A kindled friendship

•Chapter 2 - Thinking Matters•

Yuuji stirred awake, finding his arms fastened in the sheets. He rubbed his bleary eyes, reaching over to his left to grab his phone to check what time it was. The teen hissed as the bright light shone straight in his tired eyes, and he squinted to read the time. 5:15. He sighed relieved, thank god he had a few more hours before he really had to get up for school. He groaned at the thought of Gojo's bright, too bright smile, and imagined how this day would go in his teacher's presence. Something seemed wrong. Normally when he woke up, he felt tired but a good stretch always solved that, and he was back to normal, but today, he seemed extremely irritated and the thought of Gojo and his flashy personality just made him wince with annoyance.

"My, my, the vessel is getting sick of his six eyed mentor, who would've seen that coming!" Sukuna cheered gleefully through their shared connection in Yuuji's mind. "That's not what this is, Sukuna, I'm just not feeling it today." He retorted, rubbing his eyes, before sitting up and swinging his legs off of his bed. A dull ache in his head made itself present, but Yuuji just dismissed it, not giving it an ounce of thought. Deep in the teens body, the curse played around with a skull in his hands, after all, what was he supposed to do? But the boy's attitude was to be noted, he supposed, it was unlike him to be so irritated or annoyed at anyone, especially his teacher, whom he considered a friend. He sighed once before returning his attention back to his vessel.

Meanwhile Yuuji had already dressed and carelessly tossed his old clothes to one side of the room, he'd clean up later. He opened the door (with more force than was necessary) and walked to the kitchen, his fingers twitching with slight cursed energy. He wasn't sure why he was so crabby today, maybe it was just the way he slept? He couldn't be certain. Kugisaki stood in the kitchen, scrolling on her phone, and hearing his footsteps, turned around and snorted. "Didn't know you were an early bird, Itadori, thought I'd have to wake your dumbass to get ready for school." She missed the look of anger that had twisted its way on Yuuji's face before he realised, and smoothened it out to normal. A flash of anger washed over him, the audacity she had to say that clearly must have been a result of her lack of manners. He just coincidentally happened to wake up this early, not that he bothered to say those words out loud.
Before he could move at all, Fushiguro was the next to step into the kitchen, running a hand through his messy hair. "Wow, you guys continue to surprise me." Nobara smiled before motioning to Megumi to sit down. "Make him some coffee Itadori, he never manages to get through the morning without it." Make it yourself, remained unsaid, as Yuuji bitterly spun away, back facing them and started to heat up the stove so he could make food for himself, and his friends. He tried to calm himself down, taking steady breaths so he wouldn't lash out at the people around him.

He started making eggs and bacon, while also trying to manage Fushiguro's coffee. Once he was done, he produced four plates, one for Megumi, one for Nobara, one for Gojo and one for him. But Yuuji just couldn't sit down with them as he usually did, his friends seemed more irritating today, Nobara kept nagging him and Megumi just seemed unfocused like he was still dreaming. "Hey, I'm going to eat my food upstairs today, I need to study." He himself knew just how fake that excuse sounded, and wasn't surprised when they both stared at him in confusion, but he just ignored their stares and continued to make his way back to his room.

Once he got to his room, he shut the door behind him and went limp against it, relief flooding his system. He just didn't feel like talking to them today. He sat down comfortable and began eating his food, but paused. "S-Sukuna?" He hesitated. He barely managed to hear the grunt that came from deep in his mind. "Do you want some?"
Sukuna inside his domain pondered it, looking at the measly offerings on the plate his vessel was holding. He could feel Yuuji's hesitance and briefly considered cutting his vessel a bit of slack, a small mercy the curse rarely showed. Silence followed before a mouth formed on his cheek, clearly expecting food, his actions showed demand and Yuuji easily complied, picking up the bacon with his fork and feeding it to the king of curses. Within the king's domain, Sukuna tried the bacon, and secretly? Sukuna loved it, it had just enough crunch so he wouldn't be chewing soft food, and the juice sizzled out of the meat and onto his tongue. Of course Sukuna wouldn't admit this, too prideful. Yuuji also gave him some egg, not sure if that sort of food would be enjoyed by him. The teen didn't get any criticism or praise for that matter, and the boy might have thought the king didn't care about his cooking if it weren't for their shared connection, which betrayed Sukuna's contentment. "I didn't tell you to stop feeding me brat, or shall I do it myself?" The mouth on the kid's cheek smirked, trying to gain control of the boy's body. He didn't try that hard though, so it wasn't threatening but more teasing, just pure banter. The teen smiled, before putting more food into the curse's mouth, and while he did so, he wondered why Sukuna wasn't striking a nerve like he always did in their interactions.