Nothing Special

More Migraines!

The family was having a normal dinner.

But you should've noticed, in hindsight, that it wasn't the most normal. You should've noticed that Satoru's smile seemed a lot more strained and that he kept pushing up his glasses to hide his eyes. You should've noticed how he kept rubbing his fingers together, a small but obvious sign that he was trying to focus on something to ground his mind.

Slapping your forehead for all the 'should haves' didn't help the fact that he'd collapsed in front of the kitchen sink, though.

But why didn't you notice how he was shaking when he offered to grab your plates and put them away?

Tsumiki screeched and covered her face at the sound of glass crashing to the ground, the shards flying to the ground, thankfully unable to cut Satoru with his infinity. You gasped, standing up, keeping your hand on Megumi's shoulder to keep him seated so he didn't get up and accidentally step on it.

Satoru's mind was a lot more clear than it had been before, the sound of shattering had taken his mind out of it's fuzzy stupor. But he couldn't find the strength in himself to stand up, his head buzzing with more overstimulation that it had before.

"Toru, stay there," you called to him, but your voice sounded so far away. You reminded Tsumiki to stay seated, before picking up Megumi and taking him to the couch in the living room, tossing him the remote before going back to pick up Tsumiki. "Just watch some tv, but keep it low, alright?"

The two nodded, hands not reaching out for the remote, as they were still fixed on you as you pushed the hair away from your face and went to grab some thicker slippers, so your feet wouldn't be cut by the glass.

When you'd gotten back to Satoru, he was still crouched on the ground, his hand gripping on the edge of the sink, as he used his other hand to cover his eyes, keeping his head down. You did your best to clean the glass around him, without being a disturbance, and threw out the trash carefully and quietly.

The kids were doing as you asked, eyes on the television, but mind still replaying the events of tonight, so far. No doubt they were berating themselves about not noticing how different Satoru seemed today as well. And while you wanted to let them know that they had no reason to blame themselves for not noticing, you wanted to focus on Satoru first, for once.

"Satoru," you whispered, as you crouched down to his level, rubbing his back gently. "Can you please get up? Let's take you to bed, okay, it's dark in there, I took all my cursed tools out, too. We've gotta clean this up before the kids step on it, too."

Slowly, Satoru nodded, getting up, still covering his eyes. You pulled him by the arm, taking him to your shared bedroom - or well, it was his bed, you still had the dorms back at jujutsu tech, but you stayed here most of the time anyways. As you placed him in front of the bed, he sat down, lying back on it, as he draped his arm over his face, groaning.

"We need a better way to fix these migraines, yeah?" You hummed, tracing lines across his thigh. The way it tickled, the feeling of your soft brushes helped his mind focus a bit more. He liked it.

"Yeah," he grumbled back. "Got any suggestions?"

You continued mindlessly tracing shapes on his thighs, lost in thought. What could help him?

"Bandages, maybe?" You answered. Satoru lifted up his arm to peek down at you. He raised an eyebrow, not that you could tell in the pitch dark. "They're thick and they can drown out the cursed energy that gets to your head, like glasses do but more powerful cause there'd be multiple wraps covering your face."

"I'd look stupid," Satoru huffed. "Would you really still be attracted to some bandaged freak?"

"You'd look like one of those cool anime characters," you chuckled, at the thought of it. "And you already have white hair - I mean, it's beautiful, but you're technically already a freak, with or without the bandages. The bandages would just be you owning it."

Satoru chuckled a little as well. "And Megumi would totally hate that." He sighed. "I'll try it out."

"Okay," you whispered, pausing for a moment, before bringing something up, you're voice softer than before. "Why didn't you tell me you weren't okay?"

Satoru held his breath, not wanting to make a sound. "I don't know. I didn't want to worry you."

"But"-

"Yeah, I know. I ended up worrying you and the kids even more." Satoru frowned. "I'm sorry."

You didn't know if you liked seeing Satoru frown or not. He used to frown all the time as a kid, deadpanned, and very open to showing his real, unabashed feeling of hating everyone around him. It was reasonable, with your 19 year old hindsight, but as a child it made you uneasy.

But now, with his very well put up and curated facade, sometimes you liked seeing Satoru frown. It reminded you that despite not enjoying the feeling of being vulnerable, you got to see that side of him even if he tried hard to hide it. It reminded you that Satoru is very much human, and is treated too much like a God.

"You don't have to be," you muttered, pulling yourself up on the bed, to be closer to his face. You brushed away the hair that stuck to his forehead, frowning at how damp it was. "I'll buy the bandages. Let's have a try with them, and we'll see if it works out for you, okay? I'll come with you on your next mission, to try them out."

Satoru's eyebrows furrowed. "No, you can't come with me on my next mission."

You frowned. "Why not?"

"It's a grade one, but there's rumors of it being a special grade. You're not coming on that mission."

"I've been on dangerous missions before, Satoru," you reassured him, trying to keep your voice soft.

Satoru shook his head. "No, I'm going to try and use my domain expansion. You can't be there for that. I'm serious about that."

You bit your lip, trying to think of something to say, before giving up and sighing. "Okay." You stood up from the bed, brushing out your clothes. "I'm gonna tell the kids you're alright. Go to sleep, or at least try to, yeah?"

"Yeah," Satoru huffed, bringing his arm up again, and closing his eyes shut.

When Suguru showed up in his dreams, it just made the pounding in his head even worse. He looked over at you, seemingly peaceful in your slumber after you've worked hard to put the kids to sleep and get their meals for the next day prepped and cleaned the home. Shaking his head, he pressed his forearm into his eyes, trying to press away the ache. He wasn't going to worry you.

That's not what the strongest should be doing.