Chapter Text
“I’m so tired,” Shoko muttered into her hands as she scratched her eyes. Suguru winced as her mascara wiped across her face.
Wordlessly, Satoru held out baby wipes to her, “We only have two more essays to correct.” He looked over Suguru, even with his blindfold on, “The Higher-Ups wanna see us after.”
He rolled his eyes, “You’re fuckin’ kidding me. Dude, I just wanna sleep.”
Shoko held up her phone, letting the camera show her where her makeup had smudged and removing the dark outlines.
It was still late evening, around 11 at night. Even though they would usually stay up later, it had been a long time since any of the three got any rest. They’d been on their feet nonstop; correcting homework, out on missions with students, completing personal missions, awful meetings with the Higher-Ups, and general upkeep of the school. Satoru didn’t remember the last time he’d taken off the blindfold; his Six Eyes were working overtime, much like him.
“I can just finish editing the essays now if you want?” Shoko said, baby wipes in the garbage and a red pen already in her hand, “I’m almost done with Maki’s, it wasn’t that hard.”
Suguru shook his head solemnly, “The two left are Yuuji and Toge.”
Satoru and Shoko sighed.
“Alright this might end up taking all night, so Shoko you can finish up Toge’s. Suguru and I will finish Yuuji, yeah?”
Shoko shrugged, “Your loss, not mine.”
“You need to stop giving out essays as homework. Just do multiple choice next time,” Satoru complained, massaging his temples through the blindfold. His eyes hurt a lot.
“They need to know how to write one!” Suguru countered, “Learning to write an essay is part of the curriculum-”
“My god, here you go again with the damn curriculum. They’re not gonna end up needing it-”
“Aren’t you the one who keeps saying they deserve a normal childhood? School is exactly that!”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t need to be boring as hell!”
“Are you kidding me-?!”
“My god, shut up!” Shoko groaned, trying her best not to crush Toge’s essay between her hands. “You’re both wrong, let’s move on. We need to finish this up so we might be able to hopefully sleep.”
Satoru grumbled, “I’m just gonna text someone to cancel the meeting.”
Suguru glanced over at him, “You’re gonna cancel the meeting with the Higher-Ups?”
“Who are you texting to cancel the meeting?” Shoko asked, “I doubt any of those wrinkly fucks even know what a phone is.”
“I’m so proud of you for making fun of them.” Suguru wiped away a fake tear, placing a hand over where his heart was.
Shoko shuttered, remembering the conversation she had with the Higher-Ups and how nightmarish it was, “Don’t remind me. Anyways,” She turned to face Satoru, “Who are you gonna text to cancel the meeting?”
“Don’t worry about it,” He replied, scrolling through his endless list of contacts.
“You’re awful.” Suguru said with a smile, swivelling around in his chair to face the desk.
It was dark in Satoru’s office, except for the few lamps and lights situated around the room. His desk was mostly filled with various picture frames and paperwork he hadn’t touched in months.
“Okay!” Satoru rubbed his eyes through the blindfold, “Let’s start. We’ll read together. You can correct his spelling and grammar, while I edit anything he got wrong and-” He paused, his eyes following up to the closed door. Behind it, three influxes of cursed auras rose. He could make out people whispering, but not what they were saying.
Shoko glanced up from her paper, “Is something wrong?”
“I think the first-years are outside the door,” Suguru sighed, getting up from his chair and walking up to the door.
As it flung open, the first-years immediately separated from their huddled forms, whispering God knows what to one another. They all stared up at Suguru, who was still in his uniform.
“Hey, something the matter?” Suguru asked. Satoru’s Six Eyes immediately roamed all over them, making sure they weren’t injured or hurt. Shoko stood up with him, walking over to the door and leaning against the doorframe.
Yuuji spoke up first, clapping his hands together loudly, “There’s something wrong with our shared dorm!”
The other two students looked at Yuuji with wide eyes as Megumi muttered a curse under his breath.
“What’s wrong with your dorm?” Satoru asked, a smile dancing on his face at Megumi’s annoyed expression.
“Can you just come with us already?” Nobara shouted, already walking back in the direction of the student dormitory. Yuuji smiled brightly before running after her. Megumi simply sighed, rolling his eyes but walking close by to his friends. The three teachers stared at each other for a second, before shrugging and following their students, closing the door behind them.
