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You woke up from the sudden sound coming from the direction of your window.
Cursed energy wrapped around your body, ready to be used. After inspecting the situation, you realized that the window had simply been slammed shut by the wind. The less fortunate thing was that it was completely dark outside.
You stood up from your bed. You had done it again, slept through every reminder you had set on your phone. You sighed and buried your face in your hands. That was the downside of your technique: if you overdid it, your body would shut down and sleep through multiple days like it was nothing.
You let silent tears fall from your eyes.
The first time it had ever happened, Panda and Maki got so scared that they took your body straight to Shoko. You, Panda, and Maki were supposed to pick up Inumaki from his mission and then go out for dinner together in town. But after they couldn’t wake you up, they panicked. Panda carefully picked you up and ran down to the medical wing.
Everyone was so scared that even Satoru Gojo and Yuta Okkotsu, who had been on a mission together at the time, came back as fast as they could to find out what had happened and why you were supposedly “dead.”
After Shoko examined your body, she looked back at everyone standing around you. You were lying on the cold medical bed.
“LN’s vitals are lower than what a normal sleeping human should have during REM stage 3,” Shoko said while looking at everyone.
“So what does that mean? Is she dying?” Gojo asked, staring directly at Shoko. Even though he was seen as a goofball, he cared deeply about every single student he had.
“No,” she answered simply before looking back at your chart.
“I think she’s hibernating.”
“Wait, so she’s sleeping through the winter? I always thought we’d have that problem with Panda,” Gojo said, clearly not understanding what was happening.
“Basically, YN probably overused her cursed energy, and the way her body responds to it is by forcing her into a deep sleep. She should probably be monitored because we can’t let her body burn through all its fat reserves and leave her with nothing,” Shoko explained.
The room fell silent.
After that conversation, you woke up around 27 hours later.
From then on, you had to double your food portions and drink more water than ever before. Your body changed. Your uniform size went from a 3 to a 7. You felt uncomfortable in your own skin, and that wasn’t even the worst part.
An infrared camera had been installed in your room to monitor your body temperature while you slept, so if you ever reached a critical state, Shoko could help you immediately.
You looked at your phone. It was 1:25 AM on a Friday.
This was the reality of being a sorcerer with an energy manipulation technique.
It worked simply: you used your brain waves to manipulate the physical energy around people. You could rearrange atoms however you pleased. You could turn nothing into something.
But all of it came at the cost of shortening your conscious life.
You went to the bathroom to wash your face and change out of the uniform you had fallen asleep in. After removing your makeup, doing your skincare routine, and changing into an oversized T-shirt and sleeping shorts, you wondered what you should do now.
Gojo was definitely awake.
You knew he only slept three to five hours a day, and he had always told you to come to him if you ever found yourself awake in the middle of the night, alone and anxious.
But you just couldn’t bring yourself to do it.
You didn’t want to wake anyone else either. You had training classes at 8:30 in the morning, and everyone deserved their beauty sleep.
So instead, you decided to walk around the school grounds.
The air was cold, and you wondered if you should go back for a jacket. In the end, you decided to just suck it up. After all, you needed to toughen up.
You walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. You kept some soda there for situations like this, when you woke up in the middle of the night needing to raise your blood sugar levels.
You opened the bottle and took a sip.
Carbonated drinks were your guilty pleasure. There was something about the bubbles dancing on your tongue that you loved.
You jumped up onto the counter and sat there quietly. The kitchen was silent except for the electric buzzing of the fridge and the sound of footsteps approaching.
You took another sip before realizing someone was walking toward you.
Was it Gojo? Or maybe Shoko, staying late and looking for ice for her drink?
The person who stepped into the kitchen surprised you.
It was Inumaki.
He wore a white t-shirt with something nerdy written on it and a pair of checkered pajama pants.
“Kelp? Mustard leaf?” Inumaki looked worried.
