I'd be there. Waiting.

Gojo was on some random mission, as always. Just a standard curse annihilation that he got assigned to, because it was above the skill level of the students and the available sorcerers.

A piece of cake, right?

Unfortunately, this was not the case.

Gojo Satoru thought of himself as an at least decently smart man, but as he was now being forced to admit, he still made some pretty damned big lapses in judgment. It had been at least a week since the last time he had slept, and he had been processing mass amounts of cursed energy with almost no breaks since then, and apparently, his RCT could only keep him running for so long…until shit started to fail.

He felt weak. His limbs were sluggish, his movements slower, and his brain felt like it was melting out of his ears, which, while he was thinking about it, was a pretty gross image.

Gojo barely dodged the the special grade curse he was fighting as it flew towards him, stumbling as he darted behind the basketball hoop of the abandoned gymnasium.

Fuck.

Realistically, he knew it was unlikely for him to die here, but this wasn't going to be easy. With infinity blinking out occasionally whenever his focus had to shift, the risk of injury was high, and if RCT was now struggling just to cycle through his brain, would he have enough ability to heal anything else, if the need arose?

Satoru grit his teeth, raising a hand to send of a blast of red. His best bet was to end this fight quick, like, right now, before his brain actually fried.

But instead, a cascade of red sparks shot up uselessly from his hand, like one of those cheap sparklers you would buy at a gift shop. The hideous, wart-covered curse tilted it's misshapen head at him, as if to say, 'Really, dude?'

Gojo felt a nervous laugh bubble up from his chest before he could stop it.

"Oh, shit."

Then, the inside of his head exploded with pain as his RCT faltered from the failed energy output, and the special grade began to advance again.

Gojo hissed, obscenities spilling from his mouth like a fountain as he clutched his skull with one hand, and held the other uselessly in front of him. His six eyes darkened, leaving him blind for a terrifying, black second.

He absolutely hated to admit it, but maybe retreat was the best option, here. He scoffed to himself. The strongest, having to retreat from lousy special-grade curse. It sounded straight out of a comedy show. But the curse was blocking the door. Easy enough solution, right? He could just warp out.

Or so he thought.

When he tried to summon his cursed energy to -at the very least- make the short jump past the ugly son of a bitch, everything went black, and permanently this time.

Six eyes was down. He finally fucked up, and now he was going to die to a stupid curse in some random gymnasium, blind, and with a splitting headache.

Despite his attempt at warping, he had stayed planted at the same spot on the floor, but now he couldn't see shit, and the roaring sound that had begun in his ears made it impossible to hear if the curse was approaching, or even hear his own heavy breaths as he stumbled.

Admittedly, he also hardly noticed when his ass met the floor, too, as all his remaining energy misplaced itself to his brain, trying to pull the threads back together before he became a puddle of Gojo soup.

If he made it out of this, he was going to sleep for days, sorcery duties be damned. He was never going to ignore Shoko's medical advice ever again. But as he finally heard the curse's stuttering breaths, right in his ear, he he just had to accept that that, to put it simply, wouldn't be happening.

It was game over.

…Until his last remaining sliver of senses picked up on a familiar, comforting surge of cursed energy, and his ears picked up on a loud crash as the curse was presumably thrown across the room despite it's massive size, followed by a much quieter grunt.

Nanami?

His suspicions where confirmed when his senses came back just long enough to see the younger sorcerer standing protectively in front of him, facing the now very disgruntled curse. His suit jacket had already been misplaced, and that ugly yellow tie of his was prematurely wrapped around his wrist.

Since Gojo was now forced to use his human eyes instead of the all-seeing six-eyes, he couldn't see the expression on Kento's face, since he had his back to him, but judging by the way his cursed energy was flaring, he was pissed.

Despite the blonde's obvious anger, his voice remained calm and steady. "Are you okay, Gojo-san?"

Even in this condition, Satoru couldn't help but be at least a little bit annoying.

"Just dandy, Nanamin. Where the fuck did you come from?"

Nanami stayed silent, but Gojo could practically hear the way his eyebrow raised skeptically.

