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Gojou Satoru ([personal profile] lonelystrength) wrote in [community profile] marlowemuses2025-05-15 12:23 pm

Everything I got, I got working for me


As she rapped her knuckles against the hotel room door and leaned against the door frame, using her 5'11" height to loom, Satoru felt jubilant with success even though this tour hadn't officially started.

It had taken months of planning already, and Satoru itched with impatience. When she'd first announced a joint tour with Suguru, Satoru already had the plan drafted with her own media team, but they'd mentioned nothing to Suguru's team, only sending over the proposal after Satoru had made an informal teaser announcement about it. She'd half expected that Suguru would refuse the dare and call it out as the prank that it absolutely was (at which point Satoru would be able to make a stink about Suguru being a coward and backing out of an agreement). So she'd been thrilled that Suguru had agreed to the tour.

They'd share the stage--there was simply no other reasonable way to do it. Swapping off songs, providing support vocals, even featuring a few duets. It was a highly unusual arrangement, but that had helped to blow up the publicity around the tour, which had sold out within hours, immediately creating clamor to have more dates added and a social media frenzy of fans thrilled or enraged about the situation.

They'd arrived at the hotel and their first show was tomorrow night, but aside from some agreed-upon arrangements and a set list, negotiated and exchanged through their respective teams, they'd done nothing to prepare for performing together. Satoru wasn't worried about it. She knew every one of Suguru's songs. She'd written the arrangements herself that she'd sent over to propose which ones she wanted to cover with support vocals. Even though she'd never been to any of Suguru's shows, she'd seen recordings of them. As much as Satoru wanted to spend the next three months irritating the shit out of Suguru, she also wanted to uncompromisingly create good music and put on an incredible performance that their fans would be talking about for the rest of their lives. And she knew she could rely on Suguru to do the same.

Finally, though, they'd arrived at the same hotel, and finally Satoru could be face to face again with her best enemy.
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-21 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"People who know what they want aren't weak-willed, Satoru. They know when to resist and when giving in matters. You know, how you resist says so much about you."

Much like the lack of crawling, the way she retreats to her bed isn't a surprise to Suguru. Most of this is testing what Satoru will do, how she'd react. So far, she seemed to react to Suguru getting in her space and physical touch. Suguru's preferences don't run to force, but it seems like Satoru, in so many ways, is her exception to every rule.

"I slept with—," she says, then stops, and shakes her head with a quirk of her lips. "Never mind." Satoru doesn't need to know anything about her sex life; it's better that she keep this distant, impersonal. Talking would just give into to her goading.

Of everything that happened with the group, losing Satoru's friendship had been the worst. She could have dealt with it if Satoru didn't return her romantic feelings, but leaving the way she did also meant losing her best friend, the person she would have gossiped about that.

She reaches for her robe, and pulls out a pair of black leather gloves. She pulls them on, flexing her fingers in them, and strolls towards the bed. She reaches for Satoru's ankle, slowly curling her fingers around it, and then yanks, just to throw her off-balance. She immediately crawls on the bed, straddling Satoru's hips. She drops her weight on Satoru, ready to wrestle her back down the moment she tries to rise.

"You really should be put over my knee and spanked."
Edited 2025-05-21 22:11 (UTC)
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-22 04:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"Did you think I was going to brute force my way in, immediately put you over my lap and spank you? I'm not a monster, Gojo." Suguru has never called Satoru anything but "Satoru" in the past, and it feels awkward to use it for the second time, but it puts distance between them. Suguru can't get away with physical distance between them, if she wants to keep Satoru from poking at all her sore spots, but she also isn't going to let her dictate everything.

She glances down at her hands, moving it away before Satoru can grab her hand. The black leather is lovely against her skin, and she likes the feel of them. They do add to the spectacle of it all.

