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Itadori gets stabbed through his stomach. Actually, skewered is more the word. The curses blade goes straight through and pokes out his back. Kento hurts just looking at him. Not just in his stomach, but where his heart is aches.
Itadori looks so small, so fragile, as he falls. It's wrong, so, so wrong. Itadori is supposed to be lean, mean muscles and a smile so bright that Kento is sure it could exorcise a curse. But now, he falls. His eyes tight shut, his mouth a small jagged line. He looks - he looks fifteen. Which he is, Kento reminds himself, he's fifteen, a child. (my child.)
So, Kento runs. So fast he's sure his legs are a blur, so fast he can't even feel the wind against his cheeks, so that he gets there just in time. Itadori falls into his arms neatly. Kento pants, his heart races, and races. Itadori isn't looking too well, there's a large blood stain leaching into his uniform, reaching spindly, mocking little arms out, like they're saying "you can't save him, Kento, you can't save him, he'll end up just like Yu. He's too good Kento, and they always die."
He ignores that idiotic little voice and focuses. Yuuji Itadori is pale, his hair sticking to his face with sweat. Kento lays him down on the stone, fingers skimming over his skin, checking and checking for injuries. He feels frantic, panicked, like the night Yu died, like the night Kento felt something split from his soul entirely.
None of Itadori's bones are broken and his breathing is ragged, but steady. His pulse is frantic against Kentos' searching fingers. He's hurt and in pain, but alive, so very alive. He manoeuvres his arms under Itadori and heaves him up. Itadori is a dead weight in his arms and nothing will ever scare Kento more than 'Itadori' and 'dead' again. For now, until the universe inevitably explodes, that will forever be his biggest fear. He starts to hurry, steps longer and more frequent, until he's practically running.
Itadori stirs in his arms. Eyes cracking open, breath wheezing and rough, and Kento slows down to let him acclimatise. He licks his lips and opens his mouth, to say something probably, but all that comes out is a low pained groan and Kentos' heart stutters and stumbles over itself. He never wants to hear that again, never. It's already almost given him a heart attack, and how many of those can he really take?
Thankfully, Itadori's eyes fall back closed and Kento runs and runs, feet beating against the pavement.
Realistically, Kento knows that Yuuji will survive this. If the kid survived having his heart pulled out of his chest, something that makes Kentos' own heart clench, he can survive being stabbed. But that logical part of his brain is being drowned out - something has almost, never happened before - apart from that night - by something almost primal screaming and clawing at him to stop, pain, stop, help. Yuuji Itadori will survive, but there will always be pain and Kento doesn't know if he can live with Itadori hurting. The primal thing cries and cries when he thinks of it.
He does anyway. Nothing will stop Kento Nanami when he's on a mission.
His footsteps thump against the stone, loud in the silent night. He can see his car far off - too far - in the distance. Somehow, impossibly, he runs faster.
Kento gets to the car quickly. Supporting Itadori with one hand, he pulls the car door open and leans in, settling Itadori down, against the backseat. He looks small, soft. Fragile. Against his will, Kentos's hand extends to run his fingers through Itadori's pink hair. He stirs and Kento jerks his hand back, closing the car door quickly and quietly.
(What is happening to him, when did Kento start feeling this pure animal instinct to help, care, hold? It has to have started recently, he would've noticed earlier if it started a little while ago. What's going on inside Kento's head? And why can't he tell?)
He gets into the front seat and dials Gojo, fingers tapping at the screen of his phone fast. He picks up on the third ring.
"Nanami! Now, now, what are you calling dear old me for-"
"I need you to finish my mission for me."
There's a small quiet on the other line and Kento knows that, somehow, he's managed to surprise Gojo. It's only taken twelve years, but then again, Kento has never asked Gojo to finish a mission for him. Never. The silence lasts a beat or two and then Gojo snaps back into himself.
"Of course! Where are you?"
"The curse is in an abandoned metalwork factory off-"
"Ohhh yeah! I know the one you're on about! One question, just me being nosey, does Itadori have anything to do with this?"
The question is casual, like Gojo knows that if he asks Kento directly, he'll back away like a feral cat. Regardless of how the question is asked, he still feels like his hackles have just been raised.
"He got injured and if you would let me off this call, I would be able to contact Shoko to get him help."
"Woah, hurt?! Okay, okay, call Shoko, but you're telling me everything later, yeah?"
Kento hangs up. He will tell Gojo later, he could practically feel the worry permeating off the man, even over the phone. He wonders, as he types Shoko's number in, if it was the same for Gojo. If the other man could feel his worry through the phone.
"Shoko, I'm bringing Itadori in."
"What's happened?" She says, on it as ever. Don't tell her this, but Kento thinks Shoko might be an angel sent from a higher being to make up for everything terrible.
"He was stabbed through the stomach."
"Right," in the background he hears the clattering of medical tools. "Sukuna will heal him, but I'd still rather have him here. Be quick." Kento hangs up, just as Itadori starts to stir again. A low, agonised groan sounds from somewhere in his mouth.
He turns around, his body moving almost of its own accord.
"You're awake." Itadori makes a rough noise and his heart clenches. He turns around to view Itadori better. Something in him just needs to see that the boy is alright.
