Work Text:
"Kid, I could've sworn I told you to stop playing that inside the store."
Although Sukuna was distracted, the words were unrelentingly serious. He specifically remembers putting a ban on Kyary Pamyu Pamyu when Yuji had played her song, fashion monster, three times in a row when he'd been working with a client. Now he could hear the distinctive beginning to Ninja Re Bang Bang. A grating song he had no doubt Yuji had played at least a hundred times growing up.
The shop itself was decently sized but no matter how far away he was, sitting at a desk with a pencil twisting around his fingers, the noise followed him through the speakers spread around the room. A silent moment, save for the music continuing to build up as it played overhead, hung between the two of them and for a moment, Sukuna thought Yuji was going to blatantly ignore him.
"But I'm bored! You've had La Dispute's Wildlife album playing all morning on repeat and I needed a break." He whined even as he conceded to Sukuna's rule and turned the music off, switching it back to the long queue Sukuna had set up earlier.
Honestly, Sukuna hadn't really been paying attention when he had organized the music this morning, he knew he'd be sitting down to sketch for a few hours which he usually eases himself into by picking a specific album. The continuous familiar noises help force him into a headspace where he can focus and get things done. Yuji hadn't really minded it when he was sorting through things earlier.
There were boxes that had arrived early in the morning, handed over by the polite postman who frequented this route. Sukuna had started thinking it was suspicious, but he had pushed it to the back of his mind for now. Then there had been some phone calls to take and some bookings to organize and move around, but now he had been sitting at the front desk for the better half of twenty minutes.
Now he was bored, and Jordan Dreyer's voice wasn't lulling him into the same comfortable headspace that Sukuna was sitting with. Actually, his head had started to ache by at least the fifth phone call he took, and he'd wanted to leave to find some food, but he hadn't wanted to interrupt Sukuna's work which meant he couldn't leave. Honestly it hadn't really occurred to Yuji that Sukuna would notice the shift in music.
He should've known better though, and although he felt mildly bad about pulling Sukuna out of his work, he had Sukuna's attention albeit incredibly distracted and not entirely on him, "'Kuna I'm going to the konbini for a snack, you want anything?"
Stretching his legs out in front of him, down from where he had them up on the swivel chair pressed against his chest. They were sore and he was a little wobbly when he stood up, having clearly forgetting just how long he had been sitting down for like that. By the time he stretched and worked out the pins and needles drilling into his skin with a thrumming ache, Sukuna had turned to look at him.
"If you want food, you should go to an actual store and get something proper to eat." Face expressionless even with his nagging tone twisting each word, "I don't plan on driving home tonight, so if you could get me some beer."
"We're staying here tonight? You should've told me; I didn't even bring my charger with me."
"I said I'm not driving home tonight, didn't say you had to stay here as well, kid."
"Mhm, well let me use your phone charger then."
There was a twitch in Sukuna's expression that Yuji missed with his back to him, already walking through the front door and closing it behind himself. There was a sign put up saying they were closed, dangling behind the glass. Yuji hadn't bothered to switch it around when they came in. His brother didn't have a habit of taking walk in appointments and there was no one written down for today, so he hadn't spared the effort.
A tree stood looming over the path by the shop entrance, branches dangling down and dropping leaves across the ground. A soft, caressing wind filtered down the street and across Yuji's face, ruffling his hair gently. It was a calm, unassuming day. A couple walking their dog spoke to each other in hushed tones as they walked by, an elderly man sat on a bench a few metres away.
Even though the music had been put back on inside the store, Sukuna couldn't immerse himself back in his work straight away. He had numerous detailed pieces for clients sketched out and assembled. Other assorted pieces spaced out in a sketchbook over at the side of the bench, an iced coffee sat half empty which head forgotten about while he was working.
Unlike Yuji, who was walking almost oblivious, on his way to the store for snacks with a mind filled with the calm of the day. Sukuna felt like something was off, an uncomfortable foreboding feeling of sorts, sitting at the back of his mind. Pushing his tongue against his teeth, he took one more look over his work and packed it all up. Shifting out of the chair in an uncomfortable, un-fluid like manner.