"I said don't touch. That applies here. And it's some of both They're nice, aren't they?" She reaches up and caresses Satoru's cheek with a gloved finger. "But they aren't my hands, the warmth of my skin. And that's what you want." Not a question. A statement of fact. She's going out on a limb there, but she doesn't think it's wrong. "I'll decide when you've earned that."
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-22 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, Suguru thinks, staring down at Satoru's turned away face. This is what makes her use Gojo's family name, makes her keep some separation between them. She remembers all too well what it was like to be in Satoru's orbit when they were in the group together, and how there were nights when it felt like she'd never be able to pick herself up after she left. How broken she'd felt.

"After the past few days, you are lucky you get a name. But you'd like being called a brat too much." She trails her hand down, cupping Satoru's chin, and using it to jerk her head back, so she can look down at that beautiful, perfect face. "I'm not going to talk about what I do with other girls." This is possibly her worst, or closer to it than she'd like, because for all that she likes to hurt those girls, she's usually warm about it. Sometimes it takes cruelty to be kind.

She wants Satoru to keep wondering, although now she doesn't know how Satoru would take that. Would she think about it? Would she respond better to knowing that this is Suguru doing something special for her? Years ago, Suguru would have known. But then, Suguru then wouldn't have done any of this.

"Everyone's so indulgent with you. But if you want my touch, you have to earn it. You can start by looking at me when I'm talking to you." She lets go of Satoru's chin, and pats her cheek.

She straightens up, and shifts off Satoru to sit on the edge of the bed. "Come—" she starts, then changes her mind, and grabs Satoru's leg again, attempting to pull her closer.
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-22 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Suguru drops her hand; she isn't going to push or force Satoru into something that she isn't fully engaged with, or doesn't completely want, even if she isn't sure what she wants. She shrugs and stands up.

"It's always what you want, isn't it, Satoru?" And that's felt like their entire relationship. Satoru wanting her attention, and Suguru giving it to her; Suguru fixing things; Suguru waiting for her, only to be forgotten again and again; Suguru listening and comforting her; Suguru's wants ignored, her slowly fracturing heart finally shattering, with no one else to pick up the pieces. "What did you want me to do now? What did you think when you answered the door?"

She turns away from Satoru, unable to look at her like that because she does want to reach out and hold her, offer some comfort and reassure her. It's what she'd do when anyone she played with said they wanted to stop. And even if she doesn't love Satoru, she still cares about her, and that wars with the reality of who she is now. Suguru walks back to the couch, pulling off her gloves and dropping them on the coffee table, then pulls her robe back on, wrapping it around her.

"Do you know why I left?" she asks, pacing back to the bed. She stands at the foot, arms crossed over her chest defensively. "Fuck. Me and my mouth. I'm not going to talk about that."

She can't, not then, when Satoru looks so skittish and small, unlike herself. Or perhaps more like herself than usual; this was Satoru when she was worried and upset and when Suguru would hug her. "Drink some water." There's a bottle on her nightstand, probably lukewarm, left by the housekeepers. She nods to it. "Eat some chocolate." They didn't do anything, so she wouldn't be in the wrong to leave and let Satoru handle her own shit. And yet, there she is, telling her what to do.

She came in, annoyed and angry, with the intent of bossing Satoru around a bit, probably getting around to making good on that promise to spank her, and then leave. And now she feels torn about fucking aftercare. "All these rules I'm breaking," she mutters, pressing a thumb to her forehead, trying to soothe the rising headache. "For someone who doesn't even know what they want." She drops her hand, and turns around, heading for the door.
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-22 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
When she doesn't hear Satoru move at all, and only gets a mumbled reply, Suguru stops and turns back to her, marching over to the bed and grabbing the water bottle she'd mentioned.

"Sit up, properly," she says, using the same tone she had reserved for Satoru all those years ago. A little forceful, still kind, the tone that had gotten Satoru to listen to her. "Drink this. I'm not leaving until you drink half of it."

It's stupid of her. So stupid. But this entire tour has been stupid of her. Satoru had left her no room to back out without looking weak, and Suguru had believed she was capable of standing on a stage with the woman she once loved. And everything since then has been stupid of her.