"If you're just fine, then I'm sure you can just stand up and help me deal with this curse." Kento sounded annoyed, blatantly ignoring his question, which didn't surprise the white-haired man in the least, because, well, annoying Nanami Kento was is specialty, and it had been for many years, now.

But unfortunately, Gojo couldn't escape from his wrath in this condition. Oh well, no need to pretend he was invincible. That's what got him in this situation in the first place.

"Alright, you got me there. I need a second."

Nanami failed to answer as the curse threw itself at him, forcing the man to dodge with a well timed roll. Before the curse could re-route, a ratio line painted itself across the top of the curse's head, and Nanami's blunt blade struck it right at the 7:3 point, same as always.

The curse screamed, but it's head didn't split the way it would on a weaker curse. It probably just scrambled it's brains a bit.

Gojo grimaced, dragging himself back to sit against the wall with a shaking arm. Nanami was only a grade 1 sorcerer, and while that was still impressive, he simply wouldn't have the strength to defeat it himself.

Shit. If Nanami got hurt because of his fuck-up, he wasn't sure he would ever be able to forgive himself. He tried to force himself to his feet in vain, but only succeeded in banging his already exploding head into the wall behind him. Oh, so this was bad.

That previous statement became even more obvious as Nanami was violently thrown across the gymnasium, landing next to Gojo with a grunt, his blade sent skidding away to some other dark corner.

When Nanami looked up, Gojo's distress doubled. There was blood trickling down the side of the blonde's face as he pushed himself up, gritting his teeth, going back to fight as if he had zero self-preservation in the slightest.

Weird. The only time Nanami ever put his life on the line was when he was protecting the kids, because apparently, his unshakeable moral compass only applied to people younger and weaker than him.

Gojo was older, and (usually) stronger.

Huh.

Just as Kento pushed himself back to his feet, still weapon-less, the cursed lunged again…but not for him.

It came roaring at Gojo like a freight-train, it's bubbling mass moving to fast for his eyes to track, even as his technique was finally beginning to regenerate.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Well, it looked like he was about to become Gojo soup, anyway. The only difference was, Nanami would have to clean him off the floor instead. In another circumstance, the idea would've been funny, but it was all too real, now.

Yet, once again, the attack never came.

Gojo opened his eyes incredulously. Again? If he was going to die in this stupid way, he would like it to be quick. But then, they widened in horror.

The curse no longer had much of a tangible form, instead just a dark, purplish mass of warts, but that wasn't the issue. It was the man single-handedly holding it back, shielding Gojo from it with no weapon in sight, using his bare hands.

Now, Nanami had always been slender, which was quite apparent now that Gojo was stuck staring at his flat ass, but it usually had worked in his favor. The blonde sorcerer's fighting style usually revolved around quick movements, darting around the enemy without being seen, and dodging before anything could get a hit in. Now, however, it wasn't serving him too well.

Nanami's arms where shaking from the effort, especially when he reared his wrapped fist back, striking it with ratio once more.

The curse hardly reacted, and surged forward. If Gojo didn't do anything right now, they were both fucked.

Before he could put much thought into it, he raised his hand again, and his cursed energy finally responded. Red exploded forward, miraculously missing Nanami, and obliterating the curse into pieces.

For a moment, the whole room was blinding from the blast of bright energy, and when it finally cleared, Gojo could somehow still see through his standard human eyes, but his head screamed.

"Oh shit," was all that he could manage to say as he listed to the side, cracking his head on the floor for the third time in the last hour.

"Satoru?" Nanami's voice sounded awfully alarmed as he rushed over, dropping to a crouch beside him. "What happened?"

Gojo hated it, but he wasn't able to do much but croak in response, squeezing his eyes shut again. At least he wasn't alone, and at least Nanami had the grace to pretend to be worried. He shivered, the air suddenly feeling a lot colder than before, only warded off slightly by the warm hand on his shoulder. Apparently, he had been getting too used to the regulated temperature of infinity.

"Hold on." Nanami grunted, rising to his feet and storming away, out of the sight of Gojo's half-lidded eyes.