Somewhere along the line of his life, he had probably been appropriately advised against habits of sitting with a posture like his and sitting still for long periods of time without taking breaks to move about. That being said, little attention was usually given to the state of his body when it came time to focus. Any breaks he took were breaks in his attention that he couldn't promise wouldn't completely shatter his resolve to keep working.
He had been sitting down even longer than Yuji had without moving around. There was enough pain shifting through his shoulders, his back, his waist and his wrists to talk about for a week straight. Though, he hadn't even got the time to begin to complain as he stretched out the aches. Having only begun with his wrists, when the front door to his store blew open like a storm was rolling in.
Although he probably should advise against it, he hadn't called Yuji out for keeping the closed sign sitting in the glass of the front door. While rare, it isn't that surprising that people would ignore a sign that says closed and just assume they would be seen to if a store is unlocked with someone inside. It was nearing evening, but it was still early enough that people were going about their day.
Surprise didn't even begin to cover how Sukuna felt when he turned his attention from his wrists to his front door, taking in the sight laid out before him. After being thrown open, the front door was slowly closing itself after letting in three uninvited guests. The bright florescent lighting allowing Sukuna to properly take in the blood being tracked in and the sorry states of the three men.
Well, describing the one currently bleeding out over his floor as a man felt like a stretch. He looked no more a man than Yuji did, a kid in his early twenties at most with dark hair and even darker circles under his eyes. A grimace marring fine features, careful lines and angles. An unfamiliar face backed by two, more familiar faces that seemed to hold grim but not despairing expressions.
"I actually, and quite vividly too, remember the conversation we had, where I told you to never bring any of your work through my door past needing tattoos done." A decent amount of snark entered his tone even as he moved towards them, looking past them through the glass in the front door.
"There's nobody following us, we aren't that sloppy." The man ignored the pointed look Sukuna shot at the bleeding man between them, "We are too far away from Shoko's clinic with this type of injury, Suguru knows first aid well enough, but your medical knowledge is as close to Shoko's as any of us have access too. We only need him to be stabilized, then we'll leave."
Realistically it would make more sense to have Shoko come down here and work on him after he's been stabilized, moving him so quickly after just patching him up would more or less defeat the purpose of patching him up. Sukuna could tell he was being given the best alternative in order to hopefully get him to agree, and he sat with it for a moment as if he were mulling it over with any real effort.
"Don't be an idiot, he's as good as dead if I don't help him here and he isn't much better off if I let you walk out of here after."
Sukuna motioned for them to go further into the store and Gojo knew the way well enough to one of the enclosed rooms. The chair was sanitized before the kid was laid down on it, Geto was sent out to fetch bottles of water while Sukuna sourced the medical equipment he had on hand. It wasn't anything like what Shoko stocked her own clinic with, but Sukuna had dealt with enough to keep a reasonable collection.
"Where's the little one?" Geto spoke as he walked into the room, bottles of water in hand.
Despite using a descriptor like the little one, it wasn't hard to discern who it was that Geto was referring to. The first time either of them had met Yuji, one of the earlier times Sukuna had him in his care, they had not shut up about them being the spitting image of each other. Of course, that meant that Yuji became the little one out of the two of them. Which he appreciated enough.
Even though he seemed stressed enough, with streaks of blood across his neck and smudged into the fine white of his button up shirt. Gojo seemed to brighten at those words, eyes searching as if Yuji would somehow just pop up from behind something in the room. His suit jacket was thrown over the back of one of the chairs in the room and he was subconsciously rolling up the sleeves of his shirt, then back down as he looked about.
"Out." Was the answer that seemed like he was forced out of him, "One of you better go out and clean up the blood, if he comes back to me missing and a pile of blood on the floor, he'd-,"
As the words came out of his mouth, Sukuna seemed to think better of it and stopped himself, his sentence cut off abruptly. With a look shared between Gojo and Geto, the latter walked out of the room with his phone pressed between his shoulder and his ear. While Sukuna continued to prep things in his own silence, the near silence that fell on the room around him felt almost unnerving.
He wasn't at all used to this type of quiet, and while he preferred silence above all else, he also couldn't take the feeling of people walking on eggshells around him. Let alone the kid on the table trying to keep in any noise of pain. As if a slip up, a groan or a sob, would make him seem weak and have him sent out of the room like he doesn't deserve to be helped.