The walk back to the dorm was quiet, except for Yuuji and Nobara’s occasional whisper to each other. Megumi refrained from speaking to them, walking a few steps behind them.
“I have a feeling this is a ploy of some sort,” Shoko muttered, her hands in her jeans pocket.
Suguru shrugged, “I’d rather this than correct more work.”
She sighed, “Those kids are never getting their work back, I swear.”
“It’s fine,” Satoru replied, waving a hand, “I’m sure they’ve already forgotten about it.”
As their door finally came into view, they couldn’t help but smile. The door had their names written on paper and taped on it. Colourful stickers and doodles circled their names. Nobara’s had various flowers and shopping bags around her nametag. Yuuji’s had TV shows and movies no one knew the name of. Strange doodles of monsters were crudely drawn in any remaining spaces. Megumi had a mix of Nobara and Itadori’s stickers, with the exception of drawings of his Shikigami dogs under his nametag.
As the door was pushed open, said dogs perked up from the dog beds they were lying on. The room was the epitome of cozy; blankets, fleeces, and quilts were thrown on every piece of furniture. The carpet was a dark brown colour and a shoe rack was placed in the corner of the room nearest to the door. A huge bed took up the entire length of a wall. There were at least 15 pillows thrown haphazardly across the bed and it was filled to the brim with plushies and blankets. Fairy lights were the only light source with the curtains drawn shut.
“Wow, it’s obvious Satoru bought all this for you, huh?” Suguru said, taking off his shoes and placing them on the shoe rack next to the students.
Shoko snickered, doing the same and walking into the room.
Satoru smiled, breathing in and smelling the light smell of a vanilla candle that had recently extinguished.
“He didn’t! He gave us his card and we went to buy all this!” Nobara shouted out, hopping onto the middle of the bed as the black Shikigami dog followed her.
“Well,” Satoru said, taking his slippers off and walking into the room after Shoko, “What’s the problem?”
Both Yuuji, who was cuddled up with the white dog, and Nobara looked over to Megumi, who was sitting on a chair near a desk. He looked at the two, blinking at them a few times before sighing, “Gojo-sensei, you need to take down your infinity and all three of you need to rest on the bed next to us.”
Shoko and Suguru stifled a laugh behind their hand as Satoru’s eyes widened at the direct statement. It wasn’t a question, just Megumi telling Satoru what to do.
But of course, Satoru didn’t object. He looked over at his smiling friends and placed an arm in front of him, “Well? After you two,” towards the direction of the bed.
Suguru and Shoko glanced at one another with a smile that only the two of them could understand, before climbing on the bed. Satoru followed close by, his infinity sinking away into the mattress. As he laid down next to Suguru, he felt the thick barrier melt away from his form, burrowing itself into the blankets beneath him. He let out a pleased groan, having remembered how long he had been overworking his Six Eyes, and even himself.
Yuuji quickly placed himself between Suguru and Satoru, jumping onto the bed. The two older men huffed as the bed shifted, but relaxed as Yuuji’s pink hair came into view. Nobara finished braiding her hair in two. As she tied the last elastic, she moved closer to Shoko, who was watching the Shikigami dog carefully as it approached her. Megumi wordlessly moved towards Satoru, who was on the edge, and placed a blanket on top of both of them.
“So what’s the issue, hm?” Satoru whispered to Megumi, who was slowly itching towards him. A light blue weighted blanket covered him from neck to toe, “Somethin’ wrong with the room, Megs?” He couldn’t help but tease.
Megumi simply huffed, placing his head underneath Satoru’s chin. Behind him, he could hear Suguru and Nobara laughing over something as one of the dogs growled. Yuuji’s snoring began to ring through the room gently, the sound vibrating against Satoru’s back. A faint feeling of deja vu passed by him.
“Rest, Satoru.” Megumi mumbled, letting his eyes flutter close. Satoru smiled at the sight.
Suguru mumbled something to Nobara, who immediately huffed but the bed dipped softly with her weight. The dogs returned to their beds at the foot of the bed, curling up together. Shoko placed two pillows against the wall, leaning her body up but letting herself relax as she placed a blanket over herself. Suguru tucked Yuuji in, ruffling his hair ever so gently as he laid next to him.
Satoru let out a breath as he felt his Six Eyes relax, feeling safe and warm. The paperwork, Higher-Ups, and the world could wait. He had to sleep.