He would never admit it, but he made a weird, pathetic noise of discontent at the loss of him, feeling even more clingy than usual in his dazed state. Yep, he was never disobeying Shoko again. How many times had she warned him of this exact outcome? The last thing he wanted to be was a thoughtless vegetable.

Then, warm fabric was being draped gently over him, smelling strongly of Nanami's cologne. He opened his eyes again, ignoring the pain it was inevitably going to bring, just to see the surprisingly tender look on the blonde's face as he covered him with his discarded suit jacket.

Gojo gave him a strained grin, his normal levels of mischief hard to reach when his brain was fighting against what was essentially a stroke. "How sweet of you, Nanamin."

"Shut up."

Despite the younger sorcerer's harsh words, he placed a gentle hand on Gojo's forehead, making a disturbed face at his fever. "Don't make me repeat myself again. What happened?"

Gojo drew his eyebrows together. As much as he loved Nanami's voice, it seemed really loud right now. "I- uh, miscalculated how long I could fare without sleep."

Nanami stayed silent, so silent that Gojo looked up at him again. He looked mad. Not the enraged kind of mad, but the same type of caring-mad that he usually only got from Shoko and Yaga. The classic 'I'm disappointed in your stupidity, but I pity you' face. Then the blonde promptly reached forward, and pulled Gojo's blindfold down back over his eyes with a snap.

"Rude." Was all that Gojo could put together in response.

"I'm taking you to Shoko. You only worsened your state by killing that curse."

"No shit, sherlock. I just didn't want you to get hurt."

Nanami went silent again, hesitating for a moment, before he was helping the other into a sitting position, and looping his arm around his shoulders to help him stand.

Gojo let him, even if he wasn't looking forward to Shoko's next outburst of sisterly rage when they got there. Honestly…it was nice, being taken care of once in awhile. Even if it was by a blonde man that hated his guts.

When they were finally on their feet, Satoru sagged again, making Nanami grunt under his weight, at least until he was bale to get used to it.

"How did you even find me, my most valiant savior?"

"I was nearby, and anyone would've been able to sense how erratic your cursed energy was being."

Ah shit. It had been that bad.

"Well, thanks. You saved my ass."

"Not enough." The blonde sounded tired as the words slipped out of his mouth, seemingly without permission, judging by the way he winced when he said them.

Satoru raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

His savior went silent again, turning his head away almost imperceptibly.

"Why so quiet all the sudden, Nanami?" Gojo wasn't sure why he kept pushing, but he had gotten a sneaking feeling that something was wrong. While he was sure that Nanami wasn't the type to just leave him behind, he also wasn't usually the type to tenderly wrap someone in his suit jacket, and promptly leave his weapon behind to drag their sorry ass to the med bay.

Nanami let out a tense breath from his nose, shifting under his weight again. "I'm not strong enough."

Gojo let out a long, painful wheeze, taken very back from the extremely sudden confession. "No way, Nanami. You literally have the record for black flashes. All the students think you're an 'absolute bad ass with a flat ass'."

Nanami coughed at the last part, but sagged a little. "That's part of the problem. I mean physically."

Gojo tilted his head, squinting through his blindfold as they got closer and closer to the exit of the abandoned building, their shuffling steps echoing through the empty halls.

"Don't tell me you're insecure, 'Min."

The younger man huffed. "Not like that. I…I'm not strong enough to- never mind."

It took some effort, but Satoru's brain started to kick back into gear as he mulled over Nanami's words, trying to figure out what the hell was bothering him all of the sudden.

Then it clicked, and his heart melted this time, not his brain.

Mustering up all the strength in his body, he threw his arms around Nanami's neck, leaving him to struggle to catch him around his waist before he might've accidentally brought them both to the ground.

"You want to be stronger to protect me?!"

Six eyes caught the blush spreading across the blonde's face, this time. "Shut up."

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BOOYAH!! I'm actually dying rn, because this was supposed to be a short little drabble/imagine, and it spiraled into this over-2,000-word piece of bullshit 💀 IDK when, but I'll probably post this on ao3 too, at some point.