ex-husband

what's the problem ?

unedited whoopsie 

Satoru felt his ears begin to ring. A sense of deja vu made his blood run cold. It was like when he got stabbed by Toji. But worse, he thinks.

"Sorry?"

You raised a brow at him, surprised he needed you to repeat it. But you did so anyways, getting back to folding your laundry. Satoru arrived because you'd called him over, a last minute call since you had to go somewhere.

He has assumed it was an assignment.

He would have preferred that.

"I have a meeting with the elders. It'll hopefully not take too long." You put on a smile, clearly strained. No one liked talking to the elders. Especially not Satoru. But he'd rather be stuck in a room with all those whiny, useless and wrinkly old hags than let you go into the lions den.

"I can go instead," Satoru offered. Well, you took it as an offer, but the way he meant it, it was a demand.

You chuckled, shaking your head. "No, I'll go. You'll get some time with Kiyo."

"I'd rather you not go," Satoru said firmly, lifting his sunglasses up, pushing back his hair. His stare was intimidating, piercing - he knew that asking you softly wouldn't work. He needed to absolutely refuse even the notion of you leaving to go see the elders.

Your brows furrowed. "Do you... do you know why they called me? Am I in trouble or something?"

Satoru's piercing gaze faltered. He shook his head, stopping himself from reassuringly patting your shoulders. He clenched his fists inside his pant pockets. "No. Of course not."

"Then?" You asked, frowning. "What's the problem?"

Satoru wanted to grab you by the shoulders, shake you and scream in your face. He wanted to scream about how beautiful you looked when you were confused. He loved the way your eyebrows knitted, and how your lips did that cute little thing that made him want to kiss them and make you smile instead.

But mostly he wanted to scream at you for how dumb you were being. Or for how you seemed to deliberately be breaking his heart. There was no way you didn't think that he saw the correlation. How quickly your divorce proposal came after a disastrous meeting with the elders.

"You're not... I refuse to let you go," he said, shaking his head.

You sighed. You weren't stupid. You could infer what this was about.

"I know this is kind of nosy of me," Nobara said, as she chowed down on some fries. After an assignment, she was craving some classic McDonalds. Growing up in the country meant that this wasn't as accessible as it was in the city. They used to have to drive for hours before they could even see the large Golden Arches. "But do you know why Gojo sensei and his wife got separated?"

"Went straight into it, huh?" Yuji huffed, glancing at Megumi wearily. He'd speculated with Nobara before, but the two of them never knew how to bring it up to Megumi. Seems like she just ripped the bandaid off.

Megumi didn't seem taken aback. To be fair, he didn't seem to be anything. He was very indifferent to it.

"I don't know."

"Seriously?" Yuji asked, tilting his head as he stole some of Megumi's chicken nuggets. "Who does know then?"

Megumi shrugged. "I don't think Gojo even knows."

"How would he not know?" Yuji asked, his mouth filled with chicken nuggets.

"Yeah," Nobara huffed, crossing her arms. "He must know." 

You felt your heart break into a million pieces when you saw him at your doorstep. You'd actually gulped at the sight of him. In your few years of personally knowing Satoru, living under the same roof as him, having a whole baby with him - you had never seen him look so terrible. 

Satoru somehow finds it in himself to look you in the eye. By some miracle. He doesn't know where he found the strength.

Maybe it's because you can't do the same. 

Your line of sight moves rapidly, from his face, to his hands, to your hands, to the box in your hands, to the ground, to the door, to the inside of your home, to anywhere that wasn't Satoru (which was hard since he took up so much of the door frame). 

"This the last box?" He murmured, his voice barely coming out. You'd heard him talk softly before, but this wasn't soft - it was hollow. 

He spoke quietly so his voice wouldn't break. 

"Y-Yeah," you croaked out, damning yourself for your stutter. You chewed at your chapped lips, cringing at every part of yourself at the moment. You cleared your throat."If... If you left anything else, you still have the keys right?" 

Satoru simply nodded. The keys were going to be kept because of Kiyo. Not because you wanted to have anything to do with him. 

You looked up at him, finally, holding the box out for him. He hesitated in grabbing it. He had finally looked down, at your hands, at the hands holding the box, at the hands he was holding tenderly just a week ago. At the hands that he'd kissed when you arrived home two a week and a half ago, sobbing. 

His hands reached out for the box. His fingers grazed yours, and both of you tensed immediately. Satoru felt his blood run cold. He backed his hands away, not taking the box from you. Looking up, his bright blue eyes dimmer with the bags under them, his brows furrowed, his lips turned downwards, he asked one simple question. 

"Why?"