#(loooool)

He always noticed the strict distance you kept between yourself and everybody else. He noticed the twitch in your smile when people asked to hangout.

"Sorry, I have a shift to catch."

"My cousins are coming over tonight, so I have to take a rain check."

"I'm not really feeling up to it, next time maybe?"

The lies behind your teeth never seemed to run out, your eyes unblinking even when your friends tried to reason back at you.

He noticed how you’d deflate when no one’s looking, a quiet and long sigh leaving your lips when you think everyone’s too busy to hear. Your shoulders sink and your gaze lowers to the ground, the look in your eyes wishing everything around you to just stop.

Nothing could ever escape his six eyes.

Especially when it comes to you. 

He sees the tall walls you’ve built to protect what’s already in pieces. He sees the way you want to be alone, but you’re too afraid of the silence that creeps in when no one else is around.

He sees everything and wants nothing more than to break everything you’ve barricaded around yourself. 

Gojo Satoru knows what it’s like to desire isolation. He knows what it does to a person, and he knows he can’t allow himself to lose someone like he lost his best friend. He knows you are the second chance he has to love again, and he will never allow you to leave. 

So he shows you bits and pieces of his soul. 

He makes sure to show you the joy you bring him—in the way he laughs, in the way he looks at you, in the depths of his dimples every time he flashes you that boyish grin. He's opening himself up to you, stripping himself bare of any lies and facades.

He tells you about his day—the details including the little calico kitty chasing an adorable puppy down the street as he enjoyed his daily walk, and the sweets he had eaten within the day. (He often brings extra with him just in case you get hungry.)

And then, Gojo notices.

He notices how you smile a little brighter now. He notices how slowly you’re beginning to tell him more of your day—about how you had woken up and immediately drank water afterwards, and he notices because he knows in the past you would’ve said, “‘m doing good. Nothing special really happened."

He notices how you start to look less exhausted and spaced out, the color in your eyes twinkling a little bit more. 

He notices how you begin to love yourself a little more, the mascara on your lashes, that keychain you held back from buying now swinging back and forth from your phone case, and the way you stare a little longer as you passed by mirrors, a small smile reflecting back all being little signs of the affection that's slowly beginning to grow in your heart.

Perhaps what you needed was a little reminder. 

Perhaps what you needed was to remember that somebody cared.

Because one day, when he’s buying you your favorite drink simply because you had briefly mentioned wanting it, you find yourself noticing how wonderful the weather is. You notice that you’re starting to prefer the sounds of people chatting as they walk over the songs of radiohead looping in your earphones. You feel like yourself again—you’re no longer watching life pass by like a stranger again.

You hear Gojo call your name, the summer sun dusting a slight shade of pink on his cheeks. “That line was crazy, but I got your drink!” He smiles, gently handing you the cup.

“Thank you, Satoru.”

He stills at the tone of your voice. 

He looks down at you—notices way you hum after taking a sip out of the cup and he knows. 

He knows the walls you’ve built up aren’t gone, but rather you’ve let him in behind those walls. 

“Anything for you, sweetheart.”

He knows it’s still a long way to go before you can heal from the damage that has been dealt, and he knows there is still an ache in your soul, but he also knows he’s made sure to let you know he’s going to be right here beside you, holding your hand and wiping your tears.

(me if I was a toxic hivemind)