You smiled. He was such a nice guy that you genuinely couldn’t wrap your head around it.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Well… not really. The last time I was awake was Wednesday,” you joked, even though it seriously sucked.
“Salmon. Tuna mayo.” Inumaki walked toward the fridge, grabbed one of the drinks everyone shared, and sat beside you on the counter.
“I just wish my body could handle my technique better. I like spending time with you guys, but when I’m rotting in bed all the time, I miss out on everything fun,” you admitted quietly.
“I wish I could tell when I’m reaching my limit. Or just… I don’t know, feel when I’ve overdone it.”
Inumaki listened silently.
He didn’t know it, but you secretly had a crush on him. There was just something about him that pulled you in.
He took another sip from his can before jumping down from the counter.
“Salmon roe,” he said, extending his hand toward you.
“You want me to come with you?” you asked.
“Salmon.”
You took his hand and jumped down beside him.
You probably should have asked where he was taking you, but honestly, you didn’t care.
You enjoyed being with him so much that you could sit beside him for hours and still leave feeling completely recharged.
Inumaki walked beside you before stopping in front of his dorm room door.
“Tuna tuna?”
“Yeah, I’d like that,” you answered.
It had taken you around four months to fully understand Inumaki, but honestly, it wasn’t that hard. People could understand cats through behavior and context clues, so learning Inumaki’s unique language wasn’t impossible either.
His room was pretty normal for a teenage boy.
It had the classic setup: a bed, desk, nightstand, closet, drawers, and shelves. Just like yours.
But the decor made it his.
He had a projector connected to his computer so everyone could play games together. There was an incredibly fluffy carpet you loved lying on whenever you got tired. He had Minecraft-themed bedding that he proudly showed off to everyone.
And don’t even get started on the amount of gaming merchandise he owned.
You sat down on his bed and placed your half-finished soda on the nightstand.
“So what’s your plan now? Do you realize it’s like 2 AM?” you asked him.
Inumaki started up his computer and opened two folders labeled Movies and Games.
After debating for a while, the two of you decided to play something while letting YouTube videos play quietly in the background.
“Inumaki, I hope you know I suck at these games,” you warned him.
“Fish flakes.” Inumaki disagreed.
Which was unusual because whenever Yuta or Maki said something similar, he was always quick to tease them.
It made your heart skip a beat.
“Oh, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Tuna.”
You were handed a controller, and after a few minutes of debating, the two of you settled on Fireboy and Watergirl, the classic co-op game neither of you had played in years.
You looked over at him with a grin.
“Can I be Watergirl?”
“Salmon,” Inumaki answered immediately.
You smiled to yourself as the game loaded. For a moment, you glanced at him instead of the screen.
His messy hair framed his face in a way that made him look softer than usual, probably from having been half-asleep before wandering into the kitchen. The marks on his cheeks somehow made him even prettier under the dim glow of his computer monitor.
Pretty. No — handsome.
Your cheeks warmed slightly at the thought.
Inumaki must have felt your stare because he turned his head toward you. His violet eyes met yours for a second.
You quickly smiled innocently and pressed Start before he could catch on to what you had been thinking.
2:24 AM
“Damn,” you laughed, stretching your arms above your head, “I can’t believe we finished it that fast.”
Honestly, you were probably the reason the two of you only kept getting two stars instead of three. Your reaction speed was awful tonight.
Inumaki glanced at you with obvious amusement.
“Mustard leaf.”
“Oh, shut up,” you muttered, bumping your shoulder against his.
The YouTube video playing quietly in the background had switched to one of Markiplier’s old Five Nights at Freddy’s playthroughs.
You placed the controller down on the blanket and found yourself paying more attention to the video than the game menu still open on the screen.
“Tuna tuna?” Inumaki asked.
You looked over at him.
“Would it be okay if we just watched videos for a while now?”
“Salmon.”
You relaxed against the wall behind his bed.