Sukuna couldn't stand it and he hated working on other people for it, especially those in this line of work. He had spent years patching himself up, setting broken noses and stitching wounds that split open just that bit too deep to leave unattended to. There were a few times growing up where he'd patched up minor injuries for Yuji, a cut on his forehead from walking into an open cupboard door.
A cut just below the knuckle of his thumb from where he had been washing a dish and it broke in his hand. Unfortunately, Sukuna hadn't had the medical knowledge back when Yuji's injuries and wounds had been worse. When he thinks about how those healed, it makes him feel sick. It's a reaction he can't help and it's most of the reason Yuji doesn't show a lot of his body off, Sukuna feels like Yuji can tell by his expression.
Gritting his teeth against the discomfort lodged in his throat Sukuna turned around and spoke, "Who's the kid? Didn't know you hired them so young, you didn't seem the type."
"Don't I? Yuta was about this young when he first started."
"Yuta was handed off to you, that's family, it hardly counts for anything." Sukuna didn't look at Gojo as he spoke and he's sure Gojo felt grateful for it, "It feels like it would be generous to even guess that he's in his twenties."
"I'm twenty-three." The words were spoken through a hiss of pain, eye's screwed shut.
Holding back from rolling his eyes at the display of defiance, he's been talking over and not to the kid for a reason. The kid jostled himself as he spoke and was paying the price for it, no doubt a burning pain was causing him to swear under his breath. Cutting open the shirt and not bothering with the buttons, Sukuna got to work inspecting the wound as he finally pulled out the knife.
Gojo wasn't speaking a lot, but he was using a soft voice to keep the kid aware and focused as best he could. Sukuna was thorough with his work, cleaning the wound and stitching the kid up with medical precision. Dressing the wound and prompting Gojo to keep him hydrated. Knowing his brother like he did, he imagined he'd come back with enough snacks to see him through a week.
The kid on the chair before him could do with some sugar and Sukuna was sure Yuji would be able to spare some, at least a few. It was so silent through the rest of the store that Sukuna could pick up when Yuji cheerfully approached the front door, could imagine him shuffling things around in his hands to get to the handle. Opening it up and spotting Geto who had only returned momentarily earlier.
Informing them that Shoko was on her way. The kid, who he was finally told was named Megumi, looked like he wanted to protest someone being sent to come help him even more than Sukuna already had stepped in to do, but he also didn't want to fight against it when it was clear he needed the medical attention. Sukuna was good for patching people up, not short-term or long-term monitoring, that he would leave to the professional.
Now Yuji's voice was filled with delight as his chatted with Geto, the sound of glass being placed on the desk at the front of the store signalled that Yuji had gotten him the beer he wanted, beer he probably wouldn't get to drink tonight. They had gotten Megumi out of his suit jacket and shirt by the time Yuji's voice could be heard happily realizing out loud that Gojo must be here too, and the sound of footsteps.
An unimpressed look fell over Sukuna's face at Yuji's attention went to Gojo before himself, but as he bounded over with such unfiltered delight Sukuna didn't want to stomp all over that. Except it wasn't Gojo who Yuji's eyes landed on first but a shirtless Megumi, who was left wincing as he sat up and almost curled in on himself. Only Narrowly missing completely knocking himself out, Yuji distractedly bumped into the door's frame.
Momentarily dazed, Yuji looked back into the room with wide eyes. Going from staring at Megumi, to looking over at Sukuna who was mostly facing the wall now and then over at the other side where Gojo stood behind Megumi's shoulder. Geto appeared behind Yuji holding the bag of snacks which Yuji must've handed over in his haste to go see Gojo, which Sukuna commandeered to look through.
He had finally searched through and picked a few things for Megumi to snack on, handing it over to the kid who looked a little off put by the choices. Accepting them, nonetheless, probably having something to do with Sukuna's expression, and loading himself up on sugar. Yuji's eyes seemed to have finally stopped moving and settled on Megumi, the only person present he's unfamiliar with, with confusion colouring his expression.
"What the hell is going on?"