"I didn't say don't bite, I said don't touch me. I don't like it." She likes it too much; she's always liked it too much. That's the problem. Could she tolerate it for now? Sure, especially for the sake of the tour. But it's the aftermath she worries about, when Satoru's attention has suddenly shifted and they're no longer touring, no longer seeing each other. "Don't put words in my mouth."

There's a mini fridge in the room, and they're usually stocked with candy, so she hunts down some M&Ms for Satoru, returning a moment later with the one bag she found. "Eat these, too."
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-22 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"Don't let this impact the tour," Suguru says. She waivers for a moment, wanting so desperately to go to Satoru and comfort her, reassure that the Suguru she knew did exist.

But Suguru wasn't that person anymore, was she? She'd left, in such a blaze that her former groupmates hated her, that Satoru didn't want her now, just the illusion of who she had been once. No longer Satoru's Suguru, just a cold bitch. Which had partially been her intent, driving that wedge further between them.

She turns around again, chin high and shoulders back, and marches out of the room. She lets the door close behind her, resisting the urge to slam it. Once it closes, she slums against it, sinking to the floor in a mimicry of Satoru's position earlier. She rests her forehead on her drawn up knees, carefully breathing in and out, letting the tension drain out of her.

Suguru sits there for a few minutes (ten) before picking herself up off the floor and walking back down the hall to the bank of elevators.

The next night is their final performance in that venue, which means they'll both be on buses after that, and Suguru won't be able to go find Satoru down a maze of halls. It'll be better that way, she reassures herself, as she reaches her room, and washes her face. She drapes her robe over a chair, reaching into the pockets for her gloves, and cursing herself when she realizes she forgot them.
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-23 01:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Suguru changes into her pajamas— matching shorts and a tank top— and crawls into bed when she's in the relative comfort of her room, but there is no chance she can sleep, and she knows it. She does feel best not to think about Satoru, but that's also impossible. The guilt twisting her stomach is at least familiar, and she's dealt with that before. After her terrible, cruel blowup at her group mates, she'd learned to cope, writing it out in sing and throwing herself into her music.

It's too soon to write a song about how this encounter with Satoru made her feel, especially since she hasn't even sorted out her feelings, but she can throw herself into her performances. Satoru is, at least, professional. Mostly. They can manage on the stage, even if it won't match the same playful energy of the first night.

It's surprising when she hears the knock at her door. It's too familiar to be anyone but Satoru. Despite her misgivings, Suguru climbs out of bed.

"Satoru," she says, opening the door. It's late, and Suguru isn't about to have a conversation in the hall, despite everything between them, so she opens the door wider, and gestures her inside.
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-23 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Suguru closed the door behind her, and slowly turns around, watching Satoru just breeze her way into her room, and her life, like she belongs there. Like this room is just as much hers as it is Suguru's room.

The question puzzles her, until she clarifies, and Suguru rolls her eyes, pressing her thumb to her forehead again.

"You're really going to ask that?" It doesn't surprise her, but she has said she wasn't going to talk about that, and it's slightly dumbfounding that Satoru, of all people, doesn't remember. Doesn't know. Didn't know?

"Haibara died, Satoru," she reminds her friend. Voice flat, distant, with her arms wrapped around her stomach. "Pretty awful drug overdose. Remember?" It had shaken Suguru to her core, and the entire reason she'd gotten away from the drugs she had been doing, the drinking, the smoking. She doesn't mention it, but there has been a fear there for her, that she would be next.

It wasn't the entire reason she'd left but it had been the push she needed to break off everything in such an ugly way.

"It was all fake. Stupid. They dressed us up in stupid, slutty outfits and sent us out to shake our asses on stage to some shitty pop music with lyrics about teasing boys and some girl power nonsense. It was exhausting. And then Haibara died. Why wouldn't I leave?"

There has been things between that, of course; Suguru wanting out before that, but Satoru dragged off by sponsors and movies and boys and everything else.
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-23 03:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"You keep demanding these answers, Satoru, and expecting me to give into you, but why should I?" She drops her arms, and reaches for the robe she'd been wearing earlier, wanting something warmer than the tank top she was wearing. "You haven't given me one reason to tell you anything personal and private." No reassurances that she wouldn't use this against her, which is possibly mean of her, but Satoru knows where to dig, even if she does it unintentionally.