The room was dim except for the soft glow of LED lights near his desk and the monitor illuminating the room in shifting colors.
Outside, the wind brushed softly against the windows.
You carefully scooted closer to him until your shoulder touched his. Then, hesitantly, you rested your head against him.
Inumaki didn’t even pause.
Like it was instinct, he wrapped an arm around your shoulders and pulled you closer against his side.
Your chest tightened. For some people, this kind of closeness would have meant something huge. But for the two of you, physical affection had slowly become normal. Late night movie marathons. Falling asleep beside each other during missions. Leaning against one another after exhausting training sessions. And honestly, when you spent so much time unconscious and isolated because of your technique, you became touchstarved without even realizing it. Inumaki always seemed to notice. And he never pulled away from you.
You closed your eyes for a second, listening to the quiet sound of his breathing beside you. Maki had teased both of you multiple times already.
Just date already.
You wanted to. God, you wanted to. But things had changed after your body started shutting down.
You hated how different you looked now. How your uniform no longer fit the same way. How tired your body always felt. Even when everyone else acted normal around you, sometimes you caught yourself wondering if they secretly pitied you.
But Inumaki never treated you differently. Never looked uncomfortable.
Never acted annoyed when your hands shook from exhaustion or when you disappeared into another deep sleep for hours.
He still looked at you gently. Still waited for you. Still sat beside your bed when you woke up disoriented and confused.
The thought alone made your chest ache.
On the screen, Markiplier screamed dramatically after getting jumpscared, making you laugh quietly into his shoulder.
You felt him chuckle silently beside you.
By the time the FNAF gameplay ended, it was already 3:17 AM.
Neither of you had moved.
Inumaki’s fingers had slowly found their way into your hair at some point, absentmindedly playing with the strands.
It made you feel embarrassingly relaxed.
You grabbed the mouse lazily and scrolled through YouTube recommendations before clicking on an old Among Us gameplay video.
“Is this okay, Inumaki?” you asked softly.
His hand stopped moving in your hair. You looked up at him. He was staring down at you thoughtfully.
Silent.
You immediately grew nervous.
“I can change it if you want—”
Before you could reach for the mouse, he caught your wrist gently.
“Bonito flakes. Tuna mayo.”
You blinked.
For once, you didn’t understand him. That almost never happened anymore.
You had gotten so used to understanding his speech patterns through context and tone that moments like this felt strange.
Inumaki noticed your confusion immediately.
He smiled softly.
Then—
“YN.”
Your breath caught in your throat. Your eyes widened instantly.
He had said your name.
Not your last name.
Not some nickname.
Your first name.
Your actual name.
For a second, your brain completely stopped functioning.
“YN,” he repeated quietly, pointing at himself afterward.
“Tuna mayo.”
Heat rushed violently to your face.
Your heart slammed against your ribs.
“W-What?”
Your thoughts spiraled instantly.Was he saying you belonged to him? Was he confessing? Were you misunderstanding everything?
“Inumaki, are you sa—”
“Bonito flakes,” he interrupted quickly.
Then it clicked. Your mouth parted slightly.
“Oh…”
You stared at him.
“You want me to call you Toge?”
“Salmon salmon.”
Relief and embarrassment crashed through you at the same time.
You laughed softly, covering part of your face with your sleeve.
“Right… okay.”
You looked at him again.
“Toge.”
The way his expression softened after hearing his name from you made your stomach flip.
He smiled.
And before you could process anything he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss against your cheek.
Your entire brain short-circuited.
He turned back toward the screen casually afterward like he hadn’t just changed the trajectory of your entire life. But underneath the panic and embarrassment you felt happy. Because maybe… just maybe…
Maki had been right all along.
You smiled helplessly and buried your face against Toge’s shoulder again while his arm tightened around you slightly.
Outside, the sky was still dark.
But for the first time in a long while, being awake at 3 AM didn’t feel lonely anymore.