and yet, something else was out of place.
“You okay, babe?” he asked, noticing your suddenly stiff demeanour.
For a moment, you were left once again frozen, feeling your hands go numb, gulping as the car began to pull away. Unrequited thoughts kept on slipping into your head, urging you remember something important, but your memory blurred. Maybe you were just being paranoid after a realistic nightmare, because being in new places and being still exhausted made people imagine strange things.
Suguru has always been quiet in the mornings, hasn’t he?
He’s always been tough to read.
“I’m fine,” you finally managed, and so did he, too, settle.
That’s right: Suguru has always been like this.
Always has been a slight bit taller, his eyes a little sharper, his complexion not quite right—
Nothing at all was out of place, and everything was exactly where it had to be.