She slips the robe on, turning back to Satoru, lounging on her bed.

"What if this is it, Satoru? What if I am this cold bitch, who doesn't give a fuck?" She's not, and never has been, and that's the problem here. If she was that hateful, cold bitch, she could have walked away a lot easier. She wouldn't be here. "I'm a damn good actress, I could have convinced you that this mythical "your Suguru" was something that existed. And do you hear the absurdity of that? Your Suguru? Was that all I was?"
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-23 04:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"Were you?" She'd thought so, thought they had something special and wonderful together, even if Satoru hadn't loved her the same way. That was fine, Suguru could deal with that. "I thought you were, but you seemed to blow me off more than you showed up."

Which sounds incredibly petty of her to say, now that she's said it aloud. Satoru had been a rising star, and Suguru wanting her around more often could read like jealousy, or neediness, or other little things. Suguru had needed her just to be there and demanding her attention and her time would have taken Satoru away from the fame. And eventually, she'd stopped asking, because Suguru hated to be needy or a burden, and that's what it was increasingly become. Or so it felt.
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-23 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"Do you remember how many times I asked when we were going to go out on our own? The things we'd planned, only for you to have to skip out because you were busy?" To be far to Satoru, she wasn't the only one who had to cancel silly slumber parties or lunch dates or coffee runs because of everything going on, but she was the busier one.

"Do you think... what, I threw you away on purpose? Because I was bored? Because I was a hateful bitch? A coward?" Something raw and vulnerable crosses her face again, and she feels like the 17 year old Suguru again, just after she'd left. "Satoru, one of us had already died. Do you think they were going to stop at that?"

The drugs were free-flowing, even after Haibara's overdose, their grief was going to be monetized and exploited, their rebellions curtailed.

"I had to leave. It wasn't because I hated you, but I couldn't stay. I was crashing out, and I realized no one was going to be around to pick me up. All I could do was protect myself." Did that make her a coward? Some sort of terrible person? She looks away, tired, and rubs her eyes. "You wouldn't come with me, but I couldn't even protect you there, so what was the point?"
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-23 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Suguru looks at her with a flat expression at what she thinks of as a stupid question, then sighs and walks around the bed. She is not going in for a hug, that just might the the final straw. She's too exhausted to deal with that.

"I'm going to sleep," she says, pushing back the blankets and climbing beneath them. It's not her preferred side of the bed, but it doesn't really matter. She does grab one of the pillows from the side of the bed Satoru is lounging on, and adds it to her pile of pillows. "Do whatever."

She doesn't expect to get to sleep with Satoru there, but it's something. A protest. She lays down, back to Satoru, only to sit back up a few seconds later.

"Really, Satoru? 'Why didn't you tell me?' You're going to ask that after everything I just said? When could I have told you?" She was the one who took care of the group, the one who got labeled the "mom" of the group, and none of the actual adults they dealt with had been trustworthy. Satoru wasn't around. And besides, she'd reached out about leaving plenty of times, and it never went anywhere.

She wants to throw a tantrum, but that feels insanely ridiculous even to her, so she awkwardly pulls off her robe, tosses it aside, and curls back up, pulling the blanket all the way up to her chin.
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[personal profile] elating 2025-05-23 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
She last five minutes. Maybe a little longer, or a little shorter, since her entire ability to tell time has gone out the window with the conflicting emotions Satoru brings up in her, and she hasn't bothered to look at a clock.

Five minutes, though. That's what she's telling herself.

And then she breaks. A little. Satoru doesn't seem to be going to anywhere, clinging to her back, and if Suguru is going to sleep, she wants to be comfortable.

"If you're going to stay, at least get under the blankets. And take off your bra, you don't need to sleep in it, and I don't want to jab your underwire with my elbow if I move around."

Satoru is, of course, free to leave, but somehow Suguru doesn't think she's going to do that.

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