"Another sorcerer exorcised the cursed spirit, Itadori. I've called Shoko, it's all alright." Kento says, too earnestly.
Itadori looks, to put it plainly, terrible. Pale and trembling. His blood was leaking into the car seats. Fuck, Kento curses. It doesn't matter about the stains, but he'll never be able to get into this car again without remembering Itadori's pale, shaking face. When had he become so attached?
"Y'got it?" Itadori slurs, words merging, voice rough. Kento thinks about all the pain he must be in and his heart spasms. It can't be good for him, all this heart-clenching. "Was any'ne hurt?"
Of course, that's the first thing he asks, Kento think exasperatingly fond. He sighs at the look in Itadori's eyes. It reminds him of someone. A long long time ago.
"No Itadori, no one was hurt." An urge wells up within him.
"Huh. S'good."
He gives in, letting his hand extend towards the boy. His eyes are falling shut as he runs his hand through soft pink hair. Itadori mumbles something intelligible. After a moment, Kento removes his hand. Get Itadori back to the school, he reminds himself.
"...thanks Dad..." Itadori mutters in his sleep, Kento ignores everything that stirs within him and steps hard on the pedal.
...
The infirmary chairs are hard and uncomfortable. They dig into Kentos' bony vertebrae and the legs if it are a little too close to the floor so he has to tuck his feet underneath. It's not pleasant to say the least. But he stays, regardless.
Rubbing at his eyes, Kento glances over to where Itadori is lying passed out in the bed. His eyes are open and he feels something being stomped out, deep inside his chest.
"Ah. You're awake again" Itadori makes a strangled horse sound and Kento passes him some water. After drinking, the boy tries again.
"Again?"
"You've woken up a few times in the past day, but you haven't been coherent enough to remember them. You were quite out of it, I believe."
He sees several emotions flicker across Itadori's face in quick succession.
"Day!?" He exclaims, eyebrows drawn together.
"Yes," Kento says, amused. "day. Your friends came to see you, as did Gojo."
"Wait! Wait!" Itadori says, face confused. "What happened?"
Kento tilts his head to think. Shoko did tell him about this. "Shoko did say you'd be disoriented. We were fighting a grade three curse and you took a hit to the stomach, while jumping out a window, for whatever reason." He attempted to convey how worried he was into the 'whatever' but Itadori is still a little out of it, so it doesn't all get to him. Oh well. "I caught you, drove you back here and you've been asleep ever since."
Itadori frowns, thinking. "Right..." he says vaguely, trailing off. " After a second he says, abruptly, "Sorry, Nanamin. I didn't mean to-"
Kento puts an end to that as soon as it starts. He's never once blamed Itadori for what happened, he is a child (his child?) And god knows Kentos made a whole load of mistakes while he was a child. (Yu, and that mission long ago)
"Don't," he starts, words firm. "You are a child. You are going to make mistakes, that's how life works. Don't apologise for being young, Itadori"
Itadori glances away, down to his clenched hands, so tight his knuckles are going white. "Alright," he sighs, voice muffled. "What happened to the curse anyway? Was anyone hurt?" Itadori says, earnestly, looking up at Kento with big eyes.
Of course, he thinks. Of course, that's the first thing you ask after you wake up. The deja vu is dizzying. Kento shakes his head, slowly. More to himself than Itadori.
"No, Itadori. No one was hurt. I asked another sorcerer to come in and they took care of it." (except for you, can't you see that? You were the only casualty, Yuuji. Only you. Only Yu)
"That's good!" He says with a grin, "Who was it?"
"Gojo."
"Oh, yeah...duh." he laughs, a little self-consciously and Kento feels his lips twitch slightly.
"So," Itadori starts "what did my friends say?" He tilts his head, like a puppy, Kento thinks fondly.
"Well," he says. Despite himself, Kento can hear the amusement laced into his own voice. "That girl, the one with the brown hair, she told you to stop being so, ahem, 'goddam self-sacrificing, and wake up soon, idiot.' And they boy with black hair said 'If you die I'll kill you, Itadori.' I think he may have been crying beforehand."
Itadori's jaw drops wide open and for a second he is completely silent. Then, "I made Fushiguro, cry!?" He exclaims, shock and remorse visible in his eyes. He really is too easy to read.
Kento shrugs. "Apparently so." A pause as he searches for something to say. He feels himself gravitate towards wishing Itadori well and leaving, but.
But Itadori needs to know that Kento is proud. He stood his ground, he fought well and he was brave.
"You're a good kid, Itadori. I... I believe your grandfather would be proud of you. I," he pauses for a second, and takes his glasses off pinching at the bridge of his nose. "I, and Satoru, are proud of you. I believe you will grow up to become a very skilled sorcerer."
Itadori stare at him, gaping. Kento feels more than a little self-conscious. I mean, sure he doesn't just doll out compliments like it's breathing but he isn't that surly. Right? It takes him a few moments to realise that the boy's eyes are glazing over. Kento can feel the backs of his warming too. Itadori sniffs and looks down.
"Thank you, Nanamin." He says, voice strained and hoarse with the effort of holding tears back. Kento stands, settling his hand on the back of Itadori's head, just because he wants to, and speaks. "It's okay, Yu. You've earned it."
Maybe, this time, he can save him.